Time to call home. You pull out your phone and punch the buttons. As you start to dial home, you wonder if this is a good idea.

More precisely, you wonder how bad an idea it is.

Let's see..."Ma, I got ate by the school secretary, ate the nurse after she did a bunch of very personal stuff to me. Now I'm in bed with this boy I just met.".. Will ma just die on the spot? Or live long enough to make you wish you were dead? Either way, you are going to regret this call.
But what is the alternative? If you don't call, she will call you [These cell phones can be too convenient], and things are just not going to be better then. No, bad as a call now is, you are going to have to make it.
But how are you to limit the damage?

You don't get much chance to figure out the answer. The phone is answered on the first ring. Not a surprise. You were pretty sure Mom was practically standing by the phone waiting for it to ring. But the fearful way she says "Hello" is a bit of a surprise. You knew she was worried. Given that it's only about 50-50 whether you will survive to graduate, who wouldn't be worried? But that's spread over the next 4 years or so. You would think that she had enough confidence in you to expect you to survive the first day, when you are especially protected yet. There might be only one chance in 10,000 the school would be calling this soon with news that you were definitely not going to graduate. But no... you are still her helpless baby who can't survive out of her arms. Mothers!
Well, when you come down to it, it's better than the alternative, you suppose... "Hi Mom! Everything's fine! Doing Great!" Too late you realize you should had added "Gotta run. Call you later. Bye". Not that you do have anything to run to, and with Rickie in your belly, running anywhere is hardly an option anyway. Still, it would at least have postponed the crisis.

But now Mom has time to break in with her joy from hearing from you, and with a dozen questions, most of which she is not going to like the answers to. And it is time for you to decide how honest you want to be. You can't be brutally so. The facts do require a little softening. [Flat out lies in fact sound tempting.] But Ma has been all too effective in detecting your lies in the past. Just how much can you slip by her this time?