Disclaimer: this story contains graphic sexual scenes. All characters are 18 or older. Enjoy!
Eighteen-year-old Katie Petersen had a skip in her step and a smile on her face as she headed for the bus stop one cold and clear February morning. Her school uniform was fresh from the dry cleaners, her teeth white and immaculate, and her strawberry-blonde hair hung down to her shoulders and swayed with each step she took. Today was a special day, one she had been looking forward to for years. Now it was finally here, and Katie was so filled with anticipation that she'd had trouble sleeping. Years of planning and careful preparation were about to come into play.
Katie came from a good family. Her father, after more than a decade as chief of police in the small city she lived in, was recently re-elected mayor and was widely popular. Her mother was the school superintendent and headed several large charities and nonprofit organizations. As such, it went without saying that the Petersens were regarded as pillars of the community: wealthy, influential, and very highly thought of by just about everybody. Katie had known this from a very young age; being a Petersen meant the world was your oyster.
Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Katie's parents made sure their daughter didn't grow up a spoiled brat. From an early age they impressed upon her the value of hard work and self-reliance, and they went out of their way to make sure that Katie didn't expect the world to be handed to her on a silver platter just because of her name. Katie took these lessons to heart. In fact, she took them to heart more than her parents could have possibly imagined.
For Katie had a secret. A secret plan, a secret longing, a secret desire.
Most young people her age had big dreams and goals in life. They had plans about where they wanted to go to college, what sort of career they wanted, when and whom they wanted to marry. Other girls might want to be doctors or lawyers or big industry executives, but Katie?
All Katie wanted was to get pregnant.
She wanted, more than anything, to have a child, and for more than half a decade now she had worked toward making that goal a reality.
It all started when Katie was in the sixth grade. She showed up to Mrs. Johnson's science class that day expecting to learn about frog anatomy or something, but instead, her teacher taught the class about human reproduction. Katie hadn't been naïve at the time; her parents had already told her what sex was, but this was the first time someone explained the process of procreation in detail to her. She'd known, in broad strokes, how babies were made, but Mrs. Johnson wexplained what came after a woman's egg had been fertilized. How a tiny human grew and took shape inside the mother, how it gradually became larger and larger, and how the mother's body changed and transformed as the pregnancy progressed. Most of the other girls in the class at the time found the whole thing vaguely icky and Mrs. Johnson ended the lesson with a warning on the dangers of premarital sex and pregnancy, but Katie was hardly even listening by then. She was absolutely awestruck. She'd known, then and there, that she wanted a baby of her own, and that day she vowed to dedicate herself toward that one, singular goal.
Everything Katie did in the six years since that fateful afternoon had been, in one way or another, aimed at achieving that goal. Katie wasn't ignorant; she knew that motherhood was a tremendous responsibility, and she had no intention of being a charity case or held up as an example of some irresponsible girl who got pregnant before she was ready. She embarked upon her quest with her eyes wide open, aware of the life-changing implications her baby would bring. She wanted to care for her child properly and give it the life it deserved, so her planning was meticulous.
First, Katie knew she needed to get hands-on experience with kids. There was so much for her to learn, and only a scant few years in which to learn it. As soon as she arrived home after Mrs. Johnson's lesson, Katie asked her mother if she could begin babysitting for some of her neighbors. Her parents were pleased and impressed at their daughter's initiative and were happy to help, and soon Katie gained a reputation as the neighborhood babysitter, eager and willing to care for as many children as possible. Katie's mother and father might have been less supportive if they knew what their daughter's true goal really was, but Katie didn't dwell on that. At her request, they also helped her open a savings account into which she deposited every penny she earned, and over the years her babysitting became a small business in all but name. Katie's strong maternal instincts and excellent childcare skills meant she could charge higher rates for her services, rates that many parents were only too happy to pay. You couldn't put a price on peace of mind, after all. If you were going to leave your child in the hands of another, it was best to make sure they were in the best hands possible. Those hands were Katie's. By the time she turned fifteen Katie had already saved up thousands of dollars, and her parents set her up with a financial advisor and an investment account to help increase her earnings further. The advisor was very good at his job. Thanks to his guidance, Katie's savings grew rapidly into several hundred grand. It was a considerable reserve of cash that she was going to put to good use when she got pregnant.
Katie never told her mother and father her plan. She kept it a closely guarded secret. She'd tell them the time came and her pregnancy--how she was looking forward to it!--became impossible to hide but not before. She knew they would be upset at first. She understood that. She didn't hold it against them. But Katie was confident that when she explained her reasoning to them, they would support her decision. Katie had always been a very responsible, very mature young woman. Her parents knew that she would never do anything rash, and this decision to have a baby was anything but. Once they understood that, everything would be fine.
In addition to babysitting, Katie began devouring all the material on childcare and pregnancy that she could get her hands on. She started paying visits to the local library and stayed for hours at a time, poring through one book after another and taking meticulous notes. Even after she got her first Kindle, she was still visiting the library at least once a week. Katie studied motherhood with the same drive and determination she showed in her classes, if not more, and she still refreshed her knowledge regularly with the most up-to-date sources. By now, she was more an expert on such things than some women twice her age.
Her schoolwork was another factor that Katie carefully considered. She knew that raising a child wasn't cheap, and she had no intention of asking her parents for handouts or becoming dependent on food stamps. She wanted to give her baby the world. To do that she'd have to be financially stable and have a well-paying job locked down, but that wouldn't happen unless she got the best grades. This was why Katie threw herself into her academic studies with a ferocious intensity that caught even her parents a little off-guard. Katie, always a bright and very intelligent girl, became a straight-A student, class president and the pride of all her teachers, a pattern that she proudly continued right up until the present day.
All of this effort and hard work culminated in Katie securing an internship at a well-known financial firm the previous summer. This, too, Katie had approached with single-minded determination. She knew that if she could turn this internship into a job opportunity, she would have more than enough money to provide the best life possible for herself and her baby. She had been almost beside herself with joy when the president of the company offered her just that. Despite her young age, Katie thoroughly impressed the man with her work ethic, adaptability and eagerness to learn. How different she was from the other interns he'd hired in the past! Katie proved to be a tremendous asset to his firm, and he was keen not to let any of his competitors scoop her up. Katie signed the contract eagerly, though she'd paused for just a moment to make sure that pregnancy wasn't cause for termination. There was no point in taking the job if they'd just fire her when she asked for maternity leave. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.
Getting that job was one of the most important parts of Katie's plan, but it wasn't the only one. Katie knew that if she wanted to bear the healthiest baby possible, she needed to be a careful steward of her body and ensure she was in peak physical health. This was why she became active in as many extracurricular activities as possible as she blossomed into young womanhood. She became a member of the local youth swimming team, became a cheerleader for her high school's football team--eventually rising to cheer captain--and joined the local softball, soccer and tennis leagues as well as taking regular lessons in taekwondo. Here too she rose rapidly through the ranks, earning a fourth-degree black belt and winning several tournaments. Katie was not normally a very confrontational person and did her best to be nice to everybody, but she understood that it was a dangerous world out there and she needed to be able to defend herself. She didn't want her body to be spoiled by some man's unwanted advances. When Katie lost her virginity, it would be to the father of her child, and no other.
In addition to all of this, Katie also began entering beauty pageants and modeling competitions as her body matured and grew. She bloomed into an absolutely gorgeous young woman, with an athlete's toned and curvaceous form, perfectly sized C-cup breasts, and a heart-shaped face that was all too often split in a dazzling smile. Her hair was grown long and fell to the small of her back, and her posterior was likewise flawless. Through hard work, exercise, and careful dieting, she molded her young body into an almost-unbelievable dream of womanhood. She put bikini models to shame, and Katie used that to her advantage. The prize money from many of those beauty pageants and modeling competitions was considerable indeed, and some rather less well-behaved part of her enjoyed the attention. Katie put so much work into her body, what was the harm in showing it off a bit? Besides, each pageant she won meant more money in her savings account. If she could use her beauty to help further her plan and increase her ability to care for her baby, then she would.
The only downside to all this was that Katie's insanely-busy schedule precluded dating. This was a problem, Katie acknowledged. After all, it took two to do the baby-making tango. But between her schoolwork, her babysitting, her extracurriculars and her research, Katie barely had any free time at all. Still, she tried not to let it discourage her. Katie knew she was beautiful and was confident in her ability to attract a man. How hard could it be? Males seemed eager enough to look at her when they thought she wasn't looking. Enticing one to go to bed with her would be easy, and Katie was hardly ignorant of what would happen when she did. Not all of her research was about biology; she went to great lengths to read about the act of sex, which positions were best for impregnation, and how best to please her partner. Only in theory, of course. Katie was careful not to get ahead of herself. When she became pregnant it would be at a time and place of her choosing, with a partner she chose. And there would be a partner, make no mistake about that. The idea of going to a sperm bank was far too cold and impersonal and held no appeal for her whatsoever.
