EXPECTATIONS
 
A one-act play. The scene opens on a teenager`s  bedroom. Lying  on the bed, her red hair spread out across the headboard, is  sixteen year old Gemma. Sitting at the foot of the bed is her best friend Josie.
 

   GEMMA:    I can`t tell them Jose, I just can`t!


    JOSIE:  (holding Gemma`s hand)   Maybe it won`t be as bad as you`re imagining - and you`re not going to be able to hide it for much longer anyway.


    GEMMA:   (tears welling up in her eyes)   Why me!  Lucy Coupe has shagged her way through every lad in the lower sixth -I  spend one evening crammed on the back seat of a clapped out banger-


    JOSIE:    (Handing Gemma a paper tissue)   Have you told him..


    GEMMA:   (Wiping her eyes)  He thinks I`m on the pill Josie! How can I.


    JOSIE:    (Angrily)  But you can`t let him get away scott-free with this Gem.


     GEMMA:  He said he loved me Jose...


    JOSIE:    Yer well, they all say that when they`ve got their trousers round their friggin` ankles.


     GEMMA:   He said we could find a place of our own, somewhere down south, said he`d find another teaching job and I could carry on studying for my A levels.


     JOSIE:    (Angrily again)   The man`s a prick Gemma!  He told you what you wanted to hear just so he could get his chalky little fingers inside ya` knickers.


     GEMMA:  I wish he`d just stopped at his fingers...
                  (Both girls laugh lightly and hug one another)


     GEMMA:    They`ve always had such high hopes for me..mum and dad. `Specially dad. He`s always banging on about how he could have gone to Uni but gran and grandad couldn`t afford to send him. He says nothing is going to stand in the way of his little girl getting the chance he never had. It`ll wrench their hearts out Jose..I just know it will.


      JOSIE:    Look I know it`s horrible but have you thought..you know..about getting rid of it.


      GEMMA:   It has crossed my mind yes. (She pauses, rubbing her hand over her stomach) But it`s a living, breathing little being..What if my real mum had-


      JOSIE:    (Staring with a puzzled look at Gemma)   What do you mean, `real` mum?


      GEMMA:    I s`pose I should have told you...but it`s never seemed that important, and I hardly ever think about it anyway..No that`s not true, i think about it quite a lot, specially just lately what with me being pregnant and everything-


      JOSIE:   I still don`t quite see-
 

      GEMMA:  I`m adopted Josie.  My natural mum was fifteen when she had me. Ironic isn`t it. Perhaps this was always going to happen, sins of the mother and all that crap.


       JOSIE:    How long have you known..about being adopted.


       GEMMA:    I can`t remember a time when I didn`t know, so mum and dad must have told me when I was quite young. They gave me all the paperwork a few years ago..my birth name, mum`s name, my dad`s name. He was a double-glazing fitter...probably still is for all I know.  


       JOSIE:    And have you never wanted..you know..to try and find her.


       GEMMA:   I had a go once..about a year ago. Punched my birth name into this internet site and it came up with everything  I needed to know to start tracking her down.          


       JOSIE:   And?


       GEMMA:    And nothing.  I sat there staring at all this information scrolling down the screen and I suddenly realized I couldn`t do it to mum and dad. They`ve given me a wonderful life Josie. Maybe they would have been alright about it, but at that moment, sitting staring at that screen, I thought it would be like saying I don`t give a shit about about the last sixteen years `cos all I want  now is  to find my real mother. So I wiped everything off the screen and I haven`t been back since.


      JOSIE:   Perhaps that could be a way out for you.


       GEMMA:  Sorry?


       JOSIE:     Give YOUR  baby up.. for adoption


     GEMMA:    Maybe...Oh I don`t know Josie..everything`s so confused. Perhaps I should have carried on..tried to find her, then at least I`d have known what made her do it..give me up I mean. Did she regret it or did she she forget me and get on with her life. No she couldn`t have could she..not regretted it. Surely every day she would have wondered where I was, what sort of life I was making for myself. Every day Josie!  Every morning the minute she woke up I`d be there...wouldn`t I?


        JOSIE:  I don`t think I could give a baby up and not think about it all the time. I tell you what though..I wouldn`t miss all that crying and all that  yucky nappy changing stuff!


       GEMMA:   I use to lay in bed trying to picture what she looked like..my birth mum I mean. Had she got the same red hair as me, the same coloured eyes..the same silly turned up nose. And did she have my fiery temper! Then I`d hear dad snoring his head off and I`d feel guilty for even thinking about her.


       JOSIE:    Thing is Gem your parents love you and they aren`t going to abandon you, whatever you decide. I envy you in a a way.


      GEMMA:   (pointing to her stomach)    Envy me. You have got to be joking!


       JOSIE:  Did you know my mum was nearly forty-two when she had me. Sleepless nights and stinking nappies must have been well off her and dad`s radar screen! They`ve always liked going out and having a good time and me coming along wasn`t going to spoil that. I can remember sitting with a packet of crisps and a bottle of pop in our car in some pub car park when I was five or six whilst mum and dad where having a high old time with their mates in the pub.  I can`t remember my mum ever hugging me, not even when Billy my pet rabbit got run over. 


      GEMMA:   But your mum always seems so nice.


       JOSIE:     Yer well she can be..when she`s got an audience.


       Gemma:   Oh Jose..(Gemma hugs Josie as the sound of footsteps are heard along the landing stairs followed by a knock on the bedroom door)


       GEMMA: Yes!


       (Gemma`s mum pops her head round the door)   Thought Josie might like to stop for a bit of tea darling..nothing fancy just a few sandwiches and a bit of cake.


        JOSIE:    Thanks Mrs Caxton, that would be lovely.


        GEMMA:   Mum?


        GEMMA`S MUM:    Yes dear?


         GEMMA:  (Slight pause as both girls look at one another) Nothing..It`ll do later.


         GEMMA`S MUM:   Okay dear..see you downstairs in a few minutes....

                            (THE LIGHTS DIM AND THE CURTAIN FALLS)