"Oh gosh, sorry!" I said as I bumped into a music stand and knocked it over. "Excuse me, coming through!"

The rest of my fellow orchestra members grumbled under their breaths as I made my way to the viola section of just myself and my stand partner, which was, of course, all the way in the middle of the setup. At twenty-two weeks pregnant with quadruplets, I was like a human wrecking ball. I just bumped into everything at this point.

"Hey Giuseppe!" I said as I took my seat.

"Hi Sunny," he said as he tuned the strings of his viola.

"How's your project going for the science fair?"

"It's good!" he said, his face lighting up a little. "I'm almost done with the paper mache part. Tonight I'll work on the lava."

"I can't wait to see how it turns out! I've seen volcano projects before, but not with the hyper realistic lava that you're doing."

"Hopefully it actually turns out that way," he said, chuckling.

"Oh hey, I wanted to ask you...I know you're busy working on the project but my baby shower is going to be this Saturday. I know you're like, a teen guy and everything, but it's really not going to be a stereotypical baby shower. My sister Luna is obsessed with Halloween, so it's gonna be scary, I guess? She's literally building a haunted house in my backyard."

"Hmm. What time?" Guiseppe asked.

"Two in the afternoon."

"Yes, I can make it! I may leave a little early. I have a date later that night."

I gasped. "A date? That's great! I'm so happy for you! Does she go here? Or he, or they. I don't judge."

"She just moved here from New York City. Her name is Valentina, but she goes by Val."

"How pretty! You'll have to tell me all about it on Monday."

"I will," he said.

The rest of the day went as normal. I dragged my feet for two more days, and then it was finally Saturday. Leo found some time to be home for the shower, which was extra special. I'd been going whole weeks without seeing him at this point.

Luna, her best friend Korra, and Rosie were out in the backyard at literally seven a.m. working on the haunted house. There were extension cords running every which way through the yard. I really wanted to help, even though I couldn't move much these days, but they insisted I just sit and relax.

"We're two of the same, Sunny Sunshine," Grammy said from her recliner as I took a seat on the couch. "We don't move much anymore."

"I really don't know how I can do this for eight more weeks," I said.

"You'll do it. You can do anything. Can't believe the tables have turned and I'm trying to lift you up for once. What a day."

"Yeah. But I've never been pregnant with four babies before."

"You're in the home stretch here, Sunny. You'll make it."

I smiled. "Thanks, Grammy. You're the best."

"Yeah, I know!" she said, chuckling.

We picked out a new show to watch and basically binged watched it the entire time until the party started and the guests were arriving. We made sure to invite Lucian and Theresa, of course, along with Enzo and Angelina, so that Ella could be there to keep an eye on things.

Rosie brought Max as her plus one. Along with Giuseppe, I invited Willa and Toby from church. Korra, who was a triplet, invited her two sisters. There was Karly, and then there was her other sister, Kimi, who had twin girls last fall. Willa was also a teen mom, so the three of us had a lot in common and were chatting in the living room.

"Look at us, three teen mom's under one roof," Willa said.

"Yeah...it's kinda embarrassing," Kimi said.

"Are you kidding? No way am I embarrassed by my boys!" I said. "Oak County has the highest teen pregnancy rates in the entire country. Who knows how many of us there are?"

"Well the Horizon's Pregnancy Center that our church works with is always at full capacity. So the last time I checked, a lot," Willa said.

"Okay, everybody outside! We're carving pumpkins!" Luna said.

We all put on our jackets and went to a big folding table in the backyard. We each picked a pumpkin and got to work. Luna hadn't carved pumpkins since I was little, and I'd forgotten how messy it was. Ella didn't join us. She sat inside with the rest of the adults. Sometimes I forgot that she wasn't actually seventeen like she was pretending to be.

I tried to make a cute face but failed pretty miserably. Leo just did a classic smiley face. Luna carved a pretty decent bat, and Guiseppe made some kind of triangle thing.

"What is that?" I asked him.

"Well, it's supposed to be a volcano. It reminds me of home in Italy," he said.

"Oh, where are you from, actually? I don't think I ever asked you that," I said.

"Napoli."

"No kidding! That's where my family is from. Never been, though," Leo said. "I hope I can go someday, though."

"It's very beautiful. I miss it," Guiseppe said.

We finished our pumpkins and moved on to the haunted house. Luna used three of the pop-up tents with the blue awnings, put them together, and enclosed them in black tarps. There was a soundtrack of spooky sounds, like thunder, werewolves, breaking glass, and screams in the background. Purple and orange lights hung from the ceiling.

The first section was spiders, which practically had Rosie running back out, especially with the animated one that dropped down from the ceiling. The second section was full of skeletons. The third section was the worst. Luna took every single one of Grammy's vintage porcelain dolls up from the storage cabinet in the basement and put them in there on tables and shelves. Absolutely not.

And just when we thought we were done with the haunted house, as we parted the tarp in the back to get back out in the sunlight, there was a loud "brr brr" sound. Grammy, on her electric scooter, was coming at us with a literal chainsaw. Leo was screaming because she was in a creepy clown mask. He hated clowns.

We were all screaming and running and laughing, and finally made our way back inside so we could have some good desserts. I didn't want a cake, so we decided to make chocolate cupcakes and sugar cookies that we could decorate ourselves. They were all delicious.

After that we took lots of pictures and moved onto presents. With Leo's extra income, all the help from our church, and the help from my friends and family, we were pretty much set for the time being with things the boys would need as newborns. Aunt Linda suggested asking for gifts that just Leo and I could use.

I got a few postpartum care kits, a comfy robe and slippers for the hospital, four memory journals so there would be one for each baby, and a few different gift cards. I was really excited to use the one for the local spa.

All in all, it was the perfect baby shower, even if it was a little unconventional. But it made Luna really happy, so it made me happy too. Only eight more weeks until these boys were finally here. At this point, it couldn't come soon enough.