As Jeff racked his brains for the scenario the random selection had chosen to explain John's existence and conception, he started to remember his ex-girlfriend Lisa. Lisa had been in a few classes with him in High School and they had gone on a few dates--one of which was to a shared friend's party where they'd gotten drunk and then woken up on the basement couch spooning and naked in each other's grasps, and with clear signs that they'd done the deed the night before without the condom Jeff had kept in his wallet. Well, things had never really been the same after that, and a few weeks afterwards Jeff and Lisa had decided to call it all off, figuring they could move on with their lives. And then Lisa missed her period and took a pregnancy test that came back positive. Lisa told Jeff after she'd decided to have the baby and was thinking of putting him up for adoption. Jeff however felt responsible and after talking with his Mom, insisted that he take in his baby if Lisa didn't want to be a mother just yet. He'd raise their kid, and if later she wanted to be part of their kid's life, that was up to Lisa, but he was going to step up and take responsibility for the consequences of his actions. After all, he'd been stupid enough to get black out drunk enough to forget to use the rubber in his wallet, the fact that John came into existence was all on him as he saw it.
And so John was born, the paperwork was signed making John sole parent of his son, and so he'd begun the balancing act of being a single dad and finishing high school all at once. Overnight suddenly the cares and concerns of his peers started to feel more juvenile to him. After spending a few sleepless nights trying to calm a crying baby, the trials and tribulations of whether Susie liked Eric back or if Dave and Mark were going to make Varsity this year or not, seemed trivial. Added on top that John had taken some part-time work to afford to buy things for John, and Jeff felt he was burning his candle at both ends.
But Jeff had finished High School--he'd been on the verge of exhaustion, but he did it. And John was now beyond the terrible twos enough that Jeff could start thinking about doing some local community college classes as he aimed to earn his degree to become a certified CPA. His Mom was getting to the point she could look after John in the evenings while Jeff would be off at night school. His life had taken a little detour having John so young, but he was starting to get it back on track now. Lisa had graduated and gone immediately off to an out of state university. She sent occasional cards and the odd gifts at John's birthdays and Christmas, and even visited every now and then, but was strict in saying she was "Aunt Lisa" to John--not Mom. Lisa wasn't ready for that yet, and Jeff respected her decisions while she respected his. She knew Jeff wanted John to know her, but telling John that she was his Mom was something that could be saved for when he was older and she was ready. Lisa's parents weren't all that happy that they didn't get to see their grandson as proper grandparents, and had more than once threatened to take Jeff and his Mom to court over the issue, but each time Lisa had come in and seemed to dissolve the situation from developing any further--though Jeff suspected she wouldn't be able to do that for forever.
Overall, the scenario could have been worse for John, Jeff knew, but this one wasn't half bad to live for a week for either of them.
"What do you want to do today John, now that the game's over?" asked Jeff.