But while I waited for the test results, I sat in an inner conferencelike room filled with other girls with unwanted pregnancies. We sat in a circle facing each other. At first no one spoke. They also were teenagers.

Art thou obdurate, flinty, hard as steel, Nay, more than flint, for stone at rain relenteth?

Alternative form: cawk

There was open swimming now until eight-thirty, when women's swimnastics would begin. Margaret stayed for the swimnastics sometimes, sometimes not, depending on her mood.