Maturity warning: Teen pregnancy and being the son of teen parents.
Zane Corey Martin (22) is close with Sambo but isn’t sure where he’s at. He is part of the Martin family and mistakenly believed to be Meryl and Henry’s son. However he is actually their grandson and was born to a teenage mother who was 16 at the time he was born and is currently 38 while Zane’s father didn’t ever attend to his new son. That mother is the oldest of the siblings and has younger siblings; 28-year old Tyler, 21-year-old Avery, and 13-year-old Russel along with one other sibling. Meryl and Henry were only 22 when their oldest daughter was born and this may have carried on with her having a baby so young although she is the only one in the family to be a teenager and have a baby. He and Avery, the closest in age to him, are often mistaken for siblings and people don’t believe they are nephew and aunt.
Zane’s biggest issue growing up was simply how he was raised. He never really had a stable upbringing and constantly felt like he was a burden. His parents have told him “It was never your problem,” to make him feel better when he found out he wasn’t planned but was distraught at the pregnancy being referred as a “problem”. Zane used to not know much about his aunts and uncles and used to resent them but now he gets along with them very well. He realised that they are tremendously nice people even if all they did for the day was smile at him or give him a warm greeting because growing up, they were just kids and even younger than his mother, so they couldn’t raise him. He does feel some envy that they were raised by older parents with much more stability but knows it’s not their fault and doesn’t say a thing, leaving this a secret. Zane and his mother are on odd terms and Zane doesn’t have many friends growing up while his mother lost many friends due to the stigma of her pregnancy. Zane never had birthday parties and was never that good in school, his only big skill being basketball with the help of Coach Michael. Zane’s mother has since made some friends, many of whom are a decade+ younger than her like Jazmin Winters, who has always been in support of her peers. However when Zane’s mother forgot Jazmin’s birthday on the 4th of April, Zane nagged her for being bad at birthdays once again.
He and Sam became good friends and have bonded much closer. Due to not having good grades in school, he took community college and has tried to push his mother into trying for community college too. He had also debated whether to go to university because tuition was expensive and he would have been stuck in student loan debt had he not gotten a scholarship from basketball. He and Sam are great at conversations and enjoy having someone to relate to. However he doesn’t yet know she is a mother. She really thinks she and Zane could have something special but she doesn’t know how he will be able to accept her motherhood, being a son of a teen mother. She knows about him being a son of a then-teen mother and believes he could give her very solid advice about raising her daughter but fears this could push him away. He has said he wished his mother was older and more stable and often questions whether his existence really is a “problem”. Although Zane has never gotten into drugs or sex, he has found Cyrus to be an excellent mentor to understanding perspectives and knows him from Sam but doesn’t understand yet why Sam bonds with him. Zane knows Sam is a smart and responsible young woman and has told her that a lot. They are not seriously dating but they do feel a mutual attraction to each other, but secretly Sam doesn’t want to date Zane for the sake of both of them if he cannot date someone who had a baby as a teen.
Tyler was created by @Sagebrush
Avery was created by @Lindseylloyd052399
Russel was created by me.
Jazmin was created by @LeopardQueen
Cyrus was created by @avenmaide