Cause & Effect: The Five Defining Moments in the Life of Christine Hargensen

5 - Carrie White

May 1976

The first thing Chris feels when Carrie White comes towards her is disgust.

The girl is pathetic, with her wet hair hanging limply over her shoulders, her naked body an anaemic shade of white.

Carrie grabs at her arm and Chris fights her off furiously, seeing the blood dripping between the girl's thin fingers. She is wearing yellow, and this is the last thing she needs.

There is a commotion as the other girls react in a similar fashion, and the second thing Chris feels is irritation.

Picking up a tampon, she thrusts it in the girl's direction.

Creepy Carrie has got her period, and you'd think it was the end of the world.

Several years earlier, Chris sat in this same locker room and prayed her period would come, yet here was Carrie White, causing a scene.

Stupid bitch.

She's back in the shower now, hunched in the corner as she's showered with sanitary products. But Chris knows there are worse things than getting your period.

The gym teacher is there now, slapping some sense into the blubbering girl.

It doesn't last though, and within moments she's taken to being kind to Carrie White, talking to her softly, reassuring her.

Chris recognises that kindness – has seen it herself. But that was a long time ago.

Miss Collins is ordering them out of the locker room now, and that's fine by her – only a couple of hours until schools out. She'll spend her evening with Billy Nolan, probably stay out way past her curfew. Doesn't matter.

And she knows it's not the last that any of them have heard of it – knows they'll be in trouble tomorrow morning.

But for now, Chris puts it to the back of her mind. There are too many other things going on, she doesn't need to be worrying about Carrie White or whatever mediocre punishment the gym teacher might bestow upon them. She has other priorities.

Prom is right around the corner.