Periods

First time - Fiction

WOW I FINALLY WROTE SOME MORE FICTION AFTER DELETING IT ALL AND ITS ACTUALLY LONG!

I'm in line for lunch when someone taps my shoulder. I turn around and see my best friend Darcy standing behind me.

"What" I say

"You got something on your skirt" she says

"Like dirt or?"

"It's red"

"You're joking." I say, terrified of the possibility.

We leave the lunch line for the nearest bathroom. I hope that it isn't what I think it is. I get in a stall and take my shorts and skirt off. Unfortunately, it is in fact what I thought it was: my first period.

"Do you have anything on you?" I ask, frantic.

"No" Darcy says, "It's not fair that you got yours first" 

"If you want it so bad why do you not have anything for it?" I ask "You don't have anything at all? Not even like a jacket or something?" 

"I have a white hoodie in my backpack" Darcy says, "but I don't think you want something white"

"Just get the hoodie" I say

Darcy leaves. I don't understand why Darcy wants this. We're only fifth graders, and she doesn't even have anything on her to help. Just a stupid white hoodie with our K-8 school logo on it. The hoodies are so thin too. I start crying. I want one of my moms to be here but I can't call them because they won't give me a phone until sixth grade. Maybe they'll give me a phone now so I can call them to bring me something. 

A girl in the stall next to me calls out to me.

 "Hello? Why are you crying?"

I don't answer, but I try to cry quieter. I'm not very good at quiet crying though. 

"Are you okay?" The girl asks, flushing the toilet and moving closer to me.

I can tell by the light blue of her uniform that she is in the Upper School, so she might have something.

"Do you have a pad?" I ask

"Yeah" she says, digging through her bag on the other side of the stall, "Here"

I look at it. "How do you like— put it on?" I ask. I feel stupid for asking, because I know my moms have shown me once, but I didn't think it would happen this soon. I paid no attention back then.

"Unwrap it" She says, "Then peel the wrapper away from the pad and put in in the center of your underwear."

I follow what she told me to do and throw the wrapper away in the metal bin next to me. I pull my shorts and skirt back up and leave the stall. The girl who helped me is still there. I feel like I know her from somewhere, but I just can't remember where.

"Thank you" I say

"It's no big deal" the girl says, as she leaves. I wait a minute for Darcy to come back with the hoodie. It's a bit far from the girls' bathroom to our classes.

Darcy comes back in with the hoodie and hands it to me. "I can't believe you're a woman" she says. The words sting in a weird way, because I don't want to be a woman but I can't control it. 

I tie the hoodie around my waist as we rush back to the cafeteria. Our teacher gives us a stern look for being gone so long, but she doesn't push it. 

When Mama picks me up from school she asks me why I have someone else's hoodie around my waist and I start crying.

"Honey what happened?" Mama asks.

"Mama I don't want to be a woman" I cry

"Madison you're only ten" Mama says, "You're still a kid"

I sniff "But Darcy said that I was"

"Did you get your period?"

"Yeah" I say, "How did you know"

"Mama knows" She says, "You wanna tell me about it?"

"No" I say

"I was going to take you to Publix with me and then turn around to get Lennox" Mama says, "Do you need to go home first?"

"Why can't I just stay at home" I whine

"Mum's working late and if I bring you home I still have to get Lennox and then bring her to Publix with me and then come home" Mama says, "I don't want to leave you home alone for more than thirty minutes"

"I'll be quick then" I say

I run into the house, throw my bloody clothes in the sink, wipe off the blood, take one of Lennox's pads, and put on some new shorts. I don't change my school polo because I don't have too much time. I get back in the car and we turn around to get Lennox. I wish my mom let me stay home alone for longer than thirty minutes. We pull into the carpool line and Lennox gets in the car. 

"What took you so long to get here?" Lennox asks 

My sister puts her clarinet in the middle seat and gets in. She looks back at me and states the obvious.

"You seem upset" Lennox says

"I don't want to talk about it" I say 

"Why are you wearing your polo with shorts" She asks

"Leave me alone" I say, I feel my eyes start watering.

"Are you crying?" Lennox asks

"Leave Madison alone please" Mama says

After picking Lennox up we go to Publix and fight over pushing the cart. I want to say the cart should be mine because 'I got my period and you have to make me feel better' but Lennox has an existential crisis every time I mention I'm not three years old. So I let her push the cart. 

When we get home Lennox and I unintentionally race upstairs. I don't want her to see and then act weird just because I'm not little anymore. I lose the race, Lennox notices my bloody clothes in the sink and I wait for her to say something weird. It ends up just being silent for a few minutes.

"You know I'm ten, right?" I tell Lennox, "I'm not a baby, please don't be weird about it"

Lennox crushes my ribcage. "You thought I was going to be weird because you got it?" She says, surprised, "Why would I be weird?"

"On the first day of school you started crying because I started fifth grade" I say, "You always act weird when you realize I'm not three"

"That was last month" Lennox says, "I have changed my ways."

"Then why were you staring at my bloody clothes for so long?" I ask

"It's been fifteen seconds"

"Oh" I say, "time is weird"

"Did someone give you a stupid nickname?" She asks

"What?" I say, caught off guard by the sudden change in subject

"Like last year some boy in my class started calling me Leaky Lenny and never stopped" She says

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah, I'm not kidding" she says, tears forming in her eyes, "middle schoolers are ruthless"

"You said you wouldn't cry" I say

"You reminded me of something sad it's not about you" she says

"You did this to yourself Lennox"

"I hate you"