𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘙𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴: #1 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳 / #1 𝘱𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰-𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳
Effy Williams has always been a quiet, timid girl. Between facing bullies at school-and some at home-she'd always learned to suffer in silence. And her only friend is a sh...
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T H U R S D A Y
Effy sat slouched lazily in her seat.
The class was in another one of its hour-long silent times where every student could work on any separate work they had from other classes to either get or stay caught up. She had her head rested on her curled hand, trying to blink the weighing tiredness away as she scribbled mindlessly into her notebook. When suddenly, she felt like she were about to wet herself.
Effy's eyes widened in realization. (She had completely forgotten her period would be coming any time soon!) She quickly went through her bag in a hurry. Shoveling through pencil bags and notebooks desperately looking for a tampon. Marcy Bennett who sat two seats over gave her an odd look.
A few seats behind on the next row over, Bridget watched Effy frantically shuffled through her bag.
Effy exhaled heavily and pressed her hands against her thighs. Her palms began to sweat with fear. She quickly raised her hand until Miss Patterson finally called on her after going through great lengths to act as though she didn't see her. With her little hang wiggling in the air, it was kind of hard not to notice that.
"May I use the restroom please?" Effy begged.
Miss Patterson gave her an irritated look. "Sure," she sighed heavily and waved at the wooden paddle by the laptop cart. "Take the hall pass."
Effy grabbed her bag and rushed out of the classroom. (Completely forgetting the pass.)
Bridget sat for a moment. She knew what Effy was looking for the moment she saw her shuffling through her bag as though her life depended on it. (Back when they were close friends, Effy constantly would forget to have a backup tampon or pad in her bag. So Bridget would always carry two just in case. It was their thing.)
Bridget glanced at her open bag lying on top her desk in the corner. A familiar neon green plastic wrapper poked out from one of the pockets next to a tube of lipgloss. Since Bridget was popular, and not so secretly one of Miss Patterson's favorites, she simply walked out of the classroom. Making sure to tell Miss Patterson where she was going, of course. But not waiting for permission knowing she already had it.
Effy sat silently in the metal stall. (Just in time before she bled in her cotton underwears!) Her knees bounced with her rapid thoughts as she waited for the dripping blood to come to a stop. She wrapped a thick layer of toilet paper around her hand. Sliding it off and rolling it.
With a heavy exhale she tossed the makeshift tampon aside and dropped her head into her hands. Just as she was beginning to panic, questioning her life choices, someone reached under the stall door and produced a single tampon.
