Please Understand

Chapter 21: Period Pro

I don't want to be here anymore. There's nothing worth staying for. Your paradise is something I endured.

All of her music was sad, talking about how her body imprisoned her. She wanted to leave, but Amelia didn't want to be kidnapped or murdered. She didn't deserve to be. She deserved happiness, and love; everything I should have given her. My hands were shaking as I opened the little blue diary to another chapter of Amelia's life, another reason for her to hate the body she was forced to live in.

Puberty: a magical time in any human's life where literally everything changes and your body doesn't feel like yours anymore.

Luckily, I had enough trauma in my childhood that a hormonal change wasn't going to affect me too awful much.

All the girls in the 5th grade were forced into Mrs. Galloway's room, the weird teacher who clips her toenails on her desk, and all the boys went into Mr. Falcon's room, the weird teacher who always had the lights off. He was also my favorite teacher because he treated me like an adult without being creepy about our student-teacher relationship. He never once made me feel uncomfortable, and I was grateful he didn't undress me with his sunken eyes.

"Anytime one of you girls needs to go to the bathroom during your girl time, you can always put a tampon in your shoe to be discreet!" Mrs. Galloway explained as Dinosaur Mrs. Warren bobbed her balding Afro. "I do it all the time, and no one has ever noticed!"

I rolled my eyes as I twirled a pencil between my fingers. Unfortunately, I was already a Period Pro, so The Talk felt obsolete. All I really needed to learn was what it felt like to be normal; to not remember what happened to me everyday.

"I bet Amelia knows all about being discreet ," Natalie Hartly whispered to the group of girls right behind me.

I tried my best to ignore them as the teachers changed the subject to personal hygiene. Talking about lotions, soaps, shampoos, and perfumes. Anything girly. There was nothing about sex, how to protect yourself from predators, or any real life situations we needed to hear. Sex Education shouldn't be about braiding each other's hair, or in this instance, making fun of the weird girl. We should be learning about STDs, how to use condoms, or whatever else the boys were learning.

"Amelia should take notes, look how greasy and nasty her hair is," Carlie laughed.

Ignore. Ignore. Ignore. That's the best you can do in a bullying situation. Standing up for myself will give her the reaction she wants: any reaction. I was about to lose my temper though, between the watered down talk and the mean girls. I shouldn't have to sit through something so ridiculous.

My hand shot up in the air before I could talk myself out of making a huge mistake. "Why aren't we learning about how to protect ourselves from predators? Or about STDs and how to avoid those? Seriously, why can't we have the same lesson as the boys?" I rambled as my anger twisted inside me.

Mrs. Galloway's jaw dropped, but she recovered with a quick smile. "The boys wouldn't want to learn about your menstrual cycle, and they have no need to," she answered, brushing off my questions like they were completely ridiculous. "We live in a small town, so you have no need to worry about predators. If you ever feel uncomfortable, however, you may talk to Mrs. Warren or myself." She smiled, looked away from me, and then opened her mouth to change the subject.