Dear Mum,
I was listening to this Beatles song that you and dad loved so much and I thought how much I longed for yesterday. I know that you, and in fact, the whole family (including everyone back home in Brazil, and even uncle Vinicius in Canada) heard Nona's news: that I have started my period.
I promise you that I'm not a woman. I'm just the same as I was yesterday but I miss people seeing me as they did then.
In fact, I feel like a little baby. If you just looked at me sideways, I would fall apart. I'm barely keeping things together as a kid. What do I need periods for?
It's like the periods knew they could ruin things just a little more, you know?
I just hate that Nona told everybody like it's her news. Like I'm this thing that's happening to her. I picture people asking her "hey Nona, what's up today? And her responding, "Oh, nothing but a little case of Zelia getting her undies all bloody, that's all." I'm so betrayed right now.
And you know the WORST part. My period hit in the middle of getting changed for a swim lesson!
Lola freezes and points in nervous silence at the space between my thighs. I look down and I see this splodge of blood. I was glowing against my white undies.
I looked all around at Gigli, Elena and Lola and I excused myself. I spoke to the teacher with us at the pool and told her that I was bleeding from my groin and that I expected more would come. I was told I could go back to school with another teacher, and I didn't see the girls, until much later. By then, they were all acting very much as if I had been diagnosed with Ebola.
Today, Lola told me I was the grossest, crassest girl she's ever met in her life: "so unlady-like", I heard her say.
The contradiction between being a lady and not being one for having my period cracked me up for a moment.
Then I was miserable again.
I would like to invite anyone who'd like to offer their vote or support to Zelia. Please use this space to share your story regarding your first period. Was this very difficult, traumatic, or was it liberating? All stories are welcome on Zelia's page🧡💛💚💙
Photo by Karolina Grabowska (Pexels)
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Mostly Unlady
Teen FictionZelia is a proud Brazilian kid, on the cusp of adolescence, trying to be good by regularly writing to her mother. But nothing makes sense to her lately... not the doctors who tell her she's faking being sick, certainly not the neighbours in her apar...
