Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Pants "dye"

Turning twelve, I was almost the same height as my mother. My mother looked young enough to make people think we were sisters. From time to time, I started borrowing some of her clothes which fit me well.

One day, as usual, I borrowed one of my mom's outfits: cream white striped pants with a matching blouse to wear to my sixth grade class. During late afternoon, shortly before recess, while doing my classwork, I noticed one girl in front of me glancing at me and then whispered to the teacher. My teacher looked at me as if I was in trouble. Following teacher's and this girl's eyes, some students looked at me as well.

While trying to rack my brains what I had done wrong or if I had said something inappropriate in the last few hours or even in the past few days, I sat with my hands fidgeting.

Then it was time for recess. Students quickly scrambled to go outside however my teacher immediately halted me and told me to stay put. Puzzled, I went back to my seat.

When the teacher saw that the class was now empty, she leaned forward and told me to "close my legs" and to do so for the rest of class period. Not sure what she was referring to, I quickly glanced down and to my horror and embarrassment, I realized why they were looking at me.

Between my legs, there was a crimson stain.