you want?” she snarled.
“N-n-nothing.” The way she looked at me was the way a wolf looked at a rabbit. I was younger than my own daughter now! And in the social hierarchy of elementary school, that meant I was her victim if I hung around too long.
I bolted into the nearest stall. I locked the door seconds before another pain doubled me over. I whimpered, though I tried to keep it down so Tammy wouldn’t hear. Through the crack in the door, I saw she had gone back to her makeup.
I shuffled back from the door and then dropped my pants. When I did, my eyes widened. There was blood in my panties! As I watched with horror, a few more drops trickled onto my panties.
If I had kept calm, I would have realized what was happening to me. But I reacted to the blood the way a little girl would; I fumbled to unlock the door and then staggered out with my pants around my legs. “I’m bleeding!” I shrieked.
“What are you talking about?” Tammy growled. She twisted her lipstick back into the tube to glare at me. “You cut yourself?”
“No. It’s coming out of me where I pee.”
Tammy began to laugh. “Oh my God! Are you serious?”
“What’s so funny? I’m bleeding!”
“Christ, your mom hasn’t told you anything, has she? I guess she wouldn’t. I mean, you’re still a little baby.”
“I am not!”
“You totally are.” Tammy snickered at me, prompting me to cry harder.
“You gotta help me! I’m gonna die!”
“Jesus Christ. You are so pathetic.”
“You’re mean,” I snapped back. I was Tammy’s daddy; she was supposed to be nice to me. Instead she was being such a poopyhead. If she wouldn’t help me, then I would have to go ask Denise. She would be nice. She was my mommy—no, my wife. She was my wife and I was her husband.
I sniffled and then pulled up my pants. “See you later, kid,” Tammy called out as I ran away. I could hear her laughing as the door closed behind me.
As I ran, I was leaving a trail behind me, droplets of blood staining the floor. Tammy could have helped me. She could have told me what was happening or she could have at least fetched a grown up to explain it. Instead she called me names and laughed at me. I hated her.
But Denise would still help me. She was a nice lady. And a teacher. She would have to help me.
I threw open the door. As soon as I slipped through the doorway, everything shimmered for a moment. The world seemed to swell around me as if I had entered a world of giants. Something else was bigger too: my tummy. It stuck out so much that I looked like a tiny pregnant lady. My big stomach pressed against a cute sailor dress with a white top and dark blue skirt.
I heard other kids start to laugh at me. Denise turned from the chalkboard to look down at me. Before I had come up to almost her boobies, but now my eyes were level with her waist. She squatted down to look me in the eye. “Can I help you, young lady?”
I wanted to tell her what was happening, but I couldn’t. I was frozen with terror. She was so big. Everything was so big. I desperately wanted my mommy. Mommy would make me feel better.
“Hello? Sweetheart? Are you lost?”
I said nothing. Then I felt my underpants starting to turn wet. I hoped no one would notice, but a girl in the front row pointed to the floor. “She’s peeing!”
Everyone laughed harder at me. Even Denise. She quickly put a hand to her mouth to cover it, but I saw it. She was a meanie like all the others. She was supposed to be nice to me, but she wasn’t.
I started to sob. The mean lady ran a hand through my hair. “It’s all right, sweetheart. Why don’t you tell me your name?”
I was crying too hard to tell her anything. I was saved when I heard a woman call out, “Lynn! There you are!”
Mommy stood in the doorway. I turned to race over to her. She wrapped her
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