Lostguy818

Penelope Walker slowly walked towards the front yard of Lonesville High School, absorbing the place. It was her first day on her freshman year. She was feeling nervous yet confident and self conscious, all at the same time. Confident with her make up that her mother had done for her and her black top that has a white diagonal stripe across her left shoulder to the right side of her waist and self conscious with the white denim mini skirt that her mother gave her as a good-luck-on-you-first-day gift. She rarely wore mini skirts but her mother insisted so she gave in. She read at least a hundred of articles and how to’s about high school. Number one: always smile. That one was obviously very easy except she can feel her mouth feeling stiff by the minute. Number two: make sure to greet or at least nod to your fellow schoolmates. A beautiful Indian- looking girl passed by Penelope without even acknowledging her presence. She greeted her with a happy “good morning”. The Indian girl stopped. It’s working, Penelope thought. She’s going to be my friend, she continued on her head. Instead of introducing herself, the Indian girl eyed Penelope from head to toe then said, “Who are you?” like Penelope just harassed her. Penelope perked herself up then said, “I’m Penelope.” Too late. The Indian girl already walked away. This isn’t going well, Penelope thought. There must be some mistake. She tried to summon the words on the article in her head. Number two: make sure to greet or at least nod to your fellow schoolmates only when they look at you first. Oh. Of course. She walked through the open tall glass double door. Number three: make sure to be presentable and approachable. She went towards her locker. It was on the middle of the long line of lockers on the right side of the wall. Beside her was a small girl looking like she was having troubles remembering her locker combination. “Is there anything I can do to help?” Penelope asked the girl kindly, still smiling for almost fifteen minutes since she arrived. “Like you’d know my locker combination. Who are you? The janitor?” The small girl glared at her. Penelope wanted to argue but she remembered number four: always keep your cool. Penelope decided to mind her own business and started putting some of her things to her locker. Number five: Do greet familiar faces. Penelope though for a while. Making sure that nothing will mess up, she recalled the words from the article. None. That’s already it. She decided to follow her game plan which is to abide by the article Perfect First Day to a Perfect High School Life. She could already feel the uncomfortable feeling that mini skirts give her but she eventually shook it off. She needed to come across as someone that can fit in. There’s one label she didn’t want to be stamped on her forehead: PRUDE. She read it in a magazine that guys hate prudes. She carried on with her ‘game plan’ and Every time she saw someone familiar, she would raise her hand to the air and wave at them excitedly. To her bewilderment, they just ignored her. Only one person was kind enough to give her a clue. She was also a freshman but anyone would have mistaken her for a sophomore. Her straight light brown hair that curled in the ends and her daring red dress was making the statement ‘I’m too cool for school’. Maybe it wan’t even her kindness. She was the only one that was rude enough to tell Penelope that there’s a tear on the underarm part of her black t-shirt. What makes it more embarrassing is that she hadn’t even started shaving that area yet because she thought she could still ‘hide’ it under a shirt. The girl with the light brown hair pulled her to the girls’ bathroom. It suddenly hit her. Her torn shirt was not the reason why everyone familiar avoided her. At least, not entirely. Penelope realized what was really going on. After the she was pulled inside the bathroom, the girl produced a mirror from her bag. She faced it to Penelope’s behind, revealing the red stain on her pure white mini skirt. Penelope’s face went pale and she started breathing shallowly in a quick pace. She has been waiting for her first period for a very long time but why now? Now when she didn’t expect anything coming up. Now that she didn’t bring any pad or tampon. “What am I gonna do?” Penelope asked the girl but her face didn’t even show concern. Penelope started crying which, somehow, hit a soft spot inside the girl.