Janey Spinelli (intheboonies) wrote in genome_project, @ 2012-07-08 13:58:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | july 2012 |
Who: Valerie Spinelli and Janey Spinelli
What: A slightly unexpected but certainly unwanted visitor
Where: Spinelli household
When: Afternoon
Rating: Medium
Status: Complete
On this normal summer day, Valerie had been out playing all day in the sun. She had hung out with Jordan in the morning, just shooting some hoops before his mom came to pick him up. And then, she and her sister decided to spruce up their tiny vegetable garden in the balcony of their home. By the time they had made some progress, it was lunch time. And then, they just had some down time inside the house.
And like any other day, every once in awhile, Valerie would go to the bathroom to do her usual business like normal. It was nearing the late afternoon when Valerie slipped into the bathroom and sat down to do some number one. She was texting Jordan as she went and just reached out with one hand to tug at the toilet paper. It happened so fast that Valerie actually had to do a double take. After she had wiped, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She paused before she could throw away the piece of toilet paper and then... her eyes popped out of her head.
She was still staring at the toilet paper when her other hand began to send a text to her mother. It said: Mom. Bathroom. Now.
Janey’s afternoon was fairly quiet. After the girls came inside from their adventures in horticulture and had their lunch, Janey retreated into the small room she used for her painting. It wasn’t anything like her basement back home on FI, but it was inspirational enough for her to do what she had to do in order to get away from the hustle and bustle of the world around her. Bree was with her. She had gotten very good at mixing paints for her mother, while she worked. Janey’s art had transformed greatly over the years, where she became quite versatile in various methods and forms.
Today, she was going for a simple watercolor painting of an owl. Bree loved owls. She had been begging her mother for years to make her a painting of an owl. Janey finally got the chance to do that for her. Deep in her artistic trance, Janey barely heard her phone vibrating beside her. It was Bree who jumped up and grabbed Janey’s phone. “V-A-L,” Bree read. “Val! It’s from Val, mommy!”
Janey’s concentration was broken just like that. She took the phone from Bree and read Val’s text. Her eyebrow rose up in her forehead and she sighed. “Be right back, munchkin,” she told Bree and headed over to the bathroom. What was that girl up to now? When she opened the door and peeked inside, Janey just froze in her spot. There was Valerie, sitting on the toilet and holding a bloody piece of toilet paper in her hand.
“Shit.”
“What do you mean shit?” Valerie was about to start pouting. What did that mean? Why was her pee full of blood? That kickball that hit her in the stomach was at least three weeks ago, and it didn’t even hurt anymore. Why would she be bleeding from it now? She blinked up at her mom, expecting some sort of answer, some sort of explanation as to why she was peeing blood all of a sudden. But Valerie was a smart girl. She knew what this was. She just didn’t want to believe it.
“Is it...” She frowned and just continued to look at the toilet paper in her hand. Great, what now? She had no idea what to do. She could barely even figure out what to do with this piece of paper in her hand. “Mommy.... I just got my period, didn’t I?”
Janey took a long, deep breath and let it out slowly. She forced herself into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. This was the moment she had been dreading ever since she had fully realized that she had given birth to a girl. She knew that eventually, she was going to go through this, the same thing that all girls her age went through. Slowly, she took the piece of toilet paper from Valerie’s hand, folding it and tossed it away. She grabbed another rolled up piece and handed it to her. “Wipe again.”
Then, Janey reached up into the cabinet and pulled out a pad. “Yes, baby. You got your period.” She pushed some of Val’s hair behind her ear and kissed her cheek. “It’s okay. Here.” She showed her the pad. “You’re gonna need this.” She began to peel open the pad, demonstrating how it unfolds. “This goes on your panty, so that you don’t get it full of blood, okay? Let me show you.” She placed the pad on Valerie’s pulled down underwear and wrapped the flaps around the ends. “How do you feel?”
Valerie just kept looking at her mother as if she’d grown a second head. She took the toilet paper from her though and wiped again. There wasn’t that much blood on it, but it still had enough that Valerie knew it wasn’t a fluke. This shit was real. She threw away the other piece of toilet paper and just watched as her mom showed her how to use a pad. Valerie was not a happy camper. She stood up once the pad seemed to be securely in place and pulled it up before taking a few steps out of the bathroom.
“UGH! It’s like... I feel like I’m riding a horse!” It was uncomfortable and bulky. Was all that padding down there really necessary? She hadn’t seen that much blood. She shrugged though. “I feel fine.” She bit her lip and just shot a furtive glance at the toilet bowl. She didn’t see any trace of the blood she had found on her toilet paper. Maybe she really wasn’t getting her period after all. “Does it hurt, mommy? I mean, if I’m bleeding, does that mean there’s something like a papercut happening down in there?” She didn’t know how to ask it really. She just knew that papercuts hurt like crazy.
Janey flushed the toilet and quietly ushered Valerie out of the bathroom. It felt like a crime scene for some reason. The idea made her think of Toni and the second thing she was dreading the most: telling Toni that his daughter, his baby girl, was now ripe for getting pregnant. She walked over into her room and took a seat on her bed, just patting the spot next to her. Janey remembered when she had gotten her period for the first time. Her mother had been sick with her cancer the first time, so Janey had to figure things out on her own pretty much. She vowed that if she’d ever had a daughter that she would explain everything to her.
“No, baby. It doesn’t hurt like a papercut would hurt. If it hurts, it’s more like cramps. Like... like a really bad tummy ache that makes you want to go to the bathroom for number two.” She looked Valerie over, examining her face and all her features. Once she had tried to paint Valerie when she was a baby. Her little girl had changed very much since that moment. “You might also get headaches or feel tired. Just let me know if you do though. There’s medicine for that.” She sighed. “Valerie, you do know what this means, don’t you?”
Valerie hopped up onto her mom’s bed and just laid down on it, while looking up at Janey. She didn’t have a tummy ache right now. And... okay maybe she was feeling a little bit tired, but that was probably because she had been running around all day in the heat doing stuff with Jordan and Bree. Wasn’t it? Valerie sighed. What did this mean? She didn’t think it was anything good. “That I’m going to bleed every month? How do I know when it happens?”
Her poor, sweet, little daughter. She was a fighter on the outside, but on the inside, she was made of the girliest substance in the universe. She was as innocent as they came. “Yeah... It happens every 28 days or so. Sometimes it varies, but you have to keep track of it. I suggest you keep a pad with you at all times in your bag, just in case. You don’t want your panties to get stained with blood while you’re at school, do you?”
Janey reached out and just traced a thin strand of blonde hair running across Valerie’s forehead. “Baby... this also means that you’re becoming a woman. And that with this, you have to start becoming more and more responsible. Having your period means that if you aren’t careful, you could...” She bit her lip. On three, Jay. One... two.... “Get pregnant.... or something.”
Her panties stained with blood at school? Becoming a woman? More responsibility? PREGNANT?? “What?!” Valerie sat upright on the bed. What was her mom talking about? How did people get pregnant? “I’m sorry, Mom, but this is WAY too much pressure for me. I can’t handle this right now. I’m like only twelve.” She sighed and kicked off her shoes. This was crazy. No one ever told her that all of this was going to happen. And why now?
“I don’t wanna get pregnant. I don’t even know how to get pregnant. How do you get pregnant? Do you get pregnant by kissing? Some kids at school said that.” And ew, she wasn’t going to kiss anybody especially if she could get pregnant doing it. Geez.
Janey couldn’t help but feel amused yet sad at the same time. Valerie was right about one thing. It was a lot of pressure to go through something like this at her age. All kids eventually had to grow up, but adolescence was the worst time in a person’s life, filled with questions and uncertainty. Janey knew those questions and uncertainties well. “Val, you’re going to be thirteen next month. This happens to girls your age all the time. It’s perfectly normal, and you can handle it. You’re a Spinelli. You can do anything you set your mind to.”
And there it was, the pregnancy questions. Janey felt uncomfortable discussing this without Toni. She was probably the best one to talk to Valerie about periods and how it all worked, but the particulars about sex and how that all worked, well, it was something else entirely. “No. You can’t get pregnant by kissing, though I wouldn’t just kiss anyone, because you could probably get Mono from kissing. It’s like a throat infection type thing spread through saliva.” She offered Valerie her hand. “How about this? I’ll talk to daddy about it, and we can talk about how to get pregnant or mostly avoid getting pregnant some other time. Okay?”
Valerie took her mother’s hand. She didn’t really care if it was normal or not. She was still afraid of what was to come. Her mother had mentioned cramps and headaches. Was this some form of torture or something? What was the point of it anyway? It seemed like more of a hassle than anything else. “Mommy,” she asked as she twirled Janey’s wedding ring around her finger, “when did you get your period?”
She nodded though, glad she couldn’t get pregnant from kissing. And pfffft, now that she thought about it, it was pretty silly. If you could get pregnant by kissing, then everyone would be pregnant all the time, especially the Spanish teacher, Mrs. Swafford, who was always going around hugging and cheek-kissing people. What if she was on the verge of getting this Mono stuff and didn’t even know it? “Okay.” She wasn’t sure why Daddy had to be there, but he tended to make things a little easier sometimes. So, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to have him around.
Janey watched as her daughter twirled her wedding ring around. Instead of remembering the first time she’d gotten her period, she remembered the moment she told Toni that she was pregnant. It was by far the scariest moment of her life, and she hoped that Val would never have to go through something like that. Back on topic though... “I think I was ten, a lot younger than you. Your grandmother, she was... very sick at the time. So, everything I learned, I learned from my friends.”
She held Valerie’s hand still in hers and looked at her daughter with a serious expression. “Valerie, promise me that no matter what happens, you will always come to me or daddy or Uncle Tino or Aunt Mia or Uncle Nico or Aunt Sasha or whichever adult you feel most comfortable talking to. If you have any questions or anything at all that you don’t understand, your dad and I will always be here to help you. Okay, Vallerina? We love you, baby, and all we want is for you to be happy and safe.”
“Wow, you were a lot younger.” Valerie couldn’t imagine getting her period two years ago. She would have been a fifth grader then, and fifth grade was nothing like seventh grade. Fifth grade was fun, and she couldn’t imagine having to deal with her period then. Even now, it seemed like such an annoying thing to have to live with. She frowned though when Janey mentioned her grandmother. She remembered how sad her mom was when her grandmother passed away.
Valerie wasn’t sure what her mom meant by all that. She felt perfectly comfortable coming to her and telling her everything so far. Did she think there would come a time when she wouldn’t want to talk to her like this anymore. It took a minute, but Valerie eventually crawled over and hugged her mom tightly. “I love you too, Mommy. And I promise I’ll always tell you everything.”