April Leads Julie Astray

Julie held her breath waiting for him to wonder over and start asking a million questions or invite himself to have lunch with them, giving everybody a million fun facts about space. However, Peter was in one of his own worlds today, and did not seem to even notice his older sister even though he walked by just a matter of feet from her.

Not for the first time, Julie thought about the strange way that her brother saw the world. One night several months ago when their parents were out, Julie had got up to get a glass of water and was confident about her ability to get downstairs and back up without her polio brace as she had done it many times in the past. Unfortunately on this occasion she was over-confident, misjudged a step and took a tumble, hitting her head on the staircase and lying stunned with her back going into spasm. Then Peter emerged from his bedroom also to get a glass of water, stepping over his sister with a cheerful hello, oblivious to the fact that she was in pain and needed assistance.

When the lunch break was over Julie and April made their way to math. "Did you see that the Smith's up the road have already put out their Halloween decorations?" April asked conversationally.

"Yeah, I noticed that this morning," said Julie. "We don't do Halloween in our house, Mum and Dad don't approve of it."

"We don't do it either," said April. "I've always thought it was kind of dumb. You tell kids not to talk to or take candy from strangers, and then one night each year you send them out trick or treating to houses to accept candy from people they don't know. That's crazy."

Julie laughed. "Yeah, it is kind of. One thing about Halloween is that it reminds you that winter is just about here."

"And November is the worst month," said April.

"November?" asked Julie.

"Yeah, November is usually cold and wet and nothing interesting ever happens."

"What about Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah, we don't really do that either," said April. "Mainly because all four of us are hopeless cooks, and if we go to Uncle Donny and Aunt Jane's she and Chip just wind up arguing. I never liked Thanksgiving as a kid either, I always felt sorry for the turkeys. But November is a nothing month. I mean, if somebody asks us in 10, 20 or 30 years' time what we did in November 1963, I bet we won't remember."

Julie thought it was cute that the younger April felt so sad for the turkeys, and she definitely agreed that November was a dull sort of month weather-wise. However she had no time to think any further as an overly-excited young male voice carried through the corridors. "Hi Julie!"

Julie jumped at first, then turned to see the fat form of Billy waving at her, then rushing in her direction, the huge form of his father Fred in the background. Fred had a business as a painter, and Billy was learning the trade. Both men's portly frames were clad in overalls, but if Fred wondered why his business was not making as big a profit as it should have he only had to look at his son's overalls which were covered in vast quantities of dried paint of a variety of colors, paint that probably should have ended up on ceilings, walls or doors.

With a huge grin on his full moon face, Billy rushed up to the object of his affections. She could feel everybody looking at her, and Julie blushed accordingly. "Hello Billy," the embarrassed girl offered.

"Are you at high school today?" Billy asked, unable to contain his excitement at seeing the girl he loved so much.

As always, Julie was polite despite the absurdity of the question she was asked. "Yes, that's right."

"We're here to paint some of the classrooms," said Billy.

"I gathered that," said Julie.

Billy, his dreamy look on his fat face then said, "So Julie, do you have your period?"

"Excuse me?" the shocked and embarrassed Julie asked, mortified that other students had heard this and were now looking directly at her.

"Sorry, I mean what period do you have next?" the bumbling Billy asked.

Julie breathed a little easier. She should have known Billy had worded a simple question wrong, rather than asking her a most personal and inappropriate question. She doubted Billy had any concept of menstruation anyway, given that he only had an older brother who was somewhere between Billy and their father on the obesity scale. "Calculus."

"Is that math?" Billy asked.

Julie nodded. "Yes."

"If you need help with your times tables, I can help you with that," Billy volunteered.

The ever-polite Julie again managed to avoid sarcasm in her response. "Thank you Billy, I'll let you know. Sorry but I have to go now, I don't want to be late for class. I'll see you later."

"See you in church on Sunday Julie, I can't wait to see you then!" He gave the departing Julie a huge wave, a massive grin on his face.

The blushing Julie made her way to her class with April beside her and other students looking at her. Billy as usual stood watching her with a lovesick, vacant grin on his chubby face.

As Julie took her seat in calculus April, who had the next desk to her, leaned over and laughed. "This may come as a bit of a surprise to you Julie, but I think Billy has a crush on you."

Julie cringed and blushed even more. "It's that obvious, is it?"

April nodded. "In Billy's case, very much so. Billy doesn't seem like the most subtle person I've ever met. But in most cases, you can always tell if somebody has a crush on somebody else."

*

Julie spent much of the Friday evening thinking about April's comment about always being able to see if one person has a crush on another person, and the girl worried about it a great deal. The way Julie thought about April felt very much like the feeling of having a crush on a boy. What if April thought Julie had a crush on her? Would April be upset and no longer want to be friends? And why did April use the word person, rather than girl or guy? Was she already aware of the way Julie was struggling with her feelings towards her?

Lying in bed that night, Julie tried to put a more logical perspective on her thoughts. April had simply used the word person as it was simpler, rather than saying girl having a crush on a guy, or a girl having a crush on a guy. And Julie reasoned that she couldn't have a crush on April. Julie liked boys like all girls did. She often thought about how great it would be to go out on a proper date with a boy. Not that she had been asked out on a date yet. Boys were very much aware that she was the Minister's daughter and due to her problem with her left leg, her limitations as a girlfriend were obvious. However, there was always the hope that a boy other than Billy would take a liking to her and ask her out one day. And Julie always envisaged that one day she would get married -- to a man obviously -- and have children. Therefore she couldn't have a crush on April, and subsequently there was nothing for April to see. Feeling a bit more relaxed, Julie drifted off to sleep.

Julie spent the weekend thinking about April in many ways. Although she tried to tell herself that envy was bad and sinful, Julie could not help but feel envious of April. On the Saturday morning, she saw April get into the old car that she, Brad and Chip shared and drive to her part time job at the boutique. Julie stayed at home helping with the housework, then did the books for her father's church.

On the Saturday evening, Julie read her novel from English and watched from her bedroom window as across the road as the same young man April had gone on a double date with the previous weekend this time drove up to the house to take April out on a one on one date, probably somewhere fun like the drive-in from which Julie was forbidden. Julie wished she was out on a date like her glamorous blonde classmate and neighbor, but this obviously wasn't going to happen. The teenager looked at her leg brace, lamenting that the only guy who clearly wanted to ask her out she wouldn't consider dating in a million years.

Sunday as always was church and her father's usual boring sermon. April, wearing a sweater and pedal-pusher style pants was outside again raking up fall leaves with her family, and she gave the Green family a friendly wave as Reverend Green reversed down the driveway. Julie was the only one to return April's neighborly gesture and her parents gave her such a glare it was like she had been caught drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes, not that she ever did either. As she struggled to stay awake in church, Julie thought how lucky April was not having to put up with being bored to the point of insanity every Sunday morning.

Monday and Tuesday were not Julie at her best, but then the girl was not at her best exactly four weeks previously nor four weeks before that and so on. Julie always felt irritated and on edge when her period was due, and was quick to become angry or upset during her time of the month. Again on Tuesday she found herself sitting in the library studying while the other girls did gym, and this time there was no friendly April to sit with her. By this stage April's own period had obviously gone for another few weeks, and Julie felt like she was the only girl in school close to or having her period, even though she knew on the law of averages that this wasn't the case.

During the afternoon Julie felt like she had drunk an entire lake of water, before the teenager's period made its appearance late on Tuesday evening. After a largely sleepless night with severe menstrual cramps, Julie sat in bed with a hot water bottle on her stomach on Wednesday morning before her mother told her to get a hurry on or she would be late for school.

Julie wished she could have taken the day off school sick, but as this was her period rather than an actual illness no way was she allowed to, despite how much pain she was in. To make matters worse Julie's back, good since the Saturday of the church fete, began to trouble her. All day, Julie had to put up with cramps and bloating and her sanitary belt slipping at inopportune times. And as was often the case when it was that time of the month, Julie began to experience issues with her digestive system and her diarrhea problem caused her to make frequent visits to the girls' bathroom during the day. As if she didn't have enough problems with her vagina today, now she had issues with another part of her body a short distance away.

While Julie always had heavy periods, today was especially bad for her. When school finished for the day Julie paid a visit to the girls' room and changed her pad. Normally she carried enough feminine hygiene products to last her through the day with one pad left over, but today her flow had been so heavy that she was down to her last pad. Attaching the new napkin to her sanitary belt and adjusting it so it was comfortable between her legs, Julie pulled up her white panties then smoothed down the lemon-colored dress she was wearing. Julie flushed the toilet and emerged from the stall, the teenager washing her hands before adjusting her white knitted jacket and exiting the bathroom, Julie making it just in time to catch the bus home.

The bus ride home was not a comfortable one for Julie, who was again bothered by her painful uterus and bad back, and with an uncooperative sanitary belt and a napkin that kept bunching up between her legs, this made everything so much worse. About halfway through the journey, Julie felt the need to pee even though she had only been recently, and soon after she felt the call of nature from her digestive system, this feeling getting worse and worse with each minute that passed.

Julie was relieved when the bus reached her stop, and she made her way for her house as fast as she could. She would be coming home to an empty house, as her parents were out and Peter was at science club after school. This was a relatively new thing in Peter's life and Reverend and Mrs. Green hoped that science club would help their son interact with other teenagers. Julie also hoped that Peter would make friends more easily, but having driven back down to the school to pick up her brother from science club one afternoon she had her doubts. It was a case once again of Peter simply talking about his interests to the other boys in the club, most of whom seemed to be indifferent and were feigning interest just to be polite.

Her younger brother's struggles to make friends were not at the forefront of Julie's mind at the moment, however. All the teenager knew was that she needed to get inside the house and to the toilet -- fast. Reaching into the satchel she carried to school for her house key, Julie paused in dismay where it was nowhere to be seen. The frantic Julie rummaged through the satchel but could find nothing, and shook her head when it failed to turn up.

"Darn it," the teenager mumbled under her breath. Julie was not the most organized person whenever she was on her period, and the girl had left her house key sitting on her bedside table that morning. Still there was an easy solution. Julie would simply go to a neighbors' house and ask to use their bathroom.

When nobody answered Julie's knock on the door of the house to the left of the Green residence, Julie went to the house on the right side, and again nobody was home. Julie looked across the road to the Clayton house. Her parents wouldn't approve of her going there, but she had a bathroom emergency and they were out anyway, so what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. These theories however remained moot, as none of Ben, April, Brad or Chip were home. Julie tried other houses in the street but luck was not running her way, and nobody was home there either. The increasingly desperate teenager tried another house, but the old lady who lived there was going deaf and had her television set turned up so loud she could not hear Julie knocking.

The frustrated Julie then thought of another solution. The bus ran by here, all she had to do was catch it to the library and she could use the toilet there. Once again, however, luck was not running Julie's way and she was marginally too late to catch the required bus. She waved and called to the driver to try and attract his attention and if she had been able to run she could have caught it, but the driver failed to see her and Julie was left stranded at the bus stop.

Julie contemplated what she was going to do next, crossing her legs in an attempt to relieve her sense of urgency. Then her pretty brown eyes picked up a familiar vehicle driving down the street -- Ben Clayton's van - and she sighed in relief. Her predicament was just about over. Julie hurried across to the Clayton house as the van pulled into the driveway and all four members of the Clayton family climbed out.

April, today attired in a green mini-skirt and matching green sweater, was the first to notice Julie and turned, noticing the expression of urgency on her classmate's face. "Hey Julie, is everything okay?"

"Hey April, not really. I'm locked out of my house and I really need to go to the bathroom. Could I please use your bathroom?" Julie's sense of desperation was clear by her expression and posture.

April looked doubtful, and shook her head. "Gee, I don't know about that." Seeing the horror on Julie's face, April stopped her joking and laughed. "Of course you can, come right in. We'd hardly say no, would we?"

"Thank you so much," said the enormously relieved Julie as she walked forward as fast as she could. As Julie drew level with April however, the pretty blonde stopped short with a look of dismay on her face. Ben Clayton also looked at Julie and like his teenage daughter stopped short with a concerned expression, then turned to his son and nephew.

"Brad, Chip, let's go and move that cabinet like I said earlier," Ben said, hastily herding his son and nephew into the house and leaving April alone with Julie.

"Is everything okay?" Julie asked, concerned by the reactions of April and her father.

"Um Julie, I don't want to embarrass you, but you need to take a look at the back of your dress."

Julie turned her neck to see, and the teenager's pretty face filled with horror at the sight. Her lemon dress showed a huge, dark red stain over her bottom, and she could see that some of her menstrual blood had also leaked onto her white jacket. Already emotional from it being that time in her monthly cycle, the embarrassed Julie immediately burst into tears.

"Hey, it's okay," said April reassuringly, putting her arms around the sobbing Julie and discretely turning her so her back was towards the Clayton house and her predicament not visible to passers-by.

"Sorry," Julie sobbed, tears streaming down her face.

"What's to be sorry about?" asked April, reaching into her purse and retrieving tissues, which she handed to Julie to wipe her eyes.

"I can't believe this happened," cried Julie.

"It's okay Julie, I think this happens to every woman on Earth at least once in her lifetime. I know it has to me. Let's get you inside and we'll get you sorted out."

Julie nodded, and April again gave the distraught girl a reassuring hug, before taking her inside, April walking behind Julie so her period problem was not visible to anybody else. The two girls went upstairs and April said, "You said you needed to go to the bathroom, so while you're in there I'll get you some clean clothes for when you've finished. I'm a bit taller than you, but we can wear each other's clothes if we need to. Do you have any pads?"

Her tears subsiding a bit now, Julie shook her head. "No, not with me. I've got some at home, but I'm locked out so I can't get to them ..."

"I'll get you one of mine," said April, leading Julie into her bedroom and taking a sanitary napkin from her drawer, which she handed to Julie along with a small brown paper bag.

"Thanks," said Julie as she wiped her eyes. "I can't work out what happened, I changed my pad just before leaving school."

"Maybe it was defective?" April suggested. "It happens. It's like you buy a dozen apples from the store, they all look the same but 11 are okay and one is rotten inside? Or an automobile plant might manufacture 100 cars all the same, 99 are just fine and car 100 is a lemon?"

"Probably," Julie agreed, the girl despairing that she had to be the one who ended up with the defective sanitary napkin.

April led Julie to a closet, and handed her a washcloth and a red towel. "Give me a shout when you've finished, and I'll pass you my clothes through the door."

Julie nodded and walked across the hallway to the bathroom, closing and locking the bathroom door behind her. As she walked towards the toilet and put down the seat, Julie stopped short, noticing there was no toilet paper on the roll holder, just an empty cardboard tube. With no other toilet rolls visible on the cistern or in the bathroom, the embarrassed and frustrated Julie had to turn and open the bathroom door.

"Is everything okay?" April asked, surprised to see Julie emerge so quickly.

The blushing Julie shook her head, feeling shy and self-conscious. "April, there's no toilet paper."

April laughed slightly and shook her head. "Today just isn't your day, is it Julie?"

"No." Julie could only despair.

April walked back to the closet and retrieved a new roll of toilet paper. "Welcome to my world Julie. The only girl living with three guys, I'm the only one who seems to know how to change a roll of toilet paper and I've lost count of the number of times I've gone in there and found there's no toilet paper at all, or one sheet left on the roll."

"That must be annoying," said Julie. Sharing a bathroom with her brother was annoying enough given Peter seemed to have some deep-seated moral objection to wiping up toothpaste he had spilled everywhere, but April's situation sounded more frustrating.

"Yeah, it can be," April agreed. "The other week I woke up, was still half asleep and nearly sat down on the toilet before I looked and realized I had no toilet paper." The pretty blonde handed Julie the new roll of toilet paper.