NOBODY Wants To Share That Experience

My high school doesn’t have a nurse’s office and it NEVER stocks pads or tampons in the girls’ bathrooms. As I have a very heavy cycle that’s impossible to track, I always carry pads, tampons, and painkillers on me in a gaudy blue- and yellow-striped bag in my purse. In sociology class, which has a male teacher, I hear a girl behind me whisper to her friend.

Girl #1: “Do you have anything? I think my period just started.”

Girl #2: “No, sorry.”

I hold out my bag.

Me: “Hey. Take what you need.”

Girl #1: “Thank you so—”

Teacher: “[My Name]! What are you doing?”

Me: “Just giving someone something, sorry—”

Teacher: *Yelling* “You’re supposed to be studying! What are you handing out that’s so important that you decided to disobey me? I ought to fail you on the quiz we’re having tomorrow. What are you giving out? Did you bring enough for everyone or just your friends?! I never have problems out of you! You don’t even talk to people and now you’re sharing things with the class? What are you even doing with that ugly bag in my classroom in the first place?!”

Me: “Mr. [Teacher], if that’s important to you, I’ll let you have one, too. Do you need a tampon or a pad?”

The teacher goes pale and then bright red.

Teacher: “Oh. Never mind.”

My younger sister says he’s the principal now, and the bathrooms always have hygiene products in them. Still no nurse, though.