Chapter 29

Set when Jess is 12

Rachel was sat in her living room with the tv on it was around 5 on a Friday night and they were both starting to relax after a hectic week at school.

Suddenly Rachel saw Jess coming into the living room, she smiled at her and turned round.

"Rach" Jess said, Rachel could tell at once by the time of Jess's voice she was after something.

"What do you want" Rachel sighed

"Well you know you said I was grounded after that little incident last week" Jess said

"What by "little incident" are you referring to the phone call I had with your form tutor about you and some of your little friends going out of school at lunch and then telling the teacher on duty to F off when they told you off that incident Jess " Rachel said, she had been so annoyed with Jess when this had happened and had threatened to call her mum straight away however in the end they settled on 2 weeks of being grounded with her phone, iPad, iPod and laptop all taken off her, at first Rachel had tried to stop her watching tv as well but this proved too difficult to enforce.

"It will never ever happen again and you can extend my grounding to 3 weeks but please let me go out tonight, josh and Katie want me to go to the park with them and I really want to go" Jess said

"Sorry is there some part of the word grounded that you don't understand young lady" Rachel said, she was determined not to let Jess out as she needed to learn her lesson but she could already feel herself softening, Jess had actually been extremely good all this week.

"Please let me go Rachel" Jess begged

"Jess if you do go out tonight then you are still grounded for another week do you understand?" Rachel said

"Thank you so much Rach"

"And I want you home by 8 and you don't get into any trouble at all" Rachel said firmly

"Thank you Rachel your the best" Jess said giving her auntie a cuddle

"Yeah yeah go on, go and get ready" Rachel said

"Okay but can I borrow something of yours please" Jess asked

"Is there something wrong with the stuff you have" Rachel asked

"I want to look really nice" Jess explained

"Why?" Rachel asked

"No reason"

"Nothing to do with the fact this josh is coming over is it?" Rachel asked smirking causing Jess to turn bright red and go upstairs

Jess materialised a few minutes later she had let her brown hair down and had put on one of Rachel's pairs of skinny jeans, even at 12 they more or less fit into the same clothes as Rachel was quite a small size, Jess had then put on her own black vest top with a silver necklace, Rachel noticed that she must have stuffed her bra with tissues or something because her chest seemed considerably larger than normal, however Rachel decided not to say anything knowing it would embarrass Jess.

"Bye love you have a good time and be back for 8" Rachel said

Jess kissed Rachel goodbye and then went out the front door.

It didn't take long for Jess to meet up with her friends.

At first they were all having a great time and Jess and josh were getting on particularly well, however after an hour or so some older boys of about 15 or 16 the 5 of them all started to get a bit scared as they found them very intimidating however after a while one started talking to Jess he was obviously flirting with her thinking she was older than she really was.

"Jess should we get going" Katie said nervously

"No I want to stay" Jess said absent-mindedly

"Jess I have to go home and so does the rest of us including you come on let's go" Lucy said

"You can all go I'm fine I'll only be 10 more minutes" Jess said

The four of them felt awful leaving there friend but didn't know what else to do, they all hoped she'd be okay, however they thought it best if they called round Rachel's house just in case anything happened to her.

"So we've got some drink with us do you want some" one of the boys asked, Jess didn't know what to say she didn't really want to drink at all as she knew how much trouble she'd be in if Rachel got the slightest hint of any of this however she really didn't want to look stupid so she took a sip out of the litre bottle of cider and then another, and then another, and then another.

Although she hadn't had that much she already felt completely drunk, she didn't know how she was going to face Rachel in this state however right now nothing mattered to her.

About 10 minutes later Jess decided to make her way home, she could hardly walk and was in a real state

Rachel was on her way to the park after Jess's friends had been round to let her know that Jess hadn't come home with them, Rachel wasn't annoyed at this point just a little concerned.

Jess was about half way home when she saw her aunt coming towards her, she immediately got quite scared as she didn't know how she would face her.

Rachel rushed towards Jess she could tell immediately that she'd been drinking

"Jess what the hell are you playing at you silly girl how could you behave like this do you have any idea of the amount of trouble you're in" Rachel shouted she took hold of Jess's arm and practically dragged her back home praying nobody would see the state of her 12 year old niece, fortunately they managed to get home okay.

Rachel quickly unlocked the door before shouting "get in the kitchen"

Jess could hardly walk in a straight line but did manage to get into the kitchen.

"Right come on, explanation right now" Rachel said when Jess remained silent she said "what so your old enough to get yourself in this state but not old enough to explain yourself"

"These boys asked me if I wanted drink" Jess slurred

"What and you didn't think twice, didn't care that your 12 flaming years old, didn't care about what I was going to say as long as you got to impress these boys huh" Rachel shouted

"I wish I hadn't" Jess said tears rolling down her cheek

"Oh really" Rachel said "just you wait till your mother hears about this, she'll have you back home quick as anything"

"No don't tell ..." Jess cried

"You don't seriously think I'm going to keep this from her do you"

"Please don't..." Jess said however she was unable to finish her sentence as her stomach chose this precise moment to open it's contents all over the kitchen floor.

"Oh just get out of my sight and up to bed Jess" Rachel screamed

Jess felt better now she'd been sick however she also felt more aware of how angry her aunt was, she did as she was told and got out of her clothes and went straight to bed, she had a really bad stomach cramp so could have done with some paracetamol however she didn't dare go back downstairs.

Rachel quickly cleaned up the bathroom floor before making herself a cup of coffee, after 10 minutes or so she did begin to calm down a little, she still felt angry at Jess though and was going to be making this clear to Jess tomorrow morning however she did wish she'd handled the situation more calmly.

Jess began to sob as soon as she got into bed she felt so annoyed and upset with herself and she knew Rachel must hate her now, she also had a really bad stomach ache that wouldn't go away no matter how much she tried.

At about 10 Rachel thought she should have a word with Jess, she wanted to make sure she was ok despite how angry she felt

"Jess" Rachel called from downstairs when she got no response she presumed Jess would be asleep so decided to leave it till in the morning. After another 20 minutes or so Rachel decided to go to bed on the way up she crept into Jess's room, however when Jess heard her aunt coming she immediately pretended to be asleep.

It was 11:30 and Jess was still in tears her stomach was really sore and she felt so awful about what had happened, she decided to risk getting up to go to the loo in the hope she wouldn't wake her aunt up.

She crept out of bed and went into the bathroom. When she went to the toilet she saw there was blood all over her pyjama bottoms, and her knickers, Jess immediately grew very scared as she had no idea what to do and she didn't properly understand what was happening, she sat down on the toilet seat and began to sob, she was really frightened and under any other circumstance she would have got Rachel but she knew how angry she was so she didn't think of this as an option. She also thought Rachel would be angry If she saw the blood on the sheets as she'd already had to clean up after her once today. Jess also knew she couldn't go back to bed in this state so remained in the bathroom crying.

Rachel stirred at around 12 she felt thirsty so decided to go and get herself a drink from downstairs, when she first went down she didn't notice the bathroom light was on and she didn't here Jess crying so walked straight passed however 5 minutes later when she was on her way back up to bed she saw the door was locked, and when she went over she could hear Jess crying.

At first she thought it was because she was still upset about earlier, she was still angry but obviously despite how she was feeling she did still have a heart and didn't intend to leave her niece in the middle of the night in floods of tears.

She knocked on the bathroom door giving Jess a real shock.

"Jess what's wrong? You're not being sick again are you?" Rachel asked her voice gentler than it had been earlier

When she got no response she said "Jess if your not on the loo open the door for me"

"Please don't be mad, I'm scared" Jess sobbed

"Jess just open the door, I won't shout at you" Rachel said, Jess twisted the lock for Rachel and Rachel stepped into her very large bathroom.

Rachel was shocked when she saw the state of Jess, she didn't realise she had gotten herself in this mess over tonight, if she did she would have come up much sooner.

Jess immediately wrapped her arms around her aunt and sobbed into her chest.

"Hey, it's not as bad as all that surely I'm not this awful, I really don't mean to be" Rachel said

"Rachel I'm scared I don't know what to do, please help me" Jess sobbed "I'm sorry about everything but I need you to help me"

"Jess calm down for me love, now what's happened, what are you scared of" Rachel asked getting worried

"There was blood" Jess said through tears

"What you mean you've hurt yourself" Rachel asked worried

"No when I went to the toilet there was blood everywhere and it was all over my sheet I don't know what to do" Jess cried clearly terrified

"Oh Jess" Rachel whispered immediately feeling terrible " shh it's okay sweetheart, come on we need to have a chat everything's okay I promise" Rachel said, Jess followed Rachel through to her bedroom and Rachel sat down on the bed with Jess.

"Rachel what's happening to me"

"Darling I know your frightened nothing bad is going to happen take some nice deep breathes for me my love and then we're going to have a good chat" Rachel soothed "now do you remember when you were little we had a talk about all the changes your body goes through and we talked about periods, where you bleed for a bit each month yeah do you remember that" Rachel asked trying to keep Jess calm, she wished she'd have had more talks with Jess about this as she was clearly very unprepared for it happening she had just presumed that her mum would tell her everything she needed to know.

"Yeah" Jess replied

"Well sweetheart that's all this is I promise I know it must have come as a shock but you are okay"

"I'm sorry I didn't mean for it to happen it's gone on the bed sheets please don't be angry" Jess cried

Rachel sighed feeling so awful about all this "god I must come across so much worse than I think I do, sweetheart if you think I'm going to be angry about this then I'm really sorry I must seem like the worst woman in the world, it's your period Jess it's nothing to be sorry for you can't control it" Rachel said pulling Jess's head into her chest "I promise I'm not angry about this darling not in the slightest"

"Please don't tell mum" Jess sobbed

"Jess look at me sweetheart" Rachel said "please don't cry, don't be upset I can't stand it, I won't tell Mel I promise not if you don't want me to but I think you should it's something she'd want to know about darling and do you know something else Jess I'm not going to tell her about earlier either I'm a lot of things but a grass isn't one of them, If something goes wrong while your staying with me which granted is a lot then it gets dealt with by me okay so dry your tears yeah" Rachel said

"What should I do"

"Right well first off we need to get you some pads, which is what you use to stop your knickers getting in a state, so I'll get them and you go and get a nice fresh pair of pyjamas and some knickers" Rachel said

After a few minutes Jess had sorted herself out

"Right we'll just put that sheet I'm the wash, then I think you and I need to have a talk darling" Rachel said, she quickly took Jess's sheet off and threw it in the wash erode taking hold of Jess hand and leading her into the living room where she sat on the comfy brown leather sofa.

"Oh Jess what are you like eh" Rachel said "one minute your getting drunk and I'm getting mad with you the next you make me feel like some sort of wicked witch for being in tears thinking I'm going to be mad with you for getting your flaming period, I don't half feel old when your round" Rachel said causing Jess to giggle

"Rach I'm so sorry about earlier, about being sick, about being silly, about everything"

"Best advice I could give would be chalk it up to experience and learn your lesson"

"Your the best aunty ever" Jess said wrapping her arms tightly around her favourite person ever.

"and your the best niece ever, and I care about you so much and that's why I get annoyed if you put yourself in danger like you did tonight, but you are by no means off the hook young lady, your mums away for a month and for the month you spend with me you're not going out once except if it's with me and I'm taking all your stuff off you, is that fair?"

"Yeah" Jess said "Rachel how long will my period last for"

"About 3-6 days love and they will take some getting used to, I'll tell you that but you are going to be okay I know it seems horrible and embarrassing at the moment but you'll be fine after a little while"

"How will I go to school" Jess wondered

"Well your lucky because you've got the weekend now and the first couple of days are the worst so it should be a bit better by the time you go to school, but you'll just have to take some pads with you, and they need changing every couple of hours"

"I'm sorry for being so scared about it"

"And I'm sorry but shouting at you so much earlier that you didn't want to wake me up to tell me, I wouldn't have been annoyed you know, I stopped being as annoyed the minute you went to bed"

"I don't even know why I did it, I didn't want to seem like a little girl" Jess admitted

"But you are a little girl at the moment my love, your growing up but your still just a kid"

"I know" Jess mumbled

"Now why don't we go to bed and Jess anything you need whether it be a chat, some more medicine anything, you just come straight to me"

"I will do, please can I sleep In your bed tonight Rach"

"Okay love come on let's go" Rachel said the two of them went upstairs and into bed and Rachel wrapped her arms around Jess, it didn't take long for them to both go to sleep.

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