A/N: Sory for anyone who finds this chapter awkward to read but I am trying to show how the girls parents don't prepare them for anything and how this affects the girls in their everyday lives because of the lack of communication.

Chapter Twenty-One

The Christmas holidays ended earlier than Esmerelda wanted. The two weeks she had away from Cackles only seemed to fly by and the young girl was becoming more miserable by the day because she knew soon she would be away from her sisters.

Before she knew it she would be returning to Cackles the next morning, and she said an emotional goodbye to her sisters that night.

"Be good, I will see you soon" Esmerelda told them as she hugged them both tightly. She had to be up early tomorrow so she had to say her goodbyes now.

"Love you Esmie" Sybil said cuddling into her

"I love you too" Ethel replied hugging her on the other side. Esmerelda wanted to never let them go, she wanted to stay with them forever and not have to go back to school, she knew it would be easier now she had a friend, and the girls who had bullied her had being expelled but she would miss her sisters so much.

"I love you too" Esmerelda told them giving them one final squeeze.

Esmerelda did not sleep well that night at all. She tossed and turned, knowing in a few hours she would be leaving her sisters again. She must have only slept for around an hour when her alarm went of for her to get up. She dressed slowly into uniform and then quickly went to both Ethel and Sybil's room to kiss them goodbye as they slept before she left in tears to return to school, she took of quickly, knowing she would look back and not be able to leave anywise.

She sobbed quietly to herself as she flew away from the mansion back towards the direction of Cackles academy. It felt harder this time than it had the first time she had left because the first time she was deluding herself about the fact she was leaving them, this time felt like a stab in the chest and she cried as she flew to Cackles and landed in the courtyard, back at Cackles, and back to months of being away from her sisters. She tried not to think about the fact she would not see her sisters again until summer, because that thought would only break her.

Esmerelda had been finding Cackles easier to deal with, she still didn't find the place enjoyable but she had been able to cope better, but now she had gone back to square one, she was an emotional wreck like she had been at the beginning of the year, seeing her sisters had sent her back down hill.

Her sleeping was suffering as a result, she spent most of the night crying and couldn't settle, things at Cackles went back to normal quickly and this time the teachers were not so understanding and expected her to sort herself out, 'witches help themselves' the code said. Esmerelda hated that stupid code, it was the vain of her existence. HB had given her detention her first day back for crying, she hated that woman at times.

The day after she returned to school, Esmerelda woke up one hour after she had fallen asleep at three in the morning, this time though she had not woken because of a nightmare, she had an awful pain in her stomach.

She wasn't sure why she was in pain. It seemed to of come on very suddenly to say the least. She had gone to bed feeling fine but now she had an awful stomach ache, and it didn't feel like a normal stomach ache either. The girl rubbed her stomach hoping it would go away and being exhausted eventually fell asleep, even though her stomach still hurt.

She woke up again at six. It was too early to start getting ready for lessons but that pain was still there, in fact, it was much worse. Esmerelda though had never felt such a horrible, odd pain before. Her stomach was agony but she didn't feel sick at all, and her stomach felt like something was pressing against it, she had no idea what was going on.

She stood up, thinking maybe movement would help but not sure exactly what she should do, she was sure the nurse would ask her all sorts of questions or think she was making a fuss but the amount of pain in her stomach was unbelievable. The girl knew she would not be able to go back to sleep so she decided as the bathrooms would be free she would take advantage by getting ready now. She walked into the nearest bathroom for the purple house girls and decided to use the toilet before she showered.

She went to use the toilet before she noticed something odd. Blood in her underwear. Esmerelda looked at the blood with wide scared eyes before she quickly pulled her trousers back up and rushed of to her bedroom, forgetting that she was going to have the luxury of having not to wait for the bathroom to be free. She didn't know what to do but run in her room and jump onto her bed, terrified.

The thing was Esmerelda did not know what was happening. Talks about puberty had not started yet at Cackles and her mother had never spoken to her about it and her grandmother had never spoken to her about it because she was far away and figured her mother would at least do that much. That was why Esmerelda was currently panicking, she didn't realise this was normal and thought there was something wrong.

Esmerelda went to grab a book of the bookshelf wondering what she should search for, bleeding?, illnesses? She had no idea what she was meant to research. She opened it and started to look for anything that could tell her what was wrong with her and any treatment she could have, she found a few things that looked like they might be helpful but reading up on them more she realised they were not what she was actually looking for. She couldn't find anything about it.

Esmerelda closed the book as her stomach started to cramp. She had no idea what was wrong with her but all she knew was it was painful. She tried to think of reasons this could be happening to her, she wasn't injured and then she realised something, blood meant damage, so there was clearly something wrong with her.

She lay on her bed trying to think of solutions to her problem. Her parents would be to busy to talk to and her mother would only fuss and try to say it was nothing, Cackle and HB would think she is attention seeking, Bat and Gullet would be unhelpful. Miss Drill might know something but Esmie was not sure on what she was supposed to say to her.

"Oh hi miss just to let you know I am bleeding, I know you aren't a doctor but thought you should know" Esmerelda thought to herself before shaking her head. Just the thought of the conversation sounded stupid.

Therefore Esmerelda stayed in bed until it was half an hour to lessons and got washed and dressed trying not to think about her problem or the pain she was experiencing. When she saw Lily as she left her bedroom she smiled and tried to act normal as they walked to breakfast before lessons.

"Are you alright Esmie? You look a little pale?" Lily said seeing she didn't have much colour in her face. Lily was able to tell she wasn't quite right.

Esmerelda looked at her friend wondering if she had any experience with something similar, she opened her mouth to ask her but the words got stuck.

"I am fine" Esmerelda lied as they walked slowly. They sat down to have breakfast. Cold porridge again. Esmerelda normally was turned of by the look of the disgusting food anyway but today she had no appetite and couldn't bare the thought of having to eat.

"Are you sure you are okay?" Lily asked seeing there was something wrong. True Esmie never happily ate her food anyway but today she was just playing with it.

"Yes, I am fine" Esmerelda told her trying to think of other things other than the pain in her stomach.

Esmerelda tried her best to act normal throughout the day. She smiled at the times someone looked at her even if she felt like crying in pain, but she was more quiet than normal.

Esmerelda could feel a wet feeling down below and knew she was still bleeding, she still didn't think it was normal and thought she was very ill. All sort of things ran through her head until the girl had managed to convince herself she was dying.

She tried to keep calm though. She was sure it was something which would go away by itself, it was probably just a virus or something and then she would be right as rain, no-one ever had to know the truth.

She still had this thought in her mind as she walked to her PE lesson. She followed the rest of her class in order to change into her PE kit but started to feel even more sick. She walked to the toilets, wondering if there was some way she could stop the bleeding, she stood against the wall trying to think of what she should do before she left the toilets, knowing she had to keep up her act of normality. Esmerelda quickly went toilet, thinking she might of imagined the blood as she had being half asleep that morning but when she saw there was indeed blood and there was more than before, she felt the panic inside her rise and tears prick the back of her eyes.

"Esmie are you alright?" Lily asked knocking on the cubicle door worried about her friend. Esmerelda blinked back tears of worry and pain before she replied.

"Yes I am fine, just coming now Lily" Esmerelda replied before she flushed the toilet and left the cubicle.

Esmerelda left the cubicle and Lily looked at her shocked, saying she looked awful. Esmerelda went to reply before she felt liquid run down her leg. She looked at her tights as a small bloodstain appeared, no-one else seemed to notice though as they didn't say anything. Seeing the blood appear made Esmerelda feel dizzy from shock and she fell into a dead faint, as many people do when they suddenly see blood on their body.

"Esmie! " Lily said gasping as her friend fell. "Go get miss drill!" Lily said to the other girls as she kneeled down next to her friend, wondering what was wrong with her.