It was a Monday morning and the first day back to school after the Christmas holidays. Rachel had just come into wake Amy up for school.
"Amy it's time to wake up for school love" Rachel said gently pushing some hair out of Amy's face
Amy slowly opened her eyes and started to wake up.
As soon as she did she realised she still had the stomach ache that she'd had last night but only now it felt a lot worse.
She wanted to tell Rachel about it because it really was hurting, but she knew Rachel would think she was just saying it to get out of school because she'd really been dreading going back.
"You need to be up in the next ten minutes, okay?"
"Okay"
Rachel then went out to wake the other two up who were also still asleep.
Amy stayed in bed for another five minutes before deciding to get up.
She got her dressing gown off the back of her door but when she turned around she noticed there was blood all over her sheet.
She realised at once that she must have got her period which made her really panic as she wasn't expecting to start so soon.
Amy immediately went and made her bed not wanting anyone to see before rushing to the bathroom. When she was sat on the loo she looked at the blood all over her pyjama bottoms and started to sob as she felt so scared.
She didn't know what to do now, the thought of telling anyone about it was way too embarrassing so she knew she had to keep it to herself but she felt really worried about it all.
Once she'd been to the loo Amy sat on the toilet seat and had a little cry. She was still sat there when Lucy started knocking on the door.
"Hurry up I need a wee"
"Okay I'll be out in a sec"
Amy quickly wiped away her tears before opening the door and walking past Lucy trying to not look at her.
Luckily Lucy was too bursting for the loo to notice her sister's tearstained face.
Amy knew that she needed to find some pads and knew that Rachel and Poppy must have some in their en suites, she just needed to get in there without them noticing.
However, before she knew it Rachel was calling everyone down because it was time to leave but she still hadn't managed to sneak in to get some pads so she realised that the tissue she'd put in her knickers was going to have to do.
They all got into the car and dropped Lucy off at her Primary school before going onto Waterloo Road.
Rachel noticed that Amy had been really quiet all morning so once Poppy had gone off she decided to check she was okay.
"You okay love?" Rachel asked placing her hand on Amy's back
Amy could feel tears forming in her eyes so quickly said "yeah I'm fine, see you at the end of the day" before rushing off
Rachel was a bit worried about her now as she'd been her get all teary, but decided to leave it until they got home.
It was nearly lunchtime at Lucy's school and she was having a bit of a bad day.
One of the boys in her class had been being horrible to her all day and just after break he had tried to scribble all over her work so she'd told him to piss off. Unfortunately for her the teacher had heard her say it and immediately took her out of the class and gave her a bit of a telling off.
Ever since it had happened Lucy hadn't been able to stop crying because she hated being told off. She said it was because she felt really poorly and she still hadn't stopped saying it so eventually her teacher realised that she was going to have to phone Rachel to come and pick her up.
Lucy was feeling really upset now so she just wanted a cuddle from Rachel.
Rachel was sat in her office when she got the call so quickly packed up all of her stuff before rushing out to go to Lucy's primary school.
Meanwhile Amy was sat in her English lesson however she couldn't concentrate properly because her stomach was killing now.
She was really paranoid too about leaking so kept going to the toilet whenever she had the chance.
In the end she was in loads of pain and feeling really uncomfortable so decided she'd tell Rachel.
"Miss" Amy said
"Yes Amy"
"I really don't feel very well please can I go and see Miss Mason for a painkiller?"
Miss Koreshi had thought she'd seemed really quiet all lesson so let her go straight away.
When Amy got up to Rachel's office she knocked on the door but to her surprise it was Mr Mead who told her to come in.
Amy opened the door and walked a little bit into the room.
"Sir do you know where Miss Mason is?"
"Yeah she left about five minutes ago to go and pick your sister up from school, she's not very well"
"Oh" Amy said tears starting to form in her eyes as she really did want Rachel now
"Is it anything I can help you with?"
"No it's okay I'll just speak to her later about it" Amy said before walking out again
On the way back to her lesson she went into the toilets and had another cry because she hated this so much and just didn't know what to do.
When Rachel got to school Lucy's teacher was waiting for her in reception as it was lunchtime.
"Where's Lucy?" Rachel asked
"I've told her to wait in the classroom, I want to have a little chat with you first"
"Oh, is everything okay?"
"Well we've had a bit of trouble with Lucy today actually, I heard her telling a little boy to piss off it's very unlike her I know but obviously we don't tolerate that kind of language in class"
"No I know you don't, I've never heard her say it before though and it's not the kind of language she would hear at home but I don't know if it's something her Mum used to say"
"Well either way I just thought you should know, and I don't know if she's really poorly or if it's just because she wants to come home because she got told off. She'd been crying for a couple of hours saying she felt ill so I couldn't really keep her in any longer"
"Okay I'll have a chat to her about it when we get home, I'm really sorry about this"
"It's not your fault, and I'm sure Lucy won't say anything like it again.. Anyway shall we go and get Lucy?"
Rachel followed Lucy's teacher into the classroom where Lucy was sat reading a book with a tearstained face.
As soon as she saw Rachel come in she ran over to her and wrapped her arms around her.
"What's up with you then?"
"I have a tummy ache and a head ache and I feel sick and…"
"Oh quite a lot then, right come on I need to get back to my school"
Lucy went into the cloakroom and got all of her stuff before holding onto Rachel's hand and walking back to the car with her.
Lucy noticed Rachel wasn't being quite so gentle with her as what she normally was.
"How long have you been feeling poorly for?" Rachel asked once they were driving to Waterloo Road
"Since break time"
"That's not very good, were you having a good day before that then?" Rachel asked wanting to see if Lucy was going to tell her about what had happened
"Yeah" Lucy said before turning away and looking out the window
Rachel wasn't really that angry with her about what had happened at school, because she knew that Lucy was still quite young so probably didn't understand that what she'd said was wrong. She was more angry with her for lying because she could tell that she wasn't poorly.
When they got back to school it was lunchtime so there was kids everywhere. Rachel took hold of Lucy's hands and pulled her through the crowds of people quite forcefully.
"Right lie down on the sofa and try to go to sleep if you're feeling poorly" Rachel said once they were up at her office
"Aren't you going to sit with me like you did last time I had to come with work when I was poorly"
"No I've got too much to do"
By this point Lucy could tell that Rachel was cross with her so did as she was told. She didn't know why Rachel was so angry but was beginning to think her teacher must have tod Rachel about her getting into trouble.
Rachel kept glancing over and seeing Lucy's scared face. She couldn't help but feel bad seeing her looking so upset and vulnerable so Rachel decided to go over and have a little chat with her.
"How are you feeling now any better?" Rachel asked as she managed to squeeze in next to Lucy on the sofa, she knew that Lucy was awake however hard she was pretending to be asleep
"A little bit better"
"And you're sure you're definitely poorly because you seem okay to me"
Lucy started to feel a bit scared now because she really didn't want to get into trouble with Rachel for lying.
"I was feeling poorly before but now I'm feeling better" Lucy said hoping that Rachel would believe her
"Right, and do you think you feeling poorly had something to do with Miss Jones telling you off today?"
Tears began to form in Lucy's eyes when she heard Rachel saying this as she really didn't want Rachel to know because she didn't want to get into any trouble.
"I'm sorry I didn't know you weren't allowed to say it and Ryan was being really horrible to me all morning and I just wanted him to leave me alone please don't be angry with me" Lucy said speaking really quickly
"Hey calm down love, I'm not angry with you for what happened at school I'm just a bit cross with you for lying to me"
"Miss Jones took me outside and shouted at me and I didn't like it and I just wanted to see you"
"Well if you do things wrong at school teachers are obvious going to tell you off so you don't do it again love, I think Miss Jones maybe got a bit too angry with you by the sounds of it but even so you know that lying isn't the right thing to do don't you?"
"I know I'm really really sorry"
"I know you are love" Rachel said before picking Lucy up and putting her on her knee to give her a big cuddle to show that she wasn't really angry with her
"I think we need to have a little chat about what went on at school though, I promise I'm not angry"
"This boy in my class called Ryan was being mean to me ever since I got to school, he kept calling me names and taking my things and at break time he pushed me over"
"Was that when you told him to 'piss off'?"
"No I said that when he tried to ruin my photo"
Rachel started to rub Lucy's back as she was still quite upset about it all.
"Well I don't know where you picked up on that kind of language, but it's a bad thing to say so I don't want to hear you saying it again okay?"
"I'm sorry Mummy used to say it all the time so I didn't know it was bad"
"That's alright my love, well you know now don't you?"
"I promise I'll never say it again"
"Good girl, and as for Ryan if he carries on with it tomorrow just ignore him and tell your teacher about it so that then he's the one who gets into trouble and not you"
"Do I have to go back to school now because I'm not really poorly?"
"Luckily for you I'm feeling nice enough to let you have the afternoon off"
"Thank you Rachel" Lucy said wrapping her arms around Rachel
"Do you want your lunch now?"
"Yes please"
Rachel got Lucy's packed lunch out of her bag for her and got her sat at the round table in the office.
Rachel had made a sandwich for herself so sat at the table with Lucy to eat it.
After they'd eaten Rachel tested Lucy on her spellings for a bit whilst replying to some emails but then just let Lucy draw some pictures for the rest of the afternoon.
It was soon the end of the day and Amy was first to come up.
"Hiya love, Mr Mead said you came to find me earlier"
"Oh yeah but it doesn't matter now"
"Are you sure he said you seemed a bit upset"
"No I was fine"
Rachel wasn't convinced as she hadn't seemed herself this morning either but decided to have a chat with her later when it was just the two of them.
It was another five minutes before Poppy came up, but once she was there too Rachel got her stuff together and then they all went out to the car.
"I thought you went to pick Lucy up because she was poorly" Amy said
"I did"
"Well she doesn't seem poorly"
"She's feeling a lot better now" Rachel said giving Lucy a small smile knowing she wouldn't want her sisters knowing about her getting into trouble
When they got in Amy went straight up to her bedroom to get changed. She knew she really needed to put a pad on so decided to go into Poppy's bedroom to see if she was in there.
When she went in she was pleased to see Poppy wasn't in there so quickly went into her sister's en suite and started looking for some pads. She eventually came across a packet so took a few out.
She was just about to leave Poppy's bedroom when Poppy walked in.
Amy put her hand behind her back but Poppy noticed at once.
"What've you got behind your back?"
"Nothing"
"I can see you've got something"
"It's nothing" Amy said before running out of Poppy's bedroom and into the bathroom.
Poppy decided not to follow her, but was wondering what it was that her sister had behind her back
She felt a bit better for having herself sorted but she still felt really scared by it all.
Amy knew she'd need to sort her sheets out at some point too but she decided to leave it for now.
After unpacking her school bag Amy decided to do a bit of homework so went and sat at the kitchen table. Rachel was in there too starting to get tea sorted.
"I'm going to change your bed in a minute love, I think your sheets are probably due a wash aren't they?"
"No they're fine, you don't need to change them" Amy said starting to panic
"Why not I'm sure they need changing, you normally love getting into clean sheets"
"I'm just trying to save you a job, I'll strip my bed if you want"
"Okay then, thanks love" Rachel said however she did think that Amy was acting a bit weirdly
Amy stripped her bed and bundled it all up hoping that Rachel wouldn't notice the big red stain.
She went down and passed it all to Rachel before rushing back up to her bedroom. Once Amy had got up to her bedroom she burst into tears again, she hated feeling like this all the time!
Rachel took the bedding through to the utility room and put it in the washing machine however as she did it she noticed the blood all over the sheets.
Once she'd seen it everything started to make sense why Amy had been acting the way she did. She felt sorry for Amy because she knew how scared she must be feeling.
Rachel went up to Amy's room and found her on her bed crying so went and sat with her.
"What's wrong sweetheart?" Rachel asked whilst stroking her hair
"I need to tell you something"
Amy knew she would have to tell Rachel at some point so decided she may as well just tell her now.
"Okay go on then"
"I think I've started my period"
" bet that was a bit of a shock, when did you realise?"
"When I woke up this morning"
"You should've just told me then rather than worrying about it all day"
"I know I just didn't know how"
"I know how embarrassing it feels when it first happens, I still remember the first day I got mine, but you'll get used to it eventually I promise but just make sure you talk to me about it okay because it will make you feel better"
"Okay"
"Right, I'll get you some pads which you'll need to change every few hours"
"Thank you"
"Is there anything you want to talk about, any questions you've got?"
"No I don't think so"
"Well if there is anything you know you can always talk to me"
"I know"
Amy went with Rachel while she got her some pads.
"Thank you Rachel"
"It's no problem my love"
Amy went and put them away in the bathroom before going down and lying on the sofa as her stomach was really sore.
Rachel saw her lying there so decided to go and get her a hot water bottle.
"I always find this helps" Rachel said passing it to her
"Thank you"
"Is your stomach really sore?"
"Yeah I never thought it would be this bad"
"Ah love" Rachel said sitting down next to her "it should stop hurting after the first day or so"
"I hope so"
Rachel sat down on the sofa next to her so Amy cuddled in against Rachel. She felt so much calmer about everything now that she'd told Rachel, she just wished she'd done it earlier.
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