El awoke to Mike tapping on her, because they had fallen asleep on the couch. Her head rested on his lap and he fell asleep sitting on the couch.
"Ummm...El?" Mike said nodding down as if to tell her to look down.
"Nooo! You've got to be kidding me of all days why the first day of school." El said tears coming to her eyes. She looked down and saw blood covering her pajama pants. She had started her period.
Mike replied, "I'm sorry El. Is there anything I can do to help you."
"Uhhh...no Mike it's just I've noticed it always comes at the worst time. It came during Spring Break, at the lake, and while we were bike riding this summer." El explained.
"I'm sorry you have to go this Eleven. I hope it doesn't ruin your first day." Mike stated.
El got dressed in her new outfit and felt better. She loved it and she felt beautiful in it. She grabbed her backpack and they headed out the door. Mike and her rode on a bike to school with the boys like normal. Mike showed Eleven to her locker and helped her decorate it with her pink stickers and her mirror. They went to Mike's locker and headed to their first class Honors Biology with Mr. Clarke .
El was surprisingly in two honors classes despite only being schooled for a year. She was exceptionally intelligent, but she struggled in English probably due to being locked in a lab half of her life. El liked Mr. Clarke, because he seemed to know a lot about the world when he explained the class curriculum to them. She hadn't seen much of the world, so interested her. liked El too, because she was respectful unlike most of the class, and had the desire to learn.
Mr. Clarke asked El to join the AV club with the boys and she agreed. Honors Math was next and Mike was in that class too. It was also with so they didn't have to leave during the passing period. El was good with numbers, so she was excited for the class. The bell rang to go to third hour and El was separated from Mike. She ran into her friend Margaret who was in choir and helped show her to the choir room. They took a seat next to each other.
The choir director walked in. She was a sweet, pretty, young lady with long red hair. They sang some funny vocal warm-ups and talked about future performances. was so nice and she spoke so softly. El liked how she talked it wasn't like Papa's harsh yelling. She had homeroom with Mike and it was kind of boring. No one spoke and no one had homework so they all just sat there.
Although, about halfway through home room El realized she had forgotten something. Extra pads for the school day, then she looked down. She had bled through the back of her leggings and skirt. She sat there as if nothing had happened until she could ask Mike where the nurse would be to get one. The bell rang for lunch and El jumped in front of Mike so no one else would see it, but him. They had their lunches in Mike's locker since it was closer to the cafeteria.
"Mike where can I get a you know? I don't know where the nurse is." El asked.
Mike replied, "Here El, we don't want anyone else to see and say something mean about it." He handed El his jacket to tie around her waist and then he reached into his locker and pulled out a pad.
"Why do you have these Mike? I'm pretty sure you don't need them." El asked.
Mike replied, "Well I figured if you have to go through all this for us to have kids one day then I better be as helpful during your time of the month as possible. I stocked myself with these in case you ever needed one."
"Awww….Mike I love you so much. You are so sweet. I'm actually honored to go through this if it means I can have another mini Mike." El said and laughed.
The rest of the day went well. She had art with Will who showed her all of his beautiful drawings. El was kind of lonely in English until she realized Stephanie from the sleepover was in her class. Overall Eleven had a great first day of school. El was super exhausted though and fell asleep right when she got home. It was Friday, because the school decided to start on a Friday so they could get to learning on Monday. Mike walked up to her room and left a note beside El hoping she'd open it in the morning.