At school that day, Mary was cross with everyone. She wouldn’t speak to any of her friends, and when they tried to speak to her, she would just blank out and stay quiet. She didn’t want to talk to them. Their conversations were shallow, superficial, and downright uninteresting to Mary.

It only got worse after second period. Her stomach began to cramp up terribly. When she went to the restroom, she saw that ‘Aunt Flow’ had paid her a visit. She cursed inwardly when she found that she had nothing to take care of the situation. Mary didn’t want to ask a friend, because she thought this was too embarrassing. It wasn’t something to be discussed. She made do with some toilet paper. She hated this. She cramped up, she felt bloated, and it always caused her to become irritable. She hated her body even more for putting her through this.

       Mary spent the rest of her day in a daze. Her stomach cramps were unbearable, but couldn’t bring herself to tell anyone about her problem. Mary was afraid that everyone would find out about her situation and make fun of her. She spent the rest of the day with her legs crossed tightly, hoping to avoid an incident. Finally, the day ended and Mary could finally go home. But after her long day, all she bothered to do was shower and go to sleep.

       After a few hours of sleep, Mary was woken up by her mother.

       “Mary, dinner’s ready.”

       “Mother, I’m not hungry.” snarled Mary.    

“Mary, I’m beginning to worry about you. You haven’t been eating; you sleep all through the afternoons, and you seem to be quiet all the time. Are you feeling okay?”

       “I’m perfectly fine.”

“Are you sure?” her mother asked again.

“Of course I am.” Mary didn’t want to talk about it, especially to her mother. She was 13-years-old after all; why didn’t her mother trust her to handle her own problems. They don’t understand me at all.

       “Mary, just come down for dinner. You need to eat.”

       With a roll of her eyes and an exasperated huff, Mary went downstairs to eat dinner with her family.

       As she sat down at the dinner table, Mary picked at her food, not wanting to eat anything.

       “Mary, can you pass the potatoes?” asked her dad. Mary reached for the plate, but in the process, she knocked over her glass of juice.

       “Be careful!” chided her mother. “Look before you do something.”

       Mary exploded, “Why do you always make a big deal of everything I do wrong?” With that, she stormed upstairs into her room and slammed the door shut. It’s not like my mother hasn’t knocked over plenty of things in her life. Why yell at me for doing it once?

       “Mary?” said a voice at the door. “Honey, what’s wrong? Did something happen today?”

       “Everything is perfectly fine.”

       “Are you sure you don’t want to talk?”