Passage 37

Melina went school shopping as she didn't have many clothes that fit her from her mom's. The one good thing they had in the system was people donating money for school clothes and church clothes they got once a year . This was the time you were afforded three pair of shoes . She Got clothes for school and dresses for church .

When the school shoes wore out they became play shoes or work shoes. Shoes were not discarded unless they were talking to you. Melina had clothes that fit her and graffiti free from obscene drawings . She was allowed to express herself . She liked say so shirts the ones with inspirational words or humor on them . The more colors the better as her fashion was drab and limited during to her circumstances.

Her first day of school one of the girls from the Newman home was in a grade ahead of me with Scarlett. The school was a small country school that had all the grades in one building. Brittany had an older sister named Christina and she was half Italian. She had a mighty temper she was infamous for ,and she took a liking to Melina like she was a kindred sister . Both girls had brown hair and brown eyes and a olive tint to their skins. They could almost be seen as real sisters with the Italian and the Hawaiian look . They were like one and the same.

If you didn't know any better she could have been mistaken for her own sister. Brittany was damn determined to make Melina feel accepted in her new school. The first day she introduced her to a couple of boys she knew that liked new girls. Melina remembered John doing the same the last group home she was in. Back then she was between three boys who liked her. When Melina met the Farley brothers both in the same grade because will Farley failed sixth grade and his younger brother Korey graduated to.sixth grade.

There was one guy who liked Melina in sixth grade name creg he had black hair and brown eyes. He was the quiet outsider type as he kept his headphones in but he liked Melina. He wanted to be her boyfriend and it worked well for an entire day. Literally an entire day. When Korey became interested in Melina he stepped back and broke up with Melina because he even understood the hierarchy of the popular pool in this school. What Korey wanted Korey got.

Melina and Korey school yard dated for about a month before he got bored with her. Melina wasn't really invested in the relationship as she was just going along with it because her friend Brittany insisted it was the easiest way to be accepted in this school.

There was no what Melina wanted but what society wanted. Korey liked this girl named Sarah who had blonde hair for a long time. They were on again and off again since fourth grade. This school had roots and the boys here liked what they liked. When new faces came by the system girls were easy to entertain them. This school knew we were all system kids and it was us against them .

Melina was aware of this. But her brief relationship with the most popular guy in elementary school boosted her popularity. Melina liked to play basketball with the boys. She wore baggy jeans and oversized shirts and sneakers.

The one day she.allowed Brittany to dress her since they were the same size was in white tight jeans and a baby doll dress. Melina's stomach had been hurting for a week now and she became friends with a girl named April a strawberry blonde girl that had an older brother in highschool. Melina's first crush was April's big brother Aaron . April had gotten her period and her mom let her go home for the day . This was the time when girls became young ladies. Melina was in pain as she asked to be excused from class as she had just had her eleventh birthday before she was taken.

She went to the bathroom thinking she needed to poop because her stomach hurt. When she got to the stall as April and her always went to the bathroom together. Melina looked down as she saw blood as she began to scream and cry. She didn't understand what was going on and she was convinced she was going to die as much blood she saw. April banged on the door as Melina didn't want to let her in to see her dying as she cried .

" Melina what is wrong?" She asked as she banged on the door.

" I'm dying. I'm bleeding but I don't know where the blood is coming from." Cried Melina as her mother never spoken with her about this and the girls at the home never spoke of it at all like it was supposed to be kept secret.

" You just got your period. Your not dying." Said April as she banged again. Then slid some panties and a few pads under the bathroom stall door.

" What do I do with this?" Melina said confused as if no one told her what was happening to her and no one definitely didn't tell her how to fix it.

" Take off your panties wrap them in toilet paper toss it under the door so I can throw them away. I keep fresh new panties in my purse for days like this. Did you bleed through your jeans?" She asked as Melina removed her panties and did what she said.

" No. " She said as she dried her tears.

" Good ok put on the panties and open the pad . Pull off the paper on the sticky part and put it in the middle of your panties. Pull your pants up and come out . " She said as Melina felt weird with a bulky pad in between her legs. She vaguely remembered this happened when she had her pelvic exam but it wasn't this bad and only a few spots were on her pad last time. The pad was bulky and strange to walk in. April gave her a few more and Melina didn't know where to put them as she didn't have a purse. So she put them in her pockets.

Melina returned to class as she went through the day not knowing the basics of her period. Last period she stood up to solve a problem on the board and the class snickered as Melina didn't know she had to change the pad . She bled through the white jeans and everyone in fifth grade math class knew she got her cycle. Melina was so embarrassed as she had to take off her jeans and wear only the dress home.

Melinas house mom looked at her as she didn't understand why she came home upset until she handed her house mom the white jeans with blood on it. There was no comforting talk and no explanations. She took Melina to the donation building located on the property as she went into a room filled with pads and tampons as nothing was said as she hurrily picked her two bags which said extra absorbency as she left.

The house mom sat her down in the living room and turned on the TV show with the huckstables as Claire explained the period using a cake as her lesson . Melina watched the show in Wonder as she wished she had a mom to tell her these things instead of a fake T V show with a fake perfect family. When the episode ended Melina had one question in mind.

" do I get a chocolate cake to eat like the girl had ?" Melina asked the house mom as she pulled out two boxes of cake mix as she pointed to the back of the box.

" If you want cake you make it yourself. I'm not baking you a cake for you getting your period." Said the house mom as Melina was confused as this wasn't what happened in the T V show she just watched. That was the limit to her education about what changes were happening to her body. No one told her it happened once a month. No one told her it would hurt or she would have cravings . No one told her how long it lasted. Or to change the pad often. No one told her this was her life now. There was no comfort in growing up here .

Melina looked around this property and before the woods was always just a walk away . The only woods that was on the property was behind the Bailey and Newman house but it was so dense that anyone could see you if you walked through it. The other woods was on the far side of the property next to the home that was never able to be established. There was one home on the property that had no residents as they had half heartly was going to make it for college bound girls but since the system aged out at eighteen the never got started up. The abandoned house that was ready for more girls to live there was called the leemen home. From time to time we would be assigned to clean it to keep it dust free but it was mainly unused . The woods beside it was excluded and private since no one came there because the only other house beside it was the one site nanny's house that was small enough for one person. Melina snuck down there as she looked around the woods all the while watching to make sure she wasn't followed as she knew it would be hard to explain if she was caught practicing her craft. She sat in a fallen log that looked like it was going to collapse if she sat there too long because it was dry rotted . She watched the sun peak through the tree lines as she felt safer in the woods as she moved her hands and she buried her fingers in the dirt as she whispered into the ground like she was summoning the earth to awaken. She could feel the roots move under her fingers like worms as she began to giggle as it felt weird as she pushed more of her energy in the earth as she saw the tree branch she was sitting on moss over as twigs began to wrap around the rotten wood and start to rebuild itself . Melina remembered her hunter tell her to pull back when she started to feel weak as too much energy to create life sometimes took more out of them then necessary. She pulled her fingers out of the ground as she dusted off her hands as she looked at the new blossoms that grew on the refortified log and it looked like a fair chair . She sat down as she listened to the wind as the wind was her greatest comfort when she was needing advice about her life. She listened to the wind as she could hear the sounds of something calling her as she could almost here her hunter say " little one." She didn't think she would miss him as she had to remember he was still her enemy at the end of the day. She knew she was no match for him and her being unable to summon his soul or his sword as it was a sword was her security he would mentor her. She sat in silence as she pictured the sword in her mind as she didn't really know how to pull the sword to her but she can see the sword as she knew where it was in the woods at the old home that they closed it due to state funding and they turned it into a nursing home after it was closed. She didn't even know if the woods was still there but she did know that all the horses were sold to other youth ranches called the boys homes called the kings ranch when the home in Harpersville shut down. Melina pulled at her mind as she saw where she took the sword as she felt it moving towards her as she knew it would take her a while for it to travel. She pulled the sword to her each time feeling like she could reach it but it was getting to dark to be outside now and she had to go back to the home before dinner and you get a demerit for breaking house rules. In the home you got demerits instead of spankings. If you got three demerits in a month you would lose all outside privileges. If you played sports or did clubs you were grounded and placed on outside crew as punishment. Being late for house call was an automatic demerit. Melina ran as fast as she could as she was cutting through the woods as she came out behind the Bailey home as she was almost to the back door as she heard the familiar feeling of a hunter following her. " Filthy witchling." She heard the hunter hiss as she opened the back pantry door as she turned to see silver eyes glowing in the woods as she saw three pairs as they stalked the woods as Melina had spilled salt around the outside of the woods when she first was let out of the house . She remembered setting a barrier at the edge of the woods as she saw the eyes looking for a weak spot as Melina stepped inside the home as she knew there was hunters around her new home. She came through the kitchen as she secured the pantry door as she washed the door with salted water so they couldn't see her inside the house.

Simple things her hunter taught her when she would see him for her lessons . She even added salt to the Windex as she cleaned the windows as she set an invisible barrier around her. She knew she was alone and didn't know when or if she would ever see her hunter again. But she did know one thing . She couldn't be outside in the dark anymore. She went to her room to clean up as her roommate larameeka had her hair in a silk scarf as she was always fussing the heat outside was flattening her hair and always found an excuse to skip yard crew.

Larameeka the older sister of Keisha was a well pampered teenager. Her previous homes allowed her to get her hair and nails done on a monthly basis and here that kind of special treatment wasn't going to be permitted here as she was particular about her beauty methods. Larameeka also went to sleep with a radio on as she listened to r and b songs as she didn't like anyone touching her things including her radio at night time.

Larameeka always acted like she had a problem with people and I went to take a shower as I got ready for dinner . I always sat with the wall to my back where I had a clear view of the large windows that was the clear view of the woods as I could see the hunters had gone for now. I looked down at my food and ate my food knowing I had to figure out what to do about the hunters that were in the woods as they caught my scent .