Becoming A Teenage Girl Pt 7 free porn video

Becoming a Teenage Girl - Pt 7 By Annette Nicole Smith *********************************************************************** Dressed as a girl student for the first time in my life I attend my first day at Culcairn High School and in this chapter relate that experience as well as my first few weeks as a new girl student. Due to the mists of time I may not have remembered everything that took place or in the order that it occurred. Of course a few names have also had to be changed to protect the privacy of a few of the friends I made that day, who are still actually living in Culcairn. *********************************************************************** Tuesday 27th January 1987 was a major day in my life. This was going to be the first day I attended a school dressed as a girl instead of a boy. Because it was my first day in a new school and it was so far away (10 miles), it had been decided that Foxy and Margaret would drive me, while Bernadette who attended Mt Erin High at Wagga (40 miles) would catch her usual early morning train at 7.15am. In the future I'd have to catch a school bus which I had to obtain details about today from the school admin centre. ************************ That morning I awoke as usual and looking at my bedside clock saw it was 5.15am, which was set for 6am, but my adrenaline was flowing and forced me to quietly get out of bed and get changed into old clothes before heading outside to do my early morning chores, trying my best not to wake Bernadette. Although I'd been living on the farm for a month or so, the excitement of my situation had still not worn off entirely although sometimes I still did sleep in at times and the idea of milking Rosie had still not grown tedious yet, but I missed my favourite task of feeding my precious bears now that they'd all been sold and sent away. I walked back into the kitchen with the milk and several fresh eggs and put them away, seeing that it was only 5.40 on the wall clock and that apart from Uncle Bill who seemed to rise at unearthly hours, I'd be alone for at least another 20 minutes. Dashing up to our bedroom I quietly opened the door and retrieved my wash things and headed back down to the bathroom to get ready. To be able to shower first each morning was a goal I always like to set myself. Apart from the wish to have a dry floor to stand on, it was also nice not to have to queue waiting for a shower, which I learnt the hard way was in a strict order of 1st come first served and then it was always by age thereafter. Since I was the youngest, not getting in first meant having to wait for upto an hour for 4 other women to use the bathroom before me. Perhaps that was why Foxy and aunty Poss sometimes took their showers the night before. The other reason I like to shower first was because of modesty. Admittedly during the school holidays, the need to be up early, dressed, fed and ready for school had not been a factor and we'd managed to find a happy medium to allow both Bernadette and myself our privacy and modesty. Bernadette always respected my wish for her to knock first before entering as I always did for her and so far no really embarrassing situations had arisen. My personal modesty however had been totally ignored by my older cousins Foxy and Margaret as well as by my aunt. Since they'd seen me naked on that first evening I'd arrived, they felt that my nudity was nothing they need concern themselves over, so they told me. If they required something from our room, specifically borrowing Lois' hand me downs or printed stockings or a garter belt, the door would be simply opened and an announcement of "are you descent" said as they walked in regardless of my reply. In fact Bernadette and I now often saw each other in our underwear and since it was always only in the bedroom, it was now accepted by both of us as normal. Bernadette had made me see common sense as she explained that I'd seen her in her bikini at the pool and that since it was actually smaller than her bra and panties, it would be silly of me to continue worrying about her modesty in her wearing her underwear in front of me. When I explained this later on to Aunty Poss and how it made it easier for both Bernie and I, she told me that as far as everyone else was concerned, this extended to the entire inside of the house and to all the women in it. But I had no intention of allowing THAT to happen, and so if one of my cousins or my aunty came wondering into a room I was in and wearing a slip or less, I'd modestly turned my face away towards the nearest wall and apologise, so as to ease my conscience and my nerves! Last night I'd hung my new uniform up in the guest bedroom, so that I could get changed in privacy and at my leisure. I'd also taken the opportunity yesterday of shaving my arms and legs to allow me the maximum use of my limited time this morning. So having patted and powdered myself dry, it was only a few paces from the bathroom to the guest bedroom, so with my dirty clothes in hand, it took only a moment of my time to slip into the guest bedroom, closing the door behind me. Surprisingly that evening my cousins, aunty Poss and I would have a round the table discussion to plan both Bernadette's and my bathroom schedules so that neither of us needed to be displaced of a morning when getting dressed! On closing the door and turning round I gazed up at MY "GIRL'S" school uniform that was hanging up on the wall hook before me and my heart skipped a beat. Walking over and gently touching the hem of the skirt in reverent awe I realised that today was now a reality and no longer a dream. Excitedly, I simply tossed my old clothes out of the way and did the same with my house coat, standing completely naked for a moment before moving over and looking at my reflection in the wardrobe door mirror for any facial blemishes or swelling of my breasts while trying to remain calm and not to forget anything as I mentally ran through my checklist for getting dressed this morning. On top of the chest of drawers last night I'd placed a pair of navy blue high rise cotton panties, white bra and light tan panty hose, along with a dark navy half slip that I was going to wear underneath my uniform. However unbeknownst to me, my aunty had obviously come in afterwards and also swapped 3 "thin" panty napkins for the regular napkins that I usually wore. (Yes, it WAS that time of the month AGAIN!) She'd also placed a note inside my toiletry bag with them telling me that my mum had told her to do it, to allow me to be more comfortable on my first day at school. - trust my mum to care so much, even though she couldn't be here today, she'd still rung last night and wished me good luck for today. Tearing open one of the napkin sachets I placed the thin napkin inside of my Panties, carefully stepped into them and slowly pulled them up my legs feeling the panty napkin as I wriggled my hips to make the fit as comfortable as possible. Next was my bra and then placing my "cutlets inside the cups, before looking into the mirror to see that they were straight and did not bulge out anywhere. I then carefully placed one leg and then the other into my pantyhose, before working them slowly up my legs, smoothing out any perceived wrinkles until they were covering my hips and the gusset seam was straight at the front. Standing up, had me immediately hating wearing them. The feeling that with every step they were pulling down my panties always made me feel uncomfortable in them. Personally I'd have preferred to wear a suspender belt, but knew that it was not part of the school uniform, except for 5th and 6th form students (as per the school notes I had received in the post last week), not that my aunty would have allowed me to wear one anyway! Next was the half slip. Wearing a slip was (to me) one of the many pleasures women had when dressing. The sensuous feelings on your freshly shaven legs as you pulled them up your legs (in the case of a half slip) or the cool clingy feel when you were putting them on over your head and they dropped down over the tops of your underwear and stocking was always a delight. Next was a white button down collar blouse. I still had problems with the buttons being on the wrong side of garments but after a tip from Foxy was now looking at my reflection in the mirror doing up the buttons and finding them simple to do up as they were on the correct side in my reflection! My blouse had a clip on type tie / scarf which I thought I'd leave till last. Now, for the moment of truth....First I made sure I was standing in front of the mirror before undoing the hanger clips, before carefully stepping into the skirt and then pulling it up my legs. The feeling of the thicker cotton material brushing against my pantyhose was just as exciting to me as was putting on the slip. Pulling the skirt up my legs I found the side zipper and pulled it up tight on the skirt and felt the entire skirt tighten around my waist while fastening the zipper catch. Looking back at me in the mirror was a girl in an almost knee length dark navy blue skirt. But to me it was all very, very special. I carefully turned from side to side feeling the swishing of the skirt against my legs. I'd often enjoyed that same feeling on most of my other dresses and skirts, but for some reason, this time it was very special. A knock on the door and my immediate reply of "I'm descent" had Foxy, Margaret and my aunty walking in and at the same time loudly admiring my new school uniform, while I blushed red faced at having been caught out admiring myself. "Put your shoes on and come out to breakfast aunty Poss told me as all 3 walked outside leaving me to put on my sensible black school shoes. No heels here! I followed them out about a minute later into the kitchen and felt Foxy putting an apron onto me, reminding me that I didn't want to get my uniform dirty before getting to school, much to my smiling thanks! Bernadette came into the kitchen a few minutes later in her Mt Erin uniform sans blazer and immediately put on an apron, then reached for a piece of toast with jam on it. "All set for today Steph" she asked me. "You look just like a brand new 1st former. Watch out for your tie tag kiddo" she teased. We stood round for a few minutes talking about things in general, then Bernie remarked that she'd better get going for the train. She then headed back up to our bedroom emerging a few moments later with a school case, wearing her blazer and a hat. Back into the kitchen and kisses all round and handing her lunch and some afterschool pocket money, had her headed for the car outside with Foxy behind the wheel. I walked back upto our bedroom, thinking that I'd probably get away with taking the smallest suitcase with me today. Standing in front of the mirror I applied a small amount of make up, brushed my hair and tied it back into a ponytail for today anyway (I'd see what the other girls were doing with their hair and change mine tonight if I had to) Reaching in for my tie/scarf and blazer I walked down towards the front door, leaving my blazer and tie on the suitcase in the hallway before returning to the kitchen. On returning to the kitchen my eyes were magnetically drawn to the kitchen bench which had a brand new global school case on it and the name Stephanie Smith embossed on it in gold. It was Margaret who spoke up. "Your mum rang us last week and said you forgotten your school bag when you moved. So you can take that suitcase and put it back in your bedroom now" she said with a smile. The look on my face obviously told them that I'd forgotten about the school case and how relieved I was to now have one. "We'll be leaving here in about an hour Steph. We're just going to have showers and get changed, while you pack anything you need for today," and with that they all disappeared. The car trip had me pulling up near the school front gate about 8.45 and with wishes of good luck I got out and walked through the gates, being actually greeted by a few girls that I'd met back at the BBQ on N Y Eve. We all started talking about what we'd done during the holidays and wandered over to stand under the shade of a tree while they explained all the in and outs of the school to me. An alarm bell rang 4 long blasts which I was told was the signal for a general assembly (2 blasts being the usual signal to simply go to classes). I walked along with the others and found myself in a large quadrangle surrounded by buildings standing among both girls AND boys all dressed in dark navy blue with the only exception being that the boys had grey slacks or shorts on instead of navy coloured skirts! A group of teachers were standing up on the steps of one of the building entrances and each in turn took the single microphone to speak, requesting that a particular school form go to such and such an area to receive their timetables while the first formers were to proceed to their regular class as per their timetable. After the 6th, 5th and 4th formers had received their instructions our location was announced to us and so we picked up our bags and slowly herded ourselves towards the area our form was to muster at to receive timetable instructions. Once we were all gathered in the designated area, calls for silence came from one of the teachers who then slowly told us of our classes for each day. Now I had no idea to which class I had been designated to and was starting to panic since there were 4 classes A B C or D and at times the subjects varied for each class, mainly due to PE, and subject electives. At the end of the timetable reading, the teacher then advised that any student not knowing their class designation should proceed to the admin building to be advised of it. We were all then told that we'd proceed to the next scheduled class on hearing the bell. He then walked away and I spotted several students following him, so I thought I'd better tag along and was rewarded to find that they were all going to find out their assigned classes also. Up at the office we gave our names to a lady who then either handed us an envelope or asked us to stand over to one side. When my turn came and I gave her my name, she turned round and on turning back handed me an envelope which had my name and designated English class (which was 3A) on it and informed me to take it away and open it up and that I'd find my timetable in it along with a school map showing classroom locations and the like. I took the envelope and smiled at her offering her my thanks before moving away and finding an empty corridor, proceeded to open and examine the envelopes contents. Checking my watch I noted the time (10.10am) and on checking the timetable logically assumed that the next subject was period 3 (10.20 to 11) and was maths (class A) in room 4G. Looking at another page I saw how each building was designated an alphabetic letter and on determining where the admin office was on the map proceeded towards building G and on finding it, found about 40 other boys and girls standing around talking and laughing. Not immediately recognising any familiar faces, I placed my bag on the ground and looked at my timetable more closely. Near the bottom was typed my subjects and the class grading I had been designated. Maths A, English A, Science B(!), Geography A, Commerce A, Music, Home Economics A and P.E.(B). Apart from Home Economics which I'd never taken before, you only had to take 4 core subjects and 2 electives (being commerce and Music in my instance) so Home economics was all new to me and it was only for 2 periods a week. Whoever had determined my class level as being 'B' for science must have been on drugs as far as I as concerned, because science was a complete mystery to me and a constant struggle to stay awake through! I spent the rest of the day going from room to room being assigned text books and being added to that subject class roll while the teacher briefly outlined the syllabus to us for the coming term along with expected dates for exams as well as class work to grade us on. At the lunch break I called into the admin office to inquire into bus timetables and was issued a bus pass along with the time and place I was expected to be at each morning to catch the bus as well as being told where I caught the bus of an afternoon to go home. The admin lady who told me all of this (Mrs Wells) was a sweetie and always smiled at me except when she told me that there was only 1 bus both morning and afternoon and not to miss it! Fortunately one of the other ladies knew of my farm and the location of the bus pick up, which she told me was on the other side of the railway tracks about 400 yards further along then the gate of Swampview farm and that there was a path crossing the train tracks where the bus stopped to set me off that afternoon. (phew!) On inquiring into school lockers I was given a number and location being told I'd have to buy my own padlock and to furnish admin with a duplicate key. The rest of the day was a case of lugging an ever heavier case filled with text books to each subject and taking brief notes of course outlines. Being a new girl I usually waited until the teacher was about to enter the classroom before scurrying in just before them and finding an empty desk, which was usually near the front. In 2 instances a familiar face waved me towards a vacant desk next to them which found a reciprocating smile and thanks from me. At 3.30 the final bell sounded for the day and a rush to get out of the classroom took place. Natalie, who I discovered was often in the same class as myself encouraged me to the bus of which there were several with Henty or Yerong Creek on their signboards. We entered the first one (Yerong Creek) and found a seat where we could sit down together and talk about the day's events. The first thing Natalie (call me Nat or Natty, Steph) told me when we were seated was to always try to get the first Yerong Creek bus because not only was it usually a coach but, THAT bus didn't do the other school (primary and private) pick ups either. The driver must have heard her because the engine started and a minute later the bus headed for the main road. The bus was almost fully occupied and the coach seats meant that the ride wasn't uncomfortable. I told Natalie that I didn't know where to get off, not knowing the area at all around the farm or any landmarks to be greeted with a lilting laugh and the advice that Mark and Greg got off at the same stop so not to worry about it. Relieved on that score, we happily continued to discuss the day just ended with her advising me on each teacher and their eccentricities, who I could ignore homework for and who not to get on the wrong side of. Every so often the coach would pull over and either 1 or a group of students would get off. The bus started to slow down again and Natalie stood up letting me know she'd see me tomorrow as she headed for the front exit. After she got off I kept an eye on Greg and Mark who were sitting together and as they stood up as the bus started to slow down in the middle of nowhere, I took my bag and carefully followed them towards the front of the bus. On alighting and pausing to gather my bearings, I followed the one who was starting to cross the train tracks while the other boy walked across the road and into the front gates of another farm. On crossing the tracks and reaching the road on the other side, I summoned up the courage to ask him his name introducing myself as Stephanie and he told me that he was Mark Fowler and that Greg (Dwyer) lived on the other side. "You're the new girl staying with Bernie's family aren't you?" Mark inquired of me. "The morning bus can sometimes be a bit late" he told me without me having said anything. "If you're not at the stop, the driver usually waits for you if someone on the bus spots you running towards the bus" he then told me which had me relieved somewhat in case I was ever running late. He stopped at a gate and I did likewise before he advised me that my gate was about quarter of mile away and that he'd see me tomorrow, before heading to walk down a dirt driveway which I saw had a fairly large timber clad house about half a mile down the dirt track. My cry of see you tomorrow received an upraised waving hand in reply and so I picked up my case and headed for my gate seeing the distinctive farmhouse in the far distance. I proceed to head towards the front gate, noticing several busses pass by on the other side of the train line, wondering why the road on this side was so quiet. These thoughts kept me occupied until my gate came into view and the path down to the farm, which being on a downwards slope made it easier for me to lug my bag filled with heavy text books down it, pausing several times to flex and change my now aching hands. Eventually walking through the back door and heavily dropping my school bag I was greeted by my aunt who asked me how my day went. Pausing to catch my breath had her laughing merrily at the sight of me and a few sympathetic words followed by the offer a cup of tea after I'd put my things away. On dropping my bag off beside my desk in the bedroom I glanced at my watch to see it was just on 4.30, that that was pretty close to the time when I'd be getting home from school back in Burwood. So now that I was starting to relax and thankful for no longer lugging a heavy bag, headed for the kitchen and my promised cup of tea. On walking back into the kitchen I now also found Foxy there to greet me with smiles along with inquiries on how it all went today. "Pretty good really" I told them. "Different to my old school but I made at least one new friend called Natalie. My bus stops over the other side of the train tracks about a quarter of a mile away at about 8.30. I think I'm going to need to get a raincoat before it rains again. And an umbrella too" I also told them that their next door neighbour's son also went Culcairn high. "Bernadette should be home about 5ish Steph" my aunty then informed me. "That'd boy you mentioned would be young Mark. My bet is the bus stops outside the Dwyer farm" she carried on. "How did you know that aunty?" came my amazed inquiry. "You're right on both counts." "Oh you city slickers!" came my aunts laughing reply. "Everyone knows everyone around these parts. Bernadette and Mark use to play together when either of us needed to babysit the other kids. Greg and Mark often came to Bernadette's birthday parties when they were all much younger and they often see each other socially at the pool or the pictures" she informed me. We waffled on about my first day and I told them that I'd needed to get a lock for my school locker on the weekend, which had Foxy dashing out of the room to return with a small padlock and handing it to me with my thanks in return. That evening, after Bernie and I had done the dishes we sat down at the dining table with her mum, Foxy and Margaret to discuss the use of the bathroom of a morning. Because Bernadette and Margaret would be leaving each day for Wagga on the 7.20 bus it was decided that they had first crack at the bathroom, unless any of us other girls had finished using it before 6am, which was decided on to encourage my early morning efforts at the moment. Margaret was going to teachers college at Wagga and was returning to it next week, which explained the reason why she also needed to get the early bus. Aunty Poss said it might be an idea for one of us to consider taking our shower the night before, but we all agreed to try to work within the bathroom arrangements decided on that evening first to see how they worked out. Next morning the system was implemented and because I'd been up for ages and Margaret didn't need to get going until the following week, everyone was OK for the moment. I left the house for the bus around 8ish, making sure not to miss the bus. Quick thinking about the distance needed to get to the bus stop had me eventually deciding that the walk each day was about half a mile each way, which wasn't a problem for me. On the first wet day, that thinking went right out the door and later on I learnt to hate wet days with a vengeance. That morning I spotted a bus coming up the road and put my hand out to signal it to stop. Neither Greg or Mark was at the stop yet and I looked on amazed as the bus didn't even slow down and simply flew past. A few minutes later Mark appeared lumbering over the railway tracks and greeted me to hear me complaining about the bus not stoping for me. He laughed out loud and then explained that since this was the main road south, all the school busses used it but only our usual bus would stop for us regardless of my signalling others, unless it was raining. This was so our usual driver didn't wait around needlessly for one of us to turn up, when we'd caught an earlier bus. He then told me that if I was going to go to school early it was best to let the driver know the day before so he didn't stop to wait for me. Right on 8.30 our bus pulled up and we climbed on. Greg and Mark sat at the same seats as yesterday and I was about to simply sit down elsewhere when someone sitting at the back of the bus shouted at me to sit at my normal seat. Trying to remember where that was I sat down a few rows further back to the ironic cheers of a few of the back seat students along with cries of "new fish"! Natalie got on a few stops later and we sat beside each other talking about our timetable for the coming day. As the rest of the week progressed I became more acquainted with my fellow students as well as my teachers. The best piece of luck I had was in that Culcairn high had a music curriculum which meant that I could simply continue on with that subject, without having to attempt to learn another subject in it's place, which I was to find out would have been Home Economic for 6 periods a week instead of the 2 I was taking as an extra curricular subject. Calls of nature didn't end up being a problem as my designated toilets covered several areas around the school and as I found out, several other girls also needed to use similar facilities, but mainly due to religious grounds and not because they were boys! Overall no one treated me any differently or gave me a hard time. In fact a few of the girls wanted to know how they could get out of PE as well and asked me how I did it! My excuse to them was a minor heart problem. Competitive sport was a sad area for me because I'd been told that interschool sport was something I'd be disqualified for (being a male) and I'd always been a good cricket and rugby player. So I was stuck doing "house" sports which meant playing either hockey tennis or netball (winter) and basketball, croquet, tennis or netball (summer). There were several other sports I could do, but just like my old school, house sports athletes were of a pretty ordinary standard, with most of the girls not really interested in doing much except standing around gossiping watching a few enthusiastic would be athletes exert themselves to near exhaustion. I'd generally try to be a cross between enthusiastic and casual stand around. The teacher supervising us didn't worry so long as everyone was marked on and off on the roster she had to fill out both before and after sport! The main hassle for me in doing sports was the having to get changed for it which thank goodness we didn't have to get changed back into school uniforms afterwards when leaving to catch the bus home. As a matter of fact house sport was a de-facto fashion parade of sorts and was often the cause of several cat fights amongst the girls, especially those relating to potential boyfriends. Some girls (the fashion princesses and their followers) simply changed into the shortest and tightest shorts or skirts they could wear and along with tight or see through tops, did their best to simply stand around and tease the guys on adjacent sporting fields or school areas. Part of the time they also spent making catty comments to hopeless girl athletes running round in a lather of sweat about their appearance, figures or dress sense. Because I use to dress for sport and at times occasionally get involved to some small degree, I also found myself a target for their comments at times. Sometime their comments could be quite hurtful if you were a sensitive type of person and a few of the younger girls (as well as the older and less fortunate ones) would be in tears from their taunts. While their remarks didn't bother me, (in fact most of their remarks were quite silly actually) unlike the other girls, I'd actually retaliate at times and make smart arsed comments back at them, which apart from being a waist of effort, often meant my being a social pariah for some days afterwards. In time I simply learnt to ignore them and just tried to just endure sport afternoon each week! **************** My cousin Bernadette however was a reasonably gifted athlete. I'd often have to spend my Saturdays (blast Catholic private schools and their weekend sports) with my other cousins, aunty Poss and uncle Bill cheering her on against an opposition school. The main problem about this was the distances to be covered on those Saturdays, with most of the games being held in Wagga which meant a round car trip of over 80 miles and in some cases over a 120 miles, in winter cold or summer heat! Because of distances and the lack of public transport, Bernadette along with a few of the other girls living in Henty couldn't always attend the practices although where possible a car pool had been set up to cater for them by the parents. She often had to practice on her own at a local park and it was on offering to go with her one afternoon that I was to find an outlet for my competitive needs. While I wasn't a skilful hockey or netball player (I was actually pretty lousy at first) I was agile, solid and quick enough to check and block Bernadette most of the time. This in turn made her more competitive and improved her skills. Once some of the girls saw the improvements to Bernadette's play and learnt how she was doing it, a phone call one night between Bernie and one of her teammates had me joining several of them at the local park a few afternoons later and new friendships being created. Even though I was usually fitter and stronger at first, over time my hormone medications eventually started to affect my strength and stamina, neutralizing my gender advantages over her and her teammates. Eventually, it wasn't unusual each Wednesday and Thursday afternoon between 5pm and 7pm to find Bernie with 4 or 5 of her teammates down at the local park and myself along with them, in 1 on 1 drills or in 3 or 4 aside scratch games on shortened fields or courts. As my natural male strength started to diminish, Bernadette and her friends excitedly started winning physical checking duels with me, occasionally leaving me to pick myself up from the ground. These practices in the forthcoming months often turned into affairs where often no prisoners were taken or quarter given, usually leaving me sore and tender at the end of a practice cycling home to the farm behind Bernadette with bruises showing for several days afterwards my only reward! In fact I'd like to think that the Under 15's Mt Erin high school hockey and net ball teams partly owed there premierships to my being part of those unofficial practices we held at the local park in Henty. In 1988 Mt Erin school's 2nd grade hockey team were unbeatable and were certainly the most physical, easily winning their grand final 5-0, with Bernadette scoring 2 goals and getting 4 rough checking penalties! ********************** SORRY, I digressed a little (fond and pleasant memories)..... But it was fair to say that by the end of that February in 1987, I seemed to have smoothly fitted into my life as a teenage girl living in Henty. I'd made a number of new friends and although not universally accepted by everyone at school, especially among the fashion princesses during sport, I HAD made a lot of friends as well as several close ones. I suppose this was because everyone knew each other (in country style) and had grown up together. But all the same, my normal shyness around others (because of my gender being found out) was slowly starting to evaporate. Bernie and I were using our nightly homework as a mini study group. My maths knowledge was complimenting Bernie's love of science. Even science was now starting to make sense to me, thanks to her. Inquiries with my school music teacher had me starting to spend Tuesdays after school learning the saxophone and I was self learning guitar at home. I met another sax hopeful in Regina Roundtree (2nd former) who lived in Culcairn itself and whose parents were local tradespeople and we formed our own little saxophone clique of two. I found that the 10 mile cycle home on Tuesday afternoons after sax practice wasn't too bad (except when it rained which it did on the last Tuesday in February) and between school, Saturday sport support for Bernie, farm chores, music lessons, going out to the pictures every fortnight, the local pool and the like, most of my time now seemed to be taken up. Mind you time could also drag along if you were at home with nothing to do, which surprisingly turned out to be the case more often than I would have preferred. Somehow I was also still more often then not managing to get up early and milk Rosie and get in an early shower before everyone else. Even though I was living among so many women my radar for avoiding problems didn't seem to be working so well. What was obvious to most women was still unapparent to me. Occasional hissy fits from my cousins left me confused and unsure of myself. In fact whenever I felt I was starting to understand my cousins something would happen and there'd be a slamming of doors and a dark cloud atmosphere hanging over the evening dinner table. Those silent evenings were starting to affect my confidence and also affecting my relationship with Bernie who I was now starting to think of as a sister, because she'd occasionally also get hissy with me and I didn't know the reasons for her anger. Around mid March, the mood one evening was too much of a strain for me and so I quietly asked to speak to aunty Poss in private about a problem. After washing up, and with a few snide comments and a bedroom door being slammed, aunty Poss asked if I wanted to go somewhere private to talk about my problem, which I readily agreed to. That privacy led only to the guest bedroom which she shut behind her before sitting down beside me as I sat on the bed. When my aunt asked me what the problem was, I explained to her that I must be doing or saying something wrong to her daughters because recently, there always seemed to be doors slamming and nasty comments being made. The problem I told my aunt was that I didn't know what I was doing or saying wrong, so that I could fix it! Aunty Poss looked at me closely and didn't say anything for about a minute. "You mean you honestly don't know" she finally said to me in disbelief. I looked back at her with a worried look on my face and was getting misty eyed, ashamed of myself for apparently being so ignorant. "Well aunty, mum told me about women and how emotional they get when their period is due" I told her. "And I'm trying really hard when I think that one of my cousins is having her period to try to help them or agree with them in anyway I can, but it seems as if nothing I do is doing any good." "Tonight for instance, Margaret's upset at me, yet I don't know why. Obviously it has to be her time of the month and I can understand that, but except for hiding away somewhere what can I do about it? Last week it was Bernie and Maureen. In fact you're the only sane woman in this house at times! And Uncle Bill just sits there and doesn't say a word. Even at school I can't seem to tell the girls who are menstruating and those who aren't!" Aunty Poss simply started her infectious laugh and it seemed to go on for a long, long time. "You're simply precious Steph you know that don't you" she said to me. After another short bout of laughter she saw the look on my face and hugged me telling me that "I" wasn't the problem or that I hadn't said or done anything wrong either. "In fact since you've been rooming with Bernadette, everyone has noticed the improvement in her, because she has someone her own age to talk to" my aunt informed me with an encouraging smile. "And for your information, Margaret is not having her period at the moment" which caused me to look confused. "Steph....she's having boyfriend problems! The whole family has to suffer with her moods every time she brakes up with one boy or another" I was informed. "Last week, Bernadette was told by her english teacher that she'd be out of the running for a part in the end of year school play, because of the decision to do Shakespeare's Othello instead of another play and Bernadette doesn't like Shakespeare. You're probably right about Foxy's cycle, but the Hayes women seem to have troublesome cycles my dear. You'll just have to suffer through them like your Uncle Bill and I do!" she told me with a laughing smile and a friendly hug. "For your own information and I didn't tell you this Steph, Bernadette and Foxy suffer from facial acne just before their period. Margaret just tends to have a more pronounced chin and bloats a bit around her tummy. As long as you don't tell any of them I told you, I'll put the initial of each of them on your calendar inside your wardrobe, so when it's that time of the month for any of them, you can just go and hide somewhere" she told me with a laugh. "So it's not me at all aunty?" I tentatively asked her, afraid that she'd tell me the real truth and that it WAS all my fault. Aunty Poss hugged me and chuckled in my ear. "Steph...welcome to the home of hormones. You'll learn in time about women and their moods. I think that your mother was right to ask me to let you live with us. This is the best education you could possibly get. Just try to ignore the slamming doors and the nasty comments. IF you upset one of your cousins I can promise you they'll let you know about it, right smartly" she told me rising up from the bed. "Any other problems?" which had me shaking my head and returning her smile. That evening I went back into our bedroom and instead of studying simply decided to read a novel instead, telling Bernadette "to hell with it Bernie, I'm having the night off from homework," which had Bernadette closing her text books, grabbing a magazine and collapsing onto her own bed. "About flogging time Steph, all you seem to do is study every night" she told me. "Found yourself a boyfriend yet," she asked me with a smile as we lay on our beds gossiping about the latest local romance relationships and breakup rumours. Hugs and Kisses for now. Stephanie.