~
"Will I d-do that again?" She asked quietly as he grabbed a new wipe.
"Yes." He nodded, wiping down her forehead.
"A lot?" She questioned, swallowing thickly.
"Yes." He repeated. "What are you thinking?"
"W-whether to do it or not." She sniffle...
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☆*:.｡. o(▽)o .｡.:*☆
2001
Training was over for the day and the girls made their way to the Tv room in a single line. Walking into the room, Nova sat down at her usual Tv, immediately stabbing her straw into her juice box and waiting for the film to begin. Placing on her headphones, she readjusted them to fit her head properly.
Now the girls were older, the films had changed from Disney and Pixar into murderous horror films. Gone were the bright colours and smiling princesses, princes and toys which had been replaced by psychopaths and knives, murder and manipulation.
The nine year old always found the horror films to be more interesting, but she thought that was because of her age. When you grow up, you grow out of things like that. You don't want to watch people dancing and fall in love at first sight. Instead, she thought normal children would want to watch people behind chased down by masked killers and strange murderous beings from other worlds. She did and a few of the others girls did. Others wished to see those familiar lions and toys walking giddily across their box televisions.
Winter sat in the corner of the room as usual, eyes watching the girls to make sure they were concentrating on the pictures ahead of them. His eyes landed on Nova and saw she was completely focused on the film for once.
Rubbing a hand over her lower stomach, Nova's face twisted into a grimace of pain as she felt the bottom of her belly curl into a painful cramp. Her knees lifted a little, feet now off the floor as she curled into her own body, waiting for the cramp to go away. Around a minute later, it did fade away and she continued to watch the film.
Through the movie, her stomach would cramp up, her hand immediately falling to the pained area to try and sooth the ache. The past week she had noticed changes to herself. She was a little slower, certain foods weren't appetising, she was greatly craving something sweet most of the time. At random points in the day, her stomach would feel bloated and she would puff her cheeks out, breathing deeply as cramps came and went.
The film went on and Nova continued to shift uncomfortably. She knew that their toilet break was after this so she'd go there then but she had at least another half an hour until the film ended. Having no other choice, she just sat there and waited for it to end.
Once it did, the televisions all flickered off and the girls stood from their seats. Looking down, Nova spotted a smear of red across her seat and her eyebrows furrowed. Patting her inner thigh, she pulled her fingers back and gulped when she saw a light pink coating of blood on them, a darkened area on her leggings.
Next to her, Jenny saw and concern took over her features. Nova was starting to panic because she had no cuts on her body that could bleed from her thigh. The only one she had was on her upper arm and it couldn't be linked to the seat or her thighs.
"Girls!" Winter snapped and Jenny left to room but Nova walked over to the soldier, not knowing what to do.
"I'm b-bl-bleeding." Nova stated and he looked down at her then glanced at her seat, knowing she'd started her period.
Gently grabbing her arm, he led her to the toilet the staff used and pushed her inside before leaving. Nova was it's left there to stand in confusion so she decided to wash the blood form her hands. Winter pushed open the toilet door and placed some clothes on the pegs on the back of the door then handed her a tampon which she took and then started at him blankly.
"What do I do with this?" Nova asked, holding it up.
"Stop the bleeding." Winter answered quickly. "You know in science when they taught you about growing up? The changes that would happen?"
"Oh, yeah." Nova hummed in realisation. "But that doesn't me-mean I know how to use t-this."
"You just, uh.." Winter trailed off, taking it from her and pushing the tampon out of the wrapper and then the tampon from the plastic casing, making an 'up' motion with it. "Yeah. You do that."
"Jesus." Nova sighed, taking it from him and he left.
After figuring out how to work a tampon properly, she pulled on the new underwear and leggings, leaving the bathroom. Standing up from the wall, Winter led her back to her dorm where she put her clothes in the washing basket before he took her back out, ready to go to her neck lesson.
As she walked down the empty hallways, Nova only had more time to think over how much she was missing out on. Her mum should have been helping her with her first period, teaching her about how everything works, talking her through each month when it happened. Buying her ice cream to sooth the ache, dealing with her mood swings but she didn't have a mum. She had Winter, who she was grateful for, but it was obvious he knew nothing.
