Girls in Charge Read Online Free PDF Page A

couldn’t do? What I didn’t reveal was that I was the original test case. I put my information in and learned that I would be getting my period on March 21. Now that was just three days away! I could hardly wait. I carried my supplies with me every day to school. I was ready, ready to finally be growing up in that very clear and obvious way.
    â€œGreat news, Jemma,” Kate said during the next Pink Locker Society meeting. “More than one hundred girls have already downloaded the Period Predictor. You are revolutionizing puberty!” she said.
    â€œ We are,” I insisted, not wanting to take all the credit.
    â€œNice job,” Piper said. “We should have charged them each a dollar.”
    â€œPiper!” Kate said.
    â€œJust kidding,” she said.
    I agreed, though, and wondered if that’s how businesses were born.
    â€œLet’s talk about the meeting,” Kate said.
    By that, she meant THE MEETING—our planned meeting with Ms. Russo and Mrs. Percy to spill the whole story to Principal Finklestein.
    â€œI say we just get it over with, rip off the bandage,” Piper said. “I’d do it today, if we could.”
    â€œWhat does Ms. Russo say?” I asked.
    â€œShe says she’ll set it up for Thursday. We’ll all go in. They’ll start the conversation and we can just pipe in with comments,” Kate said.
    My stomach lurched as if we were at the top of the tallest roller-coaster hill ever. And did she really say Thursday, the very day the Period Predictor said I will get my first period? Bad timing, if you ask me. I had thought about whether I should just stay home from school that day. Now I’d have to go.
    I could not see myself in that meeting “piping in” with anything. It was a comfort that my parents knew the truth, but I was still afraid of Principal Finklestein. In my mind, I tried to imagine a happy-ending version of our meeting. I saw us all in his office. First there was tension, then an explanation, then smiles and handshakes all around. Maybe Mrs. Percy and Ms. Russo would be so convincing it would all just take care of itself?

 
    Eleven
    As if we didn’t have enough to talk about at the next Pink Locker Society meeting, we had a mountain of messages from girls, asking for help of all kinds. The usual was, of course, PBBs—periods, bras, and boys. But we had a new “B” entering the picture—bullies. One girl said a whole bunch of her former friends were giving her bullying stares all the time. They wouldn’t talk to her and were giving her weird looks all the time. That would drive me crazy.
    And another seventh-grade girl said some mean eighth-graders were pushing her out of her bus seat when they went around curves. We answered these questions and told them both to talk to the girls directly. If that didn’t work, we said to talk to a parent or the school counselor. But then a message of a different sort came in. It was clear the writer was not going to ask an adult for help.
    Dear PLS,
    I don’t like to ask for help, but here I am asking. I’m a pretty and popular person. You would never believe it if you knew who was writing this. But someone is making my life so hard. I want to stay home from school every day. I’ve even cried about it AT SCHOOL. I laugh it off and even tease the person back, but I can’t do it anymore. It’s just too hard. It was fine when she was making fun of my lip gloss or my boyfriend or whatever, but now she knows that I don’t get good grades. I never have.
    I’ve had tutors and special summer camps and everything, but it just doesn’t work for me. I think probably I don’t really need school because I’m sure I’ll be a successful person at something glamorous. I have my looks. But I have to pass eighth grade. And right now, I’m not. I don’t want to tell any teachers about this bully problem. Then a certain