Clare L • Washington • 25
I was at a volleyball tournament wearing tiny spandex and I was down reffing, meaning I was the ref standing at the net. I felt something happen and I innately knew that I had started my period. But the down ref has to stay the entire game. So I just stood there, hoping that no one else could tell what I knew was happening in my spandex.
After the game, I ran to the bathroom. My parents could never sit through a whole volleyball tournament so they were off at Costco and I couldn’t reach my mom. One of my teammates gave me 25 cents to buy a gigantic pad with the texture of sandpaper that they sell in those bathroom dispensers. I then had to spend the rest of the day pretending no one could see my pad through my spandex.
