Hot Rubber

I got my period today. My first one. I was atop the high
diving board at the public swimming pool when I felt a warm
patch in my bathers. There was a boy behind me, waiting. I
didn't want to dive. Have you ever been up there? It's really
high.

The boy accused my bottom. "Your ass is bleeding," he
cackled. But it wasn't my bottom. It was my vagina. I think
he knew, but he probably didn't have the courage to shout out
the word "vagina" in front of his friends.

I didn't mind. The blood oozed onto my thigh. Is it blood? My
sister calls it vagina sludge. That's a good name I suppose.

It was like that time I lopped off my wart. Except that was
on my elbow. And the wart grew back. But somehow it seemed
the same. The blood/sludge felt like a tiny motorbike
spinning its wheels down my leg. Hot rubber. I imagined a
tiny James Dean speeding away from his parents. His mom and
pop lived in my vagina and he wanted out. Too many rules I
suppose.

And then I dived. Head first. Just like in the Olympics. I'd
never done that before.