I examined the new pad. It looked exactly like the original. I gave Jennifer a high-five, which bemused her no end, and we spent the next few hours making maxi-pads. The Voices were warning us that this was a shocking use of energy, but for once, I didn’t care. Jennifer had solved a major worry for me, and I was in a celebratory mood.
We went to dinner and I distributed the pads among the girls with promises of more to come, and they cheered mightily. The boys just looked bemused and left out of the feeling, but I didn’t care. I made sure Jennifer got all the credit for discovering this process. She’d never really been popular before, but for that night, at least, she was the star of the show.
I’d been worrying myself sick over the problems of having periods, but there was a natural disa
