Chapter 1943
However, as Ivy rifled through every corner of her backpack, the pads were nowhere to be found.
She was certain she had packed them.
Since she was young, Ivy had always taken care of her own belongings, cultivating a nightly routine of preparing for the next day.
Thus, she could vividly remember slipping the pads into her bag. Yet, after just one gym class, they had vanished. With no other option, she turned to her classmates for help.
“Hey, does anyone have a spare pad?”
“Could I borrow a pad from someone? I’ll pay you back.”
No matter how she phrased it, the response from her peers was uniformly the same: “Sorry, I don’t have any.”
Sitting back at her desk, pad-less, Ivy felt the sting of helplessness.
Clara had pilfered her allowance, leaving her without cash to buy a new pack. Even the money Tessa gave her wasn’t enough, with Clara inventing reasons to snatch away her spare change.
What was she to do?
If she didn’t find a solution soon, she’d surely stain her clothes.
“Having your period, huh?” Clara plopped down in the seat in front of her, her tone mocking. “Little sis, how can you be so careless, forgetting to bring your pads on your period?”
Clara was a year older than Ivy but was in the same grade due to poor academic performance.
Unlike Ivy’s introversion and silence, Clara’s generosity and lively personality made her the darling of the class.
And those who cozied up to Clara inevitably snubbed Ivy, as if by an unwritten rule of the classroom.
Tears brimming in her eyes, Ivy pleaded, “Clara, could you please buy me a pack of pads?”
Clara cut her off sharply, “Ivy, it’s not that I don’t want to help, but I don’t have the money to buy pads for you!”
Ivy felt desperate. “But… you just took the allowance Mom gave me yesterday.”
Clara frowned, disdain coloring her voice, “When did I take your money? You must have lost it yourself. Why blame me?”
“Yeah, Ivy, don’t wrong Clara.”
“Ivy, why do you always push the blame onto others?”
Clara’s shrill voice carried, and the other students quickly sided with her, pointing fingers at Ivy.
It was as if she was the one who had done something wrong.
Unable to defend herself, Ivy fled the classroom, running out to the bleachers on the athletic field where she crouched down, hidden.
Embarrassment here was preferable to the judgmental eyes of her classmates.
“Here.”
A soothing voice broke the silence.
Looking up, Ivy saw a boy standing in the sunlight, holding out a pack of pads. “I don’t know what brand you prefer, so I just grabbed one at random.”
Embarrassed yet grateful, Ivy slowly stood up, looking incredulously at the boy.
He smiled and nodded, “I saw you asking around, so when I went to the store, I picked up a pack for you. You need this, right?”
Tentatively, Ivy reached out and took the pads, her voice barely above a whisper, “Thank you so much.”
