get the complete book here! {Or here (US)}
 
 
*Chapter 3*

The Big Plan

 
 
I’ve been sitting to do my business for so long now its second nature, what I wasn’t expecting was the sudden gush of dark smelly stuff as I sank back onto the seat.
“Con!”
“Wassup, Gab?” she replied from beyond the door.
“I er think I’m on.”
I might be nearly sixteen and the doctors reckon I’ve been having periods for a while, maybe as far back as America but this is the first time it’s had some way of escaping.
“I needed to know that?”
“Er what do I do? There’s stuff everywhere.”
“Haven’t you got any tampons or pads?”
“Er no, ew this is gross!”
“Get used to it, here,” she passed some stuff under the door, “clean yourself with the wipes then put a pad in your pants.”
Even I could work that out.
“Thanks, Con.”
“I’ll wait for you.”
 
 
“How long does this go on?” I asked as we walked towards the Express station, we were meeting the others at the weinstube, they’d elected to ride up.
“A few days, depends. Didn’t your mama tell you this stuff?”
“Possibly, I probably wasn’t listening.”
“Make sure you keep a diary then you won’t be caught out again.”
“Yeah, the doctor thinks I should continue with the Pill.”
“You’ve been on the Pill?”
“For a while so I didn’t bleed inside again.”
“Makes sense.”
That line of conversation dried up as we joined the other passengers waiting on the platform.
 
 
“I’d best tell Max the good news,” I mentioned fishing for my handy.
“Tell him to come to the Stube.”
“’Kay,” I allowed as the phone started to ring.
“Hey, Gab!”
“How’d you know it was me?”
“Number recognition?”
“On your house phone?”
“Sure, so what’s the call for liebchen?”
“Will you stop saying that,” I huffed.
“Okay, so?”
“So? Oh yeah right, er it’s on we’ve got the cabin, you spoken to the others?”
“Yeah this afternoon.”
Con poked me and mimed getting the lads to the Sebenschuh place.
“Erm we’re having a planning session at the Stube, can you get along?”
“What time?”
“Time?”
Con mouthed six to me.
“Six?”
“Six it is, tschuss.”
“Tschuss.”
 
 
The Express arrived and we piled on board.
“Hello, stranger.”
“Hi, Myleen, how goes it?”
“Same old, the girls said you’ve been ill?”
“Er yeah, on the mend now.”
“Good, well I’d best hustle, Fahrkarte to check, take care.”
“And you,” I offered.
 
 
I sent a text to Dad and another to Mand, I’m sure she’ll want to be involved. It’s not long on the train, the others only beat us as we’d missed the earlier train due to my ‘visitor’ and had to walk up from Rech station.

“You can use the restaurant, girls, it’s too cold in back,” Eva, Pia’s mum told us.
“Is Dad about?” P asked.
“He’s at a growers meeting, he’ll be back for supper.”
“Oh right, he tell you we’ve got a cabin in Ahrweiler again.”
“Ah, that’s what he was jabbering about, so this is a planning meeting, eh?”
“Yes, Eva,” Nena agreed.
“Get yourselves warmed up, I’ll do you some spätzle.”
Now we’re talking!
 
 
“How about we have a sit in, there were a couple of stalls in Köln last year,” I suggested after we’d seen off the noodles.
“So like a café?” Brid queried.
“Sort of,” I replied, “we have the counter at the front but in the back we have some chairs and tables, we could do choco and coffee.”
“Dad’s got boilers we can use,” Pia put in.
“We could do coffee and cake in back and the biscuits at the street,” Con added.
“Sounds good to me,” Steff agreed.
“One thing,“ I interrupted, “no elf or angel costumes.”
“Spoilsport, Bond,” Nena mentioned.
“We will need a theme,” Brid opined.
I had an evil thought, “How about Mittelalter, we get long dresses the lads wear hose and doublets.”
“Like at the wedding?” Con enquired.
“You saw them?”
“They caused a bit of a sensation,” Steff mentioned.
“You reckon they’ll go for it?” Nena questioned.
“Max’ll do whatever Gab* says.” Pia suggested.
“He will?”
“He’s in lurv,” Nena stated, “of course he will.”
“With who?”
“Geez, Gab, you could never pretend to be a redhead,” Con observed.
“You lot are making something out of nothing.”
“Half the school saw you two at lunch,” Bridget advised.
“And the other half have heard since,” Con added.
 
 
“So,” Mart started, “we need to decorate the inside and the front?”
“Yep,” I confirmed.
“We can do it at the schloss,” Max volunteered.
“Not sure about these costumes?” Ralf noted.
“Max wore it at the wedding last Saturday,” Steff pointed out.
“You did?” Freddy asked.
“Er yeah, it was this sort of Mittelalter theme, Gab had the dress and everything.”
“Well I guess it’s okay,” Ralf allowed
“It is for charity,” Mart added.
 
 
It was after eight when we finished planning, when we started arguing over costume colours it was time to stop. Time is kind of in the essence so Eva agreed to check out the costume shop when she goes to Mayen tomorrow. We decided on a more gingerbread than rustic look, just because the medieval was a time of peasants and princes doesn’t mean we have to be realistic, a bit of fairytale goes a long way.

Manda had ridden up on her town bike so she returned to Dernau with Connie, Eva dropped me back home using the Stube’s skate, I mean Smart Fortwo.
 
 
“Everything sorted?” Dad enquired.
“Er toilet first,” I told him making a beeline for the cloakroom.

At least I was ready for the mess this time and Mum keeps the house facilities stocked with the necessaries. To think, all the fuss the last few weeks has been for this – I could happily have foregone this delight of womanhood. I cleaned up and returned to the lounge, Mand was making cocoa; the rents were snuggled on the sofa.

“Alright, kiddo?” Mum asked.
“Yeah, it’s er moon time.”
“Everything okay, you feeling okay?” Mum was more interested now.
“Think so.”
“When did you start?”
“This afternoon, I had to borrow a pad from Con, talk about embarrassing.”
“You’ll learn.”
“She did the same in Wales,” Mand volunteered as she arrived with the tray of drinks, “we couldn’t find her, she was holed up in the hotel’s toilet.”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
“You never told us,” Mum stated.
“It wasn’t a big deal, Caro knew.”
“What about this market stall,” Dad mentioned in an effort to refocus the conversation.
“We’re doing a sort of café, Weihnacht’s biscuits at the road, coffee and cake inside.”
“Sounds interesting,” Mum opined.
“No costumes this time?” Dad queried before sipping at his hot chocolate.
“Fairytale medieval right, Gab?” Mand supplied.
“Yeah, something like at the wedding, the lads get to wear the tights for once,” I chuckled.
“And they’ve agreed?” Mum enquired.
“Ralf and Freddy weren’t keen but we talked them round.”
“So I suppose you girls get the long frocks and wimples,” Dad suggested.
“Maybe not the wimples, we’d look like nuns.”
“We’ll have nun of that around here,” mum quipped.
The rest of us groaned, how bad can you get?
“When is it?” Dad asked.
“The week before the BLCA,” I supplied.
“Three weeks? You gonna be ready in time?” Mum petitioned.
 
 
Maddy Bell 23.01.16