From The Author: This next chapter as promised deals with some “coming of age” stuff and may not be suitable for some readers under the age of 13 or so. This story is rated T for a reason, and anyone under that age reads at their own risk. You’ve been warned, so no flames, okay? -D.R.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Girl Talk

The next morning, after first count the girls of Dorm C were taken right to breakfast. They skipped exercise today because outside it was raining heavily, which the girls were all thankful for. Miss Walker also had the day off, which was another reason to be thankful as far as most of them were concerned. The bullies were the only ones who looked angry since they now had double duties to do today while the girls that won the previous day’s football game now had much needed free time, courtesy of the administration.

Helga sat at one of the usual tables in the mess hall with Trashmouth sitting to her right and PG to her left. Miranda sat across from her and The Bear sat by her side. As usual, the girls started to give some of their bread to PG, but aside from one piece for Tony, who cooed lightly from underneath her shirt, she told them not to worry about it. “They won’t let us outside today and the birds won’t eat in the rain.” She sighed.

“Oh don’t sweat it, girl,” Trashmouth said pouring some sugar from a packet onto a pile of runny grits. “Ah, now that’s what I’m talking about.”

The Bear made a face. “I can’t believe someone would put sugar in grits.”

“What’s wrong with sugar in grits?” The redhead asked, looking up at her as she tore open another packet.

“Sugar in oatmeal is one thing,” Bear explained raising an eyebrow. “But for grits, butter or margarine is the way to go.”

“Says who?”

“Says anyone who grew up eating grits,” Bear said matter-of-factly. “My dad’s from Tennessee, he made them all the time when I was growing up.”

Helga smiled a little, “My friend Phoebe’s mom is from Kentucky and she also makes grits. I personally don’t care for them. She always put honey on hers.” She mixed her runny eggs up with her spoon.

“Heathens,” Bear said in mock disgust. “Ruining good southern cooking with your Yankee ways.”

PG shrugged, “It doesn’t matter what you put in them, they still taste like wet oats to me.” Miranda nodded and added, “I prefer french toast.”

Bear sighed and looked up at Trashmouth. “Fine, but I still say that butter is better for grits.”

Trashmouth just shrugged and mixed up the sugar in the grits and them ate a spoon full and smiled. “Well you eat them your way and I’ll eat them mine, now that way, we can live in perfect hominy.” Everyone at the table groaned at her lame joke, while she just grinned like a loon.

Later that day while Bowers, Pena, their gang, and the other inmates were on work detail, the other inmates of Dorm C spent their newfound free time just lazing about and doing nothing. The ping pong table and the television became very popular, and so did the regular tables where several of the inmates congregated to talk and smoke if they had cigarettes.

It was during this time that Helga got to know Bear a lot better. She was fourteen years old, and was indeed in Cherry Hell for aggravated assault on another fourteen year old, a boy who was trying to beat her up, along with a friend of his.

“He tried to beat me up with a baseball bat,” she explained later on as they sat together at dinner that evening. “You see, I was the only girl on the wrestling team at my middle school and apparently these two didn’t like the idea of losing a match against one of the ‘weaker sex’ so they tried to ‘persuade me’ to quite. I refused and they tried to take me out, only I managed to get the upper hand on them. I got the bat from the first one and his buddy ran away like a little bitch. Then I started wailing on the first one with the bat.

“Next thing I know, the cops showed up and when the smoke had cleared, this jerk wound up in a body cast and I wound up in here for eighteen months for assault with a deadly weapon.”

“Ah, another tale of the deconstruction of America,” Trashmouth said, taking a mouthful of hash and rice. That earned a laugh from all of them.

Helga winced a little then and closed her eyes as pain shot through her stomach and abdomen.

“You OK, Pataki?” PG asked, looking up at her.

She shook her head, “No, I feel a little bit sore. It’s my stomach. I think maybe I might have bruised something yesterday.” Helga gasped and clutched her stomach again.

Bear looked at her sympathetically. “You better go right to bed when you get back to the dorm.”

Helga nodded and somehow managed to finish eating, despite the shooting pains in her abdomen.

When they got back to the dorm, Helga suddenly needed to use the bathroom. She rushed into the stall and sat down. Nobody was in there and she couldn’t help but feel a little bit of relief. Despite the fact that nearly three weeks in Juvie had made her accustomed to being under observation at all times, the idea of taking a piss while someone was watching still bothered her a little.

It wasn’t good. Urinating felt bad, almost like it was on fire. She took some toilet paper and wiped and then almost let out a yell. The paper had several drops of blood on it. Oh criminy! I’ve got internal bleeding!

“What did you do, fall in?” Trashmouth said in her usual smiling was as she strolled in.

“Shannon! I – I have to go to the infirmary!” Helga said, now in full panic mode.

Trashmouth blinked and all of her usual humor was gone, replaced by serious concern at once. “Are you OK? What is it?”

“I’m bleeding inside,” Helga said bunching up some of the toilet paper to put inside her underwear, which she could now see had a few drops of blood on them also. “It’s coming out! Look!” She showed her the paper.

Trashmouth looked at it, and Helga expected to see her panic also, but instead she blinked and looked at Helga with a very strange smile on her face. “Helga, how old are you?”

Helga blinked at the question. “Criminy, I’m dying here and you’re asking me my age?! I’m ten and a half! Happy now!”

Her redheaded roommate just shook her head, “Relax, you’re not dying, Pataki. You’re just on the rag.”

“On the . . . ?” Helga blinked once again and this time her face turned slightly pink. All at once she felt really silly. She grew up with an older sister (much to her annoyance) and of course knew all about periods. Since Olga went off to college though, and she had little to do with her mother on most days, Helga hadn’t had to think about such things in years. Now all of it came back and hit her right in the face . . . or maybe, right in the stomach.

Trashmouth smiled and asked sympathetically, “This your first?” Helga nodded feebly, unable to talk out of embarrassment. “It’s OK, I was a bit freaked my first time also.”

“My first period,” Helga said in a whisper, looking at the floor. She didn’t know how to prepare for this. She didn’t even have Miriam to talk to about it, or Phoebe for that matter. How unfair was it that such a defining moment had to happen while she was locked up in this place?

“Oh you think that’s bad, wait till you have to get tampons and pads,” Trashmouth said now sounding like her old self. Helga on the other hand blinked and felt her face go hot. Tampons?! Pads?! Oh Criminy!

“Aww, my little roomie is finally turning into a woman,” Trashmouth said, then actually walked into the stall with her and hugged her. “Hey! Cut it out!” Helga said, trying to push the loony girl off her.

“Ahem, you two lesbians go and do that back in your own room if you have to,” Bear said from the doorway, with a smirk on her face. Helga blinked and, if possible, turned even redder thinking about how they must have looked to anyone walking in.

“Bear, guess what?” Trashmouth said turning and starting out of the stall. “Pataki here just started her first period!”

Helga’s eyes widened and she felt her anger rising. “Criminy, why don’t you just go out into the dorm and shout it out for the whole damn cell block?!” When she saw Trashmouth begin to smirk, Helga frowned and her eyes narrowed, “Don’t even think about it, or I’ll introduce you to Old Betsy!”

Bear meanwhile looked at Helga and smiled, “Don’t worry about it, Pataki. Having a period isn’t so bad once you get used to it. Oh yeah, stay here, I’ll be right back.” She rushed out of the bathroom before Helga could ask why. She wondered if The Bear was out there telling everyone about it, when she returned and had a pink and white box under her arms. “I brought you some pads, you’re going to need these.”

Helga was torn between embarrassment and gratitude as she took one of them out of the box. “Um, thanks.”

“Do you need help?” Trashmouth asked.

“No!” Helga said looking up at her, shocked at the idea. “Criminy, turn around, don’t watch!” Both girls did so, for which Helga was grateful.

“This calls for a special celebration,” Bear said, smiling. “It’s not everyday that another young girl becomes a woman.”

Trashmouth smiled, “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Smore party?” Bear asked.

“Smore party,” Trashmouth repeated nodding.

Helga walked out of the stall, pulling up her pants and looked at them confused. “What the hell is a ‘smore party’?”

---

That evening after dinner, about two hours before lights out, Helga found herself sitting in her dorm room with Trashmouth, Miranda, PG and The Bear. Bear was the last one of them to arrive for the smore party and she was carrying a pillow cover that had something inside it. She shut the door behind her.

Miranda blinked, “Won’t the guard think something is suspicious if the door is closed?”

Bear smiled and shook her head, “No kid. As long as the light is still on, they don’t care. They just figure that people want to be alone. Besides, they never leave the cage and come into the dorm unless something happens, or they decide to toss the bunks for drugs.”

Trashmouth smiled and asked the older girl, “Did you get all the stuff?” Bear just nodded and then poured the contents of the bag on Helga’s bunk. A bag of marshmallows, a pack of graham crackers, five large chocolate bars, a box of matches, a long candle, some tooth picks, a jar of creamy peanut butter, and a small pack of paper towels. Five cans of Yahoo Soda also rolled out of the bag.

Helga blinked, “Criminy, where the hell did you get all of that?”

The Bear smiled and said, “I got my sources. You’d be amazed what a whole carton of smokes can get you around this joint. Besides, this is a special occasion.” She looked at Helga and winked. Helga felt a bit bad that Bear gave away so many cigarettes just for her. Plus, her stomach was still giving her trouble.

PG actually smiled at little. “I haven’t had smores since summer camp last year.” Miranda smiled and nodded also. “Same here.”

“Well happy campers, this is our particular brand of smores – prison style.” Trashmouth said smiling as she set everything down on a towel on the floor. The girls all sat down around the candle that Trashmouth lit with the matches. She let the hot wax settle on the bare floor by the blanket long enough to make the candle stand straight. The redhead then passed around the marshmallows, chocolate bars, graham crackers and tooth picks evenly to all of them. The girls then put a marshmallow on a tooth pick and took their turns roasting their marshmallows over the small flame.

“Too bad we don’t have a real campfire,” Miranda said toasting her marshmallow to a light brown. “If it was outside also we could have tents and sleeping bags also. I remember camping with my parents and looking up at the stars at night.” She looked down thoughtfully and sighed. “We were supposed to go to the wilderness around this time and camp out while the leaves were falling off the trees. Autumn is my favorite season.”

“So your family goes camping a lot then?” PG asked, looking over at her while she pulled off her burning marshmallow and put it on top of the graham cracker and the waiting chocolate bar. From underneath her shirt, Tony cooed quietly.

“Every summer I go to summer camp near Crater Mountain Lake in the upper part of the state, and in the fall time me and my parents take a weekend in October to go for a hike.”

Trashmouth sighed, “Your lucky, all my mom ever wanted to do was laze around and watch soap operas all year. No life whatsoever away from the television, unless you count the assholes that she picked up somewhere. She has shitty taste in men.” Her marshmallow was totally black and still burning when she set it on her chocolate and peanut butter.

Helga listened to them go on about family outings and stuff, frowning a little. The only time she’d ever gone camping was with Big Bob and Phoebe that once to test out his new line of merchandise for his store. The only positive thing to that had been the fact that Arnold and Gerald were at the same campsite. Despite a few desperate moments, they did eventually all have a good time together near the end.

She roasted her marshmallow only slightly and set it down hot on the chocolate and graham cracker. Then she put another graham cracker over it and took a bite. The gooey taste in her mouth made her smile. It also reminded her of the fact that they had roasted marshmallows that last night in the wilderness and that Arnold and her both got their marshmallows stuck together slightly. The idea that she’d shared something that also went into Arnold’s mouth . . . .

“Pataki? Helga?”

Helga blinked and noticed that Trashmouth and PG were both looking at her strangely. “Um, I guess that you must love smores a lot then?” Trashmouth said smirking. “Sort of lost you there for a moment.”

She blinked and quickly said, “Oh, um yeah, they’re good. My first smores actually.” Helga quickly shoved the rest of it into her mouth and ate it.

“Well I guess that’s two firsts for you tonight then,” Trashmouth said taking another bite of her own smore.

Miranda looked at Helga curiously, “What’s it like?”

Helga frowned, “It’s a pain in the ass.”

“Actually, it’s a pain in the –”

“Finish that sentence and die, Trashmouth,” Helga muttered giving her roommate a look. The others laughed as they finished their own smores.

“I can’t wait to have mine,” PG said, putting some graham cracker inside her shirt for the pigeon.

“Trust me kid, you don’t want to have it right away,” Helga muttered as she felt another shot of pain in her stomach. She sat back against her bunk trying in vain to relax.

Trashmouth smiled and said, “Not to worry, roomie. I got just the thing for the occasion to help you deaden the pain.” She smiled and pulled what looked like a rolled up cigarette from her shirt pocket.

Bear actually smiled at Trashmouth. “Where did you manage to get that, O’Feir?”

Trashmouth winked and said, “I have my sources also, honey.”

Miranda looked at them and seemed confused. “What is it?”

“Left-handed Lucky,” Trashmouth said with a grin as she put the dubious looking cigarette in her mouth and leaned over to light it on the candle flame.

The young girl blinked and her eyes widened, “You mean . . . that’s marijuana?!” Helga blinked also, giving her roommate a surprised look.

The redhead leaned back and took a puff and then blew out some light grayish-looking smoke that smelled really bad. It sort-of reminded Helga of how Mr. Simmon’s kitchen smelled during Thanksgiving last year when her and Arnold went to visit him. Helga vaguely wondered if that stuff tasted like it smelled. Whatever her own feelings were, Trashmouth smiled and shook her head a little. “Wow, now that’s what I call a smoke.”

Miranda looked a bit shocked now. “Jeez you shouldn’t smoke that stuff!”

“Or what? I go to jail?” Trashmouth said sarcastically. Bear and PG both chuckled at that.

“It’ll slow down your brain, kill your brain cells,” Miranda said, trying to reason with her.

“Criminy, look who you’re talking about,” Helga said with a grin, unable to resist the shot at the sarcastic redhead. Helga agreed with Miranda in principal , but under the circumstances thought she was being a bit prudish.

Trashmouth just smirked, “Exactly! Besides it takes more than one joint to do that stuff and I only indulge on special occasions. I prefer ruining my lungs with good old tobacco.”

Then she passed the smoke on to Helga who just blinked and gave the joint a mistrustful look. “Are you sure that stuff helps with pain?”

The clown just shrugged, “Ain’t you ever heard of herbal medicine?” She gestured with it. Helga sighed and took it. She then looked at it a moment, bit her lip and took a quick puff. Helga managed to hold her breath for a moment, then the foul-smelling air (which actually smelled worse inside her sinus cavity than out of it) choked her and she coughed badly. “Criminy! I think I’m going to barf!” The Bear and Trashmouth both laughed at her. Helga resolved that she would never take up smoking, either tobacco, nor any illicit stuff either. She handed it down to Bear, who took it and gave a small puff, and blew out a smoke ring.

Bear then smirked and said, “Well then, while were loosening up, I think it’s time for a few games.” She then reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a deck of poker cards.

“Anything but ‘Spin The Bottle’ or‘Three Minutes In Heaven’. No offense ladies, but I think I need more than one hit to find any of you remotely appealing.” Trashmouth then grinned like a loon.

Bear laughed at that as she began to deal out the cards. “Actually I was thinking a couple of games of strip poker.” She had the joint between her teeth as she expertly passed around the cards. “Or, if you want, then we can just play for marshmallows?”

“Oh my gosh!” Miranda said, holding her cards and then setting them down. A deep red flush came to her cheeks and she looked a bit shocked. Next to her, PG let out a whistle as she looked at the cards in her hand. Even Trashmouth smirked a bit and said, “Wow Bear, you think of everything.”

Curious now, Helga looked down at the cards in her hands. They looked pretty old and ordinary from the blue and white backings with the words: "Hot Guys Deck" emblazoned in faded red letters. It was only when she turned them over that she realized what Miranda and the other’s saw and her eyes widened and she felt her own cheeks turn crimson as well.

The faces of each cards had in the corners both numbers or letters in the right top and left bottom, and the usual suits in the two remaining corners. In Helga’s case: ace of spades, king of diamonds, nine of clubs, two of diamonds, and the queen of hearts. The middle of the cards, however, instead of displaying the appropriate number of each suit or a figure in the case of the kings, queens, and jacks, each card had the picture of an older male, none of whom could have been younger than twenty or so. All of which were standing in several poses – and had absolutely no clothes on at all!

Giggles from Bear and Trashmouth made Helga blink and look up scowling in a very unamused way.

Miranda somehow managed to recover from her sense of shock and looked up at Bear. “W-where in the world did you get these cards from?!”

Bear smiled and said humorously, “Oh, you know, like I said, I have my sources.”

PG was looking with some fascination at the cards in her hands, her face seemed to be halfway between being grossed out and slightly compelled by the images. “So, that’s what a guy looks like without any clothes on?”

Bear looked over at the smaller girl and raised an eyebrow, “You mean you ain’t never seen a naked guy before?” When PG shook her head, Bear raised an eyebrow, “Not even your older brother in the shower, or your dad, or anything?”

PG blinked and said, “Oh, nice mental image there, Bear and no, I haven’t.”

“Me either,” Miranda added, picking up one of her cards and glancing at the photo trying to take everything in slowly. She still looked a bit embarrassed, but curious now that the initial shock was over.

“Trashmouth? You ever seen a naked guy before?”

Trashmouth simply shrugged and glanced at her cards, not seeming to be particularly impressed by what she saw. “Not really, I’m and only child and the bum I called a father skipped out on me when I was four.” One card she turned on its side and tilted her head a little examining it.

“Well, how about you, Pataki?” Bear asked looking right at Helga, who’d put her cards face down in front of her embarrassed. “Ever seen a naked boy before?”

Helga blinked and a random memory flashed through her mind for a split second. An image of Arnold taking off his clothes and getting ready for bed and her hiding in the wall behind the couch in his bedroom trying to steal back a parrot. She didn’t remember much after he’d removed his jeans and underwear but what she did remember brought a slight smile to her face just then.

Bear noticed this smile and leaned forward just then. “Oh, I think we have a winner here. So tell us all about it. Who was he?”

The words quickly pushed aside the vivid image in Helga’s mind. She blinked and said, “Huh? What? I – I don’t know what your talking about.”

Suddenly Trashmouth was on her feet and quickly went over to her bunk and grabbed the photo of Arnold from its place just underneath her own. “It wouldn’t happen to have been this little boyfriend of yours, would it?” She asked with clear teasing amusement.

“Hey give that back!” Helga said, trying to stand up and snatching at the photo in Trashmouth’s hand. Her stomach pained her and she still felt a bit woosy from the hit she took from the joint.

The redhead passed the photo over to Bear who took it smiling. “So, this your guy, Pataki?” She said, looking at the picture. “Wow, he’s pretty cute.”

Helga just snorted, “Yeah, if you like football-headed little geeks.” She turned away but she couldn’t control the slight reddening of her cheeks.

“I guess that includes you then,” Trashmouth said smiling.

Miranda and PG both looked at the picture of Arnold and smiled. “He seems really nice,” Miranda said looking up at her. “Was he the one who came to see you before?” Helga just nodded, not saying anything. PG handed the picture back to Helga, who looked down at it a moment, then put it safely inside her shirt pocket next to her pounding heart.

“So what’s the deal with him? Is he your boyfriend?” Bear asked, looking at her carefully and passing on the joint to PG.

“No, not exactly,” Helga said abruptly, then almost covered her mouth when she realized how she said it. Damn it! Why did I blurt that out?! It must be that damn marajuana fumes in the air, she thought.

Bear smiled at her in a knowing way. “Oh I see. I understand you now. You like this guy, and you want him to be yours, but you’re too chicken to do anything about it.”

Helga felt as if the world just got turned on its head. The pain in her stomach and abdomen was long gone, replaced by a chill in her spine that this inmate could pick up on her secret that quickly. Was she really that transparent to them?!

“N-No! You’ve got to be kidding me?! Me and that football-headed little twerp?! I’d rather kiss a cow than kiss him again –” Now Helga really did cover her mouth with both hands. Her eyes widened at her own traitorous voice.

“Aha! So it’s true!” Trashmouth said enjoying Helga’s obvious slips of the tongue.

Miranda blinked and looked at her, “You actually kissed him? Like on thelips kissed him?” She looked amazed at that. “Wow, that’s amazing!”

Bear looked at her surprised, “You mean you’ve never kissed a boy before, Riley?”

“Of course not, I’m only nine!” Miranda said, looking at the older girl surprised. “I mean, I never even kissed Billy Nash . . . though, I wanted to.” She looked away and added that last part in a sad whisper.

Helga and the others looked at her, none of them speaking for a moment as the younger girl wiped her eyes. He must have been her first crush, Helga realized and suddenly felt a stab of anger at the jerk who used her.

“Well, neither have I,” PG said, looking a bit sad also. “I mean, what boy in their right mind would want to kiss a weirdo?”

“You’re not a weirdo,” Miranda said, looking at PG sternly.

“Yeah, you’re just a girl . . . who, um, likes to hang out with and talk to birds more than people,” Trashmouth said in her usual teasing way as she continued to look through the racy deck of cards curiously.

“And what about you, O’Feir?” PG said, giving Trashmouth a look of annoyance. “Have you ever kissed a boy before then?”

“Nope, and I don’t care to either,” she said looking up at them now. “They’re noting but jerks who go around breaking people’s hearts and leaving them when they get what they want. You let them in and you regret it later on. They start out being nice to you and your friends, then they start hitting you around and . . .” She trailed off and bit her lip looking away. “Frankly, I’m better off without them.” There had been no hint of any humor at all in her words.

After hearing those stories from her current friends on the inside, Helga realized for the first time just how lucky she was to have a great guy like Arnold, despite her own past treatment of him and pushing him away because of her own stupid fears. She knew then that if she ever got out of this place, her relationship with Arnold (at least as it stood) would be much better. She would see to that.

“So Pataki, tell us about this boy, Arnold,” Bear said, looking at her curiously. “You and me seem to be the only ones here with details so far. Come on, share.” The other girls looked at her expectantly also.

Helga frowned, “What about you? Why don’t you share first?”

“I asked first,” Bear said smiling a little, displaying her white teeth. “So spill girl. How many times have you kissed him and how far have you gone?”

Blinking, Helga understood that she was asking for juicy stories. Her first instinct was to deny anything and make up something just to pacify their curiosity. However, the stories from the others, and her own determination to change things, mixed in with two weeks of anxiety and separation from her beloved – not to mention the fumes from the joint in the small enclosed room they were in – made her reconsider the idea.

“You guys promise not to tell anyone? I mean, under pain of death, or dismemberment?” Helga asked looking at them carefully.

“You’re secrets are safe with us,” Trashmouth said smiling. “Besides, it’s not like we’re going to write to your little friend and spill the beans, or anything.” She had a gleam in her eyes when she said that, and Helga reminded herself to blot out the return address on the letter’s envelope when she got the chance, just in case.

Helga sighed, thinking that she must be crazy to do this – or maybe just high off of marijuana smoke – but what the hell. “Okay, fine.”

For the next half hour or so, Helga did the last thing she ever thought she would do in Cherry Hell – she spilled her guts out about her secret love for Arnold. At first it was slow, but then things spilled out of her faster and faster.

Helga told about how they meet in preschool, about how she spent the better part of six years secretly loving him and then hiding that love behind her petty pranks and sarcastic tongue-lashings (which Bear and Trashmouth both howled in laugher over) about how she kissed him after maneuvering to get into a school play, about the spring break at the beach where she protected him from that older girl summer who was going to use him and later kissed him again. She even told them about the time that she saw Arnold naked when she was hiding in his room trying to get back a blabbermouth parrot (which earned her some whistles, claps and “Ooooohs” from the others). Finally she got to the incident where they kissed on the rooftop of the FTI building when they saved Arnold’s neighborhood.

Helga took a sip from her can of soda to wet her dry throat, “We were getting along much better after that, I know he likes me deep down and I think I was this close to getting him to say so, when I ended up in this place.” She looked up at the others to see their reactions.

All five of them were giving her really sympathetic looks. Miranda shook her head and whispered, “Wow, that’s really amazing. Loving someone almost your whole life like that.”

PG nodded, smiling at her. “You’re lucky to have someone you love.”

Trashmouth just sighed and shook her head, “Yeah it’s tragic. You love this dense little twerp and he doesn’t notice. Boys are just so damn clueless.”

Helga actually smiled over that, “Tell me about it.”

Bear just smiled at her. “Wow Helga, you’ve really gone through a lot for this guy. And from the sounds of it, this Arnold boy has done a lot for you too. You are lucky to have someone that cool in your life.”

“Thanks Bear,” Helga said smiling at her slightly.

“So Bear, now it’s your turn to spill?” Trashmouth said, finishing off her own Yahoo soda. “Give us your own little love story then.”

Bear smirked and said, “Well, I don’t have a long time love affair like Pataki here (at those words, Helga blushed a little) but I think I have all of your beat when it comes to boys. I had this guy I knew, named Marcus. He was in another class in my school, same grade as me though. He was really cool and we started going out in fifth grade. He played basketball and after games, he and I would go out and have fun. Sometimes we would skip classes and kiss under the bleachers in the gym. One time we got caught and were sent to detention for it.”

She had a small sad smile on her face. “Marcus was such a great guy. Even though I did have a tough girl rep at my school, he still went out with me and didn’t care that it wasn’t part of the social order.”

“What happened with him?” Helga asked, folding her arms around her legs and looking at Bear intently.

Bear sighed and said, “Well, after I got sent here, he wrote to me a few times, and I called him twice, but things just sort-of slacked off. He’s obviously getting on with his life while I am in here.” She frowned and drank down her own soda.

“That sucks,” PG said, looking down at her shoes. Miranda nodded also.

Helga just looked at Bear and thought about what she said. What if Arnold forgot about her? What if him and Phoebe and Gerald just gave up and went on with their lives? Could she handle that the way Bear did?

“So did you slip old Marcus the tongue, Bear?” Trashmouth asked, looked over at her and smiling. She obviously wanted to hear the juicy details.

The question seemed to bring Bear out of her thoughts. She actually smiled and said, “Oh you better believe it. Sometimes we would go over to his place and make out. I once gave him a hickey that almost lasted a month.” She smiled proudly at that. “Damn I’m good.”

Miranda blinked at that. “You actually made out with a guy? Wow! What’s that like?” The others leaned in, curious about that.

Smiling in a cocky way, Bear said, “Oh you’re still too young for that sort of thing kid, but let me tell you it’s awesome. Especially when the guy kissed you right along your neck and shoulders. It sends a shiver all the way down your whole body . . .”

“Ahh, virgin ears! Virgin ears!” Trashmouth said covering her ears and laughing like a loon. PG giggled and Helga shook her head smiling.

Bear smirked and said, “Hey don’t knock it unless you tried it, honey. My older sister Patty is in high school and has a boyfriend and they make out all the time. Hell, they’ve even done it.”

PG blinked and looked at her. “Done what?” Miranda also looked at the Bear a little confused, “You mean they make out also?” Trashmouth also looked at Bear blinking, now honestly curious. Helga was also intrigued.

Bear seemed to realize how young the others were and said, “Um, maybe we should skip that –”

“Oh come on, you can tell us,” Trashmouth said, now fully paying attention to her. “What did they do?”

The older inmate shrugged, “You know . . . ‘it’.” She bit her lip looking at all their confused expressions. “Haven’t any of your parents ever explained that to you?”

“Explained what?” Miranda asked.

“It,” Bear said, now turning a bit red on her cheeks. “You know . . .‘doing it’.” When she saw they were still slightly confused, she sighed and blurted it out. “Sex.”

Now all of them understood and they all blushed now. Helga blinked over and over at that. The only things she knew about sex where from movies, and even those only showed a few brief moments where two people were just naked under covers. Then something Bear said came back to her and she asked, “Hold on, how do you know your older sister and her boyfriend . . . um, ‘did it’ anyhow?”

Bear bit her lip and said, “I um, actually spied on them once and saw.” She actually looked embarrassed about admitting that. She frowned at the shocked looks all of them gave her. “Hey I was just curious, okay?”

Trashmouth smirked now and said, “So what did you see? Come on, tell us! Don’t keep us in suspense. We’re all ladies here, you can tell us.” She sat with her legs folded under her Indian-style, like a little girl waiting to hear her kindergarten teacher read her The Cat and The Hat. At least that’s how she would look if she didn’t have that amused, and slightly perverted smirk on her face.

Helga was also curious about it all, since she didn’t see Bob, or Miriam as the sort of parents she could ask about that sort of thing. That only left Olga, and she wasn’t about to ask her about anything that embarrassing. She looked at Bear and said, “Hey, I spilled my guts out about the guy I loved, this is the least you can do.”

Both PG and Miranda were looking at Bear with wide-eyed curiosity as well.

Bear just looked at them, and then shrugged. “What the hell. You ladies asked for it.”

“Hell yeah we asked for it, now tell us all about ‘it’, before we all go nuts and lose it,” Trashmouth said, unable to resist the pun. Everyone laughed and that loosened the mood in now the pot-smelling room.

Bear shook her head, then looked at Helga, “Well, I guess since Pataki just had her first period. I think she, and the rest of you should know what’s in store for the future.” She took out a cigarette and lit it, then told them.

About five minutes later, Bear finished her very detailed description of what she’d seen and heard her older sister and her boyfriend do. Along with this, she also included details on the subject that she’d read about in romance novels and dirty movies that her father had hidden in his closet in vivid detail.

“Well, there you go ladies,” she said, leaning back and looking at each of them with a very serious expression on her face. “That’s what boys and girls do together when they get older.”

The four younger girls looked at her wide-eyed, each one of them had a different expression of shock on their faces. They looked at one another a moment, then let out a single, collective: “Eeewwwww!!”

“That’s so gross!” PG said, shaking her head a little, as if trying to get the images out of her mind. Miranda was still looking at Bear with a slightly thoughtful look on her face, as if struggling to believe what she just heard.

Trashmouth just went back to looking at the dirty poker cards and raising an eyebrow, then blinked and said to herself, “Like hell I’m letting some jerk do that to me.”

Helga just looked down, and her mind was rushing with images of what she’d been told. The concepts of what Bear explained to her were somewhat beyond her. No matter how much she loved Arnold, the idea of going that far with him – at least at this point in their lives – was a bit too much for her to think of. The images wouldn’t form.

Just as well, Helga thought to herself. Right now, I’d be happy if I just got to kiss Arnold on themouth again. The idea of french kissing him was one that brought a blush to her cheeks. If she’d of had just a little while longer back on the FTI balcony . . .

Bear just took out her pack of cigarettes and lit another one. “Well ladies, now that we’ve told enough dirty stories, think we can get down to playing cards before the guards cut off the lights?” The other four girls jumped at the chance and they played rummy the rest of the time. They kept points on a notepad that Trashmouth kept to write letters home.

They joked and laughed the whole time about other things involving guys they knew, friends on the outside and other topics. By the time the guard on the intercom told them it was five minutes to lights out, PG was the one ahead with the most points and grinning over her rummy playing skills.

Bear stood up and yawned loudly. “Well, goodnight ladies. See you at breakfast.”

Trashmouth smirked, “Can’t wait to see what Sutherland is going to poison us with tomorrow.”

PG smiled, “Night everyone . . . oh and Tony said night as well.”

“Well ‘coo-coo-cachoo’ to him too,” Trashmouth said and laughed.

“Hey you stole my sarcasm!” Helga said in mock annoyance now. “Nobody rips off Helga G. Pataki and gets away with it!” Then she picked up the pillow from her bunk and hit her with it.

Trashmouth laughed and said, “Oh you wanna play rough huh?” Then she tossed her own pillow from her bunk at Helga, who ducked laughing. Suddenly Bear grabbed Helga from behind. “Hey!”

“Free licks!” Bear said laughing. Trashmouth, PG and Miranda both laughed as they took turns pummeling a laughing Helga Pataki with the pillows. Once they were done, Bear let Helga go and said, “Happy ‘First Day On The Rag’ Day.”

Helga shook her head smiling and then looked at all of them. “You guys are the best. I mean it.” She looked at them and for the first time since she was put in this place, she actually felt like she had on the outside. “Thanks for all this.”

Bear just smiled and nodded, “Goodnight, Helga.” She turned and left. “See you tomorrow morning,” PG said and turned to leave also.

“Night PG . . . oh you too Tony,” Helga added the last hearing the pigeon coo. She looked at Miranda, who smiled and said, “Goodnight, Helga.” Then she left with PG. Helga closed the door behind them hearing the guard on duty tonight telling everyone to get to their rooms. She then helped Trashmouth put away the garbage. The redhead blew out the candle and put it away.

“Criminy, the room still smells like that pot stuff,” Helga said, feeling sleepy and slightly dizzy from the smell.

“It’ll go away tomorrow,” her roommate assured her, then turned to look at her. “Um, I wanted to say . . . I’m sorry I said that stuff about Arnold before.” Helga blinked at that. “I know that my look on boys ain’t very good, and with good reasons for me, but if he’s half as good as you said, then you’re lucky you found someone.” Then she added, “Oh and if he forgets you, then he is a doofus.”

Helga smiled and said, “Thanks Shannon, that means a lot to me.” She took out Arnold’s picture and set it on her bunk before she changed clothes. She blinked and then turned his picture upside down as she changed, feeling a bit irrationally self-conscious after the whole “Birds and the Bees” talk from before. Helga changed her pad also, frowning a bit because it was so sticky. It was covered in blood. “Criminy, I’m never going to get used to this.”

Trashmouth was already laying in her bunk and looking up at the ceiling. “Oh you will, and at least its only for five days out of the month at the most.” She yawned then and closed her eyes.

“Great,” Helga muttered to herself as she put a fresh pad in her underwear and then put on a pair of shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt to sleep in. Then she laid down and put Arnold’s picture back above her in the springs and looked at Arnold’s smiling face. She grinned as the fantasy about french kissing Arnold came to her mind and she closed her eyes and fell asleep, feeling content and happy, despite the pain in her abdomen. Her dreams were of Arnold and his smiling face.

It would be the last time she had a good dream for the remainder of her stay in Cherry Hell.

To Be Continued . . . .

Yeah I know, that last line is a bit ominous, huh? Well you know that old saying, it’s always darkest before the dawn. In Helga’s case, the darkest parts are coming up. Be afraid for her – be very afraid!Next chapter, Arnold gets a big clue in the ongoing mystery of who framed Helga. Yep, next chapter, totally Arnold. Read and Review! -D.R.