“Someone at school.”

It was said so quietly Alice almost missed it. “Mean girl or mean boy?”

Holly mumbled something unintelligible into her pillow.

“How about you sit up and tell me?”

Holly hiccuped and eventually sat up, her entire body slumped and dejected. “It was Olivia Grayson.”

“How did she upset you?”

Holly’s face flushed pink.

Alice thought of all the things teenage girls found embarrassing and decided it was unwise to try and guess. “You can tell me, because I bet whatever Olivia said or did probably happened to me when I was at school.”

Holly looked doubtful so Alice leaned in conspiratorially. “You might not have guessed it by looking at me now, especially with me wearing these elephant print pants, but I was pretty dorky when I was at school.”

Holly smiled weakly. “You’re still a bit dorky, Alice. But in the best way,” she quickly added.

“That’s kind, but would Olivia appreciate my dorky super powers?”

Holly shook her head. “She’s one of the cool girls.”

“Ah.” Alice recalled the cool girls and their snarky comments. “And?”

“I got my—” her voice dropped, “—period.”

Something about the way she said the word made Alice wonder if this was Holly’s first period. It was like a knife to her own heart. Holly had no real sense that periods meant everything was working well and one day, if she wished, she could have a baby. Alice, on the other hand, had endured years of sometimes painful and often irregular periods and now, when she was more than ready to have a baby, her body had failed her, drying up like a wrinkled prune and old before its time.

She blinked back her own tears. “Have you had a period before?”

Holly shook her head. “Mom told me about them. She gave me some stuff and said I’d get it in fifth or sixth grade, but I didn’t. I threw them out cos they were old.”

Alice ached to hug her. “So you didn’t have anything with you?”

Again, the head shake. “Olivia was in the toilets when I … so I asked her for a pad. She told me—” Holly’s voice broke and tears splashed her cheek.

Even though Alice had no idea what Oliva Grayson had said, she already knew she wanted to thump her. This time she gave in to instinct and pulled Holly in close. “I bet whatever she said to you, it was wrong.”

Holly’s head thrashed against Alice’s chest.

“I bet you a Mars Bar she’s wrong. But the only way to win the bet is to tell me what she said.”

Holly mumbled something into Alice’s sweater.

She dropped her arms and lifted Holly’s chin with her fingers. “Say it again, this time for chocolate.”

Holly’s lips quivered and her voice was soft. “‘Only dirty trash wear pads and sit in their own blood.’”

Spare us from treasures like Olivia. “Well that’s wrong for a start. Did she say anything else?”