“Cool,” he said, and she saw the interest warm his eyes. Guys liked ballerinas, she had discovered. They were feminine and mysterious. “You want to go get some ice cream?” Trevor said.

Dee considered, shrugged, got up and dusted the sand off.

Trevor got up too then said, “Um, you have a thing on you. On the back of your shorts.”

Dee twisted her head round to look. There was a dark stain on the white denim. Dee said, “Oh, I must have sat on something.” She took her T-shirt off and tied it round her waist. “You go ahead. I’ll meet you there.”

She hurried to the women’s restrooms, where there was a line. People were taking their little kids into the stall with them, sometimes three at a time, and then they all had to go. It was taking a really long time. Dee could feel everything getting worse as she waited. She felt a snail of blood crawl down her inner thigh. She pulled out fistfuls of paper towel and swabbed at it. Eventually she said to the big, sweating woman in front of her, “Um, do you by any chance have a sanitary pad?”

The woman stared at her. “There’s a machine,” she said. “Right there on the wall.”

Dee left her place in line and went to the machine. It only took quarters. She had a dollar and some dimes. “Does anyone have change for a dollar?”

A woman with a red-faced baby on her shoulder said, “Where’s your mom? She should be taking care of you.”

“Does anyone here have change, please?” Dee made her tone sarcastic and a little angry, so that they wouldn’t see that she was literally about to cry.

A lady with a blond bob gave her four quarters. But the machine was broken and the quarters tinkled back into the slot again and again. Blinking back tears, Dee returned them to the lady.

She cleaned herself up as best she could. The women in line watched as Dee rinsed her shorts in the sink. Jesus, she was just in her bathing suit like everyone else. She kept the T-shirt round her waist. It hid everything, so that was OK. She joined the line again and waited.

When she got to the ice-cream place Trevor wasn’t there. She gave it a few minutes, but she knew he wasn’t coming. Maybe she took too long in the restroom and he gave up. But probably he didn’t want to buy ice cream for a girl who didn’t even know when her period was coming.