Who is brave enough to share their most embarrassing moment with the whole cyber world for the sake of art? Me! That's who! Today's writing assignment takes me back to my senior year of high school. I'm using short story form with only necessary description and dialogue. Nothing fancy, just telling the story.
The Color Red
The bell rang loudly and the school day was over. My fellow students began vacating the classroom quickly while I sat, waiting. Half way through class I had noticed something moist and wet on my chair. I grew increasingly uncomfortable until the class finally ended. I stayed there, glued to my chair, until the very last student was gone. My AP English teacher, Mr. Olsen, sat at his desk, looking over song lyrics. He was always extolling the virtues of various song writers, his favorite being Bob Dylan. You could always distract our beloved teacher from presenting an assignment by beginning a discussion on classic rock from the sixties and seventies. Invariably, the guitar would come out and Mr. Olsen would prop himself up on his stool at the front of the room, playing and singing until class ended.
I sat there, for nearly ten minutes, until Mr. Olsen looked up and noticed that I was still seated long after class had ended, definitely unusual for me.
"Did you need something, Julie?" Mr. Olsen looked at me quizzically.
"Mr. Olsen, here's how this is gonna go." These days he would probably be afraid I had a gun or a bomb with what I said. Since it wasn't the gun era yet, he just looked at me, his face a question mark.
"I need you to bring me paper towels and some Windex and then I need you to leave."
His face registered understanding and Mr. Olsen promptly rose from his chair, grabbed a roll of paper towels and bottle of cleaning spray from the window ledge and walked them over to me. Setting the cleaning supplies on the desk, he said softly, "Goodbye Julie. Have a nice day." And he walked out the door, leaving me to my calamity.
Rising from my seat, I looked at the red puddle on my chair and was mortified. I had always had heavy, painful periods but I had never had an experience like this before. Using several paper towels, I wiped up the mess and sprayed the chair clean. I had a cell phone with me, which was a novelty for your average teenager in 1999. I was lucky to have it and called my mom to come pick me up right at the door closest to me.
I tied my sweater around my waist, yet another lucky thing to have with me at the time, and then waited outside with my back to the wall until Mama arrived. The ten or so feet to the car seemed like miles as I crossed them and then climbed into the Suburban carefully, not wanting anyone outside to suspect what I was hiding.
We went home and I had a lovely shower. It was great to be physically clean and to feel like I had washed my humiliation down the drain. My clothing was not so lucky. Too bad, I really liked those pants.
At school the next day, Mr. Olsen acted as though nothing had happened, and I did the same. Inside though, I knew that something had changed between us. There was a new kinship and respect-- I did the very best I could with all of my assignments from then on. I also made doubly sure that I took the proper precautions when the same time came around the next month.
What is your most embarrassing moment? What did you learn from it? Have you written it down for posterity? If not, why? We all go through some pretty silly stuff in our lives. Knowing that we are not alone is always comforting. So share it! :) Most likely you will end up laughing as I did.
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