Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf

Before bed, I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, staring at myself in the mirror. Even after my shower, it was still obvious that I had a rough day. My eyes were rimmed in red, my face looking paler than usual.

Shaking my head and leaving the bathroom, I tried to assure myself that everything would be better tomorrow.

I was on the verge of falling asleep when I remembered that I had an English paper do. “Shit,” I mumbled, pulling myself up onto my elbow to look at my calendar to make sure that it wasn’t due tomorrow. If it was, I would be totally screwed.

But instead of finding my English due date, I noticed another due date: when I was supposed to get my period.

My eyes stared, realizing that I was already two weeks and a couple days late. Instantly, tears started making tracks down my face as I prayed over and over again that I was making things up in my head. That the big red circle wasn’t staring at me like it was.

Taking a deep breath and seeing that my paper wasn’t due until the next week, I sat back onto my bed and put my head in my hands, just focusing on trying to get myself back together.

Okay, so I wasn’t hit by a bus, and I wasn’t dead…but I definitely would be if I was right. Because Aileen would kill me.

* * *

The next morning, I went to my locker and looked around, hoping that Puck wouldn’t show up. He was the last person that I needed to see, really. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn’t really want to see anyone. I felt like if anyone even said hi, I would probably blurt out what was plaguing my mind. The whole school knew from what happened with Quinn that being pregnant was not something that a girl wanted to be at McKinley High.

Biting my lip, I made my way down the hallway. Just as I was about to head into the classroom, I heard a voice over the hum of everyone else. “Ellie!” Ugh. Puck’s voice.

Feeling a burst of adrenaline course through my body, I scampered into the classroom and sat down in my seat, letting out a breath of relief. As I took out my notebook, Sam took a seat next to me.

It took a second for me to realize that he was staring at me. “What?” I questioned nervously. From how his eyebrow raised slightly, I knew that he could hear the shaking in my voice.

“You okay?” he asked, keeping that same look on his face.

“I’m fine,” I responded, and I was shocked that all shaking was gone from my voice. “You just freaked me out. I didn’t know you were sitting there.”

He nodded, completely accepting this explanation, before turning toward the board, where our teacher was putting some notes up before class started.

Sighing inwardly, I sank down in my seat and started coloring in the little boxes that are formed from the margin with the edge of the paper, trying to clear my mind of everything.

* * *

At lunch, I knew that I had no choice but to face Puck. My stomach was turning, and I felt like I was on the verge of puking. When I realized that it was just another symptom of what might be wrong with me, I gulped and tried to paste a fake smile on my face.

I didn’t know it was that unbelievable before I sat down at the table across from Kurt and he stared at me with a look that conveyed disgust and worry at the same time. “Are you in pain?”

“No,” I faked a laugh. “I’m just…I dunno. I feel kind of crappy, but I don’t want everyone to know, I guess.”

“Oh, please. If you want to fake being happy, you’re gonna have to do a lot better than that.”

“I’m getting that.” I rolled my eyes and opened up my lunch. Instead of starting, I just twisted the top off my water bottle and took tiny sips.

“Where’s Puck?” Kurt asked, looking around the cafeteria.

“Here!” he responded, pulling out the chair next to me and sitting down. He leaned over and kissed my cheek, as if none of the awkwardness from the day before had ever happened. Maybe I needed to pretend that, too. After all, I certainly didn’t need another thing plaguing my mind at the moment.

“Aw, aren’t you two just so cute?” Kurt commented. I wasn’t really sure whether he was being sarcastic or not, but it was probably just better if I pretended that he wasn’t.

“Oh, thanks,” I replied, using the same sort of ambiguous tone.

He clearly took it as sarcasm because he just straightened up and fixed his hair in that way of his. “Well, then.”

I laughed again, and this one sounded way more genuine. Okay, so I wasn’t really up for any Academy Awards, but thankfully, I didn’t have to be that great in order to convince some teenagers. Especially some as dumb as Puck.

I mean that in the nicest, most loving way possible, of course.

Through lunch, I just kind of eavesdropped on Kurt talking to Mercedes about the latest fashions from a Betsey Johnson fashion show the week before.

“Hey, what’s up with you?” Puck asked me finally, his eyebrows pulling together. “You’ve been weird since yesterday.”

I swallowed a little more water before looking him in the eye. My teeth clenched as I realized that I really didn’t want to keep secrets from him. He did have a right to know.

Leaning over, I whispered in his ear, “Meet me at my locker after school, okay?”

He stared at me, now thoroughly scared. He wouldn’t show it blatantly, of course, but I could see little flashes flickering in his eyes. Thankfully, he was smart enough to keep from asking anymore questions, since it was kind of obvious that I really wasn’t willing to talk about it in the busy cafeteria, where a hundred different kids could overhear us.

Toward the end of lunch, I stood up and threw away my untouched food. If I had eaten anything, I would have puked for sure.

* * *

At the end of the day, I was surprised to find that Puck was actually waiting at my locker for me to get there. I had kind of planned for him to show up a little later, like when I was almost finished. Who knew that he’d be so eager to find out what was making me act strangely?

Unless he already knew.

Suddenly, it clicked and my heart started to race. He wasn’t going to want anything to do with me once he found out. I was going to be yesterday’s news, and I was going to have to switch schools. Thinking about it more, Aileen wouldn’t want a slut like me in her house, either. So I guess that would mean that I’d end up on the street. Wonderful.

“You don’t have cancer, do you?” Puck spat like he had been worrying about it since he suspected that I was acting weirdly.

For the first time in the past two days, I burst into laughter. “No, I don’t have cancer. So you can relax about that.”

He let out an audible sigh of relief before smirking a little and leaning against the lockers. “Okay, so what’s going on?”

I started biting my lip again as I spun the combination on my locker. Then, I looked up and down the hallway to make sure that no one was around that could hear what I was about to say.

“Well…wow, this is going to be so bad, but I’m…late.”

Time seemed to stand still as he stared at me. To him, I’m sure that it was just like he was reliving a nightmare, and his reaction was scaring me. I was almost begging him to say something, anything, even if it was that I was disgusting and he hated me.

“Like, your…period’s late?”

I nodded, afraid that my voice would crack if I spoke.

And then, he laughed. A big laugh, one of those that come right from the belly. “Wow, Ellie. I’m sure you’re fine. Unless you're sterile or something.”

Shoving him, I could feel my face heat up. “I could be pregnant here, and you’re making jokes? How can you do that?”

He just scoffed and looked me in the eyes, putting a hand on each of my shoulders. “Ellie, you can’t get pregnant from me. I got a vasectomy.”

My eyebrows shot to my hairline. “You got a what?!”