Chapter VII: JB's New Clothes
"Hi, Ms Marks" I said when I saw here walking towards the infirmary door where I was already waiting.
"Why, hi to you too, Jade. You're bright and early this morning, aren't you?"
"You want help caring stuff?" She already had a tray from the cafeteria even though its doors weren't open yet.
"Sure can you hold this while I get the door."
"I've got your breakfast here to too, Jade. Would you like to eat in here?"
"'K," I said. I mean why not, and I'd be less likely to get teased too.
I sat at the desk in the rolling chair. The table was too high, so I had to sit on legs or kneel to reach it; I'm use to stuff like that. She took the milk out of my hand as I was opening it and fixed the cereal for me. She only had to open the juice for enough to get a straw in it because she kept straws in her desk.
Then when I leaned forward to take the first bite, the chair rolled backwards, and the whole bowl and some of the of the juice flopped all down my shirt, and I fell out of the chair on to the desk.
I guess I started to cry. Ms Marks came over and helped me up. "Oh, Jade, I'm sorry about that old chair. It wasn't your fault at all. Let's go in to your room and get you cleaned up. There, there. It's going to be fine."
"But I messed up my clothes again. I - doing that - al - the time."
"Well, this time it is OK, because I have some new things for you."
She had carried me into the room I went into yesterday, but now there were kind'a purple sheets on the bed. Holly the Bear was sitting on the pillows instead of on the shelf now.
She put me down on the bed and took my shirt and pants off. There was a sink right in the room, and she wet a wash cloth and washed my chest and stomach. She said, "Stay right there and play with Holly while I clean up the mess. Be right back!"
I picked Holly up and hugged her. This was awful! - again!! I threw the stupid bear onto the floor. Then put my head in the pillows and just cried. Why was all this always happening to me? I had always had a way of getting into trouble, but for the third day in a row some lady was having to wash my clothes And she had undressed me like a baby too! Or at least a little kid.
But both of the ladies had been nice about it, hadn't they? It wasn't like what my grandma or foster home people or even my mom would have done at all. I felt sorry for Holly and went and picked her up and held her while I sat curled up on the bed.
I tried to stop crying. Why were the ladies here so different - nice - to me? I thought about the candy that Ms Marks and Ms Evens both gave me and started licking my thumb. That's what I was doing when Ms Marks came in.
She said, "Does that thumb taste good, Jade." She was smiling, and I wasn't sure if she was teasing or not.
"I was pretending it had candy on it," I said, still sobbing though I tried not to.
"That's OK, but I think it is still to early for real candy. Let's get your medicine on you now, since you're almost ready."
I lay down on my back. I knew this routine by now, of course.
She lifted my butt up by raising my legs then spread a towel under it before she put me down. She pulled my underwear off and told me to pull my knees way up again.
This time the first medicine she used was real sticky. But other than that she did everything like she did it yesterday. I said, "Ms Marks, can't I try to do it myself. This is like getting a diaper put on, and I'm too big."
I had had my hands on my privates, and she pushed them away, and started rubbing oil around and on them. "Jade, lots of big people do have to wear diapers sometimes you know, and it isn't their fault when that happens. When there is something wrong there is nothing wrong with doctors and nurses doing there jobs. So don't be ashamed. OK?"
I nodded and asked if I was going to have to wear my gym clothes all day again.
She said, "Nope, like I said, I have some new clothes for you to wear at school. I will keep them, and keep them clean for you. Does that sound good?"
"Yeah, guess."
Ms Marks pulled some things out of a shopping bag and said, "First thing is some new underclothes. I got you a different kind. They are thicker at the front, because you said you had little drips sometimes." She showed me a pair of underwear that was white with little blue, red and yellow dots all over it, and slipped them up my legs.
I said, "Hey, these are too small." Even lying on the bed I could tell they didn't come to the top of my crack, and also the elastic part around the waste was way thinner than any I had worn before.
Ms Marks told me to stand up and then looked at me and pulled on the unders. She said, "Nope, Jade, that is just like they should fit. Put your hand on the front and feel how soft and thick they are. That will be good for your rash, and so will having them tighter and higher on the legs too."
"Are you sure boys wear these?" I asked.
"Of course they do, but girls do too, girls leak like that too and they care about it more than boys. That is shy they wear them more often. Maybe when you have PE we will have to think of something."
She picked up a pair of bright red shorts and a pair of bluish-green ones. "And you also have these," she said.
I picked them up. The legs were shorter than usual, but I was use to hand-me-downs at foster homes, so them being small on me wasn't a big deal. Both of them had cuffs, like at the bottom of pants, but the red ones didn't have a fly, just a flap to make them look like they did.
"Ms Marks, how could I go pee in these? You got to pull them down or something. The boys would see my butt if I did that."
"Oh, just a bit. You could go in the stalls."
I rolled my eyes. I had decided she was nice really, but she sure knew nothing about boy's rooms.
"There aren't any doors, and people tease you if you sit down in there, especially kids like me."
"Oh, OK. I guess we will go with the green ones. Now for a top." She meant a shirt. There were four. Two of them were those knit kind, with just three buttons and a collar, one white, one bright yellow. There others were regular shirts, T-shirts. The first she showed me was light blue and had a teddy bear on it! The second was yellow again, but pale yellow and it had a star with a bunch of different points and the middle was bluish-green like the shorts.
Ms Marks might be nice and smart, but how could she work at a school and not know that boys didn't wear teddy bears, or that yellow was a girls color? I guess she saw the look on my face because she said, "You think people would tease you if you wore the bear? Well I picked that because it looks like Holly, but we can save it for another time too. I didn't have a lot to pick from, I'll look at some other stores sometime."
I said, "Does the school pay for this? You shouldn't buy me stuff, my mom might get mad."
"It's not new really, Jade. I got them at a second hand store. I just cleaned them up real well, is all."
They felt a lot nicer than all the stuff I got from used clothes stores before, which was all most all I got. She must have been good at cleaning them.
I thought the pale yellow might not get me teased too much and I couldn't hurt her feelings too much, could I? So I picked it up and started to put it on.
Ms Marks took it from me and said, "Tell you what - let's not put them on until after breakfast, OK. Just in case."
I guess I couldn't fight that, I mean I already had messed up some clothes. Also, I'd figured I wasn't gonna have breakfast since I had spilled mine.
"You mean you can get me some more?" I said with a smile.
"I'll just let you have mine. I can get more any time because I'm the nurse," she said.
She took my hand as we walked back to the front office. I didn't even think about the fact that I only had on skimpy polka-dot underwear and socks. I mean she just made it seem so regular.
When I finished eating she said, "Scoot back to your room, Jade, and I'll come and dress you as soon as I get this cleaned up."
And I did. Scoot, that is, about halfway down the hall, before I thought about her coming in to dress me. Then I walked slowly the rest of he way, sat on the bed and held Holly.
I wondered if she thought I was really just a little kid because I was so small. And I thought Ms Evens must too. Both had called me sweetheart and stuff and helped do stuff that even little kids could do alone. And they held and hugged me too. And I didn't mind, which made me feel real weird too. But everyone had always told me I was weird, or lots worse things than that, so maybe it didn't matter.
When Ms Marks came in I said, "You know I can dress myself."
"Well. Of course you can!" she said, "But I thought you might want help because they are a bet different is all. Just let me give you a hand."
I got off the bed, and she picked up the green shorts she said, "You know this color is called jade, just like your name, that's why I picked them. I'm glad you like them." Then she held the shorts open down near the floor. I guess she thought that was giving me a hand, but at least I wasn't being dressed lying down this time.
I put my hands on her shoulders and stepped in to them. Just then a voice said, "Hi Ms Marks. I'm hear."
I tried to jump around behind the nurse, but she grabbed my waist and held me. She said, just like nothing was strange, "Good Morning, Abby. Are the busses here already? I guess I better hurry, hadn't I?"
She had left my shorts around my knees while she said that. I leaned forward and hid my head on her shoulders. When she had them up, she said, "Stand up, so I can zip them, Jade. Can you get the maize socks out of that bag, Abby?"
Abby handed the socks to Ms Marks and said, "Don't be shy, JB I have a twin brother who runs around the horse in his boxers all the time, and he's not nearly as cute as you."
But her brother probably wasn't being dressed by the school nurse at the time, and probably wasn't as small as me, and probably... I just looked down at my feet. Ms Marks sat me on the bed and changed my socks to the yellow ones.
After putting my socks and shoe on my feet, Ms Marks demanded her usual payment for the treatment. I gave her a hug; she gave me one back; Abby grinned at us. This day had started off even worse than yesterday; but the hugs still felt good.
I guess I might be to needy to be a writer. I got some good comments on the 1st chapter but nothing since then. I get lots of views, and that's nice, but late at night I wonder if people are just looking at this like people look at a train wreck, or something. Is anyone waiting for More???