What.... strategies?
In an all girls school....
I was an 'early developer' I was told.
Apparently this meant being the focus of most attention in the girls changing room.
I was taller, I seemed to tower over them all.
Bras were much more difficult to remove, the process itself was eye-catching, <plans painting>
There was a definite lack of supervision and the bullies loved the potential it afforded and the security.
I was 12 years old, maybe 13, but I knew how to recognise early signals of tactical manoeuvring when I saw it enacted and the implications.
I'd been an 'early developer' for some years, I was familiar with hormonal and genetic effects, causes and duration. I knew about guilt association and the intellectual explanation in reply to the biblical. I was familiar with a wide range of sexual terms, colloquial and clinical. I had an opinion on Freud's theory.
I was attending an all girls catholic school, I had no one to discuss these things with, I naturally wanted to learn and sought the information out. (You just don't get tested on stuff like this - no one expects it?).
I remember....
I was stood facing the hook in the girls changing room, pausing as I lifted my bag up - in the process of removing it. The hairs on the back of my neck tingled. I turned around on the spot. I looked around thinking,
"What is different?"
There were no other girls around apart from a couple in the opposite area, who were struggling to put on their socks without getting them wet. From where I was standing, you could notice the contrast in colour underlining the change between the changing area and the shower stalls that lay beyond. Though it was mostly grey.
I turned my head to one side, looking for something. Something told me that the girls were about to launch another attack. I couldn't hear whispering, could I? I couldn't see them in a group anywhere, though it did seem odd that there were hardly any girls at all in sight.
This was cunning.
They had planned this?
This was new.
I waited
(Does that count as encouragement, do you think?)
