The Secret Lives of Two Preteen Girls...

Back when my oldest sister was still married to her first husband and Sally Jesse Raphael was all the rage with her giant-rimmed, red glasses, I experienced an embarrassment that will go in my hall of shame for all time. But, surprisingly, I'm not as ashamed as I should be.

First, you need some background. Here is a rude drawing of the layout of my parents' master bedroom. 

Important to note, the toilet was separated by the bedroom with a pocket door and the sinks, which had mirrors above each, mirrored each other.

Also important to point out that girls being the silly creatures we are, go to the bathroom together and make this very private affair quite social. I do not intend to explain this phenomenon as that would be impossible.

On to my story... my sister, two years older than I am, was always my partner in crime. We went everywhere together, giggling all the way. On this most embarrassing occasion, we ran up the stairs to go potty in our parents' master suite as we tried to do as often as possible because it was so much cooler than our bathroom downstairs (refer to the diagram - two sinks! a pocket door! so cool!). I remember going potty first and talking to my sister with the pocket door open while she waited for her turn. I remember she was talking about the new song, "Finally it Happened to Me" by CeCe Penniston. Then while I was washing my hands at the sink she went potty with the pocket door open. She continued to talk about the song and how her friend started her period and that her friend thought of that song because she was finally like all her friends (Don't forget to add in a lot of giggling to your reading of this). Then my sister came out to wash her hands and I proceeded to tell her about the Sally Jesse Raphael episode I had just seen where they had a panel of crazy-big bosom-ed women. These ladies were huge! I gave my sister a demonstration of how the one lady's necklace became caught in her cleavage and I talked about what it would be like to have huge breasts like that and then my sister and I proceeded to flash the mirror a few times (At this time, I can't really see why we felt the need to flash the mirror but it was what seemed sensible at the time). After we had our fill of giggles and sillies, we started to run out of the bathroom and head for the door to the room when all at once we were stopped in our tracks by the realization that our brother-in-law was lying there on my mom & dad's bed watching us (why, I know not.), and he had remained mute all the while enjoying our entertaining little display of estrogen (refer to the diagram to visualize the vantage point he had from the bed).

Luckily, he didn't remain in the family for long. When I see him at my niece's functions like her baptism, her orchestra concerts, her graduation from high school etc., I only think about this for a second. I am grateful always when I remember that I was just a little girl and girls do such silly things. Why just the other day I walked into my sister-in-law's house and saw her preteen daughter putting panties on top of her clothes and all sorts of silliness. I felt relieved at first. Then I let her know that when I was her age we always put them on our heads. I don't know if she tried that or not.