Locker Room

I got a littler reminder of what it is to be a pre-teen (tween, as they are called these days) at the gym today.  There was a school having their 4th Grade end-of-year party there so of course the locker room was a popular location for the girls to giggle and hang out.  After my workout I had to shower, and since the showers at my gym are not made to bring your change of clothes into I always dress in the main locker room. 
Normally this is not an issue, but the moment I saw 10 4th graders milling around I knew this would be awkward- not for me, for them.  So I tried to dress as quickly as possible.  Midway through getting dressed I needed to remove the towel from around me and put it on my head so I could put on my bra.  I was alone in my "section" of the locker room but a group of girls was just on the other side of the bank of lockers from me.  It was at this moment that one of the girls went to leave and, apparently, saw me sans bra and towel as she popped back to her group and I heard a sudden hush as one girl (not discreetly enough for her friends' taste) asked "don't go over where?"  There was much "shushing" and another girl who had also missed the directive to "not go in that area where that lady is naked" asked the same question.  Meanwhile a little blonde girl pretended to nonchalantly wander into "my" section, see that I now had my bra on, and sidle back over to her friends while yet another girl answered loudly: "you know, where Michael is, don't go where Michael is."  (This must have been the quickest she could think as their conversation 30 seconds earlier had revolved around going to find Michael and see if he wanted to hang out with one of the girls).  There was much giggling and more repeating of "don't go where Michael is" before they finally left the room.
Anyways, that was fun, and even though it's been quite awhile since I was a "tween," I was surprised by how vividly I remembered being shell-shocked by, and feeling oh-so-awkward around the women who dared to be completely naked in the locker room!  Now I'm one of those women...how times have changed.