A little story...

Once upon a time when Helena was a younger and less experienced troublemaker, she and some friends decided to go swimming. It was one of the hottest days of the year, and they were all very hot and sticky from their day's work of breaking into a girl's house and looting her bedroom.

They stood around for a good half hour, trying to decide where to go swimming. They vaguely thought that Recreation Park might have a pool, but they weren't sure, and anyway, they weren't sure that Rec Park would let them swim in shorts and t'shirts. Furthermore, Helena didn't have shorts and a t'shirt, because Helena was wearing this gahd-awful ugly sundress with big, heinous orange and yellow sunflowers on it. Helena was either going to have to go all the way back home -- seven miles away -- for her stupid swimming suit, or she was going to have to wear the sunflower thing. Or, she was going to have to wear nothing at all.

Well, somebody knew of a place where none of them would have to wear anything at all. And so all four of them went out to this mostly-secluded reservoir, stripped down to nothing, and leapt into the water.

...Except Helena undressed a little bit slower then her friends, because in the middle of undressing, Helena realized something...

The fabric of the sundress was extremely irritating, as Helena had learned from experience. But, it had spaghetti straps, so one couldn't wear a bra with it without looking sort of dumb. On an earlier occasion, Helena had consulted her friend Miergé about this dilemma. Miergé had suggested that Helena utilize two bandaids for the purposes of preventing chafing and discomfort. Helena had done just that, and the bandaids were working marvelously, but here she was, out in the woods at the reservoir, in the middle of stripping naked, while her friends waited for her, and she was absolutely humiliated at the prospect of being noticed with a couple of bandaids over her nipples.

(Helena was really quite sensitive to stupid criticism and was entirely certain that her friends would taunt her mercilessly, which they sort of did, but only because she was pretty hesitant about being a good sport about the whole situation...)

(Helena is a lot better at laughing at herself these days...)

Further complicating the situation was the fact that Helena secretly adored one of the individuals she was going to be swimming with, and was shy enough around him as it was. It's not as easy as you might think to announce to your crush that you've substituted bandaids for your bra on that particular day. And in such circumstances, one really must say SOMETHING; it's not exactly usual. Or subtle.

So, Helena, blushing ferociously, explained about the scratchy fabric of the stupid sunflower dress. She explained Miergé's suggestion. She explained that she had implimented that particular suggestion and that it had been working just fine. And she announced that, presently, she would be ripping the bandaids off so as to be wearing appropriate swimming attire. Helena's friends thought this was just delightfully funny, and Helena's crush teased her good-naturedly about it. Helena, unsure of whether to be humiliated or delighted that nobody was actually scandalized and appalled, decided to laugh along with her friends, and a good time was had by all.