Published: July 2nd 2020, 2:00:06 pm
The first part of a short story commission to do this story, since it didn't win the Community Caption poll.
"Aww," Tessa pouted as Danielle buckled her into her car seat. "Why can't I just stay home with you?"
Danielle's heart melted a little staring down at her baby sister. How did their mom do this every day?! All Danielle wanted was to play with her, and give her treats, and spoil her to her heart's content... But she knew she had to do this. "I have to look for a job, sweetie," she said, kissing the girl on the forehead. "You're gonna have lots of fun! All your friends are there!"
Tessa sniffled, batting her eyes. "But you aren't, Danni."
"I'm sorry, Tessa," Danielle told her, having to shut the door and turn away right then, or else she might not have been able to. Maybe she could call her mother, explain things.... She'd always babysat for Tessa during the summer - at least, for the few summers the girl had been alive - and she'd loved it. This year, however, her parents had insisted they keep Tessa in daycare, and that Danielle should look for a job to help her pay for textbooks once she got to college in the fall.
College... Everyone in her class had been so excited about it, talking all year about where they were going, what they were going to do... That was practically all anyone had talked about at graduation that past Friday. It made Danielle feel strange; were they really not scared about this?! She was petrified, and she wasn't even going away for school. She'd decided, partially because she'd waited too long to apply to the other schools she was looking at, that she was going to spend at least the first year at her local community college, where she could knock out the basics, and save money on room and board.
Even that was scary, however... This was real school, not high school. The classes were going to be tougher, the professors stricter, she was going to have so much homework, and if she didn't get it done, there was nothing to blame but herself. Going to college meant the start of something that had technically happened on her eighteenth birthday, though didn't quite feel real yet - adulthood.
She'd hoped to have one last summer to say goodbye to her childhood before that happened, until her parents had sat her down for the talk, told her she needed to get a job. "You'll thank us later," her father had said. "Even if you don't keep it once school starts, the experience will be invaluable once you graduate and start looking for work for real."
Perhaps, if she'd had a job before, college wouldn't have seemed like so monumental a step. Plenty of people younger than her worked, but she'd always associated that with her parents, and other grown-ups. Tessa had come along at the perfect time, letting Danielle babysit her instead of having to go get a job at McDonald's or something, yet that apparently wasn't good enough this time around.
So, like it or not, she was taking her little sister to daycare, and then applying for a bunch of jobs she didn't actually want, and was probably going to quit once school started anyway, so she could 'concentrate on her studies', or, really, just not have to do them anymore. Most likely, most of this first day was going to be her pouting in her room, but she couldn't do that all summer.
The daycare was a cute little building, painted in bright colors, and Katie seemed to like it well enough... The only problem Danielle had with it was the parking lot. If there was more than one person in the car, it wouldn't be too bad - one could pull up to the curb, let the other out to walk the kid in, which had happened plenty when Danielle was learning to drive, with her sitting and waiting at the wheel for her mother to return - but if you were alone, you had to drive a bit further away to park.
She'd seen some people park on the road while they ran in and out, but she was terrified of getting a ticket, and really having no choice other than to get a job as soon as possible, instead of allowing herself to be a little picky; others simply made their kids, if they were old enough, walk in on their own. There was no way she was going to let Tessa do that, so she parked in the lot, let her sister out, and prepared for the walk.
It was early enough that the temperature wasn't too bad, although she did worry about what it would be like when she picked Tessa up in the afternoon, when the sun was high and hot. She sighed, swinging Tessa's hand in hers as they walked, wishing again that she could just babysit her, like she always had, and forget about all this.
"All right, Tessa," she said, stepping into the daycare. "I'll see you later. Have fun, and..."
"Hello, there!" Danielle jumped, turning to see a woman standing behind them, bending down and smiling. "What's your name, sweetie?"
Danielle blushed, starting to shake her head. While she was certainly taller than Tessa, she had always been the smallest kid in her class, and that had continued all the way through graduation, where they'd had trouble finding a graduation gown she wouldn't trip on as she walked across the stage. There had been plenty of teasing about her size all through school, but she'd mostly gotten used to it... And she still was given a children's menu when they went to restaurants, which was fine with her, since that was usually the right amount of food for her.
"She's my big sister, Dani!" Tessa declared proudly. Danielle smiled down at her, nodding her agreement, since she couldn't exactly deny that.
"It's very nice to meet you, Dani," the woman told her. "I'm Miss Katie! You must be excited that school is over for the summer, huh?"
"Umm... Yeah," Danielle agreed.
"You don't sound too sure," Miss Katie teased. "Don't worry, we have lots of fun games and stuff here, and you get to play with your little sister all day!"
"Oh! N-No, I..." Danielle started to shake her head again, only to glance over at Tessa, see the girl staring up at her with big eyes, clearly loving the idea of getting to spend the day with her big sister after all. And, in all honesty... Dani liked that idea, too. She was supposed to be looking for a job, getting ready for college... But what would it hurt if she just took one day off from all of those adult responsibilities, and let herself relax? "I-I'm... excited to see what you have planned?"
"That's the spirit!" Miss Katie exclaimed, ushering the pair into the play room. "If you need anything, dear, just let me know."
Danielle looked around at the other kids, and the workers, fully expecting one of them to point out the woman's mistake, that she didn't belong here. As she surveyed the scene, however, nobody pointed at her, or seemed to pay her any mind... It was like they all accepted her here, assumed she was nothing more than another little girl. It was embarrassing, sure, and yet, at the same time, strangely nice.
Tessa, meanwhile, was ecstatic, dragging Dani around, introducing her to all her friends, showing her all of her favorite toys, excited to have her sister there as a playmate. So excited, in fact, that Danielle noticed something familiar.
"Tessa," she shook her head, "did you have an accident, sweetie?"
"No!" Tessa pouted. She was right on the verge of being potty trained, generally only wetting herself at times like this, when she was too worked up about something else.
"It's okay," Dani smiled gently. "I'll get you all cleaned up, and..." Except, she couldn't... She was just another kid here; she doubted they were going to let her change anyone else. "Well, I-I can take you to Miss Katie," she offered instead.
"No!" Tessa repeated, stomping her foot. "I didn't wet myself!"
"Sweetie, it's all right," Danielle promised. "It happens to everyone!"
"No, it doesn't!" Tessa huffed.
In that instant, Danielle knew what she had to do, as silly and absurd as it was. Any other time, she would have just let it go, got Tessa some fresh trainers, then let her calm down on her own... She couldn't do that here, however, she could do something else, something she never would have considered normally. Here, though, she wasn't a grown-up, she was another kid, not that much older than Tessa...
It was harder than she would have imagined, forcing her to close her eyes, ignore the sounds of children playing all around her, pretend she was back home, sitting on her toilet, but, after a few moments, she felt the warmth begin trickling into her panties, soaking through, running down her thighs... "S-See?" she blushed, opening her eyes. "I-It can happen to..."
She gulped, realizing Miss Katie was standing there now, too, watching the whole thing. "Uh-oh!" she exclaimed. "Did you have a little accident, Dani?"
She had known, of course, that eventually someone other than Tessa was going to see her... She just hadn't expected it to happen so soon. "N-No," she shook her head bashfully, not realizing how easily she was mirroring her baby sister, simply not wanting to admit it yet, despite the evidence running down her legs.
"I think you might have, cutie," Miss Katie smiled. "You don't have to be embarrassed! We'll get you taken care of!" Danielle took her hand, walking across the room, staring down at the floor as she went, feeling the eyes of everyone there on her as she was led over to the changing table. "Now, Dani," the woman said, lifting her up onto it, starting to undress her, "Since you're new here, I don't know... Does this happen often?"
Danielle nibbled her bottom lip, glancing down at Tessa, standing there, watching. For her own pride, she wanted to tell the truth, to say no... But it would fit the lesson she'd been trying to teach, and probably make her sister feel better, if she lied. "Y-Yeah," she nodded. "K-Kinda..."
"Kinda?" Miss Katie raised an eyebrow.
Only then did it fully hit Danielle where she was sitting, what she was surrounded by. If she said the wrong thing, she could end up in training pants, just like Tessa... The very idea made her blush harder, but, in the end, wouldn't it help make her point for her, that this shouldn't be embarrassing for Tessa? "A-All the time," she mumbled.
"All the time, huh?" Miss Katie replied. "Well, I'm very proud of you for telling me the truth, dear." And, with that, she picked up a diaper, one Dani was very familiar with, having changed Tessa into plenty of them herself, not that long ago.
"W-Wait!" her eyes widened. "I-I don't..." She gulped as the woman lifted her legs up, sliding the thick padding beneath her bottom. She'd done this a million times, and there was no reason for her to think this was any different... She was simply diapering another one of her charges, unaware that the girl in the midst of being powdered and Pampered was an adult. For her part, Dani sputtered wordlessly, overwhelmed as she heard the same crinkling she associated with Tessa coming from underneath her, with every tiny movement, not knowing what to say until it was all over, and she was sitting there, diaper snugly taped around her waist.
"And what about you?" Miss Katie turned to Tessa, after lifting Dani down to the floor. "How are you doing?" She unzipped the girl's shorts, sliding them down, exposing a perfectly dry Pull-Up. "Great work, Tessa! I'm so proud of you!"
"B-But I thought..." Danielle protested, once the worker had gone off to find her something to wear over her Pampers.
"I told you I didn't have an accident," Tessa pointed out, which was, Dani had to admit, true. She giggled, looking at her big sister. "You're so cute in your diapers!"
Dani blushed, hardly able to believe this had happened, that she'd talked herself into a diaper for no reason... But, if she was being honest, Tessa was right. "I-I guess I kind of am," she shrugged. They weren't so bad... Definitely thicker than her normal underwear, and louder.... She could live with them for a day, though.
And it was just a day... She kept telling herself that, as it kept going. She didn't want to interrupt the workers helping other kids, who were actually getting potty trained, make it to the potty on time, and, since she was in diapers, she couldn't go on her own, so she wound up wetting her pants again a couple times... But this was only for one day, so it didn't matter what her chart looked like, whether the people here thought she really needed diapers or not.
It was a bit sad, once it came time to leave, diapers and all. She knew if they waited any longer, though, that her parents might beat her home, and then she'd have to explain what she was wearing to them, so she said goodbye to it all, and her final little break before adulthood, and took them back home.
"Did you girls have a good day today?" their mother asked at dinner that night.
"I did," Dani answered, quite sincerely. "I-I didn't find anything yet, but... You know, I'm looking."
"It takes time," her dad nodded. "We're proud of you for making the effort." He turned to Tessa. "And what about you?"
Tessa grinned. "Uh-huh! I made a new friend, and we played all day!"
"That's wonderful!" their mother smiled. "Hopefully you can do that tomorrow, too!"
"Uh-huh," Tessa looked over at Danielle with her big, sweet, innocent eyes. "I hope so..."
It was only for one day, Danielle reminded herself... But it had been more fun than she could remember having for a very long time... It had been so tempting, the thought of going back there again, even before Tessa said anything. Maybe she'd have the strength to tell her sister no the next day, to go back to what she was supposed to be doing, to starting to process of becoming a real adult... Looking at her now, however, Dani had a feeling she was going to wind up back in diapers.
And that was okay, she told herself, already preparing the mental excuses she'd need to keep from feeling guilty. She had some graduation money saved up she could use for textbooks, and college wasn't starting up for a couple months anyway... What was the harm in enjoying herself until then?