Published: July 28th 2020, 2:00:04 pm
A short story commission from an anonymous Patron.
"You did offer to help with the yearbook," Maegan reminded him, rolling her eyes. "And you only came to one meeting."
Daniel fidgeted, feeling the heat spread across his face as he stared up at her, not wanting to tell her that he'd only volunteered in the first place because he thought it would be a good way to spend more time with her.... Only to realize, after a single meeting, that it would be way more work than he imagined, but that she was far more intimidating than she was in his fantasies. He'd known she was intense, and it was clear to everyone that she was taller than him - not that that was much of a feat - however that hadn't prepared him for what he'd seen during the yearbook committee meeting.
He'd thought it would be more relaxed, at least towards the beginning of the year, and he'd have a chance to just hang out, get to know her a little better, maybe, by the end of the year, be ready to ask her out. All it had taken was one meeting to let him know that was a silly pipe dream. This wasn't some extra-curricular activity for her, to make her college applications look good... She took this seriously, and there was no room for anyone who didn't.
"If you don't do something, I'm taking you off the team roster before we go to print," she shrugged. "And then what are you going to tell your parents about what you've been doing after school?"
"I haven't been doing anything," he said defensively. And it was true... He wasn't doing anything; he was hanging out with his friends, playing video games, smoking... None of which they would probably accept as a reason why he didn't have time for a part-time job, unlike the yearbook committee he'd been claiming to participate in. "How did you know about that?!"
"I know everything," Maegan smirked. "So, I'll see you here Sunday, right?"
Daniel sighed, gave in, silently vowing to figure out which of his friends the girl had talked to, who had clearly ratted him out. "All right, I can do that."
He considered pretending he'd forgotten, but she sent him a text Sunday morning to remind him, then another an hour before the time they'd agreed on, prompting him, 'Don't be late. We have a lot to do.' This was why he hadn't been involved the whole year, he told himself as he got ready, headed out. He could live with one day like this... The entire year, though? That would have been awful. He wondered how many of the other committee members had quit, and if that might be why she'd had to come to him for this.
"Oh, good, you did make it," she said, standing up from the step she'd been sitting on. "I was worried I'd have to come pick you up from your house."
"Do you even know where I live?" he asked, although he wasn't certain he wanted the answer. "What are we doing first?"
"Well, this is the Throwback section," Maegan explained to him, as if she hadn't already told him all about it just a few days before. "So I thought we'd go ahead and start here... Do you remember the first time you walked up these stairs?"
Daniel stared up them, for a moment not recalling it, that one experience washed away by the hundreds of times he'd made the climb since. He'd always considered counting them, just to know how many he'd had to scale every day, but had wound up giving up each time he made an attempt. There were three sets, with a small clearing between the first and second, and second and third, which made them a little more bearable, though not by much, especially this time of year, with summer looming.
He'd felt even worse for the few students who went there who needed wheelchairs, at least the first couple years, before the school system had finally caved in and built the ramp it should have had years ago, that hadn't been required way back when the building had been constructed, in the olden-times when apparently it was a good idea to put a school on the top of a veritable mountain. They'd had to take a long, circuitous sidewalk route to a side entrance. The ramp was nice, but it didn't like long before anyone who didn't actually need it was barred from using it, since they were clogging it up and making it impossible for the people it was designed for to get up it.
It hadn't been there the first time he'd gone up the steps, however. "Do you want me to, like, stare up them at the school with a sense of awe? Or do you want it to be more realistic?" He moved his gaze down to the stairs themselves, letting his jaw fall open, his eyes open wide in fake shock.
"I want you to do what I asked," she huffed. "Remember what happened your first time."
"It was probably some mix of those," he shrugged. "I guess I could..." But then, he really did recall it, cheeks darkening as he did. He'd been so excited to finally be starting high school, not to mention a bit scared, that he hadn't been able to take his eyes off the school building as he hurried upwards, only to fall and skin his knee. And, instead of handling it like the grown-up he felt like he must be now that he was in high school, he burst into tears, having to be helped the rest of the way up and escorted to the nurse by a teacher.
"There we go," Maegan nodded, seeing the embarrassment in his eyes. "That's what we want... Those real moments that everyone will be able to look at and be instantly transported back in time."
"But do they really need to be transported back there?" he pouted. She had her mind made up, though, so there wasn't much else for him to do except pretend he'd tripped and fallen down. He hated that, as he re-enacted it, his eyes started to water up, recalling the moment, how, for the rest of the day, he'd been mocked for the cartoon-character Band-Aid the nurse had used, the only kind she'd had on hand, asked about his boo-boo, and how long it had been since he'd learned how to walk.
"I knew you were the right person to ask!" Maegan gushed, looking back through the pictures she'd snapped. "You're such a good little actor! Now, come on, we have other things to do."
"O-Okay," he nodded, wiping his eyes as he stood, hoping they hadn't been noticeable in the photos, having been too afraid to do anything about it, and draw attention to the tears. "What's next?"
"We'll head inside," she said, already climbing the steps.
"You got permission to go in?" he raised an eyebrow, having expected to be stuck outside the whole day. He didn't see any extra cars in the parking lot, any signs that a teacher was there, supervising.
She looked back, rolled her eyes. "Of course I did. Who do you think I am?"
It was eerie, walking through the building with nobody else around, hearing their footsteps echoing through the long hallways as he tried to keep up with Maegan's longer legs. She knew exactly where she was going, leading him right to a classroom, ushering him inside, and into...
Middle school. The difference was subtle, yet definitely noticeable, Daniel recognizing it right away. It had been completely redecorated, the educational posters all replaced with slightly more immature versions, including one for the end of year dance that definitely wasn't the prom, the desks re-arranged, spread out a bit further. "Did you do this?" he asked, surprised.
"I wanted to get it right," she replied. "Hold still." She picked something up from the teacher's desk, knelt down, fastened it to his knee. He glanced down, blushing as he saw a Band-Aid there, Rapunzel staring up at him from it. He didn't think that had been the design that had been used on him on his first day, but he honestly didn't know for sure.
"You know I didn't actually fall, right?"
"Really?" she teased. "Then why were you crying like you did?" He blushed, no longer able to pretend she might not have seen. "We need this just to make sure everyone knows it's you... To kind of tie it all together."
"But this is supposed to be middle school, right? And the other was..." he frowned.
"Don't worry your pretty little head about it," she gave it a pat. "You're just the talent, you don't have to think about anything, except doing what I tell you. Now, I just need to..."
"Hey!" he gasped, blushing even deeper as she grabbed a water bottle from the desk as well, pouring it onto the front of his shorts. "What the hell?!"
"Do you really need to ask?" she glanced over at the board. He'd seen there was something written on it, had been too busy with taking in everything else to read it... Now, he saw that it was announcing a Spelling Bee, many names written out underneath it, most crossed out, except for Daniel's, and one other.
"Seriously?!" he shook his head. "W-We don't really need to put this into the yearbook... Do we?!"
He wasn't the best at school, but one thing he was good at was spelling... He hadn't let himself get his hopes up too high about the bee, however, once it started, he knew he had a shot at winning, as he kept climbing higher and higher... He'd felt his bladder starting to fill, of course, had ignored it, afraid the teacher wouldn't wait for him to get back from the bathroom, that he'd end up forfeiting his spot if he left the room...
"I-It wasn't this big," he whined, staring down at his shorts. It had been small enough not everyone had noticed, and he'd tried to laugh it off when anyone brought it up, though the giggling he'd heard as some of his classmates did see had been enough to distract him, to make him choke and lose, and rush off to the restroom before it got any worse.
"Well, we want to make sure it shows up in the picture," she told him. "Besides, I bet that's how everybody remembers it... And that's what matters, isn't it?"
"N-Not everyone remembers," he mumbled, trying to convince himself of that.
"They will once they flip through the Throwback section and see this," she said, grabbing him by the shoulders, moving him in front of the board. He did his best to hide the wet spot with his hands before she could snap the picture, but, as she showed him on the preview screen, all that did was make it look more realistic, more like he was trying to keep anyone from noticing his accident.
"Why didn't you tell me to bring something to change into?" he sighed, looking down at himself, imagining having the wet spot visible for the rest of the pictures, as if this had been a regular occurrence.
"Don't worry, I have everything under control," she chuckled. "You won't be able to see them in the next one, I promise."
She led him into the cafeteria next. She had one table set up, in a corner where she'd taken down the posters congratulating the soon-to-be graduating class, and cheering on the sports teams, replacing them with more posters for the middle school's dance, and one spelling out the cafeteria rules, various cartoon-ized fruits in the margins, smiling out.
"Oh, come on," Daniel groaned, knowing, this time, exactly what was up, what was going to be inside the brown paper bag sitting in front of one of the seats. "There weren't that many people who saw this..."
"But we all heard about it," she smirked. "So it'll be nice for everyone else to get to see a version of it... It wasn't even your fault, right?"
It wasn't, as he'd spent most of his first year of middle school trying to convince his classmates. His little sister had still been a baby, then, and, since his father worked nights, his mother had to get up with her for late night feedings. It was only natural she'd get things mixed up now and then... And Daniel, himself, probably should have noticed his lunch bag felt much different that day. It wasn't until he was sitting down with his friends, and reached in to pull out the contents, however, that he realized his mom had put one of his sister's bottles in, instead of his usual sandwich and fruit.
He couldn't help himself, had to peek inside the bag. He heard the camera snap, capturing the moment of shock and disgust when he saw that, sure enough, there was a baby bottle inside, filled with milk. "Take it out," Maegan urged, and then, after he'd done so, continuing with, "Take a sip."
"No way!" he shook his head. "I didn't drink any then!"
"It'll be cute!" she said. "I probably won't even use it. I just want options."
He sighed, picking up the bottle, reluctantly slid the nipple into his mouth. As soon as the liquid inside touched his tongue, he felt his nose wrinkle, and a moment later, he was spitting it out. "Is that formula?!" he asked; it definitely wasn't milk, like he'd assumed. "Gross!"
"Adorable," Maegan giggled. "You are such a good model, Dan... We're going to be done it no time. We just need to take a little field trip..."
"W-Wait, we aren't going outside, are we?" he blushed, looking down at his wet shorts, and - less importantly now - the Disney Princess Band-Aid on his knee. "Y-You said you have everything under control, didn't you? S-So you have something else for me to wear?"
"I do," she grinned. "But we have to go get it."
She grabbed his hand, pulling him across the cafeteria, his sneakers squeaking on the floor as he tried in vain to stop her, to keep her from yanking him out the door and across the blessedly empty parking lot, to the other side of street and the public playground there.
It wasn't exactly like the one at the elementary school, but it was close enough that he knew that was what she was going for, well before she led him over to the slide, and he saw what was lying there beside it, spread out on an open blanket. "D-Do you want me to take this picture?" he asked hopefully.
"No, no," she shook her head, reaching for his shorts. "You're the star here, Danny."
"No," he put his foot down, at last. This was too far. "No way! I am not wearing..." He gasped as she yanked down his shorts and underwear in one fell swoop, leaving him scrambling to cover himself. "Maegan! What the hell?! We're in public! Anyone could show up here, a-and..."
"So you'd better hurry up and sit down," she ordered. "We aren't leaving until I have the shot."
He glared up at her, stomach churning as he realized he had no choice here. If she wanted to, she was big enough she could make him do just about anything... Including, clearly, sitting down on the blanket, watching helplessly as she slid the diaper beneath his bottom.
He knew what this picture was about, too... He'd been climbing up the ladder to the slide after Maegan one day when he noticed something peeking out of the top of her shorts. He'd excused himself for this long ago, telling himself he was just a kid, but it really had been a lousy thing to do, he knew... He'd been curious, though, and she was right there...
He hadn't intended to pull them down, just to poke at what he was seeing above them. She climbed up onto the top of the slide at the same time, however, and, without thinking, he grabbed on, yanking her shorts down, exposing the diaper beneath them. She'd felt it, of course, turned around, tears in her eyes, to see who had done it, only to slip and slide down on her stomach, diaper facing out for everyone to see.
"Y-You're not actually still mad about that, are you?" he gulped as she began to fasten the tapes. "I-I said I was sorry..."
"Yeah, when the teacher made you. People made fun of me for that for years! None of the other girls would invite me to their sleepovers because they said if I still needed diapers during the day, there was no way I wasn't a bedwetter, too."
"B-But nobody remembers it now," he pointed out. "A-All this is going to do is remind them of it..."
"Exactly," Maegan nodded. "They'll be reminded of it, but it was long enough ago that they won't be sure about the specifics of it... So, when they see the picture, they'll assume it must have been you all along. After all, you did all those other embarrassing things... It's hardly a surprise that you were still in diapers in second grade."
"B-But it wasn't!" he sniffled, watching her seal the final tape, trapping him into the crinkly, plastic prison. "I-I didn't!"
"Who do you think people are going to believe?" she asked, yanking his shorts the rest of the way off, his keys jingling in the pocket. "Someone who definitely did pee his pants and bring a bottle of milk to lunch in middle school, or the president of the yearbook committee?" She gave the shorts a shake, pulling them out of his reach when he grabbed for them. "Now, if you want to get these back, you're going to climb up that ladder and go for a little slide, and keep doing it until I get the perfect shot."
Daniel groaned, but he knew there wasn't much else he could do. "All right," he pouted, struggling to his feet, blushing at the crinkle of the diaper, following his every move, the feel of it bulging between his legs. "Fine, let's get it over with..."
"Good boy," she smiled, watching him toddle to the ladder. "Oh, and one more thing? I was wet when this happened, so, for the sake of realism..." He blushed, shaking his head. "I'm sure you can do it, Danny," she giggled. "Go on... Just pretend you're at the Spelling Bee."