Published: October 14th 2020, 2:01:00 pm
"Y-You're not mad at me, are you?" Danielle sniffed, staring up at Miss Katie bashfully as she stood there in her soggy pants.
"No, sweetie, I'm not mad," Miss Katie forced a smile, giving her a hug. "I just wish you would have said something sooner... You're supposed to be working on your potty training, sweetie."
"I-I know," Dani admitted. "I-I just..."
"It's all right," the teacher told her again. "Everyone moves at their own pace... I guess I was expecting too much from you, because of how well your sister has been doing lately. But that isn't fair of me, is it?"
Danielle blushed; it was, in reality, more than fair. She was so much older than Tessa, and had been fully potty trained for far longer than the girl had even been alive... She shouldn't be able to be held up to Tessa and found wanting in anything other than cuteness, and yet... Here she was, having spaced out, and leaked through her diapers, without asking for the potty a single time.
"I-I can do it," she promised. That had certainly been true at one time... It seemed like it still should be, that it shouldn't be so easy for that to change. Then again, it had been quite a while now that she'd been going to daycare, acting like a child...
Miss Katie was generally very supportive and sweet... Danielle would never have expected her to say, "I don't know, Dani," but that was exactly what came out of her mouth. "Maybe I should tell your Mommy that it isn't time yet, and not to rush you."
"No!" Dani gasped, shaking her head. "Please, don't!"
Things were already so awkward between her and her parents... Her mother had started putting her to bed half an hour before Tessa, telling her that little girls in diapers clearly needed more rest than those who had graduated out of them, taking away her phone, her laptop, the remote to her TV, anything she could have used to keep herself entertained as she laid in bed, staring out the window at the dying sunlight, listening to Tessa being given her bath, giggling away...
It was obvious she was now the little sister, both at home, and here, where Tessa was in Miss Tori's class. She didn't want to find out how much worse things could get if her parents were told she wasn't taking her potty training seriously, wasn't even trying... There was some truth to it, since she knew she wasn't going to be allowed to go to college again for quite a while, but she had a feeling her mom and dad wouldn't like that. There could be another spanking in her future if they heard that, and the first had been painful, and humiliating, enough...
Miss Katie looked at her, Dani squirming, glancing down at her feet, seeing the wet spot on her pants. "Okay," Katie finally said. "But I want you to really, really try your best for me, all right, Dani?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Dani nodded eagerly. "I will!"
And that was what she resolved to do, as the teacher stripped her out of her pants, cleaned her up, taped her into a fresh diaper. "Uh-oh!" Miss Katie frowned, once that was done.
"What's wrong?" Dani asked, not that she expected it to be something she could help with. One of the nice things about her time here was that she rarely had to do anything... They thought she was too little to be of assistance with more than occasionally putting stickers onto her own chart, back when she sometimes got good ones. She didn't have to clean up after herself, or pick up her toys, or even go to the bathroom... All things that weren't hard or stressful - or hadn't been, at one time - but that she knew she'd have to to again eventually... So why not enjoy the vacation while she had the chance?
"Your Mommy hasn't sent us back your spare bottoms from the last time you leaked," Miss Katie told her.
Dani had enough experience here now to know what that meant... After the last time this had happened, she'd brought in a change of clothing for herself the next day, and usually didn't go through them fast enough that she ran out... This was the second time this week, however, and it was only Wednesday. "O-Okay," she pouted.
What difference did it really make? Everyone knew she was in diapers... They'd seen her getting changed probably hundreds of times by this point, had seen the bulge under her shorts, or the plastic peeking out under her dress... And, of course, she was still here, with the other babies, not in Miss Tori's class with the big kids.
'Other' babies... It didn't quite hit her that she'd thought about them that way until Miss Katie had sent her back off to play with them. There was a time when she considered them different than her, since she knew, in reality, she was a college student - or would have been, if she'd registered - but she found herself thinking of them as her equals more and more...
Part of her almost wanted to ask some of them what their bedtimes were, to see how hers stacked up. What was she going to do if theirs wound up being later than hers, though, other than be mortified for a while? Whine to her Mommy that her little friends got to stay up later, like that would change anything? Besides, she told herself, they probably didn't know how to tell time, or understand what it really meant... She still had that on them, at least.
She toddled over to the dollhouse where she had been playing, before she'd leaked, hoping the same kids who had been playing with her would have scattered as a worker cleaned up the little puddle she'd made. It looked like the house had been moved a bit, however, while that happened, so the wet spot was gone, and all her playmates were still there.
She nibbled her bottom lip, fiddling with the hem of her shirt, wondering if she should get back to them, or go entertain herself somewhere else. She was kind of annoyed at Nichole for yelling for Miss Katie in front of everyone, but she would have been found out before too long anyway. "H-Hi," she mumbled, shuffling up next to them.
"Hi, Dani!" Lucas smiled at her, and that was that. She was back, playing with them, like nothing had happened. There was no judgement there, no teasing... They didn't give a second thought to letting her get back to her dolls. They were all used to this, after all; it was all they'd ever known. That was just how you used the bathroom - you went in your diaper, then had someone else change you. There was no shame in that, in their eyes.
But Danielle did know better, and she'd promised Miss Katie she was going to try. She was very distracted from her play, doing her very best to pay attention to her body, giving herself a test. It wasn't a huge shock when she sat down, after her doll sent Nichole's to bed early for being naughty, and felt a damp patch in her diaper, since her control when it came to her bladder had been slipping for a while.
The real surprise came a bit later. The other toddlers got bored of the dollhouse, and moved on to other toys, but Dani decided not to join them, staying there and absent-mindedly bouncing the dolls up and down, waiting. Her body's schedule wasn't exact - that would have made things too easy - however, she knew it was around this time every day when she typically messed her pants.
Not today, she'd resolved; she'd let herself get too complacent, telling herself dirty diapers weren't that bad... She was going to prove to Miss Katie that she was making an effort by getting to the potty for the first time in... Honestly, she wasn't sure, hadn't thought to look at her chart to confirm. Definitely too long...
It was almost cheating, ensuring she was alone, and not actively thinking about anything else, giving herself the best possible chance. She was smart enough to do that, though, giving her a big advantage over her classmates, knew that it was what she had to do... And, despite her mostly ignoring them for a while now, she knew what feeling she was waiting on before she sprang into action.
And that was exactly what she did. As soon as she felt the first sign of discomfort in her tummy, she dropped her doll, looking around the room for Miss Katie... But she didn't see the woman. The sensation was building quickly, her heart pounding as she wriggled in place, yelling out a desperate, "Miss Katie!"
She'd barely gotten the whole thing out before she felt her knees bending, her body begin to push. "N-No!" she whimpered. "St-Stop it!" She could hear her diaper crinkling already as it slowly expanded, felt it growing heavier, the warm mush gradually spreading around her backside...
Without thinking, she plopped down, the still-growing mass squelching between her legs. That had been a best-case scenario, pretty much... Perhaps, if she'd been doing nothing at all, she might have noticed it a bit sooner, though, with as little attention as she was really paying to the dolls, she doubted it would have been enough.
It had been a matter of a few seconds, at most, between noticing she had to go, and doing it. She'd done her very best in that short span of time, holding it as hard as she could... And it had barely helped at all. She'd still pooped her pants well before Miss Katie could have gotten to her, or vice-versa, or she could have made it to the bathroom, even if she were somewhere she could use a toilet on her own. It was true... The thing that had been gnawing at her mind since the weekend, the fear that had been building up in her, was true... She'd frittered away her potty training, and now it was all gone.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" Katie asked, hurrying over, spurred on by Dani's call, and now the tears she had burst into.
"I-I'm a baby!" Danielle blubbered. "I-I'm just a big, dumb baby!"
"No, you're not," Miss Katie soothed her, hugging her, rubbing her back. "You're not dumb, Dani... You're a very smart little girl. Just because you're having a little trouble with your potty training doesn't mean you're dumb..."
She didn't, Dani couldn't help but notice, dispute the fact that she was a baby... And, if she'd known the truth about Danielle, about how old she was, about how perfect her potty training had been before all of this, she probably wouldn't have been so quick to deny the rest, either.
"A-Are you gonna tell Mommy?" Dani asked, as she got changed again.
Miss Katie hesitated. "I'll tell her you did your best," she answered, after a long moment.
That was, Danielle supposed, the best she could hope for... She wasn't sure how her mother was going to take it, however. The fact that she'd done her best, and still didn't come close to making it to the potty, didn't bode well for her training, or her maturity... Maybe, even with college still so far off, it was time to do better, to get this under control...
But she really had been doing her best, and it wasn't anywhere near good enough. Was it even possible, at this point, to reverse course? She was, essentially, back to the very beginning, and if her time here had taught her anything, it was how hard potty training could be... Did she have it in her to make it all the way through again? She'd spent so long thinking of this place as somewhere she could go and not have to worry about, or do, anything, a nice, relaxing alternative to the stresses she knew were waiting for her at college... Was she really going to be able to just flip a switch and start taking it seriously?
"Don't look so sad," Miss Katie encouraged her. "Your Mommy will understand..."
Of course she would; she'd understand what Dani did now, that she belonged here. The big college girl, who everyone had been so proud of at graduation, was just a toddler now, like all her little playmates.