Published: May 4th 2023, 12:00:02 pm
Anna squirmed, her dignity and curiosity warring within her before, finally, coming to an uneasy truce. Her embarrassment over what she was saying helped matters, as she toyed with the hem of her nightgown - and was only amplified as she accidentally lifted it too high and started to flash her diaper - since it could be attributed to what she was about to say, implying a bad memory.
"I-I try my best not to do... that... in my diapers," she said, hoping it sounded enough like a confession, and not a fantasy, "b-but I don't always make it..."
"Aww," Mrs. Florez gave her a sympathetic smile, and then a hug. "It's all right, dear. I hope that didn't happen while you were at school or anything."
Anna prayed the woman couldn't feel her heart beating a little faster as the thought was injected into her mind, accompanied by images of being surrounded by her friends at school, in diapers, wriggling desperately at her desk and being told she wasn't allowed to get a hall pass, begging and pleading and trying to make the teacher understand how urgent it was, drawing more and more attention to herself until, finally, it was too late, her diaper filling as she whimpered helplessly, head spinning with shame...
"Oh, sweetie," Mrs. Florez pulled out of the hug, holding Anna in front of her, stroking her hair. "That isn't why you decided to study abroad, was it?"
"N-No!" Anna shook her head, though the quickness with which she said it, the urgency in her voice, may have suggested the opposite. "I-I really wanted to see your country, a-and..."
She could tell it wasn't working, that she was flustered enough now that it had gone beyond helping her story. "Poor thing," Mrs. Florez clucked. As far as she was concerned, she had discovered the truth; in her eyes, Anna was here because of some humiliating incident at her old school with her diapers. "I wish I could tell you kids here are nicer about these sorts of things, but... Well, Aidan had some issues not that long ago, and he got teased a lot when his classmates found out..."
"And he's younger than me," Anna pointed out, peering down at her nightgown with the cartoon character on it, giving it another little tug to leave a sliver of the bulky plastic underneath visible to make what she was about to say next even more ridiculous. "I'm an adult, a-and I still..."
"Hey," Mrs. Florez rubbed her arm. "You don't do it on purpose! It isn't your fault!"
Except she did, and it was... She wondered if her host mother would be so nice about all this if she knew that. "I-I know," she nodded. "Thank you for everything."
"You're very welcome," Mrs. Florez gave her another hug. "Now, why don't you run off and take your nap, all right? You'll feel better once you do."
Anna nodded, obediently trotting back to Karissa's room, where she found the other girl pulling the fitted sheet back over the mattress of the smaller bed, over top of a crinkly plastic sheet. "I'm sorry!" she squeaked, hurrying over to give her a hand, though, by then, it was mostly done, so all she had to do was stand there and watch. "I-I could have done that!"
"It's no big deal," Karissa shrugged, tucking the final corner into place. "I assumed you were off changing, so I..." She glanced over at Anna at last, unable to hide a smirk when she did. "What are you wearing?!"
Anna squirmed, feeling Karissa's eyes burning a hole through her chest. "I-I dunno," she mumbled. "I-I felt like I had to let your mom know about... everything... a-and she helped me out, and..."
"Oh, my God," Karissa rolled her eyes. "I can't believe she put you in that! The only person I know who still watches that show is Gwen, and even she is starting to outgrow it!"
"H-How old is Gwen?" Anna asked, fidgeting, not sure she wanted to know the answer, although she wasn't certain if she would be mortified or excited if the answer was too young.
Karissa chuckled. "She's four," she replied.
Anna blushed, still unsure which emotion reigned supreme now at this news that she was dressed in something so immature a four year old might reject it... Not to mention the diapers underneath it that Gwen had very likely outgrown already, too. "W-Well, it was yours!" she pouted. "A-And it fits, so I bet you had it when you were older than that!"
Surely she had... Right? There was no way she fit into the same size Karissa wore when she was that little! "I didn't pick it out," Karissa told her. "I got it from an aunt who didn't bother to check what I was into before buying me a Christmas present. I don't know if I ever even actually wore it."
"W-Well, your mom chose it for me," Anna said defensively.
"That is so like her," Karissa sighed. "Just make sure you change before dinner, or Aidan will never let you hear the end of it. And definitely don't wear it to a sleepover or anything."
"I-I don't think you have to worry about that," Anna shook her head. "I haven't been to any sleepovers since..."
"Oh," Karissa blinked. "Right, of course... I didn't think about that..."
Anna frowned, looking at her, listening to the sadness in her voice. "Do you have a lot of sleepovers?" she asked.
"Well... Yeah," Karissa confessed. "It's why we have the extra bed. I had been thinking about having one to make me feel better about my trip being cancelled, and to help you get to know some of the other girls a little better, but...."
"That's really nice of you," Anna said. It was a kind gesture, and she felt guilty keeping Karissa from hanging out with her friends, yet... She was still getting used to her diapers, to wearing them at all, much less keeping them hidden. She was not at all prepared to jump into the challenge of spending a whole night around other girls and attempting to prevent all of them from discovering them. She'd barely even touched down, and already two people were already aware, had already changed her.
Or, perhaps, three knew, depending on how much Doyle had deduced, or been told by Karissa. She had committed to her plan of saying she needed her diapers for a medical reason, to wearing them full-time because of it, and that meant that some people would likely have to know about them, but this was more than she'd anticipated letting in on her secret so soon.
Karissa shook her head, giving the top sheet a flick, letting it float down over Anna's bed. "I should have known better," she grumbled. "I mean, even if they didn't notice your diaper, they'd hear your plastic sheet when they sat down on your bed, and telling all of them not to do that for the whole night would just make them more curious..."
"I-I'm sorry," Anna told her. "I don't want to keep you from doing what you want... I-I could probably go without a plastic sheet for a night..."
"You can't go without a diaper, though," Karissa cut her off, the words making Anna's cheeks glow bright red. "And I bet after you've been up all night, filling your bladder with a bunch of soda, you'd be more likely to leak, and that would be even worse without your plastic sheet."
"I-I guess," Anna agreed, knowing that would only make sense, given the lies she'd been telling. "I-I'm sorry," she repeated, not certain what else to do, or say, to make it up. She could hope that Karissa's friends would be as understanding as she had been, but there was no guarantee of that... Surely Karissa would introduce her to them at school, and maybe Anna could get an idea of which ones would and wouldn't make her life miserable if they found out, and only invite the latter... Although, then, if the others found out, it could cause drama in their group, and she didn't want that, not least of all because someone might let slip the real reason some of them hadn't been allowed to come, just to ease tensions...
"No, it's fine," Karissa responded curtly, her tone not quite convincing while she finished making the bed.
Anna nibbled her lip, staring up the other girl. Was she mad at her? Or annoyed at herself for not thinking of this sooner? This was her senior year, too, one of her last chances to do all this... She'd have a whole semester after Anna went home, but still, she felt like she was robbing her of something she enjoyed, for the sake of getting to experiment with diapers. It had never occurred to her that might affect someone other than herself...
"W-We'll figure something out," Anna promised her. "I-I don't know what, but we will."
"All right," Karissa said dismissively, folding back the covers and giving the bed a pat. "Come on, naptime."
Anna wished she had something more concrete to tell her, some plan, but, as she didn't, she slid into bed, squirming as the sound of crinkling surrounded her, reminding her that, as far as Karissa was concerned, she was a bedwetter.
"Someone's a wiggle-worm," Karissa teased, walking over to turn out the lights, Anna wondering if that was the same voice she used with Gwen.
"S-Sorry," Anna tried to lie still. "Th-They're just so much louder than the ones I have back home."
"They are, huh?" Karissa paused, looking down at her. "You'll have to tell me where you got those... These are the quietest ones we were able to find... Way better than the ones some of my babysitting clients have."
Anna finally did manage to stop being distracted by the delightfully embarrassing sound of her new bedding, and how little it made her feel, freezing in place. Had that been a mistake? Did Karissa suspect something?
"O-Oh, I don't know," she gulped. "M-My mom bought them for me, so I-I'm not sure where she got them from..."
"I bet she did," Karissa smirked, only making Anna more anxious. What did that mean?! Was it her saying she wasn't surprised Anna's Mommy had bought her plastic sheets for her, when she didn't even trust her to change her own diapers? Or was Karissa starting to see through Anna's lies already?
That was the last thing Anna had needed before trying to go to sleep, fighting to keep from going back to wriggling on top of her crinkly sheet. Now she really wasn't sure what she should do... If Karissa suspected she was faking it, that might make her resent her for forcing her to give up her sleepovers for no real reason, and who knew what that could make her do, if she decided she wanted revenge?
Probably, she was going to have to wet her diaper if she wanted to convince Karissa she wasn't lying. She hadn't thought about it much before, but now, she wondered if she ought to do it now, before she fell asleep, or wait until she woke up... Karissa had slept some on the plane, so she might get up before Anna, might decide to check her, if she was getting suspicious... Doing it now would mean having to try to sleep in a soggy diaper, which she had never done before, however, at least not since she was a toddler.
Then again, she had said, at first, that she only wet the bed sometimes. Anna hadn't appeared to buy it, and if she was beginning to wonder about all this, it might not help matters. All that could just be Anna's imagination, though, and if she wanted to get on Karissa's good side, prove that she could make it through one night for a sleepover without her plastic sheet, anyway, waking up dry might be the key. It was definitely a gamble, whatever she picked.... And she was going to have to make her decision fast because, now that the room was mostly dark, Karissa's curtains doing a decent job of blocking the sunlight, and she was tucked in, the distractions of her plastic sheets and diaper were beginning to lose out to her exhaustion.
So, she thought to herself with a yawn, what should she do?
Wet her diaper now?
Wet her diaper when she wakes up?
Or keep her diaper dry?