The Diaper Store - Shopping

Oh, nice. I like the start here and the cliffhanger. 

"Okay, Buddy"  Daddy picks Benny up and carries him to the rocking chair. He helps Benny get into a comfortable position, and he takes the bottle from the bottle warmer and offers it to him. "Here, Benny"

Cat (Or Top Cat in America)

Loved the chapter.  You certainly don’t need to be sorry for dividing this up some.  I just hope you are feeling well again real soon.  John is overreacting to a wet diaper.  He knows they are necessary and he doesn’t seem to have a problem with being changed so he shouldn’t get upset when he is wet.  Even if it’s really wet.  I used to get upset myself when I woke up and had leaked.  Then I realized there’s nothing I can do to prevent wetting so I just searched for better protection and use a pad to sleep on. If leaks happen they happen.  I know the picture John just drew is actually a very important picture.  I wonder how long it’s going to take the bigs to realize what he has done.   I will be looking forward to seeing more. 

18 The explanation of Mrs. Fletcher, the French teacher, was slower than the gait of the snail outside the window. Riley had been studying it since the beginning of class; it was not the first time she had seen it pass by her. That little snail had a very dark, brown shell that gave way to black as it rotated toward the center. She could think of nothing else but Sally's plan. Her role was paramount: to go to a classroom and look for people who would be willing to join her and her friends. Her goal, like Theo's, was to convince as many people as possible to take part in their rebellion. She wondered if those two seventh graders, Zoe and Toby, would also contribute to their cause. From what Theo had said, she would certainly not back down and he would follow her without batting an eye. Most likely they were doing this because they didn't want Katrine and her colleagues to start bothering seventh graders like them. She let that last thought go. She needed to focus on herself and not get lost in the meandering forest of thoughts. And if the teacher saw her distracted, she would call her to the blackboard. So she tried to follow that hag, to no avail. What Sally had said the day before had discombobulated her to the point where she wondered if what she had planned was worth the risk. "It has to work!" she kept telling herself as a form of reassurance, but that did not make her even more anxious. She let go in the back of her chair, then glanced at the last few rows. Only Sally was there; Theo was on the ground floor talking to Zoe and Toby. She sighed dejectedly. What if it doesn't go well? What if it ends in the worst way? "Are you okay?" whispered Ferg, who was her desk partner for that day of the week, to her. "You seem restless." "There's nothing wrong with me," she replied unconvinced. "I'm trying to follow the lesson." Ferg quickly cast a glance at the blackboard, Mrs. Fletcher's back to them all. He leaned his back against the chair as his deskmate and directed a welcoming, confident look at her. He told her, "I know that look. Luz does that too, and talking usually helps." "Here ... I'm not in a ... let's say... I'm afraid of... I don't want to take part in..." mumbled Riley and her friend interrupted her. "Breathe, think, and then speak," he ordered her. "I can wait." Riley obeyed. She inhaled, exhaled, inhaled and exhaled. "I'm afraid of disappointing my friends, as well as being targeted by Katrine and the others." "If you are afraid of disappointing them, then why don't you try to tell yourself that you will do your best not to let that happen?" questioned Ferg. "If only the human mind were that easy to manipulate," Riley complained. "I repeat it in my head over and over, but nothing changes. I still let them down!" "If you've never tried, you can never say you've failed. But if you never try, you will fail in the beginning," Ferg told her in a wise voice. "Could you take away one curiosity?" She nodded. "Do we have to convince all our friends to stop Katrine?" Riley was surprised by that question. Wasn't it his and Theo's job? This was a game changer. "You know about Sally's plan, too!" "Yes," he confirmed, "she explained it to me last night. Then I told Luz about it. Later we're going to go around and recruit some people, I know some friends who owe me a favor." "Is it okay if Theo and I join you two?" she offered unsurely. "Four of us might be more convincing." Ferg raised his left eyebrow. "Why?" "I told you, with four of us we could be more convincing." Ferg did not answer right away; he turned to the seats behind him. Luz and Dennis were there. Ferg and she exchanged a look full of words, then straightened her back and finally answered by glancing at the blackboard, "All right." * The recess came after an eternity. The four "colleagues" ate all their snacks and hid their money in their respective backpacks; they could not be targeted if they did not carry their wallets with them. Theo arrived at the beginning of the third hour and brought good news: Zoe and Toby were in. They stood in front of the girls' bathroom; Sally was with them. The rocker was the first of the trio to notice their handshake; she had to restrain herself from asking questions of their "possible relationship." "Today we're starting with the sixth-graders," Sally announced. "Or do you want to start from seventh-graders? Or eight-graders?" Ferg raised his hand. "I have some eighth-grade friends who can come in handy, they owe me a favor." Everyone nodded. "All right, then I'll leave you a blank page. You can fill me in at the end of recess," Sally smiled at him and started to walk away. "Where are you going?" asked Luz. "I'm going to them," she answered her annoyed, "they'll be looking for me by now. See you later guys!" After their friend left, Ferg took charge. He announced, "Let's go, my friends are on the other side. The sooner we go, the sooner we can devote ourselves to the other classes." They proceeded at a brisk pace and in a straight line, Ferg was in the lead, followed by Theo, then Luz and finally Riley, who was looking around the hallway for Sally. She had an inkling that they would meet her along with their sworn enemies. If she had seen her, she should have ignored her and continued on her way. The same was true for her companions. They turned left, went up the stairs to the third floor, then turned right twice and went straight ahead; their destination was down the hall. No sign of the bullies. "Ferg," Theo began insecurely, "who are these friends of yours?" "My brother's classmates," replied his companion proudly. "They are cool eighth grade boys. My brother, Ricky, introduced them to me a while ago. One time they needed someone to help them with... you know... pay off a debt," his voice became shaky, "Ricky and I volunteered and... so they owe me a favor." "What do you mean by settling a debt?" asked Riley suddenly. "Ferg don't you dare answer that!" warned Luz threateningly. After that, she turned to her friend, "Riley, Theo, don't be angry, but this question will not be answered. It's heavy to swallow." "How heavy?" Theo asked again. "Is it similar to what Katrine and the others do?" Luz stopped Ferg from answering; she cared that he never opened his mouth until they got to their class. "I'm just telling you it's much worse. Please, let's change the subject now." "We're here," Ferg said as soon as they arrived in front of the wooden door to the D-3 classroom. "Wait for me here." The burly boy entered, nodding to Luz. Riley and Theo looked at each other puzzled. What did that nod mean? "Why did he make that movement with your head?" asked Theo curiously to Luz. "Honestly, I don't know," she answered truthfully and with a hint of embarrassment. "We do it to each other all the time, it makes us feel closer in a way." "It's a beautiful thing," Theo commented smilingly, almost blushing with envy, "it feels like something between boyfriends." Luz looked away sharply, not wanting either of them to see her blush. Seeing her reaction, Riley nudged her friend with her elbow. She whispered in his ear, "My guess is they're engaged, just play it cool." Luz concluded excitedly, "Yes, it's an engaged thing. I wonder if we really are...". She gave a faint smile. "Do you..." began Riley uncertainly, "have feelings for him?" Luz nodded. "He's my best friend, he's always there when I'm hurting and when he's hurting I'm there for him. I love him very much." Intervened Theo rudely, "That's what best friends are for, but I don't think you guys are engaged." "Then what makes us engaged?" asked Luz doubtfully. "Well... ugh.., I don't know!" retorted Theo. Riley brought his hand to his face. Theo shut your mouth, please! "If you don't know, then shut up!" Luz hissed at him. She's right about that. I have to stop them. "Could we talk about this later?" interjected Riley peremptorily. "If you get into an argument now, you make it more complicated. Thank you." She had not expected immediate silence. She had already prepared a long series of phrases to calm tempers and, just in case, silence both Theo and Luz with a single sentence. Her brain had worked hard for nothing. Yay! Bickering avoided! Four minutes later, Ferg returned and his somber face immediately made clear the outcome of that talk: they would not take part in their fight. Even the tone of his rancorous voice corroborated that thought: "They think it's idiotic, unfortunately we came here for nothing!" "What about that famous favor?" blurted Luz. "They wouldn't listen to reason," her sour best friend replied. "It was no use trying to convince them, you know them. Derek and T-Roc against, only my brother in favor." "What assholes!" she exclaimed furiously. Ferg gave her an agreeing look, but at the same time hated to hear that vulgar and offensive word. At that moment, Riley and Theo discovered that Ferg, the good giant, hated swearing. Then he turned to his friends. "Now what do we do?" It was Riley who answered. "We start in the third grade. By now we've come here for your friends, so at this point we start at the bottom of the list." * The first class, C-3, was a lost cause. Some of them knew about Riley's incident at the supermarket, which immediately put them in a bad position. Even the explanation of their noble cause was not enough to convince those very few people, 6 to be exact, to join. "Would you rather have a dummy like Katrine walk all over you?" blurted Theo at one point. They had failed. Before they took their leave, one of the four girls offended Riley defiantly. They said, "You'd better go back to kindergarten, Katrine is fond of little girls who wet their pants." Theo and Ferg gave her a resentful glare. Luz had to restrain him from responding to the rude one, then looked at her friend ready to reassure her. Riley looked the other way, but those words did not keep her quiet in subsequent meetings. From B-3 they managed to bring four people to her side. Unlike the earlier class, convincing them had been a piece of cake. Theo, Luz and Freg were beginning to get the hang of it; they would team up with their interlocutor, take a second to choose their approach - direct, thoughtful or improvised - and proceed with their chosen approach. They looked like professional door-to-door salesmen. Unlike them, Riley watched and listened in complete silence, smiled and nodded when one of them needed a hand. He helped them twice, and those two times were instrumental in getting them on their side. One of them, a boy with dark blond curly hair with a confident look, asked the foursome, "You guys are sixth graders, right?" He pointed his eyes at Riley and added, "You didn't say a word. Would you like to answer, please?" Ferg opened his mouth to answer for him, but Riley beat him to the timing. She gave him a confident look, something told her she was close to convincing him completely. She answered truthfully, "We're from Classroom B-1 downstairs. Now that I have spoken you and your friends would answer us. Please?" The four "yeses" came like fireworks, suddenly and overwhelmingly in their ears. Riley thought that it was thanks to her one intervention that saved the day; this brought a smile back to her face. When they walked through the door, her friends noticed and joined her. The last classroom was A-3, Katrine's and Nella's. They entered quietly; they knew the those two were not in the area. The hope of gathering more than ten people, or ten exactly, was a fire that knew no bounds. The moment Theo and Luz began their speech, all twelve present pricked up their ears and listened. "Something tells me we will gain twelve new members," whispered Ferg to Riley. She laughed. "Most from their own class!" They talked for a good five minutes. They used terse, well-weighted words to tease out their desire for freedom, their desire to end the tyranny of Katrine and the others. Ferg and Riley counted as many as nine people interested; only three did not want to know. "Well?" concluded Luz in a pressing tone. "Will you join us or will you be crushed by their perfidy?" "I'd be curious to know who says about me!" A stony silence fell. Everyone present turned their intimidated faces to the entrance; Katrine and Nella had returned with Sally in tow. Riley lined up behind Ferg, who let an angry grin escape in their direction, lest the two bullies see him. Her heart began to beat wildly. When did they come back? The 14-year-olds did not have the courage to even say that two-letter word in their presence. The air became more tense with every second of silence. At that point, Ferg in a firm, angry voice wanted to challenge them. "I am eleven years old. Eleven! I am not afraid of a 14-year-old girl! Whereas you? Yes, you are fourteen like her, but you are wimps!" Katrine and Nella sneered in amusement. Behind them, Sally was pretending to the best of her poor acting skills. Ferg did not want to stop. "You don't scare me Katrine! If you dare, face me!" Everyone paled. Riley took a step back in fear. Only at that moment did she realize that she had to pee. No no no! Not now! Katrine smiled mockingly. "An even fight? I'll take it." She approached him menacingly. Smirk smirked, bloodshot eyes piercing hers. Ferg remained motionless, told his friends to move away. Luz tried unsuccessfully to reason with him, but Theo and Riley prevented her from doing so by dragging her undaunted between the A-3 desks. She fought back tears in her eyes, but it was not enough. She did not want her best friend to be hurt by that unclean being called Katrine Foster. Ferg tried to throw a punch at her, but her opponent dodged it by backing away with a snap. She staggered forward, nearly losing her balance. He unleashed another one, still missing the target; Katrine took advantage and pushed him with all her strength against the table where the classroom computer was. The 11-year-old fell to the floor, slamming the left side of his head against the shelf. He gasped something, then got back to his feet. His eyes were glazed over; he wasn't going to cry about how much the cut burned. "You're such a tough guy, you know?" she complimented. It was at that moment that Ferg bitterly regretted his choice to face her. The scene he witnessed nearly killed him with rage. Luz pushed Katrine against the desk. The big girl screamed in pain as her right side caught against the crafted wooden table. She did not lose her balance, her pained face slammed into the scrawny little girl. She didn't think twice, so she punched her straight in the right cheek. Luz went at it with her back against the benches in the first row splitting them apart, the screeching of the benches' feet dabbing the ears of everyone present. She was on the floor curled in on herself with her hands covering her face. No one had the courage to speak or intervene. Everyone stood petrified at the image that would cause much discussion: Katrine Foster had beaten up two sixth-graders in her classroom. Riley squeezed Theo's hand tightly, her eyes scrunched up her face. She had watched a fight helplessly and had wet her pants slightly.