Rainbow Diapers

No worries. I grew up eating them and haven't had one in probably 45-50 years. Is army coffee worse than McDonald's or Starbucks?

Liam, you are digging a deep hole buddy! 

Chapter 19   Stacy scanned the last crowd of people leaving the mall. Alexis got beside her, rubbed her shoulder, assuring her that her mom had been right after her when they had left the mall. She was just going to check at their car first. A moment later she appeared and Stacy ran across the parking lot with her arms stretched out. Her mom spotted her, bent down and did the same. Their hug lasted even longer than the ones Alexis had given me and Ally combined. We waved them goodbye before Alexis opened the car.   Before we got to our seats, the sound of fire trucks approached. But since there weren’t any fires there to extinguish, the firefighters would have to turn back to the station again. Most people thought it was a good idea to head home as well, so the parking lot became pretty chaotic. Alexis told us to hurry up and get to the car and I climbed up in my booster seat the fastest I could. It didn’t help that much though; navigating through the parking lot was going to be tricky.   Alexis backed out and headed towards the exit. The number of people about, some of them not minding where they were going made that hard though. Sometimes, Alexis had to slow down for them or another car. If the stop was too sudden, I bounced in my seat, closed my eyes, fearing that we would crash into someone. The sound of car horns made me a bit uneasy as well. Ally grumbled at the people or cars she found annoying and the remarks irritated Alexis who told her to stop so she could concentrate on getting out of there. Luckily, we avoided any collisions, and in the end, we somehow made our way through.   By the time we had driven up to the high way, I sat squirming in my seat. The fire alarm and all the rush had made me forget about needing the bathroom. If I hadn’t been wearing a diaper, I doubted I would have been able to keep my pants dry all the way back to Ally’s house, unless we didn’t stop on the way, which Alexis said she didn’t want to. I pulled up my T-shirt over my bellybutton and saw the rim of it. My shorts must have gone down a bit since we had left to the mall and it was a wondrous luck that nobody had seen it there, especially Stacy. I adjusted my shorts back up, then got ready for what must happen.   There was no point in fighting the uncomfortable urge. I shifted my legs a final time before allowing my diaper to get warm and swell up. Poor babies, they had to do this all the time. And poor Ally for that matter. Last summer, Alexis had forced her wear diapers all the time. But it still confused me that Alexis would do such a thing. Maybe Ally hadn’t said the whole truth. Maybe she had done something really bad that warranted the punishment to go on for two summers, like just not shoplifting but actually robbing a store. Or maybe Alexis thought we liked to be diapered for some reason. It couldn’t be out of malice. It just couldn’t. She liked us too much for that. I had to try to bring it up with Ally later. First, I had to endure sitting in the car for an hour wearing a wet diaper. Alexis threw a glance at the back seat, and for a moment I thought that she had sensed what I had just done, like she had done at breakfast, but maybe I was wrong.   “Hey look.” she whispered, gesturing at Ally who was breathing slowly and heavily in her seat. It was after lunch so it must have been her naptime. “I guess it was a good thing she wanted to wear diapers, too, else we might have ended up with a ruined car seat.” I didn’t get what she meant at first, but then I realized that she must have thought that I thought that Ally wet the bed, and I nodded. Alexis then searched next to her with her hand and found a CD that she put in the car’s stereo.   Time for a hypnosis, I thought, but it wasn’t. It was just some regular music. Maybe she had forgotten to bring one of the hypnotic tracks to the car. But even if it wasn’t, the music still made me sleepy since it was on low volume. I didn’t care to struggle to stay awake as my eyelids got heavier and heavier and before I knew it, I was napping, too.    The bump up to Ally’s house was enough to wake me up again. I dried my eyes and saw another car parked there. Were their parents back already? If it was so the plan was finally over now, because it would be too difficult to wear diapers with them around. We didn’t want them to know what Alexis was doing to us; we wanted to blackmail her instead. Or maybe I had already worn diaper enough for that to work anyhow. As I thought about all that, pretending to still be napping, Alexis had stopped her car, gotten out of it and was hurrying over to the new one. It was then I recognized it. It was Evan’s truck. He was waiting in there and Alexis knocked on his widow and waved.   Ally was still asleep. I unbuckled myself and crawled over to her, pinching her arm to wake her up. Her eyes blinked a few times. She was awake, at least enough to understand where we were anyway. I elbowed her shoulder to grab her attention and pointed forward. Her eyes shot up when she saw Evan and she quickly unbuckled herself, too. Ally’s door was facing away from them and she carefully opened it, holding a finger to her mouth, gesturing for me to be quiet before taking my hand leading me out. We stooped forward sneaking past them, around the house and to the backyard. There, Ally led me over her little playground to behind the playhouse where we crouched down.   “Why are we hiding?” I whispered, trying to catch a peek around the corner.   Ally put an arm out to stop me from doing so. “He’s the axeman, remember?   I smiled; we were just playing. “Right, but don’t we have to save Alexis then?”   “I guess so. Even if she’s a meanie she doesn’t deserve to be slaughtered by an axeman. We have to rescue her somehow. I think I have an idea.”   Ally checked so that the coast was clear. It was, and we ran into her playhouse. Next to the wall stood a wooden chest. Ally opened it and in there were sandbox buckets and shovels, a soccer ball, a skipping rope, water guns among other outdoor toys. Ally picked the skipping rope along with two guns and handed me one. They were empty so we dipped them down in the water to fill them up.   “Get ready.” Ally said, pumping up her gun. “I’m going to call for him, then you’ll aim at his face while I tie him up, okay? Let’s go.”   With our guns fully loaded and ready, we marched up to Ally’s terrace. She called Evan’s name, and not soon later, we saw them coming. Alexis opened the glass door. “Oh, so there you are.”   “Freeze.” Ally said, aiming her gun at Evan. “Let her go, axeman.”   He kind of chuckled and held his hands up. “Okay…”   “Sit down.” Ally motioned with her gun at a chair and he followed her order. “Don’t move.” I kept him at gunpoint while she went around his back, grabbed his arms and put them together, but just as she was about to tie his hands with the skipping, he got up.   “No way. You won’t fool me twice.”   Ally dropped the rope and reached for her gun. “He’s escaping! Fire!”   I hesitated at first, but then I saw that he was wearing swimming trunks so there was no harm in it. I pulled the trigger and a spray of water hit his face. He jerked and in the next moment another shower followed from Ally. He ran, but we chased him, firing our guns, giggling. Being much older than we were he was faster, so we split up. Ally ran at one direction around the house while I took the other so he had to dodge us from two sides.   Three laps around the house later, the water in my gun had lost its power and could only let out tiny spits. I went over to the pool, bending down to reload. It was then we were betrayed. A big stream of water hit my back making me almost lose my balance and fall down in the pool. Alexis was standing a bit behind me with a water hose in her hand. Not fair. If water wars had any rules one of them must be to ban those.   I got to my feet and closed my eyes as another wave hit me making my shirt all wet.   “You’re supposed to be on our side.” Ally told her, only to be fired at, too. “Hey!” She shot back in retaliation, missing.   “Oh.” Alexis grinned, aiming the hose at Evan instead.   “Three to one isn’t fair.” he said, backing off. Ally and I and chased him around pretty good. His hair was wet, his t-shirt dripping and he stood there catching his breath.   “Sorry, I think it’s girls versus boys.” Alexis turned the hose on full power and fired at him as he ran to try to get out of range.  In the end, he took a big leap and dived down the pool. Alexis covered her mouth, laughing, then gasped as water hit her.   Ally had sneaked over to the end of the hose and turned it off. “New rule: Adults versus kids.” She fired her gun at her sister again.   I did, too, to get revenge.   “Ok, ok stop, you two.” Alexis said, holding her hands out in front of her, trying to avoid getting wet, without much success. “Stop. We should get swimsuits on before continuing this.”   I put my gun down.  It would be nice to be diaper free for a while, or at least I hoped I would be. Alexis did get those swim diapers from the store, but luckily, she wasn’t mentioning them as we walked inside. It was probably since Evan was here. She didn’t want him to know. Or did she? He was her friend after all and when he caught us at the mill, Ally had gotten pretty angry, and I remembered that she told me not to trust him, but it was probably about something else and not about the diapers.   I took my new swimsuit upstairs to change in the bathroom. My clothes were wet after Alexis’s betrayal so I hanged them up over the bathtub to dry. As I spun around to get my swimsuit from my bag, I could see myself in the bathroom mirror and looked away at once, embarrassed of the picture of me standing there in just a diaper. I hurried to undo the tapes before throwing it in the trash bin. Since I had worn it for a while after it had gotten wet, I felt a bit unclean and took a really quick shower to freshen myself up a before getting my new swimsuit on. To my relief, it fit all right.   On my way back downstairs, Ally came out from her room wearing her swimsuit, too, and we raced downstairs to get first in the pool. She won, but just barely.   We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and playing around in there. Sometimes, Evan and Alexis joined, too, but mostly we were by ourselves while they sat on their sun chairs talking as they watched us in case we would drown or something. It wasn’t that likely though. My parents had sent me to swimming school since I was five and I had passed the test we did with school. There was one thing I wasn’t very good at though; diving, and when Ally found out about that she said she was going to teach me how by the end of the day, so we spent lot of time jumping in her pool to practice.   Evan had taught Ally how to dive and, in the end, it was some advice from him that finally helped me nail it, too. I wasn’t afraid of it anymore and I lost count of how many times I dived that day after that, and by then, even if summer nights don’t really get dark, I figure it had become evening.   As I came up to the surface after one of my dives, I smelled smoke. It came from the terrace and now I could see it, too. Was it a real fire this time? Ally had just gone to the bathroom, but Evan and Alexis were there so it couldn’t be any danger. I swum closer to the edge of the pool and heard a frying sound and then I knew what it was. Both of those things came from Evan who was standing at the barbecue grill. It must be dinner soon. I heaved myself up from the pool to see long it was until we could eat.   Alexis wrapped me in a towel as I came up to the terrace and I sat down in a chair with it. My fingertips looked like raisins and in spite of the hot evening, my teeth clattered and I shivered out of cold. I moved the chair closer to the grill to get its heat and see what Evan had put on the barbeque.   “Hamburger, diver girl?” He asked, flipping one. I nodded, feeling how my tummy suddenly got hungrier.   Ally came back, changed out of her swimsuit. She whispered something to Alexis who then looked at me. “You should get changed, too, Amber. Dinner’s almost ready.”   Alexis followed me upstairs and I collected my clothes from the bathroom before going to her room. We were both silent during the diaper procedure, but there was some sort of tension present. It was like she was mad at me for staying in them. It must be as I had thought. She disliked wasting diapers on me, or maybe I wasn’t a cute enough baby for her. Perhaps she only liked to see Ally in diapers for some kind of sibling rivalry reason. I wanted to tell that I wasn’t fond of the diapering of me, either. It would soon be over though, and after we’d present the blackmail for her, I could tell her that was sorry, but that I did it for Ally. I knew that there might be no chance, but I hoped we would remain friends after all of this was over. Maybe if an outside part explained to her how bad the thing she was doing to Ally was, she would understand, regret it and forgive us.   Once she had taped the diaper on, she helped me to my feet, giving me a little pat on the back of my diaper. I just stood there, pondering all these things over and didn’t listen if she was talking to me. Then, I felt one of my arms lifted up and my shirt coming over my head. Alexis dressed me, lifting up my legs, one by one, to put them in my shorts before pulling them up. She didn’t look annoyed, just smiled and messed up my almost dried hair before holding out her hand. I took it and we began walking out to the terrace again.   Something stupid happened then. At the stairs, I stopped and since we were holding hands she did so, too. I had to pee. Having just gotten into diaper it felt pretty annoying. Some kind of telepathy must have been in the works because it looked like Alexis understood what was going on, too. I shouldn’t have stopped like that, making it too obvious. Well, since I couldn’t re-tape it, I had to use it, and Alexis had to diaper me again. Sigh.   “We don’t have to change it after only one use.” she said, before continuing to lead me down the stairs.       Chapter 20   At dinner I found a way to sort of counter Alexis’s “not-changing-it-if-it’s-only-used-once” policy. As we ate, I gulped down as many drinks as I could, probably appearing as if I was super thirsty even though I really wasn’t. I only did so because then I would need the bathroom more badly, so Alexis would have to change me sooner. At the fifth glass, she gave me a look and I smirked back, resisting the temptation of sticking my tongue out, too.   The hamburgers Evan had made tasted amazing and I proudly finished mine, even if it was adult sized. This time I also remembered to thank him properly.   After the big amount of food and drinks, my tummy felt rather full and I tiredly sank back in my chair as Alexis began to gather our plates. She and Evan then went to tidy things up in the kitchen and Ally ran after. I was about to leave my chair and follow, a bit reluctantly since I felt so sleepy, when she came rushing back, waving a bag of marshmallows in her hand. Suddenly renewed with energy, I sprang up from my chair and together we put them on sticks to roast them over the embers left in the barbecue grill.   “So.” I said, rotating my marshmallow to get it an even burn. “What are we going to do later tonight?”    “I have a movie I haven’t watched yet.” Ally said, “It’s a pretty babyish though, but I could always sneak one from downstairs again.” She was holding a marshmallow stick for Evan and Alexis in addition to her own and she had put three on each and I felt a bit stupid for not having thought of putting more than one on mine.   “It’s okay.” I said, quickly, remembering the nightmare I had after the one we had watched the first night. I was lucky that the axeman hadn’t reappeared the following nights, which had been strangely dreamless.   “I mean, it’s a really babyish one, for like, actual babies. You-know-who gave it to me and I guess that says enough.” Ally said, adding a ‘hmph’.   “Do you really think she is doing all this because she hates you?”   “Yea, and because she enjoys it. Why else?” She muttered it in a tone that said it couldn’t be another way and I was stupid for even questioning it.   But I didn’t drop it then and threw a glance behind my back to check if Alexis was there. “Well, I’ve been thinking for a bit, and this might sound crazy, but what if she’s actually doing all this because she likes you? Maybe she just misses the times when you were a baby and remembers how happy you were then. I don’t know if you were and I don’t think you remember that, either, and I’m not saying it’s still okay for her to do this to you, but maybe if we just explained how bad this is for you, she’ll stop.”    Ally chewed on her lip, furrowed her brows, her eyes reflecting the embers in the coal. “No, she won’t do that. She’ll just act all innocent and tell you I’m wetting the bed. Why would she want to stop if she could get away with it?” Her voice had a slight tone of annoyance in it.  “Come on, it’s just three days and then you don’t have to wear diapers anymore. That was our plan and we’re sticking on to it. Do I have to tell you about the time she took me to the park? Maybe then you’ll understand what really is at stake here. We can’t risk anything.”   In the grill, a lump of coal fell from another one making a flame appeared right on my marshmallow. I hurried to move it away, blowing on it. “I understand, but…”   “No you don’t.” Ally snapped, making me almost drop my stick back in the fire again.   “I’m standing here in a wet diaper now. I do understand.” My diaper felt squishy between my legs and I had to wait until it was almost soaked before Alexis would finally change me.  “I know she’s mean, but what I’m saying is that maybe she just doesn’t realize it herself.”   “Okay. Let me tell you what happened at the park. I tried to refuse at first hid somewhere in house where she couldn’t find me, not caring if she told mom about my shoplifting, I just didn’t want to go. But she had made me wear diapers outside a few times before and I’m sure nobody saw anything then, so I thought I might be lucky this time, too.   “We got there and everything went pretty okay at first. I played around carefully and didn’t do any weird moves, but then I guess I got lost in the game we were playing, and some stupid boy came up and asked if I was wearing a diaper and I told him no and tried to get away from him, but then…” She stopped for a moment, sniffing. “One of his friends ran up from behind and pulled down my pants, just like that…   “It would have been bad even without a diaper on and Alexis got really mad at them.” Ally, slurred on, her throat sounded stuffed as if she was holding back tears. “But it was her fault all along, wasn’t it?”   “Ally, is our marshmallows ready yet?” Alexis called from inside the house.   “I’m coming.” Ally called back, drew an arm across her face and hurried inside.   She was being humiliated, and things like what she had just had told me might have happen again if I didn’t make Alexis stop, and as it seemed, I was the only one who could do it. She had put a lot of her trust in me when she had told me everything. I hadn’t really realized that yet or how much courage it must have taken to even open up about it.   My marshmallow was a bit burned, but it tasted okay, sweet and sticky. I was putting new ones on my stick when Ally came back and together, we roasted a few more, watching the sun set in silence, until I remembered something else, I was wondering about. “Why did you tell me to not trust Evan? He seems pretty okay.”   Ally took a dry marshmallow from the bag and put it directly in her mouth. “Oh that? It’s just a game we’re playing. He likes to trick me a lot, and I trick him, too, and I thought he might think you’re in on it since you’re my friend.” So, it was nothing serious, or involving the diapers. That was good.   A minute later, there was tramping on the wooden boards behind us. It was him. “Girls.” Evan said. “I’m going home now, so take care. Oh, and Alexis said the marshmallow bag better be at least half-full, or else she’ll have you both locked in Ally’s closet for the night.”   The look of our momentarily guilty faces, which were covered with sticky marshmallow mush, showing how much, we had gorged, must have looked pretty funny.   “Urghh…” Ally sighed. “That one was sooo bad. I wouldn’t even have fallen for that when I was five. You have gotten lame lately, Evan.” With that, he stepped forth and picked her up, lifting her up to the sky. Ally giggled and kicked me legs. “Let me down!”   “Looks like I can still lift you like you were five.” Evan held her up like that a few seconds more, then sank her just above the ground to tease her, weighing her up and down. “Hmm… Your arms feel denser somehow, have you been exercising?”   Ally toes desperately tried to reach the ground. “Stop that flattering. You saw me doing that before we ate and I started this week, so you can’t possibly know that by just touching my arms.”   “Oh okay. So why are you doing it?” Evan asked and then Ally somehow struggled free from his grip.   “For that.” Ally pushed him, took a step back and stuck her tongue out.   “Yeah, sure. I just let you go, you know?” Before Ally had a change to retort he put a hand over her mouth and said, “Well, no more playing around, I really have to go now. Bye.” He waved and walked out of sight behind the house.   Ally glared after him. “You see? He was lame this time, but that’s how he is. Let’s go in and watch that movie now.”   “Wait.” I said, eying my toes, wrinkling them. The drinks at dinner were ready to leave my system and I had been waiting for Evan to leave. I let go and my diaper got wet again, swelling up under my shorts, not visibly, hopefully. Even if Ally would find out about it, it would still be embarrassing if she knew it had happened right in front of her.   “What?” Ally asked.   There was something else, too. Even if my diaper was now pretty soaked, I wasn’t really done using the bathroom yet. My tummy complained, used to do both things at the same time I guessed, so I had to hold myself. I could take the chance to use the real bathroom after Alexis had taken off my current diaper before putting me in a new one.  “We have to get Alexis first.” I said.   She was in the living room, watching TV, flipping through the channels. I wasn’t sure, but she looked a bit distressed and like she had her mind elsewhere, not focused on what was happening on the screen.     “So why did you want to see her?” Ally asked me.   “My diaper is wet twice now.” I said, and she would have to hurry up or else she would have to deal with a one diaper, too. Even if she was into diapers, she probably wouldn’t like that very much.   She took me to the bathroom this time while Ally was setting up the movie in her room. She hadn’t brought a changing mat and as I lie down for her to change me, the floor felt cold. “You have to be careful about how much you drink.” she said as she taped my diaper off. “This one is so soaked it’s almost about to leak.”   I blushed at that, my tummy growing warm, and for a minute, I forgot to ask her about using the bathroom. She was already unfolding the new diaper when I remembered that and turned my head towards the toilet, but just as I was going to ask, I stopped myself.   “What, sweetie?” She wondered, bending down with the new diaper.   “Nothing…” An idea was forming inside my head and I let her get the diaper on. She probably wouldn’t like it very much. If she did, she would have made Ally do it, and if she had, Ally must have told me so. That meant that Alexis wasn’t very fond of it, maybe even detested it. And if she had to deal with those kinds of diapers, too, maybe she wouldn’t keep doing up with this anymore. Ally had probably not thought of the, being too disgusted by the thought. Could it be that simple to get Alexis to stop?   It would be pretty bad for me, too, I guessed. But one dirty diaper compared to at least ten wet ones I would have to go through before the week was over if I didn’t try my plan, might make it worth it. Was it worth the risk though? There was still a chance she might not have a problem with it and then it would be horrible for me. Well, as Ally had said last night, it could at least help us strengthen the blackmail even if it failed to stop her right now.    Ally was sitting on her bed when I came into her room, already in her pajamas. “Hey.” she said, “Do you remember this?” She held up the footed pajamas she had shown me the other day. “Want to try it?”   Considering the struggle, I had to wet my diaper for the first time, I thought that the other thing would take some time to learn, or well, relearn, as well. Maybe it even was impossible. The trick I did then might work again though. I could pretend to be a baby and wearing the footed pajamas might actually help a little bit with that, so I said, “Sure.” It felt very soft and cuddly and after I got it on, I felt a sudden need to roll around on the bed. I did so, giggling. If it hadn’t looked so babyish, it wouldn’t have been so bad actually.  It felt pretty warm though, but the night was chilly and I was sure there was an AC on, so it was okay.   After another rolling, my tummy growled and I had to stop to hold myself. I wondered if I should tell Ally about my plan. I didn’t have to, but it probably was for the best, so before she started to navigate through the menu of the DVD, I began telling her.   She nodded, thoughtfully after I had explained my plan to her. “I can’t believe I never thought of it.” she said, “I thought she liked it, but just wasn’t that mean. Maybe you’re right, but I still think our original plan will work just fine. I don’t care either way. The only thing I want is to make her stop. It’s up to you if want to take the risk.”   It was embarrassing enough to tell her everything to begin with, so I didn’t say I was planning to do it right now. I wasn’t sure how babies did it, but as I sat on the bed, I leaned my back forward a bit and raised myself so I was rather standing on my knees instead of sitting on them. I could have done it right then if I hadn’t been so nervous, my heart was pounding fast and I sat down again and waited, taking a breath.   Ally had turned her attention to the screen and pressed play on her controller and we sat back and watched the movie. It wasn’t as babyish as Ally had assumed. It was just a regular cartoon movie and it was pretty good, but as it went on the complaints from my tummy grew worse and I couldn’t keep that much attention on the plot and got lost, so everything seemed pretty confusing.   I was getting desperate and sat up and down on my knees a few times, hesitating, not sure if I really was going through with it. It would surely be gross, but could it really be that bad? And if I couldn’t do it myself, I could just wait it out.   Ten minutes or so passed before I dared to try it again. I lifted myself and this time I gathered enough guts to go in for one little push. To my shock it was all it took before it was too late to turn back. I bit my lip and couldn’t stop as my diaper filled up, getting both heavier and ickier than one I had ever worn. The bad feeling made me wish I hadn’t tried it and sitting back down on the bed again wasn’t the most comfortable thing, either.   It wasn’t long before the smell would reveal me, but it turned out that Ally had already been watching, probably guessing what had been going on right from the start. “Alex.” she called, loudly since she was downstairs, “Come here.” And her sister was soon at the door, wondering what it was and my heart beat faster and faster. “The baby needs her diaper changed.” Ally told her with a pinched tone, moving closer to the other edge of the bed.   “But I just did...” Alexis nose twitched, picking up the smell. “Oh, okay. We have to do it right away then. Come, Amber.” She said it in a tone that didn’t indicate the reaction I was hoping for and at once I knew that my plan had failed. Warmth filled my stomach as I stood in the bathroom a few moments later, full of regret. It’s easier to be wise in hindsight, but since I knew she liked diapers and everything to do with them, I maybe should have known better. It could still help us with the blackmail so it wasn’t all in vain, but that wasn’t much consolation to me, as I tried to fight back tears when Alexis unbuttoned my pajamas to help me with my messy diaper.      “Guess it was a good thing we got those swim diapers after all, huh?” she said, putting it in a plastic bag, sealing it. “Would you like to take a shower? –no, you don’t have to wear one then.” I nodded, rubbing my eye to stop a tear from rolling down my cheek. She reached over to turn the knob. I stepped in and she left me alone to clean myself.   Just when I was about to step out, she returned and asked if I wanted a bubble bath, too. I nodded again, this time faster and moved my feet back to the tub. Even if I had been in the pool all day, very few things could beat a bathtub filled with bubbles.   Before I knew it, the bath was ready and I sat down in the foam. It made me feel a little better, even cleaner, too. The water was just warm enough and the bubbles had a nice scent that I wasn’t sure of which and she had left as soon as she had poured the bubbles in so I couldn’t ask her now. The bottle wasn’t in view, either, but then I remembered that I saw her picking one with melon scent at store we had been to earlier and figured it must be that one.   I didn’t find any water toys to play with and instead just lay there and relaxed. I did so long enough for the water to begin feeling cold, and by then it was time to get up.   I stepped out, found a towel, dried my hair to avoid a bed head, and as I did, I caught view of myself in the big mirror, I saw that my arms and neck was pretty tanned, but most of the rest of my body wasn’t so it looked kind of funny. Well, there was nothing to do about that now, if it wasn’t possible to get a tan from the moon.   I saw it shining through the window in Ally’s room a few minutes later when I had gone looking for Alexis and heard her in there. The movie was over and she was getting Ally ready for bed and I didn’t really want to look that way, so still wrapped in my towel, I climbed up on the windowsill with the stuffed animals on and looked out. Ally had told me that when she was little, she could lie and sleep on it just like a cat. The window felt cold so if you leaned on it, it was actually a pretty comfortable place.   I yawned. Swimming in the pool all day had really worn me out. All I wanted to do now was to go to bed. All I had to do first was to get a diaper on.    Ally had hers on now and I climbed down to Alexis to get mine on as well. She had brought the footed pajamas from the bathroom and as soon as she had put the diaper on, she helped me get it on, too. It’s cuddliness, made me feel even sleepier, and I almost dozed off in Alexis arms as she carried me bed where she tucked me in, kissing my head goodnight.       Chapter 21   Not a minute after I screamed, Alexis was there.   I was shaking in panic, sweating all over and had barely noticed her coming in or turning on the lights in Ally’s room, but soon I found myself sobbing into her chest while she rocked me back and forth, trying to calm me down. I had a nightmare.   Like most nightmares, it was weird. I had seen something on the news on the TV in the living room. A plane was about to crash and before I know which one it was, a wave of panic swept over me. I ran out of the house and to a field where I could see it burning in the sky like a comet. It was coming towards me and I fled, trying to get back to where I came from, but the field appeared to have expanded somehow, growing in every direction I turned. Looking around, it seemed like it never ended.   Soon I was out of breath and stopped to put my hands on my knees. The sound of the plane was louder than anything else was. I covered my ears before daring to turn around. It was seconds from the ground now, aiming right for me. The explosion from the crash threw me off my feet, leaving me flying high up in the air. The fall was going to break both my legs and I prepared myself for the pain, but I somehow managed to land safely with a complicated somersault.   On my feet again, I ran blindly towards the burning crash site. I searched, but the intense heat almost fried me alive and the smoke made me couch so hard I couldn’t breathe while I tried to find them, but my parents were nowhere to be found.   It was then I suddenly woke up in Ally’s bed. Although I figured out pretty soon that it must have been a dream, I cried and sobbed for quite long. At first, I wasn’t sure if everything had been a dream, at least not the first part and what made it so bad was that I knew that it could actually have happened. I wasn’t at home either, where I now would have been running to my parents’ room. At least, Alexis was here now and I managed to calm down some while incoherently telling her about the nightmare through my sobs.   “No plane has crashed tonight.” she said confidently, holding me close in her lap. “It would be all over the news. And isn’t their flight ‘til Saturday?” She glanced over at Ally’s alarm clock. “It just turned Friday now, so everything is fine. Your parents are okay. It was just a nightmare.”   She was probably right, but I could still do anything just to speak with them to confirm it. “Mommy…”   Alexis shh’d me, patting my back.  “You know, they might be awake now. Let’s see… Their time zone is nine hours from us, so that makes it around 9.am there. I don’t know how long they usually sleep, but do you want to try calling them?”   I swallowed and rubbed one eye. While I really wanted to, maybe I was just being scared and illogical. I was a big girl now and there was no need to disturb them over some stupid nightmare, only giving them more guilt of leaving me alone across the world and missing me even more. I softened my grip on Alexis and she let me crawl off her lap. I still clung onto her arm though, and thoughtlessly dried my tears on it, as I would have done if it had been mommy’s.   Alexis reached for something with her free arm and then I had my bunny in my lap. I let Alexis go and hugged Magnolia tight. It somehow made me feel safer, closer to home and the dream along with my worries began drifting away, until I could finally take a deep breath.   Alexis placed her palm on my forehead. “You don’t have a fever, have you?”  The heat from the flames was the only thing that seemed to have persisted through the dream and I was sweating as I sniffed out my last tears. I did feel warm, but I remembered the last time I had a fewer and how cold I felt then even if mommy said I was like a living volcano. Maybe Ally’s warm babyish pajamas I wore right now might explain why.   And Alexis had the same idea. “Wait, no kidding. You are sweating so much wearing that. I gave it to Ally for Christmas, and I know it’s cute, but it’s made of warm fleece, suited for cold winters, not hot summers.”   I undid some buttons from the top and looked around the room for my own pajamas. It was lying on top of my bag and I was about to ask Alexis if she could fetch it, but she was looking over her shoulder. “Such a heavy sleeper she is, huh?”    Ally was lying next to us, soundly asleep despite my crying. She had managed to kick her blanket off and Alexis turned around to cover her again.   “The doctors said that’s why she’s wetting the bed. One time they gave her one of those bedwetting alarms, but the rest of the house always woke up before she did…” Alexis smiled, bending forward to play with a strand of her sister’s hair. “Oh, and speaking of that, are yours dry?”   I stopped undoing the buttons of the pajamas, having just gotten to the rim of my diaper, feeling a heat of embarrassment in my chest which I always felt whenever she mentioned the diapers. I had been sweating so it was hard to tell, but I checked it with my hand and luckily, it didn’t feel -that- wet, so I nodded.    “Okay. Would you like a glass of water?” she asked.   My mouth felt dry, so I gladly nodded, but as I waited for her to bring it up to me, I wondered if this was a trick of hers.   A big glass of water right before going back to sleep was a bad combination. She knew that of course.  It didn’t matter, really, but it still made me a bit angry and I shoot her a suspicious glance as she came back to put the glass on the nightstand. “So, are you ready to go back sleep now, or do you need anything else?” Her gaze followed my extended finger, pointing at my bag. “Your pajamas? Sure.” She got up and tossed me it before walking to the door where she placed her hand on the light switch. “Well then, goodnight. Sweeter dreams this time.” The room went black, but then she must have realized that I was putting on my pajamas and pressed the light switch again. “Sorry.”   I got my pajama top over my head, and mumbled, “Goodnight, Alexis.”   “Goodnight, Amber. Sleep well.” The room went dark again.   I crawled back under my covers, closing my eyes. I did feel better now, but soon I noticed that I didn’t feel that tired. I had been pretty worked up before and now I couldn’t fall back to sleep.  I shifted around on my spot trying to get comfortable, but it was just as the first night. The bad felt too warm and soft and whenever moved, I bounced a bit.   After what seemed like an eternity, I watched how Ally’s alarm clock display a new hour and I didn’t feel any sleepier. I sat up, turned on the bed lamp and saw the glass of water. I took a sip and scanned the room, feeling jealous.  Ally’s room was so big and she had so many things to play with.    Since I didn’t feel like I was able to get any sleep in the next hour or so, I hopped out of bed and went over to her shelf. Ally had many dolls. One of them was really pretty doll and she never let me have when we played. Maybe it wasn’t very nice to look for it now when she was sleeping and couldn’t say if I could have it or not, and I glanced up to another shelf where she a bunch of books, but I didn’t know if I was able to borrow it when I went home later, so I felt more like playing with the doll instead. I didn’t find it on the shelf and turned to look elsewhere.   I sneaked over to her desk. The doll wasn’t there either. Maybe she was hiding it from me, not wanting my filthy hands to ever touch, or maybe she was just very protective of it.   Under the desk was a small cupboard from where she had picked up the pacifier the other day. It had a lock on and I was sure it wasn’t open, but when I tried to pull out the drawer anyway, it came out. I knew it wasn’t very nice to go through other people’s stuff, especially without them knowing, but I wanted to find the doll and felt curious about what other things she might have in there.   Even if I knew what was in there, I took out the box with the pacifiers. The lid was tricky to open and my hand hurt as I twisted the lid and when I finally got it up, it flew off so suddenly I almost dropped the box. To my surprise, just one of the pacifiers was there. Where was the other one? I had cleaned mine and given it to Ally and thought she’d put it back again. Apparently, she hadn’t. For a second, I wondered why and where it could be now. Well, maybe she had just put it somewhere else. That might explain why she had forgotten to lock the cupboard, too. I had to remind her that in the morning.   I was about to put the box back and close the drawer again when I, despite the darkness, thought I saw something deeper inside. I squinted and put my hand on it, drawing it a bit closer. It felt like a small book. A diary? I hadn’t seen her writing in one the previous nights, so I didn’t know she kept one. I quickly removed my hand and felt a pang of guilt. It wasn’t very appropriate to sneak around someone’s stuff like that. I put the pacifier box back, closed the cupboard and decided my search for the doll was over.   With the first step back to the bed, my feet touched something on the floor and I let out an, “Ouch.” before I stumbled down to my knees, catching myself with my hands. I couldn’t see what it was in the darkness. Sweeping my hand on the floor, I felt my fingers touching it, only to make it roll away further. It wasn’t that important though.   As I heaved myself up from the floor, my eyes fell on her books. Even if I might not get to take the book with me later, I could always try to find it in the library, so I got over to the shelf to pick it down.   I got up on my tippy toes, stretching my hand up high, yet I couldn’t quite reach it. A stool or something might have been done the trick, but I was too lazy to get one, so I climbed up on the lowest shelf instead. Bad idea. Just as I had the book in my grasp, the shelf leaned dangerously and I dropped the book and jumped off. As I did, the rest of the books came down with subsequent thuds, one of them fell right on my head. I let out a small cry and sank down to my knees, feeling tears stinging my eyes.   Not a minute later, I heard a door open somewhere and steps approached the room. Alexis came in, turning on the lights. “What’s going on?”   I scratched my head on the spot where the book fell, blinking to get used to the light. “Sorry, they just fell down.”   “It’s okay. But you’re supposed to be in bed. Or did you have another nightmare? Hey, what’s that?”  She pointed in front of me and my brows raised high. It was the pacifier. The one that hadn’t been in its box. How did it get there?   Alexis picked it up, wondering the same. “Is it yours?” I shook my head. “Whose is it? Ally’s? As far as I know, she hasn’t had one since she was a baby. Or there was this one time when she dressed up like one for fun, but I didn’t know she kept it. Where did you find it?” Before I could think of an explanation, she said, “Wait, now I see. Never mind. It doesn’t really matter. I think I understand now. It’s as with the diapers, huh?  It’s okay, and if it helps you feel better, I see no problem with it.”   I was a bit surprised about how easy she had bought my story about liking diapers and baby things and hoped it didn’t show how much I was when she put the pacifier in my hand, leading me back to bed. Holding the pacifier in my hand, I realized it must have been that I stumbled on earlier.   Alexis tucked me in, turned to leave, but stopped at the sight of the books and knelt down to put them back up on the shelf. I was about to ask if she could bring me the book I had been trying to get down, but the incident with the shelf had made me tired, so maybe it wouldn’t be long before I could finally get some rest.    “There. Goodnight, sweetie.” After a kiss on my head, she left the room, keeping the door slightly open.   I put the pacifier under the pillow. Alexis was free to think it would help me fall asleep easier if she wanted to. I smirked as I turned off the bed lamp, snuggling down on the pillow, drifting to sleep almost at once.   But the stressful night wasn’t over yet. Not much later, I sat up in bed with a gasp. Trembling, I checked if I was whole. I was. It was only another nightmare.   The dream had been very similar to what had happened at the store when I was running after Ally through the parking lot to get away from Alexis and the diapers in her cart. The car had knocked me down in a stupid water puddle, leaving me soaking wet. The nightmare was worse though. The car didn’t stop and just ran over me.   After I had calmed down a bit, taking a few deep breaths, I had to go to the bathroom, and quite badly so. I shouldn’t have had that glass of water.   If I didn’t have to go this bad, I might have been able to ignore it, but now, my bladder ached so much I had to do something about it.    If I went in the diaper, I would have to sleep in like that or wake up Alexis again, but if I stayed in a wet one, I might not get any sleep at all. I could try to change myself though, but considering last time I did, it seemed like a bad idea. Waking Alexis up was annoying and would leave us both with a bad night’s sleep.   I put my hands on the sides of my waist at the rim of the diaper, trying to move it down a bit. It sat looser now so I might be able to pull it down, use the bathroom as normal and pull it up again.   There wasn’t much time to decide on what to do before my bladder would explode so I hopped out of bed and went out.   Alexis had her room at the end of the corridor right across the bathroom. As I hurried over there, her door opened unexpectedly and I don’t know who was the most surprised, but my hearth beat fast and I jumped back feeling my bladder almost letting go.   “Oh, sorry. Were you going in there, too?” Alexis asked. “Or umm... did you already go?” Even if it was dark, I could see her looking down at my diaper and before I had the chance to say anything, she said, “Let me use the bathroom first then, I’ll change you after.”   At first, I was about to protest, but stopped myself. According to what I had told her, I was supposed to enjoy using my diaper like a baby. So there was really nothing else to do.   “Do you still have trouble sleeping?” she asked, as she put me in a new diaper a few moments later.   “A little bit.” I said.   “How about a glass of warm milk downstairs? It might help.”    I shrugged, but after she had helped me up from the floor, I followed her downstairs. She opened the fridge, poured some milk in a saucepan and placed it on the stove to heat.   I sat down with my elbows on the kitchen table, my face resting in my hands.  I didn’t know how late it was but I was it was even later than I had stayed up at New Year’s.   “I haven’t slept well either.” Alexis yawned as she stirred the milk. “I’ve heard somewhere that if it’s full moon it messes with your sleep, but maybe that’s just a myth. It sure hasn’t affected Ally. Not anymore anyway.” Alexis smirked. “You see, I told her about werewolves once.”    With a bit of more small talk mostly from her side, she eventually turned down the heat on the stove, opened a cupboard, and took out our cups. When she turned back, she froze. Her head shot up as if she was realizing something and she gave me a long, reflective look. “You might like…” she put one of the cups back and opened another cupboard, reaching her hand in deep, shuffling around some stuff.   Once I saw what she got from there, I quickly stopped sucking on my fingers, which I hadn’t paid any attention to, and my eyes widened. It was a plastic baby bottle and I knew what she was thinking and while I didn’t like or want it, I was supposed to. So when she held it up, I nodded slowly, feeling my tummy sink.   She poured some milk in it, closed the teat and handed it to me. I mumbled a, “thanks.” and unwillingly put the teat to my lips.   As I drank, or well, sucked the warm milk, my eyelids became harder and harder to keep up. I had almost finished the whole bottle when I found myself resting my head on the table, about to fall asleep right there. I looked up at Alexis who smiled at me and walked around the table. She lifted me up from the chair, carried me back to bed, and tucked me in for the third time that night.   But the bad the bad dreams didn’t end that night yet. By the time I had fallen sleep again, I heard a pounding. It grew louder and louder as it beat faster and faster. I knew the axe-man was coming any second and I bolted up from bed and ran out of the room, all the way down the corridor. Without knocking, I barged into Alexi’s room, panting.   “What’s wrong?” she asked, turning on her bed lamp.   “The axe-man! He’s back! He’s at the stairs, he is com…”   “Shhh.” Alexis motioned next to her. “Come. Just sleep here tonight.” She made room for me. She was lying on two pillows and pulled one out to let me have it.   Lying in Alexi’s bed with her gently rubbing my back, I was finally able to fall into a sleep that lasted the rest of the night.         Chapter 22     The weather the next morning was hot, cloudless and sunny, even more so than the day before. It was going to be one of the warmest days that summer in fact. When I woke up by the heat, I felt so sweaty under my pajamas, it was as it was almost sticking onto me.   The next thing I felt, after kicking my blanket off, was confusion. Ally’s room didn’t quite look like this. It had a similar shape, but the bed in this room was placed at the opposite wall and, which along with the rest of the room, didn’t have the same bright pink theme. It was pale blue in this room and there was a big lack of toys. A few stuffed animals sat crammed on a shelf above the bed and one, a big cuddly cat, sat on a chair in front of a desk, but that was it. Ally had a lot more in her room.   Soon, as I became more awake, I gave my eyes a rub and realized where I was. I had gone to Alexis’s room last night after all those nightmares and that she had let me sleep in her bed. She wasn’t here now though. From the days I had been at Ally’s house, I had noticed that she usually slept in longer than we did, so that must mean I had slept in long. I had probably done so because of the chaotic night and now it was time to get up.   I didn’t really feel like doing that though. My pillow felt so soft under my head and I closed my eyes, adjusted myself to a more comfortable position by turning over to the side and curling up like a ball. Well, if no one had come to wake me up yet, I might not have slept in after all.   But just as I was dozing off again, the door opened and so along with my eyes. Alexis came in, carrying something with her. “Sorry.” she said when she saw me, “I remembered I left this downstairs.” It was a floor fan. She knelt down to plug it in near the bed and adjusted its neck before turning it on. “There. Hope it’s not too loud.” I didn’t matter if it was; the breeze felt so heavenly it made up for it.   Relieved that she hadn’t come to wake me up, I continued to lay in bed for a while, snoozing at the border of being awake and falling back asleep again, barely aware of anything around me. That until I heard a ripping sound, then again. Forcing an eye open, I saw Alexis kneeling in front of me on the bed, undoing the tapes on my diaper. Another one lay ready right next to her and realizing what she was doing, I closed my eye and my tummy sank. I hadn’t known I had used it. Was it just out of sweat or had she hypnotized me during the night? It didn’t matter. This would finally be over soon. Just two more days.   A new diaper was soon taped on and Alexis left, to return shortly. I knew because I didn’t fall back to sleep after that. I pretended to do that though. I heard her yawning, probably stretching too and how she sat down on a chair. I was sure she wasn’t looking my way, so I dared to peek. She was about to change out of her pajamas to get dressed and I looked away, closing my eyes again.   A second later, Alexis let out a faint groan as quick little steps approached the room. I knew who was coming and I knew she wouldn’t like to find me here, sleeping in her biggest enemy’s room. She didn’t have to know that if I acted quickly though. Just as the door flew open, I had covered myself in a blanket and rolled around, ending up like a tortilla wrap.   “Where is Amber?” Ally asked right away.   “Hey. Learn to knock first please. I’m getting dressed.” Alexis said.   “What does it matter?” Ally sighed.   “Get out.” I heard Alexis’s chair scraping back on the floor.   “Fine.” Ally did as she was told and proceeded to knock   “I just told you that you can’t come in right now.” Alexis said.   “Where is Amber?”   “She’s sleeping.”   “Where?”   My heart pounded faster, afraid that Alexis would reveal where I was, but she was covering up for me. “She’s in the guest room. But don’t wake her up yet, she had rough night.” She leaned in and whispered, “I’ll distract her. Come down for breakfast in a bit.”   “But I’m not going to wake her; I only want to see...” Ally said, her voice trailing off as her feet skipped away. Her sister hurried after. I didn’t hear what she said after she caught up with Ally, but it turned out that she stopped her from looking in the guest room and so she never knew where I had actually been.   After retrieving my pajama pants from Ally’s room, I went down for breakfast and when I came down, she looked up at me from a bowl of cereal. “There you are. Morning, sleepyhead.”   “I guess that makes it two of you.” Alexis said, taking a sip on her coffee, “Didn’t you just get up as well?”   “I never said I wasn’t one too, but that was just for today. The biggest sleepyhead is you, Alex. Right, Amber?”   I gave a halfhearted shrug as I took a seat and before Ally asked the same thing again for me to say yes, I added, “I think it might seem as she sleeps in longer only that she stays up later at night.”   “So you’re saying I’m the biggest sleepyhead?” Ally dropped her spoon in her bowl to put her hand on her chest.   “No...”   “Yes you are. Because I just got up and I went to bed the same time as you and I didn’t have a bad night and Alexis got up before me.” Surely, she was making a too big deal out of this.   Alexis seemed to think so too, but smiled as if being slightly amused by it and said, “What does it matter?”   Ally didn’t answer, but while I made myself a bowl of cereal, she gave me a look and muttered under her breath and I made it out to be something like, “You’re supposed to be on my side.”   “It’s so hot today.” Alexis said, saving the table from an uncomfortable silence after that. “How about we go somewhere cold?”   “Like where? Antarctica?” Ally said, looking at me with a smirk. I didn’t even force a laugh.   “No, but maybe the lake.”   “Did you forget we have a pool?”   “No, but it’s colder at the lake.”   “But there are always so many people there.” Ally said, “and Amber has her little problem, you know, so I don’t think she really wants to.” I nodded, staying here at the pool was much better. We could always go to the lake after the week was over when I didn’t have to be in the stupid diapers.   “Okay, but tell me if you change your minds, and if you’re going in the pool, don’t forget what I said yesterday, Amber.”  At first, I didn’t know what she meant, but after breakfast when we went upstairs to get our swimsuits on, I realized and my tummy sank.   “I’ll wear one too.” Ally said when I took out the package, so I picked two and handed her one. “Can’t be worse than wearing a Pull-up, and no one can see us here either, so what’s the deal?”   I stretched it sides, wondering if it would fit. It was a bit smaller than the regular Pull-ups Alexis had bought.   Ally went around her bed to change. “What happened last night by the way?”     “I just had some trouble sleeping.”  I tried to shrug it off, not really wanting to talk about it.   “Huh?  But you were sleeping before I was. I tried to talk to you after Alex left the room, but you didn’t answer.”   “Well, I had some nightmares too.”   “Was it the Axe-man again?”    I nodded slowly, feeling a bit unsure. He wasn’t the worst thing that had haunted my dreams.   “It’s all my fault.” Ally said, “We shouldn’t have watched that movie. I’m sorry.”   When I was done putting my swimsuit on, frowning at the bulge my swim diaper did from underneath it, I turned to see that Ally had put on a top with her diaper as a bottom. “But how did Alexis know where you were sleeping?” she asked.   “I couldn’t sleep and went to get a book over there.” I pointed at the shelf. “And then when I tried to get it down.” I reached my hand up to demonstrate. “I accidentally brought some of the others with it and they all fell down on the floor. When she came to find out what was going on, I told her I couldn’t sleep and she said that I should try sleeping in the guest room and so I did.”    “Why? The bed in there is so bad.” Ally said while she opened the door to leave.   I didn’t want to argue as we went downstairs to get our sunscreen on.   There was one problem with Ally’s pool. It was too deep for me and her to stand properly in it. I hadn’t thought about it the day before when we were mostly diving, but today we played and swam around a lot, we had to take breaks more frequently as we got weary. But out of the water it was super-hot, even in the shadow, so we dried fast and had to jump down in the pool again to cool us down. This didn’t tire Ally and me all that much; at least we refused to admit so when Alexis asked if it wasn’t time to get up yet. She had played with us at first, but then sat there, watching, looking a bit worn. I wondered if she had been able to get any sleep after I had come to her bed and felt a pang of guilt, thinking it was my fault.   “We really have to go in now.” she said after an hour or so, although it felt much shorter, “It’s just too hot.”   “Get in the pool then, silly.” Ally said, splashing some water up at her.   “I don’t feel like it right now, and you can’t be in there without me watching so if I go in you have to get up too.”   “Not fair. You know we can swim well; we won’t drown.” Ally said and got down under the water, diving up right by me, pretending to be a shark.   “You know the rules, Ally. So, get up now, both of you. We can swim again later.”   I tried to get to the edge, but Ally held onto me, so I didn’t make much progress.   Alexis sighed impatiently. “If you don’t get up right now, you’ll be in trouble.”   Squirming free from Ally’s grip, I managed to get to the edge where I heaved myself up. I didn’t look like Ally was going to do the same though. She stuck her tongue out and dived down again, getting up at the other side of the pool. I wished she’d just behaved. What if she got grounded again?   “Have you forgotten about the marbles?” Alexis asked her. “I think you just earned yourself a bad one. It looks like Amber will win the surprise uncontested.”   Ally hurried to get out of the pool. “No!”   “Too late.” Alexis said and Ally looked like she was going to jump down in the pool again, but Alexis changed her mind, “Fine, but see this as a warning.”   “Okay, so how do I earn more good ones?” Ally asked after we took our towels and began walking inside.   “Like I said, all you have to do is some basic chores. Right now, the kitchen and the bathrooms need some cleaning before mom and dad comes back. But a massage would also be nice.” Alexis grinned and rubbed her back.   “Fine, I’ll do the massage...” Ally said. She had some catching up to do so I didn’t offer to do any chores while she did that. The heat made does thing seem unbearable anyway.   “If you didn’t use your diapers, I guess you could just save those until next time we swim.”  Alexis said when Ally and I began walking upstairs. “Oh, and since it is so hot, you can both wear Pull-ups for now.”   She must have been so tired she didn’t even want to go upstairs and change me and I thought that someone should take a nap too.   After we were changed, I sat lazily back in an armchair in the living room, feeling how the heat made my mind feel both tired and dull as I watched how Ally kneaded her sisters back. It would be nice getting a massage myself. Maybe I could exchange one of my good girl marbles for one, but I was curious about what the surprise would be and wanted to win it too, so never offered to trade.   The sun continued to beam throughout the day. After lunch and naptime, we went to the pool again, but an hour or so later, Alexis got tired of watching us, so we had to go in again. Not knowing what to do next, we sat by a fan in Ally’s room, the only place reasonably comfortable.   “Do you have any ideas?” Ally asked me.   “We could go to that tree house again. Maybe it’s colder in the forest.”   “No. The last thing I’d like to do is to bike in this heat, and I don’t think it will be colder there.” Ally got down on her tummy, resting her head in her hands. “Why does it have to be so hot? Stupid weather. I thought you might pretend to be a baby again, to trick Alex, but we can do that later. Any other ideas?”   Ally had a big house and something I always had wanted to do was to play hide and seek in it. There had to be so many places you could hide at. It would be boring playing only two, but maybe we could get Alexis to join us.   “Not now.” she said when we ran downstairs and asked her, “I’m watching this show.” Her computer was plugged into the TV.   “You can do that later. We’re so booored. And it’s not fair that you can watch TV when you don’t let us.” Ally pressed the space button on the computer and the picture froze. She then tried to move her sister off the couch by pulling her arm. “Come on, we have nothing else to do.”   Alexis made herself heavy. “Then do the chores I asked you to, or give me another massage.”    “Fine, we’ll just play by ourselves then.” Ally gave a loud sigh and covered her face with her hands. “Twenty… Nineteen...”   Surprised by the sudden start, I hadn’t made up my mind on where to hide yet and with Ally counting down next to me, faster than I thought was fair but didn’t bother to argue about, I hurried out of the living room. I looked from side to side, trying to find a good spot. There was many to choose from, but I wanted to pick one that wasn’t too obvious. I reached the stairs and was about to go up, but got an idea and tramped on the lowest step, trying to pretend I had.   Hoping it had tricked her I skipped to a door close to the stairs and found myself in a room I’d never been in. I was sure it was her parents’ room, at least seemed so, being similar to my own parents, only slightly bigger. I could hide either under the bed or in one of the wardrobes. The bad thing about hiding in there was that you couldn’t close the door properly after yourself in if you didn’t have someone with you, but under the bed wasn’t that much better since it was low and would eventually be uncomfortable staying under.   Ally had already reached down to five and I knew there wasn’t any time left to find a better place so I opened one of the wardrobes. Naturally, there was clothes hanging in there but I could get myself in. Conveniently, I could pull a cloth hanger that sat on the inside of the door, so the wardrobe closed fully.   In the darkness, I listened as Ally called, “Ready or not, here I come!” and ran out of living room and to the stairs. At least that was what I thought at first, but I guess I only heard what I wanted to hear because soon I knew I had been wrong; they were unmistakably running around downstairs, and soon the door to her parents’ room flew open.   I took a step back, pressing myself at the back of the wardrobe. The clothes were actually hiding me, so Ally wouldn’t see me right away if she looked in there. Not that it would help me much, because she would probably look behind them.   A short moment later, where I assumed she was checking under the bed, I heard her starting to look in the wardrobe next to me. I held my breath and stood perfectly still, begging she wouldn’t check behind the clothes or see my feet once she opened mine. Light poured in as she did and I closed my eyes, as that would help. I was ready to be found; she even moved the clothes a bit to the side, but decided I wasn’t there and closed the wardrobe again. I couldn’t quite believe it and for some unfortunate reason I found it funny and quickly put a hand to my mouth to stop myself from giggling.   “Huh? What was that?” The tone of her voice told me she wore a huge smirk and I knew she would check my wardrobe again. “I knew you’re there, Amber…” Before I could react, she had opened it again and put a hand between the clothes. I let out a scream as grabbed my arm, pulling me out and made me fall into her. We both laughed.   “Okay, my turn to count.” I said, after we had calmed down and put my hands over my eyes.   Twenty seconds later, I began looking for her. Twenty minutes later, I still hadn’t found her. I had looked everywhere. This was her house, so of course I knew she had an advantage, but I didn’t think she could totally disappear.  I had been to every corner in every room all around the house when I came down to Alexis in the living room again, where I had already looked twice.   She must have seen my disheartened look. “What’s wrong? Can’t find her?”   “No.” I said, checking behind the curtains again even if I knew she wasn’t there.   “Come, let me help you.” Alexis got up from the couch. “I think I know where she is, even if she’s not supposed to be there.” We walked up the stairs and to the end of the corridor. It seemed to end by just a regular wall but Alexis searched with her hand on the right side of it and found a door handle. We entered a tiny room with nothing in it nothing in it except for a lamp, which was already turned on.    “Ally, you’re not allowed to play in the attic; it’s dangerous. Get down here at once!” Alexis was looking up and when I did to, I saw a hatch. “Ally! I hope aren’t stuck up there again!”    I heard a faint giggle and the hatch opened. “I’m not.”   “Come down then, and be careful.” Alexis looked anxious and held her hands out as if to catch Ally if she would fall through the trapdoor.   “Okay, but look what I’ve found.” Ally said and disappeared from view.   I felt betrayed that she hadn’t told me she had a secret attic. But I guess it would be a little disappointing if she did and then said we weren’t allowed to be up there. Knowing Ally, we probably would sneak up there at least once though.   She soon returned to the trapdoor. “You have to help me get it down. It’s something really cool.”   “No, and I don’t care what it is, just bring the ladder down.” Alexis said.   “Please? It’s just the tent we had when we went camping with mom and dad, and I thought why don’t we three do it tonight? I mean, it’s a lot of fun and it’s too hot to sleep inside.”   “We’re not going camping today. And if you aren’t down here in ten seconds, I’ll take all the good girl marbles you have.”    Ally disappeared again and soon she slowly carried down the ladder through the trapdoor.   “You can let go. I’ve got it.” Alexis said, and put it in place. Ally came climbing down. “Please? I know it’s a bit to drive, but there’s a really nice fall there and I don’t think Amber has seen it.”   I shook my head.   Alexis sighed. “It’s two hours away and this isn’t something you plan one minute in advance. You forgot to close the hatch by the way.”    “No, the tent is still up there. If you don’t want to drive that far we could stay by the summer house, or just at the forest ten minutes from here and then we won’t even need to take the car.”   As we stood, crowded in the small room, Alexis took a breath and seemed to be making her mind up. “I’m sorry, Ally. It sounds like a lot of fun, but there’s a bunch of things to pack and prepare. It’s a bit late too. I was just about to start making dinner.”   “How about we go after that then? But let’s get the tent down now while we’re here.”   “Ally, we’re not going camping today. Summer isn’t over once Amber’s parents come back and you two have plenty of time left to plan and do things together before school starts again.”   “If you don’t want to, Amber and I can take the tent and bike to the woods by ourselves.” Ally said. Alexis didn’t answer and began climbing the ladder to close the trapdoor. Ally looked defeated and I was sure the discussion was over, but then she looked up. “We could just do it at the backyard and pretend we are in the woods.”   Alexis had her hand on the hatch, hesitating. “I don’t know…” She looked down at Ally who had put on her best puppy face. “Well, alright then. Go change your Pull-up while I get the tent down.”   “What? It’s not wet.” Ally looked down at her feet.   Alexis smirked as she climbed through the trapdoor. “You know I can always tell.”   I gave Ally a quizzical look. She didn’t have to use them.   “I had to go while I was hiding and I didn’t want to go down and reveal myself…” Ally, still hanging her head low, mumbled under her breath and we left the tiny room.

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