Ishigreensa

Larry frowned at the price, but if she was going to eat it, then he did say whatever she wanted. He smiled and let her be. She was still in the same area, and they could clearly see each other, so she was fine. He went on as usual, and finally brought the tray of sandwiches, the cookie, and the drinks over for her and himself to eat. "There you are," he smiled as he push her stuff to her. "Go ahead and eat, sweetheart." He wasn't sure what to say at the moment, so he just ate in peace and listened for her if she wanted to say anything.

Larry didn't know Sarah that well yet, and she did get a little upset earlier when he'd told her to stay under a ten dollar limit stating that it wasn't enough, and he told her to get what she wanted, so it wouldn't be until he saw just how much of the sandwich and cookie she was about to waste that he would start to realize how wasteful she could be, something she'd have to learn under his roof, that wasn't okay. Larry apologized to the customer after them. "I'm sorry. She's just kind of being picky. I think it's the first time she's ever gotten to pick food out for herself. Strange as that sounds, she doesn't seem to have been well taken care of before she came to me, so please, bear with us just this once." He saw they had two little kids. "How about I pay for their dessert for your patience with us?" "Oh, no, that's not necessary," the father said. "We have little kids out selves, and we let them pick things out for themselves all the time, and honestly, we could have been in front of you, and you'd be waiting not for one, but two excited young kids. We can wait. You just use your money to make your own kid happy." Larry smiled at him, a gratitude of respect in his eyes for the empathetic man. Their kids were definitely smaller than Sarah though, and Larry didn't know it, but one of them was ten and the other eight, and had he known their ages, he would have easily seen that Sarah was nowhere close to eleven years old, but would have had to be at least sixteen or seventeen, but he had rose colored glasses right now, and she never denied being thirteen and then younger than thirteen, always making him guess her age for some reason. Most kids would just tell you their age, but then she was hiding, as assumed, from abusers, so the less she told him about herself the less likely her old foster parents could be found. For all he knew, Sarah wasn't even her real name.

Larry walked her down the street a little ways. It was probably a good ten minute walk, and they saw Subway, Carl's Junior, and Wendy's. Though Larry was tempted to hold her hand, he had promised, as long as she stayed close, he wouldn't, so he kept having to tuck his hands behind his back to keep from reaching out towards her. He was very nervous of the area. Finally, they went in, and he relaxed a little bit as they started to order their sandwiches. "Get whatever you like," he told her. "A full foot sub on any bread and any stuffings you like, one side dish, a drink, and I think they have dessert breads or something here, if I remember."

Larry saw her go to the bathroom as she said she was going, but he couldn't understand why it was taking so long. Maybe she had pooped or something. He decided it wasn't worth talking about, and just got his things together and waited for her. When she says she's ready, he smiled at her. "Okay, this way, honey." He put a hand on her shoulder because he still worried a little bit about going out around there. They were not exactly in the high end of town after all. "Just stay close to me, please. I'll try not to hold your hand all the time, but I do need to be able to see you at all times and know you can call for me if you need me, that I can hear you."

Before he put up the cards, he did show her two other types of solitaire she could play when he couldn't play with her, and one was the clock where you try to get the clock face to have the right cards showing, all four in the suit, and then the kings in the middle of the clock face. He also showed her one called Free Cell. She can only take 1 card plus a number of cards equal to a maximum of 4 free cells on the top. When there isn't a play, then she could put a card on the top but that limits the free cells until they are all used up. Once he briefly showed her those solitaire games, he smiled. "Well, I think we'll just go get subway sandwiches today." He handed her the cards. "These are yours, now. I can always buy another deck when I or we need a deck to play with."

He took the cards and started to shuffle them. "Have you ever heard of Eukre?" he asked her "It's an easy game that can be played with 2, 3, or 4 players. When you play with four players, you usually play partners." He smlied at her willingness to try. "I'll show you this game, and after that, I'll show you two variants of solitaire that you can play by yourself when you don't have someone to play with." He dealt her 3 cards and himself 2, and then her 2 and himself 3 cards. But before he did that, he had removed all the cards that ere eights and below except for the deuces. "Now, you know the Jacks are usually lower in power than the queen, but in the suite that is called trump, the right Jack, or the Jack of that suite is the highest card. Then the other Jack of the suite that is the same color as trump is second highest, then the A, K, Q, jokers, 10, 9, and 2. The 2 cannot be taken by any card, but it cannot take another card either unless it is a trump card. Points are Jack-right, Jack-left, Ace, Joker-high, Joker-low, ten, and deuce of the suit that was bid in. There are 7 points in one hand. You bid on the suit you want to be trump based on how many you think you can take...." As he explained the rules, he was really getting into teaching her. There were some qualities of a teacher she could see, how he didn't let her just give up, but talked her through how to bid, and how to figure out how much was a solid bid for her hand. He taught her how to preserve her mid-high cards so that she could use them to the most advantage, and taught her to sacrifice a Queen if she had an A but didn't know if he had Jacks or not. They played to 21, but the first three times she made a mistake, and over-bid her hand, he let her keep the points she did take, but the fourth hand, let her see how bidding above what she couldn't take would set her back. He didn't notice her acting in anyway to give away if she was still having trouble, so he didn't say anything when they were done, and went to get ready to take her out for a cheaper meal for dinner.

And as he suspected, it seems kids don't need real things in their hands anymore and seem to just be immersed in the computer and phone very quick rewards like points for getting a card in place. "Well, it's not that hard to shuffle," he told her. There are three standard ways I know of, and there are a lot of other ways that people have picked up over the years. The easiest way to shuffle, is just cut the cards, and then place some of that cut deck on top of the rest, cut it again from the top half, and put those on top and so on. You can also just push some cards out from the side, and put them on top, or you can hold the cards sideways, and alternate letting cards fall in front or behind a point of origin." She showed her what he meant. "The real fun shuffle though, is like this...," and he shuffled the cards like you see in card tricks where you lay two piles on top of one another in alternating sequences, and then you bend them up and let them fall into your hands as the cards straighten themselves out. "This one takes a little practice though. Can I?" He reached for her hands to show her how to hold the cards. It wouldn't be easy to get the first time, but if she let him work with her once a day a few times, she should get the feel by the fifth or sixth time.

Larry relaxed on the other bed, and he watched whatever she was watching. Whatever her problems were, and he wasn't really sure what to think about it, he hoped that maybe the wetting was behind her. The child had been through way too much in his mind, and he knew that even an eleven year old child couldn't feel good about being wet all the time. "Do you know any solitaire games?" Larry asked her while they were watching television. "You know, card games that you play against the deck rather than other people?" While traditional games were a thing of the long past, he knew that some computers and smart phone programs existed that not only mimicked the traditional solitaire game and a few other versions of it, but also mimicked Vegas card games, by dealing for more than one person. Larry went and got a deck of cards from his things and brought them over to her. "I can teach you, if you like," he told her. "It's not the same as having an electronic device, but it is something that can be fun when you don't have an electronic device to play with."

Larry pulled her pants slightly down so he could look in her diaper, but hen he found it was dry, he hugged her. "Good girl. And you went potty, too. Maybe it was just the stress of not having a place for a while, but now you know you are safe at my place, we can probably let you take the diaper off, but it kind of feels wasteful to take it off right now, so as long as its not soaked in the morning, I'll let you go back to panties in the morning." He let go of the hug. "You can go do what you want for now, sweetheart."

"I don't know, sweetheart," Larry said to her. "But a lot of things don't make any sense to me right now, and I'm taking care of you, so I need to make sure. Maybe you'd feel like if I knew you'd peed your pants, that maybe it was too many times, and I just don't think you can get to the bathroom at all or something. Maybe you might think I doubted you being able to notice that you are wet or something. I don't really know. What I do know, is you've peed yourself now, three or four times." Larry frowned at her. "Just come here and let me see, sweetheart. I can't leave you in wet pants. That would not be comfortable, and I wouldn't really be doing my job." He reached over to bring her in front of him to look at her in the eyes. "Are you promising that you didn't wet or anything?" He knew that she was probably tired of him hovering over everything she did. "You look me in the eye and tell me you're not wet, and I'll drop it this time, but I'm keeping an eye on you, honey."

Larry smiled when she announced that she was dry, but that wasn't enough. She was caught wetting her pants a few times, so he had to check. "I'm sorry, but I need to see for myself, honey. You've been having too many accidents." He motioned for her to come and stand in front of him.

Larry saw her shift in her seat on the bus, and he sighed. There was nothing he could do if she was wetting herself again right now. The child probably needs to be potty trained or something. She definitely needs to see a doctor though, too. He stayed quiet for the bus ride, not wanting to upset her anymore than she already was. Preteen kids were hard to handle sometimes, especially when they were trying to prove they were big people, but kept making child-like mistakes. No one seemed to pay either of them any attention as they rode on the bus together, and before they knew it, they were back at the motel. On their way in, Larry looked over at her as he unlocked the door. "When we get in, I want you to go straight to the toilet, and then I want to check your diaper. I don't know what is going on with you, but I do know you are having accidents a bit much." He went in and started to put her things away that they got for her.

Larry shook his head at what she was saying. She was pretty willful. "Alright, look, let's just get you home," he told her. "You're right, I don't know a lot about you, but I do know you know some stuff that a preteen or even a young teen shouldn't know. I don't mind telling you that I don't like it." He let her be though, and walked with her, first to get the stuff he left at the claims counter, and then out to catch the bus. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there were a lot of things that was a little off about her. But he couldn't tell if that was just because of grooming or if it was something else.

When you pushed the half eaten plate of food away, I got even more worried. "Okay, sweetheart, we going to go see the judge. We will go get you checked out after that, and we'll talk to the doctors about how to make you healthy again. We'll do that after we stop and get you some decent clothes to wear, and some diapers so you don't have to worry about going potty in your pants, okay?" I hug you. I let you off with eating just half, but knowing you didn't hardly eat the day before, and that I didn't really give you that much, I know there has to be some health damage that was done. I take you to the bathroom, and encourage you. "Sit on the potty, sweetie, just to see if anything comes out, okay?"

He shook his head. Was someone grooming this child? She knew way too much for a little kid, and she just told him, though he twisted the meaning, that she wasn't even thirteen years old yet, and somehow, she doesn't think she's a child? He shook his head. She was so innocent, and though these were worst case scenarios? He really had to watch her now. The poor child must have either been on the streets way too long, or someone else had been grooming her to get her to run away. Whatever it was, he was her only guardian making sure she was safe now. He bit his tongue when she pretended that she didn't think of wearing lingerie. She wouldn't have brought it up if she hadn't thought of wearing it. He nodded and took her to the undershirts to make sure she had decent undershirts and some training bras. Then he took her to pay for the stuff. "Baby, I'm not mad you. You probably got confused because I did get a bit excited, but you shouldn't even know a term like lingerie. You are not ready for stuff like that, and anyone who said you were is not your friend." He hugged her as they waited in line, a sideways hug. "I'm just trying to watch out for you, sweetheart. You are still practically a baby, even if you don't want to hear that. You will not be meeting strangers anymore or wearing strange things to see people. I should not have let you go to the library alone, and I certainly would not have, had I realized you weren't even thirteen years of age or if I knew you had been exposed to lingerie or what it means." He rubbed her back. "I know this is all going to be kind of hard for you, being confused and now thinking I'm keeping you from something, but the things I'm trying to protect you from..., you'll thank me one day when you really understand what it all means, sweetheart. And Yeah, for now, I know you'll be disappointed, and you'll hate me for a while, but I'd rather you hate me than you get hurt, baby girl."

He frowned as she said she wasn't even thirteen, and wanted stuff like this. Where in the cursing blanks did she hear the term lingere from? Now, he was certain he had to put a stop to this. No child who wasn't even thirteen should have known the term lingere! "You will not be wearing that garbage until you are old enough to leave my house," he told her. "That's sick! Putting a child in lingere? What kind of people?" he shut himself off. That wasn't her fault. But now, he was boiling and was thinking someone's head should roll. You should not be exposing kids to that kind of stuff! "Look, I'm sorry, baby," he told her. "You're still a child, and someday, when you are old enough to make your own decisions, then what I think won't matter, but until then, I'm dressing you like a child should be dressed, baby." He was now going to start calling her baby a lot more now that he was convinced she was under thirteen, maybe even eleven years old.

"Well, then, the tank tops go back," he told her firmly. "You're not leaving my house like that. I don't care what is "in," because of a lot of what is "in" is wrong. However, we can try to find something a little more faded, if they have it, and hey, I like Lion King, too," he told her. His parents had raised him a bit old fashion, and she was right. He had no sense of now-a-days style, nor did he really want it. He didn't like what was going on now-a-days in many ways. Larry shook his head. "And the sweater stays, but it only gets worn when it is cold and over another shirt." He frowned at her. "My dad was right. They are raising kids to like things more and more inappropriate at younger and younger ages. I thought he was nuts when he told me that when I was about sixteen, but seeing you want these things at what? Thirteen years of age at tops? He was definitely right!"

Wrapping a towel around you, I start to pat you dry. I can see you haven't really taken good care at getting your hair clean or even unknotted, but rather than bring it up, I just guide you to the bedroom, and after patting you dry some more, I show you my sweater. "We can put this on you for now, honey. It will keep you warm and cover you enough for now." I put the head of the sweater over your head while the towel was still covering you, and then I slowly peeled the towel down as I got your arms into the arm holes and then removed the towel as I pulled the sweater down to almost your knees. "Sweetheart, I know things are hard right now." I put an arm around you and start to guide you to the kitchen and where I've made you some breakfast. "But if you let me in, together, we can get through this." I push a strand of hair that threated to cover your eyes. "I don't care if you pee in your sleep or if you have other problems. We can work them out, sweetheart. We can talk to the judge today, and as long as he says so, I can take care of you for a while. We can go get you some decent clothes from the store, and then maybe set up an appointment to find out what is causing your body to wet itself both at night and in the day, okay?" I sit down to let you eat. "Go ahead eat, please, sweetheart. You need your strength."

It had seemed far too long for you to be still in the shower, so I went back to the bathroom, and knocked on the door. "Baby? Are you still in the shower?" I asked. I opened the door when I didn't hear you respond, and I walked in with the water still running and I sighed. "Honey, I'm sorry. I'm worried about you." I walked over to the tub and pulled the curtain back and saw you curled up in a corner of the shower. "Baby! Come on, time to get out." I pulled the curtain the rest of the way to the front where I stopped the shower, and then I came back and took your hands. "Come on, sweetheart. Let's get you something to cover yourself up, and then we can talk, okay?" I try to guide you out of the tub to get a towel for you.

"No, no, no," he said to her. "No, baby, it's not your place to try to replace things. You are a child. It's okay, baby." He helped her out of bed. "You are right about needing to be cleaned up, though, sweetheart. It's not good to be stuck in wet clothes for very long." He walked her to the bathroom, and he put the toilet lid down and sat on the toilet and then brought her over to him. "Do you want to make it up to me for wetting the bed?" he asked her. "How about this? You do your best not to cut anymore school, and you do your homework. I'm taking you in, so you can be successful, honey. I don't care if you wet the bed, sweetie. When we are out today, we'll get you something to help you keep the bed dry at night, and we'll get some plastic sheets for the bed so it won't matter if you have accidents that leak out of your pull ups, okay?" He hugged her. "Okay, you go ahead and get yourself cleaned up, sweetie, if you can, and then come to me so I can check to make sure you are clean enough. Of course, you should put on some clothes first. I'll give you a shirt that will be long enough to act as a dress for now, and we'll wash out your panties from yesterday so you can wear those before we go out. The clean shirt will be in the bedroom. I'm sure you don't want me looking at you naked." He then went to his room and pulled out a pull over sweater that would easily go down to the little girl's thighs at the very least, and he got her clothes from the plastic bag from the day before and put them in the sink in the kitchen, and then started cleaning her panties. Her pants were being soaked in the water as well, to try to get the piss out of them as much as he could before he'd put them in the washing machine. When he was done washing her things out, he hung her panties to dry under the heater so they would dry faster, and he put her pants in the washer along with her shirt she wore the day before, and then he knocked on the bathroom door which didn't lock. "Honey, stay in the shower for a minute. I'm just coming in to get the things you wore to sleep in, so I can put them in the wash, too."

Larry eyed the sweater and pack of three. He looked over at the girl and pulled them out of the cart. "Are these undershirts?" he asked her. "And you are planning to wear a top under this one, aren't you?" His frown was determined and certain. He was set to go to bat with this. He didn't know she was an adult. Even as an adult, he would frown at her for these choices, but if she was an adult, he wouldn't really have any say, but as he believed she was just a kid being influenced by what mess she saw on social media and television, he figured his teaching her not to be a victim in this culture of sexualizing children may break a bad habit.

I had let you sleep a little longer than I meant to, but you were so exhausted, I just didn't have the heart to wake you. However, as it got closer to eleven, and we did need to have a judge sign us off on you staying with me until they decided what to do, I went towards the room when I heard you crying. "Honey, what's wrong?" I came in through the door. I could smell the pee in the room, but it didn't faze me because you'd peed your pants the day before at school, and I thought you were wetting your pants a lot during the day at school over the last few weeks when you did get to school, plus I was told they had turned off your electricity and water, so of course your toilet at home didn't work. I come over and sit on the edge of the bed, and I reach for your hands. "Honey? What's wrong? I know you want to go home, but we've been through this. This is the best you can get for now. We will stop by to see if there is anything you want if the police let us through to get anything, but first, we have to see a judge to make sure you don't get moved somewhere completely unfamiliar to you." I started to pull the blankets back from you seeing how much you'd peed in the bed and your pants.

"Sarah, sweetie, stay where I can see you," Larry reminded her when he noticed she was a bit further from him than he'd like. " He got her a skirt anyway, though this one did have pockets, and it was plain purple, so he figured it wasn't too bad if she was trying so hard to be grown up. He didn't stop her getting a couple of pairs of pants though. Though he did try to let her be grown up about her pants and her skirt, he did get a bit pickier with her shirts. He would not let her get any that showed her belly, showed her back too much, and other stereotypical old fashion no-nos. He did gravitate a lot towards younger teen fashion shirts, as well, like those with cute messages on them or with Disney characters on them or whatever else. He even put one shirt with Pooh saying "Oh Bother" on the front of a shirt and the shirt on the Pooh Bear was stained with a glob of honey. He checked every shirt she put in, and he held every shirt up to her to make sure it would fit without leaving her belly, her panties, or her back exposed, at least that's what he started to do as she picked out the first shirt and it had to pass inspection.

He shook his head when she said that only cheap stores make them check their bags in the mall. What did she really know about that? A little know-it-all miss that was in a foster home? They probably never even let her go shopping at all, and probably saw any shopping done on just television shows. "Well, either way, this is just what is polite, so you will learn to be polite while you are being cared for by me. I understand that maybe your old foster parents were not very good, but that doesn't mean I just drop the reigns and turn you wild, honey." He sighed about the skirt. "Well, you didn't exactly tell me what you wanted in a skirt, and anyway, I was just getting you something to cover yourself with. You can still get, well, let's get three skirts and no pants," he thought as he spoke thinking about what would be easier because she was wearing diapers or at least pull ups for now. "Skirts will be easier with your condition," he told her. He walked her to the little preteen area first, but as her sizes eventually dictated, he was probably in the young miss area for fifteen to seventeen year olds. Though they were in that section, his mind kept telling me that she might not even be eleven years old given how she didn't seem to understand how stores worked. He couldn't imagine a thirteen-year-old had never been shopping alone before, even if she had to sneak out to do it.

"Because that way, we are not questioned when we are in the aisle shopping and they might see the bag ripped open, and wondering what else was taken," he started to explain to her. "Young people don't understand that using things these days is stealing if you haven't paid for it yet, even if you intend to pay for it later. It sometimes causes trouble and police are called for no reason. This just avoids all the trouble. Besides, I didn't want to be carrying around your wet in clothes everywhere in the store." He frowned to her. "Do you take things and use them before you pay for them? This is Walmart, and not a Mall, you know. At the Mall, shops are separated, and it's normal to carry things from one shopping space to another, but in places like Walmart and Kmart and places like that, taking a bag from another store into a different store makes you look suspicious unless you check in bags and stuff like that at the front, which is basically what I did." She seemed really clueless, like he'd expect from a thirteen-year-old kid. Adults knew that you checked in bags at the front of the store and claimed them after you paid for what you were shopping for, and if you forgot something, you left your bag at the car, if you had one, but since they didn't, then leaving it at the front was the best way to make sure there was no trouble. "We're going to get you two more pair of pants and three tops. You can get some bras, but no point in getting panties until you get your problem fixed so you don't need the special stuff. I already got you those for now." He grabbed a cart, and started to walk her towards the pants and skirts.