Piddly

Wow, thanks guys! It's great to know that people are reading and enjoying it. Here you go then, the next 5 chapters to be going on with. Part 1 - Chapter 11 “Thank you girls” she said, with a smile as she sat back down at her desk. “How’re you feeling now Lucy?” “A little better, thanks Miss. Talking to Becky has helped a bit.” In truth Lucy still felt pretty awful, but her friends reassurance had helped her to regain her composure, and she felt that she may be able to tackle the afternoon of challenges which lay ahead of her, if reluctantly. Becky squeezed her friends hand in a gesture of solidarity, causing Dorothy to blink back her emotions once more. Here was true friendship playing out before her eyes, and she was proud of the two girls she had seen growing up since the started at the school. “Come on Luce, let’s go and get some lunch, before it’s too late. The girls will be wondering where we are. And I don’t know about you, but I’m starving!” Now she thought about it, Lucy was starting to feel a little hungry herself. She still felt sick, but knew that was just the upset and her nerves, and a sandwich would probably help everything to settle down. She wasn’t so sure about seeing anybody else just yet though. “I could maybe go for a sandwich or something, but can we just stay inside for a bit rather than going out with everybody else? I’m not sure I’m quite up to that yet…and this will take some explaining.” She gestured to her dress, reddening again as she did so. “Ah don’t worry about it Luce, as I said there will be plenty of friendly ribbing I’m sure, but it’s really not the end of the world you know. Come on, let’s go.” As both girls stood, Lucy again making exaggerated efforts to stretch the hem of her dress downwards, she had a sudden thought and turned to Mrs Johnson “What about my…you know, things, miss?” “Pop back down to see me at the end of the day Lucy, and you can pick everything up then. Saves you having to carry it around with you.” She gave another of her warm, reassuring smiles and was pleasantly surprised to receive one back, understanding that Lucy must have been worried about carrying the bag of wet clothes around all day and having to explain it away. “Have a good afternoon girls.” “Thanks Miss.” they chorused as they made their way out into the corridor and headed towards the school canteen. Walking down the corridor, Lucy became obsessed with pulling at her dress, as well as trying to hide what she was wearing with her backpack, to the point that Becky had to intervene. “You do realise you’re just drawing more attention to yourself, don’t you? Just walk normally, you are still wearing school uniform after all, lots of the younger girls have dresses just like that on, so you’re not going to stand out unless you make it obvious.” Ever image conscious, she realised that her friend was right and hooked her bag back up onto her shoulders. Drawing even more attention to herself was the last thing she wanted to do. When they reached the canteen, both girls grabbed sandwiches and drinks, before finding a quiet table tucked away in the corner where they could carry on chatting without too may prying ears. “So, what’s the plan with Moss then? Are you just going to tell her you’ve not done the work, and let her call your Mum?” “Think I’m going to have to.” Replied a crestfallen Lucy “I’m certainly not going to try and pull any more daft stunts, as that’s not exactly worked out well for me so far! And I don’t have many other options. I really can’t believe that I’ve put myself through all of this for nothing! Hopefully Mum will be a bit more sympathetic after what happened earlier, although I doubt it. ” Lucy was sat with her back to the room, facing out of a window onto the gardens at the front of the school, with Becky opposite her looking towards the serving area. After a few minutes, Becky began to notice that other kids were looking and pointing in their direction, whispering and giggling amongst themselves. She even caught one or two comments about ‘babies’ and ‘bet she wets the bed too’, causing her heart to sink. She was so glad Lucy hadn’t picked up on all of this, but it certainly sounded like the story of her friends unfortunate accident had spread through the school. Oh dear, she really hoped it blew over soon. Part 1 - Chapter 12 The two girls spent most of what was left of their lunch break sat chatting at that canteen table, usual tween stuff, with Becky making a special effort to keep her friend distracted. When they noticed the dinner ladies starting to pack everything away, they realised it was time to move on. “Not long until the bell now, I’m just going to nip to the loo before the next lesson, you coming?” “Funnily enough Becks, I don’t need to go today for some reason!” Lucy retorted, giving her friend a cheeky jab. “I wonder why that could be?” “Are you sure you don’t want to try? We don’t want any more little accidents now, do we Luce?” Becky couldn’t move out of the way in time before the playful punches started to rain down on her, both girls ending up in fits of laughter as they made their way through the canteen towards the toilets. Walking into the loos, they passed a group of girls from the year below, and there was no mistaking the snide remark of “Isn’t it a bit late for that.” Both girls heard, but fortunately Lucy kept her head held high and Becky decided to let it pass, if her friend was rising above it then she wasn’t going to start something. Ablutions taken care of, the pair slowly made their way across to Mrs Moss’ classroom, with Lucy in particular dreading what as to come. Time to face the music, she thought. Ah well, if nothing else the dressing down her Mum was bound to give her later may at least make her forget about the mornings accident. Probably better to be in trouble for being a bit rebellious at 11, than for wetting your pants! The bell went just as they reached the door, perfect timing. Lucy stopped outside and looked apprehensively at her friend. “What if they all laugh at me?” “Stop worrying! I’m sure that’s not going to happen, but even if it is there’s really not very much you can do about it now. Let’s get in and sat down before everybody comes in from outside, you’ll be a lot less obvious then. And for once we should be grateful for old Moss being as strict as she is, you know there will be no chance for people to chat and make any comments during the lesson.” They took their seats and began getting their books and equipment out of their bags, somewhat surprised not to see Mrs Moss glowering at them from the front of the classroom as usual. She was always there before any of the pupils arrived, where was she? A clattering from behind them announced the arrival of their classmates, causing Lucy to cringe and withdraw within herself once more. They’d all been in that history lesson, they’d all been witness to her shame. Whether anybody said anything or not, she was utterly mortified. A couple of their friends, Zoe and Emily (who’s sleepover had led to all of this in the first place!) made a point of coming over to say hello before taking their own seats. Neither of them said anything about what had happened, for which Lucy was eternally grateful, although a niggle inside her did make her wonder whether they had just come to look at what she was wearing properly. Astonishingly, one of the boys called Daniel also came over. He wasn’t a close friend, in fact both Lucy and Becky had probably only spoken to him maybe a dozen times all term. Not because they didn’t get on, but boys and girls tended not to ‘play’ together at that age, he was busy playing footie with is mates whilst they tended to sit and chat. “Hope you’re ok Lucy” came his slightly deeper boys voice from behind them. “It could have been anybody that happened to, take no notice if anybody say anything.” “See.” Becky muttered under her breath, “Told you, nothing to worry about.” Lucy was just shocked, her little heart fluttering just a little. Maybe she could get through this after all, and maybe Daniel was nicer then ‘just another boy’ – she’d never noticed him before, but his simple kind gesture made her feel so much better. Before she could dwell on this any further, the classroom door opened once again and a hush fell across the children, who had all turned expecting to see Mrs Moss and preparing to spring to their feet as she expected of them. But it wasn’t her… Part 1 - Chapter 13 As Miss Jenkins entered the room, all eyes were on her. What on earth was going on? Where was Mrs Moss? “Good Afternoon Children.” She greeted them all warmly, with a broad smile. “Mrs Moss has been called away unexpectedly to an important meeting, so I’m afraid you will have to make do with me for the rest of the afternoon.” Lucy and Becky looked at other in disbelief, their delight barely contained. The rest of the class broke out into a melee of chatter, happiness abound and a distinct relief across the room as the tension lifted almost at once. “You’ve done it Luce, you’ve got away with it! So long as you get that homework done tonight, Moss will never know. You won’t get into trouble, you won’t have to miss the sleepover. It’s a miracle!” Lucy slowly took all of this in. Becky was of course right, no Moss meant the homework wouldn’t be collected today. She could find and complete it that night, her Mum and Dad wouldn’t need to now. She breathed a massive sigh of relief, and then was hit with a dawning realisation. “Oh my GOD Becks, it was all for NOTHING! I wet myself for absolutely no reason, I humiliated myself in front of the whole class when I didn’t even need to. I can’t believe this. I’m so glad she’s not here, but I think I hate Moss even more now! Argh, I can’t believe this has happened.” Becky quietly giggled to herself. She could see the irony of the situation, but honesty there really was no pleasing her friend sometimes. Barely 10 minutes ago she knew that Lucy would have given anything in the world for their teacher to miss this lesson, and now she was bemoaning that very fact. She raised her eyes to the ceiling, making sure Lucy saw what she was doing, and then ducked out of the way of yet another playful punch. “Ok boys and girls, time to settle down now please.” The teacher called from the front of the class with a tone of authority. “Just because Mrs Moss isn’t here, doesn’t mean there’s not work to be done. Now, on the subject, I understand you all had a homework assignment to complete?” Lucy’s stomach lurched again, as she thought to herself ‘No, surely not!’ “Well don’t panic, I don’t know anything about the task you were set, so there’s little point in me collecting it in from you today. Just PLEASE make sure you ALL have it ready for your next lesson, otherwise I’m sure I don’t need to repeat the warning you were given earlier.” “And, breathe.” Becky whispered to Lucy, aware of just how pale her friend had gone at the mention of homework. “Whew, that was close!” The maths lesson passed unexpectedly pleasantly, for once almost all of the class enjoyed what they were being taught, and most actually learned something too. As they had their next lesson with Miss Jenkins too, there was no need to pack away at the end – instead when the bell rang she gave them al 5 minutes to relax, chat, nip to the loo or whatever else they needed to do before settling down for the final lesson of the day. Lucy and Becky used this time to turn around and chat to Emily and Zoe, mostly about the lucky escape they’d just had, and still clearly skirting around the subject of Lucy’s accident and what had happened since. It would have to be talked about at some point, but not just now. Becky was listening intently to the hubbub around them, trying to sense the mood and topics of the others. Mostly it was the same as theirs, but she did clearly hear the group of bully’s who had been so cruel as Lucy left the classroom earlier carrying on their nastiness, with comments about how Lucy should go to the toilet so she doesn’t piss everywhere again. She glared in their direction, there really was no need! And she was so glad that her poor friend hadn’t heard. The rest of the afternoon passed by quickly enough, and before long it was time to pack away before the final bell. Lucy’s nerves began to set in again, she knew that this meant being exposed to all of the school again whilst wearing the dress. She knew she had to go back to the office to collect the dreaded bag of wet clothes, and worst of all she knew that her Mum would soon be there, and she’d have lots of explaining to do. What would her Mum say, she had no idea. And her little brother…oh no, she’d forgotten about him! Did he know? If not, he would do soon. Burning shame crept back up inside her as she blushed a crimson red once more, this was probably going to be the most embarrassing part of it all. Part 1 - Chapter 14 After saying goodbye to her friend, Lucy slowly made her way back to Mrs Johnsons office to collect her bag of clothes. She was dreading this, walking out into the yard holding it in front of everybody else, knowing just how many of them would no doubt be talking about her. There was one faint glimmer of positivity though, and that was the sooner she had her bag, the sooner she could be home and changed, back into some of her own clothes at long last. Then she’d only have the embarrassment of her accident to worry about, not being dressed like a baby too. Knocking on the door, Lucy let herself in with a friendly but subdued “Hello Miss, I’ve come for my bag please.” “Hi Lucy, how’s your afternoon been? I heard a little rumour that your maths lesson may have been a little better than you were expecting?” Dorothy smiled broadly at the young girl as she said this, winking slightly as she did so. “No problem, I popped your things in the cupboard out of the way. One second and I’ll grab them for you.” “Yeah not too bad thanks, Miss. Well, considering…” Lucy gestured to her dress, and the barely disguised yellow bag that the secretary was now carrying over to her. “I’m sure you’ve had better days! But try not to worry, it’s all over with now. You’ll soon be home, in a nice bath and then tucked up in bed ready forget all about it, I’m sure. Don’t forget, your Mum is picking you and Jack up, so wait out on the playground for her. And if she wants to talk to me, show her where I am please.” Lucy gathered all of her things together, doing her best to hold the plastic bag so that as little of the yellow was showing as possible, although not very successfully. Satisfied the she’d done as much as she could, she thanked Mrs Johnson again and then made her way outside to face the music. It seemed strange, hanging around in the playground at the end of the day. She’d been making her own way home for a couple of years now, and usually collected her little brother and then set straight off. But Mum was coming today, so she knew she had to wait. Very conscious of how she was dressed, and even more so of the plastic bag she was clutching tightly, Lucy stood off to the side away from most people and tried to keep herself to herself, not wanting to be drawn into any conversations or to have more people looking at her than she was sure already where. Standing there, her mind began to wander and she was soon thinking about the fun they’d all have at Emily’s birthday sleepover. Anytime they slept at each others houses it was always a laugh, but this time at least a dozen of them would be there, and she couldn’t wait! She even began to put the events of the day to one side in her mind, forgetting momentarily about the discussion which awaited her once her Mum arrived. And then she was jolted from her daydreams by a shout from behind her which chilled her to her core. “Look Tommy, it’s true, what Davie said is true. Lucy DID wee herself, look, look. She’s got a yellow bag, and she’s wearing somebody else’s dress and everything. I can’t believe she wee’d herself like a baby. Hahahah.” There was no mistaking that voice, it was her little brother. Lucy was devastated, how could he have shouted something like that across the playground in front of EVERYBODY? She just wanted the ground to swallow her up. All at once, the shame she’d felt earlier washed back over her, but 10x worse. She blushed furiously and tears began falling down her cheeks once again. And then, as if on cue, she hears another voice bellow across the yard, this time filled with authority. Her Mum, coming to her rescue. “JACK DANIELS* you stop that RIGHT NOW.” Well, almost to her rescue. If only she hadn’t followed up with “It’s not like you’ve never had an accident. Now leave your sister alone, I’m sure she’s embarrassed enough without you shouting everywhere about it.” Thanks, Mum, Lucy thought to herself. Just what I needed, you confirming to everybody that what he’d said was true. Just marvellous! Angry though she was, however, it was nothing to how upset she was with Jack. She couldn’t help it, great sobs racked though her and she ran forward to throw her arms around her Mum, hugging and crying like she hadn’t since she was much younger, not even realising that she was still in the playground, surrounded by all of her friends. What a spectacle she had become. After a few minutes, Lucy managed to compose herself a little, and extracted herself from the tangle she had become around her Mum. Now she was just embarrassed by having such a meltdown so publicly. She was pleased to see Jack looking suitably chastened after his dressing down, and felt sure that their Mum mentioning his own past mishaps whilst his friend Tommy was around had probably played a big part in this. She meekly handed the plastic bag to her Mum, who took it without saying anything, and the three of them began walking to the car. As they approached the vehicle, her Mum unlocked the doors so that they could all climb in. Seatbelts buckled, they pulled away, and it was only as they turned out of the school carpark that Lucy reapplied something. “Erm, Mum, why are we going the wrong way? Our house is in the opposite direction.” *Totally unintentional, oops! ? Part 1 - Chapter 15 “You’ve not forgotten, have you Lucy? We’ve got our dentist appointments today. Just a quick checkup, then as we’re going to be in town anyway I need to nip into the supermarket for a few things.” “But Muuuuuuuuuuuum, I REALLY need to go home and get changed! Can’t we do that first, it will only take a few minutes?” Lucy pleaded with her Mother. The very last thing she wanted was to go out into town dressed like this. If any of her friends saw, she’d never live it down. Quick as a flash, before her Mum could answer, Jack chipped in “If you’d gone to the toilet when you had too, you wouldn’t have to wear that dress, would you. Big Baby” Lucy’s face contorted in a mixture of rage and humiliation. She bit back her retort, knowing it would only get her in trouble, and was glad she’d taken the moral high ground for once when her Mum stepped in to defend her. “Stop teasing your Sister right now Jack, or you’ll be grounded for the weekend.” The stern voice and withering look she gave him in the mirror being enough to make him take the threat seriously. “And I’m sorry Lucy, but the first appointment is 3:30, and it’s already nearly that time now. If we stopped at home first, we’d be late. I’m sure you can wait until we get home to change, besides it’s a lovely sunny day, perfect for a summer dress.” She knew there was no point in arguing, and it was satisfying hearing Jack being told off after he’d been so mean to her. No way was she going to agree that any time was perfect for a summer dress though! She just wanted it off and to never, ever see it again. The rest of the journey was made in silence, with Mrs Daniels enjoying the peace and the two children lost in their own thoughts. Only 10 minutes later, they were pulling into the dentist carpark, Lucy really hoping that none of her friends would be in the waiting room. As they made their way up the stairs to the first floor reception, passing the patient toilets, Jack couldn’t resist a whispered snipe “Shouldn’t you go for a wee Lucy, you don’t want to have an accident in the dentist’s chair!” She blushed once more, but didn’t even bother to come up with a retort. The sooner he got bored with this, the better, she thought to herself, although at the same time she was starting to think how she could get her revenge. Lucy was the first to be called in to the the examination room, and she self-consciously took a seat on the large leather chair as the dentist confirmed her details with her Mum, before turning his attention to her. “Well Lucy, how are you doing today? Looking very summery I must say.” The poor girl inwardly groaned. Why did EVERYBODY have to notice and comment on how she was dressed. Usually she was pleased by the attention, but not today. “I’m fine, thanks.” she mumbled, tugging at the hem of her dress again, realising with horror that the reclining action of the chair probably meant that she was giving the dentist and his assistant quite a view of the childish undies she was now wearing, and also hoping the wet wipes and deodorant had done a good enough job of removing the smell of wee, as the dentist was leaning very close to her. “Ah that’s good. No problems with your teeth I hope? And I’m sure you’re being a big girl and brushing them twice every day, yes?” Lucy just nodded, blushing again and feeling convinced that the dentist was talking to her like she was much younger. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but she didn’t like it at all. “Ok, all done. You can pop down from the chair now.” Turning to his computer, the dentist updated her records and was shocked when he noticed that she was 11. Yes she was quite tall, but apart from that he’d have said she was maybe 9 at the most. Perhaps she just liked to dress younger, he thought. “You can go back out and play in the waiting room now if you like, and can you send your brother through please?” ‘Play in the waiting room’? Yep, Lucy definitely wasn’t imagining it, he must think she’s a lot younger than she is! Does how she’s dressed really make such a difference? She cringed as she hurried out of the room. “Jack, your turn!” She called, adding a mischievous “Don’t cry like a baby this time.” As she knew Jack really hated visiting the dentist, but immediately regretting her jibe as she heard Jack’s response. “I’m not a Baby like you Lucy, at least I don’t wee myself and cry about it.” Jack didn’t really have an indoor voice, so this was of course broadcast loudly across the waiting room, filled as it was with a mixture of parents and children from about 5 right up to late teens. Cue more abject mortification, with Lucy shrinking into a huddle on the chair. She’d probably asked for that, she realised, but it still hurt. Lucy took some quiet satisfaction in seeing her brothers eyes were red and his face tearstained as he finally came back to the waiting room nearly 20 minutes later, although she knew better than to say anything. He had far more on her than she had on him at that moment, and she wasn’t a fan of that at all. “Come on kids, let’s get the shopping done, and then we can get going. Anybody need a wee before we go? It may be a while before we are back home, and one little accident is more than enough for today I’d say.” There goes Mum, typically embarrassing, Lucy thought, as both her and Jack shook their heads. Baiting each other had gotten boring, so for now at least they were just choosing to ignore each other instead. The trip to the supermarket passed without incident, and they were soon speeding down the main road towards home. Lucy couldn’t wait to get in and jump in the shower, to wash away the remainder of her shame and then get some proper clothes on so she didn’t look like a baby anymore. As they drove, she noticed Jack had gone much quieter, and as she watched him she thought she knew the reason why. Normally, like her, he dashed to the loo as soon as they got home from school, and she usually even let him go first. Whilst for her it was about being ‘cool and grown up’ by not using the school toilets, Jack simply preferred to spend playtime playing and so usually had to go by the end of the day. Today, of course, their journey home had included the dentist visit along with a shopping trip, so it had taken at least an hour longer than usual, and she knew he’d not gone at the dentist as he hated that place and had just wanted to get away as quickly as possible. He wasn’t saying anything, but his legs were squeezed together and she felt sure he’d make a run for the bathroom just as soon as they arrived home. Remembering just how mean Jack had been to her about her accident, Lucy’s eyes twinkled as she started to think about how to get her own back.

Just gauging whether there's any interest in this here, before I continue to share? The story itself is up to 126 chapters, well over 150,000 words split into 3 parts now over at www.theforgottenhomework.co.uk - I don't want to draw people away from here though, and have always thought forums are an excellent means of serialising stories and gaining valuable feedback, so if there's any interest I'll keep sharing a handful of chapters at a time.

Thanks @kerry - honest answer, I'm not quite sure why yet myself ?. Nothing I write has a plan to it, I just let my fingers do the typing and see where we end up. I'm part way through writing a massive novel length (well, several novels by the time I've finished) coming of age type wetting story which is far more typical/predictable than this, and the characters in that have gotten so far under my skin that I swear they're writing the damned thing themselves! That's actually where this one was born - I was publishing the other story on another forum and due to the characters being underage (although it's strictly non-sexual in any way, shape, form etc.) a rule change meant I had to take a break from it and ultimately relocate it. I needed a new writing project to keep my mind busy, so challenged my regular readers to give me an usual subject to work to, and this is what they came up with. I'm sure Katie will have a good reason...will be sure to let you know when she finally tells me!

As she walked away across the yard toward the stable block, Katie’s mind was in turmoil, with so many conflicting emotions trying to fight their way to the surface and vying for her attention. Everything that had just happened with Jet was clouding her thoughts, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that she was crossing the yard almost bow-legged as a result of her accident, starting to shiver as the wetness took a hold and absolutely mortified that she’d disgraced herself so completely for the firs time in at least a decade. Right now, as much as she wanted to be with Jet, to explore the emotions she was feeling and to get to know him so much better, intimately perhaps, at the same time she wanted to be as far away from him as humanely possible. She just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry herself to sleep, to forget the horror of what had just happened, she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. Despite her tough exterior, as she hobbled across the yard, poor Katie couldn’t stop the steady stream of silent tears from cascading down her cheeks,. Jet was besotted, absolutely smitten by this young beauty who had unexpected ridden into his life and he practically danced around the tack room as he finished tidying up, hanging Lucy’s saddle and reins in their place and mopping the tiled floor with a spring in his step which he’d never felt before. When he’d first approached the livery manager that afternoon asking for a few shifts to help support himself whilst they were in town, never in a million years did he expect anything like this to happen. He’d never believed in love at first sight, hell he wasn’t really sure he believed in love at all, perhaps because they were so nomadic that he’d never been settled anywhere long enough to build strong bonds with anybody before. He just ambled through life, more at one with the animals and nature than other people who often seemed so self-absorbed and destructive, so unlike Katie. Something troubled him, however, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, try as he might. Katie was clearly so headstrong, so independent, and that’s perhaps why he felt such kinship with her. He could tell that, like him, she made her own way in life, followed her own rules and had an ingrained determination to succeed, perhaps similarly to him because their circumstances had forced them to develop such a resilience if they were ever going to get anywhere in life. All of this was at odds, however, with the vulnerability he had sensed after she’d come out of the bathroom. It was as though her resolve had crumbled, she’d almost regressed into a much younger, less fiercely independent version of herself, and he couldn’t quite understand what had caused it. Clearly when she’d ridden back into the yard she was in quite some distress, that was evident from her voice and the way she had bolted as soon as he’d taken Spirit’s reins from her, and he’d been fearful that she’d perhaps taken a bad fall or otherwise hurt herself, although having seen her afterwards that didn’t seem to fit, she’d looked very uncomfortable but not badly injured. Perhaps it was just that she’d desperately needed to use the toilet? He wasn’t sure though - surely being a rider, and outdoors type like him, she could have taken care of that whilst out on the moors? Yes it would be a little more tricky for a girl, but plenty of the traveller women managed it without issue. Besides, even if she wasn’t comfortable being quite so ‘at one’ with nature, it’s not that she was a young child, a need to pee couldn’t possibly have caused her such distress, could it? Hurrying to lock up the tack room, he quickly followed the path Katie had so recently trodden, seeking out the faint glow of the stable block lights, hoping to continue their moment of intimacy and perhaps find answers to his many questions, and at the very least to firm up their plans to meet again tomorrow. Besides, he couldn’t leave without saying goodbye, he had the yard keys in his pocket! Taking sanctuary in Spirit’s stable stall, Katie patted and comforted him before crumpling into a heap against the wooden divider, broken and distraught. “Oh Spirit, how on earth do I get out of this God awful mess? Why did I have to wet my pants like a preschooler in front of the most gorgeous man I’ve ever met? How can I go home and face my folks like this? Why doesn’t anything ever go right for me? Why, why why?” Wild, wintery winds were now howling across the livery yard, channelled through the valley, it sounded like a storm was brewing and Katie knew she had a long, soggy, uncomfortable walk home ahead of her. Beginning to regain some composure, and realising that the longer she stayed the worst her journey home would likely be, the girl pulled herself up and dusted herself down, cringing as the cold wet fabric of her jodhpurs was pushed up against her skin, reminding her once more of her humiliating situation. As she reached across to turn out the stable light before bolting the door closed, she spotted Jet leaning against the outside of the stall, a nervous, worried expression etched across his rugged feature. How long had he been there? Had he heard what she’d said? Please no! Please…

After a long and tiring day at college, Katie Swanson could not wait to let her hair down - quite literally - and let go of the stress of her week. She didn’t have plans to go wild and party though, oh no, what she was looking forward to most was riding off into the sunset astride her faithful and trusty stead, Spirit. Katie had not long turned 17, and was currently working her way through the first year of sixth form college, studying hard to earn decent grades in her A-Level exams so that she could have her pick of the best universities and really make a successful career for herself. She knew she had to, she had little choice, her family had very little, and what they did manage to scrape together usually got pissed up the wall. None of them worked, at least not legitimately, so she had no idea where her own commitment and dedication came from, but right from the age of 12 she’s done all she could to earn some money and pay her own way in life. Perhaps the stigma of being labelled a ‘scrounger’ and a ‘benefit kid’ through school had stuck with her and really left it’s mark - she wanted better than that, she knew she was worth more than that, and she was determined to prove it not only to those who looked down their noses at her and her family, but also to herself. Spirit really was her pride and joy, it had taken her working all through her school holidays since she’d started at high school a little over half a decade ago, but finally towards the end of her last summer term she’d managed to scrape together enough money to buy him, and how her heart had swelled as she’d met him at the livery yard for the first time. She’d melted, her tough exterior crumbling away around her and she’d dissolved into tears of unbridled joy. He was just perfect, everything she wanted in life, and he was hers - nobody else’s, all hers. Katie’s passion for horses had all started back in her first term at her new school, she was only 11 then, and had been invited to a friends ‘pony party’ at the local riding stables. All of the other girls had arrived with their own helmets, matching jodhpurs and one or two had even arranged for their own ponies to be transported from home - that was when she’d realised just how different her own background was to that of all of there friends, and it had really hurt. She’d been the one in tatty jeans and t-shirt, with no idea how to handle a horse, but she’d fallen in love with everything about riding and quickly proved to have a certain way with the ponies, a confidence which belied her lack of experience and which took both her friends and the stables staff completely by surprise. At the end of the party, the yard manager had approached her slovenly dad to ask whether he’d consider sending her for riding lessons, because they were so impressed by her natural talent and thought that with a little nurturing she could develop into a truly skilful handle and rider. Of course, he’d done nothing but laugh in the kiddy gentleman’s face, and that’s before he’d heard what the cost would be! Katie was heartbroken, but this reaction only steeled her resolve, making her more determined than ever to achieve her goal and make her dreams come true. Unbeknownst to her dad, Katie had visited the stables again after school later on that week, and had pleaded with the manager to be allowed to help out. She had no means of payment, and she made that quite clear, but she could do anything that they’d let her if it meant that she got to spend some time with the horses. Over the years, Katie had spent every spare waking moment at the yard - working in the stables when the manager would let her, and riding and spending time with the horses the rest of the time. Her natural horsemanship skill continued to shine through, and as she became more confident her ability grew and grew, until she could handle even the biggest and most stubborn stallions liveried there with ease, putting even the full time staff to shame at times with how easily the animals obeyed her. She’s saved every penny that she earned, not treating herself to so much as a packet of sweets or a magazine through the entire five years until eventually she’d accumulated enough to buy a handsome black colt of her very own, a 4 year old standing at a little over 14 hands, and her one true love in life, her Spirit. Even now the intensity of her studies had increased considerably, Katie made sure to find time to visit the yard every single day, without fail. Often she’d be there at the crack of dawn, mucking out and helping in the tack room, conscious that whilst she’d reached her target, horses cost a lot of money in stabling, food and vet bills, so she had to keep earning if she was going to be able to support Spirit. Then, like today, as soon as she finished at college she’d shoot home, change her clothes and then walk the 2 miles back to the stables to exercise him, and often one or more of the other horses if their owners weren’t able to get there that day - that’s the way the livery worked, everybody looked out for each other, and it’s the main reason Katie felt so happy and comfortable there. Having dropped her college bag on the hallway floor, she called a hurried “Hello” through to her family, who she knew would be sat in the lounge working their way through the days supply of cheap and cheerless supermarket beer, barely even noticing whether she was home or not, before heading up the stairs for a quick shower and to change into her riding gear, only finally feeling free and at ease once she’d walked back out of the door and set off on her cross-country route to meet her best friend in the whole world. Singing contentedly to herself, she’d skipped across fields and clambered over styles, pleased to see that she’d achieved a record time as she walked through the gate to the yard, making sure of course to close it firmly behind her, and smiling widely at the thought of an extra half hour of freedom. Letting herself into the stable block, Katie rounded the corner into Spirit’s stall, and her eyes fell upon the most stunning boy she’d ever seen, a shock of hair as black as the horse he was grooming and a rugged, weathered look lit up by a ruddy complexion and a dancing smile which took her breath away. Wow. “Hey, I’m Jethro, but everybody calls me Jet.” “M..Em…Oh, Hhhhhiya, I’m K..k…Katie.” She stammered, tripping over her words in the rush to greet him, butterflies fluttering in her stomach, which seemed to be doing summersaults. Was this what love at first sight felt like, she wondered? The only time she'd ever felt anything like this was when she'd first set eyes on Spirit, and she knew that had been true love, but this was different, more intense. Wow. Regaining her composure a little, and realising that he must look like a gibbering imbecile to this handsome young stranger, Katie looked him straight in the eye confidently and managed to utter the first coherent sentence since she’d arrived at the yard. “Sorry, couldn’t quite get my words out then! I’ve not seen you around here before, Jet, do you have a horse stabled here?” “Haha, yeah I often have that effect.” Jet tipped her a cheeky wink, and then burst out laughing. In truth, he wasn’t half as cocky and confident as he tried to come across, but it was a great way of hiding his own apprehension and nerves when speaking to a, frankly, startlingly beautiful girl. “No, I’m just lending a hand to earn myself a few quid whilst we’re in town, that’s all. Is this handsome chap yours then?” Jet’s forthright approach had broken the ice, and both immediately felt more at ease in each other’s company, finding it far easier to chat openly and get to know each other a little better. Katie quickly explained about Spirit, how very important he was to her and also how he’d come to be in her life. She swelled with pride as she recounted the struggles she’d been through to get him, and also the joy he’s brought to her. In return, Jet talked a little about his own background in the traveller community, how they never stayed in one place for very long - either being moved along by the authorities, or needing to find a new ‘patch’ to earn a living. Most of the older men in his group worked in the manual trades, things like building, carpentry and landscaping, but he’d always been one for the animals and as well as taking care of their own pets and livestock he’d tried to find work helping at stables or on farms whenever he was able to. As was typical amongst his people, despite only being a year older than Katie was he’d been out of education probably since she’d started high school, and had worked throughout most of his adolescence, meaning he’d built quite a respectable skillset, something that was evident from his handling of Spirit. “Usually he won’t let anybody but me groom him, you know. You really have got a way with them, haven’t you?” Gazing at the colt affectionately as he worked his rough mane, Jet nodded slowly and then turned to look at Katie. “I’ve always found a stronger connection with the horses than the people, I guess that makes me sound pretty crazy to you, doesn’t it? No doubt you’ve got lots of friends, but to me I prefer to spend time with the beasts, they ‘get’ me in a way that no person ever has, and I think I ‘get’ them too” She had no idea what made her do it - she’d never craved the affection of another person herself either, nor had she felt affection beyond the platonic, familial love that she almost felt obliged to feel, but something inside Katie made her reach out her hand and place it gently atop Jet’s, following his motion as he combed through the horses long, coarse hair. She murmured softly, gently “Oh Jet, I get it, believe me I do. You could have been describing me then, those could have been my words.” Taking his hand in hers, she pulled it towards her, causing him to drop the brush he was using and look straight into her piercing blue eyes, startled b this sudden physical intimacy which was so alien to him. So alien to both of them. “Katie, are you in there?” A shrill, piercing voice called out through the stable block from behind them. “I thought I saw you crossing the yard earlier, have you got a moment?” The moment shattered, the spell broken, and both Katie and Jet jolted from their reverie, startled by the unexpected interruption. It was Nancy, the tack room supervisor, who bustled her way through to the stall where she found a pair of slightly shell-shocked young people, both seemingly unsure where they where or what had just happened. “Ah, I see you’ve met Jet then? As he may have told you, he’s going to be helping out around the yard for a few weeks, mostly things like the mucking out and hosing down, which will free you up a bit, won’t it?” Katie nodded, still struggling to bring herself back down to earth and to give Nancy her full attention. “Excellent! Well, I remember you mentioning that you’ve got a week off from college next week, yes? How do you fancy looking after the tack for a few days whilst I travel over to Ireland to meet a new breeder who’s hoping to stable some of his stock here whilst they’re in training?” Katie’s eyes widened with shock. She’d been helping out at the yard for over 5 years now, and had spent plenty of time in the tack room cleaning and repairing equipment, but never had she been trusted to take care of things on her own. This was a dream come true for her, a real step up the pecking order, and she realised just how much faith and trust Nancy and the rest of the team must have in her if they were prepared to give her this opportunity. For a moment, she just stood opened mouthed as she took in what she’d just heard. “Oh Nancy, I’d absolutely love to! But, do you really think I’m up to running things on my own? I mean, I know what I’m doing and everything, but it’s such a big responsibility. I’d hate to make a mess of things.” The older lady nodded reassuringly, and then quite uncharacteristically she gave Katie a small smile. This probably shocked Katie even more than meeting Jet, even more than being asked to take charge, she had NEVER known Nancy to smile before. Not that she wasn’t a pleasant lady, but she was quite old fashioned and tended to show her appreciation in other ways, open affection just didn’t sit right with her, but the smile was warm and welcoming. “I wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t think you were capable young lady, but if you don’t feel up to the task I can bring somebody else in.” “N…no, no, honestly Nancy, I’ll be absolutely fine. And if Jet here is going to be around, I’m sure he won’t mind lending a hand. Thank you, thank you so very much. Wow, what an incredibly opportunity, I really don’t know what to say.” Her normal demeanour returning, although feeling an intense pride that her young prodigy was so keen to step up to the plate, Nancy nodded curtly before turning to leave, asking Katie to pop in and see her in the office after her ride so that she could take her through what needed to be done, and also provide her with keys to the yard. Then, with a jerk of the hand, she indicated that Jet should follow her as there was work to be done, and she wasn’t paying him to stand around chatting up the ladies all day. He blushed, but nothing like as deeply as Katie did, both agreeing that as tomorrow was Saturday they’d have more time to chat then, and arranging to meet early in the morning. “Over a coffee?” Katie suggested. “Over a pile of manure, more likely!” Jet giggled. As Katie led Spirit out across the yard and saddled him up, she’d honestly never felt happier, her mind spinning with thoughts of her responsibility next week, and the mysterious Jet she she’d only known for less than an hour, but who had made her feel like she had never felt before. It was an odd feeling, she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she knew that she liked it. Leading her trusty steed through the yard gate out onto the open fields beyond, Katie swung herself upwards and mounted his saddle gracefully, a well practised manoeuvre which was often admired by her peers. She was, after all, quite petite and lacked the height of many of the other riders, yet she was often able to mount and dismount far more smoothly than many of them managed. This, again, was an example of her commitment and determination to always do her very best, and to become the best she can at anything she turned her hand too, a trait of which she was proud, given her challenging background. Spirit walked confidently under her direction, picking out a steady path through the bracken laden countryside, enjoying the opportunity to stretch his legs but also keen to pick up the pace, and often attempting to break into a slow jog, something approaching a trot. Katie, too, wanted to let him run free, relishing the wind in her hair and the exhilaration that she knew a good run would bring, but she was cautious of the ground where they were and wouldn’t take any unnecessary risks, reining in his excitement and enthusiasm until they were clear of the shrubbery. It wasn’t far, perhaps a couple of miles at the most, and as they climbed the brew of the hill ahead Katie’s gaze travelled wide across the open landscape, breathing in deeply and rising from the saddle as she finally let Spirit run freely, whooping with joy has he cantered and built into a gallop, snuffing and snorting his own delight. Satisfied that they had ‘blown away the cobwebs’, and anxious not to overexert Spirit, Katie again slowed his gait until they were travelling a a steady-but-safe pace, allowing her to take in the beautiful scenery which was rushing past them, and which seemed even more enchanting than ever today. Lost in her own thoughts, the young girl barely noticed the passage of time nor the distance travelled, until she sensed her ride beginning to pull up slowly, immediately snapping her eyes ahead fearing danger or obstruction, perhaps other rider as she knew Spirit was always nervous when approaching strangers. Instead, her eyes met with the rapidly approaching weir of the river, causing her to pull sharply on the reins and turn to the side in order to avoid entering the water - not because both her and Spirit weren’t capable of traversing it safely, of course, but because she did not relish the job of hosing him down back at the yard! As they drew to a halt, Katie slid deftly from the saddle and led Spirit to the edge of the water, allowing him to drink deeply and quench his thirst. She reached for her own water bottle, but was surprised to find it empty - she always drank as she rode to keep hydrated, but it was rare for her to drink more than half of the bottle. Glancing at her watch, she cried out in disbelief - having reached the riverbank she’s just assumed they’d been travelling faster than she’d realised, but now she could see that the’d been riding for over an hour! “Oh my, Spirit, we’ve been away ever such a long time already! And we’ve still got, what another hour at best to get back to the yard, probably longer as I don’t doubt your poor legs will be tired. Come on then, we’d best head back or Nancy will be worrying, and , Oh Hell! I’ve got to go and see her before I go home too.”

 Mentally kicking herself for not keeping better track of time and allowing herself to get so lost in the moment, Katie guided Spirit back around and clambered aboard, a little less gracefully on this occasion for despite his smooth ride and sturdy saddle her own legs were weary from the long ride, and she had to admit she wasn’t looking forward to the return journey nearly so much. Besides, now she was starting to understand where all of that water from her bottle had gone. It was only as she sat astride his back once more that she felt the first, niggling sense that she could do with finding a bathroom before too long. The pair made rapid, steady progress to begin with, although after no more than a couple of miles Katie could feel Spirit beginning to labour beneath her, slowing the pace right down and clearly struggling through exhaustion. It had taken them over an hour to read the river, and that was when Spirit was fully fit and raring to go. Now he was tiring, Katie was worried that if she pushed him to hard then he may injure himself, which wasn’t fair to the animal, nor could she afford any more costly vets bills just now, a recent infection having necessitated two separate call-outs, and all but eradicating what had been left of her savings. No, the only answer was to take things slowly, give him a chance to regain his energy, even if that meant it took them twice as long to get back. Oh, how she wished she’d picked up her mobile phone - the signal was patchy out here at best, but it may have helped her get a message back to the yard to explain where she was, and if necessary to make arrangements to meet Nancy the following day instead, rather than keeping her hanging around all night. Not only that, Katie thought ruefully, but how she also wished she’d nipped to the loo before heading out for this little jaunt. Usually she did exactly that, but meeting Jet had distracted her today, and then the curveball that Nancy had thrown at her had taken her mind of the normal routine completely! If she was completely honest with herself, the rhythmic motion of Sprit’s gentle trot really wasn’t doing a great deal to help Katie’s growing, pressing need to relieve herself, so she pulled him up again and slid from the saddle once more, reasoning that the walk would be easier for him without her added weight to carry. Leading him along also meant that she could take a moment to adjust herself, and - thankful that nobody was out here to bear witness - even give a little bit of a jig, what you may call a ‘potty dance’ in a young child. Oh how she blushed as she did this…she was 17 years old for heaven’s sake, clearly capable of using a toilet when she needed to, and supposedly well past the stage of having to dance around in public because she needed a wee! They trudged on, dusk descending over the open countryside, and a cool chill blowing in on the wind, which didn’t help Katie’s predicament, although it did serve to help cool Spirit down from his earlier exertion, to the point that she could feel him beginning to pull at the reins as they walked, clearly feeling able to pick up the pace again. Her own legs aching from the long walk, and not entirely trusting herself to jog with such throbbingly full bladder, Katie gave in and mounted the horse once more, feeling a jolt and a twinge inside her as she swung her leg over his saddle, and clamping her legs tightly against his sides instinctively. Still a little agitated, Spirit’s temperament wasn’t quite what it usually was, and the shock and discomfort from his riders squeeze caused him to start, surging forward unexpectedly and nearly dismounting poor Katie, who was fighting hard both to stay astride the saddle and also to prevent herself losing control of her bladder, which hadn’t liked the unexpected movement at all. With one hand now thrust into the crotch of her dusky pink jodhpurs, and the other looped through the rein and patting the side of Spirit’s neck as she attempted to comfort and soothe him, Katie almost chucked at the comical sight they must make. But no, she stifled herself, aware that chuckling probably wasn’t a very good idea right now either. Oh what a pickle she’d got herself into, and she was starting to become very concerned that she wasn’t going to make it back to the yard in time, both before Nancy left for the evening and, more worryingly, before she had a spectacularly humiliating accident. No, no, that couldn’t possibly happen, she hadn’t wet her pants since she was about 7. Now she’s an adult, a college student, and big girls like her didn’t have to worry about wetting themselves, it just wasn’t something they did. Then a truly horrendous thought struck her…Jet!! Oh no, what if…well, what if it all did go horribly wrong and she didn’t get back to the stables before it was too late. And, what if Jet was still there? That, well that didn’t even bear thinking about. How would he ever live it down? She’d barely even met him, never mind gotten to know him, what if that was his first real impression of her? She’d so wanted to get to know him better, and hoped that maybe he’d want to spend some time with her too, but she doubted that very much if all he saw was a stupid little kid who pissed her pants. Fuck, no, she couldn’t let this happen. Realising too that failure really wasn’t an option, because apart from the potentially devastating effects on her reputation at the yard, and what her..cr…well, what Jet may think and say, she also had to make her own way home, and traipsing through the streets in wet pants didn’t appeal to her in the slighted, to say nothing of what her family would say if they found out. No, her determination steeled and her hand pushed ever tighter between her legs, she ploughed on, hoping against hope that she could do enough. Please, please. Rounding a familiar corner, Katie was filled with immense relief as she caught sight of the livery yard in the distance. It as still a good 15 minute ride away, but having her goal within her grasp helped to lift her spirits, and without really thinking about what she was doing, she leant forward and pushed Spirit into a rapid canter. Needing both hands to steady her ride, she released the vice like grip on the crotch of her jodhpurs and took the rein firmly - falling off now would spell disaster, not just an embarrassing kick to her riding confident, but near certain wet pants too! Certain that she was home and dry - quite literally - young Katie began to relax and enjoy what was left of her little jaunt, the evening had cooled but was still light and pleasant, a gentle breeze throwing her loose hair out behind her like a mane and the sound of the birds and wildlife around her was comforting and tranquil. Despite the dull ache in her stomach which occasionally reminded her of its presence with an uncomfortably sharp pain, this was what Katie loved most about riding, the freedom it gave her from the stresses of everyday life. Poor Katie lost herself in the moment a little too deeply, however, and was shaken from her reverie with a jolt by a loud, shrill and piercing siren which rang out across the open fields and which, in turn, spooked Spirit and caused him to rear up on his hind legs, almost throwing Katie to the ground in his fright. The crow sounder! How had she forgotten about that? Of course, she was usually back at the yard long before this hour, with Spirit safely stabled and settled down for the evening, so it wasn’t something she had to give much thought to, but now she remembered that it wounded every 15 minutes during dusk and twilight hours, keeping the swarms of crows, starlings and pigeons from roosting in the farmers fields and eating the crop. In a fleeting moment, Katie thought how glad she was that she was atop Spirit when it happened, as it was so much easier to comfort and control him from there, and had he bolted whilst she was leading him on foot the chances are he’s have made off from her, with little chance of catching him before he caused himself a serious injury. It was also then that she realised, had it happened barely 5 minutes earlier, she’d been holding on only loosely with one hand, which wouldn’t have been nearly enough to steady her and keep her seated. What a stroke of luck, she’d survived unscathed, and Spirit had soon settled back into a steady trot. She knew that they had at least 10 minutes now to get back to safety before having to worry again, and the yard gate couldn’t be more than 5 minutes distant, so they were in the clear. Suddenly sickening pain passed through her body, and she remembered exactly why it was that she’d not been paying attention - she needed to pee, and badly! So very, very badly. The pain this time was so intense that she thought she was going to lose control and have an accident right there and then, she was the closest she’d been to soaking her pants in at least 10 years and she cried out in despair, clamping her legs as tightly together as she could manage and thrusting both hands between them, desperate not to wet herself. Her body shuck with the effort, but somehow, by some miracle, she managed to stay in control. Breathing deeply, almost panting through the exertion, she returned her hands to the bridle. She noticed a dampness, no perhaps even a wetness to them, but didn’t dare to look down - hoping against any real hope that it was sweat and moisture from the saddle rather than a sign that she had lost control of herself in the most humiliating way possible. Riding through the gate to the yard, tears streaming down her cheeks in a combination of distress and relief, she spotted a lone figure ahead of her, silhouetted against the wall of the tack room. Nancy, it must be Nancy, thank God! Leaping from the horses back whilst he continue to walk, and knowing she didn’t have even a second to spare if she was going to get out of this with even a shred of dignity intact, Katie shouted loudly, her voice echoing across the deserted yard. “Nancy! Please, please take Spirit. I need to go, RIGHT NOW!” Running forward, with the rein held out in front of her and her other hand once more squeezing at her crotch for all she was worth, the only thing standing between her and abject mortification, Katie realised in a moment of horror that the shadowy figure wasn’t Nancy at all, it was Jet! Oh no, no, this couldn’t be happened. He couldn’t see her like this, he just couldn’t. But he had, there was nothing she could do to change that now, and, she reasoned internally, it was far better than him seeing her standing there having wet herself like a little baby, which was exactly what was about to happen if she didn’t get to a toilet. Blushing profusely, she thrust the rein into his hand, turned and fled in the direction of the tack room door, praying that it would still be unlocked and that the bathroom would be vacant. It was her only hope. By the time she reached the door to the tack room, Katie was barely able to waddle never mind run, and despite all of her best efforts there could be no denying the fairly constant trickle between her legs by this stage. She knew it was basically game over, she was wetting her pants and there was very little she could do about it, but that stubborn streak in her wouldn’t let her give in no matter what. Pushing on, writhing in pain and wincing at the feel of wet fabric against her legs as she twisted them around each other as she desperately tried to maintain some semblance of control, Katie managed to free one hand from within the knot of trembling limbs and soggy cotton, just long enough to hook it around the door handle, yanking down hard and fast as she felt the trickle turn into a very pronounced spurt for just a fraction of a second. “No, no, no!” She called out, to nobody in particular, and in truth hoping that nobody could hear her anguished pleas. “This can’t be happening! I’m 17 years old, I’m not a baby, I just can’t have an accident!” Her words blurred into loud, racking sobs as she realised that’s exactly what she was doing, 17 years old or not, she was standing barely 20 feet away from the nearest toilet and emptying her bladder, slowly, into her pink jodhpurs. It had been a decade since the last time, and it wasn’t something she thought would ever happen to her again, but there was no denying now that she’d had an accident - all she could do was try to minimise the damage, both to her clothes and her reputation, which she feared would be left in soggy tatters. With one last-gasp, almost superhuman effort, Katie clamped down again, managing to stem the flow as threw herself forward. She ran across the tack room, through the yard office which she was received to see was in complete darkness, and into the single toilet which led directly off it, a sight which the girl had taken in probably hundreds of times over the years, but which had never appeared more welcoming nor beautiful than it did to her today. It was all too much, however, for her poor aching bladder. The sight of the toilet and the prospect of relief caused it to release it’s tentative hold, and before she knew what was happening Katie was not leaking, nor spurting, she was weeing full force into her pants whilst frantically trying to rip them down and seat herself upon the cold plastic seat atop the porcelain throne. Any concept that this was just a leak had long gone, any hope that she could get away with or hide it seemed laughable at best by this stage, for there really was no denying the fact that by the time she was seated her head to go had subsided, her bladder was all but empty, and barely a trickle made it into the intended destination. Broken, defeated and absolutely humiliated, poor Katie sat with her face buried in her hands and cried like she hadn’t for many years. How had she let this happen, how could a 17 year old college student wet herself like a toddler? And how on earth would she ever be able to explain what had happened to her family? To Nancy? Oh no, no, no, to Jet?!? She was ruined. Glancing down to inspect the damage, Katie first caught a glimpse of her saturated underwear. She’d never been one to dress ‘sexily’ when it came to undies, partly because she preferred comfort and had never felt the need to flaunt her pants to anybody else, but also designer lingerie always seemed like such a waste of money to her. She’d worked so hard to scrape together the money for Spirit, and throwing away her hard earned savings on frilly, lacy knickers just seemed like such a waste, when the cash could be put to much better use. No, good old cotton pants in pastel shades were good enough for her, just as they always had been. She definitely much preferred them dry though, she mused to herself, not at all a fan of the dark purple stain which had bloomed across the lilac fabric of the pair pooled round her ankles, a sight which she’d fortunately not seen for a good many years. Something was odd though about the sight which met her eyes, something very wrong yet at the same time which filled her heart with an unmistakable feeling of hope mingled with shock and disbelief. It couldn’t be, could it? Surely not?! But...how? Overwhelming relief flooded through Katie, complete unbridled joy; emotions which she simply couldn’t reconcile herself with given she’d just completely wet her pants, in public, at 17 years old! But there it was, and it took her mind a few moments to focus enough and truly take in what her eyes were seeing. Somehow, and she really didn’t care how right at that moment, she could see that her jodhpurs appeared, from the outside at least, to be completely dry! Was it a miracle? Magic? No, no, she didn’t believe in either of those things. Had she imagined having an accident after all, her mind playing some kind of sick and twisted joke on her? It couldn’t be that, for she could quite clearly see her soaked underpants, displaying her shame for all to see. So, wha? And how? Running a hand tentatively through the pink fabric, she was astounded to find that despite appearing to be completely dry and unblemished from the outside, the inner layer was completely saturated! Well, ok, perhaps not astounded as she of course knew that she’d practically emptied her entire bulging bladder in these very pants not 5 minutes earlier, but certainly bemused…how could the outside be dry and give away no indication of her embarrassing predicament, whilst the inside was quite literally dripping? Deciding that now really wasn’t the time to investigate further, and happy to grab this stroke of good fortune with both hands and run with it, Katie hastily dried herself off as best she could, and then, armed with a mountain of paper towels from the dispenser, she began frantically blotting at the inside of her jodhpurs, fearful that her privacy could be interrupted at any moment and unable to think of any remotely plausible explanation for being found in this position. Despite her relief at the miracle which had befallen her, Katie couldn’t help worrying that it would only be a matter of time before the moisture wicked through the fabric and showed itself as a horribly embarrassing stain for all to see, so she had to dry as much of the wetness as she could before venturing out of the bathroom to face Jet, and probably Nancy too. It was as she vigorously ran the paper along the seam which ran up the back of the trousers that Katie’s eye fell upon the care label, and beside that a small tag bearing the word ‘Teflon’. With a dawning realisation, all suddenly became much clearer in her mind, -she’d deliberately chosen to pay the extra for these jodhpurs precisely because they were coated with Teflon, a protective layer designed to prevent rain and dirt from penetrating the fabric and reaching her skin, a kind of advanced waterproofing which didn’t add any weight or bulk to the material, but helped to repel at least most of any wetness. The protective coating had served her well during many rain-soaked rides across the moors, when ordinary cotton would have quickly become saturated, leading her to become cold and suffer from the most uncomfortable chaffing, something she’d experienced far too many times growing up and learning her craft. But never for a moment had she considered the potential benefit that such fabric could have when it came to preventing wetness from the inside making it’s presence known. Of course she hadn’t, why would she? It’s not like she had ever wet herself before, not since she was a little kid at any rate, and it’s just not something that your average teenage girl would even contemplate when choosing new clothes. Casting her mind back, Katie remembered vaguely the last time she’d suffered such an accident herself, she’d been probably 7 or 8 at the time and it had happened at school. No Teflon had come to her rescue then, however, and she’d been left wet and weeping in her place in class - the wet stain obvious for all to see. Oh what she wouldn’t have given for her skirt to have been protected the same way that it seemed her jodhpurs were now, how much shame and humiliation that would have helped her to avoid. These wistful thoughts also triggered another memory, more recent but even less distinct than the first, but something whilst made the whole Teflon thing click into place and confirmed her growing understanding of what had happened. She’d been in her early teens, so probably only 3 or 4 years ago, and was travelling on a coach back to her school after a day trip to see some boring historical monument or other, in honesty she’d paid so little attention that she probably wouldn’t have remembered the next day, never mind 4 years later! She vaguely recalled one of the boys making quite a song and dance about the fact that he really needed to use the toilet, even blaming the teacher for the fact he was about to have an accident. He had soon lost his teenage attitude, however, sitting in silence for the last half hour of the journey with stray tears rolling down his cheeks, much to the amusement of his friends who were certain he’d wet himself and couldn’t wait to laugh when he stood up to get off the bus. Amazingly, however, when the bus pulled up outside their school and the boy disembarked, there had been no sign of wetness anywhere on his grey school trousers, disappointing those who had hoped to poke fun at him for being the boy who wet his pants in high school. He hadn’t bolted for the toilet when disembarking, either, which had made little sense given how vocally desperate he’d been, but at the time Katie had paid little more attention, after all boys bathroom habits didn’t interest her in the slightest! Now, now it all made sense. Their school uniforms had all been coated with Teflon, she remembered the same tags that she could now see in her jodhpurs had always featured on her skirts and pinafores, so no doubt the same was true of the boys trousers too. It all made sense, and it made her wonder just how many such accidents this wonder fabric had helped to hide over the years, for kids and adults alike. But then, before she could dwell on this thought any further, a loud rasping knock at the bathroom door jolted Katie back to the present day with a start. “J…jus…just a minute. I’ll be out in a sec.” Katie called, hurriedly pulling her soggy undies and jodhpurs back up, wincing as the saturated fabric found its place and quickly glancing down to triple check that the outside of her pants didn’t show any trace of her shame. Satisfied as she could be given the horrible circumstances she found herself in, the young girl splashed her face to wash away the tears - never mind seeing her have an accident, nobody at the yard had ever seen her cry before as far as she could remember, and her strong and unshakable image was something she was keen to keep hold of for it had served her well. “Katie is everything ok?” Jet’s deep, rasping voice came through the door, tinged with genuine concern for her wellbeing. She’d seemed genuinely distressed out on the yard, and he was worried that she’d had a fall or some other terrible accident whilst out for her ride. Turning to flush the barely used toilet, and setting her face with an expression she hoped hid her upset and conveyed the independence she was so known for, Katie stepped forward and grabbed hold of the door handle, throwing it open purposefully and striding out to greet Jet and thank him for taking care of Spirit. She hoped she could brazen this out, but it would mean thinking on her feet for she had no plan or idea how the young man would react, what he had noticed or even really what he was like. “Jet, hey, thanks for grabbing Spirit for me back there, I just needed to…y’know…well, um…” She started out well, headstrong as ever, but Katie found herself faltering as her eyes met Jet’s and saw the deep concern and compassion within them. She wasn’t used to people giving a shit about her, nobody ever did, she’d always been one to look out for herself and take care of whatever she came up against. Now the look Jet was giving her swept her legs out from under her, left her completely disarmed, stuttering and stumbling over her words, her resolve broken and she found herself blinking back yet more tears. Who was this man who could do this to her? Seeing that she was struggling and wanting her to know that everything was going to be ok, Jet stepped forward and reached an arm around the young girls shoulders, drawing her into a warm and friendly embrace. He was conscious of not overstepping the mark, respecting her space and the fact that he was a relative stranger, but at the same time feeling compelled to comfort her in her time of need. Initially he was met with resistance, a tenseness and strength which belied her slight frame, but almost as soon as he took hold of her he felt the tension ebb away and she melted lightly into him, sighing deeply, as if the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. “Katie, whatever it is that’s gotten you so worked up really isn’t worth all of that upset. It really doesn’t matter. There’s no need to say anything, just calm yourself down. We can talk later, or never at all, that’s up to you. So long as you’re not hurt?” Jet’s words soothed over Katie, and she soon felt the last of her fight leaving her. “Well, thanks Jet.” She murmured, Blushing at their closeness and sure that he will feel and likely smell her accident even if by her great fortune he couldn’t see the evidence of it. She may have been wrong footed by his caring nature, may have let her guard down a little more than she ever had before, but she was still feeling utterly humiliated by what had happened to her tonight, mortified beyond belief that it had happened in front of this handsome young stranger and distraught at the idea of him or anybody else finding out. “I…well, is Spirit Ok? Is Nancy still here? I, kinda, lost track of time out there, but I really needed to see her before she went.” Smiling at the independence shining through Katie, Jet hurriedly reassured her that Spirit was absolutely fine, bedded down in his stable with his tack hanging up ready for her and that Nancy had to shoot off, but would call her the next day to talk through everything . She’d left a set of keys with Jet for her, which he fished out of his pocket and held out for her to take, and hadn’t seemed annoyed, more amused at how often Katie lost herself in the ride completely, as although this could be inconvenient and frustrating at times it showed just how committed to Spirit and to her craft the girl had become. Thanking Jet again, Katie hurriedly made her excuses that she needed to hurry through her jobs and get home before shuffling self-consciously from the room, leaving a bewildered Jet in her wake who was trying to get his head around the whirlwind of emotions he’d just witnesses in Katie and experienced himself. “I’ll tidy up down here and then bring the keys over to you.” He called after her, spotting the bunch she’d just taken from him on the bench where she’d been stood, secretly glad for a chance to say a proper goodbye. “Give me 5 minutes, ok?”. As she walked away, Jet looked the retreating figure up and down, his eyes playing tricks on him or so he thought. More to follow

Part 1 - Chapter 7 After leaving the clothes for Lucy, Dorothy headed back over to her desk, knowing that she needed to call her Mum and let her know what had happened. Going home had been ruled out, but parents still needed to be notified, and given just how upset Lucy was she thought this may be best done quickly now, so as to save her the further embarrassment of hearing the call. She quickly found the number on her computer, and just as she began to dial the shrill sound of the school bell rang out. Perfect, she thought, Mrs Daniels who she knew worked as a teacher, should be able to take a quick call now. “Hello, Jeannette Daniels speaking” “Good afternoon Mrs Daniels, it’s Dorothy Johnson here, calling from Victoria Primary School. Are you ok to speak briefly?” “Hi there Dorothy, yes I’m fine to talk. Is everything ok?” Jeannette sounded worried, he didn’t usually receive calls from her children’s school, so something must be the matter, she thought. “There’s nothing to worry about, but Lucy has had a little accident in school this morning, and I just wanted to let you know myself, straight away. Don’t worry, we’re taking care of it all here in school.” Dorothy had sensed the worry in Mrs Daniels’ voice, and wanted to put her at ease. “Oh my! Is she badly hurt?” The worry in her voice intensifying rapidly, and in her mind she’s already making plans to arrange cover for her own classes so that she can be there. “Ah, no, it’s nothing like that. Please don’t worry.” Dorothy then lowered her voice, aware that Lucy may be able to hear and also conscious that other pupils were now moving past her office on their way to lunch. “She didn’t quite make it to the toilet in time, I’m afraid, and got quite upset about it. We’ve found her some clothes to change into though, so she’s just getting herself sorted out now before heading out with her friends for the lunch break.” Jeannette Daniels was stunned at the other end of the phone. Lucy had wet herself? She was 11 years old! She’d have been shocked if they’d called to say that Jack had an accident, and he was still in the infants, but Lucy? Relief washed over her at the realisation nobody was hurt (except no doubt her daughter’s pride!), but at the same time a perhaps unreasonable sense of frustration that her daughter had done this, no doubt through laziness or this bizarre notion she seemed to have that it wasn’t ‘cool’ to use the school toilets. Nothing had been said, but she had noticed how she always made a mad dash for the loo when arriving home, and it looked like this had finally caught her out. “Thank you for helping her to get sorted Dorothy, and for letting me know. I won’t keep you now as I’m sure you’re busy, but could you please let Lucy know that I’ll come to pick her and Jack up this afternoon – if you need me for anything then, just let me know. “Not a problem at all, Mrs Daniels, I’ll pass on the message. Hope you enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Please try not to worry about Lucy, we will look after her.” In the bathroom, Lucy had finally gathered herself together a little. A little of her headstrong attitude returning, she realised that sitting blubbing on the floor wearing just her wet undies really wasn’t a good look! Finding some baby wipes amongst the bathroom supplies, she gave herself a good cleaning all over, and even sneaked a couple of sprays from a can of deodorant she had found on top of the cistern, no doubt belonging to Miss Johnson. There, at least she didn’t smell like a toilet any more. She tentatively unfolded the new underpants that had been left for her, pulling a face as she saw the childish cartoon patterns. She hadn’t worn pants like these for years, and all she could think was how glad she was that nobody else would see them – if it had been a PE day, she’d have been mortified. Although, on the other hand, she thought, at least she’d have had her PE shorts to put on instead of the dreaded dress! Pulling on the pants and cringing at just how childish they made her look and feel, Lucy turned her attention to the checked red dress. Her resolve started to crack, and she had to blink back tears again, but even this had to be better than walking around in just the baby pants, or her wet skirt showing her shame to everybody. She slipped it on and fastened the zip. Turning to look in the mirror, it was like she’d gone back 4 or 5 years, a much younger version of herself staring back with a puffy, blotchy and tear stained face and wearing exactly the same uniform she’d have been wearing at the end of the summer term back then. One thing she did pick up on was just how short the dress was! She’d had a bit of a growth spurt recently, so was one of the tallest in her class – the dress seemed to ‘fit’ around her, but ended half way between her waist and her knee. What she wouldn’t have given for a pair of tights to help her cover up a bit! She knew she’d have to be careful walking so that the dress didn’t move too much and give anybody a glimpse of the childish undies she had on underneath. Suddenly a thought flashed through her mind, and before she could stop herself, she laughed out loud! It was a pained, almost ironic laugh, as she processed the fact that she had just totally wet herself in front of all of her peers, the most humiliating thing that had ever happened in her short life, and here she was worrying about people making fun of how she was dressed. What a crazy situation. Hopefully Miss would have managed to speak to her Mum whilst she was getting changed, and she’d soon be on her way home. Part 1 - Chapter 8 Lucy sheepishly made her way back out into the office, feeling more self conscious than she ever had in her life, and hoping that nobody was around to see her. Hearing the bathroom door open, Mrs Johnson looked up and gave the girl a reassuring smile, noticing as she did just how short the summer dress was on her. “Miss, what should I do with my…I mean, where shall I put my…” She spluttered, all flustered again, not quite finding it within herself to ask the older lady how to deal with her wet clothes. Fortunately Dorothy realised what she meant, and jumped up to sort out the mess. She grabbed a yellow plastic bag from the medical supplies area in the bathroom entrance, the type marked up for ‘bodily fluids’ and handed it to Lucy, who flushed furiously. “Here love, pop your things in this. Don’t worry, we’ll put it inside a normal carrier bag so nobody will know what it is.” Lucy, however, wasn’t reassured. She’d seen lots of the infants leaving clutching such carrier bags, with the bright yellow wrapping showing clearly through them, and as this usually coincided with them leaving school at home time wearing their PE kit or ill-fitting spare clothes, it was always obvious what had happened. She even vaguely remembered her little brother having such a mishap, although he was in probably year one at the time, so it was understandable. This time it would be her clutching the bag of wee soaked clothes, whilst wearing a dress that nobody could ever mistake for hers, and she was in year 6! Oh the shame. Bundling her wet skirt and pants together, she hurriedly shoved them into the bag and then held it, arms outstretched, to Dorothy as if it was infectious, whilst asking “Did you speak to Mr Davies, Miss? Is my Mum coming to get me?” “Mr Davies is out for the afternoon I’m afraid sweetheart” Dorothy responded, in a soothing voice, dreading breaking the news and half expecting Lucy to break down again when she did. “I’m spoken to Mrs Moss though, and also to your Mum. They both think it’s best that you stay in school for the rest of the afternoon, although your Mum is going to come and collect both you and Jack at the end of the day.” This hammer blow hit Lucy hard, and she immediately felt sick. Upon hearing these words she cried out “Nooooo” as the tears began splashing down her face once more. This really, really couldn’t be happening, she thought. All of this humiliation and shame, for nothing. She’d still have to go to her lesson, she’d still get into trouble for not doing her homework, she’d still miss the sleepover (although whether she was still invited she had no idea) and she’d wet herself in front of her entire class for no reason whatsoever. Right at that very moment, she just wanted it all to end. “It’s just not fair”. The secretary put her arms around Lucy once more, drawing her into a warm embrace and soothing her sobs. She felt the devastation, it was almost palpable, and she was sure that in the same shoes she’d just want to be as far away from school and anybody who’d seen her embarrass herself as she could be. It did all seemed so unfair, she agreed. “I know you’re upset sweetie, try not to cry. The afternoon will soon be over and you’ll be able to go home and put all of this behind you.” Lucy just shrugged, the sobs had subsided again but she was far from feeling positive about anything and much as she appreciated Mrs Johnson helping her, she felt betrayed that she was making her stay in school. Making her go back to her lessons after everything that had happened, and dressed like a baby. As if she wasn’t humiliated enough. “Why don’t you go and get some lunch, love. You’ll be hungry by the end of the day if you don’t eat anything. And I’m sure your friends will want to see you to make sure that you’re alright.” Lucy again shrugged dismissively, food was the last thing on her mind! And she really didn’t want to see anybody right now, they’d only laugh at her. Just as she was resigning herself to the fact that Miss Johnson probably wanted her own lunch, and that she’d have to leave and find somewhere to hide, there was a knock on the office door. Pushing the yellow waste bag out of view under her desk in order to spare Lucy’s blushes, and handing her a tissue so that she could dry her eyes, Dorothy called “Come in.” Part 1 - Chapter 9 As the door slowly opened, Lucy grasped the hem of the dress she was now wearing and self-consciously tugged it downwards, not that it made any difference, but it made her feel a little better. In through the open door walked Becky, clutching a rucksack in front of her, and Lucy quickly realised that it was her schoolbag, which she’d left behind in her hurry to get away from the classroom. Becky’s eyes widened in shock as they fell on her friend, struggling to take in just what she looked like. If she hadn’t been so very worried about Lucy after what had happened at the end of their lesson, she may have laughed at the sight which befell her, but instead she understood from the pained expression across the girls face the deep shame that she was feeling at that moment, and she was not about to make her feel any worse. Sensing that Lucy needed her, Becky dropped the bag and rushed across the office, putting her arms around her friend and pulling her into a tight hug. “Oh Lucy, are you ok? We were all so worried about you.” Feeling this warmth and hearing the non-judgemental words, Lucy again crumpled and allowed her tears to fall once more, but this time in relief more than devastation. Her friend hadn’t abandoned her, wasn’t repulsed by her, wasn’t even laughing at her. She returned the hug, burying her head in Becky’s hair and whispered “Thank you” so that only her friend could hear her. As Dorothy looked on at this scene of friendship, she felt a lump rising in her own throat, and even had to blink back a couple of stray tears herself. No, it wouldn’t do to cry in front of the children, but she was incredibly moved by this simple act of kindness, and could see immediately the uplifting effect it was having on Lucy. Truly heartwarming. Not wanting to break the spell, but feeling that the girls could maybe do with a few minutes to chat openly, and selfishly realising that her all too short lunch-cum-toilet-cum-cigarette break was ebbing away, she decided to go out on a bt of a limb. “Girls, I know it’s been an incredibly difficult morning, and I’m sure you could do with being able to talk without me sitting here listening in. Can I trust you both to keep an eye on things here for a few minutes, whilst I nip down to the staffroom?” Lucy and Becky looked at one another, and then to Mrs Johnson, amazement sparking behind their eyes. They weren’t even supposed to be in the classrooms or corridors on their own, never mind the school office! Wow, was this what it felt like to be grown up, trusted? They answered in unison “Yes Miss, of course you can trust us”, smiling warmly at her and scarcely able to believe their good fortune. “I know I can. Don’t worry girls, I won’t be more than a few minutes. If anybody comes in looking for me, please tell them I’ll be right back. And please, please don’t touch the telephone or computer, or we will all be in lots of trouble!” Winking at the dumbstruck girls, Dorothy grabbed her handbag and coffee mug before sweeping deftly out of the door, pulling it closed behind her. Looking at each other again, almost a little sheepishly, the girls let out a quick giggle, before Becky broke the ice by asking her friend “So, Luce, what the heck happened?! And what on earth are you wearing?” Part 1 - Chapter 10 “Don’t ask!” was Lucy’s retort, again pulling at the hem of her dress, and blushing a deep crimson. “It’s all gone horribly wrong, and it just keeps getting worse.” The girls took seat in the waiting area near the door, and Lucy began recounting her tale of woe. “I don’t know what I was thinking, I just wanted to find a way of getting out of Mrs Moss’s lesson so I didn’t get into trouble about the homework. I’d have done anything to make sure I didn’t miss the sleepover. In fact, as you saw, I DID do anything, and it still didn’t work.” Becky’s jaw dropped, if possible she was even more shocked. “You mean to say you wet yourself on purpose?? It wasn’t an accident, you did THAT deliberately?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Surely she must have misunderstood. “I couldn’t think of anything else, I don’t know why I did it now, but yeah it wasn’t an accident. Well, not really anyway.” She blushed again, looking crestfallen as she admitted to her friend “I started doing it on purpose, the plan was just to do a little bit and then stop. Just enough so that Miss would believe what had happened and so I could go home. But when I started, I just couldn’t stop. That’s when you heard me cry out, I was doing everything I could just it just kept happening. Everything was soaked, it was all over my skirt and my chair. Even the floor had a massive puddle, and I knew then there was no way I could hide it. Then the shame took over, and I just couldn’t stop crying. I knew everybody would see, everybody would laugh, I thought nobody would want to be my friend anymore.” The pain and humiliation etched across her face as she explained all of this to Becky was plain for all to see, and her friend just shook her head slowly in disbelief as she once again hugged Lucy. “Wow! That really is dedication, nobody else would ever go that far to get out of doing some homework. I hope Emily realises just how committed you are to her sleepover.” “Y..yo..you think she’ll still want me to go, even after all of this?” Lucy didn’t want to get her hopes up, but that did sound positive. Ok, so she still had the homework issue to get around, but right now after what she had just been through that seemed like nothing at all. “Won’t she think I’m a silly little baby who wets herself and cries?” “I’m sure you’ll give everybody a good laugh, so brace yourself for that, after all wouldn’t you find it hilarious if if was one of us? But of course everybody would still want you to be there! You’re still our Luce, and you’ve more than proven yourself with that little stunt. Even if we will have to make sure you go to the toilet before it’s too late in the future.” This last quip was added with a hearty laugh and a good natured punch to her friends shoulder, leaving no illusion that it was meant in jest. Lucy wasn’t quite up to joking about her situation yet, but she appreciated her friends attempts to lighten the mood, and did manage a small grin. Knowing that her gang weren’t going to turn their backs on her made everything seem so much better and she felt that she could even deal with Moss and her parents if she had her pals behind her. “So, is your Mum on her way to get you then? Lucky you, getting out of maths and getting an afternoon off school too.” “Nope, believe it or not that old battle-axe Moss won’t let me, she’s told Miss Johnson that I have to stay here and then go back to lessons. I hate her! So all of this has been for nothing.” “Oh no, that’s terrible.” Becky once again eyed the juvenile dress which Lucy was wearing, before adding “So does that mean you’re going to have to wear that for the rest of the day? Oh man, maybe I was wrong about people not laughing too much then!” She gave a giggle herself as she said this, which did nothing to help Lucy’s confidence. “Not helping Becks, not helping at all! Yeah this was all Miss could find to fit me. I’ve not worn one of these since I was about 7, and never thought I’d have to again. And you don’t even want to know about the undies.” she added, whilst pulling a horrified face. “I don’t want to go out there dressed like this, even without my accident this would be horrible, but put the two together and I’m going to be a laughing stock, I just know it.” Before Becky could respond, a sound from the door caused them both to turn their attention in that direction, just in time to see Mrs Johnson returning clutching a steaming cup of coffee and looking very much refreshed after her short break.

Part 1 - Chapter 6 Back in the classroom, Lucy’s classmates were in shock. None of them could quite believe what they’d just witnessed, and they were all quite glad that they had their lunch break next to talk about it. Not maliciously of course, well apart from a couple who were known to be bullies, but because it was just so unusual, so out of character. Her closest friends were worried, something must be really wrong for that to have happened, but they didn’t know what. Becky was beside herself, upset that she’d not been able to do anything to help her friend when she needed her the most. Even Miss Jenkins was left feeling rather out of sorts, she’d never known anything quite like that to happen in all of her years of teaching. Ok, so Lucy had asked to be excused, but only the once and only a couple of minutes before having her accident. The rules were the rules, but it didn’t stop her feeling guilty that she’d been the one to say no, and she was sure Lucy would blame her for her humiliation. What a horrible mess it all was. As Lucy forlornly made her way to the bathroom, head bowed and more tears now silently pouring down her cheeks, Dorothy listened to the constant ringing on the other end of the phone, with nobody picking up. Eventually the call diverted, and her heart sank – she may have had a distant chance of convincing the head to let Lucy go home for the afternoon, but she knew Mrs Moss as well as the children did, and there was absolutely no way she would authorise this! The phone was answered with a curt “Yes, Dorothy, what can I do for you?” leaving no doubt that she was busy and did not appreciate being disturbed. She was annoyed that the head had disappeared off to some LEA meeting, leaving her picking up all of his calls as well as her own. “Afternoon Hilary, I’ve got one of the Year 6 girls here in the office with me, she’s had a bit of an accident and has asked about being allowed to go home. I have explained the usual process to her, but she’s really quite upset so I thought I’d run it by you.” “Is she badly injured? Does she need to be seen by a doctor?” the deputy snapped back, dreading the paperwork that would no doubt be left for her to deal with if this was the case. “Erm, no, actually she didn’t make it to the toilet in time, that’s all. She’s just cleaning herself up now.” “In Year 6, really! Oh, in that case there’s no reason at all she can’t go back to her lessons once she’s changed, is there?” There was that condescending tone again, Dorothy thought, as she heard the phone click on the other end of the line, and she worried how Lucy was going to take this news. Standing from her desk and making her way to the store cupboard in the far corner of the office, Dorothy began searching for some clothes that would fit Lucy. They were well prepared for toilet accidents and messy play in the infants, and even had a stock of spares for the younger junior pupils which was called upon every few weeks, but accidents in the oldest class were so rare that, thinking hard, she honestly couldn’t remember the last time a change of clothes had been needed. Hilary had been quite clear though, going home wasn’t an option, so a change of clothes would have to be found. Having emptied out the spares box to no avail, finding they did at least have some underwear that would do (what Lucy would make of the rather juvenile style she didn’t like to think!) but nothing to cover her modesty, her next port of call was the lost property drawer. Hopefully there would be something in there that would do, anything really. After rummaging through the various discarded hats, gloves, odd shoes (??) and bits of PE kit, her hands fell on a piece of red gingham cloth, a school summer dress. Pulling it out from amongst the detritus, she quickly shook it and looked carefully at the size. Lucy was only a slight girl, although quite tall for her age, the dress should fit although it may be a bit shorter than the school usually encouraged. Ah well, beggars can’t be choosers she thought, and she was certain Lucy would prefer that to her wet skirt. After hurriedly stuffing the remaining lost items back into their filling cabinet home, Dorothy took the dress and underpants over to the bathroom, opening the first door which led to a sort of ante-space containing a sink and some medical supplies, and popping them down onto a chair in there. Knocking softly on the door to the toilet area beyond, she called out “Lucy, I’ve managed to find you a change of clean, dry clothes to pop on, I’ll leave them here on the chair for you. Don’t worry, the undies are brand new!” She added this last comment, thinking that nobody would want to put on somebody else’s old pants, and hoping it may help to reassure the poor girl. Lucy managed a sniffled “Thank You” through the door, and then waited a few moments to be sure the secretary had left before retrieving the clothes that had been left for her. As she opened the door, her eyes fell on the bundle of clothes. What. Was. That?? Her head spun again, and her stomach lurched and churned. The school officially has a separate winter and summer uniform, but after the end of Year 2 when the children moved up to the juniors this was basically forgotten about, with all of the girls wearing the winter uniform, consisting of a grey skirt and white shirt, exclusively. Similarly the boys cast aside their grey school shorts at this point, opting instead for long trousers all year round. As a consequence of this, nobody Lucy’s age EVER wore a summer dress to school, they all considered them to be babyish and something only the little kids would wear. Heck it was bad enough having to wear a skirt to school, but a summer dress. No, no, no. Could her day get any worse than this? She was already going to be a laughing stock, this wearing this would cost her any remaining crumbs of her reputation and she knew it. She started welling up again, and all she could think was that she hoped nobody saw what she was wearing before her Mum got there to pick her up and take her home.

Apologies for the delay guys, we're back on track now. The Forgotten Homework now has a new, official home over at http://www.theforgottenhomework.co.uk But please don't panic, I'll still keep the updates coming here and on the couple of other forums it's featured on too. Part 1 - Chapter 5 Lucy literally ran all of the way to the school office, so great was her fear of the lunch bell sounding whilst she was still in the corridor, so exposed and open to further humiliation. Arriving at the office, she hesitated for a moment. What did she do now? Was Mrs Johnson, the secretary, really used to year 6 girls bursting in dripping with their own wee? She very much doubted that! But if she stayed where she was stood, more than a hundred other children would be coming past very shortly, and they’d all see her shame. That steeled her resolve, she grabbed the office door handle and let herself in, meekly announcing her arrival to the kind, older lady who was sat trying to make some sense of a small mountain of paperwork. “Erm, excuse me, Mrs Johnson.” “Ah, hello Lucy. What are you doing down here during class time, shouldn’t you be in a lesson?” the lady responded, a little distractedly, and without taking her eyes off the ledger she was working on. Lucy tried to answer with some composure “Mrs Jenkins s-s-sent me Miss. I’ve hadda aaaa” but the rest was lost in a further barrage of sobs as Lucy once again broke down, unable to speak. This most unexpected reaction to her question jolted the secretary from her work, causing her to spring to her feet and rush over to Lucy, dropping down so they were on a level, and putting her arms around her in a comforting embrace. It wasn’t unknown for one of the younger, infant children to burst in unexpectedly and break into tears, but very rarely did she see something like this from one of the oldest class, so she knew that something must be very wrong indeed. “There there, Lucy, whatever’s happened? Calm yourself down and tell me all about it, so that I can see what I can do to help.” As she said this, she took a half step back from the young girl and regarded her, noticing at once the wet stains on her grey skirt and even the smears on her legs and white sock. “Oh my darling, have you had an accident? Don’t cry, I’m sure we can sort it. Shh, dry those tears and let’s have a chat and see what we can do.” Even to an outsider, it would have been clear that Dorothy was herself a Mum and a Nanna, and she was very much used to calming down distressed children. She just had a way. Lucy snuffled and snorted, most undignified, but dignity didn’t really seem to matter right at that moment, she’d already lost all of that. Ok, so the hug from Mrs Johnson really had helped a bit, it’s amazing just how good a hug feels when you’re feeling so upset and at your very lowest ebb, but that wasn’t going to solve her immediate predicament – she was still standing there, at 11 years old, wearing a soaked school uniform and dripping all over the floor, having wet herself spectacularly in front of all of her class. She felt like her world was ending. “Can I just call my Mum to come and pick me up please, miss” she sniffled, “I just want to go home.” Unfortunately the secretary knew the rules normally meant that unless there was a real medical emergency, no pupils were allowed to leave early and they must all remain in school until 3pm – this had been set down by the head and deputy after they’d been given a grilling by the LEA over their attendance performance, and it wasn’t in her power to bend the rules, sorry though she did feel for Lucy. She didn’t want to deflate the young girl any further though, so did her best to cushion this news as she delivered it. “It’s not up to me I’m afraid sweetie, I can help you get sorted out and make a call to your Mum for you, but either Mr Davies or Mrs Moss will have to authorise you leaving early, if that’s what they think is best. Tell you what, why don’t you pop into my bathroom at the back of the office here and freshen yourself up a bit whilst I have a chat with them. I’ll see if I can’t find you some clean, dry clothes to put on too. How does that sound?” Lucy’s heart sank once more, what did Mrs Johnson mean, that after all this she still may not be able to go home? She didn’t know how to respond that, instead standing fixed in stunned silence. She couldn’t have put herself through all of this shame and embarrassment for nothing, could she? Realising that there was little she could do right now, and definitely wanting to get these cold, wet clothes off, she nodded slowly and made her way to the toilet door at the back of the office, closing it softly behind her before falling to her knees as silent sobs racked through her. Dorothy realised she probably needed a bit of space, so picked up the phone on her desk and dialled the extension for the head, Mr Davies, intending to plead Lucy’s case as well as she possibly could.

Another member over on Omo.org had kept a backup of probably the first 120 or so chapters of this, so I've got most of it back. Whilst I'm still awaiting the outcome of the review there, and hopeful that I'll be able to pick up where I left off, is there interest here in seeing this story continue? I'm happy to keep sharing it, but don't want to bore everybody if there's no interest.

Ah, thanks @Apache Raccoon! I stopped posting over there as there didn't seem to be a lot of interest, but it's good to know that somebody was reading and enjoying it. We got up to 3 parts and well over 100 chapters over on Omo.org, but then it raised a few eyebrows so the team took it down pending review. Alas I only have a handful of chapters offline, nothing beyond what I shared on ABDL I don't think, but even if the outcome of the review is that it won't be made public again I'm hopeful that the mods will let me have a copy, as literally months of my life went into writing it haha. Here's the next couple of instalments. Part 1 - Chapter 3 Lucy's head was at odds with her heart, but in truth she didn't quite know which was fighting in which corner. She was so confused, so conflicted. Something had to be done, but could she really go that far? Miss Jenkins had set them a short piece of written work to focus on until the end of the lesson, but Lucy had barely made a start on it, instead her thoughts whirring into a blur as she tried to come up with an alternative whilst at the same time seeking to justify to herself the frankly ludicrous steps she was about to take. "Just 10 minutes left now children, please make sure you've covered all of the main points we've talked about today. I'm expecting at least 2 pages in your exercise books from each of you." came the teachers voice from the front of the class, jolting Lucy who glanced down at the meagre couple of sentences she'd managed. 10 minutes, that's all she had left to play with. After that, it would be too late. It really was now or never and she knew deep down that it was now. She was going to have to go for it, what she hoped was the lesser of two evils. She felt a strange sense of nervous excitement, coupled with real fear that she'd never experienced before in her life. This. Was. It. Mustering everything within her, Lucy began to release her bladder muscles. Oh how she hoped this worked out as she had planned. If not, she'd ruin everything. She couldn't believe it, was actually doing it, the warm trickle in her underwear confirmed that she was actually sitting in class and wetting herself. Instinctively her hands both shot to her crotch, pushing her grey school skirt between her legs. This was probably the worst thing she could have done, as it meant that there would be no hiding now, her skirt was immediately wet and stained. But it was too late, there was nothing she could do to change it. Instead she now needed to focus all of her effort on stopping weeing - she'd done what she needed to, there was no sense in making it worse and humiliating herself completely. Only, there was a problem, a really really big problem...she couldn't stop! Why hadn't she thought of this? She'd only ever intended to let a bit out, just enough to be convincing when she had to tell her teacher what had happened, and hopefully enough to get her sent home for the rest of the day. The plan had been to talk to Miss Kenkins discreetly at the end of the lesson, with nobody else needing to know anything. But no, she couldn't control it, she should have known that. She'd never been able to stop once she'd started, something that had never been a problem before but now threatened to ruin what was left of her life. There was nothing she could do, her bladder was intent on emptying itself completely, and she was going to be left to deal with the consequences. She chanced a brief glance at her skirt and her worst fears were confirmed, everything was absolutely soaked and she had wee running down her legs, puddling on her chair and on the floor beneath her. At this she let out a barely stifled, audible sob and dropped her head down into her hands. She was ruined, and she knew it. Why had she done this to herself, how could this ever be better than missing a sleepover? Hearing her friend's sob, Becky turned quickly to look at her. "What on earth's the matter Luce?" She prompted, leaning in close so that they could talk without getting the teacher's attention. Lucy looked up, her eyes red and tears now streaming down her face. Ok, so she'd planned to use a few crocodile tears to help convince her teacher, but now she'd lost all control and was nothing but a blubbering wreck. This scared Becky, who hadn't seen her friend cry like this for years - after all, who's heard of a year 6 girl crying like a baby? It's just not something they did, ever, no matter what. Lucy couldn't speak through her tears, instead she just shuffled her chair backwards slightly and looked pointedly down into her lap. Becky's eyes followed her gaze, and widened immediately as they caught sight of what had happened. She couldn't help it, she gasped out loud "Oh Lucy!" She was in shock, what had her friend done? Never mind year 6 girls not crying, they certainly didn't wet themselves. She didn't know what to say or do, this was just unbelievable. And Lucy too, of all people. No, this couldn't be happening, she just couldn't believe it. "Shhhhh" Lucy managed between sobs. "Be quiet. Pleeeeeease" But it was too late for that, the rest of the class had heard Becky's exclamation of surprise across the near silent classroom, and had turned around to try and find the source of the commotion. Now Lucy was the centre of attention, all eyes on her, as she sat crying with her face red and puffy. "No, no no" she thought inwardly, "this wasn't how it was supposed to pan out at all". Seeing everybody staring at her open-mouthed, she dropped her head back to her desk to hide her shame. Right now all the class knew was that one of the oldest, most mature and most popular girls in their year was sat bawling her eyes out in the middle of history. That was enough for them, far more interesting than anything Miss Jenkins had them writing about, but little did they know it was just the tip of the iceberg. Of course, 30 pupils all turning in their place to face one spot in the room, combined with Becky's gasp and the silence being punctuated by Lucy's sobs which were increasing in volume as the seconds passed could hardly have escaped their teacher's notice, and Miss Jenkins was soon beside them, crouching next to Lucy and asking in her most caring and compassionate voice "What's the matter Lucy? Is everything ok sweetheart?" Part 1 - Chapter 4 Lucy hesitantly raised her head a little, but avoided making eye contact with her teacher or any of her classmates as she stuttered "M-m-m-iss, I've h-had an a-a-accident", before breaking down completely. Her sobs, no longer stifled, rang out loudly around the room, she was inconsolable. Every trace of maturity and 'coolness' gone, here was a wet and weeping little girl who just wanted the ground to swallow her up. Upon hearing her words, the class broke out into mutterings and chatter, with more than an occasional giggle thrown in. Nobody could quite believe what they'd just heard, in fact none of them could believe it at all, not of Lucy, not the 'cool' kid. The last time somebody had an accident in class...well, it just didn't happen. They couldn't remember, it must have been years and years ago. 11 year old, mature girls who were starting secondary school in a few weeks just didn't do that. Miss Jenkins placed an arm around Lucy and talked softly to her, reassuring her that everything was going to be ok and calming her down so that she was able to breathe properly again, eventually offering her a tissue to dry her eyes. Now the young girl was a little more composed, she again spoke gently "How about you come with me Lucy, let's get you out of here where it's a bit more private and you can get sorted out.", before addressing the class quite firmly "Everybody back to your places and tidy away please, the bell will be going soon and you don't want to be late for your lunch I'm sure! Don't worry, I'll make sure Lucy is ok." Lucy allowed herself to be guided out of her chair and across the classroom to the door, frantically trying to cover her shame with her hands, but achieving very little as her skirt was soaked both front and back. She cringed as she caught sight of the telltale wet patches, wishing at that moment that her school uniform wasn't a grey skirt. As they reached the door, she glanced at the clock and began to panic again, Miss was right the bell would be sounding very soon, she couldn't be seen out in the corridor like this, all of the little kids would see. Her own little brother would see! Oh the shame, the mortification. As the stepped out of the door, Lucy spoke in a tiny, little girl's voice which belied her usual bravado "Please, Miss, can I go home. I just want my mum, I don't want anybody else to see me." Miss Jenkins heart melted as she heard this, her heart was breaking for her pupil who was usually so confident and headstrong. She didn't quite know what had happened to cause this, but her own maternal instincts kicked in and she just wanted to protect the young girl. She knew the rules, Lucy shouldn't be out of class without a teacher, but she also knew she couldn't leave the rest of the class without getting herself into trouble. And if the bell went and other classes came out whilst they were stood here, she didn't know how the poor girl would cope. "Ok Lucy, I'm trusting you to go by yourself, straight to the school office. Please don't go anywhere else, run straight there. If any other teachers ask, tell them I've said it's ok" She knew that Dorothy, the secretary-cum-nurse would take care of things, and she only hoped that Lucy got her wish, that she was allowed to go home to spare her blushes and to have that much needed hug from her Mum. She knew what the head was like about rules though, and attendance in particular, so deep down she was worried that he wouldn't allow it. She'd never heard of a child being allowed to go home early before after something like this - ok, she'd never known something like this to happen to a year 6 pupil, but the younger ones always had to change and then go back to class. Uh-oh, she really hoped for Lucy's sake that he made an exception. Lucy mustered a small, watery smile and a faint "Thanks, Miss." Before taking off down the corridor. She didn't need telling twice, she needed to get to the office right now, before anybody else saw her. She needed them to phone her Mum so she could go home and hide for the rest of her life. There's no way she could come back to school now, not after this, not ever. She almost managed a wry smile as she realised that she'd be able to skip Mrs Moss's class after all, although she'd never intended to ruin her reputation in the process. Only an hour ago she was one of the oldest, most mature, most respected and 'coolest' kids in her school, now all of that was gone. Now she was a wet, weeping little baby, and it really hurt. It can't get any worse, or can it...

Hi Everybody, A few of you may recognise me and this story from another forum - it proved to be incredibly popular there, reaching in excess of 150,000 and receiving the most positive feedback of any work of fiction shared there, which made me incredibly proud although I won't lie I'm not a lover of the limelight and it did make me blush quite a bit too, haha! Unfortunately some concerns were raised about the story as it features underage fictional characters, and as such the moderators of the forum took the decision to hide it whilst it is reviewed, and given it's considerable length this is a process which will take some time. Whilst we are waiting, and having reviewed the rules here and satisfied myself that it will be allowed, I thought why not begin posting a few chapters for some new readers to enjoy. :) Unfortunately I don't have the bulk of the story saved offline, so only the initial chapters are available until the review process has been completed, but it's a start. I recognise a few usernames here from elsewhere, including a few who I know followed and enjoyed the story, so hopefully you'll all find it here if for any reason it's not re-published elsewhere. Disclaimer - As mentioned above, the characters featured in this story are clearly underage. Nothing about this story is written in a sexual, graphic, explicit or otherwise inappropriate manner, and it is not intended for this story to provide any such gratification either to the author or readers. This is a genuinely innocent "slice of life" story , which just so happens to include an element of wetting. Anyway, without further ado - Part 1 - Chapter 1 Lucy was sat daydreaming at her place in class. Nothing new there, it's how she spent many lessons - letting her teachers words wash over her, going in one ear and out of the other without actually taking anything in. She was bored with junior school now, and wanted to get on with the more exciting parts of growing up. Lucy Daniels is 11 years old, a typical pre-teen with just a hint of stroppy teenagerhood starting to creep in around the edges. She's popular, very mature and "grown up" for her age, but so easily distracted. Image is fast becoming everything for her, and she simply has to be 'cool' at all times. She goes to great lengths to make sure she always dresses, looks and acts at least as old as she is, if not much older. The thought of being considered babyish is here deepest fear, and sometimes she expresses this through being a bit too cocky in an effort to hide her own insecurities. Typical teenager in the making. The tone of the hubbub around her changed, and this jolted her from her stupor. Maybe she should pay attention for a while, see what was going on in class and familiarise herself at least with the subject her teacher was boring on about, just in case she was unfairly picked on to answer a question! She turned to her best friend Becky, who as ever was sat next to her and responded to her glazed look with a giggle. "Have you listened to anything Miss Jenkins has been taking about Lucy? Hehe" "Erm no, not really, I was counting on you filling me in. It's not like we need to know any of this stuff anyway, we've already done our SATs and we'll be moving to high school soon" Lucy replied with a whispered giggle of her own. Just then, both girls attention was drawn back to the front of the class by the shrill tones of Mrs Moss, the strict deputy head who had popped in to have a quick word with Miss Jenkins. Moss always meant trouble, and they knew it! Bad enough that they had to put up with her for an English lesson after lunch, without her interrupting their gossip time with their favourite teacher too. "Don't forget, boys and girls, the comprehension homework I set you all two weeks ago, and have already given you an extra week to work on because of your SATs revision, MUST be handed in at the start of our next lesson! No excuses, those of you who haven't completed it will be spending your lunchtimes with me for a week until it's done, and for any of you who have dared to miss a second piece of homework, I'll be calling your parents in for a little chat". This last sentence was said in a particularly sinister tone, and Lucy was sure that Mrs Moss had trained her eyes on her as she said it. Her stomach sank, and she turned again to Becky, all sense of silly giggliness now cone and a forlorn, worried expression across her features. "Oh no! I completely forgot, I've not even started it, and the worksheet is still at home somewhere in my room." She cried to Becky in horror. "Didn't you 'forget' the last one too Luce? You're going to be in so much trouble. If she rings your Mum, you'll probably be grounded and miss Emily's big birthday sleepover at the weekend too." This did nothing to quell Lucy's fears, she knew that Becky was right. Her Mum and dad were quite strict, both being teachers themselves they really valued education, and she hadn't even told them that she'd already been in trouble with the deputy head for not ding homework. If they got called in, she would be busted. "What am I going to do? They'll kill me, and I can't miss the sleepover, it's probably the last one before we break up and I've been planning stuff for ages. It's going to be the best, I've got to think of something to get me out of this." Lucy's head spun, filled with all kinds of bonkers schemes and plans, each one less likely than the previous to succeed. No excuse was going to wash, and she knew that. They'd all tried them over the past couple of years, and old Moss wasn't going to be taken in by anything she said. No, it would take something a bit more drastic than that. But what?... She toyed with the idea of feigning illness, but she knew she was a rubbish actor and it would be seen right through straight away. Or what about making herself sick, so she could go to the nurse and then hopefully go home? Nope, she couldn't stand being sick, there was no way on earth she was going to make herself do that on purpose! Besides, if she was off school sick then her Mum would make sure she couldn't do anything fun outside of school, like sleepovers. The old 'if you're well enough to play, you're well enough for school' line would no doubt be trotted out. Her mind flashed full of crazy ideas she'd seen on TV, what about setting off the fire alarm? Flooding the school? Somehow making Mrs Moss sick or injured so that she couldn't take their lesson? No, no, this was ridiculous! There had to be something, a way. If only she could get herself out of that lesson, sent home but without being in trouble or missing out on her friends birthday sleepover. Hmm... Part 1 - Chapter 2 Lucy was aghast, she just couldn't see a way out of this mess, and despite all of her maturity her sense of what was reasonable in the circumstances was beginning to desert her. "I don't think there's much you can do Luce." Replied Becky "Unless you can find a way of getting out of Moss's lesson, and that's only going to happen if you can go home. You know she NEVER lets anybody skip her class, and I saw the way she looked at you then." Lucy shuddered, yep she'd seen the look too. She was hoping she'd imagined it, but it seemed not. Becky was right, she HAD to find a way of getting to go home. What she needed was some time, some space to think. There was only about 20 minutes left of this class, then 40 minutes of lunch break, that wasn't nearly enough time to come up with a masterplan, and besides she needed to eat and 'hang out' with the girls at lunch. Surprising even herself, Lucy put her hand up to attract Miss Jenkins attention. "Ah Lucy, I see you've decided to join us in the lesson again!" Remarked the teacher, with a hint of sternness which was countered by a friendly smile. "I'm sure whatever you've been daydreaming about all morning is far more important than my history discussion, perhaps I should give you a quick test just to make sure you really don't need to listen?" Again, this was delivered with a twinkle in the eye, and Lucy relaxed a little. "I have been listening, honest miss" remarked Lucy, charming as ever. "I was just wondering, could I please be excused to go to the toilet?" There was almost an audible gasp around the classroom. Nobody ever asked to go to the toilet in class, they knew it wasn't allowed and anyway, they were all in year 6 now and didn't need to go during lessons, they were all old enough to wait until break and lunchtimes. They'd certainly never expect Lucy to ask! Becky turned to look at Lucy in shock, what on earth? In return, Lucy just smiled meekly but with a mischievous glint in her eye a she did so. What was she playing at? "I'm sorry Lucy, but you know the rules. It's not me who decided them, the head and deputy told everybody at the beginning of the year that nobody was allowed to be outside of their classrooms during lesson time. I think we should be able to trust you to nip to the loo and back without causing any trouble, and I'm sure we can, but I'd get told off myself if you were seen. Anyway, there's less than 20 minutes to go until lunchtime now, I'm sure you can wait until then, can't you?" Lucy's heart sank with those words. Whilst it's the that she hadn't been to the toilet since before school that morning, preferring to spend her break time gossiping with her friends on the playground, that wasn't really the issue - she often didn't use the school toilets at all, waiting until she got home. More of the being 'cool and grownup'. No, this request had been more about getting out of the classroom for a few minutes whilst she tried to come up with a plan to go home. "I'll try" Lucy answered, trying to find a balance between sounding sad that her request had been turned down and making out that she wasn't sure she could 'hold it' whilst at the same time conscious that she really didn't want to look like a baby in front of her classmates. Who knows, maybe miss would change her mind, it was a long shot but worth a try. Becky looked even more shocked as she nudged Lucy and asked in a low voice "What's up Luce?", with a worried undertone. "Shh, it's nothing, just trying to get out of here for a bit to see whether I can come up with something to make sure I miss the next lesson. There's got to be a way of getting sent home without being in trouble for it, and definitely without being ill". She pulled a face, making it clear to Becky that she'd even considered making herself sick, but had quickly ruled that out. "Oh, right. I guess that makes sense. I thought you actually wanted to go and use the smelly toilets then, haha. But be careful, maybe its better just to get in trouble for the homework and miss this one sleepover if you have to? Don't risk getting into even more bother, it's not worth it." Lucy considered this, but to her it really WAS worth it. Becky had no idea what kind of trouble she'd be in at home if her parents got called because she'd failed to do her homework twice. And this sleepover was going to be the social event of the year, everybody was going to be there, she just couldn't miss it. Deep in thought, some strange ideas started to surface in her head. No, she couldn't resort to that, could she? Was it really worth THAT??