The Babysitter

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The lady nods. "Ok I'll take you down to the 2 year old class." She takes Miranda from Kara. "Do you want to walk or would you rather be carried down there?" The lady takes the diaper bag from Kara. "I know you are probably scared to be away from your mommy,but I'm sure you will have fun here if you give it a chance. The teacher in the class is very nice."

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"I can walk," Miranda said hurriedly, waiting to get set down. It was weird enough to be getting talked to like a toddler, but getting carried by someone other than Kara was much stranger. "I'll give it a chance," she nodded, trying to sound sincere, like a good girl. She turned to Kara and gave her a wave, doing her best to play her part, even though she really did feel scared, unsure what this was going to be like. "Bye, mommy..."

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"The lady nods. "Ok I didn't know if you wanted to walk or be carried. Some 2 year olds want to be carried." She puts Miranda down on the floor and holds her hand.

Kara waves back. "Bye sweetie. Be a good girl. I'll be back in a couple of hours to pick you up." She walks out to her car and gets in. Kara sat in the car. "I hope this was a good idea. I think she needs to be around other kids so she can pick up the way they act so she can be more babylike."

The lady walks Miranda down to the 2 year old class. The teacher comes over and kneels down in front of Miranda. "Hello How are you? What is your name? My name is Miss. Flowers. Welcome to my class. I'm sure you will have fun in my class. This is a fun place to be."

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"Umm... Hi..." Miranda said nervously, staring down at her feet as the teacher talked to her, started to feel even more anxious about being here on her own, knowing Kara wasn't going to be back for a while. It was, she thought, probably how a real toddler felt the first time they went to daycare. "My name is..." She stopped for a moment, almost introducing herself as Missy, before wondering if Missy herself had ever actually been there. The woman at the front hadn't seemed to recognize Kara, but perhaps Kara had just never been the one to drop Missy off. So, reluctantly, she used her real name. "I'm M'randa," she said, trying to shorten it a little, to sound younger, like she couldn't quite say the whole thing.

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Miss Flowers smiles. "Well welcome to my class Miranda. If you need something. Just ask me or one of my assistants. Lunch will be in a little bit. So you can play until it is time for lunch. Do you need a diaper change before you go play?"

A girl notices Miranda standing there talking to Miss. Flowers. She walks over to them. "Hello, Do you want to come play with me in the play kitchen? My name is Beth. What is your name?"

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"N-No, I'm fine," Miranda answered Miss Flowers with a blush. She could only hope that it stayed that way until Kara got back... Actually getting changed by someone else would be quite weird indeed.

"Umm, hi," she said to Beth. "I'm M'randa..." She didn't particularly want to play, but she couldn't just stand around and do nothing the whole time, so she nodded, toddling after the girl. "What are you cooking?"

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Miss Flowers nods. "Ok I'll check you before naptime. You can use the crib of a girl who isn't here. She is on vacation with her parents. She will be back next week."

Beth tries to say Miranda's name. "Your name is too hard to say. I'll have to think of a name to call you." She smiles at Miranda. I'm baking some cupcakes for my children and I'm cooking soup for them to eat before they have the cupcakes." Beth walks over to the stove and stirs the pretend soup in the pot. "Would you like a taste of the soup?"

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Miranda blushed a little, realizing that she'd probably been right not to use Missy's name, even though it was embarrassing to still be in Missy's place, even without Kara around.

"Umm, okay," she said uncertainly, not used to playing pretend, not like this anyway. She picked up an imaginary spoon and dipped a little out of the pot, tasting it. "It's kinda hot," she said.

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Beth laughs. "It is suppose to be hot silly. It is soup and it is suppose to be hot. It wouldn't be soup if it wasn't hot." She takes the pot off the stove and puts it on the table. Beth scoops out some soup and puts it into bowls in from of the dolls at the table. "Would you like a bowl of soup too?"

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"All right," Miranda agreed with a shrug, emptying one of the chairs of it's doll occupant and sitting down, waiting for Beth to fill her bowl with her imaginary soup. She still felt rather silly about the whole thing - when she had been a babysitter, she'd always just watch her charges playing, never joining in herself. Of course, she wasn't a babysitter anymore.

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Beth smiles and puts some soup into Miranda's bowl. "Enjoy the soup."

Miss Flowers watches Beth and Miranda playing. She looks up at the clock. "Children. Children, can I have your attention." The kids quietened down and looks at Miss Flowers. "It is lunch time. Everyone line up with your hand buddy. Beth, you can be Miranda's hand buddy."

All the kids line up 2 by 2. Beth holds her hand out to Miranda for her to take it. "Come on It's time for lunch. You can set with me at the table if you want to."

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"Umm... All right..." Miranda said uncertainly, taking Beth's hand. She didn't really feel all that hungry - she hadn't been expecting to eat while she was there - but she didn't want to cause a fuss. She'd rather just blend in, not draw any attention to herself, so she followed Beth obediently, feeling particularly infantile being lumped in together with these toddlers and herded along with them, just one of the group. "What kinda stuff do they have to eat here?" she asked Beth curiously.

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Beth smiles. "We have all kind of things here to eat for lunch. We have chicken nuggets,fries,tater tots,different veggies,hot dogs,pizza. It depends on what the people in the kitchen cook for all of us to have." Miss Flowers and her assitants set the kids down at the table. The three of them puts bibs on all the kids while their food was brought out to the table. One of the assistants puts sippy cups of milk in front of all the kids except for Miranda. She puts a bottle of milk in front of Miranda. Beth looks at the bottle and then at Miranda. "Why do you have a bottle?" Miss Flowers puts a plate of food in front of each of the kids. On the plate was a corndog,tater tots,corn and steamed carrots. Beside the plate was children silverware.

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Miranda turned bright red as a bottle was placed in front of her, feeling certain that this was most likely Kara's doing somehow, but still embarrassed as she looked up and down the table to see that she was the only one. "I-I dunno," she answered Beth, squirming. "I think it was just a mistake..." She was a little thirsty, though, and didn't want to risk having one of the "grown-up" tell her, in front of Beth, that she was supposed to have a bottle, so she just picked it up and drank. She looked down at her food as they brought it out, still not hungry, but not wanting to get in trouble for not eating, either. She picked at the tater tots, then took some of the breading off of her corn-dog before pushing the corn and carrots around her plate, hoping that would be enough for them.

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Beth giggles. "I wish they would make that mistake with me. I miss drinking out of a bottle."

Miss Flowers walks up and down the table looking at the kids eating. She stops in front of Miranda. "Why aren't you eating your corn or carrots? They are good for you. Don't you want to grow up to be a big strong girl? You need to eat everything on your plate. So you can get the good eater award and your mommy can be proud of you."

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Miranda blushed, not wanting to get chosen out of all of the kids to get spoken to. Getting into an argument with the woman would only draw even more attention to herself, which she wanted very much to avoid - the less attention she got, the less chance there was that someone might just happen to notice she didn't quite belong with that class, and the less chance that someone she formerly babysat, should any of them actually be in the group, would see her. So she said, "All right, I'll try," and obediently started loading up her plastic spoon, reluctantly eating the carrots.

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Miss Flowers nods. "That's a good girl. Eat all your food." She watches Miranda eat most of the food on her plate. "Ok I think you have eaten enough. We don't want you to get sick by eating too much." Miss Flowers looks at the class. "We are going back to the room for story time. Everyone line up with your buddy."

Beth gets up from the table and takes Miranda's hand. While they was walking back to the class. Beth leans over and whispers. "Can you keep a secret?"

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Miranda kept glancing up at Miss Flowers every minute or two, hoping she'd be satisfied that she was eating, and go watch someone else, to give Miranda a chance to find some other solution, but she just kept standing there, giving Miranda no choice but to keep shoveling more and more food into her mouth, and her already full tummy. She sighed in relief as the woman finally let her stop, and she stood up slowly, letting Beth take her hand and following her back to the classroom. "Umm... I guess so," Miranda answered, uncertain as to what kind of a secret a two year old could have, or why she'd really want to know it.

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Beth smiles. "I have two secrets,but I don't know how you will take the second one. You might be grossed out and not want to be my friend anymore. So I'll tell you the less shocking one. I'm not 2 years old. I'm older than that,but since I wear diapers. It was either be in a room with 2 years,in the toddler nursery or in the infant's room. So my mommy put me in the 2 year olds room. I'll tell you the second one if you want me too and you promise not to stop being my friend."

Miss Flowers leads them to the room. "Everyone on the story rug while I go get a book to read to you."

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"Really? Wow... You must be a big girl, then," Miranda said, trying to sound impressed at being in the presence of someone older than her that deemed her a friend. It was a little embarrassing to think that this little girl had the same secret as her, only surely much less extreme. She obediently sat down on the rug, squirming a little as she tried to find a comfortable position, then turned back to Beth and whispered, "I promise. What's the other secret?"

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Beth nods. "Yes I guess you could say that. I'll be 6 on the 31 of October. I had the misfornature of being born on Halloween. Mom tried to have me the day before halloween and it looked like I was going to make it,but I was born at midnight. So I didn't make it out in time." She looks around and then back at Miranda. I'm not a real girl. I was born as a boy,but mom wanted a girl so I have wore girl's clothes all my life and called by a girl's name. I don't know if I had a boy's name or not when I was born. Because mom never said and my birth certificate has Elizabeth on it. No one here except Miss Flowers,her assistants and the owner know I'm not a real girl. You are the first person here I have told." Beth sets there and braces herself for Miranda to start laughing at her and calling her names.

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"Ah..." Miranda said, not really sure what to say to that. It was rather strange, she had to admit. At least she knew one of these kids had a weirder secret than hers, at least by a little bit. "Do you like it?" she asked, squirming around some more, finally ending up on her knees, feet crossed behind her, diapered bottom resting in between her legs.

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Beth shrugs. "It is the only thing I have ever known. I didn't know I wasn't a real girl until I was 4 and I saw my cousin changing after he went swimming. I saw he looked the same as me down there. So that is when I realized I wasn't a girl."

Miss Flowers comes back over. "Children, before I read you a story. I would like to introduce a new child to the class. Miranda, could you come up here please?"

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Miranda blushed as she got called on. She didn't want to refuse, and call attention to herself, but not refusing would be just as bad for trying to stay unnoticed. She bit her bottom lip nervously, unsure of what to do, and then shook her head bashfully, staring down at the floor.

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The kids looked around when Miss Flowers asked Miranda to come up to the front of the room. They all looked at her. One of the girls looked closer at Miranda. "I had a babysitter who was named Miranda,but I don't think it is you. Because she wouldn't be in a daycare class for 2 year olds. Though the way she acted was infantile." Some of the other kids nodded when the girl said that she had a babysitter named Miranda.

One of the boys nods. "She does look like the babysitter I had and her name was Miranda." The kids kept looking at Miranda.