All My Mother's Rules (Ch. 70 & Epilogue - 2/13/24)

[Bonsai]

Good to know that you’re back from hiatus! I hope the rest of your life is going well and looking forward to the new chapters.

[MinnesotaWriter]

I made a synopsis earlier in the story, and it seems like it would be a good idea to post an updated once since it has been 10 months since the last chapter.

Synopsis: The Story so Far

Sarah’s mom follows an extremely strict potty-training regimen with her youngest daughter, 3-and-a-half-year-old Emilia, who isn’t fully potty trained, but that strict sense of rules and discipline is similar in other aspects of her parenting, as 14-year-old Sarah often is the recipient of thorough spankings if she gets poor grades or misbehaves in other ways. For Emilia, too many potty-training mishaps result in being put back into pull-ups, or worse, being put into diapers and treated like a baby, which is often her fate.

Sarah’s friends at school, Samantha and Desi, invite Sarah to a sleepover in a couple of weeks. Sarah’s mom has always forbidden sleepovers, in part because Sarah had been a bedwetter up until several years ago, but Sarah feels like she might be able to convince her mom about it for once now that she is in high school.

At cheerleading practice, Sarah has to deal with a fellow freshman, Claire, who is jealous that Sarah has gotten the better assignments with the team. At one of the first practices, they are going through a maneuver where Sarah is tossed in the air, but the girls who tossed Sarah fail to catch her, letting Sarah take a hard fall onto the ground.

Later that day, while doing some research on her computer into some new things they could attempt to finally get Emilia potty trained, Sarah wets her pants for the first time since she was a toddler, but as she is alone in her room, she is able to clean up the accident. And with being responsible for washing her own clothes, she can hide that from her mom as well. Besides that accident, Sarah is discovering that she is needing to go to the bathroom much more frequently and urgently than before.

Sarah is able to convince her mother to allow her to go to the sleepover, but only after she turns 15 in a few weeks. Sarah wets the bed that night. For Sarah, who had been a bedwetter as an older child, this was her first bedwetting accident in years. She is able to hide the accident by falsely claiming that Emilia’s diaper had leaked, as her little sister had snuck into Sarah’s bed in the middle of the night.

After those two accidents, and a close call at school the following day, Sarah takes the step of trying on her little sister’s pull-ups, testing them out to find out that they appear able to hold one of her bladder accidents. Sarah continues her scheme of using the pull-ups both at home and in school to hide future bladder accidents, though getting away with hiding her new underwear while being on the gymnastics team requires a lot of stealth and care.

At school, Sarah befriends Lisa, a shy fellow freshman who is getting bullied by Claire. Desi is welcoming of having someone else take part in their friend group, though Samantha is leery of that development.

While disposing of one of her own pull-ups in a school bathroom, Sarah discovers that another student appears to have thrown away an adult-style pull-up, leading her to wonder who else in the school is experiencing a similar problem to herself.

Sarah decides to go to a try-out for a newly created Fortnite team at the school, and Lisa is at the tryout as well. Both girls make the team, though Lisa is far and away the better player.

At the sleepover, the Sarah, Samantha, and Desi play a game of Truth or Dare, where it is revealed that Samantha’s younger brother is still a bedwetter who wears pull-ups at night. Upon that discovery, Samantha gets dared to wear the pull-up, while Desi gets dared to urinate in it. Sarah sees the pull-up as an opportunity to be able to avoid the risk of wetting herself during the sleepover. Once she thinks all her friends are asleep, she sneaks off to grab a pull-up from Samantha’s brother’s bedroom, only to discover that Samantha appears to be making her brother wet the bed by holding his hand in a bowl of warm water. Sarah takes the pull-up but doesn’t let Samantha know what she had seen.

While her sister’s pull-ups are mostly reliable, Sarah finds herself becoming overconfident with them, resulting in a leak that her younger sister notices, and immediately alerts her mother about. Her mother is upset about the accident and is frustrated that Sarah is setting such a poor example for a younger sibling she is working hard to potty trained. Sarah’s mom requires her to go back to wearing the pull-ups for a week, as a way to show that she was consistent in applying the same rules to both sisters.

One daytime accident means needing to wear a pull-up until you are dry for a week. Two accidents in one day mean being put back in diapers for the rest of the day and the following day. Nighttime accidents are counted separately.

Sarah has another bedwetting accident the night after being put back into pull-ups, but this time she is unable to hide it from her mother as the pull-up leaked all over the bed. She continues to have nighttime accidents, which she is unable to hide from her mother. Daytime is a different story, Sarah is able to continue to take some of Emilia’s pull-ups, and wear those during school, which is where most of her accidents happen as she isn’t always able to leave the classroom every single time she needs to go to the bathroom.

At the end of cheerleading practice, Sarah gets into a fight with Claire, who had looked inside her backpack to find Emilia’s pull-ups. While Sarah is able to explain away the pull-up as being something for her sister, the cheerleading coach tells both girls that any future fighting could result in their dismissal from the team.

Sarah’s nighttime wetting continues, with the pull-ups remaining completely ineffective. Her mom orders a package of adult diapers to use for Sarah at night instead and requires Sarah to keep them on the entire night, with no getting up to ask for a change or use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

At school, Sarah goes to the library and uses a computer another student had accidently stayed logged in to do some research about her bladder issues but wasn’t able to find any clear answers to her problem. Her mother is leery of going to doctors, and Sarah is unwilling to see the school nurse, as that would result in her mother finding out that the extent of Sarah’s problem is much worse than she is aware of.

With the aide of her sister’s pull-ups, Sarah is able to go a week of hiding all of her daytime accidents from her mother and is rewarded with being able to go back into her regular panties, but another accident at home just a couple days later has her right back into pull-ups again.

While Sarah normally gets assigned to do any group projects with Samantha and Desi, she instead gets assigned to do a group project for history class with Lisa, who happens to be the niece of the history teacher. Lisa, who lives with her aunt and uncle, invites Sarah to come over to her house for a study session.

While studying (and playing videogames) at Lisa’s place, her friend works up the courage to confront Sarah about her pull-up use, before revealing excitedly that they both share the same condition. Sarah avoids going into the actually details of her bladder issues and the way her mom has handled the situation, instead letting it appear that it has also been something she’s dealt with her entire life.

Lisa tells Sarah about her background (Note: This part is covered in the story, “Diapers Never Lie”), about how she has had incontinence issues her whole life and how the abuse she suffered from both her parents led her to live with her aunt and uncle.

Sarah’s streak of being able to avoid her mom noticing two accidents in one day comes to an end, and her mom follows through with the same punishment that Emilia would get for that offense. Sarah gets put back into diapers for the day.

Sarah’s mom then turns to more drastic measures to get both of her kids out of diapers. She ordered laxatives as constipation can be a cause of bedwetting and bladder issues. Both Sarah and Emilia have to take the laxatives while wearing diapers, which they were required to mess in.

The school bully, Claire, manages to get a hold of one of Lisa’s diapers from her backpack, and taunts Lisa about it in the hallway after school. Sarah decides to get revenge against Claire, taking note of the threat from the cheerleading coach that any additional fighting between her and Claire would result in both getting tossed from the team. Sarah instigates a fight between them, resulting in detention plus a suspension from the team.

Other drama at school quickly eclipses the incident with Lisa’s diapers, and the introverted freshman is able to avoid unwanted attention from her classmates. Samantha, who had at first been annoyed with Lisa joining in with their friend group, is now much more at ease with Lisa taking part in activities with herself, Sarah, and Desi.

The laxatives that Sarah’s mom used appear to be helping Emilia get potty trained, as Sarah’s younger sister is almost completely accident free. This puts Sarah in a bind as she doesn’t have the ability to take any of her sister’s pull-ups without her mom noticing a suspicious decrease.

Sarah is too afraid to wear a pull-up to school, seeing how her classmates had tormented Lisa makes her dread what would happen if she wet her pants in class. Sarah decides to have one accident on purpose at home, to get mom to at least put her back in pull-ups, figuring that as long as she can avoid having two daytime accidents on the same day (that would mean going back to diapers the next day) that she would then at least have the ability to have a pull-up on while going to school.

Sarah’s plan backfires when she has a second accident that evening, this time into the pull-up, which leaves her going to bed fearful of how she is going to be wearing diapers the next day at school.

Instead of making Sarah wear diapers to school, her mom calls the school to say that Sarah is sick, and has her daughter stay home for the day. Sarah is thoroughly treated like a baby, being made to drink from a bottle and sit in a highchair for meals. Emilia, whose potty training has finally been successful and now is wearing underwear full-time, has been enlisted to help with the babying of her older sister.

[bubble-pop1]

Welcome back. Can't believe that my favorite story is actually resurrecting after 10 months. I was so curious about how Sarah will go through her current position of revesed role in potty training. Looking forward for the next episode of our poor baby Sarah and her "now big sister" Emilia. Keep On with the awesome writing!

[nadine_enough]

I was just thinking about this story again, crazy how the world works! Thanks for the updated synopsis. I hope you have been well during your hiatus. Any update is worth the patience we as readers can offer.

[spark]

I've been waiting for 10 months (it felt longer) to find out how this will go.  Sarah will have more accidents, and mom has already used nuclear weapons (baby treatment) to deal with it.

I noticed this started back in March on 2020, and a lot of us remember what we were doing in March 2020.  (FTR- not much).

 

[MinnesotaWriter]

On 9/27/2022 at 8:43 PM, diaperboymi said:

AWESOME ????  Looking forward to it?????

Chapter 41 is nearly done, should have it posted tomorrow.

22 hours ago, Bonsai said:

Good to know that you’re back from hiatus! I hope the rest of your life is going well and looking forward to the new chapters.

Oh yes, I had (and have) plenty of wonderful things to distract from writing, but fall/winter is best timewise, and finger's crossed, I'll get things wrapped up before another hiatus.

10 hours ago, bubble-pop1 said:

Welcome back. Can't believe that my favorite story is actually resurrecting after 10 months. I was so curious about how Sarah will go through her current position of revesed role in potty training. Looking forward for the next episode of our poor baby Sarah and her "now big sister" Emilia. Keep On with the awesome writing!

Oh yes, we've got some very very exciting chapters coming up. And this is where I'm glad I kept very detailed notes and outlines saved, as I'm still on track with where I want the story going.

9 hours ago, nadine_enough said:

I was just thinking about this story again, crazy how the world works! Thanks for the updated synopsis. I hope you have been well during your hiatus. Any update is worth the patience we as readers can offer.

I think the wait will be worth it. I'm excited as well to be back and working on it.

52 minutes ago, spark said:

I've been waiting for 10 months (it felt longer) to find out how this will go.  Sarah will have more accidents, and mom has already used nuclear weapons (baby treatment) to deal with it.

I noticed this started back in March on 2020, and a lot of us remember what we were doing in March 2020.  (FTR- not much).

 

Yes, all that downtime with the start of Covid made starting a writing project seem a lot more feasible. Crazy to think it has been that long. 

[MinnesotaWriter]

Chapter 41: 28 Days Later

I winced slightly as I felt a sharp jab to my ribs. Couldn’t they leave me be? Still, I didn’t stir from the position I was resting in, with my head drooped forward and tucked into my arms. Just please let me keep my eyes closed a few more moments longer. Pretty please.

I felt another wave of drowsiness settling in when it was rudely interrupted by a series of rapid pokes to my side.

“Wake up,” Samantha whispered urgently as she gave me yet another poke.

My head bobbed lazily after I jerked it upright from my school desk.

“What’s wrong with you? I’m tired,” I replied back to her in a low whisper.

“What’s wrong with you?” Samantha whispered back. “You should have taken the iced coffee I offered earlier instead of sleeping in class.”

Before I could think of a good enough retort, the teacher’s eyes moved from the whiteboard to the back of the class, where Samantha, Desi, and I were seated. I hastily shut my lips and used all of my remaining willpower to look up at what I needed to copy down into my notebook. Three more classes left. How was I supposed to stay awake until I got home?

Yesterday had been the fourth day in the past four weeks that Mom had kept me home from school. Supposedly, it was because I was sick, which was what I overheard Mom telling the school nurse when she called her in the morning. Actually, I had been held home from school each of those days because I had wet my pull-ups twice the day before, resulting in Mom putting me back in diapers for the whole day.

And the diapers weren’t the worst of it. Mom insisted on treating me completely like a baby, making use of Emilia’s old highchair, bottles, sippy cups, and other leftover baby paraphernalia. And Mom had Emilia playing along with it as well, using my now-potty-trained sister to check my diaper, hand her wet wipes during changes, and even spoon food into my mouth during meals.

I shifted a bit painfully in my seat as I struggled to keep my eyes focused on the whiteboard. The teacher’s monotone voice did nothing to aid my tentative attentiveness.

The combination of missing school and missing sleep as I was staying up later to catch up on homework was resulting in poorer grades than I, almost exclusively an student, would typically get. Those poor grades had been accompanied by spankings at home. On my bare bottom, of course, as the only time I would want my mother to put me in a diaper or pull-up would, of course, be the only time she would have it off.

My eyes were almost completely shut again when the jarring sound of the bell went off to mark the end of the class period. I felt like a zombie as I shuffled my feet through the door and into the hallway. At least it was lunch period. Eating a sandwich while half-asleep was a lot easier than trying to pay attention in class while being this drowsy.

“I think someone needs to stop playing Fortnite past midnight,” Desi said as she followed me into the hallway.

“I’m not,” I muttered back while rolling my eyes.

“Oh really,” Samantha said.

“I would know if she was online that late,” Lisa interjected.

We all turned to look at Lisa. I hadn’t noticed her join our group as we were walking toward the cafeteria.

“What?” she said. “My aunt and uncle don’t care if I’m up late, as long as I’m up on time for school. And I never see Sarah online that late.”

“I’ll join you guys in the cafeteria in a bit,” I said, as I started to split off in a different direction. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

I hadn’t liked the direction that conversation was going. While Lisa had been able to save me from some of the inquisition, I wanted to get away before it resumed. That, and I did really need to pee, even though I really shouldn’t have.

During breakfast, I had managed to pour out most of my glass of orange juice in the sink while Mom was distracted, and I was careful to avoid drinking almost anything else until I got home from school. The dryness in my mouth seemed to be worse every time I passed a drinking fountain in the hallway. I allowed myself just the smallest sip of water from a drinking fountain before heading into the restroom.

I sat on the toilet for several minutes but was only able to make a small trickle. I didn’t understand why the urge to pee was coming so strong when my bladder wasn’t needing to empty out much. True, I wasn’t needing to go between every class, but I was still needing to go more frequently than I expected, especially given how little I was peeing once I got to the toilet.

Not that peeing a small amount made any difference if that happened as an accident in my pull-up. Mom didn’t differentiate between a pull-up that was a little damp and one that was fully soaked. Still, my pull-up was one hundred percent dry when I examined it. Wetting myself while dozing off to sleep was my biggest concern for the remainder of the school day.

---

“Is everything all right?” Desi asked.

I had barely taken a seat at the cafeteria table in the spot that my friends had saved for me when the inquisition resumed exactly where it had left off in the hallway.

“Yeah, I just needed to go to the bathroom, that’s all.”

“Sarah, this was the fourth time that you’ve missed school in the last few weeks,” Lisa said.

“We just want to make sure you’re OK,” added Samantha.

Leaving my friends alone together had been a bad idea, given how they’d managed to turn a budding inquisition into an intervention.

“I’m fine, really,” I added. “I’ve just been feeling under the weather a lot lately. You don’t need to treat me like I’m dying.”

“So, it’s not cancer then?” Desi asked.

I snorted so badly in the middle of taking a sip of water that it splattered all across the table.

“What?”

“Don’t look at me,” Desi said, while grabbing a napkin to dry off a few watch patches on her shirt. “That’s what Samantha was speculating about. She just didn’t want to ask.”

Samantha turned to glare at Desi. Thankfully, the long boring days of being babied at home had given me plenty of time to mentally plan out an alibi.

“No, no, it was just different stuff. One day, I had a fever. And another time I had a stomach bug that I promise you don’t want any further details about. Just bad luck, really. Not anything bad enough to see a doctor, but enough to need to stay in bed all day.”

“Well, when you’ve decided to be done being sick, we could finally have that sleepover we were wanting to do,” Samantha said.

“You’re forgetting something.”

“What?”

“Remember, I’m grounded?”

I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of Lisa’s face turning red. She remembered exactly what had led to me getting grounded.

“It’s been like a month. Surely that’s over already.”

“Maybe not. You know how my mom could be. I’m ungrounded when she says that I’m ungrounded. And not a moment sooner.”

“Can you just ask her?” Desi said. “Lisa’s never been to a sleepover, and it’s her first time to do one.”

Even if I wanted to go on a sleepover, which, with the bedwetting issues I was having, I had no desire to do, there was absolutely no way I could imagine Mom letting me spend the night at a friend’s house until I had demonstrated that my bedwetting issue was again a thing of the past.

But I couldn’t explain any of that to them, so throwing my mom under the bus was the only other option.

“I’ll ask again about a sleepover, as nicely as I could, but if not, then perhaps we could hang out all day on a weekend.”

As Samantha and Desi slipped off to the bathroom before the next class started, Lisa hung back with me in the hallway.

Lisa glanced left and right before grabbing my hand and pulling me closer to the wall.

“You’re going to need to tell them.”

“Tell them what?”

“You know what.”

“No, I don’t.”

“The reason you don’t want to do a sleepover was because you don’t want to tell them about the bedwetting. And even if your mom is strict, you’re using her as an excuse.”

I took a deep breath. Why did Lisa have to be so perceptive? I could tell her the truth... partially. I had never told Lisa that my bladder issues were a recent occurrence. I had just let her assume that, like her, my issues had been something I’d had my whole life.

“My Mom doesn’t like other people knowing about my bladder issues.”

“But she let you go on the sleepover before.”

“I had a dry stretch and got lucky enough to convince her to let me go, as a special thing for turning fifteen, but I’ve had more accidents lately, so I don’t think she’ll want me to stay overnight anywhere.”

“Well, I did talk to my aunt and uncle, and they said that if it didn’t work to do a sleepover at someone else’s house, that they would be OK hosting instead. Probably better to stay in my own bed since it’s got the mattress protector. You could even tell your mom that I wet the bed as well if that would make her more comfortable. And then before bed, we could tell Samantha and Desi together about your bedwetting, and it won’t be an issue at all.”

“But...”

But then I hesitated for a second. Lisa had put a lot of thought into the request, and I really didn’t want to make her feel bad, certainly not before I had a chance to think through the scenario she had proposed.

“Yeah, I’ll see if I could catch Mom in a good mood to explain that.”

---

I succeeded in one of my two goals for the school day. I didn’t fall asleep in any of my three afternoon classes. But I did wet my pull-up in the first class after lunch break. I should have gone to the toilet after having a small amount to drink with my lunch, but I had gotten caught up in the conversation with Lisa.

Mom had given me extra pull-ups to bring to school in my backpack, but the downside was that she would be careful to count them when I returned, and the missing pull-up would let her know I had an accident.

One accident wasn’t the end of the world, but if I had a second one, either at school or once I had returned home, I would have a fifth day where Mom would keep me home and force me to wear diapers all day long.

The bus ride home from school was too uncomfortable to get any sleeping in, so Desi and Samantha instead let me copy some of their notes from the classes I had missed yesterday so that I knew what I needed to study for future tests.

As I got off the bus and stepped into the house, Mom greeted me with the same question that she had asked the past four weeks. And I gave her the answer that I had unfortunately had to give way more times than I would have liked to.

“Did you stay dry at school today?”

No point in lying, not when counting the pull-ups would reveal the truth. Best to just limit the damage.

“Only one accident.”

Thankfully, accidents at home were extremely rare, with Mom making me sit on the toilet every thirty minutes. Most of the days where I had been punished with diapers had been the result of wetting multiple pull-ups while I was at school. Class periods lasted a bit longer than thirty minutes there. Still, I needed to be extra careful this afternoon, so that I wouldn’t be spending the following day stuck at home in diapers.

Mom counted the remaining pull-ups in my backpack. True to what I had said earlier, I was only missing one pull-up. Mom then had me remove my pants to keep a watch on the pull-up I currently had on, and after confirming it was dry, sent me off to use the toilet and do some homework.

Ever since I had begun taking the bus home from school again, I had made sure to track how long it took Mom to leave to grab Emilia from preschool. The quickest she had ever been was 32 minutes from the time the car left the driveway until the time it pulled back in.

As scared as I was of what the consequences would be if I failed, I couldn’t deal with this cycle of being put back into diapers during the day any longer. I couldn’t stand another humiliating day of being babied by my little sister, and I wanted the freedom to go and hang out with my friends again.

I started the countdown timer on my phone immediately as the car started backing out of the driveway. I had thirty-two minutes to do what I needed to do before Mom got back home with Emilia.

[Sarah Penguin]

[bubble-pop1]

? Interesting.. What will Sarah plan up to?

[kerry]

Like others, I have missed this story and I am happy to see it revived. I keep thinking that Sarah could and should have figured out that there is probably a connection between the fall and the incontinence; she's a straight-A student, after all, and a pretty perceptive one. Other than that, though, I really like this one. Thanks for bringing it back!

[martijn]

i am so glad this storie gets continued. It is one of my most favorites. Keep it up 

[MinnesotaWriter]

4 hours ago, Sarah Penguin said:

?

2 hours ago, bubble-pop1 said:

? Interesting.. What will Sarah plan up to?

I made some hints at it in earlier chapters, but you'll find out right away in the next one. I drew on some of my own personal experiences for it.

58 minutes ago, kerry said:

Like others, I have missed this story and I am happy to see it revived. I keep thinking that Sarah could and should have figured out that there is probably a connection between the fall and the incontinence; she's a straight-A student, after all, and a pretty perceptive one. Other than that, though, I really like this one. Thanks for bringing it back!

You'd like to think that she'd have figured it out, but some of that is also easier from an outside perspective.

Her friends could possibly be of some help in that regard, but Sarah hasn't told Samantha and Desi everything, and hasn't been fully truthful with Lisa either.

15 minutes ago, martijn said:

i am so glad this storie gets continued. It is one of my most favorites. Keep it up 

Thanks!

[Arendeth]

Thanks for the chapter

[WBDaddy]

Good to see you back.  Gotta admit, if I were Sarah, and I really only had accidents at school, if I had one, I'd stay in that pull-up until the last possible second before school let out so it would only count as one. 

The impending sleepover has to be a major nerve-wrack for her, and I can't imagine anything good coming from Sarah's mom talking to Lisa's aunt about how to deal with this stuff and the sorts of protection options they employ.  

[diaperboymi]

Amazing story!!!!  So glad to see this wonderful new chapter ???????

[spark]

I'm excited to hear that Sarah has a plan.  She needs to fight back.

[Bel George]

Reading the summary and the new chapter made me realize how much I missed this story.

I'm curious to see what Sarah will do in that half hour. I suspect something that seems smart at first sight but which she later regrets?

[WehavePi314]

This story makes me very uncomfortably aware that if these people were real, I’d be mandated to report the mother.

[Little Sherri]

Welcome back!

[MinnesotaWriter]

19 hours ago, Arendeth said:

Thanks for the chapter

You're welcome!

17 hours ago, WBDaddy said:

Good to see you back.  Gotta admit, if I were Sarah, and I really only had accidents at school, if I had one, I'd stay in that pull-up until the last possible second before school let out so it would only count as one. 

The impending sleepover has to be a major nerve-wrack for her, and I can't imagine anything good coming from Sarah's mom talking to Lisa's aunt about how to deal with this stuff and the sorts of protection options they employ.  

Yes, a sleepover would lead to a lot of complications. Not a sure thing that her mom will let her spend the night anywhere though. 

17 hours ago, diaperboymi said:

Amazing story!!!!  So glad to see this wonderful new chapter ???????

Thanks!

9 hours ago, Bel George said:

Reading the summary and the new chapter made me realize how much I missed this story.

I'm curious to see what Sarah will do in that half hour. I suspect something that seems smart at first sight but which she later regrets?

That does seem to be her modus operandi

6 hours ago, WehavePi314 said:

This story makes me very uncomfortably aware that if these people were real, I’d be mandated to report the mother.

Yes, it's much better when these stories are only fictional.

3 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Welcome back!

Thanks!

[spark]

15 hours ago, WehavePi314 said:

This story makes me very uncomfortably aware that if these people were real, I’d be mandated to report the mother.

The thing is that Sarah hasn't shared what is happening.   She has been wearing Pull Ups to hide her accidents, so they don't even know she has been having accidents and her mother isn't seeking medical attention.

If the school knew that she was having bladder accidents, they would be obligated to recommend that the parent would take Sarah in for a medical exam.  The assumption would be that a parent wouldn't refuse to treat their daughter for this condition.  If they didn't get her a medical exam, the school could report neglect.

As far as the baby abuse, she could just tell her friends, and a mandated reported would be required to report if they overheard something.   However, Sarah's reluctance to let somebody know is her worst enemy.   Literally, all she has to to do is tell an adult at school that her mom is punishing her for wetting her pants by holding her from school and treating her like a baby.  That's an allegation that would take her and Emelia out of the house until it could be investigated (and it wouldn't be hard to find the evidence).

[ItsYourBoi]

You know, i didn't think this was going to continue. You are a force of nature Minnesotawriter

[spark]

8 hours ago, ItsYourBoi said:

You know, i didn't think this was going to continue. You are a force of nature Minnesotawriter

I resigned myself that this was a dead story, and he always leaves it with a cliffhanger.   After 3 months, I thought 'He lost his muse..  It happens- I once left my readers with my main character banging his head against the rails of his crib so hard that he lost conscientious (I was in a dark place when I wrote that)

The problem with me finding closure.   Sarah doesn't want to be a baby, and it's inconsistent to expect her to suddenly decide wearing diapers is fun.   Mom doesn't appear to want Sarah to be a baby either, so it's inconsistent for her character to keep Sarah as a baby full-time.

I'm very curious where he will go with this story. 

[deewet]

Spark has some valid points to consider, but there are other options here for sure.  Sara certainly needs the protection, and unless her doc suddenly finds a cure for her problem, she may have to learn to accept or possibly enjoy her now necessary protection.  Her mother has to understand this as well, and may be able to help her to understand she needs this so get used to this life, and make the best of it?

[MinnesotaWriter]

Chapter 42: The Countdown

Thirty-one minutes left.

Textbooks, pens, pencils, crumpled papers, candy wrappers, an empty water bottle, and an assortment of other academic odds and ends lay spread out across the bedsheet, a result of the haphazard emptying of my backpack, which I had unceremoniously flipped upside down the moment I was certain Mom was headed down the road on her way to pick Emilia up from preschool.

I wasn’t entirely sure of how much room I would need in my backpack, so I gave myself I much as I could. Though that meant I’d need to make sure to give myself extra time to clean up again once I returned home. I slipped my jeans back on over the pull-up, making sure the purple outline of the pull-up wasn’t visible over the top of my pants.

After leaving the bedroom, I glanced out the front window again toward the driveway, confirming once more that Mom’s car was absent. I took a deep breath to steady myself. I either had to leave right now or wait until the next opportunity when I’d be left at home by myself. No time to think things over again. No time to revise the plans I’d been carefully considering for the last several weeks.

The thought of having to spend another day kept in diapers and held home from school won out over the anxiety of everything that could go wrong and the consequences that would bring. I stepped into the garage and carefully shut the door behind me.

As I stood next to my bicycle, I double-checked that I had everything that I needed. The money to pay for my purchase was safely in my pocket. I had the spare key to make sure I’d be able to get back into the house when I returned. And I had the bike lock tucked inside the backpack. No way was I going to end up walking home because someone had snagged my bike while I was inside shopping.

Twenty-six minutes left.

My hair flew back from my face as I biked down the sidewalk away from home. I attempted to act casual as I glided across the pavement, but while I wasn’t racing, I also wasn’t going at a meandering pace. According to Google Maps, it should only take me about five minutes to get to the pharmacy, leaving me with more than enough time to get what I needed to get and to return home well before Mom was back.

I couldn’t avoid glancing ahead every time I heard an approaching car as I made my way down the road. I knew there was no way that I’d see Mom’s car coming toward me at this point, but the need to look up and assuage my fears was too great for me to resist. I nearly swerved off the sidewalk in shock on one occasion when I looked to see a car that was the same make and model as Mom’s, only to be relieved to see that the front passenger seat wasn’t empty.

Having gotten out of the neighborhood, I approached the one major intersection I was going to need to cross. I could make out the pharmacy across the road, standing by itself next to a half-deserted strip mall. I came to a stop at the traffic light, as the crossing indicator was red, quickly tapping the button that supposedly made the crosswalk change lights faster, not that it ever seemed to do that for me.

As I stood by myself at the intersection, I felt as if the eyes of everyone in every passing vehicle were bearing down on me, wondering what I was doing and where I was going. I knew each stranger passing by me wouldn’t give me a second thought – if they even managed to give me a first one – but the knowledge of what I was going to buy on this shopping trip was making me extremely self-conscious. I noticed myself unconsciously tugging my shirt down to cover the top of my pants.

Time seemed to be passing much faster than I wanted it to as I stood impatiently next to my bike. I’d never noticed how long it took to cross an intersection like this before. But I’d also never needed to do so this urgently. A minute had already passed by on the countdown on my phone.

And doubt began to creep back in. I didn’t have to cross the road. I could still turn back, park the bicycle where I left it in the garage, remove my jeans, and re-fill my backpack with all my school supplies. Everything would be exactly as it had been before Mom had left to pick up Emilia. She wouldn’t know I had been gone.

But then the crossing symbol turned white, and I swung my leg back over the bike and pedaled across, not really thinking through what I was doing. I was going forward only because going back wasn’t an option.

Twenty minutes left.

I removed the bike lock from the backpack and secured the bike to the metal rack next to the side of the building. The parking lot wasn’t full, but it wasn’t empty either. I glanced back and forth as I walked to the entrance. My biggest fear was that I would see someone that I knew. Seeing someone right now wouldn’t be an issue. I had a couple of alibis I had thought up, but it wouldn’t do to run into an acquaintance after I had grabbed what I was going to purchase.

I snatched a shopping basket from a stack right inside the entryway and began walking around the edge of the store. It had taken me seven minutes to bike to the pharmacy with a nearly two-minute delay at the intersection. Even if the crossing light took as long to appear on my way back home, that still meant I had about ten minutes to complete my shopping.

As I walked around the edge of the store, I glanced inside each of the aisles that I passed. They were tall enough that you couldn’t look over them, which would be nice to give me some privacy when I reached the aisle I was aiming for, but they made it difficult for me to see if there was anyone I knew in the store. I counted about a dozen other shoppers wandering through the aisles by the time I had nearly completed a full circle of the store. Not anyone I knew, but enough that I wanted to make my purchase and get out of there.

It seemed too weird to only purchase one item, so before heading to the aisle I was aiming for, I stopped and grabbed a pack of mini candy bars and a couple of individual bottled iced coffees. I paused for several seconds after grabbing the coffee, which would alleviate some of my problems of sleeping at school now that I wouldn’t be worried about having too many accidents. I glanced at my phone to see three minutes had already passed by. I took a deep breath to steady myself and hastened over to the baby aisle.

The baby aisle wasn’t hard to find. I’d been there plenty of times before on shopping trips with Mom to pick up pull-ups and diapers for Emilia. To my great relief, no one else was in the aisle when I entered. I found the nighttime pull-ups I had been looking for at the far end of the aisle and grabbed the only two packages of the largest size. I had planned on buying a third if it looked like it would fit in my backpack, but two packs would be more than enough for the moment.

I continued walking through the aisle but took a hasty step back as I rounded the corner. I had stumbled across Claire, who, though she had her back turned to me, appeared to be looking through a selection of makeup on the far wall.

Back in the privacy of the diaper aisle. I rapidly considered my options. Of all the people I didn’t want to have witnessed me purchasing pull-ups, Claire was at the top of the list.

I could put the pull-ups back and just buy the coffee and candy bars and return another day. Or I could make a beeline for the exit and make my purchase before Claire was finished with her shopping. The checkout counter was completely obscured from where Claire was looking at the back of the store, and it couldn’t take more than a minute to finish it. Besides, unless she got a close look at the pull-ups, she wouldn’t have any evidence that they were for me and not my younger sister.

I held the basket in front of me as I walked toward the entrance counter so that on the off chance that Claire had somehow managed to look back and spot me, she wouldn’t see the contents of what I was carrying.

An elderly woman was checking out another customer at the only open cash register when I got to the front of the store. I stepped in line, holding the shopping basket as discreetly as I could. Thankfully, the customer only had a small purchase and was nearly finished buying it. They took the bag and then I nervously stepped forward.

My hands felt like they were shaking as I lifted the two bags of pull-ups out of the basket and set them on the counter, along with the candy bars and iced coffees. I was very grateful that the cashier wasn’t making any comments or observations about what I was purchasing.

Then the phone range.

“Oops, I need to grab that. I’ve been expecting an urgent call,” the lady said, after taking a peek at the caller ID. “Let me get one of our new associates to ring you up while I take that.”

I stood, frozen, as the two bags of pull-ups were left exposed on the top of the counter. The lady picked up the phone, asked if the caller could be on hold for a second, and then walked speedily around the corner.

I stood impatiently at the checkout counter, not daring to turn around in case Claire was in sight behind me. About twenty seconds later, I felt a bit of relief as the elderly cashier came around the corner. But Claire was walking right beside her. I hadn’t noticed it when Claire’s back had been turned to me, but now it was obvious that she had a pharmacy employee uniform on.

As they approached, I heard the cashier talking to Claire.

“I’ve got to take this phone call about the shipping delays. I’ll need you to take over the checking station until I’ve got that resolved.”

The lady picked up the phone and Claire walked awkwardly to the opposite side of the checkout counter. We stared at each other for a moment before I broke the silence.

“What are you doing here?” I said to Claire, who seemed to have been so focused on me that she hadn’t yet glanced down at what I was purchasing.

“Mom made me get this job, since I wasn’t going to be busy with cheerleading after school. No thanks to you.”

I bit my tongue. The last thing I needed right now was causing a big scene with an argument with Claire, who turned to punch a few things in on the computer before ringing up my purchase.

I could feel my cheeks going red at the thought of her ringing up the pull-ups. Perhaps she wouldn’t notice that the pull-ups were my size. Maybe she would think they were for my sister.

“I knew it,” Claire muttered, as she took her time rotating the pull-ups while looking for the barcode.

“That’s for my sister,” I said, trying to act nonchalant as I automatically gave the pre-planned excuse.

“Sure, they are,” Claire responded sarcastically.

“Tell anyone, and I will make sure you get fired.”

Claire’s eyes flashed at the threat, and she shut her mouth and quickly finished ringing up and bagging the candy and iced coffees. I felt fairly confident that the threat would hold. And besides, she didn’t have any actual proof. If she did say anything at school, I could pass it off as just a lame attempt to get back at me for getting her kicked off of the cheerleading team.

“That will be twenty-one dollars and seventeen cents,” the cashier said.

I wiped my now sweaty hand on the back of my pants before reaching into my pocket and pulling out a twenty and a ten, which I handed to Claire while attempting to avoid any further eye contact with her.

“Here’s your change. Do you want the receipt?” Claire said in a monotone voice, falling back into what must be her normal routine while working the cash register.

I wouldn’t normally have taken it. But there was absolutely no way I was going to leave Claire with proof that I had made the purchase.

“Yes,” I said, grabbing it quickly out of her hand and turning toward the door.

Nine minutes left

A huge feeling of relief swept over me as I exited the store and deposited the pull-ups into my backpack. The worst of it was over. The urge to pee suddenly came over me. While I would have been able to make it inside to use the bathroom, I was on a tight schedule to go home. I instead let my bladder go right then and there, feeling the warmth of the pull-up filling up between my legs. Letting go of the stress of having Mom count each and every one of my accidents was so freeing, as if a large weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

I had less time to return home than I would have liked, but thankfully had given myself enough leeway that, even if crossing the intersection took two minutes again, I would be home before the earliest possible moment that Mom could be back. And in all likelihood, I still had a few more minutes to spare past that.

My backpack was uncomfortably heavy as I waited at the stoplight again. I was glad now that I had only gotten two of the packs, rather than three, even though it meant I’d have to make the trip back to the pharmacy sooner rather than later.

Four minutes left.

The passing street sign told me I had only a little more than a block to go before I got home. A glance at my phone told me that I was returning well within my target time.

I had initially been bothered by running into Claire at the store. But, as I had thought about the situation while I biked home, I realized it wasn’t likely going to be a problem. The first thing was that she didn’t have any proof that I had made the purchase. Yes, she could tell people at school that I did, but that could be dismissed as her just being mad about not being on the cheerleading team anymore. And while I didn’t have any intention of following through with my threat of filing a complaint against her if she told people about the purchase, that should also be enough to get Claire to remain silent.

One minute left.

Back home, I ran through a mental checklist to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. New pull-ups hidden in my dirty laundry hamper, a place Mom would never consider checking since I did my own laundry. Check. Back-pack refilled. Check. Wet pull-up was changed and discreetly thrown away. Check. I had a new pull-up on that had the same rainbow design as the one I had tossed. Check. Everything was set up exactly as it had been before Mom left. Check.

The buzzer on my alarm went off, and I took a peek through the window. No sign of Mom’s car down the road. But thirty-two minutes had been the quickest I’d ever recorded her making the drive. The average was thirty-six, so I had a few minutes to relax before she arrived home.

I decided to use the time to get a head start on my homework. Now, everything was on its way back to normal, or as close to it as I could manage for the time being. With my spare pull-ups, Mom wouldn’t have a clue as to any of the accidents I was having at school. And, as long as I avoided any accidents at home, I would be free from her daytime-potty training in a week.

I thought again about Lisa’s offer to have the sleepover at her house, rather than just a daytime hangout at Samantha’s. Why did she have to make that request sound so reasonable? It wasn’t for me. It meant trying to get Mom to let me spend the night elsewhere while I was bedwetting. And I would have to tell Mom about Lisa’s bedwetting, and then her aunt and uncle would find out, and Samantha and Desi as well. I’d been so focused on hiding these secrets ever since the accidents had begun a couple of months back that the thought of having that many other people know was petrifying.

Either way, I didn’t have to decide at this moment. I knew Mom well enough to know that requesting her to unground me so that I could go to a friend’s place or a sleepover would require that she be in a really good mood, so I would need to wait a week of hiding my daytime accidents from Mom before I would raise that question with her.

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway several minutes later roused me from my studying. I stayed at my desk as I heard Mom unlock the door and let herself and my sister back into the house.

“Emilia, go check your sister’s pull-up and remind her to go potty.”

I heard the patter of my little sister’s feet as she ran eagerly down the hallway. She’d greatly enjoyed this role reversal. The embarrassment of having to deal with my little sister assisting with potty training me was tempered by the knowledge that it would only need to go on for another week.

I couldn’t wait for the week to be over.