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

[Nat]

38 minutes ago, Bonsai said:

What happens now to the house and to its content? The mother is still legally the owner (unless she was renting it), with certain rights and obligations, so I have the feeling those dirty dishes will remain unwashed in the sink for a long while.

I hope someone switched power and heaiting off and closed water and gas.

Paying overdue bills for all utilities will also be unpleasant, but only mom can terminate contracts made under her name.

If she is still owing mortgage on it, the bank will repossess it and do an estate sale and sell the house. Or otherwise, the house will be abandoned since there were no family members around. 

[TheJ]

I think there's a chance for one more twist. It didn't seem right to me that Sarah would have to move to another state without saying goodbye to her friends. She might be going to Lisa just to do that before catching a flight to Wisconsin. This can still go either way.

[MinnesotaWriter]

Chapter 69: Reunited

Jodie held open the car door for me, but I didn’t immediately get out.

That had been Lisa I had seen looking out for me through a gap in the curtains in the living room window.

My heart was pounding. I wasn’t ready for that conversation. Every script I had attempted to rehearse on the way over felt completely and totally inadequate for this moment.

I wondered again what the CPS officers had told the Higgins in preparation for my arrival. What did they already know? What would be left for me to explain? What did I even want to explain, even if I could somehow manage to find the words to do so?

“It’s going to be alright,” Jodie said. “They sounded extremely excited to have you come live with them when we spoke on the phone this morning.” She extended a hand to help me up. I took hold of her wrist and stepped out of the car.

I heaved the backpack over my shoulder and grabbed the handle of the tote bag of diapers I had been given in the hospital. Jodie and Amanda each took one of the suitcases as we headed toward the front door.

Amanda set the suitcase she was carrying down on the front step and reached over to ring the doorbell. The door opened before she could do so.

Mrs. Higgins ushered us inside. I found myself unable to meet her eyes, I instead paid extremely close attention to where my feet were treading as we followed Mrs. Higgins inside to the living room and I set my things on the floor next to the window overlooking the driveway.

Amanda and Jodie were standing next to me. The Higgins were on the other side of the room, standing next to the couch. Lisa was nowhere to be seen.

What followed was a moment of awkward silence that stretched uncomfortably long. I took a small amount of comfort in knowing that I wasn’t the only person who was having trouble figuring out what to say. I shuffled my feet on the carpet, finding it difficult to completely close my legs because of how full my diaper had become.

That my diaper was wet was a given. The only times my diapers were ever dry at this point were during the first fifteen minutes or so after changing. And had now been a couple hours since I had last changed myself back at the hospital.

I heard something creaking on the wood floor in the hallway around the corner. Then Lisa was peeking her head around the corner. I almost didn’t recognize her at first with her new haircut. Her lengthy pitch-black hair had been trimmed back significantly. It only barely reached her shoulders now.

She ducked back out of sight again, before coming all the way out of the hallway and taking several steps into the living room, where she paused again, standing next to her aunt.

“Hey, I um. Sorry.” I tried to say something to Lisa, but I couldn’t manage to string a coherent sentence together.

Lisa ran forward to give me a hug, nearly knocking me backwards against the window. Even if I had known what to say now, I wouldn’t have been able to with how tight her grip was around me.

“It’s OK,” she said, her voice cracking. “I’ve been so, so worried about you.”

I looked up at her face. There were tears running down it. If the adults in the room were saying anything, I was too focused on Lisa to take note of any of it. We kept holding onto each other, neither of us wanting or allowing the embrace to end. I found myself crying into her shoulder as well.

Lisa’s aunt finally interrupted the silence, placing a hand on my shoulder. “We’re really glad to have you here, Sarah.” I broke off the hug with Lisa just enough give a tepid nod in response. I was still at a loss of what to say. A simple thank-you felt wholly inadequate for how they were willing to take me in like this.

She simply smiled back at me, as if she understood how difficult I was finding it to express myself.

She tapped Lisa on the shoulder to get her attention. “Why don’t you help Sarah unpack and get settled in. Your uncle and I have a few things to discuss with Amanda and Jodie.”

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and grabbed the tote bag and a suitcase. Lisa took the remaining suitcase and headed toward the bedroom.

“Yeah. Sorry. It’s a bit of a mess,” Lisa said as I entered the room behind her.

That was a bit of an understatement. There were piles of sorted clothing on the bed. Some of the dresser drawers appeared to have been fully emptied out. The same was true with one of the closets. It appeared as though Lisa had been attempted to consolidate all her stuff into one side of the room

“Sorry, we didn’t find out you were coming to stay until this morning. I’ve been rushing to try and make room for you.”

She pointed to the empty closet.  “That’s all for you, and then you can also take the top two dresser drawers. We’ll have to share a bed for now, but my uncle said he can get separate ones set up for us next weekend.”

We set all my things down by the empty closet. But with Lisa’s explanation finished, there was another long moment of silence while I stood staring at the closet.

 The gap that had developed between us the past several months again felt unbridgeable.

I turned to look at Lisa. She had a controller in each of her hands, one of which was stretched out toward me. “Video games sound like a good plan?”

---

That turned out to be exactly what I needed at the moment. An activity where we could be together without being forced to engage in a conversation that neither of us were ready for.

Whatever it was that the CPS officers had needed to talk with the Higgins about, the conversation had stretched on for quite a while. Lisa and I were able to finished a pair of Mario Kart races – each of us winning once – before Jodie tapped on the side of the doorframe to grab my attention.

I left Lisa sitting on the small couch in her bedroom while I followed Jodie to the front door, where Amanda was getting ready to leave.

Amanda pulled a business card from her wallet and gave it to me. “It looks like this is going to be a good situation for you, but if there are any questions or issues, or just things you need to talk about. You can reach out to me at any time, OK?”

“Will I be seeing you again?”

Amanda nodded. “We’ll be in touch for any legal updates about your mom and working to get some time for you to still see your sister. We’re also going to be working on a plan with Mr. Higgins for how to best get you started in school again.”

The each took a turn giving me a hug before they left, leaving me alone with Mrs. Higgins in the living room.

“I’m going to go ahead and start getting lunch prepared in a little bit,” Mrs. Higgins said. “If you need help with cleaning up or anything before then, just let me know.”

I shook my head fervently as the realization of what she was offering to assist me with.

“I’m fine. I just need to start with unpacking,” I said to Mrs. Higgins, searching for an excuse to head back to the bedroom. I wasn’t actually read to unpack or change my diaper yet. It was just that if there were going to be more awkward silences, I’d rather spend them around Lisa.

Lisa was attempting to organize what was now her half of the bedroom when I returned.

I noticed something about her that was missing. Something that I hadn’t caught on when I had first arrived. I was standing still. She was moving. I couldn’t catch the faintest tell-tale sound of crinkling. Pull-ups might be quiet, but not so quiet that there wasn’t at least some noise there.

I stared at her bottom as she turned to take some shirts from her bed to hang them in her closet. She definitely had no protective padding on.

“Are you not wearing pull-ups any more?” I asked before I could help myself.

Lisa turned around, a hanger in one hand and a shirt in the other. “Oh, yeah. But only while at home. I probably would be fine at school, at this point, but I’m still too nervous about what would happen if I had an accident in public.”

I was so jealous. How could so much have changed in a little under three months?

“Nice,” I managed to mumble at last. My heart really wasn’t in that compliment.

Lisa set the hanger and shirt back down on the bed and walked toward me. Her hand brushed against my bottom.

There had been little question in my mind that Lisa was aware that I had a diaper on beneath my sweatpants. Now there was no question about it.

I had perhaps gotten used to how crinkly they were over the past week that the noise didn’t stand out to me as much as it once had, but for Lisa, it must have been a blaring alarm. And even that brief bit of contact with my bottom would have told her enough about the state of my diaper for her to realize that it was soaked.

There wasn’t any question that I was going to need to get changed soon. I should have done so as soon as I had arrived, but it had been too embarrassed to ask for the privacy to do so.

“You don’t have to worry,” Lisa said. “I’ve still got a bunch of leftover pull-ups you can use until we can buy more for you.”

Lisa glanced back at the closet. “Is there a certain one you’d like? I think I still have some from all the same brands from when you were here for the sleepover.”

I remembered that. Lisa had insisted on me trying a few of the pull-ups brands she preferred to wear. Both of which were much better than the ones Mom had been having me use, a few of which were tucked in one of my suitcases.

No, I wasn’t ready for that yet. That was the thing, I wasn’t so much jealous of the pull-ups and underwear themselves as much as I was jealous of her ability to be able to control her bladder enough to justify wearing them when I couldn’t.

“About that. Um, could I have a diaper instead?”

That remark caught Lisa by surprise. Her eyes widened as she turned back around to face me.

“Don’t you want to work on toilet training?” She asked hesitantly.

I sighed. “No, can you just get me a diaper. The ones they had at the hospital suck.”

But Lisa didn’t head back toward the closet. “What happened? You were all gung-ho about working to use the toilet before Christmas.”

“A lot of good that did me,” I muttered.

“Sarah, what happened during the last two months?”

I hated how Lisa had a way of cutting right to the point. But there it was. The one question I had absolutely no desire to answer, even if I had been capable of coming up with a suitable explanation.

“Can you please just get me a diaper from the closet and give me some fucking privacy to change?”

Lisa was about to reply when Mrs. Higgins appeared in the doorway. She glanced back and forth between us, taking in the scene of the hastily interrupted argument. How much had she been listening in on?

She turned to look at her niece. “Lisa, you need to slow down. I know you have a lot of questions. But why don’t we give Sarah some space before lunch.”

Mrs. Higgins moved to the side to give Lisa a path to exit the bedroom, and then stepped inside and shut the door behind her.

“I’m sorry about my niece,” she said. “I don’t know how much Lisa’s told you, but her parents had homeschooled her until last year. Sometimes she doesn’t always pick up on social cues and can be a bit blunt about things.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I mean. It isn’t fine. But I it’s fine. Oh, I just don’t fucking know.”

I collapsed down on the couch. It was a minor miracle that the diaper didn’t burst open at this point. Mrs. Higgins took a seat next to me.

“You’ve been a really good friend to Lisa,” Mrs. Higgins said. “She was absolutely devested when she found out your mom had pulled you from school.”

I sniffled, and then rubbed my face on my shirt sleeve.  

“But you shouldn’t need to feel like you have to talk about things before you are ready to.” Mrs. Higgins got up and walked to the closet. She came back to the couch with one of Lisa’s bedtime diapers in her hand.

“Amanda let us know about the medical issues you’re dealing with. Let’s see if these work, but if there is anything else you need us to order for you. It isn’t anything to be ashamed of.”

With that last word of encouragement, she left the room, closing the bedroom door behind her to give me some privacy to get changed.

---

After getting the fresh diaper on, I realized I was going to need to figure out what brand it was that Mom had used for me. Those diapers were a good middle ground between the stupidly thick diaper I now had on and what I had been wearing at the hospital. Perhaps that was something Lisa would know.

I picked up my sweatpants from where I had tossed them on the floor and fished out my phone from the pocket. I let the pants fall back onto the floor and looked around for somewhere to charge it.

Lisa and I both had the same brand of phone, so I was able to make use of the charger on the nightstand next to the bed.

I laid down on my back on the bed with just a T-shirt and diaper on, waiting for the phone to get charged enough so that I could turn it on. A yawn escaped my attempts to hold it in.

It wasn’t even time for lunch, and I was already tired. It wasn’t physical exhaustion. Packing my things up at my house and bringing them here hadn’t been a difficult task, especially with Amanda and Jodie’s assistance.

I was just mentally exhausted from all the pent-up tension that had been building inside me all the whole way here, the anxiety from trying to guess how Lisa and her aunt and uncle would react to me, and the stress of leaving behind the only home I’d known.

I wished Lisa would hurry up and come back in. I really needed to apologize for how I had lashed out at her again.

I yawned again. I fought the urge to close my eyes for just a few seconds.

I tapped the phone screen. Five percent. Not much, but enough to power it on so long as I kept it plugged in. I pressed the power button until it began to turn on.

I swiped my finger, tracing the intricate path needed to unlock the phone screen. I held my breath as a massive flurry of message notifications flooded onto the screen.

I couldn’t take my eyes off my phone as I skimmed through the hundreds of messages that had built up in my absence.

Not a single day had gone by when Lisa hadn’t sent me a message. Sometimes, she expressed concern about how I was doing. Other times, she wondered if I was even able to read what she was saying. She kept asking if I was OK, assuring me that I could reach out to her for help.

There were more mundane messages as well. Updates about school and the Fortnite team. Silly memes. She had proudly shared how she had finally had the courage to wear underwear for a whole weekend and had managed to avoid any accidents.

And there were plenty of messages from Samantha and Desi, with similar themes to what Lisa had sent me. They’d had a couple of sleepovers without me but had all texted to let me know how much they had wished I was there.

All my fears that my friends had abandoned me. All my worries that they would hate me for how I had lashed out at them. All the concerns about how I would manage to fit back into our relationships after being gone. The worry about being judged for my condition or ridiculed for how Mom had treated me. All of that faded away.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the phone. Here was incontrovertible evidence that Samantha, Desi, and Lisa were all going to be there for me.

Eventually, the tears running down my face made it impossible to clearly make out the contents of the messages I was still trying to read on my phone. Two months was too much to try to cram in all at once.

My thumb had found its way inside my mouth once again. I couldn’t bring myself to let go of the comforting sensation it provided. Was I supposed to be a big girl or a baby? It was hard to know with all the other emotions surging through my head.

I close my eyes. I just needed to relax for a few seconds.

---

“Time to get up, sleepyhead.”

I looked up at Lisa, who was standing a few feet away from me. Then I realized something. My thumb was still in my mouth.

I pulled it out, only to realize something else. I wasn’t wearing anything over my diaper. My hands slid down toward my crotch in an instinctive attempt to cover it up. That only caused me to realize one more thing. I had wet the diaper while I had been napping.

Lisa inched toward me cautiously, as if I was some sort of wild animal that might reach out and snap at her.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier,” I said.

Lisa sat down on the edge of the bed. “It’s OK. I shouldn’t have been asking you about that.”

“Hey, so lunch is ready if you’re hungry. My aunt made hotdog mac and cheese.”

Oh good, I hadn’t been asleep as long as I had feared. The short nap had done me some good, though; I wasn’t feeling as tired. But I wasn’t ready to eat yet, either.

“I don’t know if I’m all that hungry.”

“I can wait to have lunch with you when you’re ready for it.”

Lisa settled down next to me in the bed, taking hold of my hand. We sat in silence for a few minutes, which was a welcome respite.

“Are you holding up OK?” she asked at last. “You had your thumb in your mouth while you were sleeping.”

There was a chance right there to come completely clean, to tell Lisa about how Mom had punished me for my incontinence by treating me like a baby, how I had basically lived in a crib for the past two months while she and the rest of my friends had continued on with their teenage lives. She hadn’t judged Samantha, so you wouldn’t judge me for it, right?

But there was another voice in the back of my head, one that urged caution. I wasn’t like Samantha. I couldn’t casually flip back and forth between diapers and underwear, between babyhood and adulthood, between being cared for and being independent. The instruction the therapist at the hospital had given me was that I needed to separate the medical need to wear diapers from the concept of being treated like a baby.

So I let the moment pass. I told Lisa I was feeling a lot better. That was the truth, after all, especially with the messages I had seen on my phone.

Lisa made no further mention of how she had seen me sucking on my thumb, and I didn’t bring it up. That wasn’t a road I was going to go down.

There were no other questions from Lisa, at least not about what had happened back at home. Whatever her aunt had said to Lisa had gotten her to set aside her curiosity for the time being.

Lisa glanced over at my phone, which I had set on the nightstand.

“When’s the last time your phone was on?”

“Just now. But I hadn’t had it on since before Christmas.”

“I called CPS for you,” Lisa blurted out.

For some reason, that announcement didn’t come at all as a surprise.

“I was so worried about you when you weren’t responding to our texts. Samantha and Desi both seemed more annoyed than worried. They told me that you probably had just been grounded and that it was something that had happened before.”

“That part is true,” I said.

“But, after what happened at the mall…”

Lisa’s voice trailed off.

I had been so desperate to prevent my mother and Lisa from interacting that I had chased Lisa off, cursing at her and telling her that I didn’t want to be her friend anymore.

“Please,” I said, taking hold of her hand. “I didn’t mean any of that. I just couldn’t have my mom talking to you.”

Lisa opened her mouth, but she shut it again without speaking, leaving the obvious question unasked. She continued her explanation of how she had gotten CPS involved.

“So, when you didn’t come to school again, I asked my uncle to file a report. The problem is, it’s impossible to know if anything comes of it. It just gets tossed into the system, and it’s impossible to get any updates or know if the report was acted on.”

“When you still weren’t back in school, I began to fear the worst. I figured out a way to make a call to CPS that wouldn’t be able to be traced back to me. I tried to think of something I could tell them that would sound plausible but crazy enough that they would spring into action immediately, and then, even if they found some other type of abuse, you would be rescued.”

I thought back to the sense of urgency the CPS officers had displayed with how they had burst in while Mom was away at work.

“And, well, I realized you would need a place to stay, so I had my aunt and uncle reach out to some social services workers. They knew that if they happened to be looking for a place for you to stay, that we would be an option.”

“What about Samanta and Desi?”

“They helped me come up with how to word the anonymous CPS report at our last sleepover. But I’ve not been able to tell them anything yet that it worked. Those CPS people were really big on making sure we were respecting your privacy.

“You think you could text them for me?”

“Of course.”

Lisa tapped away at her phone for several minutes. Then my phone vibrated with a loud buzz. I swiped down to see the notification. Lisa had sent a lengthy message to our group chat.

“Do you know where Emilia is going to live?” Lisa asked. “We had offered to have her stay here as well, but CPS simply said they were only looking for a placement for you. Is she alright?”

I told Lisa about how Mom had attempted to flee to Canada with my half-sister in tow. She was not impressed with my mom’s decision-making there. I explained how they had discovered Emilia had a father in Wisconsin who was happy and willing to take her in.

“So, you could have gone there instead as well?” Lisa asked.

“They did give me that choice. I’m glad I chose to stay with you. I… I saw all the messages you guys had sent. That meant a lot to me.”

My phone started vibrating in a rapid-fire manner. Samantha and Desi must have gotten Lisa’s message.

Lisa pulled her phone out of her pocket. I took a deep breath and then picked up my own phone to join in on the conversation. Lisa had thankfully asked Samantha and Desi to hold off badgering me with a bunch of questions, but there was still so much that we needed to catch up on.

Samantha and Desi asked if they would be able to come over for a get-together. Lisa said that she would need to check with her aunt to see if that would be all right.

Lisa jumped off of the bed without warning and frantically dashed into the bathroom. The bathroom wasn’t all that soundproof. Suffice to say, it seemed as though she had made it to the toilet in time.

“Sorry, that was just a really close call there,” Lisa said as she exited the bathroom after washing her hands.

My stomach rumbled.

“I think someone is ready for lunch now.”

I pulled on my sweatpants and followed Lisa to the kitchen. I didn’t bother changing the diaper yet. It was absorbent enough that I’d probably be good till dinner. She filled me in on a new video game she had been playing while we ate mac and cheese. Her aunt and uncle had eaten earlier, and they left us to our own devices.

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting all of my things unpacked in the bedroom while Lisa worked to organize all of her stuff.

It was nice to finally have on a properly absorbent diaper for once. I didn’t have to worry about changing again until right before dinner, and even at that point, it wasn’t even close to being fully soaked.

We spent the evening playing Fortnite. A new season had recently started, and Lisa was excited to show me all the updates.

Mrs. Higgins had approved of having Samantha and Desi over. But that would have to wait for next week. There was a week of school to go through first. I was going to be staying home for at least a week while a decision was made about when and how I was going to return to school. Mrs. Higgins was taking some time off of work so she could get me to the therapy appointments, which were going to continue, at least for the near future.

Bedtime meant diapers for both Lisa and me. Despite her successes during the day, her bedwetting hadn’t let up in the slightest. I slid under the covers. The bed was more than big enough that we each had plenty of room. Lisa said goodnight and hit the lights before joining me in bed.

The sound of Lisa’s soft snoring greeted me a few minutes later. But I was having a difficult time trying to fall asleep. I knew why that was. I had spent two months falling asleep each night with a pacifier in my mouth, and that lack of that familiar sensation, combined with what had been a stressful and tiring day, was making it difficult to fall asleep without having something between my lips to suck on.

I tucked both my hands between my legs, determined to keep my fingers out of my mouth. Lisa had said there were plenty of pull-ups available for me to use in the closet.

Tomorrow, I was going to be a big girl.

 

[JustaFoxGirl]

It seems like Sarah is afraid to be babied because she's worried she can't switch back? The therapist could help with those feelings but it seems that Sarah would have to talk about Samantha for that door to open, and it's completely understandable that she won't.

 

But she's with a caring family now, and can finally begin healing. The sleepover in a week may be a huge turning point for Sarah, maybe that's when she decides to come clean with her friends in full. It makes sense for her to want everyone to be together first, so she doesn't have to tell the story more than once to them. She's told the story enough times as it is.

[Nat]

I wonder what the story was Lisa and their friends told to CPS to make them want to do a emergency check on her. 

I wonder how Sarah is going to feel when she keeps having accidents and has no success. 

[spark]

I think Sarah is going to have to tell Lisa what happened.   I'm sure they don't know much about what happened in those two months.  The Higgins would know she didn't get any school in those two months.

I don't know if MW will write it that way, but I imagine the story would end up being covered by the media at least when the details of the trail come out.

[JustaFoxGirl]

9 minutes ago, spark said:

I think Sarah is going to have to tell Lisa what happened.   I'm sure they don't know much about what happened in those two months.  The Higgins would know she didn't get any school in those two months.

Looking back, you're right. Even though she was told not to equate being diapered with being a baby, the fact she seems to plan trying to "be a big girl" using pull-ups makes it obvious she still feels they're linked. There will be an inevitable failure of it. The one thing the therapist didn't know was Samantha's influence, but Lisa does. I remember that MW said it would be revealed why Lisa changed her mind on Samantha, and perhaps a breakdown from Sarah is what brings it up.

[spark]

26 minutes ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

Looking back, you're right. Even though she was told not to equate being diapered with being a baby, the fact she seems to plan trying to "be a big girl" using pull-ups makes it obvious she still feels they're linked. There will be an inevitable failure of it. The one thing the therapist didn't know was Samantha's influence, but Lisa does. I remember that MW said it would be revealed why Lisa changed her mind on Samantha, and perhaps a breakdown from Sarah is what brings it up.

The therapist might not be aware of Sarah's conflict, and Sarah is so conditioned to follow authority that she is trying to be a big girl for everyone.  It's got to be so exhausting for me.

Thank God for Lisa, because Mom didn't seem to have any intention of stopping it.  If it weren't for Lisa's insistence, Sarah could have been still stuck as a baby when Emilia was old enough to take on the chores.

[Night Rain]

Its nice to see how worried Lisa was for Sarah she's a true friend,

[JustaFoxGirl]

1 hour ago, spark said:

The therapist might not be aware of Sarah's conflict, and Sarah is so conditioned to follow authority that she is trying to be a big girl for everyone.  It's got to be so exhausting for me.

Thank God for Lisa, because Mom didn't seem to have any intention of stopping it.  If it weren't for Lisa's insistence, Sarah could have been still stuck as a baby when Emilia was old enough to take on the chores.

Yea, Sarah is going to need her friends to fully come to terms with things, and maybe that will lead to her being completely open with her therapist.

Sara reading all the missed messages of Lisa constantly trying to reach out, even sending jokes and memes... That broke my heart.

[spark]

14 minutes ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

Yea, Sarah is going to need her friends to fully come to terms with things, and maybe that will lead to her being completely open with her therapist.

Sara reading all the missed messages of Lisa constantly trying to reach out, even sending jokes and memes... That broke my heart.

I read it from Wattpad first and it stopped right after Sarah changed privately.   I was frustrated when Sarah reacted to Lisa the first time.    I was so relieved when I got to the second part of the chapter.

That friend group became so strong at the first sleepover, but it's like Chewbacca and Han now.  

That whole side plot about the sleepover and Black Friday didn't seem to advance the plot much, but I think it was written for a reason.

[JustaFoxGirl]

5 minutes ago, spark said:

I read it from Wattpad first and it stopped right after Sarah changed privately.   I was frustrated when Sarah reacted to Lisa the first time.    I was so relieved when I got to the second part of the chapter.

That friend group became so strong at the first sleepover, but it's like Chewbacca and Han now.  

That whole side plot about the sleepover and Black Friday didn't seem to advance the plot much, but I think it was written for a reason.

Yea, stress isn't easy for anyone to deal with, let alone a 15 year old girl. It's gotten for her, but she still has such a long way to go, but now, finally, she understands her friends are there for her. Can't hope for better.

[AdultInnocence]

18 hours ago, TheJ said:

I think there's a chance for one more twist. It didn't seem right to me that Sarah would have to move to another state without saying goodbye to her friends. She might be going to Lisa just to do that before catching a flight to Wisconsin. This can still go either way.

Before I read the next chapter this was my thought as well. I do really hope that she is going to stay with Lisa

[AdultInnocence]

3 hours ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

frantically dashed into the bedroom. The bathroom

I'm guessing dashed from, or it should be into the bathroom. ?

Edit:
Just finished the chapter. A lot of emotions and a lot of feel goods. I do suspect that Lisa and her friends will help her being okay with those feelings of wanting a pacifier, or being more comfortable with diapers until they at least find out what the test results were. Maybe she will be okay with the better pull ups during the day and a diaper at night. Lisa's family is being very supporting. I suspect Sarah may wait to tell her friends everything for when she can do it all at once.

You captured her struggle really well. The internal dialogue, what she would like to say and why she didn't. This has to be one of my favorite stories.

[spark]

20 minutes ago, AdultInnocence said:

Before I read the next chapter this was my thought as well. I do really hope that she is going to stay with Lisa

We are nearing the end of the story, and there aren't enough words left in it for another plot twist.   On WattPad, MW said that the story would conclude on Tuesday or Thursday.    I think the next chapter will pull in the friend group.

I can't stress how well-written this story is.  I know the themes are not typical for a mainstream audience, but it's a story that could easily be taught in 9th-grade English.  It has all of the classic elements of a story, and it does it in an easy-to-read format.  You compare this to Amy Tan, whom English teachers love.   She is so obtuse that nobody knows what she is talking about.  They also love I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and the themes in that story are way more adult than this one.

P.S.- It is also better than Catcher in Rye, which was only good because it had cuss words in it.   It's not as good as Huckleberry Finn .   

 

[Nat]

I must say this is a story I think will be okay with the general audience but it would be more of a young adult fiction. I don't really see this as a kink or fap or fetish story. What Sarah is dealing with is very normal in kids who have been abused so they tend to regress back to infant like behaviors. So I can understand why my parents would freak out about me wanting diapers and wanting to be a baby again when I was 12 and why my parents blamed themselves when they found out I was wearing diapers again when I was 17. 

[spark]

59 minutes ago, AdultInnocence said:

I'm guessing dashed from, or it should be into the bathroom. ?

Edit:
Just finished the chapter. A lot of emotions and a lot of feel goods. I do suspect that Lisa and her friends will help her being okay with those feelings of wanting a pacifier, or being more comfortable with diapers until they at least find out what the test results were. Maybe she will be okay with the better pull ups during the day and a diaper at night. Lisa's family is being very supporting. I suspect Sarah may wait to tell her friends everything for when she can do it all at once.

You captured her struggle really well. The internal dialogue, what she would like to say and why she didn't. This has to be one of my favorite stories.

I tried to separate myself from the dynamics of a story structure, which is how MW intended us to read it.   In that moment, you have this real decision between Emilia's father and the Higgins.     If I were Sarah, I would trust what I know, which is Mr. Higgins is a good man.\

I love the part where Amanda wants to make sure Emilia and Sarah.   It will take a lot to make that happen, but in real it would be important.

 

[spark]

3 minutes ago, Nat said:

I must say this is a story I think will be okay with the general audience but it would be more of a young adult fiction. I don't really see this as a kink or fap or fetish story. What Sarah is dealing with is very normal in kids who have been abused so they tend to regress back to infant like behaviors. So I can understand why my parents would freak out about me wanting diapers and wanting to be a baby again when I was 12 and why my parents blamed themselves when they found out I was wearing diapers again when I was 17. 

I think it would be a great novel for that 12-15 group.   I think they would relate to it.

FTR- my question of the day was: If you could go back in time, what time and place would you go back and elementary school was the overwhelming winner. 

Youth (13-17) would buy into the regression themes, especially struggling students.  MW writing is so easy to comprehend and that's a gift.   

This is a story that would fit in a 9th-grade English class.

[erik_hamburg]

@MinnesotaWriter, this chapter had me in tears. Really well written and nicely wrapping up the loose ends. 

I was wondering what CPS would tell Lisa's uncle and aunt. Do they know the details? 

How many more chapters can we expect?

[MinnesotaWriter]

13 hours ago, Nat said:

I wonder what the story was Lisa and their friends told to CPS to make them want to do a emergency check on her. 

I wonder how Sarah is going to feel when she keeps having accidents and has no success. 

That was answered in an earlier chapter, they basically described a fairly generic scenario of severe abuse.

13 hours ago, spark said:

I think Sarah is going to have to tell Lisa what happened.   I'm sure they don't know much about what happened in those two months.  The Higgins would know she didn't get any school in those two months.

I don't know if MW will write it that way, but I imagine the story would end up being covered by the media at least when the details of the trail come out.

There are a number of scenarios that could happen that would protect Sarah's privacy. But we'll get info on that in the next chapter or epilogue.

12 hours ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

Looking back, you're right. Even though she was told not to equate being diapered with being a baby, the fact she seems to plan trying to "be a big girl" using pull-ups makes it obvious she still feels they're linked. There will be an inevitable failure of it. The one thing the therapist didn't know was Samantha's influence, but Lisa does. I remember that MW said it would be revealed why Lisa changed her mind on Samantha, and perhaps a breakdown from Sarah is what brings it up.

I think being a "big girl" with pull-ups is partially an acknowledgement that her bladder issues aren't going to go away overnight.

Lots of things to tie up in the next chapter. Sarah's diagnosis, how all of the friends react when they are back together again, there may be some info about the Samantha/Lisa conversation, but I've moved more toward some of that being discussed in the sequel.

11 hours ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

Yea, Sarah is going to need her friends to fully come to terms with things, and maybe that will lead to her being completely open with her therapist.

Sara reading all the missed messages of Lisa constantly trying to reach out, even sending jokes and memes... That broke my heart.

I felt it was really important to have her see all of the messages because one of her ongoing struggles has been her unwillingness to accept her friends help or believe that they would stick with her if they found out what she was going through.

10 hours ago, spark said:

I read it from Wattpad first and it stopped right after Sarah changed privately.   I was frustrated when Sarah reacted to Lisa the first time.    I was so relieved when I got to the second part of the chapter.

That friend group became so strong at the first sleepover, but it's like Chewbacca and Han now.  

That whole side plot about the sleepover and Black Friday didn't seem to advance the plot much, but I think it was written for a reason.

I try to include things like that when they are able to advance a number of goals. The sleepover had Sarah/Samantha both being forced to come clean or partially clean about their needs/interests in diapers, set up the tension between Lisa/Samantha with the ABDL side that Lisa changed her mind to being accepting of, and the tension between LIsa/Sarah with the start of potty training and how Lisa is succeeding at it while Sarah is failing.

9 hours ago, AdultInnocence said:

I'm guessing dashed from, or it should be into the bathroom. ?

Edit:
Just finished the chapter. A lot of emotions and a lot of feel goods. I do suspect that Lisa and her friends will help her being okay with those feelings of wanting a pacifier, or being more comfortable with diapers until they at least find out what the test results were. Maybe she will be okay with the better pull ups during the day and a diaper at night. Lisa's family is being very supporting. I suspect Sarah may wait to tell her friends everything for when she can do it all at once.

You captured her struggle really well. The internal dialogue, what she would like to say and why she didn't. This has to be one of my favorite stories.

Thanks, and I got that part fixed!

9 hours ago, spark said:

We are nearing the end of the story, and there aren't enough words left in it for another plot twist.   On WattPad, MW said that the story would conclude on Tuesday or Thursday.    I think the next chapter will pull in the friend group.

That is the general timeline at the moment. Still am finishing up the ending this weekend.

8 hours ago, spark said:

I tried to separate myself from the dynamics of a story structure, which is how MW intended us to read it.   In that moment, you have this real decision between Emilia's father and the Higgins.     If I were Sarah, I would trust what I know, which is Mr. Higgins is a good man.\

I love the part where Amanda wants to make sure Emilia and Sarah.   It will take a lot to make that happen, but in real it would be important.

 

I think the age-gap between Sarah/Emilia is as big of a challenge as the distance gap in terms of maintaining a relationship going forward. Also, giving them space is going to help with getting Emilia to re-set and think of Sarah as more of a big sister again the next time that they meet.

8 hours ago, Nat said:

I must say this is a story I think will be okay with the general audience but it would be more of a young adult fiction. I don't really see this as a kink or fap or fetish story. What Sarah is dealing with is very normal in kids who have been abused so they tend to regress back to infant like behaviors. So I can understand why my parents would freak out about me wanting diapers and wanting to be a baby again when I was 12 and why my parents blamed themselves when they found out I was wearing diapers again when I was 17. 

7 hours ago, spark said:

I think it would be a great novel for that 12-15 group.   I think they would relate to it.

FTR- my question of the day was: If you could go back in time, what time and place would you go back and elementary school was the overwhelming winner. 

Youth (13-17) would buy into the regression themes, especially struggling students.  MW writing is so easy to comprehend and that's a gift.   

This is a story that would fit in a 9th-grade English class.

I had toyed with the idea of doing a full re-write of this story and putting it on Amazon as well, but decided that wasn't a good idea. Too many people get the wrong idea about ABDL stories even when the characters are all adults. And even though there isn't anything inappropriate about this story, I'd be hesitant to put it in front of a wider audience like that. 

That said, there are lots of teens who read ABDL fiction. I think for most people, an interest in ABDL often develops in the early teens (as was the case for me). I lurked here and a lot of other places as a teen reading most of what I could get my hands on. That was extremely helpful at that time in my life with knowing that I wasn't alone in those interests. As I've mentioned before, a number of the stories from that time period served as some inspiration for this one.

Of course, minors/adults shouldn't be actively interacting in any way regarding ABDL content, so lurking and reading is as far as that should be going (which isn't something that could be easily policed, anyways)
 

4 hours ago, erik_hamburg said:

@MinnesotaWriter, this chapter had me in tears. Really well written and nicely wrapping up the loose ends. 

I was wondering what CPS would tell Lisa's uncle and aunt. Do they know the details? 

How many more chapters can we expect?

Thanks! 

CPS hasn't told most of the details. They were simply informed of the general situation. They know she was held out of school without being educated, and they are aware of her medical issues. Perhaps if Sarah were a lot younger they might get told more, but I had CPS strike a balance between telling the Higgins what was necessary to care for Sarah while also protecting her privacy as well.

As far as additional chapters remaining. We will have one chapter and an epilogue left.

But, there will be a sequel coming out right away. And you will get to read it all at once without needing to wait for one or two updates a week. Figured now is as good a time as any to share some details about it.

The title of the book is: “All My Girlfriend’s Rules.”

The story is set six years in the future and focuses on how Sarah deals with the long-term effects of her incontinence and the abuse she went through. I am going to be putting it out as an eBook on Amazon. Plan is to have it available right when the last chapter for AMMR is posted.

[JustaFoxGirl]

1 hour ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

I think being a "big girl" with pull-ups is partially an acknowledgement that her bladder issues aren't going to go away overnight.

The way things had gone, I had assumed she couldn't be "potty trained" again, although with her diagnosis yet to come, and now having a supportive family that won't shame her for accidents, I fully understand her wanting to at least try again.

 

1 hour ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

As far as additional chapters remaining. We will have one chapter and an epilogue left.

But, there will be a sequel coming out right away. And you will get to read it all at once without needing to wait for one or two updates a week. Figured now is as good a time as any to share some details about it.

The title of the book is: “All My Girlfriend’s Rules.”

Really looking forward to the end of the story, as sad as it will be to see the end lol. The title of the sequel certainly makes me wonder now... can't wait to read it all.

Thank you for sticking with this until the end.

[nadine_enough]

I've been reading on my own and waiting to comment until the story approached the end.

I admittedly wasn't a big fan of Lisa earlier in the story and was a bit unsure how I would feel about this interaction, to the point where I briefly was thinking "maybe Wisconsin would be better". It felt at times like Lisa was pushing Sarah too much with her overzealousness, even if it was in an earnest attempt to help when asked.

But honestly this line eased all my concerns.

16 hours ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

Lisa, you need to slow down.

It's nice when a character in the story acknowledges what the reader is feeling, and Mrs. Higgins did just that for me.

Thank you for continuing to share this story!

[Nat]

6 hours ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

The story is set six years in the future and focuses on how Sarah deals with the long-term effects of her incontinence and the abuse she went through. I am going to be putting it out as an eBook on Amazon. Plan is to have it available right when the last chapter for AMMR is posted.

so it won't be posted here? 

[spark]

12 hours ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

That said, there are lots of teens who read ABDL fiction. I think for most people, an interest in ABDL often develops in the early teens (as was the case for me). I lurked here and a lot of other places as a teen reading most of what I could get my hands on. That was extremely helpful at that time in my life with knowing that I wasn't alone in those interests. As I've mentioned before, a number of the stories from that time period served as some inspiration for this one.

Of course, minors/adults shouldn't be actively interacting in any way regarding ABDL content, so lurking and reading is as far as that should be going (which isn't something that could be easily policed, anyways)

I understand what you are saying, and I wouldn't be willing to share this story with a mainstream audience—most

of the stories, if not all of the stories on Amazon deal with characters over 18.

I'm being honest when I say this would be a great story to teach to a 9th-grade class, especially a class full of struggling.   This is an easy story to comprehend.  A 4th-grade reader could read this independently and understand the story.   PS- That's not a criticism, that's high praise.  Known authors who a favored by English teachers suck at that (I'm looking at you, Amy Tan). 

BTW, that doesn't mean this story is appropriate for elementary school kids, but I think it is appropriate for teenagers.  The themes that kids read HS English class are dark and very adult.   Everybody reads The Great Gatsby in 11th grade, and that book has sex, drugs, and orgies.  Read I'm not your Perfect Mexican Daughter, and you'll see what I mean.

The abuse theme and overcoming trauma would be a huge win for HS English teachers, and it has all the elements that they need to teach the standards they need to teach.   I'll admit that regression themes are out there.  You'd get banned in Florida, but that should be a badge of honor.   However, you present those themes in a way that is appropriate for that age group.   I don't know if the students would be comfortable talking about it, but I think they would relate to it.

 

PS-I assume you'll post the link here when you're ready to publish.   

I like the book club element that we have here.  You get it in Wattpad, but the level of discussion there is lacking.   Us experiencing this story together, and talking about each chapter has been a big part of the enjoyment that I've gotten from this story.

[MinnesotaWriter]

22 hours ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

The way things had gone, I had assumed she couldn't be "potty trained" again, although with her diagnosis yet to come, and now having a supportive family that won't shame her for accidents, I fully understand her wanting to at least try again.

Really looking forward to the end of the story, as sad as it will be to see the end lol. The title of the sequel certainly makes me wonder now... can't wait to read it all.

Thank you for sticking with this until the end.

You're welcome! And yes, I suppose that title does raise a lot of questions.

21 hours ago, nadine_enough said:

I've been reading on my own and waiting to comment until the story approached the end.

I admittedly wasn't a big fan of Lisa earlier in the story and was a bit unsure how I would feel about this interaction, to the point where I briefly was thinking "maybe Wisconsin would be better". It felt at times like Lisa was pushing Sarah too much with her overzealousness, even if it was in an earnest attempt to help when asked.

But honestly this line eased all my concerns.

It's nice when a character in the story acknowledges what the reader is feeling, and Mrs. Higgins did just that for me.

Thank you for continuing to share this story!

I think it's important to consider Lisa's backstory when looking at how her interactions with Sarah have evolved. She was homeschooled through the start of high school in a way that kept her isolated from most of her peers. In "Diapers Never Lie," it's clear from the inner monologue that she isn't a super introverted personality.

So, at the start of this story, Lisa is put in the position of needing to start high school (that can already be a challenge for teens under normal circumstances) while also needing to play catchup on her own social/emotional development, and, of course, that is all complicated by her incontinence. 

Then we see her get more confident as this story progresses, and her friendship with Sarah (and later Samantha and Desi) plays a large role in helping her to get out of her shell.

The way the pendulum has swung for her from being shy and reticent to overly enthusiastic and pushy is, in my experience, a fairly realistic depiction of some of the challenges a kid would face when trying to adjust socially like that from being homeschooled for a lengthy period of time. Kids need socialization (especially apart from their parents) to learn how to pick up on normal social norms and cues. There really isn't any way to learn that otherwise. When kids are deprived of that, you get situations like what Lisa is going through as she adjusts to normal life.

And yes, that can definitely be annoying to others in the meantime.

17 hours ago, Nat said:

so it won't be posted here? 

No, just on Amazon.