“So how’s the new girl?” Suzie asked, briefly letting go of Briana’s hand to scratch her ear. “I feel like I’ve hardly seen her.”
“You’ve been super busy this quarter,” Briana said, squeezing Suzie’s hand. “She’s pretty busy too. But she’s super fun to play with! We got to play dress-up a bunch!”
“I heard she has some pretty interesting costumes,” Suzie said.
“Yeah, they’re kind of sexy, and really accurate to the characters. Oh, and she’s got a ton of cool dolls, and movies and comics and stuff!”
“I didn’t realize you were so into that stuff,” Suzie said.
“Well I always liked it but you know, I never had very much money,” Briana said softly.
“You’ve made your birthday and Christmas so easy!” Suzie said with a grin.
“Oh, I hadn’t even thought about Christmas break,” Briana said.
“You know most of us don’t get to go home for it,” Suzie said. “So don’t worry about being lonely. In fact… Ronnie might kill me for telling you this but I won’t spoil much. Prepare yourself for Christmas to be a super big deal this year.”
“Really?” Briana asked. She’d stopped in her tracks without realizing it. Suzie was blurry in her vision. It wasn’t sadness though, her chest felt tight, like her heart was going to burst.
“Oh hon, yes, really for real,” Suzie said, stepping in to give Briana a breathlessly tight hug. “See, this is why I wanted to tell you. Anticipation is half the experience when you’re a kid!”
“Am I a kid right now?” Briana asked, genuinely wondering.
“Do you want to be?” Suzie asked.
“I mean, I kind of always want to lately,” Briana said. “But we’re out of the house and I don’t want to make you take care of me if you don’t want to.”
“I haven’t gotten a chance for a while,” Suzie said. “Oooh, I’ll cast a spell on you to make you little.” She brought a finger to Briana’s nose and bounced it from nose to cheek to forehead to nose to cheek as she chanted,
“Wink a bink
a bottle of ink,
Briana is five,
As soon as she blink!”
Suzie finished the chant with a light clap in front of Briana’s face. She blinked, of course, and as she opened her eyes with a goofy smile. Five sounded fun. More fun than the dumb black shirt she was wearing, and the boooring green shorts. Even her shoes were dumb. White, with no designs. Suzie looked cool though! Her hair was super rainbow-y, fresh from the salon. Her shirt was even pink with sparkles.
“Well, how do you feel?” Suzie asked.
“Good,” Briana said, picking at her shirt. “What are we gonna do?”
“We were on our way to the park, let’s see if they have any ducks. After that, I’m sure we can find something fun.”
The park had a few ducks, paddling in circles with occasional dives for… whatever ducks ate off the bottom of a pond. Briana was sad that they didn’t have any bread, then decided that was a good thing when Suzie reminded her that bread was bad for ducks. There were crows too, which were fun to chase across the gently sloping, grassy bowl of the park.
She came back to Suzie at a full sprint after sending a particularly large flock of crows into the sky, panting and pink-cheeked. “Suzie, Suzie did you see how many?!”
Suzie turned, and Briana realized in horror that her friend wasn’t alone. There was a tall, skinny man with a little mop of brown hair at the front of his head and ochre skin. He was standing with his arm around a short, equally slim woman with crazy long black hair.
“Hey kiddo!” Suzie said boisterously. “These are my friends, Kariwase and Amie. Guys, this is Briana, my roommate. She’s trying out method acting for a Freaky Friday type play where a babysitter gets switched with the kid. So far she’s doing a great job staying in character, do you mind helping her out?”
Briana stood frozen, trying to process what Suzie had said. Before she quite had it figured out, Kariwase had leaned over and ruffled her hair.
“Chasing birds huh, did you catch any of them?” he asked.
Briana blushed, and took a step sideways to half-hide behind Suzie. “Uh no, but there was a big flock of them that just went up.”
“Oh my god she’s shy?” Amie asked. She stepped around to Briana and took her hand. “How old are you?”
“Fuh-five.” Briana said, squirming and looking down. There was a guilty, wrong feeling in her chest. She wanted nothing more than for these scary adults to go away and stop asking her things.
“What’s your favorite stuffed animal?” Kariwase asked. Suzie, traitor that she was, took Briana’s shoulders and trotted her out into the middle of the group.
“a-alanna,” Briana said in a tiny voice.
“Is she a bear?” he asked, relentlessly.
“No she’s a lion,” Briana said, indignantly. The desire to defend Alanna’s honor broke through her shyness like a floodgate. “She’s a magic lion, and a knight, and she goes on adventures and fights bad guys.”
“That sounds awesome,” Amie said. “You’re very creative!”
“Really?” Briana asked, squirming. Kariwase lightly pinched her cheek and she giggled. Cackled more like. She felt like she was falling down a rabbit hole, settling deep into her little persona. They asked her a couple more questions, then Suzie sat her down on the log next to them while she finished her conversation about the upcoming theatre schedule.
Briana busied herself with sticks and rocks, making a couple of pretty cool little houses, both of which she announced to the group. They were all nice, Kariwase even crouched ALL the way down from his tallness to look at her second house.
While she was down there, Briana felt the need to go. It came on suddenly, with no warning at all! Or anyway it didn’t seem important until it was already pretty bad. She squeezed her legs together and looked up at Suzie, but they were all still talking.
Concentrating on making an elaborate house to take her mind off it turned out to be a mistake. Briana bit her lip and squeezed her legs as hard as she could when the first few splashes hit her panties. She felt it spread down toward her butt and hoped maybe people would think the log was wet. After that, all she could do was sit and try to hold it, losing the battle a second time to another damp splash in her pants.
Finally, the endless conversation… ended. Suzie waved to her friends, who waved to her and Briana, and they walked off. Suzie said something that Briana didn’t catch with all her concentration on her bladder.
Suzie crouched down and said, “Hey Briana, you okay?”
Briana looked at Suzie with wide eyes, “I had an accident…”
Suzie sighed. “Hon, you are not a baby right now, you’re a little girl right? You need to tell me if you have to go and need help going to the bathroom.”
“I’m sorry,” Briana whimpered. “I still hafta go but…”
“I don’t have a car here,” Suzie said. “Come on, lucky for you we’re all carrying changing supplies when we go out with you. I’ll change you in the park bathroom.”
“But I…” her protests couldn’t hold against Suzie tugging her arm. What recourse was there anyway? Even if Suzie did have a car, she couldn’t drive it up over the grass to pop Briana into it. She hesitated anyway, reluctantly pulled to her feet. Shame blossomed pink and hot across her cheeks as a big splash of liquid hit her panties.
Though she trailed Suzie at first, she caught up fast as the wet patch spread further across her crotch and butt. There was a steady trickle she couldn’t stop, so she ran, outpacing Suzie and darting into the park bathroom. She skidded to a stop on the greasy tile floor, face to face with an older woman she’d nearly run over.
The woman stared at Briana out of weepy, wrinkled eyes and looked down at the dark stain on Briana’s shorts. She chuckled, which hit Briana in the chest. The old lady started for the door, stopped for Suzie’s more sedate arrival, and then grabbed the door. She took a look at Briana and chuckled again.
“You’re still peein’ hon. Better get yourself on a toilet. Don’t-cha have any sense?” she asked, and didn’t wait for a reply, stumping out the door. It was a good thing too, for her, because Suzie had drawn herself up and looked like she was ready to unleash the rough side of her tongue.
With a sigh, Suzie turned to Briana, noting the steady trickle down the girl’s legs. “Let’s get you on a potty hon.” Suzie pushed Briana bodily into a bathroom stall and yanked her shorts down, setting her down on the dubiously clean seat. The tiny trickle became a brief, crashing stream with Briana finally able to let go.
Suzie left the stall door open and grabbed a door stopper off the floor. She wedged it between the door and frame, giving it a couple of sharp kicks for a makeshift lock.
“All done with your potty?” Suzie asked. Briana nodded. “Stay on there in case,” Suzie added, removing Briana’s shoes, socks, and her soggy shorts.
Briana waited while running water sounded. A little more came out of her, but she decided not to tell Suzie about that. Returning with wet paper towels, Suzie stood Briana up and wiped her legs, butt, and crotch down.
“There isn’t much room here but you’re petite,” Suzie said, “Hop up on the sink counter and I’ll put you in a diaper.”
“Suzie, I wanna pullup.” Briana said.
“And why’s that?”
“Because I’m not a baby.”
“But you wet your pants like one,” Suzie said. Briana blushed and whined. “Get up on the counter Briana, right now.”
Briana plodded over to the sinks with sulky steps and climbed on top of the counter. Suzie had wiped it down, and there actually was a lot of space on the cold sheet metal. Her head hung over one of the sinks and her heels dipped into the other but it easily supported her weight.
Suzie’s purse had a tiny, thin changing blanket that didn’t cover more than Briana’s butt. The counter was icy cold through her thin shirt. Whatever Suzie had started, Briana had convinced herself. Baby Briana would be fussy and crying, but five-year-old Briana grumped and flopped her legs.
“Hold your legs for me,” Suzie said, putting an ankle into each of Briana’s hands. She felt like letting go, but remembered in time that Suzie definitely knew how to spank. The embarrassing baby diaper went under her, along with lotion and powder for dumb babies. Briana sighed, pouted, blew air through her lips. Suzie ignored her protests.
With the diaper taped up, Suzie let her sit, and fished Briana’s shorts out of a sink sopping wet. It took a long, annoying, loud time under the hand dryer before they were dry enough to wear. Finally dressed, Briana looked at herself in the mirror and was horrified to see her diaper peeking out of her shorts. Her shirt left a good two inches of skin visible, so there was no help there.
“Suzie, it shows! Gimme the pullup instead!”
“It’s a tiny bit sticking up, you’ll be fine,” Suzie said. “Now, what do you say when somebody helps you?”
“I’ll say thank you if you give me the pullup!”
“Briana…”
She hemmed and hawed, whined and puffed up her cheeks before blowing the air out. Suzie stood with her arms crossed, unimpressed. Finally Brianna looked to the side and sighed. “Thank you Suzie.”
“Good girl,” Suzie said, and gave Briana a hug, which Briana endured but didn’t return, as an act of rebellion.
“I think it’s time to take you home.”
“But, you said we could do something fun after!”
“Well we can, if you’re okay going in your diaper.”
Briana blew a raspberry and said, “Let’s go home.”
Suzie told a lot of dumb jokes on the way back to the bus, and by the time it picked them up Briana wasn’t really mad at her anymore. There was a bit of a bad moment when her diaper crinkled as she climbed the bus steps and she thought the driver saw it, but nothing was said.
At least there was ice cream when they got home and time to play. Melody wasn’t around, so Briana amused herself with a coloring book. At Veronica’s reminder to start homework she belted out “Yes Mom!” but obviously she had to finish the page she was on.
When dinner came, there were three more pages of the book colored, but no homework. Everybody was busy, it was one of those chaotic, Jane calling out leftovers from the fridge and people claiming them to warm up nights. Briana helped ferry the leftovers and stuck close to Jane, even sitting on her lap when everyone was done eating.
Melody was back after dinner but still couldn’t play. This time she didn’t even cave to Briana’s best puppy dog eyes! Those eyes got her Melody’s Nintendo Switch to borrow, so Briana took that victory and curled up on the couch.
When Veronica found her, it was late and Briana was sleepy, with a soggy diaper. She’d completed yet another task for Tom Nook and was starting to understand why nobody liked the cute little raccoon.
“Briana, honey, are you still up?” Veronica looked tired, she had the frazzled, low makeup look that always accompanied a big project.
‘Yeah mom,” Briana said with a yawn. “I’m gonna have my house paid off soon though!” She showed Veronica the switch.
“Looks like you’ve put a lot of work in, you haven’t moved since I saw you after dinner,” Veronica said. “You got all your homework done before dinner?”
“Um…” Briana bit her lip. Out of nowhere, the homework leapt back to mind.
“Briana!” Veronica put her hands on her hips. “Have you done any of it?”
“No, sorry.”
“Honey, you have a report due tomorrow.”
“Sorry mom.” Briana said. She probably should be worried about the report, but she wanted to get done with being scolded so she could play some more, or go to bed.
“When I told you to get started on your homework, what happened?” Veronica asked. She sat down on the couch, taking the Switch out of Briana’s hands.
“I just wanted to finish the page I was coloring,” Briana said. “Then uh, I guess I forgot.”
“That’s not like you, are you feeling okay?” Veronica asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine Mom!” Briana sighed.
“You’re going to have to finish the report now,” Veronica said.
“But I can’t,” Briana said, with a quick lie. “I need my lab partner’s notes and she’s in bed by now.”
“So she had to do her report by herself?” Veronica frowned with her lips pinched tight. Briana immediately regretted the lie. “That’s even worse.”
“I’m sorry!” Briana said, again.
“We’ll work on fixing this tomorrow. For right now, it’s bedtime.”
There was, surprisingly, no spanking or big punishment. Mom looked frustrated but still did one of her super skillful, loving diaper changes. She even got some extra attention, swaddled in a nice warm onesie and tucking her in. Briana fell into a dreamy sleep, wondering what else being little could get her out of.