Baby Girl Project: Beach House (Chapters)

After the movie her ‘caregivers’ put Keeley on the floor in the living room with a coloring book. They were having a discussion as to what Keeley should call them, because they didn’t think ‘girls’ was respectful enough. Now she had to respect them too? As if!

Since she was already opting out of the whole caregiver thing, Keeley tuned out the discussion and got started on her coloring. Compared to an adult coloring book, her Disney princesses book wasn’t much of a challenge. The movie she’d just seen gave her a great idea to spice things up.

Instead of filling in blocks of color, she drew in extra details to make the book look like MeiMei’s drawings, or Keeley’s own from when she was a teen. Princes and princesses alike started sporting sixpacks, crop tops, and bedroom eyes. The silliness put a grin on Keeley’s face. She was tapping her feet to the beat of the pop song from the movie, totally absorbed in the art, when Vidette tapped her on the shoulder.

“Look at you being a little artist. Hey Nika, come see what our baby girl drew!”

“Wow, I didn’t realize Belle was up for rocking that look. If her prince sees that he might just turn back into a beast.” Dominika said.

“I especially like the way you did a cutaway skirt so she can show off her garter.” Vidette said.

“It’s just some doodles.” Keeley said bashfully.

“Nonsense, you’re a talented kid!” Vidette said, ruffling Keeley’s hair.

“You can do some more later.” Dominika said. “It’s time to get you in your beach outfit!”

“I thought that was a joke.” Keeley said. “You can’t really take me outside like this!”

“It’s a private beach.” Dominika said. Taking advantage of her friend’s distraction, she tugged Keeley’s shorts off.

“Don’t worry sweetie, you’ll be with us the whole time. We won’t let you wander off and get lost.” Vidette said.

“No, no really. Don’t do this. Please. Can’t we just stay in the beach house?” Keeley begged. “It’s still April. The beach is going to be cold anyway.”

“You need some fresh air. Give me your feet.” Dominika worked something plastic onto Keeley’s legs.

Keeley looked down and froze in horror. Dominika was putting bright pink plastic pants on her.

“No! You can’t make me go out in those! They’re so obvious!” Keeley’s voice quavered and her eyes were tearing up.

“Now we see why you should have taken your nap.” Vidette said, stroking Keeley’s hair. “No need to freak out little girl. We have pants to go over those.”

“I don’t wanna go to the beach.” Keeley whimpered.

“Uh oh, that sounds like a baby to me.” Vidette looked up at Dominika. “I don’t think we’d take a baby to the beach, but we wouldn’t let her wear big kid clothes and she’d have to drink out of a bottle, right?”

“That’s right.” Dominika said. She’d secured the plastic underpants around Keeley’s waist with a drawstring. Next was a pair of toddler-esque denim joggers with elastic on the cuffs.

“That’s not fair.” Keeley said in a little voice with a big pout. “You promise we’ll stay on the private part of the beach?”

“Nobody wants to go on some big beach jog.” Dominika said with a chuckle. “Vi and I are going to read our books and enjoy the waves.”

“So, what do I do?” Keeley asked.

“We have all kinds of fun sand toys for you!” Vidette said eagerly. “We’ll take you down to the water at least once too.”

Keeley rolled her eyes. Dominika was putting her in socks and boots now. They obviously weren’t going to let her dress herself. She decided to pretend she was a princess with servants instead of a baby. Overall, the outfit wasn’t terrible. The jeans looked bad up closely but they covered the plastic underpants and diaper well. From a distance they’d just look like unfashionable beach stuff.

“We probably should have asked before we dressed you, but how’s your tummy?” Vidette asked, stroking Keeley’s belly.

“Uh, fine?” Keely said, confused.

“You don’t feel like you need to go poopy?” Vidette asked. “Not now, or soon? We’ll be on the beach for a while.”

“Uh, no.” Keeley blushed and turned away. “Could you be more embarrassing?”

“I remember being told that we had to watch out for you with that.” Vidette said. “So, I’m taking care of you. Don’t worry about going potty. We have a changing bag all packed.”

Keeley squirmed. There it was. The outfit wasn’t bad but there had to be something super embarrassing along for the trip. Resigned to her fate, she let Dominika put her in a coat with built-in mittens and stand her by the porch door.

By the time her friends had grabbed their stuff they looked like they were going on safari. Each of them had a beach bag. In addition, Dominika had a cooler and Vidette was carrying a wrapped up blanket. On top of that Vidette had the changing bag, which of course was in baby print with blocks and letters. Vi was the overloaded one, carrying a mesh bag of sand toys on top of everything else.

“Alright, let’s just get you secured and we’re good to go.” Dominika said, holding out some kind of brightly colored rope.

It took a minute for Keeley to realize what it was, mostly because she didn’t want to believe it at first. An adult-size child-leash and harness.

“That’s not necessary!” Keeley protested. As per usual, Dominika finished putting it on her despite Keeley’s protest.

“Of course, it is. It’s a big stairway down to the beach, and the water is dangerous.” Dominika said. She picked her bags back up, holding the retracting end of the leash in her free hand.

“Everybody will feel better knowing you’re safe.” Vidette said.

Keeley tried a few more half-hearted protests as she was ushered out the door but ultimately there wasn’t much she could do. It’s a harmless game, she thought. As long as nobody else sees it’s harmless and it’s taking my mind off of Zach.

She trudged down the stairway that doubled-back on itself down the cliffside. The sea air felt nice. As the sound of the waves permeated her thoughts, she relaxed more and more. It was always a nice intro to the beach to take the stairs down, though of course they always took the elevator back up.

Since Keeley was in front on the stupid leash, she hit the sand first. Around the stairs it was dry and ultra-fine, shifting under Keeley’s feet. She scampered out on the sand with a little squeal. A gust of wind caught her coat and pushed her a few feet to the side. Keeley ducked her head to escape the wind and caught sight of a beautiful sand dollar.

Her rush to the sand dollar was abruptly stopped by the harness digging into her chest and shoulders. She looked back to see that Dominika and Vidette were still a ways behind her.

“Slow down there kiddo! That’s all the leash you’ve got.” Dominika called over the wind.

Vidette took a couple of jogging steps to catch up to Keeley. “Did you find something sweetie?”

“Uh, a sand dollar.” Keeley said. It burned a little to get caught playing the part of the eager kid. Especially since she always ran ahead of her friends when they hit sand.

“Oh, very pretty. You can save that one in your pocket if you want.” Vidette said.

“It’s fine.” Keeley said. “It’s broken anyway.”

“I’m glad you’re so excited. I know you love the beach.” Vidette said. “You want to pick us a good spot? Someplace with a little bit firmer sand but that has a tree or a rock for a wind block.”

Keeley chewed her lip, feeling conflicted. Her friends were getting really bad with talking to her like a little kid, Vidette especially. On the other hand, she desperately wanted to pick the beach spot. They never let her pick the beach spot.

Deciding to take the sliver lining when it was offered, Keeley nodded and headed toward the waves. Neither rocks nor trees were going to be hard to come by. After all, Dominika’s beach didn’t get manicured for tourists. The real challenge was finding one that had a lot of comfortable space to spread out nearby.

Every couple of minutes Keeley would misjudge the distance she could wander and get a fresh embarrassing jolt when she reached the end of her leash. Despite it all, she was having a lot of fun. Careful looking up and down the beach, revealed that there wasn’t anyone around. Little critters popped out of any rock her boots overturned. There was enough sun to keep the wind from totally freezing her out, though Keeley was glad for her coat.

Finally, she rounded a huge tree trunk that had washed ashore and found a paradise. Quality sand, for a New England beach, had drifted into the lee of the log making a soft rolling carpet. There was firmer sand past the log on the sea-side for making sandcastles. Not that Keeley wanted to make those, but she was sure her friends would insist. There were even a couple of flat rocks to set the cooler and food on.

“I found it!” She cried out eagerly, waving to Dominika and Vidette. “It’s perfect, come see!”

“Good job.” Dominika said when she caught up to Keeley.

The grudging respect in her voice made Keeley’s grin spread from ear to ear.

“This IS perfect. Good job sweetie!” Vidette said. Even her excited baby-sitter tone couldn’t bring Keeley down.

It took a few minutes and some cursing to get set up. A patch of sand had to be stamped down for the blankets and their corners secured with rocks. The cooler and their bags were tucked against the tree to keep them completely out of the wind. A couple of big gusts almost took their blankets and sand toys away, but Dominika and Vidette managed to sort everything eventually.

“Let’s check your diaper and then you can go play.” Vidette said.

Keeley wrinkled her nose while Vidette put her hand down the childish jeans and wormed it under the plastic underpants. Without the ability to see the diaper, Vidette settled for squeezing it over Keeley’s crotch. Keeley squirmed and blushed, feeling her nipples harden under her restrictive sports bra.

“You seem dry to me!” Vidette said, extracting her hand. “You can go play, but don’t leave our sight, okay?”

“You mean build a sand castle?” Keeley asked.

“If that’s what you want to do hon.” Vidette said, patting Keeley on the cheek.

“I mean, that’s why you brought those toys right.” Keeley shifted from foot to foot. She’d been sure that they were going to force her to make a sand castle.

“If you don’t want to that’s okay. You can stay on the blankets with us as long as you don’t bother us while we’re reading.” Vidette said.

“Sounds boring. I’m going to make a sand castle.” Keeley said defensively.

“Whatever you want, baby girl.” Vidette grinned and flopped down on her blanket.

Dominika was already into her book and had a glass of sangria. Keeley watched Vidette pour herself a glass from the thermos and sighed. Sangria sounded really nice.

“Hey can I get some of that before I do my thing?” Keeley asked, pointing at the thermos.

“That’s for grown-ups.” Dominika said. “We’ve got some drinks and snacks for you though.”

Keeley stared with sour expression as Dominika pulled out a juice box and a Ziplock bag of cheerios.

“I’d really rather have some – wait, are you saying I can’t drink this whole weekend?!”

“Not grown up stuff.” Dominika said firmly. “It’ll be good for you. When’s the last time you went a weekend without alcohol?”

“That’s not – you’re mean!” Keeley was past caring how childish that sounded. She grabbed the juice box, the sand toys, and headed away from her snickering friends.

If Vidette and Dominika thought she was going to go a whole beach house weekend without drinking they were crazy. She was for sure sneaking some of that stuff after they went to sleep. Maybe if she was really lucky, she could get it into a sippy cup during the day too. The cup would hide whatever was in it. Genius!

Building a haphazard sand castle washed the grumps out of Keeley little by little. There were plenty of splinters and bits of bark from the tree laying about. With a little ingenuity the strips of bark tied the splinters together to make little wooden people.

Keeley had quite a little community of stick people going by the time the juice boxes kicked in. She ignored the feeling at first. After all, having to hold it was normal for the beach. As the feeling got more pressing, Keeley sighed and looked back toward Dominika and Vidette.

They were absorbed in their reading, but they weren’t napping. There wasn’t any chance of sneaking past them to the elevator to use the bathroom in the beach house. She was stuck having to wet again. The first time it had come on really strong what with the car ride, mimosas, and whatever her friends had done. The second time they’d pretty much ordered her to wet herself.

Now she was sitting off by herself holding on to an increasingly painful bladder and she wasn’t sure why. Well, it was gross and embarrassing, obviously. It was also going to happen sooner or later, which made being uncomfortable seem dumb.

Checking again to make sure that her friends weren’t watching, Keeley laid down on her belly and tried to go. Nothing happened. Both of the previous times she’d been absolutely bursting. Trying to force or push herself wasn’t doing anything except frustrating her and making her bladder even more painful.

Finally, she drew herself into a squatting position. As soon as her legs opened, she could feel an accident near. Closing her eyes, she tried to relax. Her mind wandered while she waited. The last time she’d wet a diaper sprang to mind. For some reason that opened the floodgates.

Without an audience to be embarrassed of, Keeley sighed in relief. It was still dumb, weird, and embarrassing but it was really nice to have that pressure gone. She opened her eyes and caught Vidette looking her direction. Hastily, Keeley dug in the sand. That’s all she was doing, yep, digging in the sand.

Returning to her project, Keeley winced as the wet shifted around her crotch and rear. Last time she’d been changed right away. Not that she was going to go back to the blankets and ask for one. They’d do another stupid diaper check soon enough anyway.

The diaper did its job and wicked away most of the wet. Whenever she wasn’t moving it was just mildly damp and a bit bulkier than before. Any sitting or stretch that mashed the padding would freshly wet her skin before the liquid was re-absorbed. The longer it had been since she’d wet the clammier and colder those wet spots got. Keeley took to kneeling with her butt gingerly held in the air as much as possible.

“How’s it going Keeley?” Vidette asked.

Her friend’s sudden appearance spooked Keeley up and back onto her butt with a wet squish.

“Uh, fine.”

“Let me see what you made.” Vidette crouched down next to Keeley. “Oh, this is so good! I love the little stick people. You’ve been really busy over here.”

“Thanks.” Keeley said bashfully.

“You’re such a creative girl.” Vidette said. She leaned over to kiss Keeley on the head.

“You really like it? You’re not just saying that for the dumb game?” Keeley asked.

“I really do!” Vidette said, smiling genuinely. “I would never have thought of the stick people. You even tied the bark so that it looks like they have little dresses on. It’s really cool.”

“Thanks again.” Keeley said, digging at the sand with one finger. “And uh, for not making fun of me about that.”

“Hey, I’m here to take care of the whole Keeley, mind and body.” Vidette said.

“You keep embarrassing me.” Keeley accused.

“It wouldn’t be so embarrassing if you’d just let yourself go and be a kid.” Vidette said. “You kind of did during the movie and you had a lot of fun.”

“You and Nika will never let me live it down if I do that.”

“Says who? We’re the ones who set up this whole game. We put you in diapers knowing we’d have to change them. We’re all equally weird this weekend.”

“Only one of us has to pee her pants.” Keeley grumped.

“Somebody’s a little grumpy-pants.” Vidette said. “What’s really going on? You hungry? Need to be changed?”

A change would be really nice, Keeley thought. She couldn’t make herself ask for one though. The embarrassment would probably kill her straight-up. Instead, she seized on the other option.

“Do you have any snacks besides cheerios?”

“We do! We’ve got some string cheese, orange slices, and Oreos. Those last ones are just for good girls though.”

“I’m being a very good girl!” Keeley whined.

“You’re being a mostly good girl.” Vidette said with a laugh. “Come on, let’s get you another juice box and something to eat.”

Vidette offered her hand. Keeley took it without thinking. Once Vidette had helped her up she kept hold of Keeley’s hand, leading her back to the blankets.

“There she is. How’s it going Keeley?” Dominika asked.

“It’s okay.” Keeley shrugged.

“She made a really cool sand castle. You’ll have to check it out later.” Vidette said. “Right now, it’s snack time.”

“I will.” Dominika said. Despite the hard edge Nika had built up since taking a job, she seemed pretty sincere about wanting to see Keeley’s sand castle.

Getting on the blankets apparently required Vidette to sit Keeley down and strip off her boots. Scooching across the blankets to end up between her friends she felt very off-balance and childish. In fact, she was so flustered that she tried to open her string cheese with her mittens. Vidette took it out of her hands without a word and opened it, even peeling a mitten off and putting the string cheese in her hand.

Keeley blushed and ate her cheese and oranges. She drained another juice box almost instantly. They didn’t really hold up to an adult thirst. Vidette passed her another juice box. Keeley was reminded of the wet padding she was sitting on. At this rate she’d have to go again before they went back to the beach house. She wasn’t sure she wanted to find out what it was like to wet the same diaper twice. Even so, better that than asking to have her diaper changed.

The only way out was forward, though the snacks. Dominika declared that there could be no Oreos until Keeley had eaten two string cheeses and all the oranges. The four cookies Keeley got when she’d finished her ‘healthy’ snacks felt like a victory. She savored them slowly while polishing off the second juice box.

“You going to go finish your sandcastle?” Vidette asked.

“It’s pretty much done.” Keeley said.

“Then we can go for a walk on the beach, or you can take a little nap in the sun with us.” Vidette said.

Both sounded good, but Keeley’s belly was pretty full at the moment. “Maybe a little nap.” She said. “If we can walk after?”

“Sure! We won’t go back to the beach house without going down to the water.” Vidette said.

Keeley curled up on the blanket. Dominika pulled Keeley’s hood over her head and pulled the drawstring a little, so it’d stay in place. It felt like being tucked under the covers. For a blissful moment she didn’t resent the game. It had been a long time since anyone but Zach had given her so much direct attention. Her friends were a lot sweeter than he was too.

Keeley opened her eyes to an odd scene. She was sitting at the kitchen counter in the beach house, with Gordo on the next stool. He grinned at her through a mouthful of chips. She was just about to chastise him for getting his fur all dirty, when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

Turning, she saw Zach. Or rather, she saw Zach’s face coming at her. The kiss was rough and a little clumsy. It was still hot though. There was always a sexy wild edge to Zach. He didn’t even taste like an ashtray this time, just a hint of salt.

It seemed like Zach had said something, but Keeley couldn’t remember the words. He had a bag in his hand full of pills, mushrooms, and assorted colors of powder. He kept pointing at it and saying something, but the ocean was so loud. It had to be a big storm to be so loud up at the house.

Dominika and Vidette were pushing Zach away. They were jabbering at him while he tried to talk over them. None of them made any sense, they were all drowned out by the waves. As the three of them drifted away across the living room, she realized she had to pee.

Keeley hurried down the hall. Her need was getting more urgent with every step. By the time she reached the bathroom she didn’t have time to even close the door. A sort of fancy twirl-slide-pants-down maneuver got her butt on the seat just as she let go.

The relief was amazing. She might have missed just a bit at the beginning though, because her legs felt a little damp. Dominika was in the doorway, blatantly staring at her while she did her business.

“Go away.” Keeley said.

“Wake up.” Dominika said, barely audible over the waves.

“I’m not asleep.” Keeley protested.

“Yes you are little girl.” Dominika’s voice was getting louder like she was on a microphone. “Get up now, come on.”

The bathroom was getting indistinct and dark. A window burst open, and a gust of wind whistled through. Keeley blinked and rubbed her eyes.

The beach blanket swam into focus in front of her. She was sprawled out between her friends, bundled up in a coat and some ridiculous kiddie jeans. Slowly, Keeley worked her tongue across her dry mouth and stretched.

“Finally.” Dominika chuckled. “Welcome back little girl.”

“I’m not a little girl.” Keeley protested sleepily.

There was uncomfortable wetness not just in her diaper, but on her upper thighs as well. She wondered if it had rained or something while she was sleeping.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” Dominika said. She had Keeley’s pants down to her knees before Keeley could do more than grunt in protest.

“You are soaked! See Vi? If it wasn’t for the plastic undies, she’d need a change of pants too.”

“I didn’t say it was a bad idea.” Vidette said. “Just that we could check her more often instead of using those.”

“Wait, what are you – you can’t change me here.” Keeley said. It was an effort to prop herself up on her elbows with her limbs still heavy from her nap.

“Yes we can sweetie.” Vidette said. “And you really need it! I’m a little surprised those plastic panties even worked with as much as you’re leaking. They were a good buy.”

“Somebody’s going to see!” Keeley whined loudly.

Dominika made a big show of looking around the empty beach. “You’re right, there is a seagull over there. Don’t worry, I’ll send the Men In Black to erase its memory.”

“No, stop!” Keeley curled up in a ball, covering her waist defensively.

“You’d rather sit there, marinating in your own pee?” Dominika asked.

“Maybe she likes it.” Vidette said. “I don’t think we ever asked if she’s into sitting in pee.”

“I don’t like it!” Keeley whimpered. “It feels gross.”

“Then let us change you.” Vidette said.

“But we’re outside!” Keeley said. It was starting to make less and less sense even to her, but she couldn’t make herself give in.

“Outside and alone. But if you want a choice, I’ll give you a choice.” Dominika said. “You can have a diaper change, or a spanking and a diaper change. You pick.”

“Come on Keeley, be a good girl.” Vidette said reasonably. “It’ll be a quick diaper change if you let us help you. Then we can go down to the water.”

Feeling defeated and confused, Keeley’s protests died on her lips. When Dominika grabbed her ankles, she let her friend pull her legs straight and part them.

“There’s my good girl!” Vidette said, taking a seat next to Keeley’s chest and looking down at her. “I know you’re embarrassed, so let’s take your mind off that. What do you want for dinner tonight?”

Dominika loosened the plastic pants and stripped them off. They left a streak of wet to Keeley’s knees. Worse, the leak they’d been holding dribbled down Keeley’s thighs and dripped onto the blanket under her. Keeley teared up and squirmed, only to have her legs grabbed by Dominika again.

“Come on now, pay attention to Nanny Vidette.” Vidette said. She leaned over Keeley’s torso, propping herself up on an elbow. It effectively pinned Keeley and blocked her view of the diaper change at the same time.

“Nanny?” Keeley frowned.

“Yes! That’s what we decided you should call us. We’re not ready to be moms yet, but we can’t have you going around calling the people in charge of you ‘girls’. You can call us nanny, or Nanny Vidette and Nanny Dominika. You can even say nana if you’re feeling really little.”

“That’s dumb, I don’t want – mmph.” Keeley glared at Vidette, silenced by Vi’s hand on her mouth.

“If you’re going to be a grumpy-pants on top of a potty-pants maybe you need a wet-nurse instead of a nanny.” Vidette said.

“That’s gross, you’re gross.” Keeley said, though she was laughing now.

“Then be a good girl and listen to your Nanny. What do you want for dinner?”

Dominika tore the tapes open on Keeley’s diaper and pulled it open. The relief in getting the sopping padding off her was as much as relieving herself in the dream. With the sea air and the breeze there was hardly a smell too. It might not be the worst thing ever to be changed outside. As long as outside was as empty as it was now.

Keeley sighed and focused on Vidette. “I don’t know what stuff you gir…” She paused at Vidette’s warning expression. “What stuff you nannies brought for dinners.”

“We have the stuff to make spaghetti, DIY pizzas, and we have hot-dogs to grill. Though it’s a little cold for grilling.”

“Are there meatballs for the spaghetti?” Keeley asked.

“There sure are sweetie. Is that what you want?”

“Yeah.” Keeley said shyly.

“Then that’s what baby girl will get.” Vidette stroked Keeley’s hair.

Further down, Dominika was diligently wiping away at Keeley’s skin. The wet had gotten everywhere, from her waist down all over where the diaper had been, to her upper thighs. Dominika was getting every bit of her clean, way more tenderly than Keeley would have expected.

Bizarrely comforted, even though she was airing her bits out on the beach, Keeley wrapped her arms around Vidette as much as their awkward position would allow. She was rewarded by Vidette shifting herself into a proper hug.

“Feeling a little touch starved little girl?” Vidette asked, stroking Keeley’s cheek.

“Maybe.” Keeley said softly. “We used to snuggle all the time.”

“I remember. Every time we got together and especially on sleepovers. You were such a good snuggler.”

“Yeah.” Keeley said wistfully.

She didn’t even think to protest the fresh diaper that Dominika put under her, even lifting her hips automatically for it.

“You know, that’s why we slept together that first time, in prep school.” Vidette said.

“Huh?” Keeley said, blushing. Dominika was putting lotion on her now, and along with the turn the conversation had taken she was getting a little warm down below.

“You were always climbing into my lap. My hormones were raging, and I had just figured out I liked girls. I was sure we were going to be the very best lovers and have a million gay babies.”

Keeley giggled. “We had fun.”

“Yes we did. I’m glad we stayed friends after the breakup.” Vidette leaned in for a kiss and it landed maternally on Keeley’s cheek.

She wasn’t sure which kind of kiss she’d wanted from Vidette. Both maybe. With Dominika moving on from lotion to powder she relaxed again and cuddled closer to Vidette.

“You know,” Vidette whispered conspiratorially, “If you want to be a total snuggle-bear this weekend you can. You don’t have to feel weird about it, ‘cause you’re just paying along with the game, right?”

That put things in a whole new light. Non-stop snuggles were not worth being diapered, but it was at least an upside. If she was going to be diapered anyway, and she’d mostly given up on that fight, Keeley might as well reap the rewards.

“Really? You’ll snuggle me any time I want?”

“Just about.” Vidette said. “Nika will too, I’m sure. Any time you want to be close just find a nanny and ask us to snuggle. Or just crawl into our lap.”

“Okay.” Keeley couldn’t keep a happy smile off her face. Didn’t want to, even if it was a win for Vidette.

She didn’t mind. Vi could rack up all the wins she wanted if they included Keeley getting snuggles. With her new diaper taped up and her pants back on, Keeley felt great. Way better than she would ever admit to her ‘nannies’ that she felt in a diaper.

“All set baby girl.” Dominika said. “Can you put your sand toys back in the bag while we pack everything up?”

“We’re leaving the beach?” Keeley asked.

“Don’t sound so disappointed.” Dominika said with a chuckle. “We’re still going down to the water, I just want to pack everything first. Besides, I thought you didn’t want to come down here in the first place.”

Keeley stuck her tongue out at Dominika. Boots back on, she found her stick-people colony and shoved the sand-caked toys into their mesh bag. Briefly, she considered kicking the castle over. It would be fun for sure. On the other hand, Vidette had thought her splinter people were really cool. They might visit the beach tomorrow too, which would let her expand the village.

Waving goodbye to the wooden people, Keeley sat on the gnarled roots of the driftwood tree and waited for her friends. Her ‘nannies.’ She tried to remember the last time she’d had a nanny. Madeline, her name had been Madeline Noel. Technically an au pair and not a ‘nanny,’ because nannies were for little girls.

Mom hadn’t wanted Madeline to stick around too long either. She’d stayed a year and got a job taking care of one of Keeley’s friends. Keeley sighed sadly. It had ended her friendship with Rollie. It felt weird going over to his house and seeing Madeline taking care of him, even if she was still super nice to Keeley.

She’d been jealous, Keeley could finally admit. Mom hadn’t replaced Madeline with anybody, making Keeley the first girl in her middle-school without a nanny. Now she had two of them. Two dumb, crazy nannies, who had decided that their almost twenty five year old friend needed to be in diapers.

Keeley smiled fondly at her friends as they came around the driftwood tree. Crazy and dumb as they were, they were forever-friends. The only ones that had stuck with her after she dropped out of college. Sure, there were other people to hang out with, but they seemed to only last six months or so. Dominika and Vidette had four-year-old playdate cred.

“You weren’t kidding, this is really cool!” Dominika said, leaning over the sand castle. She picked up one of the little wooden people to inspect it. “Does this one have a skirt? How’d you make a skirt out of shredded bark?”

Keeley wiggled in her seat and grinned. “It’s an artist’s secret!”

“No shit.” Dominika put the splinter lady carefully back in her place. “You know you could do art for real, right? Like your stuff is actually good.”

“Eh.” Keeley shrugged. “It’s not though.”

“It’d have more polish if you practiced more.” Vidette said. “But your art makes people feel things. Not everyone can do that.”

“You guys.” Keeley said bashfully.

“That’s nannies, remember?” Dominika said, approaching with the child-leash.

Keeley rolled her eyes. She didn’t resist the harness. “Fine, Nanny Dominika.”

“Good girl!” Dominika said.

Keeley bit her lip. Dominika had just called her a good girl while holding her leash. She had some things to think about now. Some – interesting things.

“Alright, let’s go say hi to the ocean!” Vidette said.

Another blast from the past. Keeley couldn’t help but grin and hop to her feet. They’d always run to the ocean right away to say hi on beach trips as kids. Her eagerness carried her down the beach to the limit of her leash. Even then, she tugged at it until she had a laughing Dominika jogging to keep up.

Ridiculous as Keeley’s boots were, they were perfect for splashing in the waves. That did not stop her from getting her jeans wet though. Between the enthusiastic splashing and going in far enough that Dominika had to haul her back by the leash, her jeans were soaked in salt water past the knees.

It was too soon when Vidette declared it time to go back. It would have been too soon no matter when she called it. Keeley was in a good enough mood to admit that. The sun was on its way down and the wind was really punctuating the cold from her wet jeans.

As they trudged back to the elevator Keeley’s heart was soaring. It had been an awesome day at the beach. Especially because all she had to carry on the way up was the bag of sand toys.