✅ My Sister's Problem

1. Dreams

The start of a new story; and this one is written for Camp NaNoWriMo, so I hope you'll forgive me for doing a little less error checking. I started writing this on the stroke of midnight, finished it at 00:59, and am posting it at 1:12am. So... it might feel a little rushed, and please let me know if you spot any errors. All feedback appreciated!

This chapter is dedicated to Alyssa, with thanks for all your support on Patreon. You get a bonus chapter, even though I'm not charging people this month. Thank you!

I mumbled something incomprehensible and shifted position. I didn't know what I was saying; my words were so garbled that I didn't even understand them myself. There were some thoughts behind them, but I would have to wake up a little more before I understood what they were. I blinked and shook my head, wondering what had brought that dream on.

The dream had been a weird one. I'd been in the land of giants, or something. I'd been lying in what must have been the world's largest crib, while people talked about me and I couldn't make out what they were saying. Then the crib had somehow been on wheels... or perhaps it was a baby carriage of some kind, I only remembered that I hadn't been able to get out. We'd been walking along a street, I remembered that much, but on either side the buildings had been interspersed with giant sea defences, dams to keep out the tides. And as we passed strange cracks had appeared, that quickly turned into leaks. I'd pushed a finger into one crack, only for another to appear behind me, and then my crib was floating along a road that had become a river, spinning in the tides as streams of water rained down all around us.

I could see where the start of the dream had come from, if not the weird flooding scenario. Only a few days before I'd asked Mum what she'd do if I was magically turned into a little kid again, and how I'd react. She'd told me how cute I'd been as a baby, and reminded me of some dumb things I didn't even remember saying. So maybe being a baby was still on my mind, and I knew that a dream was supposed to be your brain's way of filing away memories that it didn't need immediate access to. That conversation must have been in my mind, just enough to think about a giant crib, and giant parents. Being completely helpless, and having no chores to do. When I thought about it like that, it sounded like it might have been pretty good; a life where nobody expected me to do anything more complex than eat, laugh, and piss myself.

My eyes flickered fully open, and wakefulness hit me like a train. One thought was all it took to snap me back to reality.

"No!" I whimpered, looking down and seeing that I'd wet the bed. That wasn't possible; it was something that just didn't happen to me. Not since preschool, not ever. I mean, there was that one time on a sleepover that serial joker Harper put my hand in a bowl of water, but I was pretty sure that she would have been prepared to pour a little onto the sheets as well when it became clear her prank wasn't working. No, I'd been dry for more than ten years now, and there was no chance I could possibly have an accident now. Life just didn't work like that, I could only go forward.

I sat up properly, stepped out of bed, and looked at myself in the mirror. Even in the grey light that came through the curtains, I could see myself well enough to know I hadn't somehow turned into a baby. I had the worst case of bed-head ever, and looking like someone might have glued a chestnut-coloured gorse bush to the back of my head, and I wasn't my usual cheery self, but what I saw was still a girl just on the verge of being called a young woman; one more step into adulthood. There was no way I could possibly have wet myself. But a dark patch on my shorts, and in the middle of the mattress, seemed to disagree.

"This can't be happening!" I told myself, and quickly pulled the sheets off before anyone else could see. Then I threw off the comfy old shorts and tent-like tee that I usually wore to bed, and rushed through putting on some clothes. Black skirt and a check shirt with the top button missing; which might have been quite revealing, but I didn't really have as much to reveal as most of the girls in my class. Still, I was dressed now, and clean.