All My Mother's Rules

Chapter 34: The Gray Area

I stepped off the school bus Monday morning with a bit of trepidation. I had several reasons to be nervous today. Lisa and I were to give our history class presentation this afternoon. Our practice presentation on Saturday had gone without a hitch. I wasn't worried about myself. Public speaking isn't fun, but I know how to suck it up and get it over with. I remained concerned about how Lisa was going to handle it. This would be the first time she had ever gotten up and spoken in front of a class before, and there were plenty of things that could go wrong.

My next worry also had to do with Lisa. She knew I was wearing a pull-up, and there was no taking that back. The diaper genie was out of the bottle. I trusted that she wouldn't intentionally reveal my secret to anyone else, but that didn't preclude the possibility that she might accidentally reveal my bladder problems to someone. A slip of the tongue at the wrong time would spell disaster.

My habit of heading into the bathroom right as we got off the bus no longer raised any questions from Samantha and Desi, who had gotten adjusted to my new routines. I exchanged the pull-up with white stars on it for one of Emilia's Minnie Mouse pull-ups, relieved at the knowledge that any accidents today would be completely hidden from Mom. Back at home, I had grabbed a half-dozen of my sister's pull-ups, as much as I dared to take at one time, and had placed them at the bottom of my backpack. I intended to be much more careful from now on about always having extra pull-ups to fall back on so that I could ensure I would return home with my initial pull-ups kept dry.

My last worry was one that had started when I first woke up earlier this morning. My diaper was wet. Emilia's diaper was not. I had to endure the effusive praise Mom lavished on my sister for having a single night of staying dry, only to see her look of disappointment as she checked my diaper next to find that it was soaking wet. I knew I wasn't going to get any praise, but a few words of comfort or encouragement would have been nice. One night was way too soon to make a full assessment of whether the laxative was working, but what if it worked for Emilia and not for me? The thought of my sister getting toilet trained, being allowed to wear panties during the day with me still stuck in pull-ups was beyond horrifying.

I was determined to make it through the school day without any accidents. If I could at least pull that off, then I could deal with the nighttime wetting later. Samantha and Desi were both waiting for me in the hallway as I left the restroom. Occasionally, they might feel the need to join me and empty their bladders before school began, but that wasn't a common need for teenagers whose bladders functioned normally. The bus route had run ahead of schedule today, so we had some time to kill before our first class was to begin.

"You guys going to be good for the presentation today?" I asked, remembering how they had been assigned to work with another random student since Lisa had managed to get her uncle to put her in a group with me instead.

Samantha and Desi exchanged a nervous glance at each other. Not a promising sign. I wondered what exactly had transpired during their work on the presentation with Jonathan, their partner for the project.

"Oh, we're good," Desi said. "But that isn't the right question to ask."

"What's the right question, then?"

"You need to ask how our Jonathan was going to do," Samantha said.

"Is it that bad?"

"It was that bad," Samantha answered.

"Really?"

"Like, if you have the chance to grab the bathroom pass and get out during our turn, you totally should do it," Desi said.

I didn't pester my friends any further about how bad the preparation for their presentation must have been. What's the worst that it could be? Maybe their partner didn't do any work, but Lisa and I had managed it all ourselves with just the two of us.