The Girl Who Wanted to Wear Diapers

Chapter 21: Not the Same as Me

Note: In this chapter, a character uses offensive language about a person with disabilities. This is not an endorsement of that behavior.

I shivered as I held the ice pack against my forehead, but I had no one to blame but myself for the situation I found myself in on Saturday morning.

This morning, I had again kept up the pretense that the bedwetting pills had given me some annoying headaches. I had gotten out of bed just in time to snag the last of the pancakes that Dad had made for breakfast. From the look on Mom's face as I entered the kitchen, it was clear that she had already noticed the sheets I had tossed into the washing machine last night. But with Jackson in the room, there wasn't an opportunity to have a conversation about bedwetting again.

I groaned and rubbed my forehead frequently while eating my breakfast. It must have been a stellar acting job because no sooner had I finished breakfast than Dad had come up to me with an ice pack in hand.

The good thing was that my parents believed me. The bad thing was that they believed me and had offered me an ice pack to help dull the pain. I had no choice but to accept it, so now I was lying on my back on the couch, painfully watching the seconds pass by. I trembled a little as another shiver ran all the way through my body. A little bit longer, and perhaps I could pretend that I was cured for the time being.

Mom had promised to not make me take the pills for more than a few more nights if they continued to prove ineffective. I was going to hold her to it. I didn't want to have to keep faking a headache every morning. It wasn't nearly as enjoyable as faking the bedwetting.

My phone buzzed. With one hand still holding the ice pack to my forehead, I checked my most recent message. It was from Angie, who was bored out of her mind on the road trip her family was taking out to South Dakota. This morning, her family was at Mouth Rushmore, and she'd taken a selfie to share with Emma and me. I really hoped the vacation my parents had planned for later in the summer was going to have better destinations than that.

"Since you're not feeling well, I moved your sheets over to the dryer," Mom said as she stepped into the living room.

I groaned, this time from the fact that my bedwetting wasn't exactly being treated like a secret rather than from faking a headache. With Grace fully aware of it, Mom and Dad weren't showing any reservations about bringing up that topic with me while she was around.

"Is your headache still pretty bad?" Mom asked. "Perhaps you should stay home today to rest up rather than going over to Emma's place?"

There was no way I was going to be spending the first day of summer stuck at home. Even with Angie gone, I still had plans to bike across the neighborhood to hang out with Emma for the afternoon.

"I'm sure I'll be feeling better by then," I insisted. "I think the ice pack is really helping."

"We'll see how you're feeling later," Mom conceded. "I can always drive you over instead."

I re-adjusted the ice pack on my forehead, trying to find a way to hold it in place that wasn't so cold. All of us were in the living room except Jackson, who was playing with Legos in his bedroom. For the sake of all our feet, those evil bricks were now banned from being anywhere else in the house.

After a few more minutes had passed, I set the ice pack down. Hopefully, that recovery time from the headache wasn't too unbelievable.

"There was something else your mom and I were wanting to talk to you girls about."

I looked over at my sister before looking up at Dad. Grace appeared just as confused about what this could mean as me.

"Maddy," Dad said. "Since you are going to be turning thirteen in a week, we've decided that you're going to be able to stay home by yourself this summer."