The Mandate (Patreon)

Here's a short story commission for an anonymous Patron.

"Do I want what?" Bianca wrinkled her nose, shocked at what her friend was asking her. "No, of course I don't!"

Kady blushed, fidgeted, making Bianca regret her overreaction somewhat. It had been clear that Kady was struggling to get the words out in the first place, probably anticipating just such a response; that hadn't meant it had been any easier to hear it, however. "W-Well, I figured, since the mandate..."

The mandate. Bianca had almost forgotten about that, despite the many e-mails her college had sent out, warning those who might be from other towns and cities. Bianca had heard about other places doing it, but she'd assumed it was a fake rumor - why would Betweeners need a rule like that, which seemed so much more suited for a little? - until the e-mails, and she discovered that, while her own town hadn't adopted it yet, the one where she went to school had. 

"I don't think they're really going to do it," Bianca shrugged, her voice gaining a bit of volume as she tried to convince herself. "There's no way they'd enforce that... I mean, I've been paying for a parking spot since I started there, and they let me renew it when I got my dorm room, so..."

"We chose our rooms before the..." Kady pointed out.

Bianca gave her a frosty glare. "Don't," she snapped. "I don't want to hear that stupid word again. It's just an empty threat, that's all."

"I don't know," Kady squirmed. She was always so uncertain, so nervous... Bianca couldn't help wondering at times if, somehow, her friend was a little in disguise, even though they'd known each other all their lives, and Kady was technically a few centimeters taller than her, if Bianca wasn't in her usual heels. But she was so ready to do whatever the people in charge - or any Amazon on the street - told her to do without questioning it, and it had taken so much pushing for Bianca to convince her it wouldn't be too scary to pledge to a sorority with her, that all those stories about hazing were made up, which, at least in the case of their school, appeared to be true. Why shouldn't Kady trust her on this, too?

"Whatever," Bianca sighed dramatically, seeing that this was going nowhere. "Have fun getting driven to school like a kindergartner."

"It would be more fun if you were riding with me," Kady said quietly, but Bianca pretended not to hear.

On the day the dorms opened, Bianca loaded up her car, the same as she always did, hugged her mom and dad goodbye - having hid the flyer the school had sent out to make sure the parents knew about the mandate as well, so she wouldn't have to have the same conversation she'd had with Kady again - and headed out, positive nothing was going to happen to her.

She didn't even realize the gas station she always stopped at was within city limits, had never thought about it. She just stepped out of her car, stretched, pondering whether she ought to head to the bathroom first or pump her gas, totally oblivious until she heard a deep, strong voice. "What do you think you're doing, young lady?"

Bianca rolled her eyes, turned, her heart beating a little faster at the sight of a police officer - an Amazon, of course - standing there, watching her. "I-I'm getting gas," she pointed at the pump, making her choice, even though she did really need to go, too. She didn't think it was illegal to park her car at the pump and not intend to use it right away, but she didn't want to find out.

"Were you driving that car?" the officer asked.

Bianca glanced back at the car, biting back her most sarcastic replies, wanting to say that she must be, since she was the only one in it, instead settling for a simple, "Yeah."

The police officer sighed, shook his head. "You are aware of the carseat mandate, are you not?"

Her eyes widened before she could stop them, probably making it obvious what the real answer was. "N-No," she lied. "Wh-What is that?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "Where are you headed?" he inquired, and, not knowing what else to do, she told him the name of her college. "I thought so. The school have all been telling their students about it all summer. Come on, then, I'm going to have to take you there myself."

"B-But what about my car?" she whined. "My stuff?"

"I'll radio in to the station and have somebody pick it up," he said, walking around to the trunk of his car, Bianca squeaking in fear as he opened it up and took a carseat out and putting it in the back seat. "Don't make me chase you," he warned. "Get over here now, young lady."

"B-But I..." Bianca wanted to ask for the bathroom, but she felt like Kady in this moment, too scared to get her words out, which led to her being picked up, carried like a little, strapped into the carseat.

By the time she got there, she really wished she'd taken Kady's offer, gotten a ride with one of their Amazon friends like she saw so many others doing as the police car pulled into the parking lot. But no, she was the center of attention as the police officer stepped out, opening the door for her, unfastening the straps... Then noticing the wet spot on her jeans. "I-I'll take care of it," she whispered. "Y-You don't have to..."

"All right," he shook his head. "Let's get you to the nurse's office." That was another rule that should only apply to littles, as far as she was concerned... But she doubted many of them had even managed to break it yet. There was a good chance she'd be the first one to show up at the nurse's office and be sentenced to diapers for the rest of the semester, as part of this grand, mortifying entrance into her senior year. 

________________________________________

"I'm sure you've heard the news," Fransisca said as she bustled around her office, in and out of the view of her webcam, always busy. 

Mazie shifted in her chair, adjusting the short skirt of her dress carefully, even though there was no way the other woman could see anything more than her head and chest through the screen. "Maybe?" she replied diplomatically. There was a decent chance of that, though, as busy as she'd been lately, she could easily have missed it. "Could you give me a little more to go on?"

Her agent paused, looking back at her computer, then chuckled. "Of course," she shook her head. "Sorry. The mandate. You've heard of it, right?"

"Ohhh, that." It was natural that Fransisca would have assumed she was aware of it... As a 'tweener, it was about her. She'd just finished shooting the latest movie in the series that had made her famous, however, where she was used to being chauffeured to and from the set, and then there'd been a car waiting for her at the airport to take her to her house outside the city. "What was that about? Some safety thing?"

"There was some study that said it was for the best," Fransisca told her. 

Mazie knew she ought to be enraged about it, that she deserved more rights than one of those stupid littles, but, to be honest... "I never did like driving anyway," she shrugged. 

Fransisca beamed. "Perfect! I knew my instincts were right! There's been a bit of resistance to it, so they were looking for a spokesperson, and..."

"Wait, spokesperson?" Mazie frowned. "I mean, I'm fine with it for me, but..."

"You're exactly who they want!" Fransisca insisted. "They need someone recognizable, and you're a hot name right now."

"I'd like to know a little more about it," Mazie said. "I've heard of it, but I don't really..."

"What's there to know?" Fransisca rolled her eyes. "They just need to show that you're happy to follow the rules, and aren't trying to fight it. That's all it is. You just need to be seen publicly happy to do it, and give a couple interviews about why it's the right decision, and that's it! It'll be less work than the press junket when your movie comes out."

"But I don't..." Mazie protested. 

"You're a doll!" Fransisca blew her a kiss. "We'll get started tomorrow." Before Mazie could say anything more, she'd shut the camera off, ended the video call. 

Mazie should have done some research then, but she was sure she'd be given the important talking points before her interviews, and didn't want to confuse herself. So, when Fransisca pulled up in her driveway the next day, she was in for a surprise.

"What are you doing?" her agent asked when she tried to get into the front passenger's seat. "You can't ride up there."

Mazie furrowed her brow. "But you left that carseat back there," she pointed through the rear window, where she could see it. As soon as she said the words, she realized that it was definitely bigger than a little's carseat would be. Almost big enough for... "Wait," she squealed. "Seriously?!" She looked down at herself, at her dress, even shorter than the one she'd worn the day before. "I-I can't ride in that thing dressed like this!"

"I didn't want to say anything," Fransisca shrugged. "It would be difficult to get you out without flashing the paparazzi, though. Fortunately, I was out shopping last night, and, knowing your usual.... fashion sense, I found something I think would be adorable."

Mazie wrinkled her nose as the woman held up the denim shortalls, embroidered with kids' book characters, looking like something a little would wear, especially when they were combined with the fact that she was about to show up to a press event in a carseat. "I-I have my own clothes right inside," she said. "I can..."

"No, no," Fransisca shook her head, starting to undress her out in the driveway. "You could have done that before I arrived. We don't have time for you to look through your whole closet... Besides, this will really set the perfect tone for the interview. Now hush, or I'll put you in trainers under these!"

________________________________________

"No, I don't think so," Isabel shook her head.

"What?!" Lottie's mouth fell open. "Are you serious?!"

Isabel let out a long-suffering sigh. "There's no need to be dramatic about it. The study came out, the results are clear... I don't think we'd be contributing anything worthwhile by giving time to these silly conspiracy theories."

"But... They're not!" Lottie insisted. "There's a real story here, I can feel it!"

There had to be more to it... Why else, out of nowhere, would it suddenly be unsafe for Betweeners to drive cars? Why would they need to be kept securely fastened in a carseat in the back seat, when for years - decades! - that hadn't been the case?! Lottie's reporter's instincts had been going wild since it all started, well before the mandate had spread to her city, leaving her, as a 'tweener herself, scrambling to find Amazons to drive her around whenever she needed to go somewhere? She felt like she was back to being a teenager again - or, worse, even younger, before any of her friends had licenses.

"No," Isabel said simply. "It's hard enough getting people to accept this as it is, we don't need to make it more difficult."

She'd just started to see that Mazie girl, from those witch movies everybody loved, on TV all the time, talking about what a great idea this whole thing was... That was part of what had stoked Lottie's curiosity, made her want to look into this more deeply. It was a big change, but, for the most part, outside of some grumbling, it seemed like most people were accepting it as a new part of life... Better that than getting pulled over. So why was it being pushed so hard?

"Fine," Lottie grumbled. 

"And I don't want to find out you're secretly investigating it while you're supposed to be covering your actual assignments," Isabel warned. "Just do your job, Lottie."

She couldn't control what Lottie did outside of work, however... Except when she could, like that afternoon when Lottie got a text from her neighbor, who had been giving her a ride to and from work, telling her that she wouldn't be able to make it to pick her up, leaving Lottie scrambling to find somebody else. Most of the other Amazons in the office had other 'tweeners they were helping out, all living in different parts of the city, away from her apartment. Unfortunately, she quickly ran out of options, other than to go back to her boss's office.

"Well, sure," Isabel grinned. "I'd be happy to help you out... I do have some rules about riding in my car, however."

That was the thing Betweeners really had to worry about. It was already such an imposition, making somebody else drive them everywhere, it was hard to say no if they had a few conditions... And even harder to argue that they might be unnecessary, when the straps were so difficult to get off by yourself.

As so many formerly independent 'tweeners had lately, Lottie found herself in a pair of training pants - and grateful it wasn't anything worse - being helped into a carseat. "And one more thing," Isabel said at the last moment, pushing a pacifier between the woman's lips, locking it in place. "I don't want to hear any more about that silly story."

Lottie hadn't heard about 'tweener-proof pacifiers, so she assumed this was only meant to prevent a little from removing it, but even those could be difficult to unlock for someone without an Amazon's strength, and it would be embarrassing to be seen struggling with it and failing to get it out... And, before the study, she hadn't heard about many Betweener-sized carseats, either.

She sat in the back seat, bored, looking around, unable to speak or do much of anything. That was when she noticed the name of the company that had made the carseat. She hadn't thought much about it before, but it wasn't one she knew much about, so she took out her phone and started to do a little digging, sorting through layer after layer of shell corporations before, finally, she came across a name she was quite familiar with, one that had funded this study, which, unsurprisingly, had led to a huge spike in sales for the 'tweener-sized carseat made by the original company she'd been looking into...

"I know that look," Isabel said as she moved to let Lottie out of her carseat and the pacifier. "Maybe I'd better make sure I have some spare diapers for next time."

"Wh-What?" Lottie blushed, realizing that the woman had mistaken her excitement for something else. "N-No, that's not it! You wouldn't believe...!"

"I certainly hope you're not about to say anything about something I told you to leave alone," Isabel glared. "Or I can put you right back in that seat and take you to my place, where I already have some diapers, and a crib, and a nice, wooden hairbrush..."

Did she already know?! Had she been in on it the whole time, and trying to keep her from finding out the truth?! Lottie fidgeted, staring up into her boss's eyes, feeling her trainers rustling between her thighs... Either way, the only appropriate response, for the moment, at least, was a meek, "Y-Yes, ma'am," as she scurried into her apartment building, too nervous to even prove that she hadn't had an accident after all, which, no doubt, would come back to haunt her the next time she had to get a ride from Isabel... Which, thanks to the mandate, was bound to happen sooner or later.