The Queen Bee (Patreon)

Here's the Community Story for this month! This may have gone a slightly different direction than intended, but it's an angle I haven't taken much in a while, and thought it might be a fun change of pace. And, if nothing else, hopefully it'll make up for it by being far too long.

"Oh, I'd better be sure not to mix these up!" the receptionist teased, taking the paperwork Cecelia had shoved into her hand, pretending to weigh it against the piece of paper the mother of the cute little brunette toddler Cecelia had just seen being taken inside had given her.

"Yeah," Cecelia agreed snottily, "you'd better not. That's, like, your whole job, isn't it? If you can't handle that, then maybe you shouldn't have it?"

The receptionist's eyes widened slightly, clearly not expecting that response. Maybe she was being a bit harsh, maybe she should apologize... To be honest, though, Cecelia was already in a bad enough mood, having to do this in the first place. It hadn't been that long ago she'd been on top of the world, one of the most popular girls in high school, constantly surrounded by friends who looked up to her, and wanted to dress like her, and did whatever she told them to do, and now, they'd all graduated, and she was the only one left, the only one who hadn't decided to go out of town for college. 

She claimed she was taking a break, going to start school next semester, or school year, but really, she hadn't had any plans for that until now that she'd been left all alone. She could take her time, relax, apply to whichever university most of her old friends were at, then slide back into her proper place among them... Assuming nobody else had claimed that spot in her absence.

Her parents had been less thrilled about her doing nothing for the next few months, and insisted that if she wasn't going to be in school, she needed to get a job. And, while this daycare hadn't been her first choice, she suspected it would be better than fast food or retail, judging from the horror stories she'd been told by friends who had done those in high school.

But that didn't mean she was happy about any of this. She was probably lucky she'd gotten the position at all, with the attitude she'd had during the interview, yet somehow she'd made it, and here she was, dropping off her final bit of paperwork so she could start her first day.

The receptionist recovered quickly, her wide, pasted-on smile returning. "Don't worry, dear," she told Cecelia, "I'll put it right where it belongs... Why don't you go on in?"

Cecelia should have said thank you, at least; she hated being condescended to, however, and that was all she could hear, dripping from the woman's words. She stared daggers at her, and, with a flip of her purple hair, marched right into the daycare's playroom, shutting the baby gate on the entrance behind her.

Immediately, she was shocked with how big everything seemed, how overwhelming... She'd gotten a brief look at it during her interview, but hadn't actually gone inside, and it was crazy how much of a difference that had made. Even the kids appeared larger than she'd expected... This time of day, she assumed it would be mostly toddlers, children too young for school, and, while these did look that age to her, they were tall enough that they must have been older than that. Or were kids just that much bigger these days?

Either way, she wasn't about to let herself be intimidated by that, marching right up to the one person she recognized, the woman she'd interviewed with, Tai. She'd been sitting for their other meeting, so Cecelia hadn't realized that she was, in fact, huge, towering over her. Cecelia had always been petite, but this was ridiculous... Or was she simply too used to spending the majority of her time around her friends, who were also, mostly, pretty small?

Cecelia didn't even seem to pull Tai's attention as she approached, leaving her having to tug on the hem of her shirt like a dumb little kid, blushing as the woman glanced at her, smiled, and knelt down. "Hello, there!" she cooed.

Cecelia's nostrils flared, though, knowing Tai was a manager here, she didn't dare speak to her the way she had the receptionist, despite Tai literally speaking down to her in a way that got her blood boiling. "Hey," she forced herself to say, as normally as possible. "I'm here."

"You certainly are!" Tai gushed. "And we're so happy to have you!" Maybe she was telling the truth, Cecelia reasoned. Maybe she was just so used to talking to babies that she'd forgotten how to speak to grown-ups. "What's your name again, sweetie?"

Were they bringing in that many new people that she couldn't remember? "It's Cecelia," she grumbled.

"Of course, Cece!" Tai replied.

"No," Cecelia pouted, before stopping herself. She needed to pick her battles, and get off on the right foot. "Sure," she shrugged. "Whatever. So, where should I start?"

"Wherever you like!" Tai chuckled, seeing Cecelia look around, brain overloading at all the options, at trying to calculate what the best thing to do to impress Tai. "I'll tell you what, why don't you go play with those girls?" she pointed to a group of toddlers at a dollhouse. Cecelia nodded, turned to obey... And felt a pat on her bottom. She gasped, jumping at the contact. "That's what I thought... First, we'd better take care of this..."

"Look, if you're, like, into me, that's flattering, but I don't think it's appropriate..." Cecelia babbled as she followed Tai across the room, trying to collect her thoughts. It might be helpful to have a manager that was attracted to her, but she wasn't into girls, and it did complicate things...

"What are you saying?" Tai turned, smirking, clearly having not heard any of it. "Now, sweetie, I don't want you to be upset... This is standard procedure when you're getting started out here..." 

Cecelia saw then that they were at the changing tables, which, like everything else, looked gigantic to her... As did the pair of training pants Tai pulled from the shelf of one of them. "D-Do you want me to put that on someone?" she furrowed her brow.

Tai was quite amused by that, though she hid it as best she could. "No, silly," she shook her head. "I need you to wear them."

"What?!" Cecelia's heart pounded. "No! No, I'm not wearing a diaper!" She froze, clamping her mouth shut, realizing she'd just shouted that for anyone in the daycare to hear.

"No, you won't be," Tai soothed. "These aren't diapers, Cece! They're not that much different than your panties, and once we see how you can do with them, we can see what to do with you."

"B-But..." Cecelia stomped her foot, tears springing to her eyes. This was insane! She was an adult now, getting an adult job! Why should she have to wear those stupid things?! Tai had warned her in the interview that things could be chaotic here, that there were times that they weren't able to take a bathroom break whenever they wanted, and Cecelia had stupidly said her bladder wasn't the biggest... She'd followed it up by saying she'd make it work, though! She didn't need to resort to... this!

"It's all right," Tai told her softly. "I know it can be a lot... It's okay to be a little grumpy... You'll get through this, everyone always does..." She knelt down in front of the flabbergasted girl again, this time reaching under her skirt and starting to slip down her panties.

"C-Can't I at least do it myself?!" Cecelia whined.

"It'll be quicker this way," Tai said. And, sure enough, it was only a matter of a few practiced movements, and suddenly Cecelia was back in trainers, squirming and wrinkling her nose, feeling their strange bulk between her legs, rustling under her skirt. "Now, go play!"

There was another pat to her backside, this one accompanied by a soft crackle, one that made Cecelia's skin crawl ever so slightly. This wasn't right... This wasn't how her first job was supposed to go!

But she had to pretend she wasn't mad about it, had to be a good team player. She tugged nervously on her skirt, shuffling across the playroom, over to the girls she'd been directed to, her stomach churning as she got closer, seeing that, to her amazement, they were the same size as her, if not bigger... There was no doubt they were all in diapers, however, far thicker than even the humiliating Pull-Ups she had under her skirt, and she knew she was way older than them... And she was used to taking charge of girls who were taller than her.

She didn't even have to say anything in this case... One look at her, and the girls were enraptured. "Wow!" one of them gasped, toddling over, reaching for Cecelia's dyed hair. "So pwetty!"

"What is that?" another pointed at her tattoo, running along the top of her sternum, peeking out over her shirt. "Did you dwaw on youwsewf? Did you get in twouble?"

Cecelia couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face, standing up a bit straighter. "Thank you," she said politely, the other girls eager to touch her, and talk to her. She was even willing, when they asked her name, to go by Cece, to make it easier for them to say. It was silly, but somehow, it felt like old times... Perhaps that was being mean to her old friends, comparing them to these toddlers, but, if anything, these girls were better, more impressed by her stories, less concerned with interjecting, trying to get in their own barbs in an attempt to compete with her for the top spot in their clique...

It was all going well, until another worker, one Cecelia didn't know, a pretty, young brunette woman, came up to her. "Hey, there, Cece," she chirped. "Let's see how you're doing..."

Cecelia blushed as the woman reached for the hem of her skirt, quickly grabbing for it, trying to stop her. "Not here!" she hissed, glancing back at the girls.

"All right," the woman shrugged, taking her by the hand. "If you say so."

Back to the changing tables they went, and, once they were there, the woman wasted no time in turning Cecelia around, lifting the back of her skirt, revealing the seat of her trainers to the whole daycare. "Hey!" Cece squealed. "What are you doing?!" This couldn't be normal! Making their workers wear Pull-Ups was one thing, but showing them off to all the students was something else altogether!

"You are doing pretty well," the woman conceded, giving the trainers a squeeze. "Do you need to use the potty?"

Cecelia glowered at her... But she had to admit, now that she stopped to think about it, her bladder was getting pretty full. "Y-Yeah," she admitted. "I think I saw it when I was here the other... Wh-What are...?!" 

Her nose wrinkled, seeing the woman open the lid on a plastic potty chair. "Hey, stop it!" she grasped at her skirt again, too slow to stop it from being whisked down her legs. "This is absurd! You can't...!" And, in no time, she was being pushed down onto the waiting seat, the woman, like the other workers, so much bigger and stronger than her that she stood no chance against them. "What is your name?!" Cecelia demanded. "I'm going to tell Tai about this, and...!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," the woman told her. "You're new here, too, aren't you? You can call me Miss Kayla, okay?"

Cecelia fell silent. It sounded like Kayla was also new, so she must know what this was all like... Was she being like this to impress the other workers, or was it standard practice? She couldn't tell for sure, but it certainly didn't look like Kayla was in Pull-Ups anymore, so it must not be that hard to move past this stage of 'training'...

That didn't mean she was happy about it, however, or that she was going to go along with being forced to use a potty in front of the students. After a few minutes, Kayla helped her up, looking into the seat, shaking her head. "Do you want to try some more for me?"

"No!" Cecelia scoffed. 

"All right," Kayla said skeptically, letting Cece step into her Pull-Ups... When the girl reached for her skirt, however, Kayla refused to give it back. "You haven't used the potty yet," Kayla said, as if Cecelia could forget. "We may need to keep a closer eye on your trainers..."

"B-But everyone is going to see!" Cecelia whimpered.

"That's the point." Kayla pushed her away from the changing tables with what was now a very familiar pat to her backside, Cece taking a couple stumbling steps, feeling overwhelmed, shocked at how mean everyone was being to the new hire...

And then, at last, she saw it, glancing over at the mirror, and seeing, for the first time, her reflection. Or, rather, a reflection... The rest of the room behind her looked normal, exactly as she'd been seeing it all morning... She, on the other hand, was much different. 

It couldn't be her... It was impossible! She sniffled, shaking her head, the person in the mirror doing the same. Her hair was the same shade of purple that she found it unlikely most parents would let their toddlers have, her tattoo was there... Everything was as it should be, other than the simple fact that it was completely wrong. She'd been seeing herself as the same confident, pretty young woman she knew she was all morning... What was staring at her from the other side of the mirror was a tiny, slightly pudgy toddler, with no sign whatsoever of her true age, looking much closer to nineteen months old, rather than nineteen years.

No wonder everything had looked so big... No wonder the workers seemed to be giants, and the children not much better... No wonder Tai, and Kayla, had treated her that way... They'd thought she was one of the students!

Horrified, she toddled across the playroom, to the entrance, the baby gate she'd shut so easily now looming over her, well out of reach. "H-Hey!" she called, seeing the receptionist on the other side. "H-Hey, let me out!" The woman looked over, smiled, and went back to work... And, slowly, it dawned on Cece that there was nothing she could do about it. She was trapped here, as helpless as the baby she'd somehow become...

She trudged back across the playroom, confused, terrified... Until she heard her new friends. "You'we in twainews awweady?!" one of them burbled. "Wow! You'we so smawt!"

Cece blushed, having forgotten all about her Pull-Ups being on display, with everything else she had to worry about... But, really, that didn't seem so bad now, as the other girls gushed over how jealous they were, how much they wanted to get out of diapers...

That did take a lot of the sting of her situation away, through snacktimes and naptimes, and an embarrassing accident when she misjudged how long it would take her tiny legs to get her across the playroom to Tai to tell her she needed to use the potty, but it was obvious that nobody really minded, that her friends were still impressed with her only wetting herself a little, once, when they'd all needed multiple diaper changes. Once they started to be picked up by their parents, however, she began to get anxious again, not knowing what was going to happen...

"Oh, Cece," the receptionist called. "Come here, dear!" Cecelia looked around, hesitated, but finally obeyed, waddling to the gate. "Are you ready to go home?" Cecelia nodded, and the receptionist opened up the gate, letting Cecelia step through... And, instantly, everything went back to normal. 

"Thank you so much!" Cecelia gasped, giving her a hug. "I'm so sorry, I-I'll be more polite, j-just don't do that again, please!"

"Hush," the receptionist said. "Step over here. Kayla, honey, I think your ride is here." Kayla sauntered over, opening the gate herself. When she stepped through, the opposite happened, her body shrinking, regressing, turning back into the adorable little toddler Cecelia had seen being brought in right before her. Her parents walked through the front door a moment later, and the girl rushed over to them.

"Did you have fun today?" they asked.

"So much fun!" she giggled. "I can't wait to come back tomowwow!"

"You see," the receptionist told Cecelia when they were gone, "I have to do it again... I'm afraid I got all mixed up, and you took her spot, and she took yours... It would be such a pain to fix it, and I just don't think I can handle it. It's too bad I'm so bad at my job, huh? Maybe I shouldn't have it."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

She wasn't going to go back. Why would she? It would be absolutely crazy! Going back meant letting herself be turned into a baby again... She couldn't tell her parents that, of course, but she could tell them that the job hadn't worked out, or they'd hired someone with more experience, or... Well, anything, other than the truth!

Except... She wasn't sure that was what she wanted. Yes, it had been absolutely humiliating, running around like that the whole day, being treated like a toddler, someone who might not even be fully potty trained yet.... But it had been nice, hanging out with her new friends. It was just like old times, but easier. She didn't need a new designer purse or iPhone to impress them, all she had to do was continue to be able to use the bathroom, instead of her pants, and have pretty hair, and she could wrap them around her little finger.

"Cece!" the receptionist sounded surprised to see her the next day. "Good morning!"

"Good morning," Cecelia replied defiantly, telling herself she was doing this to prove that she was resilient, that she wasn't going to let the woman win... Deep down, however, she knew it wasn't about that at all.... It was all about the thrill she felt, seeing how excited her new friends were to see her walking across the room to join them.

It was extra mortifying to have Kayla be the one who came to check on her, to take her over to be put into her Pull-Ups, knowing the truth about her. Did Kayla know who Cece really was? She didn't seem to... The fact that she could, though, made it all the more embarrassing to whine to her, "B-But I only had one accident yesterday!"

It didn't make any difference; she still went into her trainers. And her friends, thankfully, still thought she was cool for being allowed to wear even those. They loved listening to her retelling them the stories of some of her favorite TV shows - censored, of course, to be more appropriate for kids their age - and they were so grateful when she pointed out that they might want to try to use the potty, spotting signs that she could see easily, that somehow sailed right over their heads. They looked up to her just as much as they would have if they'd known she was secretly a grown-up, if not more.

She did have a couple more accidents that day... She didn't want to let her audience down by stopping in the middle of a story just because she felt a little twinge in her bladder. Fortunately, she'd worn a dress that day, so she couldn't get it taken away, and nobody needed to know except her and the workers.

The only thing that worried her came at the end of the day, when the receptionist opened the baby gate for her. She stepped over the threshold, into the lobby... And, for a second, long enough for her to glance down at herself, to start to panic, nothing happened. That hadn't happened yesterday, had it? She didn't think so... But it hadn't really been that long... It wasn't that big a deal, was it?

She decided, that night, to dye her hair again, to truly blow her friends' minds, choosing bright red. They were all suitably impressed when she walked in the next day, practically falling over each other to tell her how pretty it looked, the way her old friends had always done... Except, even better. She had no doubt whatsoever that these girls meant it, unlike her other friends, who she'd always suspected were saying it only because she was the queen bee.

"What's going on with you, Cece?" Tai asked her that afternoon.

Cecelia had no idea what she was talking about. "I dunno," she shrugged.

"You did so well your first day," Tai told her. "But now you keep doing worse and worse..."

Cecelia looked over at the potty training chart, squirming slightly when she saw her line, and the handful of frowny faces she'd gotten that day. "I-It's not that bad," she said, more to herself than to Tai.

"Sweetie, ten accidents in a week means you have to go back to diapers. You don't want to do that, do you?" Cecelia shook her head vehemently... But she didn't think it was that bad. "Nobody's mad at you," Tai reassured her. "Just try to pay more attention, okay?"

Cece scoffed; she was paying plenty of attention! In fact, she was paying attention for all her friends, too, with a couple having already been promised that they could start properly training the next day, if they kept it up. Honestly, she was probably doing more good with that than she ever could have as a normal worker here!

And yet, when she frantically pointed that out to Kayla the next day, as she sat on the changing table, watching in a panic as the girl pulled out a full-blown diaper, she didn't seem to care. "It's all right," she cooed. "Calm down... These are just the rules..."

"No!" Cece glared at her. "I only had one other little one today, and it barely counted, and..."

"And this one makes ten," Kayla said.

"No, it doesn't!" Cece fumed, looking over at the chart, jabbing a finger at it. "There's one, two, three..." Her brain went blank for a moment, staring at the next frowny face sticker. "Umm..."

"It's ten," Kayla promised. "And I'm afraid that means diapers... But don't worry! At the rate your friends are going, I'm sure you'll be back out of them in no time, too!"

"That's what I'm saying!" Cece sulked. "I'm helping them with that! That's thanks to me!"

"Okay," Kayla smiled, patting her on the head condescendingly. "Whatever you say, Cece... Now, let's get you into your diaper."

Getting out the gate that afternoon was especially rough, not only because of the diaper bulging beneath her shorts, that she had no doubt the receptionist recognized instantly, but also because she made it almost all the way to the front door of the daycare before she grew back up, getting close enough to wonder what she was going to do if she got there and wasn't able to reach the handle.

She stopped at a gas station on the way home, slinking into their bathroom to throw away the diaper so her parents wouldn't notice it when she walked in... And to buy another new color of hair dye, hoping that would distract her friends from the fact that knew she was going to be put right back into a diaper as soon as she got to daycare the next day.

She didn't have to go back of course... There was nothing making her do it... But, if anything, this spurred her further, made her want to prove to Kayla, and Tai, and her friends, and everyone, that she didn't actually need the diapers, that it had been a mistake.

She was so preoccupied with those thoughts that she was taken by surprise when her mother asked her after dinner, "Is it that time of the month?" She couldn't figure out why until she glanced down and saw a stain on the crotch of her shorts.

"Y-Yeah," she lied. "S-Sorry, I didn't..."

"That's all right," her mother gave her a hug. "It happens to everyone."

Cece tried not to think about how she'd gotten that same advice about her accidents at daycare. This one wasn't too bad, luckily, hadn't done much more than leave a small wet spot... And, she told herself, it was only natural, after spending so much time at daycare... She'd just have to be more careful when she wasn't padded up...

And when she was. The next day at daycare was tough... Her new, blue hair quickly became old news as the other girls started to show up, and be put into Pull-Ups. She attempted to take back the spotlight with more of her stories, but she'd been having a harder and harder time recalling the plots of the shows she'd used to be so obsessed with, and the longer she took struggling to remember, and piece together an interesting tale out of the fragments she could dig up, the more time other girls had to announce they needed to use the potty and run off to find a worker, only to be showered in adoration when they returned, stealing her attention.

That was a simple fix, or so she thought... If she stopped helping them out, stopped letting them know they might be ready for a potty break, they would start to forget the signs, and do a better job of listening to her. It was a little vindictive, maybe - it felt more-so after she wiggled her bottom, noticed the cool squishiness of an accident she hadn't felt there - but it would work, would put her back in the driver's seat of their group, where she belonged.

She'd done too good of a job, however, and the other girls started to pick up her slack, using the tips she'd taught them. One of them even had the audacity to tell her she might be ready for a potty break! "I'm fine," she sniffed, ignoring the fullness she could now feel in her bladder, only, a few minutes later, for it to grow too much for her.

"Uh-oh!" Kayla said when she appeared to check on them. "Looks like somebody sprung a leak..." Cece smirked, glad to see that her plot was worked for at least one of her subjects. "Come on, let's get you changed..." And, for some reason, she held her hand out to Cece.

"No, I'm not..." Cece started, glancing downwards, her cheeks turning bright red when she saw that she was, indeed, sitting in the middle of a small, amber puddle. "W-Wait, I didn't... I-It was only..."

She was put into not one, but two diapers, her dress whisked away to be washed, leaving her lying on the changing table in shock. How could this be happening to her?! 

"It's all right," Kayla cooed down at her. "Here, Tai showed me where the spare clothes were... Isn't this nice? Pampers gave the daycare a nice little promo t-shirt, and now it's all yours! For the rest of the day, at least."

Cece sniffled, tears springing to her eyes at the sight of the Pampers logo on the front of the shirt, at the thought of advertising for them, of making it that much more obvious what a baby she was, as if the lack of anything to replace the lower half of her dress wasn't enough.

"Calm down," Kayla rubbed her tummy. "First off, though, let me take care of this... I don't know why your Mommy and Daddy haven't scrubbed it off before now." She took out a baby wipe and began to rub Cece's chest, where her tattoo was.

"No, that's real," Cece protested. "You can't..."

But when she peered down, it certainly didn't seem like it. It looked more like a clumsy marker drawing... And one that was coming off at Kayla's touch, wiping away as if that was all it was, as if she hadn't spent hours in the tattoo chair as soon as she was old enough, getting it despite her parents' objections.

"H-How...?" Cece shook her head. "B-But..."

"All better!" Kayla exclaimed. "Now, lift your arms up for me... There! All better!"

Cece was lifted down off of the changing table, set down on the floor in her double diapers, her Pamper shirt, which stopped just short of the diapers' waistbands, guaranteeing they were on display... Somewhere, somehow, everything had gotten out of control, and she didn't know what to do about it other than to sink down to the floor and throw a tantrum, kicking and screaming and crying until she'd worn herself out, and was ready to take the bottle of warm milk that Kayla offered her.

"Drink that up," the girl ordered. "When you're done, and you've chilled out a bit, you're going to the corner for a bit."

"Y-Yes, Miss Kayla," Cece accepted the decision, taking the bottle with both hands automatically, without thinking about doing it any other way, starting to gulp it down, trying not to think about how her life was being taken over by diapers, as she wondered if there was any way to avoid it now.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I heard you had quite a day," the receptionist teased, standing at the gate, hand on the latch.

"Y-Yes, ma'am," Cece admitted with a pout, tugging at the hem of her Pampers shirt. "I-I was a cranky girl..."

"Poor little thing," the woman mocked. "Maybe you need to stay, and have another nap." Cece swallowed, fidgeting in place, wondering if that was what was going to happen, fully aware that if the receptionist didn't open the gate, she wasn't getting out of here. "Do you want that?" 

"N-No, ma'am," Cece told her, not knowing if that would make the woman want to help her or not, but too scared to try to fib.

"All right, then," the receptionist opened up the gate, letting Cece through and going back to her desk. "Oh, and by the way, I have this," she held up Cece's dress. "Do you want it?" Cece nodded; without that, she'd have to drive home in this humiliating outfit, would have to face her parents! "Well, come tell me that, then, silly," the woman said.

Cece groaned. She didn't want to get closer to the woman again, to have to face her in her toddler form, to beg her for her own dress... But she hadn't turned big again yet. Maybe that was good... If she changed, and the dress wasn't on her, would it stay its current size? Would she be stuck in her Pamper shirt and diapers anyway? She really wanted the extra confidence her true self would give her, though... But, as she stood there, nothing continued to happen.

"What's wrong?" the receptionist asked. "Is something happening in those big old baby diapers of yours, Cece? Do you need another change for the road?"

"No!" Cece glared at her.

"Someone's sassy," the woman's eyebrow raised. "Do you not want your dress?"

"I do!" Cece whined. "I-I'm sorry!" She took a deep breath, toddling closer to the desk. "Pl-Please, ma'am... Please, c-can I have my dress back?"

"I don't know," the receptionist shrugged. "You were pretty rude..."

"I'm sorry!" Cece repeated, stomping her foot in frustration. "Just give it back!"

"Oh, Cece," the woman shook her head. "I really thought you were learning your lesson, but you're still the same little brat you've always been, aren't you?" Thankfully, she did bend over and hand her the dress. Cece scrambled into it, then hurriedly made her way to the door, and, even with all the delay getting there, she was almost all the way to it before she became an adult again.

There was a part of her that told her to stop there, that things were going too far... But another part was determined to get her role as the queen bee back, no matter what it took. She'd never tried doing more than one color in her hair at the same time, though she was sure she could figure it out, with a few Youtube tutorials... That turned more into her watching nursery rhyme videos instead, giggling on her bed until she was lying there in the middle of a puddle, wishing she hadn't thrown her diapers out on the way home again. In the end, however, the purple she added to her blue hair looked great, and, even if she went to bed super early, feeling weirdly tired for some reason, she thought everything was on track for tomorrow.

Waking up was a different story... Her bed was absolutely soaked, for the second time in less than a day, and when her Mommy asked her why she was washing her sheets again so soon, she was too frazzled to come up with an excuse, just standing there, staring up at her dumbly until the woman put her hand on her forehead to see if she was sick. "You'd let me know if anything was wrong, wouldn't you?" she frowned, and Cece nodded.

Cece was too clever for the workers today, sneaking past them, going right to her friends. She felt a pang of jealousy, realizing that they were now all in Pull-Ups, every one of them... But she had something better. "Look!" she announced, lifting her skirt. "I'm in big girl panties!"

That, and her hair, got the appropriate reaction, and, for a few minutes, she was back on top, luxuriating in the attention... It didn't take long for it to grow to be too much for her. She wanted to tell them another story, but the only shows she could remember now were the nursery rhymes she'd listened to the night before, and even those she stumbled through a bit, needing help to recall a few of the lines. And, while she was doing it, all of her friends' eyes were on her, ready to point out any bit of wiggling, anything that might mean she'd need to go to the potty.

"I know when I hafta go!" she told them stubbornly. "That's why I'm in big girl panties, and none of you are!"

And she knew she was right... Whether she looked like it or not, she was a grown-up! They were all just dumb babies! If they saw her acting weird, or heard some toots, they were wrong, and she was right! Even when she noticed the smell, she assumed it must have been one of them, proving her point... It didn't matter that, when she shifted her position on the floor, there was a weird, mushy sensation in the seat of her pants... That was definitely something else...

"Oh, Cece!" Kayla scolded. "What are you doing? Why didn't you come get me when you arrived, silly? Now look at what you did!"

"I didn't do anything!" Cece pouted, sticking to her story as she was carried to the changing table. "I-It wasn't me," she claimed when her panties were peeled off, revealing the mess inside. "I-I think somebody else did it..."

"And I think," Kayla replied, "that we've all heard quite enough from you today." And with that, she pushed a pacifier into Cece's mouth. Cece whimpered, but her mouth was already moving on its own, instinctively starting to suck away, the motion calming her down, keeping her silent as she was taped up into a diaper and snapped into a onesie.

She wanted to tell Kayla that she didn't belong in that, that those were for the littlest babies, but now that the paci was in, she couldn't recall how to take it out, how to stop sucking, so, instead, she waddled back to her friends, blushing as she got closer, seeing that she was dressed so much younger than them... But she was still their leader! They still looked up to her!

They did coo over her, and how cute her onesie was, and, for a moment, she was sure this was it, that she'd found the new method to grab their attention... But they quickly grew bored with that, and, with her still unable to get rid of her paci, or speak, she had no way to keep it. And, when they decided to go play with some other toys, she couldn't keep up with them, her bulky diaper slowing her down way more than their Pull-Ups. They had outgrown her, just like her old friends had...

"Poor thing," Kayla comforted her, finding her sitting on the floor, sniffling. "Here, I know what you need..." Her solution was a blankie and a teddy bear. Initially, Cece was offended, but it didn't take her long to realize she could set the teddy down and it wouldn't go anywhere, would just keep smiling pleasantly as she burbled nonsense behind her pacifier, feeling her diaper slowly warm beneath her and not giving it a second thought.

She wasn't sure when she drifted off, or how long she was asleep... The next thing she knew, she was feeling someone's arms around her, and she was snuggling into them, clinging to her blankie and teddy. "Shh," her Mommy whispered, "you don't have to wake up, baby... We're just going home..."

Cece nodded drowsily, then squeaked into her paci. Mommy! What was she doing here?! She never came to daycare... She didn't know about it! Yet, here she was, carrying Cece across the playroom, heading for the exit... Cece wriggled, trying to wake up, to piece it all together...

She babbled into her paci, trying to get Mommy to set her down, to let the receptionist open the baby gate, to let her walk through it... But she could see the receptionist sitting there, grinning, not moving from her spot, and Mommy just patted her on the bottom, promising, "You'll be back in your room in no time, sweetie... Stay calm until then, okay?"

Mommy opened the gate, carried Cece through. Cece held her breath, waiting to see if she was going to grow, wondering how she'd explain that... But it didn't happen. She stayed the same tiny nineteen month old as she was whisked through the lobby.

"Night-night, Cece," the receptionist waved. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

Cece shook her head desperately; this was all going too far! She had to stop this! She couldn't come back tomorrow, or ever again...

"See you in the morning!" Mommy smiled at the other woman, as if this was perfectly normal, as if she were used to having a toddler for a daughter, and picking her up and dropping her off at the daycare every day... And if that was truly what she thought, truly what she kept doing... Cece sucked on her pacifier, hugging her teddy closer to her chest, praying that, at any moment, she'd get big again, and break this illusion.... She'd never opened the door to the outside with the transformation still active, didn't know what that would do, if it would mean the real world would take over and fix everything, or if this spell would spread outside, would convince everyone that she'd always been a baby...

From the satisfied look on the receptionist's face, however, as Cece silently begged her to put an end to this with her eyes, staring at her over her Mommy's shoulder, she had a good feeling what the answer would be... And the carseat waiting for her in the back of her Mommy's car only confirmed it, well before she saw the baby toys spread across the living room as her Mommy carried her inside, or the nursery her bedroom had become. At the very least, she told herself, there were lots of cute stuffed animals waiting for her there, ready to listen to her the way her teddy had at daycare... At least there, in her nursery, she could be the queen bee again...