Gap Year - Chapter 25 (Patreon)

"Come on, Vivi," Miss Katie took her hand. "It's time to get you a fresh diaper."

Vivi pouted, automatically starting to open her mouth and say she was fine, though, by now, she knew that she wasn't exactly qualified to declare that... How long had it been now since she'd decided to just use her diapers, rather than bothering with the potty? A couple weeks? Maybe a little more? And she'd already lost count of the number of times she'd been surprised when one of the daycare workers checked her and found her wet, her bladder having let go while she was playing without her noticing.

"You can come back to your game in a minute," Miss Katie chuckled. "We don't want you getting a rash!"

Vivi frowned, beginning to wiggle her bottom, something feeling off, when the girl gave the seat of her diaper a pat and confirmed her suspicions... This was not another soggy accident after all. Her extra-thick diaper was full, and she had no memory of doing it. She remembered getting up onto her knees, stretching over the dollhouse to reach the other side, and there being a bit of discomfort that went away a moment later, and then, for some reason, deciding to continue sitting on her knees rather than planting herself back on her butt, but consciously, she hadn't put two and two together, hadn't been aware, at all, that she had messed herself, even when she was in the midst of it.

She needed to stop this, to go back to being a grown-up... But if she tried to do that, Dani might tell her parents, and she couldn't risk that. It was bad enough they knew she wet the bed... Not to mention, she had nothing else to do with her time during the day. After what she'd done at college, she couldn't look her classmates in the eye, not until they'd had plenty of time to forget... And if she waited another semester, that would give them more time, and some would even graduate and get out of there...

And surely, by then, someone else would have humiliated themselves and become the talk of the campus, the way she had no doubt she still was. Would they do anything that approached what she had - pooping her pants in the middle of a test, with everyone watching? Probably not, but given enough time for that story to fade into legend, there might be something else that was good enough, if it was newer...

Was one more semester and a summer sufficient time for allowing that to happen? Vivi didn't know, yet she also couldn't imagine waiting any longer than that. Even if that was all, that would be months more of wearing her diapers constantly, and, certainly, countless more accidents like the one she'd just had. By the time it was over, would she ever know when she was going in her pants?!

"Umm... Miss Katie?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, sweetie?" the girl smiled down at her. "What's wrong?"

"C-Could I... Try potty training again?" It was a hassle, sure, but she hadn't realized how rapidly things would deteriorate once she began to ignore it completely, and if she was going to stay here longer - which was very, very likely - she needed to do something to mitigate the damage.

"Well, that's something I'd have to talk to your Mommy or Daddy about," Miss Katie replied. "Then we could decide together if you're ready."

The 'we' in that sentence, Vivi noted, did not include her. As far as Miss Katie was concerned, she was a toddler, far too small and immature to need to be included in that discussion. And, obviously, there was no way she was going to be able to make that discussion happen without giving her secret away. "C-Could you send a note home?" she tried hopefully. That could be faked, at least...

"No, I'm afraid not," Miss Katie shook her head. "This is a very important discussion, so I'd want to talk to them face to face. Maybe over the phone, if I had to. It's too big for notes, though."

Vivi cursed inwardly, blushing slightly when, even in her mind, it came out as a much milder, 'Darn it!' as opposed to anything more harsh, her time spent surrounded only by children keeping her from so much as thinking a real curse word. Or so she thought.

"Speaking of," Miss Katie glanced across the room with a smile, "I suppose we could do that right now, if you'd like."

"Huh?" Vivi furrowed her brow in confusion, following the girl's gaze. Her eyes widened, jaw falling open as she grabbed at the hem of the skirtalls Dani had picked out for her that day, squirming nervously at what - or, rather, who - she saw there. "Oh, shit," she whimpered, glad for the thumb that had appeared in her mouth to muffle it, and keep her from getting in too much trouble... At least, for saying that. She had a bad feeling it wouldn't do anything to shield her against trouble for plenty of other things, however...

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Julia had known what that smell was right away. It had been years - well over a decade, in fact - since she'd experienced it, yet it was burned into her brain in a way that she'd recognized it instantly.

She hadn't wanted to accept it, though, hadn't known what it meant. She shot a few glances at her daughter as they ate, attempting to convince herself that she was wrong, that there wasn't an extra bulk around her waist, or that the smell her husband had noticed could have been something else, but the longer it went on, the more right she knew she was.

She probably should have confronted her then, but she wasn't sure what was going on, what it meant. She'd assumed Vivi had bought some plain, pull-on diapers for her bedwetting, however, that wasn't what these appeared to be... And sure enough, when Julia got up the courage to dig through the garbage cans out in the garage, she found something far bulkier folded up and tucked away at the bottom, several of them lumpy, and carrying that same odor she'd smelled in the dining room.

Was this a laziness thing? They'd assumed that was what had taken Vivi so long to be potty trained in the first place, but that had been a long time ago, and she'd seemed to outgrow it. Or... Was it stress? They'd blamed her renewed bedwetting on that; could it be bad enough to have caused all this? Maybe she wasn't ready to handle a babysitting job as big as what she'd taken on, and classes on top of it.

So, she'd called Dani's mother to see if she might consider trying to find another sitter, to at least cover some days so Vivi could have some time off. Perhaps she should have discussed it with Vivien first, but it was obvious she was embarrassed by all this, so Julia thought it would be better if she took over as the girl's mother, one last time.

"It's such a tough time for these girls," the woman had told her. "I'm not pleased with the way she handled it, but I do think the daycare has done wonder for Dani... I just hope everyone is right about her outgrowing it eventually."

The daycare... Julia couldn't believe she hadn't thought of that herself. If this was happening because of laziness, perhaps it would teach Vivi a lesson about that; if not, it would be a way for her to relax, not have to worry about anything... "Could you give me the number of the daycare?" she'd asked.

She'd called to try to explain the situation, but the girl on the other line seemed confused. "You're talking about Vivi, right?" she asked after a few minutes. "She's been enrolled here for a while already."

"That must be a different Vivien," Julia said. "My Vivi is attending college at the moment. I know that seems odd, but she's a very good babysitter, too, so I'm sure she could help you with some of the younger students there, while she..."

"Is this her?" the voice inquired, sending a picture of Julia's college student, dressed like a toddler, complete with diapers, and another of an abysmal potty training chart with the girl's name on it, and dates stretching back a very long time.

How was that even possible?! Julia knew Vivien had classes on some of those days, too many for her to possibly have earned that many stickers at daycare as well, not to mention how absurd it was to think that her college-aged daughter would have gotten so many sad faces on a potty training chart in the first place. A call to the college helped clear that up, though discovering Vivi had dropped out definitely hadn't improved Julia's mood any.

"So," Julia asked, calling the daycare back, "I see that she hasn't had anything marked on this chart in a while... Does that mean she's stopped attending, or her training has improved, or...?"

"Oh, I'm afraid not," the girl answered. "Have you not been getting our notes?"

"Notes?" Julia sighed. "You know what? I think I'd better come in... When is my daughter usually there?"

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This could not be happening! Vivi tugged at Miss Katie's hand, but the girl was much bigger and stronger than her, and used to wiggly little kids, and keeping them contained. And her mother had already locked eyes with her, was already approaching, having seen her standing there in her babyish outfit, and her dirty diapers.

"Well, young lady," she said as she stopped in front of Vivi, hands on her hips, glaring down at her. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I-I..." Vivi stammered, eyes flicking up at Miss Katie, hoping for some back-up. "I-It... I-I..."

Her mother's nose twitched, and, before Vivi could react, she'd bent down, grabbing her by the shoulders and spinning her around, Miss Katie letting go then, allowing the woman perfect access to lift Vivi's skirt, pull out the rear waistband of her diaper, Vivien's face burning as her mother checked her like a toddler... And found what she'd done.

"I can't believe this," her mom sighed. "Even after everything I found, and heard, it never seemed like it could actually be true... Look at you! What are you thinking, Viven?"

Vivi gulped, shaking her head. "I-I don't know, Mommy," she mumbled quietly.

"You don't know?" her mother shook her head. "You don't know how you quit going to college, and wound up at daycare in a messy diaper?"

"Mommy!" Vivi squealed, glancing over at Miss Katie, though, before she could see the girl's reaction to that, she'd been scooped up, her mother sweeping her off her feet and carrying her the last few steps over to the changing tables. "Wh-What are you doing?!"

"Something I guess I'm going to have to get used to again," the woman said, pushing Vivi's skirt up and out of the way. "I'm changing your diaper."

Vivien had been changed by plenty of daycare workers, but it felt totally different, having her mother be the one to untape her diaper and wipe her off. It didn't help that, the whole time, she was lecturing her about what was going to happen next. "I hope you like this," she told her, "because when I get home, I'm getting rid of all your panties, young lady. If you want to wear diapers, that's what you're going to do."

"B-But Mommy..." Vivi pouted. She had made that decision for herself already; it wasn't the same as having someone else declare it, however, having the choice of when it might end suddenly up to them instead.

"We're going to have to have a talk with Dani's parents, too," Vivi's mom continued, sliding a fresh diaper under her daughter's bottom. "I'm not sure she'll want someone who's still in diapers herself looking after her children. And I'm not sure I want you babysitting, either, to be honest."

"B-But..." Vivi sniffed. Something else occurred to her then, something even worse. "Y-You aren't going to tell Daddy, are you?"

"I'm not sure how I can keep it from him," she shrugged. "Especially if I decide you need a crib to sleep in, like the baby you've shown us you are."

"A-A crib?!" Vivi squeaked. Not even Dani had one of those! If her parents bought her that... Well, her hopes for this being a temporary punishment didn't seem very realistic...

"That's right," her mother told her. "And I have a feeling he isn't going to be very happy when I tell him about what happened at college. It would be hard to hide your diapers from him when you're going over his lap for the spanking I suspect he's going to think you deserve."

Vivi's head spun as she was taped into a clean diaper, the last hints of her adult life, of the control she'd been able to cling onto, slipping away. She watched her mother walk away, her job done, and, awkwardly, glanced up at Miss Katie, who had seen the whole thing.

"I-I guess I have some explaining to do," she sighed.

"Oh, Vivi," Miss Katie chuckled. "Do you really think I didn't know you were a big girl? Of course I knew the truth... I'm not an idiot. But I could tell you needed a break from being a grown-up, and you fit right in, so I figured, what was the harm? I never expected you to be here for so long, but I didn't mind. You paid, after all, and you were easy to look after, for the most part. And now that I'm going to be reporting directly to your Mommy and Daddy, I'm sure you're going to continue with that, aren't you?"

Vivi swallowed, nodded, knowing that would have to be true. No longer was the worst punishment she had to fear being sent to the corner... That might be all that happened here, but if her parents heard she was misbehaving, there would probably be worse waiting for her at home, like the spanking she knew was coming... That, to be honest, she'd earned, for letting things get to this point. Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything about it anymore... The truth had come out, as she should have known it would, and now, it no longer mattered how long she thought it would take for people to forget about her mortifying display at college... Her gap year was going to continue for as long as her parents thought was appropriate, and not a moment shorter.