CYOA: The Exchange Student - Chapter 1 (Story) (Patreon)

"Moooom," Anna groaned, looking around herself self-consciously. "Please don't make a scene..."

"Anna!" She flinched, a part of her wanting to snap back at her step-father, while the rest prevented her, reminding her to take her own advice. "Could you try to have a little empathy?"

"Could you?" she muttered under her breath. It was rich, coming from him... "It's only a few months, mom," she said more loudly, quickly moving on. "Think of it as a test run for next year."

That just made her mother cry harder, Anna blushing, glancing over at the other students gathered around in the lobby, most sharing similar scenes, although that didn't make her any less embarrassed about her own, or glad that she was getting on a different plane than the rest of them.

There was a lot she could have said; she might have pointed out that she could have chosen to stay for her entire senior year, and still could extend it, if things went well and she didn't lose her scholarship, or she might have mentioned how they were going to have more space at home again, and how nice that would be. If she really was lacking in empathy, as Doug had suggested, she would have reminded them that she was eighteen, so she could have come here without them and avoided all this... Or that, if it were her step-brother getting on a plane, she would have been thrilled.

Max wasn't awful, she supposed, or at least not as bad as she knew he could have been. She had plenty of friends with little brothers who were worse, in their own ways. That didn't stop her from resenting him, however, or his presence in her house.

She couldn't blame it all on him, as much as she might want to. The real villain of the story was timing, plain and simple. Two summers ago, she'd gotten her driver's license, and had convinced her mother to let her get a job, while school was out, anyway. She'd hated it, but it had been worth it, scrimping and saving whatever she didn't have to spend on gas, or maintaining the old clunker she'd inherited from her uncle so she could keep making it to the mall to sell pretzels to annoying Karens and their screaming children, all so she could finally buy something she'd been dreaming about for as long as she could remember...

And then, her mom had told her she was getting married again, to Doug, and that he and Max were moving in, and Anna's hopes for getting to make that purchase, much less enjoy it in peace, crumbled. She knew exactly what she wanted, and she could only get it online. When it was just her and her mom, she could have timed it, ordered it so it would be likely to arrive at a time when she'd get home from school, or work, before her mother, take the box up to her room, and she would never know.

With two extra people in the house, that became exponentially more difficult, not least of all because Max didn't have his license yet, so she had to drive him home from school most days, unless he decided to do something with a friend, but that was unpredictable... And she didn't know if she could trust him not to bring up the box at the dinner table if he saw her retrieve it.

Doug had his own schedule for her to try to work around as well, along with a belief that Anna should be saving up her money for when she got to college. Any time she came home with a shopping bag, or an empty coffee cup, as rare as that was, he interrogated her, asking if that was really something she needed. If he'd seen her get a box that size in the mail, he would have gone ballistic, and she wouldn't have put it past him to make her open it in front of her to see what she'd wasted her money on.

What a surprise that would have been to all of them, to watch her, at eighteen, slicing open the tape, pulling out a package of thick, crinkly, baby-printed diapers. She wondered what Doug would have said to that... But not nearly enough that she was going to risk it. She didn't want to keep them in her room, either, for fear that Max would go snooping around and find them.

So, she'd resigned herself to waiting until college, and probably not until her second, or even third, year there, when she could get a private room. Until, one day, her guidance counselor had asked her if she'd considered studying abroad. "With your grades," she'd said, "I bet you could get the whole thing covered, or the vast majority of it, anyway. It would be a wonderful opportunity for you."

It certainly would... Though, not in the way the counselor thought. "I'm nowhere near good enough at any other language for that," Anna had confessed.

"That's fine!" her counselor had told her. "There are plenty of countries where most of the people speak English, and you might even pick up a bit of another language while you're there! It would still be fascinating to experience a different culture, don't you think?"

"Yeah, definitely," Anna had nodded... But she was more interested in something else. This was a whole new start, and a temporary one at that. She could be anyone she wanted to be, and, as long as she went somewhere none of the other students at her school who were studying abroad were going, she could leave it all behind at the end of the trip. It was a silly reason to go through all this trouble, she knew... After having gotten so close to living out her fantasies at home, only to have them snatched away, it was hard to resist a possible second chance at them... And, perhaps, an even better version than what she'd envisioned.

She'd finally made that order, got her diapers, along with a few other things. Sure enough, just as she'd feared, it arrived on a day when Doug was off work. As soon as she got home and didn't see the box waiting on the porch, she knew he'd seen it, prayed silently he hadn't opened it.

Thankfully, he hadn't, but it was sitting on the living room table. "What is this?" he'd demanded. "You know you need to be saving up for college, and now you have this trip, you can't be..."

She should have waited a bit longer, let him hoist himself a little higher on his own petard, however, she couldn't resist busting out the perfect counter she'd been preparing since before she'd convinced herself to pull the trigger on the purchase. "They're from my new school," she'd informed him. "They have uniforms there, so they had to send me some to bring with me."

That had shut him up, for a moment. "Seems like a waste of money on their part," he'd mumbled. "Why didn't they send them to your host family?"

"Beats me," Anna had shrugged innocently. "Can I take them up to my room now?"

She'd almost gotten away with it scot-free, ready to stuff it all into her suitcase, but her mother had gotten home then, seen her with the box, Doug speaking up and explaining it all as if he'd known all along what was going on... Or, rather, what Anna had told him was going on.

"Uniforms, huh?" her mother had smiled. "Try one on for us! I want to see what they wear over there!"

"Mom!" Anna had whined. "I'm gonna have to wear them all the time already, I don't..."

"You should try it on anyway," Doug had, of course, sided with his wife. "Sizing might be different over there."

Fortunately, Anna had foreseen this possibility. She'd been leaning towards the outfit she'd chosen to start with, but settling on that for a cover had pretty much made the decision for her, between that and a few other options. She took the box up to her room, opened it, resisting the urge to open the diapers immediately and give them a squeeze, instead unpacking the other items.

She'd been collecting some childish clothing where she could, trying to put together a completely new wardrobe for her trip, one more suited for a grade-schooler than someone less than a year away from graduating high school. This was the piece de resistance, the crown jewel of her juvenile attire... Besides the diapers themselves, obviously. 

The main part was a onesie, mostly white, but with a sailor collar, decorated with a cheery pattern of hearts and bows and confetti, a large pink ribbon tied into a bow in the middle of the chest. She thought, a first, she'd ordered it a bit too large, the crotch hanging looser than she'd expected... And then she remembered that, of course, it was meant to be worn with diapers. And, if all went according to plan, if she didn't chicken out, the next time she wore it after this, that was exactly how she would be wearing it, the idea sending a shiver of happiness up her spine.

There was a pleated skirt to go over it, in a pattern that matched the collar. It was short, shorter than she'd normally dream of wearing to school, especially with a diaper underneath... The onesie ought to keep that hidden, however, or, if not... Well, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, depending on how daring she decided to be in her new identity. She didn't even really have to wear it to school, regardless of what she'd told her family, though, after seeing how cute it was on her, giving a spin in the mirror, she definitely wanted to.

Max had burst out laughing as soon as she'd come down the stairs, and Doug had seemed skeptical. "This is what they wear to school?" he'd asked.

"It's a different culture," Anna had sniffed. "It's not our place to judge them."

"Well, I think it's adorable," her mother had said. 

She wasn't wearing it now, although she'd been tempted. She had it tucked away in her carry-on, along with a couple diapers. Whether she was going to work up the courage to put them on for the flight or not, to change out of the pajama pants she'd worn for the long flight, to get started early, she wasn't sure, but she'd wanted to have the option. If she stayed out here, on the wrong side of security, forever, she definitely wouldn't.

"I really need to get going," she told her mom gently. "It's going to be okay, I promise. I'll be safe, and call, and all that."

"Oh, Anna," her mother sighed, giving her a big hug, then stepping back, looking her up and down. "So grown up..."

If only she knew, Anna thought, struggling to suppress a giggle at that choice of words, and what she had planned. She said her goodbyes and, finally, got into the security line. Her biggest fear now was that they were going to see her diapers, find them suspicious make her empty her bag out right there in the middle of everyone, with her other classmates filing by, seeing it, and her onesie, but, if they recognized the shape of her padding in the x-ray machine, they didn't say anything about it, or anything else.

She could hardly believe her luck as she snatched her bag off the conveyor belt, not wanting to risk it somehow getting mixed up with anyone else's, hurrying her way towards her gate. Her and the other students from her school had already compared notes, and the map of the terminal, and she knew both that she would be the only one headed there, and where the nearest restroom to it was...

And this was it. She was free, and alone, at last, ready to start a new adventure, craft a new life for herself, for at least a few months. She'd been dreaming of this for so long, and now it was here, and she wasn't sure what to do, how she should begin. She'd have time to change on the plane, if she wanted to put on a diaper then, or she could wait until she got to the airport in her new home... Or she could do it now, but was she going to use it on the plane? She'd never changed herself before, and doing it for the first time in an airplane bathroom sounded difficult. After dreaming of it for so long, however, did she really want to put it off any longer than she had to?

Should Anna put on her diaper...

Now?

On the flight?

When she touches down?

Or wait until she's at her host family's home?

Should she change into her onesie as well?

Yes?

Or No?

And when she does arrive, should she...

Try to enjoy her diapers in secret?

Claim that she needs them?

Or pretend that wearing diapers is a custom in her country?