Bad Influence - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Carly was certainly a big help; there was no way she couldn't be, judging by what Ruth saw.

How, exactly, she was assisting, Ruth wasn't sure at first, not until she started to see the pictures, and then it all came into focus, along with a newfound appreciation of just how far the girl was willing to go for her daughter's sake, which endeared her to Ruth to no end.

She was surprised to see Elle's old middle school uniform, not on Elle herself, as much of an adorable trip down memory lane as that would have been, but on Carly. Then again, she supposed, it wasn't a shock that Elle hadn't wanted to go back to them... The little plaid jumpers Ruth had sent her after their last conversation were cute, and she could imagine the girl finding something to do with them for Halloween, perhaps, though for everyday wear, she was definitely too mature for them now.

And so, Ruth had assumed, was Carly, and yet, there she was, all dolled up in one, her hair in pigtails. Considering the way she'd first seen the young woman in her photographs, it was an almost stunningly childish hairstyle, one she never would have expected to see her adopt... It was, undeniably, a far more appropriate match for her outfit, however. Ruth really had to applaud the girl's efforts, her dedication to 'realism' in helping Elle see what it would be like to teach an elementary school girl.

It was such a contrast from those first pictures, it was nearly comical. She was only doing this so Elle could get 'practice', obviously, but it was hard to imagine the person she saw now dressed in those old outfits, acting the way she had been... 

On the other hand, there did appear to be a streak of rebellion left, at least for the sake of whatever they were working on at the moment. Further impressing Ruth, they'd set up a mock classroom in their rooms somewhere, unless they were borrowing one from a teacher, complete with a whiteboard, decorated with banners displaying the alphabet and numbers, and a wooden desk.

The more Ruth looked at it, the more confident she was that they'd made it themselves, that they had it set up on a semi-permanent basis that she couldn't see their professors wanting to deal with all the time. How often were they practicing, to make that worth it? It must be quite a bit...

And maybe it was just more practice, what she saw Carly doing in the pictures. Even so, it didn't change the fact that she was doing it, that there were shots of her pressing the markers to the whiteboard, writing out lines like a naughty little girl, standing there in her girlfriend's childish school uniform.

It made sense... Discipline was a part of teaching, and it was better to try it out this way, rather than on an actual kid. Carly might not like it - Ruth saw a pout on her face in a couple shots - but she was more resilient, and she could more easily give voice to her concerns, let Elle know when she was going too far... Right? That was surely what was happening between them... Elle wouldn't truly, sincerely, assigned her girlfriend lines to write, made her stand there and do them, and post pictures of the evidence online... There was no way any of this could be real... Could it?

It was an absurd thing to wonder, to give any bit of credence to, and yet... She couldn't quite shake the feeling that Carly was putting in a lot of work, a lot of dedication, for this. Ruth wasn't a teacher, hadn't been friends with anyone who studied to be a teacher, so perhaps she was mistaken, but she'd never heard of people needing this much practice. Or, if they did, they'd find someone with kids, see about looking after them for an afternoon or something...

That had to be more difficult while they were in school, and had assignments to deal with. Some of their professors must have children in elementary school, however, or arrangements with local schools where prospective teachers could go and get a taste of what it was like, be assistants... In fact, she'd think some degree of that would be required.

So, while it was incredibly kind of Carly to do this, Ruth did have to acknowledge the creeping suspicion, the longer it went on, the more in-depth it became, that something didn't exactly add up about it all. 

And that was before she noticed something beneath Carly's skirt, something she'd seen before, and made herself ignore, just a glimpse... She couldn't say one way or the other if she was right about it this time, any more than she could have the time before, or the time before that.

The fact that she'd had her eyes drawn to this girl's underwear three separate times, however, had to mean something. That wasn't like her at all... If it had been once, it would be odd for her to spot it, but not necessarily anything more than that. Three times? There must be something going on, something unusual.

Even stranger, this time, it was different. They had always been white before, which gave them an unexpected innocence, given the wearer's age, and her demeanor at the start of her relationship with Elle. Now, they were pink, the one color Ruth would have anticipated to see on Carly less than white.

Ruth felt so dirty, zooming in on the picture, verifying that she was correct, that the flash she saw between the girl's legs was there, that it appeared, like the others, to big, too bulky, to be any kind of underwear she'd seen, much less that she would think Carly would choose.

If anything, to add to the incongruity of the pink, these might be thicker than the others, and the way the light struck them... They couldn't be cloth, could they? But if not cloth, then... what?

Or it could all be her imagination, a trick of the light. Perhaps they were shorts she was wearing beneath the short skirt of the uniform's jumper... They didn't look like it at all, not one bit, yet she knew she couldn't really rule it out. She still didn't see Carly as somebody who would own a pair of pink shorts, or pair them with an already immature school uniform. She might have borrowed them from Elle, however, or one of their other friends.

As odd as that would be, it made more sense than the alternative, than what her instincts told her she was seeing. If she squinted, she could almost make out the wetness indicator... But that was insane. It had to be fabric, or shadows, or something... There was no way Carly could be wearing what Ruth thought she was...

She had convinced herself of that so thoroughly, she nearly didn't believe it when Elle posted the next group of pictures. She hadn't said a word to her daughter about it; how could she have?! Even broaching the subject seemed ridiculous, when she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she had to be wrong, that Elle would laugh about it for years if she suggested it, and possibly not in a good way.

It was almost like Elle had read her mind anyway, like she'd taken the picture to mock her, yet, as far as she could tell, it was sincere, a random snapshot that just so happened to confirm it all.

Carly was down on her knees in front of the whiteboard, back to writing lines, looking back over her shoulder at Elle and her phone as she took the photo, appearing quite unamused, the rear of her skirt having ridden up, exposing...

A diaper. There was no mistaking it, not pretending it was something else. Ruth could see the thickness of the padding, the slight shine of the plastic, the shape of the leg gathers, the babyishness of the design... And, as a mother, as somebody who had changed countless diapers in her time, she could spot the ever-so-slight discoloration from a mile away, recognize it for what it was.

Carly was not only wearing diapers, exactly like in those suspicions she'd never let herself trust, she used them, at least this once. And wasn't once enough, with this sort of thing? If she was willing to do it once, to have her picture taken, let it be posted, she must have done it more... That, or she hadn't realized how obvious it was. Even Ruth didn't know if it actually was or not, if her own experience was what made it seem that way.

She glanced through the comments, positive she'd see someone mentioning it there, pointing it out to the girl, suggesting Elle take it down, but there was nothing, just some emojis of hearts, and swooning smiley faces that she could read only as support.

She still couldn't say anything to Elle about it. It would have been simpler to bring up now, sure, without looking like a weirdo scoping out the undies of her daughter's girlfriend... The lack of reaction to it made her wonder if there was more to the story, if it was a medical issue, or the result of an accident of some sort. Those glimpses she'd seen before would appear to support that assumption. She didn't want to risk embarrassing them with an insensitive question; if they were okay with letting her know about it, they'd bring it up in their own time.

The pink of the diapers, the childishness of the designs... Those gave her pause, however, took her back, once more, to those first few pictures she'd seen of her. There had to have been options that were less girly, less humiliating... Even those white ones she'd been wearing before had to be better, in terms of that... Ruth hadn't met Carly yet, but just from her photos, she'd never guess that she would intentionally pick these new diapers out, or allow herself to be seen wearing them so blatantly, unless this was some kind of statement, some protest Ruth didn't understand...

But if that was all it was, a performance piece of sorts, why was it on Elle's page and not Carly's? Why was it simply thrown in there with a group of other pictures of Carly writing lines in her uniform where her diaper wasn't showing, posted as if by a proud mother and not a loving girlfriend?

And, perhaps most importantly of all... Why had Carly actually used the diaper?