Daily Free-Write September 13, 2021: Alternative Education Pt. 5 (Patreon)

Daily Free-Write September 12, 2021 "Alternative Education Pt. 4"

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The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful - at least for me and Amanda. The flight attendants and the C.A.B.S. chaperones came  by a couple more, but they didn't disturb us. When we finally began our assent, I was relieved that we made it through unscathed. As I watched the attendants unbuckle the crying former big-kids ahead of us, I was starting to regret my decision about signing up and I could already see my older brothers giving me a big lecture.

"Of course you're gonna end up losing your brains and needing diapers, you idiot. You must have known this would have to happen sooner or later."

And sure, on some level, I did know that I would have to let go of my independence and pride in my achievements of milestones like potty training and tying my own shoes. I hadn't really thought of losing that though. I just thought about how I hadn't had any achievements since then. I wondered what group we would be put in. Did they have something for older kids? My thoughts were interrupted as Mikey got to us and ushered us out.

"Alright, move along, come along, let's go."

We filed out after everyone else. Since none of us had any carry-ons except for a few who'd brought their teddy bears and blankies, things moved pretty quickly. The moment we stepped out of the plane and into the boarding area, our names were checked against a list by a Fresh Start employee and we were pulled aside.

"You two, stand over there." Amanda and I looked at each other. That didn't sound good.

"What did I do?" I asked.

"Oh, no sweetie. You didn't do anything wrong. We're separating everyone by age group. Yours is just smaller than the rest."

"What group are we in?" I asked.

"You're in the potty trained group. There's only three of you and... oh gosh, where did they go now? Hold on a sec." The staff member pulled up a walkie talkie to their mouth and started talking into it rapidly.

"Another person?" I asked Amanda. "Who could it be?" She shrugged. A few seconds later Trever came walking up to us.

"Hey, guys! You made it. Are you with me?" Amanda and I looked shocked.

"Cancel that APB, said the staffmember. I found him." The staffmember put their walkie talkie back on their waist and then put their hands on their hips looking stern. "Where the heck were you? You can't just wander off like that."

"Oh, I went to the bathroom," said Trevor, completely unphased by the staff member's annoyance. "Oh man, I feel way better now."

Trevor was a pretty athletic looking guy and I had no doubt he had no fear of any of the staff members, or even all of them together. The line was backing up, so the line checker didn't push it.

"What's the hold-up?" called Mikey, making his way toward the front of the line.

"Sorry, I... lost one of the bigger kids," he said, gesturing over to our tiny group.

"Cripes," Mike said, looking over at us. "Wouldn't that just be the perfect day. Just get everyone grouped and stay on schedule. I'll keep an eye on everyone. They didn't pay us much attention after that, since we were a lot quieter than a bunch of noisy and distraught people who had pissed and/or pooped their pants.

"Don't worry, everyone, we'll have a change of clothes once we get to the center... No, you can't go to the bathroom now. You've already made enough of a mess. Hey! No pushing. Alexander? Put those pants back on right now."

Mikey clearly had his hands full, so Amanda and I motioned to Trevor and the three of us got into a huddle.

"What the hell, man? How did you make it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, didn't you have to pee after that juice box they gave us? Or did you figure out how to open your safety harness too?"

"Oh, no. Those belts were weird, I couldn't make heads or tails of them. I just held it. The guys on the team used to call me iron bladder, so holding it for a 2 hour flight was no problem." I looked at Trevor like he was nuts. No problem? I looked over at the other groups. About a third were in the potty training group and the other 60% were in the baby group. The last of them were being checked off the list and it was obvious that no one else was joining us.

"Wait, was this some sort of test?"  asked Trevor.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," I said. "Though what we get for passing it, I have no idea."