Nothing Ever Happens

Except for one copy for your personal use, no part of this story may be copied, transmitted, or posted either electronically or in print form anywhere without the prior written permission of its author.

This is a work of fiction about young people who wear diapers. If you don’t like the subject, don’t read the story.

Book 3 – Back to School

The Kadras returned just as Mark and his dad were getting ready to walk out the door. They were surprised to see that Mark was still in a diaper and plastic pants.

“Hello, I’m Bob Zupatias, Mark’s dad. Pleased to meet you. Thank you very much for hosting Mark these last two nights. It seems that he had a lot of fun. Of course, winning the grand prize doesn’t hurt either,” he said laughing.

“No problem at all. We enjoyed it, too. We hope that Mark will visit often,” they answered.

The Kadras were mystified. They knew that the boys had played a game involving their diapers. But what grand prize was Mr. Zupatias talking about? And where were Mark’s pants?

“Boys,” Mr. Kadra asked his sons, “does Mark have to leave like this because you can’t find his pants?”

“No, dad. It’s not like that,” Kevin said. “It’s just that Kyle threw them into our diaper pail on Friday night and now they’re kind of wet and stinky from sitting there with our diapers. They need washing big time.”

“Really, guys,” their mother exclaimed, “is that any way to treat a guest?” Turning to Mark she added, “I’ll get you a pair of Kevin’s pants and some underwear to wear home.”

“I’m OK, Mrs. Kadra, my stuff is all here and I’ve already got my coat on. I can go home like this.”

Mrs. Kadra looked over to Mark’s dad.

“That won’t be necessary, really,” Mr. Zupatias responded. “If Mark says he’s fine, he’s fine. Besides, it’s only a fifteen minute drive; he can change when he gets home if he wants to.”

Mark was listening intently to his dad. He was having trouble believing that he meant what he was saying. A few minutes ago, he seemed to imply that he could keep the diapers and plastic pants that he had won in the Weighing Game and that he could even wear them in the future. He had even suggested that Mark might need to get more. Now his dad seemed to be saying that when they got home he could continue wearing this diaper and the plastic pants. Was his dad just leading him on? Would he get mad later on and punish him for wearing diapers all weekend?

The Kadras were taken aback by Mark’s attitude, but it wasn’t any of their business.

“Again, thank you,” Mr. Zupatias repeated. “Come on, Mark, time to leave. Are you sure you’ve got everything?”

“Uh huh,” he said, nodding. “Thank you Mr. Kadras, Mrs. Kadras. Kevin, Kyle- later, I guess.”

As soon as they had left, Mr. Kadra turned to Kyle and Kevin.

“Would you please explain what that was all about?”

“It’s because Kyle threw Mark’s pants into our diaper pail…” Kevin started.

“Not that part,” his dad interrupted. “What’s this about a grand prize?”

“Oh. We wanted to make the game interesting so we said that whoever won would receive a secret prize,” Kyle answered.

“And what was the secret prize?”

“Diaper supplies.”

“Diaper supplies! What kind of diaper supplies?” Mr. Kadra pressed.

“Diaper pins, powder, and five set of diapers and plastic pants,” Kevin said.

“And Mark wanted them?” their dad asked in surprise.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Kevin answered.

“I think he was excited to win them,” Kyle added.

Mr. and Mrs. Kadra looked at each other in a knowing way.

“This might be a good time for that talk we discussed,” she said to her husband.

“I think you’re right,” he answered.

The boys didn’t like the sound of that. What had they done? Everything went fine this weekend. They hadn’t gotten into any more trouble, as far as they knew.

“Let’s all sit down. Your dad and I think we need a family meeting.”

They boys were growing more uneasy by the second. What were their parents going to say to them? What needed discussing?

“Boys, I hope that you know that your dad and I have always tried to raise you the best we could. We never stinted on anything that we thought would benefit you. We are very lucky to be in a financial position to meet all your needs and then some. When your bedwetting was first diagnosed you know that we did everything possible to help you. In the end, cloth diapers and plastic pants seemed the best solution. You seemed to agree with that, too. But now, your dad and I think that it might have gone too far.”

“What do you mean?” Kevin asked.

“Let’s look at the evidence,” their dad said. “About three years ago, your bedwetting seemed to be coming under control. We talked to you about using lighter protection to see how things would go. Within a few days your bedwetting got extreme again. I’m not judging anything here, I’m just presenting it as evidence. The second thing is that you started secretly supplying Bill with diapers and plastic pants because he wanted to wear them. Why would he think that diapers were fun? Thirdly, you go out skiing in the middle of the day wearing your diapers. Why would you do that? Lastly, you invite Mark (whom you didn’t even know) for a weekend sleepover and suddenly he seems thrilled to win a prize that consists of diapers and plastic pants. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but you guys always seem to be in the middle of it.”

“Boys, is there something that you want to tell us about your diaper wearing?” Mrs. Kadra asked.

There was an awkward silence. Kevin and Kyle wished that they could talk to each other in private before saying anything else.

“It’s hard to explain,” Kevin said.

“Yeah,” Kyle agreed.

“Then say it as simply as you can,” their mother prompted.

“When you started talking about taking away our diapers (Mr. and Mrs. Kadra’s eyes locked when Kevin used the expression ‘taking away our diapers’) Kyle and I talked about it and we didn’t want you to do that. We like having dry beds. We thought that if we couldn’t wear diapers anymore we would wake up in wet beds again. We hate that.”

Kevin paused and considered whether he should continue with the rest of it. He figured that since he gone this far he should finish what he had to say.

“I guess we started exaggerating our need for diapers. Sometimes we wet our diapers on purpose, but not always,” he hastened to add.

“And what about now? Do you wet on purpose or does it happen when you’re asleep?” their mother asked.

Kyle took the lead from his brother.

“We don’t know. A lot of times we can’t remember if we wet in our sleep or if we wet while we’re still awake.”

“Would you want to try sleeping without diapers?” their father asked.

Kevin and Kyle looked at each other.

“Not really,” Kevin answered.

Do you agree with your brother?” their dad asked Kyle.

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you want to try sleeping without diapers? Are you afraid of finding out that you won’t be able to stay dry even if you try?” their mother asked.

“That’s not it,” Kevin answered, “we just like diapers, I guess.”

“Is that why you went skiing in your diapers. Because you thought it would be fun to go outdoors wearing them and wetting them?”

“Yes,” they answered.

“If you had your way, what would you like?”

The boys suddenly became animated.

“You mean, you’ll give us a choice?” they asked.

“Maybe,” Mr. Kadra hedged.

“We’d like to be able to wear our diapers whenever we want to,” Kevin said.

“Yeah, if we could pick when we get to wear them, that would really be cool,” Kyle agreed.

“Wouldn’t you be worried about your friends finding out?” Mrs. Kadra challenged them.

“Cathy has already told lots of her friends about Bill and us being punished in diapers over the vacation. Lots of our friends probably know already,” Kyle said.

“Doesn’t that bother you?” their father asked.

“A little, I guess,” Kevin said, “but not enough to make us want to stop wearing our diapers.”

“OK, guys, that’s all for now. Your dad and I need to talk some more.”

“Does this mean that we can’t wear our diapers anymore?” Kyle asked in a worried voice.

His parents didn’t respond. What the boys didn’t know was that their parents had already talked about this to the other parents. Mrs. Gonzag had started it all by voicing her suspicion to Darren’s dad that Kevin, Kyle, Bill, and, to some extent, Darren seemed to be enjoying their diaper punishment. Carlos and John’s parents didn’t see any signs that that was true for their sons. But that was to be expected since they had the hardest punishment- having to use their diapers for everything. Also, John and Carlos knew that they would be wearing their diapers and plastic pants to school. (So would Darren, but his dad wasn’t sure what Darren felt about it. All he knew for sure was that Darren hadn’t asked for a reprieve.) And now there was Mark. How did he fit into all of this? It sure seemed like he wanted the diapers and that his dad was going to allow it.

On the way home, Mr. Hickock asked Darren and John if they had enjoyed the weekend.

“It was awesome,” Darren said.

“Yeah, we had a great time,” John agreed.

“And everybody got along well? No fights or disturbances?”

“No, everything was cool,” Darren assured his father.

“See, didn’t I tell you that you could get to be friends?” his father reminded Darren. “If only you had learned to get along sooner, you wouldn’t be facing the ordeal of going back to school in diapers.”

Darren and John sighed in response.

“So, we really have to wear our diapers tomorrow?” Darren asked.

“I can’t speak for John’s parents, but I think you already know my answer.”

“Yeah, I know,” Darren said dejectedly.

“My parents won’t change their mind either,” John said. “They’ve already fixed up a bag full of diaper supplies. I have to deliver them with a note to Mrs. Sanchez.”

John sighed again.

“Darren and I will do the same thing tonight,” Mr. Hickock said.

Darren sighed again.

On the way home in the car, Mark was effusive in his praise of the new friends he had made. It was unusual for Mark to feel so comfortable with people so fast. Mr. Zupatias was glad. Even in just the few minutes he spent with Kevin and Kyle, he had been impressed with them. They were seemingly much more outgoing and self-assured than Mark. Mark needed more positive friends like this. Mr. Zupatias thought that Mark was too timid and reserved in his dealings with people.

The diaper thing, however, was quite something else. When Mark opened up the ‘secret prize’ Mr. Zupatias saw a light shine in his eyes that he had rarely seen. He undoubtedly was enthralled with the contents. Mr. Zupatias wondered if he been wrong in not putting a stop to it right away. They were getting into deep waters here. How would his wife react to Mark’s apparent interest in pursuing diaper wearing?

Mark was asking himself the same question about his mother’s reaction. His dad had been so low key about his appearance in diapers (and seemingly supportive) that he got carried away when Mrs. Kadra offered him Kevin’s pants. He should have accepted them. His dad would have to take some of the blame, though, for allowing him to leave their house in diapers. Despite his worry, his excitement had not gone down. They pulled into their driveway.

“You’re not parking in the garage?” Mark asked dismayed.

“Can’t. Remember, I’m taking grandma’s car to work tomorrow to drop it off for service? This car will have to stay in the driveway tonight,” his dad explained. “Let’s get your stuff and go in.”

He pushed the garage door opener so that they could go in by the shortest route, directly into the kitchen. Mark was relieved to see that his mother wasn’t there. Maybe he could run up to his room and change before she saw him.

During the last few minutes of the ride home, Mr. Zupatias had decided to take the situation in hand. He would make sure that Mark told his mother everything. This would help him gauge what was on Mark’s mind.

“Marge,” his dad called, “the wanderer is home. He did his family proud; come and see, he came back a champion.”

“Dad!” Mark protested.

“What? You don’t want your mother to know that you won?” his dad asked.

The TV shut off and Mark’s mom came into the kitchen.

“Welcome back, stranger,” she said. “What’s this about coming back a champion?”

She noticed his bare legs.

“Where are your pants?”

“That is a very good question, Marge. The answer is tied into his championship performance,” his dad kidded.

“Dad! You’re making fun of me!”

“Not at all, now let’s not stand around the kitchen. We’ll be more comfortable in the family room. Bring your stuff to your room and then come down and you can explain everything.”

Mr. and Mrs. Zupatias went into the family room while Mark ran up the stairs with his bag and the prize box. Mr. Zupatias knew that this was going to be a big clue as to what was on Mark’s mind. If he changed into underwear and pants before coming down, that would be a pretty good indication that this diaper thing wouldn’t last. If, on the other hand, he was wearing the diaper and plastic pants…

Mark threw the stuff on his bed along with his coat. He hesitated. Did he have time to change before explaining things to his mom? Probably. Did he want to change out of the diaper and plastic pants? No, he didn’t. He rationalized his decision by saying that it was as much his dad’s fault as it was his own for coming home this way. He shrugged and went downstairs. “Here goes nothing,” he thought.

In the meantime, Mr. Zupatias quickly told his wife that Mark was wearing a diaper when he went to pick him up. It had to do with some game they were playing. He couldn’t explain any further because Mark was approaching. He was still wearing the diaper.

“So, Mark, you were impressed by your new friends, weren’t you?” his dad prompted.

This was such an unexpected question that Mark momentarily forgot about his diaper. He went off into a detailed explanation about how he liked the weekend and how Kevin, Kyle, and Carlos were really neat. (He already knew Darren and John.) This lasted several minutes, leaving Mrs. Zupatias completely in the dark as to how he wound up in diapers. For his part, Mark was hoping that the more he talked about his new friends, the less he would be made to explain about them.

“I agree with Mark,” his dad said, “I spoke to Kevin and Kyle before we left. They seem to be very nice people. I hope that my approval of them won’t make you think less of them,” his dad kidded.

“That’s nice. I’m glad,” Mrs. Zupatias said, “but what game did you win and how come you seem to have lost your pants? And where do the plastic pants and diaper come from?”

Mark got very red in the face. Nonetheless, he was able to tell the story coherently. His dad reminded him of certain details that Kyle had told him. His mother laughed at the end of it.

“Well, that’s a weekend for the books, I guess. This would certainly make interesting reading for Ms. Landria if she assigns you an essay to write on what you did over Christmas holiday,” she joked.

“Mom!”

The telephone rang. Mrs. Zupatias got up to answer it.

“Mark, it’s Darren.”

“Hi… Yeah, I had fun… Uh huh… Uh huh… I know… Do you have a choice?… Uh huh… I’ll ask.”

Mark covered the mouthpiece of the phone with his hand.

“Can I go over to Darren’s for a while?”

“You just got home. You were with him all weekend. Can’t it wait?” his mother asked.

“Not really,” Mark answered seriously. “This is stuff we couldn’t talk about in front of the other guys.”

“Oh?” she asked.

“Yeah, he’s really scared about going to school in diapers tomorrow. Can’t I go over for just a little while?”

“OK, but be back by 6:00.”

Mark ran up to get his coat. Another moment of indecision. He grabbed the coat and ran back down the stairs. His parents intercepted him.

“Are you going dressed like that?” his mother asked.

“He’s seen me like this all weekend. Besides, I thought it would make him feel better if I dressed like him a little longer.”

She looked over to her husband to get his opinion. He shrugged. Mark took it as a sign of approval and ran out the door. Mr. Zupatias was now certain that Mark would be wearing those five ‘secret prize’ diapers whether he and his wife approved or not. They would have to discuss the situation while Mark was at Darren’s.

Darren didn’t stop running until he was at the front door of the Hickock’s house. He pressed the bell. He was taken aback when Mr. Hickock answered instead of Darren. Mr. Hickock had a surprised look on his face.

“Darren is up in his room.”

Mark hesitated. He usually hung his coat on one of the pegs in the entryway. He decided not to break the routine. Mr. Hickock shook his head back and forth in amazement as Mark walked up to Darren’s room. “What next?’ he thought.

“Hey,” Mark said.

“Hey,” Darren answered without looking up from the computer game he was playing.

“Watcha doing?” Mark asked.

“I’m just ready to break through to level seven…”

Darren heard the characteristic rustle of plastic pants. He knew it wasn’t him making the noise…

“You’re still wearing a diaper?” he remarked.

“Duh, I guess so.”

“How come?”

“I guess you left before the whole story of my pants got figured out.”

Mark told the story of what Kyle did with them and how they hadn’t gotten washed. Darren laughed at Mark’s description of how he had to appear before his dad in the diaper and plastic pants.

“Quit it,” Mark objected, “it wasn’t fun.”

“Then how come you haven’t taken them off yet?”

“Well, it turns out that my dad was cool with it and I didn’t have any pants to wear anyway. Then when we got home, he made this big deal out of me telling my mom about the weekend, and then you called and I came over here.”

Mark conveniently left out the part about Mrs. Kadra offering him a pair of Kevin’s pants and about how he (twice) decided not to change into regular underwear and pants.

Darren still wasn’t satisfied.

“You could have changed before coming over here,” he pointed out.

Mark opened his mouth to deny it, but he couldn’t lie to his best friend.

“Yeah, I guess I could have.”

“You don’t want to change, do you?”

Again, Mark opened his mouth to contradict his friend. Again, he couldn’t do it.

“No, I guess I don’t want to,” he shamefully admitted.

“That’s OK. I won’t tell,” he assured Mark. “I can lend you some of mine when you feel like it. I have so many, my dad would never know.”

“I already have five sets,” Mark announced.

“You do? How come?”

Mark explained what Kevin and Kyle had given him as the Weighing Game prize.

“Do your parents know?”

“Yeah. And that’s really weird. When my dad saw what the prize was, he joked that I would need more than five diapers to stay in shape to keep on winning the game. And then he said that we needed to leave so that I could start practicing at home.”

“That is weird. Do you think it means that he’ll let you keep them? And maybe even get more?”

“I don’t know. My mom probably wouldn’t allow it anyway. God, I am such a freak!”

“Don’t say that.” Darren was quiet for a few seconds before continuing. “I think you ought to know something about Kevin, Kyle, and Bill.”

He told how they manipulated their way into staying in diapers.

“You know what else I just thought of?” Darren asked.

“No, what?”

“You, Bill, Kyle and Kevin wish that you could be in diapers more. On the other hand, Carlos, John, and I have to be in diapers twenty-four hours a day and we don’t like it. Life is backwards.”

“I don’t think I’d want to be in diapers at school, though,” Mark sympathized

“I’m so scared about tomorrow,” Darren said. Tears filled his eyes.

“I know. I’ll do what I can to help you.”

They talked about it, but Mark sensed that nothing he said was making Darren feel better.

It was 6:00. Mark had to go home. He ran up to his room to take off his coat and to get out of the diaper before his parents got suspicious.

“Mark, wash your hands and come down here right away. Dinner is on the table,” his dad called.

“If they’re going to prevent me from changing, what can I do?” Mark smiled to himself.

Before going downstairs he noticed that someone had unpacked his stuff. Curiously, the diapers were gone but the plastic pants, pins, and powder were neatly arranged on the bed.

While Mark was at Darren’s, his parents had discussed his seeming reluctance to take off the diaper and plastic pants. Mr. Zupatis tried to explain the look that Mark had in his eyes when he discovered what the prize was. He also pointed out how much bolder Mark was acting- he wasn’t the least bit shy at the Kadras. This led to a discussion of many of the things they had done while raising him. Had they been overprotective? He was always very timid; should they have pushed him more? In any case, Mrs. Zupatias wasn’t convinced that Mark had become infatuated with diapers and plastic pants. She was sure that Mark went over to Darren’s still wearing the diaper in order to cheer him up. All the same, she agreed to unpack the new diapers and wash them, on the off chance that Mark would ask to use them.

They started eating dinner. It was one of Mark’s favorites: tacos, rice and beans.

“How is Darren?” his dad inquired.

“Not too good. He practically started crying when he thought about going to school in diapers tomorrow.”

“What did you say to him about it?” his mother asked.

“I said that I would do what I could to help. But, I can’t think of anything that might help.”

“I guess it’s like the old Native American saying: You can’t really understand someone until you walk in their moccasins,” his father said.

“What does that mean?” Mark asked.

“It means that until you have the same experience as someone else, you’ll never know what it really feels like. Take this situation as an example. Darren has to go to school in diapers tomorrow. You feel bad for him because you know that he is very scared. But, since you don’t have to do it, you’ll never know what it really feels like. All you can do is imagine what it would be like. Darren may appreciate your sympathy but he’ll know that there’s something about the experience that you will never truly understand.”

“Sort of like when a player gets criticized by a spectator that he should have done something different during a game? The player knows that the spectator doesn’t have a clue what it was like to actually play the game. The player might even get mad about it,” Mark suggested.

“In a way, yes. But I doubt that Darren will get mad at you for trying to sympathize with him,” his dad added.

“I hope not.”

Mrs. Zupatias didn’t like the way this conversation was centering on diapers.

“Seconds anyone?” she asked.

After dinner, Darren helped clean up the kitchen as usual. When he was finished he went to talk to his dad who was watching TV.

“Dad, can people stop being friends because they don’t do the same things together?

“Yeah, I guess so,” his dad answered. “But it’s normal in life for people to have different friends at different times. Are you afraid that Darren and you might stop being friends because he has to wear diapers for a while?”

“Sort of. I was really thinking about school. I still don’t know how to help him tomorrow.”

“Maybe it’s enough for him to simply know that you want to continue to be his friend. He knows that you can’t do everything together, all the time.”

“I guess so.”

Darren watched TV for a while. He eventually needed to pee but he was afraid to use his diaper in front of his dad. He went up to his room. Another moment of indecision- use the bathroom or use the diaper? He lay down on his bed and let the pee flow. He felt the warmth spread through the diaper and up his backside. He sighed with pleasure and promptly fell asleep.

Mark’s new diapers were dry. His mother folded them and started up to his room. As she neared the doorway she saw that he was lying on the bed. She hesitated to disturb him. As she was pondering what to do with the diapers, she saw a yellow stain spread across the front of his plastic pants. He smiled and sighed with satisfaction. She backed away from the door. Now she was convinced. But what should they do about it?

“But we can’t just leave him up there in a wet diaper!” she exclaimed.

“No, we can’t. What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know… Why is this happening?” she asked in frustration.

“He’s at an age when he should start making his own decisions. I think that we should allow him to tell us how far he wants to go with this. Let’s not make a big scene if he wants to wear the diapers and plastic pants at home.”

Because he was already sound asleep, they decided to leave him alone. At 9:30 his dad heard him begin to stir.

“Hi, champ,” he said. “Have a good nap?”

“Yeah, I guess we stayed up kind of late each night.”

“You still look sleepy. Do you want to go to bed now?”

“Yeah, I think so,” he said yawning.

“OK, I’ll tell your mother that you’re ready to get your diaper changed.”

His dad was out of the room before he could react. Only then did he remember that he had soaked his diaper just before falling asleep. He checked under him. No leaks. Good. He saw the freshly laundered diapers on the dresser. The other diaper supplies had been moved next to them.

His parents stood next to the bed. His mom held a big bath towel folded in half. In between the two layers there was a thick sheet of plastic.

“Lift up, sweetie. This will have to do as a changing pad until we get a permanent one.”

She took off his shoes and plastic pants. The aroma of stale pee was strong. She began unpinning the diaper.

“Bob, would you please get a warm washcloth?” she asked.

The diaper was off. Oddly, he didn’t feel embarrassed- just warm and safe. She took the washcloth from her husband and cleaned Mark’s diaper area. She sprinkled powder and rubbed it in. He was having trouble fighting an erection but luckily he held out until she folded the diaper over his stomach. She pinned the diaper tightly, just as Kevin and Kyle had done. She pulled the plastic pants over his diaper and checked that all the diaper material was snugly held inside. She then took off his shirt and handed him a long sleeve pajama top. Lastly, she took off his socks.

“I doubt that your pajama bottoms will fit over your diaper. You’ll have to do without tonight,” she said.

“That’s OK, we didn’t wear any all weekend, either.”

He scooted under the covers. She tucked him in and kissed him on the cheek; his dad kissed him on the forehead. They hadn’t done that in years. He liked it. He was asleep before they left the room.

Monday morning. Mark woke up early. He felt good. He took pleasure in the warmth of his bed and the feeling of the soft diaper that hugged his loins. He released his pee. His whole body tingled with pleasure as it soaked through the many layers of cotton material.

He lied still and thought. What could he do for Darren? His biggest worry was alienating him. He didn’t want to do anything that Darren could interpret as a rejection of their friendship. By now, the other kids knew about Darren, John and Carlos’s punishments. (Now that he thought about it, this was about John and Carlos, too.) Would their classmates come to school ready to taunt and humiliate them? If he defended and supported them, how would the other kids react? How much would this put him at risk of being rejected by them? Also, how would the teachers react? Would they step in to stop the teasing and taunting or would they let it go?

Carlos, John, and Darren were also awake early. None of them had slept much. They all had the same worries. How could they survive school in diapers? Every time they went near the nurse’s office, other kids would know what was going on. How much would the other kids isolate and reject them? Would things get out of hand? Would they be involved in fights that went beyond words? How would their parents react if they did? On top of all this, Carlos and John worried about controlling their bowels in school. Was this going to be possible? The horror of filling the back side of their diapers with smelly poop in front of their friends played itself over and over in their minds.

At exactly 6:45 Kevin and Kyle’s dad woke them up. They finally dragged themselves out of bed after two warnings.

“Kyle, are you wet?”

“Yeah, are you?”

“Yeah, did you do it on purpose?”

“No, how about you?”

“Nope. Do you think mom and dad will believe us?”

The got cleaned up. Their school uniform pants were hanging in the closet and their regular underwear was back in the dresser. Their dad came to check up on them one last time.

“Dad,” Kevin said, “Kyle and I woke up wet this morning. Neither of us did it on purpose.”

Of course, Mr. Kadra knew what the boys were getting at.

“Your mother and I still haven’t decided what we’re going to do about your diapers. Don’t bug us about it.”

Kevin and Kyle wondered if they had just spent their last night in diapers.

It was the Kadra’s week to carpool the kids to school so they drove over to pick up Bill and Cathy. Only Bill came out to the car.

“Where’s Cathy?” Mr. Kadra asked.

“She’s not coming to school today. She got sick last night.”

“Sick with what?” Kevin asked.

“I don’t know, she just got sick. Maybe it’s because she ate the food she cooked for dinner last night,” Bill chortled.

“You shouldn’t say things like that about your sister,” Mr. Kadra admonished.

“Yes, sir. Sorry. Actually, I think she’s got the flu. She has all the luck. If it had been me, I would have been sick during vacation and not now that it’s time for school again.”

Kevin and Kyle didn’t feel much sympathy for her either. While it was true that they didn’t have to go to school in diapers, she was the one who spread the story of the Christmas vacation diaper punishment to all her friends. Who knew how many of their classmates already heard about it from their sisters?

Mr. Kadra dropped them off at Harris Academy, the K through 12 school that they attended. Kevin and Kyle had been there since kindergarten, Bill and Cathy for the last three years. It was a fairly small school (900 students). The middle school had only about 200 students, the high school about 275. Everybody knew everybody else.

They walked into the middle school building. Kyle headed off to his friends in the 7^th grade and Bill and Kevin walked toward the area where the 8^th graders hung out.

“Hey, guys,” Bill said to a group of their classmates.

“Hey, back to you,” Adam answered. “Good Christmas? Do anything unusual?”

A few snickers from the other guys told Bill and Kevin that some of their friends knew about their diapers. Before they could answer, Adam continued.

“My family went down to Palm Beach to spend Christmas with my grandparents. It was really boring. It rained all the time- wettest Christmas I’ve ever seen. It was practically impossible to stay dry.”

The snickering was turning into outright laughter. Mrs. Kelly, the morning hall monitor, sensed that something wasn’t quite right. She injected herself into the group.

“Welcome back, boys. All ready to start school work again?”

Groans rose up from the group.

“Don’t be that way,” she said brightly. “Just think, only eleven more weeks until spring break!”

Louder groans rose up from the group.

A commotion behind her pulled her attention away from the 8^th graders. It seemed that two boys were fighting. It was Kyle and a classmate of his, Rod Stinners. Physical fights were a rarity at Harris Academy and Mrs. Kelly reacted immediately. She separated the two boys and dragged them off to the middle school director’s office.

“Man, Kyle’s going to be a dead man when he gets home!” Kevin said.

The first bell rang and everyone headed off to class. Bill and Kevin knew that they had only gotten the very beginnings of the teasing that their classmates had planned for them. Hopefully, they could avoid getting into fist fights over it.

John and Carlos got some good news before leaving for school. Their parents informed them that while they were at school they would only be required to wet their diapers. It was only a minor concession but each boy was greatly relieved.

Another decision that involved Darren, Carlos, and John’s parents was that Mr. Hickock would deliver their diaper supplies to the school nurse on his way to work. It didn’t seem practical to ask the boys to negotiate big bags on and off the school bus. Also, they thought that those bags would be like magnets to other kids who might want to cause trouble. The boys would still have to bring home their dirty diapers every day, but these would be in much smaller quantities.

Carlos got on the bus first. He tried to arrive at his stop at the last possible minute but it did little good. The only evidence that he was wearing diapers was a slight puffiness in the seat and crotch of his pants. But that was enough to set people off. He ran onto the bus and tried to hide his pants with his book bag. No one had challenged him directly, but he could hear their whisperings. Even the giggling and laughing that had nothing to do with him made him cringe. It would have been less nerve wracking if he had been directly accosted, at least he could have fought back.

When they arrived at Darren, John, and Mark’s stop all hell broke loose. Darren and John hadn’t been as lucky as Carlos in the pants department. Their pants bulged noticeably on all sides, even with their coats on. The taunts of ‘babies’ and diaper boys’ was unbearable. For a few kids on the bus this was the first they had heard of the three boys’ punishments. They were laughing hysterically at them. The bus driver threatened to not drive off until order was restored. This did the trick. If the driver accused them of misbehavior, all those involved could be suspended from riding the bus for up to a month.

The bus rolled into the school’s driveway to let the students off. John, Carlos, Darren, and Mark stayed close together. They went quickly into the building with the intention of hanging out by their classrooms. Darren especially hated what was happening. He had always taken care of himself and he had never been afraid to confront people who were getting in his face. But this situation impossible. How could he fight back when it was painfully obvious that he was wearing diapers? Mark shared Darren’s agony. Why couldn’t he think of something that would take the heat off his friends?

The first bell rang and Carlos went off to his 8^th grade classroom. The others went to their 7^th grade classroom. From the very first day, their teacher (Ms. Landria) had insisted that students could not wear coats, jackets, or hats in the classroom. Darren and John hung their coats in the coat closet at the back of the room. Once again, there was thunderous reaction and finger pointing. They slunk to their seats and tried to look inconspicuous. Unbelievably, Ms. Landria hadn’t figured it out yet. She quieted the class down but every little distraction caused the class to get extremely unruly. She thought it was because it was the first day back after Christmas break.

Because it had turned bitterly cold again, students were allowed to stay in the classroom at recess if they didn’t want to go outside. Only a few hearty souls went to the school yard. After a hasty conference, John and Darren left for the nurse’s office.

Mark was approached by one of the class’s biggest bullies, a boy by the first name of Camp.

“Hi, Camp,” Mark greeted him.

Camp didn’t return the greeting.

“Why are you hanging around with those losers? Why don’t you hang around with me and the other guys?”

“They’re my friends,” Mark stated simply.

“You want babies for friends?” Camp challenged.

“They’re not babies.”

“Then how come they’re wearing diapers?”

“Because they got in trouble with their parents. They can’t help the punishment they were given,” Mark said.

“Ha! My parents would never get away with giving me that kind of punishment. I wouldn’t let them. They couldn’t make me,” Camp blustered.

“You are so stupid, Camp,” Mark retorted.

“Who are you calling stupid? I don’t hang around with diaper wearing babies.”

“I don’t either. They’re my friends. I’m going to be loyal to them.”

“Boo hoo!,” Camp mocked. “is that supposed to make me cry?”

“You don’t have a clue what loyalty means,” Mark spat back at him.

“Yes I do!” Camp said in an irritated voice.

“Then prove it.”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it says. If I do something that proves that I’m completely loyal to them, will you leave them alone? And make everybody else leave them alone?”

“What are you going to do?” Camp asked.

“You’ll find out tomorrow.”

“How will I know that you’ve done it if you don’t tell me what it is?” Camp asked.

“You just told me that you know what loyalty is. If you know that, you’ll know that I’ve done it. Is it a deal?”

“OK,” Camp responded. “But you’d better make it good.”

John and Darren came back into the room as Camp was walking away.

“What did he want?” Darren asked.

“Nothing,” Mark answered, “He was just being a jerk as usual.”

They didn’t see Carlos again until they got on the bus to go home. Today, they would be spending the afternoon at his house. Mark asked if he could go, too.

“No problem,” Carlos said. “My parents told me that I can have my friends over just like normal.”

Mrs. Zupatias made them sit down and do their homework first. They were done in about an hour. She then allowed them to watch TV.

After school, Mrs. Kadra picked up Bill and Kevin.

“Hi, boys,” she said.

“Hi,” they answered.

They headed for the Kadra’s house.

“How’s Kyle?” Kevin asked.

“He’s been at home all day. He got suspended for fighting.”

“Yeah, we know,” Kevin said. “We saw Mrs. Kelly drag his as… bring him to the office.”

“I am so disappointed,” she said. “Do you know that we are only the fourth family in the last ten years to be called to school because their child was involved in a fight. I was so embarrassed.”

“So, what’s going to happen?” Kevin asked.

“His in school punishment will end a lot earlier than his punishment at home, that’s for sure. He’ll be allowed back to school tomorrow after we have a meeting in the director’s office. Kyle will have to apologize to the other boy. Do you know that he threw the first punch?”

“Way to go Kyle!” Kevin said without thinking.

“Kevin!” his mother scolded.

“Sorry. But the kid was probably dissing him about the diaper punishment.”

“I don’t care what the reason was. You boys know that we don’t tolerate fighting of any kind. You managed to get through today without fighting, didn’t you?

“Uh, yeah, I guess so. But it was awfully embarrassing knowing that everybody knows about our diapers. The guys were making all kinds of sly references to water and to being wet. It was hard listening to them snicker at us.”

Kevin left out the part about Susan Hill volunteering to change his and Bill’s diapers anytime they wanted. That was embarrassing, too, but not in the same way as being embarrassed by the guys.

“It will get better in time, I’m sure. But you had better not be involved in any fights…” she said leaving the threat unfinished.

Once they arrived at the Kadras, Bill was required to change into his ‘home’ clothes- diapers and plastic pants. Mrs. Kadra pointedly told Kevin not to change. Bill was picked up by his mom and driven home for dinner.

Meal time at the Kadras was pretty bleak. Kyle’s bawling out continued during most of dinner. They were both told to do their homework and then to come back downstairs for a family meeting.

“Haven’t they finished yelling at me?” Kyle asked.

“I don’t think this meeting is about your fight today. I think it’s about our diapers.”

Kevin was right. Their parents announced their decision right away.

“Boys, your mother and I feel that your diaper wearing has gone on long enough and that it has become unhealthy. You have become overly dependent on them and you have to break this habit. Starting tonight, your beds will have a plastic sheet on them to protect the mattresses in case you have a genuine accident, nothing else.”

“Let’s go to your room and get the beds ready,” their mother announced.

The boys were angry and depressed. This was the first time that their parents had imposed a decision like this without at least asking for their opinion.

They reluctantly went to their bedroom and installed the plastic sheets. They also had to collect all their diapers and plastic pants and bring them to the laundry room. Their mother said that she would decide what to do with them later. She also warned them that she had better not find any of them missing or returned to their room.

Neither Kevin nor Kyle felt like watching TV. Instead they went up to their room and went to bed early.

It was the middle of the night. Kevin woke up feeling strange. His pajamas were wet; his sheets were wet- even the blankets were wet. He got out of bed and wiped himself off as best he could. He put on another pair of pajamas and crawled into bed with his brother.

Mark left Carlos’s house in time to get home for dinner. His parents were somewhat surprised that he didn’t ask to be put into a diaper and plastic pants. Maybe he wasn’t as enthralled with them as they had assumed.

A short time after dinner he asked to talk to them.

“What about?” they asked with concern.

“I made a decision today. I think I know how can I help Darren at school, and the other guys, too.”

“Really?” his dad asked. “How so?”

Mark told them about his confrontation with Camp.

“While I was talking to him a plan came into my head all of a sudden.”

“And what is this plan?” his mother asked in a worried tone. “You’re not going to challenge this boy to a fight, are you?”

“Oh no, nothing like that. I told him that I was going to do something that would show that I am completely loyal to my friends. In exchange, he kind of agreed that he wouldn’t pick on them anymore and that he would tell the others to stop picking on them, too.”

“So what is it that you want to do?” his father asked, although he had a suspicion that he already knew what it was.

“If I go to school dressed in a diaper just like Darren, John, and Carlos, people will know that I’m 100% behind my friends.”

Oh, Mark,…” his mother began to say, but she didn’t know what else to add. Was she proud of him or angry at him?

“You’re taking an awfully big chance, aren’t you?” his dad observed. “Didn’t you say that Camp “kind of” agreed to leave them alone. You don’t have a firm promise from him, do you? And, even if he did promise, he sounds like the kind of kid who could easily take it back.”

“But don’t you see, dad? If he does go back on his word at least some of the other kids will see what he is really is.”

Mr. Zupatias didn’t want to argue with Mark’s perceptions. He trusted Mark to understand kid logic much better than he did.

“You may have point there,” his dad conceded. “But what’s to stop Camp from taking it out on you?”

“Dad, I have to walk in Darren’s ‘moccasins’ or he’ll never completely trust me again.

Mr. Zupatias looked over to his wife. She had tears in her eyes. He didn’t know if they were tears of pride or tears of concern. Either way, the message was clear: “How can we possibly block Darren from trying to help his friends?”

“There is one other thing, isn’t there?” Mark’s dad asked.

“What?” Mark responded.

“The other guys are going to be in their diapers all day and all night, every day and every night for a long time. Do you intend to wear them outside of school, too?”

Mark blushed.

“Well,” he admitted, “I was thinking… could that be my reward for showing my loyalty in school?”

Mr. Zupatias bellowed with laughter. Mark was a little scared and a little confused.

“Well, we can’t look for more honesty than that, can we?” he asked his wife. “Come on. Let’s start your reward right now.”

Mr. Kadra entered the boys’ bedroom to wake them up. He noticed the strong smell of pee and Kevin’s wet pajamas and bedding.

“Kevin, why did you leave your bed like this?”

“I woke up in the middle of the night. I didn’t know what to do. I was tired…,” Kevin explained.

“If a genuine accident happens again (and he stressed the word genuine) you wake me or you wake mom. We’ll come in and help you remake the bed.”

“OK,” Kevin agreed.

The boys started getting ready for school.

“Was that a real accident?” Kyle asked.

“Of course, it was. You know how much I hate wet beds; I wouldn’t do it on purpose.”

“Not even to get our diapers back?” Kyle asked smiling.

Kevin didn’t answer right away.

“I don’t think that will ever happen. And don’t ever ask me about it again.”

Kyle was really disappointed that his brother was ready to give up so easily.

Mark woke up early again. Today would be a good day if he could make a positive difference for his friends. Publicly confronting Camp did worry him, but he was pretty sure that the other kids would understand his gesture. After that, he would need to gain their sympathy. It was risky.

The bus ride was a lot quieter today. Everybody seemed to have adjusted to the situation of the three guys being in diapers. Mark wondered if he had acted too hastily. Maybe his gesture would make things worse. Whatever, it was too late to back down.

When they got to school they repeated yesterday’s procedure of going into the building and heading for their classrooms. Mark seemed preoccupied.

“Is something wrong?” Darren asked.

“No, I’m cool,” Mark insisted.

“Are you looking for something?”

Before Mark could answer, Carlos spotted Camp and his friends heading their way.

“Shit, here comes trouble,” he whispered to the others.

“Here’s where the little boys are hiding,” he mocked. “Did your mommies make you all comfy in your soft didies and baby pants?”

“Shut up, Camp,” Mark said loudly. “Can’t you ever say anything positive?”

“What’s it to you? Are you their babysitter?” Camp said smirking.

Mark wanted to attract the attention of as many other kids as possible. He figured that his best chance was with a very public confrontation.

“Can’t you answer a simple question? Don’t you know how to treat people right?”

Camp didn’t have a clue where this was all going. He hesitated in answering.

“See, it’s like I told you yesterday,” Mark said. “You don’t know anything about supporting your friends. You wouldn’t know loyalty if it ran over you.”

“Oh, I get it,” Camp answered. “This is your ‘big’ display of loyalty, right? Trying to pick a fight with me?”

“No,” Mark answered. “This is.” He whipped his coat off and threw it to the floor. He lifted his arms slightly and turned completely around, letting everyone see the prominent diaper bulge under his pants. “I’m going to wear diapers every day, too, until my friends’ punishments are over.”

“What kind of a stupid stunt are you trying to pull?” Camp objected.

“Maybe it’s stupid to you, but I think other people who aren’t as selfish and self-centered as you will understand that I’m doing this out of genuine friendship.”

Camp was too stunned to respond. Mark had nothing left to say; he hoped that someone in the hall would back him up.

“I wouldn’t have the guts to do what you’re doing, but I’d like to have a friend who was that loyal,” a seventh grader said from the crowd.

“Me, too,” someone else added.

Camp couldn’t believe his ears. He had to shut these idiots up.

“Wearing diapers isn’t ‘loyal’; it’s just plain babyish and stupid,” he said repeating his previous objection.

“Mark is wearing them for a reason- so that the other guys don’t feel so bad,” a girl in the front row of spectators said. “I think that that’s loyal and brave.”

Other people, sensing that Camp was losing control of the situation began to add their comments.

“Yeah, Camp,” one eighth grader said, “all you ever do is pick on people smaller than you. You even make fun of your own friends when they’re in trouble.

This last comment stung. It was referring to an event that had happened just before Christmas vacation. One of Camp’s friends, Turrell, had been caught trying to sneak out of the house after he had been grounded by his parents. Camp went around telling everyone how stupid Turrell was for getting caught and embarrassing him over the extra punishments his parents added on.

Camp tried to divert the attention away from himself.

“If you’ve all gone nuts, that’s your problem. All of you can wear diapers for the rest of your lives for all I care. It’ll still be stupid.”

He stalked off toward his friends who had already started walking away. He vowed not to forget that Mark was the cause of this public defeat. He would get even no matter how long it took.

Neither Darren, John, nor Carlos had said a word during the confrontation. Mark turned toward them trying to read their reactions. Were they mad because of the scene he had just caused? Did they think that he had interfered in a situation that was none of his business? There was a moment of heavy silence.

“Here’s your coat,” Carlos said picking it up off the floor.

Mark couldn’t wait any longer to find out what they thought. “Are you guys mad at me?”

“Mad at you?” Darren said cracking a smile. “You just saved us who-knows-how-many weeks of having to take Camp’s shit.”

“Yeah,” Carlos agreed, “I can’t believe you did it. Are you really going to wear diapers every day until we finish off our punishments? You do know that Darren won’t be finished until at least next September, right?”

“I have to, especially after the big display I just put on,” Mark said.

“You did create one problem, you know,” John said.

“I did? What problem?” Mark asked.

“Because of you, we’ll have to redo our whole schedule to include your house into the afternoon rotation.” he said with mock annoyance.

Kevin and Kyle’s parents were relentless in their implementation of the no diaper rule. Kyle had tried several times to get his parents to reconsider, but he finally gave up when he realized that Kevin wasn’t going to give him any support.

The plan had been running for a full month. During that time, the boys had woken their parents up on twenty-two separate nights asking for help in remaking their wet beds. On five of these nights, both Kevin and Kyle had wet (but at different hours). Their parents remained vigilant, monitoring their fluid intake after 7:00 and, most importantly, looking for even the tiniest sign that the guys were faking it. They couldn’t prove it, but they remained convinced that the boys were somehow manipulating the situation. There was one fact, however, that didn’t fit this assumption. Even though Kevin was not lobbying to be put back into diapers, he wet the bed about twice as many times as Kyle.

This routine was getting tiresome but they were determined to keep it going until Kevin and Kyle gave it up. They believed that their sacrifice of lost sleep would be worth it in the end.

“Mom…, mom…,” Kyle whispered, “my bed’s wet again.”

Mrs. Kadra stifled a groan and dragged herself out of bed.

“OK, I’m awake. Have you stripped your bed yet?” she asked groggily. She could see that he had already put on dry pajamas.

“No,” he answered, “will you help me?”

“Go get clean sheets and I’ll help you put them on. And be quiet, I don’t want you waking up dad or Kevin.”

She put her robe and slippers on. She slipped out of the bedroom, closing the door. She switched on the light in the hallway. She and Kyle entered the bedroom and began stripping and remaking the bed. There was just enough light filtering in from the hallway to allow them to see what they were doing.

“OK, Kyle, back into bed. Good night, sweetie.”

“Good night, mom. Thanks.”

She picked up the wet bedding and pajamas in order to bring them down to the laundry room. On her way out, she heard the distinctive hissing sound of peeing. She looked over to Kevin’s bed and saw the growing ring of wetness. He was sound asleep.

“For crying out loud,” she said in exasperation.

They had spent a month looking for evidence that the boys were faking it, instead she found herself looking at the proof that their wetting was genuine. This was too much. Kyle followed her gaze and saw what she was looking at.

“Just stay in bed,” she said to him, “I’ll take care of this myself.”

She left the bedroom to put the wet bedding in the laundry room and to pick up fresh sheets and blankets. She returned within two minutes.

“Kevin…, Kevin…, wake up. You’ve wet your bed again.” She gently shook Kevin’s shoulder.

“Huh… whaa..?” he said sleepily. Then, feeling the wetness in his bed, he exclaimed, “Oh man, I can’t believe this. I’m sorry, mom.”

“It’s alright, sweetie. We’ll take care of it right away. Get up.”

She repeated the procedure she had just followed with Kyle. Kevin got back into bed.

“I’m sorry we’ve been so hard on you guys,” she said. “I’ll be back in a second.”

She was only gone for a moment..

“Until tonight, I was sure that you guys were wetting your beds on purpose. But, I can’t deny what I just saw. I believe you now. Let’s put some diapers on you so that you can get a good night’s rest.”

“You’re letting us use diapers again?” Kevin said surprised.

“Yes, at nighttime, anyway. I’ll explain it to dad tomorrow.

The boys were overjoyed. They were smart enough, however, not to show it too much. In less than ten minutes both boys were diapered and back in bed.

“Thanks, mom,” they said.

“You’re welcome. Good night.”

Kyle was too excited to fall back asleep right away

“And you thought that mom and dad would never give us our diapers back,” he said reproachfully.

“That’s not true,” Kevin disagreed.

“Then, why were you against me when I tried to get mom and dad to change their minds?”

“Because that would have been too obvious,” Kevin explained. “I had to be real subtle to get us our diapers back.”

“You? What did you do?” Kyle asked a little too loudly.

“Shh,” Kevin admonished him. “Mom and dad might hear us.”

“Alright,” Kyle said more quietly, “what did you do?”

“For one thing, I’m really good at pretending to be asleep.”

Kyle couldn’t believe it, “Do you mean that tonight…, you weren’t really asleep?”

“That’s right. Now leave me alone, I’m tired.” A few seconds later, Kevin added, “Oh, and we have to clean out our old toy box before mom sees it. It’s full of empty Evian water bottles.”

The next morning was Saturday. The boys slept in as long as they could-- they were so happy to be back in diapers they didn’t want to take them off. At 9:45 their dad walked into their room.

“Mom explained about last night. I guess diapers are still needed after all. I guess we made a mistake. Will you forgive us?”

Kevin was feeling uneasy. His dad was being very honest with them and they were not. On the other hand, their parents had taken away their diapers without a family consultation. That had been unfair.

“We’re not mad,” Kevin answered for himself and Kyle, “we’re glad, though, to be able to sleep in dry beds again.” At least that wasn’t a lie, he said to himself.

“Good,” their dad answered. “It’s time to get up. You can’t spend the whole day in bed. Why don’t you guys get something to eat before we have our family meeting?”

The guys presumed that the meeting would set the guidelines for their renewed diaper wearing. The offers their parents put forward were totally unexpected. They gave the boys until Sunday night to decide. While they were thinking it over, they were allowed to wear diapers all weekend if they wanted to.

When Bill came over later in the day, he was surprised to see Kevin and Kyle in their diapers. (He, of course, was still only allowed diapers and plastic pants outside of school. He still had four and a-half months to go before he got his ‘home pants’ back. Luckily, none of his other friends knew about this.)

“You guys got your diapers back!” he said in surprise.

“Not exactly,” Kevin answered. “Our mom and dad have given us a proposition to think about over this weekend. It’s kind of complicated.”

They went up to Kevin and Kyle’s bedroom. On the way up, Bill felt the inexplicable joy of hearing his friends’ plastic pants rustling. It just wasn’t the same when he was the only one wearing them.

Kevin shut the door and in a very low voice described how he had gotten their mom to witness his ‘spontaneous’ bedwetting. He explained how this convinced their mom that their nighttime diaper needs were genuine. This morning they had a family meeting at which time their parents offered them a choice.

“Quit stalling,” Bill said impatiently. “What’s the choice?”

“We have two choices,” Kyle answered, “wearing diapers only at night or wearing diapers 24/7.”

“Why are they giving you only two options?”

“It’s obvious that our parents still hope to break us out of diapers,” Kevin said. “They probably think that if we are allowed to wear them only at night, we’ll get bored with them and give them up.”

“Yeah,” Kyle agreed. “and they figure that we don’t really want to wear them openly in school.”

“Yeah, that would be a problem,” Bill agreed. “So, you’re going to ask for them only at night? I guess that’s better than nothing. I know that you guys have hated the last month without them.”

“That’s not exactly what we’re thinking. Kevin and I have talked about it a lot since this morning. How would you feel if we asked to wear them all the time?” Kyle said.

“I guess that would be OK. It’s your decision, not mine,” Bill answered.

“That’s true,” Kevin agreed, “but everyone knows that we’re best friends and that we all had to spend Christmas vacation in diapers. If Kyle and I start wearing them in school, you’re going to get dragged into it one way or another. It might even make it impossible for you to hide that your parents are making you wear diapers at home.”

Bill was thoughtful for a few seconds.

“Thanks for considering my feelings- but, I still think it’s your decision. I’ve been really lucky that no one has found out about my diaper wearing outside of school. But, somebody could find out about it tomorrow, whether or not you guys wear your diapers to school. At first, I was really scared that one of my other friends would come over to my house and see me- but not anymore.”

Kevin and Kyle looked over at each other and knew that the last obstacle to their decision had been removed. It really was up to them now: did they want to go to school in their diapers or not?

“In that case, I think you’d better be prepared for us to be in diapers when you come to pick us up on Monday,” Kevin said.

“Yeah,” Kyle agreed, “I really don’t want to limit my diaper wearing to just at nighttime.”

“Are you going to tell your parents about it today?” Bill wondered.

“No,” Kevin said, “we think that they’re going to try to talk us out of it. If we tell them tomorrow night it will give them less time to bug us.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Bill agreed.

Kevin and Kyle announced their decision after dinner on Sunday night. Their parents were dumfounded and disappointed.

“Do you guys really understand the conditions?” their mom asked. “There will be no exceptions made. You will wear your diapers 24/7- no matter what. At home you will never wear pants, regardless of who’s visiting.”

“And,” their dad added, “the rules are non-debatable. You must commit to this plan for a full year. If you take your diapers off or you break any of the rules, they will be taken away permanently. The plastic sheets will be the only protection you will have. Mom and I will not help you change wet beds in the middle of the night- but, you will be required to do it yourselves. Have you really thought this through?”

“And what about your friends?” their mom continued. “They will see you in school (and everywhere else) in your bulging diapers. When they come over to the house, your diapers will be totally exposed. Do you think you can handle all the teasing and other problems you will get?”

The boys had thought of all these things and they had concluded that keeping their diapers would make anything else that happened worthwhile. They couldn’t be shaken from their position.

“We won’t buy you new pants, you know. Have you tried putting your school pants on over your diapers?” their dad asked.

The boys had anticipated this. They were dismayed when they first looked at themselves in the mirror. With their shirts tucked in (as required by school rules), there would be no hiding how high their diapers and plastic pants rose up their backs and over their stomachs. It had almost convinced them to give up on the idea- but not quite.

“OK,” their mom and dad finally agreed, “if that’s the way you want it, that’s the way you’ll get it. There is one last thing- you’ll have to get up twenty minutes earlier so that we can diaper you for school.”

That night before going to sleep Kyle asked Kevin if he was scared.

“A little bit, I guess,” Kevin admitted. “It’s too late to worry about it now. Whatever happens, happens,” he concluded philosophically.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Kyle answered. “I just hope I don’t get into any more fights over it.”

“You’d better not. If you get kicked out of school, mom and dad are liable to send you to boarding school- with nothing but diapers in your suitcase.”

The next morning Mrs. Lankster called to say that she would be fifteen minutes late in picking up Kevin and Kyle for school.

“Hi,” Kevin and Kyle said.

“Good morning,” Mrs. Lankster answered. “Sorry we’re late.”

“That’s OK,” Kevin said.

“No it’s not,” Cathy pouted. “I’m supposed to be doing a group project in the library right now. I’ll probably lose points because of my clumsy brother.”

“I am not clumsy,” Bill objected. “You’re the one who knocked over the orange juice, not me.”

“I did not, you did. Stop blaming me”

“Alright, guys, that’s enough,” their mother said. “Luckily, you both had clean uniforms to change into. Just drop it. OK?”

It was not unusual for Cathy and Bill to be arguing about something. Kevin made a mental note to ask Bill what had happened. They were dropped off at school. Kevin and Kyle stood on the sidewalk, hesitating.

“Are you coming in?” Bill asked.

“We have to deliver our diapers supplies and a note to the nurse’s office.”

“Oh,” Bill answered.

The reason for Kevin and Kyle’s hesitation was that Mrs. Tremail, the school nurse, had her office in the grammar school building. It was located there because the K-6 kids seemed to have the greatest need for her. Having to go into the grammar school building to ask for a diaper change would be one of the embarrassments they would be required to suffer.

“Can I go with you?” Bill asked.

“Sure, why not?” Kevin answered.

Actually, Kevin and Kyle were glad of his company.

“There’s something you’ve have to know first,” Bill said.

“What’s that?” Kevin asked.

“I deliberately spilled the orange juice this morning.”

“So what?” Kevin asked. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“I wanted to go back to my room and change into a diaper and plastic pants,” Bill said in a barely audible voice.

“You mean you’re wearing a diaper right now?!” Kevin said in surprise.

“Not so loud,” Bill said, looking around to see if anyone had heard Kevin. “Yeah, I am. After you guys told me what you were going to do I decided that I wanted to wear diapers in school, too. I kept thinking about what you said- you know, about the other kids already knowing about our Christmas diaper punishment. So, I decided that I might as well go all the way, too.”

“Are you saying that your parents don’t know?” Kyle asked in amazement.

“Nobody knows, except you,” Bill admitted.

“That’s not going to last for long,” Kevin predicted. “How will your parents react when they find out?”

“I don’t know. I already have to wear my diapers and plastic pants everywhere except in school. I just hope that they don’t do what your parents did and try to take them away from me permanently.”

They didn’t want to be late for first period so they went directly to the nurse’s office and delivered the note and their supplies. Mrs. Tremail had already spoken to Mrs. Kadra so she was expecting them.

“You boys will check in with me at morning recess, lunch, and afternoon recess. On days when you have PE, you will report here to get changed into fresh diapers. You may use the infirmary shower if you want.”

They had to hurry to get to their classes on time. Kyle wished Kevin and Bill good luck as he took off toward his seventh grade classroom. Kevin and Bill entered their room just as the late bell rang. They put their coats away and scurried to their desks.

No one spotted their diapers until 9:30. Bill was sent to the big globe in the front of the room to demonstrate how time zones work. He was almost done when a buzz started building in the front of the room. The kids had noticed something odd. They couldn’t put their finger on it until Cynthia Sandovar said the word ‘diapers’ in a loud stage whisper. Immediately, everyone understood why his pants were bulging and his shirt was hanging so strangely. The class was on the verge of erupting when Mr. Kitgar stepped in. He sent Bill back to his seat and finished off the presentation himself. In the meantime, other kids started looking more closely at Kevin. The buzz about his diaper bulge spread around the room just as quickly as it had for Bill. Both boys were crimson with embarrassment. Now that the word was out, what would happen next?

Mr. Kitgar wisely changed his lesson plan for the morning. Instead of breaking the class into discussion groups, he decided to have the students quietly do seat work until recess. He needed time to talk to the boys to find out what was going on.

The morning recess bell rang. Unlike normal mornings, most of the kids didn’t bolt from the room to go out to the yard or to the bathroom. There was tension in the air. Kevin knew that he had to report to Mrs. Tremail or she might come looking for him after recess. Either way, he knew that he was doomed. He decided to take his fate into his own hands. He walked to the closet and got his coat.

“Where you going, Kevin?” Trent Maldro asked in a sing-song baby voice.

Bill decided to go with him, even though Mrs. Tremail didn’t know about his diapers.

“If Bill is going, too, then they must be getting their diapers changed,” he continued in the same babyish voice.

Mr. Kitgar asked Trent if he wanted to lose his recess for the next week. Trent and his friends quietly left the room. Mr. Kitgar quickly asked the hall monitor to watch his room. He wanted to talk with Bill and Kevin right away. He caught up with them just as they left the middle school building.

“Guys, wait up, please,” he called to them.

Kevin and Bill stopped but they didn’t turn around to face him. Mr. Kitgar walked in front of them.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on? I know about your Christmas punishment. How come you’re both in diapers? Are your parents forcing you to come to school in diapers because of something you did at home?”

Neither boy answered. They didn’t even look up at him.

“I don’t want to pry into your private lives. But if you don’t talk to me, I’ll have to ask the counselor to see you. Which way do you want it?”

“I don’t need a counselor,” Bill objected.

“Me neither,” Kevin seconded.

“Then why are you in diapers?” Mr. Kitgar pursued.

“You won’t tell anyone?” they asked.

“I can’t make that promise,” he answered. “If you tell me something that might constitute a danger to you, I have to report it to your parents or maybe even to the authorities.”

“OK, I guess,” Kevin said looking over to Bill who nodded his head up and down.

“Let’s sit here,” Mr. Kitgar said, pointing to a concrete bench along the walkway.

It only took five minutes for Kevin and Bill to confess to Mr. Kitgar their love of diapers. Kevin explained how he and Kyle were lifelong bed wetters and how their parents had made them choose between two extremes: cutting back to nighttime diapers only or wearing diapers full time. Bill explained that he had chosen diapers on his own (without mentioning that his parents didn’t know about his wearing them to school). Mr. Kitgar tried not to show his surprise. He told them to go to the nurse to get changed and that he wouldn’t report them as tardy if they arrived late back to class. In fact, he wanted to use the time that they weren’t there to talk to the rest of the class. He wasn’t sure exactly what he would say, though.

In the meantime, Kyle’s diaper and plastic pants had been spotted at the beginning of recess. Rod Stinners (the student with whom he had gotten into a fight just after Christmas break) noticed his bulging pants as they picked up their coats to go outside. (Kyle was intending to sneak over to the grammar school building.) Their eyes locked and Kyle knew that Rod knew.

“You got into trouble again?” Rod asked incredulously.

Surprisingly, there was no sarcasm in his voice.

“Kinda,” Kyle said noncommittally. “My parents are forcing me and my brother to wear our diapers all the time.”

Kyle and Rod had moved out of the classroom and were heading for the yard.

“Really? How come?” Ron wondered.

“It’s a long story. I have to go see Mrs. Tremail. I have to my diapers checked three times a day.”

“Later,” Rod said as they parted company.

Kyle was amazed that Rod hadn’t made a big deal out of his diapers. Maybe, he was waiting for him to come back so that he and his friends could gang up on him. He hoped that a fight wouldn’t break out. As he was walking towards the grammar school building, he saw Kevin and Bill talking to their teacher. He wondered what that was all about.

Even though the door was open, Kyle knocked before entering Mrs. Tremail’s office. She came out from the back area of the nurse’s station where there were two small rooms each containing two beds.

“Good, you’re on time,” she said. “Go into the room on the right and wait for me. I’ll explain the procedures in detail.”

The curtain covering the doorway of the room across the hall from where Kyle was instructed to go was pulled shut. Obviously, there must be a student who wasn’t feeling well. He heard Mrs. Tremail’s voice and a boy’s voice. He guessed that the boy must be a third or fourth grader. A few minutes later the curtain was pulled back and the little boy ran out of the room before Kyle could see who it was. Mrs. Tremail crossed the hall into the room where he was waiting.

“I’m assuming that you will come here when you are in need of a change, even if it isn’t at one of the usual times. Come with me so that I can show you the closet where your supplies will be kept.”

She brought him into the main part of the office and pointed out a cabinet that had twelve numbered doors.

“You and your brother’s supplies will be kept in this large cubicle with the number 6 on it. When you arrive, if you think that you need a change you will pick up a fresh diaper, clean plastic pants, and the container of powder and take them to one of the back rooms. I have a supply of wipes in each room and the beds are covered with disposable pads; I’ll take care of throwing them away after we’re done. You will check which room is available and go into it and wait for me if I’m already busy. Is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kyle answered. “What if there are other kids here? Do I have to take my diapers and plastic pants out of the cabinet while they’re here?”

“No, dear, you can wait for them to leave. Although, I think that everyone will already know why you’re here.”

Kyle silently agreed that she was probably right. His thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of Kevin and Bill. Kyle wondered if Bill was here to give Kevin moral support. He wanted to know what Kevin and Bill had been talking to Mr. Kitgar about, but not in front of Mrs. Tremail.

“Ah, good,” Mrs. Tremail said as Kevin entered the office. She eyed Bill questioningly but continued anyway. “I’ve just been explaining how the diaper changes are going to be handled. Let me go over it quickly with you, too.”

After she had finished, Bill spoke up saying that he needed to borrow one of Kevin’s diapers and a pair of his plastic pants. Mrs. Tremail was taken aback but she took Bill and Kevin on their word that Mr. Kitgar had sent both of them here to get changed. She would need to speak to Mr. Kitgar as soon as possible.

Kyle asked to be changed first since he didn’t have permission to arrive tardy after recess. In fact he was back in the middle school play yard with plenty of time to spare. Rod came over to him.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, what?” Kyle said nervously.

“Are you afraid of what’s going to happen when everyone finds out that you have to wear diapers all the time?”

“Yeah, a little bit,” Kyle admitted. “I’m hoping that people will know that I don’t have a choice. I have to wear them.”

“I’ll try to help you,” Rod said.

Kyle smiled back and hoped that the other kids would be as accepting as Rod. This was a very surprising development. How could this be the same kid who taunted him so much about his Christmas diaper punishment that they had gotten into a fight over it?

Kevin and Bill weren’t finished with their diaper changes until a few minutes after the late bell had rung. Despite their assurance that Mr. Kitgar would not mark them tardy, Mrs. Tremail insisted on writing them a hall pass which delayed them even more.

As soon as the late bell rang and the students were seated, Mr. Kitgar began addressing the class. He kept a sharp eye on the door because he didn’t know how much time he would have. His remarks were hastily prepared and he hoped that they wouldn’t make a potentially disruptive situation worse.

“Before recess this morning there was a disturbance in the class because of what two of your classmates are wearing.”

There were a few snickers which he silenced with a cold stare. Once the students were quiet again, he continued.

“For the last few weeks during our history lessons we have been talking about tolerance. We have seen a lot of examples of intolerance and unfair judgments being made against people and groups who were different. I want you to remember the things that you said about the people whom you identified as the persecutors. You wrote and spoke some beautiful words about respecting other people’s differences. Most of you even said that you would be willing to stand up with those people who were different and help them fight for their rights and their dignity. Who would have thought that we would be called upon to act on these ideals right here in our own school? I know that you understand what I am saying. Everyone has a right to being treated with respect. I expect you to live up to these ideals. If some of you have trouble doing that, I will explain it to you one more time. But if you fail at it again after that, I will treat it as a case of harassment. I know that I will be proud of how you choose to act in these circumstances… Now, let’s move our desks and chairs into our discussion groups…”

Bill and Kevin entered their classroom as Mr. Kitgar was explaining the group assignment. They were surprised that everyone was treating them so normally. Hopefully, it would last- but the day was only twenty-five percent over.

By lunchtime, everyone in the middle school knew about Kyle, Kevin, and Bill. There were a few students who were openly shunning them or taunting them. Most kids, however, had know Kevin and Kyle since kindergarten and were willing to let them be. Bill was left alone because of his association with Kevin and Kyle.

There was a great deal of curiosity about what they had ‘done’ to deserve this punishment. The three boys knew that they had to be careful about what they said. To be caught in an out-and-out lie would be humiliating. They decided that they would tell as much of the truth as possible, hoping that they could avoid giving too many details.

“We can say that our parents are forcing this,” Kyle suggested. “They did say that we would have to wear them all day, every day.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Kevin agreed. “Also, we can say that this will go on for a long time because our parents won’t allow us to wear anything else but diapers for a year.”

“Now that everybody knows, I guess I can admit that my parents have been making me wear nothing but diapers at home since Christmas,” Bill said.

“I guess we have to admit the same thing, about wearing only diapers and plastic pants at home, I mean,” Kyle added.

The boys got through the rest of the day fairly unscathed. They had to visit Mrs. Tremail two more times to get put into fresh diapers. During the last diaper change, Bill got some bad news.

“Your mom said to wait for her here today when she comes to pick you up. She needs to bring over your diaper supplies,” Mrs. Tremail said to him.

“Oh, OK,” he said hesitantly.

Since he hadn’t told his parents about wearing diapers to school, he wondered how his mother had found out. Did Mrs. Tremail call and tell her? Or maybe Mr. Kitgar? It didn’t really matter. The only important question was how unhappy would she and his dad be about it. His desire to wear diapers in the first place had gotten him a six-month long ‘no-pants-at-home’ punishment. When he decided to come to school in diapers this morning he hadn’t thought about the consequences. Would his parents punish him big-time for this?

Mrs. Lankster was waiting for the boys in Mrs. Tremail’s office.

“Are you ready to go home?” she asked. “Do you need your diapers changed?”

“No, ma’am” they answered.

“Don’t be shy about it,” she said. “I brought plenty of diapers and plastic pants for Bill. There are plenty to go around.”

“Uh, that’s OK,” they answered nervously.

Bill, especially, felt that his mother was being ‘too nice.’ Something was definitely going to happen when they got home. Cathy was waiting for them in the car. The smirk on her face made it clear that she already knew about what was in store for Bill.

“OK, boys,” Mrs. Lankster ordered as they walked into the house, “let’s get those pants off. Cathy, will you go to Bill’s room and bring down everything that’s on the bed, please?”

Cathy came back with an armful of diapers, three pairs of plastic pants (still in their original packaging), and the other necessary diaper changing supplies.

“We don’t need a change,” Bill said.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” his mother answered. “But that’s not what this is about anyway. When you get home from school you will be put into the new diapers that we got for you today. You guys wanted diapers- you’ll get diapers. Nice big thick ones.”

She made Bill lie down on the changing pad. She removed his diaper and plastic pants and started cleaning him.

Bill felt the diaper slide into position under him. Right away, he could tell that it was thicker than anything he had ever worn before. As his mom pulled it up between his legs he felt how much higher it rose up his back and over his stomach. She used six pins to fasten the diaper securely.

“OK, lift your bottom again,” she told Bill as she slid a second diaper under him.

“Two diapers?” he complained.

“Yes, sweetie,” she answered calmly, “isn’t this what you wanted? Diapers that were obvious, diapers that everyone would notice?”

“What do you mean?” he asked nervously.

“What I mean is that you boys will have only these big diapers to wear outside of school. Won’t that be fun? Everyone will be able to enjoy your diapers with you, wherever you go.”

[The boys weren’t sure if they had heard right. Did Mrs. Lankster say that they would be expected to leave the house without pants?]

Kevin and Kyle couldn’t believe how thick Bill’s diapers were. Cathy opened the first pair of plastic pants and handed them to her mother. At first glance, they seemed huge but they just barely fit over the enormous diapers.

“OK, sit up and take off with your shirt.”

She handed him a striped long-sleeved t-shirt that just barely covered the top inch of his plastic pants.

“OK, you’re done,” she said helping Bill to his feet. He could barely stand up, never mind walk.

“Who’s next?” she asked Kevin and Kyle.

It was obvious that she meant to do the same thing to them. It would be useless to protest. Kevin volunteered to go next. He hoped that he could keep his erection down until at the least the first diaper was pinned on him. He was becoming very excited at the thought of being diapered in front of Cathy.

Fifteen minutes later the thickly diapered boys were alone in the family room..

“How serious do you think they are about never letting us wear pants except in school?” Kyle wondered.

“I don’t know,” Bill answered. “I hope that my mom was just trying to scare us. I don’t think that they would make us walk around publicly in our underwear.”

“This isn’t exactly regular underwear,” Kevin said pointing to their massive diapers and bulging plastic pants. “Our diapers probably have more cloth in them than all the clothes we normally wear put together.”

“So you think that they’re going to do it? Make us go around publicly like this?” Bill asked.

“I don’t know,” Kevin answered. “I’m just saying that we’d better get ready for the worst. Look at how short these shirts are; our moms didn’t sew them up like this for nothing. They definitely want our diapers and plastic pants to remain exposed.”

Mrs. Lankster appeared at the door.

“OK, boys, time to get started on your homework.”

As they got organized at the kitchen table they overheard Cathy on the phone.

“..and if you thought they were cute in their diapers at Christmas, you should see how perfectly adorable they are now. Their diapers are so thick they have to waddle like toddlers. I can’t wait for you to see…”

This didn’t do anything to reassure them that the worst wasn’t going to happen. On the other hand, these new diapers had worked their magic and gotten the boys quite excited.

It only took forty-five minutes for them to finish their homework.

“I wonder why my mom hasn’t started dinner, yet,” Bill said just as Cathy walked into the kitchen.

“That’s because we’re not eating at home,” she answered. “And neither are you guys,” she added for Kevin and Kyle’s benefit.

“Where are we going?” Bill’s voice rose in near panic.

“I don’t know. Mom only told me that we’re all going to meet dad and the Kadras somewhere for dinner.”

At that very moment, Mrs. Lankster came into the kitchen carrying jackets for the boys to wear.

“It’s time to leave,” she announced. “Here put on your new jackets.”

The jackets she handed them only came down to their waists. Just like their new shirts, these jackets were intended to keep as much of their diapers visible as possible.

“We can’t go out dressed like this,” Bill protested.

“Why not?” his mother answered. “You’ve worn diapers in public before.”

“But we aren’t wearing any pants!” he wailed.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ve already checked with the restaurant. They have a rule that you have to wear shoes and a shirt. You’re covered. Now, let’s get moving; we don’t want to be late.”

“Please, don’t make us go out like this. I’ll never wear diapers again. I promise,” Bill pleaded.

“It’s too late for that. Not for one second do I believe that you could give up your diapers so easily,” his mother coldly answered. “Now, get in the car. If I have to tell you one more time, you may find yourself dressed for school like this tomorrow.”

Kevin and Kyle were also panicking about being seen in public this way. Wearing diapers under their pants was one thing, this was too much.

“But why are you making us go out without any pants on?” Bill whined.

“Why? You’re asking why?” Mrs. Lankster answered loudly. “Who went off to school in diapers this morning? And who knew that those diapers would be clearly visible under his pants? And,” she added speaking directly to Kevin and Kyle, “who loaned him fresh diapers and plastic pants twice today?”

“But Kyle had nothing to do with that. He didn’t know that Bill was in diapers until later,” Kevin explained.

“That’s something you’ll have to take up with your parents,” Mrs. Lankster countered. “Now, get those jackets on!”

The boys knew that any further attempts at discussion would result in disaster. They got into the jackets. Their bulging diapers seemed even more prominent.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Lankster,” Kevin said timidly, “can I ask where we’re going?”

“To the 1955 Grill, she answered.

The boys’ faces dropped even further. [It looked like Bill was going to start crying at any moment.] The 1955 Grill was a very popular restaurant modeled after a 1950’s diner. The food was good and the prices were reasonable. In the year since it had opened, it had become a favorite restaurant for many families. It was so popular that you almost always had to wait to be seated. There were bound to be kids there who knew the boys from school or from the neighborhood.

If Kevin and Kyle hadn’t been there, Bill would probably have thrown a tantrum and refused to leave. For their part, if Kevin and Kyle had been at home, they would have fought hard to avoid going out. As it was, the boys knew that they were trapped. Any resistance would result in even worse consequences. Their only hope was that the Monday night crowd would be small.

Book 4– Social Adjustments