Post by Bad Beth on Jul 22, 2013 1:30:13 GMT
Chapter 11
“Hi, come on in,” said Kate’s mother.
I took off my shoes and put them beside the door with my backpack. I took off my coat and hung it on the coat rack. Kelly and Matthew did the same thing.
“Your children are very special,” said Kate’s mom.
“Why thank you,” said Mom.
“Every time kids come here, they put their shoes right in front of the door and their coats so I hang them up for them,” said Kate’s mom.
Kelly pointed at Matthew and herself. “We usually copy what our sister does,” she said.
We heard a knock at the front door behind us. Mom opened it. It was another family. A mom and dad with their three kids. “Hi, we’re here,” said the mother.
I heard the TV blaring from the family room. I wandered down the hall and into the family room. Kate’s father, Brian, Kate, and a little girl were watching the Olympics. Brian noticed me. “Hey Natalie, come join the fun,” he said.
“Who is she?” the little girl asked.
“Oh, that is my sister,” Brian replied. “And Natalie, this is Kate’s little sister, Amber, the birthday girl.”
“Hi,” I greeted.
“Hi,” she greets back.
In the kitchen, the patio door opened and a little boy came in holding a gray Tabby cat.
“That’s my brother Jake,” Amber said. “He’ll be seven real soon. I also have an older brother and sister. They’re both upstairs.”
“Who’s that blond girl?’ Jake asked pointing at me.
“That’s Natalie,” Amber replied.
Mom, Kelly, Matthew, Kate’s mom, and the other family came in the room talking.
“Why is there strangers in our house?” Jake asked.
Kate’s mom began to introduce us. “Jake, Amber. This is Brian’s mom, Anita, and these are her three kids, Natalie, Kelly, and Matthew.”
“Who are those people?” I asked as I pointed to the other family.
“Oh, and that is my friend, Nancy, and this is her husband, Robert, and these are their three kids, Christine, Danielle, and Colton.”
“How old are they?” I asked.
“Ten,” Christine replied.
“Seven,” Danielle replied and then she pointed at their baby brother, “and he’s one.”
“He’s eighteen months,” said Robert. He was holding Colten in his arms.
Kelly put our gift on the kitchen table with the others and sat down in the family room.
Christine and Danielle left the room. I looked around the house. This house was pretty big. When I came back in the family room, Mom told me it wasn’t nice to snoop around someone’s house but Kate’s mom said it was okay.
(Author’s note: Snooping around? This is a party so of course the kids can wander around so it’s not like she did anything wrong by looking at all the rooms in the house. No wonder I took it out and how would she know she was looking around?)
“This is a big house,” I said.
Everyone was silent. Mom chuckled and so did the other adults.
“You have a very cool staircase,” I said. “With a fountain in the middle. I wish our house was that cool.”
“Big houses are a lot of work and expensive,” said Mom.
“I have two other kids,” said Kate’s mom. “Sixteen and thirteen. They’re both upstairs. You’re welcome to go up there and meet them.”
Then a blond girl came in the hallway upstairs and peeked over the railing. “Mom, can we go on the internet?”
Kate’s mom looked at her watch. “Yeah for a little while,” she replied.
“Okay, thanks mom,” said the girl and began to walk away.
“And Allie, her mom added. “No looking up dirty inappropriate stuff do you understand?”
“Yes mother,” Allie replied as she walked away.
I went upstairs and looked around. The upstairs was huge. I looked in every room except for the ones with the door closed. Three of them was a hall closet for towels and bed spreads. I came to the part of the hall where Allie was and I peeked over the railing. “Hi everybody!” I waved.
“Hi Natalie,” Brian waved back.
“You like this house?” Kate asked.
“Yep,” I replied and asked, “what is this called where I’m standing?”
“A balcony,” Mom replied.
“Really,” I said. “I thought balconies were outside.”
(Fun trivia here: I actually wrote this part on spontaneous because I also asked my mother what it was called that has a railing peeking over a room that is part of the upstairs hallway and she said “balcony” and I said I didn’t know they could be inside and she said they can, it’s called a balcony so I stuck it in here right after the conversation)
“Not always. They can be indoors.”
“Cool.”
I walked to the other side of the balcony and into the rec room but there was more to it. There was three steps down leading somewhere else. I walked three steps down. There was another staircase left of me and a window on the right. I walked straight that led to another room. I spotted a closet left of me. I opened it up. It was just games and puzzles. I closed the door and went in the room. Allie and th other blond girl were on the computer playing games on the internet. They had AOL. The blond girl spotted me. “Who’s that girl there?” she asked as she pointed at me.
Allie didn’t answer. She was too busy playing.
“Who’s that girl there?” the blond girl asked again. “Hello!” she touched her and Allie jumped.
“Jesus! You scared me! I almost wet my pants!” she yelled.
“Sorry. Who’s that girl there?”
“Who?”
“Her. Right behind you.”
Allie turned around and saw me. “I don’t know Ella!” she yelled. “And now don’t bother me!”
That girl has a bad temper. I would leave the room if I were Ella.
“Forgive her rudeness,” she said. “She’s only like this when she needs to concentrate really hard,” and then she added in a low voice. “She has Attention Deficit.”
ADD, I thought.
ADD is a disorder in your head. People with that disorder get distracted easily. They also have troubles listening, being patient, waiting their turn, and if you give them a lot of information like go to your room and get a pair of panties, socks, pants, shoes, shirts, bla bla bla, it’s too much information. They can’t remember all that. People with ADD are also disorganized so therefore their house can be messy because things are out of place. They’re also impulsive. They’re doing something or do something and they don’t know they did it or doing it, because they’re not aware of it. Sometimes I get a feeling that I have it because I’m having symptoms of it but I try not to think about it. I bet the car accident made me get it. I wish I wasn’t sitting in the back of our car. It was a minivan of course. If I wasn’t sitting back there, I wouldn’t be wearing a diaper right now, just panties like everyone else and my life wouldn’t be so miserable and twisted. I left the room and went downstairs to the family room.
“The upstairs is big,” I said. “It has two staircases.”
“Why thank you,” said Kate’s mom.
A teenage boy came in the kitchen with a walk around phone talking to someone.
“Natalie, that’s my brother Sam,” said Kate.
“Allie’s your sister too right?” I asked.
“Right,” Kate replied.
Colten was sitting on the floor playing with his toys.
“Where did the name Colten come from?” I asked his parents.
“Oh his real name’s Colt but we just call him that.”
(Author’s note: I thought I could make up a unique name but it’s already a name it turns out. The name is spelled Colton but since some parents do intentionally misspell their baby’s names to make it unique, I left it misspelled and it is one of my pet peeves when parents do this but yet I did it for my story)
I picked him up and held him. In the kitchen, Mom came back in. “You sure have a nice deck out there,” she said.
“Yeah,” said Kate’s mom. “We built it a few years ago.”
As Mom and Kate’s Mom talked about the deck I began to smell a foul order. I sniffed at Colton’s butt.
Pee-you, I thought. You need a new diaper.
“When was the last time you’ve changed his diaper?” I asked his mom and dad.
“Just before we left,” Colton’s mom replied.
“From your house?” I asked.
Colton’s dad nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well he just pooped his diaper,” I said.
“That’s what babies do,” said Colton’s mom.
“I know. They do it because they can’t control their bowels so they need to have their diapers changed, if they don’t, they get an affection. I used to change my little brother’s diapers when he was a baby.”
“Well since you love changing diapers,” said Colton’s mom. “Would you like to change his diaper?”
“Really?!” I said. “Sure! i haven’t changed a baby’s diaper since I was little.” I was jumping up and down excitedly inside of me. “Thank you!” I said. As I walked out of the room, Colton’s parents were trying to remind me how to change a baby’s diaper.
“I know, don’t forget to wipe him, powder his bottom, etc.,” I cutted them off.
I didn’t want them to go through the energy to remind me how to change a baby’s diaper.
“Now where did they put the diaper bag?” I asked Colten when I arrived in the entry. Then I spotted it right next to the front door with the other coats. “There it is.” I picked up the diaper bag and went in the living room. I sat down on the sofa and opened the diaper bag and took out a changing mat and laid Colten on it. I undid his pants and took off his diaper. He had also peed in it a lot even though I didn’t see it wet from the outside. “You sure get your diapers wet this fast don’t you?’ I said to Colton.
He smiled and kicked his feet. I wiped his bottom and placed a clean diaper under him and powdered his bottom and pulled the diaper over his bottom and taped it shut. “All done,” I said as I did his pants.
Colten got up and wandered away when I was done. I quickly put the stuff away in the diaper bag and put it back where I got it. I went back in the living room and found Colten in the dining room underneath the dining room table. I quickly crawled under there to get him but he crawled out. I crawled out from under the table and got him from behind a chair in the living room. He began to squeal when I carried him back to the family room. I put him down and threw the diaper away. I went in the bathroom and washed my hands. After I was done, I got my backpack and went upstairs to change my diaper. I wanted to use the upstairs bathroom because it’s wide enough for me to lie down. That’s much easier for me to change my diaper. I closed the bathroom door behind me and turned on the light. But as I was changing myself, Allie barged right in without knocking. She got a stun look on her face when she saw me.
Here I was, laying on the bathroom floor, on the disposable mat, with my diaper underneath my bottom (I was putting on a new one), my shirt was lifted up and my pants were off.
“You idiot,” I told myself. “You forgot to lock the door.”
“Oh my gosh!” Allie said. “No one ever told me you were a diaper wearer!” then she gasped. “Are you a big baby? If not, then why do you wear diapers?”
“None….of…your….business,” I said.
God damn I didn’t think it was her business because she was being so rude by the tone of her voice.
“Oh not my business is it?” she said in a different tone. “Well I bet it’s because you don’t wanna tell me you wear them because you like being a baby. I bet you have a crib, a changing table, a high chair, a car seat, and a stroller. I know. You’re a teenbaby. Yeah that’s it, a teenbaby, get it? Teenbaby.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I am,” I said firmly. “I enjoy drinking from a bottle, sucking on a binky, nursing from my mom, I sleep in a crib, I get pushed around in my stroller, I have a changing table, I play with baby toys, I sit in a car seat, I have a highchair, I wear baby clothes, I wear sleepers to bed, I talk baby talk, and I watch BARNEY!”
“And one more thing,” Allie said. “Babies don’t change themselves!!” she yelled and then she said in a different voice. “Poor baby. Did I hurt your feelings. Waa-“
“Shut up,” I said angrily.
“Make me,” she said.
“Okay, I will,” I got up and Allie ran out of the bathroom. I closed the bathroom door and locked it. I couldn’t believe Kate had a little sister who was mean to people with bladder/bowel problems. I wonder if she’s mean to other people with severe disabilities from other car accidents. I lift my shirt up and laid down again. After I put my diaper on, I put my pants back on and put my things away in my backpack including the disposable mat. I washed my hands and left the bathroom.
In the hallway, Allie jumped from the staircase behind me and lift my shirt up. I turned around and smacked her and walked away. I went downstairs to the family room. The adults were in the kitchen making dinner. Amber was at the table looking at her presents. “Can I open my presents?” she asked.
Her mom and dad didn’t answer because they were too busy talking and cooking and the TV was blaring. Kate came in the family room and told one of us to turn it down. Kelly walked up to it and looked for the volume.
“It’s right next to the power button,” said Kate.
Kelly found it and turned it down.
“Can I open my presents?” Amber asked again.
“After dinner you can,” her mom replied.
Allie came in the kitchen and had a cup of water. Her mom saw her and looked at her face. “Oh honey, what happened to your face?”
Allie told her she was swinging her hand around and she accidentally hit herself there. Her mom went by that story. “Okay, but next time be careful, and I don’t want you doing that in the house you understand?”
“Yes,” Allie replied.
When dinner came, Kate and Brian moved the presents from the table to the counter and set the table. Kate’s mom brought some chairs to the table from the dining room.
Ding dong
Amber and Jake ran to the front door and answered it. It was my dad. Kate’s mom came in through the dining room and living room to answer the door but saw she was too late. “Oh, you guys got the door.”
“Yeah, it’s a weird guy,” said Jake.
I was offended but Dad chuckled and said, “Yep. It’s a weird guy alright.”
“And my father is not weird,” I said. But Amber’s mom told me he meant stranger.
I felt relieved.
We all went in the kitchen. Mom saw Dad. “Glen, you’re here. I’m glad you got off work early.”
“Yeah, me too Darling.” He hugged her and kissed her.
Yuck! I thought
Allie’s mom went to the staircase. “Kids! Dinner!” she called.
Allie, Ella, Christine, and Danielle, all came down and so did Allie’s older brother Sam.a teenager. He must be Kate’s little brother because I remember her mom telling me she had another son and daughter. Everyone served themselves dinner. I picked up my plate from the table and served myself. For dinner we were having mash potatoes with gravy, peas, chicken, and meat. I sat down at the table with other kids. The adults ate in the family room as they watched the summer Olympics. No kids were allowed to eat in there but Kate could and she’s only nineteen but she’s over eighteen so she could eat in there.
“This really sucks,” said Allie. “We have to eat at the table.”
“Our mom and dad don’t want a mess out there,” said Amber.
“I don’t make messes,” said Allie.
When everyone was finished eating, we had cake. We sang Happy Birthday to Amber. Amber made a wish and blew out all the candles. Everyone cheered. We took the candles off the cake and the toys. Kate’s mom got a knife and some small plates and but the cake and served it to everyone. As I was eating my cake, Jake leaned down and ate the rest of his cake like an animal. Christine and Danielle did the same thing.
“What are you guys doing?” Kelly asked bewilderly.
Christine looked up. “I’m a pig,” she said and continued eating.
“We’re pigs,” said Jake.
“Oh, and I’m a dog,” said Allie and she began to eat like one. Ella did the same thing.
Matthew, Kelly, and Amber all began to eat like animals.
“You guys are sick man,” said Allie’s big brother Sam.
Here I was sitting at the table with eight pigs. I didn’t feel like eating like one.
“Why aren’t you doing it Natalie?” Kelly asked.
“Because I don’t feel like it,” I replied.
“Do it. It’s fun,” said Matthew.
“Yeah you usually do stuff what other kids are doing,” said Kelly.
“But I don’t feel like doing this,” I said.
“Try it and if you don’t like it, you can stop.”
I took a deep breath and pulled my hair back and tucked it in my shirt and leaned down and began to eat like an animal. I found it fun. Once I started, I couldn’t stop just like the other kids. I ate the messiest. Jake, Amber, Christine, and Danielle all copied me.
“Okay, you can stop now,” said Kelly.
We all ignored her.
“Natalie! You can stop ow!”
“No, I’m enjoying it,” I said. “You said if I wasn’t, I can stop.”
“But you’re going to get in trouble,” Kelly cried.
I ignored her. Why would I get in trouble for eating like this? Everyone else is doing it.
“What in the...heck?’ I heard Allie’s mom say when she came in the kitchen. “Kids, I want you to use good table manners and not eat like little piggies. Young lady. Do you know you’re setting a bad example for the younger children?”
“Young lady,” she said again.
“Natalie,” said Matthew.
“What?” I said as I ate my cake.
“She’s talking to you,” Matthew replied.
“Who?” I asked.
“Her.”
Then he nudged me as Allie’s brother hit me in the shoulder really hard. I stopped eating my cake and put my hand on my shoulder. “Ow,” I said.
“I didn’t hit you that hard,” he said.
I hit him back to show him it really did hurt so he would understand.
Matthew tapped me on the shoulder again. I turned and looked at him. “What?” I asked.
Matthew pointed at Allie’s mom.
“Yeah. What about her?” I said.
“She’s talking to you.”
I looked at her.
“You’re setting a bad example for the younger kids,” she said. “So please don’t do it.”
“What is she talking about?” I asked.
“Jake started it,” the little kids were saying and then they pointed at Kelly, “and then she told (then they pointed at me) her to do it.”
“Okay. I don’t want…ah what the heck. You can do it. What am I talking about? You’re kids. You can do it. Just for today.” Then she left us alone. She put the dirty plates in the sink and went back to the family room.
The little kids ate like piggies again. Sam tried it. I figured out it was okay for me to do it since he was doing it so I joined in.
After I was done eating my cake, I cleared my spot and went to the bathroom to wash the frosting off my face. After I was done, I went upstairs to the playroom and played South Park on Nintendo 64. The game was rented. I ignored the cussing and swearing. I wish I was allowed to watch the show but Mom and Dad won’t let me because of the language, violence, and behavior.
“Stop you two,” said Cartman and I was killing the turkeys with snowballs. Then Matthew came in the room with Kelly and Jake. “C’mon Natalie. Amber’s going to open her presents now,” they said.
“Okay.” I turned the game off and ran downstairs with them.
Amber was sitting at the kitchen table with a present on her lap. “Can I open my presents now?” she asked.
“Wait until your dad gets the camera,” her mom replied.
Her dad came in the kitchen with the movie camera and left the room.
“Now can I open my presents?” Amber asked again.
“Just wait,” said her mom.
Her dad came back with a camera stand. He put it up and put the camera on it. He adjusted it. “Okay, you may now open them,” he said.
“Yeah,” said Amber excitedly. She tore open the wrapping paper and opened the clothes box. It was a Powerpuff Girls outfit. “Cool, it’s Bubbles,” she exclaimed.
(Bubbles is one of the Powerpuff girls from The Powerpuff Gils)
Amber put the present aside and opened another one. It was an old video game from the eighties. She pushed that aside and opened another one. It was Monopoly except it was a Pokemon one.
“Yes!” Amber yelled. She picked it up and hugged it and tossed it aside.
That’s one excited birthday girl I have ever seen before.
Amber picked up our present and pulled the tissue paper out of the bag and tipped it upside down and all our presents fell out. Amber only looked at it for two seconds and moved on to the next presents. Her mom started yelling at her for some reason. She told her she was being rude.
What was she talking about? Being excited is rude? Oh so I suppose my mom and dad were very rude when they had their first child back in nineteen seventy eight because they were excited. Being excited is not rude. I don’t know what gave her that strange idea. I saw Allie and Ella go upstairs. They probably had enough of the excitement. Allie’s mom apologized to Brian, Mom, Dad, and Christine and Danielle’s parents for Amber’s rudeness (which she was never being rude). Then I noticed that the little kids were crying except for Kelly. She was complaining to Dad about Amber’s excitement.
“…and she didn’t even say thank you one bit,” I heard her say at the end of her sentence.
“Mom, how was she being rude?” I asked. “She opened her presents like everybody else would and her mom’s calling that rude. What gave her that strange idea?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her,” Mom replied.
I came over to her. “Um, why do you think Amber was rude by opening her presents and being excited?” I asked.
(Fun trivia: This did actually happen to me for my 12th birthday and to this day I still don’t know what I did wrong. I was very excited that day. Maybe I opened them too fast or didn’t say thank you after every gift I opened. But my brothers were upset and my dad got it all on camera. Mom also yelled at me too about it)
“Well because one reason is she didn’t say thank you and she uh…opened her presents too fast.”
“Why is opening your presents too fast rude?”
“I don’t know. Why is asking someone if they brought you a present rude? That’s the way our country works,” Amber’s mom replied.
I knew what she meant when she said “why is asking someone if they brought you a present rude.” She meant for example: my aunt and uncle and their kids come up to visit us and it was right after Christmas. Right when they come in our front door, Kelly, Matthew, and I all run up to them and ask them if they got us a present. That’s rude.
I went upstairs and found Ella and Allie in her room playing a board game. The room was a big chaos because Allie never keeps her things put away. Her bed was unmade, her clean clothes were on her dresser, her dirty clothes or the clothes she worn were all over the floor, her stuff animals and toys were laying all over the place, and she had garbage everywhere. Her table was also a mess. She had some dirty dishes, and there were a bunch of puzzle pieces scattered all over. Some of them were on the floor. Her room was so messy, I wouldn’t want to play in here. Too much commotion. How does Allie stand it? Doesn’t she have troubles finding her belonging? If Kelly and I made our room that messy and so did Matthew, we would get grounded. I don’t like messes because it makes me feel stressed inside. Allie looked toward my direction and saw me standing in the doorway. She didn’t say anything. I took a step into her room. Allie and Ella didn’t pay any attention to me. I felt confused in my head because of the messy bedroom. If I had to stay in this room and play with Allie, I’d be bored because her room is so messy. I wouldn’t know what to play with because everything is scattered all over. I erased the mess in my head and saw that Allie saw that Allie had a nice bedroom. Everything was all picked up and put away. The garbage was gone and so were the dirty dishes.
“Do you have anything to say about my room?” Allie asked in a snotty voice.
I thought for a moment. “Uh, your room’s a mess.”
“Yeah, do you have a problem with it?”
“No,” I said. “But don’t you ever have troubles finding your stuff?”
“It don’t bother me,” she said.
“Do you ever get grounded from all this?” I asked as I pointed at the mess.
“What is this? Ninety questions you’re asking? I was being sarcastic about what you thought of my room. I feel sorry for you man. You just don’t know the difference between sarcasm.”
Why was Allie treating me like this? What did I do wrong? I didn’t do anything to deserve this crap.
As I walked out of her room, I accidentally stepped on one of her toys. It broke. Allie got up and picked up her broken model that was built out of Knex.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Look what you did!” she yelled. “I worked hard building it!”
“I said I was sorry,” I said.
It was her fault. She shouldn’t have had it laying on the floor.
“If you were watching where you were going! This wouldn’t have happened!”
“I’m sorry,” I cried. I had my hands out. I do that when I get scared. I don’t know why, I just do. I hate it when people get mad at me for no reason. My mom hates it too. I don’t know about everybody else. As I left her room, I accidentally banged myself against her doorway because for some reason, I turned too soon.
Allie did some faking laughing at me. “Ah ha ha ha. Can you be even more awkward than that?” she said.
I think she was being sarcastic. Neah. She’s saying it to make fun of me because she hates me.
I frowned at her. “Humph,” I said.
I walked away with my nose stuck in the air. Then I bumped into Sam.”Augh,” I said.
“Augh,” said Sam.
Behind us, Allie started laughing. “Oh, so you can be more awkward.”
“S-sorry,” I apologized to Sam.
“It’s okay,” he said. He patted my shoulder as he walked by. “And ignore my sister,” he added. “She’s just being a jerk so don’t pay any attention what she says to you.”
“Shut up,” said Allie and stuck her tongue out at him.
Sam ignored her.
Allie followed after me as I went to the staircase. But as I walked down it, my foot slid off the step and caused me to slide down because I placed my foot on it wrong.
Allie laughed at me even harder. “Hey Ella!” she shouted. “You should have been out here because she just slipped down the stairs!” And she ran back to her room.
I tried not to cry. I went in the family room and asked Mom and Dad when they were planning to leave.
“Not for a while,” Dad replied. “Your mom and I are sitting in here watching the summer Olympics with the other adults so you can go play with the other kids and have fun.”
“But,” I pretended to yawn. ‘I’m tired. I want to go home,” I whined. I wanted to get away from Allie.
“Well, you can find a place and sleep and we’ll wake you up when it’s time to go,” said Mom.
Grrr. It didn’t work.
“But I want to leave. Allie won’t stop being mean to me,” I said.
“What is she doing to you?” her Mom asked.
“Being snotty,” I replied. “She asked me what did I think about her room and I told her it was a mess and then she told me she was being sarcastic and said she felt sorry for me because I didn’t know the difference between sarcasm.”
“She’s literal like me,” Mom told her mom.
“And she got mad at me when I accidentally stepped on one of her Knex model and then she laughed at me when I accidentally banged myself against her doorway and laughed at me again when I bumped into Sam and she also laughed at me when I fell down the stairs.”
“Oh I’m sure she didn’t mean it,” said Allie’s mom. “She probably didn’t know she was laughing out loud. Sometimes she is impulsive, like you come in the here and you’re missing an arm or a finger and she says “That girl looks weird,” but she won’t know she said it out loud.”
“Yeah but when I fell down the stairs she said to her friend that she should have been out here because I just fell down the stairs and she ran back to her room laughing hysterically,” I said.
“Well I’m sorry,” said Mom. “There’s nothing I can do about it. Sometimes you have to ignore some things. She’s probably going through a stage when adolescents get snotty. You went through it too remember?”
“No I do not,” I said even though I do remember.
“Well you did. You went through it when you were in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade. Your sister’s starting to go through it too.”
“But she’s only twelve,” I protested. “I started going through it when I was thirteen.”
“Everybody’s different. When I went through it, I got my mouth slapped a lot by my mother for being snotty to her.”
“Allie gets a little mouthy with me sometimes,” said Allie’s mom to my mom.
“Does she get ever get grounded?” I asked.
“Natalie,” said Dad.
“What?” I said. I saw the look on his face that told me I did something wrong. I can also see it in his eyes too. “Sorry,” I said. Humph. I guess asking Allie’s mom that question was rude. Oh well. Everybody makes mistakes.
In the kitchen, Matthew, Jake, Amber, Danielle, and Christine all came in from outside.
“Mom, I’m thirsty,” said Matthew.
“There’s water in the fridge,” said Allie’s mom. “And the cups are in the cupboard over there right next to the sink on the left.”
Christine and Danielle both ran in the hallway. Christine ran in the bathroom and slammed the door. Danielle stood outside of it, holding her crotch and started screaming. “Open the door!” she yelled. “I need to go bad!” She jumped up and down crying like a baby.
I didn’t hear Christine say anything.
“I claimed it first! Open up!” Danielle wailed and started to pound on the door and kicking it.
Her mother got up and went in the hallway. “Danielle, knock it off right now!” she scolded. “You’re seven years old, not a little three year old! There’s another bathroom upstairs if you need to go bad but don’t stand there throwing a hissy fit like a little two year old!”
Danielle complained that it was dark up there for an excuse so she wouldn’t have to go potty up there. Sometimes kids can be stubborn.
Danielle’s mom took her daughter by her arm and went upstairs. That’s one tough mom.
“Where’s Kelly?” Mom asked.
Matthew shrugged as he drank some water.
“She’s still hiding,” Jake replied. “We were playing a game. It was kind of like Hidin’ Go Seek except only one person goes and hides and we all find that person and when three of us find her, we yell out uh what was the word? Sardy? Sorry? Sar-“
“Sardine,” Amber replied. “We told her that we all wanted to take a break but she refused to come out from her hiding spot.”
“She thought we were all joking,” said Jake.
“Well let’s hope she doesn’t stay out there too long,” said Mom.
Danielle’s mom came back downstairs and sat down next to her husband. Christine came out of the bathroom and finished the rest of her cake. In the kitchen Jake got a flashlight out of the drawer from the desk. “Who wants to play flashlight tag with me?” he asked.
All the little kids went back outside.
“Natalie, why don’t you go outside and play with them so Allie won’t give you any more trouble,” said Mom.
Mom was giving me a suggestion so I wouldn’t have hurt feelings but I already did. Why does everybody have to be mean to me?
I went outside to check out their backyard. Their backyard was fenceless because they live out on a farm. They probably own the land. They had a hot tub, and a swimming pool (not built in the ground one). They had lot of trees so it looked like they had a forest. I went in the forest and looked around. I heard the kitchen door slam. It was probably Danielle. Then someone shone their flashlight in my eyes. The light was so bright. I had to cover my eyes.
“Hey you there. Are you playing?” Amber asked.
“Can you please get that light out of my eyes?” I politely asked. “It’s hurting them.”
Amber moved the light out of my eyes. “Sorry. Are you playing?”
“What are you playing?” I asked.
“Sardine. Are you playing?”
“No,” I replied.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t feel like it.”
“Come on, play with us,” Amber begged. “You’re lonely.”
“No I’m not,” I said.
“Yes you are. You got no one to play with.”
“So. I like being alone.”
“No you don’t.”
“Yes I do.”
“No you don’t.”
“Yes I do.”
“Rar!”
Amber gasped.
“Scared ya,” said Danielle and she started laughing.
“No you didn’t,” Amber lied.
“Yes I did.”
“No you didn’t.”
They kept on arguing. I went back in the house and went upstairs to the rec room but I took a different staircase. Sam was in the room playing video games. He was on the frigate level killing everyone, even the hostages on GoldenEye. He was doing the whole level wrong. “You’re doing it wrong,” I said.
“I know,” Sam replied.
“But why?” I asked.
“Because I want to.”
“But why are you doing it wrong because you want to?”
“You ask too many questions. Um because I want to take over the whole boat.”
(Fun trivia: This was how my brothers and their friends would sometimes play the level and it was my pet peeve. I always told them the same thing Natalie tells Sam)
“You can still take over the whole boat without shooting any hostages because they disappear after they leave,” I pointed out.
“I’m a bad secret agent. I should get fired and get put to death for all the people I’ve killed.”
“You’re boring,” I said. I went to the closet and got out a puzzle. I brought it in the computer room and sat down at the card table. As I was doing the jigsaw puzzle Allie and Ella came right in the room. Allie acted like I wasn’t even here. Ella walked over to me and looked at the puzzle. Allie was rummaging through the closet. Ella picked up one of the puzzle pieces and connected it to the puzzle. “Yes,” she said in her throat.
“Ella, do you want to play this game?” Allie asked.
She was holding Operation.
“Sure,” Ella replied. They sat down on the floor and took the game out of the box and set it up.
“Do you want to play?” Ella asked me.
“No!” said Allie firmly.
“Having three players is not going to kill us,” said Ella.
“I don’t want her to play. She’s weird and I don’t like her.”
“Why? What did she do to you?” Ella asked.
“Nothing. i just don’t like her.”
“Why?”
“Just because.”
“But why Allie? What is she doing that you don’t like about her? She accidentally stepped on one of your models. Big deal. Your room’s a pigsty so people will step on your things because your room’s like a big obstacle course.”
Allie leaned over and whispered something in Ella’s ear.
Ella got a dirty look on her face as she looked at Allie. “So what.”
“Really,” said Allie. “Seriously. She does. I saw it in the bathroom.”
Ella no longer knew about my secret because Allie had just told her about my diapers.
“I’ll prove it to you,” said Allie. She grabbed my shirt and tried to pulled it up. I tried to pull away. “Don’t,” I said.
“Oh I guess you better make me,” she said.
I tried to push her away. “Let go,” I said. I fell on my backside and that was when she got the hold of my pants. I used all my strength to push her away but she wasn’t giving up. She kept coming back and tugging at my clothes.
“Allie. Stop,” said Ella.
Allie ignored her. She kept trying to pull my pants down. When I pushed her away with my feet, she got a hold of my pants leg and started pulling on it.
“Allie, knock it off,” Ella said firmly.
I held on to the top of my pants as I tried to push her with my other foot.
Ella got up and grabbed my leg. “Stop,” she said.
Allie wouldn’t listen.
Ella grabbed Allie’s hands and tried to make her let go. I kept kicking Allie. Then she got a hold of my other pants leg. My legs were stuck. All I could do is hold on to my pants to try to keep them up. I tried to wriggle free. Ella grabbed my pants legs and tried to pull them out of Allie’s hands. There was only one thing for me to do. I let go of my pants and pushed myself up and grabbed one of Allie’s legs. That caused her to fall. She finally let go of me. I got up and pulled my pants up. Allie almost pulled them below my bottom.
“Allie, if you won’t stop being mean to her,” said Ella firmly. “I’ll tell her about your secret you had when you were little.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Allie.
“Oh sure you do. You know how upset you would get when kids made fun of you. you had that problem up to the third grade.”
Allie blushed.
“See, you know what I’m talking about, now shut up.”
“But she wears diapers,” Allie protested.
“Maybe she was probably having troubles going to the bathroom, so her parents probably felt comfortable by putting her back in diapers,” said Ella.
“She’s just like a wittle baby,” said Allie.
“When I was little, I knew a girl who was hyperactive, had troubles paying attention, couldn’t sit still, had troubles remembering instructions, always forgot her stuff, and couldn’t remember here she would put her belongings, but in the middle of the night, the girl couldn’t get up to go to the bathroom, she would do it in her bed while she was a sleep so her parents would put diapers on her before she went to bed. But they were Pampers because the girl was small enough to fit into them. By the time she was in the third grade, she didn’t need them anymore because she stopped wetting and messing her bed and I will tell you the name of that girl if you won’t be nice to her,” said Ella.
“That never happened,” said Allie.
“Yes it did. You’re just embarrassed.”
I had a feeling about the girl Ella was talking about was actually Allie. I can tell by the way Ella was describing her.
Allie and Ella kept fighting about the story and me.
“Stop fighting, both of you,” I said and I said to Allie. “And I wear diapers because I was in a car accident when I was seven. There. Satisfied? Now you know.” I buried my face in my arms.
“How did you get in a car accident?” Allie asked.
“A car drove into us?” I replied.
“How?”
“By switching lanes.”
“What was the car accident like?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember? Weren’t you scared? Did you have any scars? Did you get any brain damage? Did your spinal cord get injured? Did you get amnesia?”
“Don’t ask her those questions,” said Ella. “It’s none of your business.”
“They’re just curious questions,” I said.
“Why did the car pull into your lane?” Allie asked.
“It didn’t,” I replied. “We pulled into their lane.”
“Why?”
“Because up in front of us some idiot stopped and caused a bunch of cars to slam into each other so my mom switched lanes because she didn’t want her car to get wrecked and that was when a car drove into us that was getting on the freeway.”
“The car accident happened on the freeway?” Allie asked incredulously.
“Yeah.”
“Didn’t you have any other injuries? Did you have to be in a wheelchair? Did you have any broken bones? Did you get temporary brain damage? Did you get amnesia? Did you r spinal cord get injured?”
“No,” I replied. “None of that. I might have had some broken bones but I did not have amnesia, brain damage, or become disabled but I did go into coma. I don’t even remember what happened before.”
“But then how do you know about the car wreck?” Ella asked.
“Mom told me,” I replied. “And she still blames herself for it. My dad has told her many times ‘it isn’t your fault. It isn’t your fault.””
“It wasn’t,” said Allie.
“Why?” I wanted her reason why it wasn’t.
“Because it wasn’t her fault that an idiot stopped right in the middle of the freeway and caused a bunch of cars to slam into him. Your mom probably got scared so her brain shutted off and she drove into another lane without realizing there was a car coming.”
“At least I survived the wreck because some people died,” I said.
“How did you lose control of your bladder?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Nerve damage, spinal-I don’t know.”
“What? Tell me,” said Allie.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t remember. It’s like having amnesia. When I woke up in the hospital from coma, I felt confused because I didn’t remember getting in a car wreck.”
“Do you remember the car wreck now?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Do you like wearing diapers?”
“They don’t bother me but they do get in the way.”
“How do they get in the way?”
“They got in the way when you made fun of me in the bathroom and when you were mean to me.”
“I didn’t know you wore the for a medical reason. I’m sorry,” Allie apologized. “If you would have told me, I wouldn’t have been mean to you. I can’t read your mind.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s impossible for everybody.”
“I think you’re lucky to wear them.”
That comment shocked me. “Why do you say that?”
‘You don’t need to stop to go potty and we do. Do you want to play Operation with us?”
“Okay.”
Ella was finished setting up the game.
“Who’s going first?” I asked.
Ella shrugged.
“I don’t know,” Allie replied.
“How come your friend doesn’t talk much?” I asked.
“Because she’s very shy,” Allie replied.
“And every time she talks, I can barely hear her. She talks so quiet. I have to get close to her so I could hear her. Why does she talk quiet?” I asked. “It’s a hassle that I have to get close to her so I could hear.”
“That’s also part of her shyness,” said Allie.
“What does talking quietly got to do with shyness?” I asked.
“Let’s just play the game,” said Allie.
“But what does talking quietly got to do with shyness?” I asked again.
“Drop the subject,” said Allie.
“I will if you will answer my question,” I said. “What does talking quietly got to do with shyness?”
Allie didn’t answer. She drew a card from the pile and tried to take out a wishbone with the tweezers.
“Hello,” I said. I tapped her.
Allie pulled away. “Leave me alone.”
I gave up. “Fine, I’ll ask someone else,” I said. I got up and left the room. I went in the playroom to check on Sam. He was still playing the same game as he was before but this time he was on the runway level shooting some bad guys. He was also running over some of them with the army tank he was using. He was killing them just for fun and not doing any missions. I wouldn’t watch him play that game because he’s boring. I went downstairs to the family room. Dad got up and grabbed me and sat back down on the couch. He started kissing me ad tickling me. He had his arm wrapped around me so I couldn’t get away. Dad does this to Matthew and Kelly too. He also did it to Brian when he was little but I don’t like it when he does it to me because of the heat from his body. It’s too hot and I also didn’t feel like getting touched. Sometimes it hurt depends how people touch me or how hard. I struggled to get away. “Let go of me,” I said.
“Just hold on,” said Dad. “Wait until I’m done.”
Dad stopped kissing me but he still had his arms wrapped around me. I couldn’t wait anymore. I had to get out of this tight spot. I tried to get away but Dad wouldn’t let me.
“Glen, just let her go,” said Mom.
(Glen ‘s my dad’s name) Dad let go of me.
“Thank you,” I said. I got up. “Mom, why do people talk very quietly when they’re shy?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Mom replied. “Why?”
“You see, Allie’s friend, Ella, talks quiet. She talks so quiet, it’s annoying. I have to turn my on super hearing so I could hear her and it’s a hassle. She’s shy,” I explained.
“I don’t know why shy people talk quiet,” Mom replied. “Ask someone else. Maybe they would know and is Allie still giving you trouble?”
“No,” I replied. “Not at all. She stopped making fun of me when Ella told her if she didn’t stop, she would tell me something embarrassing about her she had up to the third grade but when Allie denied it never happened, Ella described her that she was a bed wetter and she would also poop in her bed so her parents put diapers on her so they wouldn’t have to wash her sheets every day. I had a feeling that it was Allie.”
“It was,” her mother replied. “But don’t say anything to her about it. She’ll get mad at me for telling you.”
“Is she embarrassed about it or something?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad you and Allie are like friends now,” said Mom. “Now you don’t have to worry about wanting to go home.”
I went back upstairs. Sam was still playing the same video game but this time he was doing the cradle. He shot Trevelyan and jumped on the helicopter. The game showed him how many times bad guys he killed and how many gun shots he did. He went back to level select.
“Hey you didn’t wanna see James and Natalya kiss?” I cried.
“Neah, too mushy,” Sam replied.
Kissing is my favorite part of the game. It makes me feel happy and excited inside. I went back to the computer room to finish my puzzle. Allie and Ella were still playing Operation.
“Sorry, we started playing without you,” said Allie.
“Oh that’s okay,” I said. “I was planning to finish this puzzle anyway.”
After I finish it, I clapped.
Allie and Ella got up to see it.
“What are you clapping for? It was only a little kid puzzle?” said Allie.
“So,” I said. “I don’t care about the age group. I just love doing puzzles.”
The puzzle I did was ages five to eight. It was a Rugrats puzzle.
“Can’t you do puzzles that are more appropriate for your age?” asked Allie.
“Yeah but they take me a long time to do them,” I said. “Because I take breaks. It takes me a long time to separate the pieces because there’s so many of them.”
“Do you like Rugrats?” asked Allie.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Do you like them because they wear diapers?”
I gave her a funny look. “No, I just like them. I like Hey Arnold and they don’t wear diapers and I also like other shows too.”
I put the puzzle away and took out another puzzle.
“Now you’re doing another little kid puzzle but this time it’s Aladdin,” said Allie.
I opened the box and poured out the puzzle pieces.
Allie and Ella went back to playing Operation.
I separated the pieces and did the outside first. When I was done, I did the inside.
I clapped when the puzzle was finished. I put the pieces back in the box and put it away and looked for something else to do. I had enough of puzzles. I went downstairs as the little kids came in from outside.
“Mom. How much longer before we go home?” Kelly whined.
“I don’t know,” said Mom.’
Kelly looked at Dad. “Dad, how much longer before we leave?”
Dad looked at his watch. “I think we’ll leave when the Olympics end,” he replied.
I knew he meant today, not the first day of October.
“At least you were able to answer my question because I ask Mom one simple question and she was unable to answer like she was some idiot.”
“Hey,” said Dad sharply. “Don’t talk about your mother that way. It’s rude and disrespectful. I don’t ever want to hear it again. You know Mom has troubles understanding language sometimes but that doesn’t make her stupid.”
“I heard what you said,” Mom told Kelly. “And I’m very sorry that god didn’t give me a perfect brain.”
Kelly left the room.
I followed her upstairs. Matthew and Jake came out of his bedroom with nerf guns. Matthew shot Kelly but she ignored it. Matthew picked up the nerf bullet and chased Jake as they both shot nerfs at each other.
Amber came in the hallway carrying a doll.
“Who wants to play house with me?” she asked.
“Not me,” said Kelly. “Maybe my sister can. She takes good roll being the baby.”
I nudged her with my hand.
“Just saying,” she said.
Kelly went downstairs and picked up her mini backpack and went to the bathroom. I bet she had to change her pad. I’ll look in the trashcan when she’s done. Neah that’s disgusting. Only weird people do that. I don’t want to be weird. I want to be normal.
Jake and Matthew ran past us again. Amber stopped them. “Do you want to play house with me?”
“No way,” said Matthew.
“That’s for girls,” said Jake.
“No it isn’t,” said Amber. “You can be the brother and Matthew can be the father.”
“Ew!” they said.
“That game is for girls,” said Jake.”
“Yeah,” said Matthew.
“And we’re playing a boy game,” Jake finished.
They continued playing that nerf game.
“Will you play house with me?” Amber asked.
“Okay,” I said.
We went in her room and started playing. Amber went to her closet and handed me a doll. “You’re the mother,” she said.
I was relieved. Thank god I’m not the baby. When I was little every time I played house with other kids, I always had to be the baby because I wore diapers. I had to drink out of a baby bottle for real, suck on pacifiers, play with baby toys, get pushed in the umbrella stroller, and embarrassing moment of all, they always wanted to change my diaper and by the time I was nine, I quit playing house because I got tired of being the baby.
“What are you?” I asked Amber.
“The mother,” she replied.
“But I thought I was the mother,” I pointed out.
“You are.”
“Then how come you’re the mother?”
“Because we’re both mothers,” Amber replied. “We’re very best friends and we live together for pretend.”
Now this was making sense.
Amber got out some doll clothes and diapers. When she took the diaper off her doll, her bottom was all dirty. She had a doll that wets. She got up and took The Wet Ones off her dresser and used one of the wipes to clean her doll’s bottom.
The Wet Ones look like they’re baby wipes but they’re not. They’re just moist napkins you use to clean yourself up with. They’re good to use on road trips so you won’t have to stop to wash your hands. I call the wipes because they look like wipes even though they’re plane. They don’t have any designs on them like baby wipes do.
I knew Amber didn’t give me a doll that wets.
“Do you have another doll that wets?” I asked.
“No,” Amber replied. She picked up a diaper and unfolded it and put it on her doll. I was very surprised to see that the diaper had elastic in it just like a real diaper.
“I didn’t know dolly diapers had elastic in them,” I said.
“They don’t,” said Amber.
“But then how come these do?”
“Because these are real baby diapers.”
I got confused. “But one time when I was in the toy section in a store, one of the boxes was open. It had fake baby supplies and three disposable diapers so I took one of them out and unfolded it and saw that it was a real diaper except it didn’t have elastic in it.”
“That was a fake diaper but it was made to look real,” said Amber.
“How come you say those diapers are fake?” I asked.
“Because they are. They’re made for dolls, not for babies. I bet they would leak in no time if a baby peed or pooped in them because they aren’t absorbent. But these here are real diapers. I’ll even prove it to you.” Amber got up and went to her closet and got out a plastic thing that was all crumpled up. I couldn’t figure out what it was. The plastic was red. Dark red. Amber threw it to me but it didn’t go very far. She picked it up and handed it to me. I uncrumpled it and saw that these diapers were Huggies and they were size newborn.
“Your mom lets you get these?” I asked.
“Yep. With my own money,” Amber replied.
I started to take the clothes off my doll.
“This is weird,” I said.
“Why?” asked Amber.
“I didn’t know ten year olds can play house.”
“They can if they wanted to.”
“When I was your age, kids never wanted to play like this. They said it was for little kids.”
“I know. My mom thinks it’s a pity that kids are in such a rush to grow up.”
“I know,” I agreed. “My mom also thinks it’s sad that some parents force their kids to stop playing with their toys.”
After I finished putting new clothes on my doll, I heard Britney Spears music playing outside the bedroom door.
“Oooh,” said Amber angrily. “I hate it when my sister plays that stupid music.” She got up and left her bedroom. I heard the music go off and Amber came back.
As I fed my doll a bottle, the music started to play again except this time it was a different song. The music got louder as it came to the door. The door opened and in came Allie carrying her boom box.
“Get out of my room!” Amber shouted.
Allie looked at her. “No.”
“Get out or I’ll tell Mom,” Amber threatened.
Allie put her boom box down and grabbed her sister by her shirt. “Why can’t I be in your room?”
“Because you’re annoying me with that music,” Amber replied.
“Oh. Okay. I’ll fix it.”
Allie let go of her shirt and skipped to the next song but the next song still annoyed Amber.
“Turn that music off,” she said.
“Oh, that music annoys you too,” Allie skipped to the next song.
Amber rolled her eyes. “I don’t wanna play games with you. Just get your boom box and get out of here.”
“You said it sister.” Allie picked up her boom box. “And what are you two playing anyway?”
“House,” Amber and I replied.
Allie turned the music down a little bit.
“It’ll be even more fun if we all played house together and pretend Natalie’s the baby,” she said.
“No,” I said. “I will not be the baby. No way jose. Not happening.”
“Why?” Amber asked Allie.
“Because she already wears diapers. She’ll be good for being a baby.”
“What are you talking about?” Amber asked bewilderly. “She doesn’t wear diapers.”
“Fine. See what I care.”
Allie left the bedroom with her boom box.
“What was she talking about?” Amber asked me.
I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I lied.
We continued playing house together. Then Allie poked her head in the doorway. “If your friend there doesn’t wear diapers, then what do you call this?” she held up one of my folded diapers.
I was mortified. Now Amber knew my secret.
“Where did that come from?” she asked.
“From her backpack,” Allie replied as she pointed at me.
I decided to pretend the diaper wasn’t mine. “Very funny,” I said sarcastically.
“Why would she have a diaper in her backpack?” Amber asked.
“Because she wears them.”
“Why would she?”
“Because she can’t go to the bathroom.”
Amber looked at me. “Is it true you can’t go?”
“What if I couldn’t?” I asked.
Amber shrugged. “I don’t know.”
I walked up to Allie and snatched the diaper from her. “Give me that,” and I whispered in her ear, “and you have no right going through other peoples stuff without their permission. Thanks for embarrassing me.”
I went downstairs making sure Amber wasn’t following me. I put the diaper back in my backpack. Allie didn’t show her it just to embarrass me. She did it to prove to Amber that she wasn’t making it up.
I went back upstairs. Allie walked by me in the hallway and went to her room. “Where’s your friend?” I asked.
“In the rec room playing video games,” Allie replied.
“I thought Sam was playing but I guess he’s not anymore.”
“They’re both in there playing that stupid 007 game.”
I guess Allie hates that game.
I went back to Amber’s room and played house with her some more.
“My sister’s weird sometimes,” she said.
“I can see that,” I said.
“Where did she get that diaper from?”
I guess she didn’t know my secret after all.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“I bet I know where she got it from.”
“What?”
“Last month, some old lady came here with one of my mom’s friends and the old lady looked about one hundred and fifty. I bet that’s where the diaper came from.”
“Do you like James Bond?” I asked.
“No,” Amber replied.
“Why not?”
“Because all he cares about is himself.”
“If he cares about himself, then why is he a secret agent?”
“Because he thinks he is better than everyone else and he shows off to show he’s better than everybody else and he has no respect for women.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
“Do you see? In every James Bond movie, he’s always with a different woman. Do you know why?”
“No.”
“Because he uses them. After he’s done checking them out, he dumps them and moves onto another woman.”
“Who told you that stuff?”
(Fun trivia: My dad actually said all this about James Bond when I asked why is he with a different woman in every movie)
“No one. James hangs out with a bunch of women. He kisses them, sleeps with them, sticks his hands in their clothes, and bunch of other stuff. Do you like James Bond?”
“Me? I love him. I don’t mean that kind of love. Different kind of love like I love mash potatoes for example. My favorite James Bond is Pierce Brosnan. I think he’s cute. I like all his James Bond movies he played in. They’re my favorite. I’ve seen other James Bond movies too with Sean Connery and Roger Moore in it. Only James Bond movies I don’t like are the ones with Timothy Dalton in it. He doesn’t do much and he doesn’t have a hairy chest. Somewhere in my heart, I find him boring.”
“I know. My mom says he isn’t very good,” said Amber.
Then her bedroom door opened and Allie came poked her head in. “So you think your friend is potty trained huh?” she asked. “If she is? Potty trained? Then why does she have this stuff in her bag?” she pulled my backpack in the bedroom and turned it upside down and all my stuff fell out including my dirty diaper. Now Amber knew my secret.
Allie already had my backpack unzipped because she dragged it in here so I wouldn’t have a chance to stop her. Clever girl.
I tried not to cry. I felt harassed because I felt she was getting in my life. My brain was telling me I should defend myself but I didn’t listen to it. She wasn’t doing it to torment me. She was doing it to show her sister she was telling the truth. She probably doesn’t like getting misjudged.
“She has baby wipes, skin care, a dirty diaper,” she said.
“Where did you get that stuff?” asked Amber.
Allie pointed at me. “It’s hers. I got it in the hallway next to the front door,” she she continued touring through my stuff.
It was so embarrassing.
“Prove that it’s hers,” said Amber.
Allie looked in my backpack for my name. I marched up to her and grabbed my backpack and put all my stuff back in but she kept picking them up and showing them to Amber. I snatched them out of her hands but she kept trying to dig them in my backpack. I told her to stop a couple times but she wouldn’t listen so I had to scream and defend myself to get her to stop.
“Jeas, what’s your problem?” she said.
“No, what’s your problem?” I said back.
I didn’t care if Amber found out my secret. I was too upset to care. I zipped my backpack and went downstairs.
“Natalie, what happened?” my father asked.
I was in the family room and I was crying. I told him what happened.
“She did what? She did what?” he said.
He sounded very surprised as Mom came out of the bathroom.
“Anita, we have a problem here,” said Dad. “You will not believe what Allie just did.” Dad got closer to Mom and said quieter. “She took our daughter’s backpack into her sister’s bedroom and dumped everything out of it.”
Mom’s facial expression changed. “Why didn’t she stop her?
“Because she already had my backpack unzipped before she brought it in the bedroom,” I cried. “I was playing house with Amber because she wanted someone to play with and then Allie came in with my backpack already unzipped and she dumped everything out of it. I couldn’t stop her in time.”
“I think I’m going to take her home,” said Mom. “I can’t have her stay here and have her get tormented by another child.”
“Hi, come on in,” said Kate’s mother.
I took off my shoes and put them beside the door with my backpack. I took off my coat and hung it on the coat rack. Kelly and Matthew did the same thing.
“Your children are very special,” said Kate’s mom.
“Why thank you,” said Mom.
“Every time kids come here, they put their shoes right in front of the door and their coats so I hang them up for them,” said Kate’s mom.
Kelly pointed at Matthew and herself. “We usually copy what our sister does,” she said.
We heard a knock at the front door behind us. Mom opened it. It was another family. A mom and dad with their three kids. “Hi, we’re here,” said the mother.
I heard the TV blaring from the family room. I wandered down the hall and into the family room. Kate’s father, Brian, Kate, and a little girl were watching the Olympics. Brian noticed me. “Hey Natalie, come join the fun,” he said.
“Who is she?” the little girl asked.
“Oh, that is my sister,” Brian replied. “And Natalie, this is Kate’s little sister, Amber, the birthday girl.”
“Hi,” I greeted.
“Hi,” she greets back.
In the kitchen, the patio door opened and a little boy came in holding a gray Tabby cat.
“That’s my brother Jake,” Amber said. “He’ll be seven real soon. I also have an older brother and sister. They’re both upstairs.”
“Who’s that blond girl?’ Jake asked pointing at me.
“That’s Natalie,” Amber replied.
Mom, Kelly, Matthew, Kate’s mom, and the other family came in the room talking.
“Why is there strangers in our house?” Jake asked.
Kate’s mom began to introduce us. “Jake, Amber. This is Brian’s mom, Anita, and these are her three kids, Natalie, Kelly, and Matthew.”
“Who are those people?” I asked as I pointed to the other family.
“Oh, and that is my friend, Nancy, and this is her husband, Robert, and these are their three kids, Christine, Danielle, and Colton.”
“How old are they?” I asked.
“Ten,” Christine replied.
“Seven,” Danielle replied and then she pointed at their baby brother, “and he’s one.”
“He’s eighteen months,” said Robert. He was holding Colten in his arms.
Kelly put our gift on the kitchen table with the others and sat down in the family room.
Christine and Danielle left the room. I looked around the house. This house was pretty big. When I came back in the family room, Mom told me it wasn’t nice to snoop around someone’s house but Kate’s mom said it was okay.
(Author’s note: Snooping around? This is a party so of course the kids can wander around so it’s not like she did anything wrong by looking at all the rooms in the house. No wonder I took it out and how would she know she was looking around?)
“This is a big house,” I said.
Everyone was silent. Mom chuckled and so did the other adults.
“You have a very cool staircase,” I said. “With a fountain in the middle. I wish our house was that cool.”
“Big houses are a lot of work and expensive,” said Mom.
“I have two other kids,” said Kate’s mom. “Sixteen and thirteen. They’re both upstairs. You’re welcome to go up there and meet them.”
Then a blond girl came in the hallway upstairs and peeked over the railing. “Mom, can we go on the internet?”
Kate’s mom looked at her watch. “Yeah for a little while,” she replied.
“Okay, thanks mom,” said the girl and began to walk away.
“And Allie, her mom added. “No looking up dirty inappropriate stuff do you understand?”
“Yes mother,” Allie replied as she walked away.
I went upstairs and looked around. The upstairs was huge. I looked in every room except for the ones with the door closed. Three of them was a hall closet for towels and bed spreads. I came to the part of the hall where Allie was and I peeked over the railing. “Hi everybody!” I waved.
“Hi Natalie,” Brian waved back.
“You like this house?” Kate asked.
“Yep,” I replied and asked, “what is this called where I’m standing?”
“A balcony,” Mom replied.
“Really,” I said. “I thought balconies were outside.”
(Fun trivia here: I actually wrote this part on spontaneous because I also asked my mother what it was called that has a railing peeking over a room that is part of the upstairs hallway and she said “balcony” and I said I didn’t know they could be inside and she said they can, it’s called a balcony so I stuck it in here right after the conversation)
“Not always. They can be indoors.”
“Cool.”
I walked to the other side of the balcony and into the rec room but there was more to it. There was three steps down leading somewhere else. I walked three steps down. There was another staircase left of me and a window on the right. I walked straight that led to another room. I spotted a closet left of me. I opened it up. It was just games and puzzles. I closed the door and went in the room. Allie and th other blond girl were on the computer playing games on the internet. They had AOL. The blond girl spotted me. “Who’s that girl there?” she asked as she pointed at me.
Allie didn’t answer. She was too busy playing.
“Who’s that girl there?” the blond girl asked again. “Hello!” she touched her and Allie jumped.
“Jesus! You scared me! I almost wet my pants!” she yelled.
“Sorry. Who’s that girl there?”
“Who?”
“Her. Right behind you.”
Allie turned around and saw me. “I don’t know Ella!” she yelled. “And now don’t bother me!”
That girl has a bad temper. I would leave the room if I were Ella.
“Forgive her rudeness,” she said. “She’s only like this when she needs to concentrate really hard,” and then she added in a low voice. “She has Attention Deficit.”
ADD, I thought.
ADD is a disorder in your head. People with that disorder get distracted easily. They also have troubles listening, being patient, waiting their turn, and if you give them a lot of information like go to your room and get a pair of panties, socks, pants, shoes, shirts, bla bla bla, it’s too much information. They can’t remember all that. People with ADD are also disorganized so therefore their house can be messy because things are out of place. They’re also impulsive. They’re doing something or do something and they don’t know they did it or doing it, because they’re not aware of it. Sometimes I get a feeling that I have it because I’m having symptoms of it but I try not to think about it. I bet the car accident made me get it. I wish I wasn’t sitting in the back of our car. It was a minivan of course. If I wasn’t sitting back there, I wouldn’t be wearing a diaper right now, just panties like everyone else and my life wouldn’t be so miserable and twisted. I left the room and went downstairs to the family room.
“The upstairs is big,” I said. “It has two staircases.”
“Why thank you,” said Kate’s mom.
A teenage boy came in the kitchen with a walk around phone talking to someone.
“Natalie, that’s my brother Sam,” said Kate.
“Allie’s your sister too right?” I asked.
“Right,” Kate replied.
Colten was sitting on the floor playing with his toys.
“Where did the name Colten come from?” I asked his parents.
“Oh his real name’s Colt but we just call him that.”
(Author’s note: I thought I could make up a unique name but it’s already a name it turns out. The name is spelled Colton but since some parents do intentionally misspell their baby’s names to make it unique, I left it misspelled and it is one of my pet peeves when parents do this but yet I did it for my story)
I picked him up and held him. In the kitchen, Mom came back in. “You sure have a nice deck out there,” she said.
“Yeah,” said Kate’s mom. “We built it a few years ago.”
As Mom and Kate’s Mom talked about the deck I began to smell a foul order. I sniffed at Colton’s butt.
Pee-you, I thought. You need a new diaper.
“When was the last time you’ve changed his diaper?” I asked his mom and dad.
“Just before we left,” Colton’s mom replied.
“From your house?” I asked.
Colton’s dad nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well he just pooped his diaper,” I said.
“That’s what babies do,” said Colton’s mom.
“I know. They do it because they can’t control their bowels so they need to have their diapers changed, if they don’t, they get an affection. I used to change my little brother’s diapers when he was a baby.”
“Well since you love changing diapers,” said Colton’s mom. “Would you like to change his diaper?”
“Really?!” I said. “Sure! i haven’t changed a baby’s diaper since I was little.” I was jumping up and down excitedly inside of me. “Thank you!” I said. As I walked out of the room, Colton’s parents were trying to remind me how to change a baby’s diaper.
“I know, don’t forget to wipe him, powder his bottom, etc.,” I cutted them off.
I didn’t want them to go through the energy to remind me how to change a baby’s diaper.
“Now where did they put the diaper bag?” I asked Colten when I arrived in the entry. Then I spotted it right next to the front door with the other coats. “There it is.” I picked up the diaper bag and went in the living room. I sat down on the sofa and opened the diaper bag and took out a changing mat and laid Colten on it. I undid his pants and took off his diaper. He had also peed in it a lot even though I didn’t see it wet from the outside. “You sure get your diapers wet this fast don’t you?’ I said to Colton.
He smiled and kicked his feet. I wiped his bottom and placed a clean diaper under him and powdered his bottom and pulled the diaper over his bottom and taped it shut. “All done,” I said as I did his pants.
Colten got up and wandered away when I was done. I quickly put the stuff away in the diaper bag and put it back where I got it. I went back in the living room and found Colten in the dining room underneath the dining room table. I quickly crawled under there to get him but he crawled out. I crawled out from under the table and got him from behind a chair in the living room. He began to squeal when I carried him back to the family room. I put him down and threw the diaper away. I went in the bathroom and washed my hands. After I was done, I got my backpack and went upstairs to change my diaper. I wanted to use the upstairs bathroom because it’s wide enough for me to lie down. That’s much easier for me to change my diaper. I closed the bathroom door behind me and turned on the light. But as I was changing myself, Allie barged right in without knocking. She got a stun look on her face when she saw me.
Here I was, laying on the bathroom floor, on the disposable mat, with my diaper underneath my bottom (I was putting on a new one), my shirt was lifted up and my pants were off.
“You idiot,” I told myself. “You forgot to lock the door.”
“Oh my gosh!” Allie said. “No one ever told me you were a diaper wearer!” then she gasped. “Are you a big baby? If not, then why do you wear diapers?”
“None….of…your….business,” I said.
God damn I didn’t think it was her business because she was being so rude by the tone of her voice.
“Oh not my business is it?” she said in a different tone. “Well I bet it’s because you don’t wanna tell me you wear them because you like being a baby. I bet you have a crib, a changing table, a high chair, a car seat, and a stroller. I know. You’re a teenbaby. Yeah that’s it, a teenbaby, get it? Teenbaby.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I am,” I said firmly. “I enjoy drinking from a bottle, sucking on a binky, nursing from my mom, I sleep in a crib, I get pushed around in my stroller, I have a changing table, I play with baby toys, I sit in a car seat, I have a highchair, I wear baby clothes, I wear sleepers to bed, I talk baby talk, and I watch BARNEY!”
“And one more thing,” Allie said. “Babies don’t change themselves!!” she yelled and then she said in a different voice. “Poor baby. Did I hurt your feelings. Waa-“
“Shut up,” I said angrily.
“Make me,” she said.
“Okay, I will,” I got up and Allie ran out of the bathroom. I closed the bathroom door and locked it. I couldn’t believe Kate had a little sister who was mean to people with bladder/bowel problems. I wonder if she’s mean to other people with severe disabilities from other car accidents. I lift my shirt up and laid down again. After I put my diaper on, I put my pants back on and put my things away in my backpack including the disposable mat. I washed my hands and left the bathroom.
In the hallway, Allie jumped from the staircase behind me and lift my shirt up. I turned around and smacked her and walked away. I went downstairs to the family room. The adults were in the kitchen making dinner. Amber was at the table looking at her presents. “Can I open my presents?” she asked.
Her mom and dad didn’t answer because they were too busy talking and cooking and the TV was blaring. Kate came in the family room and told one of us to turn it down. Kelly walked up to it and looked for the volume.
“It’s right next to the power button,” said Kate.
Kelly found it and turned it down.
“Can I open my presents?” Amber asked again.
“After dinner you can,” her mom replied.
Allie came in the kitchen and had a cup of water. Her mom saw her and looked at her face. “Oh honey, what happened to your face?”
Allie told her she was swinging her hand around and she accidentally hit herself there. Her mom went by that story. “Okay, but next time be careful, and I don’t want you doing that in the house you understand?”
“Yes,” Allie replied.
When dinner came, Kate and Brian moved the presents from the table to the counter and set the table. Kate’s mom brought some chairs to the table from the dining room.
Ding dong
Amber and Jake ran to the front door and answered it. It was my dad. Kate’s mom came in through the dining room and living room to answer the door but saw she was too late. “Oh, you guys got the door.”
“Yeah, it’s a weird guy,” said Jake.
I was offended but Dad chuckled and said, “Yep. It’s a weird guy alright.”
“And my father is not weird,” I said. But Amber’s mom told me he meant stranger.
I felt relieved.
We all went in the kitchen. Mom saw Dad. “Glen, you’re here. I’m glad you got off work early.”
“Yeah, me too Darling.” He hugged her and kissed her.
Yuck! I thought
Allie’s mom went to the staircase. “Kids! Dinner!” she called.
Allie, Ella, Christine, and Danielle, all came down and so did Allie’s older brother Sam.
“This really sucks,” said Allie. “We have to eat at the table.”
“Our mom and dad don’t want a mess out there,” said Amber.
“I don’t make messes,” said Allie.
When everyone was finished eating, we had cake. We sang Happy Birthday to Amber. Amber made a wish and blew out all the candles. Everyone cheered. We took the candles off the cake and the toys. Kate’s mom got a knife and some small plates and but the cake and served it to everyone. As I was eating my cake, Jake leaned down and ate the rest of his cake like an animal. Christine and Danielle did the same thing.
“What are you guys doing?” Kelly asked bewilderly.
Christine looked up. “I’m a pig,” she said and continued eating.
“We’re pigs,” said Jake.
“Oh, and I’m a dog,” said Allie and she began to eat like one. Ella did the same thing.
Matthew, Kelly, and Amber all began to eat like animals.
“You guys are sick man,” said Allie’s big brother Sam.
Here I was sitting at the table with eight pigs. I didn’t feel like eating like one.
“Why aren’t you doing it Natalie?” Kelly asked.
“Because I don’t feel like it,” I replied.
“Do it. It’s fun,” said Matthew.
“Yeah you usually do stuff what other kids are doing,” said Kelly.
“But I don’t feel like doing this,” I said.
“Try it and if you don’t like it, you can stop.”
I took a deep breath and pulled my hair back and tucked it in my shirt and leaned down and began to eat like an animal. I found it fun. Once I started, I couldn’t stop just like the other kids. I ate the messiest. Jake, Amber, Christine, and Danielle all copied me.
“Okay, you can stop now,” said Kelly.
We all ignored her.
“Natalie! You can stop ow!”
“No, I’m enjoying it,” I said. “You said if I wasn’t, I can stop.”
“But you’re going to get in trouble,” Kelly cried.
I ignored her. Why would I get in trouble for eating like this? Everyone else is doing it.
“What in the...heck?’ I heard Allie’s mom say when she came in the kitchen. “Kids, I want you to use good table manners and not eat like little piggies. Young lady. Do you know you’re setting a bad example for the younger children?”
“Young lady,” she said again.
“Natalie,” said Matthew.
“What?” I said as I ate my cake.
“She’s talking to you,” Matthew replied.
“Who?” I asked.
“Her.”
Then he nudged me as Allie’s brother hit me in the shoulder really hard. I stopped eating my cake and put my hand on my shoulder. “Ow,” I said.
“I didn’t hit you that hard,” he said.
I hit him back to show him it really did hurt so he would understand.
Matthew tapped me on the shoulder again. I turned and looked at him. “What?” I asked.
Matthew pointed at Allie’s mom.
“Yeah. What about her?” I said.
“She’s talking to you.”
I looked at her.
“You’re setting a bad example for the younger kids,” she said. “So please don’t do it.”
“What is she talking about?” I asked.
“Jake started it,” the little kids were saying and then they pointed at Kelly, “and then she told (then they pointed at me) her to do it.”
“Okay. I don’t want…ah what the heck. You can do it. What am I talking about? You’re kids. You can do it. Just for today.” Then she left us alone. She put the dirty plates in the sink and went back to the family room.
The little kids ate like piggies again. Sam tried it. I figured out it was okay for me to do it since he was doing it so I joined in.
After I was done eating my cake, I cleared my spot and went to the bathroom to wash the frosting off my face. After I was done, I went upstairs to the playroom and played South Park on Nintendo 64. The game was rented. I ignored the cussing and swearing. I wish I was allowed to watch the show but Mom and Dad won’t let me because of the language, violence, and behavior.
“Stop you two,” said Cartman and I was killing the turkeys with snowballs. Then Matthew came in the room with Kelly and Jake. “C’mon Natalie. Amber’s going to open her presents now,” they said.
“Okay.” I turned the game off and ran downstairs with them.
Amber was sitting at the kitchen table with a present on her lap. “Can I open my presents now?” she asked.
“Wait until your dad gets the camera,” her mom replied.
Her dad came in the kitchen with the movie camera and left the room.
“Now can I open my presents?” Amber asked again.
“Just wait,” said her mom.
Her dad came back with a camera stand. He put it up and put the camera on it. He adjusted it. “Okay, you may now open them,” he said.
“Yeah,” said Amber excitedly. She tore open the wrapping paper and opened the clothes box. It was a Powerpuff Girls outfit. “Cool, it’s Bubbles,” she exclaimed.
(Bubbles is one of the Powerpuff girls from The Powerpuff Gils)
Amber put the present aside and opened another one. It was an old video game from the eighties. She pushed that aside and opened another one. It was Monopoly except it was a Pokemon one.
“Yes!” Amber yelled. She picked it up and hugged it and tossed it aside.
That’s one excited birthday girl I have ever seen before.
Amber picked up our present and pulled the tissue paper out of the bag and tipped it upside down and all our presents fell out. Amber only looked at it for two seconds and moved on to the next presents. Her mom started yelling at her for some reason. She told her she was being rude.
What was she talking about? Being excited is rude? Oh so I suppose my mom and dad were very rude when they had their first child back in nineteen seventy eight because they were excited. Being excited is not rude. I don’t know what gave her that strange idea. I saw Allie and Ella go upstairs. They probably had enough of the excitement. Allie’s mom apologized to Brian, Mom, Dad, and Christine and Danielle’s parents for Amber’s rudeness (which she was never being rude). Then I noticed that the little kids were crying except for Kelly. She was complaining to Dad about Amber’s excitement.
“…and she didn’t even say thank you one bit,” I heard her say at the end of her sentence.
“Mom, how was she being rude?” I asked. “She opened her presents like everybody else would and her mom’s calling that rude. What gave her that strange idea?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her,” Mom replied.
I came over to her. “Um, why do you think Amber was rude by opening her presents and being excited?” I asked.
(Fun trivia: This did actually happen to me for my 12th birthday and to this day I still don’t know what I did wrong. I was very excited that day. Maybe I opened them too fast or didn’t say thank you after every gift I opened. But my brothers were upset and my dad got it all on camera. Mom also yelled at me too about it)
“Well because one reason is she didn’t say thank you and she uh…opened her presents too fast.”
“Why is opening your presents too fast rude?”
“I don’t know. Why is asking someone if they brought you a present rude? That’s the way our country works,” Amber’s mom replied.
I knew what she meant when she said “why is asking someone if they brought you a present rude.” She meant for example: my aunt and uncle and their kids come up to visit us and it was right after Christmas. Right when they come in our front door, Kelly, Matthew, and I all run up to them and ask them if they got us a present. That’s rude.
I went upstairs and found Ella and Allie in her room playing a board game. The room was a big chaos because Allie never keeps her things put away. Her bed was unmade, her clean clothes were on her dresser, her dirty clothes or the clothes she worn were all over the floor, her stuff animals and toys were laying all over the place, and she had garbage everywhere. Her table was also a mess. She had some dirty dishes, and there were a bunch of puzzle pieces scattered all over. Some of them were on the floor. Her room was so messy, I wouldn’t want to play in here. Too much commotion. How does Allie stand it? Doesn’t she have troubles finding her belonging? If Kelly and I made our room that messy and so did Matthew, we would get grounded. I don’t like messes because it makes me feel stressed inside. Allie looked toward my direction and saw me standing in the doorway. She didn’t say anything. I took a step into her room. Allie and Ella didn’t pay any attention to me. I felt confused in my head because of the messy bedroom. If I had to stay in this room and play with Allie, I’d be bored because her room is so messy. I wouldn’t know what to play with because everything is scattered all over. I erased the mess in my head and saw that Allie saw that Allie had a nice bedroom. Everything was all picked up and put away. The garbage was gone and so were the dirty dishes.
“Do you have anything to say about my room?” Allie asked in a snotty voice.
I thought for a moment. “Uh, your room’s a mess.”
“Yeah, do you have a problem with it?”
“No,” I said. “But don’t you ever have troubles finding your stuff?”
“It don’t bother me,” she said.
“Do you ever get grounded from all this?” I asked as I pointed at the mess.
“What is this? Ninety questions you’re asking? I was being sarcastic about what you thought of my room. I feel sorry for you man. You just don’t know the difference between sarcasm.”
Why was Allie treating me like this? What did I do wrong? I didn’t do anything to deserve this crap.
As I walked out of her room, I accidentally stepped on one of her toys. It broke. Allie got up and picked up her broken model that was built out of Knex.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Look what you did!” she yelled. “I worked hard building it!”
“I said I was sorry,” I said.
It was her fault. She shouldn’t have had it laying on the floor.
“If you were watching where you were going! This wouldn’t have happened!”
“I’m sorry,” I cried. I had my hands out. I do that when I get scared. I don’t know why, I just do. I hate it when people get mad at me for no reason. My mom hates it too. I don’t know about everybody else. As I left her room, I accidentally banged myself against her doorway because for some reason, I turned too soon.
Allie did some faking laughing at me. “Ah ha ha ha. Can you be even more awkward than that?” she said.
I think she was being sarcastic. Neah. She’s saying it to make fun of me because she hates me.
I frowned at her. “Humph,” I said.
I walked away with my nose stuck in the air. Then I bumped into Sam.”Augh,” I said.
“Augh,” said Sam.
Behind us, Allie started laughing. “Oh, so you can be more awkward.”
“S-sorry,” I apologized to Sam.
“It’s okay,” he said. He patted my shoulder as he walked by. “And ignore my sister,” he added. “She’s just being a jerk so don’t pay any attention what she says to you.”
“Shut up,” said Allie and stuck her tongue out at him.
Sam ignored her.
Allie followed after me as I went to the staircase. But as I walked down it, my foot slid off the step and caused me to slide down because I placed my foot on it wrong.
Allie laughed at me even harder. “Hey Ella!” she shouted. “You should have been out here because she just slipped down the stairs!” And she ran back to her room.
I tried not to cry. I went in the family room and asked Mom and Dad when they were planning to leave.
“Not for a while,” Dad replied. “Your mom and I are sitting in here watching the summer Olympics with the other adults so you can go play with the other kids and have fun.”
“But,” I pretended to yawn. ‘I’m tired. I want to go home,” I whined. I wanted to get away from Allie.
“Well, you can find a place and sleep and we’ll wake you up when it’s time to go,” said Mom.
Grrr. It didn’t work.
“But I want to leave. Allie won’t stop being mean to me,” I said.
“What is she doing to you?” her Mom asked.
“Being snotty,” I replied. “She asked me what did I think about her room and I told her it was a mess and then she told me she was being sarcastic and said she felt sorry for me because I didn’t know the difference between sarcasm.”
“She’s literal like me,” Mom told her mom.
“And she got mad at me when I accidentally stepped on one of her Knex model and then she laughed at me when I accidentally banged myself against her doorway and laughed at me again when I bumped into Sam and she also laughed at me when I fell down the stairs.”
“Oh I’m sure she didn’t mean it,” said Allie’s mom. “She probably didn’t know she was laughing out loud. Sometimes she is impulsive, like you come in the here and you’re missing an arm or a finger and she says “That girl looks weird,” but she won’t know she said it out loud.”
“Yeah but when I fell down the stairs she said to her friend that she should have been out here because I just fell down the stairs and she ran back to her room laughing hysterically,” I said.
“Well I’m sorry,” said Mom. “There’s nothing I can do about it. Sometimes you have to ignore some things. She’s probably going through a stage when adolescents get snotty. You went through it too remember?”
“No I do not,” I said even though I do remember.
“Well you did. You went through it when you were in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade. Your sister’s starting to go through it too.”
“But she’s only twelve,” I protested. “I started going through it when I was thirteen.”
“Everybody’s different. When I went through it, I got my mouth slapped a lot by my mother for being snotty to her.”
“Allie gets a little mouthy with me sometimes,” said Allie’s mom to my mom.
“Does she get ever get grounded?” I asked.
“Natalie,” said Dad.
“What?” I said. I saw the look on his face that told me I did something wrong. I can also see it in his eyes too. “Sorry,” I said. Humph. I guess asking Allie’s mom that question was rude. Oh well. Everybody makes mistakes.
In the kitchen, Matthew, Jake, Amber, Danielle, and Christine all came in from outside.
“Mom, I’m thirsty,” said Matthew.
“There’s water in the fridge,” said Allie’s mom. “And the cups are in the cupboard over there right next to the sink on the left.”
Christine and Danielle both ran in the hallway. Christine ran in the bathroom and slammed the door. Danielle stood outside of it, holding her crotch and started screaming. “Open the door!” she yelled. “I need to go bad!” She jumped up and down crying like a baby.
I didn’t hear Christine say anything.
“I claimed it first! Open up!” Danielle wailed and started to pound on the door and kicking it.
Her mother got up and went in the hallway. “Danielle, knock it off right now!” she scolded. “You’re seven years old, not a little three year old! There’s another bathroom upstairs if you need to go bad but don’t stand there throwing a hissy fit like a little two year old!”
Danielle complained that it was dark up there for an excuse so she wouldn’t have to go potty up there. Sometimes kids can be stubborn.
Danielle’s mom took her daughter by her arm and went upstairs. That’s one tough mom.
“Where’s Kelly?” Mom asked.
Matthew shrugged as he drank some water.
“She’s still hiding,” Jake replied. “We were playing a game. It was kind of like Hidin’ Go Seek except only one person goes and hides and we all find that person and when three of us find her, we yell out uh what was the word? Sardy? Sorry? Sar-“
“Sardine,” Amber replied. “We told her that we all wanted to take a break but she refused to come out from her hiding spot.”
“She thought we were all joking,” said Jake.
“Well let’s hope she doesn’t stay out there too long,” said Mom.
Danielle’s mom came back downstairs and sat down next to her husband. Christine came out of the bathroom and finished the rest of her cake. In the kitchen Jake got a flashlight out of the drawer from the desk. “Who wants to play flashlight tag with me?” he asked.
All the little kids went back outside.
“Natalie, why don’t you go outside and play with them so Allie won’t give you any more trouble,” said Mom.
Mom was giving me a suggestion so I wouldn’t have hurt feelings but I already did. Why does everybody have to be mean to me?
I went outside to check out their backyard. Their backyard was fenceless because they live out on a farm. They probably own the land. They had a hot tub, and a swimming pool (not built in the ground one). They had lot of trees so it looked like they had a forest. I went in the forest and looked around. I heard the kitchen door slam. It was probably Danielle. Then someone shone their flashlight in my eyes. The light was so bright. I had to cover my eyes.
“Hey you there. Are you playing?” Amber asked.
“Can you please get that light out of my eyes?” I politely asked. “It’s hurting them.”
Amber moved the light out of my eyes. “Sorry. Are you playing?”
“What are you playing?” I asked.
“Sardine. Are you playing?”
“No,” I replied.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t feel like it.”
“Come on, play with us,” Amber begged. “You’re lonely.”
“No I’m not,” I said.
“Yes you are. You got no one to play with.”
“So. I like being alone.”
“No you don’t.”
“Yes I do.”
“No you don’t.”
“Yes I do.”
“Rar!”
Amber gasped.
“Scared ya,” said Danielle and she started laughing.
“No you didn’t,” Amber lied.
“Yes I did.”
“No you didn’t.”
They kept on arguing. I went back in the house and went upstairs to the rec room but I took a different staircase. Sam was in the room playing video games. He was on the frigate level killing everyone, even the hostages on GoldenEye. He was doing the whole level wrong. “You’re doing it wrong,” I said.
“I know,” Sam replied.
“But why?” I asked.
“Because I want to.”
“But why are you doing it wrong because you want to?”
“You ask too many questions. Um because I want to take over the whole boat.”
(Fun trivia: This was how my brothers and their friends would sometimes play the level and it was my pet peeve. I always told them the same thing Natalie tells Sam)
“You can still take over the whole boat without shooting any hostages because they disappear after they leave,” I pointed out.
“I’m a bad secret agent. I should get fired and get put to death for all the people I’ve killed.”
“You’re boring,” I said. I went to the closet and got out a puzzle. I brought it in the computer room and sat down at the card table. As I was doing the jigsaw puzzle Allie and Ella came right in the room. Allie acted like I wasn’t even here. Ella walked over to me and looked at the puzzle. Allie was rummaging through the closet. Ella picked up one of the puzzle pieces and connected it to the puzzle. “Yes,” she said in her throat.
“Ella, do you want to play this game?” Allie asked.
She was holding Operation.
“Sure,” Ella replied. They sat down on the floor and took the game out of the box and set it up.
“Do you want to play?” Ella asked me.
“No!” said Allie firmly.
“Having three players is not going to kill us,” said Ella.
“I don’t want her to play. She’s weird and I don’t like her.”
“Why? What did she do to you?” Ella asked.
“Nothing. i just don’t like her.”
“Why?”
“Just because.”
“But why Allie? What is she doing that you don’t like about her? She accidentally stepped on one of your models. Big deal. Your room’s a pigsty so people will step on your things because your room’s like a big obstacle course.”
Allie leaned over and whispered something in Ella’s ear.
Ella got a dirty look on her face as she looked at Allie. “So what.”
“Really,” said Allie. “Seriously. She does. I saw it in the bathroom.”
Ella no longer knew about my secret because Allie had just told her about my diapers.
“I’ll prove it to you,” said Allie. She grabbed my shirt and tried to pulled it up. I tried to pull away. “Don’t,” I said.
“Oh I guess you better make me,” she said.
I tried to push her away. “Let go,” I said. I fell on my backside and that was when she got the hold of my pants. I used all my strength to push her away but she wasn’t giving up. She kept coming back and tugging at my clothes.
“Allie. Stop,” said Ella.
Allie ignored her. She kept trying to pull my pants down. When I pushed her away with my feet, she got a hold of my pants leg and started pulling on it.
“Allie, knock it off,” Ella said firmly.
I held on to the top of my pants as I tried to push her with my other foot.
Ella got up and grabbed my leg. “Stop,” she said.
Allie wouldn’t listen.
Ella grabbed Allie’s hands and tried to make her let go. I kept kicking Allie. Then she got a hold of my other pants leg. My legs were stuck. All I could do is hold on to my pants to try to keep them up. I tried to wriggle free. Ella grabbed my pants legs and tried to pull them out of Allie’s hands. There was only one thing for me to do. I let go of my pants and pushed myself up and grabbed one of Allie’s legs. That caused her to fall. She finally let go of me. I got up and pulled my pants up. Allie almost pulled them below my bottom.
“Allie, if you won’t stop being mean to her,” said Ella firmly. “I’ll tell her about your secret you had when you were little.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Allie.
“Oh sure you do. You know how upset you would get when kids made fun of you. you had that problem up to the third grade.”
Allie blushed.
“See, you know what I’m talking about, now shut up.”
“But she wears diapers,” Allie protested.
“Maybe she was probably having troubles going to the bathroom, so her parents probably felt comfortable by putting her back in diapers,” said Ella.
“She’s just like a wittle baby,” said Allie.
“When I was little, I knew a girl who was hyperactive, had troubles paying attention, couldn’t sit still, had troubles remembering instructions, always forgot her stuff, and couldn’t remember here she would put her belongings, but in the middle of the night, the girl couldn’t get up to go to the bathroom, she would do it in her bed while she was a sleep so her parents would put diapers on her before she went to bed. But they were Pampers because the girl was small enough to fit into them. By the time she was in the third grade, she didn’t need them anymore because she stopped wetting and messing her bed and I will tell you the name of that girl if you won’t be nice to her,” said Ella.
“That never happened,” said Allie.
“Yes it did. You’re just embarrassed.”
I had a feeling about the girl Ella was talking about was actually Allie. I can tell by the way Ella was describing her.
Allie and Ella kept fighting about the story and me.
“Stop fighting, both of you,” I said and I said to Allie. “And I wear diapers because I was in a car accident when I was seven. There. Satisfied? Now you know.” I buried my face in my arms.
“How did you get in a car accident?” Allie asked.
“A car drove into us?” I replied.
“How?”
“By switching lanes.”
“What was the car accident like?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember? Weren’t you scared? Did you have any scars? Did you get any brain damage? Did your spinal cord get injured? Did you get amnesia?”
“Don’t ask her those questions,” said Ella. “It’s none of your business.”
“They’re just curious questions,” I said.
“Why did the car pull into your lane?” Allie asked.
“It didn’t,” I replied. “We pulled into their lane.”
“Why?”
“Because up in front of us some idiot stopped and caused a bunch of cars to slam into each other so my mom switched lanes because she didn’t want her car to get wrecked and that was when a car drove into us that was getting on the freeway.”
“The car accident happened on the freeway?” Allie asked incredulously.
“Yeah.”
“Didn’t you have any other injuries? Did you have to be in a wheelchair? Did you have any broken bones? Did you get temporary brain damage? Did you get amnesia? Did you r spinal cord get injured?”
“No,” I replied. “None of that. I might have had some broken bones but I did not have amnesia, brain damage, or become disabled but I did go into coma. I don’t even remember what happened before.”
“But then how do you know about the car wreck?” Ella asked.
“Mom told me,” I replied. “And she still blames herself for it. My dad has told her many times ‘it isn’t your fault. It isn’t your fault.””
“It wasn’t,” said Allie.
“Why?” I wanted her reason why it wasn’t.
“Because it wasn’t her fault that an idiot stopped right in the middle of the freeway and caused a bunch of cars to slam into him. Your mom probably got scared so her brain shutted off and she drove into another lane without realizing there was a car coming.”
“At least I survived the wreck because some people died,” I said.
“How did you lose control of your bladder?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Nerve damage, spinal-I don’t know.”
“What? Tell me,” said Allie.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t remember. It’s like having amnesia. When I woke up in the hospital from coma, I felt confused because I didn’t remember getting in a car wreck.”
“Do you remember the car wreck now?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Do you like wearing diapers?”
“They don’t bother me but they do get in the way.”
“How do they get in the way?”
“They got in the way when you made fun of me in the bathroom and when you were mean to me.”
“I didn’t know you wore the for a medical reason. I’m sorry,” Allie apologized. “If you would have told me, I wouldn’t have been mean to you. I can’t read your mind.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s impossible for everybody.”
“I think you’re lucky to wear them.”
That comment shocked me. “Why do you say that?”
‘You don’t need to stop to go potty and we do. Do you want to play Operation with us?”
“Okay.”
Ella was finished setting up the game.
“Who’s going first?” I asked.
Ella shrugged.
“I don’t know,” Allie replied.
“How come your friend doesn’t talk much?” I asked.
“Because she’s very shy,” Allie replied.
“And every time she talks, I can barely hear her. She talks so quiet. I have to get close to her so I could hear her. Why does she talk quiet?” I asked. “It’s a hassle that I have to get close to her so I could hear.”
“That’s also part of her shyness,” said Allie.
“What does talking quietly got to do with shyness?” I asked.
“Let’s just play the game,” said Allie.
“But what does talking quietly got to do with shyness?” I asked again.
“Drop the subject,” said Allie.
“I will if you will answer my question,” I said. “What does talking quietly got to do with shyness?”
Allie didn’t answer. She drew a card from the pile and tried to take out a wishbone with the tweezers.
“Hello,” I said. I tapped her.
Allie pulled away. “Leave me alone.”
I gave up. “Fine, I’ll ask someone else,” I said. I got up and left the room. I went in the playroom to check on Sam. He was still playing the same game as he was before but this time he was on the runway level shooting some bad guys. He was also running over some of them with the army tank he was using. He was killing them just for fun and not doing any missions. I wouldn’t watch him play that game because he’s boring. I went downstairs to the family room. Dad got up and grabbed me and sat back down on the couch. He started kissing me ad tickling me. He had his arm wrapped around me so I couldn’t get away. Dad does this to Matthew and Kelly too. He also did it to Brian when he was little but I don’t like it when he does it to me because of the heat from his body. It’s too hot and I also didn’t feel like getting touched. Sometimes it hurt depends how people touch me or how hard. I struggled to get away. “Let go of me,” I said.
“Just hold on,” said Dad. “Wait until I’m done.”
Dad stopped kissing me but he still had his arms wrapped around me. I couldn’t wait anymore. I had to get out of this tight spot. I tried to get away but Dad wouldn’t let me.
“Glen, just let her go,” said Mom.
(Glen ‘s my dad’s name) Dad let go of me.
“Thank you,” I said. I got up. “Mom, why do people talk very quietly when they’re shy?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Mom replied. “Why?”
“You see, Allie’s friend, Ella, talks quiet. She talks so quiet, it’s annoying. I have to turn my on super hearing so I could hear her and it’s a hassle. She’s shy,” I explained.
“I don’t know why shy people talk quiet,” Mom replied. “Ask someone else. Maybe they would know and is Allie still giving you trouble?”
“No,” I replied. “Not at all. She stopped making fun of me when Ella told her if she didn’t stop, she would tell me something embarrassing about her she had up to the third grade but when Allie denied it never happened, Ella described her that she was a bed wetter and she would also poop in her bed so her parents put diapers on her so they wouldn’t have to wash her sheets every day. I had a feeling that it was Allie.”
“It was,” her mother replied. “But don’t say anything to her about it. She’ll get mad at me for telling you.”
“Is she embarrassed about it or something?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad you and Allie are like friends now,” said Mom. “Now you don’t have to worry about wanting to go home.”
I went back upstairs. Sam was still playing the same video game but this time he was doing the cradle. He shot Trevelyan and jumped on the helicopter. The game showed him how many times bad guys he killed and how many gun shots he did. He went back to level select.
“Hey you didn’t wanna see James and Natalya kiss?” I cried.
“Neah, too mushy,” Sam replied.
Kissing is my favorite part of the game. It makes me feel happy and excited inside. I went back to the computer room to finish my puzzle. Allie and Ella were still playing Operation.
“Sorry, we started playing without you,” said Allie.
“Oh that’s okay,” I said. “I was planning to finish this puzzle anyway.”
After I finish it, I clapped.
Allie and Ella got up to see it.
“What are you clapping for? It was only a little kid puzzle?” said Allie.
“So,” I said. “I don’t care about the age group. I just love doing puzzles.”
The puzzle I did was ages five to eight. It was a Rugrats puzzle.
“Can’t you do puzzles that are more appropriate for your age?” asked Allie.
“Yeah but they take me a long time to do them,” I said. “Because I take breaks. It takes me a long time to separate the pieces because there’s so many of them.”
“Do you like Rugrats?” asked Allie.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Do you like them because they wear diapers?”
I gave her a funny look. “No, I just like them. I like Hey Arnold and they don’t wear diapers and I also like other shows too.”
I put the puzzle away and took out another puzzle.
“Now you’re doing another little kid puzzle but this time it’s Aladdin,” said Allie.
I opened the box and poured out the puzzle pieces.
Allie and Ella went back to playing Operation.
I separated the pieces and did the outside first. When I was done, I did the inside.
I clapped when the puzzle was finished. I put the pieces back in the box and put it away and looked for something else to do. I had enough of puzzles. I went downstairs as the little kids came in from outside.
“Mom. How much longer before we go home?” Kelly whined.
“I don’t know,” said Mom.’
Kelly looked at Dad. “Dad, how much longer before we leave?”
Dad looked at his watch. “I think we’ll leave when the Olympics end,” he replied.
I knew he meant today, not the first day of October.
“At least you were able to answer my question because I ask Mom one simple question and she was unable to answer like she was some idiot.”
“Hey,” said Dad sharply. “Don’t talk about your mother that way. It’s rude and disrespectful. I don’t ever want to hear it again. You know Mom has troubles understanding language sometimes but that doesn’t make her stupid.”
“I heard what you said,” Mom told Kelly. “And I’m very sorry that god didn’t give me a perfect brain.”
Kelly left the room.
I followed her upstairs. Matthew and Jake came out of his bedroom with nerf guns. Matthew shot Kelly but she ignored it. Matthew picked up the nerf bullet and chased Jake as they both shot nerfs at each other.
Amber came in the hallway carrying a doll.
“Who wants to play house with me?” she asked.
“Not me,” said Kelly. “Maybe my sister can. She takes good roll being the baby.”
I nudged her with my hand.
“Just saying,” she said.
Kelly went downstairs and picked up her mini backpack and went to the bathroom. I bet she had to change her pad. I’ll look in the trashcan when she’s done. Neah that’s disgusting. Only weird people do that. I don’t want to be weird. I want to be normal.
Jake and Matthew ran past us again. Amber stopped them. “Do you want to play house with me?”
“No way,” said Matthew.
“That’s for girls,” said Jake.
“No it isn’t,” said Amber. “You can be the brother and Matthew can be the father.”
“Ew!” they said.
“That game is for girls,” said Jake.”
“Yeah,” said Matthew.
“And we’re playing a boy game,” Jake finished.
They continued playing that nerf game.
“Will you play house with me?” Amber asked.
“Okay,” I said.
We went in her room and started playing. Amber went to her closet and handed me a doll. “You’re the mother,” she said.
I was relieved. Thank god I’m not the baby. When I was little every time I played house with other kids, I always had to be the baby because I wore diapers. I had to drink out of a baby bottle for real, suck on pacifiers, play with baby toys, get pushed in the umbrella stroller, and embarrassing moment of all, they always wanted to change my diaper and by the time I was nine, I quit playing house because I got tired of being the baby.
“What are you?” I asked Amber.
“The mother,” she replied.
“But I thought I was the mother,” I pointed out.
“You are.”
“Then how come you’re the mother?”
“Because we’re both mothers,” Amber replied. “We’re very best friends and we live together for pretend.”
Now this was making sense.
Amber got out some doll clothes and diapers. When she took the diaper off her doll, her bottom was all dirty. She had a doll that wets. She got up and took The Wet Ones off her dresser and used one of the wipes to clean her doll’s bottom.
The Wet Ones look like they’re baby wipes but they’re not. They’re just moist napkins you use to clean yourself up with. They’re good to use on road trips so you won’t have to stop to wash your hands. I call the wipes because they look like wipes even though they’re plane. They don’t have any designs on them like baby wipes do.
I knew Amber didn’t give me a doll that wets.
“Do you have another doll that wets?” I asked.
“No,” Amber replied. She picked up a diaper and unfolded it and put it on her doll. I was very surprised to see that the diaper had elastic in it just like a real diaper.
“I didn’t know dolly diapers had elastic in them,” I said.
“They don’t,” said Amber.
“But then how come these do?”
“Because these are real baby diapers.”
I got confused. “But one time when I was in the toy section in a store, one of the boxes was open. It had fake baby supplies and three disposable diapers so I took one of them out and unfolded it and saw that it was a real diaper except it didn’t have elastic in it.”
“That was a fake diaper but it was made to look real,” said Amber.
“How come you say those diapers are fake?” I asked.
“Because they are. They’re made for dolls, not for babies. I bet they would leak in no time if a baby peed or pooped in them because they aren’t absorbent. But these here are real diapers. I’ll even prove it to you.” Amber got up and went to her closet and got out a plastic thing that was all crumpled up. I couldn’t figure out what it was. The plastic was red. Dark red. Amber threw it to me but it didn’t go very far. She picked it up and handed it to me. I uncrumpled it and saw that these diapers were Huggies and they were size newborn.
“Your mom lets you get these?” I asked.
“Yep. With my own money,” Amber replied.
I started to take the clothes off my doll.
“This is weird,” I said.
“Why?” asked Amber.
“I didn’t know ten year olds can play house.”
“They can if they wanted to.”
“When I was your age, kids never wanted to play like this. They said it was for little kids.”
“I know. My mom thinks it’s a pity that kids are in such a rush to grow up.”
“I know,” I agreed. “My mom also thinks it’s sad that some parents force their kids to stop playing with their toys.”
After I finished putting new clothes on my doll, I heard Britney Spears music playing outside the bedroom door.
“Oooh,” said Amber angrily. “I hate it when my sister plays that stupid music.” She got up and left her bedroom. I heard the music go off and Amber came back.
As I fed my doll a bottle, the music started to play again except this time it was a different song. The music got louder as it came to the door. The door opened and in came Allie carrying her boom box.
“Get out of my room!” Amber shouted.
Allie looked at her. “No.”
“Get out or I’ll tell Mom,” Amber threatened.
Allie put her boom box down and grabbed her sister by her shirt. “Why can’t I be in your room?”
“Because you’re annoying me with that music,” Amber replied.
“Oh. Okay. I’ll fix it.”
Allie let go of her shirt and skipped to the next song but the next song still annoyed Amber.
“Turn that music off,” she said.
“Oh, that music annoys you too,” Allie skipped to the next song.
Amber rolled her eyes. “I don’t wanna play games with you. Just get your boom box and get out of here.”
“You said it sister.” Allie picked up her boom box. “And what are you two playing anyway?”
“House,” Amber and I replied.
Allie turned the music down a little bit.
“It’ll be even more fun if we all played house together and pretend Natalie’s the baby,” she said.
“No,” I said. “I will not be the baby. No way jose. Not happening.”
“Why?” Amber asked Allie.
“Because she already wears diapers. She’ll be good for being a baby.”
“What are you talking about?” Amber asked bewilderly. “She doesn’t wear diapers.”
“Fine. See what I care.”
Allie left the bedroom with her boom box.
“What was she talking about?” Amber asked me.
I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I lied.
We continued playing house together. Then Allie poked her head in the doorway. “If your friend there doesn’t wear diapers, then what do you call this?” she held up one of my folded diapers.
I was mortified. Now Amber knew my secret.
“Where did that come from?” she asked.
“From her backpack,” Allie replied as she pointed at me.
I decided to pretend the diaper wasn’t mine. “Very funny,” I said sarcastically.
“Why would she have a diaper in her backpack?” Amber asked.
“Because she wears them.”
“Why would she?”
“Because she can’t go to the bathroom.”
Amber looked at me. “Is it true you can’t go?”
“What if I couldn’t?” I asked.
Amber shrugged. “I don’t know.”
I walked up to Allie and snatched the diaper from her. “Give me that,” and I whispered in her ear, “and you have no right going through other peoples stuff without their permission. Thanks for embarrassing me.”
I went downstairs making sure Amber wasn’t following me. I put the diaper back in my backpack. Allie didn’t show her it just to embarrass me. She did it to prove to Amber that she wasn’t making it up.
I went back upstairs. Allie walked by me in the hallway and went to her room. “Where’s your friend?” I asked.
“In the rec room playing video games,” Allie replied.
“I thought Sam was playing but I guess he’s not anymore.”
“They’re both in there playing that stupid 007 game.”
I guess Allie hates that game.
I went back to Amber’s room and played house with her some more.
“My sister’s weird sometimes,” she said.
“I can see that,” I said.
“Where did she get that diaper from?”
I guess she didn’t know my secret after all.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“I bet I know where she got it from.”
“What?”
“Last month, some old lady came here with one of my mom’s friends and the old lady looked about one hundred and fifty. I bet that’s where the diaper came from.”
“Do you like James Bond?” I asked.
“No,” Amber replied.
“Why not?”
“Because all he cares about is himself.”
“If he cares about himself, then why is he a secret agent?”
“Because he thinks he is better than everyone else and he shows off to show he’s better than everybody else and he has no respect for women.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
“Do you see? In every James Bond movie, he’s always with a different woman. Do you know why?”
“No.”
“Because he uses them. After he’s done checking them out, he dumps them and moves onto another woman.”
“Who told you that stuff?”
(Fun trivia: My dad actually said all this about James Bond when I asked why is he with a different woman in every movie)
“No one. James hangs out with a bunch of women. He kisses them, sleeps with them, sticks his hands in their clothes, and bunch of other stuff. Do you like James Bond?”
“Me? I love him. I don’t mean that kind of love. Different kind of love like I love mash potatoes for example. My favorite James Bond is Pierce Brosnan. I think he’s cute. I like all his James Bond movies he played in. They’re my favorite. I’ve seen other James Bond movies too with Sean Connery and Roger Moore in it. Only James Bond movies I don’t like are the ones with Timothy Dalton in it. He doesn’t do much and he doesn’t have a hairy chest. Somewhere in my heart, I find him boring.”
“I know. My mom says he isn’t very good,” said Amber.
Then her bedroom door opened and Allie came poked her head in. “So you think your friend is potty trained huh?” she asked. “If she is? Potty trained? Then why does she have this stuff in her bag?” she pulled my backpack in the bedroom and turned it upside down and all my stuff fell out including my dirty diaper. Now Amber knew my secret.
Allie already had my backpack unzipped because she dragged it in here so I wouldn’t have a chance to stop her. Clever girl.
I tried not to cry. I felt harassed because I felt she was getting in my life. My brain was telling me I should defend myself but I didn’t listen to it. She wasn’t doing it to torment me. She was doing it to show her sister she was telling the truth. She probably doesn’t like getting misjudged.
“She has baby wipes, skin care, a dirty diaper,” she said.
“Where did you get that stuff?” asked Amber.
Allie pointed at me. “It’s hers. I got it in the hallway next to the front door,” she she continued touring through my stuff.
It was so embarrassing.
“Prove that it’s hers,” said Amber.
Allie looked in my backpack for my name. I marched up to her and grabbed my backpack and put all my stuff back in but she kept picking them up and showing them to Amber. I snatched them out of her hands but she kept trying to dig them in my backpack. I told her to stop a couple times but she wouldn’t listen so I had to scream and defend myself to get her to stop.
“Jeas, what’s your problem?” she said.
“No, what’s your problem?” I said back.
I didn’t care if Amber found out my secret. I was too upset to care. I zipped my backpack and went downstairs.
“Natalie, what happened?” my father asked.
I was in the family room and I was crying. I told him what happened.
“She did what? She did what?” he said.
He sounded very surprised as Mom came out of the bathroom.
“Anita, we have a problem here,” said Dad. “You will not believe what Allie just did.” Dad got closer to Mom and said quieter. “She took our daughter’s backpack into her sister’s bedroom and dumped everything out of it.”
Mom’s facial expression changed. “Why didn’t she stop her?
“Because she already had my backpack unzipped before she brought it in the bedroom,” I cried. “I was playing house with Amber because she wanted someone to play with and then Allie came in with my backpack already unzipped and she dumped everything out of it. I couldn’t stop her in time.”
“I think I’m going to take her home,” said Mom. “I can’t have her stay here and have her get tormented by another child.”