Leah doesn’t even make it to the sandbox before feeling an urgent pressure in her abdomen. For a while, she’d been sensing the urge to go number two, but it’s strong enough she can no longer ignore it. She crosses her legs hurriedly and waddles back to the adults. Tina looks down at her.
“Hailey, why aren’t you playing with your friends?” she asks. Leah squirms.
“Need bafwoom, Miss Tina.”
“Wow, at her age, she’s already potty trained?” Mrs. Prince asks. Tina laughs.
“Not really. Hailey thinks she’s potty trained, but she has a lot of false alarms and accidents.” To Leah’s horror, Tina lifts Leah’s skirt, revealing the training pants. “It’s probably a false alarm; she went to the bathroom shortly before we came here.”
“Need bafwoom!” Leah insists, tugging on Tina’s pant leg.
“Okay, okay! I guess it’s better safe than sorry. Come on, Hailey, let’s go to the bathroom.”
“No, you just got here,” Mrs. Prince says. “I’ll take her.”
“Thank you!” Tina says. Mrs. Prince grabs Leah’s hand and brings her inside. They make a beeline for the bathroom, only for the door to be locked when they arrive.
“Someone’s in here!” calls Tonya’s voice. Leah grimaces. Mrs. Prince smiles at Leah.
“Sorry, Hailey, you’ll have to hold it until my daughter is done,” she says. Leah whimpers. Tonya takes forever in the bathroom. There’s no way that Leah can hold it until then. She’s been putting off a bowel movement all day.
Sure enough, the toilet hasn’t even flushed yet when Leah’s hold breaks. With a loud fart, her bowels empty into her training pants. Leah bursts into tears.
“Oh, poor Hailey,” Mrs. Prince coos. “I’ll go get Miss Tina for you, okay? She’ll take care of you.” Mrs. Princes leaves Leah in the hallway in a messy pull-up, sobbing. Tonya exits the bathroom, takes one look at the crying and smelly apparent child, and goes into her bedroom. Knowing her best friend saw her in this state, Leah sobs harder. Tina and Mrs. Prince arrive.
“Hailey, did you go boom-boom in your big girl panties?” Tina asks. Leah nods, still wailing. “And I forgot to bring an extra pair of training pants…”
“Well, I don’t have any training pants, but she can have one of Ben’s diapers,” Mrs. Prince suggests. Tina smiles.
“That would be lovely. Thank you.” Tina brings Leah into the bathroom while Mrs. Prince goes to get a diaper. “Wow, Leah, I’m impressed! You’re so determined to play this role accurately, you messed yourself! Even though it means you’ll have to wear a diaper until we get home.”
Driven to her breaking point, Leah is heavily tempted to go along with what Tina has assumed; that she didn’t have an accident, she pooped in training pants on purpose. But she’s also sorely tempted to finally come clean about the whole thing. If she does, maybe they can finally go home and Leah can put this horrible day behind her.