Alice took aside “Tina, with schools starting soon the pediatrician asked to come in today for the monthly wellness visit.”
Tina looked annoyed, “I was hoping to head home, but I guess this is more important.”
“I’ll go get, what is her name?” Alice offered.
Tina figured Alice would find out sooner or later. “That’s Leah. If you could find a spot for her, that would be great. I’ll move the car.”
About 30 minutes later, Betsy gently knocked on Tina’s office door. “I have a little lady here who would like to talk to you.”
An angry Leah poked her head around the doorframe, clearly not happy about the whole situation.
“Thank you Aunt Betsy, I can take it from here.”
“Sleeping beauty is now awake.” Betsy commented as she handed off the child and left.
“What have you done to me!” and angry Leah nearly shouted.
Tina closed the door. “You may want to keep your voice down.”
“You put me in daycare!”
“I let you sleep here.” Tina responded.
“They think I am one of your inmates.” Leah barked pointing to the outer area.
“Oh please, they’re not inmates, most of them have a lot of fun when they are here.”
“That’s beside the point.” Leah was really wound up.
“What would you have had me do?” Tina then paused for effect. “I could have told them when we got here, that’s my 15 year old step daughter asleep in the car seat, can we find a spot for her to sleep it off? I can go out there right now and let everyone know. Then, you can help out or just sit on your own till we can leave.”
“Anything is better than being treated like a baby.”
“Right then. We can start with Alice, you remember Alice?”
A puzzled look appeared on Leah’s face as she tried to figure out how she knew Alice.
“Let me refresh your memory. Alice is the nice young woman who gave you your favorite new princess binkie. You seem to love it so much. She gave it to you to helped you calm down when you made boom boom in your pants at the store. She’s just a few year’ older than you, I’m sure she’ll understand.”
This took the wind out of Leah’s sail. Immediately insecure, Leah started to move her mouth around, like she was remembering the pacifier it once held. It felt like she needed something in her mouth, as the tip of her left thumb made its way there. Her tongue licked it a few time and then she quickly pulled it away.
Tina watched as she saw the conflicted little woman unable solve this dilemma.
“Why don’t you just sit there for a few minutes and see if you can figure something out. Otherwise, I can make a few suggestions.”
Leah crawled up onto one of the chairs and sat there with a look of confusion as she tried to puzzle an answer.
Tina pretended to work, but just thought about this problem. Leah was back to being the proverbial pill. It would be so much easier, if she has that happy baby from the store. Tina formulated her little plan to make just that happen.
After a few minutes, Leah seemed to have calmed down, but still looked perplexed.
Tina left and returned with a couple of glasses of water. One sippy cup without the lid and another small glass which she placed on the front of her desk.
“You must be thirsty. I brought some water, sorry about the cups, these will have to do.”
Leah grabbed the glass. Little did she know, that Tina expected such a move from a teenaged brat and had spiked the water in the glass.
“Now, can we talk this through?” Tina asked
“I guess. I just don’t know what to do. This has been a shitty day.”
“Language young lady. We are around small children here and I expect you to behave.”
“Or what?”
“Or there will be consequences.”
Leah was dismissive. “Look my mouth, my jaw, my bottom all hurt and if that isn’t enough I am dressed like a toddler on her way to church.”
“I’m sorry Leah, I know this must be hard on you. Shall we tell everyone you are my teenaged stepdaughter and be done with it?”
A look of horror hit Leah. “I can’t.”
“Well, you can’t sit here all day. So, your only other choice is to go out there as one of the inmates.”
“I, I don’t want to.”
“Look it’s only for a few hours.”
“I don’t want everyone treating me like a baby.”
“Then don’t act like a baby and no one will treat you like a baby.”
“I guess it’s better than being outed.”
“Just try.”
It was hard, but Leah slowly nodded in agreement.
“Now, I can help with those little aches if you want. But I have to do it like I would for any of the other children here. Would you like that?”
“Okay.”
“I need to warn you there may be some minor side effects, nothing to serious, but it will ease the pain and likely make you feel better. Like taking a pain killer ”
“Fine Tina let get on with it.” The still angry teen commented
“Come with me and around here, you need to stop calling me Tina. Got it.”
The first stop was the kitchen where Tina grabbed a little first aid kit and took out what looked to be a tube of something. Squeezing it on her finger, she instructed Leah to open her mouth and Tina rubbed it all over the inside of Leah’s mouth. It was amazing that at 15, she still had only her baby teeth. Whatever had stunted her growth not only prevented her hitting puberty, but slowed her oral development as well.
“What is that?”
“It’s just a topical balm to help relax your mouth a bit and numb some of the raw feelings. You were not use to suckling so much. This will help. It will take a while to reach full potency, so you might not want to talk to much for the next few hours.”
Next Tina took her to the infant room. It was quiet, the cribs were full and no one else was there. She hoisted Leah onto a changing table.
“Hey!”
“Shh!” Tina quietly responded. As she raise Leah’s dress, lifted her legs by her ankles and soon was rubbing something on her bottom.
Unlike before Leah was embarrassed by this attention, she enjoyed the pleasant aroma of the ointment, but for a moment she thought she felt something that might have been Tina’s finger violate her anus. She couldn’t be sure, so she figured it was just slippage as she was just applying diaper cream.
Tina slid the training pants back into place and sent her newest daycare resident off to play.
Leah was unaware of all the fun she was about to have.
Leah was sent over to the room with the preschoolers, mostly 4 year olds. She seemed to be about their size. As she walked she noticed that her mouth did feel a bit numb, but better, so her irritation was fading and her mood seemed to be improving. She stopped as she got to the room. Playing with a bunch of preschoolers normally wasn’t an issue for her, it could be fun, but playing with them as a peer?
She took a moment thinking about what was about to happen. In that moment, she realized her bottom did feeling better, but she was sensitive to how she now smelled like a baby. She rubbed her bottom realizing that her underwear was extra thick. Shocked to recognize she was in training pants, smelling like a baby made her just want to cry. Why is she so mood these days? She always feels like crying at everything.
“Why hello there. You must be Leah. I’m Aunt Maria.” The cheery woman kneeling in front of her said as she opened her arms for a hug.
Leah stepped into the hug.
“Such a good girl, we are about to have story time, would you like to join us and start our circle? Come let’s get everyone else over here.”
It was silly, but Leah felt so proud at told she was a good girl. Leah was directed to sit down.
“Come on everyone circle time. Today we will read our stories first in English then one in Spanish. Tomorrow’s special language is going to be ………. who remembers?”
“I know” said a small red headed boy.
“Yes …… Sean?”
“China”
“Chinese, yes. Aunt Lu will read to us in Chinese tomorrow.”
Leah sat there and was very impressed. Reading time in multiple languages seemed special she thought.
Aunt Maria started reading the story. She was such an engaging reader and she showed all the pictures and kept the story going.
Soon, Leah got comfortable and found herself laying flat on her stomach like may of the other kids.
She noticed a few of them dozing.