As she plays with her new friends, Ariel gets the urge to squat and push. She follows her instincts, eliciting some giggles from her new friends.
“Ariel, you pooping!” Laura laughs. Ariel laughs as well until she feels something enter her diaper. Her eyes widen as her bowels evacuate. The uncomfortable feeling of poop in her diaper brings her back to herself. She suddenly remembers being a teenaged boy named Jacob this morning. Although she wasn’t quite herself when she started going by Ariel, she’s gotten attached to the name, and decides to continue thinking of herself as Ariel. At the very least, while she’s a girl.
“Ooh, did someone make boom-boom?” asks a daycare worker. He picks Ariel up and carries her over to a changing table. Ariel squirms as she experiences someone changing her diaper for the first time in over a decade. “Aw, you’re a little squirmy wormy, aren’t you? Here.” The daycare worker pops a pacifier into Ariel’s mouth. She suckles on it, the action soothing her. Before she knows it, her messy diaper has been removed, she’s been wiped down, and a fresh diaper is on.
“Hmm, you don’t have a name tag,” the daycare worker says slowly. “What’s your name?”
“Awiel,” Ariel lisps around her pacifier.
“Oh, like the Little Mermaid!” the daycare worker says. “I bet it’s because of your pretty red hair.” The daycare worker makes a name tag for Ariel and sticks it on her dress. “There!” He sets Ariel back on the floor next to her new friends. “Okay, have fun, Ariel!”
Now that she’s remembered herself, the game Ariel was playing with her new friends doesn’t seem as fun as before. It certainly doesn’t seem like a good enough substitute for finding Seth and returning to normal.