“Leah?” At the sound of Tina saying her name, Leah looks up. “Do you think you could play with the children?”
“Tina…” Leah whines. Tina holds up a hand.
“I’ll owe you another favor,” she wheedles. Leah groans loudly.
“Fine.”
“Great!” Tina leads Leah over to a group of young children. They’re older than the other attendees and, judging by the lack of bulges under their clothes, are either in pull-ups or regular underwear. At least Leah isn’t expected to entertain a bunch of babies in diapers. “Kids, this is Leah. She’s a big girl, but she’s willing to play with you.”
There are scattered excited phrases from the children. Tina winks at Leah and leaves. Leah sighs. She shoves her hands into her pockets.
“So, what do you want to do?” she asks tiredly.
“Dress-up,” says one girl.
“All right. I can do that.” Leah follows the children to a chest full of dress-up clothes. She watches them eagerly change into the first thing they pull from the chest. “Wow, you all look so good!” she says once they’ve all changed.
“Your turn,” says the girl from earlier.
“Sorry, I’m too big for dress-up.”
“No, you same size as us,” the girl insists. Leah groans again.
“Okay, I can dress up,” she mutters. The girl beams. “What should I dress up as?”
“Princess!” the girl says, clapping her hands. Leah rummages through the chest, eventually pulling out a poofy, sparkly pink dress. “Yeah!”
“One second.” Leah goes to the bathroom to change, but is stopped by the girl. “What?”
“Put on dress!”
“I will, just not in front of you,” Leah says. Tears well in the girl’s eyes. Desperate to prevent a meltdown, Leah caves. “Okay, okay, I’ll change right here.” Leah removes her shirt and jeans, then slips the dress on. To her consternation, it fits perfectly. “Happy?”
“Hmm…no. Needs something else,” the girl says.
“My costume needs something else?” Leah asks. The girl nods. “What does it need?”