Tina owes Leah. This seems like the perfect opportunity to cash in on those favors. Not to mention, Tina is very concerned about making Leah like her.
“Ready to go home?” Tina asks, coming over. Leah nods. She gets up and follows Tina out of the daycare. “Sorry, but you’ll have to go in the car seat, since you look like a toddler.”
“No problem,” Leah says cheerfully. Tina buckles her in. They pull away from the daycare. Once they’re on the road, Leah speaks again. “Tina?”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to use those favors you owe me.”
“What are you going to use them on?”
“Enroll me in daycare.”
“What?!” Tina’s so shocked, it’s a miracle she doesn’t jerk the steering wheel. “Leah, why?”
“I like it more than high school.”
“Leah!”
“You owe me!” Leah reminds her. Tina falls silent. After a moment, she sighs.
“Spring break is in a week. I’ll call you in as sick for this week, and you’ll spend this week and spring break in daycare, okay?”
“And we’ll revisit me attending daycare then?”
“Yes. I don’t want you making a serious, life-changing event after one day in daycare, after all.” Tina doesn’t say it, but it’s obvious that she thinks Leah will change her mind about attending daycare by the time spring break is over.
“I understand,” Leah says happily.
“Oh, one thing, sweetie. All daycare attendees must wear either training pants or diapers. So you’ll be wearing pull-ups at daycare.”
“Got it.” Knowing that she’ll be wearing pull-ups for a while now, Leah gives into the pressure from her bladder and wets herself with a soft sigh. Might as well get used to using them, since there might be times where it’s more convenient to use her training pants, rather than use the potty.
“Leah, I also want you to make a decision about how we’ll handle this,” Tina says. “You’ll have to wear the toddler uniform at daycare. During this experiment, do you want to dress like a toddler all the time, or just at daycare? And do you want the people at daycare to know your real age, or for me to claim you’re actually a toddler?”
“Hmm…”
Leah thinks about that for a minute, then makes her decision.