She felt small as she was placed down beside Kimberly and Charlotte, as if a stiff wind could easily take her away from the situation, she even wished that were the case. Her act of desperate defecation lead her to find that she was basically at the whim of anyone able to pick her up, and the truth of the matter was that, due to the truth of her being as old as she REALLY is, her old toddler habits made it very easy for her to just go with it. She was, despite any real means of her own free will, a good little girl.
She sulked for a second before she felt a slight nudge at her foot, Charlotte stood next to her expectantly. “Do you wann play witf me an’ kimmy?” She asked in a somewhat timid voice, it was clear to Olivia that this girl seemed nervous. That’s when Olivia realized something: Charlotte was the only little kid here.
Sure, the party itself was mainly a scant few folks, presumably work friends of Ms. Chen’s and Kimberly was really only here because she’s babysat in the past. She could very well be paid to be here. Olivia stands up and walks over to Kimberly who had a few mixed emotions about the deep concern on Olivia’s little toddler face.
“Kim, are we early to the party?” Olivia asked in a hushed tone.
“Actually we’re about 30 minutes late.” Kimberly said.
“What? Where are all the kids then?” Olivia asked in more of a low voice than a whisper.
Kimberly stood up and picked Olivia up and walked away for a second, making sure Charlotte couldn’t hear.
“The Chen’s just moved here. Ms. Chen recently left her husband with Charlotte, they moved here to kinda start fresh. Charlotte hasn’t started preschool quite yet and daycare isn’t really in the cards yet for Ms Chen, so she put out and ad on Craig’s list, hence me.”
Olivia visibly looked upset to hear this, it could be that she was just young and thus easy to make emotional, but she felt a deep pain for Charlotte. She wasn’t sure the full situation, but Olivia knew that 4 was too young to be dealing with her parent’s divorce, packing up her life and trying to make a new one. She was probably missing her friends quite a bit, maybe even family more her age. Just looking at Charlotte, Olivia could tell that she was lonely and needed someone to be there for her.
“Kimmy… put me down.” Olivia said, her voice soft as she silently wiped a tear from her eye. Kimberly felt her heart break seeing Olivia so sad, but she obliged.
Olivia waddled to Charlotte, put on the goofiest smile she could and says “whadda wann play!”
Charlotte beamed as Olivia followed her along to her large box of toys. The two kids played for a long while, from makeshift soccer with a small dollar store ball, to playing with dolls and general pretend. They even did each other’s make-up, albeit with some cheap Disney Princess branded set that was chunky and smelled a little funny.
Olivia had a bit of a hard time keeping up with Charlotte for a few reasons, namely being at times a toddler and other times not a girl at heart, though these issues melted away as the party went on.
At one point, Olivia approached Kimberly and rather blandly stated “I pooped.” Kimberly was completely taken for a moment but took Olivia along to change her.
“You’ve been having fun, huh little miss?” Kimberly asked as she removed Olivia’s diaper. “It’s been surprisingly fun. That, and I’ve really gotten used to it. I think it’s just living in a child’s body for long enough has made me less resistant to these impulses.” Olivia said, giving a slight shiver as Kimberly wipes her. “That’s cold!” She says, her tone notably more childish than that of her previous statement. “Ope, sorry bud!” Kimberly says as she finishes up. “There you go, squeaky clean down there!” Kimberly blows a raspberry on Olivia’s belly, causing her to laugh extremely loudly. Olivia pauses for a moment after, stunned by what just happened. “Could… you do that again? That was really funny.” Olivia asked, Kimberly couldn’t help but laugh at the earnest look Olivia gave her in asking. “You got it champ!” Kimberly said before giving Olivia an even louder Raspberry.
After they left the bathroom, Olivia and Charlotte continued their playtime, it wasn’t much longer before Olivia started to nod off. Kimberly took that as a sign to get going.
“Okay Olivia, it’s time to go! Say goodbye to Charlotte!” Kimberly says in a gentle voice.
“NO!” Olivia shouted, her energy coming back only to protest. “I wanna stay! Wanna play more!” Olivia was quickly losing steam as Kimberly patiently moved down to pick her up. “You’ve had a BIG day, little miss. We need to go home and get you back to your bed…” Kimberly leans into Olivia’s ear “and your old self, Oliver.”
Olivia looked at Kimberly with a perplexed look on her face. “Okay… but put me down, please?” Kimberly did just that. Olivia walked up to Charlotte and gave her a hug. “Tank you for playing witf me.” Olivia smiled. “Happy bitfday!” Olivia said, her voice husky from her tired state. She walked back to Kimberly and proceeded to lift her arms up, to which Kimberly scooped up the little girl.
Kimberly drove off as she started to hear tiny snores from behind. Olivia was fast asleep in the car seat behind her, she looked oddly peaceful.
After a short drive, Olivia found herself being awoken by Kimberly picking her up. “Oliver, do you still keep the spare key under the mat?” Olivia rubbed her eyes a bit and gave a little yawn. “No, I keep it under the middle frog.” She said, pointing to the mid sized frog sculpture she normally kept beside her front door. Kimberly retrieved the key and entered into Olivia’a home.
“Okay, Oliver, a deals a deal.” Kimberly held the ring just in Olivia’s reach. Finally, she was home and the ring was her’s again. She could go back to being herself.