“Leah, you are adorable,” Gina said. “You look like a toddler.”
Tingling spread across Leah’s body as she began to grow older. Her growth stopped much earlier than she would have liked, however. She could feel a thin swim diaper underneath her one-piece swimsuit. Her swimsuit was now bright pink, with a ruffly skirt around her waist. She had matching pink floaties on each arm.
“How old you make me?” Leah asked around the pacifier.
“A toddler, sweetie. Didn’t you hear me?” Gina ruffled Leah’s hair. “About three.” Leah had no concept of what that meant. Would she still be stuck in diapers? As if reading Leah’s mind, Gina spoke again. “You’ll be diapered until you get back to normal, Leah. Just get used to it.”
“But-” Leah started.
“Honestly, you should be thanking me for the opportunity to use the potty whenever and wherever,” Gina said, talking over Leah. “You won’t have to stop playing or sleeping or eating or whatever it is you’re doing, you can just pee-pee or boom-boom. And you won’t have to clean it up.”
“But-” Leah tried again.
“No buts. I think it’s time for you to play. But before we do that, I need to make sure you don’t accidentally change ages on me.” Gina rummaged through some drawers before removing a one-piece purple swimsuit. She undressed Leah in the magical swimsuit, which returned to its proper size once off of Leah, and then put her in the new, mundane one. “Perfect!”
“What you tell people?” Leah asked.
“You’re Ivy, a little girl I’m fostering for the foreseeable future,” Gina said. She picked Leah up. “Come on, let’s go play!”
Leah’s mind began to race. She didn’t want to go play at the party, but what could she do to get out of it?