Within your average 4th grade class, you'll find approximately 20 children of either 9 or 10 years old, and statistically 1 of those children will still be wetting the bed. Ms. Lowe's class was no exception. In fact, her classroom actually had more than one bedwetter, as Justin had recently learned when his classmate Ashley confessed her secret to the boy in an effort to stem his humiliation. But considering Justin hadn't wet his bed for an extended period of time while Ashley was still sleeping in pull-ups, and last night when Justin had wet his bed, Ashley kept dry, meaning the statistic held true. Where the teacher's class roster differed from the statistics was she had a student currently wearing a pair of pull-ups training pants.
In just the last couple of days, Justin had taken a few steps backwards in his maturing. With wet pants, wet sheets, and now pull-ups, the boy was beginning to feel a lot less like a 10 year old and more like a toddler. Little did he know that repeating his toddler stage was exactly what his mother had planned. Once he wet his pull-up and showed that he truly didn't have the bladder control of a 4th grader, she could begin the transition of the child to diapers with the hope of properly potty training him. Justin was unaware of the scheme and he still believed he didn't need the trainer at his waist. When he felt the need to pee, he was going to be sure to ask to use the restroom. Despite his determination to be the big kid he was supposed to be, it was only a matter of time before Justin would be tapped into a diaper just like the baby he felt he was becoming.
It was as if it was fate for Justin to repeat infancy. Today was the make or break day in the boy's maturity journey. The pants-wetting was strike one. The reversion to bed-wetting was strike two. And the moment his pull-up was no longer dry would be the third strike and push Justin back to early childhood. If he could manage to keep from wetting himself once more, he had a chance of being the big kid he desperately wanted to be. He may have even achieved this victory if it weren't for some of his fellow classmates.
No one knew of Justin's accidents other than his teacher and Ashley. That was embarrassing enough for Justin, but since Ashley had confided in him about her own bedwetting history and had shown much sympathy for him, he felt safe in her keeping his secret. Ashley wasn't going to say anything. She was too kind and sweet to purposely expose Justin just for pleasure. But what neither of the children knew was what Ashley would be willing to do to avoid her own embarrassment.
That's where Britney came in. Britney was 11 and the oldest student in the class. This also made her a bit power hungry. She much enjoyed being the dominant kid in class and had no problem with everyone seeing her as a bully. Everyone knows bullies pick on people, because they're insecure about themselves, so that's why Britney had her sights set on Ashley. She would never admit it, but Britney had a crush on Justin. She didn't know why, but something about him just seemed adorable to her. So when she saw Justin and Ashley talking to each other the day before, she got jealous.
This led to Britney wanting to absolutely wreck the little blonde girl. So much so, that she pulled from her arsenal a secret she kept of Ashley's for 2 years. When they were younger, Ashley and Britney were actually friends, and as friends do, they would sleepover at each other's houses. One of these sleepovers resulted in Britney finding a certain package of absorbent underwear with Disney princesses on them. She never said a word and Ashley had no idea, but she knew this juicy information would come in handy at some point. That point was now. She had no idea if Ashley still wet her bed, but it didn't matter. As soon as everyone found out about the pull-ups, the girl would be marked as a bedwetter, and in 4th grade that was a death sentence.
It was 10:45 when the kids were escorted to the playground for their morning recess. It was also the moment Justin began to feel the urgency to pee. He knew what he had to do, so he fought through his shyness and asked Ms. Lowe if he could use the bathroom. He felt good about himself that he had the courage to ask and knew he was going to make it to the toilet. He was not prepared though for the answer he got.
"Sorry, buddy. Your mom wants you to try and hold it." The teacher told the child just like she was instructed. "You can use the bathroom after silent reading."
"But..." Justin began to argue, but his timidness kicked back in, and he just walked back to the playground feeling defeated. Ms. Lowe felt horrible refusing the toilet to a child who had to pee, but she believed he would be able to hold it, and if he couldn't at least he was wearing a pull-up.
As Justin walked over to the swing set to try and get his mind off his troubled bladder, Britney and her groupies were walking over to Ashley playing with her group of friends.
"Hey Ash. How's it going?" The bully said in an over-the-top manner the entire group could hear.
"Uhhh... fine." Ashley responded confused. She couldn't understand why here former friend was suddenly taking an interest in her again.
"Well, I was just wondering if you told everyone about your boyfriend yet." Britney declared.
Ashley was even more confused, but she was also become embarrassed. "I don't have a boyfriend."
"Oh really? I don't know girls. I think our Ash likes our little Justin. Don't you, Ash? In fact, I think you have a big giant crush on him. I saw you two talking yesterday. I think you LOVE him."
Ashley was really getting flustered now. "No I don't. We're just friends."
Britney was just getting started. "Well if you don't like him, you wouldn't mind if I told him your little secret, then?"
"What are you talking about?" Ashley was legitimately scared now, and Britney could see the frightened girl's face grow red.
"Oh, Ashley you're blushing." The girl teased in a voice one would use when talking to a toddler. "You must not want people knowing. Does that mean you didn't tell your friends here.?"
"Stop!" Ashley pleaded on the verge of tears.
"No? Well we have to fix that. I'm sure they want to know. I'm sure they would love to learn about their little Ashley and her pretty pink pull-ups she wears to keep her blankies nice and dry when she goes nigh-night."
"You wear pull-ups?" One of Ashley's friends exclaimed.
"No... I..." Ashley tried to refute before being cut off by her oppressor.
"It's okay, Ash. You can't help it. Babies just can't hold it at night."
"I'm not a baby!" Ashley tried to defend herself, now completely crying. She was sad, angry and humiliated. All she wanted to do was figure out a way out of this situation. Looking over at Justin on the swings, she realized how she could. She had to deflect the embarrassment, and unfortunately that meant throwing Justin under the bus. While all the girls were taking a break from teasing her to stop their laughing, Ashley took the moment to wipe the tears off her face and compose herself to say "I'm not a baby. Justin's the one who peed his pants the other day, AND he peed himself AGAIN when he was taking a nap in the nurse's office. I saw it. That's why we were talking. I even saw the nurse put him in a pull-up! He wears pull-ups."
Ashley's plan worked. She felt horrible for selling out the boy, especially because she knew he liked her, but she couldn't take being picked on. All at once every kid in the cluster looked over at Justin, and Britney found a knew target. Yes, she had her secret crush, but she was definitely not going to admit to liking a pants-wetter. Her best bet was to make the boy her little pet. Knowing his secret gave her so much leverage and once she noticed the slight potty-dance he was doing, Britney couldn't help but strike a devious smile.
"Really?"
