Kaitlyn Lowe sat on the toilet in the school bathroom releasing her stream into the bowl. She was looking over Justin's file and thinking about how she got here. She wanted to be a teacher not a babysitter, yet here she was assisting in Justin's potty training. She felt guilty over the fact that she was releasing her bladder while she was forcing her student to push his to the limit. A limit that the child had just reached outside thanks to the class bully. Ms. Lowe finished her business, wiped, and flushed. She pulled up her pants, washed her hands, and walked back out to the playground where she found a sworn of students gathered around a crying Justin with a swollen training diaper exposed at his waist. Not only had Justin wet himself, but he had done it in front of all his classmates. Kaitlyn felt terrible.
Ms. Lowe quickly ran over to the crowd of children and broke them up. She embraced Justin in a warm hug and pulled his pants back up, covering the diaper. She gave a stern look of disapproval to all the students and escorted the wet 10 year old to the office to get taken care. During all this, Justin said nothing, he just kept crying. There was nothing to be said. Even if his accident wasn't going to result in a maturity demotion from his mother, his classmates would never let him live it down. They had all seen the pull-up and they had all seen him wet himself. As far as they were concerned he was a baby and that's exactly what he felt like as the nurse removed his wet pull-up and wiped him down with a baby wipe before placing him in a fresh, and more toddler like, pair of training pants. Kaitlyn just watched in sympathy.
Katie was 12 years old the last time she wore a pull-up. It was the result of an isolated bedwetting accident that occurred ironically after she had bullied one of her best friends for wetting the bed at a sleepover. That friend, crazy as it was, now had a son crying in the office waiting to be picked up. She hadn't made the connection, of course, given it had been years since they've spoken and Amy's last name had changed. Still, though, she felt an odd connection to the boy. She knew how embarrassing wearing pull-ups was at an older age was and what Britney had done was going to scar him for life. It was inexcusable. She immediately reprimanded Britney, who instinctively tattled on Ashley for spilling the secret. Ashley was then punished as well.
The justice of the situation did no good in helping Justin feel any better. He would never be able to face his 4th grade class again. And he wasn't going to. As Justin's tears went dry, in came a woman to pick him up.
"Hi, I'm here to pickup Justin." The woman spoke.
"Oh, you must be Justin's mother." Ms. Lowe said. "Amy, right?"
"No, actually I'm a friend of Amy's. She asked me to help her out. My name's Kristi."
"Oh, I see. I assume you know about Justin's... situation." Kaitlyn whispered.
"Absolutely. And I'm confident we can get the little guy all fixed up." Kristi replied. "I actually do daycare, so I'm very familiar with dealing with these kinds of situations."
Ms. Lowe just nodded her head, then she spoke up. "Don't you think this whole thing is a little... odd? I mean, Justin wouldn't have had an accident if I had just let him go to the bathroom when he asked."
"I'm sure he would have." The 24 year old responded. "But, the thing is, he needs to able to hold his bladder for an extended period of time. You know? Like a big kid. I'm sure you understand."
Kaitlyn did understand. She didn't like it, but what could she do? Her student had had multiple accidents in the last few days, and she had no doubt he was most likely wetting the bed home. Perhaps, the best way to get him to stop wetting himself was to have him start over. And with that, Ms. Lowe turned Justin over to the babysitter.
"Hey, buddy." Kristi said crouching down in front of Justin. "I heard you've been having a hard time."
Justin just looked down.
"It's okay." The woman said. "My name's Kristi and I'm here to help. Okay?"
"Where's my mommy?" Justin asked shyly. He was very nervous around this lady.
"We thought it'd be best if you came with me for a little while." Kristi told the shaky little boy.
"Why?" Justin asked.
"Honey..." Kristi said. "You need help, and that's why I'm here. Okay?"
Justin looked and noticed Kristi's bag. It was diaper bag. Kristi saw Justin notice and slightly smirked, pulling a folded baby diaper softly out of the bag. Justin looked scared. He knew this was coming, but the fact that he was about to be put into an actual diaper was devastating. Justin began to cry again.
"Oh, buddy." Kristi cooed. "It's okay. Shh. Shh. It's going to be all right." She pulled a blue pacifier out of the bag and pushed it between the crying child's lips. "It's alright, baby. Kristi's gonna make it all better."
The babysitter picked him up and carried Justin out to her car. Justin was silent with fear, but Kristi attempted to comfort him. She locked eyes with him in her review mirror and spoke to him.
"Hey." She said. "Don't worry about those diapers. You can still prove to me you're a big boy, how's that sound? I'll give you one more chance. Keep your pants dry and we can definitely get you back into undies. Can you that?"
Justin wanted to believe he could, but he knew he was ending his day in a diaper.
