✅ Younger Than You Think?

"T: Cafeteria"

Iriña blushed as she saw how shamelessly some of the other babies ran around the cafeteria, jumping on and off their seats, shouting across each other, and making the room feel like a storm caught in a bottle. Some of them seemed embarrassed, and had a teacher watching them closely; maybe because they were still at risk of trying to act adult. And others were clearly shy, sticking to the edges of the room so they could feel safer, just like innocent children. But there was some kind of order in the chaos, and many of the yelling kids were picking up bottles or sippy cups, or being strapped into high chairs in front of various kinds of food. Some of them were running around with food as well; so she guessed that some of the Daddies who would be adopting them wanted their little ones to retain a little more independence.

Miss Maggie carried Iriña into the room, over all the protests that she could walk by herself, and held the girl in her lap until she had finished her bottle. She found herself drinking the juice more quickly than she might have intended, gulping it down as quickly as it flowed into her mouth. She could tell that Magdalene was squeezing the bottle to make it come out faster, but it wasn't more than she could cope with. Just enough to make her sure that she would be using her diapers again sooner rather than later.

"Now, Kelly, what do you want for lunch? Do you think we can trust you with finger food, or do you need me to feed you puree chicken and carrots?"

"I can–" Iriña started as soon as the cup was pulled away so that she could speak, but the teacher didn't give her the chance.

"No, I think I'll have to feed you today. I think you might need some high fibre meals to keep you healthy, and that only works if we can trust you to eat it all. Maybe if you're good I can trust you with some big girl food in a couple of weeks."

"But–" Iriña protested, with no enthusiasm for the idea of eating flavourless mush; with or without additions that would make her more babyish. She hoped that she would be able to make some kind of argument, although she knew that this time she probably wouldn't have the support of any managers coming to save her. There was no way she would be able to avoid the food forever if Miss Maggie got serious.

"No buts, young lady. You might have gotten out of naptime and rest therapy, but you need to learn that you don't get choices here. I'm going to show you that you're just a little baby, and you have to do everything I say. One act of rebellion is more than anyone else is allowed. There's no Mommy or Daddy bidding on you yet, nobody with their own preferences on what you should learn, and I think you'll be waiting a long time to find somebody who wants to claim you. So I can select whichever training path I want for you. Isn't that wonderful?"

Iriña shrank away from the cheerful tones; sensing nothing but malice behind the mask. Was the teacher treating this like some kind of revenge? She hadn't been able to take the first drugs Maggie wanted to dose her with, so now she was going to be subjected to the most unpleasant treatment regimen this place offered? It hardly seemed fair, but Iriña found it hard to imagine any scenario where she would be able to change matters. She was too closely watched, too small and helpless to fight against the procedures of this kind of institution. One angry teacher might be all it took to turn this ordeal into a real nightmare.

Lunch turned out to be some kind of baby food. A thick sauce or a thin porridge, it was hard to identify the beige mush. There could gave been chicken flavours in there, but it was so bland that there was no way Iriña could tell. At first she tried to resist, but she was quickly locked in a high chair, and fighting just earned her a strap around her head to hold her still, while Miss Magdalene forced a yellow plastic spoon between her lips.

Thankfully she was only halfway through the bowl when Maggie handed her over to another grown-up. This one looked younger, only just out of school, but she was determined to do whatever Miss Magdalene had told her. She wasn't angry or nasty, she just wanted to do her job. But while that job was making Iriña uncomfortable, she wasn't about to make it any easier. Iriña squirmed as much as she could, and refused to open her mouth, but she knew that this wasn't going to help her in the end. On some level she knew that fighting could only delay the inevitable, and that she would be treated less harshly if she cooperated. But her lack of choice here had broken her confidence, and she couldn't bring herself to move. She sat there and sobbed, only swallowing when she couldn't help it anymore, and didn't take in what was happening in the room around her.