✅ Younger Than You Think?

"Epilogue: Law School"

Iriña lay back and stared up at the ceiling. She was on her bed, of course. It seemed strange, for somebody who didn't need to sleep, that she spent so much of her time there. She guessed that she could have asked them to remove it, but that would have meant even more arguing with the residence administrators, and it really wasn't worth the effort. She was comfortable, anyway, and being able to shove her diapers under the bed might make it slightly less embarrassing to have another student back in her room, if she ever got that close to someone.

It was hard being the smallest person in school. It was even harder knowing that almost all of her students were legally adults, and would prefer to spend their non-study time in a bar somewhere, drinking until they couldn't remember a word of the day's lectures.

Sometimes Iriña would spend the nights chatting online. A couple of times she had gone out walking and marvelled at how beautiful the parks were by night. But after she'd been picked up by the police a couple of times, she had to admit that seeing the sights just wasn't worth the effort. Now she had to kill time by herself, whether chatting with friends online, or reading the growing array of law books and case studies on her bookshelves.

There were still diapers under her bed. If she focused too much on the books, she would occasionally forget that she wasn't a baby, and then she would poop as she closed the book. It was always embarrassing, but she'd gotten used to cleaning herself up now. And an extra large trashcan for diapers was one of the provisions that they were used to making for disabled students; it had been as simple as ticking a box and signing the request. She hated that she still needed them, that she couldn't put her ordeal with Forever Baby behind her. But she was getting better. Now she only needed to wear them if she was planning to lose herself in a book. It had been a month since she last wet herself without thinking during a class, and a week since she had stopped putting on pull-up training pants each morning. Returning to real underwear had helped to remind her that she was her own person, but there was still a little underlying fear that nobody would respect her, or that some little thing would remind her of how Lyle had taught her to switch off her thoughts, and leave her mind running in an uncomprehending loop again.

She knew it wouldn't happen. She was probably over all that now. But it was still hard to rebuild her confidence.

A chirping from her computer made Iriña turn her head to one side, and after a second of hesitation she rolled off the bed and went over to the desk. Somebody wanted to chat on a video call; it could only be her parents. But when she unlocked the computer and hit answer, she was a little surprised to see their neighbour – the man she had long known as Uncle Chad – on the screen.

"How's the world's youngest lawyer?" he asked, and Iriña blushed for a moment.

"Not a lawyer yet," she said. "But soon. I convinced Finney to let me take the first year exams. The case studies and exercises he asks students to do are all listed on his website, so as soon as he gave us one I went ahead and did the rest too."

"Impressing your teachers even without me and your parents to raise a complaint. You'll blow them away, I know you will. So does that mean you're getting through the course in record time?"

"Should be. Might take more persuading to get the next ones skipped, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm ready to take the bar exam this time next year. The procedures to skip ahead for good students are already there, just rarely used. And if there's anyone going to attend to all the technicalities it's a law school."

"Hi Iriña!" Mr Blake's face appeared on the screen over Chad's shoulder. "They treating you well?"

"Not too bad. More of the usual jokes. And I'm running out of books again. Sometimes I just wish..." Her voice trailed off, and the men on the other end of the call just nodded.