Eager Beaver

Chapter Forty-Four - Party Foul

My mouth hung open and I felt my cheeks get hot underneath my facepaint. "I... I do not!" I stammered, trying to think of some other possible reason I had worn pull ups that night. I couldn't just tell the truth! They wouldn't understand.

I looked over at Laurie, who had a scowl on his face. The way the lines formed above his nose and his eyes glared at Garett he looked just like Zach. Laurie looked at me and we caught eyes and he softened and sucked in a breath through his nose. He nodded to me and stood up. "Cooper isn't a bedwetter!" He announced to Garett who had a smirk painted on his face. "I am."

"I knew it!" Garett squealed, elated. It was almost as if he had been given an extra piece of candy. "Laurie's a bedwetting baby!" Garett looked at the kids. "Right Ari?"

Ari seemed nervous but nodded to Garett. "I guess." He agreed. Laurie had just admitted it after all.

"He should have stayed in kindergarten!" Garett went on trying to convince the others.

Laurie held firm, but I could see his hand quivering. I let out a conspicuous gasp. Laurie was doing exactly what I had done for him at camp! He was going to take the whole blame and try to fight off Garett by himself! As admirable as it seemed, I couldn't let him go through with it. The plan didn't work out for us the first time, I'd ended up getting a mouthful of dishwater. "Wait!" I called out. "I do so wet the bed, and I'm eight!"

Garett's head snapped around again to stare at me, almost as if he was sizing up whether he dared to tease a kid so much bigger and older than himself. Laurie on the other hand seemed to soften - relieved.

"Then you should be in kindergarten too!" Garett finally exclaimed smugly and crossed his arms. Clearly he'd decided I wasn't so big after all.

"Lotsa' people wet the bed..." Leo squeaked hesitantly in a baffled uneasy voice. "I still do."

"But you're little!" Garett tried to explain, sounding rather exasperated. He kept glancing around at all the other kids, clearly not understanding why they weren't joining in teasing the bedwetting babies in their midst. He pointed accusingly at me. "He's meant to be big. But he still wears diapers!"

"But you said I was a big kid too." Leo pointed out, furrowing his brows.

Garett huffed. "Fine! You're a baby too." He waved his hand around dismissively at me, Laurie, Leo, Huey and his sister Harper. "You're all a bunch of diaper babies!" he shifted back away from us, holding up a warding hand as if to protect himself from some unknown baby disease. "Only me, Ari and err...that mummy kid are big kids!" he declared, revising his official list.

Ari looked a little embarrassed by the outburst, subtly pulling forward the brim of his cowboy hat to cover his eyes and staring down ashamedly at the ground. Garett was making quite the scene, and the brown tail beaver clearly wasn't thrilled to be associated with his bizarre outbursts.

Frustrated, and putting on that same pouty betrayed look he'd shown me earlier in the night, Garett instead turned to the mysterious boy in the mummy costume for support. "You're a big kid, right?"

The boy didn't say a word, simply scuttling away from the intrusive older boy and scampering quickly over towards his friend Leo. As he toddled clumsily away however, one of the bandages around his waist came a little loose, unfurling to reveal the tell-tale bright blue papery bulk of a pull-up! The boy whirled around like a puppy chasing its own tail, eventually refastening the bandage in place, but we'd all got a good look.

Garett let out a loud frustrated tut. "This party's for babies." he complained poutily. "I don't wanna play with babies."

Ari shifted the top of his cowboy hat up again, glaring disapprovingly at his friend. "Stop whining like one then!"