Bobby And Claire

Hello my name is Bobby, and I was 10 years old when I first went to regular school, Because of a rare disease and some experimental treatments that went wrong, I stopped aging at about 4 years old. This is my story of how at 10 I went from being a "big boy" to a baby all over again.
 

I tried so hard to look and act older. I tried to wear the coolest clothes I could find in my size. I lived with just my mother as my father had left before I was even born. I had no friends and was schooled at home by a tutor till I was 9 years old, but I wanted so badly to go to school, just like other kids my age. 

I begged my mother to let me go to regular school all the time, but she always said no, it was too dangerous as I was so much smaller than all the kids my age. Me getting hurt was always a big fear of hers.

At age 9, I was finally potty trained during the day (pretty much), but at night, I still wet the bed. I try really hard, but even at 10 years old, it is still rare for me to wake up dry.

I have tried pull ups, but they never seemed to work right for me at night time and leak, so my mother has always kept me in special extra thick Diapers at night. It's embarrassing, but other than my mother and a few family members, no one knows. 

The summer I turned 10, the government found out I was now potty trained during the day from one of my doctors' reports, and they cut off the funding for my home tutoring. My mother, not able to pay for a tutor, had no other choice but to finally send me to regular school for 5th grade. I was so excited and I couldn't wait. 

My mother took me shopping for school clothes and I tried to find the coolest clothes to wear that would somehow make me look older. Sadly, the closest I could come was some shirts that had cool characters , like Spiderman and Dinosaurs on them, but the shirts were definitely designed for toddlers.

The pants weren't much better; they were either sweatpants or these pants that were tied at the waist. The underwear and socks were the worst. I got some with Spiderman,  Batman , and Mario Brothers, and my mom picked out sets of Bluey and Paw Patrol also. They were definitely toddler underwear, but at least they weren't pull ups, and never having been to school before, I had figured no one would ever see my underwear.

Finally, the first day of school came, and I wore a spider man t-shirt with black Spiderman sweatpants and Spiderman underwear and socks. I thought I looked really cool and that even at my small size, the kids would accept me. I couldn't wait to make some friends my own age. 

My mother drove me to school on the first day, and she was making such a big deal of everything and took like a million pictures.

When I got to my classroom, they had us all line up in the front of the room. We had to pick buddies for the year that we would sit with and do activities with. I kept going over to the boys to get a buddy, but none of them would even look at me and just pick someone else.

I was getting a little sad when this girl grabbed my hand. She smiled at me and said, "Hi, my name is Claire and I am now your buddy." Come with me. 

She walked me over to a large desk that had 2 seats. The seats were a little higher than what I was used to. I went to climb up on the seat when Claire grabbed me by the waist and lifted me up and put me on the seat. She smiled at me and said, "There we go, my little buddy." 

I was a little mad she was kinda babying me, and I was about to say something when she smiled at me again and said, "What's your name?" I said Bob, and she said well Bobby , we are going to be best friends from now on. I said my name is Bob, not Bobby; she looked at me and gave me this look and said I know but I like Bobby better, Is it ok if I call you Bobby and she gave my nose a little bop with her finger.