Bella's Accidents

A Dreaded Reunion

At the sight of her mom, Bella got up and met her at the front door of the office, too ashamed to look at kind, bespectacled, old Mrs. Davis behind the front desk who had been so surprised that she, an eighth grader, had had an accident during class. Third period was already well underway, so the halls were nearly deserted as her mom handed her the recycled paper shopping bag containing her fresh clothes from home. As the tears that had been on the verge of coming for the past half-hour finally came gushing out, Bella's mom put her arm around her daughter's shoulder.

When they had made their way almost to the western entrance to the school near the parking lot, Bella's mom stopped and bent down towards her daughter. "What happened honey?" She asked sympathetically. "You couldn't quite make it in time?"

Bella sniffed, rubbing her eyes with the back of her free hand. "I h-had my algebra t-test second p-period," she began, hiccoughing  as the tears rolled down her cheeks. "I d-didn't get a chance to g-go this morning b-before we left and... I t-tried to hold it until the end of the p-period, b-but..." she trailed off. It was too horrible to bear repeating. She knew she could've said, "I wet myself in front of thirty other eighth graders," or just as easily might've continued, "I peed all over my clothes and my chair, not to mention the floor, as my teacher and my whole class watched incredulously." Those would be fair descriptions of what she had just allowed to happen, she thought despondently. But she couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence and provide her mom with a detailed picture of exactly what she had done.

"It's okay honey," her mom said, pulling her into a hug. "There's a bathroom right there – why don't you go get changed and meet me back out here? You don't want to miss all of third period."

Bella reluctantly complied. She would have much preferred to go home and bury her head in her pillow than to finish the rest of the day at school, but she knew she had another pre-Thanksgiving break exam scheduled for that afternoon. Re-emerging a few minutes later, having donned the dry underwear, jeans, and socks her mom had brought her, dried the backs of her shoes with paper towels, and placed her wet pair of underwear, skirt, and stockings in her mom's paper shopping bag, Bella handed the bag back to her mom.

"You look beautiful honey," her mom said encouragingly. "By the way, I think we should make another appointment with the doctor, just to make sure nothing's wrong. It's been five months since your nighttime issue started, and considering what happened this morning and in Hawaii at the end of the summer... I just think we should see if it's anything we should be worried about is all."

Bella nodded. She would love to find out that there was "something wrong" so that they could fix it and things could go back to normal, but she found herself doubting that there was anything physical to find. Maybe my urethral muscles are a little weaker than the average thirteen year old's, she thought, but what happened today could've easily been avoided if I just hadn't been so stupid. I ought to have just gotten up and ran to the bathroom, no matter what that awful teacher said.

As Bella said goodbye to her mom and turned back down the hall to catch the last quarter or so of third period, she realized with a pang in her stomach that about half of the kids sitting in that room were the same as those who had been in her algebra class, had just borne witness to perhaps the most humiliating episode of her entire life, and would soon be staring disdainfully at her as she walked through the classroom door with her eyes red from crying and the bottom half of her outfit exchanged as though she were some helpless little kid. It couldn't be helped though, she realized. She would just have to weather the shame as best she could...

***

The rest of the day passed in a surreal blur. Bella thought on several occasions that she noticed fellow students, both in her grade and in grades below her, quickly avert their eyes as they passed her in the hallway or else turn and whisper something to their friends which caused them to break out into peals of stifled laughter. In sixth period, a boy in the row behind her named Mark (whom she was pretty sure was best friends with another boy in her algebra class who had witnessed her accident firsthand) leaned forward and whispered in her ear, "Hey Bella, think you can hold it until the end of the period this time? Wouldn't want you to have another little... accident. But then again, maybe the janitor appreciates the extra work. Keep it up and he'll be getting paid overtime..."