No Matter What

By Natsu

Chapter 1

“Abby, I’m home!” Katherine called upon entering her small apartment for two, hanging up her coat and setting her pocketbook to the side. Taking off her slip-ons, she immediately made her way to the aged green coach in the middle of the apartment’s main room, putting her feet up on the coffee table, “Abby! Are you still in?”

The woman waited a few minutes for a response from her roommate, and when she failed to hear anything, she reluctantly stood up and made her way to the door of Abigail’s room. The apartment only had one bedroom, so they would share it from time to time, rotating possession of it on a monthly basis. The room belonged to Abigail this month. Katherine lightly knocked on the door a few times to see if her friend was in there, possibly sleeping, but she stopped when she heard the faint sounds of sniffling coming from the other side. Opening the door and poking her head inside, Katherine covered her hand with her mouth upon seeing the terrible condition of the shared room.

Books were knocked off of the shelf and scattered across the floor, blank papers from the desk were either torn in the garbage or around the garbage, drawers were pulled halfway out of the dresser, and the clothes that were once inside them were now either around the perimeter of the bed, or on top of the pictures and few memorable trophies that sat upon said dresser. On the bed laid a bundle of blankets and sheets, all wrapped up around what appeared to be a miserable-looking form of the twenty-five year old known as Abigail, who by the sound of her childish whimpering seemed to be in a very crappy condition, for the lack of a better word. Abigail, or “Abby” as Katherine commonly called her, poked her head out of the bundle when she heard the door open, revealing a face full of both new and dried-up tears, and a head of disheveled and messy blonde hair.

“Oh…hey Katy…” She muttered, blushing at the condition of bother her and the room, “I guess this needs some explaining…”
Sighing, Katherine sat down at the side of the bed and pushed away some of the clutter at her feet before laying a hand on Abby’s shoulder.

“Another tantrum?” She questioned disappointedly, taking another look around her once tidy room, “What happened this time?”

“It’s kind of a long story…” began the embarrassed one, sitting up and wiping the tears from her face with her sleeve. “It was…you know the party that James invited me to last week?”

“The one for Carlos in the city? Yeah, I remember that,” Katherine responded with a nod, gesturing for her to continue.

“Well, we got their pretty late at night, and James had already had a few drinks…I had only had one at the time,” She explained, rubbing her right arm softly as she went on, “We waited until the party started to die down a little before walking into the club’s bathroom…he started saying things, and his breath smelled like alcohol, and he tried to…”

“Aww, don’t tell me you-” Katherine said quietly before getting cut off by an embarrassed Abigail.

“N-no! We didn’t do that…I want my first time to be special, not in some bathroom like a skank…” She mumbled, blushing deeply. “When I refused to do it with him, he pushed me away and started yelling…God, after two years I thought we’d get past this! I already explained to him that I want to wait for marriage, but he was just so…”

“It’s fine, sweetie, you don’t have to say everything,” Katherine soothed as she patted her friend’s thigh reassuringly, “What happened today, then?”

“Well, we didn’t talk after that until now, when I finally broke down and called him to apologize-”

“Wait, apologize? No, Abby, no. He should be the one apologizing,” Katherine interjected sternly; “You can’t let people walk all over you like that!”

“I know, I know, but I love him…well, I loved him,” Abby corrected with a sigh. “You know I don’t like fighting…anyway, I called him to apologize, but the person who answered the phone…was another girl…”

“Well damn…” The roommate said with a sigh, tightening her grip on Abby’s arm comfortingly.

“He told the other girl to hang up and we started to talk…then we started to yell…and when I asked why he did this, he accused me of being ‘too childish’ after not sleeping with him…so I called him a jackass and hung up,” Abby admitted starting to tear up yet again.

“Hey, hey, come on now…” Katherine said as she tried to sooth her heartbroken friend. “I’m not mad about the room, honestly. You needed to blow some steam. Don’t be sad because of that douche; he doesn’t deserve someone as nice as you.”

For the next ten minutes Katherine attempted to cheer her friend up. Taken, it wasn’t the most fun thing to experience after stepping through the door, but she was needed. After several colorful insults to James and many un-ladylike comments on the size of his reproductive organ, Abigail finally calmed down and got out of bed. She was still in her pajamas, so Katherine assumed that the call had taken place early in the morning. She had been out all day trying to find a second job in hopes of saving up to move into a bigger apartment, but none of the places she looked in were hiring at the moment. As tired as she was, she still managed to talk Abby into getting dressed and doing something to cheer up a little.

“Come on, get outta your pajamas and go to dinner with me,” She had said with a smile, taking her hand and attempting to pull her off the bed. “We have a little spending money this month, so we can splurge a little and go out to dinner~”

“I dunno…I’d rather stay inside for tonight,” Abby admitted gloomily. “I don’t really wanna leave like this…”

“It’s only the diner down the street. And we can head to the mall too!” Katherine persuaded, “You know you love talking about the rich ‘daddy dearest’ girls behind their back~”

“I do, I do…alright, fine. But only because you’re so persistent,” Abigail said, defeated. Smiling contently, Katherine sat back on the bed and watched her disheveled best friend get up from the bed and walk towards the bathroom. Once she left, Katherine then began to clean up the mess that Abby had made during her outrage. She was used to it by now; in fact, the tantrums happened once a month pretty much. She and Abby had always been a little juvenile in the way they dealt with real world problems, but that was just who they were. They had both accepted that at this point. Heck, the reason they were so close was because of their understanding of the other’s way of dealing with things.

As Katherine continued to clean up for her friend, she began to think of what she would get from the diner. Whenever they had the money to go out, the two friends would almost always go to Francis’ Place, which was only two blocks away from the mall. It was a quiet old restaurant with dirty windows and an old, yet friendly waitress, but everyone who lived nearby knew that they made the greasiest, most delicious fries in town. With a reputation like that, the two girls often wondered why the manager never tried to fix up the place with the money they racked up on a daily basis. Shrugging, Katherine picked up the last of the books and organized them neatly on the shelf before stepping out of the bedroom.

The woman flopped down onto the couch once again and waited for Abby to finish cleaning herself up. She could hear the shower running from where she sat, so she knew she would probably be out any minute. Flicking on the TV, she did some channel surfing for a few minutes before the blonde girl opened the bathroom door, briskly walking from one side of the apartment to the other with a towel wrap around her waist. Giggling at the sight a little, Katherine got up and walked into the bathroom herself. The air inside was still warm from the hot shower Abby had taken, and the glass on the mirror-door of the medicine cabinet was all fogged up from the steam. Using a hand towel to clean the mirror, Katherine admired herself in the mirror for a few moments, as all people like to do at some points in their life.

Though she was tired from walking around all day, her face didn’t really show it. Her brown hair was still tied into a neat braided ponytail, and her blue eyes still stared brightly back at her as she stared into the mirror. She was an average height for an adult of her age, as well as an average weight. Some would even call her skinny. She didn’t really care much about her appearance, but since she was attempting to get a job today, she had worn her best looking long sleeved gray blouse, as well as a pair of blue jeans.

“Hmm…maybe I should change,” She thought out loud before shrugging, “Nah, doesn’t really matter now.”

Upon exiting the bathroom, Katherine heard the bedroom door open. Abby walked out, wearing very casual clothing. She was happy to see that she had put her glasses back on, since she knew she got headaches easily without wearing them for a while, and that she had managed to fix herself up pretty nicely. Her blonde hair had been straightened out, going down to the middle of her back like usual, and her brown eyes had been cleared of all tears. She was wearing an Underton Community College sweatshirt that she had bought during their senior year, which sported the school’s colors of navy and gray, and a pair of matching sweatpants. Normally, Katherine would argue that the combination looked a little slobby for Abby’s own sake, but she knew she was in an unstable state emotionally, so she didn’t say a word. The girl managed to smile at Katherine lightly before taking her own pocket book and opening the door.

“Come on, let’s get a move on,” She said, trying to sound like she normally did. Smiling back, Katherine slipped her jacket on once again and walked out of the apartment with her friend, side by side. In comparison, Abby was slightly taller than Katherine, but they were about the same weight. Overall, they were pretty plain in the eyes of them men they had previously dated. They didn’t care, though; they took pride in their love of laughing at the girls who were obsessed with appearances and such. It was a game they had played since freshman year.

The beauty of living in a small town like Upperton, in Katherine’s opinion, was that everything was within walking distance. Even though it was cold out, it was still very easy to walk from place to place rather than drive. In Katherine and Abigail’s situation, they only had the option to walk, but that was beside the point. A few blocks to the left of the girls’ apartment complex was Never Land Daycare, where they were currently working as helpers to the young children. They had been working there since their senior year in high school and throughout college, and while they didn’t make a ton of money, they enjoyed their jobs and made enough cash to support themselves, even if they weren’t able to enjoy certain luxuries like other women their age could enjoy. Even so, working with children was something that the girls considered enjoyable and rewarding.

Down the street to the right of the complex was Francis’ Place, where the pair stopped after walking for just a few minutes. All the while, Katherine had been trying to distract Abigail from her bad break-up by talking about everyday subjects: funny stories about work, current events around the town, and the common “I can’t believe we used to do that” conversation as they reminisced about their schooldays. They had plenty of stories to remember; after all, they had been friends since junior year of high school. While neither of them had many other close friends, they were content if not happy with their own personal friendship that had accumulated over the years.

In no time at all the two girls were seated at the diner, each of them ordering their usual sandwiches with a basket of fries to share. The diner was empty at the moment, so the pair enjoyed the solitude of their booth for a while. It seemed that this night out was just what Abby needed to get her mind off of John, even if it was only for a little while.

“So Abby…” Katherine began after the waiter brought their meals over to the table for them, “Mind if I ask an odd question for a second?”

“Why not? Go ahead,” The girl responded, blowing on a hot fry before popping it in her mouth.

“Well, have you ever thought about getting new jobs?” Katherine asked, focusing on the conversation rather than her food, “Well, more like careers. I think it’s about time we start, ya know, moving on.”

“But what’s wrong with the daycare center? Don’t you like working there?” Abby asked, sitting back in the booth while nibbling on some fries.

“Of course I do, but I’m just thinking about our futures here. We’re in our twenties and we still have our high school jobs,” Katherine rationalized, “The only reason we can afford that crappy apartment is because of the money my mom sends us every month. Don’t you want to finally live freely for once?”

“Um…I guess so. I kinda like our situation, though. It’s nice and simple…” Abby admitted, blushing lightly. “Yeah we can’t afford luxuries or vacations, but we have a system and I think it’s cozy…”

“Being cozy is one thing, but being free is another. Don’t you want to have your own room? Maybe be able to go out with your own money more than once in a blue moon?” Katherine questioned. “I’m not saying right now, but I think we should probably use our degrees to our advantage pretty soon-”

“O-M-G! Katy and Abby?” The girl was then interrupted by the familiar voice of a young woman coming from the front entrance. Turning around, the pair realized that the voice belonged to a blond-haired woman in jeans and a designer sweater, who walked towards them with a big grin on her cheeky face. She had a single streak of pink in her hair, and her eyes were the deepest blue you’ve ever seen. With a gray scarf around her neck and a leather pocketbook around her shoulder, she looked more like a model than anything.

“Pamela? Oh my gosh, how are you?” Abby asked excitedly, standing up and embracing her old friend, “We haven’t seen you since graduation!”

“I know, I know, it’s been too long!” Pamela commented as she pulled back from the hug, giving a wave to Katherine as well, “I was just stopping in to pick up my order. I never expected to see you two here!”

“What are you doing in town? I thought you were in Chicago with Brock?” Katherine question, sitting up in the booth and looking over towards the pretty woman.

“I came back to visit my parents for the weekend,” Pamela said with a light giggle, holding up her hand to show the women a diamond ring around her finger. “Brock and I are getting hitched~”

“Oh my, congratulations! You two were the cutest couple back in the day,” Abby commented, giving the girl another celebratory hug, “Sit down, you have to tell us the details!”

“Well, I only have a few minutes before my order’s ready…but what the hell? Sure,” She said, sitting down next to Katherine and setting her bag aside. The “few minutes” that Pamela said she had turned out to be about thirty minutes, and she used every single one of them. As Katherine and Abby ate, their old friend began to retell all of what happened to her and Brock after they graduated college and moved to Chicago. Apparently, Pamela had become an anchorwoman for the popular morning news program “Get Up, Chicago!” after her father’s friend gave her an in at the studio. Pamela’s family had always been wealthy, and her father had several connections across the country with some powerful people. She had been living on easy street her whole life. Brock, the star of the school’s baseball team, had become locally famous within the city on one of their minor league teams. He not only earned an impressive salary for his work, but also received extra money from attending school assemblies as well as starring in commercials for baseball cards.

As for how he proposed, Pamela told the story beautifully. In Katherine’s opinion, though, it was a little too beautiful. Apparently Pamela was coming home from work, having been at the studio all day for meetings and such, and was just about to get ready for bed when she turned on the lights of her and Brock’s room, when she found Brock kneeling on the floor in front of her with a diamond ring between his fingers.

“He had hired a string quartet to play our song in the background while he recited his own love poems to me, in French of course. I was so surprised and giddy that I couldn’t possibly say no!” The woman said, blushing and looking towards the ceiling dreamily.

“Really? I had no idea a string quartet could play Stairway to Heaven…and Brock took German,” Katherine thought skeptically while wearing a smiling face for her friend.

“But enough about me, what’s been happening with you two? You find men for yourselves yet?” Pamela then asked, causing Abby to blush a little.

“We haven’t done very much, really…” Abby began, her story inferior to the wonderfully choreographed one told by Pamela, “We still live in apartment 2J down the road, and we don’t really get out all that much anymore. I have a…well, I had a boyfriend, but we just recently broke up…”

“Oh, hon, I’m so sorry to hear that. How long?” Pamela asked, which made Katherine bite her lip lightly.

“Damn, and she was doing so well…” She thought, thinking that the comment would set Abby off once again.

“We dated for two years, but he broke up with me…this morning, actually,” Abby said with a sigh, rubbing her arm tensely for a moment. “But that’s not really important. Anyway, we still work at Never Land-”

“Wait a second,” Pamela interrupted, her eyes widening. “You’re still working at the daycare center? Like, the one you worked in during Freshman year?”

“Yeah…” Abby admitted, her blush plainly noticeable at this point.

“Oh…that’s, very interesting, I guess…” Pamela stated, clearing her throat in between her sentence. “Do you…own the place?”

“No, no, we’re still caretakers. Someone’s gotta take care of the kids,” Katherine piped up, trying to make Abby a little less embarrassed.

“True, true…well, just look at the time. Brock’s probably dying for his sandwich by now,” Pamela said, taking her bag and quickly getting up, “But hey! We should spend some vacation time together, just like old times! Why don’t we head down to Florida this spring, maybe get our party on a bit~”

“Oh right, like we can afford to go there for during the spring of all times…” Abby said with a sigh.

“Right, right…well maybe we could pay for the trip down? Or you could travel by bus! I hear that’s a really cheap way to travel,” Pamela said. Katherine could have sworn she was holding back a snicker.

“That’s fine, thanks, we’ll get there on our own time. Plus, we’re getting pretty busy at the moment, what with the job hunt and everything,” Katherine stated, somewhat ticked and trying to maintain at least some of her pride.

“Well, if you say so. Anyways, later girls!” Pamela said as she picked up her food from the counter and exited the diner. Letting out a sigh, Katherine put a hand on Abby’s shoulder.

“Don’t let her ruin our night, you know she’s always been a bit of a bitch to us,” She said to comfort her. “Let’s head to the mall, alright?”

“What good is the mall if we don’t have any money…?” Abby said gloomily, sighing as well and resting her head back on the booth, “Why couldn’t we have had rich families like Pamela? Why does she get to live an easy life?”

“Come on, don’t get yourself down like that. Like you said, you like our simple life, right?” Her friend said with a smile. “Come on, the mall will cheer you up. Check please!”
Within a few moments the girls had paid their check, and Katherine was pulling Abby out the door towards the mall. It wasn’t a very long walk, but Abby seemed to be in a distant mood for the entire walk there. Katherine cursed herself internally for letting Pamela undermine the two of them like that, after Abby was feeling so happy. Though, she did feel kind of at fault for the whole mess; after all, she was the one who brought up their careers in the first place.

Both of the women were relieved once the stepped foot inside the heated mall. Even though they were wearing the right clothing for the weather, it was still very cold outside. After taking a minute or two to warm up a bit, the two made their way towards their favorite stores to do a little window shopping. Katherine was sure to stop at the pet store first; no one could stay sad after looking at two puppies wrestle each other for a bit.

The magic power of the puppies seemed to work on Abby, and as they walked through the mall checking out the window displays of all their favorite stores. While some of the items were completely out of their price range, some of them were actually affordable if they spent their next income of splurging money wisely. For the moment, they would just have to wait.

“Oh! Can we check out that new techy store next?” Abby asked happily, pointing over to a store with a sign above the entrance, which said “Modern Marvels”.

“Sure, seems pretty cool to me,” Katherine said, feeling her phone suddenly buzz in her pocket, “Oh, hold on, gotta take this.”
Abby nodded in response and pointed to the lady’s room next to the door, walking briskly towards the room while Katherine nodded as well and answered her phone.

“Hello?…Hey mom, what’s up?” Katherine asked, leaning against the wall as she talked with her mother.

“Don’t ‘what’s up’ me, Katy. What happened with the job search today?” The old woman questioned, being as straightforward as ever.

“There’s not much to say, I spent all day trying to find a job around this place and ended up with jack squat,” Katherine responded in a less than enthusiastic tone.

“Watch your tone. You couldn’t find a single job in the entire town? Aren’t you just being lazy?” She questioned, her voice growing slightly louder.

“Mom, cool it. It’s not like I’ve given up or anything; I’m still trying to get a new job,” The daughter retorted, “And who are you to call me lazy? I work my ass off every week to barely get by!”

“Where do you think you get the money to pay the rent, then, huh? Unfortunately for me, the landlord and I have become very familiar with each other over the last few years,” Her mother stated. “You and that friend of yours have to start growing up some time! For Pete’s sake, Katy, you’re twenty five and you’re still paid by the hour!”

“What do you want me to do? I have a bachelor’s English degree, that doesn’t exactly help me in the field of “make money and live happy” jobs!” Katherine argued, her own voice rising in volume a little. The people walking past her began to stare a little, which made her blush as she continued talking, “Mom, you’ve picked the absolute worst day to call me for this. Could we just talk tomorrow?”

“I’ll talk to you whenever I’m damn ready young lady-” Before she could continue, Katherine hung up the phone upon seeing her friend walk back from the bathroom, completely changing her facial expression to make it seem like nothing was wrong.

“There’s no way I’m gonna upset her again…” She thought as her friend took her arm and pulled her towards the gadget store. The shop seemed new compared to the ones around it, and neither of them had ever stepped foot inside it before. The walls were covered in flat screen TVs, each one playing either a popular news channel or a kids’ movie. There were chairs with cool functions scattered throughout the store as well, along with DVD players and universal remotes on display at the front desk.

“Sooooo cool~” Abby exclaimed upon seeing everything, suppressing the urge to push her face up against the glass of the display case to get a closer look at everything.

“You really are a tech geek aren’t you?” Katherine teased, chuckling lightly as she eyed a few flat screens she wished she could afford.

“You go look over at those, I’ll look in the case,” Abby said quickly, ignoring her friend’s last statement as she briskly walked towards the case she adored. Shrugging, Katherine walked off towards the TVs letting Abby do her own thing.

Abby inspected every single item in the case, from cameras to teched-out phones and remotes. Though, unfortunately, none of the items she was interested in were anywhere close to her budget at the moment. Though, at the time, she was just happy to check them out and imagine.

“Maybe if I only eat cup ramen for a few weeks…” She thought to herself before spotting something in the case out of the corner of her eye. It looked kind of like an I-Phone, but for some reason, she knew it wasn’t. It had a similar structure, and it had a large touch screen on the front, but it was entirely white with a strange symbol on the top. The symbol kind of looked like the letters PRCD all written in strange, abstract letters, and underneath the base of the phone-like machine were two small handles, from what she could see.

“Now what the heck are you, little thing…” She thought out loud under her breath.

“Why what a brilliant eye you have~!” A somewhat flamboyant voice spoke from almost directly behind her. Yelping quickly in surprise and jumping up, Abby’s eyeglasses fell to the floor before she could turn around and see the owner of the voice. Scrambling for her glasses as Katherine came running over to her, Abby blushed at her timid reaction and looked up upon putting her glasses back on.
The voice seemed to come from a man wearing a navy blue suit with thin, darker navy stripes going down it vertically. His hair was overly gelled, and one hair in the very middle stood up like corn in a field. His skin was somewhat pale, and he was overly slim and very tall. His eyes were light blue, and his face showed the shiniest grin either girl had ever seen on a man before.

“My apologies for scaring you, miss. You see, I am the owner of Modern Marvels here. Pleasure to make your acquaintance~” The man said, helping Abby up and shaking her hand, “I am Reginald Marvel Jr. Now, do you have any questions about this one-of-a-kind device?”

“O-one of a kind?” Abby questioned as she adjusted her glasses, looking back at the device on display. “What is it?”

“That, my dear, is the PRCD, or the Personal Reality Changer Duo,” Reginald explained, hopping behind the counter and opening the case with a key. He gently lifted the device out of his pocket and folded the two handles into a compartment underneath its base, “Not only is it convenient, portable, and very stylish if I do say so myself, but it also has a unique function that has yet to be re-created anywhere in this world.”

“Oh really? A device this rare is being sold at the price of a smartphone in the middle of a suburban mall? Oh gosh!” Katherine stated, rolling her eyes at the man’s enthusiasm, “He’s obviously trying to rip you off, Abby. It’s a gag gift.”

“I can understand why you’d think that, but that is most certainly not the case, dear,” Reginald responded with a shake of his head. “This device was made specifically for this store. After all, the store is a home for modern marvels, is it not? With a simple voice command and a trusted partner, a person in possession of such a device can bend reality at will!”

“Please, how can anyone believe something so stupid? It’s just a rip-off,” Katherine snapped, taking Abby’s arm again. “Come on, let’s check out the F.Y.E now…”

“Wait, miss, please don’t leave just yet,” Reginald said quickly, stepping in front of the door with the device in his hand. “I assure you that I am not lying at all when I say that this device has changed people’s lives forever, some for the better and some for the worse. It is most certainly not a gag gift, but in terms of price, it’s pretty much the same.”

“Really? It’s cheaper than a gag gift?” Abby said with a raised eyebrow, intrigued. “Hm…I kinda wanna tinker with it…”

“Don’t be silly, Abby, you’d be wasting the last of your spending money,” Katherine advised.

“Why don’t you let her make her own decision?” Reginald questioned with a grin. “Tell ya what, young lady. This is the deal I give all interested customers: I’ll give you one week with this item. If you don’t like it, you can have your money back, no problem. If you like it, then keep it and have a ball! But, I must warn you, there is a reason why I only have one of this item in stock. No one has been able to keep this devise for more than a week.”

“Well…all I really wanna do is tinker with it,” Abby pondered, scratching the back of her head. “And if I get a full refund…sounds like a good deal to me.”

While Katherine face palmed in the background, Reginald shook hands with Abby and moved to the register. With the last of her spending money now in Reginald’s wallet, the PRCD was now in Abby’s hands.

“Now, this device works in a special way, so pay attention,” Reginald explained, turning it on and showing Abby how to work it properly. “You see, all you have to do is grip the tiny handle on the base with your index finger and speak any statement you’d like into the microphone of the device. The device will receive that statement, and ask for confirmation from a second party, most likely from your friend over here. Once she says “I agree”…well, that’s when the magic happens. Try it out for yourself, see what I’m saying.”

“Sounds easy enough…” Abby said, doubting the actual functions of the device, but willing to check it out up close with a money back guarantee. Setting the device in her shopping bag and waving to Reginald, the two girls then left the store, ready to head home for the evening.

“Man…” Abby thought to herself as she giddily walked out of the mall with Katherine at her side, “If a thing like that really existed…”

Chapter 2

The girls took their time walking home, even though it was getting late and the temperature was dropping. Katherine was trying to get a conversation started with her friend, but Abby seemed more interested in their new machine than talking anymore. With a sigh, Katherine stopped trying and let Abby enjoy her temporary happiness, even if she didn’t agree with how she spent her money. Besides, the breakup hit her hard, and she didn’t want to tip the balance of her emotions at the moment.

Upon returning home, Katherine slipped off her coat and went straight for a blanket on the old couch, flopping down tiredly after a long day and night.

“You gonna stay up or relax a little?” The girl asked Abby as she sat down on the couch next to her, setting her shopping bag down on her lap and pulling out the PRCD.

“Oh, I’m definitely staying up for this. I’m too curious to sleep right now,” Abby responded, adjusting her glasses as she inspected the device.

“Abby, it’s probably nothing special; do you really buy all that crap that that Reginald guy sold you?” Katherine questioned, “Why would someone like that sell something as powerful as this to someone like you?”

“Um…Well, I dunno…but I’m still kinda curious. Come on, you can’t look at this thing and tell me, honestly, that you don’t want to try it out a little,” Abby mused, turning the phone-like device in her hands a little.

“If something like that would actually work, I’d have a different opinion,” Katherine said while rolling her eyes, flipping through a magazine as she relaxed on the couch.

“Well, how can you know it’s fake if you’ve never actually tried it out before? You’ll never know until you try,” Abby retorted, gesturing towards the on button, “Come on! Just give it a shot, for me? I know it’s stupid…but what do we have to lose?”

Katherine couldn’t exactly think of a response to that remark, and again, she wanted to keep Abby happy for as long as she could. So, with a sigh of reluctance, the woman sat up from her comfortable spot on the couch and looked towards her friend.

“Alright, alright. What do we need to do again?” She asked, leaning against the back of the couch.

“Great! Reginald said that all we need to do is wrap our index fingers around these little handles, state what we want to happen, and then you need to say that you confirm, and the change should take place,” Abby stated from memory, pressing the power button. This made the screen turn white and brighten up, but nothing else.

“Alright then…what do you want to say, then?” Katherine questioned.

“Maybe we should start out with something small?” Abby suggested, “Just to see if it works, that is.”

“Sure, sure, do what you’d like…” Katherine said absentmindedly, waiting for Abby to get over it.
Smiling happily at Katherine’s cooperation, Abby started to think of something simple to start with. Not only simple, though; something that could be useful as well.

“Oh! How about this?” Abby stated, clearing her throat and speaking into the machine, “This apartment has two bedrooms.”
When Abby spoke into the mic, the PRCD vibrated slightly. On the screen, the words “Do you agree?” appeared, much to Katherine’s surprise.”

“I agree,” Katherine stated clearly, now legitimately curious as to what would happen.
For a moment, Katherine was right. Nothing happened. The device continued to vibrate, yet nothing more really seemed to happen. Katherine looked around the apartment, unable to see any difference, and then looked to Abby to see her facial expression. Abby sighed, shrugging her shoulders, and was about to say something…when suddenly, the PRCD stopped.

The device shot a large pillar of light from its screen, which made both girls shriek in surprise. The pillar started to expand, covering the whole apartment with a blinding light that caused both of them to cover their eyes. The light remained for only a short time, maybe only a couple of seconds, but Abby and Katherine couldn’t tell the difference. When they were finally able to open their eyes again, they stared blankly at each other, too shocked to even utter a single word.

“What….what did that…” Katherine began, but she didn’t have the chance to finish her sentence. Abby shot up from the couch and turned around; the wall that once held the door to their alternating bedroom now had a new door.

Both of the girls scrambled over to the door and swung it open. On the other side was, to their surprise, an exact replica of the other bedroom. The bed and desk were in the same place, all of the clothes and pictures were right where they were in the other room, and even the walls were painted the exact same color.

“This…this is unreal! It’s right here, right next to the room!” Abby exclaimed, running to the other room, and back again. Swiftly, the girl lightly slapped herself in the face to see if she was dreaming or not, and certainly enough she felt the sting, “Can you believe this? Can you? Do you have any idea what we can do now?! We can get out of debt, we can move out of this place, we can get our dream jobs, we can-”

“Abby! Just shut up for a second!” Katherine shouted, causing Abby to jump in surprise. She looked at her friend with a gaze of both fright and worry, as her friend’s usual calm, cool outer shell was replaced with something different entirely. A bead of sweat ran down her cheek as she stared at the room, and her hands were shaking like a nervous wreck. She looked down at her shaking hands, and tried to make them stop, but simply couldn’t. The whole event was too shocking.

“Abby…do you have any idea what we just did?” She questioned, leaning against the wall, “This…this is power…look, I can’t handle this kind of thing. Just take it back to the store tomorrow.”

“What?! But Katy, just think of the possi-”

“NO! I don’t want to think about them!” Katherine yelled, covering her ears, “I’ve read the books, I’ve seen the movies. We make one small change and BOOM! The whole world is changed because of it! I can’t handle that pressure, I just can’t!”

“But Katherine…we could make our lives so much better…and not only ours! We can help fix the world’s problems, too! No more wars, no more world hunger…” Abby listed, trying desperately to convince her friend to let her keep the device, “I know there are risks, I know that well! But…this is a sign! This is our chance to make our world a better place!”

Katherine sat down on the floor, hugging herself as she tried to stop shivering. No matter how much she didn’t want to think about the possibilities, she just couldn’t get them out of her head. She could finally live the life she dreamed of living, maybe meet her perfect guy, and live a life of luxury…but she also knew that the risks of literally bending reality at her whim could be catastrophic if they weren’t careful.

“I don’t know…we don’t even know how that works. What if it’s radioactive or something? What if we accidentally drop it in water and it blows up the city?” She argued.

“Anything that goes wrong can be easily fixed! All we have to do is say that it never happened, right? It’s an easy solution,” Abby suggested, “And we’ll take this on at a day by day basis. We’ll only change reality once per day, see how things go, and if we don’t like it, we just change it back! Deal?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know…” Katherine muttered, shaking her head, trying to process the mind boggling situation that the two women were now in. What if that device was government property? What if they were already tracking them down now? “I…I just want to sleep, we can figure this out tomorrow…”

“I understand, alright,” Abby said, kneeling down and laying a hand on her friend’s shoulder, “Please, just think it over. I don’t expect an answer right away…sorry…”

Katherine remained silent as Abby got up and walked to the original room, shutting the door behind her. The shivering girl stared into the identical room for a long time, just about two hours, contemplating. Her desires were at the neck of her moral senses for the whole time, but she eventually just got up and flopped down on the couch. She didn’t both sleeping in the new room, as she was still unsure if it would stare there throughout the night, or if it would get sucked into some kind of rip in reality. Better safe than sorry.

“George! Don’t stick that in your ear, that’s filthy!…Oh, not again, Daniela!” Abby scolded as she lifted the girl off of the ground, seeing that she had spilled orange juice all over the floor. With a sigh, she took the Lego piece from the little boy George’s hand and tossed it aside, leading the two over to another play mat. “Now play nice, or it’s a time out for both of you. Katherine, could you toss me some paper towels?”

Abby had slept soundly through the night, and for the most part, Katherine slept pretty well too. Though, sleeping on the floor was no courtesy to her back. Like always, the two had woken up bright and early and got ready for work. Not once did Katherine or Abby bring up the PRCD throughout the morning, as Katherine had made it clear the night before that she needed some space to think about it. Now, it was the middle of the day, and Never Land Daycare was as busy as usual. Most of the younger children were in their little groups of friends, playing kindly with one another and talking in somewhat correct English, though most of the older kids…well, they discovered that it was fun to be loud and obnoxious. George, however, though only four, was quite mature for his age…though maturity still comes with curiosity, as he managed to attempt to stick almost every small Lego he found into his ear. Abby often thought of him as having an older brain, but childish instincts.

Daniela was a different story; at three years old, she was constantly running her mouth off with every word she learned to use, both proper and improper. She was an innocent girl, yet overly hyper and unknowingly obnoxious. Katherine and Abby liked her, but she her hyperactive nature tended to make her look like a problem child. She was constantly “questioning” authority, as well as spilling things all over the play mats and carpets. It may have caused more work for the two girls, cleaning up her messes and all, but for the most part they didn’t mind. It was all part of the job.

“Sure, catch!” Katherine answered while holding another toddler in her arms. She balanced the little boy on her hip and moved towards the supply closet, skillfully opening it and tossing an unopened roll of paper towels to her companion. She also tossed her a bottle of cleaner fluid, as the carpet would only stain without it.

“Thanks,” Abby said before opening the roll and beginning to clean up the mess below her. She had been cleaning like this for so long that she actually found some solitude in it. Cleaning the carpet was kind of like a small break time for her, as she didn’t have to look after the children while cleaning. It was a simple task that could be done in a matter of minutes, from point A to point B, without any variables. Abby personally enjoyed both the simplicities and complexities of the tasks she was given there at Never Land Daycare; she liked feeling needed.

Once the stain was cleared up, Abby stood back up and cracked her back a little before putting the supplies away. While she did this, she looked back at the children she was in charge of for the day, which included both George and Daniela. The kids seemed to be playing nicely, as the wooden blocks in front of them satisfied their imaginations. From what Abby could see, Daniela was pretending to be the princess of a block-castle, and the other two girls pretended to be “also princesses”. The three boys were either knights, kings, or their children, Abby guessed, as the three of them seemed to be acting in different ways. One of them kind of looked like he was pretending to be a Power Ranger…

“Medieval Power Rangers…what’ll they think of next?” Abby asked herself, rolling her eyes and looking into the mirror next to the closet for a moment. She checked to see if her uniform was in order, or if it at least looked presentable. She wore a pair of blue jeans and a tan shirt with the words “Never Land” written across it in pink letters, as the other female workers wore when it was their shift. Her hair was tied back into a pony tail, like Katherine’s, so the kids she would be carrying wouldn’t attempt to pull at it at all. She worked with kids from one to five years old at the daycare, so she had been yanked and tugged several times over the past few years.

“Abby! I’m taking Francine to the bathroom for a change, watch my group for me?” Katherine questioned as she opened the door to the room’s personal bathroom. In her arms was a girl of about two, smiling and waving back at her friends with a somewhat bulged diaper poking out of the back of her Hello Kitty skirt.

“No problem, just be quick,” Abby responded, walking towards the play area and looking at the clock. It was just about twelve thirty, so the younger kids needed to nap pretty soon. The older ones would need to be sent outside for recess, where they’d join the other attendants and probably play up a storm. Abby and Katherine were only in charge of one room, Room Seven, where they took care of twelve kids in total. Every nursery-like room had an assortment of kids, but they were all split into different age levels. All of the one-year olds were kept together in rooms one to four, the two, three, and four year olds were kept in rooms five to eight, and the five year olds or “Kindergarten” groups were held in rooms nine and ten. Katherine and Abby were almost always put in charge of Room Seven, as they worked best with a variety of ages rather than solely babies or big kids. The children, however, cycled through the rooms of their age levels so they could play with different friends every day. Recess was the only time when the older kids could converse with one another; before their own, later naps, of course.

Katherine soon exited the bathroom with a babbling Francine still in her arms. Smiling and playing with the girl a little, she soon set her down once again to play with Abby’s group, as their game seemed more fun than what Katherine’s group was doing. Sighing, she walked over to Abby and sat down in one of the “Story-Time Chairs”, watching the kids while taking a sip from her water bottle.

“It’s almost time for their naps. Do you want to read them a story?” Abby questioned, still looking at the clock.

“Sure, but you have to take them outside. Don’t forget, it’s cold out today, so make sure they get their jackets on,” Katherine advised, looking back over at Francine. “Poor girl, her mother dressed her in such a cute outfit, but it’s way too chilly out for a skirt today. Do we have any extra pairs of pants lying around?”

“There’s a pair in the supply closet if you want me to change her into it. Anything would be better than that in the middle of winter. But you don’t really have to, since she’s about to nap anyway,” Abby agreed, clapping her hands a few times to get the children’s attention. As if they were programmed to stop when they heard that sequence of clapping, the kids stopped what they were doing and looked over at Abby, who then smiled and spoke in a sweet voice.

“Alright kids, nap time! Daniela, Francine, Eric and Quinn, come over here for story time~” She instructed in a sing-song voice. The children pouted and toddled over to the carpet near the chair Katherine sat in as Abby went to the supply closet to grab the mats and blankets. The older children continued to play quietly after being shushed by Katherine while the two women got the nappers ready for bed. Once everyone was happily comfortable, Katherine opened the book “Hop on Pop” and began to read. Abby, however, took older ones out into the hall where their jackets were hanging inside their cubbies. One by one, the blond woman helped them all zip their coats up and tie their shoes, getting them ready for their outdoor play time.

Once they were all dressed, Abby picked up George and Whitney, one of the other four year olds, walked them all outside. The play area was wide open and had plenty of playroom for the kids. There was a plastic playground with slides and different plastic play things inside of it, as well as a toddler swing set and a bigger swing set. There was a sand box, of course, and a teeter-totter, and the whole area was covered in small patches of snow from the day before. Though, there wasn’t enough snow out to make the playground dangerous, so their boss allowed them to go outside today. Last but not least, there were two little Fisher Price play houses near the sand box, so kids could play classic games like house, as well as use the place for a good old game of hide and seek.

“Alright kids, play nice. Don’t stray too far!” Abby called after the kids as she set them free, allowing them to play to their hearts content. Abby leaned against the wall and crossed her arms, rubbing them to keep them from freezing up. Though, once she rubbed them, she realized that something was off…

“Crap, forgot my jacket…” She mumbled, bopping herself on the head before making sure that the other workers kept a close eye on the kids. She walked back into the daycare and grabbed her jacket that was hung above the cubbies, and was about to walk back outside, when she decided to step into the nursery itself to see how Katherine was doing with the other kids.

“The end…” Katherine said as Abby walked inside quietly, shutting the door as the other one closed the book. The kids had all fallen asleep, some snuggling up with each other adorably, others keeping to themselves on their own mats. Francine suckled her thumb as she slept on her mat, and Abby noticed that Katherine had changed her into the pink baby jeans she found in the supply closet.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to check her diaper with the skirt on?” Abby questioned in a hushed tone as she turned off the lights.

“It would…but it’s cold in here, and I don’t want her getting all cold during her nap. I know I’d hate it if my legs were cold and the rest of my body was warm under a blanket,” Katherine answered with a sigh as she stood up, looking at the kids outside on the playground through the window.

“Yeah…I’d hate that too,” Abby said as she stared out the window and off into space, thinking. “You know, these kids are all so care free…they have no idea what they’re gonna have to go through when they grow up.”

“It’s kinda sad, really. You spend years of your life in a complete state of naivety, but when you hit eighteen, everything just goes downhill,” Katherine commented glumly, leaning against the wall again. “Things were so much simpler back in Kindergarten.”

“Agreed. Look at Francine, for example. She was wearing a skirt in the middle of winter, but she didn’t complain once about her legs being cold in here. She was just happy and giddy like she always is,” Abby stated, pointing out at George on the teeter totter outside. “And George, too. He knows that the things he picks up might be dirty, but he decide to experiment with them anyway, just because he can. It’s fun to him! When you’re around this age, you’re only worry is if you’re having fun, or not. It’s simple…”

Katherine nodded in agreement, and for a moment, the two just stood there silently, lost in their own thoughts and forgetting their responsibilities. Katherine was busy staring out the window when suddenly, she saw Abby pull something out of her pocket from the corner of her eye.

“You brought that thing here!?” She whispered urgently, glaring at Abby for a moment. “Wasn’t I clear about this last night?”

“Shh! I know, I know, I know…” Abby said in a whisper, holding up her hands. “But please, hear me out. I’ve been thinking about this since last night…and most of today, really. We’re not ready to be adults yet, we both know that. We’re immature, broke, and stuck in the same job for probably the rest of our lives. Don’t we need some time to figure out what we want to do? Don’t we deserve some time to just forget about the troubles we have, like these kids?”

“If you’re suggesting what I think you’re suggesting…” Katherine mumbled, looking over at the napping children she was responsible for. “Look, that sounds kinda nice, but I’d rather not become a little kid again…I like my body the way it is.”

“No, no! Not that…well, kind of like that, but different!” Abby explained, pointing to the playground out the window. “We said it’s sad that these kids will lose their naïve natures when they grow older, right? Well, why not give them more time to be kids?”

“Wait…what are you saying?” Katherine questioned, eyeing the device in Abby’s hands once again.

“I’m saying, what if we made it so that these kids, and everyone in general, wouldn’t have to have responsibilities for a while longer? What if we make it so that we get to put off our responsibilities too?” Abby suggested, smiling as her eyes twinkled behind her glasses a little. “What if we made it so that twenty-five year old adults should still be in daycare, and are considered small children?”

“What!? Are you insane?” Katherine accused in another urgent whisper. “Do you really want to make a change that big, the day after you bought that stupid thing!”

“Katherine, please! Just think about it! If we don’t like it, we can change the world back no problem!” Abby said excitedly, taking her friend by the hands and smiling. “Just think about a world with no responsibilities, where everything is simple and fun! Picture it!”
Katherine was about to respond, but she saw the twinkle in Abby’s eyes. Her eyes only twinkled when she could see something in her head perfectly, with her mind set on the idea like words set in stone. Sighing, she closed her eyes and tried to picture it, being back in daycare as a full sized adult again. In all honesty, it sounded kinda nice, being on the other side of things for bit…but she was still against it. She was afraid of the outcome.

“Abby, I…” Katherine began, not wanting to crush Abby’s hopes, but also too scared to agree. Though, as she was about to shoot the idea down…as if on cue, she saw Pamela outside, behind the fence of the daycare. She was walking down the street with her beloved husband, talking with him as she carried a shopping bag around her shoulder. Suddenly, she was filled with both envy and anger upon seeing this woman compared to all of those kids. Why did she have a life filled with work while Pamela was on easy street? Why was Pamela able to retain her naivety while she and Abby had to face the problems of the world head on? What made them different? Why couldn’t they be equal instead of one always looking down on the other?

“I…I’ll go with it,” Katherine said without thinking, her head now controlled by her intense jealousy. She may have only agreed with Abby out of spite, wondering what would happen if Pamela was back on an equal playing ground with her again. If they were both in Kindergarten, then money and social status wouldn’t matter. They’d be equals, period.

“Really? Awesome!” Abby almost exclaimed, but she was able to keep her voice in a low tone. “Alright, wrap your finger around that handle, and I’ll speak into the mic.”

“Go ahead, but be careful on how you word this,” Katherine warned, which caused Abby to nod.

“No problem…” She said before clearing her throat, speaking clearly into the mic. “Twenty five year olds should still be in daycare, as they are considered small children.”
Like before, the device began to vibrate slightly, before the words “Do you agree?” appeared on the screen.

“I agree,” Katherine stated, bracing herself for what was soon to happen. For a few moments, nothing happened. The device continued to vibrate, and the screen stayed the way it was. But suddenly, like last night, the screen shot a large pillar of light that hit the ceiling, and began to spread across the room. The light pillar soon enveloped the two of them, and Katherine had to squint to see what was happening to her. She could feel herself drop the device as some invisible force caused the fabrics of her clothes to change, mystically moving and re-shaping everything she wore. Katherine and Abby didn’t know how long they were in the light, but pretty soon, it dissipated, leaving the girls sitting on the floor with the device in between them.

Katherine felt slightly dizzy, and closed her eyes for a few seconds while she waited for them to refocus themselves. She got to her feet and leaned against the wall for balance before opening her eyes, rubbing them a little while waiting for them to adjust. When they finally did, the girl looked around the room for a moment, before her mind noticed something…odd. Just a few moments ago, Katherine had put four two and three-year-olds down for a nap near the story time chair, but in their places were now…

“Teenagers…?” Katherine questioned, dumbstruck. The children she had just put to bed were indeed replaced with people in their late teens, though they didn’t look like the teens she knew. These teens were dressed in…well, the same clothing that the other kids she had taken care of were once wearing. Slowly, Katherine walked over to where Francine once laid, and picked up the blanket that covered her. Sure enough, this girl that looked about nineteen was wearing the exact same clothes that Francine had worn, right down to the diaper poking out of the back of the pink baby jeans. These kids were, in fact, the same kids from before. Even their clothes had grown along with them!”

“Abby…Abby! Come look at this!” Katherine whispered, awestruck.

“Uh, Katherine? You probably want to look at yourself first,” Abby responded, obviously suppressing a giggle. Raising an eyebrow, Katherine stood back up again and looked down at herself…and almost instantly, her jaw dropped. The woman was now dressed in what looked like a Hello Kitty t-shirt and a long sleeved shirt below it, with stripes around the sleeves. She also wore a matching pink skirt, with high, striped socks around her legs to keep them warm. On her feet, she wore those kids’ sneakers that light up when you hit them in a certain way, and when she touched her head, she could feel a hairclip shaped like a flower in it, holding a portion of her hair to the side.

Katherine then turned around to see what had happened to her friend, and even she had to keep herself from giggling at the sweetness of her attire. Abby was dressed in a pair of pink overalls, with a long sleeved white shirt under it with little frills at the ends of the sleeves. Her blond hair was tied into pig tails, with a flower hairclip next to her left tail, and on her feet she wore matching shoes with Katherine. On her legs, she wore long socks to keep her legs warm, like Katherine, but these socks had flower-designs all over them. The two were dressed like your average toddler.

“Oh my…” Katherine said, cupping one of her hands over her mouth. “Did we just…?”

“Yes! We’re kids again!” Abby exclaimed in a whisper, lifting her hands in the air in celebration. “This is amazing! And the kids, they look so much older! And the room, everything’s, like bigger! And-”

“Hey! What’re you two kids doing in here?” A voice whispered urgently from the door.

Chapter 3

Katherine and Abby almost jumped a foot in the air, being snapped out of their amazement by the voice of this new person. The voice belonged to a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties, standing at the doorway with his hands on his hips, and a ticked expression on his face. He wore the same uniform the two women previously wore, but in a male size tucked into his jeans with a brown belt to hold everything up. He had short-cut black hair with brown eyes, which were curled into a scold upon seeing the two of them sitting alone in the room. Before the girls could say or do anything, the man quietly yet briskly stepped into the room and grabbed both of their hands, pulling them out the door with surprising ease.

“Hey! Let go-” Katherine began in an attempt to pull her hand away, but she was immediately silenced by a second cold glare from the older man.

Once the man had gotten them out of the playroom, he let go of their hands and shut the door quietly as not to disturb his napping charges. Sighing in relief, he then turned around to get a good look at the girls, once again forming his face into a scold.

“What on earth were you girls doing in there? You know you’re not supposed to be inside during their nap time, and you definitely know better than to be in a room without an adult! That was very naughty, both of you,” He scolded, as if the two girls were merely children.

Katherine, still in a state of shock, didn’t know how to respond to the sudden change of respect she received from this man. Though she hadn’t ever met the man before, at least to her knowledge, she expected him to show her the same respect any adult would receive from another equal. Grabbing their hands and physically pulling the two away from the playroom was definitely crossing both the lines of respect and personal boundaries. She was about to retort, when she realized something; they weren’t equals anymore. They had made themselves children, and of course, she knew that the children weren’t allowed back in the playroom during recess, especially without one of the caretakers watching them. This man, as an apparent employee, was just doing his job. While the difference in respect and boundaries was something to get used to, Katherine tried to shrug off her annoyance, as she understood where the man came from. After all, they were the ones that broke the rules, even if it was unintentional.

Surprisingly, it was Abby who spoke up for the both of them, before Katherine got the chance to form an explanation.

“We’re really sorry, Mister…” She began, quickly scanning for the man’s nametag. On the upper right part of the man’s shirt, a small metal pin hung on snugly, with the name “Thomas Alder” printed on it. “…Alder. We just had to go…potty, and I thought it’d be quick, so…”

Katherine watched the way Abby acted as she made the story up on the spot, and was surprised to find that she had quickly adapted to a more “toddlerish” persona in order to get them out of trouble. She had her hands behind her back with her head bowed down in “shame”, and at the end of her explanation she even added in a little sniffle for kicks. The girl guessed that Abby had somewhat prepared for confronting an adult in this new world of theirs, as the whole change was her idea in the first place.

Whether it was due to Abby’s great acting or Thomas’s own foolishness, the man sighed and shrugged, smiling at the girl and ruffling her hair a bit.

“It’s okay, sweetie, just remember to ask one of us before going back inside next time, okay? We don’t want you waking the little ones,” He explained, attempting to keep the girl from crying. “Come on, let’s get your coat on and go back outside to play, huh?”

Abby rubbed her eyes and looked up again, smiling lightly and nodding at Thomas as he turned towards the cubbies. When his back was fully turned, Abby looked towards her friend and winked, non-verbally saying that the plan had worked and that they were off the hook. Suppressing an actual giggle, Katherine took a moment to look at her surroundings and check for anything different. The inside of the playroom that they had seen before was, of course, bigger in order to fit the needs of the larger charges. The toys were somewhat bigger so they were easier to play with, the nap-mats were much larger to fit their adult-like bodies, and the plastic chairs and whatnot seemed to fit everyone’s current size as well. Aside from the toddler-based clothing, both Katherine and Abby retained their original bodies, which is what Katherine had intended. She liked her body the way it was, even if it wouldn’t be treated the same way as before.

The cubbies as well had grown to meet the requirements of their new owners. Each cubby was about the size of a high-school locker, and each one held several items, like lunchboxes and coats. Of course, half of the cubbies were missing coats, as half the kids in the daycare were outside playing. But in the middle of the row of empty cubbies, there were two that still had coats hung up in them. Thomas reached into these cubbies and pulled out the two coats, one light blue and one pink. He turned to the girls and smiled, handing Abby the pink coat before opening the blue coat for Katherine. Once he opened it, Katherine noticed that the inside of the coat had white, fluffy fleece for extra warmth, which in her opinion looked pretty adorable. She also saw that the hood had little cat ears, as if it made her look like an animal when she put it over her head. All in all, the coat seemed to be fit for a little kid rather than an adult, but for some reason she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was hers.

“Here, let me help you with this, Katy,” Thomas said with a smile. “Just slip your arm in here.”
Blushing lightly as the caretaker spoke in such a childish tone, Katherine nodded and did as she was told. Once her arms were in the coat’s sleeves, Thomas zipped it up and patted her shoulder before moving on to help Abby.

“Wow…this feels great! It’s so fluffy and warm, like I’m wearing a blanket!” Katherine thought to herself. The whole get up may have been a little embarrassing at first, but the clothes Katherine wore were so much softer and better feeling than the ones she wore as an adult.

After Thomas helped Abby get into her coat in a similar way, he took the two girls gently by the hand and led them outside onto the playground. Like the playroom, everything on the playground looked exactly the same as they had left it, only…bigger. Not just the playground itself, which had to be bigger to hold the bigger charges, but the actual kids…they were all in their twenties. The kids that only a few minutes ago Abby was helping into their little coats and shoes were now in full grown adult bodies, kind of like Francine and the other kids from before. Immediately Abby recognize George, who was wearing the exact same clothes as before, playing on the teeter-totter with a friend of his. It was strange to see such an older person play and laugh like such a young kid, but Abby smiled all the same, as she knew that he was having fun nonetheless.

As the two girls took everything in, they received a small pat on the back from Thomas, who gestured towards the playground they stared at so longingly.

“Go ahead, it won’t bite you know,” He joked with a smile. Abby looked over to Katherine, who simply nodded back at her before the two decided to walk up to the playground, attempting to join the other kids. Once they walked up close enough that Thomas was out of earshot, Abby quickly scanned the playground and looked for one spot in particular.

“Everything’s the same, except for the size, right? So it should be somewhere…” She muttered to Katherine before spotting it a few yards away. A long, blue plastic tunnel connected two parts of the plastic play-set, and from what Abby could see, it was empty at the moment. “There! Come on, let’s chat. Try to keep up~”

And with that, Abby scurried off towards the play-set, quickly walking up the wooden stairs and passing by the several other playing children. The girl couldn’t help but laugh lightly along with a few of kids as she passed by; the whole playground just gave off a happy, carefree vibe. Katherine followed behind Abby as fast as she could, but it was actually hard to keep up with her newfound energy. After a minute of passing by other children, the two eventually reached the tunnel, where they scrunched down and sat for a moment of privacy.

“Alright, finally we can just wrap our heads around this,” Abby said with a sigh, smiling as she leaned back against the curved wall of the cylindrical tunnel. “This is so crazy! It’s like we’re actually kids again! Did you see George and the other kids back there? They’re so big! And these adults…I mean kids…I mean damn! It’s all so crazy!”

“I know, I know, it’s really…strange,” Katherine said with a light smile, rubbing the back of her head as she leaned back as well. “It’s crazy and all…but what do we do now?”

“Well, what else would a kid do on a playground?” Abby responded cheerily, grinning from ear to ear. “Come on, let’s go play! It’ll be fun!”

“You seem to be doing great already,” Katherine said, feeling Abby’s head playfully for a moment. “You feverish or something?”

“No, no, I’m fine!” Abby exclaimed, giggling and pushing her hand away. “It’s just…ugh, I can’t even put my feelings into words! I feel so giddy and giggly and energetic…I haven’t felt this way in such a long time. I wanna soak up every second!”

“I’m glad you’re excited and all, Abby, but seriously, calm down,” Katherine said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Just take a second to let everything sink in, you might still be in some sort of shock from the whole change. “

“Oh, lighten up, silly,” Abby responded, crossing her arms with a smile. “Come on, you know you wanna play with me~”

“Eh…I dunno,” Katherine said with a light blush, rubbing the back of her head. “I kinda wanna figure everything out before actually playing along. I wanna see the changes we’ve made to this place. “

“Aw, you’re no fun. You can figure out that boring stuff later,” Abby said, starting to climb out of the tunnel. “Remember, you’re not responsible for anyone anymore. Relax and try and be a kid!”

Katherine pouted just a bit as Abby left, surprised that Abby didn’t want to make sure everything was okay with the daycare before going to the fun stuff. Shrugging it off in order to get it all done, she crawled out of the tunnel as well and stood next to one of the long plastic slides so she could get a good view of the facility. The first thing she noticed that was off was the caretakers; none of them seemed familiar to her. Back when she first saw Thomas, she was surprised that she didn’t recognize him at all, after working at the daycare center for so many years. Though, after a minute of thought, she realized that it was impossible for her fellow workers to still be working there anyway. If twenty-five year olds were barely considered kindergarteners in this new reality, then their co-workers, who were either close to their age or a bit older than them, were probably somewhere on the playground with them. Curious, Katherine scanned the playground for a familiar face, and sure enough, she saw the face of her former co-worker Janice, who was gleefully swinging on the swing set just a few feet away from her.

“Hey, kid! You gonna slide or what?” An immature voice spoke from behind her. Snapping out of her daze, Katherine looked behind her shoulder to find the source of the familiar voice. Sure enough, she had accidentally caused a line for the slide during her deep thought, and several kids were staring at her with an annoyed glare.

“Ehehehe…sorry everyone,” She said, about to slide down to appease the crowd, when she suddenly did a double-take upon glancing at the face of one of the children, standing directly behind her with crossed arms, and a pout-filled face. “Wait…Pamela??”

Sure enough, Katherine’s old friend Pamela was waiting in line with the other adult children, tapping her foot impatiently. Katherine knew that she shouldn’t be very shocked to find see her among the class; half the reason she agreed to make this ludicrous change to the world was to have her see what it was like to be equals again. It was probably just actually seeing her in such a child-like get-up that made her sound so shocked. The girl was dressed in a fluffy white coat with grey fleece on the inside, along with a pair of blue jeans with flowers stitched onto the pockets. Around her neck hung a matching grey checker design scarf, and upon her head sat a pair of pink “Dora the Explorer” themed earmuffs. Her shoes matched her earmuffs in both color and franchise, and overall, she gave off the same impression as everyone else: a grown woman in toddler clothing. Though, something definitely set her apart from the rest of the kids, yet Katherine couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“Stop staring at me and slide, dummy!” She questioned, retaining her pout. “I’m not gettin’ any younger…”
Realizing that she had probably blanked out for half a minute there, the girl blushed lightly before turning back to the slide and quickly zipping down to the ground. Once her feet touched the soft floor of the playground, Katherine could hear the “kidults” at the top cheering. She made quick work of dusting herself off before scurrying towards the other end of the playground, in hopes of finding Abby again. She obviously felt more comfortable acting like a child than she did.

“She definitely has a knack for this kind of thing, that’s for sure…” Katherine thought to herself as she scurried along, noticing that several other children stared at her as she passed by. Some whispered, others giggled, but all those who weren’t busy playing pretend or climbing monkey bars were definitely staring at her. She didn’t remember having group staring contests back when she was in daycare, so what was the big deal?

After maybe five minutes of searching, Katherine finally spotted Abby near the slides, being pushed gently by a boy from another classroom. He was light skinned and shorter than Abby, but he made up for his lack of height with his weight. The girl in pink shivered a little at the sight, even though she knew judging people by their looks was wrong. She hadn’t even been in this new world of hers for a full hour, so seeing a big man pushing a grown woman on a swing while wearing a yellow and black striped shirt along with a Winnie the Pooh jean jacket wasn’t the most pleasant thing in the world.

Just as Katherine was about to run over to her friend, she instinctively stopped when she spotted George a few yards away, sitting on the stoop of the daycare center with a somewhat dirty rock in his hand. He may have looked much older now, but Katherine could still figure out what he was about to do, since she had to scold him for doing it about a hundred times already. His eyes gave it away every time.

“Honestly, what’s with that kid and his nose?” She mumbled under her breath with a sigh, running over to George instead to catch him in the act. “George, get-”

“George! Put that filthy thing down right now!” An older woman scolded before Katherine had the chance. The red-haired caretaker came up to George and snatched the rock out of his hand, tossing it away before cleaning his palm and fingers with a wet-nap. “What have I told you about doing that naughty thing, huh? One more time and it’s a time out for you!”

As Katherine watched the pouting man-child nod and glumly walk away from the stoop, she couldn’t help but notice an odd feeling in her gut. Ever since high school, her job had been to take care of kids, from babysitting to the daycare center. It was always her job to tell them what not to do, praise them for doing the right thing, make sure they were well fed, rested, dressed, and so on. Childcare had become a part of her instincts now, and when she saw George, she didn’t think twice about going through the usual motions and scolding him, but when that older lady said pretty much exactly what she was about to say before her…something inside of her burned a little. That woman…that stranger just took away her authority, without a second thought! On what grounds could she just swoop in and take care of her kids, huh? Is that what she got, after years of work?

Suddenly, the girl snapped out of her angry trance, and noticed her fist clenched up beside her. She took a deep breath and gradually began to calm herself down, her fist slowly turning itself back into a gentle hand. She knew it was foolish to think that that woman deliberately stole her thunder by keeping an eye out for George; after all, they were all working towards the same thing, right? To keep the kids safe and happy til their parents come to pick them up. If anything, she should be thanking that woman. It was hard enough to take care of all her usual kids, but kids three times their usual size? That was impossible for someone like her!

“Wait…someone like me…” She muttered to herself, looking down at her clothing once more. What was she thinking? Taking care of these kids wasn’t her job anymore, now that she was one of them. It was her job to be taken care of now, not to care-take. If she hadn’t been the one to change the world around her, she probably would’ve been tempted to do the same thing herself, what with the little mindset and all. Watching the lady do her job for her did make her feel kind of burned inside, but at the same time, it was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders. If she didn’t have to worry about these kids, what was stopping her from trying to act like one? Not society; it was normal for people her age to act in such a way. Her friends? Definitely no; they’re the ones playing tag and stacking blocks now!

“So? What’s stopping you?” Katherine thought, looking back over to the swing-set where her friend was waiting. “Go on, give it a whirl!”

With a meek smile, the girl took one last breath before attempting to walk back towards her friend once again. She didn’t bother looking at the kids around her as she passed by, though she could hear some of them giggle and whisper anyway. As she grew closer, Abby looked away from swings and spotted her in the distance, which made her smile almost instantly. Before she even made it over to her, Abby scurried up to Katherine and grabbed her in a tight hug.

“Ow! Abby, calm down…” The brunette said good naturedly, blushing lightly as she smiled and patted the other girl’s back. “Having fun so far?”

“Do I even have to answer? I haven’t had this much fun in years!” Abby exclaimed, pulling away while keeping a grip on Katherine’s hands as she talked. “I can’t believe I’m actually talking about princesses and ponies to the women we were just working with an hour ago! And the kids, they look so much bigger now! That one boy that was pushing me, Charlie, he’s such a little sweetie~ He’s the first boy I’ve talked to this year that wasn’t either checking me out or having his nose wiped by me.”

“Really? It’s that easy?” Katherine questioned, honestly surprised by Abby’s words. Could you really just make friends with someone by randomly talking to them?

“Of course! Making friends is the easiest thing to do at this age,” Abby explained, spinning around the metal bar of the swing merrily as she spoke. “There are pretty much no gender barriers, everyone’s open about what they like, and we all share and have a good time. It’s like Sesame Street, but with people instead of puppets!”
Katherine had to giggle at the comparison, rubbing the back of her neck before speaking again.

“Sounds like you’ve had a great time. I’ve been trying to come to terms with everything, to be honest…but I think I’m getting the hang of it,” She explained, putting her hands on her hips and grinning. “I think I’m ready to try this whole ‘kid’ thing out now!”
As soon as she made this exclamation, she could hear a few girls giggle and whisper from a few feet away. Upon hearing this, the girl instantly frowned, turning her head to the group of girls to see what was so funny.

“Alright, what the heck is their problem? Jeez, everyone seems to be behind my back today,” She complained in an oddly random mood-swing. “What’s the big deal anyway?”

Now it was Abby’s turn to blush, as she pulled Katherine closer to her spot near the swings to get her out of earshot of the other girls. She leaned in closer to Katherine’s ear and whispered to her with one hand covering a side of her mouth.

“Actually…you should probably stick close to me for the next day or two, just until everyone forgets what happened,” Abby explained, patting the girl’s shoulder.

“Huh? Waddya mean ‘what happened’?” Katherine questioned at normal volume, which made Abby blush even more.

“Uh…ya see…I was talking to some of the kids, and they said that yesterday…”

“Heeeey Princess Potty Pants!” Three girls called in unison from a short distance away. The two girls turned once again to see Pamela and two other girls walking towards them, smiling and giggling like it was no one’s business. Katherine looked over her shoulder to see who she had called to, but all she saw were two boys and a girl whispering to one another, and giggling every few seconds or so. After looking around for a minute, the girl concluded that Pamela was talking to one of them. She looked over at Abby, who was blushing brightly
at this point, and could only assume that the girls were making fun of her somehow.

“Pamela, it’s not nice to call people names!” Katherine snapped, stepping in front of her friend for her defense. “Say you’re sorry to Abby, or I’ll tell on you!”

When the girls heard Katherine’s outburst, they only stared at her for a second or two before bursting into a fit of laughter. The girl stared back at the laughing children with an eyebrow raised, blushing lightly in the awkward situation.

“Y-you know…this’d be funnier if your insults made more sense…” Katherine said, growing quieter as they continued to laugh.

“Not an insult if it’s true, Ms. Wets A Lot~” One of the girls said, pointing at her accusingly.

“What are you…” Katherine questioned under her breath before Abby whispered into her ear again.

“They’re not laughing at me, Katherine,” She said with a sigh. “The kids in our playroom were talking about yesterday, and apparently you…kinda had an accident…”

If Abby was blushing red before, Katherine’s face was scarlet.

“I…I did what!?” She whispered urgently back to Abby, looking down at her pants to check for any stains or wetness. Fortunately, her pants were dry, but the idea of having an “accident” was completely ridiculous to her. Had she really wet herself in front of everyone the day before? Come to think of it, she had no idea what her history was at this place, since she had only created it with Abby an hour before. She very well could have had an accident yesterday, since she wasn’t around to prove it wrong…

“Aww, is the little baby gonna cry now?” Pamela cooed in a mocking voice, making kissy faces as the other two girls giggled beside her. “Better hurry to the potty now~ Oh! That’s right, the potty’s only for big girls!”

Now the other two kids who were watching behind her had joined in on the laughing, which only made Katherine blush even more. She hadn’t been embarrassed like this since middle school, when her dress had ripped right in the middle of the cafeteria, revealing her panties to all. Though she figured that this was even worse; at least those panties were dry.

“I’m…I’m not a…” Katherine said while trembling. Normally, insults like these would just fly over her head, but something deep inside her made the insults and the jokes sound twice as loud and nasty.

“Listen girls! Baby’s trying to talk like us!” The third girl pointed out, halting on her giggle fit for a moment. “Maybe she’s making potty right now! Eeeew~”

Katherine couldn’t stop trembling at this point, and any remarks she could’ve made were stuck in her windpipe. She felt her throat go sore, as if she was about to cry, when her arm was suddenly grabbed and pulled by Abby. Her feet seemed to move on their own as Abby pulled her away to safety, the laughter of those nasty brats dying out as they scurried away. Abby didn’t say a word to Katherine just yet; in fact, she pulled the girl all the way over to the red haired woman who had scolded George before, and tugged on her sleeve, causing her to turn around.

“Ms. Daisy!” Abby exclaimed in a tattle-tale voice, holding onto the sleeve and pointing at the group of girls in the distance. Katherine later guessed that she had found out her name from one of the kids she was playing with earlier. “Pammy, Jamie, and Liz were makin’ fun of Katherine!”

“Oh dear, is this true?” Ms. Daisy questioned, turning her head to Katherine for confirmation. Now that she was closer, the girl noticed that Ms. Daisy’s eyes were a deep hazel color, which gave off a sense of trust and comfort when looking directly at them. Gulping down unwanted tears, Katherine tried to compose herself in front of this woman, though all she could muster was a shaky, meek-sounding voice.
“Th-they were callin’ me a baby and stuffs…” She muttered, rubbing one of her eyes as she spoke in such a childish manner. The female caretaker sighed and put her arms around Katherine, giving her a warm, soothing hug before pulling back and looking her in the eyes.

“Honey, don’t you worry about a thing. I’ll have a word with them,” She said with a smile, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “Was this about your little problem from yesterday?”

Blushing, Katherine nodded and turned her head away from the woman’s eyes, unable to look directly at them when she mentioned the incident.

“An accident is nothing to be ashamed of, Katy,” Ms. Daisy explained, pulling out a tissue from her back pocket and handing it to the girl. “It’s normal for someone your age. You’re a good girl, I know it won’t happen again. And don’t listen to anyone who makes fun of you, okay? Remember, sticks and stones, dear. Sticks and stones.”

And with that, Ms. Daisy began walking towards the giggling group, preparing her face for scolding and her finger for wagging. Katherine watched her go before blowing into the tissue, stuffing it into her pocket afterword and rubbing her eyes once more. Abby then smiled at her and patted her back reassuringly.

“Looks like Pamela’s still a meanie, grown-up or little kid,” She said happily in an effort to cheer her friend up. “And here’s another bonus about being a kid: if anyone gives you crap, you can just tell on them, get a hug, and keep on playing. Remember how many kids we had to scold for making fun of their friends?”

Katherine sniffled once more and cleared her throat, smiling lightly at Abby and nodding.

“She was definitely nice…I like her,” Katherine stated as she watched her scold the brats from a distance. “Is she one of our caretakers?”

“Yup! She and Thomas are working in our playroom for today,” Abby explained, sitting next to the wall of the facility and leaning against it comfortably. “All of the caretakers are super nice here, really~ The secret is to act as cute and sweet as possible, and they instantly love you!”

Katherine had to laugh at this explanation, and was about to sit next to her best friend when she suddenly heard a whistle blowing from the open door to the daycare. Thomas had a silver whistle in his hand, and he was gesturing for all the kids to come back inside.

“Alright everyone, get on inside. Recess is over!” He called energetically. The caretakers soon called their groups together, including Ms. Daisy, so Katherine extended a hand to Abby to help her back up.

“Sounds like its nap time,” She commented with a grin. “Ready to sleep in the middle of the day as a part of the curriculum?”

Abby giggled and took her hand, standing up and walking over to Ms. Daisy and the newly gathered group of children, which unfortunately included Pamela and one of her friends. The caretaker had them line up into two separate lines, one for boys and one for girls, and then led them all back towards the playroom so the younger children could enjoy their time outside.

Chapter 4

Thomas and Ms. Daisy herded their group of children back towards the daycare room, helping each of them put their coats and other accessories away before unlocking the door. The oversized kids scurried into the room immediately, as the nursery itself was nice and warm compared to the chilliness of the hall. The teenagers, considered the “babies” of this world, were brought to a smaller playground outside for their recess time after being woken up from their naps, so the older ones were able to make as much noise as they wanted. That is, while keeping their outside voices under control, of course.

Katy and Abby were among the herded children, and now that they had both seemed to settle in their new situations, they both found it easier to blend in with the other charges. Abby more than Katy, of course, due to her childish gift of making friends with everyone she met. Katy stuck by Abby as she walked around the room, holding onto her hand to make sure she didn’t wander away from her, as the kids in the room were still pretty hyped up about her accident the day before, even if she herself couldn’t remember it. It was humiliating, but all things considered, she didn’t blame any of them for their giggles; they were all too immature to take certain feelings into account, anyway, so at its very core, someone wetting their pants was apparently funny.

Abby smiled at Katy as she led her around the playroom, eventually settling on a pile of blocks that they had watched their own charges play with but only an hour ago. The blond girl began stacking the wooden blocks, attempting to build the tallest tower she could possibly construct before it toppled over.

“I’ve always been curious about these things,” She whispered to Katy, giggling to herself as she worked on the base. “The kids would play with them every day, and I always questioned how high it could go~”

“You didn’t think about much during work, did you?” Katy whispered back in a teasing manner, helping her dear friend with the tower. She surprisingly enjoyed the simple task, very quickly becoming absorbed in their creation as they stacked the blocks higher and higher.

“Well, I thought about tons of things, really, but nothing really worth mentioning,” Abby joked, taking a triangular block and placing it at the very top of their tower. Through the corner of her eye, she spotted Pamela and her crew on the other side of the room, staring at their tower with obvious interest. After years of watching over children, Abby noticed immediately the look Pamela had in her eyes as she stared at the construct; she wanted to knock it down. The girl grinned to herself, though, as she knew that Ms. Daisy would never let her do such a thing. After the scolding they received during recess, they were probably on very thin ice at the moment. Even with the mind of a four year old, the girl could probably figure out that being bad after scolding would just mean even more trouble.

The girls were interrupted a minute later by Ms. Daisy herself, who had been going around the room asking everyone the same question. Katy wasn’t really paying attention to her, but she could figure out what she was asking pretty easily: “Do any of you have to use the potty?” Of course, this was just the short play time they had before starting nap time, but it wasn’t really meant for play at all. It was to make sure that everyone had an empty bladder before going in for their nap, so no one had to worry about any soggy mats when they woke up. She had asked the same question several hundred times throughout her career, and with good reason: she couldn’t count the number of times she had to stay after work to clean any extra wet spots on the carpet because of her charge’s accidents. The only difference here was that she was now on the receiving end.

“Abby, do you have to go potty?” Ms. Daisy asked, bending over to look at the girl at eye level, since she was sitting on the floor. Katherine raised an eyebrow at the caretaker’s choice of wording. Why did she only ask Abby? It’d be stupid to ask each individual child if they had to use the bathroom when she could just ask a whole group of them and get the same job done.

“Yes Ms. Daisy,” The girl replied, standing up from her spot and checking on her tower before taking the woman’s hand gently. Smiling, Ms. Daisy nodded and took Katy’s hand without a word, bringing them both to the door where the bathroom line was forming.

“Ms. Daisy, why didn’t you ask me?” Katy questioned, finding her situation a little unfair.

“Sweetie, it’s nothing personal,” The woman explained, whispering in the girl’s ear for a moment. “Remember what happened yesterday? Your mommy told me to make sure you go potty every time we offer it, just to be safe, okay?”
The woman sighed at this. Of course, this was her mother’s doing. She had always been way too overprotective of her ever since she was a child, and as she grew older, that coddling soon turned to criticism. She knew that she meant well for her in both of these situations, but sometimes she honestly felt that she was just making her do these unnecessary things just to inconvenience her. She was going to volunteer to go to the bathroom anyway as a precaution, so she knew that she didn’t need to be reminded. She wasn’t annoyed with Ms. Daisy, though; she was just following orders.

Once the line for the bathroom had formed, Ms. Daisy left her keys with Thomas before leading the “kidults” down the hall and towards the bathroom. The bathroom was unisex so a single caretaker could watch over either gender while going on a bathroom run, while their partner was still watching the remaining kids in the room while they were gone. The red-haired woman led the group of six kids into the bathroom and shut the door behind them, gesturing towards the several stalls and tiny urinals to the right of them.

“Alright, you know what to do. Girls in the stalls, boys in the urinals,” She instructed, as if they had no idea what they were doing. The four other children that were with Abby and Katy were boys, so it was just the two of them entering adjacent stalls to go to the bathroom. Much to her surprise, Ms. Daisy walked in with Katy as she entered her stall, locking the door behind her and kneeling on the floor.

“Ms. Daisy!” Katy said in surprise, blushing deeply and tugging the bottom of her skirt a little. She really did have to pee, but she knew she couldn’t let anything out with that woman watching her!

“It’s okay, Katy, your mommy told me that you might need some extra help,” The woman explained, ruffling the girl’s adorable hair. “I’ll just help you get started, don’t worry. I’ll turn around once you’re on the potty.”

Keeping her blush, Katherine nodded, seeing that there really wasn’t any way around this. If a parent instructed a caretaker to do something, then they were required to do it, else they’d get in trouble with the boss. Still, it didn’t make the situation any less embarrassing. Katy closed her eyes as Ms. Daisy helped her pull her panties down, and spread some toilet paper on the seat before helping her scoot onto it. Like she promised, the woman turned her back to the door of the stall while Katy tried to let loose. It took a little concentration, since she wasn’t used to having another person with her in the stall while she went, but the flood gates soon opened and she was able to let out a very small sigh of relief. Once she was finished with her business, Ms. Daisy turned around once again and smiled at her charge.

“All done?” She questioned just to make sure, reaching for the toilet paper to help the girl clean up.

“Y-yes…I can do that ya know…” She said, her blush returning as she saw her move for the toilet paper. She quickly grabbed some and cleaned up her private areas before the woman had the chance, hopping off of the toilet seat and flushing the toilet. She did, however, let the woman lift her panties back up. After all, she didn’t want to make her feel unneeded. She remember the feeling of seeing a child that she’d taken care of for years now suddenly want to do things on his or her own, and it always did give her a weird feeling in her chest. Maybe it was similar to a parent watching their own child grow up and gain independence, but she wouldn’t know.

The two emerged from the stall a second later to see that the other children had finished their business as well. Three of the boys were currently washing their hands with a ton of soap, while Abby and another boy- possibly Charlie, the one she had been playing with on the swings before, waited patiently behind them. Katy quickly got into line next to Abby and smiled at her, wordlessly telling her that she was alright. Abby smiled back and nodded at her before stepping up to wash her hands, making sure not to get any soapy water on her pretty toddler clothes. Katy soon did the same, and after about a minute of washing and drying, the group headed out again and walked back to the daycare room. The two girls noticed, first of all, that most of the children seemed to be getting mats out from the closet for nap time, and that Thomas was handing out pillows to the children that didn’t make a fuss. Katy, however, was the first to notice that their block tower had fallen down. She knew that it may have been the wind or some kid being clumsy, but she couldn’t help but blame Pamela for the destruction of their creation. After all, Ms. Daisy had been out of the room for a full seven minutes. Many things could go unseen within seven minutes.

Dismissing the blocks fiasco, Abby pulled Katy over to Thomas so they could grab some mats before they gave out all the good ones. Luckily, there were still a few stainless ones left, so they took whatever they could get, as well as two pillows for being such good girls. The friends then moved their mats over towards the story-time chair, since they knew they’d be read a quick story right before their naps. They’d both read about every book in the daycare’s arsenal by now, but somehow, actually being read the story seemed much more exciting. The girls used their pillows as seats as everyone else got settled, friends huddling together in cozy circles around the chair, others keeping to themselves to listen to the story intently. Thomas soon sat down on the comfy chair with a small book in his lap, making sure that everyone was settled on a mat before clearing his throat and lifting up the book.

“Alright boys and girls, let’s take our seats,” He announced with a smile, showing everyone the title of the book. “This story is called, Rover and Dover. Can anyone tell me why those two words are special together?”

“Great,” Katy whispered to the girl beside her. “Not only do we get a story, but a phonics lesson too!”
Abby couldn’t help but giggle with her hands cupped over her mouth as she heard this, comfortably leaning against her friend’s shoulder as several of the kids raised their hands. Pamela, in particular, raised her hand the highest out of everyone else, a proud grin planted on her face.

“Okay Pamela, what do you think?” Thomas questioned, showing her the book.

“Dover and Rover are special ‘cus they rhyme,” The prissy girl answered, her two friends clapping quietly to honor such a brilliant answer.

“Very good! Dover and Rover are rhyming words, meaning that they sound the same. Like bat and hat, or shove and glove,” The man explained, opening the book to the very first page. “’Dover and Rover, sitting in the lot, the two doggies jumped around, banging cups, pans, and pots’.”

“Ooooh, what suspense!” Katy whispered again, causing another giggle fit from Abby.

“’Dover and Rover, trotting back on home, couldn’t help but notice Mr. Gibson, searching for his comb’,” Thomas continued. “Oooh, that one’s pretty tough. Can anyone spell the word ‘comb’ for me?”

Grinning slightly, Katy raised her hand upon hearing the question, attempting to blend in with the other kids as they all raised their hands.

“Katy, can you tell us how to spell it?” Thomas questioned, pointing to the brunette in the distance.

Katherine cleared her throat and opened her mouth to talk, but suddenly realized that every kid in the room was now staring at her. Each set of eyes was focused on her, and each little mind was judging her, just waiting for her to mess up so they could steal the glory of answering the right question. The girl suddenly realized how important this question really was, in the eyes of the other kids. A sudden pressure began to build up on her shoulders, causing her to bend over a little while she sat, her confidence draining by the second.

“I…um…” She began, a bead of sweat falling down the side of her face. What if she got it wrong? What if the other kids would ridicule her for it? If they thought she was a baby before, what if not knowing how to spell made her look even smaller? How could kids this age judge so harshly? “C…O…Y-”

“Oh, sorry Katy, almost,” Thomas said kindly, quickly moving on to another patient child. Of course, the person he called upon next answered it flawlessly, and of course, this person was one of Pamela’s cronies. Jamie, she thought her name was.

“What the hell is wrong with me?!” Katherine questioned inside her head, her cheeks flaring after getting such a simple question wrong in front of all her peers. “There’s no Y in ‘comb’, you dummy head! It’s C, O, M…E? S? Something like that?”

The girl’s heart began to race as she recognized her problem: she for the life of her couldn’t remember how to spell the word! It was four…or maybe five, simple letters that she had known since she could spell! How could she make such a stupid mistake in front of everyone, with those harsh, judging eyes?

A pat on her back woke her up from her panic, which caused Katy to turn her head towards the sleepy looking Abby, who smiled at her kindly. She obviously knew that the girl was embarrassed by her failure, but she had been feeling the same thing since the book began. She honestly couldn’t even remember why Dover and Rover were so special, until Pamela pointed it out to everyone.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s just part of the ride,” She whispered with a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to worry about spelling until first grade, anyway~ I couldn’t even remember how to spell it.”

Katy blinked. Abby was actually right, she didn’t need to know these things. The other children were still going to be harsh about it, but most of them probably couldn’t even spell for the life of them. Sighing in relief and laying back on her mat, Katy and Abby listened to the rest of the story in silence, as Dover and Rover ventured to several oh-so-interesting places on their journey to find the lost comb. Once the story was over, Katy had to admit, she was pretty darn tuckered out. The events of the past hour or two had really taken a lot out of her, and she was now beginning to feel the full effect of it all. Yawning, the girl moved her pillow from under her butt to under her head, resting on it comfortably as Abby did the same. The blond girl put an arm around her friend cutely as the two of them rested on their adjacent mats, smiling as they closed their eyes. Thomas got up from the story-time chair and moved over to the wall to shut the lights off, and he soon exited the room with Ms. Daisy to give the kids some privacy as they napped.

“Hey Abby?” Katy questioned, poking her side for a moment.

“Something wrong?” Abby asked in response, opening her eyes and smiling sweetly. “Am I too close?”

“No, no, I’m fine~” Katy said with a genuine smile on her face. “I just wanted to say…thanks. Ya know, for talking me into this. I really needed this breather.”

“No problem at all! We have so much to look forward to,” Abby responded quietly with a giggle, daydreaming of the years to come. “We’ll be finishing up daycare pretty soon and moving on to kindergarten, then grade school, then middle school…think of the trends we could set at this age! And don’t forget the kiddie things we can still do now~ Trick-or-treating, waking up for Santa’s gifts, going apple picking-”

“Wait, wait, Abby,” Katherine interrupted, her smile soon disappearing and her eyes meeting her friend’s. “Listen, I totally wanna enjoy the kid thing with you for a little while, maybe a week or two, but seriously…I do wanna get back to my life eventually. I mean, do you really wanna go through all that again? All these kids are just gonna get more and more judgmental as they grow older…and middle school was the worst time of my life, not to mention to annoyances of fifth grade and all that…maybe every once in a while, but I really don’t wanna make this a full time thing.”

Abby’s face completely fell as she heard the words escape her friend’s mouth. She had thought that they would be able to relive their childhoods again from scratch, and she had assumed that Katy was just as excited about it as her. She knew that she was slow to adjust in the beginning, but she thought that was just shyness.

“But Katy, just think of the-”

“I said no, Abby, I really don’t want to go through that again,” Katherine interjected, giving her a very stern look. “Playing kid is relaxing, but there’s always a downside to these kinds of things. We’ll talk about this more after naptime, got it?”

Swallowing her sadness, the blond girl sighed and bowed her head, holding onto Katy just a bit tighter.

“Okay…” She mumbled quietly, rubbing one of her eyes drowsily. “Let’s just take a nap for now…I’m pooped.”

“Same here, sweets, same here,” The girl said with a smile, hugging her friend tightly before resting her head on the pillow once more. “Sweet dreams, Abigail~”

“Sweet dreams…” Abby mumbled as Katherine drifted off to sleep beside her. The girl closed her eyes, but didn’t fall asleep. She waited for a little while, constantly checking Katy’s breathing and heartbeat to look for any steady patterns. She needed to be sure that she was asleep, so she could put her plan into action.

Abigail, regrettably, had not been very truthful with Katherine from the beginning of their little adventure. For the most part, she had been honest in the reasons why she wanted to be a kid again: no responsibilities, no more work, extra time to be naïve, etc. But there was one more reason why she had wanted to change reality so badly, why she had picked up that device at the weird store at the mall with the small sliver of hope that it might actually work. She had never revealed her secret to anyone before; not Katherine, not her boyfriends, nor did she even think of mentioning it to her parents. It was a secret she thought she’d have to take to the grave.

Abby, ever since she was around thirteen or so, hated being older. Not just being a teenager, or a young lady, or an adult: just being older. She loathed responsibility, and she never enjoyed her classes as they got more and more advanced every year. Not that she was bad at them; she dealt with the work load, and everything else that was thrown at her as she grew older and older, but she never once liked what she experienced. She didn’t like her school uniform or the clothes that were popular with her time, and she was never a party person. Growing up just never seemed to sit right with her. She would deal with problems in a childish manner, but more so than Katherine. They shared a somewhat childish nature, and that’s what made them friends in the first place…but Katherine could never understand what Abby really felt, deep inside.

The blond girl’s greatest wish, something she’d wish for over all else, would be to be treated like a baby once more. She wanted to start over, and have tons of time to soak up any kind of lack of responsibility she had. She missed the feeling of having absolutely nothing blamed on you, having not a single damn care in the world. All she wanted to do was curl up in a nice soft crib, with her nice soft blanket, in a nice soft sleeper and drift off to slumber-land each night and afternoon, and wake up to another day of fun and happiness. It’s true, she liked being a kid now, but this wasn’t what she had in mind when she made the wish. She had actually hoped that Katy would be more into this first change, so she would be more open to a more radical change in the future, when she grew tired of being a toddler. Her plan was perfect, and she had been really excited to experience her dream with her best friend in the entire world…but all of her best hopes crumbled when Katy stated her opinion.

“Why don’t you understand? Don’t you know what I’m trying to do?” Abby thought sadly, stroking her friend’s hair once and resting her head beneath her shadow. “I just wanna give us better lives, rewards for everything we’ve had to deal with over the years…but why won’t you just feel the same!?”

Maybe it was her obsession with her ideal lifestyle, or maybe she was still feeling a little upset and crazy over breaking up with James. Maybe she was still pissed at Pamela for being such an obnoxious prissy pants, she couldn’t tell. One of these things, however, set her off, and made her think up something crazy. Something she knew Katy would either kick her, or thank her for when she woke up.

Slowly, Abby moved her hand into the pocket of her overalls, pulling out the PRCD and starting to fire it up. Gently, as to not wake or disturb Katherine, Abby wrapped the girl’s finger around her part of the trigger and did the same on her end, checking to make sure that her friend was asleep, but aware enough to sleep talk. Bending her neck down towards the mic, the girl hit the record button and whispered into the machine the words that would change everything.

“Twenty-five year olds, and all those younger than them, have the same responsibilities, abilities, and social stature as babies,” She whispered, wincing at the machine vibrated a little to configure the words. The words “Do you agree?” appeared on the two-person machine, waiting for Katherine to finish the job. Abby moved the mic up to Katherine’s mouth and softly whispered in her ear.

“Katy? Pamela sure was a brat today, don’t you agree?” She whispered, knowing her friend well enough to know that she would probably start sleep talking right about now.

“I…I agree…” The girl mumbled drowsily, only half conscious at this point in time. As soon as she said this, she rolled over and snuggling her back into Abby’s arm, happy that her friend was right beside her as she napped. Abby had to suppress a cheer from escaping her lips as the PRCD accepted their change in reality, and began to shine bright. She closed her eyes and snuggled into her friend as the light engulfed them both like a warm blanket.

************************************************** ***********************

Light struck Katherine’s eyes as she began to fade out of her comfortable sleep, not wanting to open her eyes just yet. She hadn’t slept that well in years, considering that she had fallen asleep on a stiff blue mat that probably wasn’t stuffed with feathers. Still, she fell asleep with a light conscious, and that was enough for her. Plus, it was nice being able to nap with her best friend right beside her.

However, she couldn’t help but notice something…different, as she began to feel her surroundings. Like, really different. For one thing, she was no longer laying down. She was sitting up or, rather, laying back in some kind of chair. Maybe she had been moved to the story-time chair for some reason during her nap? Another thing she realized was that her clothes felt somewhat different from before. When she fell asleep, she was dressed in that adorable Hello Kitty shirt with a skirt to match, but for some reason, she now felt that her close seemed less…open? Like they were connected rather than separate. Her mouth was also not as open as it was before. She might have been sucking her thumb…but she was pretty sure both her hands were on her lap, from what she could feel. On the topic of her lap, something about it felt a lot softer than before and a lot bulkier too, like she was wearing three pairs of granny panties.

Katherine began to open her eyes, super confused about her new situation. Her eyelids shot open upon realizing that she was no longer in the daycare. When she had peeked through her lids, the first thing her eyes fell upon was the familiar sight of a car’s windshield. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was most certainly not in the story-time chair; rather, she was sitting in an oversized car-seat, fit for the world’s biggest toddler. She was strapped in by a belt in an X formation, which gave her the tightest security possible. She was wearing the same coat she wore back at recess, but the jacket was zipped down, and it revealed what she was truly wearing; a bright pink onesie, with something scribbled in script on the chest that she couldn’t read upside down.

A bead of sweat dropped down the back of her neck as she began to notice more and more of her surroundings. The feeling in her mouth was definitely not her thumb, she knew it for sure; it was a pacifier, and she suckled on it surprisingly rhythmically for something so foreign to her. Feeling the top of her head, she felt that her hair was now tied up into pig-tails like Abby’s had been, and her shoes were now tiny boots that tiny children wore in the winter. Possibly worst of all, she certainly felt something underneath that onesie of hers, and it sure as hell wasn’t her pair of panties. No, it was a diaper, and she positive of that too for three reasons: it was bulky, it crinkled, and much to her horror…it smelled.

“Well hello there princess~” A familiar voice said softly from the front seat, as the car came to gentle stop at a red light. Katy’s eyes widened as she saw the smiling face of her mother see her in such an infantile state, blushing like crazy in embarrassment.

“M-mom!?” She exclaimed inside of her head. “What the…how the…what the hell is going on!?”

Chapter 5

“Someone must’ve been sleepy,” Katy’s mother continued, keeping her eyes on the road, but glancing at her rear-view mirror every now and then to check on her daughter. “You napped right through the rest of daycare~ You must’ve been having some nice dreams, Sleeping Beauty!”

Spitting the pacifier she suckled out of her mouth, Katherine looked at her hands as if they belonged to some kind of alien. What had happened to her in the few hours that she napped? How could she have slept through all of those screaming kids back at the daycare?

“Mom! Why am I strapped in here? What’d you do with my clothes?” She yelled, pulling on the child-proof straps that trapped her in the soft car-seat. The girl waited for a response for her mother, but she didn’t seem to be listening. “This is serious!”

“My! Someone’s chatty today,” The woman commented while driving, moving farther and farther away from the daycare.

“Well of course I’m ‘chatty’! What’d you expect?!” Katy exclaimed, trying desperately to find the buckle on her strap. She had never liked being restrained, ever since she was little. Seatbelts were okay, but big car-seats like this with chest straps and certain strollers had always made her uncomfortable. Though, in none of those situations was she ever dressed in such a manner at such an age. She was pretty sure that four year olds shouldn’t be wearing onesies or diapers, even in her original reality.

After calling out to her a few more times, Katy eventually gave up, figuring that her mother was just ignoring her and paying attention to the road. She had so many questions that needed answers, and fast. Had she changed her clothes before taking her out of daycare? Was this how the children of this reality always dressed? How long had she been asleep? On a different, yet equally important note, where were they going? Each of these questions received no response from her mother, other than the occasional smile or wave during a red light.
“Okay,” Thought Katy as she began to calm herself, taking deep breaths so she could think clearly and analyze her situation. “Think about what you did before nap-time. You went to the bathroom, you cleaned up the blocks, you listened to a story, and you went to sleep…that’s about it, right? What could have possibly happened while she had gone to sleep that ended in this? She had her “Mom redressed me before leaving” theory, but that didn’t make much sense; what would the point of that be? And she probably would’ve awoken during the change, since she was never the deepest of sleepers. She thought for a moment that she might have been dreaming, but everything around her seemed way too real. Just to make sure, though, she pinched her arm a little to check for pain. Sure enough, she felt the sting, so that theory had to be crossed out.

“Wait…I answered that question wrong during story time…” The girl thought, attempting to settle into her car-seat as she crossed her arms. “Maybe…maybe we’re slowly regressing as we spend more time in this reality…no, no that couldn’t be it. If we ourselves are regressing, then we should be settling into the ages we were supposed to be. And this attire just doesn’t seem right for a four year-old. And the clothing change wouldn’t make much sense either…damn, this is giving me a headache!”
Lost in her thoughts, Katherine didn’t seem to notice when the car eventually came to a stop. About a minute after she parked the car, her mother got out of her seat and opened the car door, soon meeting Katy at the side door of the backseat.

“Oh, dropped your paci?” The woman questioned, reaching and picking it up for the girl. Reaching into her back pocket, she pulled out an emergency baby wipe and cleaned off the nipple of the unusually large pacifier, soon plopping it back into her daughter’s mouth and ruffling her hair. “There we go, all better~”

Spitting the object back out of her mouth, Katy glared at her mother threateningly, pulling against the straps once more now that the car had stopped. Now that she could see her face up close, she noticed a few things somewhat different about her since the last time she had seen her. As always, her light brown hair with tied up in a bun on the back of her head, with a few stray grays scattered around the side of her head. Her face was soft, light, and slightly wrinkled from years of…aging. She wore a long sleeved gray shirt underneath her black hoodie sweatshirt, which was unzipped due to the temporary calm weather in the middle of winter, and below that she wore a pair of blue jeans. All in all, she looked like your average mother in her mid-fifties, but something was definitely different about the woman’s face, in Katy’s opinion.

Katy and her mother had never seen eye-to-eye. They would be constantly arguing about anything that came up: Katy’s career, her love-life, her hobbies, and all that jazz. Due to her constant scolding, her hazel eyes had always seemed darker than they should be, and the area around her eyes was droopy and worn from it as well. But when Katy looked at her face now, she couldn’t help but notice that her eyes seemed much brighter than they usually were, as if she was several years younger. Obviously, that wasn’t true, due to the tiny gray hairs and whatnot, but something youthful definitely emitted from her mother’s face that she hadn’t seen in the longest time. The smile may have been weird as well, but at least Katherine could explain that. She was supposed to be a kid, and parents smiled at their children, right?

That bright face, however, quickly turned into one of confusion as Katherine spit out the pacifier for the second time. Picking it up once more, the woman shrugged and slipped it into her back pocket, leaving the side door open and heading for the trunk.

“Wait! Just take a second and answer me!” Katy shouted, pulling against the straps with all her might. “Just answer me, dammit!”

“I guess someone’s a little cranky today too,” Her mother thought out loud while taking something out of the trunk, giggling to herself. “You’re probably still a wittle sleepy, aren’t you~”

Katy banged her head against the back of her car seat in frustration. What was wrong with this woman? She had been given the silent treatment before, but what was with the baby talk? Her mother wasn’t gone for very long, as she soon returned to the side of the car and unbuckled the girl with ease, pressing the red button in the middle of the body strap twice to release her. Stunned at the fact that she hadn’t even thought of that, Katy stared at the unbuckled strap as her mother grabbed her by the sides and lifted her out of the car seat…

“Holy…Mom! Let me down, you’ll break your back!” Katherine called out in panic as she was somewhat easily lifted from her seat into the old woman’s arms.

“You really are chatty today…” The woman mumbled, actually able to hold the girl with one arm while she quickly reached for the pacifier in her back pocket. Once again, she popped it into the girl’s mouth, smiling at her and balancing her on her hip with two arms. Rather than spitting it out, Katherine kept the soother in her mouth this time, as she noticed yet another thing different about her mother. What she hadn’t noticed before, since she was so focused on the changes in her face, were her arms…they were so much more muscular than before. Of course, the lady was no body-builder, but for some reason she seemed to have much thicker arms than before. Katherine wasn’t fat or heavy at all, but she was the average weight for a woman her age. For a woman her mother’s age to be able to lift her up so easily, and carry her with one arm for a few seconds was no small feat. All of these crazy changes around her really were giving her a headache, so she decided to stop thinking for a bit and rub her temples instead, hoping that things would just explain themselves before they got any weirder.

Katherine’s mother carried her to the back of the car, where yet another surprise waited. What the woman had pulled out of the trunk before was a stroller big enough for a woman Katherine’s size to ride in, maybe even someone larger. The thought of being restrained again made the girl want to struggle some more, but for some reason, suckling the pacifier in her mouth seemed to sooth her tense nerves. She yawned, having just woken up from her nap, and rubbed one of her eyes on an impulse. Surprisingly, this caused her mother to giggle yet again, and kiss her on the cheek.

“Such a little cutie~ Mama’s gonna eat you up!” She cooed, setting the girl in the large pink stroller and strapping her in with a strap that went across her torso. Once she was safe and secure, her mother stepped behind said stroller and started pushing Katherine towards…wherever they were. It actually took Katherine a few moments to notice that they were in the local grocery store’s parking lot, presumably here to pick up a few things on the way home. From the look of the sun, she could tell that it was probably the middle of the afternoon.

The strange old woman pushed Katherine through the entrance of the grocery store and over towards the shopping carts inside, which were set up in a line like always. The store was set up like any other grocery store, with nothing really all that special. There were eleven aisles of food and other goods spread out across the whole building, with a few bathrooms and a storage room in the back. To the side of the shopping carts were a few open registers for checking out, and so on and so forth. What was strange about this place, though, wasn’t the structure or the set-up of the building itself; rather, it was the shoppers that really made Katherine raise an eyebrow.

As her mother grabbed a shopping basket rather than a cart and pushed her daughter along, Katherine couldn’t help but notice the several other families and individuals shopping around the same area. One family in front of them consisted of a mother, who was pushing around a shopping cart full of various items, and a boy, or rather, a man sitting in the baby seat of the cart, which was a lot bigger than the ones she remembered. The boy wore a red, long sleeved shirt with an Elmo face one the front, as well as a pair of jean overalls with a teddy bear stitched onto the pocket. He too was suckling on a blue pacifier with a white shield, which seemed to be clipped to his clothing for safe keeping. The man giggled at his mother and held a stuffed dragon in his arms, shaking it to hear its tail rattle and squealing in glee. The mother cooed at her child as she pushed him along, taking a few items off of the shelf as she passed.

Another family, near aisle three, consisted of a father and mother shopping with their daughter, who looked to be about two or three. She too was sitting in the baby seat of the shopping cart, but this one was normal sized. Surprisingly, the girl was dressed in almost the exact same manner as Katherine, though her clothes were slightly different and baby-sized. Katherine couldn’t really make out the differences, but she didn’t really need to, as her eyes soon fixed on the other girl in their family, sleeping in a stroller pushed by the father. She looked to be around Katherine’s age too, maybe a little younger, and she wore long pink sweatpants with a happy little bee stitched onto one leg. She wore a fluffy black baby jacket that looked cute with the pink pants, and she suckled on a clear pacifier with a blue shield. What Katherine noticed the most, though, was that the girl’s jacket was lifted ever so slightly, revealing the sides of what looked like a diaper.

These two families confirmed two things for Katherine, which at least made what happened a little easier to understand, even if she had no idea how it actually happened. For one thing, she wasn’t the only one dressed like this, so this had to be some kind of common things. Secondly…well, since she was dressed just like the two year old, and the two year old was dressed like her sister and the other boy…then she was definitely not considered a kid anymore. Rather, she seemed to be classified as a baby in whatever reality this was. The pacifiers, the diapers, the giant car-seat, they all added up to this final conclusion. While this was scary enough, yet another thing in Katy’s mind suddenly clicked…was her mom really just ignoring her? Slowly, the girl turned her head towards her mother, who had stopped to look for a brand of pasta she needed for dinner that night, and nervously spoke once again.

“Mom…you can heaw me, wight?” She questioned sheepishly through her soother, catching the attention of the old woman. Once again, rather than giving her a straight response, the woman only smiled and bent over to kiss the girl’s forehead.

“Mommy loves her wittle princess, yes she does~” She cooed before returning her attention to the pasta. Katy had to try hard to keep herself from screaming as she returned to her normal sitting position in the stroller, blushing like crazy and suckling on her pacifier a lot faster than before. It wasn’t that the woman had been ignoring her all this time…she just couldn’t understand her. She could hear her own words plain as day, and she could hear the other children around her talk, even if their words were juvenile and obviously immature. But for some really strange, really scary reason, she felt that none of the adults in the room could understand any of it! If she was considered four or five just a few hours ago, what was her equivalent age now?! Two? One?

“This is insane…I can’t even speak to my own mother…I’m completely helpless…” She said to herself as the thought dawned upon her, making her somewhat nauseous with shock. She had no means of speaking to anyone else, other than the “babies” of this world, and the only other person that might be able to give her some comfort was probably still back at the daycare center. This couldn’t possibly get any worse, she thought.

Of course, she was wrong, as suddenly her mother set the now full shopping basket underneath the stroller and knelt at its side, sniffing around Katherine for a moment.

“Phew~ You, little girl, need a diaper change~” She announced, kissing her cheek before standing up again and pushing her towards the bathroom in the back.

Katy’s pupils dilated upon hearing that phrase, suddenly reminded of the smell that emitted from her diaper area that she noticed upon waking up. Maybe it was the initial shock of the moment that blinded her from this simple fact, but it didn’t fully hit her until just then. She would have to be changed, eventually.

“No…no! No, no, uh-uh, no!” Katy yelled, pushing at the straps and fussing around in the stroller as they got closer and closer to the women’s restroom. She would rather die than have her own mother see what she had did down there, and handle whatever needed to be handled. She knew that she had seen her mother unbuckle the strap in the car seat, but she couldn’t seem to remember how…something about pushing button, she thought. “Please mom, I’ll change myself!”

“Now now sweetie, this’ll only take a minute. Shhh~” The woman said as she tried to calm her daughter down, stopping outside the bathroom door to stroke her hair soothingly. “I know you’re cranky, but we’ll be home in just a bit~”
Katherine was still freaked out, and she still struggled against the straps, but just the simple touch of her mother’s hand on her hair strangely seemed to sooth her troubles, just like suckling the pacifier did a few moments ago. She couldn’t really tell why at the moment, but she just knew that they had something to do with her sudden calmness. After a few more hair-strokes, the girl was still once more, though she still whined immaturely through her pacifier and blushed crimson as she was pushed through the door to the restroom.

The inside of the restroom was lined with stalls for the women to use, with one much bigger stall on the very end for changes, or for the handicapped. Katy’s mother left the stroller near the door and unbuckled her daughter, who held onto the stroller for dear life before being calmed by a quick, soothing back rub and a few coos. Her mother seemed to like coddling more than yelling this time around, that was certain. Once she calmed down and let go of the straps that once restrained her, she held her arms crossed and suckled her pacifier quickly as her mother carried her over to the big stall at the end, soon entering it and locking the door behind her. The stall was equipped with a large Koala Kare changing table, much bigger than the normal ones for babies she was used to seeing, for obvious reasons. A moment later, she found herself lying on said table, where her mother began to undo the snaps on the crotch of her onesie. She smiled and tried to keep Katherine distracted as she did this, humming sweetly and soothingly. Once the onesie was open, a light pink diaper was revealed, which looked like an adult equivalent of a baby diaper. It had single tapes on both sides and a picture of Disney’s Cinderella on the front, posing in a heart. Katherine barely looked, however, as she quickly put her head down and turned it away from the changing scene as it began, trying to keep herself from rolling off the table and running.

“Just calm down…it’ll be over soon, you just have to stay calm…” She thought, focusing on simple things, like her pacifier. “You’re a baby here, and babies get changed…until you figure out what’s going on, you’ll have to deal with it. No matter how gross it is…”

“Phew! Someone has a really soggy bum, now doesn’t she~? Yes she does~!” Her mother cooed as she untapped the baby diaper and took a few wipes from the changing table. The woman tossed the old soggy diaper into the trash at the side of the stall before wiping the girl’s crotch area thoroughly to get her clean, making sure to wipe away everything before lifting her legs and moving on to her tush. After a good amount of baby wipes were used up, she tossed them away with the diaper and reached for a clean one…which she didn’t have.

“Oh my, must’ve forgot…” Katy’s mom mumbled to herself, bopping herself in the head. “One second, baby girl, mommy’s gotta get you a new diaper~”

And with that, the woman left the stall and shut the door behind her, leaving Katherine alone on the changing table with her butt and…lady part exposed to the cold air. If she had thought she was stuck in the stroller or the car seat, she was even more helpless at this time. If she tried to roll off the table, she would fall onto the dirty bathroom floor and scurry off…with no pants on. She had no idea how to re-button her onesie, as she couldn’t see where the buttons were from where she laid, and she couldn’t possibly finish the change herself without a diaper within reach. Hell, she didn’t even mind if she had to wear a diaper, as long as her privates were covered…

Thankfully, just a minute later, the girl’s mom returned with another giant baby diaper that she had stored with the groceries underneath the stroller, along with a bottle of talcum powder, smiling at her child once again upon returning.

“Such a good girl, staying still for mommy~ Who’s a clever girl~” She cooed as she moved back over to the foldable table, slipping the new diaper underneath her bare bum. “Mama can be so forgetful sometimes, I’m sorry!”

Sighing in relief that she would soon be covered once again, Katy closed her eyes once again as her mother recommenced with the change. She sprinkled the baby powder over her crotch and spread it out smoothly and softly before lifting up her legs again to do the same to her butt. Once that was done with, she folded the front of the diaper and taped up the sides, patting the girl’s side to let her know she was done.

“There, all better~” The woman stated, helping Katy sit back up before re-buttoning her onesie and lifting her into her arms again. “Doesn’t this feel better than that filthy thing? Come on, princess, let’s get home.”

“Alright…diaper, good. No diaper, bad. Now I know for the future…” Katherine thought to herself, her cheeks still bright red as she buried her face into her mother’s shoulder. She hated admitting it, but the diaper and onesie were the only things covering her at the moment. She was definitely better off having them on rather than off. And while the…purpose of the diaper was still stomach-turning, at least a clean diaper felt like poofy underwear. In fact…this was the first time Katherine had felt a clean diaper around her waist since she had woken up. The crinkly plastic hugged her bottom and fit snugly under her onesie, and compared to the clammy, smelly, disgusting feeling of sitting in her own waste, this was a much better alternative.

As she was buckled back into the stroller, though, she remembered what she was doing before being interrupted by that humiliating change: figuring out what the hell had happened to her, and the world for that matter. Holding her head in her hands, she began to feel the painful sting of a headache forming inside her skull, probably from her previous shock and anxiety. Sighing, she realized that it would probably be for the best if she just waited it out for now and didn’t ask too many questions. She needed to keep her sanity, after all, and she could always talk about everything with Abby the next day at daycare. If Abby was holding on to the PRCD, then they could just change everything back to normal the next day. All she had to do was survive one night…that wouldn’t be so hard, right?

For the next few minutes, rather than focusing on getting out of her situation, Katy closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep in the stroller. She figured that she at least wouldn’t have to deal with any annoying baby talk if her mother thought she was unconscious. She felt herself being pushed around the grocery store as her mother picked out a few other foods before heading to the register and eventually back to the car. She didn’t dare open her eyes, but she could feel her mother unbuckling her and re-strapping her into the carseat when they arrived, kissing her cheek lightly before packing up the stroller and driving away.

The drive home from the grocery store didn’t take too long, and Katherine spent her time focusing on random topics, just to keep her mind at work and to distract herself from the probable problems that would present themselves later that evening. She thought about what she would do when she was back in her own reality, and how she would look on it from then on. She would probably appreciate her freedoms a lot more, after what she was experiencing now, but she would always look back on that day as a five year old fondly. She hated her current situation, but playing kid for once was definitely an enjoyable experience once she got used to it. Though she would probably throw the PRCD into the window of Modern Marvels when she became an adult again, just to get back at that idiot Reginald for selling them a faulty device. If it was the fault of the device itself for causing the weird changes, that was.

When she felt the car stop, she peeked open one of her eyes just to see where they had stopped. She wasn’t surprised to find herself parked outside the same apartment complex she had lived in when she was growing up, just a few blocks away from where she lived before. Of course, both she and her parents had moved out in the other reality, but since she was still growing up in this world, it’d make sense that they would still be in their old apartment. Unfortunately, her mother caught her with her eyes open when she came around to unbuckle her, and donned that same goofy smile once again.

“You’re a tired little one today, aren’t you? Let’s hope mama can put you to bed later,” She said in a sing-song voice, lifting her out of the carseat and carrying her inside. After taking the elevator up two floors or so, the two stopped outside a familiar brown door with the number seven painted above the doorknob. Katherine had to hold back a groan as she saw it again; her memories of life at home had never been too fond, what with her mother’s tyrannical behavior and whatnot. Though, the apartment behind the door was much different than she remembered. Sure, they still walked into the same old hallway when they opened the door, and the main sitting room, kitchen, and bedroom doors were where they always were, but everything had been pretty much babified. If said baby was her size, of course. A huge playpen full of toys stood a few feet away from the small TV set across from the couch in the sitting room, and a big stack of adult baby diapers sat beside it for reasons Katy refused to think about. An adult sized high chair stood at the kitchen table, as well as a pink baby walker in the living room with all kinds of plastic toys and nobs for small children. Spread out next to the couch was a large baby blanket that probably doubled as a playmat, since most of what were presumably her toys were scattered across it, and the entire complex smelled of baby powder. It really did look like it had been the home of a baby for the past twenty-five years or so.

“Well…I can’t say I won’t be comfortable, at least, what with all the poofy-fluffy stuff everywhere…” She mumbled in what was probably baby speak behind her pacifier, which she had grown quite accustomed to over the past hour. It was probably one of the only things keeping her sane, with its mysteriously soothing effect on her body. Katy’s mom bounced the girl in her arms as she walked over to the sitting room, setting her precious little girl on her crinkly butt in her playpen before flicking on the TV and walking over to the kitchen. Instead of dropping her inside, though, she zipped open a compartment on the side and slipped her through, closing it as soon as she had let go. The play pen had to be big enough to keep a baby of her size from getting out and hurting themselves, so the walls were pretty damn high. Katherine, assuming that her head would poke over the top if she stood up straight, tried to stand up in the playpen, but to her surprise she wasn’t able to keep her balance when she locked her legs. She fell back onto a pile of soft, fluffy stuffed animals, so she wasn’t hurt or anything, but she wasn’t too happy about her latest realization.

“Greeeeeat, can’t walk either. Stupid body…” She mumbled. At least there was one advantage to baby talk: she could talk out loud as much as she wanted without being judged or heard. Sitting back up, she got onto her knees and scooted over to the other side of the playpen to watch what her mother was doing, not paying much attention to the Nick Jr. playing on the TV. Admittedly, this version of her mother was way better than what she had to deal with back in her other life, but it was still kind of creepy to see her in such a happy and downright nice light. Even something as simple as a touch from her mother was able to somehow calm her down back at the grocery store, and it wasn’t the worst feeling in the world. For the first time in her life that she could remember, Katherine had a deep connection with her mom, even if she was acting all creepy and cooing her every five minutes.

Shrugging and leaning against the wall of her playpen, Katy was about to try and sleep again, when something on the TV caught her eye. Scooting over towards the wall closest to the screen, she noticed that it was a commercial for some kind of daycare program a few towns over. The commercial showed kids ranging from three to her own age, and some a bit older, playing and listening to stories. Some teachers were talking about their lesson plans and whatnot, but she wasn’t paying attention to any of that. What she noticed was the age range for the daycare service down at the bottom left corner of the screen…which she couldn’t read at all. She knew what she was seeing were numbers, but which ones she couldn’t say in a million years. They seemed upside-down and backwards for some reason. Groaning, she assumed that this was another effect of her regression, like her spelling error from before, but in a more extreme sense. She flopped onto her stomach and pouted, wallowing in self-pity as she realized the limitations of her helpless state, when yet another commercial appeared on the screen. It was another school ad, but this time for a different demographic, which made Katy lift up her head. Of course, she couldn’t read the enrollment ages for this ad either, but she did notice one thing: the adult-kids in that commercial weren’t babies at all.
“Wait a second…” She mused, the gears turning in her head as she completed pieces of the puzzle. A second ago, the commercial she had seen showed kids from three to around thirty still in diapers. In this commercial, however, the kids she saw were definitely in their early thirties…yet they were dressed like your average teenager. Some were dressed a bit younger, others like teens, and even some of the slightly older looking ones were teaching in the classrooms, yet they all looked to be around the same age…

Katy’s head was still fuzzy and in shock from the day’s traumas, but with some willpower, she was able to piece together one final theory about this world she was in. It was a stretch, but she knew it would ease her mind if she was able to explain at least one thing in this world. If her theory was correct, then people of this reality were considered toddlers from age one to thirty, but when they reached thirty, instead of a slow, gradual ease into adulthood, everything was just…thrown at them. In theory, within a year or two, with extremely long school days and very little vacations, a person could learn everything the needed to know from a public school system and literally “grow up” at an alarming speed. It did explain a lot; not only the commercials, but why her mother was still the same age: if she had apparently gone through thirty years of babying, and then had about twenty one years of childhood before having Katherine, who she raised for the past twenty five years, she would have to be…some big number. So having a few long years of extreme education would make sense. Finally, something made sense!

Chapter 6

“Upsie-Daisy~” Her mother chimed as she was pulled out through the unzipped door of the playpen and up into the woman’s arms. Katy jumped a bit when she was grabbed, having not even noticed her mother’s presence until that very moment. She blushed a bit when she was cuddled a little too close for comfort, as she could feel her mother’s breasts up against her own, but she couldn’t help but smile anyway. The woman just gave off a happy vibe, and the warmth she felt from the hug was a great sensation. No wonder moms could make kids stop crying so easily…most of the time.

Katy’s mom proceeded to set the girl down inside the giant baby-walker before sitting down on the couch behind Katherine, grabbing a magazine from the table beside the sofa and setting her foot on the back of the walker. Gently, she pushed the girl back and forth with said foot every now and then to “keep her occupied”, and smiled at her when the girl arched her head back. Katy shifted a little and tried to get comfortable in the baby-walker, which wasn’t very hard; the thing had been made to please “children” like her, anyway. Her feet could barely touch the ground with her tippy toes in her current sitting position, but the thing felt more like a really comfortable chair than some kind of plastic trap. With the added cushioning of her crinkly bum, she actually felt quite relaxed, to her surprise.

“Okay, maybe this isn’t so terrible…I mean, I’m comfortable, at least. And it’s only for one night….” She mumbled while blushing, smiling just a bit behind her soother. As her only options at this point were to watch TV or get lost in her thoughts yet again, the girl decided to try and watch whatever educational show her mom had put on for her. Expecting something ridiculously boring with plenty of open questions that no one answers, Katy was yet again surprised to find that the show on the screen was completely foreign to her. Even while working at a daycare for all those years, now that she thought about it, she hadn’t kept up or heard about many new kids’ shows that had come out over the past twenty years. The show that was playing was definitely aimed at the younger demographic, but seeing something completely new sparked some kind of interest in her mind that made her want to keep watching.

Of course, even though she didn’t plan on drifting off into some deep level of thought, her mind slipped away anyway as she watched the kiddie show intently. The physical disabilities such as walking and talking were making her feel more “baby-like”, in a sense, but would this reality change affect her psyche as well? She shivered at the thought of possibly starting to drool all over herself like some kind of infant. However, because this change would only be for one night, she quickly dismissed that silly thought, figuring that one night of baby treatment wouldn’t destroy her adult mind.

“In fact…” She thought out loud in baby speak as the two talking ponies on screen conversed with one another. “If it’s only for one nigh
t, why not make the best of it? Of course, I’m not cool with the whole ‘soiling myself’ thing, but…I do need a vacation, don’t I? And this is pretty much a hotel with VIP service…in a way.”

The thought was a nice one, but Katherine couldn’t help but debate with herself on the decision. Was she really okay with acting like a complete baby, just throwing her dignity out the window? A part of her knew that she had too much self-respect to go along with this act, even for just one night. But on the other hand, some part of her thought the treatment would be sort of refreshing; if she could patch things up with her mom in this reality, then facing her mother her own world should be that much easier, right? This indecisiveness was starting to give her a headache, which she quickly tried to subdue by rubbing her temples gently. Arching her head back to her mother, who was still reading her magazine on the couch, she decided for herself that the inner conflict wouldn’t do herself any good in this situation; the best thing to do would be to just go with the flow and make the most out of her time in this fluffy, pink “nightmare”.

Taking a deep breath and quickly suppressing a blush, Katherine reached out to her mother from her comfy seat in the baby walker, as a child would do when seeking attention. A few seconds later, the old woman looked up from her magazine and smiled at her daughter, getting up from her seat and lifting the girl out of her own.

“Looks like someone wants her mama~ Isn’t that right?” The woman cooed, returning to the couch with Katherine in her arms and setting the girl onto her lap. The girl, a little uncomfortable in her awkward new seat, tried to hide her oncoming blush and smiled back at her mother. She tried to let that warm feeling she sensed before wash over her again as she adjusted herself, her extra padding making it that much easier to get comfortable on her mother’s lap. Placing an arm around her and gently resting the girl’s head on her chest, Katherine’s mother slowly stroked the girl’s long brown hair, causing a tingling feeling to shoot up her little one’s spine. She didn’t need to attempt to hide her blush anymore, as it was clearly present on her cheeks; that same warm sensation had returned, and Katherine loved it. She knew that a grown woman resting in her mother’s lap should’ve been such an uncomfortable situation, but strangely, she was on cloud nine.

Katherine didn’t need to watch TV anymore to take her mind off of the twisted reality she’d been forced into; in fact, this warm feeling was better than TV. Her mother’s chest, no matter how awkward it should’ve been to rest on it, made for an excellent pillow as she snuggled up closer to her. She could hear her mother’s heartbeat synch up with her own, and instead of the rhythmic drumbeat it should’ve sounded like, all Katherine could her was a symphony of ocean songs, like the ones Abby would sometimes listen to when she couldn’t sleep.
Snapping back to reality for just a moment, Katherine’s face fell when she thought of her friend once again. Abby. Was it really fair for her to be enjoying her time at home while Abby was facing this new reality alone? She was probably just as confused as she was, and she knew that the girl was never the sharpest tool in the shed. Being a techno geek was one thing, but she was never very good at reading a situation or figuring out the way the world worked for herself. She wanted to be there for her, so she could share her theories and hopefully shed a little light on this confusing, scary situation, but she couldn’t. She felt utterly useless at that moment, trapped in her apartment with no way of finding out where she was.

“Awww, what’s the matter princess?” Her mother asked in a loving tone as she looked down at her daughter, who had unknowingly shed a few silent tears in her mother’s lap. Katy blinked and rubbed her eyes with her arm, surprised that she had reacted to her thoughts in such a way. Her mom began stroking her hair once again, a feeling that Katy quickly learned to love, and all of her sad thoughts somehow vanished from her head. Not another tear fell down her cheek as she looked up into her mother’s eyes; those warm, gentle eyes, not judging her every second of every day of her life, but loving her for everything she was and everything she would eventually be. Awestruck at the wonderful sight, that wonderful warm feeling, new tears began to fall from Katherine’s eyes. Not tears of grief or worry or sadness, but tears of joy. Tears of love.

“I….I have a mom…” She mumbled through her pacifier, the tears starting to fall faster and her throat starting to choke up. “I…have…a mom…”

The girl’s big pacifier fell from her mouth and on to the couch as she buried her face into her mother’s shirt, weeping like a child who didn’t give a damn whether or not she was crying in front of someone. Her mom didn’t do anything big to make her feel this way. She didn’t go out of her way to try and make her feel good, or give some kind of dramatic speech about how much she loved her; all she did was look at her. She wiped a tear away from her face, showed concern when she was upset. That stare…that look she gave Katy when they locked eyes was all it took to make her break down and bawl like a baby.

“Oh my…” Her mother said softly when Katherine cried into her shirt, standing up and rubbing her back while bouncing the big girl ever so gently. “Shhh…it’s okay, sweetheart. Mama’s here, she’s not going anywhere~ Such a good girl~”

“I…I love you, mom…” Katherine said in a mumbled voice, muffled by the shirt she bawled into. “I know…I don’t say it as much as I should…and I’m sorry! I’m sorry I disappointed you, sorry that I didn’t live the life you knew I could…but I was scared! I was scared of moving on! And I just thought…maybe if I acted tough around y-you and dad…you’d think I w-was working my life out on my own…but I need you! You can’t understand me, but I need you! And dad! I love you both!”

Katherine cried into her mother’s chest for what seemed like hours, randomly apologizing whenever she had the breath to do so. A part of her knew that it was her mother’s coldness that usually caused her to be so quick to snap when the two of them talked, but she didn’t care. For some reason, all she felt like doing was apologize. She truly loved her mother, and for the first time in a long time, she felt that love back from her. She felt like a real daughter, and she was ready to let her mother into her life again.

After a few minutes, Katy ‘s cries finally died down to soft sniffles, which caused her mother to sigh in relief. She kissed the girl’s forehead when she had gathered the strength to lift it away from the woman’s sodden shirt, and sat back down on the couch with Katy nestles onto her lap.

“There’s my brave girl~” She chirped, tickling the girl’s belly with her finger a bit, which caused Katherine to giggle in spite of herself. She wasn’t the giggling type, but why not? She was in a fantastic mood. That crying had lifted virtually every worry off of her shoulders, and for the first time in a while she felt as light as air. She no longer had any doubt in her mind; tonight, she would live it up, baby girl style. She wanted to appreciate the time she had left with the nicer version of her mom before having to apologize over and over again to the mother in her own reality. The old woman looked at her watch and suddenly gasped, setting her little one back into her baby walker and kissing her head again.

“Mama will be back in a second princess, she’s just left dinner on a bit too long~ Silly mommy~” She said in a sing-song voice before walking over to kitchen area of their apartment again, shutting off the stove and continuing her dinner preparations. The girl was a little upset to have to leave her mother’s arms so abruptly, but she knew she would be back; she said she’d be back, anyway. Now that Katherine was worry free, she sat back in her walker and watched the silly kid’s show, enjoying herself quite nicely in her comfortable spot.

About an hour past as her mother put the finishing touches on dinner in the kitchen. During this time, Katherine had enjoyed herself as much as she could. She had been moved into her playpen, or play fortress as she called it, since it was so huge, a short while ago, and while the baby walker was soft and comfy, the playpen gave her much more room to move around freely. She had laid a blanket out on the base of the playpen for herself and stretched out onto her stomach with her face towards the TV, watching her newfound show with much interest. She had no idea that children’s television had become so entertaining over the years; of course, maybe it was her that had changed and not the programming, but her headache returned every time she thought about deep stuff like that. She was perfectly content with enjoying her program in ignorant bliss. Of course, she had paid attention to the toys scattered about the play-fort as well. The blocks and chewing keys didn’t really interest her all that much, but what really caught her eye was the extensive collection of stuffed animals all piled up in one of the fort’s corners. After digging through the pile, tossing away anything that wasn’t of interest to her, she finally spotted one toy that stood out among the rest. It was a stuffed gray owl, about the size of her head, with floppy wings and a cute little smile. Oddly, she found this simple toy to be her favorite out of all the rest. With her new toy in hand and her pacifier returned to her after a couple of minutes, the girl laid on her stomach and watched the show happily, giggling whenever possible and loving the freedom to express her feelings rather than bottling them up. Happiness, sadness, laughter, tears, whatever. They were all free to come out whenever they wanted to in Katy’s book.

Katy soon heard the zipper of her play-fort’s door open up, her mother slipping inside a second later to collect her bundle of joy. But before she pulled her out of the pen, she held her arms out and looked away nonchalantly for a moment. The girl saw this and, though she thought that it was odd, returned to cuddling her owl friend, but as soon as she looked away, her mother lunged at her with her arms reached out at Katy’s armpits. The girl began squealing uncontrollably as her mother tickled her in all of her weak points, causing her soother to fall out yet again in her moment of unintended joy.

“Alright sweetie butt, time for dinner~” The woman chimed as she finished her tickle attack, pulling her girl out of the play fort and lifting her back up into her arms. Katherine rested her head on her mother’s chest when she returned to her arms, a big grin spread across her face now that she was where she knew she belonged. She was still a teeny bit apprehensive about being fed- she’d always been squeamish about getting food on her face and whatnot-, but she calmed her worried thoughts by thinking that as long as the food was good, it didn’t really matter how she ate it.

“That’s right…right? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen,” Katherine thought out loud in gibberish, having grown accustomed to voicing her thoughts since no one could hear them but her. The girl became a little confused, however, when her mother didn’t carry her to the dinner table where she assumed they would be eating. Instead, she returned to her spot on the couch, adjusting Katy into a comfortable position on her lap and smiling at her. Just then, the girl felt something vibrate beneath her, which caused her to giggle a little. The vibration had some kind of tickly feeling on her leg. Her mother quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone, which she answered with a smile on her face.

“Hello? Oh, high honey! I was just getting….really?…It’s that bad, huh…” The woman spoke, bouncing her knee a little to keep her girl entertained. “Oh no, it’s fine. If the office is that packed, I’ll just wrap up your dinner…really, it’s fine! I was just getting ready to…oh, you wanna talk to her? Of course, she’ll love it! Hold on.”
With that, Katy’s mother moved her cell phone from her ear to Katy’s, which caused her to blush a little. She didn’t know she’d be put on the spot like this, so she couldn’t really think of what to say…even if she couldn’t really “say” anything.

“Um…hi daddy,” The girl mumbled into the speaker, a little embarrassed.
“There’s my little girl~ Daddy just wanted to say he loves you, okay?” The man on the other line cooed, like some kind of doting father.
“He’s gonna be home late tonight, but he promises to kiss you goodnight, okay baby~ Daddy loves you, princess.”
Katherine kept her blush, but smiled at her father’s kind words, giggling a little and holding the phone to her ear.

“I love you too, daddy~ I know you can’t understand me, but I love you,” She answered in the most sincere way possible, before her mother pulled the phone away gently and tussled her hair.

“Oh, you should see the look on her face! So precious~ Uh huh, just call when you’re on the train, okay? I’m just about to feed her and send her to bed…yes, I know, I know…we still have to talk about that. I don’t know, I get that she’s a little old for breastfeeding, but I’d miss the bonding…let’s just wait until she’s twenty six, maybe twenty seven, alright? I’m not ready to wean her just yet. Alright…love you too~” Her mother concluded, hanging up the phone and setting it aside.

Katherine had frozen up when she had heard her mother utter the word “breastfeeding” into the phone, her cheeks having flushed up again with a crimson color. She would have to be…breastfed? She knew that she had decided to play baby tonight, but this was…crossing the line.

“I can’t…I couldn’t possibly…do I really have to…” She stuttered, her head beginning to ache again as conflict began to arise in her head. She rubbed her head on both sides and whined a little, the whole situation both grossing her out, as well as sparking an odd kind of curiosity in her brain. What would breast milk taste like? Why did babies enjoy it so much? Was it like warm milk, or cold milk? Did it taste like normal milk at all…?

The girl’s thoughts were silenced once again when she noticed that her mother had already taken off her sweatshirt and unhooked her bra, presenting her breast to Katherine casually. Katherine’s eyes widened as she was unable to help but stare at the peculiar sight before her. She was staring at her own mother’s breast…but for some reason, some really, really strange reason…she didn’t feel very awkward. She wasn’t embarrassed or flustered in any way…in fact, the blush drained from her face as she stared at the nipple, which looked as if it was waiting for her.

“This is so bad…I really shouldn’t do this…” She mumbled to herself with a gulp, inching closer and closer to the presented breast with every second she took to think about it. “But…I’m a baby here, right? And babies…breastfeed. With their mother. It’s natural…it’s natural…it’s fine.”

A second later, Katy’s lips were poised around her mother’s nipple, and instinctively, she began to slowly suckle. It took a few tries, but eventually, a sweet taste began to fill her mouth as she drank the milk her mother made for her and only her, blushing softly as she did so. Her mother rubbed her back and smiled down at her as she fed, and Katherine was truly in a state of utter bliss. Every muscle in her body relaxed as she fed to her heart’s content, and she couldn’t believe how wonderful the milk tasted. It wasn’t exactly like normal milk, which she never really liked in the first place; she couldn’t describe how it tasted, but she knew it was different, in a good way. She felt closer to her mother than she had ever been before, as if they were still connected by an invisible cord. As she fed, she thought of how silly she had been for resisting this treatment earlier, how silly she was for wanting to explain what had happened to her. Yes, it was so silly….to think that she ever wanted to be an adult in the first place.

After a minute or two of suckling, Katherine stopped feeding when she felt that her tummy was full. She looked up at her mother, who redid her bra and slipped her sweatshirt back on casually, as if this kind of thing happened every day…which it did.

“There, I’m sure my little princess is full now~” She cooed, kissing the girl’s cheek and rubbing her back. “Now let’s get you ready for bed, it’s almost night night time.”

Yawning, Katy rested her head on her mother’s chest as she was once again lifted into the air and carried off to another place. A soft smile still showed on her face as she was carried, her thoughts simplifying as she grew sleepier. She thought of it interesting how she had gone through a complete conversion experience in one short evening; from having such silly and unneeded desires of returning to adulthood, to wanting to live out the rest of her babyhood as long as she could. Besides, who needed adulthood when there was so much left to experience in childhood? She could redo her whole life this way. She could study harder in school, make new friends, and maybe finally find a purpose in her life. She still had a few years left of babyhood, but she knew she’d get used to some of the stranger parts eventually. When she was ready, she’d do her very best in school, and hopefully, her life would turn out better than the one back in her old reality. This was her new home, and this is where she wanted to stay.

Her mother carried her into her room which, in this reality, had been turned into a nursery. The room was pretty simple, since most of her playthings were out in the living room. Of course, right next to the door was an adult sized changing table, with a stack of diapers on a shelf underneath the main table and an open closet right next to it, which was filled with different outfits in Katherine’s size. On the floor laid a big play-mat with a city design spread across it, and to the left of that was an open toy box with some kind of word spelled out on the front of it. Katy assumed it was her name, but it was really anyone’s guess a far as she knew. Next to the window on the far end of the room was a huge, adult size bassinette, which looked incredibly comfortable from Katy’s perspective. It was pink and it looked big enough for not one, but two babies of her size to sleep in comfortably. She giggled to herself a little, happy that she was so fortunate to own such a treasure.

“Wait right here baby, I left your nightie in my room~” Her mother said, setting her girl on the floor of her nursery as she stepped out for a moment, leaving the door open just a crack. Katherine waited patiently for her mother to return, leaning against the changing table’s side and yawning a bit more. She could see that the sun was only just starting to set, but even after all of her naps, she still felt exhausted. Maybe it was the breast milk; she didn’t really know or care all that much. She raised an eyebrow, though, when she felt a weird rumbly sensation in her tummy. Of course, the feeling wasn’t foreign to her, but she blushed upon realizing what it was: she had to use the bathroom. She had already used her diaper before, but that was while she was sleeping. Could she really…use it on her own?

As soon as she thought of that question, she giggled. Of course she could. She was a baby after all, right? She knew she’d have to get used to it at some point…in fact, for some reason, she it didn’t sound all that weird any more now that she thought about it. Since she couldn’t stand up on her own, she got onto her hands and knees and squatted her butt just a little, relaxing and giggling to herself. She couldn’t tell what was so funny, but she giggled nonetheless.

“I guess I really am a baby after all~!” She said to herself, filling her diaper just a second later. It only took a little push, and nature did all the rest. Pretty soon, her diaper began to sag, and both a yellow tint appeared near the front while a slight bulge appeared in the back. When she was satisfied, she flopped back onto her bum, feeling the warm sensation spread up around her bum and crotch area. It felt a little odd at first, but eventually, she seemed to remember the feeling of sitting in a full diaper, since in this world, it probably happened every other day. Giggling once more to herself, she turned her head when she heard her mother re-enter the room with a pink nightgown in hand, with a cute little crown design stitched onto the front. Upon entering the room, her mother stopped suddenly and sniffed the air, almost instantly knowing what had happened.

“Phew~ Alright silly, time for a diaper change,” She cooed with a smile, setting the gown aside and lifting the girl up onto the changing table. Katherine smiled at her mother and rested her head back on the big changing table as she waited for the change to commence. Cracking her fingers like a master, Katy’s mother undid the girl’s onesie and slid it off of her, tossing it into the hamper on the other side of the room. She then proceeded to untape Katherine’s full diaper, quickly tossing it aside and getting to work on the little girl’s bum. She took out a tub of baby wipes and lifted her daughter up by the legs, wiping down her buttox thoroughly until she was squeaky clean. She then lowered the girl onto a new diaper, which had been folded out underneath her, and began to work on the girl’s crotch, tossing away wipe after wipe until she was all done. Katherine giggled as the wipes touched her bare skin, her thumb making its way to her mouth as the change went on. She felt herself slowly slipping away into a younger mindset, but she wasn’t worried. This was the way a baby acted, right? What was wrong with that?

Once the girl’s bum was nice and clean, Katy’s mommy took out a bottle of baby powder from one of the shelves on the table and sprinkled the white stuff under her bum and onto her crotch, making sure to spread it out evenly to prevent a rash and give the girl a nice clean smell. Once that was done, the woman taped up the sides and patted the side of her leg to let her know she was done, taking a bottle of hand sanitizer off of the same shelf and beginning to clean her hands.

“Man, you’re a piece of work, aren’t you~ What’s mommy gonna do with you?” She teased, cleaning her hands quickly before tickling the girl’s bare tummy, which made her squeal with delight. Sitting the girl up, her mother gently draped the pink nightgown over her head and slipped her arms through the sleeves. She then popped the girl’s pacifier back into her mouth, which she accepted instantly, and lifted her up once again, humming a sweet song as she carried her over to the bassinette. Katherine yawned and blinked a few times, feeling her eyelids growing heavier by the second. Her tummy was full, her bowels were empty, and her diaper was clean. With a mommy as caring as hers, what else could a baby girl want?

Katy’s mother set her precious little girl down in the bassinette as gently as she could before tucking her in with a pink baby blanket. She stroked the girl’s long brown hair and continued to hum, kissing her cheek softly and warmly. Katherine looked into her mother’s eyes and smiled, reaching out drowsily to touch her cheek and giggle one more time.

“I love you..mama…I really love you~” She said through the soother, one more happy tear dripping down the side of her face as she closed her eyes.

“Mama loves you, Katherine, and she always will,” The woman spoke in a soft tone, turning on a mobile above Katherine’s head, which began to play a sweet tune that Katy couldn’t put a finger on. “Goodnight my angel, sweet dreams~”

And with that, the girl’s mother walked out of the room, turning off the lights and leaving the door open just a crack on her way out. Katherine suckled her soother rhythmically as everything around her began to black out. As the minutes passed, her fatigue began to settle in, and sleep eventually took her in. To anyone who looked into Katherine’s room that night, inside the huge bassinette was nothing but an adorable, precious baby girl, dreaming of whatever her little heart desired for as long as she wanted.

**************************************

“Come on…come on…Katy, where are you!?” Abigail whined to herself as she banged the back of her head against the wall of the daycare room, fiddling with a large blue pacifier in her hands. She wore a light blue, long legged romper with a bright yellow bow tied in her hair, which fell naturally down the sides of her head cutely. Other adult babies crawled past her as she sat by herself in the corner of the nursery, her crinkly rump planted on the floor in waiting for her friend. “It’s been an hour…please tell me you’re still assigned to this room…”

As if on cue (a really late cue, rather), the door of the nursery room opened, and Katy’s mother stepped inside with a bubbly little girl in her arms. She wore a pair of pink overalls with a red heart stitched onto the front pocket as well as a white onesie underneath, and her hair was tied into a big braided ponytail with a red bow at the end. The girl hung onto her mother’s neck happily as they entered the room, the older woman setting her down on the floor and giving her a big smooch on the cheek.

“Alright Katy, play nice and behave for Mrs. Daisy, okay?” She instructed lovingly before blowing her a kiss and walking out the door. Katy waved goodbye to her mother as she left before turning to the rest of the nursery, scanning the room for Abby. She didn’t need to look hard, however, because she was soon tackled to the floor by her blond best friend, who had buried her face in her shirt.

“Katy! Where have to been? I’ve been waiting for you all this time!” She complained, sniffling a little. Katy was a little surprised, bu
t she sat up again and hugged her friend happily, giggling yet again and lifting Abby’s head off of her overalls.

“Relax, silly head~ Mommy let me oversleep is all,” She explained, finding it kind of nice that she could converse with someone else, finally. She had a feeling that other adult babies might be able to understand her, and she was relieved to find out that she was right.

“Katherine…you have no idea…” Abby started with a sniffle, wiping her eyes with her arm and looking at the floor in shame. “You have no idea…how sorry I am…I’ve had a terrible night.”

“Terrible? How could this be terrible?” The brunette exclaimed, smiling and flopping onto her back. “This is paradise, bliss~ Abby, I’m sorry I was so resistant before, but last night changed everything for me. I don’t think I ever want to go back~”

Abigail stared at her best friend in pure shock, her jaw slightly dropped. She couldn’t believe that the person who she had just talked to yesterday, the one who she’d known since high school, was uttering such a ridiculous…un-Katherine-like phrase. She never wanted to go back to adulthood?

“Katy…please, Katy, just listen to me…” The blonde girl muttered, still sniffling a little. “There’s something…I need to say. I…tricked you into using the PRCD.”
Katherine sprang up into a sitting position upon hearing this, looking at Abby with a confused stare.

“You…how?” She asked, cocking her head slightly. Oddly, the girl didn’t seem to be very angry or upset with Abigail; a look of pure curiosity swept was present on her face.

“…you know how you talk in your sleep?” Abby questioned, unable to look her friend in the eyes. “I…I tricked you into agreeing with something you didn’t know about. I..I know its…weird, and odd, and wrong or whatever you want to call it, but I always wanted to…you know, be treated like a kid…no, not a kid. A baby. I wanted to be treated like a baby…and I can’t tell you how much I got for what I wished for. Please, Katherine, forgive me! I never want to experience anything like this again!”

“Forgive you? Abby, thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!” Katherine exclaimed, giggling and tackling her friend to the ground with hugs, which made Abby blush and stare at her friend in shock. “If you hadn’t tricked me, I would’ve never gotten to experience this…paradise! Abby, you won’t believe what happened to me last night!”

“No…Katy, no, don’t say that!” Abby exclaimed, covering her ears and whining. “My night last night….was absolutely terrible! I…I can’t control when I go to the bathroom anymore…my mom…she touched me in my private placed, she changed my diaper…I had to breastfeed for Pete’s sake! And worst of all…oh, Katy…my parents, they fought last night. My mom put me to bed, and I couldn’t sleep, and…and…”

At this point, Abby was openly weeping as she recalled the events of the previous night. She had wanted this kind of baby treatment as long as she could remember, but when she got a taste of what being a baby really entailed, all of her dreams shattered instantly. She was too squeamish and shy to even think about enjoying breast milk, and she groaned every time she had to use her diaper…it didn’t help that she had gotten some kind of stomach bug the night before. She still had rings under her eyes from her lack of sleep the night before, as her parents had kept her up for hours with their yelling and fighting. She had no idea what time it was when the yelling finally stopped, but even when it was over, she couldn’t sleep at all; she had never heard her parents fight before, and what made it even worse was the fact that she had no power to stop them at all, no power to just walk out of the apartment and get some fresh air for a bit while they yelled. She was forced to endure such a traumatizing experience, and she wanted out. Immediately.

Abby’s cries were interrupted when her soother was popped into her mouth by Katy, who had taken it out of her hands and presented it to her with a smile. She hugged the girl once more and couldn’t help but giggle, even if her friend was so sad.

“Abby, Abby, you seem so sad~ I was sad too last night, ya know,” She explained casually, smiling the whole time. “I had my diaper changed, I was carried around, and yeah. I was breastfed. But somehow, slowly, all of that awkwardness just floated away~”

“Floated…floated away?” Abby stuttered, looking at her friend with concern. “Katy…don’t tell me…you’re not losing your mind, are you?”

“Nonsense! I’ve never felt so free before in my life!” Katherine exclaimed happily, lifting her arms in the air in happiness. “You should see my apartment, Abby! It’s covered in toys and soft things, and I have this owl at home named Hedwig, and he’s super cute and soft, and I have my own nursery and bassinette and-“

“Katy, stop it!” Abby yelled, causing the girl to stop her happy rant instantly. The blond girl couldn’t believe who she was talking to, couldn’t comprehend the words coming out of her friend’s mouth. “You’re…you’re the responsible one! You’re supposed to keep me sane when I’m flying off the handle, not the other way around! I don’t know what’s happened to you, Katy…it’s all my fault. You’ve lost your mind…”

“But…Abby…” Katherine muttered, still shocked that her friend had actually yelled at her for once. Abby had never been the yelling type; she was always so quiet, so meek…what had changed with her?

“No buts! We need to get you back to normal, back to sanity,” Abby said urgently, shuffling over to a bookcase and pulling out the PRCD from behind it. “I was able to hide this back here before my mom picked me up yesterday. I tried waking you, but you didn’t budge…that was a mistake. Quick, put your finger on the handle and let’s change back, before Mrs. Daisy or Thomas sees us!”

“But Abby!” Katherine pleaded, trying to make her friend understand her love of her new life.

“I said no buts! Please, for once, just listen to me!” Abby cried, sniffling and tearing up again. “I…I want my life back! I want my friend back!”

“Abby…” Katherine started, looking down at the device, then back up to her friend’s face. “I…I’m sorry, but I’m not changing back. You wouldn’t believe…how happy I am here. My mom…she loves me! My mommy really loves me here! I have no responsibilities, everything’s pink and soft and comfortable, everyone’s nice to me and they don’t expect anything from me except to behave and be cute…Abby, I’m not losing my mind. I really love it this way.”

“Katy! You’re talking nonsense!” Abby yelled, her pacifier falling from her mouth as she cried.

“No, Abby…this is the way I want it. And if being a baby is what it takes to relive my life, to be loved and to love both my parents….well,” At this point, Katherine, got onto her knees and strained herself a little, sighing just a few seconds later. “…then I say that’s a pretty good deal~”

Upon seeing this, the caretaker, Mrs. Daisy, approaching the little girl and hoisted her up into the air, tapping her nose sweetly.

“My my, someone’s stinky this morning~ Let’s get you all cleaned up, shall we?” The woman cooed, causing Katherine to laugh and quickly forget her friend’s worries.

“Katy…Katy, no! No, don’t leave me like this!” Abby cried, reaching towards Katherine as she was carried off into the changing room, flopping onto her stomach in sadness. “Don’t…don’t leave me alone…you’re my best friend…”

Suddenly, a familiar face came up from behind Abby and sat in front of her. Pamela, who sucked her thumb obliviously, looked down at the sad girl on the carpet, but quickly lost interest and shifted her eyes towards the shiny device in Abby’s hands.

“Ooooh…mine~!” She exclaimed, smiling mischievously and grabbing the PRCD with one hand. Abby quickly lifted her head and held onto the device tightly, wiping her tears away with her free arm.

“S-stop! Pamela! You don’t know what you’re doing!” The girl pleaded, pulling the device away from the girl, who just kept on pulling back with all her might.

“No! You’re a stupid head!” Pamela said, pulling in the device’s handle. “This is mine, you’re too dumb to have it!”

“Pamela, you’re gonna break it! Please, stop!” Abby called, pulling and pulling….until the inevitable happened. The fragile handles on the PRCD broke off of its back, and the rest of the device fell to the floor, the screen becoming dark and somewhat foggy. Abby looked down at the broken device in horror, looking to Pamela, and then back to the device.

“You…you bitch…” She muttered, tears flowing out of her eyes like a faucet. Her lips quivered and her hands began to shake as she looked up at the ceiling, beginning to wail at the top of her lungs.

Abby wasn’t on the ground for long, as Thomas quickly ran over to the two girls and lifted Abby up off the ground, rubbing her back and stroking her hair.

“Oh, Abigail, what’s the matter, huh? Is someone a little cranky?” Thomas asked in a soothing voice, looking down at Pamela and the broken device in confusion. It only took a few seconds for the man to register what must’ve happened, though. “Pamela! Did you break Abby’s toy? Bad girl!”

Kneeling down and holding Abby closely, the main quickly used one of his arms to point to the corner of the room, gesturing his head over there and giving Pamela a good scolding.

“Pamela, when we want to play with someone’s toys, we share and ask politely. You get a time out, naughty girl,” Thomas scolded, expecting Pamela to get the gist of what he meant. Pouting and sniffling, Pamela stuck her tongue out at the crying girl and crawled over to the corner, where she sat facing the wall and crossed her arms.

“Shhh…it’s okay, Abby. We’ll get you a new toy, okay?” Thomas promised the girl, trying to calm her by sitting in a rocking chair and slowly rocking back and forth. “Hush now…you’re okay…”

“No…I’m not…and you’ll never replace that…” Abby cried, burying her face into Thomas’s shirt. “I’m trapped here…I miss Katy…”

********************************************

It was about eight o’clock when Katherine’s mother heard the doorbell ring, getting up from her chair in the kitchen to get the door. Outside the apartment stood Abigail’s mother, wearing a good looking dress and a pair of hoop earrings with her precious daughter sleeping in her arms.

“Hey Janice, thank you so much for doing this for me,” The woman said quietly, handing her Abby, who the woman took into her arms gingerly.

“It’s fine, really. Jim’s working late tonight again, and I’m sure Katherine will love to have a playmate in the morning~ I just set her down for the night,” Katherine’s mother, Janice, answered with a smile on her face. “I’m glad things are going well with you and Todd~”

“Oh, believe me, they are~” Abby’s mother said, sighing and blushing just a bit. “I’ll admit, we had a terrible screaming match yesterday…but everything that needed to be said was said. He’s taking me out for dinner and a show tonight, and we’ll talk about everything. We’ll be fine by the end of the weekend~”

“That’s so great to hear, I’m happy for the both of you,” Janice said with a smile, adjusting the sleeping Abby in her arms a bit. “Don’t you worry about a thing tonight, I’ll take good care of your little girl.”

“Again, thank you so much,” The woman stated, kissing her daughter’s cheek once before heading out the door. “See you tomorrow!”
Waving goodbye swiftly, Janice shut the door and walked towards Katy’s nursery, where the little princess had already fallen asleep. Gently, the woman laid Abby down next to her friend, who she sub-consciously put her arm around like a stuffed animal upon being laid down.
Smiling at the adorable site, Janice kissed both the girl’s heads and walked out of the nursery, returning to her book in the kitchen.

Because the device was broken, a line that both Abigail and Katherine had in their original reality was severed, which caused them to slowly slip into their new, baby-like mindsets in this new world. Of course, the old Abby and Katy aren’t gone forever; the two consciences are just resting for a while in the back of their heads. The two girls had quite the experiences between them, each one radically different from the other, and some experiences may have been better than others, but through that entire trauma, after all of that pleasure, one fact remained. The two of them remained friends throughout all of it. Sure, they had their disagreements, and in the confusion they may have broken each other’s hearts on the way, but friendships like theirs are stronger than fights or arguments. Abby and Katy were meant to be best friends, and they’ll stay that way no matter what world they’re in.

The End

Source: adisc.org