Chapter 1
In preschool, everyone learns the concept of inside voice versus the outside voice. In Harmony Hills, Emma had come to learn about the concept of normal voice versus French kids voice.
Autumn had hit the town with a full fury. The leaves changed colors, the girls traded their shorts for jeans, and the neighborhood kids were getting in one last game of Lilly and Nick arguing with each other.
“What is it this time?” Penny asked as everyone else sat back and watched the twins bicker.
“They’re getting specific about the rules of Everyone is a Dinosaur Now,” Emma said.
“What in the world is that?” Susie asked.
“It’s a game,” Penny explained, “that Mimi made up.”
Everyone turned to Mimi. “You just,” she explained, “pretend to be a dinosaur and stuff.”
“Carnivores and herbivores can so be on the same team, Nicholas!”
“But then they would eat their teammates, Lillian!”
“Does anyone even want to play that?” Susie asked.
Emma shrugs, “I just want to play something before it starts snowing.”
“Not all the time,” Lilly defended her claim, “There are good carnivores. Like the woolly mammoth!
Emma suddenly found herself before Max, as he and the other boys walked up to them.
“Emma,” he said, “We’re gonna head back to my house and pick on my sister.”
“Okay,” Emma blushed as Max and the boys walked off.
“The woolly mammoth is not a carnivore,” Nick countered, “And it’s not a dinosaur either.”
As Nick was starting to filibuster, Rena and Izzy showed up.
“Hiya!” Izzy cheerfully waved.
“Did you guys finish your science homework yet?” Rena asked, “I’m stuck on the part about what certain animals eat.”
“You cannot live in a volcano, you’d get too hot!” Lilly shouted over Rena.
Emma shook her head and then asked, “Have you guys heard from Nicole?”
“No one has,” Rena said, “I tried calling her house, but no one is there. My parents say its not something for kids to worry about.”
“A volcano makes more sense than a city,” Nick interrupted, “Dinosaurs didn’t build cities.”
“But Nicole is our friend,” Izzy defended, “We should at least know what happened to her.”
Everyone agreed. “But what can we do?” Penny asked.
“You can’t do anything because you don’t know anything about dinosaurs!” Lilly yelled in her brother’s face.
“Penny,” Emma said, “Your dad is a sheriff, why don’t we ask him?”
“Oh,” Penny realized, “Duh.”
“And you don’t know anything about anything!” Nick shouted back.
“Oh yeah, well,” Lilly suddenly stopped.
“Hah!” Nick declared, “Giving up? I knew you would eventually run out of things to say. You always lose because I am better than you. I guess there was no point in even arguing, because I am the older twin, and that means-”
“Everyone’s gone,” Lilly said in a soft voice.
Nick looked around. she was right. All the kids, boys and girls, had disappeared during their argument.
“What do you want to do now?” Lilly asked.
Nick shrugged, “You wanna wrestle?”
Lilly shrugged, and then pinned her big brother.
Chapter 2
Lilly and Nick always got along, even if they fought every now and then. Most twins are clingley from birth and always have trouble making new friends at a young age. However, since their neighborhood was full of boys and girls their own age, they both managed to have separate lives and identities.
But Lilly still had to live with the fact that she was born second. Nick always called her his “little sister” whenever they were around their friends. He always had to come out on top, no matter the cost.
If Lilly were defending her brother, Nick would surely turn around and insult himself.
Lilly’s biggest joy was that they two had separate rooms. If ever there was a time when Lilly needed to be away from Nick, she could just head off to her room. And at night, she didn’t have to deal with his snoring.
It was just Lilly and her dreams.
* * *
Lilly’s was having every child’s worst nightmare. She couldn’t focus on what led to it, but she knew she was sitting on a toilet, panties around her ankles, expelling her dinner’s soda and pre-bedtime chocolate milk. It was a relieving feeling, but Lilly knew it was a lie.
She knew fully well that she was laying in her bed, wearing her favorite pajamas and wrapped in a blanket her grandmother had made for her. But no matter how many times she told herself that, her mind was forcing her to believe its illusion.
As she sat on the toilet, Lilly accepted the truth. She was going to awaken in a wet bed. She could stop herself, if only to wet her pajamas and save her sheets, if she could just wake up for one second.
Unfortunately, her body did not listen to this request until the moment she finished emptying her rather full bladder.
Lilly sat straight up. She was awake, just barely, and ready to assess the damage. She kicked off her blanket and felt sheets beneath her bottom. They were dry. Dry as the inside of her pajama bottoms.
It had all been a pretty dull dream. There was no bathroom. There was no peeing. And there was no giant chocolate monster trying to eat her. Lilly only remembered that last part after she woke.
All in all, it was a pretty dull nightmare. But one thing followed her into reality.
Lilly’s bladder was bursting out of her skin. She jumped out of bed and headed to the door. She knew she could make it - the bathroom was just down the hall.
She wasn’t going down without a fight. Lilly had awoken from her dream to prevent herself from wetting. She wasn’t going to lose a good night’s sleep in vain.
Lilly fumbled with the doorknob. It always needed fumbling. Just as she felt the balloon about to pop, the door opened and she was on the toilet in seconds. With her pants around the ankles and elbows on her knees, Lilly nearly passed out from how good it felt to finally relieve herself.
As soon as she began, she knew something was wrong.
She blinked the sleep out of her eyes, ensuring that she had fully undressed her lower half before releasing. When she saw the cute little bunnies staring back at her from her underwear around her ankles, she questioned why she was suddenly feeling the sensation of warm dampness around her bottom.
Then she heard a splash. Lilly’s tiredness vanished, and she was instantly awake.
Lilly had been pardoned of a dream that would have ended in wet sheets. She escaped a wet hallway rug by making it through the bathroom’s fumbly door. And she saved her pajamas from a soaking by pulling them down.
But where Lilly went wrong was a mistake she couldn’t believe. She sat back and realized that she was sitting on top of the toilet, neither seat up.
She caught herself and stood. This was a miscalculated move, as what remained in her bladder followed gravity to her pants.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Oh no,” she whimpered.
Seeing that she had finished relieving herself, and there was no saving her now wet pajamas, she stood and pulled them up.
At her feet, Lilly examined the damage to the floor. The porcelain of the toilet seat had only a small puddle on it. The rest was on the tiles around her.
She moved her tiny foot barely an inch, and slipped. Lilly landed on the floor, now fully drenching her pants as she landed in the puddle.
Tears streamed down her face.
She got to her knees and grabbed an endless supply of toilet paper. she quickly cleaned up as much of her mess as she could. when she thought she had done taken care of it all, she turned around and backed out of the bathroom.
“Phew,” Lilly said. She’d just have to hide her wet pajamas until she could sneak them into the laundry.
As Lilly turned toward her room, she put her dream behind her, and faced another nightmare.
“Holy crap,” Nick said.
Chapter 3
“You are so dead,” Nick could not believe the sight. His little sister, only two minutes younger than his nine years, was standing in outside the bathroom in soaking wet pajamas.
He knew this was no ordinary accident. She didn’t have an innocent wet patch between her legs. This looked far more violent.
“How did you get it all over?” he asked.
Lilly could see that Nick was being her normal brother, not the mean kid that argued for the sake of arguing. Regardless, she was not in the mood.
“Lemme go,” she said, attempting to get passed.
“Hold up,” Nick held out his arms, “I can’t just let this slide.”
“Why?” Lilly asked, “What do you get out of me peeing my pants?”
Nick smirked, “I can think of a few things.”
“Forget it,” Lilly crossed her arms. “I’m not gonna be your black whale. You can go ahead and tell mom and dad. I won’t be your slave this time.”
Lilly pushed her way passed him and headed toward her room.
“What do you think they’ll do?” she heard him say.
Lilly stopped in her tracks and turned around. “What do you mean?”
“They’re not just gonna take away your dessert like last time,” Nick referred to her bedwetting stint in the first grade. “You’re nine now, and they’ll probably have a bigger punishment for you.”
“Like what?” Lilly was fearing the worst.
“They might take away your TV time,” Nick suggested.
Lilly gasped. She was only a week away from finding out how Monster Story ended. She’d kill herself if she missed the final battle between Jing and the Clubhouse Kids.
“And you should get used to only seeing your friends at school,” Nick won with one final swoop.
Lilly instantly gave up. She had to believe Nick, it was too risky to ignore. She could always find Monster Story on reruns, but she could never be away from her friends.
“I’ll do whatever you want,” she said, “Just don’t tell mom and dad.”
* * *
Emma knew something was up. She stood with her friends at the playground, summer slipping away, and watched Nick spout out the rules.
“Why is Lilly just standing there?” Penny asked.
“You’re her best friend, Mimi,” Emma said, “Is something going on?” Emma and Penny turned around.
Mimi was picking dandelions. “What?” she asked.
“It’s so weird,” Rena said, “We left yesterday with a plan to get Nicole back, but here we are acting like she doesn’t matter.”
“She does matter!” Izzy declared.
“My daddy said he’d tell us sooner or later,” Penny said.
“He lied,” Rena said, “Your dad’s the sheriff. If he doesn’t know anything, he’s either lying or Nicole isn’t missing.”
“He’s not lying!” Mimi spoke up from her dandelions.
“Then someone just doesn’t want to us to see her,” Rena figured.
“You haven’t seen Nicole either?” a voice asked.
The girls turned around. Abigail was standing at the playground, somewhere she never ventured.
“What are you doing here, Abigail?” Emma asked.
“Just wanted to drop by and see if you guys knew where Nicole has been,” Abigail said, “She hasn’t been to dance lately. You guys are her best friends, so you must know where she is.”
Abigail made certain to stare directly at Rena and Izzy with her last statement.
“No one has seen her since that stuff with her father,” Rena said.
“Gee,” Abigail put her finger to her chin, “That’s curious.”
“Why do you say that?” Izzy asked.
“It’s nothing,” Abigail assured them, “It’s just that that was around the same time she decided to get a bit too brave and punch me in the face.”
The girls stared in shock.
“Nicole did that?” Emma asked.
“She came out of nowhere and hit me right in the face,” Abigail declared, “I was perfectly fine, but I demanded that she be taken away after that. I mean I couldn’t let her go around hitting her friends. It would put us all in danger.”
Everyone was thinking the same thing. Abigail was lying. She probably insulted Nicole one too many times. She probably had nothing to do with her disappearance. She probably cried like a little baby.
“Well,” Abigail sighed, “Let me know if you hear from her.”
And with that, Abigail was gone.
Emma was not amused. Their friend had vanished, and her horrid cousin was taking all the credit.
Amidst all the chaos of Abigail’s arrival, Nick had finalized the rules of the game, as Lilly sat back and said nothing.
As she began to play the confusing game, Emma knew that if Nicole was gone, she could at least help one friend who was clearly in need.
Chapter 4
The bell rang, signaling the end of another school day. As Emma watched Lilly grab Nick’s coat and backpack, she wondered what could be causing her recent defeat. She had seen her like this before. It usually meant that Nick was blackmailing Lilly.
“Lilly,” Emma approached her friend after Nick and the boys left. “What is going on?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” Lilly turned away.
“You know exactly what I mean,” Emma insisted, “You never bow down to Nick unless he has something on you.”
Lilly lowered her head, “This is why you’re our leader,” she said, “You always know when someone is in trouble.”
“So what is it?” Emma asked.
“You can’t tell anyone,” Lilly made Emma promise. She took a deep breath, and then gave in.
They hurried out to the front of the school before their parents picked them up. Lilly told Emma everything. From her dream to the accident and finally Nick finding out and what he told her.
“Lilly, Nick is messing with you,” Emma said.
Lilly shrugged. “He’s right though,” she said, “Nine year olds don’t have accidents like that. My parents would kill me if they found out.”
“No TV is better than being Nick’s slave,” Emma said, “And who knows. Sometimes parents are cool about this sort of thing. Accidents happen.”
“This is fourth grade, Emma!” Lilly snapped back, “Maybe in kindergarten it’s okay to pee in your pajamas, but not when you’re almost in middle school.”
Emma had so much she wanted to say. All she could think about was the fact that Lilly had had an accident as bizarre as what she had described.
She wanted to tell Lilly about her recent adventures and invite her to come along. But even Emma knew it would be in bad taste.
“You wanna know the worst part?” Lilly asked. “All this worrying about Nick telling them is making me so nervous that I feel like I might have another accident.
“Lilly, you need to relax,” Emma said, “And tell your parents.”
Lilly shook her head, “I can’t,” she said.
“Lilly,” Emma reached out to her friend, but Lilly began to walk away.
“My mom’s here,” she said, “I’ll see you later.”
Emma watched as Lilly walked toward her mother’s car, joined by her brother.
* * *
Lilly was sitting in front of the TV, with a bowl of chocolate cereal, watching her after school cartoons. She was enjoying her time when all of a sudden the channel suddenly changed.
“Hey!” Lilly turned around. Nick was sitting on the couch with the remote control, smiling.
She stood up and walked right over to him, reaching for the remote.
“I don’t think so,” Nick said, concealing the remote.
“You never watch TV after school,” she said, “This is my turn!”
“True,” Nick agreed, “But there is a new show I wanted to check out.”
“I’m telling mom!” Lilly stormed off.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Nick said. Lilly stopped dead in her tracks. “You tell on me, and maybe you’ll never get a chance to watch TV again.”
Lilly was defeated again. With nothing left to do, Lilly gave up and went up to her room.
That night, Lilly found herself wide awake. She couldn’t bring herself to go to fall asleep. She felt that if she fell asleep for even a second, she might wet the bed. And that would probably just kill her.
Lilly made it through the night without a wink of sleep. She didn’t even have to pee once. She knew that she couldn’t do that again. She had to figure out a way out of this, or at least something to help.
“I figured you would say that,” Emma said the next day, when the two were alone at their cubbies.
“Do you have any ideas?” Lilly asked. “I need to sleep, but I can’t risk it.”
“Well I for one think you’re crazy,” Emma said, “But if you insist,” she stuck her hands into the bottom of her backpack and quickly transferred something to Lilly’s backpack. “Good luck,” Emma said as she took her seat before class.
Before sitting down, Lilly looked into her backpack, curious as to what Emma had just put in it. To her surprise, Lilly saw a diaper.
Chapter 5
That night, Lilly stared at the diaper as it sat on her bed. It would certainly spare her from having an accident, which was keeping her up, or at least let her get some sleep.
But Lilly simply couldn’t do it. Wetting her pants was one thing, but if Nick found her in a wet diaper, her heart would probably stop in an instant.
She tossed the diaper back into her backpack. After getting dressed in her more acceptable pajamas, Nick barged in.
“Hey, sis,” he said, “Hope you didn’t drink too much before bed. You know what happens when you do.”
“Nick, get out of here!” Lilly slammed her door closed.
After that, she composed herself and said, “I’m not going to wet the bed. I’m not going to wet the bed.” She prayed that if she said it enough times, it would hopefully come true.
And yet, despite heeding Nick’s warning, not drinking anything after dinner, and simply refusing for it to happen, Lilly still woke in a wet bed. Her first in years.
She quickly began panicking, trying to figure out what to do.
“Did something happen?” Nick appeared in her doorway.
“NO!” Lilly pulled her blanket around her.
“Don’t worry,” he said, “I won’t tell.”
* * *
“And then he snickered away and stubbed his toe on my door,” Lilly said to Emma the next day at recess.
“Lilly, this is weird,” Emma said, “The way Nick acts, I mean how did he know you had an accident?”
“What,” Lilly asked, “It’s not like he made it happen. Is that possible?”
“Well,” Emma put on her thinking cap, “Rena said that her cousin said that at his brother’s school he heard that at some sleepovers... Well, there is this trick.”
“Trick?” Lilly gasped, “What kind of trick? Nick loves tricks.”
“When you’re asleep,” Emma explained, “They take your hand... And stick it in a cup of warm water!”
Lilly looked perplexed. “What does that do?” she asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Emma assured her.
“I can take it,” Lilly said, “What else do I have to lose?”
Emma leaned forward and whispered into Lilly’s ear.
Lilly’s eyes widened. “Oh,” she said. “Does it work?”
Emma shrugged, “I asked Abigail about it once.”
“What did she say?” Lilly asked. Abigail was older and super popular. She’d probably know first hand if it worked or not.
“Well,” Emma said, “When I asked her she started yelling and told me to never ask her about such childish things. Or something.”
Lilly sighed. “Do you really think Nick is doing it, Emma?” she asked.
“Lilly, come on,” Emma put her foot down, “You have to just tell your parents.”
“Did you really just put your foot down?” Lilly asked.
“Don’t interrupt me,” Emma continued, “Your accident was forever ago and it’s all cleaned up. As long as you’re not hurt they should be fine about it. Nick is probably the one they’d punish, so he’ll be out of your hair too.”
Lilly knew that Emma was probably right. But she just couldn’t bear the humiliation
Chapter 6
That night, Lilly stared at the diaper as it sat on her bed. She made sure her door was locked, and put on the diaper.
She immediately covered it up with her pajamas and jumped into bed.
Lilly could not believe she was actually wearing a diaper, something meant for babies. However, she knew that babies weren’t the only people who wore diapers. Sick people wore them, old people wore them.
Even astronauts wore them.
As Lilly justified her situation, she found herself thinking about astronauts quite a bit. Soon, she found herself dreaming of being in space herself.
With each step she took, Lilly fluttered in mid air for a bit before crashing back down on the lunar wasteland.
But she don’t crash down. She just sort of landed, softly as if she had been walking on a field of chocolate marshmallows, which she was for some reason craving as she traversed the Sea of Tranquility.
She heard nothing but the sound of her breath and the beat of her heart. But soon, the silence grew worrisome.
Lilly took a looked around; there was nothing in sight. She checked her radio; still nothing. She moved her foot, only an inch. And that’s when she felt it.
A vibration surging from her heat to the tips of her hair; something was underneath her. Something big.
She quickly made a dash towards the ship. The ship, which just so happened to look like a hot air balloon being propelled by a giant chocolate marshmallow, was floating away.
As soon as she started sprinting, Lilly could hear the roars of a giant creature as it burst into the air and began moving towards her on the ground.
She turned around and found herself being chased by a giant mushroom soup monster.
Lilly jumped behind a massive boulder to catch her breath and plan her next attack.
Suddenly, she was saved.
Up in the sky, the floodgates opened. The mushroom soup monster was being doused with water.
But the water from above was too much. Lilly found it leaking into her spacesuit, soaking her pajamas in a quick fury. Something that she knew should not have been happening.
As the mushroom soup monster grew stronger with the extra water being fed to it, Lilly knew it was time to stop dreaming.
With all the energy she could, she forced herself out of paralysis, back into consciousness, and straight up to the mushroom soup monster’s massive size.
Trying her hardest, she contracted her throat muscles, lifted up her head, and said, “Stop.”
Nick did indeed stop. He stepped back, scared to death that his once silent sister was now nearly wide awake.
“Uhm,” was all he said.
Lilly blinked, adjusting to the dark. Nick was standing over her. He was holding a cup of water.
Emma was right, the only difference being that Nick was not putting Lilly’s hand in the water, he was simply pouring the water on her pants.
Lilly was confused. “What the,” before she could say no more, something was taking over Lilly. Her spine.
“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!” she shouted.
Nick’s eyes filled with fear as the bedroom doors swung open.
“Hey, kids,” their mother said, finding the two in an incriminating position.
“Uh oh,” Nick said.
“That’s right Nick,” she said, “Now why don’t you go wait in your room for a bit.”
Nick left in silence. When Lilly and her mother were alone in the room, Lilly let loose.
“Mom, I am sorry, but one night I got up to go to the bathroom and I made it in time but I sort of forgot to lift up the seat and it got a little yucky but I cleaned it up but then Nick caught me and said you would be mad and so I did everything he said but I was scared and nervous that I might have another accident and then I did have another accident but Emma said it might be Nick using this warm water trick where you stick someones hand in a cup of water to make them pee but when I woke up he was just dumping water on me,” Lilly took a deep breath, and then added, “Also I’m wearing a diaper.”
Molly French was anything but dumb. “Honey,” she said, “I know. I know everything. ”
“You do?” Lilly looked up in confusion.
“Lilly, our bedroom is down the hall from the bathroom,” her mother explained, “Do you really think we didn’t hear the whole discussion the other night. I just wanted to see if you would do the right thing and come to me first. But I guess it got a little out of hand.”
“So,” Lilly wondered, “You’re not mad?”
“At you?” Molly shook her head, “But that brother of yours. How about I teach you the real warm water trick?”
“Really?” Lilly was stunned at the suggestion.
“Or if you’d rather just pin him down and tickle him to oblivion, be my guest,” Molly smiled, “Just gimme a day to get his rubber sheet back on.”
Lilly and her mother giggled together.
“Now then,” Molly said, “Let’s get you cleaned up. It’s not healthy to stay in pajamas soaked with warm tap water for too long. Also, what is this about a diaper?”
Chapter 7
“Here are the rules,” Lilly said. All the neighborhood kids, boys and girls, were standing before her. Nick was nowhere around. She took a deep breath and shouted, “Everyone is a dinosaur now!”
Lilly was leading all the fun at the playground. “Because Nick was at home, grounded,” she explained to Emma later that night.
The two were laying on the floor in Emma’s basement. To celebrate Lilly’s defeat over her brother, all the girls were having a sleepover together.
“You were right, Emma,” Lilly said to her friend, “I should’ve told my parents from the start.”
“I just can’t believe your mom was THAT cool about it,” Emma said.
Lilly smiled, “Thanks, Emma,” she said.
“For what?”
“For helping me get through this,” Lilly explained, “I could never go to Mimi, or Izzy, or Rena with news that I peed all over myself.”
“What made you think you could trust me?” Emma asked.
Lilly shrugged. “You’re just a good kind of person,” she said, “Everyone knows that. Even the third graders go to you for help.”
“Not always,” Emma said.
The two giggled together as Mimi and Penny returned from upstairs with snacks.
“What’s so funny?” Penny asked.
“Nothing,” Emma and Lilly said in unison.
* * *
Penny’s eyes wanted to stay closed, but there was something keeping her awake. She heard the rustle of clothes and blankets, and the sound of whispers in the dark. Penny may have needed glasses to see, but here ears worked perfectly fine.
“You’re right,” Penny heard Lilly say, “They really are comfortable.”
“I told you,” Emma’s voice chimed in.
“What made you want to try them anyway,” Lilly asked, “I mean, It’s not exactly normal for girls our age to want to wear diapers.”
Penny was now actively listening.
“Well,” Emma whispered, “Remember when Penny used to have all sorts of accidents, like, even in kindergarten?”
“Yeah,” Lilly answered, “She used to wear Pull-Ups around us all the time.”
“Well that always made me wonder,” Emma explained, “What it would be like to wear diapers, to feel them between your legs. To wet one and not have to use the bathroom. To feel young again.”
“Well it feels nice,” Lilly giggled.
“Shh!” Emma exclaimed, “You’ll wake them.”
“Sorry,” Lilly said.
“It’s okay,” Emma said, “I’m just... Not ready for Penny to know about this yet.”
The two rustled under their covers and returned to sleep, smiling in their hidden diapers. Soon, they were just as asleep as Mimi was. But Penny she was in no mood to sleep.