Emerald Princess - Epilogue (Revised Edition - Posted 5/18/2023)

[BabySofia]

Foreword:

In 2016 I was fighting writers block on another penname's work, when I decided to write 'Emerald Princess.' About 2/3rds of the way through the work I suffered the same fate on this work, and only took it up when a reader kept badgering me in 2020. With time and inspiration then I was able to finish the work, and had left it in a mostly rough state.

As I’ve been publishing my other Diaper Dimension Works, I wanted to publish Emerald too. Unfortunately it was originally a fanfiction piece in another universe, so I was stopped in my tracks since I couldn’t publish it as that. A couple months back I decided I wanted to revise it, remove any reference to the other universe, and address some of the valid criticisms given to me at the time of initial postings. My hope is that the product is far superior to the original! If you wish to support me, enjoy the work, or it’s a first time and you can’t wait between postings - the full edited version of Emerald Princess is available now on Kindle here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 You may find almost all of my completed works on my author page Sofia’s Author Page

Emerald Princess is set in a world with humans who have evolved unique characteristics that make for superhuman abilities through ‘Emergence.’ The concept was partially inspired by many such works from comics and other fandoms.

This work is meant for adults; the main protagonists are all eighteen or older. It contains Adult Baby Diaper Lover (ABDL) themes.

Thank you to my readers who have commented and encouraged me throughout my postings online! Thank you to anyone who purchases my novels and takes the time to read them! A special thank you to a reader, Chloe, who continually badgered me to finish this tale after I left it unfinished for several years!

Copyright © 2016-2023 Sofia Hammerstein

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

Chapter 1: Jealous

I STARED AT the road as Mom drove me to school. The town where I grew up was in a category of its own reality as one of the most unique towns in the world. Just for me to come to school, we had to drive through a checkpoint with a guard shack manned by an MP! As usual, though, my mom was waived like normal without stopping. The only time they really checked vehicles like a military base was when there was some sort of alert.

The town of Los Alamos was on the backside of a beautiful mountain that was a part of the Rocky Mountains. I loved hiking and fishing the mountain streams with my dad on the occasional weekend when he wasn’t bogged down in his research projects.

I felt a prod in my side and looked over at my baby sister in her rear-facing car seat. She poked me with the play hairbrush she used on her doll. “Why’d you poke me?” I asked Lily.

“Play?”

I sighed, “If I get a chance, I will later, Lily. I have a lot of assignments due soon…”

Lily looked at me with her pretty green eyes, “Please?”

I sighed again, “We’ll see Lily Bear.” With that, I tickled her a little to make her smile.

“Stop dat!” She giggled.

I smiled at her as Mom pulled up to the loading zone at the school. Lily was probably the prettiest baby sister that I knew! She was a total oops child for my mom a bit over two years ago. My parents apparently forgot where babies came from one week while I was out of town at a music camp. As I opened the door of the Toyota Land Cruiser and swung out, Mom reminded me, “Don’t forget that you have Tae Kwon Do tonight,” through the window that she had rolled down.

“Like I could forget?!?” I asked with a bit of incredulity. I was testing for my second-degree black belt tonight! I just hoped I could manage to pass this test. If I could get this belt, I would be able to really think about teaching in my own studio after college. After this belt, though, I would no longer be able to just test at home; I would be flying to major cities or maybe even Korea! For something I had been practically forced to do at the start, I had really grown a love of it!

I walked down the hallway to my locker to drop off some things. I passed my reflection in the window of a dark classroom and shook my head. I was one of the nerdiest of the nerdy kids to my peers, and in Los Alamos, that was saying something! I was a decent height, five foot eleven, but was a total stick. It didn’t matter how much I ate - it took tons of fat just to get me to 105 pounds. That was with my clothes and shoes on! My brown hair was also really long - three inches past my shoulders in a neat ponytail. As far as anyone else was concerned, I was just riding the fad, but there was a deeper reason for it that I wasn’t about to share with anyone.

“Nick!” I heard behind me.

“Hey Jacob,” I said as I turned to one of my few real friends’ voices.

“Did you get the math homework done?!?” He was in a panic. I groaned, like always; he hadn’t done anything but play games last night. I spent the next few minutes walking to our first-period band class, being cajoled into helping him finish - i.e., copying my homework.

“Please, Nick!” He pleaded.

“Jacob, you’re not asking to copy Nick’s homework again, are you?” Hannah asked with disdain.

“Umm… maybe?” Jacob said, “Unless you’ll help me out?” He asked and batted his eyelashes.

We both laughed. Jacob, Hannah, and I were like the three musketeers. Hannah and I had been friends for a long time, and she was one of the few people I felt I could trust with anything. She also happened to be Lily’s go-to babysitter if my parents and I weren’t available. I had a crush on her that confused me regularly since I really just thought of her as a best friend.

I looked at my cell phone for the time and figured we had about ten minutes to save Jacob’s rear again. It’s not that he was stupid… he was probably as bright as I was, but he was lazy when it came to homework. Amazingly he managed to keep good grades up - of course, his parents probably would have killed him otherwise. That’s the thing with having two parents with PhDs; slacking isn’t even a remote option. I was fortunate that my parents only had one Ph.D. between them… It didn’t matter, though, because it might as well have been two since the only reason Mom didn’t have hers in Chemistry was that she found it too hard to take care of me and work on her doctorate. Dad was considered very useful at the lab due to his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and his Doctorate in Physics. Their graduate degrees both came from MIT, and their undergrads were at rival Ivy League schools.

Needless to say, my parents were brilliant! In any other town, their resumes would shine like a star, but they were practically a dime a dozen in Los Alamos. The number of well-educated parents in the community was absurd!

As the first bell rang, I pulled my flute case from my backpack and went to sit in my first chair spot that I had fought for so hard. Playing flute as a guy is never a task that will prevent people from giving you grief. Fortunately, I was one of three guys in the flute section, so I wasn’t alone, but still… I quickly figured out that the way to shut up most of the chatter in junior high was by being better than everyone else. Well, that and the Tae Kwon Do lessons that they figured out I took by then. My Sensei trained me never to be the aggressor from when my parents had me start in second grade. That didn’t stop me from protecting myself when attacked, though. It sadly took until seventh grade before the last bully figured out the folly of attacking me.

“Morning,” the band director said as he sipped a cup of coffee.

“Morning, Mr. Muñez,” I responded politely. We both shared the opinion that there was no ‘good’ in mornings and had our private joke with this greeting.

Before too long, rehearsal began, and I once again had to hide the guilty pleasure that we were playing music from Frozen for our Christmas Concert in three weeks. But, of course, it might have been just that we were playing music that wasn’t traditional Christmas music too! That had to be played that day, too, unfortunately. It didn’t matter what a composer did with Jingle Bells; it still got old!

At lunch, I sat with Hannah, Jacob, and a couple other friends. “So your big test is tonight, huh?” Hannah asked.

I blushed but nodded, “I hope I don’t fail it.”

She gave me a hard stare, “Of course, you won’t fail it. Didn’t you like just win those competitions this year?”

I shrugged, “This isn’t a competition, and even if it was, there would be just as good of a chance of things going wrong.”

She kicked me under the table, “Come on, positive attitude!”

I smiled at her, “Okay, if you’ll quit beating me up, I’ll think positively.” That led to her kicking me again for spite.

“I hear it’s supposed to snow tonight?” Jacob asked.

“Yeah, but don’t you go jinxing it!” I said with a warning. Truth be told, it would take a fair amount of snow for school to be canceled. Living in the mountains, you just had to learn to deal with it much of the time. It’s why families like mine that lived on the outskirts of town had to have a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Hannah gave him the glare too.

“Think the ski resort will open this year?” I asked thoughtfully.

“Even if it doesn’t, we could always hit Sandia or go up to Wolf Creek over Christmas Break,” Hannah suggested. “My parents have offered to take us up to either.”

“That would be sweet!” I said with a smile. “I’m hoping my parents will get me a new board for Christmas.”

We spent the remainder of our lunchtime talking before having to go our separate ways to classes. I managed to get through the end of the day, and my Calculus test, without too much trouble. After the bell, I fought my way through the hallways full of students as quickly as possible and found my mom was waiting for me in our car. I climbed into the back out of habit to sit next to Lily.

“You know you’d have to do a lot less driving if you’d let me get a car,” I suggested to her.

“Your father and I want to wait until after Christmas Break,” she reiterated. I had just turned 18 the week before, but for whatever reason, my parents still didn’t want me driving by myself yet. It was like she could see my whining getting ready to increase, “Besides, you haven’t gotten a job to pay for it either…?”

I sighed.

“Just be patient, sweetie,” she said.

I looked to my left and saw my baby sister sleeping quietly in her car seat. “How did you get the princess to sleep?” I asked quietly.

Mom shook her head; “She had a playdate today with Becky’s daughter Zoe. They didn’t stop running from the time I dropped you off at school until I packed her up twenty minutes ago.”

“Whatever works, huh?” I smiled. I looked over at her red hair that mom had put into pigtails this morning. One of the rubber bands was starting to slide off, so I gently fixed it.

Mom drove us home to our house outside the city limits. Los Alamos is a weird town because it’s technically all government property. That means you had to move outside of town and commute if you wanted to own your own house. I didn’t mind because it meant our house backed right up to the forest. Well, sort of… Due to past forest fires, my family decided it was for the best when we moved here to clear the land immediately around the house. No sense in making it easy for the house to burn down when someone couldn’t figure out how to put out a campfire!

Our house had two stories and a full basement containing a workout room, playroom, and home theater. As I grew older, the playroom became more of a hangout room for my friends and me. The playroom was back mostly in use now, though with Lily, and had dolls and other baby toys scattered everywhere in the room. Once Mom parked, I threw my backpack on my shoulders and went to Lily’s side of the car. I opened the door, quietly unbuckled her highness, and then picked her up gently. Mom gave me an appreciative smile. I had to appreciate that she only weighed 25 pounds at this point. She was tiny for her age of two-and-a-half.

“Is she wet?” Mom asked quietly.

I felt her diaper under her tights and nodded as we walked into the house. “Here,” she motioned, “hand her to me, and I’ll change her before I put her down to finish this miracle nap.”

I smiled at her, “I’ll do it, Mom.”

“How did I get lucky enough to have a son that doesn’t mind changing his sister’s diapers?” She smiled at me.

“I don’t know,” I told her with a smile and walked upstairs past my bedroom door and to Lily’s room. My parents had switched her crib rails out last month for her toddler bed version of the bed but had kept Lily’s changing table in there. I gently sat her down on it and took care of the wet diaper. Truth be told, I loved taking care of my sister! She was the most precious person in the universe to me. I managed to get her tights pulled back up and lay her down in her bed without her stirring a bit. The pacifier in her mouth never once looked like it was in danger of falling out, either!

I crept out of her room and went down the hall to mine. I sat down at the desk to start doing my homework. I only had about thirty minutes until Mom would call me down for dinner, and then I would need to change for my testing. But I figured it was just enough time to start typing the ridiculous essay I had to write for English. My teacher wanted three pages analyzing Dante’s satirical use of people in the Inferno. It’s not that there weren’t plenty of people and characters to use; it was that all three of those pages would have to be perfect for her to be happy. I sighed and began typing. I managed to get through the first page when I was invaded.

“Can I help?” Lily asked me as she climbed into my lap with her favorite doll.

I smiled at her, “I wish you could!”

“Play with me?” She asked with a smile.

“Hmm… I kind of have to get this done,” I told Lily while squeezing her in a hug.

She frowned. “Please?”

I looked at the clock. Mom was going to call us down for dinner any minute. I was just about to give in to her sweet eyes when Mom came in. “Dinner’s ready, you two.”

I looked at Lily, “Maybe tomorrow night?” I suggested gently.

She looked like she was going to go into crying tantrum mode, so I started tickling her. She instantly started laughing as my fingers danced around her mercilessly for a moment. “Stop…” she cried, and I stood up with her still in my arms.

“Let’s go eat,” I told her and carried her downstairs. At the table, I set her in her highchair.

Dad came in the door right as I finished buckling Lily in. He kissed Lily and mom, said “Hi,” to me, and went to wash up. Then, we sat down to mom’s roast and potatoes she had put in the crockpot that morning. She looked up at the clock as I finished eating, “Nicholas, go get ready,” she told me.

“Okay,” I said with the butterflies flying in my stomach. It took me less than ten minutes to get dressed in my gi, and I ensured I looked ready for my testing. Then, I walked out of my room to see Mom changing Lily again. She usually had a messy diaper right after dinner, and it seemed like this was the case tonight, too, as I could smell it from the doorway. She had her bottle in her hand while she was being changed. “I’m ready,” I said with a smile.

“So is Lily, huh?” Mom said and gave her a kiss. I loved my sister, but I have to say she was fortunate to always have so much attention from us. ‘I wish I received half that attention!’ I smiled.

My parents and I loaded up the Land Cruiser and headed to the dojo where I studied. Mom hugged me, Dad said, “Good luck,” and I went to my place at the front of the middle line. Other students trickled in, and before I knew it, our Sensei had us warming up and running through some simple forms as a group.

A few other parents were there for the younger children that night. A couple of my friends were also there to take their own belt tests. “Tonight, we have twelve students testing for their next belt,” Sensei announced as he had us gathered around the outside edges of the room. “We will go in order of lower belts to higher belts.” He explained the process, and I watched the other eleven students test through their forms, breaking boards, and sparring.

It seemed like no time at all before I was called up. “Nicholas Hammerstein, please step forward.” He smiled at me.

I walked to the center of the room and stood at the ready.

“Nicholas is testing for the highest belt he can earn here. After this belt, he will have to test elsewhere with a grandmaster present. Good luck,” he told me.

“Thank you, Sensei,” I said politely, bowing.

He asked me to do my forms, and I hoped I did a credible job for him and the visiting masters. I was less worried about this part than the breaking test. I sized up the boards I was to break first with a punch and was relieved to see all of them broken after I tried. Next, he had me perform a kick break which I successfully nailed! I was feeling confident as the sparring portion came up.

“Nicholas, you will spar against Randy,” he told me. He motioned to a student who had just successfully tested for his first-level black belt the previous month.

I watched him like a hawk and would have been declared the victor by points if this were a tournament. At that point, Sensei concluded the match. I stood at attention before him as he discussed my test with the guests.

“Nicholas, you have performed well on your test, and it is my great honor to bestow your second-degree black belt to you.” He handed me my new belt, and I bowed to him.

“Thank you, Sensei,” I said.

Suddenly I was attacked from below by a pink bundle. Sensei laughed at me, “You are going to need a higher degree belt to deal with that one!”

I held Lily back to the car and put her in her car seat. “You so cool!” She told me with a smile.

“Thank you, Lily,” I told her and reached over to hand her doll to her.

That night we found a place to get ice cream before heading home. We talked about my confidence as I progressed through the testing. Dad mentioned he thought I might even have a chance of sparring against Mergents, but I shook my head. I knew how good they were from some of the tournaments that ran side-by-side with mine sometimes! They usually had too much speed and faster reflexes, even if they didn’t have the strength to throw a car a block away!

We eventually finished our ice cream, and I fell asleep as soon as we got back into the car. It had been a long day!

MOM WOKE ME up at home, and I discovered the snow had indeed started to fall! “Snow!!!” Lily said excitedly, waking back up.

‘Uh-oh,’ I thought, ‘I bet she’s going to be a hyper handful for the rest of the night. I looked at my phone and groaned when I realized how late it was. ‘10 pm already?!?’

I went upstairs, showered, and put on my pajamas before trying to finish some of my homework. The essay could wait until tomorrow night, but the math homework wouldn’t. So I scrambled to do the six calculus problems but was still struggling on the final one when my dad came in. “It’s time for bed, Nicholas,” he said.

I sighed, “I have to get this last problem done first, Dad; I just can’t figure out where I’m going wrong.” I hoped that would get his attention, and maybe he would help.

He gave me a stare that told me he knew exactly what I was up to, but he looked at the clock next to my desk and said, “What is it?”

Dad looked at it for five minutes and scratched his head too. “Okay… If this number was different, this would work out to a nice even number, but the way it’s written… It has to be a mistake,” he said to me.

“How would you solve it, though, if it’s right?” I asked.

I watched as he found another piece of paper and started solving the equation using the much higher math knowledge he’d gained from his physics doctorate. “Well, this is the solution as written, but you can’t fully solve it because of this,” he pointed to errors. “Why don’t you…?” He walked me through what he had done to get to that point, and I copied it down to talk to the teacher the next day. I understood how he did it, but like him, I was pretty sure there was an error. This way, when I spoke to the teacher, I would have both an answer and a question on whether the problem was wrong!

“Okay, time for bed now!” he said.

“Thank you, Dad,” I said as I hugged him, “I don’t know what I’d do if you didn’t know math!”

He laughed, “You’d be fine. My parents used to look at my calculus homework and then walk away as quickly as they could!”

I decided to go to the bathroom one last time and watched Mom put Lily down in her bed. As much as she was growing up, she still wanted to be held in the rocking chair and told a bedtime story each night with her bottle. I figured one of these days, Mom would have to be mean and finally take away her bottles, pacifiers, and potty train her, but she seemed in no hurry to do so.

She turned and saw me walking back to my room, “You should have been in bed a half hour ago,” she said with a look.

“Sorry, Dad was helping me with homework. Besides, why should I go to bed before my baby sister?” I asked with a smirk.

“She takes naps,” Mom said with a smirk. Then, she gave me a hug, “Good night, Nicholas.”

“Night, Mom,” I told her and crawled into bed.

My last thoughts before going to sleep were, ‘I did it! I’m a second-degree black belt!’ Then, ‘I’m so jealous of Lily. I wish I could have a bedtime story and a bottle!’

SOMETIME LATER, IN the middle of the night, I woke up soaked with sweat and chilled. I pulled a blanket that had fallen on the ground and wrapped myself tighter, but I couldn’t stop shivering. I must have been audibly whimpering because my door opened, and Mom came in. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head, “I’m cold and shi-hi-vvv-vv-ering.”

She took one look at me and turned the lights on. I felt her hand on my forehead. “You’re burning up,” she said with concern. I watched her leave the room, and she returned with a thermometer and a washcloth. She stuck the thermometer in my mouth and put the washcloth on my head.

“This can’t be right…” she said. “Levi!!!” She shouted.

Dad came sleepily into my room. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s burning up… you don’t think…?”

This wasn’t making much sense to me as I was just not feeling it. All I could focus on was how much nicer it would be if Mom could just pick me up and hold me. Maybe I’d be warm enough then...? “I feel like I’m going to be sick,” I said, suddenly standing up and trying to run to the bathroom. As I got to the bathroom doorway, I saw my baby sister standing in her nightgown with her pacifier squeezing her bear, looking at me, scared. I felt terrible that I had woken her up; she looked so cute.

‘I wish I could be that cute,’ I thought. ‘Lily is so lucky that she’s a baby girl!’

That was my last thought before everything suddenly went black.

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Thank you so much for reading! I'll post another chapter in a couple days, until then please press the Like button and consider leaving a comment!

[sklawlor]

this is a good beginning to a story, looking forward to reading more. I’ll also check out your site.

[BabySofia]

Thank you!

[BabySofia]

Chapter 2: Careful What You Wish For

I LOOKED AROUND the house and wandered around from room to room. Where was Mom? Dad? Lily? I decided to go up to Lily’s room and found it empty. It was weird. I walked over to her changing table and noticed her favorite purple pacifier was there. I picked it up and looked at the pacifier, and there were open cutouts on either side of the button in the middle of it. I always liked her using it because I could see her cute smile still.

“Would you like that?” I turned around and suddenly faced a beautiful lady in her early twenties.

I blushed, “If I was young enough, I’m sure I would,” I said and sat it down. “Who are you?”

“Names are powerful things, young one,” she told me.

Something about this didn’t seem like a dream, and I could feel something like static electricity running up and down my body. “Maybe a nickname?” I asked before stretching out my hand and saying, “I’m Nicholas.”

“Well, they certainly brought you up to be polite,” the lady said. “You may call me Caireen,” she said simply. “You’re a very unusual young man. Willingly taking care of your sister?”

“She’s a sweetheart,” I responded.

“Still not normal for an eighteen-year-old boy to volunteer to help,” she said. “Of course, we wouldn’t be talking if you were normal,” she smiled.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll find out. I guess we’ll be together for a very long time since you found me. Please don’t be upset at your gifts,” the strange woman said with a bright smile before taking the pacifier off the table and putting it into my mouth. “There you go,” she said.

My eyes must have been as big as saucers as I realized this had to be a dream.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, I heard what had to be the most annoying metronome of all time as I woke up. I started to stretch with my eyes closed and suddenly realized something was wrong. “Levi, he’s waking up,” I heard Mom say, and I looked up suddenly at their faces.

Something was not right here. Not right at all! The angle of their faces was all wrong from where I was lying, and I was obviously in a hospital… but not in a regular hospital bed.

“Where am I?” I asked - or tried to ask. Something was in the way for me to talk. I reached up to my mouth and pulled out a… “Why do I have a pacifier in my mouth?” I asked, starting to panic, and sat up. My voice sounded really weird and squeaky.

Mom gently pushed me down, but something was wrong there. Her hand was too big!

“What happened?” I asked, more agitated and upset that my voice sounded weird.

“It’s okay, sweetie, calm down, and I’ll try to explain…” She said. Something in her eyes reassured me, but somehow I could tell that she wasn’t being truthful.

I lay back down, though, “Explain.”

Dad came in with the doctor right then. “Good, you woke up,” the doctor said.

“What happened?” I said again more forcefully.

“Nicholas,” Mom started, “…I don’t think there’s any easy way to explain, but you emerged last night and went through a major burnout.”

“I’m a Mergent?!?!?” I asked, surprised.

“Your mother and I both carried the gene recessively, but we figured the chances of you getting it was minuscule as a boy. “I looked at them in shock. I never knew our family had any history of Mergents.

“But don’t people usually emerge younger?” I asked, thinking back to when one boy in our school had emerged during our sophomore year.

The doctor shrugged, “Usually, but eighteen is not unheard of to emerge.”

I nodded finally, “Okay, so I’m a Mergent. Why… umm… why do I think I changed much more than average?”

The doctor answered this one, “Nicholas, you’re going to have to do some testing to be sure, but I believe you are an exceptionally high-level paradigm. Your EFP, or the Emergent Form Pattern that it made you look like, normally takes months to a year to change you to your final form. But for some reason, yours did.”

I sat up now and felt my mom’s hand helping me. I had lost a lot of height. A LOT of height. I didn’t seem to have any hair on my arms or legs. I felt the hair on my head, and it felt like it was shorter than it had been. It barely reached my shoulders but had a lot of curls at the ends. I pulled a lock of it and held it in front of me, surprised that it was now red! Looking down at the gown and noticed it was covered with very juvenile bears like you would see in pediatrics. Something else about my body felt ‘odd’, and I ran my hand down to my groin area. ‘Could it really have happened?!?’ I prayed that wish had come true. As I tried to feel that area, I was surprised that something padded was in the way.

I looked up at Mom and asked, “How old am I?”

“Eighteen…” she paused and grimaced, “going on three, we think.”

“And am I…” I was scared to ask this next one. If only it could be true, ‘please be true,’ I said to myself. “Am I a girl now?”

She nodded, and tears streamed out of her eyes. Dad came around and held one of my hands on the other side. I smiled.

“Being the same age as Lily is embarrassing,” I hopefully looked at the doctor, “But, I’ll at least grow back up, right?”

He looked at me and shrugged, “I don’t honestly know. Sometimes when a teenager emerges for the first time, they’ll go through a similar experience and get younger. Most of the time, they do begin aging again, but usually at a slower rate.”

“The other times?” I asked, finding myself craving something in my mouth to soothe myself. I knew the pacifier was sitting next to my hand and had to fight the urge to put it back in my mouth.

“Well, there have been a few cases of them getting younger and not aging at all,” he said, “I don’t know of any easy way to say it… but to be honest, there’s probably an eighty percent chance your EFP may lock you like this.”

“Great!” I groaned. “So, I’m going to be the baby sister before long!”

Mom smiled and said, “Well, maybe Lily will remember you taking such good care of you that maybe she’ll do the same?”

It was at that moment that I passed out again.

I WOKE BACK up as I felt my body being contorted. I opened my eyes and began to cry as I realized mom was changing my diaper. It smelled like one of Lily’s after-dinner diapers, which meant I had to have gone poop in my sleep. She finished and then picked me up. I realized then that the wires and IVs had been unhooked while I was sleeping.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” she told me, and she hugged me tight, cuddling me like my little sister.

Eventually, I calmed down, and she asked, “Do you want something to drink?”

I nodded. Mom produced a cup with a straw and some ice water. I tried to put the straw in my mouth, but something was in my way. “Here, I’ll take that,” she said as she pulled the pacifier out of my reddening face. A moment later, I found myself guzzling down. I was really thirsty!

When it was empty, I looked at her. “Am I a real baby or something? Why did I have a pacifier in my mouth?”

She sat down and held me on her knee, facing me. “You were burning up and stumbled down the hallway. When you reached the bathroom you… you… you suddenly started smoking and steaming before there was a burst of fire where you were standing.” Tears trailed down Mom’s face as she spoke, “I thought you had to be dead, but suddenly the fire was gone, and in its place was a… a little girl… “She cringed.

“Lily was as shocked as I was, and she walked over to you, and her pacifier fell out of her mouth right next to you. You picked it up, put it in your mouth, and then passed back out.”

I grimaced. I honestly could feel a craving for it even now. “Sorry, I have a bad feeling it’s going to be hard to break this pacifier habit!” I told her.

“You want it back?” She asked.

I couldn’t help nodding.

Mom placed it back in my mouth and started talking again, “What were you thinking about when you went to bed?”

“Why?” I asked around the pacifier. Mom still understood, with a smile curling on her lips.

“It may have affected your EFP,” she told me.

I grimaced and thought back, “I was thinking how nice it would have been for you to be able to pick me up and hold me like Lily.” I paused, unable to tell her the full truth about my wish. “Then I saw her standing in the hallway looking cute in her princess nightgown.”

Mom looked like she had understood most of that around the pacifier and hugged me tightly.

“I’m stuck like this, aren’t I?” I asked her.

“Probably.”

“The baby stuff?”

“Well, the pacifier seems tough for you to be without.”

I nodded.

“And the potty training… maybe we can re-train you.”

I pulled the pacifier out again and groaned. “How am I going to go to school in diapers and sucking on a pacifier?”

“I don’t know, sweetie, but we’ll find a way. I don’t think your mind will be hurt in any way. If anything, you’ll probably be smarter.” I smiled a bit at that, “And you’re probably a lot stronger, too,” she told me. “And you probably even have some really cool abilities now. The doctor said only the highest-level Emergents seem to change this much.”

I just nodded to that. “Where’s Dad?”

“He went home to get Lily.” She told me.

“What did you do with her last night?” I asked, suddenly worried.

“We brought her with us and then were able to drop her off at Hannah’s house since there’s no school today.”

“Really? We had a snow day, and I have to be sick?” Mom just laughed, plopped the pacifier back in my mouth, and sat there cuddling me until I must have fallen asleep.

I DIDN’T SLEEP long because I was soon woken up by voices. “Is that really Nick?” I heard and groaned.

I opened my eyes, “Hi, Hannah,” I said timidly. Mom was still holding me, so I felt some comfort from that.

She held out a cute teddy bear to me that had a ribbon tied around its neck. I couldn’t help but notice it seemed more than half my size! “I thought maybe…?” Then, she appeared to lose her words and was unable to speak.

“Thanks, Hannah,” I said as I held an arm out to hold it. Mom held onto my waist and kept me from falling off her lap.

“You’re beary welcome,” she told me with a smile. But then, she hesitated before saying, “Wow, you’re adorable, Nick.”

“I haven’t even seen myself,” I said aloud. Through the pacifier, I thought it sounded like gibberish, but Mom must have understood it.

“Do you want to?” She asked me as she stood up and leaned me back to look at her.

I grimaced but nodded, “Uh-huh,” I said. Mom carried me to the bathroom, and I saw a pretty little girl, maybe just a little older than Lily, staring at me. My hair was fiery red now, like the color of Merida’s from Brave, and I had green eyes. Not just any green, though; they were a dark emerald color that seemed to glow almost – and certainly were abnormal!

Seeing myself as a girl was enough to make up for suddenly being a baby. I smiled at the realization that I, in fact, was a beautiful little girl!

The pacifier in my mouth must have been swapped at some point because it was a new one I had never seen my sister use. The guard was purple with a button of pink flowers on it. It was so girlish I would have to keep it safe from my sister stealing it. I giggled at that.

“What’s so funny?” Mom asked as I kept giggling.

“What’s not funny?” I asked, gasping as the pacifier fell from my mouth. “I’m supposed to be eighteen years old, and suddenly, I’m a three-year-old baby girl with a pacifier in my mouth that my sister will probably want to steal from me.” I kept laughing.

“Well, you did steal hers first,” she told me with a smile. She sat me down on the ground, and I walked towards the bed again.

Surprisingly I felt like I was able to walk normally. The only thing that made me waddle a little was the diaper, which was obviously a little wet. Hannah had picked up my dropped pacifier and washed it in the sink. I walked over to her and put my arms up in the traditional ‘pick me up’ pose. She obliged and said, “Well, I guess you won’t be worrying about that English essay for tomorrow?”

I smiled, “Somehow, I don’t think I’ll get that lucky?”

Mom nodded at me, “We’ll keep you home for now, but you’re going to do all of the assignments and homework from home.”

Just then, Dad came in, holding my sister. Lily looked at me and frowned, “Nicko?” She still couldn’t say Nicholas yet, which was the closest she could get.

I sighed and said, “Yes, Lily.”

“You little like me?”

“Yes, Lily.”

“You play with me?” She asked with a timid smile.

“Sure,” I said.

Dad had brought some of her favorite dolls with her, and I sat down in the bed… crib… with her and just like that, we played for an unknown amount of time before I felt my stomach growl. Mom, Hannah, and Dad sat in the corner talking and watching us and paused, having heard it from there. “Are we hungry yet?”

An orderly walked in, pushing a food cart as if on cue. “Mac and cheese?” she asked Mom.

I groaned; I would have to get used to people talking about me as if I wasn’t there…

“Yes, just leave it there.” She told her. “Lily, you’re going to go back home with Daddy and Hannah to take your nap. Hannah’s going to stay with you until later when hopefully, we’ll be able to bring Nicholas home.”

“I’m going home tonight?” I asked, surprised.

“The doctor said he’d probably send you home since you woke up. There’s nothing else they can do for you since you’ve stabilized. We have some paperwork to fill out, and they want us to get you tested Monday.”

“I wonder why I haven’t been able to sense any abilities yet?” I asked. “I thought ever Emergent gets abilities of some sort?”

As if it was waiting for that question, all of a sudden, the world looked very different. I could see all of these weird lines running over the floor in every direction I looked. I noticed some leading towards my new teddy bear and had a silly thought, ‘She could really use a dress…’ Everyone gasped as there was a small flash, and suddenly, my new teddy bear had a perfectly sized and pretty purple dress.

“Did you do that?” Mom asked suddenly.

“Do it again!” Lily said.

I looked at the bear she had brought and imagined a pink dress to match. Suddenly there was another flash, and she shouted, “You did it, Nicko! Thank you!”

Mom looked at me and said, “How did you do that?”

“All of a sudden, after I asked what my abilities were, I saw all these lines…?”

Dad sighed, “Well, that’s going to mean we’ll have to get you taught sooner than later.”

“What?” I asked.

“It means you have a magic trait,” he explained. “You can probably do many things like that with magic.”

“Awesome!” I said before my stomach growled again. The lines were still everywhere, so I thought, ‘vision normal?’ I smiled as the lines went away.

“We’ll see you in a bit,” Hannah said and hugged me. I hugged her back, and soon Mom had me back on her lap with the tray of macaroni and cheese.

“It might be easier for me just to feed you,” Mom said as she tried to figure out the arrangement for me to have the bowl in front of me. Unfortunately, the bed wouldn’t work.

I sighed, “Let’s get it over with,” I said. We managed to get most of it inside my mouth. A couple times, she started to bring the spoon up, and I turned my head slightly on accident, and she missed my mouth. A baby wipe quickly took care of it, and she placed the bowl back on the tray.

“Let’s change your diaper, sweetie,” she said.

“I’m not…” then I realized I was wet and finished, “feeling myself going at all.”

Mom stood and held me securely to her right side while she used her free hand to unfold a changing mat onto the crib mattress. Then, she moved to a shelf on the side and grabbed a fresh diaper and some wipes, which she laid beside it before lying me down on the changing mat. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I have a feeling between what you were thinking and your body size that this may be a part of life now.”

I felt tears going down my eyes. “Forever?”

She said nothing else for a moment as she pushed the hospital gown out of the way to expose the diaper. I lifted my head forward to look, but she pushed my shoulders back down. “Stay down, sweetie, so I can take care of this. Even if it’s forever, I’ll always love you.”

I felt myself jolt as I heard and felt the rip of the first tape on the diaper. The second tape was ripped next, and I felt Mom grab my ankles just like we did to change Lily’s diaper. It only emphasized the massive size regression I’d undergone, as my ankles easily fit in her single hand. She used a baby wipe to gently wipe me, and her touch felt intrusive and tickled.

I squirmed a little as she thoroughly wiped a part of my body that was foreign now and felt my face turning the color of my new hair. “It’s okay, almost done!” She told me

I stayed silent as she placed my butt down on the new diaper. She folded the used wipes inside the old one and set it to the side. I tried to sit up again, but my left hand pushed down firmly above my belly as she taped the left side of my diaper shut, then switched to securely tape the other.

“I’ll never have a normal life,” I said, embarrassed to have my mom in my personal space like that!

“Who’s to say that, sweetheart? You may find part of your abilities lets you grow up too!”

She pulled the gown back down over my diaper and kissed my forehead before taking the balled-up used diaper to the trash can. Mom returned and carried me back over to the chair and held me. I felt comfortable as she gently patted my back. I fell asleep at some point because the next thing I knew, Dad was back, and so was the doctor. Mom had woken me up to talk.

“Okay, sweetie, we have to have a frank discussion about some things here.”

I nodded and noticed the pacifier in my mouth. I pulled it out and held it so I could talk. “Okay.”

The new doctor looked at me, “I’m Doctor Earnhardt.” He held a hand to me. I took his hand with his completely enveloping mine.

“Nice to meet you; I’m Nick… well, sort of?” I smiled.

He did too. “Okay, I think you’re out of the woods from the burnout possibilities. Your mom and dad will probably be best off taking you home now. However, we can’t do that before we take care of some things.”

“Okay…?”

“Well, first things first, we need to go to the nurses’ station so I can measure and weigh you.”

I nodded. Mom picked me up and carried me down the hallway, where I was placed on a scale, a typical doctor’s office one, and weighed. “Okay, twenty pounds, one ounce,” he said.

“That’s it?!?” I asked, surprised. I spoke around the pacifier that had found its way back into my mouth.

“Yeah, I thought you felt much lighter than your sister.” Mom said.

“Okay, come over here, and let’s measure your length.” He directed me against a wall and said, “Okay, thirty-four inches.”

‘I’m an inch taller and seven pounds lighter than my baby sister,’ I thought. “I’m never going to be able to get a car and drive now!” I moaned aloud.

Mom hugged me, and we returned to my room with her carrying me. Back in my room, the doctor took out a measuring tape and measured the circumference of my head, waist, arms, and just about everywhere else while making notes. He did some reflex tests on my knees and feet. He had Mom remove my diaper before examining my lower end gently for a long awkward moment before telling her to put my diaper back on.

“Okay, honestly, you seem to be physically a little bit below weight, but otherwise normal twenty-six-month-old girl,” he told me when she was done. “Your reflexes are better, though, and I suspect you probably have the physical abilities of an adult or more. Have you tried lifting anything yet?”

I shook my head.

“Put her down on the ground,” he said. He pointed to the chair against the wall. “See if you can move that or pick it up.”

I looked at him skeptically as I was sure it weighed more than my twenty pounds! I walked over and was surprised I could easily lift it above my head. For fun, I threw it up in the air and panicked as it hit the ceiling and bounced back toward me. Somehow, he caught it and said, “Okay, that answers that. Be very careful with your strength. You’ll probably find yourself getting stronger over the weekend. If you’re not careful…?”

I nodded, fighting the tears from my eyes - I could hurt my sister. That would be horrible.

“You made an appointment at the lab for Monday, right?” He asked Mom.

She nodded, “First thing in the morning.”

“Good, last thing before I write the release papers… We need a different name for you, I think.”

Dad had been sitting in the corner, just being quiet. “Nicholas, do you want to pick, or do you want us to pick?”

I froze at that. I had dreamed of girl names before but had never settled on one. “Can I let you pick but veto it if I hate it?”

He and Mom smiled about that. “Okay,” he said. “We were thinking Sofia,” he said, “spelled with an F.”

“So, like the cartoon character?” I asked, trying not to smile. It was actually a name I had thought of before!

Mom nodded sheepishly, “It was the other name we thought of when Lily was born?”

“And a middle name?”

“Elizabeth, like your mom and your sister,” Dad said.

“Okay,” I said.

“Really? You’re not going to fight us on this and throw a fit?” Dad asked, confused.

“No, I’m not, let’s talk about it at home, though,” I told him. “Assuming I can go home?” I asked the doctor.

“Yes, you may. I’m going to send a nurse here with the discharge papers. Why don’t you go ahead and get her dressed to leave?”

I smiled again at ‘her’ being used again. ‘I can’t believe it really happened,’ I thought. Mom felt my diaper and said, “It can last until we get home. Which would you like to wear?” She asked me.

She held up three outfits. One was a pretty dress with tights. I really liked it, but it was snowy outside if they didn’t have school today. The next was a yellow sweater and a pink set of overalls with snaps along the legs, and the final option was a pair of jeans and a plain blue sweatshirt. I pointed to the overalls, “That one please.”

She handed me the sweatshirt, and I gratefully put it on myself. I stood up, pulled the overalls up without too much trouble, and buckled the straps unassisted. The nurse came then, and before I knew it, Mom was sitting in a wheelchair with me, cuddling my new teddy bear, now named Amber, getting pushed out to the parking lot where Dad was waiting.

He opened the door I usually got in through, and I saw a brand-new rear-facing purple car seat beside Lily’s. “I guess I’m stuck in one of these, huh?” I asked.

“Yes,” Mom said. She pulled the harness straps around me, adjusting them before buckling me in and closing the door. As we pulled away, I couldn’t help but wonder just what in the world happened to my brain cells that I had to get locked with the body of a baby girl!

‘At least I am a girl, though!’ I beamed.

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Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! Comments are always super appreciated as well!

For those who have read this before, I hope this is a smoother reading experience! There are lots of little changes and adjustments through the work. Let me know what you think!

If you’re someone who must finish a good story ‘now,’ consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

[jackchef]

I’m very excited to read this story and very tempted to buy it on kindle as it sounds awesome and yeah congrats on compiling such an awesome storyline

[BabySofia]

Thank you, I appreciate your kind words and your time reading!

[BabySofia]

Chapter 3: Homecoming

I LOOKED AHEAD at the road from the seat and noted that it was weird to be unable to move as much. I did feel safer, though, from a collision this way. I couldn’t believe how small I was now… I sat sucking on the pacifier more without noticing for a few minutes and decided to experiment by pulling it out of my mouth. I held it in my hand to reassure myself that it wasn’t going anywhere.

“Tired of sucking on that?” I hear Mom ask from the front looking at the camera monitor we had for the backseat.

“Experimenting…” I told her.

“Huh?” Dad asked.

I sighed, “How long I can resist sucking on a pacifier. I assume this is what a smoker feels like while trying to quit.”

“It’s that bad?” Mom asked with concern.

“Not if it’s in my mouth,” I said grimly. Trying to change the subject, “So I’m the same size of clothes as Lily now?”

“Well, not diaper-wise,” she said.

“Huh?”

“You’re lighter and skinnier… you’re actually a size smaller there.”

I groaned, “I am taller than her, at least.”

“For now…” Dad said quietly.

I glared at the camera in case he looked at the monitor screen. I managed to last with the pacifier out of my mouth until we pulled into our driveway nearly thirty minutes later. Something about arriving home sent anxiety to my brain. The outside was covered in seven inches of snow or so. I tried to pop the latches on the harness, but I couldn’t quite make my fingers hit it from the right angle. I had just decided to try using magic when Mom opened my door and swatted my hands from the straps. “I’ll get that, honey.”

I sighed. “I’m not really a baby…?”

She raised an eyebrow and said, “I know you’re not… but how about we pretend the rules for your sister apply to you until we get testing done Monday.”

I groaned! Mom didn’t spank Lily for much, but getting out of her car seat on her own had nearly caused an accident a couple months ago. They had been very strict about not messing with her buckles after that!

“What day is it anyway?” I asked with a sigh. “Was I just out the one day?”

“It’s Thursday; you were only unconscious for about seven hours.”

“So, three days?”

“What, you can’t last that long?” Mom teased but looked concerned.

I shrugged, “I don’t know, actually.”

“Well, let’s go inside and let Hannah off the hook from your sister. Your dad is going to drive her home.” She had picked me up, and I was easily able to cling onto her and my teddy bear at the same time as she held her hand below my bottom. I could feel that my diaper was squishier than it had been a moment ago, but I hadn’t felt any sensation of going.

“Can you please change me too?” I asked.

“Did you go again?” she asked me.

I nodded as Dad opened the door for us. “I don’t know when either,” I said with a frown.

She tickled my chin, “No frowning! If you can’t help it, you can’t help it. We’ll deal with it,” she said with a smile and then kissed the top of my head and carried me upstairs. Hannah and Lily had just come from the basement and followed us there. Lily was climbing up the stairs as best she could.

‘Great, that’ll be embarrassing,’ I told myself as I considered how I would be climbing the stairs the same way. ‘The baby gates are taller than me now, too,’ I sulked as mom carried me up the stairs.

The most embarrassing experience was when I was laid down on Lily’s changing table a few moments later. Mom didn’t hesitate or give me any warning as she put the strap over my chest and began pulling at the snaps at the crotch. I saw Hannah watching, and then she turned away guiltily.

As painfully embarrassing as being naked with a wet diaper was, I decided I had to say something to help with the awkwardness. “So... Hannah… are they planning on there being school tomorrow?”

She looked back over at me, and I realized it had to have been hard to understand around the pacifier. So my hand pulled away the pacifier, and I repeated it.

“Probably, unless we were to get more snow.” She said.

“Can you turn in my essay if I can get it done?” I asked.

“Umm… sure.” She said.

“I have calculus done, too,” I said as I felt mom rip the tapes open on the old diaper.

As if she finally understood that it was okay to look and talk to me, she came back toward me. “Did you figure out that last calculus problem?”

“Sort of,” I said as I tried to distract myself from Mom grabbing my feet in one hand and lifting my bottom while pulling the wet diaper out from underneath. “My dad and I think there’s a mistake. So he helped me solve it as far as possible, and then I also solved it with the corrected problem.”

“Think you can help me with that before he takes me home?” She asked me.

“Sure,” I said as Mom finished taping the new diaper on me. I had done my best to ignore the powder she had used and the whole experience. Especially the embarrassment I was fighting with one of my best friends watching! Mom snapped the crotch of my overalls back closed and set me on the ground. “Now?” I asked.

“I guess,” she responded, and we went to my room.

Mom called, “Lily, where are you? Let’s change your diapee too while I’m at it.”

My backpack was lying on the floor, and I unzipped it without any problems. Hannah looked at the book I was about to grab and was going to offer to carry it.

“I’ve got it,” I told her with a smile.

“That book weighs like a quarter of your weight, though,” she started to argue.

I picked it up like I was still her size. “I may be the size of a baby Hannah; I may even never be potty trained again and need a pacifier...”

Suddenly I felt tears coming to my eyes, “Where is my paci…?” I started, but she reached down and put it in my mouth. The tears quickly went away, “Fanks,” I said around it with a sigh.

“This sucks!” I said. “Anyway, I’m strong!” I told her with a smile that made its way around the shield.

She shook her head and had a seat on the ground with me. Hannah had grabbed her backpack, too, and we sat down to talk about it. As we were finishing, Lily came in after Mom had finished changing her and pulled at me. “Play with me, Nicko?”

I looked at Hannah and winked, “I guess now that I’m a baby, I get to play more?”

“All da time!” Lily said and kept pulling at me.

“See you later, Hannah,” I told her, knowing she would leave now.

She hugged me before I let Lily lead me down to her room, and we played for what seemed like a few minutes when Mom picked us both up. “Come on, dinner time, you two,” Mom said.

“Aww…” I heard Lily say and realized my voice joined hers.

She took us to the bathroom, where she picked us up to wash our hands before carrying us down to the kitchen. Lily’s high chair had been joined by another. “You get chair like me!” she said excitedly.

I sighed. “I’m too short for a regular chair now, Lily,” I told her. “Couldn’t I use a booster seat, though?” I suggested to Mom.

She looked embarrassed, “I don’t think we even thought about that… Would you mind for now?”

I grimaced but said, “Okay.”

Mom put Lily down in her chair first and handed me to Dad. I groaned a bit as Dad buckled the seatbelt and put the tray in place. Mom put one of Lily’s bibs around her neck and seemed to look at me for whether or not she needed to put one on me.

“Nicko bib?” Lily asked.

I shook my head, “I’m a big… girl; I shouldn’t need it.” I said to Mom as much as Lily.

Mom nodded, “I know you’re still eighteen, really… we’ll try it.”

I sighed in relief. Dinner was a piece of pizza, and I asked, “Mom, may I have a fork and a knife?”

She looked at me skeptically but brought me a regular size fork and knife. I hated eating with my hands, especially pizza, something my mom had no idea where I had gotten from. I noticed my parents trying not to watch me as I gripped the too-large silverware in my hands. I still had the coordination to make the cuts, but they were too big. I thought for a moment and decided to try something.

I pictured the lines I had seen earlier back in my mind, and I could see them on everything again. I visualized the silverware being back to a normal proportion for me, and with a quick flash, they were!

“What did you do?” Mom asked nervously.

“Same thing I did to make the bear’s dresses,” I told her with a smile and used the correct size utensils to cut a piece of the pizza off. From my new perspective, the single piece looked like half a pizza. “May I have a drink, please?” I asked her.

She looked at me and shook her head. I watched her go to the cabinets, where she grabbed a pink Disney Princess sippy cup for me and filled it with juice from the fridge. I looked at her like, ‘really?’ but she smirked. “You’re going to have to get used to using sippy cups in this house, sweetie. I learned long ago that it was a good idea until you were about six!”

I sighed, “Whatever,” and took a drink. It really was okay, I didn’t mind the girly cup, but I hated having another reminder of my new situation. ‘How bad is a sippy cup compared to a pacifier addiction?’ I asked myself. With a sigh, I returned to eating my meal and had the pizza devoured before my sister managed about half of her much smaller slice. I finished the juice too. “May I please have more?” I asked. They avoided actively staring at me and were surprised I finished the food.

“You need more?” Mom asked.

I shrugged, “I’m hungry, I guess.”

Even I was a bit surprised as I finished the third slice a while later and finally began to feel full. “You’re going to be sick later, Sofia!” Mom said to me as she unbuckled me from the highchair.

“Maybe, maybe not… I’m not really three…”

“No, you’re really more like two, sweetie,” she said to rub salt in the wound but had a smile on her face.

I turned around and looked at my sister standing next to the couch. I watched as she bent her legs for a moment and knew what she was doing. Sure enough, when she stood up, she smiled and looked happy. I was just getting ready to wonder if I would be in a similar state when I felt something warm coming out of my rear end. I realized I was standing with my knees bent and stood back up, shocked. Meanwhile, my sister sat down, and I swear it looked like she was smushing it all around.

Mom came up from behind me, “Smells like I have a poopie pants around here,” she said.

I just started bawling.

I felt her pick me up and try to soothe me for several moments. It made it worse, though, because she accidentally smushed some of it against my butt when she picked me up. Finally, she carried me upstairs and said, “Lily, come on! You’re poopy too! I need to change you and your sister and put you in the bath.”

I bawled uncontrollably and barely registered anything until she laid me back on the changing table. She gently unsnapped and pulled the coveralls off my body to expose my shirt and the diaper. I felt her undo the tapes and was surprised that this time I didn’t smell the terrible scent I usually did when Lily pooped her diapers. She gently opened the diaper and began wiping me clean. I was surprised when she sat me back down on the ground without putting another diaper on me.

“Ni… Sofia, would you please go wait for us in the bathroom?” Mom said.

I couldn’t do anything but nod at that point. Then, I walked into the hallway bathroom and realized everything seemed big. The toilet was like a giant chair in front of me. Even if I was potty trained, I knew it would be tough to get up and down it all the time. The tub had begun to seem shallow a long time ago; now, it looked like it could swallow me easily. I stood there until Mom came in with my sister on her hip.

Lily looked at me, “You have vageena too?”

I sighed. “Yes, I do,” I said.

“But Nicko was boy?” Well, my sister certainly was as intelligent as the rest of us.

“I’m not anymore,” I told her.

“You girl just like me?”

“Yes, Lily, just like you now,” I told her, “but I’m still the same Nicko you’ve always known, but call me Sofia now.” Mom listened as I watched her fill the bathtub and add bubble bath.

She looked at me, and I could tell she was trying hard to think. “You sistah instead of brother?”

I shrugged, hating the fact that I was naked right then. “I guess so, Lily,” I told her.

For whatever reason, that excited her. “Yay, I have sistah!!!!” She suddenly jumped and hugged me. I returned the hug and couldn’t help but notice she was nearly the same height. An inch difference in size wasn’t that much, and it was clear she was bigger. I was careful when I hugged her, though, knowing my new strength was dangerous.

“Okay, my little princesses, arms up in the sky like a ballerina!” I groaned but lifted my arms up and let her pull my shirt off after she had taken Lily’s off. I watched her pick Lily up, plunked her gently in the tub, and then she did the same with me. As much as I didn’t want to take a bath with my sister, I couldn’t help but enjoy the playtime with her. Mom pulled out some of her toys, and we ended up squirting each other and drawing on the walls with bath markers alternately while Mom washed us and our hair.

She was very gentle as she washed my hair. “Close your eyes, Sofia,” she told me gently. Then, I felt her dump several cups of water over my head before massaging shampoo into my hair. It felt pretty good, and before I knew it, she said, “You can open them now,” just in time for my sister to squirt water in them!

Before I could retaliate, she pulled the plug from the tub and said, “Okay, let’s get you both nice and dry and ready for bed!”

“Do I have to go to bed?” I asked her.

She shook her head, “Not yet. Your father and I need to talk with you first.”

I thought that going to bed might be the better plan! Lily looked like she might whine, but Mom told her, “Sofia will go to bed soon. She’s still older, so she has a later bedtime like before.”

Lily looked at her and said, “Okay.”

Mom wrapped both of us with towels and then sat Lily on the counter. I watched her take a blow drier and dry her hair while brushing it out. I noticed her wince a couple times as Mom found a ‘snarl’ as she’d learned to call the tangles in her hair. Finally, when she was done, she carried her to her room and said, “Sofia, come with me. We’ll come back and do your hair.”

She picked Lily up and sat her down on the changing table. I watched her give her the pacifier she loved and suddenly felt that craving for mine again. I groaned and found my thumb in my mouth before I could even think about my hand moving to my mouth. Lily was dressed in a pink blanket sleeper and sat on her bed. “Next princess,” Mom said with a smirk.

I put my arms up, and the towel fell down. Mom placed my naked body on the table and quickly diapered me before pulling my thumb out and replacing it with another pacifier. I suddenly found myself relaxing from the feeling of it inside my mouth. I shook my head, ‘This is going to get old...’

I had to at least give myself credit for making it from dinner through my bath without it, though. Mom asked, “Should I dress you?”

I shrugged, “Do you want to?”

The smile on her face and the gleam in her eye was enough answer. She dressed me in one of Lily’s other purple sleepers. Mom sat me down, “Your dad is downstairs if you want to go watch TV with him until I get Lily to bed.”

I realized dad must have brought her bottle up already as it was sitting next to the rocking chair. I felt my jealous monster roar again then, but I nodded and said, “Okay,” and began walking down the hallway.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! Comments are always super appreciated as well! Thank you to those of you who have done so!!!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

[BabySofia]

Chapter 3: Homecoming

BEING CARRIED SO much today, this walking business was almost a novelty! At the stairs, I held back a feeling of panic at looking down the tall staircase! I grabbed the rail tightly and took it one step at a time before making it down. I looked back up and wondered how I would deal with those regularly!

I could hear the TV on in the downstairs living room and walked over there. My dad was sitting in his recliner and taking a drink right then. I thought about just walking over to the couch and having a seat, but he opened his arms and said, “You want to come sit in my lap?”

I had been so jealous of my sister that I couldn’t turn that down! I started running and realized a problem as soon as I jumped into his lap. I was moving faster than I should have been. He said, “Oomph,” and I looked to ensure he was okay.

“I’m so sorry, Dad! Are you okay?!?” I asked, suddenly afraid I had hurt him.

“Thankfully, you missed the jewels, sweetheart. I’m fine,” he said and hugged me to reassure me. “You need to be really careful, though. You look like a baby, but you’re definitely not a normal one!”

I returned the hug and leaned into his arm to watch the TV show. It was a new episode of one of the CSI spin-offs I didn’t usually watch. I didn’t tend to spend much time watching TV between practicing and doing homework. Then, it suddenly occurred to me, “If I’m stuck like this, I’ll never be able to play flute again!”

Dad hugged me, “I’m sure we’ll figure something out. What about piccolo?”

I smiled, “I bet I could do that!”

“Well, maybe we’ll see about getting one for you for Christmas.”

We sat there for about ten more minutes until Mom came down. “Already a daddy’s girl?” She asked teasingly.

I tried sticking my tongue out at her before realizing something was in the way. I pulled my pacifier out, stuck my tongue out, and then put it back in my mouth. She laughed and came over to pick me up from Dad’s lap. Then, she proceeded to start tickling me without any warning!

“Stop…” I giggled.

“Okay…” she said. Dad turned off the TV and came and joined us on the couch.

I sighed; this was going to be one of those conversations. “Okay, so what do you want to talk about?”

“A lot of things,” Mom said gently.

“Well... start talking,” I said.

“First off, I think we’re going to have to have some ground rules here, sweetie,” Dad said.

“Like?” I said and pulled the pacifier from my mouth. I had to force myself to hold it in my lap.

“Well, for one, until you get some training, I think no magic in the house would be a good one to start with.”

I looked at him skeptically, “Why?”

He sighed, “Look, some of my work - which you know I can’t talk about - involves some of the after-effects of energy output from mergents. We particularly study those that use so-called magic power. We’ve been trying for the last decade to isolate the physics principles that have to be at work behind ‘magic.’ We have a few magic users in our group that help us out. Unfortunately, I’ve heard too many horror stories about them learning to use magic, making sprites, and destroying things.”

“Sprite?” I asked.

“They’re kind of like creatures… but come in all sorts of shapes. Normally they start wandering around destroying things and wreaking havoc anytime they appear.”

“Oh,” I said. “Will I be able to learn from someone here?”

Dad shrugged, “We’ll know more on Monday. There’s a school that a lot of other...”

He hesitated, so I added “Mergents,” for him.

He grimaced and nodded before continuing, “go to back east. I’d probably have you on the plane next week if you weren’t two years old. I’m not sure if they would be willing to have a student who basically needs a daycare, though…?”

I hit him lightly on the leg. Or I thought it was light; he winced. “Sorry, Daddy, are you okay?”

“Yes, but that will probably leave a bruise. You’re going to have to be really careful, sweetie!” He told me.

I felt some tears in my eyes at that.

He stroked my hair gently, “We’ll get through this, I promise you.”

“So, what else?” I asked Mom.

“Well, I think when we’re out, you need to pretend to be a normal two-year-old.”

“So, tantrums, pooping in my diaper at random points, sucking on a pacifier...?” I sighed, “I have the second and the third down, at least.”

“It wasn’t random, at least. It was after dinner, just like Lily,” she said with a smile. “If we had put you on the potty in time, you might have gone there.”

I smiled but shook my head, “I might have by random chance, but I can’t feel when I’m going or need to go at all! Lily will probably be out of diapers before I am again.”

She squeezed my leg gently, “It’s okay, though; that’s not the end of the world.” Mom hesitated but said, “No, I also mean things like using a bib, like your sister, definitely sitting in your car seat, high chairs, etc.”

“Why?”

“Well, partially to protect you,” Dad answered.

“Huh?”

“Look, and especially until Monday when you get tested, the EPC is a powerful government agency that could come and take you away if something funny happens. Then there’s Sanguis Primum; while they don’t have much of a presence in Los Alamos, there are a bunch of those nutjobs in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.”

I nodded at that. Even among ‘norms,’ I’d heard horror stories of the Emergent Protection Commission officers committing horrible acts against Mergents. The Sanguis Primum members took racism to a whole other level from what I had seen. “Okay, I get that. Do I have to be a complete baby here, though? Can I please have time on my computer and maybe keep up with my school stuff or something? I enjoyed playing with Lily tonight, but I’m still eighteen in my mind.”

Dad nodded, “I don’t see any reason why not. I think we may have to move your computer to another room, though, and give you another bed and redecorate.” He hesitated, “It doesn’t have to be too girly, though.”

I took a moment and decided to say, “No, it can be girly; that’s fine. Can we maybe decorate it with Sofia the First stuff? Since you named me after her and all. I mean, they made a TV show about me. Shouldn’t I have some of her stuff?” I winked at Dad.

“Why do I get the feeling the girl part of this isn’t upsetting you?” Mom asked gently.

‘Here goes nothing,’ I thought to myself, “Because…” I felt my breath shake, “Because it doesn’t,” I felt a tear roll down my face. “It’s a dream come true.”

“You wanted to be a girl?” Dad asked in surprise. His tone was still gentle.

I nodded, “Since I could remember, I thought I was one, but I had the wrong parts. Now I have the right body… well, sort of.” I grimaced and told them how I’d been scared to ever say anything to them. I knew I was transgendered, and becoming a girl was a dream come true! “Being a baby again really wasn’t in the plans, though,” I finished in tears.

“I think that you were focused so much on the simple pleasures of Lily’s life, though, that you kind of got stuck on it then,” Dad told me softly. Then, he leaned over to me and hugged me. “I love you. Never forget that.”

Mom joined in the hug and said, “So do I, sweetie; whether you’re eighteen, two, or one hundred, I will always love you.”

“I love you too,” I said to them and was glad I had parents like these.

We stayed there for a few minutes before I asked, “May I go to my room and get on my computer?”

Mom looked at me for a moment before nodding, “You may. Let me check your diaper first, though.” I grimaced as Mom felt the crotch of my diaper and said, “A little wet, but I think it’ll hold until bed.” She smiled at that.

“You could ask me to check it myself, you know,” I told her. My privacy already felt invaded during the changes.

Mom looked embarrassed herself, “I’m sorry sweetie, I… I guess I’m just used to checking your sister.”

I nodded. I guess I checked Lily all the time, too, since she didn’t usually tell us when she was wet. “I’m sorry; I guess that’s natural for you,” I told her and hugged her.

I then hopped off the couch lightly and headed to my room before the conversation got any more awkward. I took the stairs a little faster this time. They still seemed gigantic, but I didn’t feel the fear of them. I had to climb up my computer chair awkwardly to get into it before discovering I couldn’t just sit and reach the keyboard. I hopped down and let the chair go as high as possible before climbing back. I could sit on my knees and just reach everything pretty much. I noticed my cell phone there and saw Jacob had sent me a slew of messages starting with, ‘Hey, do you want to hang out?’ at first to really worried ‘Where the hell are you?’ messages.

I sighed.

I opened my phone’s unlock screen and sent a text to him. ‘Sorry, bro, got… sick. I’m going to be quarantined at home for a while.’

I sent a message to Hannah simultaneously, ‘Thanks for watching my sister earlier… and… thanks for being my friend.’

Hannah responded first, ‘You’re soooo cute now! You do realize that?’

I turned red, ‘I know...’

‘So what are you going to do now?’

‘I don’t know. I’m supposed to pretend to be two anytime we’re out and about. If you run into us somewhere, go ahead and let loose your maternal instincts I guess.’

‘lol, I’m sorry Nick.’

I paused before sending, ‘It’s okay, but it’s Sofia now… might as well get used to it. I need to go. I’ll ttyl’

‘Ttyl (-:’

I was just about to start browsing the internet when Jacob responded. ‘Dude, are you okay?’

I sighed, ‘Sort of… look, I’ll talk to my parents and maybe you can come over with Hannah Tuesday for us to explain.’

‘You’re acting like you emerged or something...’

‘Tuesday,’ I told him.

‘Okay, I’ll take the hint. I need to go; Mom is yelling at me.’

‘ttyl’

Putting my phone aside, I opened the internet and typed ‘Mergent’ into Wikipedia. Of course, everyone knew ‘about’ Mergents, but I never thought I would turn out to be one. I searched one website after another, looking for information. One of the first articles I read about were those with ‘Paradigm’ abilities.

‘Paradigm talents often manifest into super strong, super-fast, and super-beautiful Mergents. Little is known about how this trait is passed on, but those who receive this form of emergence tend to be the most ‘super’ of the variants. Nearly every high-level Paradigm Mergent will have a strong EFP that will guide and shape the Paradigm’s appearance. The most powerful will find that they may not even be able to cut their hair without it instantly growing back to maintain their ‘ideal’ form.’

I groaned as I read about EFPs or Emergent Form Patterns that controlled a high-level paradigm’s body appearance. It seemed like the higher level of a Paradigm you were, the more it could change you. I read a few accounts of gender change before, but it seemed like it wasn’t all that common. I didn’t find many examples of anyone getting younger, and none to my age.

I looked at the clock and saw it was almost ten, figuring my mom would be coming in soon. I looked around my room and saw my new black belt hanging off my dresser. I wondered if I could even still do those forms. Curious, I jumped off my chair, moved to the center of my room where there wasn’t a lot of clutter, and began moving through the basic warmup forms and worked to the ones I’d performed last night. Surprisingly I felt like I was even more nimble and sure of myself. The only thing that seemed to be holding me back was the stupid diaper. Until I managed to lick potty training again though I would have to get used to it, I was afraid.

I had just run through the final form when Mom came in. She looked surprised to see me in one of my forms - well, I’m sure it looked a little out of place. “Practicing?” She asked.

“I wanted to see if I could still do everything,” I told her with a smile.

“You can?”

“Uh-huh!”

“That’s great, sweetie.” She came over and kneeled down to give me a hug. “Look, I know you’re probably not a fan of this, but your father and I are tired, and I think it’s time for bed.”

I just nodded, “I understand. Can you change my diaper?”

Mom said, “That was just what I was coming to do!” Mom had my sister’s diaper bag and a changing mat that she laid down on the floor next to me. In next to no time at all, she had my sleeper feet off, my wet diaper peeled off, wiped bottom, powdered, taped the new one on, and had me redressed.

“You would think you’ve been doing that for the last two-and-a-half years or something?” I told her.

“Well, I had my three years with you before!” She picked me up and started to set me on my bed.

I felt embarrassed, but I pulled the pacifier out of my mouth and asked, “Umm… Mom… my?”

She looked at me strangely, “Yes?”

“I know this may sound kind of weird… but could you put me to bed like you do, Lily?” I felt my face flush a bit.

“With a bottle and a story?” She asked, kind of surprised.

I just nodded and put the pacifier back in my mouth, my face now fiery red.

“Sure, sweetie,” she smiled, “I’ll be back in a couple minutes.”

Mom disappeared downstairs and came up with one of Lily’s bottles filled with warm milk in one hand and a book about Rapunzel, one of Lily’s favorite stories. “You don’t have a rocking chair in here,” she started to say, but suddenly there was a pop, and one appeared where a bean bag I had on the ground was. “I thought we told you no magic?”

I looked up at her in fear, “I didn’t mean to, Mommy. I didn’t do what I did earlier at all!”

‘You didn’t, I did,’ I heard in my head. It was the voice of the lady from last night.

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[BabySofia]

Chapter 5: Emerald Castle

‘UMM...’ I THOUGHT in my head. ‘Who are you?’

‘I told you last night, Caireen.’

‘And… you’re inside my head?’

‘Your body. You bonded with me last night.’

‘Oh...’ I thought. ‘So, I guess I’m an avatar?’

‘I believe that’s what your people call it,’ she agreed, and somehow, I could sense she was nodding.

‘So you can act without me wanting you to?’ I asked.

‘Most of the time, no, but right now, I couldn’t help myself. In fact,’ I felt Caireen do something, and suddenly my walls, bed, desk, dresser, and clothes all seemed to transform. The walls became a light purple with some beautiful scrolling leaves and flowers in some sort of mirror paint. My bed became a crib, the dresser a changing table, and the room straightened everything to a neat order. It was a prettier nursery than Mom had done for Lily - which had taken us months to do!

“Sofia Elizabeth,” Mom said to me while looking stunned.

‘How am I going to prove I didn’t do this!?!’

‘Let me talk to her...’

There was something akin to a light switch thrown, and I felt like I was now watching my body. “Sofia did not do this, Mrs. Hammerstein,” came from my body with a much more mature voice somehow coming from my vocal cords.

“What did you do to my daughter?” Mom asked, panicked, “Is she okay?”

“She’s perfectly fine. You may call me Caireen. Your daughter and I bonded last night… I saw she would die without my help, but she has so much potential I decided I had to help her… In the process, she and I ended up bonding.” I felt my eyes move around, “She’s going to take back over now; I just don’t want her to get in trouble. She really needed a pretty nursery, though.”

I felt myself take back over again and, at the same time, could still feel her presence. ‘You’re still here?’ I asked.

‘Until you die, sweet pea,’ she said with a voice that seemed to smile. ‘I’ll talk to you later; your mommy is worried sick.’

“Sofia, are you okay?”

I nodded, “I am; it’s exactly like she said happened.”

“You’re not trying to get out of trouble?”

“I wish I could be this imaginative to get out of trouble,” I sighed.

Mom had a scared and shaken look that she managed to shake her head and ask in a mostly normal voice, “Well… still want your bottle?”

I nodded. Mom carried me to the rocking chair, positioned me in her arm’s crook, handed me the warm bottle, and then began to read the story. “Once upon a time...” I stayed awake for half of the story. I had to rely upon my memory of telling Lily to remember how it ended!

ALMOST AS SOON as I fell asleep, I was standing in a green meadow with flowers and gigantic, beautiful butterflies everywhere. It was a spectacular view when I turned around and saw a stone castle that looked even prettier than anything in a Disney fairytale movie! “Like it?” I heard her ask.

“It’s beautiful!” I told her as I looked up to view a beautiful red-headed lady with emerald green eyes like mine. Her eyes had a twinkle to them that said she was friendly but with just a hint of mischievousness concealed beneath. She seemed like a giant compared to my size, but I guessed she was probably under six feet tall. I recognized the voice as Caireen’s and knew this must be her. “Where are we?”

“Ireland,” she said with a smile, and I finally caught the accent I had somehow overlooked in all of the weirdness from the previous night.

“Are we really here?”

She shook her head, “This is real, but it’s in your dreams. There are some Native American tribes here in America that have similar ideas, but this is where I’ve always come to relax and meet with others in the past.” She paused.

“So… umm… Who or what exactly are you?” I asked.

She reached down and picked me up. I noticed I was wearing a beautiful green dress from sometime before the 1900s. Actually, it wasn’t too far removed from what Merida’s dress in Brave looked like. As she picked me up, I could still tell there was thicker underwear on me. I sighed at that.

She took her finger and brought my face to look up at hers, “Don’t be sad. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to get to that stage of maturity or not again myself, but even if you don’t, at least it looks normal for you to be wearing diapers.”

Caireen carried me towards the castle, and I once again asked, “Who are you?”

“Well, that’s complicated,” she stalled, “but I was known in ancient Ireland as the Goddess and Protector of Children.”

I sat there and mentally thought, ‘oh shit!’

“It’s okay, Sofia; I will not harm you.”

“Joining with you caused me to become a baby?” I asked timidly.

“No, you were on your way to that on your own. But, I sensed you calling for someone to help and couldn’t help but fall in love with the baby girl I saw you would become.” She smiled at me as we crossed through the gates of the castle.

“So…?”

“So I saw you needed my help to survive both your change and your future. I also saw that in doing so, you would help me save many children from suffering in the future. You are the kind of person I have encountered only a few times in my existence.”

“How long have you existed?” I asked her timidly.

She smiled, “You should know better than to ask a girl how old she is!” Her voice said she was amused and not angry… even though she didn’t answer the question.

As we passed through the castle, it felt weird that there were no people there, even though it appeared as if an army of servants were at work at all times maintaining it. She eventually reached a massive hall door and walked through with me. Next, she climbed a spiraling staircase that was terrifying to me in my current size. They seemed to go on forever. Eventually, she opened a wooden doorway that opened to a nursery. A round crib and other decorations for a baby in the past decorated the room. She then sat me down on a table that had to be a changing table.

“Hold your skirts here, sweetie,” she told me, and I had my view blocked by the very puffy skirts and underskirts. She unpinned the diapers and pinned a new one on me before setting me on the ground and joining me on a bearskin rug.

“So, what are we doing here?”

“Well, in the future, you and I will be doing some training here.”

“What kind of training?” I asked.

“Magic, of course, silly,” she told me while touching my nose affectionately. “There will be teachers for you in your world, especially if you can go to that school, Bechtel, but our magic operates differently from most of your kind. The only kind that is very similar is the Faerie.”

“The Faerie?” I asked.

We sat talking for what seemed a long time as she told me about the crazy world that existed out there. Eventually, she saw me sucking on my thumb and said, “Oh my dear, we’ve been going a long time. It’s time for you to take your nap!”

For the first time in my life, I didn’t remember arguing about a nap. She picked me up and laid me down in the pretty crib. “Sleep well, princess.”

I WOKE UP with sunlight coming into the room. I could tell it was extraordinarily bright due to the snow outside, which had mostly been a forgotten thing to me. I sat up and freaked out for a moment. ‘Why are there bars around me?’ I thought and then realized, ‘oh...’ I stood up and wondered what I should do when the door opened and Mom came in.

“Oh, so the sleepyhead decided to wake up finally?” She asked me.

“Huh?”

“It’s nearly eleven,” she told me.

“Really?”

“Your sister wanted to wake you up to play, but I told her you needed to recover.”

“I probably did,” I admitted. Then, I put my hands up in the air, “Can you get me out of this cage, please?”

She laughed. I noticed that the crib seemed taller than Lily’s old one by a couple inches. I could just graze the top of the rails with my fingertips, but I would have to jump to grab on. She reached down, picked me up, and immediately took me over to the changing table that had appeared last night. “You know I’m probably the only girl in existence that sleeps in a crib, but her baby sister doesn’t?”

Mom laughed at me again. “Do you think Caireen would let you sleep in a regular bed?”

‘No,’ I heard.

I sighed, “No, she won’t.”

“Well then… I guess that’ll just be the first thing your baby sister does before you.” She admitted as she unzipped my sleeper. “Sit up,” she said, and I was stripped from the outfit down to my diaper. My very wet diaper.

I sighed, “This is embarrassing.” As I woke up, it really was becoming increasingly annoying to me.

“Here, maybe this will help,” she said and put a pacifier in my mouth.

I would have loved to have claimed it wasn’t helping, but the truth was that it did. Mom quickly and efficiently changed me into a dry diaper and asked, “So, what do you want to wear today?”

I shrugged and said around the pacifier, “What are my options?” It sort of sounded like that was enough for Mom to interpret.

She picked me up and walked to the closet, where I learned Caireen had been very efficient. My entire wardrobe was filled with adorable dresses that I suspected would be sized perfectly for me. I noticed a green one that looked like the one in my dream last night, or whatever that was, and pointed at it. “Dat one!” She pulled the hanger down, and we discovered it had a matching diaper cover.

“Probably should have some tights too,” mom said and went looking for some tights to match in a dresser drawer that had obviously also been a target for Caireen. She looked for a few moments before deciding on a set of black tights. They had some sort of leaves in a shiny gold stitch embroidered.

Mom sat me back down on the changing table edge and began helping put my toes in the tights. Then, she had me lay back down before she pulled them the rest of the way up over my diaper and set me down on the ground. “Okay, let’s step into these panties,” she told me.

“Mom, it’s a diaper cover, not even real panties,” I groaned.

She smirked at me, “Well, at least between the tights and the cover, you might not have your diaper seen later?” I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Okay, now arms like a ballerina!” She smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but giggle a little that she kept saying that to make me smile. Once she lowered the dress onto my body, I discovered it had a petticoat built in to puff it out. Mom tied a bow on the sash in the back, then went back to the dresser for some ribbons, and had me sit on her lap in the rocking chair. She looked at my hair, trying to decide what to do. Finally, her hands took off and made a simple set of braided pigtails with bows.

“You just need a tiara,” Mom said with a smile as she looked at me.

‘I can’t see myself getting one of those...’ I thought to myself.

‘But of course, you will.’ I heard in my head.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I called you princess last night; that wasn’t the endearment term used here in your modern world.’

“What?” I asked, stunned, dropping my pacifier from my mouth.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Mom asked in alarm.

“Umm… just something Caireen said, Mom, don’t worry about it.”

‘So, I have a tiara in that world?’

‘Actually, you should have it here too; let me just bring it out.’

There was another flash, and then in my hands, I held a beautiful me-sized tiara. It looked to be a material like silver, but somehow, I guessed it wasn’t really silver… A large emerald rested in the middle, with two slightly smaller emeralds on either side. Intricate curves and flowers with pearls decorated the rest of it. Mom gasped.

“What is that?”

I sighed, “Apparently, you may call Lily and I ‘princesses’ mom, but I really AM a princess. Still trying to figure out how that one works, though.”

‘I have a feeling this is priceless?’

‘Yes, Sofia, it is very priceless. It has been in the royal family for forty-five of your human generations.’

‘You can tell me the story tonight?’ I asked.

‘Certainly, now try it on?’

I handed it to my mom, “Would you please put it on me?”

She held it for a moment and examined it. “This isn’t a toy, is it?”

I shook my head, “Caireen’s words were that it’s priceless.”

“Maybe we should just put it somewhere safe…?”

‘Tell your mother that as long as you have it on your head, it will never unwillingly come off. Also, it will reappear to you if it ever gets lost or stolen.’

‘Cool!’

“Mom, Caireen says don’t worry about it… basically, you can’t remove it from my head if I don’t want you to, and if someone does steal it, I’ll get it back later.”

“O...okay,” Mom said, and she did put it on me. She instantly gasped and hugged me. “You’re beautiful, sweetheart!”

“Can you take me to the bathroom so I can see?” I asked.

“Shoes first!” she said. She carried me to the closet on her hip and found some black Mary Janes that would go with the dress well. She set me down and helped me into them, picked me back up, and then I was standing in front of the mirror on the bathroom counter, looking at my reflection.

“Oh my god...dess,” I decided I should add the last part at this point.

‘You do look perfect, princess,’ I heard Caireen say.

I was the picture-perfect toddler and tiara girl, but I wasn’t fake with it. I looked like I legitimately belonged to a royal family and was being taken somewhere formal with the family. The tiara shone from my head, and I couldn’t help but smile at how pretty I was. I turned around and hugged Mom. “Thank you for doing my hair.”

“Well, in the future, we’ll have to do something different with your tiara. It’s not a formal enough style. Let’s go down and show your sister?” She asked me.

I kind of froze for a moment but nodded. “Lily’s going to be jealous, though,” I said.

“Not to worry,” Mom said as she carried me through my sister’s room and picked up one of her play tiaras. “She won’t notice the difference, I hope!”

She carried me downstairs to the first floor, where my sister was coloring in the living room with the TV on the toddler channel. Mom sat me down on my feet, and I walked over to Lily, “Hi, Lily,” I said, “whatcha coloring?”

“Just a princess picture,” she said and then looked up at me. I watched my sister’s mouth open. “You playing princess today?!?!” She asked excitedly and clapped her hands together.

“Sure,” I said. Mom placed her tiara on her head, and I couldn’t help but feel a little bad that hers wasn’t real. ‘No, don’t go doing anything, Caireen!’ I thought.

‘You’re no fun,’ she griped.

“You two can play for a few minutes, but we need to get lunch in your tummies!” Then, as if to emphasize it, my stomach growled.

Mom left me to Lily’s devices, and we practiced our curtseys until Mom called us. I walked into the kitchen and waited for her to put my sister in her high chair, and then she lifted me up. “I know you don’t want to wear a bib normally, Sofia… but that dress…?” Mom pleaded.

I turned red but nodded, “I don’t want to get it messy either!”

Mom smiled, returned with a bib covered in butterflies and flowers, and velcroed it around my neck. “What’s for lunch?” I asked her as she put one on my sister too.

“Grilled cheese,” Mom said.

She watched as I held the sandwich with my hands, which I hated doing, and began eating. I finished the first sandwich, and she looked at me incredulously before making me a second. “Where are you putting that?” She asked me.

I grimaced, “Probably in my diaper later.”

She laughed at me, sat me down on the ground, and pulled the bib off. Then, as she wiped my face with a wipe, she asked, “Do you need changed?”

I lifted my skirt, felt my diaper, and nodded. “Okay, let’s change the two baby girls and then maybe take a nap?”

“I’m not sleepy,” I told her honestly.

She whispered in my ear, “Maybe a pretend nap for your sister’s sake, and you can get on your phone?”

“Okay,” I said.

Mom grabbed a hand from each of us and led us up the stairs. Lily was changed, given her bottle, and then Mom closed the door. We walked to my room, and I just hoped Caireen had not gotten rid of my cell phone during her act yesterday.

‘I didn’t; I know how you teenagers are addicted to them.’ I could practically hear her shaking her head.

Mom quickly changed my diaper before she found my cell phone and sat me down in my crib. “Can you take my dress off, so I don’t wrinkle it?” I suggested.

‘Don’t worry, it won’t wrinkle,’ I heard.

I shrugged, “Never mind, apparently that won’t happen.”

Mom gave me a look. “At some point, you and I are going to have to have a talk Caireen.”

‘Tell her tonight we’ll talk,’ Caireen told me.

“I think that will happen tonight, Mom.”

“Okay,” she said. “Be quiet, and don’t get out of your crib until I come for you.”

“Okay, I be good girl!” I told her with a smile.

“You want a bottle too?”

I hesitated for a second and nodded. Mom returned a moment later with a bottle filled with milk and then closed the door. I got on my phone and sucked at the bottle for a while and then noticed I was kind of sleepy. So I lay down and wondered why I was tired after sleeping as long as I had!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I always appreciate comments to know there are readers! Please leave me one if you’re enjoying this work so far!

For those who have read this before, I hope this is a smoother reading experience! There are lots of little changes and adjustments through the work. Let me know what you think!

If you’re someone who must finish a good story ‘now,’ consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted. I may do some more frequent postings if I end up with lots of comments or likes on a post too!

[BabySofia]

Chapter 6: Playing Princess

I WOKE UP and played with Lily for the rest of the afternoon. Mom made my favorite meal of green chile enchiladas that night! I was nearly in tears, though, as I suddenly became much more sensitive to the green chile than before. It tasted really hot! Mom saw my face and brought milk in my sippy cup to help.

‘Why can’t I deal with spice now?’ I asked Caireen.

‘Why on Earth would you want to eat such disgusting things?’ She asked in reply.

‘You can’t ruin chile for me. I’ll never survive!!!’ I told her. I was an authentic New Mexican and regularly had the spiciest chile dishes I could get my hands on!

‘Well, then just get used to it again, I guess. Remember, in Ireland, we don’t really do spicy food.’

I made it through dinner with Mom, Dad, and even Lily, all laughing at me. Lily didn’t even have a problem with those mild enchiladas! Dad had looked at me in amazement when he walked in. He, too, was terrified of something happening to my tiara before I explained nothing could happen to it. Clearly, we were all in way over our heads, and I just hoped that nothing bad happened to my family members through all of this.

As soon as Mom let me down from the high chair, I thought about walking to the toilet just to try and see what would happen. I found myself squatting in place just a few steps after I was let down, though. I sniffled, “Mommy, can you change me?”

“Give me just a few minutes, sweetheart; I need to put this food away first.”

I stood still, trying not to move and make it squish and get worse. Suddenly I found myself squatting again, and I guess I wasn’t done… I looked for Lily and saw her in Dad’s arms as he was heading upstairs. “Sofia, do you want your diaper changed too?” He asked.

I nodded and did my best to follow him. I climbed up the giant steps one step at a time and felt the mushy poop roll against my legs several times. I finally climbed the stairs and saw Lily lying on the changing table. I had to keep from crying, so I put my thumb in my mouth. Daddy saved the day soon, though, and he worked to get through my diaper cover, tights, and pushed the skirt of my dress up. After all that movement, my diaper was smeared with the mess, trying to escape it. My climb and his attempts to undress me had just made it worse!

“Icky,” he said to me with a smile. “You stinky!”

I felt more tears going, and he said, “Oh, don’t go crying, Princess, you’re a baby. This is normal.” He tried reassuring me.

Daddy had to use many more wipes than Mom had the night before, partly because he rarely changed Lily’s diapers. Usually, that was Mom or me… ‘Guess he’s having to step in now…’ I sighed.

I felt a mental hug from Caireen, but she didn’t say anything. Daddy eventually had my new diaper on, tights in place, and the diaper cover on and sat me down on the floor. I went up to him and hugged him around his legs. “Thank you, Daddy,” I told him.

He squeezed me back and said, “Any time Princess.”

Lily came up then and pulled me downstairs to the Basement playroom. We played with a playhouse she had down there and pretended to make dinner and feed some baby dolls. I had fun just because I was spending time with my favorite sister. I was a little surprised I was having fun, though, pretending too. Still, I guessed the activity was novel enough that I wasn’t complaining. I had basically been an only child until a couple years ago, so I’d never had a sibling to play with. An hour later, Mom came down and said, “Bath time,” to us.

“Do we have to?” Lily asked.

“Yes, of course we do, Princess Lily; princesses can’t be dirty!” I told her with a smile. “Come on!”

She smiled at me, and I avoided the tantrum she probably would have had otherwise. I had a thought as we went upstairs, “Mommy, before I get undressed, would you please take a picture with my iPhone?”

She looked at me funny but said, “Sure…?” We went down the hallway with Lily in tow. Mom took a picture for me in my room in front of the rocking chair, then with me sitting in the rocking chair, and then at Lily’s insistence with her sitting with me.

Mom then undressed both of us, and we repeated last night’s bath before she let me again stay up for a while. I had picked out a purple nightgown that was in my closet. It looked like a modern-day little girl’s nightgown, complete with an embroidered picture of Merida on the chest. Still, I could tell it was another one of Caireen’s special clothes by the way the material felt on my skin.

I got on my phone and texted Jacob about some school things before sending Hannah the picture of me standing in front of the rocking chair. I’d completely forgotten most of the day that I was wearing my tiara! I giggled a little as I sent it to her with the caption, ‘Princess Sofia.’

‘OMG Adorbs!!!’ she sent me.

‘Thanks,’ I replied.

‘That’s a beautiful dress and tiara,’ she added.

‘I know, they’re kind of special too. I told Jacob you guys could come over Tuesday after I get the testing done Monday…’

‘You haven’t told him yet?’

‘He seems to be guessing something like this… well, not like this.’

‘Giggle, no one could,’ she responded.

I eventually finished talking with her and went over to the child-sized desk that my computer now sat on. Mom had sat my tiara there, and I wanted to look at it. ‘What is this made of?’ I asked Caireen.

‘Mithril.’

‘Like from Lord of the Rings?’ I asked.

‘Tolkien had an encounter with some of the Faeries at some point. That’s where he got a lot of his ideas from. It’s an uncommon substance that’s very special. This tiara was gifted to me from Queen Nicneven herself back before the fall of the Faeries.’

‘Who was she?’

‘Later,’ she promised me, ‘we have a very long time to answer the billion questions you have, my dear.’

I went to my Snapchat account and decided it would be wise to delete it now. I backed it up last night just in case I wanted to do this. I then deleted all of my other social media accounts while I was at it. ‘The only social media I’ll probably be on for a while will be my mom’s ‘OMG my baby girl is pretty’ posts.’ So far, of course, she hadn’t done any of those!

I was just getting ready to do some more research into Mergents when my mom came in. “Sofia, it’s bedtime.” I looked, and it was ten. When I turned around, I saw that she held a bottle and another of Lily’s bedtime books in her hands.

I smiled at that, “Story time again?”

“Yep!” She smiled, “Do you need a change first?”

I had to nod, “I wish I knew when I was going. I just eventually notice that everything is squishy.”

Mom picked me up and changed me quickly before carrying me to the rocking chair. She sat me like she had last night, and I began nursing the warm milk while she told me a story of Merida this time. I felt a warm feeling coming from Caileen, and I had a feeling she liked this story too. I lasted a little longer into the story, but I still didn’t remember Mom putting me down in my crib.

I WOKE UP in another crib, this time at Caireen’s castle.

I saw her standing there looking at me. “Come here,” she told me, picked me up, and cuddled me for a moment. She changed my diaper and put me into a new dress that was once again mainly green. My tiara was added, and I asked, “So does this castle have a name?”

“Emerald Castle,” she said with a smile.

“I take it you like green?” I asked with a smile.

“It’s my favorite color,” she said. “Although I won’t hold your favorite color being purple against you!”

She sat down on the floor with me, and we talked for a little while before trumpets blared a fanfare. “That will be your parents,” she said with a smile.

“Huh?”

“Your mom wanted to talk, remember?” She said, “It’s easier to pull them into here and talk than to leave one of us out when I use you to talk.”

“Oh.”

We waited a few minutes when I was surprised to see a well-dressed page come in. “The Duke and Duchess Hammerstein to see you, Your Majesty.”

“Thank you, James,” she dismissed him.

I saw both of them looking around at my nursery with open mouths. “I do apologize for being so forward, but with Princess Sofia coming here each night, I thought it would be wise to get the nursery back in use.” She said, “I am Caireen,” she said with a smile.

“Why did he introduce us with titles?”

“Well, on your side of the family, Rachel, may I call you that?” She paused for Mom’s nod, “Your family is the descendent of one of the last rightful Irish Kings in the 1700s. On Levi’s side, you are actually also descendants of a bloodline in Germany.”

“Oh,” Mom said. “So… that’s too long ago, though… why?”

Caireen sighed, picked me up, and said, “Let’s go somewhere more comfortable for sitting?”

They nodded and followed her to another door that opened into a beautiful sitting room that would fit right in a Louis XIV chateau. She pointed to a sofa and took her spot in a sitting chair beside it. Caireen looked at me, and I stayed contentedly in her arms.

“Okay, you’ve been very patient, and I appreciate it.” She told my parents with a smile. Sitting on her left knee, I could easily see her and my parents by swiveling my head a little. “First, please don’t be frightened, but I am not a mortal or a simple spirit. I am, in fact, what you would call a goddess.”

Mom spoke up, “I wondered. I searched your name after I learned it last night.”

“I know,” she said with a smile.

“Of what?” Dad asked.

“Generally, of children.”

“Is that why Nicholas became a baby?” He asked.

She shook her head, “I told Sofia about this last night, but here goes. She had already had her EFP set when she began changing. I was drawn to her because of her gentle and loving nature. I was impressed by how she had always cared for her baby sister. I’ve never seen a young man be more nurturing and caring with a baby! When I saw that he was changing so severely, I knew he was in danger of dying due to a severe case of what your people call ‘burnout.’ It was much too severe of a change, happening too quickly for him to survive. I knew she was becoming a toddler all over again and decided that I could help her and she would be able to help others in the future. The avatar talent that she has bound me to her, though… I wasn’t expecting that! She’s exceptionally powerful there!”

Mom and Dad just politely looked on at her to go on. “Anyway, the two of us will be bound together until Sofia passes from this Earth. A time which I believe will probably be a very long way down the road.”

“So how does this turn her fully into a princess?” Mom asked.

“Well, essentially, she’s become my daughter now too.” She noticed Mom and Dad looking nervously at her, “Don’t worry, I will never ever take her from you.”

“What do you intend to do with her?” Dad asked.

“I’m going to help her become an amazing girl with a magical talent few will be able to match. I’ll be with her to help her when she’s hurt, help her fight the battles ahead, and generally be her mentor. Unfortunately, I may occasionally be unable to help myself and have to throw in real-world gifts here and there… Sorry I couldn’t help myself last night and today.”

“We appreciate the gifts,” Mom said, “I didn’t really want to travel into the city until we get her tested.”

“A wise idea, I believe. Having a quiet weekend with your two daughters at home playing would be the best plan you could have.”

“What should we do after that?” Dad asked.

“Honestly?” Caireen responded, “I think Sofia would best be served by going to that Bechtel school for her education. I’m hopeful they’ll accept her when they see her testing.”

“What about her age? Will she ever grow up?” Mom asked.

Caireen shrugged, “Like I said, her EFP was set before I even got involved. I’m guessing she’ll be this size and have the same needs for the rest of her life. She’s powerful enough she should be able to do some spells to make her life a little bit easier down the road. Glamour spells to make her seem like she’s a teenager, some others to mask the odor of a poopy diaper, and down the road, probably one to change her diaper too…?”

“The pacifier addiction?” Mom asked.

Caireen laughed, “I have no clue how we’re going to break her of that. She managed a couple hours today while she was playing with Lily. It’s possible that if she’s distracted enough, she can do without. Any time she gets nervous or frustrated, she needs it like a smoker needs a cigarette!”

By this time, I started to feel my eyes drooping. My parents and Caireen must have continued talking through the night, but the next day I couldn’t remember anything after that.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! Comments are always super appreciated as well!

If you’re someone who must finish a good story ‘now,’ consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

[BabySofia]

Chapter 7: Testing

MOM WOKE ME the following day, and life began again. I managed to find time between playing with Lily to work on my homework and catching up with the stuff I missed Friday. Sunday, Hannah came over and oohed and awed about my tiara and nursery. Sometime during all of this, Lily began to notice that I had a few more baby things, like a crib and started asking if she was going to be the big sister from now on. I just groaned.

‘I guess I’m going to have to accept that…’ I admitted to myself.

Before I knew it, Monday had come!

Lily and I were in our car seats with Dad driving and Mom up front. Due to the secret nature of a lot of the work at Los Alamos National Labs, the lab set up a testing facility in town for any personnel with kids that emerged. Mom changed our diapers before we walked in, with Dad carrying Lily and Mom carrying me.

It seemed like walking into a doctor’s office to me as we approached a receptionist. “Do you have an appointment?” She asked.

“Yes.”

“Name?”

“Nicholas Hammerstein,” she said.

“Where is Nicholas?” She asked.

Mom patted my back, “Right here.”

She stared for a moment before saying, “Whoa… that’s different!” She shook her head and then said, “Okay, please fill out this questionnaire, and we’ll be calling… her back shortly.”

We sat and filled out the forms together, essentially telling them the various things that had changed about me, symptoms of powers, etc. Under ‘Any New Disabilities,’ we wrote down incontinence. Embarrassing! About fifteen minutes after our appointment, they called, “Nicholas Hammerstein?”

Mom walked with me and quietly asked, “May I go back with her?”

He hesitated for a moment as he looked at me but shook his head, “Sorry, he’s originally eighteen, correct?”

“Yes, sir,” she replied.

“In that case, you’ll have to wait outside. I promise we’ll take good care of her.”

“Okay then,” Mom said, hugging me, “good luck.”

“Thanks,” I said.

I followed the gentleman dressed in military fatigues into an examination room that looked like a standard doctor’s office. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Fields. Let’s get you weighed and measured,” he said.

“Okay,” I responded.

Before he began interviewing me, we went through a typical doctor’s exam, including blood work. “So basically, when you emerged, your EFP turned you into a two-year-old baby girl?” He asked.

I nodded.

“Well, this is a first for me, maybe anywhere for that matter… I’m sure this has got to be really hard on you. So your survey states you cannot control your bladder or bowel movements?”

I shook my head, “And I have some really weird needs and addictions to things like pacifiers,” I told him about a few other things too.

“Well, let’s get going on the tests then. I have some staff members who will test you on different things for your levels for your EID card.”

The first room they led me to had a table of electronic components, gears, and other things sitting in various piles. The tester sat me down on the table so I could reach them. I played with them for about ten minutes. I probably looked like a typical two-year-old playing while trying to see how they went together. Still, I couldn’t make anything useful from the parts.

“Okay then,” the tester said as he opened a door and led me back down a hallway. “Did you bring a more practical set of clothing?” He asked.

I looked down and thought a dress probably wasn’t the most practical clothing. “Oh… umm…”

‘I’ll take care of it,’ Caireen said.

In a flash, my dress changed to an emerald-colored leotard with a tutu attached. ‘Really? A tutu?’ I groaned at her. I could feel the edges of my diaper sticking through the bottom of the leotard, showing it off. I also knew I had to look as adorable as my sister going to her beginning ballet class each week.

I sensed laughter from her.

“That’ll work, I guess,” the tester allowed with a smirk.

I was led into a room, and he simply said, “Do your best to not get hit and avoid the balls.”

That was his only instruction. So I sat there for several moments before hearing a pop from behind me and ducked just in time to see a rubber ball flying past me. After that, it seemed like they came non-stop. Somehow though, I could just sense them before they arrived, and I kept dodging for a long while before I finally got hit.

“Very good,” the tester said when he returned for me. “Let’s get the rest of the physical tests done.”

I thought for a moment about a feeling in my stomach and groaned. Then, without having any control over it, I squatted and messed my diaper. “Can I get a diaper change first?” I said with a whine and a groan.

He looked at me in shock and said… “Umm… just a minute. Let me… uh… Let me go ask what we should do.”

I stood in that spot with a poopy diaper, made worse by the leotard smushing it, for about ten minutes before Mom came in with the diaper bag. Finally, she picked me up, “Where should I change her?”

The man led her to a medical room where she lay me on the table. She giggled as she did so, “You realize your poopy diapee just about broke that poor man.”

“Huh?” I asked, sniffling, trying not to cry over the sticky state of my bottom as she popped some snaps that were in the crotch of my leotard.

“I don’t think they’ve ever had a two-year-old Mergent before… And I’m certain if they did, they were potty-trained,” Mom’s eyes twinkled.

I groaned and did my best not to cry or beg for my pacifier. I wanted to seem a little more grown up, so I had intentionally left it with Mom in our diaper bag… One poopy diaper certainly ruined any hope of that image!

“By the way, you look adorable in this leotard and tutu!”

After a few minutes of mom magic, she had me cleaned up and ready to move on with the rest of the testing. “All done?” a different tester asked as Mom returned me to where I was.

“Yes,” I said.

“Ma’am, if you’ll please go back out to the lobby… we’ll come to get you if she needs another change; otherwise, please wait there.” Mom sighed but turned and left while I followed the tester to a massive room with an obstacle course of ropes, beams, bars, and other things.

It was like the world’s largest playground in my mind as the lady described the path. It was really intimidating and scary with its massive size! I began thinking of it like a playground and just started running. I’m sure there were probably some stunned looks as I completed it in a respectable time, even with my size! While going through it, I discovered I could now leap some large distances. Combined with the strength I already had found, it meant I really was only held back by my short legs. I certainly wasn’t a speedster, but I could probably make it faster through the course than an average human.

This lady verified my lack of speed ability by setting me on a treadmill next. A ten-minute mile wasn’t too bad for a two-year-old, I thought! So I kept running for four miles before she told me I could stop.

“Okay, final physical test,” she told me skeptically as she took me to a weird weight setup. “We’re looking for single max reps,” she started the machine at my weight of twenty pounds.

“I can do this all day,” I told her as I pushed up. “You sure there’s my weight on there?

“Yes… let’s bump it up.”

We sat there for a long while, probably longer than necessary due to her caution, before I finally said we’d hit my limit after doing 550 pounds. “This should be impossible…” she told me.

“I know, right?” I shook my head. “Believe me, when you’re an eighteen-year-old thrown into the body of a two-year-old baby girl who’s not potty trained… it’s starting to seem less impossible!”

She laughed. “Speaking of which, do you need a change?”

I felt my diaper and sheepishly nodded. Whether it was pee or sweat, I did. “Can you get my Mom?”

“Or I could just change you?” She suggested. “I have one of my daughter’s diapers in my bag over there.”

I groaned but decided it would speed things up. “I guess…”

She returned from her bag by a desk with a different diaper brand but the correct size. “What’s your name?” I asked.

“Lara,” she said.

“Thank you for changing me,” I said as she finished.

“You’re welcome, sweetheart. I understand you changed your clothes yourself earlier?”

I nodded, “Sort of… that was Caireen.”

“Who is she?”

I was cautious, “She’s a spirit that I bonded with.”

“Diapers beyond her?”

“I don’t know; she and I need to have that conversation, though.” I noticed she was staying silent.

‘So?’

‘I can do it… but I’d rather you be dependent on your mom or another adult like a normal baby for now.’

“Apparently, she’s choosing not to,” I told Lara.

“If you want to get back dressed to regular clothes, we’re done with the sweaty portions.”

‘Please?’ I asked Caireen.

A moment later, I wasn’t dressed in the outfit from this morning, but instead, the first emerald dress from a few days ago. I could feel the tiara had also made its way back onto my head. ‘Any reason?’

‘I think they’ll take a picture later; honestly, this would be a good costume for you.’

“You’re so adorable!” Lara let out a squeal before looking a bit sheepish. Seeing her act like that with her lab coat on was funny.

“I know…” I sighed. “So, where to next?”

She led me to another tester that tested my magic ability with several crystals and other devices. Things kept happening with every test, so I’m pretty sure the tester was impressed. Finally, I was asked some questions and described seeing the lines and being able to interact with them. “Whoa…” He said, and I guessed that was a big deal.

“Now, about this spirit, you bonded with?”

‘Should I be honest?’ I asked.

‘Yes, in this case,’ Caireen responded.

“She’s not really a spirit… “I started, “she’s actually a goddess.”

I watched the blood drain from the guy’s face as he kept making notes on his tablet. “Her name?”

“Caireen.”

“Culture?”

“Irish.”

I watched as he searched for several minutes, and then he asked a dozen more other questions. Finally, he sat down his tablet, “Okay… let me take you to the last stop.”

The final part of the testing was my regeneration. Those doctors started by pricking my finger and eventually making cuts on my arm that healed quickly. This sucked, as it hurt! I really wanted my pacifier by the time he was done cutting me. However, each time it didn’t take too long for the wound to heal. Finally, when they wanted to cut off one of my fingers, I said, “No more!”

They made some final notes before I was again led to an office with Lieutenant Commander Fields. “Okay, you want your new name to be Sofia Elizabeth Hammerstein, correct?”

I nodded.

“Okay, just to explain a few things to you. Due to your father’s work for the lab, you’re being given a Government Emergent ID card instead of a standard EID. Quite frankly, it can save you a lot of hassle from the EPC.” He shook his head in disdain at that organization. “On your card, I’m listing your actual birthdate and age of 18, as well as your apparent age of two years old.”

I grimaced, “So, which am I legally?”

“Both,” he said with a smile. “I guess your parents can take advantage of free admission and kid’s meal pricing at many places with you! But, in theory, you could get your driver’s license if you get a car adapted to your size.”

“Cool!” I said. “Somehow, I don’t think my parents will go for that anytime soon.”

“I can understand that,” he paused, “You’d probably get pulled over by the police every other block!” He laughed, and I giggled a little bit at that picture. “I’d like you to review the information we’re placing in your file, but there’s one more thing we’ll need, and that’s a code name.”

I thought for a moment and responded, “Emerald Baby.”

“You don’t think that might be a problem name?”

I shook my head, “I’m a baby, probably for the rest of my life. If I embrace the nickname, maybe I’ll get less grief for it.”

“Fair enough.” He smiled, “Okay, this will all be listed in our file. However, none of this information will show on your card. We choose not to share everything with the EPC if we can avoid it.”

“Okay,” I said as I looked at the tablet screen, he showed me.

GOVERNMENT EID 99-382385-3928-5
Name: Sofia Elizabeth Hammerstein
Code Name: Emerald Baby
Birth Date: 11-3-1997
Apparent Age: 2 Years
Height: 35” Weight: 20lbs
Avatar: Level 5, Esens: Level 3, Regen: Level 3, Magic: Level 4+, Paradigm: Level 4

Legally recognized as both original birth age and apparent age per her requests.

Additional information was stored about Caireen in the database but not listed on the card itself. A picture of me in my ‘costume’ was also on the card. “Okay, now for some of the ground rules. You must always have this card with you to show the EPC - if you don’t, they will arrest you. Keep in mind that with your size, I really don’t think you want to be dealing with them any more than you have to.

“Do they have any way of recognizing me as a Mergent on sight?” I asked, curious.

“Facial scanners will pick you up now that you’re in the system. Also, sweetie, I hate to tell you - those beautiful emerald eyes of yours just aren’t quite natural.”

I nodded. “Am I done now?”

“Yes, you are,” he handed me a packet of information on some other laws and resources. “Follow that hallway, and it’ll lead you to your family.”

I skipped out of there, so happy to be done!

I leaped up to Mom when I saw her and showed her my card. “Good, glad we have that done!” Mom said. “Do you need changed? It’s been a long time?”

I thought about it, “Probably, but I was changed again by a nice lady who was testing me.” I told her. “May I please have my pacifier?” I asked in my next breath with the voice of an addict.

Mom smiled and put one in my mouth before finding a bathroom where she could change me. I felt really embarrassed as another teenage Mergent with fur on her arms came in and went to the bathroom while mom had me on the changing table. She smiled at me, though, probably thinking I was an ordinary baby girl. After she had me changed, Mom helped me put my coat on before I was reunited with my dad and sister in the car. They had to leave the waiting area because Lily was getting bored and started to cause a scene.

“All done?” Dad asked me as Mom buckled me into my seat.

“Uh-huh.”

We waited until we drove home and were inside on the couch before they started asking me about the testing. “I can’t believe I pooped my diaper there…?” I wrinkled my nose.

“Sweetie, your body is a two-year-old’s body. Trust me, you’ll go poopy at the most embarrassing times!”

“I wish Caireen would just change me or teach me a spell to do so, though!”

Mom laughed, “She said she would eventually last night when we talked to her.”

“She did?”

“You were asleep by then.” Mom told me.

“Oh.”

“So how did the rest of the testing go besides your poopy diapee?” Mom asked with a smirk.

I was half tempted to throw my pacifier at her that I had a death grip on, but I thought better of that. “Do you really want to know it all?” I asked hesitantly.

Mom and Dad nodded.

“Okay…. Well, they started by showing me a bunch of electronic junk parts that apparently were supposed to do something. Don’t ask me what!” I said, a little embarrassed, “After a while, they decided I was clueless. So they asked me if I had another change of clothes, and Caireen changed me into that leotard and tutu.”

Mom grinned, “You looked soooooo cute!”

I stuck my tongue out at her, “I always look cute!”

Lily laughed at that. She was sitting in Dad’s lap right then while I was sitting on the opposite side of the couch from Mom so I could look at everyone.

“You do,” Mom agreed. “As does Princess Lily,” she smiled at my sister to keep her from feeling left out.

“Anyway,” I said with some exaggeration, “they took me into a room and didn’t really tell me what was going on other than, ‘dodge the balls.’” I paused for a drink out of the sippy cup of juice I was holding in my other hand. “It took them a while, I have a feeling they were re-calibrating it for my height or something, but I sensed a ball coming and dodged it. A lot more followed before I finally got hit when there was a lot in the air at once.”

“What was that supposed to test?” Mom asked.

“Danger sense and being able to tell the future or something,” I told her.

“After that, he was going to take me to the next test when I embarrassed myself… So after you changed me, I was taken into this huge rope and obstacle course room. I didn’t think I could do anything with it due to my size, but it was no problem at all. In fact, besides the parts where running happened, and my legs don’t give me a long stride, I apparently did pretty well above average.”

“You got to play?” Lili asked jealously.

“Sort of, Lily,” I told her, “It wasn’t a lot of fun, though,” I lied to her. “They had me run on a treadmill then. I’ve slowed down there as I’m only running a ten-minute mile… but I guess for my height, that’s pretty good.”

Dad nodded, “I think you’re probably much faster than any other two-year-old!”

“Well, and I was able to run the distance too. I think they had me run like four miles without stopping.”

“What else did they do?” Dad asked.

“Well, they ran me through a bench press test.”

“How much?” He asked. He had sensed my smile.

“550 pounds,” I said with a smile.

Dad whistled, and Mom looked a little uneasy. “How is that even physically possible, I wonder…?” Dad said thoughtfully. “Within all reason, a twenty-pound body should never be able to do that…?”

“They were just as confused, Dad,” I smiled. “The lady there was nice enough to change me then, and Caireen switched my clothes back out to this dress. Apparently, she wanted me to look good for the picture on my card,” I felt her mentally smirk and nod to me. “They then did some magic tests. I guess I’m a weirdo there, too, because I got the impression that they couldn’t test higher than that.” I debated about the healing test but said, “Then they tested my regeneration.” Dad flinched at that; he apparently knew what they did. Mom looked a little lost. “They tested how well I could heal from cuts.”

“They cut you?!?!?” Mom asked, concerned.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! Comments are like my lifeblood, please consider leaving one!

If you’re someone who must finish a good story ‘now,’ consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.posted on this chapter I might give you an extra posting tomorrow!

[BabySofia]

Chapter 8: Visitors

“YOU CAN’T EVEN tell,” I said as I showed her the underside of my wrist where they tried. She spent several nervous moments examining it before agreeing. “Apparently, I have some regen ability too.”

“So what did they list your powers as?” Dad asked quickly to change the subject.

“Well, I’m an Avatar Level 5 since I am hosting Caireen. I think that might be higher, but that’s what he put down. Apparently, from the ball attack test, they decided I’m an Esens Level 3. I have Level 3 Regen healing abilities, I’m a Level 4 Paradigm, and they put down 4 plus for my Magic skills.”

Dad whistled again, “They ran out of tests with you then on the magic skills. You’re probably at a higher ability level than any of the people I have working with me.” I could see some wheels turning in his head, “Rachel, we really need to send her to Bechtel.”

Mom nodded, “They were talking about sending someone out to see us when I called them earlier.”

“Sending someone out?” I asked, surprised, “Isn’t that really expensive for a school?”

“Depends on who you’re talking about, sweetie. In their case, they may have a teleporter that can bring the person on out without even getting on a plane or wasting too much time.” Dad said.

Right then, Mom’s cell phone began to ring. “Hello? This is she.” I heard her say some uh-huhs and such for several moments before she said, “Okay, tonight at eight would be fine for us.” She ended the call and looked at me, “Apparently, they saw something on your testing that bumped up their interview. So they’ll be here at eight.”

I looked at the clock and saw it was almost four. I had missed lunch and was suddenly starving. “I’m hungry…”

Mom laughed, “Tell you what, why don’t we go out to eat?”

“Okay,” I said. Mom picked me up and told Dad, “You’re on diaper duty with Lily, honey.”

He stood up with Lily without a word, and we were both taken to our rooms to be changed. “You know, you two would be sharing a room in most houses? That way, we only had to keep track of one changing table,” she said as she looked down underneath, “We’re going to have to go buy you some more diapers.”

I just sucked on the pacifier that had reattached itself to my face and nodded. Mom, had me changed quickly and asked, “Do you want a less conspicuous outfit on now?”

I thought about it for a second and nodded. ‘I hope you don’t mind, Caireen,’ I said.

I felt her laugh, ‘Go for blending in.’

Mom picked out a purple one-piece romper with hearts and flowers on the front and quickly undressed and redressed me. “We need to figure out how you’ll keep your GEID on you, sweetheart.”

I nodded… I didn’t know where though. ‘Caireen, you have any way for me to keep it on me? I’m a little worried about losing it since most of my clothing isn’t about storing stuff...’

‘Here,’ she said, and a cute purple purse decorated with Princess Sofia appeared.

‘Huh?’

‘Put your GEID in there,’ she insisted.

“Mom, can you hand my GEID to me?” I asked. She was, of course, staring at me again.

“Here,” she said.

I placed it inside there and asked, ‘Now what?’

‘Think ‘put away,” she told me.

I did, and it vanished. ‘How do I get it back?’

‘Just imagine it back in your hand.’

I did so and then put it away a few times before realizing Mom was glaring at me. “Sorry, Caireen was giving me a lesson and helping me put it somewhere safe.”

“Okay, Princess, let’s go then,” she said, a little bit on the cranky side herself. I hoped she would get to be in a better mood. Mom held the diaper bag on her shoulder while she carried me, and Dad had Lily still. When both of us were strapped in our car seats, we headed off to our favorite restaurant in town. We walked into the restaurant and were greeted by the hostess.

“How many?”

“Two adults and two high chairs please,” Mom said.

I refrained from glaring at her since we’d talked about this. I’d have a bib on, too, I was sure. My only real question was how I would get enough to eat! Mom and dad set us in the wooden highchairs that sat on opposite sides of the table, and then Mom sat next to me while Dad sat next to Lily. “Here you go, sweetie,” the lady said as she put a coloring mat in front of us that I could just reach. I felt Mom push me in a little bit farther to help.

“Twins?” The lady asked, confused.

“No, she’s older,” Mom pointed to me. “Just hasn’t started really growing yet,” Mom added.

“They’re adorable! Your waitress will be right with you.”

Mom and I quietly talked about what to order me. She didn’t really think I should have a full adult meal, but I wore her down. Finally, she agreed to order a combination plate (chile relleno, taco, shredded beef enchilada, and cheese enchilada) for me to split with my sister. She would only want the taco, and a little bit of the beans and rice Mom knew. I admitted my wimpy new status when I agreed that green chile on the side was a better plan than smothering the plate. Once she had taken our orders, Mom asked her to fill our sippy cups with milk and then put bibs on both of us.

I was sitting like that when I saw Jacob come in with his family.

“Oh no,” I said quietly to Mom, “Jacob is here!”

“Relax,” Mom told me.

I sucked on my pacifier fervently as he saw us and looked obviously for the missing person, me.

“Hi, Mrs. Hammerstein, Doctor Hammerstein,” he said. “Where’s Nick?”

“He’s still at home sick,” Mom said smoothly with a smile, “he’s going to be out for a while, I’m afraid.”

“That’s too bad… any chance I could stop by and see him?”

“Why don’t you and Hannah come by tomorrow after school?” Mom suggested. Jacob had a car and had long been designated as our trio’s taxi driver.

“Okay, sounds good,” he said, staring at Lily and me. Then, as he looked at me, he asked, “Who’s the other baby?”

“Oh, that’s Sofia. She’s a friend of Lily’s that we had over today while her Mom does some shopping in Albuquerque.”

“Okay,” He said. “Anyway, I’d better go join my parents; tell Nick we’ll see him tomorrow and bring his homework.”

“Thanks, Jacob!” Mom said.

“See, it’s all fine,” she said after he left.

“No, it’s not,” I said, trying not to cry.

“What do you mean?”

“I pooped my diaper again. And in front of one of my best friends!”

Mom laughed, picked me up, the diaper bag up, and told Dad, “We’ll be right back. Someone is a poopie pants.”

I was so embarrassed to have my diaper changed in a bathroom with a long line of ladies and girls waiting for the stalls, but a clean diaper was worth it, I guess.

Mom carried me back and placed me in the high chair just before the food arrived. After she split off my sisters’ portion, she left the main plate in front of me. There were a few stares from the waitress as she came by and saw my devouring the plate. Mom had been thoughtful enough to provide me with the miniaturized silverware I made the other day. “I can’t believe she ate all of that,” the lady said as she dropped off the check.

I smiled.

“How is she so tiny?”

“High metabolism,” Mom said and kind of glared at me. We would probably have this problem regularly, so she would have to deal with it. As it was, I was still hungry! On our way out, Mom stopped in the bathroom to change Lily and decided she could skip me until we got home for me.

I thought we were heading home, but instead, we stopped at Smiths. “Honey, do you want to stay in the car with the girls while I make a quick stop inside?” She asked Dad. “I need to buy Sofia some more diapers and probably some more wipes and stuff for both the girls.”

He nodded, and I watched Tangled on the car’s DVD player with Lily to kill time. Mom came back out to the car not too much later with a large box of diapers and a couple of sacks of stuff that she put in the back.

I was glad to have been spared the embarrassment of going inside to purchase diapers for me!

“Come play!” Lily demanded when we got home at seven.

“Okay, until our visitor gets here,” I told her.

“Actually, I’ll be giving her a bath at 7:30, so you have thirty minutes,” Mom told us.

“Sorry, Lily, I promise I’ll play with you all morning tomorrow!” I said, as I knew today had to have sucked for her.

“Pwomise?” she asked.

“Pwomise,” I smiled and said right back the same way.

In the end, we sat and fed a couple of baby dolls. Their clothes and diapers had been changed before Mom came for her to get her in the bath. Mom had just finished putting Lily to bed when there was a quiet knock outside our front door, precisely at 8pm.

“Is this the Hammerstein residence?” a woman’s voice asked.

“Yes, I’m Doctor Hammerstein,” Dad said, “I assume you’re from Bechtel?”

“Yes, we are. My name is Talia Hensley; I’m the Headmistress for Bechtel Preparatory School. This is Catherine Raspin, one of our mystic arts faculty members and the head of our junior high program.”

“Please come in,” he said. I was sitting on the couch waiting for them nervously when they came up. I jumped down.

“And who is this pretty little girl?” the lady who hadn’t spoken asked.

“Sofia Hammerstein,” I said and curtseyed. I hadn’t planned on it, but it seemed appropriate, “How do you do?”

“Wait a second,” she said, and her eyes opened. “This is the young lady we’re here to see?” She asked Mrs. Hensley.

“You can see why I asked you?” she replied.

“I can’t handle another one!!!” she told her in a soft but scared voice.

“I promise I don’t think she’ll be like the others you had,” she said with a smile. “She doesn’t need to go stealing manna everywhere.”

“Where are our manners? Please sit down. May I get you anything?” Dad said nervously. “My wife will be right down; she’s just putting our youngest to bed.”

“I’ll take a glass of water,” Mrs. Hensley said, and Mrs. Raspin agreed. I felt they did that just to give him a way out.

When they came in, I forced the pacifier from my mouth, but it was still clutched in my hand. I tried to put it on the couch behind me but couldn’t release it.

“So, Sofia, what can you tell us about yourself?” Mrs. Hensley asked.

“Well, until last week, I was a skinny eighteen-year-old boy… I liked playing in a band and did well in my classes, like most kids at LAHS. I just tested for my second-degree black belt last week in Tae Kwon Do...” She nodded. “I also really loved helping care for my baby sister Lily - kind of hard to do now.” I paused and politely asked, “May I ask why you came so soon to see me?” Then, after a second, “And how’d you get here?”

Mom came in right then, and Dad returned with the glasses in hand, too, “Hi, I’m Rachel Hammerstein,” Mom introduced herself. “Talia Hensley,” Mrs. Hensley stood and extended her hand. “And this is Catherine Raspin,” she added as Mom shook her hand before coming to the couch where I was sitting, picking me up, and plopping me on her lap.

I sighed, “So?”

Mrs. Hensley smiled, “You’re a driven individual, aren’t you? Well, you’ll definitely need that. I came so soon because the head of the testing lab called me and explained your situation. He seems worried you are extraordinarily powerful and may stand out a bit.”

I blushed, “How can a baby stand out?”

“Your size is certainly among the more unique emerges I’ve seen!” She laughed, then added, “But, in my experience, I doubt that will hold you back in the future? Just how much…?” she seemed to be fighting for words.

“I think what Mrs. Hensley is trying to ask is this, how much do you act like a baby?” Mrs. Raspin prompted.

I really blushed then. Mom answered before I could, “The diapers are something I don’t think she will be able to help. As far as I can tell she lacks any potty-training readiness that they tell you to look for in babies. I think she’s behind the age they figure she is for that. Besides that, she behaves like she did as a teenager. The only real babyish thing that she can’t seem to escape is a need for her pacifier,” Mom said while holding my hand up that was keeping it in a death grip.

“Intelligence hasn’t changed, and maturity hasn’t changed?” Mrs. Hensley asked.

“Not that I’ve seen. Sofia’s played with her sister and might be enjoying it more, but that may be because she knows it looks normal now.” Mom said.

“Can she take care of her own needs?” Mrs. Raspin asked.

I cringed as the conversation continued around me like I wasn’t even there… Finally, I jumped in myself to respond, “Well, I can change my clothes magically and normally still,” I answered. “Diaper changes seem to be the one thing I have to depend on others for so far. Caireen indicated she’ll eventually teach me to do it with magic. Still, she wants me to get into the role first or something.”

I felt her nod before she said, ‘I will teach you the magic to change yourself in a few months.’

I sighed, “She said in a few months she’ll teach me that.”

“Okay, so when would you want to send her out to us?” Mrs. Hensley asked my parents.

“She’s accepted?” Dad asked in surprise.

“Oh, most definitely. We’ll have to deal with the logistics of having a toddler as a student, but I think she’ll do very well at Bechtel. Besides the oddity of her transformation, she is very much what we look for in a student who will excel at Bechtel.”

“What grade would I be in?” I asked timidly. “Assuming you run the school by grades?”

Mrs. Hensley sighed, “I don’t honestly know yet. I brought Mrs. Raspin with me because she has had several young ladies as junior high students for the last ten years. Currently, she has five that she takes care of. Unfortunately, our institution has no elementary or preschool for us to even consider those options. I looked at the transcripts your Mom faxed us over the weekend, and I think you would normally be listed as a sophomore on entry to our school.”

“I have to go back two grades?” I groaned.

“Would it be better to go ahead and have her be in the junior high?” Mom asked. I glared at her as she was not helping!

Mrs. Hensley said, “Maybe, but I think the high school level is where all of her classes will be, so we might do well to consider her a high schooler. Or maybe we’ll consider her an eighth-grader to finish out the year...? I don’t think she’s going to grow, so it’s not like waiting for her to get older will do any good. I’ll probably try and find a high school junior to pair her up with.”

“And changes?” Mom asked.

“I’m going to look into our best options for her.”

‘You’ll need space for a crib,’ Caireen told me.

‘Really?!?’

‘Yes baby, that won’t change.’

I sighed. “Caireen says I need space for a crib in my room instead of a normal bed.”

“She’s the goddess that you’ve bonded with, correct?” Mrs. Hensley asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.

“May I speak with her?” She asked.

I said, ‘All yours,’ to Caireen and felt her take over.

“Good evening, I am Caireen,” I heard her say through me.

“Good evening, Your Majesty,” Mrs. Hensley said. “I assume you know all of what we spoke about?”

“Yes, ma’am, I do.”

“Do you foresee any issues with Sofia coming to our school?”

“No, she should be more than fine. I will ask that you either provide a crib and changing table for her, or I can create them when we get there. She will need an older student or adult to help her several times through the day.”

“You won’t help her with that?”

“No, I believe it’s in her best interest to learn to blend in by being just as needy as any two-year-old is.”

Mrs. Hensley looked thoughtful, “Okay, would you let Sofia rejoin us?”

I came back from the closet it seemed like, “Yes, ma’am?”

“Would you be okay if I assign an older student as a big sister/caregiver?”

I sighed, “I hope I don’t regret it, but I should be fine.”

“Okay, I have a student in mind in Trident House that should do well. She’s a junior, so she’ll be able to be around next year too.”

“So, when do I come?” I asked nervously.

“Well, after Christmas Break seems wise right now. You have a month and a half to get used to things before coming out.”

“Will she be safe around here that long?” Dad asked her.

“I’m not sure, honestly. If it seems like it would be better for Sofia to come out sooner, please let me know. We can get her in sooner, but we probably should have a lot of pieces in place first. Not least of which are Caireen’s requests.” She paused, “Best bet is to pretend she is a normal two-year-old anytime you’re away. Any magic should be done only under Caireen’s supervision and keep a low profile.”

‘Should be easy enough...’ I thought sadly.

‘Don’t be so sure...’ Caireen said, and I thought I could detect some worry.

“Well, I guess we should be going. Please call this number immediately if we need to take Sofia sooner.” Mrs. Hensley said, handing her a card, “It’ll get to me no matter what, and we can make emergency arrangements.”

“Thank you for coming to see us.” Mom said to her.

“Our pleasure,” Mrs. Raspin said, “I look forward to seeing you at school, Sofia. You’re going to turn a lot of heads!”

Once they were out the door, Mom said, “Okay, bath time,” and, without hesitation, picked me up and carried me upstairs. She started the bathwater, stripped me, and washed me quickly. “What time is it?” I wondered suddenly.

“Ten,” she answered, “Time for baby girls to be in bed,” she said as she dried my hair.

“Oh.”

Mom took the time to heat up a bottle and fed me like the previous nights. It had been a long day, and I went to sleep during another story before it had even really begun.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thank you for reading! Please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading! I do appreciate the Likes as well, but it’s nice to hear what my readers are thinking!

If you’re someone who must finish a good story ‘now,’ consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

[sklawlor]

I am really enjoying this story. I’m not one who’s really into magic but this is clearly an exception. I’ll be looking forward to reading more.

[BabySofia]

Thanks!

[BabySofia]

Chapter 9: Playtime

I WOKE UP in the castle crib with Caireen standing over me.

“There’s my baby girl,” she said with a smile.

“Hi,” I said timidly.

“Let’s get you changed and going for the day!” She told me with a smile.

She changed the soaked diaper and then dressed me in a pale-yellow dress before setting me down on the ground facing a giant dollhouse. “Okay, I think it’s time for you to start learning to play.”

“Umm?” I said, “Huh?”

“Take one of your dollies,” she told me with a smile.

I looked, and many cute and lifelike dolls were sitting by the house. They seemed far more realistic than I imagined appropriate for this period; they were very anachronistic with the surroundings. Finally, I picked one that looked like me, with red hair and green eyes painted on her face. I was surprised to see she was like Lily’s nicer dolls, and her eyes opened and closed as I picked her up or lay her down. She had on a pretty green dress similar to mine. I sheepishly looked under her skirts; sure enough, she had a diaper on too.

“Okay, now you have to name her!” Caireen said with a smile.

I thought for a moment about some Irish names I had come across when researching who Caireen was the other day. I also thought about my code name and said, “Emie.”

“That seems perfect,” she praised me in a voice like she was talking to someone my apparent age. “Okay, for the fun part, let’s practice changing her clothes.”

I looked over at the box and saw there were other outfits there. I wondered, though, if Caireen meant this to begin my training. I pictured a dress similar to the green one but fancier and with tights. I kind of willed it to be so, and the dress I imagined was now on Emie!

“Well, aren’t you a quick learner!” Caireen said as she leaned over and squeezed me into a hug. That night she had me practice changing Emie’s dresses to other period-appropriate ones and more modern baby clothes. After hours, she finally had me try working on her hair. I was starting to feel tired when she said, “I think it’s time for bed here,” with a smile.

“Am I actually getting sleep in the ‘real’ world?” I asked sleepily.

“Yes, Sofia, you are.”

“Can I do this stuff there now?”

“I think you can safely. Stick to clothes on dolls and hair on dolls for now, though. The last thing you want to do is mess up your sister’s hair like you did Emie’s a bit ago!”

I blushed as she changed a wet diaper, thinking about the tangled mess of hair - Caireen had to help get it back to normal. She then held me in a rocking chair and rocked me to sleep with a lullaby.

I WOKE UP on my own when I heard Dad moving around the house to get ready to work. I smiled as I realized that Caireen had brought Emie into the real world for me, and she lay next to me.

This was the first time I had woken up on my own, so I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I tried saying, “Mommy? Daddy?” Quietly for them to hear. The last thing I wanted to do was wake up my sister early if we could avoid it.

Finally, I couldn’t help myself anymore; I reached up to the rail of my crib with a short hop and pulled myself over like I had a wall yesterday.

‘You are so going to get in trouble for this,’ I heard Caireen sigh.

‘I’m not really a baby...’ I told her.

‘I know, but will your Mom appreciate the difference?’

‘She’s going to need to; how else am I going to get out of bed at school?’

I heard her sigh, and I decided to just face the music. I opened my door quietly and walked downstairs, where dad was reading the paper.

“Well, good morning Sofia…” he thought for a second, “how did you get out of your crib? Your mom is still in the shower.”

I blushed but decided to spit it out, “I climbed out.”

He sighed, and I could tell he was mentally trying to decide what to do. “Well, we didn’t say you couldn’t do that. Be ready for your mom to get mad about it, though.”

“Mad about what?” Mom asked from behind me.

“She climbed out of her crib,” he answered.

I turned towards Mom. “I’m not really a baby mom, and it was way smaller of a climb and jump than what I was doing yesterday.”

She picked me up, and I worried I would get a spanking. She sighed, “I guess we’re going to have to get used to finding a balance between you being a baby and not being a baby, huh?”

“You’re not too mad?” I asked, kind of scared.

“I probably should be, but you’re not a regular baby. Of course, this would be the sign we needed to get you in a big girl bed or spank your bottom if you were. Since Caireen doesn’t really want you in a regular bed, maybe…?”

I trembled, “Please, no?”

Mom smiled and tickled me, “Like I said, you’re not a regular baby. At least if you get hurt, you’ll get better quick. Don’t expect to come crying to me about it, though!”

I smiled, “Okay.”

She felt underneath my nightgown and said, “I guess I get an early start on diaper changes today, huh?”

“Please?”

Mom changed me into a knit dress that had a few tiers of ruffles on the skirt. Lily had one similar that she wore all of the time. As if Caireen had felt like there should be some sort of constant joke with my name, it had a picture of Sofia the First on the front.

“Okay, shall we get breakfast?” she asked as she sat me down.

“Umm… can you actually get Emie for me? I left her in my crib by accident.”

Mom looked in the crib and saw my baby doll, “She’s beautiful,” she said. “Where did you get her?”

“Caireen gave her to me in the castle last night. I guess she decided to bring her with me to the real world.” I hesitated but then said, “Watch this!” I changed her dress into one identical to mine.

She grimaced but said, “Cool. I actually think I liked the other one better,” she said.

“Okay,” I said and changed it back.

“This ability doesn’t work to change your diaper?” Mom asked.

I sighed, “I asked Caireen that last night. It works exactly like that in theory, but she’s blocking me from it.”

Mom carried me down the steps and then let me down on the ground, and I walked on my own to the dining table. “Pancakes?” Mom asked.

“Really?” I asked, surprised.

“Well, it’s worth celebrating that you’re up before the afternoon!” She said semi-sternly.

She sat me on the counter a few minutes later, and I stirred the ingredients. She had to stop me before I went too far in mixing it; my extra strength had a practical application of helping me stir faster! She paused long enough to wake my sister up and bring her down in a nearly identical dress to mine before actually cooking the batter.

“We twins!” Lily said when she saw what I was wearing.

I giggled, “Sort of; I’m taller!”

“Well, Mommy said I’m heavier,” she said.

Mom laughed, “That’ll be the only time in your life I think I’ll hear you brag about being heavier, Lily!”

“Well, it’s the only time in my life I’ll probably still be taller than her, too,” I told Mom.

“I get taller than you?” Lily asked me.

I sighed, “Lily, by the time you hit your next birthday, you’ll probably be taller than me.” Then, I added, “You’ll grow up, but I’m always going to be a baby.”

Her eyes widened, and she must have grasped that wasn’t normal because she toddled over and hugged me. “I love you, even if I bigger! You bestest brother sister ever.”

I smiled and hugged her back. Mom put us in our high chairs and then put bibs on both of us. I watched her cut up Lily’s pancake after putting some syrup on it, and then she did the same with mine. “You don’t have to do that...” I grumbled.

“Shhh…” Mom said with a smile, “If you complain too much, I’ll feed you!”

I gulped and just ate the mutilated pancakes. Mom had given me a stack of three that I quickly finished before also finishing the sippy cup of milk she had given me. Mom attacked Lily’s face with a baby wipe and mine as well. “You two go play; I remember someone made a promise last night.”

I nodded and said, “Come on, Lily, let’s go to the playroom.”

I stopped for a moment, though, and Mom seemed to have read my mind because she had a pacifier ready to go that she attached to my dress with a clip. “This way, you can’t lose it!”

I blushed and sucked on it.

“Mine, Mommy,” Lily said. She produced it, and I had a feeling Mom was wondering how she would get the baby sister to break a habit her older sister would never break.

As soon as we hit the playroom, I let Lily take the lead. She ended up deciding we should have a tea party that morning. She made sure to teach me how to play right. I had fun following her lead. After a while, I amused her by changing the clothes of several of her dolls with magic. I also let her play a little with Emie. It was strange because I had to fight a peculiar possessiveness I felt about her.

Mom came down and watched us off and on through the morning. She changed another messy diaper on me during the morning and a wet diaper on Lily, but mostly just let us play. When lunch came, she made us wash our hands and gave us PB&J sandwiches.

“Okay, nap time, girls,” Mom said as she lifted Lily out of her high chair and came for me.

She changed us and let me have my cell phone and Emie in my crib. I had several messages from Hannah and Jacob, and some other friends. I responded to Hannah and Jacob, telling them they could come over that afternoon. With Hannah, we debated how I should tell Jacob. Still, a couple of his messages from last night made me wonder if he hadn’t already put two and two together.

I couldn’t help but think back to last night when I asked Caireen about changing my diapers the same way as the clothes. As soon as she said I would be able to, I tried. It was pretty funny when I suddenly ended up with this weird not-diaper thing hanging half off my body, and the rest of my clothes went away too.

‘I said you would be able to, not that I would let you yet.’ She had said, laughing. ‘I think given your situation, size, and lack of potty training, it would be best if you get used to being taken care of for a while...’ Then, as if to emphasize that it was a bad idea, I felt urine trickle down my legs without the diaper to collect it.

I tried to argue and negotiate with her for twenty minutes, but in the end, I ended up with another diaper and outfit and put back to play some more with the doll’s clothing.

‘I know you think I’m being unfair,’ Caireen said.

‘No...’ I said, ‘I guess I don’t mind Mom changing me. I wouldn’t even freak out too much over Hannah changing me later. It’s the thought of going to school with all these superpowerful kids and being unable to handle something like changing my poopy diaper.’

‘I promise you it’ll work out.’

‘I hope so...’ I told her.

After an hour or so of playing games and surfing the internet, Mom came in. “Didn’t feel like a nap today?” Mom asked.

I shook my head, “I think I still have the circadian rhythm of a teenager. Or mostly, at least.”

“Are Hannah and Jacob coming over?”

I nodded, “I’m guessing they’ll be here in an hour?”

I let her pick me up from my crib and walked downstairs with her. I decided since I was going to Bechtel, there was no point in doing my homework. Apparently, I was going back at least two grades anyway, so what was the purpose? I turned on the TV and used a streaming service to find ‘Sofia the First’ episodes. I watched a couple with my sister, but I usually did homework and ignored it. Somehow, I thought it would be wise to actually know what happens in the show!

Three episodes in, my sister had joined me, the doorbell rang and I knew it would be my friends. “Lily, would you please give me and my friends some privacy for a while?” I asked.

I could tell she wanted to be annoyed, but I was really proud of her. She said, “Sure, I play downstairs!”

I would have hugged her, but she ran downstairs so fast I couldn’t catch her. I instinctively knew my pacifier was still in my mouth and decided to let it dangle from the clip instead. ‘On second thought...’ I pulled the clip from my dress and the little purse I had my GEID in from that other space. I looked in the bag and easily fit my pacifier in.’

‘That’s my baby girl!’ Caireen praised me.

I smiled.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! Comments are always super appreciated as well!

If you’re someone who must finish a good story ‘now,’ consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

[BabySofia]

Chapter 10: Friends

MOM WALKED TO open the front door, and I decided to stand behind her.

“Hi, Mrs. Hammerstein, may we see Nick?”

“Come in, Jacob,” Mom said instead.

“Is he okay?” Jacob asked.

“Hi, Jacob, Hannah,” I said as I came out from behind Mom when the door shut.

“Hi, Sofia,” Hannah said. She couldn’t seem to help herself. She leaned down, picked me up, and squeezed me in a hug. I hugged her back before she said, “Come on, Jacob, we need to talk.”

“Let’s go to my room?” I suggested.

“Your room?” Jacob asked but dumbly followed. “Hey, this is Nick’s room. Why is it a nursery…?”

Hannah sat down on the floor with me on her lap.

“Jacob, this sort of is still Nick’s room, but you were sort of right on your guess that I was a Mergent…?”

“Holy shit! Nick?!?!?!?” He said, finally getting it. “What the Hell happened to you?”

“I emerged,” I said, “unfortunately, my body decided to play a trick on me.”

He looked around intensely at the crib and changing table, “So you’re a girl?!? And, like a baby now?” He asked, “Not just in size?”

I sighed, “I’m no longer potty trained and have a bonding with a goddess who prefers I continue to act my appearance for a while.”

“Diapers?”

“Unfortunately.”

“That sucks!” He thought, “Hannah, why aren’t you shocked?”

“His parents needed a babysitter for Lily when he changed. They were a little bit panicked for some reason,” she said with a smirk and squeezed me against her tighter. “It was kind of impossible to hide it all from me.”

“How come you didn’t tell me before?” He asked.

“Honestly, I’m scared to let anyone know about this! The fact that I let you know to come over was a big step, Jacob.”

“So, did you get any superpowers?”

I smirked, “Yeah, I did.”

“I mean, besides super stinky diapers.”

I momentarily wondered if I hadn’t gone again, but he was joking. So in revenge, I decided to turn his socks bright pink and add some white ruffled lace.

“That’s not fair,” he told me, looking down.

“I think they’re cute, Jacob,” Hannah said.

“Change them back, please?” He begged.

“Or?”

“Umm… tickle?”

I squirmed against Hannah, “Oh no, you don’t,” she said. “She’s all mine.” Then, suddenly, she started tickling my sides from nowhere, and I couldn’t help but giggle non-stop until she finally gave up. Unfortunately, my dress had ridden up during the tickling and my very soaked diaper was on display.

Mom came in just as it was ending. “I see you three seem to be doing okay.” Mom said and hesitated before adding, “Umm, Hannah, seeing as how I assume you just helped her make that wet diaper, would you mind changing her?” With that, she walked away, and I found my mouth open.

“Well, your mommy’s right,” she said, and I was up in the air before I knew it. She carried me flat in her arms outstretched in front of her. “You know, I think you’re lighter than a lot of one-year-olds I’ve babysat.

I blushed.

“How much do you weigh?”

“Twenty pounds.”

“I’m going to the restroom; I’ll be right back,” Jacob said, clearly not wanting to be present for my change.

“Wow, that’s light!”

Hannah sat me on the table, “How do we do this?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re my best friend turned into a two-year-old baby. Do I treat you like your sister when I’m changing her diaper, or do we do this differently?”

I shrugged, “Caireen seems bent on me getting used to embarrassment and diaper changes. Change me the same way you do, Lily.”

She smiled, “Okay!” The next moment she had me laid back on the table and used the strap to keep me from going anywhere. She pushed my dress back up to where she could see my diaper, “Wow, you’re one soaked baby girl!” She said, using that mommy’s voice all girls have.

My thumb found its way to my mouth then, and she noticed. She reached underneath the table, “Here, why don’t you use your paci,” she said with a smile and put it in my mouth. I nursed it as she undid the tapes of my diaper and pulled it out of the way, setting a new one in its place. She wiped me really well, powdered me, and then taped the new diaper on. The next part was a surprise as she suddenly blew a big raspberry on my exposed belly button.

I giggled.

“Oh, do we have the giggles again?” She asked as she tickled my feet a little. Hannah undid the strap, pulled my dress back down, and then picked me up and held me in her arms. “You do realize you’ve stolen my heart at this point?”

I looked at her, slightly confused, “You have got to be the most adorable baby girl known to mankind. I so want to take you home with me instead of leaving you here!”

I knew she was joking, but a part of me would have been okay with that too. Jacob came back in then once he determined the coast was clear. The three of us sat back down then. “So, are you going to go to preschool now?” He asked, trying to start up the conversation.

“No, silly, I’m going back to high school!” I told him.

He laughed. “Seriously, what are you doing?”

“I’m going back to high school.”

“You’re joking, right?” He paused, “I know LAHS is weird, but even that would be too much for us.”

I laughed, “I am going back to high school, just not here.”

“Where are you going?” Hannah asked nervously.

“There’s a private school in the Northeast just for Mergents. It’s some sort of superhuman high school, I guess…?” They both gaped at me for that. “Anyway, they said I might have to be a sophomore again… or maybe in junior high for the rest of the year after Christmas. They’re supposed to get me through all of their placement tests then to figure that out.”

“A sophomore again? Or back in junior high? That sucks!” Jacob said.

I nodded but said, “It beats daycare?”

“I don’t know, naptime, playtime, snacks - daycare was pretty sweet,” he said.

I laughed, “I guess… of course, at this rate, I’ll probably find out since I’m not going until after Christmas. Mom occasionally has to drop Lily off at daycare and do some errands and things. Especially with me no longer being able to babysit her.”

“I’ll babysit you two if you need one,” Hannah said.

“We’ll definitely be taking you up on that, Hannah,” Mom said behind me, making me jump. “Are you two staying for dinner?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind?” Jacob said.

Hannah nodded, “I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Let your parents know, though,” she told them.

“Will do.” I heard them answer in stereo.

I watched them both pull their cell phones out and text their parents. Of course, neither parent would be surprised by them being at my house. My new appearance…

“Hannah, have you said anything to your parents?” I asked nervously.

She looked sheepish, “I told my parents… They promised to keep it a secret, but I was worried they might ask some really embarrassing questions until I had no other choice.”

I just nodded, “I don’t see how you could have kept it a secret.”

“That being said, my mom really wants to see you!!!” She laughed.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Sofia, you realize you’re just like all of the other paradigm girl models, right? You’re just the ideal baby model!” Hannah said while I shot her daggers. “No, seriously, have you thought about it? You would be like their perfect toddler model since you could behave and listen to directions so much better!”

“So, what you’re saying is that I should be modeling Pampers?”

She laughed at me, “If it pays, why not?”

“I don’t think so…” I said. Although, in my mind, I had to admit that money is nice though...

We talked about things other than my new status as a baby. Hannah told me that my missing-in-action situation was hurting the flute section - apparently, they were lost without me. There was absolutely nothing I could do on that front, unfortunately. I hadn’t even had a chance yet to see if I could still play a piccolo. However, I had no doubts that holding a regular flute would forever be beyond me now.

“Dinner is ready, guys,” Mom said to us.

“Okay,” Hannah said in stereo with me. I had been sitting in her lap for a while, and she stood up and picked me up simultaneously. “You are so light!”

“How light is she?” Jacob asked.

“Here,” Hannah said and handed me towards him. It was like a deer caught in the headlights; the idea of holding a baby scared him to no end! Not to mention that I used to be his normally tall teenage best friend.

“Umm…”

“Boys!” Hannah huffed. “Here, put your arms out and let her grab around your neck. You grab her right here along her waist.” She made sure he was holding me right, and I made sure I could use a death grip to hold onto his neck if I needed to! “See, how hard is that?”

I giggled.

Mom must have heard some of it, too, and she took a picture of him holding me and standing there with Hannah. Three musketeers and all that…

Mom had made nachos for dinner. For those of you who may be thinking about those gooey things with fake cheese you get at the movies, that’s not what I mean. Instead, mom makes them with corn tortilla chips, some refried beans, lots of shredded beef, and real grated Colby jack cheese. The meat is cooked in plenty of red chile-based sauce, so it has a bite.

Much to everyone’s amusement, I insisted on my’ me size’ silverware.

“What? I really hate eating with my hands!” I said to them. I still had to touch my food some, though; the stuff doesn’t stay on the chip. It was a good thing she’d insisted on the bib, though. My more petite mouth made it much more challenging to eat with big chips than it used to! I forced myself to continue eating the meat even though it tasted as spicy as a ghost pepper to me now!

“How are you still eating?” Jacob asked in shock after my second plate.

I blushed, “I don’t know. It’s not like it adds any weight to me…?”

“I wish I could eat that much and not gain weight,” Hannah said.

“Me too,” my dad affirmed.

When I finished eating, Mom let me down from the highchair. I think she was trying to help me be discreet, but just like the last couple of days, Lily pooped first, and I was right behind her. I sighed and scrunched my face up.

“I’ll take one of them,” Hannah offered.

“Umm, thanks,” she said and Mom looked at me. So I just went ahead and pointed my head towards Hannah as okay. “Which one do you want?”

“I’ll take this stinker,” she said with a maniacal laugh and picked me up in such a way as to avoid smushing the mess anymore. I was getting upset, she could tell, so she pushed a pacifier into my mouth. “There, that’s better,” she said with a smile, teasing my nose with her finger.

I always knew Hannah was great with Lily because she liked her, but now I know how great she is with babies. She got me changed and kept me giggling the whole time. Before pulling the tapes down, Hannah had blown some raspberries on my belly. She tickled me to make me smile around my pacifier. Then Hannah cleaned me up quickly and never once made a disgusted face about it. She did make some fake comments about me being stinky. Well, sort of fake, you know what I mean. I’m sure it did smell! For some reason, the smell of my poopy diapers didn’t bother me.

She had just finished washing her hands and thrown the dirty diaper away, and I hugged her.

“Thanks,” I told her.

“Anytime, Princess,” she told me. Then, she looked at her cell phone, “I guess I need to get going home. If I can find a ride out here, would you mind if I came out again sometime this week?”

“You want to?” I asked, amazed.

“Sure, you’re still my best friend.”

As they were walking out the door, Mom caught Hannah. “We’re going to Albuquerque to go shopping for some things on Saturday. Would you be able to come and help with Sofia and Lily? It was nice having an extra set of hands for diaper changes today,” she smiled. “And I’m sure Sofia wouldn’t mind some time with a normal teenager.”

“Sure,” she said, “I’d love to. Let me just check with my mom.”

“Let me know, and we’ll pick you up on the way out of town.”

“Cool,” she said. “Bye, Lily, bye Sofia.”

As they left, Mom approached Lily and me and grabbed our hands. “Okay, girls, bath time!”

It was soon bedtime, and Mom once again gave me a bottle of warm milk. “I guess with your regenerating, I don’t have to worry about tooth decay,” she said as she kissed my forehead. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to break your sister of her bottles and pacifiers, though, with you around.”

I pulled it out of my mouth for a moment, “Just wait until I go to school?”

“That means getting through Christmas and your grandmother complaining about how her kids were done with bottles and diapers before they were one!” She laughed, and so did I.

“Have you told them about me?”

Mom shook her head, “They’re supposed to come down for Thanksgiving… I think it’s best to tell them in person.”

“And Grandma Wendy?” That was mom’s mom. The other two were Dad’s parents.

“Well, she wants us to go to lunch on Saturday…?”

“Oh…” I said. I sat up and hugged her as well as I could. Mom’s mother was her only family left, as her dad died when she was just a little girl. The biggest problem with her mom was that she was nearly a Sanguis Primum member with her rhetoric. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Mom shook her head, “No, but you’re my baby girl, and if she can’t accept it, then that will finally be it,” she said. Mom grabbed the bottle from my hand and pushed the nipple of the bottle back into my mouth. “You don’t worry about any of that, sweetheart; I promise you’ll be safe.”

She didn’t read me a story that night; instead, she held the bottle for me, stroked my hair, and sang a lullaby.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! comments are super appreciated as well!!!

If you’re someone who must finish a good story ‘now,’ consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! Amazon.com I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

[BabySofia]

Chapter 11: Butterflies

‘ONE DAY ENDS, and a new one begins,’ I thought as I woke up in my castle nursery.

“There she is!” Caireen crooned over me and picked me up. “Who’s the prettiest princess in all the world?” She said, “Yes, it’s you!”

I let her baby talk to me for a few moments and finally said, “Okay, enough already; what’s going on?”

“Her little diapee must be messy! She’s a cranky little baby!” For the next thirty minutes, I swear I had the most embarrassing and surrealistic treatment of me, like I was younger than I even looked to be. Finally, when she changed my diaper, and I was dressed, she said, “Well, I’m having fun,” she paused, “why aren’t you?”

“Umm… it’s ridiculous and humiliating?” I suggested with my face flushed from embarrassment.

“No, it’s normal mommy behavior and definitely normal grandmother behavior.”

“Is that what this is about?” I asked, confused.

She sighed, “Remember also that I am the goddess of children?”

I nodded.

“Maybe I like to have fun every now and then?”

“Oh,” I said guiltily. “Have I ruined it completely for you?”

“Only a little. You can make it up to me, you know?”

I groaned, “I guess, given we’re stuck with each other, I need to let you get it out every now and then. Just don’t do it all the time; my brain already has enough trouble grasping being a teenager in a baby’s body.”

“Yay!” She said. “Let’s go play outside!”

I rarely saw the castle staff, but one of the maids came then. “Fiona, would you please pack a bag with a lunch, some changes for Sofia here, and bring it down to the East Garden?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” she said.

“Let’s go see the butterflies!” She said with glee.

Mentally I groaned a little, but I kept a smile on my face. My thumb found its way to my mouth since pacifiers didn’t exist here. The bottles were a little anachronistic because they did. Still, they were old-fashioned with rubber teats that weren’t life-like or orthodontic. In the meantime, I noticed Caireen had either grown herself larger or shrank me down further. I decided she was taller because the doorways were closer to her head than I remembered. I had been shifted from holding onto me like a toddler on her hip to a more traditional infant cradle you might carry a newborn. All through the journey of stairs and corridors, she talked baby talk to me, and I did my best to try to not hate it.

We exited the castle through a door I hadn’t been through before, and I felt my breath catch as she held me up to see. Acres and acres of mowed grass were present, with a rose garden lining walkways. It was like a scene from one of the castles in France or England that took my breath away. “Beautiful,” I said around my thumb.

Caireen stroked my hair and continued walking down the path past roses that had no equal in the real world. Their colors were too vibrant, varied, and indescribably beautiful in appearance and smell. Caireen set me down when I squirmed to look at a green rose that looked like it had emeralds glittering in the petals.

“What is it?”

“A gift from a people that you base your dwarf legends off of. They dwell in caverns and mine for both money and joy. They designed this hybrid and gifted me with one of them many years ago.” She paused, “Those are real emeralds too.”

I gulped. That plant was worth a fortune!

I was picked back up, and she walked me past the pathways and the mowed grass to a field that stretched out far in the distance, with yellow, pink, purple, and blue wildflowers growing everywhere. The largest and most beautiful butterflies I’d ever seen were alighting from the flowers.

Many looked similar to the monarchs in our world. Still, there were so many other color combinations as they blended in with the many wildflowers around me. Finally, Caireen sat me down, and I snuck as close as possible to a big purple one. “Will you sit on my hand?” I asked it.

I was amazed as it looked at me skeptically and then moved to the finger that I held out. It tickled as it moved around. I brought it closer to my face and looked at it in wonder. When I was through, I said, “Thank you, you’re very beautiful.”

The butterfly seemed to bow before it flew away, and I spent a long time chasing others before Caireen said, “It’s time for lunch, my little butterfly!”

She laid me down on a blanket that Fiona had set out. I realized then that I had messed my diaper at some point and not noticed. “Well, you finally behaved like a normal baby and didn’t care about your poopy diaper.” She said with a smile, retaining that high-pitched baby cooing in her voice.

‘I really didn’t notice..’ I thought.

“How long have I been messy?” I asked, nervous about a rash forming.

“An hour or so?”

“An hour?!?”

“Relax, sweetie, you didn’t notice, and your skin won’t get a rash. You could sit in a messy diaper for a week, and your skin would keep healing.”

“It’s so disgusting, though,” I said with tears in my eyes.

“Not to a baby with no interest in getting out of diapers. You need to get yourself in that mindset. If you don’t, you’re going to go crazy in the next few months, let alone the rest of your life, honey,” The last bit she had answered sincerely and in her regular voice.

I nodded.

She continued wiping me with a cloth, and finally, I was put into a new diaper. “Okay, let’s have our lunch!”

I expected a regular lunch, but instead, I had a very finely chopped soup mixture that she fed me. At the same time, she ate what it must have usually looked like. “I’m thirsty,” I said after I finished.

“Okay, let’s get my little princess something to drink!” she said. I expected her to grab a bottle from the basket or something, but instead, she picked me up and pulled at her dress.

“What are you doing?!?” I freaked out.

“What are we doing today?”

“Treating me like a baby?”

“Exactly. You’re still young enough to nurse from the breast,” Caireen told me. “Normally, someone like me would not do this herself, you would have a wet nurse assigned to you, Princess, but given who I am, I love feeding babies!”

Before I could raise any more fuss, I was confronted with her breast and nipple. Knowing there would be no give here, I relented and at least tried it. I put my mouth around her nipple, latched on like a bottle, and sucked on it. Instantly my mouth was filled with a liquid that was sort of like milk… but so much better! I swallowed and repeated over and over again before I must have gone to sleep.

WHEN I WOKE in the real world, I felt different somehow.

‘Did that really happen?’ I asked, blushing.

‘Yes, my sweet princess, that wasn’t so bad, was it?’

I blushed, ‘No, I actually enjoyed it.’ There was no sense in hiding that from someone whose consciousness shares a body with you!

‘Good, I believe we will be doing that more often,’ she assured me.

‘Why?’

‘Well, for one, I enjoy it, and you enjoy it, right?’ she asked.

‘I guess.’

‘For another, you thought you felt different today, right?’

‘Uh-huh,’ I said.

‘When you nurse a baby, they get their nutrients and food from their mother, correct?’

‘That’s the idea...’ I said.

‘You gain magical power from me and additional strength when you nurse,’ she told me.

‘Seriously?’

‘Why do you ask that all the time? I don’t joke that much, do I?’

I sighed, ‘No, it’s just a figure of speech that I must say a lot for you to ask. I’ll try not to say it as much.’

I could feel her smile.

Mom came in right then as I was getting ready to stand up, and she said, “Oh, you just woke up?”

I nodded, “I was having a conversation with Caireen.”

“About?”

Oh boy… “Umm… What did we do last night?”

“Oh, her nursing you?”

“How do you…?”

“I came while you were asleep, still nursing,” Mom said wistfully. “I miss doing that,” she admitted.

‘Tell her I can help her lactate if she wishes...’

‘NO!’ I said.

“Mom, Caireen asked if you would like her to help you on that, but I said no; I’m hoping you’re okay with that?”

Mom smiled at me, “I know you wouldn’t be comfortable with me feeding you like that, so no worries.”

I sighed in relief. During this conversation, Mom stripped the blanket sleeper off my body and pulled the soaked diaper off. I was soon in a dry diaper, and Mom found a cute dress to wear without any tights. With that, my day began, and I alternated playing with Lily, eating, pooping, getting diaper changes, and getting on the computer. I found myself researching my new school as much as possible online. I also watched Tangled with my little sister. Much to her joy and amusement, I used magic to make her a dress identical to Rapunzels. She looked adorable in it and had to show Mom. Unfortunately, I forgot to create a diaper in my mind... She peed on the kitchen floor as she excitedly showed it off. Oops!

I really hated being Nicholas and had avoided looking at my reflection over the years because I didn’t like what I saw. Now though, Mom frequently discovered me looking at myself in the mirrors around the house, asking me each time if I was okay. Of course, I would assure her I was, but I couldn’t believe I was really a girl now! The baby part I could do without, but I felt like all of the dysphoric feelings I’d dealt with over the years had completely melted away!

Thursday and Friday passed similarly during the days, and my nights were filled with a second day in the other world where Caireen nursed me at least twice each night. During the days, I could feel more energy at my fingertips. So I was excited when Friday night, Caireen said, “Okay, it’s time to teach you some defensive magic.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m nervous about this trip tomorrow. I want you to be able to defend yourself and your family if needed.”

I nodded. “So what’s first?”

“I want to teach you to make a shield for yourself first. It should stop any physical hits and projectile weapons you might encounter.”

“Cool!”

“I want you to visualize the lines coming towards you right now.”

We had spent much time already teaching me to see them more clearly than when I first became aware of them last week. I noticed that there were always at least four or five lines that led to me at all times. This time though, there were more like twenty. I opened my eyes, “Why are there so many more lines?”

She laughed, “I told you that nursing was making you stronger?”

“Oh,” I said. “Will that keep increasing?”

“I believe it will go to a point, and then it’ll plateau.” She smiled, “Now, let’s get back to work. Visualize those lines again.”

I saw all twenty, “Okay?”

“I want you to visualize those lines to weave together around you and protect you.”

The first time I tried, it was like a fishing line that had gotten tangled in the trees, an unfixable knot! After five tries, I finally managed to get it around me like a grid defining a three-dimensional character on a computer screen. I looked up at Caireen, “Is that it?” “It should be; let’s see how it holds up!”

I gasped a second later when she threw a dagger from her sleeve straight toward my shoulder. It hit the field and glanced off.

I jumped and felt my diaper grow warmer, “I think I need a change…?”

She laughed, “Why, you’re perfectly safe in there.”

“How long does it hold up?”

“Until the power in the lines, you are using runs out. Right now, I would say about twenty minutes.”

“A minute per line?” I asked.

“That’s a good way to guess it, I guess,” she agreed. “Now, drop it and try it again.”

We practiced my bringing the shield up for about another hour before she changed me and nursed me. I was still awake when she finished, and I asked, “What can I do to protect my family?”

She sighed, “I hope we have much more time to perfect this in the future. The same idea lets you do it around someone else. So you can visualize it around multiple people. Just know it won’t last as long!” We practiced that for a while before she said. “I have one last defensive spell I want to teach you tonight, though it’s really more of an attack. You must never use this purely for fun or games.”

I nodded.

“Take one of the lines out of your shield and visualize it going to your hand. From there, think of it sending all of its energy as a ball of energy at that wall.” She pointed at the far end of the stone room we had been working in.

A ball of purple lightning, that’s the best way to describe it, went shooting through the air at the brick wall and… right through it. I gasped as I saw a hole in the wall six inches in diameter. She picked me up and showed me that it went through three more walls before ending at the castle’s outer wall. “How come it didn’t go through that wall?”

“I have warded the walls; it’s impossible to use that spell to attack this castle.”

“Will it ever stop otherwise?” I paused, “I might accidentally hurt someone I didn’t intend to if it never stops…?”

“The way you just did it would send it flying until it met a barrier like this or shot into space from leaving the earth’s curvature at the angle you shot it.”

I felt my diaper get wetter. “That’s scary.”

“Now, let’s teach you to limit it!” She smiled, “I wanted you to know your full power first so that you’ll respect that power.”

We spent an hour practicing limiting it to a distance in my mind of the target plus a foot to five feet, depending on what she asked me to do. I could also limit it to hitting a human target and stopping them. Then, as she nursed me to sleep, she said, “Sofia, I would not teach you the blast spell if I did not know that you have a pure heart. I will teach you many less destructive spells in the future, but if something happens tomorrow, I want you to be prepared.”

I felt her stroke my hair and pat me lovingly before I fell asleep.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! Please consider leaving a quick comment if you read this? It just helps me know people are engaged and what they’re thinking!

If you’re someone who must finish a good story ‘now,’ consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! Amazon.com(link is external) I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

[sklawlor]

this gets better and better with every chapter.

[BabySofia]

Thank you! That’s always my hope!

[BabySofia]

Chapter 12: Picture Perfect

THE NEXT MORNING I was woken up as Mom changed my diaper. “Oh, you decided to wake up?” She teased me.

She was just finishing wiping me and had me in a new diaper before I could respond, “Yeah,” around my pacifier. “What time is it?”

“6:30,” she told me.

“Ugh…” I responded.

Mom first dressed me in white tights before wrapping me in my signature green dress.

“Isn’t it cold outside?” I whined about the dress.

“I want to get some pictures with you and your sister for our Christmas Cards and photo album.”

“Oh,” I said.

Mom did my hair for several minutes and added my tiara to make me look picture-perfect. “Are you going to have Lily wear her tiara?” I asked.

Mom shook her head, “I’m going to have to do some convincing with her since she doesn’t have one as pretty as yours.”

‘I can do something to help there,’ Caireen said.

‘My sister doesn’t need a priceless magic tiara, though...?’ I said questioningly.

‘Of course not, but you can make a silver one with glass jewels just as easy to make her happy,’ she insisted.

“What color is her dress?” I asked.

“Pink,” Mom said with a smile, “you should have been able to guess that.”

I nodded and concentrated without saying another word to Mom. In my hands appeared a tiara similar to mine. The shape was similar, but it featured clear crystal jewels for the prominent gemstones and several crystals that looked like pink sapphires that circled around the base. It was made in plain old silver, which meant it was probably only worth a grand then…

‘Probably a bit more, you made crystal jewels for the main ones, but the pink jewels are real sapphires,’ Caireen said.

‘Let’s keep that to ourselves?’

Mom stared at me in shock, and I said, “It wouldn’t be fair to Lily, so here is a tiara for her. Of course, it’s not the same as mine, but it should make her happy.” I said the last with a smile. I was grateful that my new size hadn’t caused a bunch of sibling rivalry so far. I had a feeling it would come someday soon, though.

Mom hugged me and said, “You’re still the best older sibling she could ever have.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Let’s get something in your tummy, and then you can go back to sleep while we drive to Albuquerque. I need to do Lily’s hair now.”

I nodded, and she carried me downstairs. My sister was already in her high chair with a bowl of cheerios in front of her. “What do you want to eat?” Mom asked as she strapped me into the high chair.

“Cereal’s fine,” I said as I pulled my pacifier out of my mouth and sat it on the tray. She had already poured a sippy cup of juice and sat it on the tray. I drank out of it silently while she found a bowl and filled it with just the cereal. I had never liked mushy cereal!

“Lily, look what Sofia made for you!” Mom said with a smile.

“It’s pretty like hers!!!” She said. “Am I a princess like her?”

“Absolutely,” I told her.

I played with the cereal more than I ate it as I watched Mom rearrange Lily’s hair. Eventually, I stopped when Mom said, “Sofia, you can either eat your cereal or I’ll feed it to you?”

I furiously ate it, so I didn’t have to live with that embarrassment that morning. By 7am, Mom had walked out the door once with all of the things she needed to take care of two toddlers and then came back inside for the two of us. Mom put Lily in her car seat first, ensuring she had her favorite doll with her, before coming over and doing the same for me. I had Emie in my arms. Mom attached my pacifier to a clip and then to my dress so we wouldn’t have to search for it. Since we had the garage, she didn’t have to remove our coats before we sat.

“Here’s your bottle,” she said to Lily. Lily still got a bottle anytime we went on a long trip to help calm her down in her car seat. Mom looked at me with a question on her face, and I said, “Why not?”

She smiled, handed me a warmed bottle, closed our doors, and then got in herself. I nursed slowly on the bottle, in no hurry to drink it as I wasn’t that thirsty, so I still had half left when Mom pulled up to Hannah’s driveway. Hannah came out of her house as soon as she saw us. Mom motioned for her to sit in the front seat. I was suddenly self-conscious and thought about hiding my bottle.

“So you’ve discovered the joys of a bottle too?” Hannah said sweetly to me.

I turned red.

“Sofia, you’re a baby. It’s perfectly okay for you to have a baby bottle! So don’t go feeling self-conscious,” she told me. “It’s part of blending,” she added with a smile.

“You ready to go?” Mom asked her.

“Uh-huh, I’m so looking forward to not being stuck at home today! Thanks for inviting me!”

“Well, thanks for coming!” Mom said. She pulled out of her driveway, and I returned to nursing my bottle. I looked as much as possible at my sister on my left and noticed she was asleep already. Of course, that’s why Mom was still more than happy to give her a bottle on long car rides.

Mom and Hannah had a conversation in the front seat, but it was hard for me to hear them up there. So I settled for looking to my right for a while before I must have fallen asleep too.

I woke up when I felt our car starting to slow down. I looked out the window and saw we were on the outskirts of Albuquerque. Then I felt my body do something I hoped wouldn’t happen in the car! I filled the back of my diaper, and it smushed everywhere as it did so.

It was only a couple moments before the smell made it to the front, but Hannah said, “Uh-oh, smells like we have a stinky princess!”

I squirmed in the seat. I wouldn’t get a diaper rash, as Caireen had pointed out, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be in it any longer than I had to. I put my pacifier in my mouth to try and keep from screaming like a real baby.

“I assume that’s you, Sofia?” Mom asked.

I whimpered, “Yes,” around my pacifier.

“We’re going to stop to do those pictures and some shopping at the mall first. We’ll change you when we get there. It’s not too long,” Mom reassured me.

That was one of the longest twenty minutes of my life when Mom pulled into the parking space. Mom and Hannah got out of the car and came to the doors. Hannah took the bottle from next to me and handed it to me, “Can you hold onto that for a few minutes?” She asked me. I nodded.

“Do you want me to change her out here or in the bathroom?” she asked Mom.

“It’s easier to throw away a poopy diaper in the bathroom,” Mom told her. “We’ll change both of them inside.”

Hannah picked me up and put me over her shoulder while I whimpered and held onto my bottle as she asked. Then, Mom grabbed the diaper bag and Lily. She must have already put Lily’s bottle in the bag because I didn’t see it in her hands.

As Hannah carried me back to the bathrooms, with Mom next to her with Lily, we passed by a girl who was probably about four. “Dat baby is poopy!” She cried out in a loud voice.

I buried my head in Hannah’s shoulder and felt tears going down my face.

“Shhh, It’s okay,” Hannah said to me softly as we walked through the bathroom door.

“Sofia first?” Hannah suggested.

“Yes, the poor thing always hates having a messy diapee,” Mom said.

I pulled my head off Hannah’s shoulder and saw Mom wipe off the changing table before placing the mat on it. “I’ll change her,” Hannah offered.

Thankfully she didn’t waste any time waiting around. Mom grabbed my bottle from my hand and rinsed it out while Hannah happily changed the messiest and most disgusting diaper I had yet had. She wiped me clean, put a new diaper on, and pulled my tights back up. “There you go, all beautiful again!” Hannah said with a smile. She picked me up, sat me on the ground, and washed her hands. I then stood by Mom while she changed Lily while Hannah used the toilet. ‘I wish I could do that,’ I thought sadly.

I felt Caireen give me the mental equivalent of a hug. As soon as Hannah was out of the stall, Mom had her take over watching the two of us, and she went to the bathroom too. Hannah had the diaper bag on her shoulder and picked me up when Mom came out of the stall. Lily was in Mom’s arms soon, too, and we were off a little way down the corridor to the portrait studio where Mom had made an appointment. A man was standing at the counter when we walked up.

“Hi, we have an appointment,” Mom said.

“Name?”

“Rachel Hammerstein,” Mom said.

“For two toddlers?”

“Yes sir,” she said, and he looked up to see what Hell he would experience. When he saw us, he smiled, “These two princesses?”

“Yep,” Mom said.

“Okay, Bonnie will be your photographer today; let me make sure she’s ready.” He walked away.

“So that we don’t have the shape of a pacifier around your lips, would you be okay with taking it out?” Mom asked me.

I shrugged and let it drop out of my mouth to hang on the strap. Hannah did some sort of one-handed gymnastics and unhooked the clip. I felt Hannah start bouncing me a bit like I used to do with Lily to calm her.

“Ready to get your pictures taken?” She asked.

“I guess… I just want to get it over with.” I told her quietly.

“You never know; you might have fun,” she told me.

“I hate pictures…?”

“No, you used to hate pictures,” she told me, “now you’re an adorable little princess. All princesses LOVE getting their pictures taken.” She chose that moment to tickle my side a little. I giggled and had to smile. It was weird having all of the tricks I used to use against Lily used against me - especially since most of them worked!

“Mrs. Hammerstein?” A lady in jeans and a sweater asked.

“Yes?”

“Come on back. We’re ready to take your daughter’s pictures.”

We followed her back to a studio that had a white background, ready to go first. Mom and Hannah set Lily and me down and began checking our appearance. Luckily my dress never wrinkled, but Lily’s had a little. Mom did the best she could to straighten it out, though. My hair was a bit crooked, but that was sorted through quickly.

“Okay, you want individual shots and some together?” The lady asked Mom.

“Please,” she said.

“Which princess first?” The photographer asked in the high pitch mama voice.

“I’ll go,” I said. If I was a good example, maybe Lily would be quicker…

‘Good girl,’ Caireen said in my head. ‘Now pretend to have fun and enjoy it too!’

“How old are you?”

I held my two fingers up, “This many!”

“They’re both two, actually,” Mom told her. The lady looked at her, and she said, “Ten months apart.”

“Ouch,” the lady said. “I assume this princess is the older one?”

Mom nodded.

“Okay, Princess, what’s your name?”

“Sofia,” I replied.

“Well, Sofia, that dress is beautiful! And your tiara too! Why don’t you sit...” She took pictures of me standing in front of the white background, sitting crisscross style, leaning on a number two, and crawling on the floor quickly before doing the same with Lily. She then had us sit together with the number and then some other poses together before repeating the same steps with two different backgrounds. One, we used a gigantic teddy bear as a prop. Mom and Hannah also joined in at times; one of the photos I hoped turned out had me sitting in Hannah’s lap. She had always been one of my best friends, but she was quickly turning into a big sister.

I actually had fun, smiled, giggled, and was probably a photographer’s dream happy baby. Of course, Lily got a little grouchy at the end, but I told her, “Come on, good princesses, smile!” and she bought into it.

In the end, the lady said, “I have never had two more well-behaved toddlers for photos. Ever! You should look into a modeling agency for Sofia. She’d make a fortune as a model.”

Mom smiled, “You’re not the first person to tell me that. When will you have proofs for us to look at?”

“Well, we’re pretty dead right now. If you want to come back in an hour, we can have printed proofs, or you’re welcome to look and pick from the computer screen in a couple minutes.”

Mom shook her head, “We’ll come back; I like having a print in hand to choose from.” She paused, “Plus, I think they both need to have a diaper change and burn off some energy.”

The lady laughed, “At least you’re probably close to being through with changing that many diapers.”

“Hopefully,” Mom said, as I noticed she eyed Lily. I would probably never grow up past that; we both knew that.

Mom grabbed my hand in one hand and Lily’s in the other. “Come on, you two, let’s go change your diapers.”

‘It would be nice if she wouldn’t announce that to the world...’ I thought.

‘You’re a baby; your potty habits are public record,’ Caireen said. I could feel the smirk on her face.

   

Chapter 13: Grandma

LILY AND I walked down the hallway to the bathroom, holding Mom’s hands. Mom changed both of us, this time on the changing table. “Okay, we need to get the stroller out of the car,” she said. “I don’t think Hannah wants to carry you all day Sofia.”

“I can walk, you know,” I told her quietly. Hannah was holding me tight.

Hannah whispered back, “A normal two-year-old wouldn’t walk the whole day, though.”

She was right.

Back at the car, Mom pulled out a new double stroller that she had bought online and had express shipped to the house. The stroller was a classic design that had one seat behind the other. Mom put Lily in the front, and Hannah placed me in the back. “Why am I sitting in the back?” I asked.

“Eyes,” Mom said.

I hadn’t even thought about my eyes… I wondered if the photographer noted them.

“May I have my pacifier?” I asked, suddenly nervous again.

Hannah reattached the clip and placed it in my mouth, and we were back shopping. I was very bored for the next hour as we walked from one store to another, mostly keeping Lily and me in the stroller. Mom picked out a dozen new outfits for me and a couple for Lily. Still, we mostly walked and looked with them, occasionally dressing us as their living dolls. The only place I got enthusiastic about shopping was the Disney store, where I found a couple of costume dresses I liked. Mom also bought Lily and me each a princess doll there. Several times as they walked, girls would say, ‘Oh my God, your daughters are sooooo cute!’

We were in Sears, and I really was getting thirsty. “Mommy?” I got her attention.

“Yes, Sofia?”

“I’m thirsty.”

“Okay, just a minute,” Mom said. I heard her messing with the bag behind my seat for a moment. I listened to a cap pop, and she handed me my bottle of apple juice.

“Umm… thanks,” I said. “No sippy cup?”

“Why? You love your bottle!” Mom said with a smile.

I just began nursing from it slowly as she kept shopping before finally we returned to the portrait studio. “Ah, you’re back!” The lady said, “Come over here to the counter, and you can look at the proofs.”

Lily was out for the count in the stroller in front of me, her head lulled to the side. Seeing her asleep, Hannah pulled me out of the stroller and placed me on the counter so I could see. The pictures of me were perfect! I did look like a child model… except for the eyes. There was just something unnatural about the shade of green, and I didn’t think my being two years old would keep that from being noticed. Mom and Hannah chose their selections of three pictures of each of us individually, two of Lily and me, two with Mom and the two of us, and finally, one of all four to get printed.

“They’ll be ready about four if you want to stop back by?” The lady offered.

“Great! We’ll be back then. Come on, Princess,” Mom said as she put me back into the stroller.

The journey back to the car was made, both of us were strapped into our car seats, and Mom pulled away.

“Where are we going now?”

“Grandma’s,” Mom said.

“Oh,” I said nervously.

“It’ll be fine,” Mom reassured me.

I watched the streets and buildings pass by and sucked nervously at my pacifier. I had heard many cruel things from Grandma directed towards Mergents over the years. I clearly remembered a year ago, we saw a lady with GSD that looked like a half-human/half-bear person at the mall. Grandma had loudly said, “I can’t believe they let that animal inside!”

‘She can’t hurt you physically,’ Caireen reassured me.

‘She’s my mom’s mother, though, Caireen. I don’t want to be why she doesn’t love my Mom anymore...’

‘You have one of the smartest mothers I have ever met, Sofia. I guarantee she would blame her mother, not you.’

The drive seemed to take both forever and be too quick. I noticed my diaper growing wetter as we pulled into the driveway. ‘Great, I’m meeting my Grandma as my new self, AND I need a diaper change.’

Not wanting to antagonize my grandmother, I took my pacifier out of my mouth, unclipped the clip, and pulled out my purse wherever it disappeared. I quickly put it in there and then put my purse back. Mom watched me in the mirror and gave me a smile and a nod. “Good idea,” she said.

“I’ll take Sofia. Would you take Lily, please?” Mom said to Hannah.

“Sure,” Hannah said. So they went to each of our doors, and I was soon let out of the car seat.

Mom reached under my dress and felt my wet diaper. “I’ll change you once I figure out how your grandma will take this.”

I nodded and held onto her as she grabbed the diaper bag, and we walked up to the door. Mom opened the door, “Mom, we’re here!”

“My land, Rachel, who is this beautiful little girl?” She said as she saw me.

“This is Sofia,” Mom said.

“One of Lily’s friends?” She asked as she hugged Mom and moved on to hug Lily in Hannah’s arms.

“No, Nicko!” Lily said.

The world ground to a halt for a moment then. ‘Really, Lily?!?!’ I thought to myself.

‘She’s a two-year-old; you know it’s a requirement that she blurt out embarrassing things inappropriately.’ Caireen said.

I had to agree with her. I watched Grandma’s face as she turned to look at me again. “She’s just pretending, right?” she asked Mom.

Mom sighed, and I felt her squeeze me reassuringly. “No, Mom, Nicko emerged last week, and his EFP, or rather her EFP, transformed him.”

“I knew you should never have married that no good husband of yours!” She started.

“Mom, stop right there. I know you have some extreme beliefs against Mergents...” Mom said all this in a calm, soothing voice, “but it’s not true. I love my child no matter what they may be, and that won’t change. If you can’t do the same, please tell me now, and we’ll turn right back around and never come back.”

I saw the hurt on Grandma’s face and felt terrible.

“But…”

“Look at her, Mom. I promise you she’s the most beautiful grandchild you could ask for. She’s just as sweet as she always was, and all either of us wants you to do is just to love us.”

Grandma cried and said, “I’m sorry; I promise I’ll behave. Please don’t ever think I could walk away from you, Rachel.” She came over and hugged Mom, and said, “May I hold her?”

Mom passed me to her, and she said, “Well, you are a beautiful baby, my dear. Why did you end up like this?” She asked.

“I woke up sick and saw my sister in the hall… I guess I was thinking about how it would be nice to still have Mom hold me like she did when Lily got sick... Next thing I know, I’m a two-year-old baby girl.”

“Wearing diapers?” She asked in surprise as she readjusted her hold on me and felt it. “And a wet one?”

I buried my head in her shoulder, “Sorry… I can’t help it.”

“Let me see that diaper bag, Rachel,” Grandma said. I looked surprised, “What, you don’t think I can change diapers still?”

Grandma carried me to the room that served as her spare bedroom. Inside was a large dresser we used to change Lily on when we were there. Grandma sat me down next to it, laid out the changing pad, and then picked me up. “Let’s get those tights down, huh?”

I lay patiently while Grandma changed me almost exactly like Mom, but it was sweeter somehow. Maybe that was because she didn’t change a dozen diapers a day or something. “Where did you get that pretty tiara?” she asked me.

“It was a gift,” I said simply.

“From?”

I sighed, “From the goddess who bonded with me.”

“Goddess?” She said, “There’s only one God,” she said tersely.

“Call her a being then, Grandma. She’s very powerful.”

“Do you have powers now?” She asked as she pulled my tights back up.

“Yes, but I’m barely learning how to use them,” I told her.

“What can you do?” She asked me.

“I can change my dollies clothes,” I said with a smile.

“Umm… well, that’s special,” she said.

Mom had Emie in her hands from a second trip to the car. When she handed me Emie, I changed her into a one-piece jumpsuit like Mom had purchased for me earlier.

“Whoa!” She said and glared at me. “Can we pretend you’re a normal baby now?” Then, she paused, “It’ll be easier for me to get used to?”

I nodded as she hugged me in thanks, picked me up, and carried me to the living room, where Hannah played with Lily on the floor. She held me in her lap and sat on the opposite side as Mom on the couch. “So, I assume Sofia is all registered and such?”

Mom nodded, “We took care of that first thing Monday.”

“What now?” She asked.

“Well… after Christmas, she’s going to go to a school in the Northeast.”

“A Mergent school?” She asked, a little bit of prejudice showing, but I could tell she was trying.

“Yes,” Mom said simply.

“They have a preschool program?” She asked without any malice.

“No, I’ll be going to high school, I think,” I told her.

“You’re a little young for a high schooler, plus they’re usually potty trained?” She suggested.

“I know, but it’s just part of what I get to deal with. It’s like having a disability with the diapers.”

“And you really don’t have any control?” She asked.

I shook my head but tried not to look ashamed in front of her. “I have less control than Lily, I think.”

“Yes, speaking of Lily, when are you going to potty train her? She’s about six months overdue if you ask me, Rachel.”

“After Christmas,” Mom said simply, “it’d be too hard right now with her big sister still in diapers. It’ll be a bit easier when she goes away to school.”

Grandma looked at me for a moment and just sighed. “So this tiara of hers - I see Lily has one just like it?”

I shook my head, “No, it’s a lot different; it just looks similar. I made it for her to keep her from feeling jealous. Mom wanted me to wear mine today.”

“And just why do you even need a tiara?” She asked me.

“Because I’m a princess now,” I told her matter-of-factly.

“Of COURSE you are,” she said and laughed a little, “I forgot all little girls are really princesses.”

I decided not to correct her, and Mom didn’t either.

We spent about an hour talking there. During this, the criticisms never really stopped. Grandma went on about me being too light, about my eyes being pretty but, still obviously, those of a Mergent. Lily needs to be potty trained, and a billion other nitpicking things came up. It’s part of why Mom didn’t come to see her that often - it wore on you. Eventually, Grandma said, “Well, shall we go out to eat lunch?”

Hannah ended up in the middle seat between the two car seats and seemed squished. Luckily it wasn’t far to the restaurant. Mom carried Lily into the restaurant, and Grandma had me. “You are way too light,” she told me quietly while we waited for them to get a table with two high chairs ready.”

I blushed.

“You do eat, right?” She asked.

“Umm… you could say that,” I whispered back.

“Rachel for five?” the hostess said and led us to the ready table. Lily and I were placed into the seats, put on our bibs, and sat there coloring on the menu while we waited for Mom to order for us. Thankfully we’d already talked before that I wanted the chicken alfredo! The waitress preemptively brought us a box, thinking we would need it. Instead, she and my grandmother were shocked to see I daintily finished every bite! Mom checked Lily’s diaper where she was sitting in the high chair and said, “I’m going to go change Lily’s diaper. Do you need to be changed too, Sofia?”

I had to nod. Hannah picked me up from the high chair and sat me down on the ground. Mom grabbed Lily and my hands and walked us back to the bathroom. We had to wait for another mom to change her newborn’s diaper before Mom could use the station for Lily and me. After she washed her hands, we went right back to the table. By the time we got back, the check was paid by Grandma, and she and Hannah were ready to go.

Grandma decided to go shopping with us. We started at Costco, then Kohl’s, Buy-Buy-Baby, and another mall before returning to the photo shop at the mall we started at in the morning. Mom decided to be brave and go without the stroller since we had both been getting antsy inside it. “Come on, slowpoke,” Hannah prodded me when I stopped to look at a window display of pretty dresses on our way in.

Mom and Grandma had just gone up to the counter to talk to the man while Hannah, Lily, and I stood outside the store. Someone grabbed me all of a sudden and started running.

“What are you doing?” I screamed.

It wasn’t Hannah! Someone was kidnapping me!!!!!!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I looked at my work schedule and realized it’ll be a really late posting schedule if I did it the next two nights. Instead I decided to group these two together to tide you over until Wednesday! Thank you so much for reading!

Please press the ‘Like’ Button and consider leaving a comment if you’ve enjoyed it!

If you’re someone who must finish a good story ‘now,’ consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.