Welcome to Panda Group

Chapter 6
Epilogue: The Third Sleepover, or Welcome to Koala Group

Chapter Description: Zach is glad to his old friends have joined him in class

Things has been going well for Zach. He was especially happy to have two new friends in class. Admittedly, Austin was a Koala, which meant some of their activities were too complicated for him, so he often played alone on the structure in the back or just ran around while the Pandas were doing an activity that wasn’t appropriate for him. But Zach and Brett had made an effort to keep up their friendship, and so far it had gone well.

Soon, they’d been told, there would be more Koalas, and surely Austin would like to have some friends more like him, but for now, he was still the only one, which is why Zach and Brett were the two friends going to his sleepover party. They had time for plenty of fun. They played with legos. They ate hot dogs. Austin’s brother, Clay, who they all looked up to, even offered to film them wrestling in their underwear and uploaded it to YouTube for their friends to see, which he thought was funny for some reason, but the three boys all thought he was incredibly cool and smart for being able to do things like that.

Eventually, as always, bedtime came. Austin’s mom changed him out of his fluffy briefs and into his nighttime diaper and then a one piece outfit covered in dinosaurs that she zipped up the back. Zach and Brett just stayed in their colorful briefs. They brushed their teeth, Zach and Brett listened while Austin’s mom read him a story from a little kid book, and then she tucked Austin into his toddler bed while Zach and Brett got into their sleeping bags.

Zach didn’t pay any attention to it as he climbed into his sleeping bag, but his head was right near Austin’s backpack, a little one in primary colors for the few things he needed to take to and from school, with a little koala pin on it.

As he lay there, waiting to fall asleep, his thoughts drifted to how Austin was constantly being praised for simple things - drinking with both hands without spilling, using the toilet, even just drawing - when everyone just expected Zach to be able to do that stuff. It seemed really nice, to be constantly told how good he was being, and Zach found himself envying his friend.

Half asleep, he started imagining himself in Austin’s place. He imagined shouting “I gotta pee” and hurrying to the bathroom. He imagined his mother helping pull down thick, fluffy briefs like Austin wore and helping him onto the toilet seat. And he imagined her telling him how good he was just for noticing, just for not having an accident, just for using the big boy toilet. And the feeling of relief he felt as he imagined peeing was so strong it was hard to believe he was just imagining it.

In his half-asleep state, he didn’t notice the very real dampness as he wet himself. Instead, he drifted off to dreams of joining Austin in Koala Group, which would also be real soon enough.