A Little Personal Time

Chapter 1
The only

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Chapter Description: What do you do when the professor you are studying under is too dense to figure out his own equation? Solve it yourself, of course! A story commissioned by FoxingtonIII.

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Furiously she wrote, scribbling down in her notebook as quickly as she possibly could, trying to copy down what was on the blackboard before the professor came back in. The man was notoriously protective of his work, and if he were to find out that his assistant was trying to copy down his ‘secret equation’ he’d be incensed, and she’d likely find herself let go from her undergrad work partnership with the brilliant man. She had to take the chance, though, because deep down, she knew that the variables were off. She could do this better, she just had to be able to work on it on her own.

Janessa snapped her notebook closed just as the door to the professor’s office opened, and she quickly tried to pretend as if nothing had happened. She’d gotten all of the formula as it was written out so far, so she considered that to be a pretty major victory. She let out a long, loud sigh and flopped back in her chair, pretending as if she’d been spending the last few hours poring over the large mathematics texts laid out on her desk.

“Janessa,” the professor’s voice was tinged with concern as he looked around the office, “You’re working too hard. You should go home and relax, let me deal with it.”

The understudy rubbed her eyes as the doctor flipped on his own desk lamp, effectively doubling the amount of light in the room. “I’m fine, Doctor Baker,” she reassured him, sliding her notebook closer towards the edge of the desk to grab later when she got up to leave, “I’m still good for another couple of hours, at least.”

With a sigh, Dr. Baker sat down in his own chair, turning to lean back and stare at the mostly finished equation. “Janessa, how many times have I asked you not to call me ‘Doctor’?” he asks, jokingly, “And really, you should go home and take a break. I feel like I’m on the verge of something here, but working harder without working smarter isn’t going to help us.”

Secretly, Janessa fumed at this. She had been working her rear end off in this position for over a year now, trying to help Dr. Baker figure out his equation, cleaning, getting coffee, and generally being there to support him. She believed in his work, but the condescending nature and constant reminder of how much of a genius he was compared to anyone else, even her, was getting a little hard to bear. Every good grade she’d gotten in school to try and reach this sort of level had been a struggle, a fight against people who would always tell her that she was ‘better than this’ at anything less than perfect.

“No, really, I’m fine like I am. I was just reading over Pertwee’s theories on relative dimensions in time and space, and I think if we look at this from a –“

“That’s nice, Janessa, but we’ve been down that road a dozen times, and I never get anywhere,” Doctor Baker cut her off with a wave, “Go home, get some sleep. You’re obviously not thinking clearly.”

Janessa seethed at that, and it was all she could do to not simply toss a book at the arrogant man’s head. Instead she simply nodded and stood, gathering a few essential books, including her notebook with the unfinished equation in it, and gave the man a curt goodnight. All the way home she grumbled to herself, riding on the late bus as she had so many work-filled nights, and vowing to show him who was working smarter, and who was thinking clearly.

Once at home, Janessa eased into her bedroom, careful not to wake her mother, and spread her books and notes out over her desk. Then she flipped open her notebook and started working with the equation, altering bits here and there, marking that out, starting over, all the while keeping the original formula untouched as a base reference. Long into the early hours of the morning she worked, scribbling and equating and trying to uncover the secret of this esoteric formula, until eventually all of the variables and numbers became nothing but a blur.

“Janessa!” her mother called, startling the girl awake, and she nearly fell out of her chair as she sat up quickly, having fallen asleep at her desk.

“Janessa, I swear if you’re late for school one more time because you stayed up too late doing extra credit work…” came a threatening tone, closer this time, and Janessa quickly closed her books with a feeling of intense deja-vu.

Stretching some, she called back, “No, I’m fine mom, just a little last minute work.” She looked at the clock next her bed, and silently cursed herself, heading out of her bedroom and off towards the bathroom, pushing past her mother on her way by, nearly knocking her over in the hall.

“Woah, slow down there!” Her mom chided, stepping out of the way just in time.

“No can do, mom,” Janessa apologized, offering the older woman a heavy smile, “I’m late enough as it is, I need to shower and try and catch the bus.”

“That’s why I was coming to get you,” her mother called after, exasperatedly, poking her head into the bathroom just as Janessa was stepping into the shower, “Get cleaned up, I’ll give you a ride to school. The bus is probably already leaving you.”

The young scholar breathed a sigh of relief as she let the warm water flow over her body, washing away the night’s grime and sweat from sleeping in her clothes in pursuit of academic success once more. It had been a long time since her mother had to give her a ride to campus, though, and Janessa made a mental note to get home earlier this evening to do the dishes, or take out the trash or something. On the way back to her room, towel wrapped around her upper body, a cursory glance towards her parents room showed the clear signs of her father having been absent that night as well.

“Hurry up, dear!” her mother called, rounding the corner of the hall and heading towards the living room, carrying her briefcase and sipping a mug of coffee, but she stopped to smile at her daughter, “I’m sure your father would disagree, but if you’d put as much effort into boys as you do studying, maybe I’d not worry so much about grandbabies.”

Standing there naked save for a towel, Janessa felt her whole body go red. “Mom!” she exclaimed, stepping hurriedly past and into her room, closing the door and looking for her clothes.

Out in the hallway, Janessa’s mother simply continued on her way to the living room, chuckling a little bit to herself. In her room, the student threw some clothes on quickly and gathered up her books, tossing them into her backpack. As she reached for her notebook that she’d been working on the equation in, she paused, her hand hovering over the paper as she looked. She hadn’t remembered this last batch of scribbles on the page, but it was in her handwriting, if a bit wobbly. Something about this particular iteration of the permutations looked different somehow. Janessa slowly started to ease down into her desk chair to examine it more closely, but was snapped back to herself by a call from her mother. Tossing the rest of the notebook and papers in with her books and heading for the door again.

“Uh, hey, mom, not to tell you how to do your thing, or whatever,” Janessa said, a few minutes into the car ride with her mother, “But isn’t campus back the other way?” She turned in her seat to look back over the head rest.

“Well, yes,” her mother answered, a hint of confusion in her voice, “But why would we be going there? You’re already close to being late for first period, we don’t have time to ride up by the college.”

“First…” Janessa looked hard at her mother, trying to puzzle out what she meant, but before she can say anything more, the car comes to a stop and her mother looks at her expectantly.

“Well? You just going to sit here?”

The view outside the passenger side window was all too familiar to Janessa, having spent four years at this very place, day-in and day-out. Beyond the glass, teenagers milled about, most heading into the large red-brick building or hanging out in front of it on the steps or picnic benches, but all of them obviously not college students. Janessa turned back to her mother, mouth hanging open a little bit in utter confusion.

“Honey, I know you think you’re smarter than everyone, but you have to finish your sophomore year out, then junior, then senior, like anyone else. Now get to class, I have to get to work.”

Janessa’s mouth was still flopping open and closed as she watched the SUV pull away from the curb, barely hearing the first period warning bell ringing. Something was definitely odd, and unbidden, an image of the equation she’d been working on the night before sprung into her mind.

“No…” she said out loud, shaking her head, “Can’t be… but..?” She tried to clear her head. She needed time to think about this, to figure out what was going on. Her mother had said something about finishing sophomore year, and despite how long it had been since she’d even been at this school, those ingrown habits and lessons started pushing her feet towards what used to be her first period class. Slipping inside the familiar classroom, Janessa found that her seat was still right where she’d remembered it, though none of the faces in the classroom were familiar at all.

Dropping her book bag to the floor, Janessa quickly pulled out her work book, flipping through to the last entry in it. There was the last permutation of the equation that she’d apparently been working on before bed, but she didn’t at all remember coming up with this one. She read over it intently, trying to concentrate on the various changes that she’d made to the original formula, some of them looking more like runes than mathematics, and instinctively raised her hand as her name was called during the daily roll.

“Janessa… JANESSA!” an urgent voice brought her out of her studying of the notebook, and the girl jerked her head up, confused. At the end of the classroom, Miss Tidevater was standing with her hands on her hips, looking exceptionally annoyed.

“Uh.. Yes ma’am?” Janessa put a finger on her spot on her page, marking where she’d thought she’d almost unraveled what had happened.

Miss Tidevater cleared her throat carefully, “I was asking you to tell us the name of the last general to fall in the Napoleonic wars was, if you would be so kind as to get your nose out of your book and join the rest of us?”

Janessa struggled for an answer, having been so absorbed in the studying of the equation that she hadn’t noticed any of the time passing in the boring history class, “Well, I… that is.. it was…”

All eyes were on her, and Janessa felt uncomfortable, not just from being the oldest looking person in the room other than the teacher, but from this entire situation. She needed to figure out this whole mess, determine if somehow Dr. Baker’s research had been related to this sudden shift in people’s perceptions.

The teacher opened her mouth to make some remark, but the only sound that anyone heard was the sound of the period bell signaling the first change of classes. The students all slammed books closed and packed up their things, and Janessa did the same, wanting to get out of here as quickly as possible. She’d been on a roll, damn that teacher, and she wanted to sit and review the formula again before trying to change it. As she tried to slip out the door, however, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Janessa,” Tidevater said, turning the girl around to face her, “What has you so distracted today? I’m worried.”

You and me both,lady… Janessa thought to herself, but instead she shrugged, “Oh, nothing, just some stuff I’ve been reading up on.” She hoped she sounded convincing.

Miss Tidevater shook her head again, patting Janessa on the shoulder, “Honey, you have to pay attention in class. You can’t let yourself get distracted.” And then she said something that set Janessa right off. “You come from better stuff than that. We expect more from you.”

The supposed college student narrowed her eyes at the woman and took a step back, breaking her grip, “Right. I think I need to go to my next class,” Janessa said, cold as ice and taking the woman obviously by surprise.

Stepping out into the hall, Janessa reached for her backpack, swinging it around and pulling out the little notebook and her pencil, no more determined than ever to fix this equation. She was tired of people saying how much they wanted of her, so she was going to give them something they’d never forget, by breaking this formula wide open.

Storming through the halls of the high school, Janessa found the bathroom and slammed the door open, startling a freshman who was washing her hands. Glaring at the girl until she left out of fright, she jammed the door shut and went into one of the stalls, sitting on the toilet and pulling her notebook and a pen out of her back pack and setting to work. The quarters may have been a little cramped, but that didn’t matter, she just needed time and quiet.

After tracing back over her previous night’s work and doing a bit of look-up on some of the more esoteric symbols, the would-be physicist thought she had figured it mostly out. Her mind and pen were ablaze with the possibilities presented by just the little bit of the formula she felt she’d figured out, but this was just cracking the surface she knew. Janessa worked furiously in the smelly, hot, cramped bathroom, past the second period bell and long into when she figured someone thought she should be in class. Scribbling, she tried over and over to make the formula come out right to get her back where she wanted to be, but it seemed that each time she got to the end, the variables didn’t line up, and she’d have to start over.

With a sigh, she leaned back against the wall behind the toilet and rubbed at her eyes, trying to clear her head and figure out what was different between this time and last night. In her mind’s eye she repeated the bits of the equation over and over until she could see it perfectly, and then on a whim, she lowered her pen to the paper, eyes still closed. Letting her brain drive her hand without looking, she wrote from memory, mentally changing the parts that needed to be changed back. Mildly, Janessa wondered if she were entering some sort of trance state, but that thought was quickly pushed away as the variables and vectors and permutations rattled out of her brain, down her arm, and onto the paper.

Distantly, Janessa was aware of a knocking on the door of the bathroom, and the sound of voices outside, though she found she couldn’t push them out of her mind anymore. Opening her eyes as the trickle of information slowly eased off from brain to hand, she looked over her work. Everything looked mostly right, though it for sure wasn’t an exact copy of the equation she’d apparently written down the night before. The banging on the door continued, pulling Janessa out of her narrow-minded concentration and pulling her attention out of that narrow realm of focus.

As she pulled back fully to the real world, Janessa was a little shocked to find that instead of sitting on the toilet seat fully clothed, her jeans and panties were around her ankles, her notebook perched on her bare thighs. There was a distinct smell of urine beneath her, and shifting a little to look between her legs, she could see that at some point she’d decided to sit down and have a bit of a wee.

Maybe I was in a trance…she thought to herself, but the rattling of the door and the knocking drew her attention away from her odd state, and quickly she grabbed at the toilet paper, stuffing her notebook back into her backpack and cleaning herself up. She stood and pulled her clothes back into place, pushing the door open onto … an unfamiliar bathroom. Or at least, it wasn’t the bathroom that Janessa had been in previously.

“Janessa, are you okay in there? If you don’t open the door we’re going to get the janitor and come in there,” said a worried male voice from the hallway.

Still trying to puzzle out what was off about the bathroom, and why it seemed familiar and strange at the same time, she called back, “I’m okay, just had to go really bad! Give me a minute to… uh… wash my hands!”

“Okay, but we’re waiting on you to go to lunch, and you’ve been in there a long time.” There was a pause, then the voice was a bit quieter, almost hard to hear. “Did you… make it?”

Cheeks flaring red as she tried to stuff everything back into her knapsack in an orderly fashion, the girl yelled at the door, “YES! I’ll be out in just a minute!”

Making sure everything was in order about her person, Janessa took a deep breath to try and push away the embarrassment of a question like that. Who would even ask that sort of thing, anyway? She thought to herself indignantly, pulling the door to the bathroom open and got her answer.

Standing in front of the bathroom with a very worried expression; and a line of children leaning restlessly against the wall; was Janessa’s old first grade teacher, Mister Fallen. Looking back over her shoulder, Janessa could suddenly place the brightly colored tiles and smaller stalls from her time in elementary school. She’d always had a hard time remembering things from back then, but now that she found herself once again standing inexplicably in the bathroom of that school.

What the hell does that equation do, exactly? Janessa thought, and her confusion and distress must have been evident on her face, as her old teacher reached for her shoulder, guiding her towards the line of children.

“Come on, Nessa,” he was trying to ease her along without trying to seem impatient. The years hadn’t been kind to Mr. Fallen, as Janessa had known him when he was younger, so apparently the equation wasn’t for actual time travel, but something else entirely. “It’s time to go for lunch, and we’ve all been waiting patiently for you to use the potty.”

“Oh, well, sorry about that?” Janessa offered apologetically. It was really hard to be upset at the man, he was only a teacher, and if things worked the same as they had earlier in her high school class, he wouldn’t even think she was out of place.

Marching to the cafeteria in line with all of the actual first graders certainly made Janessa feel out of place, though, and she found that she had to draw her steps up to a short, nearly stumbling shuffle to not kick the ones in front of her. With most of them coming up to at most mid-thigh to her, a part of her brain screamed that someone should be noticing something, Not even the cafeteria lady blinked an eye as Janessa handed over her lunch card, complete with a current picture on it.

Thankfully, the elementary school had done away with assigned seating in the years since Janessa had legitimately attended. Finding a secluded and empty table, the tall girl eased herself down on to the tiny little seat, knees almost up to her chest, and she pulled out her notebook again to look at the equation again. Absently she nibbled on the little sandwich she’d been given just like all the rest of the children, trying to figure out what exactly this equation was doing to her and her world. None of it made any sense, from the high school to this, and the only connection she’d made were some of the more strange mathematical blurbs spread throughout the formula.

Quickly remembering that there’d been some deviation between the bathroom scrawled version and the permutation she’d been dealing with from overnight, Janessa flipped back and forth in the notebook, comparing the two. Sure enough, while they both looked basically ‘right’, there were some obvious deviations in some very key sub-equations that were now fairly obvious. Not having a ‘right’ formula to compare either of these to wasn’t helping, and Janessa silently cursed Dr. Baker for not being smart enough to figure out the full answer before she’d gone off and tried to prove him wrong.

The sound of a pair of loud claps and the sudden change in tone of the room caught her attention away from her notes. It seemed as if lunch time was already at an end, and most of the kids were getting up and forming lines at the doors behind their respective teachers. Mister Fallen was, in fact, looking quite pointedly at her, and when he caught her eye he motioned for her to get in line with the rest of the class.

Packing her stuff back up, Janessa figured she’d have some time while the other brats were going on about colors and numbers to try and fix this mess and get the formula straightened out. Somehow, the very act of writing it out was messing with her personal time frame, altering reality in a way that other people didn’t seem to notice how out of place she was. She consoled herself on the way back to the classroom that it wasn’t just random jumps, and that she had some sort of control over what happened, even if she hadn’t perfected the equation just yet.

Back in the classroom, Janessa was surprised to find that along with the assigned seats in the cafeteria, the school had also sent the rows and rows of tiny desks the way of the dinosaurs as well. Instead, the college first grader found herself sitting at a small table with four other children in a more collaborative setting than she felt comfortable with. It certainly didn’t give her much time to herself to inspect the equation much more, either.

The next couple of hours after the little lunch were actually pretty busy, and Janessa was actually hard pressed to keep up with the energy of the little kids. They jumped from one subject to another, colors and simple math and a little bit of spelling as well, and through it all the girl tried to keep up. It seemed just as things were about to get settled on one topic long enough for her to get to her notebook and look at the differences between the two ‘working’ equations, Mister Fallen would disrupt things by calling on her to say what color something was, or what shape, or how much three plus four made.

“It’s a chicken. It goes cluck. It has feathers, lays eggs, and tastes great with barbeque sauce,” Janessa snapped at her teacher when she was asked to identify a farm animal for the fourth time in a row.

Taken aback, Mr. Fallen simply pushed his glasses up further on his nose, pausing for a moment before nodding, “That… is correct, I suppose. Thank you, Janessa.”

“You’re welcome,” the girl grumbled, crossing her arms and setting back in the little chair, careful not to lean back too hard lest she be tipped on the floor. Again.

She thought that would be the last of the interruptions, but soon after she felt she’d put the man in his place compared to her mood, he upped the ante by announcing that it was time for arts and crafts. Soon all of the children, including Janessa, were cutting and pasting some shapes onto construction paper, making various shapes and such. For a while, Janessa had thought about trying to attempt a Mandelbrot Set fractal with the stiff paper and safety scissors, but instead went with some simple yet impressive geometric designs.

Mr. Fallen smiled as he leaned over the girl’s shoulder, “That’s very nice, Nessa. I’m very sure your parents would be proud to see you so interested in this sort of thing.”

“You don’t even know what it is, do you?” Janessa asked smugly, not looking up from her work.

Obviously not appreciating this one’s tone, the teacher frowned, and it came through in his voice, “No, Janessa, why don’t you tell me what it is?”

With an arrogant smile, she turned, holding up the paper, “It’s an interpretation of the Heisenberg group interlaced with Mumford’s Theta function in, regrettably, two dimensional space.”

Mr. Fallen chuckled at that, and patted the girl on the head. “You really are smart, aren’t you? Now can you do me a square or circle? A blue triangle, maybe?” he urged, patronizingly, then moved on to the next child, leaving Janessa shaking in embarrassment and indignation.

In a fit, she tossed the scissors and glue down on the table, standing up to confront the man for his belittling of her work, and his tone with her. Shaking a finger, she stepped close and opened her mouth to begin a hot-headed tirade.

“Janessa!” the teacher pre-empted her, his hard look driving into her before she could even get out the first sound. Taken a little by surprise, the girl took a step back, her eyes wide.

“If you are going to throw a fit over arts and crafts time, then I’m afraid I’m going to have to put you in a time out,” Mr. Fallen continued, taking her by the elbow and gently but firmly leading her over to a small red rug in the corner of the room. “Now stand here until I think that you’ve learned how to be calm and not throw our things, okay?”

“But.. you.. I..” she sputtered, shocked at this treatment, and at the fact that even as she tried to come to grips with it, Mr. Fallen had already walked back to the classroom proper, giving her a single stern look as a warning. Seething even more now, Janessa simply stood, half glad to have been away from the other children, but upset that she’d been taken away from her notes on the equation as well.

It wasn’t until the bell rang signaling the end of the school day that she got out of that corner, either, and with a huff she grabbed her stuff, heading for the front of the school. Sure enough, just as she remembered it always being, though with an older model, her mother’s SUV sat out front, waiting for her. Flinging open the door, ignoring her mother’s question about how her day went, Janessa slumped in the back seat, not feeling up to dealing with those sorts of questions. She pulled for her notebook, flipping to a clean page to start working again, though she was distracted by a tapping on the vehicle’s window.

“Yes, Mister Fallen?” Janessa’s mother inquired, rolling down the automatic passenger window to address the teacher who had approached the car.

“Ah, glad I caught you, Misses—“

“Just call me Daphne, Neil, we’ve known each other too long for formalities,” Janessa’s mother smiled.

“Right, Daphne. Do you have a moment to talk about your daughter’s behavior today?”

What followed was a rather detailed account of Janessa’s attitude that afternoon, with no mention of anything that had happened prior to lunch. The girl in the back seat of the car tried her best to keep her eyes averted, looking over her notes more intently with her cheeks burning a bright red. She didn’t care about her ‘attitude’ in a first grade class. If she could just figure out this formula, it wouldn’t even be an issue.

“Thank you for that, Neil,” Daphne said, looking over her shoulder at her daughter, “I’ll have a talk with her, and let her father know, if he comes home from work tonight.”

Mister Fallen couldn’t help but frown about that last bit, but he nodded. “She’s a good girl, just… temperamental at times.”

As they pulled away from the school, Janessa’s mother let out a long sigh, and looked up in the rearview mirror. “Nessa, why would you act up like that in class?”

For some odd reason, Janessa felt compelled to defend herself, “But mom, he made fun of my geometry in front of the class!”

“I’m pretty sure he did no such thing, honey. From now on, try not to take things so personally alright? I don’t want my little girl growing up to be an unpleasant person.”

That sparked a little fire of curiosity in Janessa’s consciousness, and she slowly turned her head, eyeing her mother from the side. “Mom… How old am I?” she asked, wondering what the answer would be.

“You’re six years old,” her mother sighed exasperatedly, “Not a grown woman, and until you are, I expect you to be better behaved. I don’t care if no one ‘understands’ you, you can’t slack off and act upset all of the time. You want to grow up better than that, don’t you?”

And there it was again, those expectations, the subtle questioning of her abilities, the implications that she wasn’t, right now, as good as she could possibly get. She didn’t even need to practice any more symbols this time, she simply closed her eyes like she had in the bathroom stall, seeing in her mind where she’d messed up the last time and letting that run down her muscles and into her hand, a bit of anger in her thoughts at this entire situation as she wrote. Again, she slipped into a semi-trance like state, this time pushing all other thoughts and bothers from her mind as she worked. The intensity of her task, her irritation at her mother’s words, all coming together to build up within her, a pressure being released in a warm rush of cathartic mathematics.

“Oh, honey!” came an exclamation from the front seat of the car, and Janessa could feel the vehicle rolling to a stop, “I do wish you’d had been able to hold that in. Oh well, I guess it was a little much to expect a completely clean run on your first day at nursery with big girl panties.”

Confused, startled, and feeling suddenly quite uncomfortable, Janessa opened her eyes and looked at her lap, finding the view obstructed by her note book resting on the cross-bar of the large toddler’s car seat in which she currently found herself sitting. There was a warm, very wet feeling around her bottom, and hesitantly, the college student moved her notebook, staring down at a rather sodden little pink skirt, a pool of what was obviously not water in the seat between her thighs and slowly trickling down the front, some running along her calves.

Suddenly quite distressed, Janessa looked up to see the smiling face of her mother as she opened the back passenger side door of the SUV, reaching in to unbuckle the girl from the seat. “Come on, we’ll get you cleaned up. These things happen, honey, you know that. You’ve been a good girl and stayed dry all day until now.”

The girl in the wet panties allowed her mother to pull her from the car seat, feeling her soaked ass dripping from the puddle in the seat of the waterproof car seat. Leaving the door to the car open and all of both of their belongings inside, Daphne ‘helped’ her daughter into the house, through the living room, and towards the girl’s bedroom.

In passing, Janessa glanced a large playpen and a few scattered toys in the main room of the house, but could not concentrate too much on them as her sopping bottom was drug towards the back hallway. Inside her bedroom was much the same story. Gone was her bed, a brightly colored fantasy canopy bed standing in its place, a white gloss dresser next to that, covered in butterfly decals. The walls were painted a bright pink, matching the large pink rug in the middle of the room, though the rest of the floor was bare wood paneling. As she was led across to her dresser, Janessa couldn’t help but notice the stains on the rug, just a few slightly discolored spots here and there.

“I think, for tonight, though,” Janessa’s mother was saying cheerily, reaching for something in one of the dresser drawers, “That we should keep you in training panties. It’s likely been really hard for you all day, going potty every time like a big girl, and mommy appreciates that, dear.”

Janessa’s damp rear was starting to become cold and clammy, and very uncomfortable, and she tore her eyes away from the décor to see her mother holding out a pair of toddler’s training pants, if that toddler were the size of a twenty year old.

“H.. hey!” she started to protest, taking a step back and feeling a cool wet spot under one heel where she’d dripped on the floor a little while looking around in a stupor. That caused her to pause and wince, slowly lifting her foot out of the tiny puddle.

“It’s okay, dear, mommy knows you’re a big girl,” Daphne was continuing, tugging Janessa’s skirt and panties down her legs gently, “But with just me here again tonight, probably, I’ll need you to help by not giving me any more to clean up, okay?”

In a sudden bit of personal enlightenment, Janessa realized that if her mother was going to be too busy to clean up after a potty training toddler, then she’d likely be too busy to stop her from really getting to the bottom of that equation, as well. With a nod and a smile, she stepped out of the wet garments, finding herself only a little embarrassed at being nude from the waist down before her mother.

“Sure, mom..my.” she grinned, deciding to play up the part a bit by throwing her arms around the older woman in a sudden hug, “I’ll be the best girl ever, you’ll see.”

Caught off guard by the hug, Daphne gently patted her daughter on the back, and chuckled, “I’m sure you will cutie. Now let’s get you into your trainers for now, okay? I promise tomorrow a full day of big girl panties.”

Handing the training pants to Janessa, Daphne returned to the dresser to retrieve a package of baby wipes. The college toddler tried to stand still as her mother ran the cool wipes and up down, then between her legs, but there are just some feelings that one cannot help but squirm about. By the time she was ‘clean’, nearly her entire body was blushing a bright red, gratefully stepping into the pull-ups her mother held out for her and letting her mom tug them into place. With a pat on her bottom to show things were done, Janessa’s mother leaned forward slightly as if trying to get down to her ‘little’ girl’s level.

“Now, you play nice for mommy while I go and make us some dinner and clean up a little bit, alright?” she asked, sweetly, then kissed the girl on the nose and left the room without waiting for an answer.

Finally alone, Janessa marveled at the lengths to which things had twisted to fit this strange new situation. Scattered all about the room were toys and objects fit for a toddler, but a toddler of her size. In one corner of the room was a rather large ‘little people’ farm sitting right next to a quite oversized rocking horse. Amazed, she wandered over to a pile of baby dolls, all of them scaled up to be played with by a five and a half foot tall tyke. She had to let out a laugh at the whole thing, really, thinking that all of this was being caused by a messed up mathematical equation.

The equation! It suddenly shot back into her mind, and Janessa bolted from her bedroom, careful not to step in any of the little drops of pee still on the floor of her room, and nearly knocked her mother as she ‘danced’ out into the hall to avoid any urine contacting her skin.

“Oh, are we in a rush for the potty?” asked her mom, carrying a small hand towel to clean up the mess.

“Nah uh, I’ve got something I need to work on!” she called back, moving quickly towards the front door and letting her mother handle the puddles. Excitedly, hopefully finally getting the rest of the evening to herself, she twisted the handle and tugged. Nothing happened. Again she twisted the knob and tugged, jiggling the door to absolutely no avail.

Frustrated, Janessa looked at the door to try and figure out what was going on, and it was then she noticed the deadbolt. The keyhole for this particular lock was on the inside, latched safe and sound against any attempts to try and open it from this side without the key. Huffing a little under her breath, the girl turned and looked back down the hall towards her room.

“Mom! Where’s the key to the door?” she called, casting a glance towards the foyer table and seeing nothing to help her.

“No you don’t, honey, just go play quietly for me, alright?” came the response as her mother came out of the room, scuffing the towel along the floor with one foot.

Frowning, Janessa shook her head, “No, really, I have to get something out of my bag!” she insisted, drawing a frown from her mother.

“Dear,” the older woman’s voice was straining to stay calm, “Please go play. I’ll get your things from the car when I go and clean your accident out of the car seat, okay?”

“But--!” and Janessa found herself cut off by her mother approaching rapidly and taking her firmly by the elbow.

“Alright, come on, you,” the tone was probably a little harsher than the woman meant, but it was obvious she’d had enough, “You know you’re not allowed outside on your own, and especially not with no pants on, sweetie. Here…”

Propelled forward by her mother, Janessa soon found herself with her legs up in the air, the woman’s hands around her waist as Daphne leaned backwards and lifted her daughter over the low railing and into the large playpen. Holding the girl for a moment to make sure she had her footing back on the other side of the mesh enclosure, the tired mother sighed and kissed her daughter on the cheek.

“Now, play nicely here while I get your little wetties cleaned up in the car, okay cutie?” she sounded a bit more calm, as if the exertion of moving her daughter had worked some of the frustration out. “I’ll get your bags, don’t you worry.”

Stunned to the point of inaction, Janessa simply watched her mother go, mouth hanging open more at the fact that she’d been able to lift her more than anything. It dawned on her then that perhaps not pushing her apparently much stronger mother at this point was probably a good idea. Turning, she looked at the toys scattered about here, some large stuffed animals, a wooden puzzle with the pieces cut into the shape of the spots they were meant to go, even one of those large balls with the many-shaped holes along the surface to put matching shaped plastic pieces into. It was this last that caught her attention, and slowly she sat down cross-legged to play with it. The thing fit easily into her lap, though she could still see the bright pink of her training panties through the open center of the toy.

Despite that reminder of the situation in which she currently found herself, Janessa entertained herself with trying to figure out how many spatial dimensions it would take to metamorphose each shape into the incorrect holes. She found a small toddler’s abacus buried under a fleece blanket, and soon she was in business, even if it was a very simplistic business.

The sound of the front door closing rocked the big ‘little genius’ out of her revelry, causing her to look up in time to see her mother returning from apparently cleaning out the car, holding an obviously wet towel and a container of upholstery cleaner, but nothing else. Hopping up, Janessa stepped to the side of the playpen, leaning on the rail and bouncing from foot to foot in anticipation. She needed that note book back and she needed it soon.

“Well? Did you get it? Where is it?” she asked of her mother excitedly, eyes darting up and down the woman’s frame.

Annoyed at having spent nearly an hour scrubbing at the car’s carpet and seat, Daphne sighed heavily at her daughter, “Get what, dear?”

Keeping her calm as much as she could, Janessa gritted her teeth, “My back pack. You said you would get it when you were done cleaning…”

Daphne looked from the dirty cloth in her arms to her daughter, a little exasperated, “Dear, please, it is just for tonight, I don’t think you really need it…”

“I DO!” the girl cut her mother off, shifting her weight anxiously from foot to foot, insistent on getting her notes. She leaned against the rail of the playpen, her pull-up-padded rear waggling behind her. “I really, really do. You don’t understand, I –have- to have…” but she got no further when she felt something shift in a place she hoped to whatever god she could prove existed that it had not.

“You have to what, hmm?” her mother asked, crossing her arms at the pause, then her eyes started to narrow, “Honey, do you have to…?” the question didn’t need to be finished.

Janessa’s face turned red, a distressed whine on her lips as she tried to clench down on the feeling gaining in intensity in her rear end, but it seemed that the shift in people’s perceptions wasn’t the only thing shifting today. With a grunt of effort, the scientist lost the battle with biology, her training panty pushing outward until it reached the zenith of it’s possible range of flexing, forcing the mush filling it to start to spread and press harder against the girl’s rear. Clinging hard to the padded rail of the playpen, Janessa looked into her mother’s face as she filled her panties, a whimper on her lips.

“Oh, Nessa,” Daphne sighed, the smell floating up to her nose as she reached for the girl, “Why didn’t you let mommy know you needed to go to the potty?”

“But, I… just wanted my stuff,” the girl moaned, allowing her hands to be pried off of the padded rim of the pen, then again she found herself lifted over the bar, wincing at the way that worked her mess against her bottom.

“Come on, sweetie, we need to get you cleaned up before you have a blow-out. Easy does it, come on…”

Back in the bedroom, Janessa tried to stand as still as possible as her mother spread out a disposable changing pad on her bed, then started fishing around in the dresser, talking to herself as if Janessa wasn’t there, or wouldn’t understand. Janessa got it, alright, and she felt a little bad causing her mom this trouble. She was obviously stressed, and from the sounds of things her father wouldn’t be home again until late, if at all, and here she was in messy training panties as her mother was trying to keep the household together.

“Now, dear,” Janessa could hear through the feeling of sitting on the changing pad before laying back, “Mommy loves you, and she knows that potty training can be hard, but she really does not at all have the time or energy to deal with this on her own tonight.”

A sound caught the girl’s attention, and she knew that tone. Bad news was definitely on the way, and Janessa swallowed hard as she opened her eyes from their disgusted squinting to see the shape that her evening was about to take. In Daphne’s hand was a large disposable diaper, quickly approaching the bed next to where she lay in her ruined trainers.

“So I think, for mommy’s sake, it will be better to put you back in diapers a little earlier than bed time. This isn’t your fault, but I have a lot to do before bed, okay?”

Feeling a pang of guilt, and knowing that her meddling and miscalculations had been the cause of this, Janessa nodded in understanding, drawing her legs up away from the mattress, if for no other reason than to get her butt away from the mess pressing against it. “Er, right, that’s fine, Mom..my.”

“Okay. Hold those legs there, dear, and we’ll have this done in a jiffy.”

Janessa simply closed her eyes at this point, feeling the cool air on her skin as her mother ripped the sides of the training panties away and folded the diaper over. The smell was atrocious, and the slightly sticky, sucking feeling as the garment was pulled away almost made her want to cry, but she resolved that she was not going to give the world that satisfaction. The front of the garment was still clean and dry, so the warm dry wiping at her rear was her mother getting the most use out of the soiled thing, Janessa assumed.

Her resolve not to cry was challenged a few moments later, however, as the cold baby wipe began its exploration of her soiled bottom. Between her cheeks came first, then across them, then a pause as her mother got a fresh wipe, and started again. It took three more wipes before her mother was apparently satisfied with the state of Janessa’s backside, and for good measure she ran a fresh, cool, wet towelette across the girl’s front and between her thighs. Biting hard on her lip, the now clean college undergrad tried to think of things like cold showers and the face of her grandmother as she learned that no matter what had changed to not work quite as well inside her, some parts were still very functional and quite sensitive.

With a shuddering breath, the girl was quite relieved to feel the pressure moved away from her, and was almost glad to hear the rustle of the diaper as it was unfolded and slid beneath her, the soft fluffy padding hugging her freshly powdered skin. Her mother tugged first at one hip, and then the other, making sure the diaper was on snug and tight before pushing Janessa’s legs back far enough to pull the changing pad from beneath her. Only then did the young woman sit up, opening her eyes to look at the thick padding betwixt her thighs, avoiding watching as Daphne rolled up the pull-up in the changing pad to toss in the nearby diaper pail.

“There, all done. Now please, go play for mommy? I need to get your din-dins started, then I think someone needs a bit of an early bedtime.”

Meekly, a bit humbled by that experience, Janessa allowed herself to be led back into the living room, and didn’t complain as she was put back into the playpen. For some reason, the toys didn’t hold very much entertainment for the girl this time around, so she found herself simply sitting in the large playpen as her mother went about cleaning, cooking, more cleaning, emptying her diaper pail, and generally running the household. Eventually she managed to distract herself by contemplating the ramifications of her ‘discovery’ with the doctor’s equation.

“Alright, who’s ready for dinner?” was the cheery question that eventually shook Janessa out of her melancholy reflection, and she stood, wrapping her arms around her mother and trying to help herself out of the playpen.

Though it wasn’t exactly unexpected, the size and design of the high chair she soon found herself in surprised Janessa. It was designed like any modern high chair, padded and sturdy, made to ‘cradle’ the child instead of just providing a platform to be strapped to. Dinner wasn’t so bad, either, where Janessa had feared some sort of odd mush of baby food, it was instead some chicken strips and French fries, with a side of ketchup served up on the finest of sectioned toddler’s plates, sans utensils.

“Eat up, honey, it’s getting late and if you want a whole day of big girl panties tomorrow, you’ll need to get your sleep.”

Nodding, Janessa felt a childish urge to play with her food, to really act up in this strange environment, but she pushed it down and ate with care. She wasn’t exactly feeling all that playful, truth be told, and a good long sleep would probably refresh her mind. The backpack was still, theoretically, out in the car so she’d be able to grab it on the way to… daycare? Nursery school? No matter, she’d have access to it then.

With the lack of cleaning needed for her child, Daphne seemed relieved, and after getting the bulk of the dishes put away, she unstrapped Janessa from the high chair and held her hand as she walked back to the girl’s room. Turning the covers back, Janessa could tell that her mother was tired, turning a weak smile to her teen tot of a daughter and waving her over to the bed.

“Come on, honey, let’s lay you down to rest,” she cooed, pulling Janessa into a gentle hug, pulling the girl down onto the mattress and leaning her back. There was a tender love there, despite how difficult Janessa could only guess she’d been being, but she still couldn’t avoid a little shudder as her mother pressed her fingers to the crotch of the diaper.

“All dry? That’s a good girl!” the praise cutting a little deep into Janessa, but she forced a smile and squirmed further into the bed, “I’ll be around to check on you before I go to bed, baby. Get some rest, tomorrow is another day.”

“Good night, mom..my.” Janessa said as her mother raised a toddler protection rail and retreated from the room, wondering as the door closed how she’d ever get to sleep with that stupid nightlight on.

Sometime later, something brought Janessa out of her sleep and she slowly pushed herself up in her toddler’s bed. Groggily, she could hear her mother somewhere in the house talking on the phone.

“No, I understand… No, really, it’s fine, your work is important, and if you’re that close to a solution… Right, yes… Hmm? Oh, she’s fine. A bit of a setback this evening with the potty, so I had to leave her in diapers for a while so I could get things done… No, honey, it isn’t your fault. I can deal with it, I just… Oh, nothing, I just wish she’d have been fully trained by now. I know it’s early, but she’s got your intellect, I can tell, and well, I just expect more…”

Janessa couldn’t hear anymore. Her blood had boiled up into her ears at that last line, and with a purpose she threw her covers off of her bed. She was determined to put a stop to this mess this instant, to stop all this once and for all. Swinging her legs over the toddler rail, she spotted the one toy she knew her father wouldn’t have let her grow up without, and she made for the large child’s easel with a purpose.

Sitting down heavily on the colorful chair, Janessa became aware that her diaper was soaked through, squishing warmly where it was pressed between her sensitive skin and the hard plastic. It was a little unsettling that she’d ‘gone’ so much from just being asleep so little, but she couldn’t focus on that now. She had important things to do.

Ripping off the top sheet of the large pad of paper, the soggy scientist took a fat crayon from the tray beneath the standing writing desk, took a deep breath, closed her eyes and raised wax to pressed pulp. Then, everything absolutely clear in her mind, Janessa began to equate.

****

The sound of clapping brought Janessa out of her distracted state, and she looked up at the stage. The award banquet had been going on for some time, boring the young girl nearly to death. One after another her father’s peers had gotten up to sing the praises of the man of the hour, but she really didn’t care. To her, none of it was even that important anymore.

Her mother nudged her shoulder and pointed up at the stage, “Look, Janessa, your father is about to make a speech!”

She rolled her eyes and tried to muster up some attention to pay, figuring that if it were that important to her mother, she should at least try to act like she cared anymore.

“Friends, associates, peers, and fellows of the scientific community,” he started, smiling out at the crowd, “Today, you’ve all come here to celebrate what you call my great achievement, and while I’m humbled and flattered, I couldn’t have done any of this alone.”

Janessa perked up at this, amused and wondering where exactly this would go, a bit of a smug expression on her face.

“The discovery of the Baker Formulation was difficult work, and it meant long hours and lots of support from my graduate students and the rest of the University’s faculty. However, none of it could be done without the loving support and dedication of my lovely wife and my beautiful daughter.”

A bright light suddenly shown in Janessa Baker’s eyes, blinding her temporarily as a cacophony of applause showered down upon her and her mother. It was a little bit annoying, seeing her father taking credit for an equation that she knew to be fundamentally flawed, but she didn’t care anymore. She’d figured it all out about a month back, anyway, so who needed any of this crap?

Giggling, she picked up the bright, soft plastic toy and shook it, satisfied at hearing the little beads inside rattle around. She’d figured out how much velocity she’d needed to shake with to get the maximum enjoyment from the simple sound, so now it was just a matter of enjoying that. With a squirm and a kick in her high chair, she twisted to smile broadly at her mother, seeing the tears of happiness on the woman’s face. She held up the plastic keys, babbling something she’d calculated to be the peak of cuteness, and her actions were met with a wave of ‘Awww’s as the camera recording the event focused in on her.

The speech continued on after a moment, without Janessa’s attention or caring. The fleece sleeper she was wearing was warm and comfortable, and this whole affair was boring her anyway. Closing her eyes and bringing a thumb up to her lips, she was content. She’d figured that formula out after all. It was a personal time perception equation at its heart, despite what her idiot father thought, and with just some tweaking here and there, one could coax its secrets to change their own outward appearance to others.

Not that it mattered anymore. For now, Janessa had solved the solution for about six months, a time where no one expected anything ‘better’ of her than to play, sleep, eat, and soil her diapers. With a smile, the ‘infant’ genius drifted off to a light nap. A few dirty diapers a day in exchange for no pressure and all the time in the world to think? Yeah, she could live with that.

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