Alterations - Exchanged Book 3 (Diaper Dimension)

Chapter 10
Hard Truths

“HANNAH?” AMANDA ASKED still obviously shocked to learn that her ‘sister’ was still alive!

“Yes, it’s me… You grew up!”

Amanda laughed, “You didn’t I’m guessing.”

“No, but I’m on an island of people our size, so it’s normal… You… umm…” she looked with her eyes at Bella and I.

“This is Stacy,” she said putting her hand on my head and brushing her fingers through my hair, “and this is Bella.”

“Hi girls,” Hannah said with a bit of a sour look on her face.

“Hi Aunt Hannah, it’s nice to meet you,” I said. “I’m here willingly, Amanda didn’t kidnap me… she’s just my temporary Mommy while I go to school at Emerson.”

Hannah looked a little startled then, “She’s able to go to school?” Then she shook her head, “Preschool doesn’t count…”

“No, she’s going as a college student Hannah. Since she’s my adopted little I can decide to let her go to school wherever I want.”

“But…”

“I’m from the other dimension,” I told her. “I was scared to stay in the dorms since I know they’re practically little mills. I managed to find Amanda and her husband to take me in as an exchange student. I’m going through orientation week right now,” I told her.

Fred popped by just then, “I’m Fred, her husband,” he told her, “I’ve heard a lot about you over the years and am glad to know you are alive for her sake.” He hugged Amanda, “I’m going to bed,” he told her and gave her a kiss.

“Can you take Bella up with you?” She suggested. “Grab a bottle and warm it up on your way.”

“Sure!” He said and took her while Hannah watched on.

“Hi, I’m your baby sister I guess,” Megan said a moment later with a wave reminding us she was there.

“Baby sister?” Hannah asked, “Oh, right… you must be Megan.”

“Yes, I know we never met… but I’m glad to hear you’re alive too.” She paused, “and don’t worry about us telling Chloe or Cassie!” She leaned over and gave Amanda a hug where she held me and said, “Why don’t I take Stacy upstairs now too and you two can catch up. I need to go back to the university and keep unpacking into my dorm anyway.”

I looked at Amanda’s eyes streaming tears as she hugged us both and handed me to Megan. Upstairs she whispered, “I always wondered too… but I never had the guts to ask Mom and Dad about it.” She hugged me, “Thanks for doing that for Mandy, she was always heartbroken about Hannah as I grew up.”

I smiled at her, “It was just a mystery to me that needed solved…”

She laughed and we saw Fred was sitting down with Bella in the rocker and placing the nipple of a bottle he held into her mouth. “So, you have a brand-new big girl bed I see,” she kidded me quietly. “Now if only we could just get you to not be afraid of the potty monster!” she had squeezed my padded bottom through the pajamas and could tell I needed a change.

“But everyone keeps telling me the potties are scary? One person told me they just flush littles down the drain…” I told her with smile. “I do use my potty though for poopies!” I reminded her.

She hugged me and then laid me down on the changing table and unzipped the sleeper from the shoulder to my right foot. After pulling my legs free she pushed the sleeper underneath my back and ripped the tapes from my diaper. The fluids I’d drank during the movie had really only made a small dent in the padding, as such it was still mostly dry. I was glad she still changed it though, since it had begun cooling and not felt as comfy. When she was done taping the new one on, she gently zipped me back up, and laid me down on my bed. I noticed as she stood up that Megan’s shirt was spotting like Amanda and watched her grimace. “Guess I’ll have to go borrow one of Mandy’s pumps before I leave…” knowing I knew what it meant.

“You could nurse Bella?” I told her quietly. ‘Or me…’ I whined in my head.

“Not this time,” she told me with a peck on my forehead as she pulled the covers up and handed me my dolphin to cuddle. “Night Stacy,” she said and left the room.

I lay in bed then as Fred gently rocked back and forth with Bella until she finished the bottle that he held for her. I was tired enough that I actually was drifting away as he laid her down in the crib, turned off our light, and gave me a quick kiss goodnight.

SOMETIME LATER IN the night I heard screaming and jumped up quickly out of bed! It sounded like someone was being physically tortured then! I frantically searched for the source of the threat, before I realized it was Bella crying. I looked over at where she was standing at the bars of the crib and felt bad for her. I was just about to get up to walk over to the crib when Amanda came in bleary eyed and turned the light in the room up slightly. She looked at me briefly and then walked over to Bella and picked her up out of the crib. “Oh, did you wake up messy?” She asked her as she hugged her and cuddled her for a moment before walking over to the changing table.

“Ni…” she struggled, “night…” she hiccoughed, “nightmare…”

“It’s okay, you’re safe baby,” she told her as I decided to roll over and try and sleep. I heard the ripping of tapes as she changed her diaper and then moved to the rocking chair to try and calm her down.

“I think…” she paused and sniffled, “I lied about some stuff… I think I know why they might be after me?”

I sat up at that statement and stared in curiosity at the rocking chair where Amanda asked, “What do you mean?”

“My parents’ story is almost the same as what Hannah went through… they were both scientists, barely betweeners, and one day were just gone… I kept calling and finally guessed they were adopted when their house was repossessed… I’ve never seen them again. I would even have preferred to have seen them in someone’s stroller and at least know they’re okay… like I’ve seen some of my friends who were taken…”

“What were they working on?” Amanda asked her as I grabbed my bear and squeezed it tightly while I sat still, quietly eavesdropping.

She sighed, “I don’t honestly know… just that it involved nanites. The only thing I know is that Dad said one time that there would be a way to make me grow out of being a little at least…”

“What were your parents’ names?”

“Jacob and Samantha Drexler,” Bella replied.

“I think I met them once…” Amanda said with some surprise, “They were both really smart but constantly looked nervous…”

“Sounds about right… Mom and Dad had both just barely kept themselves free most of their lives. Mom had actually been stuck back in diapers by her own parents for a couple years in middle school…” she giggled, “I used to laugh when my grandparents would give her a hard time about it.”

“Are they still alive?” Amanda asked.

“No, they passed away while I was in high school. They were Bigs, while Dad’s parents were also betweeners who passed away while I was little.”

“Sorry,” Amanda said sincerely.

“That’s life,” she said sadly. “At least I can hope my parents are still alive out there somewhere…”

“So why do you think the Trelini’s would be after you?”

“A few years before they disappeared, they started getting really jumpy about something. Mom was the computer programming side of their team – you and she would get along really well – and I guess she was worried about Dad’s research on the actual nanites getting into the wrong hands. Two years ago, she convinced me to let her put a chip in my arm that would unlock their system once every other week when I came to visit them. Without that visit the system would lock up and be impossible to decrypt.”

“How long had it been since you visited them when you discovered they were gone?” Amanda asked gently.

“I had just talked to them the night before I was supposed to visit… and found the front door ajar when I came home. As soon as I saw stuff looked like it had been ransacked, I backed out and left… “

“Why didn’t you stay and call the cops?” Amanda asked gently.

She laughed, “I was an orphaned little at that point?” She wheezed, “I would have been taken to an orphanage right then and there.” Her words became strained and devolved into sobs then. The last thing I really understood was, “They must know I’m the key to whatever they were researching… you have to let me go…”

I heard Amanda pat her back and gently soothe her for a long time, while I thought through the implications of what she said. ‘It sounds like her parents were into similar research as Amanda…’ I thought for a long while about what she had said and wanted to get my computer out to see if I could figure out if her parents were well known. After a long while the sobs transformed into slow breathing, and Amanda stood up laid her on the changing table for a minute. I heard rips of tapes and then the zipper of her sleeper getting zipped back up. Her eyes fell on me then and asked, “Need a change?”

I nodded and she quietly sat Bella in her crib before picking me up, changing me, and sitting down with me in the rocker. She rocked me back and forth and said, “You probably want to know about their research as much as I do…”

I nodded as she continued to rock me and put a pacifier in my mouth.

“We’ll figure it out,” she said and began humming softly to me. I wouldn’t believe that my brain could shut down after all of that, but I quickly found my eyes fighting to close and let myself drift into sleep.

THE NEXT MORNING was there before I knew what hit me. Amanda prodded me awake, “Morning Princess, you had asked about starting your day with swimming… Do you want to do that today?”

The fog in my brain made me take a moment while the words rolled around a bit inside my head before I sleepily nodded. I stretched out on my bed and then sat up and held my hands out to her. She carried me to the changing table, stripped my pajamas off of me, took off the dry diaper, and dressed me in a swim diaper and my swimsuit. “Daddy will watch you swim. You’ll have about half an hour,” she told me as she padded down the stairs.

Fred waited downstairs and I was passed over to him while the two of them kissed over the top of me. “Icky,” I kidded them.

Fred just tickled me briefly though and grabbed a cup of coffee, his tablet, and carried me out to the pool. He sat his stuff down before quickly spraying me with sunscreen and then just tossed me into the pool. I swam to the surface, stuck my tongue out at him, and then began swimming laps. The repetitive motion of my arms and legs was a good way to wake up as I pushed myself to swim faster to see how many laps I could do. Over and over I tumbled at the sides and thought over what Bella had told us last night.

‘She’s like a living cipher…’ I mused. ‘I wonder if Amanda will beat me to figuring out how it works… She definitely has more free time to work on it!’ Now it made perfect sense why the mafia wanted her. The news that she didn’t really know what happened to her parents, and had lied about knowing the reasons before, made me kind of nervous though that maybe she was still lying. ‘She really didn’t know us then, so I guess I don’t blame her…’ I thought. Being able to get inside and program nano-technology, specifically the ones inside of me seemed like a good thing to be working on. I sighed as I turned over and went to the other side of the pool on a new lap again.

‘Little Legal Rights’ I scoffed to myself as I continued swimming remembering that was the first of the seminars I had to go to today. From what I could gather it seemed like there really weren’t many legal rights for littles. All of the laws seemed to only lead to a life of diapers and abuse for most littles. While I didn’t mind the diapers and the babying, I at least knew I had ‘parents’ that didn’t see me as a pet to abuse. Not to mention a future if I could get back to my home dimension after this crazy adventure!

After a while I noticed a shadow over my touch spot on the wall and drifted to a stop looking at Amanda now fully dressed for the day.

“Come on my little fish, you need to take a quick shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, and get to the school.”

I nodded and crawled to the edge of the pool and pulled myself over the edge. She was prepared with a blanket and practically swaddled me in it. A quick kiss to my forehead and she squeezed me tight to her. “I really do love you Stacy,” she told me.

“Love you too, Mommy,” I told her with a smile.

She carried me up to the bathroom and quickly stripped the swimsuit from my body. The diaper quickly followed and I was shaking at the cool air from the air conditioning. I watched as she started the shower and made sure it was a good temperature before setting me inside and grabbing the shower nozzle. Amanda handed me the nozzle, “Hold this for a second,” she said as she reopened the shower curtain and took it back from me. She handed me a loofa with some soap on it, “Here…” For the next ten minutes I showered as she held the shower head for me or occasionally used it herself to get into some spots like my rear. My hair was washed with shampoo and conditioner before she shut everything off and wrapped me in a towel.

“Brush your teeth, then let’s get you dressed, breakfast, and head to school…” she said.

“What time is it?” I asked a little concerned.

“Just after eight, so we have about forty-five minutes and we need to be out the door…” she told me.

In the end I barely had time to gulp a cup of coffee, eat the toast and oatmeal she gave me, before it she was carrying me with my backpack out to the car. As she buckled me in, she smiled and said, “We might need to wake you up earlier if you want to keep swimming in the mornings.”

I sighed, but nodded as the clock said nine on the dot as we pulled away from our house. I absentmindedly poked at my diaper that was exposed under the summer dress. Somehow Amanda had convinced me that I wanted to wear the pale green checked dress because it was going to be so hot today. It was a near thing with diaper exposure when I was standing… but it was even worse when the straps of the car seat connected between my legs. I was grateful at least that Amanda thought a regular Pamper would suffice for the day instead of one of the thick pink princess diapers!

Before long she pulled into her spot in the faculty lot and we walked hand-in-hand to a large brick building that looked more like a castle than a modern school building. The building was topped with a parapet wall that was outlined in white stone that contrasted the red brick below that made up the majority of the wall. Around windows and doors, the white stone was used again as a border, and I decided it was one of the most beautiful buildings on campus. I could just make out stained glass windows as we approached the entrance. From what I knew of the campus it was probably one of the oldest buildings at Emerson. I knew we were arriving at the right place because littles on ropes were behind and in front of us.

“Good luck sweetie,” Amanda told me as she hugged me and then kissed me on the head. “I’ll see you at lunch,” she said reassuringly before I turned from her and followed the littles into a large lecture hall labeled ‘Destiny Hall.’

“Where’s your nest sweetie?” A kind looking girl asked me as I approached the doors.

“Not sure, my mommy just dropped me off.” I groaned a bit at having used the babyish name for her. I watched the girls brain turn that over before she looked oddly at me and shrugged.

“Who’s your nest mother?”

“Miss Madison,” I told her.

“There she is,” the girl said pointing behind me at the line of littles she tugged along.

“Thanks,” I told her and waited for them to come over to where we stood.

“Hi Stacy!” Madison said in a sing-song voice, “Ooh, you decided to wear the summer uniform today! I tried to get your nest mates to do that but none of them wanted to be as cute as you I guess…” she said.

I groaned, “It was my mommy’s idea Miss Madison,” I told her truthfully.

“Well it was a good idea!” She said bending over and patting my butt as she gave me a hug. “You’re so cute I could eat you up!”

Another group passed us then though and it seemed to make her realize she needed to keep the group moving, “grab onto the end ring there Stacy,” she told me.

I groaned and joined the human caterpillar of my nest and let myself be led into the large lecture hall. I looked around and saw the front of the room was covered from floor to the very tall ceiling with video screens that seemed to be some sort of electronic dry-erase boards. With all of them together it would make for an exceptionally large video screen, but seemed to currently be made up with separate panels that could be windowed with specific information. A slide showed in the middle section stating, ‘Welcome to Emerson - Little’s Legal Rights and Responsibilities.’

I was surprised to see a step stool being brought in and placed behind the lectern at the front of the room as we reached a set of seats in the second row of the large room. I opened my backpack and pulled out my booster seat. I caught several littles and Madison staring at me. “What?” I asked self-consciously, “I’m short…”

Madison laughed and several of my nest mates giggled nervously. I climbed onto the boosted seat which let me just barely see over the top of the seat in front of us. In that chair a short littles head just showed their high ponytail sticking out above it like some sort of periscope.

Laura leaned over, “Normally we avoid showing weakness of being a baby,” she explained to me. Her unboosted seat, still had her an inch above me since she was a bit taller.

I shrugged, “For most of you that matters… I’m adopted, so what’s the point?”

She started to say something and then thought better of it, “I don’t actually know,” she sighed. “At least I’m in panties today…” she whispered to me.

I giggled, “Are you sure that’s a good idea after yesterday?”

She looked nervous but nodded, “I’m being really careful what I eat and drink now,” she whispered in my ear like it was some sort of secret.

I nodded and looked up as a video camera began showing the lectern up on one of the top parts of the massive screen. To my surprise a well-dressed, gray bearded little, in a suit walked up to the podium. “Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,” he said as his voice came through an amplified system, “I am Professor Marshall, and it’s my pleasure to welcome you to our fine university!”

The dichotomy of a little leading this lecture after I had watched so many horrific acts holding littles back the last few weeks was jolting to me. He reminded me of any older distinguished professor back home though, or even of the Amazon adults. There was no doubt in my mind that he was the oldest looking free little I had seen. There was a definite hint of padding on his rear as the camera switched views from overhead to side automatically. He seemed to have no fear of anything though as he confidently spoke.

“I am a professor in the law school here at Emerson. My specialty is in law regarding Little’s Rights and advocacy for abused Little’s.”

I heard a couple gasps and down the row heard I heard Esther kind of squeal in excitement and got the feeling she was excited to meet him. I thought the idea of a little lawyer was kind of cool, and figured if anyone knew how to avoid being adopted it was probably the lawyer.

“At this time, I would please ask that Nest mothers and anyone who is not a freshman little please leave. There is a break room with doughnuts, coffee, and juice down the hall for you all to wait in.”

I heard a mixture of grumbling and cheers from the Amazons as they made their way out the door.

“Okay, now that you’ll feel more comfortable without them… Today my goal of speaking to you is to be blunt and honest about your futures. Each year at Emerson about three-hundred Littles attend the university’s first day of school across all of the classes. Your class has over a hundred-and-fifty that were signed up to begin. You’re already down to a hundred-and-twenty… To say that your likelihood of graduation is low, is a massive understatement.”

Murmurs were made around the room at this and I nervously shifted on the boosted seat.

“In recent years the biggest class Emerson graduated was twenty-eight littles. That was two years ago at the height of the new laws to protect us from unwanted adoptions. I say this not to scare you, but to make sure you are informed as you navigate your future. I want to help increase that number of graduating littles by you knowing about your rights.”

A slide changed and listed a law, ‘Little’s who have enrolled themselves in a higher education institution are deemed to have turned over their power of attorney to the institution. The institution must give consent to any adoption, and must engage in well-regulated due process before consenting to the arrangement.’

I wondered suddenly if given the way the law was written, did the university still have that power over me?

“This law is the first law that you need to be aware of and know by heart. It’s the only thing stopping a random Amazon from adopting you on the street, walking across campus, or in the dorms. So long as you have your student ID on you, the individual must go through the university in order to adopt you. The law states that in order for the university to give consent there must be a process to evaluate the need and demonstrate a clear case of maturosis. This comes back to your student handbook and the code of conduct you were informed of on the first day of orientation.”

“Should you be forcibly removed from your surroundings without that process, your best bet is to go along with the situation until you reach the mandatory adoption clinic visit. At that time, you should present the ID as proof that you are a student and that the university should be contacted. By law even if you don’t have the ID, and tell them that you are a student, they should still contact the university. Given carrying the ID is within the student code of conduct though, you would be in violation of the code of conduct and the university will generally sign off on the adoption if you don’t have it.”

A hand flew up in the front row, “But what if we have our ID and it’s thrown away by the Amazon kidnapping us?”

He nodded sagely, “That’s an excellent question and a very valid worry. It’s another reason why wearing your uniform at all times is a good idea since the chip inside the crest has some information there for your defense. The only thing I can suggest at that point of being taken, is try and conceal it somewhere.”

I sat there for a moment and knew that nothing would stop it if a giant just picked you up, stripped you, put you in a diaper, and carried you away. It was too easy to remove both the uniform and the ID. “There is also another option available,” he continued, “that is currently recognized in the courts, clinics, and hospitals. The bookstore sells these,” he held up his wrist and showed off a forest green wristband. “They’re only removable with special cutting tools that are illegal for most to own. They are the only way to remove them without damaging you and cutting off a limb. They contain your ID information and are considered legally the same as your student ID both by law and by the university.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if the wristbands weren’t an Amazonian version of a star right then, as I knew every little, probably including myself, would be going to the bookstore to immediately buy one. “They’re not cheap, but they are well worth having for insurance purposes,” he said with a sigh.

The next slide came up and talked about due process from the university with the handbook regulation that had been explained to us the other day. “As long as you’re a student, you should be okay then with the wristbands preventing you from being adopted unexpectedly. That just leaves the student code of conduct with the many ways to gain demerits to worry about…”

He sighed, “There’s a limit to how much you’ll be able to avoid demerits. Truthfully only about three littles a year avoid any demerits at all, and half of you will have your ten and be done by December.”

There was so much murmuring, that I wondered if he could get control of the room again, but I wasn’t surprised to hear that. He held his hand up and everyone got quiet again, “Your best bet is to follow the rules and be as agreeable with your professors as you can. If you can get cases of water, soda, and such off campus you’re better off. There are a lot of students who will take advantage of you if you leave a drink unattended. From what I understand it sounds like most of you already encountered some issues the other day after the barbecue outside. Being paranoid is your best friend here and elsewhere in life.”

A hand went up in the air, “Yes sir,” he said pointing towards a boy I couldn’t see, but heard ask loudly. “If we’ve had a demerit is there any appeals process?”

The professor shook his head, “Dean Sanders is the one who deals with discipline of littles and she is the final authority on any disciplinary action as well.”

I heard him sigh, “Thanks.”

“Sorry, any other questions on the code of conduct? I know they covered it pretty thoroughly your first day.”

There were a couple others asked, but nothing that mattered or really were worth asking. He eventually nodded, “Okay, so… like I said earlier, the blunt truth of the matter is that most of you will not be graduating from here. Let’s talk about those of you who will not make it. The majority of you are going to find yourselves at odds with the demerit system. What happens then?”

There was dead silence in the room. He had basically told everyone that there was little chance of escape, and that at least ninety of the littles in the room wouldn’t get past Emerson.

He showed a picture of a daycare on the next slide… only there wasn’t a single real baby in the picture from what I could tell. “The university has a boarding daycare that such students are immediately taken to. Your belongings are placed into a storage area pending adoption down the road. Once your new ‘parents’ are selected they can decide what to do with it all. If you’re lucky those parents will keep any keepsakes you have from your family. Many will not though, and unfortunately the day you are placed in the daycare you are no longer allowed to make any of your own decisions.”

He showed a slide with bullet points then ‘Your Process,’ it stated. “First thing you can expect to happen is you’ll be taken from the Dean’s office downstairs to be processed. You will most likely be in a diaper at this point…” he paused, “and maybe only that…”

“Why are you supporting…?” One little shouted angrily.

“I don’t,” he said quietly as someone shushed the little, “but don’t you think information is helpful here?” He drank some water out of a water bottle he pulled from his jacket. “Truthfully most of you only know rumors of what happens, right?”

Everyone including me nodded, “so let’s get rid of rumors and give you some facts.”

“Yes sir…” the girl who had objected said quietly

“Once you’re taken from the office it’ll be a short walk to the campus daycare. Depending on your behavior going to the daycare, and whatever offense they punished you for, you will be treated differently when they take you in. If you want to have any chance of freedom someday, your best bet during this trip is to keep your mouth shut and not scream. Cussing, screaming your head off, biting, or making threats will only result in them putting a lockable pacifier in your mouth… and those get painful in a hurry.”

I rubbed my jaw sympathetically thinking about it right then, “Yes they do,” I whispered.

Laura gave me a glance but I looked forward as he kept speaking, “By being a good compliant little, they usually won’t feel the need to treat your ‘maturosis’ as excessively. The more offensive you are during this time… well more than likely they will decide to remove your teeth, the ability to speak, walk, or even crawl.”

There were a ton of gasps then as people pictured that happening. I pictured my ‘cousins’ in my mind and felt a bit of urine escape into my diaper.

“How is that legal…?” One person asked.

“Good question,” he responded. “Unfortunately, it is fully endorsed by the psychiatric and medical communities currently,” the professor answered. “It should be seen as completely wrong and inhumane, but the simple fact is that it is completely legal at the present time. Once you’ve been labeled as having a case of ‘maturosis’ and needing re-raised, you have to know any of those things can happen.”

“So just shut up and be a good baby?” Natasha fairly spat.

He nodded, “I know that sounds stupid, but during that time that’s your safest bet. The more you fight the younger you’ll be treated. It’s not like you’re going to manage to fight off an Amazon for long… Understand that the university makes money off the adoptions for their endowment. Littles are mostly directly adopted from the daycare to rich donors. They will only adopt out the compliant ones though. Those that fight and behave poorly are going to be sent to a couple etiquette centers that support the university endowment in exchange for having you to sell themselves.”

“It’s slavery,” one boy spat somewhere behind me.

“Yes, it is, and I hope that someday we find a way to end it,” Professor Marshall said with a sigh as he pulled his glasses off his face to rub his eyes. “The eventual goal of both places is that you end up in the hands of a new set of parents. Those parents for the most part will be fairly wealthy. This is because many believe that university students make much better littles. If you didn’t fight, and didn’t end up in an etiquette center, make sure you do your best to form a bond with the new parents as soon as you can. Don’t fight them at all as it will make your life much less painful. Most that adopt won’t abuse you for the sake of abusing you. They’ll mostly only engage in that behavior in retaliation so that they get a ‘good baby’ and properly treat your maturosis.”

He sighed, “I’ll come back to that in a moment. For those that end up in an etiquette center there’s not much you’re going to be able to do to fight anything. You most likely will at least be hypnotized. It’s also likely other physical modifications will also be made to you, but again the less you struggle the better off you’ll be. Understand that there is no realistic escape from an etiquette center. Between the Amazons who will have no problem containing you, and the many robotic nannies they use, escape is all but impossible. When you get adopted if you still have anything left upstairs do your best to again behave.”

“But if you behave all of this time, you’re still stuck being a baby doll for some crazy person?!?” One little asked with alarm.

“You’re still being treated like a baby, but hopefully you can avoid the mental and physical modifications then. If you can form a bond with a parent then you are more likely to convince them that maybe you can grow up and be on your own someday.”

“Is there any line that’s too far? Can they just do whatever they want to us?” I heard a worried Laura ask next to me.

“Yes. The Little Protection Services exists theoretically to watch out for abuse. Many times, if they find out a little is left alone frequently without a caregiver, not being fed, being neglected, etc. then they will pull the little from the home. Sometimes that ends up meaning foster care or another etiquette center. Usually if LPS gets involved you have to know it’s bad though, and you’re probably better off even in the etiquette center.”

“Umm… how long… how long are we stuck like that?” One girl nervously asked. Several littles snickered rudely which she calmly added, “I’m not from the mainland… we don’t have Amazons where I’m from…”

“Possibly for the rest of your life,” the professor answered honestly. “Assuming you are given all of the hypnotic triggers, you probably won’t even notice… Especially if you fight it right away the answer is a very long time. Often times though if you’re good you’ll find your new family is at least willing to consider you might be worthy of growing up as they eventually tire of diapers and feedings. Unfortunately, throughout any time that you are adopted, or taken as a ward of the state, you are essentially given the legal standing of a baby less than a year old. The court doesn’t recognize your right to speak for yourself in any way.”

He looked at his watch and said, “I don’t have much more time. I do want to let you know that if you are in a situation and you are legitimately being abused your best bet is to tell an adult at your daycare, or a doctor or a nurse. They may be your only hope of help due to the requirements that they report suspected abuse. Any other questions?”

A hand nearby went up, “How did you stay free?” the girl asked from out of sight.

He laughed, “I didn’t. I survived college, got my law degree, and a client kidnapped me two months later. Fortunately, I followed the advice I gave you and was eventually able to reason with them that I was mature enough to be potty trained, and eventually was freed… I spent eight years as their little baby boy before being free now for the past twenty.”

He sighed, “Even now I follow a strict policy of making sure I wear protection just in case someone gets handsy with me. Remember the way the law is written once you’re out of school, is that you’re mature if you chose to wear protection - even if it’s not dry or clean. If you aren’t wearing that protection and you’re busted with even a little bit of a skid mark in your underwear, or a few drops of urine in your panties… You won’t be free anymore.”

The room was somber and silent until a loud bang happened in the back as the doors opened and the nest mothers strolled back down. I looked at my watch and realized it was already eleven. I stood up and put my portable booster seat back into my backpack.

“At least you don’t have to worry about all of that,” Laura said to me quietly. There was a deep sadness to her voice.

I shrugged, “who knows what can happen in this crazy town… Maybe you won’t need to worry about it either,” I told her. I didn’t believe that though, she’d already had a close call with the dirty diaper yesterday. I was a little surprised she would take a risk like not wearing one so soon after that disaster…