L.D.M.

Chapter 3
Déja Vu?

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Chapter Description: At least nothing is different at school. Right?

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“Come on, Jen! We’re going to be late!”

Kirsten looked at her watch impatiently as she turned around to her friend, who seemed to be lagging behind. “Besides, I’m getting cold!”

“I told you that you should have brought a jacket, Kirsten!”, Jenny answered.

It was annoying to admit, but Jenny had been right. For a morning in June, the air was surprisingly chilly. Kirsten shivered in her t-shirt. At least it wasn’t the maple-leaf t-shirt. That would have been really embarrassing. When the girls had gone back to Kirsten’s house before leaving for school, somehow the wardrobe had been filled again. Most of her familiar clothes had been exactly where they had always been. No underwear, though. And no tight jeans. There was nothing there that wouldn’t fit over a diaper. There were still plenty of the those though, and Jenny had insisted that she should bring some ’spare’. At first Kirsten had felt embarrassed to let Jenny into her room, knowing the drawers were full of diapers, but then, the fact that she and Jenny were both wearing one already kind of eliminated the need to be ashamed. There was also no arguing with Jenny. There never was; she just didn’t seem to be listening. So in the end, Kirsten had just taken two diapers from the drawer and put them in her bag along with the books.

It was still a strange feeling, though, to be walking out on the streets in a diaper, even though she was now wearing a skirt to cover it, like Jenny was. With every step she took, she could feel it shift, and every time a gust of -surprisingly cold- wind blew through her clothes, she clutched the edges of the skirt tightly to keep the diaper from showing.

Jenny on the other hand seemed to have no problem at all. Just now on the bus, she hadn’t even bothered to straighten out her skirt after she sat down. Kirsten was sure at least a dozen people must have seen what Jenny was wearing underneath. Kirsten had gotten a glimpse of it a couple of times.

As she stood still on the sidewalk, just outside the school and turned around to urge Jenny again to hurry up, a nice looking boy passed her and looked her way. For an instant, she saw his eyes going up and down. He was checking her out! All of a sudden, Kirsten became painfully conscious of the garment beneath her skirt and felt her cheeks heating up. She looked away while the boy walked past her. Luckily he didn’t give her a second look.

By the time she dared to look up again, Jenny had caught up with her.

“Wow...did you see that guy?” Jenny whispered in an excited tone. “He was gorgeous and totally checking you out!” Then she seemed to notice Kirsten’s face. “Ooh”, she teased. “I think you liked him! You’re totally blushing!”

Kirsten shook her head. “No, that’s not it. I mean, he looked cute and all, but...well, he looked at me... and I’m wearing a diaper!”

Jenny looked puzzled. “Well yes, of course you are..” Then her face lit up as she seemed to realize something. “Oh, you think he wouldn’t be interested in you if he knew you were still in junior high?”

What is she talking about?

“What?” Kirsten answered “No, but..”

“Ah, whatever” said Jenny, obviously tired of the subject. “Weren’t you saying we were going to be late?”

The math test! Kirsten looked at her watch. Two minutes until class would start. “Shit, we’ve got to run!”

“What are you so worried about?” asked Jenny as they were both hurrying inside and up the stairs.

“Well, the test of course!” Kirsten couldn’t believe Jenny would have forgotten about that. “If I’m late, maybe mrs. Brown won’t let me take it. Which means failing the course. Which means one more year in junior high for me! Now you get it?”, she snapped.

“Oh...”, Jenny went silent for a moment as they entered the hallway and slowed their pace. “Wait... there’s a test today?”

She did forget about it. Unbelievable! Kirsten wanted to turn and shout at her friend for being so stupid, but they had reached the door of room 220. Math class. The door was closed and the halls were empty, but the muffled sound of chattering voices could still be heard through the door, and then the somewhat louder voice of mrs. Brown, telling the class to be quiet. Apparently they were just in time. Kirsten opened the door and entered.

The first thing Kirsten noticed upon entering the room was the face of mrs. Brown. The fifty-something year-old math teacher always looked severe with her glasses and her hair tied in a bun, and today was no exception. She was looking the other way, though, and for a moment Kirsten hoped she and Jenny could sneak to their places quietly without her noticing. Then she turned around.

“Ms. Jones. Ms. Jackson.” Her voice was deep and threatening as ever. “Had you been one minute later, I would have sent you to the principal. However, it seems that you are just in time, so you can both sit down. Don’t make a habit out of this.”

Kirsten let out a breath of relief and she and Jenny went to sit in their usual places in the back of the class. She took short, quick steps walking there, holding her skirt down with one hand to make very sure none of her sitting classmates would accidentally get a peak at the thing underneath. The diaper creaked uncomfortably as she sat down, but if any of her classmates noticed the sound, no-one gave any reaction.

The second thing Kirsten noticed, was that all of her classmates seemed to have their books open on their desks, save a few who must have had forgotten theirs. Fortunately she had brought hers to look over some of the more difficult problems before the start of the test, so she could do the same.

What page should we open? She looked at Jenny, but of course her friend, chaotic as she was, looked back at her, signaling that she hadn’t brought her book. Kirsten sighed and shoved the book to the middle of the desk so they could both look at it. Mrs. Brown was saying something that was obviously related to the page the others were looking at, but she still had no clue which one.

The only person she could ask was Eugene, who sat right in front of her. She lifted her hand to touch his shoulder, but hesitated. He might still be angry about yesterday’s prom, she thought.

Mrs. Brown was still talking. There was no other choice. She tapped his shoulder. “Psst... Eugene..”

Eugene turned his head and smiled. “Hi, Kirsten” he whispered back. He didn’t appear to be angry at all. Few.. Kirsten thought. “Do you know what page we’re on?”

“Sure. It’s page 217, the first page of the last chapter” he responded and pushed his glasses back to the top of his nose with one finger. “We finished the previous chapter last week, remember?”

Strangely, Kirsten did seem to remember the class finishing that chapter but she didn’t think it had been last week. More like last month! Although... somehow she wasn’t sure. Eugene turned back to listen to mrs. Brown.

“Wait!” Kirsten whispered. “What day is today, Eugene?”

“Well, Tuesday of course”

“No, I mean the date.”

“Oh, right. It’s the thirteenth of May.”

May! It came as a shock. Yesterday had been the day of the prom. Which was the 16th of June! The prom had happened yesterday, hadn’t it? Again Kirsten tried to recall what the prom had been like, and couldn’t. Even her memories of the days and weeks before the prom seemed strangely vague and blurry. Suddenly it seemed altogether plausible to her that they had finished the previous chapter last week.

“Eugene!” she whispered again. “Was there a prom yesterday?”

He looked up sharply. “No, of course not. The prom’s in June. Why would you think such a thing?”

He said that a little too quickly. Is he playing some kind of trick on me?

But no... Eugene had always been her faithful little geek. He couldn’t come up with something like that if his life depended on it. Besides, how would he get the entire class to play along?

“I don’t know... she answered. It’s just...”

“Ms. Jones! Mr. Yume!” mrs. Brown’s low voice interrupted her. “What have you got to discuss that is more important than this lesson?”

“Nothing, mrs. Brown.” Eugene turned back around and Kirsten bent over her book and looked up page 217. For a new chapter it seemed so familiar, even though she couldn’t seem to recall the moment they had gone over it before. She stared ahead, at Eugene’s bony back and narrow shoulders. He was wearing a t-shirt with a logo she didn’t recognize.

It was a black spiral with three letters underneath.

L.D.M.

For the duration of the following hour Kirsten sat in her bench, listening to the voice of mrs. Brown droning on about pythagorian triangles and the likes. She was trying to focus the whole time, but couldn’t. She wasn’t usually bad at mathematics, but the subject didn’t facinate her like it always appeared to fascinate Eugene. Besides, she still had the funny feeling that all she was hearing now was familiar, even though she couldn’t seem to remember what would come next until the moment it had happened.

“And so, if you add up A square and B square and calculate the square root of the result, you will see that whatever comes out is the exact value of C”, said Mrs. Brown in the business-like tone that only teachers ever have.

Of course, Kirsten thought. I’ve heard that all before. It’s obvious! But the disturbing thing was that a moment ago she hadn’t known, even though she had strained her mind to remember.

Kirsten didn’t know what to make of whatever was happening, but it seemed that there was nothing she could do to change it, so after a while she just gave up trying and sat in her bench, just listening without much interest to whatever mrs. Brown was saying. Once she had stopped trying, the feeling that it was all familiar began to slowly fade until, finally, whatever mrs. Brown said sounded as new and complicated as it always had during her classes.

At that moment a loud ringing interrupted the math teacher’s low voice, signalling that it was time for lunch break. Around her, all of her classmates started packing their bags.

Kirsten was still a little confused about today’s class, so she touched Eugene’s shoulder again. Eugene, in the middle of putting a book in his backpack, turned around.

“Yes, Kirsten? What is it?” he smiled at her the way he always did.

Kirsten wished he wouldn’t. Of course she knew how Eugene had a crush on her. It was even a good thing, since it motivated him to help her with her homework every now and then. But the idea of the geeky little 13 year-old druiling over her still didn’t appeal to her. She forced herself to smile back.

“Well, you see.. I understood most of this lesson and all, but I thought maybe you could help me practice it a little later?”

“Sure, Kirsten. After school as always?”

“Yeah”

“Shall we go to your place for a change? My dad’s kind of busy with this new machine he’s building and he doesn’t want to be disturbed. Besides, you haven’t even shown me where you live!”

“Ehr...” The last thing Kirsten wanted was to take Eugene home and have him meet her family. They might think she liked him. Worse, Gina lived just a block away, and if she found out Kirsten was taking the geek home... Gina was always gossiping about everyone.

“Well... my mom’s also very busy...” she lied. “And.... well... maybe we can just meet at the library?”

Eugene looked disappointed. “Well, all right. I don’t want to disturb your mom, I guess...”

“Great! See you after school then?”

“Sure...”

Eugene left the classroom and Kirsten hurriedly packed her own bag and made to follow her classmates to the cafetaria. She remembered something she had heard about Brad, the quarterback, the other day that she wanted to share with Gina over lunch. She shook her long blond hair and stood, straightening out her clothes when a funny feeling of thickness between her legs and a soft creaky noise reminded her of the diaper she was still wearing.

Maybe I better avoid Gina today. If she sees....

She would just have her lunch together with Jenny, Kirsten decided.

Kirsten was the last of her class to enter the school cafeteria, so the lines for the food were long. Luckily, there was a vending machine for drinks right next to the entrance, so she could quench her thirst at least. It took Kirsten three minutes to finish her coke, while waiting in line. Then it took another twelve minutes for the line to move to the point where she could actually get her food.

She was starved by the time she got it, and she attacked her food with taste once she had joined Jenny at the table where she had been waiting.

Jenny and Kirsten spent the next fifteen minutes of lunch break eating, gossiping and talking about boys, especially the cute ones within visual range. Every now and then one of the other girls in the cafeteria would stand up and walk in the direction where Kirsten knew the bathrooms were, followed by at least one or two of her friends.

Just the other day, Jenny had told her how it was typical that they girls always went to the bathroom in pairs or groups, while guys only went alone. Kirsten had then started observing the others in the cafeteria and realized that this was true.

Today however, most of the boys who got up and walked in that direction were also not alone. Kirsten put it down to co?ncidence, but also started wondering whether her friend could have been wrong before.

The all-too familiar bell cut through the conversations in the cafeteria, although almost drowned out by the buzz of voices. Slowly and unwillingly, the students got up one by one, to make their way to the next class. For Kirsten it was English. While getting up, she realized something.

“You go ahead to class”, she told Jenny. “I have to go to the bathroom”

“Oh”, responded Jenny. “You peed?”

“No, that’s what I’m going to do”, Kirsten replied. “Duh”

Jenny gave her a quizzical stare. "Oh, ok. Don’t you want me to come with you?”

Kirsten frowned. “I think I can do this by myself, thank you very much”

Jenny shrugged. “Well, all right then. See you in class.”

The cafeteria ladies were already starting to wipe the tables when Kirsten left through a different exit than Jenny and turned right in a hallway that was slowly emptying as the students went to their classes. The boy/girl sign was at its end and on the right, she knew. She really had to go now, but she would have to be quick about it or she’d be late for English class.

Kirsten turned right underneath the sign... and came to a dead stop when she entered the girls’ room.

The room itself looked the same as always, with its brown tiles on the floor, the white tiles on the walls, the sinks where you wash your hands, the paper towel dispensers.... all of that looked normal. Except...

Before her eyes Kirsten saw the booths, separated from each other by white wooden boards like they always were. Only these booths were bigger and fewer. And inside every one of them an essential object appeared to be missing.

There were no toilets.

 

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