“Come…on…” Daniel grunted, tugging down at the hem of his plaid miniskirt.

The efforts got him nowhere. No matter how much he tried, there would always either be a very, very obvious waistband poking out the top, or a pillowy bulge that would reveal itself if he moved his legs even a little.

He’d put together a fix for it–a little adjusting spell that’d increase the length of the skirt by about six inches. An easy, straightforward spell.

The less said about how that went, the better. He hoped nobody would ask why he’d thrown away a diaper that was eight inches thick around the crotch, and was trying to forget the absurd pillowy feeling he’d been struck with.

He’d perfect the spell later and get his wardrobe fixed. For now, he had the opening ceremonies to attend, and no good way to hide the diaper he’d been sealed into. He’d just have to hope nobody stared at his butt and get it over with.

Gathering up everything he thought he might need–wand, catalysts, and most important of all, a notebook–he checked the time. The assembly had crept up on him, he only had fifteen minutes. As long as he walked quickly, he’d have time, but he’d have to stay on task and not get lost.

The prefect’s lodging, away from the rest of the student dorms, was relatively empty when he left. Everyone else was out, busy with socializing and getting familiar with the university space. Meeting people. Preparing for classes. He’d been too preoccupied with failing to hide his diaper.

Pulling his bag close to his chest, Daniel shuffled down the hallway, trying not to take short steps. Long steps sent his skirt flapping and revealed his diaper, but short, even steps helped the fabric fall down a little straighter, providing a modicum of visible protection. The pronounced waddle in his step from the significant bulk was harder to hide, but as he walked, he got a little more used to it.

(I don’t want to be used to it,) he thought.

Then again, he might not have a choice in that. It’d be nine months like this, minus Christmas break.

He paused as he came to an intersection. There was a direct path from the edge of the dorms to the Grand Hall, probably, but he wasn’t certain which way to turn. He could navigate all the way back to the entry hall, the hub of the school where five great arches led to the school’s five wings, but that would take way too long. He didn’t want to be late.

“Hey!”

Daniel spun, instinctively yanking down on his skirt, hiding the seat of his diaper.

Another student stood behind him, dressed in a similar uniform, albeit one with a bit more modesty. Her hat was the most different, it was petite, with the point only sticking up six inches, and red ribbon curled around the brim–a style that narrowly stayed within uniform parameters while adding some splash to the outfit.

Daniel took a second to realize he recognized her–she’d lost the bandaid over her nose, and had on a pair of full moon glasses that drew attention to her blue eyes, but her face was otherwise pretty much the same.

“It’s Daniel, right?” she asked, looking him up and down. “I heard about you–kind of hard not to, it took a second to realize you were the person next to me in the test, but then I was like, ‘Oh hey, I know him! Kinda! I mean, we didn’t really talk, but we interacted a bit. Thanks for the nose trick, by the way–did you really strip naked after you passed?”

“No!” Daniel reeled at the barrage of words he’d been assaulted with, struggling to answer the question. “I–Rachel, the prefect. She took my wand and, uh. Did that.”

The girl smirked, then covered her mouth and shook her head. “I’m sorry, I–I wasn’t giggling at you.”

“Yeah, you were,” Daniel rolled his eyes, turning to start finding his way to the assembly.

“No, wait–” she ran up, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

He raised an eyebrow. “For?”

“For…giggling at you,” she conceded. “I shouldn’t have. I mean, it’s kinda funny in a cartoon way, but it’s mean, and I don’t want to be mean, and she shouldn’t have–look, I’m Jen. You’re headed to the assembly, right?”

“Right,” Daniel said, suspicious of a trap.

“I found a shortcut earlier. Or, well, I got lost. It’s a quick way, though, I’ll show you,” Jen said. “As an apology.”

Daniel weighed his options. On the one hand, if this girl had malicious intent, she could easily just lead him away from the assembly, he’d be late, and Rachel would surely use this as an opportunity to invent some sort of new, terrible punishment.

On the other, Jen would be late too, and there were easier ways to mess with someone that wouldn’t involve getting herself in trouble. Besides, she seemed authentic–painfully authentic, in fact, and too scatterbrained to be duplicitous.

“Sure,” Daniel agreed. Deciding that a bit of diplomacy couldn’t hurt, he added, “And thanks, it’s nice to actually meet someone friendly around here.”

Jen beamed, turning to walk down one of the arches. “I mean, I don’t really get why you decided to enroll here and not a warlock school, but that’s no reason to be mean about it.”

“Yeah, try explaining that to Rachel,” Daniel suggested. “She’s…yeah. Been a bit of a nightmare.”

“I’ve heard rumors,” Jen said, glancing over at him as she guided them through a fork in the hall.

Daniel caught Jen’s look, and his eyes darted down before he could help himself. Jen’s gaze naturally followed his, and she saw the waistband of his diaper, poking out obviously from the top of his skirt.

Flushing pink, Daniel yanked the skirt up, but overcompensated, flashing the puffy, round bottom of his padding instead. With a third adjustment, he finally got a little modesty, but it was too late.

Jen stared, blue eyes growing huge behind her glasses. Finally, she couldn’t help it–a squeak escaped her lips. She tried to catch herself, clapping hands over her mouth, but it wasn’t enough to plug the flood of giggles that poured out of her.

Sighing, Daniel rolled his eyes. “Go ahead and ask, I know you want to.”

Hesitating for a moment, swallowing her laughs down with visible effort, Jen finally asked, “How come you’re wearing a diaper?”

Despite knowing that the question was coming, Daniel still turned pink. “It’s…Rachel. I said she’s a nightmare, right?”

“I’ve heard they go for creative detention here, but sheesh,” Jen said, nodding, the humor leaving her face a bit. “How long?”

“It’s…not detention,” Daniel said. “I’m not technically in trouble, at least not officially. The dean couldn’t think of a reason to punish me, but she clearly wanted to, so Rachel’s getting to make up rules I have to follow. It’s just malice, a creative excuse to try and make me quit without saying that out loud.”

Jen whistled. “And you’ve got to, erm… use them?”

Glancing away, Daniel didn’t answer that directly. Jen still got the point.

“I mean, I guess if you can go in your room it’s not so bad,” she said, musing out loud. “I mean, it’s kinda gross, but nobody would be there to see so it’s kind of just like if you pee your pants in the pool–oh, but then you don’t just pee, you’ve gotta–”

“Jen,” Daniel snapped. “Please. I don’t need the play by play.”

“Sorry,” Jen squeaked. “Just…my mom says there’s a big empty space between my brain and my mouth where good sense is supposed to go.”

It was Daniel’s turn to whistle. “Oof. She said that to your face?”

“Oh, she didn’t mean anything by it, she’s just…” Jen hesitated, coming to another fork in the hall. “Er…”

To the right was a hallway, but if Daniel had any sense of direction at all, he knew it led away from the direction they were supposed to be going. The other way was a staircase, down into an unlit, abandoned corridor. “Are you sure this is the right way?”

“Yeah,” Jen replied. “I think…er, yeah. Okay, it was just lit last time. Like I said, it’s a shortcut. The normal path leads us, like, halfway around campus. This way we can cut under some halls, through a couple faculty areas, and get there straight away.”

Again, suspicion struck Daniel. This could be a setup for a prank, or something a lot more intense than a ‘prank’. Judging by how badly Rachel’d been treating him, out in the open, he was wary about wandering into a shady, unobserved space.

Then again, he was running out of time, and doubling back to find his way normally would mean he ended up late.

“Sure,” he said, taking the stairs two at a time. “Let’s just get there, I can’t afford more trouble.”

“Just this way.” Jen pointed, her voice low as she went down the stairs. “Just…let’s not be too chatty here.”

Daniel followed her down, checking over his shoulder as they descended into the dark corridor. “You’re telling me to be quiet?”

“Rude.”

“You laughed at my diaper.”

“I apologized.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“I forgive you.” Jen shrugged, finishing her statement from earlier. “Yeah, quiet though. I don’t think it’s technically against the rules to be down here, but all the same…”

“We don’t want to get caught. Got it.”

Daniel kept his mouth shut as they walked the back hall. Unlike the grand, regal corridors of the main university, this could have been a back room in any mall or conference hall the world over. Plain hallways with off-white walls, plain cheap doors, and a simple number system rather than more dramatic names like the ‘Grand Hall’ or the ‘Tillander Wing’ or whatever.

As they passed perhaps the hundredth nondescript door to an old room, Daniel heard a crash, and his back straightened. He turned to look behind him, and Jen looked as alarmed as he was.

Casting their gaze around, he heard more loud noises–breaking glass and shouts, coming from one of the rooms. Creeping towards it, he pressed his ear, listening.

“This is unacceptable!” The voice sounded feminine, but deeply modulated, warped and crackling as though it had been run repeatedly through a record player at the wrong speed. “You said the energy here would be sufficient–now you’re telling me it’s not?”

“Professor, I explained–” Another woman, more timid, more uncertain, and much more clear–no modulation on her voice at all.

“You explained,” the first voice shot back, so warped it could have been a banshee. “And explained, and explained, until you were so covered in explanations that any monumental setback could be excused–I don’t want explanations. I want results.”

Sighing, the regular voice took on an air of fatigued repetition. “I’m taking readings across the school, like you asked, don’t blame me if the result doesn't match what you wished for–some of these hallways, like the one I’m in now? They’re a straight up dead zone. If you want power, you’ll have to wait. The date I gave is accurate. Besides, you’ll have better links then, you won’t need to cook up any excuses–”

“You’re certain? This isn’t another one of your explanations?”

“Yes, I’m certain.”

Jen fell in across from Daniel, facing him, pressing her own ear to the door to listen.

“These fools have no idea what they’ve built,” the first voice continued. “If they did, they’d have never let these children toy around such power.”

“They’re all legally adul–”

“Do I care?”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t try to humanize them. They’ll be gone this time next year, and then–”

Jen, unable to help herself, let out a little squeak of alarm. Her hands clapped over her mouth, and this time she managed to stifle any further noise, but it was too late.

The conversation stopped. Jen looked at Daniel, and their eyes widened together in fear.

The dominant voice spoke again, utterly demonic. “Go.”

Daniel looked up and down the hall. There was no good place to run to, the hallway extended straight in either direction, and if they hid in a room, the woman looking for them could just check doors till she found them. They couldn’t both hide.

He invented a plan, and without time to explain it, quickly mouthed, ‘Hide!’

Jen seemed uncertain, but there was no time to argue. She scurried away, checking doors until she found a closet that opened.

Daniel, meanwhile, straightened, stepped a door down, and yanked on the handle. It was locked, but he didn’t care–he just shouted, loudly, “Come on! There’s got to be a bathroom–”

Someone stepped into the hallway, and Daniel faced them, trying for all the world to look like a kid caught with their hand in a cookie jar. “Hi! Uh–”

The woman–an adult, though she didn’t have a teacher’s uniform, glared at him. It was dark enough that he had trouble making out her face too clearly, but by the gray curls on her head, she seemed to be on the older side of life. “What are you doing down here?”

He blushed. “Rachel–the prefect, Ms. Haligtree–uh… well it’s… I needed a bathroom.”

The woman hesitated, pulling out a wand and conjuring a bit of light. Now that he could see her, he confirmed she was a stranger–just an older woman, maybe in her fifties. “There are plenty of student bathrooms. Why–”

Pulling back his hair, Daniel let her see his face clearly. “I’m Daniel, the… uh, the boy. I’m not supposed to…yeah…”

He had Rachel’s threats fresh in his mind, so he just had to hope that either this woman didn’t know he had a hardass prefect, or she did, but would believe that Daniel was naive or cocky enough to try and get away with it.

The woman’s eyes narrowed for a moment, thinking.

(Please don’t question it… Please don’t question it…) Daniel prayed.

Finally, she walked up to him, grabbing him by the ear. “This area is for faculty only, and we’ve been told about your special case–you shouldn’t be trying to find a bathroom at all.”

“Ow! Ow!” Daniel winced, as she dragged him down the hall. “Hey, where–”

She offered no mercy, pulling on his ear hard, doing an excellent part in acting like an annoyed staff member with no ulterior motives. “Let’s see what Ms. Haligtree has to say about your little detour. I’m sure she’ll find it very interesting.”

Daniel swallowed, but he couldn’t do much to argue except stagger along, trying desperately to keep his footing and keep her from yanking on his ear too much.

He glanced back, and saw Jen peeking out of the closet, terrified but hidden. He winked at her, and she nodded back.

The woman got him into a public hall, but didn’t let up on leading him, all the way up the stairs, down a hall, and to the side of the grand hall.

“Wait right here,” the woman snapped, turning to walk into the hall. While the door was open, Daniel heard the beginnings of an introductory speech going on. Not only was he in trouble–he was late.

A second later, Daniel heard a squeak, and just about jumped out of his skirt. Turning, he saw Jen, wide-eyed.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “What the heck–”

“Get out of here,” Daniel said. “I’ll be fine. They think I was just trying to find a bathroom. Get inside, before they notice you’re with me!”

“And abandon you?” she asked.

He threw up his hands. “Yes!”

She hesitated, looking like she wanted to argue, but finally turned and scurried down the side of the grand hall, to another entrance.

Only a minute later, the older woman appeared, Rachel Haligtree in tow.

“Hah!” the prefect declared, leering. “You couldn’t make it twenty minutes without breaking the rules, huh, spark?”

The woman–some kind of faculty, clearly, turned and faced Rachel. “He was wandering the faculty halls, looking for a boy’s toilet.”

Rachel laughed. “Wow, a rule breaker and stupid. Well, don’t worry ma’am–I’ll make sure he gets disciplined properly.”

Daniel flushed–even though his ploy had worked, he wasn’t particularly looking forward to whatever Rachel had in mind as punishment.

As the woman walked away, Rachel grabbed Daniel’s wrist. He shook his head, hoping he could get out of this. “I can explain, I wasn’t–”

“Shove it, spark,” Rachel replied. “I don’t really care what excuse comes out of your mouth right now.”

He pointed the way the woman had gone, hoping to convey a bit of urgency without giving away the depth of his concern. “Who was that woman?”

Rachel shrugged. “Honestly? No idea. Probably faculty, but that’s not the point. You couldn’t get through orientation without fucking up, could you?”

“Erm…I guess not?”

“Uh-huh, that’s what I thought.” Rachel loomed over him, taking full advantage of the height difference between the two of them. “Well let’s clear something up, then. You ass? It belongs to me.”

Daniel swallowed.

“Now.” Rachel tilted her head to the side, gears turning as she thought. “Let’s talk punishment.”