“What time is it?” Brains asked, leaning over to glance at the clock on Grace’s laptop. Before she could answer, ‘Six oh two PM’, he read the display and flashed a triumphant grin.

“What happened at six?” she asked, taking note.

“Eh…” Brains paused, pursing his lips and considering his words carefully.

“Okay, before you open your mouth and lie to me, just know that I can tell you’re hiding something,” Grace interjected.

Brains considered for a moment longer, then said, “I’m not going to tell you.”

A stonewall was about the best defense he could have given, since any other answer she’d have been able to see through in an instant. Still, she pushed. “Brains… C’mon. You don’t need to keep it a secret.”

He shook his head. “I promised–”

“Hah!” Grace declared. “A clue. So you told someone you wouldn’t tell me about it?”

“Yeah, but–ah, dang.” Brains said, realizing he’d fallen into another trap.

She thought aloud. “So you wouldn’t tell me, specifically, which means…something to do with Pearce? Is he planning something that happened right after six?”

Brains sat back. “Shut up. I’m not saying anything else.”

While he refused to answer, Melody came down the stairs, glancing at the two of them. “So, Pearce hasn’t given up yet, huh?”

(Oh, you’re kidding me.) Grace put the pieces together, between Brains’ standoffish refusal to answer and Melody’s sudden interest. “Do you two have a betting pool going?”

“No,” Brains lied, appending it quickly to be, “Technically.”

Recognizing that the jig was up, Melody added, “Skip’s in on it too. It was their idea.”

“Fucking hell,” Grace groaned. “You made a bet, on our bet.”

“We weren’t going to tell you because it would bias the results,” Brains said. “But it’s a few bets, technically. Who’s going to win, and how long it’ll go, y’know.”

“Ugh, fine. Deal me in,” Grace said, reaching for where she’d normally have a jeans pocket. Instead, she’d been dressed in shortalls and a pink onesie, so she didn’t have her wallet on her. “Well, I’ll toss cash in the pot later. Pearce is out by tonight, and I’m going to win.”

“No can do, Gracey,” Melody said, leaning against the couch behind her. “You’re already involved, we can’t have any insider trading going on.”

“Whatever,” Grace said, sitting back. She had to admit, that was probably the fairest way of arranging things. “Wait, you said, ‘a few’ bets. What’s the third one?”

“I didn’t say there were three,” Brains said quickly.

“No, but you said, ‘a few’, and you’ve lectured me too many times on how “‘few’ should never be used when ‘couple’ would be better”, so I know you didn’t mean two,” Grace said.

Brains glanced at Melody, who still stood behind the couch, and Grace felt Melody’s shrug more than she saw it. “She already knows the rest.”

“So we are split on whether or not you’ll give up before you, uh, use your diaper,” Brains said.

“Well I already did, so…” Grace started. “Oooh.”

As if on cue, her belly grumbled a little, a twitch that reminded her what she hadn’t done since yesterday morning.

“Yeah,” Melody confirmed. “And before you ask, no, we won’t tell you what we’re betting on either.” The second comment seemed directed as much at Brains as at Grace, but Grace just shrugged.

“Anyways, I’m gonna go rap on Pearce’s door, make sure he doesn’t forget dinner,” Grace said, as much to excuse herself from the conversation as anything else.

She’d been putting it out of her mind, but now that it’d been pushed to the forefront of her thoughts, she couldn’t really ignore the growing pressure any longer. She needed to poop, and Pearce wasn’t likely to just randomly resign in the next hour without an incentive.

Knocking on his door, she said, “Hey, I’m hungry. When’s dinner?”

“I’ve got it under control,” Pearce called back. He sounded distracted, and Grace almost pushed the issue, but another gurgle in her stomach called her away.

Blushing, she stepped into her room, shut the door, and sat down on the bed.

“Okay,” she said under her breath. “It’s okay. It’s no big deal, and it’s going to make Pearce give up pretty much instantly.”

She told herself that a couple times before she believed it. It was gross for her, but she wasn’t the one who’d need to clean it up. Surely, Pearce would give up the instant he had to actually change her.

Even with that in mind, Grace had to talk herself up to it. She paced, she put on music to relax, she chewed her nails uncertainly. Maybe there was a gambit, some way she could force Pearce to resign first, some ploy…

“No,” she said, finally, facing herself in the full body mirror. She looked juvenile and, regrettably, adorable in her shortall-onesie combo. “Just do it. That’s the point. Don’t cheat the system, just play the game and win.”

With that pep talk over, still facing herself, she dropped into a squatting position, held her breath, and began to push into her slightly-damp diaper.

The dominant sensation she felt was a burning in her face, embarrassment shining through while she used her diapers for their intended purpose. The shortalls kept everything contained and pressed close to her body, and after holding it for nearly two days, the output of muck into her diaper felt torrential, smushing between her legs.

It took her most of a minute before she felt empty, and her diaper tried to sag but couldn’t, not with stretchy fabric and denim all snugly against her body. While it contained the weight, though, it couldn’t contain the smell, which hit her nostrils a moment later.

(Ugh,) she thought, sticking out her tongue and screwing up her face. (Okay. Just go find Pearce and be done with it.)

Opening her door, she waddled two steps down the hall and rapped on Pearce’s door. “Uh, Pearce?”

No response. (He’s got headphones on again.) She knocked louder, taking shallow breaths, bracing herself for the barrage of teasing he’d be sure to bring down on her. “Hey, Pearce!”

Still nothing. Scowling, she threw open the door, and–

His room was empty. Well, not exactly–it was full of trash and disheveled laundry, but there was no sign of Pearce.

She glanced at the bathroom, but that door stood open. He wasn’t in there.

Glowering, she stormed to the stairs, toddling down them in a huff.

Brains and Melody had moved to the couch, along with some random guy with a bit of stubble and an arm over Melody’s shoulder. She paid him little mind, not even bothering to really memorize his face. Knowing Melody, he wouldn’t be around for more than a day or so.

“Oh, hey,” Brains said, looking up from the TV. “What’s up?”

Grace glanced hesitantly at the new guy, but he may as well have been a stranger. “Where’s Pearce? I, um. I need a change.”

“He said he had some errands to run,” Melody said.

“Uh,” Brains raised a finger, hesitantly. “Grace. You just…”

“Yeah,” Grace said, blushing. “I know. That’s why I need a change.”

Brains shook his head. “Oh, no. You just broke part of Rule Four. What do you mean–” Only then did the smell hit him. He wrinkled his face, raising a hand to pinch his nose. “Ouch.”

“What?” Grace asked. “No I didn’t.”

“Yeah. You asked for a change,” Brains said. “Melody, back me up on this.”

Melody rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “Jesus, guys, really? Can you not have this conversation while my brother’s visiting?”

Grace blinked. The guy was–she did a double take, finally getting a clean look at his face. He had more stubble, much shorter hair, and he’d lost about forty pounds, but it was definitely him.

“Um.” She turned pinker. “Hi, Devon.”

He glanced back at her, avoiding eye contact. “Uh… hey, Grace. New digs?”

New humiliation rushing into her, Grace sputtered and spun, almost tripping over herself on her way up the stairs. She fled to her room, slammed the door, and collapsed onto her bed.

Two minutes passed before a knock came on her door. She hoped for Pearce, come to at least get this over with, but instead Brains spoke up. “Let me in.”

She almost yelled at him to go away, but Brains wouldn’t intrude without good reason.

“What?” she snapped.

“Can I come in?”

“Yes. What?”

He opened the door, shuffling inside, a hand to his nose, making him sound more nasal than usual when he spoke. “So, uh. You should really go sit in time out now.”

She rolled over, glaring at him. “WHAT?”

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” he said quickly. “You broke a rule. If you don’t go do your time-out now, Pearce is just going to make you do it when he gets home. You can’t get out of it early, and technically speaking, he doesn’t have to change you until it’s over–so the longer you put off time out, the longer you have to go without a change.”

She rolled back over, burying her face in her pillow. “Not while Devon’s here.”

“Well…” he started.

“Brains, he was my first crush,” Grace whimpered. “I pined after him for like three years in highschool. I tried to kiss him when he graduated. And he just saw me with shit in my diaper, dressed up like a goddamned doll.”

“Um…” Brains said. “He’s spending the night. So you’re not really going to avoid seeing him.”

Grace screamed into her pillow, rolled onto her back, and let out a breath.

“Fine. It’s fine. I’m fine. This. Is. Fine.”

Brains took a step forward, reaching out to touch her shoulder, even taking his hand from his nose. “You seem really upset. Are you sure you don’t want to just quit?”

“What, so you can win your share of the pot?” she shot.

His face turned still, and he took a step back. His voice now monotone, he said, “Okay. Bye.”

Grace’s eyes widened, and she sat up. Her full diaper squelched beneath her weight, but she barely cared. “Wait, Brains, I’m sorry–”

He was already walking away, and didn’t respond when she said his name.

She let him leave. His feet fell heavily on the stairs, echoing up the hall.

She swallowed. “Fuck.”

Getting up from the bed, she set her shoulders and walked back downstairs, wincing at every squelch of her diaper’s contents, marching right past Melody and Brains and Devon on the couch, over to the stool set up in the corner. Holding her breath, she sat down, the seat so low that her knees came halfway up her chest, and pressed the ‘start’ button on the timer. Her nose in the corner, all she could do now was wait.

Partly, she’d been persuaded to get it out of the way. Mostly, she wanted to show that she thought Brains was right. It was the best way she could think to apologize.

“What’s her deal?” Devon asked.

“It’s this stupid bet,” Melody explained. “She and Pearce got into a catfight, long story short, she and him are in a pissing contest hoping the other gives up first.”

“And that means she wears diapers?”

“Yeah,” Melody replied. “And uses them. And she can’t feed herself, or go ten minutes without complaining about Pearce.”

Grace couldn’t interject, to explain her side. She was in time out. She just had to sit there while the grown ups talked about her, stewing in her own mess, taking shallow breaths. She pulled her arms closer around her chest, watching the minutes tick down on the timer.

When thirty minutes had passed, the front door opened. “I hope you’re hungry! And Devon, I got enough for you,” Pearce announced, waltzing inside. “So let’s tuck in, and…Ew, what’s that…Okay, what the heck happened?”

Grace couldn’t turn around to see, but the smell of cheese and pasta sauce mingled with the more stale stink in the air, and her tummy rumbled. She also couldn’t explain.

“Grace broke a rule,” Brains said, simply.

“Aww, someone’s in twouble,” Pearce teased. “Sitting in time out in her ‘tinky diddees?”

Grace’s face flushed, and she held her breath to keep from responding.

“Well, this is what naughty babies get,” he continued, leaning over to pat her on the head. “Oh, and still half an hour? Oof, let’s hope she doesn’t run out of air!”

She balled her fists tighter. Just leave me alone, for fuck’s sake.

“Just think, if she’d held it a little longer, she wouldn’t have to sit in her icky-sticky diapers, making the room all smelly for the rest of us–”

“Fuck you!” Grace shot to her feet, wobbling for a moment. Her feet had fallen asleep, and she had to catch herself on the wall. “Where the fuck were you? You just up and left without telling me?”

“Um…” he took a step back, caught off guard by her outburst. Lifting the box from DiMaggio’s, he said, “I went to get pizza. Are you okay?”

It was her favorite pizza place.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck–

She spun back around, plopping back down on the seat. “Just leave me alone.” Fuming and petty, she pushed at the timer, resetting it back to an hour. Then, she buried her face in her arms, curled up into a ball, trying to shut out the rest of the room around her.

“Hey,” Pearce said. At first, Grace thought he was still talking to her, but the sound was wrong. He was facing away. “I’m making a babysitter executive decision. Grace isn’t in time out anymore. I can do that, right?”

“Whatever,” Brains said. “It’s your bet.”

“Here, Grace–” Pearce put a hand on her shoulder, but she shoved it away. “Seriously, you can get up.”

“I’m not cheating,” she shot. “So fuck off.”

Reaching out, she reset the timer one last time. That last outburst had only cost her a couple seconds, anyways.

“Um. Okay. Well I’ll be here when you’re done.”

Grace retreated deeper into her arms, shut out the world, and hoped they wouldn’t see her silent tears.