Chapter Eighteen:

The cameras were back on, the lullaby music playing softly in the background, and Kate was making a big show of going through Jessie's dresser looking for outfits. I stood awkwardly in my dress and shifted from foot to foot. I didn't really have to pee, but I wasn't letting that brat show me up either! Why was it so hard to wet a diaper, anyway? Finally, after an uncomfortable few minutes, I felt the warmth trickle into the padding between my legs. I sighed.

"Luvs, honey?"

I blinked, looking up at Kate who was trying to get my attention. What was she saying?

"That's okay, right?"

"Y-yeah, uh huh!" What did I just agree to?

What dear lovely Baby Luvs had agreed to was a dress with so many frills and layers that she could probably have leapt out of a plane and safely drifted down to the ground without even a scrape. She was going to look like an absolute princess through and through, that was for sure.

"Arms up, hunny." Kate said with the offending garment in her hand.

She held a giant floof of pink and white taffeta in her hands, and I wasn't even sure it was a dress until she pulled it down over my head. It flared out at my breasts and didn't stop, though the hemline came only past the seat of my diaper. It was unwieldy. It was downright silly! But when I looked over at Jessie, she had a pout on her lips.

"Mommy I wan' one too! Please, Mommy!"

"Nuh uh you're juss a copy cat!" I said back to her in my little girl voice. She stared at me in surprise. Point, Leona.

"I'm notta copycat yer a copycatcatCAT!" She was so disgruntled at the claim, and crossed her arms accordingly. "Well, MOMMY, I wan' you to be on show today otay 'cause I'm too lil' to be lef' alone. An' you can nurse me otay 'cause I'm the most littlest princess."

Nurse? My cheeks went red at the memory of me and Betsy yesterday... I bit hard on my lower lip and shook my head. "Nuh uh! I'm the lil'lest princess!"

"Girls, be good now," Kate interrupted, pulling out a similar - though much less frilly - dress in purple from the closet. "Arms up, Sprinkles."

"But--"

"Up."

She obeyed and I looked around for Betsy. Where was she...? I needed her...

"Mommy is gonna nur—" Her words were cut off by the dress being pulled over her head, but she continued as soon as she were able without skipping a beat. "—urse me an' erryone will see tha' I'm the lil'estestbestest!" She stuck her tongue out and looked down at the dress with a little frown nonetheless; it was clearly less immature.

"It's not a contest," Kate encouraged, but Jessie and I locked eyes with a harsh glare. "Come on Sprinkles, let's get you changed really quick."

"I wan' be changed!" I pouted, stomping my foot.

"No point changing a dry diaper, sweetie," Kate said, patting me on the top of the head. She was as tall as Betsy.

"I'm not dry," I whined, and both of them gave me a skeptical look.

"Oh, did you have an accident?"

I snapped a picture of her face, doing my best to stay out of sight of the cameras. But the sound of my shutter clicking made her look at me, like maybe she hadn't realized I'd been here the whole time.

I looked at Jackie with surprise. When did she get there? She was positioned just outside the door frame, leaning in as close as she could without getting caught on camera.

"Well?" Kate prompted, looking skeptical.

I looked up at Kate and then down at my feet. A blush filled my cheeks. But where others may not have been so observant, Jessie certainly was. Glancing at me, then Jackie, and smiling.

"Only real babies have at-cidents," she said, and I went a shade redder.

"Maybe it's a good idea to check, mmm?" Kate approached her guest and lifted the mess of taffeta that was her dress, turning her as she did so the cameras would be able to pick it up when she stuck her finger into the ruffle of the girls diaper. "Oh, you're barely damp, what a fussy girl."

"Seeeeee, notta real baby an' not the lit-lest!"

"I... um..." Kate took Jessie by the hand over to the changing table and I stood awkwardly in the center of the room, playing with my fingers. Damnit... I didn't understand! I had wet myself, hadn't I?! I went over to Jackie with a pout on my face and played with the edges of the dress.

"Wan' go home," I muttered.

"And let that brat have her way?" I wasn't usually so petty, but seeing her talk to Leona that way just rubbed me completely the wrong way. "You're way better at being a little girl than she is, I'd love to see her brought down a peg or two."

That didn't seem to brighten Leona's mood, though, but what I did next probably would: I kissed her right on the forehead. "You're doing great."

I bit my lip and smiled sheepishly at Jackie. Gosh... "You... think so?"

"I know so."

I nodded my head and looked back into the playroom, at the girl on the changing table, at the woman towering over her. "D'you know where Betsy is? It's hard to compete with both of them..."

"According to the text I got from Abe, she's got the day off and won't be back today - I guess when we wrap, you'll just come home to the hotel with me?" She looked forlorn, she looked worried and scared, and I did my best to prop her up emotionally. "Anything she can do, you can do better."

Betsy had the day off? Wasn't she getting paid for this?! I balled my hands at my sides in frustration as I watched Kate tape Jessie into a new diaper - a thicker diaper, with teddy bear prints.

"You do it."

"...huh?"

"Be my Mommy! Just for a minute! Just to change me so she stops making fun of me!"

I could do it, yes, I'd done it before - changed her diaper. And maybe if my head wasn't so flustered and fucked up with her calling me "her Mommy" I would have remembered that the cameras were rolling, that I'd be on there, that they broadcast live from this house and what was done would be done. Maybe I'd have noticed that. I didn't, though. I just nodded, smiled, blushed a little at the edges of my cheeks, and put my hand in hers to take her over to the changing table. So fucking cute.

I took Jackie by the hand and led her into the room, in front of the cameras and everything, and over to the changing table where Kate had just plopped Jess on the floor.

"Auntie gun' change me!" For the documentary's sake, Betsy was my Mommy. No point confusing the two. Kate let us through, much to Jessie's displeasure.

Auntie. Right. That was a thing. I put my hands up under her arms and lifted her up onto the changing table, setting my camera off to the side on one of the benches. This dress was something else, though, it was almost liquid with its volume.

"Alright, there's a good girl." I wasn't good at this. I'd done it, but I was no pro, not like Kate, or Betsy. I heard a click, a familiar one, and turned to see Sprinkles playing with my camera, taking pictures of me. Ugh. I'd have to not develop those ones... or not give them to Abe, at least. "Be careful with that, Sprinkles, it's expensive."

I expected Kate to take it from her, but she didn't. And suddenly, I connected the camera-camera association. I was on camera. Video camera. Live camera. My hand shook as I untaped the diaper and looked into Leona's eyes, so proud of me, so content in the moment... and for her sake, I continued. Fucking FUCK.

Jackie wasn't really that great at diapers, so I had to help her a little with the positioning. It ruined the whole illusion of "little girl", but I played it up. "Nuh uh Auntie, like dis, 'member?" Finally, after sprinkling powder on me and taping the fresh diaper around my waist - the same teddy bear diaper that Jessie had on - she helped me off the table. I smiled proudly at her, but Jackie seemed uneasy. "You otay?"

"I'm fine, sweetie." I wasn't. "Auntie's just had a big lunch and is feeling a little queazy." I needed an excuse to get off camera, a reason to get away from all of this before I had a fucking panic attack. She tugged on my hand and swung from me like a child-shaped pendulum, eyes bright, smile wide. And I realized at the same time: I'd already been seen, right? Did it even fucking matter now?

"Otay," I said with a smile. "Feel better!" Jackie took her camera back from the little girl beside me and made her exit. What was that all about? She'd changed my diaper before...

"You're still not the littlest," Jessie pouted. I stuck out my tongue in response. And the battle waged on.

I stayed on the edge of the room after that, for the next hour while the children played. The competition didn't seem to end after the changing, either - Sprinkles would suck her thumb, so Leona would suck hers, too. Leona would drool, so Sprinkles would do the same thing. One of them would color in poorly, and the other would giggle and stab the crayons at the paper dumbly. And when Sprinkles stood up and called for her Mommy, when she said those words - "gotta go potty" - Leona sat on the floor with her curious eyes.

Potty? But she had a diaper on. I watched as Kate took her by the hand and led her out of the room, past where Jackie was sitting. Why would Kate take her to the bathroom if she was wearing a diaper? She was a baby, wasn’t she? No, Jessie was an adult - she just played pretend. Then it hit me. Oh. Maybe there was a way I could win this competition after all.