Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 

Chapter 51: Daycare

SUNDAY WAS ANOTHER day of waking up in what I thought of as ‘baby hell.’ Sure, I looked like a baby before. I had no potty training, drank from bottles and breasts, and was generally embarrassed beyond belief daily! But this was a new extreme to limit yourself to three words and babbling otherwise! I also restricted my movement to crawling in preparation for that being my normal locomotion at daycare.

Hannah, for her part, tried to at least cuddle me and make me feel loved in my own private hell there. From the time she woke me up and fed me a meal of baby food, then nursed me, she was constantly doing something with me. I forced myself to happily go along with it since I needed to be in character. I did at least genuinely enjoy it when she pulled out some books and read them to me. Some of them had pop-up pieces that she had me pull up as she read them. Hannah was a pretty good actress, she always had been, so she made great voices as she read different characters to bring the stories to life.

I was still thinking about the books she had been reading when she pulled me from my car seat at the mall. Hannah had decided she wanted to get a chance to see the mall where she would be working. Instead of placing me into a stroller, she pulled out a wrap sling like my mom used with Cassidy when she was younger. I was a little nervous about being only held to her by some fabric. Still, to my surprise, I felt really comfortable there as she began walking. She had me turned to look away from her but instinctually seemed to constantly reassure me with her hands that she was there and I was secure.

“Let’s go see where Mommy is working!” she cooed at me as she walked through the mall. She walked into a garishly decorated store that catered to babies and preschoolers. The windows featured brightly colored sales signs with cute and happy babies. Throughout the store, it seemed like over-the-top cute baby fashions were displayed everywhere. She walked in and asked, “Is Trinity here by chance?” of a girl working on restocking.

“She’s in the back. Do you want me to go get her?”

“I’m Haley; I’m supposed to start working tomorrow. I just wanted to meet her in person once before tomorrow since she interviewed me over the phone.”

“Oh, I can take you back to her,” she smiled and held her hand out to her, “I’m Sam.” Then, she looked at me and said, “And just who are you?” In a cooing voice.

I smiled and wiggled a bit as Hannah answered, “This is my little Livy! She just turned one last week. She’s my whole world,” she told her.

“Aww… she’s adorable!”

We were led back to an office by the stock area, and Sam knocked on the door. “Hi Trinity, I’ve got our new employee Haley here. She just wanted to stop by and meet you?”

“Absolutely, come on in!” she told her. “Oh my gosh, your daughter is so cute!!!”

“Thank you,” Hannah told her.

“How old?”

“She just had her first birthday last week,” she told her.

“What are you doing with her while you’re working?” she asked after cooing at me for a few more moments.

“I’ve got a daycare she’s going to go to stay at during the days. My parents are helping to pay for it to help me get a start on my own here.”

I felt my stomach grumbling, and apparently, it was loud enough that Trinity heard it. “Sounds like someone is getting hungry!”

“She probably is; I should get her fed. It was nice to meet you. Thank you so much for hiring me!”

“It’s my pleasure! I have a feeling we’re going to have a great relationship here. Now go take care of that adorable baby girl’s little tum-tum!”

Hannah said ‘bye’ to Sam and made my arms wave at her on her way out. I figured she would find her way to the car or something. But, instead, she stopped at a bench and messed with the sling, turning me around, and… my eyes opened wide. ‘Here?!?’ I thought nervously. We were sitting in the mall hallway; it didn’t get much more public than there! “Let’s just get your tummy filled with some num-nums, and then Mommy can keep shopping while you nap.”

She whispered quietly so only I could hear, “It’s okay; it’s normal.”

I didn’t make a scene as she opened her shirt up discreetly and placed me at her breast. The sling covered my head and her breast the whole time I nursed. It was a bit awkward as she shifted me and the sling around to her other breast, but I was thoroughly knocked out by the time I finished that one. I must have felt comfortable because Hannah told me later I slept through a diaper change and two hours of her walking around the mall. I didn’t wake up until we were back at the apartment.

The time between then and dinner consisted of more playtime, reading a couple more picture books she bought while we were out, and a poopy diaper change. I internally hated this boredom more than I had hated being stuck the size of a baby. Hannah was doing an incredible job of being a good mommy, but playing a helpless baby twenty-four hours a day would get old in a hurry. The ‘dinner’ of ‘pasta marinara’ and ‘pears and prunes’ tasted better for having been in the device, but I was beginning to crave something I could sink my teeth into. Falling asleep that night, I had to remind myself that Hannah’s breasts were off-limits for my sharp little teeth!

 
 

THAT NIGHT IN Caireen’s world, I found myself waking up to explosions. I cried for Caireen, and it took her a while to get to me. She wasted no time changing me and carried me, still nursing from her to what I had begun thinking of as our situation room. I listened to the General briefing her that Camulus had suddenly started using catapults to start flinging flaming oil and steel shots at the wall. So far, there had been no damage, but the sound alone was beginning to cause our soldiers to have problems hearing.

I listened to other scouting reports and an update from our special force’s groups. They had apparently managed to start a massive fire in a supplies stockpile area of Camulus’ main camp. Extensive damage was incurred on their tents and animals before they got the fire out with magic. Unfortunately, Camulus’s men had captured a dozen of our soldiers and publicly executed them one at a time himself by beheading them with his sword.

I was enraged as I finished nursing and turned to General Slane, “Can you get us locations for all the rest of his supplies he has left?” Then, I paused, “And his own personal tent?”

“Umm… You Highness, why?”

He looked skeptically at the baby, who had just been suckling at the queen’s breasts. Still, he knew I was actually quite powerful. I knew he probably had difficulty rectifying that image in his mind. I gave him a break and sighed, “I know you have some outstanding crews manning the trebuchets on top of the citadels. I’d like to give those a little magical boost to give them an extended range and maybe keep demoralizing his forces.

“You don’t think that’ll be enough, do you?” He asked.

I shook my head, “On its own? No way! But, with the losses they took from our special forces group on the supplies, plus the officers they lost in the last week? I think there’s a perfect opportunity here to encourage more of his troops to fear us more than him. Also, the supply chain is the most important thing here. There’s a country in my world called Germany. They decided to invade another larger country called Russia in the middle of a massive war. The Germans got way too zealous and pushed into Russia before developing a foolproof way to get supplies to the front. That, combined with them not preparing for the cold climate, pretty much doomed them when Russia finally stood its ground. Plus, hungry troops won’t have the stamina to keep fighting as well as our well-supplied forces,” I told him.

He nodded, “I like it… Let me see what we can get here in a few minutes.”

Within an hour, we targeted their command tents, supply tents, makeshift stables, and an area they were cutting down trees and building something that was probably trouble. Next, Caireen and I traveled with the general to Citadel One, as I had creatively named it. I spoke with the crews, and they helped set everything up with a boost from magic on both the explosion the payload would make and the distance it could go with their trebuchets. We then traveled to Citadel Two, Three, and Four and did the same thing before returning to the situation room. As Camulus launched a new wave of assaults on the wall, we gave the signal to fire. On the scrying mirrors, I watched as their men scrambled around in shock as the payloads passed over the top of them and soon caused explosions behind them in their main camp.

One mirror caught sight of Camulus doing a check over the battlefield and his camp later. He looked furious, and his men seemed to be actively avoiding him. It seemed we had managed to do more damage than we’d hoped.

 
 

THE NEXT MORNING Hannah was frantic, trying to get me ready to go to daycare and get off to her first day of work. She was dressed in a nice blouse and slacks outfit that morning. She dressed me in a one-piece jumpsuit, and I watched her put two spare changes of clothes in my bag. She quickly spoon-fed a pouch of oatmeal to me, but due to her nerves and rush accidentally missed my mouth several times. My bib was a mess! After she cleaned me up, I watched her ensure she had processed my baby food jars of lunch in the device. She made sure there were some spares, a big Ziploc of frozen breast milk pouches, and thawed bottles for today.

“I think Mommy is more nervous about leaving you today than she is going to work,” she told me with a smile as she buckled me into my car seat.

“Mama!” I told her with a smile.

She sighed and poked my nose before closing the door and getting in the car. The daycare was not far from the mall, so it took us a little bit to drive to it. When we arrived, she carried me and my diaper bag on one side and the big Ziploc of frozen breastmilk on the other.

“Hi, can I help you?” A friendly-looking woman asked as she carried me in.

“Hi, I’m Haley Stephenson. This is my daughter Olivia; I called last week?”

“Oh yes, I remember you. You’ve got a lot of information to fill out, but why don’t I take Olivia and hold her while you’re doing that?”

“O… Okay,” Hannah stuttered as she handed me over. She was genuinely shaking, so I decided to babble my unhappiness.

“Shh…” the lady said, “It’s okay. I’m just going to hold you while your mommy writes some things down.” She bounced me up and down for a few minutes while Hannah filled in the medical information, information about meals, contact information, etc. “Looks like we have everything here,” she said, still holding me. I’d intentionally relaxed my body and clung to her then.

“She seems to like you,” Hannah said. “She’s not always good with strangers!”

“Well, it’s good since we’re not going to be strangers, huh, Olivia?” She cooed at me. “Ms. Stephenson, we have an app that I recommend you download; this is the information about it. We’ll track Olivia’s diaper changes, any problems we see, if we need more supplies, behavior, and things like that. Speaking of supplies, though, we recommend parents bring a box of diapers for their baby – it’s easier than dealing with a diaper bag?”

“Oh, I have one in the car and some wipees for her. I just didn’t have the free hands for it. I’ll get it and bring it back in… Umm…?”

“You want to say goodbye to her first? Then, we can take her to her room together, and I’ll get this milk in the freezer? I assume there are some thawed bottles in the bag?”

“Yes, please…” she said nervously. I was handed back to Hannah and said, “Mama, mama, mama,” to her.

“She does love her mama, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, and it’s one of the few things she says.”

“What else?”

“Num-num when she wants to nurse, baba if she wants a bottle, and the worst of them all… no.”

“No?” I said.

She laughed along with the lady.

“Olivia will be just fine here, and who knows, being around the other babies, she’ll probably pick up some other new words in the next couple of months too!”

“I hope so! As much as I don’t want her to grow up, I want her to be a smart little girl that can go further than I did in school!”

They began talking, and Hannah spoke about how her cover Haley had barely finished high school and then got pregnant with me not long after. Then, down the hallway, the lady said, “This is our infants and toddlers’ room here that Olivia will be in.” She waved over a couple women who were just putting down babies on a carpet.

“Ms. Sally and Ms. Amy are our two main teachers for this room.” The woman introduced them to her. “Little Olivia will be joining your room today!”

“Oh, she’s adorable!” the woman named Sally said. She was probably in her early fifties and seemed like the perfect grandmother type. “How old?”

“She just had her first birthday last week!” Hannah said, looking at me. I smiled at her.

“She walking?”

“She occasionally pulls herself up and walks a little. But she’s not convinced that it is better than crawling yet. I’d say she crawls ninety percent of the time?”

“Being around the other kids may change that for her. It’s amazing how much babies learn when they see other babies or big kids doing something!”

“Well, it’s okay. Livy doesn’t have to grow up too quickly!” Hannah smiled.

“Food?”

“She’s still mainly on breast milk. She gets a jar of baby food with each meal first and then should have her bottle. I’ve put enough in there for a snack, lunch, nap time, and a couple extras. I have some frozen milk here, too, that you can keep.”

“Not interested in full solids yet?”

Hannah shook her head, and I put my head on her chest next to her heart. “We keep trying, but she wants nothing to do with them. Her pediatrician said not to worry about it for another month. After that, we may need to test to figure out why she’s not progressing there.”

“Sounds about right, but I’d say you’re still okay until she’s fourteen months. She’s still a good weight for her age. Maybe even a little tall?”

“A little,” she agreed.

“Why don’t you go ahead and pass her over to Sally, and we’ll work on getting you two separated?” I heard one woman whisper to her.

I frowned as I was passed over to her and began to fuss a bit about it. More than I had with the other girl, so Hannah pushed in my pacifier that was hanging from its strap. “It’s okay, Livy. They’re going to watch you today while Mommy goes to work. You’ll have so much fun playing, and then I’ll come and take you home!”

Her eyes had tears that I knew the ladies had to notice too.

“Can you say ‘bye bye?’” The lady holding me asked me a moment later.

“Ba,” I managed.

“Well, that’s something,” Hannah said and laughed.

The lady holding me turned around, and I was facing away as Hannah made her escape. I just heard, “First time leaving her?” from the woman as they left.

“Oh, aren’t you so precious?” The woman cooed at me. She tickled me for a moment and checked my diaper. It was still pretty dry, so she sat me on a play mat next to some stacking toys.

She played with me and the toys for the next while, teaching me what I was supposed to do with them. Of course, I would intentionally make mistakes most of the time. Still, anytime I did it right, she would coo, “Good girl!” to me and make goosebumps travel down my body.

The two workers were joined by another younger girl. Soon, fourteen other babies and I were crawling around the floor and playing with toys. I made sure to let myself drool some, and after a little while, my top was getting pretty wet, and my face was slobbery. The newcomer was a younger girl that Sally called Ms. Kate. “Ms. Kate, can you change Olivia?”

“Sure, Ms. Sally,” the girl said. She wasn’t much older than Hannah and me, I guessed. She tickled me as she picked me up and put my pacifier back in my mouth. I was carried to a changing table and handed a rattle toy immediately.

I looked at it and waved it in the air, making it noisy. With that, I smiled around my pacifier, and the girl said, “Oh, aren’t you just a happy wittle girl?” She tickled my belly gently before putting gloves on and unsnapping the pants off my jumpsuit.

I was a bit nervous about having someone else touching me, especially in this circumstance. Still, I pretended I was a baby and didn’t care until the diaper came off and it was cold. I started sobbing then, and she said, “Shh… It’s okay, Olivia. We’ll get you all nice and dry here!” I kept crying through the change. Afterward, I debated stopping and being an easy baby when she tried bouncing me for a few minutes. Unfortunately for her, I decided being a needy girl might keep her attention longer. When I continued to cry, Ms. Sally said, “She might be ready for a bottle?”

She gave me a bottle of Hannah’s milk cold and spat it out. “Oh… she takes it warm,” another voice said, “Sorry, I should have warned you.” The receptionist had peeked into the room for a few moments.

“Yes, you should have…” she said, “Normally, by the time they’re one, they’re less picky!” So I kept crying, waiting for the bottle to warm. I discovered it was a lot of effort to bawl like a baby for fifteen minutes non-stop, so by the time I finished my bottle, I was tired and fell asleep in her arms in the rocking chair she had sat down in.

 
 

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