Chapters 15 and 16 by Sofia Hammerstein

'Alterations' continues the story of Stacy's journey from 'Exchanged' and 'Little Hope.' Stacy is a young college student who chose to travel to a new dimension to study their advanced computing technology at a prestigious university as an exchange student. Stacy thought he knew what he was getting into when he traveled, but multiple events show that he didn't plan for every problem he would encounter. Recently on a trip his adoptive parents adopted another Little, Bella, to help prevent her from being taken by unscrupulous Amazons. Stacy now begins orientation and classes at Emerson as the small family attempts to stay safe from the outside threat. Can Stacy manage to navigate college classes and everything the dimension can throw at him, and still make it back home with a degree? (Story set in the Diaper Dimension)

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The Legal Stuff: Exchanged © 2017-2025 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.
 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 

Chapter 15: Verdicts
 

WE BEGAN WALKING quickly down the path to the student union, which wasn’t too far. Inside there was a long line of Littles at a sandwich restaurant that reminded me of Subway.

A large sign said Little’s Special Today! $1 Six-Inch sandwich and chips! I said, “Split a pizza?”

“But they said there’s a special…?”

“Special probably means ‘special,’” I said while holding my fingers in quotes.

“Oh… really?”

“Blondie, you’re going to have to be a lot more careful if you want to make it through this week, let alone four years here.”

She nodded in reply but didn’t say anything else as we joined a small line of Amazons waiting for some pre-made pizzas that reminded me of Pizza Hut.

“One pepperoni,” I said to the guy at the counter.

“We don’t have Little sized ready.”

“I don’t mind the big one; we’re sharing,” I told him.

He looked at me oddly but nodded, “Well, if you’re going to be cautious like that, I won’t keep you from having something smart.”

I didn’t fully know if he meant that they were the safe ones or not, but I just handed him my card, which I knew had money on it to swipe. “You’re all good, sweetheart,” he told me as he gave me the personal pizza that might as well have been an extra-large size pizza to me back home.

“Thanks!” I said and found our way over to a Little sized table.

“Why didn’t you get the Little special?” Someone asked us as we sat down next to them. “Only one dollar today!”

“Because it’s probably spiked with something?” I said casually. “Like the punch last night?”

They looked at the half-eaten sandwich in horror and ran out to the bathroom while throwing their food away.

“Was that mean?” I asked Laura as she took a piece and began cutting it in thirds to eat it.

“No… Not nice, but not mean.”

I kept a close eye on my watch for the time while I filled her in more on my life. I gave her a short version of everything since I’d arrived in the dimension. “You’ve really breastfed?” She asked quietly.

I nodded.

“How do you still have control?”

I sighed, “I haven’t nursed in a week… and I hate it.”

“But…”

“I think if I only do at night, it won’t be a huge problem, but Amanda wants to wait until the weekend to test that.”

“Why would you want that?”

“It’s calming,” I started, “and I kind of like not knowing that I need to pee in the middle of the night. I lose bladder control for the full night and usually don’t notice my bladder the next day.”

“But if you poop…?”

“Yeah… so I’m restricted until we can figure it out… or I can find a way to counteract that part of it.” We talked about the test and some other things about Emerson while we both ate. I had a lot of fun talking to her – she reminded me of Gaby, actually!

I looked at my watch again as I was full, “I’ve got to go next door to the administration building, see you later?”

“Sure! If nothing else, see you tomorrow at the Little seminars?”

“Sounds good – be careful what you eat or drink before then… and if you feel like it’s going to happen, let me know, and I’ll give you something to keep you from going… it’ll just have some side-effects you have to worry about.”

She looked skeptically at me but nodded, “Okay.”

I gathered my backpack and dodged the large Amazons moving to and fro, out the door, and across the lawn to the large administration building. More than any of the other buildings I had seen, this one reminded me of a traditional Ivy League campus back home.

“I’m looking for Dean Sanders’ office?” I told the lady on the front floor.

“Already in trouble, dear?” She said as she sniffed the air a bit to see if I had a poopy diaper.

“No ma’am, at least I don’t think so… I think it’s about a test result?”

“Well, either way, you’re going to go upstairs to the third floor. Let me call the elevator for you,” she smiled as she walked me over.

“Thanks,” I said and then “Have a great day,” when she left the elevator.

I quickly found Amanda waiting patiently in a chair next to Doctor Butler outside the office on the third floor. They seemed to be having an amicable conversation. I walked up to her, and she possessively picked me up onto her lap as the sounds of blood-curdling screaming came from the office we were waiting to go into. “Bad baby!” was accompanied with more smacks and, “Is that what you want to be? A diaper pooping baby?!?”

The sad sounds of a bawling girl went on loudly for a long uncomfortable few minutes before eventually, a teary-eyed Kristina came out of the office. Earlier she had been dressed in the uniform like I had been, but now she just wore her blouse and a large diaper with ‘Baby’ in blocks around it. “You have nine demerits, young lady, one more, and you’ll be in the nursery where I’m pretty sure you belong. This is your last chance! Don’t blow it!”

“No, ma’am,” she said and walked to the elevator with her head held down without noticing her audience.

“Poor girl…” Amanda said so quietly only I could hear.

“Sorry about that unpleasantness,” she said, turning towards us. “Doctor Westerfield, Doctor Butler, nice to see you again.”

“You too,” Amanda said as she stood and set me on my feet.

“And Stacy, so good to see you again too! Sorry, you had to see your classmate go through that, but sometimes some Littles don’t quite have as exceptional of maturity as you do.”

“I can see that,” I said with a hedged statement.

“Oh, and Doctor Wernstrom!” she said as the man huffed up from the closing elevator.

“Hi Dean Sanders, sorry I’m running late,” he said.

“No worries, Og,” she said, “come on in, and let’s meet about whatever you wanted.”

She had an office that was surprisingly smaller than Amanda’s but had a glass conference table to one side that she led us to. Amanda sat me in the office chair before Dean Sanders said, “Oh, sweetie here, hold up a second. I keep these chairs, especially for my Little visitors!”

She pulled out a highchair that I immediately recognized as a genuine Little high chair, complete with the awkward restraining straps! I gulped as Amanda lifted me into it and closed only the waist strap around me.

“Aren’t you going to fasten the other straps?” Dean Sanders asked.

“I don’t think Stacy needs them,” Amanda said.

“Well… I guess you are her mommy,” she said before looking at Dr. Wernstrom. “Just why are you making all of us come to a meeting today? This is one of my busiest days for Little discipline problems!”

“Sorry, ma’am, but this may be one of them too,” he said with a stern look. Then, he turned to me with a grim expression, “Yesterday Stacy, you took our placement test for Computer Science.”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “I don’t know what the problem would be though that would be disciplinary. I didn’t cheat in any way if that’s what you’re implying.”

“Young lady, watch your tone!” Dean Sanders said.

“Actually, ma’am, she’s right I am implying that! I don’t believe any Little can take this test and do as well as she did without cheating. Her score makes it obvious that she somehow cheated! As soon as I saw that all of her code compiled and performed the tasks properly, I knew we needed to meet.”

“That’s a very serious accusation,” Amanda said coldly. “Where’s your proof? Did you review the security footage?”

“Yes, I did… but she must have done something clever because I don’t see her looking at any other person’s computer or any devices?”

“Wouldn’t that just point to her not cheating?” Doctor Butler asked. “It sounds like the only reason you’re accusing her of cheating is that she scored better than you think she should. You know I’ve felt many times that you have too much bias here. I don’t know that you’ve let a single Little pass your classes since you began teaching the intro courses.”

“Well, I wonder if Doctor Westerfield may have taught her to regurgitate the correct answers?”

“Of course, she didn’t,” I said with a sigh. “Do you have a copy of my code?” I asked.

“Here,” he said, handing over a thin tablet.

“Good, Doctor Butler, would you please look at my code? I’m guessing the problem is that he can’t understand me answering the last question.”

“Why should he look at it?” Dr. Wernstrom asked. “I’ve already given my assessment that there’s no way you could have achieved that test result without cheating? After all, no other first-year student has ever completed the full exam!”

“Just let him look, please,” Amanda said. “If I truly gave her the answers, he’ll be able to tell just from the syntax. Do you have more copies? I would like to examine it too? Especially since you are essentially accusing me as a faculty member of academic misconduct.” Amanda’s tone on the last statement was colder than ice.

“Sure… umm… here you go…” he said, his voice shaking with an understanding of how far he had pushed. Amanda took the other offered tablet and scanned the code as quickly as Doctor Butler. He occasionally commented, ‘that’s interesting…’ and made different sounds. I waited a good fifteen minutes until he reached the end of his reading. All I could do then was sit and await his verdict.

“Dean Sanders, I believe Doctor Wernstrom is falsely accusing Ms. Westerfield.”

“You sound certain?”

“Have you ever looked at a paper and known it was plagiarism just because the language didn’t make sense?”

She nodded, “Frequently, it’s amazing how many of our students don’t get that we can tell in ten seconds?”

“Okay, this is like the opposite case. Stacy, your code is brilliant but full of some peculiar quirks. You said you came from the other dimension because we’re further ahead of your technology?”

I nodded, “Yes, sir.”

“Well, it shows in your code. If I didn’t know any better, I would expect a seventy-year-old retired programmer to write this, clearly not someone in their thirties like Doctor Westerfield.” He shook his head and looked at Dr. Wernstrom, “Og, grow up and accept that she is a Little that can code. But she’s more than that; she has potential to be the student that makes our university very rich as people look and say ‘she went here.’”

“Doctor Westerfield?” Dean Sanders asked as Amanda finished the last page.

“I know I’m going to be accused by Doctor Wernstrom of being biased, but truthfully her code is her code. Doctor Butler nailed the reasons. We could have a few other professors look at it, but Henry wouldn’t cover for either of us. We like arguing about budget amounts too much!”

Dr. Butler laughed then while Dr. Wernstrom fumed in his seat. “So, there are no issues that I’m needed for?” Dean Sanders asked as the wailing sounds of someone being beaten outside her door came through.

“I guess not,” Dr. Wernstrom said.

“So, if she scored perfectly on the test, she’s definitely going to need to schedule some different classes, Amanda.” Dr. Butler said, “If you want to walk down to my office, we can get that done quickly, so you don’t have to run her back here later?”

“Probably should check her math scores first,” Dr. Wernstrom said, “Probably didn’t pass the test there.”

“Why? Because I’m a Little? Or because I’m a girl?”

“That’s enough,” Dean Sanders said with a wearied voice before looking at me. “Young lady, you will speak to faculty members with a more respectful tone! There will be demerits and spankings if I ever witness that again.”

I gulped but said, “Yes ma’am, sorry sir,” towards him.

“That being said, Og, you might want to consider how an outsider might view this. Especially with her mother present, I would say consider your words!”

With that, he huffed out ahead of us through the door. “Thanks for your time,” Amanda said, “it sounds like you have another issue to deal with now,” as the wails became louder with the door open.

“You’re welcome. I hope not to see you much this year, young lady,” Dean Sanders said.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said contritely and stood as Amanda sat me down on the ground from the highchair. We walked to the door, and as we opened the door, I saw the source of the sounds.

I cringed as I saw a nearly naked Little wearing only a pair of panties with poop dripping and smearing down the girl’s legs. Then, as we walked quickly past her and the Nest Hen holding her ear, I heard her say, “This Little girl thought she didn’t need to wear the diapers we made mandatory after last night’s outbreak.”

“Well, sweetie, I think we’ve got a few demerits to go over here...”

I walked a little faster and was grateful when the elevator doors closed. I instinctively leaned against Amanda’s leg, and she patted my head. Doctor Butler led us to his office on the first floor and closed the door, “Have a seat,” he said, directing us to two chairs in front of his computer.

“Amanda, I was crushed that you tried to slide her by me without letting me know she was yours,” he said as he sat down at the computer.

“I wanted her to be able to stand on her own two legs, so to speak,” Amanda said diplomatically.

“Well, that she’s doing well with… well excepting with Og. The only good thing about that meeting is that now you won’t ever have to take any of his classes, Stacy.”

“How many classes did the test count for?”

“Well, if you answered the test correctly except the last question, it counted for four?”

“And the last question?”

“It’s another class in AI design, but given the professor is considered the most prominent expert in that field, I would probably recommend you take her class anyway.”

I guessed who taught that class, so I looked over at Amanda, who blushed a bit, “Yes, I teach it, and yes, you’d benefit still from taking it.”

“Okay, so we’ll switch out your Intro to computer programming class for Principles of Machine Learning… and let me check your math exam score.”

He typed for a moment before laughing, “And we’ll have to change this too.”

“How did I do?” I asked.

“The test gives weight to certain questions, and the test is scored out of two-hundred. More points and weight are given to the more difficult questions.”

“And I got?”

“Well, they noted in the computer that they graded your test manually twice, checked the cameras for cheating, in addition to the automatic grading completed by the software… before putting in the score of 190?”

“Cool!” I said with a smile.

“I have to say it’s unheard of for freshmen in general, but for a Little, it’s highly unusual!” He shrugged his shoulders, “Obviously, you are an unusual Little, given both test scores and your CARE scores. I’m looking forward to seeing how you do at Emerson.”

“I am, too, thanks!” I said with a smile, “So what am I taking for math?”

“Well, that score places you out of the first four semesters of Calculus, but if you’ll take some advice, I’d recommend taking Calc three this year.”

“Why?”

“Well, I recently read an interesting paper that your dimension uses Base Ten math, correct?”

“Yes, it is. I’ve been practicing a lot before I came here using Base Sixty instead.”

“Obviously, or you would have failed the test massively!” he said, “You’ll probably find that calculus class to be a review, but it’ll also let you get through a math class here while knowing the material. Sometimes different universities approach things a little differently, too, so it would help you adjust to Emerson’s method. Based on your test scores, though, you could be in the final fifth-semester class if you want, but I just think it would be wise not to skip the entire sequence.”

I nodded, “I’m okay with the third semester.”

“Great, let me play around with this for a second!”

Amanda reached over and gave me a hug while he worked and ended up bringing me over to her lap and sitting me on her knee that she lightly bounced nervously.

“Here you go,” he said as he reached down to a printer and handed me a schedule, “I emailed it to you too.”

I glanced down at it quickly and said, “Thanks! Is there anything else I need to do?”

“Nope, good luck with your classes! Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said as Amanda sat me on the ground.

“Thanks, Henry,” Amanda said.

“We’ll see you around Amanda…” he paused as we turned, “I think this is one of the crazier things you’ve done, but I suspect you’ve adopted the smartest Little ever!”

Amanda laughed, “Thanks, Henry – see you at the next faculty meeting!” Then, she looked at me and patted my head, “Come on, kiddo, let’s go home if you don’t have anything else to do on campus. We have a couple projects to get done before tonight!”

I nodded and followed her outside the building. When she stopped for just a second to put sunglasses on, I impulsively decided to put my arms up, “Up?”

She laughed as she picked me up and tickled my belly, “You’re probably the most brilliant student of your year, and what do you want? To be carried around and waited on like a newborn?”

I stuck my tongue out at her but leaned towards her warm protective body. She readjusted my skirt to keep from flashing my diaper, but I honestly didn’t care at that point. I had survived a big test and serious accusations of cheating; I was lucky enough to have her!
 
 

Chapter 16: Past Problems
 

AT THE CAR, she felt my diaper and said, “You really need to be drinking more, sweetheart; this should be wetter!”

“Sorry, I actually did drink a good bit out of that water bottle… The test kind of made it difficult, though.”

“Well, I guess you were concentrating too much…” she laughed as she closed the door by my car seat and hopped inside, “I wonder if you’d gotten more sleep last night if you could have scored a perfect score?”

I looked at her through the mirror in front of my car seat and shook my head, “That last question was something I hadn’t learned.”

She drove us back home, pulled into the garage, and unbuckled me. Once she had me clear, she started to set me down, but I just clung on, “Carry me in?”

She sighed, “Clingy today?”

I shrugged, “I just like being held sometimes?”

She squeezed me tight, “After last night, I guess I understand.” She grabbed my backpack and threw the small bag on her other shoulder, “Come on, let’s see if Daddy got the window fixed and how Grandpa’s crew is doing on the alarm system.”

A couple of weeks ago, being held on her hip was scary, but now it was comforting. As we walked inside, Fred called out, “Amanda?”

“Yes, Fred,” she said.

He walked from the backdoor up to us, and I could see he had been sweating and had working clothes on. He was going to hug Amanda, but she said, “Not until you shower! You stink worse than one of our daughters’ diapers right now.”

I stuck my tongue out at her.

He smirked, “Okay, I guess if you two had been working hard all day, you two would still smell like roses.”

“Of course!” I said.

“So, how’d your test go?” Fred asked.

I smiled, “Pretty good.”

Amanda looked down at me and shook her head, “I’m curious to see what good or amazing looks like for this little girl!”

“Aced it?”

“Ten points from perfect,” Amanda said. “What Doctor Butler didn’t tell you, Stacy was that sixty points would have gotten you into your first calculus class. I don’t know many of our students who have scored any better than you!”

“So, how did your meeting go before that?”

“We were right that he was accusing her of cheating… But they had no case for her cheating any better than trying to say I had either coached her or taught her all of the code she would need like some sort of parrot.” She shook her head, “Thankfully, Henry was there, and he could instantly see that the code couldn’t have been mine. It was still good working code, but Stacy has some quirky coding habits. Her comments are also more consistent in her code than mine have ever been! Except maybe in college when I was getting graded on them.”

“So, how did Wernstrom take that?”

“He didn’t like it one bit… A Little being better at coding than anyone else? That doesn’t sit well with him. Really, you would think he was a baby-crazed woman!”

“So why exactly was he so concerned she cheated?”

“Oh…” she squeezed me again, “this little girl likes to cause problems on tests. She will have a class full of students who hate her if a professor grades on a bell curve… or likes to adjust from the highest score only.”

“So, like her math test?”

“Worse… one-hundred percent perfect.”

He raised his eyebrows, “Your dad was right. You just wanted a nerd-baby!”

I smiled at him, “Well, she lucked out.”

“Anyway, how’s Bella doing?”

“She’s napping upstairs in her crib. Your mom is keeping an eye on her now while your dad and I have been finishing up repairing the door and wiring a new system he wanted to put in. You’re probably more help with that than I am, but I can at least do the grunt work on it.”

“Yes, you do make a nice grunt,” Amanda said to him with a smirk.

“See what I put up with Stacy?”

“I’m staying out of this,” I told them both.

“How long has Bella been napping?”

“Your mom gave her a bottle about twenty minutes ago? With as long of a night as we had last night, I figure she’ll probably sleep for a while.”

“Probably…” Amanda said.

“What about you, kiddo?” She asked me, “You need to lay down and take a nap?”

I shook my head, “I feel wide awake right now. Can I just get on my computer up in your workroom like yesterday?”

She looked thoughtful for a second, “You’ve got a good battery on it, right?”

I nodded.

“Why don’t you just bring it outside and work on a blanket on the patio?”

“No desk?”

“Do you really need one?”

“It’s easier to do stuff when I can set stuff down?”

She sighed and thought, “Can you be absolutely quiet if I have just let you go into your room, where my mom is watching Bella?”

“As long as she doesn’t distract me?”

Amanda looked doubtful but said, “Okay, I guess,” and started to carry me upstairs before feeling my diaper again and turning back to the kitchen. She opened the fridge, “Bottle or sippy?”

I hesitated before saying, “Bottle, please,” I told her while slightly blushing.

She shook her head, “You’re not helping my ability to think of you like a big girl?”

“The sippy cup takes more work to drink out of,” I told her honestly.

“Really?”

I nodded, “Yeah.”

“Who would have thought?” She asked as she handed me an uncapped bottle and carried me upstairs, and stepped over the baby gate into my… our room.

Granny was sitting in the rocking chair with her eyes closed and seemed to be dozing herself based on her sounds. Bella was snoring loudly in her crib, and I just hoped I’d be able to get anything done with them both sawing logs! Amanda sat me down and said quietly, “When I get back in a bit, I want that bottle of juice empty, or I’ll be mean and take your babas away – you’re much too big for them now.” She winked at me and hugged me before slipping out of the room.

‘By this point, my head is so messed up I don’t know if I want to be a big girl or a baby!’ I groused to myself.

My computer and the power cords were on my desk, and I reattached everything to turn it on and keep it charged. I looked back at Granny sleeping soundly and decided it was time to check out a few things I’d been thinking about trying. ‘I should probably update my calendar with my new schedule first.’
 
Day of Week Time Department Code Course Title Location Professor Credits
MWF 9:15am-10:15am MATH225 Calculus III Destiny Hall Lieberman 3.0
MWF 11:00am-12:00pm ENGL140 Technical Writing Jennings 230 Benning 3.0
MWF 1:30pm-2:30pm EECS245 Principles of Machine Learning Wenig 630 Westerfield 3.0
MWF 3:30pm-4:30pm CHEM115 Principles of Chemistry Kendrick Hall Casio 3.0
TR 9:30am-11:00am HIST134 History of Amaz. Civ. Destiny Hall Evergreen 3.0
T 1:00pm-2:00pm SEMN001 Little Freshmen Seminar Destiny Hall Sanders 0.0
 

I checked my email first and began closely looking over my new schedule.

‘I have a lot of free time on Tuesdays and Thursdays,’ I thought, ‘the other days will be busy though!’ I moved over to my calendar and moved my math and programming classes around in the schedule to set things. ‘At least my first class is later now!’ I thought as I took another look. ‘Stupid Little Seminar is only one day a week, but it’s for an hour, and I don’t even get a credit for it???’

I looked back at Granny again to make sure she hadn’t stirred and then began working through some projects I wanted to do without too many eyes on me. I quickly nursed the bottle down so Amanda wouldn’t badger me more about being dehydrated when she came back. As soon as I was done, I thought, ‘First things first… where did I put that copy of the nanite code…?’
 

I ENJOYED A couple of hours alone digging through code before hearing Granny groan and stretch. I quickly used a shortcut key to save what I had been working on and switched to an e-mail I had opened to my parents, updating them on my test results. I had just clicked ‘send’ a few moments later when I was picked up.

“Hi Granny,” I told her quietly since Bella hadn’t stirred.

“Well ‘hi’ yourself,” she said to me. “How long was I out?”

I looked at my watch, “Two hours since I came in? I think Daddy said you’d come up with Bella about twenty minutes before that with her bottle?”

“Sounds about right,” she said. “Speaking of bottles, yours is empty, but this diaper doesn’t feel very wet. Do you need another one? Your mommy mentioned she didn’t think you were drinking enough yesterday.”

I shrugged, “I would drink it?”

She squeezed me, “I’ll let you keep working, then while I go refill it. I’ll get Bella a fresh one too for when she wakes up. Last night really got to her,” she told me in an even quieter whisper.

“Okay,” I said as she sat me back down by my chair, and I retook my seat as she picked up my bottle, grabbed Bella’s from before her nap, and went downstairs.

With no one in there now, I dug through the open closet where my old backpack had ended up and found my Switch. I almost moved it to my new bag but thought better of it and instead walked over to my new bed, pulled up the mattress by the headboard, and placed it there. ‘I don’t think it’ll do much more than pissing a giant off right now?’ I thought, ‘but maybe the idea will work when I get a chance.’

I returned to my seat and looked at tomorrow’s schedule.
 
Time: Location: Event:
9:00am-6:00pm Various Advisor Appointments for Scheduling
9:00am-6:00pm Fisher Hall Returning Students Check-In
9:30am-11:00am Destiny Lecture Hall Littles: Legal Rights and Responsibilities*
1:00pm-2:00pm Destiny Lecture Hall Littles: Planning for the Future*
6:00pm Sherwood Lawn Welcome Back Barbeque
7:00pm Fraternity Row IFC and Panhellenic Councils Sponsored Block Party
 

Seeing the block party information, I remembered that the ΛΔΠ event was supposed to be tomorrow… I dug back through to Sarah’s e-mail and saw it was to begin at 4:30pm. ‘Of course, Littles can’t be a part of the block party. Their bedtime is much too close!’ I grumbled. No one had said I was bound by the rules of the dorms, but I wasn’t about to risk getting a demerit by showing up there!

That thought brought up the sad memory of poor Kristina. The poor girl had fallen victim to whatever they had put in the food last night - I was sure of that! ‘It makes sense if you really just want Littles to be babies instead.’ I thought, ‘just put some sort of laxative in the food one of the early nights, and you can cull the herd pretty quickly.’

Since Kristina now had nine demerits out of her ten allowed for the year – I knew it was just a matter of time before she was dragged kicking and screaming to the daycare and a lifetime of forced babyhood. Granny came back in then and picked me up, asking, “What’s wrong, Stacy?” She set one capped bottle of milk down on the changing table area but kept my smaller one full of juice in her other hand. “I don’t think I’ve seen that expression on your face much.”

I sighed as she sat down in the rocking chair, holding me to where I was sideways on her lap, “something I saw earlier.”

“Another Little?”

I nodded but didn’t say anything else.

“I’m assuming you think I wouldn’t want to discuss that?”

I looked at her, “You had your own Little – so I’m not sure you’d agree with me?”

“Your mommy has two now?”

“Well, I’m kind of an oddball case… and well, with Bella… she was just being a decent person, I think?”

“It was the same with my Hannah at first…” she said sadly.

Now curious to hear more, I perked up, “What do you mean?”

“Stacy, I’m not going to lie to you and say I didn’t enjoy babying the daylights out of our baby girl Hannah, but I didn’t kidnap her off the street like most of my friends.” She paused, and I could sense some difficulty going forward. The nipple of the bottle she held was gently teased between my lips.

She watched to see that I began nursing from the bottle before she started, “I met Hannah one day when I went to walk in the park. I was pushing Chloe in her stroller. She had just been born a couple months earlier and was the most beautiful baby then, and sometimes the only way I could get her to sleep was taking her for a walk. So I walked and watched all of the Littles, babies, and kids playing on the playground, and I was daydreaming of when my sweet Chloe would be old enough to play with them. Then, partway through my walk, I was startled when I noticed a group of teenagers gathered around something like vultures and a lot of screaming.”

I pictured the sight and nodded for her to go on as she let go of the bottle for me to hold, “I decided to check out what was going on and found that they were pushing this sweet little girl around back and forth, lifting up her skirt and showing off her panties. The poor girl was in tears and didn’t have a chance against one of them, let alone eight big kids like they were. I couldn’t help myself; I yelled at them to get lost before I decided their parents needed to know how immature they were acting… I guess my voice must have been enough to scare them as they all scrambled away.”

“That was a good thing,” I told her while pushing the bottle nipple out of my mouth.

“It was, but when they were gone, she just stood there trembling, ‘Thank you, ma’am,’ she told me in this sweet but trembling voice. I talked to her for a few minutes before hearing her stomach rumbling with hunger. Her clothes looked to be dirty, faded, and baggy. I guessed that they had already been torn even before the bullies. ‘Maybe you should get home?’ I suggested to her.”

“She nodded but grimaced as she said, ‘Home would be nice… but I think my parents were adopted a couple days ago, and they changed the locks to the apartment by the time I came home from school.”

“She was homeless then?!?” I asked. “That’s terrible!”

“Yes, it was,” Granny said. “I asked her how old she was and was surprised when she said she was twenty.”

“She was still living with her parents, though?”

“She was going to school at the community college. Since they don’t have dorms to stay in, she didn’t have to live there.”

“Oh,” I said, “So what happened next?”

“I told her I was sorry to hear that… Did she have anywhere else to go? When she said she didn’t, I told her I wouldn’t force her to come with me, but as soon as someone else found out she was homeless, they would either take her for themselves or force her to go to an orphanage.”

“Are those really the only two options?” I asked.

“Stacy, things are rough right now, but they were way worse back then for Littles! I know she had to have been shocked that I was even willing to let her walk away from me. Hannah later told me she expected me to immediately pick her up and start walking with her.”

“She stared at me for a long while, and Chloe began to whine. Without a word to Hannah, I unbuckled Chloe from her seat, changed the messy diaper she was complaining about and gave her a pacifier to settle her down. I just rocked and hummed to her for a moment before she went right back to sleep. As I buckled her back into the stroller, Hannah asked me, ‘How much will you treat me like her?’”

“I thought for a long moment before answering, ‘Probably a lot? I don’t think I’ll be able to help myself?’ She nodded and asked, ‘Will you treat me with love and not beat me up or torture me like some mommies do?’”

I noticed Amanda had snuck in at some point and held Bella, who was now an attentive audience member but didn’t say anything. Instead, she stood quietly and gently bounced Bella up and down on her side.

“I told her that her life would be one of the best taken care of babies ever if she came with me. I couldn’t guarantee that everything would be roses, but I wouldn’t abuse her, I wouldn’t beat her needlessly, and most importantly, I wouldn’t go out of my way to bully her.” She paused, “And so she said, ‘Okay, I’m yours.’”

A part of me could actually feel like she wasn’t the evil queen witch that Amanda had made me feel like she was before I met her.

“You never told me that story Momma,” Amanda said, breaking the story’s spell.

Granny looked at her, “To protect her and you.”

“What do you mean, Momma?”

She sighed, “I learned more about Hannah when I got home with her. Her parents were actually Betweeners and nearly Bigs in height. Hannah’s short height was caused by one of the weird mutations that happen every now and then to Betweener kids. Both of her Betweener parents being adopted was really uncommon, especially with their size being seven feet tall! Even back then, with fewer protections for everyone, it was weird. I wondered what had led to someone suddenly kidnapping and adopting them. Joe was on leave then, so I asked him to look into it through some of his contacts. It turned out they had been adopted because they were involved in an embezzlement scheme with the Trelini family. Something went wrong… and I guess the mafia took it out on her parents. He also discovered that there was an active hit out for Hannah too.”

I looked up at Amanda, who looked stunned as this was the first time that she’d ever heard this story. Amanda asked, “So you kept her as a baby and didn’t potty train her because…?”

“Because a baby isn’t a threat to anyone Amanda. A big-girl Little isn’t considered a threat, but she’s way more likely to be seen as a target. Anyone who came and looked in on Hannah would see she was a Little girl being fed at her adopted mommy’s breast. Seeing her babied all of the time would be seen as already having gotten what was coming to them. Especially with Joe being deployed overseas for a good chunk of time, it was the safest way to protect Hannah and the rest of you.”

“So, what about when things got bad for Hannah?”

“Well… that’s where they say the path to Hell is lined with good intentions,” Granny sighed, “sorry for my language, girls… When Chloe and Cassie were both babies, it wasn’t like they saw Hannah as anything different than them. She was just a fellow diapered baby playmate as much as anything. By the time Chloe and Amanda were getting a bit older, things started happening… and I’ll be honest, I even lost perspective a couple times…” she paused, “Probably why your mommy was reluctant to tell me about you, Stacy.” She grimaced, “But Amanda, most of what happened to Hannah was at daycare or from Chloe and Cassie, wasn’t it?”

I looked at Amanda, and the scales of childhood were falling from her eyes. Realization dawned on her that her mom was telling the truth. I turned back to Granny, “So…?”

“Yes?”

“I’m not trying to upset you or Mommy, Granny. But, Mommy told me about what happened to Hannah a couple weeks before she died… and then about how everything happened,” I took a breath, “Hannah didn’t really die? Did she?”

“Stacy!” Amanda said reproachfully.

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