The Gift – Chapter 4

“Y-Yeah, of course,” Beatrix lied. Why wouldn’t she? There was no way she was going to tell the other nurse that she wasn’t in diapers, since the patient she’d now been ‘diagnosed’ as seemingly needed them… She didn’t like to think about where things might go if she told the truth in this situation.

“Oh, Caitlin,” Sondra sighed, shaking her head. “Let me tell you a little secret, dear… I’m a nurse, so I deal with this sort of thing all the time. I’ve grown quite accustomed to being able to recognize from a distance whether a patient is wearing a diaper or not… I was just trying to give you a chance to tell me, so it would feel more like you had some control… But I’m afraid I can’t let you go all the way back to the children’s ward without protection.”

The children’s ward?! Did Sondra really think she was a kid?! She opened her mouth to protest, falling silent before she could get so much as a sound out, reminding herself of her mission… And that she’d just established herself as a liar in the nurse’s eyes, so anything she said was likely to fall on deaf ears anyway. “I-I won’t have an accident,” she promised after a moment.

“I’m sure you’ll do your best,” Sondra smiled at her, “but that’s the thing about accidents, isn’t it? Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, they happen anyway… And the janitors don’t need any more work to do.”

Bea’s cheeks blazed bright red. She knew she truly wouldn’t need the diapers; in her time working here, however, she’d seen the cleaning people dealing with several puddles… Never had she thought she would be the one leaving one, or that anyone else would assume she might.

“Can you help me out and get your pants off?” Sondra asked. “I think that would make it less awkward for all of us, don’t you?”

If she took her pants off, she’d be moments away from being put into a diaper… She tugged at the hem of her shirt anxiously. “I-I really don’t need them,” she insisted.

“No, you really do,” Sondra countered, stepping closer, easily pushing Beatrix’s hands aside. The smaller woman’s breath quickened as she felt someone else fumbling with the button on her jeans, towering over her, making her feel very much like the child the wristband she was wearing claimed she was. “That’s why you’re being sent home with a whole package of them… Don’t worry, dear, I’ll get this done, and get you back up to your room, and I’m sure you’ll be discharged in no time. Now, why don’t you get up here for me?”

Beatrix shook her head instinctively, feeling herself shiver slightly. If she got up on that table, a diaper was certain to follow. Sondra sighed, grabbed her, easily lifting her up, setting her down on the table, Bea gasping at the sound of crackling paper beneath her. “I thought we had an understanding, Caitlin,” Sondra said, pushing her back. “You seem very mature for your age, so I hoped you would make this easy for me.”

‘For her age’… What age was that, exactly? How young did Sondra – and the whole system, for that matter – think she was? Sondra pushed her shirt upwards, then, before Bea could stop her, yanked down her underwear, sliding it down her legs, catching up with her jeans, which had begun to sag now that they’d been unbuttoned, the whole thing ending up around her ankles.

“I’ll leave you with the full package,” Sondra told her, trying to be helpful… And she was, really, preventing any questions Chester might have about why it was open, why one was missing. Bea wasn’t sure yet how much of this she was going to tell her boyfriend when it was all over… It depended on what happened before she could find her way out of this mess. He would find it amusing, no doubt, but there was a chance it was going to be too embarrassing for her to want to re-live.

That little mercy didn’t spare her for long, however, Sondra having only to turn around to a cabinet behind her to reveal a small supply there, the plastic crinkling as she pulled one out, snapping it open. Beatrix’s stomach churned, recognizing every bit of this from being on the other side, from when she’d diapered her own patients…

“Up,” Sondra ordered, giving Bea’s leg a gentle tap. Beatrix whimpered, shook her head, and Sondra let out another sigh, grabbing the mass of cloth around Bea’s ankles, lifting her up with that. Beatrix squealed, feeling her backside lift off the table despite her resistance, filling her with the sensation of being a toddler, lying on a changing table, helpless to stop what was happening to her.

“Oh!” her eyes widened as she was lowered back down, feeling something extremely different from the paper cover on the exam table. The bulk of the diaper lifted her well off the table’s surface, the softness surprising, prompting her to wiggle her bottom, blushing at the resulting crackle of plastic. She was so engrossed in what she was experiencing, she didn’t notice Sondra had let her go, had stepped away for a moment, leaving a chance for her to run off… Not that she expected she would have gotten very far if she’d taken advantage of it anyway.

Sondra turned back around, hands gloved now, bottle of baby powder in hand. “No, I don’t need that!” Bea whined.

“You’re not getting any rashes on my watch!” Sondra said, twisting open the bottle, giving it a shake over Beatrix’s crotch. “Hopefully you haven’t had to deal with it yet… From what I understand, it’s quite uncomfortable!”

Would it be as uncomfortable as lying there on top of a diaper, having baby powder massaged into her skin? It would certainly be a different kind of discomfort… Beatrix cheeks burned bright red, the sweet, familiar scent of the powder wafting up to her nose, reminding her how strong it was in the powder they used here, how much the patients who had to use it smelled like it afterwards… And now, that was her! She could only hope she was able to find a way to get rid of it before her shift started… Assuming, of course, she could get out of her hospital room and back to the nurse’s lounge before then in the first place!

“It’s all right,” Sondra cooed. “We’re almost done.”

That didn’t stop the yelp when the diaper was pulled up between Bea’s legs, the thick padding pushing her thighs apart, refusing the compress as she squeezed her legs together. She’d seen patients do that – which made it all the more humiliating to feel herself do it automatically, without realizing it – and now she knew why… It was so wildly different from the feeling of her panties, so foreign to her… She wriggled, whimpering, as Sondra expertly tugged the sides up, nice and snug, and taped them into place, sealing Beatrix into her diaper.

Immediately, she could feel the sweat starting to form, the heat building up inside the bulky garment. She squirmed, hearing the crinkle, knowing that there was no way, between those things, she’d be able to forget what she was wearing, what had happened to her. She stared up at Sondra, wide-eyed, the sense that they were equals fading away, leaving Bea unable to look at Sondra as anything other than an adult… But, if she was no longer the woman’s equal, then what did that make Bea?!

“There we go!” Sondra slid off her gloves, throwing them away, giving the front of the diaper a friendly pat. “Isn’t that better?”

“No!” Bea pouted. It wasn’t better at all! She was in a diaper!

“Oh, sweetie,” Sondra helped her sit up, giving her a hug. “It’ll be all right… I won’t even make you put on a hospital gown for the trip back.”

Bea’s head swam, not having considered that… She wasn’t sure she could have ever shown her face at work again, if she’d been paraded through the building in one of those gowns, her diapered backside peeking out the split in the rear… She would have had to quit, terrified that someone she worked with might have caught a glimpse of her, might have recognized her, reduced to a patient… A patient in diapers…

The image was so horrifying, she didn’t notice Sondra pulling her pants and underwear back up, didn’t try to help, despite being so grateful it was happening. The jeans barely fit over the thick diaper, but, with some tugging, they went on, though they did squeeze the padding even more snugly against her crotch.

“Good girl,” Sondra told her when she was finished, rearranging Bea’s shirt for her. It did fairly well at hiding the bulge… Glancing down at herself, however, Beatrix was pretty sure anyone with experience around people who wore them would be aware of the diaper under her pants, even if it was nowhere near as bad as the gown would have been. “Let’s get you back where you belong.”

Bea stared at the door to the exam room, shrinking back against the table, shaking her head. Things were better than they could have been; that didn’t mean she wanted to parade through the hospital like this, though, or that she liked the implication that she belonged on the children’s ward.

“Yes, Caitlin,” Sondra took her by the hand. “You need to get back there before your guardian comes to pick you up.” Sondra’s hand felt so big, so strong, compared to Bea’s… There wasn’t much she could do as the larger woman dragged her across the room, and opened up the door. Beatrix shrank back, away from the hallway outside, from all the people bustling around, knowing any one of them might spot the unusual shape under her pants…

“Come on, Caitlin,” Sondra urged as Bea began to drag her feet even more, the other nurse’s pace barely affected by it. “I know hospital rooms can be scary, but you can find some nice cartoons or something to watch until it’s time for you to go home.”

Cartoons… Bea had to wonder yet again how young Sondra thought she was. She certainly felt pretty young, getting yanked along, her legs struggling to keep up thanks to the strange bulk between her legs, the awkward waddle it forced her to do. It was almost a relief when they stepped onto the elevator, giving her a break from that, until a pair of doctors stepped on with them. She huddled behind Sondra, head bowed, sure they had to notice the baby powder scent surrounding her, that they heard her crinkling with every tiny movement…

“This is our stop,” Sondra announced. “Excuse us.”

Beatrix nervously adjusted the back of her shirt with her free hand as best she could as she was forced to toddle past the doctors, head still staring at the floor, praying they wouldn’t look too close as she brushed past them.

Her hopes of escaping thanks to Sondra half-assing her return were dashed as the nurse took her right through the children’s ward herself, to a room, Caitlin’s name written on the board outside. Bea could see there was nobody else in the room, thankfully, though she had to hold her breath as Sondra opened the door, hoping the real Caitlin wasn’t inside, not knowing how she would have explained that.

Thankfully, she wasn’t; it didn’t feel like quite as much of a blessing when she was being taken inside, however, with no indication that this room belonged to anyone other than her, and Sondra grabbed the bottom of her shirt and lifted.

“Hey!” Bea protested.

“I told you, Caitlin,” Sondra reminded her, not pausing as she continued to undress the smaller woman. “I didn’t make you wear the gown to get here… But now that you’re in your room…”

“But I’m getting discharged soon!” Beatrix whined. “Can’t I just stay in this until then, and…?”

Sondra was clearly losing her patience with her, and waiting for her to cooperate. In no time, she had Bea’s shirt off, and had unbuttoned her jeans again, sliding them and the panties down over the diaper before lifting the girl up, sitting her down on the edge of the bed to pull the garments the rest of the way off, taking Bea’s shoes with them, leaving her, in a matter of moments, in nothing more than a diaper, wishing she’d at least thrown a bra on before she left, rather than planning on doing it when she got into her scrubs.

She blushed, covering her flat chest with her hands, her eyes drawn up to Sondra’s own chest, which was certainly anything but flat. She was grateful, at times, being able to go without a bra without it being too obvious… Now, however, it only made her feel that much smaller, more immature, almost to the point where it felt like she belonged in this diaper, in comparison to Sondra, anyway.

The hospital gown Sondra fetched for her didn’t help with that, either. It was pink, covered in a cheerful print of bright yellow rubber duckies. There would be no doubt, while she was in that, which ward she was supposed to be on… Even if her diaper didn’t peek out of the split back. She looked down at herself with a groan; there was no sign of the nurse she was there anymore.

“H-Hey, what are you doing?!” she squealed, glancing up, seeing Sondra carrying the clothes Bea had worn in towards the door.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave you here,” Sondra told her. “I have my own work to do… Don’t worry, I know the nurses here will take good care of you.”

“B-But my clothes!” Bea toddled closer, reaching for them.

“I think it’ll be for the best if I take these to the nurses for now,” Sondra said. “You need to stay right here until it’s time for your discharge… And I think that outfit,” she nodded at what Bea was wearing, bringing a fresh blush to the smaller woman’s face, “will encourage that more than this,” she lifted the bundle of clothes in her arms up. “It was nice to meet you, Caitlin.”

“No!” Beatrix stomped her foot and howled, watching helplessly as she was ignored, Sondra slipping out of the room. “No, no, no,” Bea shook her head, her heart pounding. What was she going to do?! Sondra had left her purse with her, at least… But all that was in there, pretty much, was her keys and the diapers! There was no way she was going to make it all the way to the garage dressed like this without someone stopping her! She didn’t like her chances of making it back to the supply closet for her ID, either, or the nurse’s lounge to change into her scrubs… She doubted anyone on this floor would just let someone in this outfit slip by them unaccompanied without asking what she was doing…

She flinched at the sound of the door opening, seeing a pair of nurses stride in. “See?” one of them said. “Sondra was right.”

“Huh,” the other shrugged. “I could have sworn I saw her discharge paperwork go through.”

Bea opened her mouth, wanting to say that the second was right… But how was she going to explain what was going on, in a way that anyone would believe her? She hoped that maybe they’d have worked with Caitlin, that they knew it wasn’t her… From the way the first nurse glanced at the charts, however, before saying, “Well, Caitlin,” she had to assume that wasn’t the case. “Looks like it’s time for your shot, since you’re still here.” the nurse continued.

Beatrix’s eyes widened. What kind of shot could it be?! “Umm…” she gulped, squirming in place. She had no idea what Caitlin was even in the hospital for… If she was that close to being discharged, it probably wasn’t that serious, but did she really want to just take some random shot?! Then again… How was she going to get out of it?! She could try to resist, of course; both nurses were bigger than her, though, and they outnumbered her. How successful could she possibly be?

She could try to tell them what was really happening after all, and hope she could find a way to convince them. It would be a mortifying tale, one she knew she might not be able to live down if she had to show her face on this ward again… If they even bought it in the first place, and didn’t write it off as the overactive imagination of a little girl.

She looked between them, pulse racing faster and faster. She might have really messed up this time… How was she going to get out of this?!

Should she…

Try to insist she doesn’t need the shot?

Try to run out the door, past the nurses?

Try to explain that she’s a nurse, too?

Or let herself be given the shot, and hope for the best?

This decision has already been made, but if you’d like to catch up on the story, and help decide where it goes next, you can find it, and other exclusive stories, at my Patreon!

The Wishlist – Chapter 4

It was a risk, though, ultimately, not as much as not doing it would have been. What was the cruelest thing Camelia could do to her? Laugh in her face? It would definitely sting, especially coming from her, but besides her bruised pride, she wouldn’t be in any worse a position than she was now.

Selina tried to reach out, to grab Camelia, to keep her in place; her hands were full, so she had to, instead, mumble, “H-Hey,” and hope for the best.

Luckily, Camelia paused, turning. “What?” she asked with a sniff.

Selina blushed, fidgeting, second-guessing herself suddenly. These presents had come from somewhere… Camelia’s parents had been busy getting ready for the meal, but wouldn’t they have noticed Selina opening the gifts they’d bought for their daughter, if ‘melia had switched the tags? Wouldn’t they be mad, or at least disappointed, if their daughter didn’t come down wearing them? And if Selina’s parents had done this to her, to teach her some weird lesson, they’d be upset to see she had wormed her way out of it…

“Umm…” Selina nibbled her bottom lip. There were other possibilities, of course… Camelia could have done this herself. But how could she have worked so quickly, gotten all this stuff in time, if it was in response to Selina’s behavior last night? Nothing was open last night, certainly not anything that would sell this stuff, and as far as Selina knew, Camelia hadn’t left the house anyway, or taken any late-night deliveries… Or could it have been about something else? Had Camelia done this because of something more than the previous evening? Or was it an attempt to pull Selina down to her and Maddie’s level, so she could enjoy the holiday with them as equals, rather than the superior she’d been seeing herself as?

Or… Well, there was one other place the presents could have come from… But that was silly! She was supposed to be using today to prove he wasn’t real, not convincing herself that he might have given her these awful gifts!

“W-Would you, maybe…” Selina gulped, gathering up her courage. “W-Would you want to… trade presents?”

“What?” Camelia snorted. “Why would I do that? Santa gave you those, and me these… And he knows exactly what everyone wants, deep down, and what they need. And it looks like you need…”

“No, I don’t!” Selina whined, stomping her foot. “I don’t, I don’t!”

Camelia sighed, shaking her head. “Come on, Lina,” she ordered, walking into her room. Selina sniffled, hugging the things in her arms a bit tighter, listening to the diapers crackle, not knowing what was going on, what Camelia was going to do to her. Her only real hope, however, was to slink after her, holding on tight to the idea that her cousin hadn’t said no, not quite…

Camelia had already set her new clothes down on her desk, patting the edge of her bed when Selina stepped into her room. Meekly, Selina dropped her load there, Camelia wasting no time brushing the rest of the clothes away, ripping open the package of diapers. “I changed Maddie plenty when she was younger,” she mused, plucking one of them out, Selina wincing at the sound of plastic brushing against itself as it slid out of place, and the crinkling the girl created, giving the garment a squeeze. “I remember exactly how to do it.”

“‘melia!” Selina gasped. “No!”

Camelia didn’t stop, unfolding the diaper, revealing the soft, bulky insides, setting it down on the bed, curling slightly upwards at either end, waiting to wrap around Selina’s waist. “I-I don’t…” Selina fussed, feeling helpless.

“You can’t put it on over your other clothes, silly,” Camelia told her. “Go on, strip down… Or do you need my help with that, too?”

“N-No,” Selina shook her head.

“Are you sure?” Camelia arched an eyebrow. “You’re not moving.”

Selina whimpered, eyes fixed on the waiting diaper, her jeans and underwear seeming like a final line of defense between her and it. They had always made her feel so grown-up, so mature, before; now, all she could think about was how easy it would be to take them away from her. A button, a zipper, and a tug, and they’d be gone…

“Th-That’s for babies,” she swallowed.

“Then why did you want to trade with me?” Camelia asked, crossing her arms. “Do you think I’m a baby, Selina?”

If ever there was a time to lie, this was it… But it felt so pointless, now. Her status as the oldest cousin was shattered, and, without Camelia’s help, there would be no getting it back, no way to stop herself from tumbling down, below even Maddie… If Camelia knew she was lying, however, and this was a test, then that would only make things worse. “Yes,” she confessed.

“Hmm,” Camelia gave a slight, subtle nod. “And yet, you’re the one who got diapers for Christmas…”

“Y-Yes,” Selina admitted, sucking in a quick breath as her cousin stepped closer to her, reaching out, unbuttoning her jeans. “I-I don’t need them, though!” she wailed. “‘melia, please!”

She didn’t resist, however, didn’t feel like she could, as Camelia slid her jeans and her skimpy thong down, pushed her back onto her bed. Selina groaned as her bottom touched the diaper, sank down into it, her face turning bright red at the sensation of a warm wetness dribbling out of her, into the waiting padding, right in front of Camelia.

“I-I didn’t…” she shook her head in horror, the words ringing quite hollow, considering the proof she’d just provided. “I-I’m just nervous, that’s all! I-I don’t…!”

“It’s okay,” Camelia cooed, pushing softly on Selina’s chest, easing her backwards. “I’m not mad, Lina… I’m glad Santa gave you what you needed…”

Camelia really did seem to have a lot of practice, and it didn’t appear to make any difference to her that it was Selina, not Maddie, she was doing it to. Selina hardly had time to react as the diaper was adjusted, pulled up between her legs, taped into place; in no time, she was fully and completely diapered, and already soggy, a constant reminder that it wasn’t just for show.

These had to have come from Santa, she told herself, her determination to prove the man a fake dissolving in the face of searching desperately for a way to absolve herself of responsibility. Santa had given her these diapers after all, and he had made her piddle herself like a toddler as a warning, a silent threat about keeping her mouth shut… Or what would she get next year?

“C-Can you tell Santa I’m sorry?” she asked bashfully.

“What’s that?” Camelia smirked, leaning in closer. “I couldn’t quite hear you.”

“C-Can you please tell Santa that I’m sorry?” Selina tried again. “I-I learned my lesson…”

“Did you?” Camelia looked doubtful. “Well, you can tell him yourself, then. You’re not too big of a girl to do that now, are you?”

Selina fidgeted in her damp diaper, shook her head. “N-No,” she admitted, laying down on the floor on her tummy with the construction paper and crayons Camelia gave her to write out her first letter to Santa in probably close to a decade, from what she recalled, hoping desperately that she wasn’t going to have to wait until next Christmas before he’d read it, and forgive her, all the while glancing up to see Camelia pouring herself into that beautiful, sexy dress she’d wanted so badly for her own, making her feel that much more like a baby.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wow.”

Camelia could barely hide her smile as she heard the tiny, meek word floating up from the floor to her ears. Honestly, she had to agree, even if she was too modest to say it about herself.

“It does look pretty good, doesn’t it?” she ran her hand down her body, over curves she’d barely realized she had. “Santa has good taste…”

“Y-Yeah,” Selina nodded, the jealousy clear in her eyes and her voice as she stared up from the floor, diaper almost fully exposed beneath her sweater.

“This is why we couldn’t switch,” Camelia lectured, leaning over, giving the girl’s padded seat a playful swat, getting a squeal in response. “Your diaper would never fit under here!”

“B-But…” Camelia saw the girl’s eyes turn towards the other dress, the tights, the get-up fit for a toddler, knowing that, mentally, she was envisioning herself in it, comparing herself to Camelia, as she was now… And Camelia could see the wet spot on the diaper grow, ever so slightly.

Completely gone was the superior, haughty girl who had arrived last night… Camelia looked over her shoulder at her letter, seeing no hint of irony, or doubt, just a sincere apology to someone her cousin had been sure, less than an hour earlier, wasn’t real .

Camelia hoped Santa wouldn’t be mad at her… There had definitely been some kind of a mix-up, however. It seemed like Camelia’s gifts had been the sorts of things that were on Selina’s wish list, and she knew that what Selina had gotten was on hers; it had taken her years to get up the courage to admit, even to Santa, in a letter she’d known nobody else would ever see, what she truly wanted.

The fact that the pacifier had still been marked for her made Camelia think it was on purpose, that it was a signal to her. If not, though, and he had genuinely made a mistake, switching the rest of their presents… Well, surely he knew how much Selina deserved this, and would see how much good it did her, and he would forgive Camelia for being a little mean. She’d be an extra good girl next year to make up for it.

The wet spot on Selina’s diaper did give her some hope, whether it had been a part of the ‘present’, or a sign of how scared the girl was – and, therefore, how well the lesson was getting through. If it was what Santa had wanted or not, Camelia had no doubt this was going to do her cousin a world of good, in the long run, and would definitely keep her from trying to ruin Maddie’s belief in Santa for at least another couple years.

“However,” Camelia spoke up, “I think some of these other outfits will fit over your diapers just fine.”

“Really?” Selina’s eyes lit up, followed quickly by her cheeks. “I-I mean, I don’t need…”

A pat on her soggy bottom shut her up. “I can give you a change whenever you need it,” Camelia promised. “And then I’ll get rid of the rest for you, along with your dress, and the tights and stuff.” ‘Get rid of’ wasn’t quite the right term, but Camelia wasn’t about to admit that she’d be putting them into her closet for her own use, whenever she had a private moment, nor the fact that, as jealous as Selina seemed to feel seeing Camelia in this dress, Camelia felt the same way seeing her in those thick, comfy diapers.

“Thank you!” Selina leapt up, throwing herself into a tight hug.

“I’ll even let you keep some of these other clothes, if you want,” Camelia told her. “I wouldn’t want you to go home with nothing from Santa.”

Selina gave her another hug, Camelia smiling, patting the girl’s diaper gently. Considering they probably should have been Selina’s in the first place, it was literally the least she could do… And, despite knowing that, Camelia still didn’t think she was going to give her the dress. Camelia had really wanted the other dress, and, while she couldn’t wait to see how she looked in it, with a double diaper under the tiny skirt, she also liked seeing how grown-up this one made her seem.

That wasn’t anything she’d ever been concerned about, certainly not in the same way Selina was – if anything, she did her best to appear less grown-up – but now that she’d seen herself like this, she didn’t mind it… Especially knowing how jealous it made Selina. Maybe that was yet another thing she’d have to atone for in Santa’s eyes in the coming year… Or maybe that was another gift from him, a way to show her that she could be both, if she wanted, rather than just embracing her little side and trying to hide from her impending adulthood completely.

And who knew? Maybe this would awaken something in Selina, too, and, by this time next year, Camelia would have a playmate, someone she could share this secret with… She smiled as she tugged the pants up Selina’s legs, watching the girl squirm as they cradled the soggy padding closer to her crotch.

Whatever else happened, Camelia told herself, this was definitely going to be a Christmas to remember.

The End

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Christmas Presents

“Come on, Iris, it’s time to open presents!”

Iris groaned, rolling over to look at her clock. What a role-reversal this was, she thought, a yawn escaping her mouth before she could get her brain to start working well enough to form any words. She could remember when she was younger, waking up this early to pad into her parents’ bedroom, ask them if she could finally see what was in those boxes she’d been staring at under the tree for weeks… And whatever else Santa had brought her in the night. Now, it was her parents getting her up.

It’s not that she wasn’t excited for it… It was always nice to get gifts, of course. Now that she was a high school senior, however, an adult, it had been quite a while since she’d gotten anything that amazing for Christmas… She was still grateful to get anything, but the big, fancy gifts were generally reserved for younger kids, ones small enough to still believe in Santa.

And littles, obviously, though that was kind of the same thing. She’d heard a rumor that most littles never stopped thinking Santa was real, which was absolutely precious… She hadn’t asked any yet, afraid that she might phrase it wrong, give them a reason to doubt, which she certainly didn’t want to do, but, given everything else she did know about them, it didn’t exactly surprise her.

“Okay,” she yawned again. “I’m up…” Whatever it was that had her parents worked up enough to make them come into her room now must be good. She wasn’t sure what it could be… She’d already saved up enough to buy her own car, as old and clunky as it was, and, in her bleary, half-awake state, she couldn’t think of much else would elicit this response. She’d expected a lot of stuff for the dorm room she’d be moving into next year, but that wasn’t really worthy of being awake at this hour.

What could they be up to? She rolled over, getting her feet on the ground, giving a big stretch before pushing herself out of bed. “Do we have time to stop for coffee?” she teased, recalling how frustrated she’d get on Christmas morning, waiting for them to brew that for themselves, bouncing up in down in the kitchen because they didn’t trust her to be able to contain herself if she was left alone under the tree, with all those presents…

“We can have that later,” her mother told her, apparently not getting the joke, or too concerned with getting to whatever the gift was to notice.

“Whatever this is, you guys really didn’t have to,” Iris began preemptively. “I’m a grown-up now, so there’s no need to go all out and… Oh, my God!”

She squealed, sounding not at all like the adult that she’d just proclaimed herself to be, as she turned the corner into the living room and saw it there, sitting under the tree. “You didn’t!” she gasped, rushing forward, hardly able to believe her eyes.

There it was, staring up at the colorful ornaments and the softly blinking lights, faced away from Iris. It had long hair, so she assumed it was a girl, but it was hard to tell for sure from the back, and the outfit wasn’t much help, a red and white striped onesie dotted with snowflakes, with a Peter Pan collar and what appeared to be a fake, purely aesthetic, drop-seat flap, with a teddy bear’s face in the center of it. And, under that, a huge, bulky diaper, so big it peeked out from the legbands, covered in a pair of tights.

“Aww, look at her!” Iris gushed as she got closer, seeing the little’s face, the chest beneath the snug onesie. Like most littles, there wasn’t much there, though it was enough to confirm to her that it was a girl, and a gift tag pinned to the front of the onesie confirmed that she was, indeed for Iris. She had a little girl! “I love her so much!”

The girl finally stirred, looking away from the lights as Iris gave her a huge hug, frowning and squirming, her diaper crinkling beneath her. “W-Wait, where..?” she blinked. “Wh-What am I…?!”

“What’s your name?” Iris asked.

The girl stared up at her, wide-eyed. “M-Morgan,” she stammered.

“What a pretty name!” Iris smiled. “Well, Morgan, you’re in your new home! I’m going to take such good care of you!”

“B-But… I-I’m not…” Morgan appeared lost, confused, full of too many questions and protests to know which to start with… Wasn’t that just so typical of littles? There was a pacifier pinned to her onesie, too, and Iris instinctively picked it up, popping it into the girl’s mouth and giving it a twist to seal it in place.

“Thank you guys so much!” Iris hopped up. She hadn’t even thought about it yet seriously, not knowing enough about all the paperwork she’d have to go through, but she had been feeling the desire when she saw littles out in the wild, and she had chosen a college that provided daycare services… “She’s perfect! Where did you get her?”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” her mother said. “She’s from Santa. We just saw her here when we came to fill the stockings.”

“Sure,” Iris rolled her eyes. “But really?”

They refused to tell her, and Morgan, of course, was in no state to give her an answer, either, whining about how she wasn’t a baby if Iris removed her paci, trying in vain to peel off the little-proof tapes on her diaper to use the potty, wrinkling her nose and gagging as Iris fed her some nice baby food to help her get used to using her diapers instead… It wasn’t long until Iris had forgotten all about the question in the first place, simply accepting that, wherever she’d come from, she was here now, right where she belonged.

The Wishlist – Chapter 3

It was really her responsibility, as the older cousin, to set a good example, to be a leader… She was going to do that later, when she revealed the truth about Santa to Maddie, and, even though she didn’t particularly want to, she was going to start now.

“We should wait,” she told Camelia. “You know Maddie will want to see what we got, and it’ll be more fun for us all to find out at the same time.”

“You’re right,” Camelia nodded, sounding almost as disappointed as she might have if it had been her idea to begin with to open the gifts early. “Ugh, I don’t wanna wait!”

Selina chuckled, watching the girl cross her arms and pout. She was tempted to tease her, to taunt her about Santa, but now that she was beginning to suspect that Camelia might actually think he was real, she thought it would be better to wait until Maddie was here for that, too, so the two of them could find solace in each other.

“Guess we might as well go back upstairs, then,” Camelia sighed, looking away from the tree, gaze lingering longingly on the boxes underneath. “It is pretty, though, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Selina agreed. “Now, go on… I want to see you go first, so I know you’re not just going to hang back and peek at stuff after I leave.”

“Hey!” Camelia stuck her tongue out. “How do I know you’re not going to do that?”

Selina smiled, the trip feeling, finally, like old times, back before she’d been so concerned with seeming mature, before she’d gone off to college. “I guess you don’t,” she shrugged mischievously. “Get out of here!” She chased Camelia out of the living room, the girl laughing, clamping her hands over her mouth to keep from waking their parents up.

They paused upstairs, outside Camelia’s door, catching their breath and trying to quell their giggling fits. “D-Do you…?” Camelia asked bashfully. “D-Do you want to… hang out in my room? I-I mean, we’re both up… I don’t think I’m going to be able to get back to sleep…”

Selina had to admit, that did sound fun, a part of her eager to let this continue, to retreat further into the past… But she couldn’t help herself. “Why?” she sneered. “Too excited about seeing what Santa brought you? Trust me, ‘melia, when you get older, you’ll learn to look forward to having the opportunity to sleep in more than opening a few presents.”

Camelia glared at her, attitude rapidly shifting at Selina’s condescending tone. “You’re not that much older than me, you know,” she pointed out.

“But you’d never know it, would you?” Selina gestured to herself, in her little black nightie, and Camelia, in her two-piece, red and white Christmas PJs, ones they both knew probably weren’t far off from what Maddie was wearing right now, if the two hadn’t picked them out together to begin with.

A darkness drifted over Camelia’s face, then she spun, stomping into her room and closing the door, the invitation clearly revoked. Selina shrugged, trying not to let it show she was, in fact, a bit disappointed at that, though she wasn’t sure who she was performing for, or why she should care. She didn’t want to hang out with a baby like Camelia anyway… More than likely, she’d just want to play with dolls or something, and Selina was nostalgic enough for the old times to sink to that level.

Despite what she’d said to Camelia, it did take Selina a little while to fall back to sleep, visions of the tree, and those presents, dancing through her mind when she closed her eyes. Eventually, she did, however, waking up to the delicious scent of fresh cinnamon rolls wafting through the house, just like it did every Christmas morning in her aunt and uncle’s house.

She changed into some jeans and a cozy sweater and headed downstairs, finding the rest of the household sitting around the living room, eating, still in their pajamas and robes. “Look who’s up!” her mother smiled. “Merry Christmas, Selina!”

“Merry Christmas,” Selina replied, tactfully deciding not to point out that part of the reason she was there later was that she’d taken the time to get dressed, like a civilized person. “Merry Christmas, Camelia,” she said specifically, chuckling to herself at the sight of the girl who had, earlier that morning, claimed to be nearly as mature as her, sitting there in her Christmas PJs, hands – and nose – covered in frosting from her cinnamon roll, mug of hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows floating around in it beside her.

“Merry Christmas,” Camelia mumbled, squirming deeper into the sofa, blushing slightly.

“Merry Christmas, dear,” Camelia’s mother said. “Breakfast is in the kitchen!”

Selina, straight away, poured herself a cup of coffee, and, even though the cinnamon rolls made her mouth water, she fixed herself a slice of toast instead, responsibly announcing, when her aunt asked her if she didn’t see the rolls, “I’m sure there will be plenty of desserts later on today. I can wait for those.”

“If you say so,” her aunt told her skeptically. “Well, they’ll be there if you change your mind.”

“I won’t,” Selina smirked. “You can have mine, ‘melia.”

Their parents were surprised to hear their decision to wait on the presents – and Selina was surprised that Camelia didn’t reverse course – but they went along with it. Selina half expected Camelia to stay in her pajamas until the rest of the family started to arrive, so she could open gifts in them; the girl did, eventually, vanish upstairs to put on another childish holiday dress, which didn’t seem much different, in the end.

Selina was somewhat questioning her choice as she saw how full the living room was getting, how big their audience would be as they exchanged presents. It didn’t feel quite as mature, knowing how many people would be watching, although she was still certain Maddie would appreciate being there to share Camelia’s excitement. It helped that their parents would have their own gifts, too, so she wouldn’t be the oldest one doing it.

As soon as Maddie arrived, she and Camelia were squealing and hopping up and down in their holiday dresses – both the same shade of red – and tights, very much two little girls in comparison to the calm, collected Selina, waiting for the right moment to show them her video of eating Santa’s cookies.

“Whoa!” Maddie gawked at the tree when she saw it. “There’s so many presents! Didn’t you open any?”

“Nope,” Selina responded, jumping in so Camelia couldn’t take credit for her idea. “We wanted to wait for you.”

With so many more people in the living room, and Camelia’s parents bustling in and out to finish getting everything ready for the big family meal, it was far more chaotic than usual, and more of a free-for-all, people ripping into paper wherever they could, rather than attempting to take turns. Selina, Camelia, and Maddie huddled around their pile of presents, Selina stalling as long as she could stand, as if she was trying to prove she could, despite how long she had already waited.

“This one!” Maddie declared, picking out a box from Camelia’s stack for her to open first. “This one’s from Santa, so I bet it’s extra good!”

“I bet so,” Selina joined in. “Go on, Camelia, let’s see what it is.”

It didn’t take much to convince her. She hungrily tore open the paper, tossing it aside, opening up the box to reveal a red dress, not too dissimilar to the one she was wearing at the moment… At least, in color and fabric. “Uh-oh, looks like Santa made a mistake,” she poked. “You’d think someone who was always watching you would get you something you didn’t already have.”

“Maybe he got mixed up,” Maddie said, picking up the discarded paper to look at the tag. “Maybe it’s for you, since you didn’t bring any Christmas dresses, so you…”

Selina’s nose wrinkled. “No, thank you. I wouldn’t be caught dead in…”

The words stuck in her throat as Camelia lifted the dress out of the box, and it became abundantly clear that it was not a copy of what she was currently wearing, or anything that Selina had ever seen the girl in. The color made it appear festive regardless, but it was a dress Selina would be happy to wear any time of year, with its sexy plunging neckline and short skirt. The kind of thing that, when asked what was on her wishlist the night before, she had considered, and that made her blush to recall how vehemently she’d just claimed she didn’t like it.

“Wow,” Maddie breathed. “You’d look so pretty in that!”

“Y-You think so?” Camelia smiled softly, staring at it.

“Of course!” Maddie nodded. “Why else would Santa have given it to you?”

Selina felt a pang of jealousy, which finally propelled her to pick up the first of her boxes, marked, embarrassingly, as coming from Santa. “Let’s see what this is,” she announced, carefully turning it over in her hands, peeling each piece of tape open one at a time, then setting the paper aside neatly, and taking the lid off the box to reveal a dress of her own. “I guess Santa wanted us to be twins,” she sniffed, annoyed at the thought of matching her cousin, but excited, having seen Camelia’s. Their parents had clearly collaborated – she suspected the dress Maddie was wearing had come from ‘Santa’, too – and she wasn’t going to cooperate in their blatant attempt to get some cutesy photo of the three of them, though she wouldn’t mind going to a club or something in it when she was back at school.

That lasted only until she took the dress out of the box, and, immediately, her opinion changed. “M-Maybe you’re right,” she stuffed it back inside, face burning. “M-Maybe he did get mixed up…” She winced, realizing she had played into their Santa delusion.

“Oh, let’s see it, Lina!” Selina jumped, having almost forgotten they weren’t alone, watching helplessly as her grandmother bent over, holding the dress up for everyone to see. “How precious!”

It matched Camelia’s dress in color, but the style was a million miles away, in the wrong direction. Camelia’s wouldn’t have looked out of place on the runway; Selina’s, on the other hand, was more suited for a daycare. The skirt was still quite short, even more than Camelia’s, yet, because of how big and floofy it was, as opposed to the sleek slinkiness of Camelia’s, which included a slit almost scandalously high up the side of the leg, it read completely different, and the neckline didn’t help with that, either, sure to leave not even a hint of cleavage visible.

‘Y-Yeah,” Selina stammered, not wanting to argue with her grandmother, and anxious to hide the dress from view, taking it from her, hoping the rest of her family hadn’t seen, shoving it back into the box, her heart thumping from humiliation and anger. What had her parents been thinking, buying her something like that?! “I-It’s great…”

She was so desperate to wipe away the memory of that, she went straight into her next gift, not waiting to let Camelia open another of hers. Her patient unwrapping technique shifted, becoming more frantic, caring less about seeming mature and more about giving everyone else anything else to look at, to associate with her.

What came out of this box, however, was somehow worse. The white fabric was familiar to her, though she couldn’t quite place it at first, not until she’d unfolded it, held it up, saw that it was a pair of white, cotton tights, the kind she hadn’t worn in years.

“I used to have a pair like that!” Maddie giggled, Selina not realizing why, exactly, until she turned them around, saw the rows of ruffles across the back, amplifying the childishness of them exponentially.

“I think every little girl does,” their grandmother said, taking them from Selina before she could hide them. “Rosa, look at these! Do you remember when you had tights like these? You were so cute! These are Selina’s!”

Selina groaned, squirming in place, wanting to burrow into the floor, wishing, now, that she hadn’t lobbied to wait on their presents, if this was what they were, watching helplessly as the thick, white tights were passed around and cooed over.

She was almost scared to see what else she’d been given, and increasingly furious at her parents for doing this to her. “Wh-What else did you get?” she asked Camelia, sitting back to observe and quietly seethe as the immature brat opened up box after box of designer clothes, pants and tops and heels, all things Selina would have killed for, that she knew she’d look incredible in.

It was after a pair of tall, strappy heels that Maddie pointed out, “You haven’t done any in a while, ‘melia! What’s in this?”

Sulking, Selina complied, opening up the box, finding a pair of shiny, black Mary Janes inside, looking especially flat and babyish in comparison to the shoes Camelia had just gotten.

“Well, isn’t that nice?” their grandmother smiled. “It looks like Santa got you a whole new outfit!”

“Yeah,” Selina glowered across the room at her mother, who was busy opening her own presents. “I guess so.” Why would her parents have done this to her?! Were they trying to teach her some sort of sick lesson?!

“Looks alike there’s only one more from Santa!” Maddie declared, pushing the large box Selina had seen Camelia sighing over that morning towards her. At this point, Selina didn’t know what to expect, just wanted to get this over with, sincerely regretting not doing this in the relative privacy before everyone else arrived.

The box really did feel odd, almost compressing under her hands as she ripped the paper off, giving off a faint rustling sound, the source of which became very obvious very quickly. “Oh, my God!” she gasped, desperately snatching the strip of paper she’d thrown aside back up, attempting to stretch it over the hole she’d made.

“Is it that good?” Maddie’s eyes lit up. “Lemme see!”

“Maddie, no!” Selina shook her head, unable to stop her younger cousin in time to keep her from sliding her fingers into the gap in the paper and rip, revealing to the whole room what was inside.

It was a package of diapers. ThiCk, bulky, white diapers, covered in a festive, if infantile, print of chunky Christmas trees, snowflakes, and reindeer. Selina whimpered, shrinking back, hearing the titters from around the room as relatives glanced over, saw what she’d gotten for Christmas.

“Th-They’re not mine!” she announced loudly, pushing them away with her foot, not even wanting to touch them with her hands again.

“Yeah, they are!” Maddie corrected her. “Look, here’s the tag! To Lina, from Santa!”

“Santa isn’t real!” Selina blurted out, almost without thinking, less to fulfill her plan, and more as a defense against these terrible presents.

The adults around her fell silent, aghast, Selina too humiliated to smugly inform them of how Maddie was more than old enough to know the truth – and Camelia even more-so – the way she’d intended to. Maddie, for her part, barely blinked. “Don’t be silly,” she replied. “Of course he is! And he’s always watching, even when you’re asleep, so he knows exactly what you need. And he must know something about you…”

The laughter that came from their audience may have been more of a release of tension, a relieved response to Maddie not melting down, but, in her current state, Selina was having a hard time convincing herself it could be aimed anywhere other than at her, and the diapers. “No, he doesn’t!” she whined. “I-I don’t need those!”

“Santa is very wise,” Camelia spoke up. “Look what else he gave you! Sorry, I misread the tag and thought it was mine…”

Selina squealed in horror as Camelia held up a large, pink pacifier, redoubling the sounds of amusement from the rest of the family. “No, it’s not!” Selina growled, snatching the box away, only to see that the tag did, indeed, have her name on it. “Well, I don’t need it!” she huffed. “I don’t want it!”

“Selina!” her mother scolded from across the room. “You’re acting like a spoiled brat!”

“No, I’m not!” Selina slammed her hands down on the floor, crinkling discarded wrapping paper beneath them. “I can’t believe you…!”

“She got a very nice outfit, too,” Selina’s grandmother said, Selina blushing, uncertain if the woman had seen the diapers or not.

“Well, go on,” her mom urged. “Go try it on.”

“Didn’t you get some new clothes, too?” Camelia’s mother asked, drying her hands on her apron. “You, too.”

“Mooom!” Selina groaned.

“Right now, young lady,” her father snapped.

Selina nibbled her bottom lip, looking down at the awful, babyish outfit laid out before her. They couldn’t be serious, could they?! And yet… If they’d given it to her, and brought it all this way for her to open, they had to mean it… But why?! Why would they do this to her?!

The only real alternative she could think of was… Well, what if it wasn’t from them after all? The tag did say it was from Santa… But that was ridiculous! She wasn’t a baby, no matter what the clothes she’d just opened made it look like! She didn’t believe in Santa!

“I-I don’t even know how…” she sniffed.

“I’m sure ‘melia will help you,” her mother told her. “Go on, you two.”

Selina glanced enviously at the sexy, red dress Camelia had gotten, the matching heels… That was what she deserved, not this infantile abomination! It definitely suited her better, too, just like this childish dress would better suit Camelia’s immature sense of fashion.

In fact… Other than the diapers, this dress seemed like something – as second-hand embarrassing as it was to think about a relative of hers being into – that Camelia might like… And, honestly, even the diapers weren’t totally out of the question when it came to that. Camelia still acted like such a little kid, despite being barely younger than Selina… Was it possible she was THAT much of a baby?!

Thinking of it that way, it felt like there had been a mistake, like whoever had wrapped the presents had mixed up the wishlists of the two girls, and given them each others’ gifts. Or… Camelia had beaten her down to the tree, and Selina had seen her messing with the presents. Could she have known what they were, and switched the tags? Had she been down there alone long enough to pull that off?

If that was the case, she almost admired Camelia for her guts, for daring to do something so cruel… Except, of course, that it had led to that mortifying show as they opened presents in front of everyone… Camelia had been awfully hesitant to get into them early, as if she wanted to guarantee Selina would be seen by at least their parents… But that may have just been because she didn’t want Santa to get mad at her.

Selina’s head was swimming as she gathered up her gifts, trying to drape the dress and tights over the package of diapers to hide them as she took them upstairs, trudging up alongside Camelia. If her cousin really was behind this whole thing, she probably wouldn’t let her off this easily, but Selina had no idea if that was what had happened or not. And she was running out of time to decide, as Camelia’s bedroom door loomed larger and larger in front of them, along with the threat of spending her Christmas dressed like a toddler.

Should Selina try to switch clothes with Camelia?

Yes
No

And who gave her the outfit in the first place?

Her parents
Camelia
Santa

This decision has already been made, but if you’d like to catch up on the story, and help decide where it goes next, you can find it, and other exclusive stories, at my Patreon!

The Wishlist – Chapter 2

“Because…” Selina paused, ready to do it, but, at the last minute, changed her mind. Tomorrow would be better… The vindictive section of her brain was tempted to do it now, to see how Camelia would react, how she would scramble to try to deny it, or if she’d burst into tears like the little girl she acted like.

But the next day would be better. Maddie could snuggle up in her bed tonight and dream of Santa and his reindeer showing up, then tomorrow – assuming her parents got her there early enough to beat the rest of the family – Selina would let her know it had been her parents who bought her all that stuff. It might make her more grateful for it… And it would stop her from running around, yammering about Santa to their other relatives like a baby.

“Because he’s already fat enough,” she shrugged. “He could do without cookies at a house or two.”

“He rides around the whole world in a sleigh,” Maddie informed her, Camelia silently looking quite relieved. “And he’s, like, way up in the sky… He has to be big so he doesn’t freeze.”

“Sure,” Selina waved it off, not interested in debating any further about a fictional character. She felt a bit dirty, pretending he was real for a sentence or two; she had no idea how Camelia had been able to keep it up all holiday season, much less all the years leading up to this… “Whatever.”

Maddie was less inclined to let the subject drop. “You aren’t going to eat his cookies, are you?”

“You think he’ll freeze on the ride from your house to here?” Selina smirked, using the girl’s own explanation against her.

The girl pouted. “I don’t know! It’s gonna be cold!”

Selina opened her mouth to tease her cousin further, then stopped. This might be perfect, actually… The next morning, she could ask Maddie if she’d gotten anything from Santa, or if she’d heard anything about any tragic sleigh accidents that had happened overnight, then show her the video she was going to make of herself eating the cookies, and inquire as to how Santa had been able to get by without them, if they were so important.

“All right, all right,” Selina acted as if she’d given up. “I wouldn’t want to be responsible for anything bad happening to him.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Camelia shot her an icy glare. “He has a lot of wishlists to fulfill tonight.”

“Oh, yeah!” Maddie’s eyes lit up. “What did you put on yours, Lina?” Selina glowered at her, having a bad feeling that she was going to be hearing that infernal nickname an awful lot over the next couple days.

“Did you two make yours together?” she deflected, suspecting she already knew the answer. She wouldn’t have been surprised, in fact, if their lists had been exactly the same, considering how badly it appeared Camelia seemed to want to be Maddie.

“Uh-huh,” Maddie nodded. “Well, mostly.”

Selina raised an eyebrow. “Mostly?”

“‘Melia said there were some things she was going to keep just between her and Santa,” Maddie told her, Camelia fidgeting in her seat.

“Ohhh, ‘melia,” Selina cooed mockingly, using Maddie’s nickname for her. “Did you ask Santa for something naughty?” From the way the other girl’s cheeks went red, Selina was certain she’d hit a nerve. “You did, didn’t you? Does that mean that you were naughty, too, and won’t get anything but coal anyway?”

“I didn’t!” Camelia huffed, though it was clear from her reaction that there was more to it than she was letting on.

In a way, Selina was almost impressed… As childish as her cousin behaved, and dressed, she would have assumed she was too bashful to write anything like that down, much less send it to Santa, in the off chance he’d actually read it. She wouldn’t have been that surprised to hear Camelia didn’t have those kinds of thoughts in the first place, that she was still a mousy little virgin, too scared and innocent to even touch herself. “Whatever you say,” she grinned.

“What did you ask for?” Maddie tried again.

She nearly turned the conversation around on the girl, telling her that her list was between her and Santa, too, but she preferred to lay some more groundwork for tomorrow’s revelation. “I didn’t make a list.”

Maddie’s gaze shot to Camelia, panicked. “It’s okay,” Camelia soothed. “You don’t have to make one, really… Santa knows what to give you, it just makes it easier for him to keep everything straight if you write it down. And it lets him know which things you want the most.”

“I don’t need anything from Santa,” Selina rolled her eyes, although, now that it was being brought up, she could think of plenty of other things she wouldn’t mind having, outfits she’d seen in some of the nicer stores that had been way to expensive for her, that would make her look more mature, and ensure nobody here thought of her as a kid anymore if they saw her in them, heel and shoes with lifts to give her an extra inch or two on Camelia, some nice, realistic looking, padded bras to give her curves some help…

“She’s worried she wasn’t nice enough this year to get anything from him,” Camelia ‘translated’ for Maddie, who giggled in response.

“Oh, I bet he likes the naughty girls more anyway,” Selina replied salaciously.

Thankfully, after that, Camelia quickly changed the subject, moving them away from Santa, and all the baggage that came with that. Selina was going to make sure they went back to it the next day… Though she had little doubt it would have happened on its own. For now, however, she was glad to move on, to have her cousins ask her what college was like, giving her a chance to brag about her experiences as the biggest and oldest of them.

Of course, being Christmas Eve, it was impossible to avoid the subject of Santa for long, with the girls immediately racing to the living room after dinner to switch onto the Santa tracker on TV, and then on Camelia’s phone when Selina informed them that, no, they weren’t going to be watching that all evening, while the parents cleared off the tables, Selina once again not thinking to help, or do it herself, until her mother had come to take her plate away, and it was too late.

Selina was sure her cousins wouldn’t make it through the traditional viewing of It’s A Wonderful Life, and its minimal mentions of Santa. She was less certain which of them would fall asleep first, whether it would be just one – and which of them it would be – or both, but she knew at least one would drift off before long. She didn’t get the chance to find out, however, as she cuddled up under a warm, cozy blanket, and cuddled up in the corner of the sofa, eyeing the other two, stretched out on the floor beneath her, her tummy feeling nice and full…

“Wake up, Lina,” her mother said, giving her a gentle shake. “You’re going to miss Night Before Christmas.”

“Huh?” Selina blinked, cheeks warming as she came to, sensing the eyes of everyone in the room on her, the TV now off, Camelia and Maddie sitting up at the foot of Camelia’s father’s armchair as he held a picture book of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. “I-I wasn’t asleep,” she lied.

“She’s just afraid the story will put her back to sleep,” Camelia mocked.

“I wasn’t asleep!” Selina glared at her, embarrassed that she’d done what she’d thought her childish cousins would. “Besides,” she reasoned out loud, as much for her own benefit as everyone else’s, “it was a long trip.”

“It’s all right,” her mother patted her on the shoulder, “we’re only teasing.”

That didn’t stop Selina from sulking her way through the story, however, or saying goodnight to Maddie and her parents, or getting ready for bed. Camelia, wisely, didn’t bother to ask her if she wanted to join her in putting out cookies and milk for Santa, but she had no doubt that was what kept her downstairs for so long, why she was already in her pajamas by the time she heard the creak of the stairs.

She gave it a little while, lying on the guest room bed, playing with her phone, before she hopped down, creeping out into the hall, her heavy eyelids tempting her to allow herself to fall back to sleep, but her determination to follow through on her plan keeping her up. The house was still and quiet, more than she would have expected at this hour… Then again, it really had been a long trip, and her parents had driven it, Camelia’s parents had no doubt put in a lot of work getting the meal for tonight, and tomorrow, ready – and they had to wake up early to get the presents under the tree, and the stockings hung – and Camelia, of course, wouldn’t want to give Santa any reason not to show up by being awake when he made his rounds.

She was such a baby… Selina wondered if that would change when Maddie got older, or if Maddie would outgrow her before that happened, recognize how sad it was for somebody Camelia’s age to be so into the same things as her younger cousin. College might help her, but she wasn’t sure it would be enough.

It hadn’t even really occurred to her until now; was it possible that she was going to be revealing the truth about Santa to not only Maddie tomorrow? Could Camelia still be so immature that she believed in him? Selina had assumed she was defending him for Maddie’s sake, but… Well, she didn’t actually know. If that was the case, however, that made it doubly important for her to do this.

Camelia’s parents had left the lights on the tree lit up, giving the living room a soft glow as Selina tip-toed in. She had suspected, from experiences long ago, when she and Camelia had been closer, and snuck, giggling, to check the tree after they’d been put to bed, too excited to fall asleep, that the packages there would be the same as they had been when she went to bed, that the girl’s parents would wait until the next morning to put the rest out. Sure enough, the pile was the same size, although, bathed in only the twinkling Christmas tree lights, it seemed the tiniest bit bigger for a moment, until she took another step closer.

That hadn’t really been her goal, yet now that she’d done it, it sort of felt as if it was, like she was a little kid again, hoping to sneak a peek of Santa. Thinking of it that way, she was almost surprised to not find Camelia camped out down there, snoozing on the couch.

In fact… Was she there? Selina glanced around the dimly lit room, unable to shake the sensation that she was being watched, that, something beyond the small circle of light the tree was putting off, there was somebody else there. She shivered, shook her head, telling herself she was being paranoid, and that she should just get this over with so she could get to bed.

“Hi, Maddie, ‘Melia,” she whispered to her phone’s camera, standing in front of the tree. “It’s Christmas Eve, and look where I am… And look what’s still here…” She tilted the phone, showing the end table where Camelia had set up a glass of milk and a plate of cookies. “That’s funny… It’s a bit after midnight, so it isn’t Christmas Eve anymore. Shouldn’t Santa have already been here?” She pretended to think about it for a moment before getting ‘distracted.’ “Wow, those sure look good, don’t they?”

They actually did; Camelia might be a big baby, but she was good at making cookies. Selina picked one up, took a nibble, giving her camera a sly look. “Oh, so yummy! I don’t think Santa will mind if I have a bit more…” She took a bigger bite, and another one, not stopping until she’d devoured the whole thing, going back in for the second, then the third, leaving behind only a few crumbs, washing it down with the milk. “Gosh,” she said sarcastically, mocking her cousins, “I hope Santa doesn’t tear up my wishlist because of this! Or give me any coal… Even if I have been a naughty girl for eating his cookies so he’ll freeze to death on the way to the next house.”

Amused with herself, she ended the recording, giving one last look around the living room before flouncing up the stairs to bed. Camelia was, unsurprisingly, up and about bright and early, Selina hearing her anxiously shuffling around her room, despite the girl’s attempts to be quiet.

Selina took her time, getting dressed for the day, putting on her makeup, wanting to seem as mature and put-together as she could this early in the morning, knowing it would make for a bigger contrast between her and Camelia, who, even though she’d been awake sooner than her, would definitely show up to the tree in her PJs, which were probably themed to the holiday. Her parents surely weren’t still buying matching pajamas for the whole family… Were they? Selina nearly gagged at the mere thought of her parents suggesting that to her at her age.

Whether that was the case or not remained to be seen, but, when she heard Camelia’s bedroom door open, she couldn’t help following after her. She was, indeed, wearing red and white PJs, looking for all the world like the little girl Selina was trying so hard not to be seen as, especially once she got to the living room and let out a wide-eyed, “Wow!”

Her parents’ bedroom – and the guest room Selina’s parents were staying in – was on the first floor, which no doubt made it easier for them to get the rest of the presents under the tree quietly. Even so, Selina was surprised she hadn’t overheard them, since she had heard Camelia’s restlessness. And, early as it was, she was impressed they’d already gotten it done… But, of course, they knew their daughter, and that she’d be sneaking a peek as soon as possible.

She was shocked they weren’t still up, as far as she could tell, that Camelia’s mother wasn’t starting breakfast. It seemed like they were all alone, just the two of them and the mountain of gifts. She watched Camelia kneel down, checking tags, though she was such a goody two-shoes that she didn’t even attempt to open any of them, to peel back the paper to see if she could catch a glimpse of what as underneath. There was one in particular that, the moment she spotted it, she dove for it, turning it over in her hands. It was big, which Selina assumed was what had drawn her to it. The sides didn’t appear hard, however, the paper crackling as Camelia’s hands compressed what was underneath slightly, sinking into it a bit. When she saw the tag, she let out a disappointed sigh, setting it back down.

“You must have been a very good girl this year,” Selina spoke up, Camelia jumping, dropping the box she was holding.

“O-Oh,” Camelia turned, saw her, blushed. “I-I mean, they aren’t all for me… Obviously…”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Selina smirked. “I’m sure Santa knows exactly what you deserve.” Camelia squirmed, turning even redder. “Aren’t you going to get your Mommy and Daddy up so you can open them up?”

“W-Well,” Camelia stammered, “I was thinking, maybe we should wait until Maddie gets here, to open them with her…”

“Do you really want to wait that long?” Selina asked skeptically. By then, the rest of the family would probably be there, too… Selina didn’t particularly want to open her presents in front of all of them, although she had to admit that Camelia had a point, that it would be more mature to do that, to prove she wasn’t so excited to get them that she couldn’t hold off for the whole morning, with the pile of presents staring at her, tempting her…

“No,” Camelia confessed. “I don’t want to, but…”

“I bet what you want to do is open them right now,” Selina grinned. “Before anyone else is even up. Don’t you?”

“We can’t do that!” Camelia sounded scandalized… She didn’t say no, though, not exactly.

“We could just do these ones from Santa,” Selina said, taking another step in, sneering to see that her parents had apparently also bothered to label some of hers as being from him, too, as if that was going to fool her into believing it. “Nobody else would know… They wouldn’t know what Santa gave us, would they?”

It was a test, a feeler she sent out to give her an idea if Camelia was further gone than she’d realized. And, to her surprise, she saw the girl hesitate, considering it. That was so pathetic! Selina was almost ashamed to be related to her… She really was such a baby…

That did make it easier for Selina to sate her curiosity, however. She was too cool to care that much, of course… But, now that she’d seen all the presents, she did kind of want to find out what was in them, and she didn’t want to have to wait…

“We could be careful with the paper so we could wrap them back up if we want,” she suggested. “But if they came from Santa, nobody would know the difference…”

“Lina!” Camelia gasped… Again, she didn’t say no. She’d been looking forward to this for so long, definitely more than Selina had been…

“Come on, Camelia,” Selina taunted. “What do you want to do?”

Camelia shook her head. “I… I-I don’t know. You decide.”

“Really?” Selina raised an eyebrow. “And you’ll do what I say?” Camelia nodded.

That was quite the decision… The most mature thing would be to wait for the whole family, to hold off on opening anything for as long as possible… If she could convince Camelia to open one of her presents from Santa, then take it up to her room, then that would be more proof in her favor when she dove into telling her cousins Santa wasn’t real. Her parents would certainly be confused when that gift didn’t show up… They’d probably whisper to one another, sneak off to see if they’d left it in their hiding space… Selina would know what to look out for, and to point out to Camelia, to make her wonder what was going on, why they were so worked up…

“Let’s see,” Selina mused, mulling it over one last time. “I think we should open our presents…

“Right away, before anyone else is awake.”

“As soon as our parents are up.”

“After Maddie gets here. We’re old enough to wait a bit.”

This decision has already been made, but if you’d like to catch up on the story, and help decide where it goes next, you can find it, and other exclusive stories, at my Patreon!

The Gift – Chapter 3

Beatrix couldn’t leave her ID and phone behind; that was far too risky. She needed some way to prove who she was, or make a call, just in case things really went south… And they wouldn’t take up that much space. She could definitely fit those into her purse, alongside the diapers. If she hadn’t been so nervous, she would have done it to begin with.

Of course, there was no small amount of risk involved with waiting for the doctor to pass by, either. She fidgeted, hugging her purse to her, covering as much of it with her arms as she could, wincing as she heard a soft crinkling from it, even through her purse, and the packaging, one that she knew she’d heard before, and that the doctor probably had, too.

She was being silly, she told herself. She’d barely noticed it herself, and that easily could have been her imagination… There was no way the doctor, as he walked down the hall, glancing down at his clipboard, would have overheard, or given any thought to it…

He looked up, and right into her eyes. She gulped, counter-intuitively squeezing her purse tighter, squirming. He was so tall, so handsome, his blue eyes so piercing as he peered at her curiously. Just like with most of the nurses here now, outside of her usual shift, she didn’t know him… And she was positive that, if she’d seen him before, even in passing, she would recognize him.

“Hello,” he said after a long, awkward moment, at least on Bea’s part, giving her a nod. “Should you be… wandering around on your own?”

Beatrix’s heart sank a little, the doctor’s words making it very obvious how he saw her. Not only did he not think he was an adult, as he so clearly was, he didn’t think she was old enough to be unsupervised! “Yes!” she squealed, cheeks bright red. It was only kids under twelve that had to be with a grown-up at all times when they were visiting! She didn’t look THAT young, did she?!

Automatically, she reached for her ID to prove her adulthood, but, of course, the sole reason she was still standing here was so she could go get it… Her fingers brushed against the package of diapers peeking out from her purse, flinching as she did, watching helplessly as the motion drew the doctor’s eyes downward, to the last thing she wanted him to see…

“Eager to get going, I see?” he chuckled. “I’m afraid discharge isn’t ready for the day yet, so you might as well go back to your room for now.”

Bea opened her mouth, wanting to tell him she wasn’t a patient, before changing her mind. Perhaps that was for the best… She might be able to make up some convoluted story about picking them up for somebody else, but the longer she spoke, the more likely she was to stumble on her lie and make it obvious she was covering something up. It was better to just go with his assumptions, no matter how embarrassing it was, having him think she was some kid who needed diapers.

“Y-Yes, sir,” she agreed. This was fine, she thought; she could find an empty room to hide in, perhaps stash the diapers there, then come back to get the rest of her things from the storage closet, after the doctor was gone. It hadn’t been her original plan, but, given the circumstances as they were now, it was as close as she could get without turning and ducking into the closet now. That might be proof to the doctor that she wasn’t a patient, and, if she could get to her ID before he caught her, she could show she was an adult… Or he might assume she’d spied on a nurse to get the combination to the door, or pull her away before she could finish typing it in.

She turned away, heart pounding, trying to think if she’d spotted any empty rooms on her way here, or if she should keep going down the hall the other way until she stumbled across one there. She hadn’t even had time to make a choice when she heard the doctor’s voice again, felt his hand on her shoulder, holding her in place.

“Nurse Sondra!” he called, Bea’s eyes widening, recognizing the name. “Could you get this patient back to her room for me, please?”

“Of course!” Sondra chirped, strutting over, bending down and smiling at Bea. Beatrix squirmed, part of her hoping she’d correct the doctor’s false assumption… She hadn’t seemed to think Beatrix was that young! Except… The doctor wasn’t claiming she was a visitor now. “Hi, there,” Sondra said. “A patient, huh?”

Beatrix nibbled her bottom lip, glancing up at the doctor. “Y-Yeah,” she nodded after a moment, worried that Sondra was going to call her out, and that she and the doctor would deduce that something more was going on.

Sondra’s eyes, inevitably, fell to Bea’s purse, a look of recognition coming over her. “Oh, I see,” she winked at the smaller woman. “Don’t worry, dear, I’ll get you all sorted out.”

Bea blushed, wondering what, exactly the nurse thought she’d figured out, dutifully taking the woman’s hand and letting herself be led away from the doctor. Sondra was nice enough to wait until they were away from the doctor before asking, “Were you embarrassed that I’d know those were for you if you told me you were a patient here?”

“Umm… Y-Yeah,” Bea agreed. Better to go with that, and let Sondra think she’d just missed out on seeing the diapers in her purse the first time, than continue with the last lie she’d let Sondra believe. She’d have to get very lucky to find another patient who was currently in diapers, and who wouldn’t contradict her by saying they didn’t know her if she claimed to be there visiting them.

“There’s no need for that!” Sondra told her cheerfully. “These kinds of things are more common than you might think, even for people your age! Now, do you remember what your room number was?”

Bea froze. This was, she realized, the problem with what was happening now… She didn’t need anyone else to corroborate her story, but if she was being accompanied by someone else, she couldn’t just keep walking until she found a convenient, unoccupied room. Even if she did find one, Sondra would surely be tipped off by the fact that there was no name on the whiteboard outside the door…

“Hey, it’s all right!” Sondra rubbed her back. “I’m sure you’ve been through a lot, dear! It’s natural to forget some things! Let me just…” She pushed up the sleeve of Bea’s oversized shirt, frowned, then tried the other. “Did you take your wristband off already?”

Bea nodded. “S-Sorry… I-I thought I was about to leave, so…”

“It’s fine,” Sondra said. “We’ll stop by the nurse’s station and get you a new one! Just give me your name and I can look you up!” Bea didn’t have an answer for that, either, and the other nurse’s patient demeanor finally showed a crack, for a second or two, Bea seeing her jaw clench before she forced a smile. “Are you trying to make things difficult for me?” she asked, though her tone made it sound almost like a joke.

“I-I’m sorry,” Bea stared down at her feet.

“It’s okay,” Sondra sighed. “It can’t be that hard to track you down. Or you could, you know, just tell me your name.” Bea stayed silent as she was taken to the nearest nurse’s station, standing by awkwardly as Sondra whispered something to the nurse behind the desk, who immediately began clacking away at her keyboard. “Now, then,” Sondra turned her attention back to Beatrix. “Why don’t we go in here while she sorts that out?”

“G-Go in where?” Bea tilted her head, taken by surprise when Sondra started to move again, having assumed she’d be safe for a minute or so at least… Maybe longer, depending on whether the other nurse was able to find a match. She hadn’t been able to hear most of what Sondra had said, but she’d caught a bit about the discharge date, and needing diapers. Perhaps there would be someone who was meant to leave that morning and had been prescribed that extra protection… If she was really lucky, when they got to the room, the patient would be in the bathroom, or have gone for a walk around the ward, for just long enough to satisfy Sondra, and then Bea could sneak back to the storage closet.

First, though, she’d have to deal with whatever Sondra was up to now, as she led her into a nearby exam room. “Now, dear,” Sondra knelt down in front of her, Bea hating that the woman, not that much older than her, felt the need to do that to speak to her eye-to-eye, “I need to ask you a personal question, and I want you to be honest with me, okay?”

Beatrix swallowed, fidgeting in place. She’d done her very best to minimize the number of lies she’d told, but she’d gotten around that mostly by staying silent. There wasn’t much for Sondra to pick apart, and yet, Bea still couldn’t help fretting that she’d screwed up, somehow, contradicted herself, or done something that made it obvious that she wasn’t who she claimed to be, even if she hadn’t made any specific claims…

“I can see that you’re supposed to be wearing diapers,” Sondra stated, the words, even knowing they were untrue, making Bea blush, just as much – if not more – than if it was true. “But… Are you in one now?”

“Wh-What?” Bea tugged at her shirt. Was it big enough to hide the truth? Could Sondra really not tell, or was she trying to be polite, not make any assumptions. Bea didn’t want her to think that she was wearing one… But she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out what would happen if she said she wasn’t, either. Then again, if she said that she did have one on, would Sondra want to check her, see if she needed a change? Was that why they were in this room?

“It’s a yes or no question,” Sondra reminded her. “Just tell me the truth, dear.”

Before Bea could decide what to say, the exam room door opened. She jumped, hands clenching her shirt, worried that whoever was on the other side had overheard the conversation. Instead, it was the nurse from the desk, who, of course, already knew about Bea supposedly needing diapers.

“That was quick!” Sondra beamed at her. “Thank you so much!” She took the wristband the other nurse had printed out, her eyebrows raising at what she found printed there. “Well, you’re a long way from home,” she commented, gently, but easily, pulling one of Bea’s hands away from her outfit, snapping the wristband onto her. That could be good, Bea thought, despite how ominous it felt, having that bracelet around her wrist, like she truly was a patient. If she was going to another ward, Sondra might not bother to take her all the way to her room… She could call a nurse from wherever she was ‘supposed’ to be to come fetch her, and go take care of her own patients, giving Beatrix time to slip away before the other nurse arrived. Or Sondra could take her to whichever other ward it was, then leave getting her to her room to someone who worked there. At the very least, Bea hoped that would be the end of their previous talk.

“That just means I need to know more, before I take you all the way back, Caitlin.” She wasn’t sure why, but just hearing that other name, knowing that must be the name of the patient that had matched her description, made Bea’s skin crawl a little. “Do you have your diaper on?”

What should Bea say? And where is she going to be taken?

Yes, and to the children’s ward.

Yes, and to the psych ward.

No, and to the children’s ward.

No, and to the psych ward.

Or give up, and admit that she’s a nurse.

This decision has already been made, but if you’d like to catch up on the story, and help decide where it goes next, you can find it, and other exclusive stories, at my Patreon!

The Wishlist – Chapter 1

“It’s Christmas Eve!” Maddie squealed as she rushed up to the door, bouncing in place in her red party dress.

“Yeah,” Selina didn’t bother trying to stifle her annoyed sigh, despite the angry glare she got from her mother in return. “That’s why we’re here.”

“And I’m sure she’s very excited,” Camelia spoke up, peeking her head out of the living room, Selina rolling her eyes when she saw the puffy sleeves on the girl’s dress, not that different from Maddie’s. “Aren’t you, Lina?”

Selina shot Camelia a look, certain her cousin had used that nickname purely because she knew how much Selina hated it nowadays, though a jab in her side kept her from making a fuss. “Oh, yeah,” she said sarcastically. “Sooo excited.”

She expected the lecture she got as she went to drop her bag off in the room she’d be staying in for the weekend, with her mother telling her that she should be nicer to her younger cousins, that she could at least make an honest effort to not completely douse their enthusiasm, even if she was in college now, and thought she was above all this.

Selina didn’t just think that, however; she knew it. She’d been above this years ago, but it had been easier to look past it when Maddie was younger. She wasn’t a total monster… As fun as it might have been, she wouldn’t have told the girl that Santa wasn’t real back when she was four or five, when it was acceptable for her to believe. Now, though… She was definitely getting far too old for this, and if her parents weren’t going to do anything about it, then it was up to her. She must be getting made fun of so hard at school… Selina would be doing her a favor.

Of course, she was assuming the girl hadn’t grown out of it by now. She and her parents lived far enough away from the rest of the family that she didn’t keep up with them, especially now that she’d started college. She had hoped she could use that as an excuse to avoid this holiday trip, but they’d made her come along anyway, not wanting her to be alone at home for Christmas, no matter how much she was positive that would have been better than the alternative.

Really, seeing Maddie in that red velvet dress had told her everything she needed to know. She was definitely getting too old for those, too, and if she was wearing it – and on Christmas Eve, not even Christmas Day itself – she must be genuinely ecstatic about the holiday, in a way that, in Selina’s experience, only little kids who still thought Santa was real did.

Well… Them, and Camelia. In a lot of ways, she was worse than Maddie. For one, she was older than her, barely younger than Selina herself, although their birthdays had fallen far enough apart that Camelia hadn’t graduated high school yet, while Selina was working on her first year of college. When they were younger, that had never felt like that big of a gulf, but as they’d gotten older, it had seemed to widen more and more… And, when Maddie had been born, that had just amplified everything. By now, it was almost like Camelia and Maddie were the cousins with less than a year between their ages… At times, Selina would have guessed Maddie was the older one, too.

Probably, it was at least partially because the two lived closer together, so they spent more time with one another. At one time, Camelia had been a regular babysitter for Maddie, though Selina wasn’t sure if that was the case anymore or not. Just like the girl should be too old for Santa, she ought to have been too old for babysitters, too… Selina knew she’d felt that way at her age; whether she’d gotten her parents to agree then, however, or if it had taken another year or two, she couldn’t recall.

As the older cousin, as the babysitter, Camelia’s maturity should have rubbed off on Maddie, but, if anything, it had gone the other way. That, or when the maturity had rubbed off, it had revealed something else underneath. Camelia had always been smaller than Selina – even if, the past few years, Selina had been getting a little help to ensure that remained the case – and she was a few months younger, yet it wasn’t until Maddie had been born that things had taken a drastic turn.

Camelia had constantly cooed over all of Maddie’s baby outfits, seemed genuinely enthralled when they had to throw on one of the girl’s favorite shows to keep her entertained, and always wanted to play with her, lying on the floor and using her blocks and dolls just as much as Maddie did, if not more.

And that didn’t appear to have changed, either, judging by the dress Camelia had been wearing. It would have been funny, if Selina wasn’t related to her, if she didn’t know how close in age they were… Camelia was an adult now, and here she was, running around in a dress that Selina would have been willing to bet came out of the girls’ department! It was very possible she and Maddie had gone shopping together, had picked out outfits from the same rack… The second-hand embarrassment of that was almost too much for Selina to bear, even without the thought that, if she’d been there, she could surely have fit into those same dresses.

How could Camelia’s parents have let that happen? Why were they humoring her with this, letting her dress up like a kid? Yes, it was just family here tonight, Maddie and her parents coming over to greet Selina and hers after their long trip to stay at Camelia’s parents’ place, but they had to realize she wasn’t a kid anymore, that it was weird for her to be this into Christmas, to even consider dressing that way… She was, theoretically, heading off to college in less than a year!

Maybe they didn’t see it, because she was so immature all the time… Or maybe they were happy to have their little girl for one more year, no matter how pathetic that was. Either way, Selina did not approve, and it didn’t put her in a good mood at all when she discovered that she was still expected to sit at the kids’ table with Camelia and Maddie.

“I know this table can get bigger!” she protested. “You’re going to put in another leaf tomorrow when everyone else is here! Just do it now!”

“Selina!” her mother scolded. “They’re already being nice enough to let us stay here, and they made us all this food… Don’t be ungrateful!”

“I’m not!” Selina insisted. “I just don’t see why I can’t..!”

“It’s no trouble,” Camelia’s mother cut her off, as if she didn’t even hear the teen, speaking to her mother instead. “We love having you all here! And the girls have been so looking forward to getting to eat with you, Lina.”

Selina glowered. “I don’t go by Lina anymore,” she reminded her aunt. “And I’m in college, I don’t think I should have to…”

“Selina, go sit down!” her mother snapped. Selina blushed, feeling a shiver of fear run down her spine at her mom’s tone, knowing she’d pushed things too far this time. Part of her wanted to stand her ground, to show them all that, as a grown-up, she couldn’t be pushed around… But she was stuck here with them, with no way to get back home unless she stole their car, made the long drive all the way back by herself…

“Fine!” she grumbled, stomping her foot. Immediately she regretted it, knowing that only made her look like more of a kid, yet that was really all she could think to do at the moment.

“Hi, Lina!” Maddie smiled at her as she sulkily slouched into her chair. “Did you have a nice trip?”

“Yeah, it was wonderful,” Selina gritted her teeth, wondering if she ought to make a sign to wear around her neck telling everyone that she didn’t want to be called Lina anymore.

“That’s good!” Maddie chirped, seemingly not picking up on Selina’s sarcasm, or choosing to ignore it. “Do you want to go get changed?”

“Uh… What for?” Selina asked.

“So we can all match!” Camelia declared, appearing, carrying a plate in each hand, having been recruited by her mother to ferry the food over to the kids’ table. It dawned on Selina then that she should have volunteered to help, or at least get her own plate, but she was used to having it brought over… And she hadn’t really been in the mood to be helpful. Camelia set one of the plates down in front of Maddie, and one in front of Selina, then bustled off again.

“We thought it would be fun to get dressed up tonight, too!” Maddie informed Selina. “We got new dresses for tomorrow, but some of our Christmas dresses from other years still fit, and it seemed like a shame not to get some use out of them… And today is just as important as tomorrow, so why not?”

“Oh, is it?” Selina jabbed at some of the food on her plate, Maddie’s eyes widening, though Selina didn’t notice until she’d popped the potato into her mouth.

“I was waiting until ‘melia got back,” Maddie told her.

That would have been the polite thing to do, especially when Camelia had served Selina her food. “What’s so important about today?” she asked, setting her fork down.

“Well, you guys got here,” Maddie said sweetly. “So we’re all together for that! And, I mean, this is when Santa delivers the presents, and we have to set out cookies and milk for him… If we don’t keep his strength up, he’ll never make it all the way!”

Selina’s stomach turned; she truly did believe, and not just a little… She was all in, with no sign of hesitation, or irony… It was so sad. It was her duty as an older cousin to squash this now, or poor Maddie was going to be laughed out of school after the break when she bragged about how Santa had shown up and brought her so many gifts this year…

“I didn’t bring anything to get dressed up in,” Selina started off. She was in jeans and a nice sweater, and that was the sort of thing she’d expected to spend most of her time there in. “No dresses, certainly not…” She wrinkled her nose, looking at Maddie’s childish outfit again.

“None at all?” Maddie sounded stunned. “Well, ‘melia might have some you could borrow,” she continued after a moment of deep thought, as if this were a serious problem that needed to be solved right away.

“She might,” Selina admitted, although she hated to think that, as different as they were, they might still be the same size… Or, even worse, that she might fit into some of Camelia’s older dresses. Once upon a time, they’d swapped clothes whenever they visited one another, but their tasted had diverged long ago. “I don’t think tonight is anything to get too excited about, however.”

Maddie frowned, tilted her head. “Huh? Really? I know tomorrow is when we get the presents, but…”

“Nothing special is going to happen tonight, Maddie,” Selina informed her.

“I know we’ll be asleep for most of it,” Maddie said, as if that was the issue. “It’s still…”

“No, Maddie,” Selina interrupted. “Nothing.” She could see Maddie squirming in her seat, nibbling at her bottom lip uncomfortably.

She wasn’t sure how much of that Camelia could hear, or if she was simply so immature that this was what she had been thinking about anyway, but, when she returned, the first thing she did was ask Maddie, “So, did you decide on what cookies you’re going to leave for Santa tonight?”

Maddie glanced over at Selina uncertainly, then shook her head. “Not yet. What about you? Do you think we should leave the same kind, or should we switch it up so he has a little variety?”

“You know what I think?” Selina smirked, picking her fork back up now that Camelia was there, with food of her own. “I think,” she stabbed a piece of turkey dramatically, “you ought to leave some of those chocolate mint cookies you always make.”

“Oh, I have some of those left!” Maddie smiled, looking relieved that Selina was joining in on their conversation, not continuing on with what she’d started before, as if she could sense where that would lead, as if, deep down, she knew the truth…

“No, I think Camelia ought to put those out,” Selina said.

“I have some, too,” Camelia told her. Selina had no doubt they’d baked their Christmas cookies together, so it made sense they’d have the same things. “Do you think Santa will like those?”

Selina grinned. “No, but I will.”

“Lina!” Maddie whined. “You can’t eat them!”

Selina hadn’t really thought about it until now, but being told she couldn’t do something always made her want to do it more, and the longer this went on, the more it felt like it would serve them right if she did it. “There’s no reason not to,” she shrugged.

“Yes, there is!” Maddie glared at her.

“That’s right,” Camelia backed her up, fixing Selina with a warning look. “Santa needs those.”

“Oh, does he, Camelia?” Selina sniffed, sitting up in her chair to face down her cousin. “I don’t think he does, because…”

“Don’t you dare,” Camelia hissed, not quite able to hide the quaver in her voice, as if she were afraid to hear it for herself, as much as for Maddie’s sake.

Selina opened her mouth, ready to do it, but she stopped short, for a moment anyway. It would be for the best for them to rip off the band-aid for Maddie… Was tonight the best time to do it, though? Should she wait until tomorrow? She’d at least have her presents to cheer her up in the morning… But there would be so many other people in the house, and it might be harder to find a nice, quiet time to break the news.

What should she do?

Tell them Santa isn’t real, and eat the cookies?

Tell them Santa isn’t real, and don’t eat the cookies?

Stay quiet about Santa for now, but eat the cookies?

Or stay quiet about Santa for now, and leave the cookies alone?

This decision has already been made, but if you’d like to catch up on the story, and help decide where it goes next, you can find it, and other exclusive stories, at my Patreon!