Author's Note: Did you think it was over? Sorry about that ☺ There might still be loose ends for Sally to tie up first.
This chapter is dedicated to Uwigi, with thanks for all your support on Patreon.
I awoke to the sound of a harp playing a grating, repetitive melody. For a second I wondered what the sound was, and then a vibration from my wrist was just at the right intensity to set my arm swinging where it dangled over the side of the bed. That woke me up a fraction more, and then I recognised one of the alarm tones that my phone had come with. I'd rarely used it, preferring to wake up to the gentle vibrations from my watch, which would automatically adapt to my sleep depth. Today would be an exception, because we needed to be up early.
The beach house! The memory leapt into my mind, and my brain was firing on all cylinders in an instant. Today was the day! I groped blindly for my phone on the floor, while my other hand carefully removed Mr Muggins from my shoulder, set him against the edge of the pillow, and patted the teddy bear's fuzzy head. I found the phone a second later, but my finger squeaked slightly across rough faux-leather.
I was confused for a second, with questions like "what?" filling my mind. But then they were replaced by more concrete questions. Like why my phone was upside-down, with the case facing me, and why my hand was wet.
Both questions were answered when I swung my legs out of bed and turned my phone over. Lindy had been awake before me. In fact, she had been awake almost all night, too excited to rest properly. Every period of theta sleep shortly followed by wakefulness, maybe even pacing around her room according to the step counter. I could easily reconstruct the scene in my mind's eye. She woke up for the last time, and saw that it was only half an hour before our alarms were set. She was tired, but couldn't sit still. Maybe she went to the bathroom, and took off her pullup so she wouldn't have trouble hiding it as we rushed to get ready. Maybe she saw a dim red glow from one LED on the side of my watch; she would be likely to assume, if she'd read the manual for hers, that it indicated the sleep profiler was running.
She was being good today; she didn't dare come into my room while I was sleeping in case my phone took a video. But she knew my phone was on the floor next to my bed, so she could probably stay out of sight by crawling along the floor, and then turned the phone over on the assumption that ZoneWatcher would use the camera that I'd left pointing upwards.
She wasn't asleep, and her heart rate had ticked up a little ten minutes ago. Had she panicked when my watch started to vibrate, and run back into her own room thinking I was about to wake up? I figured that in that case, it would be a shame to disappoint her. I was a little annoyed, because she had no reason to assume I was still wearing a diaper after the punishment ended, and that would have been a big deal if her trick had actually worked. I mean, sure I might have thought about doing a similar thing to her, but only after I'd seen that she had protection, and only because I thought she might be unable to sleep otherwise.
I shrugged. My alarm had gone off, which meant I needed to be moving. I jumped up and dashed into the bathroom, calling "Morning Lindy!" on the way past. I only glanced into her room for a second; it was unavoidable as I had to step past the bathroom door to open it, so she couldn't complain. But I saw her scrambling in panic when she heard my voice, desperately trying to hide an orange mixing bowl behind the first thing she could lay her hands on, which turned out to be Bosnia. Suspicion confirmed.
I took my diaper off. No trace of pee this time; the trick hadn't worked. Probably because I'd been too deeply asleep until my alarm started. If Lindy had waited until the second or third vibration from my watch, guiding me gently towards a more alert state, she would probably have gotten the result she was hoping for. But without seeing my sleep graph, there was no way she could have known that. There was still a wet diaper in the bin from yesterday, and I knew I should make an effort to take the trash out before anyone else realised. Mum wouldn't mind, and she probably wouldn't even say anything, but I didn't want her to know. Lindy, on the other hand, was less observant but would be sure to tease me if she got the chance.
"All ready?" Mum asked in the kitchen. As had become a routine, there was no cereal on offer today. We each had a piece of fruit, a bagel, a couple of chips, and a travel mug of some kind of drink. Everything was in the weird disposable trays that everybody has in the audience during big matches, or if you buy nachos at the cinema. No dishes to wash, nothing to slow us down, and we could eat on the move if something put us behind schedule. "I've got to–"
"I need to sort this out with Harper before we go," I said. "I'll nip next door and talk to her real quick. I'll take the trash out while I'm going, I think you'll need a little extra time for organisation."
I gestured to where Lindy was standing at the bottom of the stairs. She was supposed to be carrying just the essentials that she couldn't do without; the things she hadn't been able to pack the day before yesterday. But as well as a choice of two coats she still had Bosnia and Zod, a whole bunch of assorted art materials apparently rammed at random into three carrier bags, one of which was splitting at the bottom, and her book bag stuffed with whatever else she thought she might need. She was also carrying a large bowl, which I heard her throw in the direction of the sink as soon as Mum was facing the other way. How could she possibly expect that to work? I didn't know, but she remained nonchalant despite a dull thud when it hit the countertop followed by a resonant clang-clang-clang as it came to a halt in the sink.
"Want to throw the diapers out so Mum won't know you had an accident?" Lindy asked, and I could hear the hostility in her voice. She wasn't just joking now, it was like she actually hated me. I couldn't understand it. "Why do you want to talk to her anyway? After what she told– What she's been saying about me. Mum said we're supposed to help each other!"
"I think that's why your sister is going to yell at her, Lindy," Mum spoke calmly in response to the tantrum. "I know you're upset. And I know you don't want to tell Sally what prompted this, but she still cares about you. So let yourself believe that she has your back sometimes. Okay? I'm normally flying around the house trying to make sure everything is clean and all the bins are empty before we go, so there's nothing stinking up the place when we get back. If Sally can sort that out, I've got more time to try and fit all the last minute things in the car. Do you want to help, or are you going to keep sulking?"
Lindy didn't say anything, so I dashed up the stairs and pulled out a black trash bag. The bins from Mum's room, my room and Lindy's, and both bathrooms all went into one bag. I grabbed a half-eaten bag of corn snacks from Lindy's desk as well; even if it was okay now, which I doubted, it would be really stale by the time we returned. My trash bag was pretty heavy, not a problem but I thought it wouldn't be easy to tell that there was a diaper in there. Then I rushed downstairs and picked up bins from the kitchen, lounge, den, and the bag of fluff from the washing machine's filter. Everything fitted in one bag. I grabbed my orange on the way out, so I could eat it while I dealt with everything I needed to.
The wheelie bin at the back was full now. I made sure it was the right way around so it would be collected, and hopped over the gate into the Eisens' garden. Hugo was running drills; I wasn't too surprised by that.
"Want to join me?" he said. "You're rushing out, aren't you?"
"Yeah, but they'll need to sort out the rest of the packing. I volunteered to do the trash run so I can escape last minute car-tetris. And I need to talk to Harper. Know if she's up?"
He didn't respond, but without shifting his pose at all launched a hard pass towards one of the upstairs windows. The ball sailed straight and banged against the shutters with a thud. Just a few seconds later the window opened and Harper's face appeared, glaring in a way that I was sure must be common to all little sisters everywhere. Hugo responded with a large beckoning gesture and pointed at me, before picking up the ball that had landed at his feet.
I glanced down at my phone for a second, and saw a message from Mum. Lindy had finally spilled a few more details about why she was upset. In Lindy's mind, Harper had seen a box of diapers in the back of the car when we were packing, I'd told her that Lindy kept wetting herself, and Harper had then teased her about it before going on to tell all of her friends. Including the anonymous friend Lindy had confessed her feelings to yesterday. That would be enough to make anyone bitter, but I really didn't see it as something Harper would do. It wasn't elegant or creative, and I didn't think she would ever try to actually ostracise someone. Harper's pranks were always, always the ones that got you facepalming when you realised how gullible you'd been, or built up this sense of camaraderie between people who'd suffered the same fate. They brought people together and built sympathy.
"What's up?" she asked, appearing at the door. I followed her inside, but I didn't take my shoes off, just sat on the shoe bench in the hall with her.
"Lindy thinks you told her crush that she wears diapers," I said straight up. "She's mad, and been taking it out on me all morning. I don't want this to ruin the trip for her, can you tell me what's going on? Please, no more tricks."
"I'm sorry. I didn't realise she'd overreact. I'll text her, then go tell her in person if they haven't left yet."
"So, what happened?" Harper could text just as fast while talking, I knew that. And I knew it was probably the better option, as Lindy might not be in the mood to listen to an apology face-to-face.
"I saw her helping Willow with the car. Heart's in the right place, but none of the boxes were. Stuff taking up double the space it needs to, you know? I was going to try helping her, but as soon as I even came close..." She stopped in a brief fit of giggles. I took advantage of the delay to look down at the orange in my hand, and managed to get my thumbnail through the skin. Now I could eat while we talked, like I had intended.
"Yeah, she immediately tried to hide something in the back seat. Like, I couldn't see what it was, right? But I could see it was like a rectangular package, plastic wrap rather than a box. And how embarrassed she was, it would have been easy t guess diapers. I mean, after she told me she's been wetting the bed. But I didn't, I didn't even think of it at the time. I just saw Lindy struggling to hide something in the car, like she really didn't want me to know. So I said something like 'Oh wow, the girls will never believe this' or something. I thought she'd like... be embarrassed, and try to make excuses. Or claim it wasn't hers, whatever it was. Or beg me to keep her secret. I mean, can you imagine somebody pleading with you not to share a secret you don't even know and have no intention of prying into?"
"Ironic," I admitted. Now that sounded exactly like Harper's usual style. "But how could you tell anybody?"
"I wouldn't. That's the point. I just wanted to shock her for a second, and then we'd laugh about it. But she pulled like a blanket or something over the big box, ran inside the house, and didn't come out again. I thought maybe I overdid it, but I assumed Willow would calm her down and make her see sense. She really thinks..."
"She thinks you told the person she has a crush on. Whether or not I'm right about who that is."
"I heard. She made some clumsy message to one of our new friends, couldn't even say it in person. She called Coleen kind of nervous and panicking, didn't know how to answer. Coleen told me after, tell me not to tease her about it because they're both going to be worrying right now. The other girl, her... Crap, I just confirmed it, didn't I? Anyway, her parents are super conservative and she's always had a sheltered life. Doesn't meet friends without a chaperone kind of deal. If her parents found out she's dating before she even started at a new school, her mum would totally flip. And they check her phone, like yours do. So she had to reply like she's offended, maybe say something a bit mean, because otherwise she's grounded for life."
"Wow, I never thought... So nothing to do with diapers? But I can see Lindy's mind going there if it's a few hours after..."
"Yeah. I'm so sorry. I texted her now, just promising I didn't really tell anybody. And telling her that a friend of a friend told me to ignore any texts from Niall until further notice because her parents confiscated her phone. Not quite true, but near enough, and short enough that she'll actually get the message before she gets too upset to continue. She can get the full story when they can talk in person. I asked Ally to send her a version of the same message, too, like a phone tree thing, so it doesn't look like I'm making excuses."
"Thanks," I sighed. "I hope she's okay like this."
"Really care about your sister, don't you? She's being a pain, but you're still all about making her feel better. You don't have a grudge "
"Well, yeah. Whatever else happens, she's my sister. I have to protect her. She tried a cruel prank last night, but it didn't work, and I would have let it slide anyway. Especially after all the things I've done to her since Dad... You know. I was a bitch."
"You were grieving," she said with a shrug. I wasn't sure Harper really understood how much it could affect you, but she'd heard that excuse before.
"Yeah, but I lashed out and hurt my sister. Now, something happens to her and she takes it out on me? It's like payback. So I try to help her with whatever the real problem is. I owe her that much. I can't imagine anything she could do that would make me really mad at her now, and that I wouldn't kind of think I deserve it."
"There'll be something," she said with a shrug. "Sooner or later."
"Maybe. But not right now. And– Ugh, look at the time. I need to be going. Thanks, and I'll let you know how it goes." I tossed the orange peel in the trash, and she let me out their front door. Eager to get to the beach, now that Lindy's peace of mind was assured again.