The Weekend Visit, Part 28

Taking a nap because I wanted to take a nap was one thing. Being put down for a nap was something else entirely.

Kate got right to it, too. After helping our cousins to carry some bags inside, and urging me to do the same before I had a chance to do so simply because that would have been my mature impulse anyway, Kate took my hand and walked me up to our room. It should have been another opportunity for me to talk to her one on one without the others around, but she wasted no time in taking charge the moment we stepped into the bedroom.

“Skirt off, Annie,” she said, “Can’t have your clothes getting wrinkled, can we?”

I wanted to argue. There had been plenty of instances where I had napped after an exhausting evening of studying, and it usually ended up happening in whatever outfit I had worn to school that day. If I messed up my hair or my clothes, I’d just shower or do laundry afterwards. Of all the things to bicker with Kate about, however, this definitely wasn’t one of them. I needed to save my energy for a future conversation about the diapers and/or the way she had been treating me all day.

Without a word, I pulled the skirt down. Though Kate had seen me in the thick padding multiple times, it never got any less embarrassing. “Like, happy?” I asked.

“This is exactly why you need a nap,” she rolled her eyes, “I hope you have a better attitude when you wake up. You do remember our little chat this morning, yeah?”

Unfortunately, I did. Even though I would never in a million years describe myself as ‘bubbly’ under normal circumstances. “Totally!” I exclaimed, swinging way too far the other way for the over-correction.

Kate nodded. “Better. Now, lie down. We can have more fun after you get some much needed rest.”

I did as I was told. It felt ridiculous crawling under the covers when it was barely 1 PM. After I looked more or less settled, my sister proceeded to close the blinds and turn off the lights. Then she left the door cracked wide enough that she would be able to hear any stirring from down the hall. According to her, she would be with our cousins in their room for a while, hanging out and helping them reorganize their closets. So much for my plan to get up and hunt for my phone or whatever.

Instead, I just rested my head on the pillow and lay there for a little while. Diapers meant there wasn’t really a comfortable position. At the same time, I couldn’t deny the fact that I was more tired than expected. Between the obstacle course, the stress of trying to figure out how to deal with the mortifying mess, my constant efforts to act like a girly tween, and the various forms of embarrassment on top of that, the trip to the mall was rather exhausting. More mentally and emotionally than anything else, but even something as simple as being on my feet for an extended period of time took its toll as well.

Still, I didn’t crash right away. Aside from the diaper thing, there was also the fact that light from the hallway was streaming in, as well as how I could hear the distant voices of my sister and cousins. Also, I didn’t want to nap! I wasn’t actually a little girl, and something like this would only pile onto the image the twins currently had of me. My nonstop thoughts had me tossing and turning for a while, though I never quite landed on anything that would fix all this without Kate’s help. Like she first pointed out when we first arrived–even though she was the one who got me into this mess, she was also the only one who could get me out of it.

Eventually, I did end up somewhat drifting off. Never all the way. My eyes just got heavy enough for me to slip in and out of reality, which only served to confuse me. Reality was already a lot to handle when I was stuck acting less mature and so much younger than I actually was. Adding in jumbled thoughts and half-asleep dream fragments only made it more difficult to keep everything straight. There was just too much overlap. Somehow, I was stuck as Kate’s little sister, and it was difficult to view myself as anything else when she even kept up the facade when it was just the two of us.

During one of the stretches of time I was more asleep than awake, Kate padded back in and lightly shook me by my shoulder. “Annie?” she whispered, “Little sis?”

Just my luck. “Mmm . . . ” My eyebrows furrowed and reluctantly fluttered open. Terrible timing; I didn’t actually want her to catch me in the middle of a nap that I had tried to tell her that I didn’t need in the first place. Shifting and sitting up, flushing a bit when the padding between my legs reminded me what I was wearing, I muttered, “I’m, like, awake.”

“I can see that,” Kate chuckled. She reached over and took my closest wrist, “Come on, it’s time to get up. You can’t nap all day, Annie. Otherwise your sleep schedule will get all out of whack!”

Uh huh. In fact, it’s almost as if not napping at all would have been best for said schedule. If anything, I felt more tired after napping on and off for however long it had been. My phone was still nowhere to be seen, and there wasn’t a clock within sight. But I didn’t complain or resist. Getting the skirt back on ASAP was my first priority, and I made sure not to do anything that would keep the diapers on display for longer than necessary.

Once that was done, Kate dusted off her hands and gave me a quick once over. “Good to go! Aren’t you glad I chose that pony for you? Otherwise your hair would be all messed up right now.”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if a high pony was better than unkempt hair. “Umm, yeah,” I replied.

“See? This is why I’m here to make all the important decisions for you! Now come on, we need to go talk with Luna and Lilah.” And that was that. With very little time to further wake up or try to initiate one of the many conversations I kept trying to figure out how to broach with her, Kate took my hand and walked me down the hall to where our cousins were both lounging in their room. Whatever organization they had done was completely lost on me; their closets were still open, but it’s not like I had a sense of where everything had been before.

“Hey, Annie!” Luna greeted me, “How was your nap?”

“Like, fine, I guess,” I replied. It wasn’t until I heard my still slightly groggy tone that I realized how immature it sounded. Clearing my throat and belatedly slipping my hand out of Kate’s, I said, “I mean, I didn’t really, like, need one.” Again, there was a pretty clear difference between ‘tween’ and ‘child.’ I was supposed to be pretending to be the former; something like a nap didn’t exactly line up with that. Although asserting the contrary out loud didn’t sound that great, either.

“Speaking of what my little sister needs,” Kate said, nudging me forward, “Don’t you have something to ask your favorite cousins, Annie?”

Apparently so. Kate hadn’t specified when she was going to spring this on me, though of course it was going to be sooner rather than later. “Umm, like . . . yeah?” I affirmed. In retrospect, I should have suspected I was going to be put on the spot like this when I was still shaking off the recent fragments of sleep I had fallen in and out of. Fiddling with the end of my ponytail, I briefly glanced towards Kate before turning my attention back to Luna, “Is there still, umm- are there, like, any spots left at that camp?”

No one said anything for a couple seconds, though the twins shared a fleeting look. “Probably!” Lilah finally said. She hopped up from the bed and crossed the room to grab a backpack from the edge of her closet. “I should still have a couple extra registration forms. They always make us carry around a bunch for any returning girls in our neighborhood.”

“You really want to go, Annie?!” Luna asked, “Have you and Kate checked with your parents yet?”

Before I could respond, Kate dismissively waved her hand. “Please. It’s summer! Neither of us have any official plans over the next week. Besides, our parents had to make this trip anyway. I can still head home with them, and can pick up Annie myself if they don’t want to make the drive again.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Lilah said, “See! I knew I had one or two forms left. We don’t normally let in campers so last minute, but Luna and I have some pull. I bet we could bat our eyelashes and get them to make an exception for our little cousin.”

“Perfect!” Kate smiled, “How about it, Annie? Is that what you want? To stay here and be a camper instead of going home on Monday?”