A Bet to Lose

[Jacqueline]

Richard woke up early, a thing very unlike him. He'd had the most wonderful dream. He'd gotten all dressed up cutely and then spent time with some new friends and then been driven up the hill to the a beautiful princess's house and she'd given him the most enjoyable time of his life, then he'd skipped home wearing a jingly dress...

He sat up in bed, rubbed his eyes, and then looked down at his nightie, realizing that he'd actually done all of that. He sat there for a bit, still amazed and in mild bliss before remembering that he had chores he needed to finish. He'd wanted to try on that pink prom dress his sister had been shoved into on his birthday - and which she had left in his room, along with all the other girl stuff she would never wear again - but he'd be doing dishes and scrubbing the toilet and didn't want to risk it getting wet. Instead, he picked out a pink, floral-print housewife dress that could have been sixty years old, the tights that came with the prom dress and, after a bit of thought, his pink four-inch heels. (He'd wanted to wear his jingly socks again, but he'd been skipping in them yesterday and they needed to be washed.)

Then he carried his dress and heels to the bathroom, where he set them down on the closed toilet and started brushing his teeth. His diaper was, of course, still dry, and he would normally just let go in the shower, but that felt like cheating and not at all in the spirit of being diaper buddies with Leslie. Instead, he peeled it off with as little damage as possible, took some of his mother's sweet-smelling floral shampoo, washed his hair very thoroughly, and then took a small dollop of some thickly lavender-scented leave-in conditioner and followed the directions exactly because he'd never used it before. He dried himself thoroughly with a fluffy towel (particularly in his nether regions), put his diaper back on and taped it as snugly as he could, slipped on the light pink tights, lifted the floral dress over his head and buttoned up the front, and slipped on his high heels. He realized he still had to pee, but that's what his diaper was for, and he giggled lightly as he let go.

He looked in the mirror and smiled at his own reflection, twirling a bit. This dress was, of course, nowhere near as frilly or sweet as the thing he'd worn yesterday, but he enjoyed the sensation of the light fabric on his skin.

Four inches really was pretty high for him, especially with such thin heels, and he daintily, carefully minced downstairs, one hand on the railing, to pick up where he'd left off with the laundry. He put in the next load as Zoe had instructed him, but not knowing quite what to do with the dry clothes, he simply folded them up as delicately as he could and placed them on the ironing board. (He'd never heard of his mother actually ironing anything.) He minced over to the kitchen, realizing that everything seemed very far away with such little steps, and found some rubber gloves. Picking out the right cleaners with a lot of careful label reading, he very carefully minced back upstairs, found a stiff-bristled brush, carefully kneeled in his dress so as not to get it dirty, and cleaned the toilet, then decided to do the bathtub as well.

Once everything was nice and shiny, he minced downstairs, checked the timers on the washer and dryer (cleaning the toilet and bathtub didn't actually take that long), and lightly washed the few dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, making sure he was using the right liquid. Zoe had used the wrong one, once. Then he minced back to the laundry room and went through another load of clothes, enjoying the pleasant, girly buzz he was getting from being a good little sissy. What else could he do? Oh, right, the lawn - but the lawn would have to be handled after morning rush hour. Jingling home had been one thing, but waking the whole neighborhood up with a lawnmower would have been very unwise.

Instead, he decided to clean off the cabinets and counters, throwing away a bunch of old trash that had been acc-umulating for a while. (Their mother could be something of a hoarder and would surely be worse without her children. On the bright side, she would never seriously look in either of their closets.) He went for the stove next, and cleaning that out was really rather disgusting and nasty, but he perservered by reminding himself that he was a dutiful little sissy, and he didn't realize how long it was actually taking him until he realized that he couldn't hear the washer anymore, and he minced back to do yet another load of laundry, including his jingly dress and socks. He placed his own clothes in a laundry basket, carefully making his way up the stairs again, smiling coyly at how hard his heels made everything and enjoying the subtle helpless feeling that his wet diaper was giving him. He heard his sister in her room but minced back downstairs to finish his chores.

"Hey, Ricky," Zoe said, going up to him as he worked. He was wondering if she would laugh at him for doing chores he didn't even need to do while wearing four-inch heels no one had told him to wear. Instead, she handed him his phone. "You need to get in our chat, and you've gotta read this." He unlocked it and added them all as friends - even his sister hadn't been on his friends list - got into their private server, and read, or tried to read, what she was talking about.

Leslie, her diaphragm's weakness forcing a degree of quiet on her in the physical world, could be incredibly chatty online. Richard scrolled up to read line after line of her discussing an doctor's appointment that would "finally, actually" happen in the middle of next month, and she continued on and on about a triple approach of some sort of CRISPR-based gene therapy, X-linked reactivation (Richard had absolutely no idea what that was), and engineered, allogeneic (whatever the hell that meant) stem cells. Apparently, choosing to give just one of these experimental treatments to a human being was considered unethical, so she needed to get all of them at once. Dr. Sinchurch, the lead researcher, had advised her parents not to get too hopeful, but Leslie had used the word 'cure' more than once.

"Holy crap," Richard said. "Is she actually going to be free of that?" He was viscerally reminded of the difference between a fetish and a problem. The games he was playing with himself (and, even more enjoyably, with Susie) weren't real, and he would never want them to be.

"She thinks so," Zoe replied. "If it works, that would be the most... God, I can't even describe..." Her voice was breathless, and Richard expected her to start crying tears of joy at any moment. Richard was also reminded that this was her girlfriend, someone she surely cared about the way he cared about Susie, and he could not have even imagined his feelings if it were Susie in Leslie's position.

"Oh, hey," Richard said before his sister really started crying, "I folded up a bunch of your and Mom's clothes, I don't know where they go."

She smiled widely at him. "Don't worry about that part, I'll handle the female clothes," Zoe said, and pretended to think for a bit. "Well, the female clothes worn by actual females," she finished, giggling, leaving him to finish cleaning the stove.

He had a single burrito for breakfast along with his sister, as she'd mentioned that they'd probably be eating somewhere nice that day, and he did the lawn as he'd intended: with his housewife dress on, his feet in his heeled sneakers, and his face made up so that he really looked like a girl. He probably did go a bit more quickly than he should have, but the end result was even stripes around the small front and back lawns, and then he realized that he was actually tired, put his four-inch heels back on because he loved how his feet felt in them, put the last load of laundry into the washing machine, meticulously dried the dishes, and went to play pirated Skyrim featuring mods from places that thirteen-year-olds were not allowed to be, only realizing later that he'd completely forgotten to ask for a change. Oh well. Instead of bugging his big sister, he decided to just be a good girly boy and stay in his wet diaper.

As he put the laundry into the dryer, the Discord chat warned him that his friends were arriving, and he curtseyed to them as they came in, enjoying their light giggles.

"Hey, Zoe, I was going to wait until we got there," Leslie said, "but it's starting to get bad. I'm sorry..."

"Leslie, it's okay, remember? It's always okay. Besides, if it's all right with you, I want Ricky to change you so he can see what it's like." After a bit of thought, Leslie agreed, and Richard realized that what he was about to do was unwrap a piece of plastic trash to uncover concentrated, raw sewage. Immediately, he gained a deep appreciation for the world's parents and a low contempt for all the nonconsensual diaper fetish stuff he'd seen. Doing this for someone he cared about was bad enough; doing it to someone he hated, on an ongoing basis, would have required him to not be merely sadistic but entirely devoted to the cause of sadism, especially if he wanted to do it properly. Trying not to show any visible reaction to the smell - he didn't want to make this worse for her - he wiped her up front-to-back, trying to avoid any hint of doing anything sexual, and added powder before laying a new diaper under her and taping her up as Zoe instructed.

"So, how was it, really?" Leslie asked.

Richard felt put in an awkward position. "I really, really hope that treatment works," he replied to get out of it, and the group laughed, even Leslie.

Leslie smiled at him. "Okay, my turn to change you." She could tell he was wet. "I've never changed anyone before." Richard was surprised, but agreed. Leslie had a difficult time changing herself due to the weakness of her core muscles, but her arms were mostly fine, and with the help of her friends to move her into a good position along with his cooperation, she had lifted up his housewife dress, removed the diaper, and wiped him swiftly.

"Don't put him in a new one," Caroline said. "Probably not a good idea to risk it on the way there. Ricky, go wear your boy clothes and bring a pair of swimming trunks. Leslie has to be at the Y at 12, that's not negotiable." Richard understood and quickly started mincing up to his room to change, the girls enjoying watching him totter on his heels. "And bring those sneakers Susie got you. I'll handle the rest." Richard methodically took off his housewife attire, shoving it all into the back of the closet just in case his mother got home unexpectedly, then put on his swimming trunks and, over those, a set of the boy clothes he'd gotten from the thrift store, putting on his regular black sneakers and tossing the heeled ones in his school backpack.

He hopped down the stairs, locked the door behind him (he'd remembered his house key this time), and rushed out to the car as they were helping Leslie in, jumping into the open front door. "Hey, if Leslie needs room, why isn't she the one up front?" Richard asked. He'd have liked to be next to Susie as much as possible.

"Too dangerous," Caroline replied immediately as she pulled out. "Middle back is the safest place in any collision. And I wouldn't want to hit her with an air bag, either." It was only then that he started really paying attention to the way Caroline drove: focused and careful, with her head on a swivel for people less careful than her. She was, after all, a car girl, and he was certain that she was a better driver than nearly everyone else on the road, let alone other people her age.

"How'd you even meet each other?"

"I was wondering if you were ever going to ask that. Our shop does repair, but it's mostly customs. Her dad needed a wheelchair lift added to his SUV, and our parents just kept going for a while about dimensions, structure, comfort, everything. Business was slow, and I didn't have anything else to do, so we just kind of started talking. Met Susie pretty much the same way. Her dad wanted a whole lot of stuff added to his car."

"And I met Susie after your birthday party," Zoe continued. "This was after I'd taken that junior prom dress off. I just needed to be away from Mom and out of that house. Just had to make sure those damn cousins didn't see me leave. We met on the back trails."

"She really needed someone to talk to," Susie said, "and I am very glad I did." He heard the smile in her voice. He'd expected her and everyone to start treating him subtly differently once he was dressed like a boy again, but they didn't. He was simply Ricky to them either way, even to Susie, and that knowledge gave him a deep sense of well-being.

The Y, as many places were, was mostly empty. Leslie, of course, had a full membership; Caroline casually said "Susie, you or me?" and Susie pulled out a twenty to get the rest of them in. On the way to the lockers, they were swiftly greeted by a smiling, tall woman who looked like she could be a lifeguard.

"Mindy! Did you hear about the treatment?" Leslie asked.

"I definitely heard," the woman replied in an understanding voice that came off as neither clinical nor condenscending. "I really hope this works out. It would mean a lot if it did, to you and a lot of other people as well. Would you like to introduce your friends?"

"This is Susie, Zoe, and Ricky," Leslie said, gesturing to each of them. "This is is my physical therapist, Mindy," she continued, gesturing to the smiling woman. "She's helped me a ton."

"I'm very glad you're all here," Mindy said. "In my professional experience, having supportive friends means a lot. You don't have to get involved, you don't have to say anything, you can swim wherever you want, but I just want you to be around for her. That's important." They all nodded. She gently patted Leslie on the shoulder. "C'mon, let's get you ready." They all went off to change, Richard feeling rather alone in the men's locker room, wondering if he could pass when wearing a girls' swimsuit and figuring he couldn't. Maybe if he were younger, perhaps if there were plenty of frills extending from the midsection to hide anything boyish.

He stripped quickly in the empty locker room, tossing his clothes into his backpack. Lacking a lock, he carefully stashed it somewhere that no one would find it, and went out to swim. Where were they? Oh. Right. Girls, and one of them was disabled. Dipping his toe into the shallow end, he got in. He actually hadn't swam for a while; the last time he'd worn his trunks was at the water park a couple weeks ago, where his mother had fortunately just let him and his sister run around in the warm weather. He experimentally made a few strokes, starting with a dog paddle and gradually working up to moves he'd learned many years ago.

"Having fun?" Susie asked, and he looked up at her in her bikini, which was a few shades darker than her skin, and his swimming trunks immediately began to tent under the water. She slipped in the water next to him, and they hugged deeply and kissed lightly, and he fully realized that he had an actual girlfriend and not just when he was dressed like a girl himself.

"Race you to the other side," she said, and he immediately started going after her. She won handily; she'd obviously been practicing freestyle, and he struggled to really get going with anything but a basic breaststroke, and it felt like his head didn't want to stay above the water.

"I need to swim more," he lamented as he finally reached the other side of the Olympic-sized pool.

"You just needed something to chase," she said teasingly, kissing him again and swimming back. He tried to copy her movements as best he could, learning freestyle swimming the hard way, kicking his legs as hard as he could. He did better that time, he thought, and then she kissed him again and swam back. He realized that this probably counted as some kind of physical training, that she was using her feminine wiles to spur him on. What was he going to do? Not swim after her?

She did the same thing out and back again, and then he confessed that he really was exhausted and out of shape from not having done this for a while, and they sat around watching Leslie and Mindy for a bit, the therapist pushing Leslie as hard as she would go. Zoe always tried to stay close to them, even though she enjoyed diving as deep as she could. Caroline was actually a decent swimmer as well, and there were a couple of older guys, the only other patrons in the pool, surreptitiously trying not to look at her as they did their own swimming.

It was a solid hour of exercise and companionship, and Richard's muscles were burning by the time Mindy helped Leslie out of the pool. He'd have greatly loved to have spent time in the hot tub with them, but it was closed indefinitely 'for the health and safety of our guests'. 'fuc-k this pandemic,' Richard almost said aloud.

And then Caroline walked up to him and whispered in his ear, and he smiled.

[Jacqueline]

Ten minutes later, if anyone had been paying attention to the security cameras, it would have seemed like a scene from a spy movie: A disabled girl sits in her wheelchair outside a women's locker room in a lesser-used part of the facility. A boy in swimming trunks approaches, and she presses a couple of buttons on her phone. As he walks past, a couple of girls open the door in front of him and quickly whisk him inside. Two minutes later, four girls leave the bathroom and walk towards the back entrance, a well-developed one wearing the boy's backpack, another pushing the girl in the wheelchair.

Richard was amazed at how quickly they'd managed to transform him, although they'd had not only his consent but his active participation. His swimming trunks had come off at the same time his bra had gone on, a very special something that Caroline had concocted last year as a gift to a friend, which had been worn only once and then returned. She'd used a sports bra, shredded tire rubber, fabric, and epoxy to make it, and although the results were far from bouncy or jiggly, they looked legitimate under the pink T-shirt (advertising her father's business) that she'd given him.

They'd also swiftly put him into a diaper, a set of butt-padded granny-like underwear that Caroline had also made, and pink shorts that barely covered that underwear. Zoe had made up his face in record time, and Susie had put his hair into a high ponytail while he'd put on his pink socks (no bells) and white heeled sneakers. It would take very close observation to realize that he was wearing a diaper or wasn't really a girl, and anyone making observations that close would probably wind up in the back of a police car.

Of course, they didn't want to walk past the receptionist who had let them in, so they took the back way around, Richard feeling very conscious of the way he was swaying his padded butt as he walked, his new breasts swaying back and forth a bit as well. They were certainly even heavier than the real thing, and although the sports bra keeping them steady, he was also self-conscious of his motions and balance. He felt very uncertain of himself, very dependent on the people around him, and very, very girly, and he gave a light, coquettish smile.

He still got shotgun, and he knew that anyone who was looking would see the cute girl with the nice breasts up front. He felt actually worried for a bit, but it wasn't like he had any other friends who might recognize him, and at that moment he just really didn't care anyway, any more than he had when he was skipping along yesterday. The only thing that really concerned him was the way his seat belt went between his rubber boobs.

"All right, what does everyone want for lunch?" Caroline asked.

"Hey Leslie, can you eat sushi?" Susie casually asked. Richard was getting used to her tones of voice. The more casual she sounded, the more money she was preparing to spend. There was no way she could always throw this much of it around. It was certainly because of him, and he was sure without even asking that he was her first real boyfriend.

"I'll ask Dad, it's his lunch break, too." He picked up the phone almost at once. "Hey, Dad. Yeah, swimming went fine. Is sushi okay for me? Well, yeah. Right, cool. Thanks, Dad." She hung up. "He says sushi and rice are good for me, just to stay away from the salt."

"This place, that means stay away from the soy sauce," Susie said, and, seeing no objections from anyone (Zoe and Richard had never had sushi in their lives), gave Caroline the address to put in her car's GPS.

"Can we stop at the pharmacy?" Leslie asked, seeing it up ahead as they drove down a main road. "I'm kinda low." She did not need to explain what she was low on.

"Sure, I'll get 'em." She stopped in and was in and out within a single minute, a package of absorbent, low-visibility adult diapers in a plastic bag.

"Wow, you just walked right in and bought those and nothing else," Richard pointed out. He would have wanted to create a greater shopping list and throw the diapers in with other things.

"Yeah, nobody's going to ask why when you're buying diapers," Caroline said. "What kind of answer would you expect? 'It's for my grandma.' 'It's for my disabled friend.' Or better yet, 'I have incontinence.' And then the cashier just feels like a royal asshole for asking. Besides, not asking questions like that's gotta be something they teach in day one of orientation there. First rule of selling medical shit, don't humiliate your customers."

"I can pay for it, if you want," Leslie said.

"Don't worry about it. I'm not at Susie's level but just don't worry about it." Her father had upgraded her from "Daddy's little helper" to "actual assistant" a couple years ago, paying her increasing amounts of money to do increasingly vital things.

It was, of course, an upscale sushi restaurant, and given that the waitress greeted Susie by name - even despite it being closed for months, previously - he was very certain that she and/or her father had made an enormous splash in there before. The place had re-opened the previous day for sit-down traffic, and there were only a handful of other people sitting in a far booth, and Zoe quietly whispered in her brother's ear, "She's about to keep this place open." He only nodded.

"Just get what you can eat," Susie advised, and then they started talking about all the different items, and Richard had noticed that all of them were worried about whether or not what they were getting would be enough or too much, and pointed out a family smorgasbord platter and a large pot of tea that they could simply split, and that had been the right decision. It also meant that Richard didn't need to talk out loud to the waitress.

Zoe breathed a small sigh. "Just to be able to finally get here... I'm not talking about affording anything, I'm talking about just getting here at all. I actually asked to eat here, something small, just because I wanted to try it, remember, Richelle?" she settled on to call him. He didn't remember, as she'd been ten or so at the time. "Oh no, of course we couldn't afford it. Meanwhile, that Christmas abomination and that stupid vanity must have cost, even second hand..." She realized that she was ruining the mood while probably talking about money too much in front of Susie, and stopped. She looked at Caroline with a smile. "I swear, around here, a driver's license is like a superpower." She wondered when she'd ever be able to make use of one.

"Meanwhile, Susie's got Batman's superpower," Richard quietly said. He knew it was a violation of Rule 1, but it was funny.

Caroline, Leslie, and Zoe all turned to look at him. "Richelle, you know she lost her mom, right?" Caroline asked.

"Oh crap I'm sorry!" Richard whispered, covering his mouth, his arm resting against one of his heavy boobs. It hadn't even occurred to him to ask why Susie only ever mentioned her dad. Fortunately, Susie wasn't familiar with comic book universes, and they gently, patiently explained to her what Batman's 'superpower' was and that his parents had been killed. "So.. what happened to your mom?" Richard quietly asked after she'd understood how he'd messed up.

"Lung cancer happened to her," Susie replied. "And she never even smoked. Zoe told me about your dad." Richard just nodded.

"By the way, I actually do have a mom, we just don't get along well," Caroline said. "And Leslie's parents, well..."

"We're having lunch, and I have a loving mom and dad," Leslie said pointedly. "I am not talking about my birth parents in a good sushi restaurant." She seemed to despise them even more than her disease.

"Yeah, only talk about them in a bad one in case we need to puke," Caroline replied, but did not explain. "Anyway, the reason I hang with you four is that, well, here's ordinary  high schoolers," she said, holding her hand at a certain level, and then raised her hand a fair bit. "And here's you. Being someone's friend means having to put up with their bullshit, and the friendship-to-bullshit ratio of the Squad is good enough to make me want to keep driving you around." Her tone gave away the fact that she'd had many friendships that did not have such a good ratio. "Besides," she quietly continued to Richard with a grin, "I never thought I'd ever meet a boy quite like you." Richard blushed a bit, self-consciously holding his arms over his rubber breasts.

"He's mine," Susie said offhandedly.

"Pfft. I don't want to marry him. You wanna know who I plan to marry?" They all looked at her. "A charter pilot. Not some big plane, he goes where the company tells him to, pilot. I want a guy who flies a small plane up in Alaska somewhere and can take me anywhere in North America. Day I find him, I'll take you all up with me." She smiled wistfully. "And then I won't the only one here without a partner." Zoe and Leslie stared at her, mouths open. "You seriously thought you were hiding it?!"

"Zoe, I told you it was really obvious," Richard added. Susie kept quiet, feeling a bit embarrassed at not having realized it earlier. She'd seen some signs but didn't think they were actually girlfriends in that way; upon reflection, it really was pretty clear that they had something going on.

"Okay, look, if Mom finds out..." Zoe started, but Caroline just pointed straight at Richard's fake breasts. She was seventeen and had just actively contributed to the willing feminization of a thirteen-year-old boy. None of them was going to let any of them there get in trouble for anything, or everything would come down on all of them. "Right, sorry, being dumb. Hey, I think that's our food."

It was, of course, extremely high-class, very well presented, and absolutely delicious, and they dug in. With the unfamiliar and heavy mounds on his chest getting in the way of his arms, Richard had to be careful how he ate, and he wound up taking small, girlish bites that made him feel even cuter, and he liked the idea that any boys trying to hit on him would be in for an unpleasant surprise. (Although, he mused, it wouldn't be all that unpleasant for the right - or, rather, wrong - boy. He was very glad he had Susie instead.)

Caring somewhat less about their secret, Zoe and Leslie were feeding each other bites, and then Susie poked Richard and opened her mouth as well, and they took turns feeding each other the same way, giggling softly.

Of course they ate it all. Richard confirmed that the girls were full before he happily ate every scrap of food left on the platter, even if he was doing it with feminine bites as they talked. The total cost was seventy five-something and Susie paid with five twenties and told the waitress to keep the change.

"All right, how's everyone for frolfing?" Caroline asked. None of them even knew what that meant. "Not one of you has played frisbee golf before." None of them had, and they wanted to try. "Fortunately, the park is wide open and nearly empty this time of day, so almost nobody is going to be looking at us."

"I'm not that worried about being seen as a girl," Richard said. It wasn't like he had other friends who would recognize him, and the odds of him being seen by anyone from his school and recognized later were miniscule.

"I don't mean that, I mean no one's going to watch any of you suc-k at it."

Caroline was right about everything. Richard had thought that the boobs, butt padding, and mild heels would get in his way, but they really didn't, not for the distances he was throwing. If he did a full arm movement, he'd have completely missed the mark or wildly overshot anyway, as Caroline pointed out. The game was actually fair to Leslie, although, in her wheelchair, she couldn't pick up her disc on her own.

It actually took patience, waiting for everyone's turn, and frustration, as all of the newbies did in fact suc-k at it. None of them really cared; they were with their friends and they were having fun, four girls and one girly boy out at the park together, and that was all that mattered.

Caroline dropped off Leslie with Zoe - the cat being out of the bag meant that no one had to invente reasons for that - before arriving at Susie's place. She had a show she'd wanted to Ricky to watch with her, and it wasn't what he expected at all. Eating leftover zereshk polo with his girlfriend and other friend, with his head against his girlfriend's breast and her cat laying on top of him while they all watched a Persian rom-com together, wasn't what he expected to be doing that evening, especially not while he wore fake breasts and butt padding, but it was enjoyable all the same. (He would never have watched something like that by himself. Being with Susie made everything better.) And then the show finally ended and Susie gave her boyfriend a deep, meaningful smile.

"I'm going to go practice pool for a half hour or so. I hope you two don't get up to anything while I'm not looking. That would just be a shame," Caroline said, completely tonelessly, as she walked away.

"Do you have a pool table or an actual pool?" Richard asked.

"Both," Susie replied. He almost asked to go try the table, but she clearly wanted to play an entirely different game involving sticks, balls, and holes, and they were pulling each other's clothes off within seconds, and his shoulders were relieved to be rid of the heavy bra. "Well, this one's a waste," she said, laughing as she realized that she'd torn his diaper off. She flipped over on the ground to put them in the standard 69 position, and Richard had absolutely no idea what to do except stick his tongue in and start licking at whatever looked good. It was easier for her, as just having her mouth on it was more than enough for him.

"Ricky, that tickles!" she squealed a few minutes in.

"Isn't that why it's called a coochie?" he asked. "Coochie coochie coo!" He started tickling her intentionally, and as she started laughing, he let loose. Spluttering loudly, she turned to look at him, and he started laughing as well. "You are just the worst!" she shouted, still laughing, and he returned to his task, and under the ministrations of his tongue, her giggling turned into something else entirely, and her rapid movements were a sure sign that she was absolutely not faking it. "I can't remember the last time I ate out twice in one day," he said once she was done.

"Ate out? What.. you're horrible," she said, laughing. "I couldn't have guessed a boy like you would have that kind of mouth."

"You enjoyed my mouth just now," he pointed out.

"And you've enjoyed mine twice. So what are you going to get me in return, hmm?"

"I wish I could. Seriously, I really do wish I could. But what could I get the princess who has everything?"

"Is that how you think of me? As a princess?" He nodded and admitted it. "That's good. That's perfect." She put on an imperious air. "From now on, when we're by ourselves, you will call me 'Your Highness'."

"Yes, Your Highness," he obediently said.

"Good boy. Your first task as my official servant is to help me put my clothes back on," she ordered him. He put her shirt, panties, and skirt back on, and she helped with his shirt and shorts as well, although the diaper was toast and he decided to forgo the heavy padding, making him more obviously a boy in girls' clothes. "Your next task is to massage my feet."

He had no idea what he was doing, of course, kneeling as she sat on the couch with a haughty look on her face, but he kneaded them gently and she seemed to appreciate it. "I am coming up the stairs," Caroline intoned robotically, slowly making her way up. "I sure hope nothing happened while I was down there."

"Absolutely nothing happened at all," Richard said in the same robotic tone, sitting on the couch next to Susie.

"Good, because I need to go get Leslie home. You want a ride or stay here?"

"Take the ride," Susie told him, and he put his socks and heeled sneakers back on, stuffing the padding in his backpack. "We'll have tomorrow, and the day after, and when your mom goes to work and my dad's not home we'll have plenty of time after that." She kissed him goodbye, and with a spring in his step, he followed Caroline out to the car.

"I just don't understand you," Caroline said as they got in. "You're obviously hetero, sometimes you dress like a total sissy, you do chores dressed like a housewife for the thrill, you don't have a problem with going out as a girl, you call yourself a boy..."

"If you want to understand me, stop putting me in categories," he told her.

"Shit. You're right. I'm the asshole, and that was stupid. Sorry."

"It's fine. None of you actually judge me for liking this stuff."

"Honestly, I'm having fun with it. Probably not as much fun as you are, though. Also, just by the way, I know you've just found the girl of your dreams, but don't forget your sister, either. Remember who her girlfriend is. If it all works out for Leslie, some of this'll be different, but she needs you as much as you need her. Especially if your mom gets stupid."

"I know."

Once they arrived, Zoe pushed Leslie out the door in her wheelchair, being extra careful with the step, and Richard wondered whether it wouldn't have been better for her to walk. Oh, right, she probably had just been moving her legs a whole lot while they were doing something that was not his business.

Richard put on another diaper (he didn't want to explain that one to Zoe) and played three games of Starcraft 2 that evening, two in which he completely rocked face and one in which the opponent, exceptionally good, eked out a victory over him.

He went to bed, planning to enjoy another night of excellent sleep. He had friends he absolutely trusted, a wonderful girlfriend, and even his disabled friend was going to be able to get well. He securely and happily snuggled himself under the covers in his freshly laundered nightie and warm blankets, safe and secure in the unconscious certainty that everything was going to be fine, nothing bad was going to happen to any of them, nothing terrible and unforeseen would occur, and absolutely nothing was going to go wrong.

[dolly bo peep]

Jacqueline,

I'm really enjoying reading your most recent chapters.

Sometimes I dress like a housewife in a diaper when I'm doing housework.

Thanks to your writing, my diaper is not just wet, but now it's sticky, too.

 I'm looking forward to your next chapter.

[Jacqueline]

[Warning: This part gets very dark very quickly, and not in the way you'd expect.]

Richard awoke to banging on the door. Thinking it was his mom or some other relative, he immediately panicked and pulled off his nightie and still-dry diaper, stashed them in a drawer as fast as he could, tossed on his boxer shorts, and opened the door, his heart racing.

"Oh it's just you," he said in a single quick breath after seeing Zoe. She'd startled him badly.

"Ricky, check Discord," she said in a very, very serious tone, and he did. The messages he saw on his phone were much, much worse than a startling wake-up knock.

[8:30 AM] Leslie: I can't describe my feelings (edited)
[8:33 AM] Leslie: Can't type (edited)
[8:45 AM] Leslie: There was a letter from my birth parents' lawyer this morning.
[8:48 AM] Leslie: They're suing for custody and to stop the therapy.
[8:53 AM] Leslie: THEY HAVE IT OIN FACRBOOK ITS ALL OVER THER FICKING FACEBOOMK
[8:53 AM] Leslie: THAT TTHEY"RE **RESCUING** ME FROM EXPDIRIMENTAL THRAPY
[8:55 AM] Leslie: THEY'RE JUST DOIGN IT TO STEAL MY SOCIAL SECUITY DISABILITY CHKECS
[8:56 AM] Leslie: SO THEY CAN BUY MORE DRUGS (edited)

Leslie posted a link, and Ricky clicked on it. "What the fuc-k?" he said aloud. The lunatics had made a (very low traffic) "Help Us Save Leslie!" Facebook page. And they were accepting donations. It was transparently nonsense, all of it, full of obviously bogus statements and very bad graphics.

[8:58 AM] Caroline: holy fuc-k
[8:58 AM] Caroline: fuc-k it im calling everyone
[9:00 AM] Susie: I don't even know what to say right now.
[9:02 AM] Zoe: What the hell! What even the hell!!!
[9:02 AM] Zoe: Leslie didn't you tell me that your parents won custody forever?????
[9:03 AM] Zoe: How is this even possible
[9:04 AM] Leslie: I DONT KNOW MY DAD IS READY TO SCREAM
[9:04 AM] Leslie: I CANT BELIEVE THEY DOD THIS
[9:04 AM] Leslie: PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS A NIGHTMRAE
[9:04 AM] Caroline: tbh someone should have been planned for this
[9:04 AM] Caroline: *should have planned
[9:05 AM] Caroline: but this is hannibal lecter
[9:05 AM] Zoe: Why tf would a judge let them get custody or stop the therapy?
[9:06 AM] Caroline: you dont know how the courts work
[9:06 AM] Caroline: judges have done way worse
[9:07 AM] Caroline: they push it, they can tie this all up for months or years
[9:07 AM] Caroline: meanwhile the therapy is delayed until it's all resolved
[9:07 AM] Caroline: sorry have to go to work now
[9:07 AM] Zoe: Ricky needs to know too, waking him up
[9:08 AM] Leslie: Let him sleep, he doesn't need this
[9:09 AM] Susie: Neither do you...

Richard tried to comprehend the enormity of the situation. He'd thought that if anything terrible or unexpected were ever going to happen. it would involve him or Zoe. Maybe their mother would find out about the dresses and diapers and freak out; of course, the idea of her punishing him by forcing him to keep wearing them wasn't remotely in the realm of plausibility, and he'd never been able to read those kinds of stories without laughing. Maybe she'd find some small part of it, maybe she'd know he went around as a girl, and he'd have to deflect that. The worst things he had considered were that maybe their mother would find out about Zoe's relationship with Leslie, or, God forbid, something would try to get between him and Susie.

But no, it couldn't be something that nice or simple. It couldn't be a "Someone saw you skipping around in a jingling dress outside". He didn't get a "Hey, a waitress at a restaurant saw you in with breasts and a padded butt" or even a "Are you really wearing a diaper?" He didn't have a falling-out with his new friends, none of them had done anything mean or taken anything too far. Once he'd revealed his secret to Zoe, nobody had tried to hurt him or humiliate him or even slightly embarrass him, unless suc-king at swimming and frisbee golf counted.

Instead, just yesterday, Leslie had been given renewed hope of reversing her disease, of regaining bladder and bowel control along with the ability to walk unassisted. Then her drug addict parents had stolen that hope in order to use it to steal her social security checks as well. And, if they were to succeed, their birth daughter would live an increasingly agonized life of abuse, misery, and despair until she was either rescued later, having suffered from increasingly severe crippling health problems, or her diaphragm gave out and she simply stopped breathing.

The rest of the Squad could never have comprehended it in the way that he did: Leslie's birth parents were fuc-king monsters. If the girls knew just how much anger, how much utterly destructive hate, he was feeling just then, it would have terrified them. He deeply, from the bottom of his soul, wanted nothing more than the death - the utter annihilation - of those monsters.

For a single second, an enormous sense of dissociation hit him and he felt like he could see behind the walls.

There was another monster on his Discord friends list, something he hadn't talked to in well over half a year. Whatever it was - he knew there had to be a human there but he had a really hard time thinking of it as human - had given him, with very little prompting, an introductory lesson on the nature and varieties of evil, for no other reason than to shatter his then twelve-year-old innocence, just as Richard had wanted it to do because he didn't want his innocence anymore. 'Call me', the thing in the darkness had told him at the very end, 'if you ever have monster problems of your own.'

He told it he had monster problems, and within fifteen seconds, even though they hadn't spoken for a long time, it asked for details. He gave them, in between bouts of swearing and vowing destruction upon the monsters that were going to hurt their own daughter for drug money. It dismissed all his feelings as irrelevant, adolescent angst and refused to provide direct help. Instead, it gave him, typed (or copypasted) very quickly in simple language, highly rational and surprisingly detailed instructions that gave him a pattern of exactly what to do, why to do it, and how to go about doing it. He decided to follow them.

He wasn't about to ask Zoe for a change, not while this was going on, so he went to the bathroom first, brushing his teeth quickly, standing at the toilet for twenty seconds, and taking a small sip of water. He took his boxer shorts off, put the diaper back on as a reminder of the importance of his task, and got to work.

[9:20 AM] Richard: I have something I need to do. I probably won't have time to be with anyone today. I'll let you know when I can. I love you, Susie.
[9:21 AM] Susie: Do what you need to. I love you, too.
[9:22 AM] Zoe: He won't tell me what it is either. He just says I should trust him.
[9:22 AM] Leslie: Then you should probably trust him.
[9:22 AM] Zoe: All right, I'll trust that you trust him enough to tell me to trust him.
[9:24 AM} Leslie: But do you trust that I trust you enough to trust you to trust him?
[9:26 AM] Zoe: Yes, I think I can trust you to trust me enough to trust me to trust him, but can I trust you to trust me to trust you to trust me enough to trust me to trust him?
[9:26 AM] Susie: I trust that you two can keep this up forever.
[9:27 AM] Leslie: Then you trust... poorly.
[9:27 AM] Zoe: :laughing:
[9:27 AM] Susie: :laughing:
[9:29 AM] Leslie: I needed a laugh so bad. Thanks.
[9:35 AM] Caroline: lol
[9:35 AM] Caroline: lets just actually trust him, not like theres any good options
[9:35 AM] Caroline: tbh i want to posse up some ptsd veterans with tire irons but dad says no
[9:37 AM] Susie: Where would you find veterans with PTSD and tire irons?
[9:52 AM] Caroline: in the shop where im helping dad rn
[9:52 AM] Caroline: back to work
[10:42 AM] Susie: I want to go back to yesterday, when our biggest problem was having Ricky pass as a girl.
[10:43 AM] Zoe: world's biggest **ikr**
[10:44 AM] Leslie: :regional_indicator_i: :regional_indicator_k: :regional_indicator_r:
[12:11 PM] Zoe: I'm legit scared right now. Really, really scared. For Leslie and Ricky.
[12:13 PM] Zoe: I put my ear to his door and he is saying some SCARY PSYCHO SHIT. Like he's chanting demon summoning in english instead of latin. Sometimes he types and sometimes he clicks, and it's not some game he's playing. It sounds like he's trying to summon internet satan or something.
[12:14 PM] Susie: Maybe he's just being edgy because he's mad?
[12:15 PM] Zoe: This isn't some fuc-king chuuni shit.
[12:16 PM] Zoe: Maybe it **is** chuuni, but he's still **doing** something in there.
[12:16 PM] Susie: Is he a hacker?
[12:17 PM] Zoe: He could be? He's done things like that
[12:24 PM] Zoe: He just sounds like he wants to seriously hurt somebody and doesn't care how.
[12:45 PM] Zoe: He's REALLY frustrated. I hope he didn't punch a hole in the wall.
[12:48 PM] Caroline: would give your mom something else to focus on if he did
[1:17 PM] Zoe: Just right now I just heard him say Got you now, you son of a bitch
[1:18 PM] Caroline: thats leslies bio dad, if its not ILL wear any fking dress you want
[1:20 PM] Susie: Do not try to stop him.
[1:21 PM] Zoe: I won't.
[1:40 PM] Leslie: He's not the only one. Dad just called, he's taking personal time because he's too angry and can't focus. Mom's coming home soon too.
[1:43 PM] Susie: I didn't know your parents could leave you at home alone.
[1:45 PM] Leslie: There's so much space age assistive stuff in here, all on a big UPS so if the grid goes down I'm ok.
[1:47 PM] Leslie: My bio mom and dad have literally 0, will mention that at hearing, thanks for reminding me.
[1:50 PM] Caroline: cant believe they dont just let you choose at 14, seriously fuc-k this state
[1:50 PM] Leslie: That's what Dad said this morning.
[2:40 PM] Zoe: Ricky literally just screamed fuc-k for the past two minutes.
[2:42 PM] Zoe: I asked him if he was all right and he just said no
[2:44 PM] Zoe: He hasn't showered, he hasn't eaten all day, he's just in a diaper and I don't think he's used it
[2:48 PM] Susie: He's in "the zone", don't pull him out.
[2:55 PM] Caroline: he has to drink eat pee poop or pass out eventually zoe. before he does just let him do his thing
[2:57 PM] Susie: He's got a diaper for the third and fourth things.
[2:59 PM] Caroline: lol good point
[3:00 PM] Zoe: Three o clock and all's hell
[3:02 PM] Zoe: just a couple of days ago I told him he had no diligence
[3:03 PM] Zoe: and I swear to god he didn't
[3:05 PM] Zoe: It's like he's possessed
[3:10 PM] Leslie: Tell him he needs to take care of himself too.
[3:12 PM] Zoe: I did at like 10 this morning, he doesn't want to hear it
[3:46 PM] Zoe: Never heard him laugh like that before.
[3:47 PM] Susie: Not even yesterday?
[3:47 PM] Zoe: This wasn't a nice kind of laugh.
[3:48 PM] Zoe: This was some supervillain shit.
[3:51 PM] Susie: So you're saying I have a crossdressing supervillain for a boyfriend?
[3:52 PM] Leslie: Beats who I have for bio parents.
[3:52 PM] Susie: Big oof
[3:57 PM] Caroline: ricky is now officially genghis khan
[3:58 PM] Zoe: lmfao
[4:02 PM] Zoe: he's got boy stuff on and is going for a short walk
[4:10 PM] Richard: My head *really* hurts right now. I can't talk about this until Friday morning. We'll know if it worked by then.
[4:13 PM] Leslie: Was this about me?
[4:14 PM] Richard: I absolutely can't talk about it until Friday. I'm sorry. Susie has her Rule 1 and this is mine.
[4:16 PM] Caroline: leslie it literally could not be about anything else
[4:20 PM] Susie: Ricky, please come over if you can.
[4:21 PM] Richard: yeah, sure, don't worry about food, eating burritos
[4:23 PM] Richard: no dress either, not having fun right now, head's spinning, will start walking after I'm done eating
[4:23 PM] Zoe: And after he takes a fuc-king shower.
[4:25 PM] Susie: You sure Ricky? It sounds like you need some fun right now.
[4:31 PM] Caroline: smell of brimstone doesn't wash off easily
[4:40 PM] Richard: you're right, I'll bring one, won't wear it there today, taking the back paths this time
[4:41 PM] Zoe: Check him for ticks, Susie!
[4:41 PM] Leslie: *Carefully* check him for ticks *all over*, Susie.
[4:42 PM] Caroline: lmfao
[4:42 PM] Zoe: Use your tongue just to be extra safe
[4:43 PM] Caroline: LMFAO
[4:43 PM] Susie: He might bring them onto the carpet, and carpet munching is your job.
[4:43 PM] Leslie: Oh my god :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
[4:43 PM] Caroline: brb dying

[Jacqueline]

He took the back paths as he said he would, trying to brush against as little greenery as possible, his mind consumed by worry. He just wished he could tell somebody, anybody, but the thing in the darkness had been very clear that this was all need-to-know and that nobody needed to know. Annoyed, just wishing it would be Friday morning already and he'd know whether or not he'd succeeded, he trudged to his girlfriend's house.

She opened the door even before he knocked. She'd obviously been crying a while ago, to his surprise, and it sort of looked like she still was. She hadn't sounded anything like that on Discord, but he knew how very, very easy it was to fake emotions over text, and he appreciated that she didn't express this in front of the rest of them.

"Take off your clothes right now," she ordered him, a command he was, even in his miserable state, eager to obey, stripping down to his diaper. She actually did look through his clothes for ticks and recoiled slightly as she pinched a small, black insect between her fingers. Oh crap! She'd found an actual tick! She went over to the sink, flushed it all the way down with hot water, and returned to him. He held still as she took the idea much more seriously, searching his clothes and looking up and down his body for anything else he might have picked up.

Then she opened up his backpack and found an unworn, light green dress that went down to his mid-thigh and his pink four-inch heels. "Put them on," she commanded him, "and then bend over my lap." There seemed to be some real anger in her voice, and he obeyed, having a loose understanding as to why.

She pushed up his dress, picked up a hairbrush from the table, and hit him on his butt, right below his diaper. "That's for making me worry about you!" She smacked him again. "And that's for getting all emo and edgy!" She sniffled and sobbed, her voice cracking apart, furiously gripping the hairbrush with tears in her eyes. Wasn't the person getting hit supposed to be the one crying? She spanked him again, harder, growing more upset. "And that's for making me cry!" She hit him again on the other butt cheek, even harder. "And THAT's for making me cry!" She realized that she didn't want to keep spanking him anymore and abruptly threw the hairbrush onto the carpet, making her cat jump, and abruptly bent over with him and sobbed into his shoulder. And he was crying as well, not because of the pain - the harsh, stinging slaps were a welcome relief from what he was worried about - but because of how upset he had made her. "Never do anything like that again!" She realized that those were the wrong words after they were already out. If what he had done was right, she wanted him to do it. What she didn't want was for him or Leslie to be in this position again.

"I hope I never have to!" he shouted, sniffling, his voice cracking as well. "I'm sorry, Your Highness, I'm so sorry, I literally could not do anything else. It's over for now, there's no next step until Friday, and I really hope there's no next step for me at all." He was slightly concerned that she would be annoyed with him at having put so much effort into trying to help a girl other than her. He needn't have worried, as she didn't think along those lines at all and certainly wasn't as selfish as he thought she might be.

She leaned down, petting his hair. "Your princess forgives you. But you are not allowed to be emo or brood ever again. It doesn't matter what you have to do or why you have to do it. If you really have to do something, you can do it, in fact I order you to do it. You are still not allowed to be emo about it. Ever!" She spanked him with her hand, once. "Are we clear?"

"Yes, Your Highness," he said.

"Good boy." She hugged him closely. "Now hold still. I've decided you should have a different hairstyle." She picked up the hairbrush again, but this time she used it for its intended purpose, softly brushing his hair out. Then, she did the right side of his hair up in a standard French braid, then the left side as well, giving him little girlish pigtails that she tied off with pink hairbands. They were snug, but her hands were very soft, and he tried to let himself enjoy the new sensation on his head.

"I heard that bet you made was to do the chores. Did you do a good job?" she asked next to his ear.

"I did, Your Highness." Zoe had clearly never told her just how much he'd done.

"Then I will let you do mine as well. You can do the dishes, mop the kitchen, and vacuum the living room floor. Just the living room, nowhere else."

He got up and curtsied to her. "Thank you for spanking me, for my new hairstyle, and for letting me do your chores, Your Highness," he said, smiling.

"You're very welcome, servant," she said imperiously, trying not to laugh.

Richard allowed himself to relax a bit. He had worried that she was seriously, long-term angry with him. Instead, she'd gone back to enjoyably dominating him instead, and a small part of his tension vanished in relief.

She watched him the whole time, actually moving a comfortable chair to do so and crossing her legs in a queenly fashion, half to make sure that he knew what he was doing (he did) and half because this was much better than any television show or livestream. He was just so wonderfully docile when she wanted him to be, and she loved watching him totter and mince, asking politely for the location of the cleaning supplies.

He did her chores carefully, trying to let the menial work distract his churning mind. It was a buffer, but it wasn't enough. He tried to focus on getting out every last spot and vacuum every last crumb, especially from the extremely expensive rugs, but his mind kept churning anyway. He almost asked her to spank him again, just so the pain could take his mind off what he had done and what needed to happen, but she had specifically ordered him not to be brooding or emo, and he was determined to be a good boy for his princess.

Her dishwasher was substantially faster than his mom's, and it finished long before he was done cleaning the living room under her detailed commands. Once he was done putting the dishes away, he curtsied again. "Did I do a good job?" he asked.

"You did a very good job. And for doing such a good job, you get to play a game with me. Hold still."  She'd prepared two pieces of ribbon. The first went around his ankles, and she deftly gave him six inches of slack between them, somehow tying the ends off into two floppy bows. (The fact that she knew so much about knotwork made his heart beat faster.) Then, she tied his arms to his sides just above the elbow, restricting his reach. "Now, all you have to do is catch me, and I'll give you a kiss," she said, smiling widely.

He could have easily gotten out at any time - actually, he was trying to make sure that the the top ribbon wouldn't slip off - but he happily played along, knowing that he'd never win unless she wanted him to. He minced as quickly as he could with his heels and ribbon restricting him, and she simply giggled and walked backwards and around him. He couldn't lunge anywhere with his restricted reach, and his heels made hopping around even slower than his little quick minces, and she spent a quarter hour leading him around the living room as he tried not to bump anything or trip over Whiskers.

Eventually, she walked in front of the couch and embraced him with a deep kiss. "Oh no," she said, giggling, "it looks like you caught me." She pushed him onto the couch easily, then jumped on top of him. "Let's see how your diaper deals with a different kind of mess." He was, of course, absolutely rock hard, and five minutes of teasing and light jerking of his uncut pen-is had him orgasming in his diaper. She kissed him again, smiling, and helped him sit up next to her, still lightly tied.

She turned on the TV, picked up her Switch, and showed him her Animal Crossing layout. He'd actually never seen it played before and asked questions, and she sat there with him, just an ordinary teenage girl and her loosely tied-up, cross-dressed boyfriend with his hair in pigtails (and, halfway through, a wet diaper; he hadn't peed all day and that was what it was for), drinking tea and playing until it grew late.

"So how would you like to go home?" she asked.

"I don't really want to go as a girl today," he admitted. "Not in these, anyway. Maybe I should have brought lower heels."

She chuckled and untied the ribbons. "You wouldn't want all my hard work braiding your hair to go to waste, would you?"

"No, but I didn't say I'd unbraid it," he sad with a wide smile.

She laughed. "Then let's see how you look."

"Umm, can you change my diaper first?"

"Of course, servant," she said, giving an exaggerated sigh. "Hmph. What kind of princess gives her servant a diaper change?"

"Then maybe it should be the other way around?" he suggested, giggling.

She giggled in return as she pulled the fresh diaper from his backpack. "You're so bad." After he was changed, he put his boy clothes back on, his hair still in the pigtails. She smiled, adoring him. "This suits you so well. I think you should always have your hair like this, every morning after you've washed until you go to sleep at night."

He sighed. "You know I can't."

"You can't now," she corrected him. "Maybe, someday soon, that will change." He desperately hoped that day would be soon.

"You're just so wonderful to me, Your Highness," he said as he walked with her to the door, relieved of most of the emotional stress he'd built up. "I love you. I love you so much."

She kissed him, on the lips, deeply. "I love you too, Ricky." He walked out with a spring in his step, going back the way he came in his boy clothes, his pigtails bouncing with his walk. (He would check himself thoroughly when he got home, after his sister had seen his new hairstyle.)

As he left, it occurred to her that he'd actually addressed one of her misgivings earlier. She had been thinking of what it would be like to spend the rest of her life with him, and she'd worried that a boy who liked to be dominated and dressed up really was useless, a pathetic toy for real, a house-husband at best, rather than someone who would be a man when she needed one. But he'd just shown that he was very capable of significant effort, if nothing else, and if he was willing to go that far in protecting someone he'd just met, what sorts of things would he be willing to do for her if she were in trouble?

Her heart thumped in her chest as she thought of the next time she'd see him.

[Sissy Little Girl]

Jacqueline, Your last lines of that chapter, tells me that things are going to go haywire.  I love your story and want you to continue.  Thanks for being a great writer.

[dolly bo peep]

Jacqueline,

I think your writing is excellent.

I'm just catching up now and things have really taken a turn!

I'm really eager to read what happens next.