"That'll be Peggy. Rebekah, go and get the door like a good girl."
He turned toward the house and did his best to smile. He started to think, "Look at me!" before his Mom spoke again, "Bring your new toy to show her."
"Yes, Mommy," he said in a trembling voice.
Wendy shoved it into his hands and the attached bells jingled. It was a hobby-horse. A cutesy stuffed white horse's head with a pink mane. The horse also wore a pink cowgirl hat. There were bells tied to the reins and the head was attached to a pole. Ice water ran through his veins and he felt dizzy and light headed, overcome with the intense humiliation. He placed the pole between his legs. He held the two handles jutting out from the neck. All of this was made awkward by the bulk of the diaper and the masses of petticoats and skirts. There was a wooden wheel at the end of the pole so it wouldn't just be dragged if held low behind him.
The pole forced up the front of his skirts and fully exposed his plastic panties, there was no way to avoid it. As he trotted into the house pretending he was riding a horse the bells jingled merrily along. He could hear his mother and sister following behind.
Rebekah held the hobby-horse in one hand and pulled open the door with the other. Miss Peggy was in her early thirties and had an attractive, kind, motherly face. She had tanned white skin, and hair styled in dreadlocks. She wore a sundress in a purple tie-dye pattern. Rebekah knew that her mother and Miss Peggy had become friends after bonding over a shared appreciation for what Wendy and Rebekah both referred to as, "That awful hippy music." Peggy was pushing a stroller in front of her.
Rebekah did the best "Alexandra style" curtsy he could and said, "Hello, Miss Peggy. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm Rebekah Rainbow Ramirez. Today I'm being the Deputy Baby Sheriff of Snuggleton! Please, come inside."
Rebekah stepped aside with a single jingle of the hobby-horse's bell. Peggy smirked at Elena, "This adorable little ragamuffin is the terrible hell raiser, Elena? How soft are you, honey?" Peggy laughed as she walked in and then embraced Elena in a hug.
"Hah! Just wait until your little Donna gets older. Turns out when their yours you can't just kick them out of your class if they cause too much trouble so you have to get creative."
Peggy shook hands with Wendy. Elena, Wendy, and Peggy started to walk back out to the patio. Rebekah skipped along behind feeling horribly emasculated and feminized as he rode the hobby-horse as ordered. Rebekah had been told he could not stop playing with it of his own volition, he would have to wait until he was told to.
Rebekah Rainbow skipped in circles around the yard pretending to ride a horse, occasionally he would wave the hat around or yell "Yee'haw!" or "Giddyup, Horsey!" or like Alexandra would shoot a baby bottle like a gun. With his hands in the stiff gloves, he did not attempt to spin the bottles.
Elena spoke to Peggy. She told her the details of the terrible things that had happened the year before. Afterwards, she said, "So when I confronted him about why he could be acting out in such a horrible way eventually the conclusion was that he has some gender issues he has to work out. He had started watching a bunch of those drag queen shows on TV in secret and it got him really curious, but he was too afraid to try it and it was making him angry and so frustrated. That's why he was acting out. It's so silly! He just wanted attention and this is a perfectly harmless and fun way to do it instead of causing trouble. So, we just wanted everyone to see that he's gotten over it and he's ready to move on if people will let him."
"And the," Peggy whispered in Elena's ear, "Diapers?"
Elena groaned and covered her face with her palm, "He's been having control problems lately. I don't think it's another attention thing, he's just genuinely having trouble because he's so horribly nervous about all this. He doesn't believe people will accept him. It'll help him if everybody just humors him and doesn't cause a big fuss. Just make sure he knows this is all okay if it's how he wants to have fun. This confrontation with the girl's parent's, the Millers, is going to be hard on him. It'll be great if you can be another ally for him."
"Not, 'Her,' Elena?"
Elena shrugged, "He insists. I don't know Peggy, he's still figuring this stuff out."
"Well, Rebekah Rainbow is welcome in my daycare if you decide to send him, Elena."
Rebekah shuddered at the idea of going to daycare with Miss Peggy. It was bad enough feeling like a baby at home in front of people. Being treated like a baby out in public would be even worse. Rebekah didn't know what to think about the lie about him being into drag shows or really not being able to stop peeing his diaper.
"Come here, Rebekah," Elena commanded.
"Yes, Mommy!" Rebekah replied and skipped over with bells jingling. He dipped a curtsy to his mother.
"What do you say?" Elena asked.
He curtsied to Peggy, "Thank you, Miss Peggy."
"Now go and get us some drinks, Becky-Bow."
Peggy giggled at hearing he already had a feminine pet name on top of a new ridiculous feminine full name.
Rebekah leaned the hobby-horse against the table. Rebekah's cheeks reddened again as he heard the words "Ballet Bistro" behind him as he waddle flounced off to the cooler near the grill. Rebekah retrieved a beer for Peggy and iced teas for Elena and Wendy. He was then sent back to open all three and pour them in glasses. This proved impossible with the stiff gloves and in frustration he had to return empty handed and beg Wendy for help. Wendy agreed, and sent Rebekah off to play baby instead.
"Look at me!" Rebekah thought as he flounced over to the doll in the stroller. He pushed the stroller over to the table leaving it directly next to Peggy's real one and sat down with the baby in his arms. The doll made the pinching face like it wanted the bottle so he pulled one from its holster and started to feed it.
As he fed the doll he felt Peggy reaching over and touching his arm. At first he was startled and shrunk back, but then he realized she was simply trying to get him to hold it in a slightly different way. Peggy said, "Keep the head in the crook of your arm and always hold her upright. Think about it, Becky-Bow."
"Oh," he said out loud while looking down at the baby, "You're just like me. I wouldn't want to drink lying down on my back. It would be dangerous."
"You got it!" Peggy said with a smile.
The baby made faint happy sounds and quietly said, "Mommy!" as he removed the empty bottle. He checked the doll's diaper, and sure enough it was wet already. He reached into the diaper bag and pulled out the last of the folded, unused diapers.
Peggy watched with amusement as he dutifully changed the baby, but she frowned when he discarded the wet used cloth diaper back in the bag. "I don't think so, Baby Sheriff."
"Deputy Baby Sheriff," Elena cut in.
"Those should be cleaned and folded not just stuffed back in the bag."
"But, Miss Peggy," Rebekah said, feeling the glare of his Mother and sister at his use of the word "But." He continued, "It's just water, it doesn't really need to be cleaned, right?"
"Maybe," Peggy said, "I've never seen anything as advanced as that little baby doll of yours, but I know realistic dolls like that are meant to teach a little Mommy like you how to take care of the real thing. So, you should treat it that way and do it right. Come on, it'll be fun, Becky-Bow. I'll help! Do you guys have a clothesline?"
Wendy laughed, "Actually, I think I do have one in the basement we could set up."
Soon later, with "Miss Peggy" (to the kids in her care) guiding him he washed the cloth diapers in the sink. When he was finished he carried the pile of tiny wet diapers back out to the yard and to the newly set up clothesline. All of the other guests arrived around the same time. Elena and Wendy met them inside the house. The first thing they were treated to was the sight of Rebekah Rainbow under the watchful eye of a friendly daycare teacher. He was reaching up over and over, exposing the frilly bottom of his own diapered rear, to hang tiny little cloth diapers on a clothesline in the yard. Then, Elena started to tell them the heavily fictionalized story about how her son had started watching drag shows and explained how that tied in to all the horrible trouble he had caused the Miller family.
Abby, June, Samuel, and Wendy gathered together separately. Wendy updated them on the progress of their plan. She told them that she had convinced her mother to go along with what they needed. They congratulated her on how amazingly far they had already come. Then, the "Big Kids" planned out exactly how they would proceed with their revenge.