The Exchange,

Chapter 20
The exchange part 20

Chapter Description: Sandy has most certainly woken up on the grumpy side of the crib. I wonder what the matter is?

Sandy woke up the next morning, soaked as usual. She stared up at her now familiar cot bars quietly contemplating her new life. Every day it seemed something drastic happened. Would it always be like this or would things quieten down? She coughed a little bit and rolled over to stare at her toy dragon companion. Her gaze wandered through the bars and travelled through the new doorway into Lyce’s room.

That’s right. She had a brother now, and a new father figure in her life. Her mind flitted back to her previous father, Blake. She wondered what he was doing now. Was he happy? She felt that she genuinely cared.

She could see Lyce sleeping. Two of his fingers were stuck in his mouth and she gently grinned. He looked just as much the baby as she was. She blushed slightly when she noticed that she was still sucking on her pacifier. Rather than remove it however, she just stared down at what she could see of it as she continued to suck. It was weird to think she was going to be a baby for several years to come. She looked down at her padded crotch and poked it with one of her podgy fingers. It squelched under the pressure and she grimaced. She potentially had another 14 years of so stuck in nappies. The thought just really made her feel depressed and all of a sudden she was wailing loudly.

Lyce shot bolt upright in his bed. Confused by the noise, as it took him several groggy moments to remember where he was. Further down the hallway, clattering could be heard as Anya stumbled out of her bed to tend to the crying infant. Sandy hadn’t meant to wake everyone up she just had suddenly really badly needed her mummy. Sandra cried and cried, heaving sobs, gasping for breath between each one. Lyce had clambered out of his bed rubbing at his eyes as he dozily wandered through into Sandy’s nursery.

"Wassa matta?" He asked quietly concerned, but Sandy had worked herself up into such a crying fit that she couldn’t stop herself long enough to answer. Anya suddenly bustled into the room.

"Excuse me Lyce." She said as she gently squeezed passed the small boy to pluck the squalling baby up from her cot.

"There there Sandy, there there. It’s okay, Mummy is here now. Shhhh" Lyce watched as Anya stuck her thumb down the back of Sandy’s nappy.

"Oooh you need a change, soggy bum!" Anya said cheerily to the still crying baby as she walked over and laid Sandy down on the changing table and began going through the nappy changing routine. Sandy continued to cry. Her infantile emotions overlaying her more rational adult ones. She had no idea why she was crying and that scared her.

Lyce watched sleepily as Anya busied herself changing Sandy. He only remembered three quarters of the way through the change that Sandy had been an adult woman, and he averted his gaze out of respect. There was something about the way Sandy was crying that made Lyce view her simply as a baby. Her crying was so real that it had made her appear much more the infant than he had ever though of her before. He felt bad for forgetting.

Anya finished the change, yet Sandy still cried. This perplexed Anya.

"Oh Sandy. What ever is the matter sweetie?" She plucked Sandy off of the changing table and undoing her dressing gown she put Sandy to her bosom. The baby latched on instantly and began to suckle hungrily. The nursery hushed into quiet for a few moments.

Arlie walked into the nursery looking just as groggy and red eyed as the rest of them.

"What’s going on?" He queried.

"Nothing, just go back to bed. Sandy’s being fussy today." Anya said, stroking the back of Sandy’s head.

Arlie watched Anya nursing for a moment. "It’s err...not like this every morning is it?" Arlie asked trying to keep the dread from his voice. Arlie really appreciated his sleep.

Anya shook her head, being careful not to dislodge her suckling little girl. "No. This is the first time she’s done this. It’s not like her at all" Sandy listened to the adults talk about her as if she wasn’t aware of what they were saying. She didn’t stop feeding as she listened. She didn’t have anything to add. She felt really agitated. Soon Sandy was full and as Anya pulled Sandy from her nipple Sandy began to wail again. Anya started getting frustrated.

"Sandy, Sandy, come on now, you’re being silly." She said as she propped Sandy over her shoulder and patted her back. Sandy just continued to sob. Lyce clamped his hands over his ears as Anya walked back and forth across the nursery with a bounce in her step trying to sooth the infant in her arms.

Lyce went over to Sandy’s cot and retrieved her dragon toy. He helpfully showed it to Sandy, trying to cheer her up but Sandy continued to cry. Feeling rejected, Lyce pushed the toy up onto the changing table so that Sandy could see it. Smiling at Lyce Anya walked backwards and forwards gently shushing the baby.

Arlie felt helpless so offered his hand to Lyce.

"Come on tiger, since we’re up, we might as well help out and make breakfast." Lyce, loathed to leave Sandy in such a state, but he solemnly nodded and took Arlie’s hand allowing himself to be led from the nursery and into the kitchen. They could still hear Sandy crying although, thankfully from here it was muffled.

"It’s a big day for you today." Arlie said jovially. "First day of school. I remember my first day of school so vividly."

Arlie grinned over at Lyce, who just stood there dumbstruck. "School? Today?"

Arlie nodded enthusiastically. "Yep! That’s right. So i’m going to make you my special breakfast pancakes to give you extra luck. Today is just the taster day. You know to get you used to the building and apparatus. Your first full week wont start until next week. But it’s still pretty exciting"

Lyce wasn’t listening. He was going back to school to learn the basics all over again. It hadn’t really occurred to him that he would be returning to education as the student rather than the teacher that he had been. He missed his classroom and students. He felt nervous. He couldn’t tell whether he was looking forward to the experience or dreading it.

Sandy had eventually cried herself out and was dozing on her mummy’s shoulder. She was glad she had cried herself into silence. She was wiped out from the whole ordeal. Anya couldn’t help but feel concerned about Sandy’s uncharacteristic crying. She thought about what had been planned for today for Sandy. She didn’t want to tell her baby. Not yet. She patted Sandy’s back reassuringly still making hushing noises. Thankful for the peace.

"What was that all about Sweetie?" She gently probed, not wishing to start Sandy off crying again. She held Sandy out at arms length so that they could speak face to face. Sandy shook her head slowly, feeling quite sorry for herself.

" I dunno. I couldn’t stop crying. I just felt like that was what I was supposed to do. I couldn’t control it" She whimpered, her voice felt overly childish in comparison to how it normally felt and she clutched at her throat. Feeling confused and a little bit frightened.

Anya held Sandy close. "Let’s get you all fed and ready for the day, after breakfast a bath might improve your mood"

Sandra did like that idea and she perked up a little, although she was already fairly full from suckling a little while ago, she could smell wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. Anya smelt them too.

"Smells like your new daddy is a dab hand in the kitchen huh sweetie. Lets go see what’s going on"

Anya carried sandy into the kitchen only to find Arlie hugging Lyce hard.

"Well done tiger! I’m proud of you!" Anya stopped, and looked confused between the two males.

"What’s going on?" She asked with a surprised smile. Arlie and Lyce looked over at the new arrivals and broke up the hug quickly.

"Oh. Lyce just told me that he had woken up dry for the first time and I was...well congratulating him really." Lyce looked down at his feet blushing hard, embarrassed that they were discussing his toilet habits so openly in the middle of the kitchen, although part of him also felt incredibly proud of himself for the small achievement. He felt like he was beginning to claim back some of his big boy status. Sandy smiled shyly at Lyce. She was happy for him. At least one of them would be getting out of nappies at some point in the not too distant future. She felt a pang of jealousy.

The new family were soon sat around the kitchen table. Lyce Anya and Arlie each had a sizeable mound of fresh pancakes. Sandy sat, strapped into her high chair. One pancake had been cut into small portions for her and put into a bowl. She picked a bit up and let it flop from her fingers back into the bowl. She wasn’t that hungry.

She watched Lyce struggle with his kids sized cutlery. Seeing Lyce working so hard at eating properly made Sandy want to eat properly too so she grabbed at her own baby fork and with some difficulty managed to spear a piece of pancake onto the utensil. She struggled and almost managed to get a piece from her bowl to her mouth but it slid from her fork a few millimetres from her mouth. Frustrated she hurled the offending fork from her high chair where it clattered to the floor.

Anya looked up shocked by the scowling baby. "What is up with you today, you grumpy little thing. You’ve certainly woken up on the cranky side haven’t you?"

Sandra didn’t reply, she really was feeling angry and out of sorts with herself. Why had she been chosen to be the stupid baby. Why couldn’t she do something as simple as use a stupid fork. She hadn’t even been asked if she wanted to be a baby. She hated it. She wanted to be normal.

"I know what will cheer you up!" Anya got up from her place at the table and busied herself in a cupboard for a moment. She walked back to the high chair and deposited torn up chunks of the curried orange tasting fruit Sandy had tried on her first day. Sandy’s eyes did light up happily and forgetting her childish sulk she grabbed a piece off the tray and stuffed it into her mouth.

"Fankooo" She mumbled between the mouthful happily.

Anya watched Sandy’s mood change instantly and couldn’t help but feel worried about Sandy acting so strangely. She wanted to pull out of today’s activities but knew her hands were tied. It wasn’t her choice, and she felt guilty for feeding Sandy Alumirp, knowing the effect it had on the unsuspecting baby. Lyce watched Sandy eat the strange stuff. He was happy that Sandy’s mood had improved but he was curious as to what it was she was eating.

"Wassat?" he asked to neither carer in particular. Sandy wanted to answer but she suddenly realised that she had forgotten the name. She thought hard knowing that Anya had told her but the name escaped her. She picked up another bit and chewed on it enjoying the odd sensation of sweet spiciness, knowing the name would come to her.

"That’s Alumirp. It is a fruit that Sandy likes" Anya said with a smile handing Lyce a piece. he sniffed it and took a tentative bite.

"It tastes strange" he said staring at the rest of it in his hand not sure whether he liked it or not. Deciding he’d had enough pancakes anyway he placed the remainder of the Alumirp on his empty plate as Sandy scoffed her last piece. Sucking on her fingers to get the juice off.

Seeing both children finished their breakfast Anya clapped her hands causing both kids just jump slightly at the unexpected noise. "Right! Bathtime!"

Sandy grinned as she sucked on her sticky fingers. She let her mummy release her from the high chair and clung onto her mummy’s dressing gown as she was lifted clear.

"You too Lyce" Anya said ruffling the boy’s hair as an indication for him to follow, which with a backwards glance at Arlie, he reluctantly did.

Anya gently lowered Sandy onto her feet in the bathroom and turned on the taps. With that done she turned to her little girl and pushed her down so that she was on her back on the bathroom floor. Anya began to strip Sandy.

"Wait! Watta yoo doin? Lyce is here?" Sandy struggled, not wanting Lyce to watch her have a bath.

Anya just chuckled in a good natured manner. "I know he’s here Sweetie, he can’t have a bath if he’s not here." In saying that she turned to Lyce.

"Strip off okay. The bath’s almost full" She smiled happily at Lyce expecting him to strip off under her command. He looked like a rabbit caught in headlights.

"What? Here? Now?" He looked mortified as Anya nodded.

"You can’t get into the bath with Sandy fully clothed you silly boy" She chuckled. "All your clothes will get wet."

"What Together?" Both children sounded appalled by the suggestion. Anya didn’t think anything of it.

"Yes. It’s quicker if I give both of you a quick dunk." She said as she finally finished stripping Sandy. Sandy covered her crotch with her hands as she lay there completely in the nude. Anya thought it was adorable the way she still felt bashful about being naked.

Anya turned to see Lyce still standing fully clothed. She grabbed his wrist and gently guided him into her. She unzipped his sleeper suit. He tried to grab at it as she tugged it down his legs, but she simply pushed his hands away in a very deliberate manner. He brought his fingers up to his mouth and sucked on them again. It calmed him down. Anya noticed this and she looked kindly at him.

"Lyce, if you continue to suck on your fingers like that, I will get you a pacifier okay?" She didn’t say it as a bad thing, she was just worried for his teeth, if he wanted to suck on anything a pacifier would be better than his fingers.

Lyce blushed and dropped his hand from his mouth, he didn’t want to look like a baby. He could feel his soggy fingers drying coldly as Anya stripped him of the rest of his pyjamas and dry nappy. Soon both children were naked in front of the towering adult. She picked Lyce up by the armpits before he could protest and lowered him into the bath. The multicoloured bubbles splashed around him. He was thankful for the bubble coverage. Anya had plucked Sandy off the bathroom floor and lowered her gently into the bath too. Neither of the children met each others eyes. Mortified by the situation.

Anya knelt down beside the side of the bath and plopped some bath toys into the water. The two children ignored the bath toys. Anya let their awkward body language wash over her. She knew that both of them had been, and still were intelligent human beings but instead of adults they were children now and certain ideas, like modesty, would need to be re-addressed in their current state.

She lathered shampoo into Sandy’s hair and moulded it into a soapy peak. Lyce caught a quick glimpse of what Anya was doing and he suppressed a snigger. She looked funny. Sandy saw Lyce grinning and a small smile fluttered across her features in response. She loved bath time with her mummy it was a pure bonding moment, yet there was still something strange about sharing the bath with a boy. A large purple bubble popped suddenly and Sandy broke into a large grin, without thinking she whacked her hands down into the water to splatter some more bubbles into oblivion with a childish giggle. The resulting splash covered her, Lyce and Anya.

It seemed everyone paused for a moment with shocked expressions on their faces and then as Sandy blinked water from her eyes Anya broke into an almighty laugh."You two are in the bath sweetie. Not mummy. I’m just as wet as the two of you now"

Sandy giggled through her fingers as she looked at her bedraggled mummy. Lyce chuckled too. After that everyone seemed a little more relaxed.

Anya shampooed Lyce’s hair and used soap to style his hair into spikes so that both kids had funny hairdos. She let the shampoo soak into their hair as she scrubbed Sandy and Lyce down with a yellow sponge. Sandy had had a few baths now so she had gotten a little used to the sponge delving into her more intimate areas, and Anya was very gentle, but still, with Lyce being here, it added a new level of humiliation she hadn’t felt before and Sandy felt herself blushing as she was scrubbed clean.

Lyce too felt uncomfortable as he was soaped down. No stone was left unturned but he didn’t fuss. It wasn’t like getting grouchy about the situation was going to make things happen differently as his mind was still very much on the fact that it was going to be his first day at school. Even if it was just a day to have a look around the place and see what there was it was still pretty scary. He studied the small bump that was the chip embedded in the palm of his hand, noticing that the protective glove that his hand had been laminated in had thinned out slightly. It felt more like a waxy layer of skin now rather than a distinctive additional coating. He guessed that by tomorrow it would probably be gone completely.

Soon both children were squeaky clean. "Right kids, time to get dressed I guess" Anya pulled the plug out of the bath as she lifted Lyce clear and set him down on his feet. She wrapped a large fluffy blue towel around him and dried off his hair as Sandy still sat in the bath.

The drain gurgled as the water was sucked down and Sandy felt fear grip her. "AHHHH! The drain monsta. Mummy MUMMY. It’s gonna get me!!" She shrieked in panic, suddenly gripped by overwhelming terror. Something flashed across her mind, it had teeth and peircing white eyes. It want to devour her. She tried to crawl to the opposite end of the bath, the furthest point from the plug hole.

Suddenly she was being lifted clear of the bath and into Anya’s arms. "It’s just the noise the drain makes silly. Nothing to fret about." But Sandy had her arms around her mummy’s neck holding on for dear life and trembling. Anya held the frightened baby, stroking her naked back feeling utterly perplexed by Sandra’s little outburst.

Sandy was feeling confused too. She knew there were no such thing as monsters but for a split second she truly felt as if something wanted to kill her. She felt really stupid and childish as her mummy gently bounced her up and down. She wasn’t a kid, she should have been able to rationalise herself into sense but it had been beyond her and actually for the whole morning she had just felt out of control. It scared her.

Lyce had watched the outburst his brow creased with concern. He hoped Sandy was okay, he didn’t understand why she was being so babyish today. He pulled his blue towel closer around himself as Anya wrapped Sandy in her white bear towel and carried her through to the nursery.

Arlie was coming out of Lyce’s room with a pile of clothes. He was wearing a pair of blue canvas trousers and a white and dark blue t-shirt that had a light blue thick horizontal stripe across his chest. "Ooh. Thought I’d give you a hand getting them dressed. Time is ticking on and we don’t want to be late."

Anya nodded gratefully. "Thanks Arlie"

Arlie crouched down and put the pile of clothes on the floor, still kneeling he put his arms out, indicating to Lyce to come over to him. Lyce wandered over, where Arlie took the towel and began towel drying the boy down.

Anya took this opportunity to put Sandy down on her changing table and proceeded to cover the little girl in baby oil, rubbing it all in and then dusted her with baby powder. Sandy had calmed down by this point and stuck her thumb in her mouth as her mummy worked. Sandy had to admit to herself that she smelt pretty sweet. As an adult Sandra hadn’t been too keen on kids, but baby’s did smell really nice, when they were clean and dry that was.

Soon Anya had wrestled the baby into a clean disposable nappy and was threading Sandy’s arms into a pale blue dress. It had a white pinafore with lace attached to it and a smocked front that had a flower embroidered on the bottom hem and a similar flower embroidered on the smocked chest panel. Anya pulled a pair of blue ruffled plastic pants over the top of Sandy’s nappy. It must have been an intended outfit because the blue satin looking pants and the lace ruffles matched the dress. Sandy felt more like a doll than a baby. Why was she wearing such a fancy outfit. Her mummy lifted her clear of the changing mat and walked over to the rocking chair to brush Sandy’s mousey brown hair into two cute little pigtails fastened with blue bobbles.

"Okay. What’s going on?" Sandy asked, feeling suspicious. Sure her mummy had put her in cute clothes before, but this outfit felt more like something she would expect a child to wear to a christening or something of that ilk.

"Nothing’s going on. Can’t a mummy lavish care and attention on her bundle of joy without arousing suspicion." Anya said with a smirk, brushing off the question as quickly as she could. She didn’t want to upset Sandy now that she seemed relatively calm. "Look Lyce is getting all smart too. Doesn’t he look handsome" Anya said pointing over at Arlie and Lyce. Sandy looked over and suppressed a giggle.

Lyce was looking fairly miserable, the school dress code was pretty strict and as Arlie helped him dress he found himself wearing shorts of dark green, white socks pulled to his knees with black shiny shoes. A white short sleeved shirt with a green and red tartan blazer. A red tie topped off the ensemble. He shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably.

"Dad everyone will be able to tell i’m wearing...you know..."

Lyce trailed off lamely but Arlie slapped his son on the back happily.

"What? Diapers? Don’t worry about it, a lot of the kids you’ll meet today are exchange students and they’re probably having similar problems to you, plus it’s just your imagination. They might feel obvious to you but to most people looking they wouldn’t even notice that your butt is a little puffy"

Lyce was blushing looking down at the floor and scuffing his shoe across the nursery carpet.

"Come on champ. It’ll be fine. Honest. You’re going to have a great day and I’ll be with you all day."

Lyce brightened at that.

"you’re coming with me?"

Arlie nodded happily

"Yeah! That’s right. The induction day parents get to go with their kid to help show them the ropes and to ask the teacher questions. I’ve been looking forward to this day since you woke up really."

Lyce looked over at Anya wondering if she was coming too.

"Is...Anya coming too?" Lyce still wasn’t comfortable calling her mommy just yet.

Arlie looked over at Anya. Her eyes met his and he shook his head as he talked in a matter of fact manner.

"No your mom has something else important to do" Arlie winked at Anya holding Sandy. Anya looked down at the baby she was holding who was staring at Arlie like he had just revealed some terrible secret.

"Something IS going on. What is it? What?" Sandra tugged on her mummy. Anya sighed.

"You’ll find out when we get there okay sweetie. Mummy has to get dressed and then we better get moving"

Before Sandy could protest she found herself being handed over to Arlie. She didn’t want Arlie to hold her, not because she didn’t like Arlie, quite the contrary in fact, but she wanted to know what was going on. So she squirmed in Arlie’s grasp and he looked really quite surprised at suddenly finding himself holding the baby. The fact Sandy was already beginning to fuss and he had no way of understanding her which put him at a distinct disadvantage and he quickly walked over to her cot and put her back behind the bars looking a bit sheepish at his quick reaction.

Sandy looked a bit rejected, but could see Arlie looked uncomfortable. Pea was in the cot so she crawled over to him and pulling him into her lap she chewed on his ear. Trying to work out what her mummy was being so secretive about.

Five minutes later Anya came back into the room, she was wearing black trousers and a short sleeved blouse. Her hair was tied up into a bun. She looked like she was an office worker. She was even wearing make up. Sandra had never seen her mummy wear make up before. She looked really professional. Why was she getting a sense of dread? Her mummy’s eyes darted to Arlie and then seeing that he no longer had the baby she quickly scanned the room and saw Sandra in the cot. She strode over and plucked Sandra from the cot. Sandra held tight to her dragon.

Anya gave a brief smile to Arlie and Lyce.

"Is everyone set? We might as well all walk together, seen as we’re essentially going to the same place"

Arlie was trying to brush Lyce’s hair into some semblance of normality, he had gotten it under as much control as it was going to be and he nodded at Anya.

"That sounds like a splendid idea." He said Anya was already heading out of the nursery and into the hallway. Arlie ushered Lyce towards the door and Lyce allowed himself to be pushed along, as he absently sucked on his two fingers in nervousness.

Anya was in the hallway throwing the changing bag over one of her shoulders. Sandy looked at the bag. It looked bigger than normal. What had her mummy packed in there? Sandra grabbed a pudgy fist full of Anya’s hair and buried her head into her mummy’s chest. She didn’t know what was going on and it seemed no-one was going to tell her. She hated this. She hated being at the mercy of everyone else. Unable to stand her ground. It made her feel insignificant. As an adult she could have barked a command and people would have been scrambling around her to do as she said. Here she was bottom of the pile and regardless of how much she loved her new mummy, her lack of control still stung her pride.

"Right I think everybody is ready to go. So lets go" Anya chirped. She felt nervous, she was deliberately putting on a happier brighter face than usual, trying to mask the bundle of nerves that was growing in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t want to do this. She knew it was going to upset Sandy, it was going to put both of them temporarily in a spotlight that they wouldn’t be able to shy away from. But it had to be done. She looked at Lyce and Arlie and her heart went out to them too. Both looked petrified. She smiled reassuringly at Arlie. He had confided in her last night that he was worried how Lyce’s school induction would go. She had listened and offered advice as best she could but she had never been in his situation before and she dearly wished she could have gone with Arlie and Lyce as additional moral support but she had a job to do. Both new parents were going to have a tough day today.

With that the new family headed out the door ready to face the day.