She intentionally avoided making eye contact with anybody else in the locker room when she ultimately exited the stall; she didn’t have the heart to see if they were looking at her or not, so her gaze remained firmly on her toes as she washed her hands and left the locker room. Only when her eyes had once again adjusted to the sunlight did she bother to look up again, and she noticed that the pool was now nearly empty; all of the children were either at their chairs or playing in the grassy area with the playground equipment. Erin found Hailey sitting at their chairs; she sat down as well.
“It’s the fifteen-minute break,” Hailey explained. “All the kids under 16 have to get out of the pool for fifteen minutes an hour — they blow the whistle to let you know when that starts and ends.”
Erin nodded.
“I don’t really get it, though,” Hailey continued. “Is it because they’re worried that kids might not know how long they can swim before they get too tired to be safe?”
“Maybe they just want to give the adults a peaceful time every once in a while so they can swim around without running into screaming kids,” Erin suggested.
“Maybe,” humphed Hailey, apparently indignant that she might be considered annoying to the adults. “But anyway, how are you? Do you feel better?”
“Yeah, much better,” admitted Erin. “Though it was a bit messier — and louder — than I would have preferred.”
Hailey grinned at her cousin, and was about to open her mouth to say something when they heard the whistles, indicating that the kids could get back in the pool.
“Oh, look,” said Hailey, noticing the line forming at the deep end, “they’ve opened the diving boards. Would you like to dive?”
“Sure,” said Erin. She removed her goggles from her forehead, leaving them on her seat. Hailey did the same.
The two diving boards were both the same height from the water. Erin and Hailey each got in a separate line, Hailey allowing someone to cut in front of her so that she’d be on the boards at the same time as her cousin. The strategy worked; both girls ended up standing at the top of their respective ladder at the same time, and with a nod to each other, propelled themselves down their boards to make one combined splash.
They continued this strategy for the remainder of the 45 minute swimming period. Luckily, the lines for the diving boards weren’t very long compared to the speed at which they were moving, so the pair had gotten quite a large number of synchronized dives in before they heard the whistle sound again.
Leaving the dissolving lines, they headed back to their seats, both drying themselves off briefly with their towels before laying the towels back on the chair and taking a seat.
“We’ve got a bit over an hour left,” noted Erin, glancing at a clock hanging on the wall near the snack bar.
Hailey instinctively looked down at her wrist and quickly remembered she wasn’t wearing her watch. She followed Erin’s gaze and eventually found the clock that Erin had been monitoring. “Yeah, we’ll have one more session of swimming, and then we’ll need to go wait out front for my mom to pick us up,” she said. “Anyway, did you want to get a snack?”
“If you’re going to,” said Erin. “If you’re not, I’ll be fine without one.”
“Let’s get some ice cream sandwiches, okay?”
Erin nodded. She was somewhat glad Hailey had decided that they should get snacks; she did want ice cream, but it would have been rude to ask for it herself. They dug some change out of the bottom of the swimming bag and approached the counter.
Upon returning to their seats, ice cream sandwiches in hand, Hailey spoke up. “I am not looking forward to waking up early tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” admitted Erin. “Me neither. What time do we have to actually leave? You said we’re walking to school, right?”
“Yeah, we’re walking; it’s only about twenty minutes away. Last year, my mom would drive me if I asked her, but I usually only asked if the weather was really bad or something. I enjoy walking, though, so that probably helps.”
“Yeah, walking’s fine with me,” said Erin. “But can’t we ride bikes?”
“There’s not really anywhere good to leave the bikes when we get to the school,” explained Hailey. “You’d think they’d have a bike rack or something, but then again, most of the students just ride the bus anyway. Anyway, school starts at eight, and it’s about a twenty minute walk, but I found last year that it’s best to leave at 7:30, to give us some safety.”
“So that means… if we both take showers, we’ll have to get up sometime around six?”
“Probably. We’ll see after a few days how long it actually takes us, but you really are pretty quick in the shower.”
“I just don’t like to waste time,” admitted Erin. “Still, waking up at six won’t be fun, not after what we’re used to for the summer.”
“We’ll have to make sure to go to bed pretty early tonight.” Hailey began to lick off her fingers to remove the residue from the ice cream sandwich’s chocolate wafers.
Their conversation dwindled, but it seemed luck was on their side; the fifteen minute break ended just as they were beginning to get bored.
The diving boards were no longer open, meaning that the deep end of the pool was available for swimming, and Hailey fully intended to take advantage of this. She grabbed the diving sticks from the bag, donned her goggles, and watched as Erin fitted her goggles as well.
The girls seemed to be equally agile at underwater swimming; neither of them had any difficulty retrieving the sticks the other dropped. Hailey was impressed at Erin’s ability to hold her breath, though; her cousin could easily pick up nearly twice as many sticks on a given dive as she could.
Time flew by as the girls continued to take turns diving for the weighted plastic rods; both of them seemed shocked when it was yet again time to get out of the pool. The feeling was especially bitter as they knew that they wouldn’t be going back into the pool. Mrs. Summers would be coming to pick them up within the next fifteen minutes, and they needed to pack.
There really wasn’t much to pack, though; the goggles and diving sticks went straight into the bag, and each girl dried herself quickly. A quick glance at the snack shop clock indicated that they still had a few more minutes before they had to go wait out front, and Hailey decided to use the idle time to take care of some personal business.
“I’m going to go to the bathroom, Erin. Do you need to come?”
Erin honestly did not need to go. It had only been about two hours since she’d last used the toilet, and while it would generally be a good idea to try to go anyway, she really didn’t want to enter that dungeon-like restroom again. “I’ll be fine, I’ll just wait out here.”
Hailey shrugged and sat her towel back down on the chair. It seemed unusual that Erin wouldn’t want to try, but she certainly knew the risks involved in not trying, so whatever the reason, she probably knew what she was doing. There really wasn’t much point in pushing the issue with Erin; if she didn’t want to come, then she didn’t want to come.
She realized that it probably would have been prudent to visit the toilet earlier. While she wasn’t in danger of wetting herself, the pressure was certainly uncomfortable. Although all three toilet stalls were occupied when she reached them, there was no line, so she was able to claim the first stall that opened.
The stall felt a bit claustrophobic; the dim room combined with the dark brown they’d decided to paint the stall walls and doors certainly contributed. Hailey wondered why they’d painted it so dark; maybe it was to cut down on graffiti, but she could still see a very naughty poem written in marker on the back of the door.
She began to remove her swimsuit, when she paused. The swimsuit was already wet… and she certainly wouldn’t mind a little “accident,” especially since nobody could find out. To the other people in the bathroom, it would simply sound like she was peeing in the toilet. Of course, that was exactly what she would be doing… she’d just neglect to get her swimsuit out of the way first.
Hailey pulled the shoulders of the swimsuit back into place, and sat down on the toilet. She began to relax and was just about to release her urine when she suddenly clenched back up.
Erin.
Erin hadn’t wanted her to have an accident in the swimsuit earlier today; as Hailey had guessed, it seemed like she must have had such an accident herself at some point, and something bad happened because of it. She probably shouldn’t do this, but…
But she really wanted to have this accident. Just as with her wetting earlier today, and a number of other recent times she’d donned a diaper, Hailey felt an immense desire to have an accident, much stronger than her current physical need to urinate could account for. The combination of the naughty deed she was so close to committing and the knowledge that there was absolutely zero chance that she would be caught overwhelmed her. Erin wouldn’t know. She didn’t think she could lie to Erin, but if Erin never asked, then she wasn’t exactly lying, was she?
A stream of warm liquid began to flow through the fabric of her swimsuit and into the waiting toilet below.