On the one hand Julia nearly freaked out. On the other hand, she told herself, ‘I knew it.’ She knew it from the moment Kate had looked at her and raised her eyebrows and nodded. And Kate knew it too, Julia was sure of that. Julia followed the thought all the way through to the end. It was really hard to believe, but all the pieces fit and it made too much sense to be anything else. Julia looked at Kate and stated matter of factly, “You wear diapers too.”

Kate smirked, “Smart girl. I told you you knew what this was about.” She set down her bag and looked Julia in the eyes. “So here is the thing. About 3 years ago, when I was a freshman…. You’re a freshman right?” Julia nodded. “Right, thought so. So when I was a freshman, this really cool senior girl came up to me one day and wanted to talk. I was like, wow a random senior wants to talk to me, that’s weird. But she seemed nice so I started talking with her.

“She starts telling me this story about how she was in a car accident when she was young. It was pretty bad I guess, they got hit at a stop light or something and some people in the other car actually died. I’m sitting there thinking, wow that really sucks. But why are you telling me this? I don’t even know you. It all seemed really strange. I even started to wonder if she might be a little crazy you know?

“Anyways, the accident put her in the hospital for a while she says. She starts telling me that she was lucky she didn’t have any kind of serious brain injury, or lose a leg. I guess there was a time when they were not sure about that. So she tells me she considers herself really fortunate all said and done. But then she hits me with this. She tells me that as a result of the car accident, she wets herself all the time, so she has to wear diapers.

“I’m sitting there, kind of where you are, and I’m thinking wow, this is really crazy, because I was wearing a diaper too. And she looks at me and says, I don’t know what your story is, but I do know you are wearing a diaper. And I know what that can be like.

“So then she starts telling me about this thing she called D Club. It’s not an official club like the Math Club or something like that. It’s just a group of kids at the school who get together every so often and go get lunch or something like that. The seniors who have cars usually drive and they go off campus to some random fast food place. The only thing is that the kids in the club all wear diapers.

“So at this point I ask her, how did she know I wore diapers? She gave me some kind of wishy washy answer about it just being a lucky guess. I called her on it and she said she could explain some other time. So I then asked, ‘is it like some kind of support group?’ and she says, well, I guess although I don’t really think of it that way. For me it’s just a group of friends. We aren’t like best friends or anything; I mean we are all pretty different and probably wouldn’t normally hang out. But we all have this random thing in common. And we look out for each other.

“So yea, that was me three years ago. And I ended up meeting with these people and I found out they were all pretty nice. Some of them I didn’t see at all outside of the occasional lunch. Some of them I became pretty close with.

“Anyways, even though there isn’t any kind of official rules or anything, it’s kind of understood that the seniors in the group take the lead or whatever when it comes to new folks. So that’s why I figured I would approach you and invite you to the club.

Julia had not seen this coming. Not in a million years. But hearing the story and watching Kate tell it really touched her. Kate was cool. Kate had confidence. Kate was a popular girl who was supposedly an amazing volleyball player, and still was kind enough to do something like this. Some part of her really wanted Kate to be her friend.

“Wow, Kate” Julia said slowly, she was still getting used to talking with this girl, “Wow, that’s really crazy. I’m kind of not sure…. How did you even know I wear diapers?”

Kate laughed. “Well, as I said, I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to be stuck outside Mrs Bernard’s office waiting. So I kind of knew right then and there. But I wasn’t like, 100% sure, so I kind of kept an eye out for you. I was pretty confident, but I knew for sure just now. When I was like “trust me I’ve been there” I could tell by the way you reacted. You were like “wait, does she mean…?” And then I knew and decided to really talk with you. Don’t worry, it’s not like it’s obvious you have a diaper on.

“I thought you were in there about you knee…”

“My knee? No, the trainers do that kind of stuff. I was in there for the same reason you were waiting to get in. I can’t stand changing in the bathrooms stalls.”