Kalina bounced back away from the curtain that had just shocked her, but reached out with her other hand to grab the egg that was hidden behind it.
She dropped it into her basket, where it rolled over to one side quietly, lonely.
Crisanta had tried to claim that they were too old for this, and Kalina tried to console herself by pretending that she agreed, and that was why she had found so few eggs.
“Hurry up,” her dad teased, “Your sisters are going to find them all.”
She rolled her eyes, hoping he would take that as teenage apathy.
It was time to follow Crisanta to the dining room, she decided, looking around the living room one more time, trying to see if there were any other likely hiding places, other than the low, obvious ones that were there for Camelia.
Crisanta had too much of a head start for Kalina to really expect to get more than another one or two eggs, unfortunately, and, indeed, Crisanta was glancing around the dining room, in the same way she had just examined the living room.
“Oh, you found one!” Crisanta smiled.
“Great job!” Kalina knocked her hand aside before she could use it to pat Kalina’s head patronizingly.
“Aww, what’s wrong? Are you sad because a toddler is doing better than you?
I think she’s found four by now.”
As if on cue, Camelia’s cry of, “Found one!”
once again echoed through the house.
“Make that five.”
Kalina tugged subconsciously at her skirt, her other hand tightening around the handle of her basket.
“Bite me,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Aww, poor little Kali,” Crisanta cooed.
“Here, why don’t you take one of my eggs?
Or maybe Camelia will let you have one of hers if you ask nicely.”
What was Crisanta’s deal?
A horrible thought occurred to Kalina, and she glanced down quickly, to be sure.
“Just leave me alone, -Crissy-.”
Kalina pushed past Crisanta, though she wasn’t sure why, since she it seemed like she’d already stripped the room bare of eggs.
She wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not – she couldn’t remember actually deciding to do it – but Crisanta’s opinion was rather clear.
“Ow!” she cried, jerking her foot out from under Kalina’s, shoving her backwards at the same time.
Kalina saw her lone egg fly out of the basket as her arms windmilled, right before she plummeted to the ground, skirt flying wildly up.
She was dazed for a moment, so her desperate attempt to rearrange her skirt was delayed enough that Crisanta could very easily have seen her diaper.
Luckily, Crisanta was halfway to the living room at that point, though she did stop and look back upon hearing Kalina’s landing.
“What in the world are you two doing?” their mom demanded, storming in. Kalina got to her feet quickly, holding up her skirt with one hand.
She wasn’t sure if it was actually going anywhere, but it felt like it was slipping down the slick outside of her diaper, threatening to fall down and expose her secret any moment.
It was quite frustrating, but she hadn’t noticed it until she was out of her room, and by then, her parents were already barking at her that she was going to make them late if she didn’t hurry up.
“Nothing,” the twins answered in unison, though neither sounded like they meant it.
“Can’t the two of you just get along for one day?” their mom sighed.
“For your little sister’s sake, if not for my sanity’s?”
“Sorry, mom,” Kalina mumbled, getting a nasty look from Crisanta, who was probably just mad she hadn’t done it first.
“It was nothing, really.”
“Really,” Crisanta echoed.
“If you say so,” their mom said, thoroughly unconvinced.
“See that it stays that way.”
Crisanta stuck her tongue out at Kalina once their mom had turned her back on them.
Kalina tried to ignore her, plucking her egg off the ground, and hastily re-tying her skirt while she was knelt down there, hoping that might help, but then came up with something to say. “That’s very mature.”
“Oh, is it?” Crisanta asked innocently.
“I’m not sure how that happened – I was trying to act like you.”
Kalina squirmed in the pew, nearly leaping out of her skin when her mother turned disapprovingly towards her.
She was sure that her mother had heard her diaper,
which she was sure had gotten louder as they’d been sitting at church, but if so,
she didn’t say anything about it,
choosing rather to whisper, “Sit still!”
She had decided that it wasn’t worth the happiness that wearing a diaper would normally have brought her if she had to be so paranoid about the whole world finding out.
So she’d planned to change into normal underwear after breakfast.
Unfortunately, there had barely been enough time afterward for her to take off her shoes and,
after a minute or two of struggling, untie her skirt before her mom had desperately knocked and told her to hurry up.
She’d glanced over at her dresser desperately until the second knock came, and she just retied the skirt and slipped her shoes back on so she could dash out to the car with the rest of her family.
She didn’t realize she had gone back to her wiggling until her mother lightly smacked her arm.
“Kalina Anne,” she said quietly,
“Could you at least act as well behaved as Camelia?”
“I’m sorry,” Kalina blushed quietly, glancing over at her baby sister, who was sitting quietly, only occasionally twitching her little Mary-Janed foot.
Sometimes Kalina thought Camelia would grow up and actually remember how to have fun, but at that moment,
she just saw her as another little sister who everyone acted like Kalina was younger than. Kalina’s attire didn’t help with that.
“I just…” Kalina started to explain.
She wasn’t sure if her mother heard her or not before she said,
“Just go to the bathroom, Kalina.”
Kalina almost refused, since it wasn’t like she technically -had- to, but even if she had wanted to,
she didn’t think she’d have been able to wet herself with so many people around, at least not consciously.
“Yes, mommy,” she teased, sticking out her tongue as she stood and started to move down the pew.
Her mother grabbed her suddenly, fear gripping her at the same time.
Had she noticed?
But she merely instructed, “See if Camelia needs changed, too.”
The “too” threw Kalina off for just a moment, and then she continued.
Crisanta had overheard, and had already checked Camelia and nodded. Kalina grabbed the diaper bag from the floor, then helped Camelia off the pew and held her hand as they snuck back to the bathroom.
At least she had a legitimate excuse to be leaving in the middle of the sermon now, she thought.
“So, are you having a good Easter?” Kalina asked once they were in the bathroom, locked into the stall with the fold-out changing table.
Camelia nodded while Kalina pushed up her dress, pulled down the cute little ruffled diaper cover.
“Maybe you had a little too much to drink this morning,” she noted, then giggled and tickled Camelia’s tummy, which, of course, started her in as well.
Her diaper wasn’t leaking, luckily, but it -was- quite soaked already, though Kalina was sure they’d changed her before they left the house.
She untaped Camelia’s diaper, something she had done quite a few times, generally without thinking twice about it.
They came up with a somewhat loud tearing sound, though, since Camelia’s diapers had a tape strip, none of the cover was attached.
Kalina wasn’t that fortunate with her own diaper, unfortunately…
And even if she was lucky enough to keep her diaper intact after untaping it,
what if Camelia heard the untaping anyway?
She might not think anything of it, but what if she did?
Kalina looked down at Camelia nervously as she wiped her little bottom,
then exchanged her wet diaper with a dry one, throwing the old one away.
She often suspected Camelia noticed more than anyone else gave her credit for, and she was learning how to speak better and better every day…
She sprinkled baby powder onto her sister, each shake rattling her nerves.
She hadn’t thought about actually -using- the diaper when she’d decided to wear one.
She should have, of course, but when did she ever think ahead?
She taped Camelia’s diaper up,
like her own was taped around her waist to stay until she got home,
since she didn’t have anything to change into.
She pulled up her sister’s diaper cover,
then set her on the floor and opened the stall door.
“I’ll just be a second,” she assured her,
scooting her outside and setting the diaper bag next to her.
“Stay right there.”
When she came out of the stall, diaper wet beneath her new skirt,
she almost would have sworn that Camelia was looking at her differently.
She did her best to ignore it as they washed their hands and headed back out for the rest of the service,
but once they had sat back down, now a somewhat squishier affair, s
he couldn’t help glancing over at Camelia from time to time.
If nothing else, she was a little jealous that, at the very least, her diaper was dry now.
