Chapter 4 – Alvin's new life

Alvin may be physically ready to return to school the following Wednesday, but he wasn't mentally ready to return. He wasn't mentally ready to face his peers, most of whom he disliked, particularly his former friends Mitchell and Carl who abandoned him in a time of need. He sat in his room knowing that he has to return to school, he couldn't bare the torment that the kids are going to unleash when they find out about the diapers. He sighed and looked sombrely at the pamphlet he was given at the hospital by the doctor; he pushed it away as soon as he got home. He didn't want to see or read what he been through, it was like someone liked to give him a kick up the backside just when everything seemed to go to plan. He however took out the pamphlet and studied it. On it was the title "Urinary Incontinence" in normal sized text, upon opening it he discovered that it only told him about the condition. He discarded the pamphlet and studied another; he looked at the last one as he struggled to keep himself from feeling low. The last one was attached to his medical report of the incident. He read the medical history with great difficulty due to the typical scribble of doctors' notes. Giving up deciphering the gibberish on his medical report, he turned his attention to the pamphlet stapled on the report entitled "Perineal Injury", he read it slowly and as he read, his mind had a flashback to the incident.

Flashback

His bike slid away and tumbled down the hill and into one of the rocks on the left hand side of the path. His body thrown at high velocity into a rock on the other side as he continued to flip flop down the hill, it all happened so quickly.

He closed his eyes and scrunched them as he visualised the whole thing, the way he tumbled and rolled, the positions he landed in and continued to flip and fall until he came to a halt in extreme pain. He opened them again as he felt his diaper go from dry to wet without him feeling it coming on, he groaned as he was reminded of the problem seems to be permanent. He read the pamphlet and he learned that the muscles at the back of the genitals are called the perineum and damaging the nerves in this region causes urinary problems. He felt like crying right there and then, his thoughts however were interrupted by a voice which made Alvin's ears prick up.

"Alvin", Simon said as he looked in.

"…" Alvin sat there with a blank expression in a wet diaper.

"Are you ok? Do you need a diaper change?" asked Simon with concern.

All Alvin could muster was a nod to confirm the answer to the second question.

"Ok, I'll get Mom to change you", said Simon as he went downstairs.

A few moments later Claire came into his room and Alvin was lying down waiting for her to change him.

"Are you feeling ok? I haven't seen you come down yet", asked Claire with concern.

"I'm fine Mom, I was just reading those pamphlets", replied Alvin.

"Ok, you know you're going back to school today".

Alvin nodded, "I don't want to though, everyone will see me like this, please can I stay home a little longer?" he whined.

She sighed, "I know it's difficult, but Alvin you're going to have to go back to school sooner or later besides you've missed enough school as it is this year".

She finished changing him; he stood up and looked down at them.

"See how it shows", he whined.

"Ok, how about we slip on some underwear on over them, they'll only see the waistband on the underwear and kids usually don't mind that their underwear shows anyway".

"Ok Mom, let's do that".

"Good", she sighed with relief that he is encouraged by the idea and returning to school rather than the opposite.

His mother helped him put his underwear on since his knee was still a little sore to move swiftly and risk injury. The underwear was new and covered his bulky diaper sufficiently.

Before Alvin left for school, his mother stuffed a stack of six diapers in his backpack.

"Six diapers, I'm only in school for six hours mom".

"I know that, but I just want to give the school nurse a head start on dealing with this issue".

"The school nurse! Oh great, she knows I'm the only one in these great, I wonder when the others will find out".

"No Alvin, she knows that other kids have issues like this, do you remember when you had issues when you're younger and she put you in these".

"Ugh don't remind me, in fact this whole thing sucks".

"I know it's all started for you", said Claire sympathetically.

"Do I just take these to her?"

"Yes Alvin, you need to take these to her first thing".

"God, this is embarrassing", Alvin turned away.

"Trust me, the school nurse knows it all, she is trained to deal with this in a professional manner", his mother placed a hand on his shoulder.

He sighed and turned to face her, "Ok the school nurse knows, how about my teacher?"

"She knows too".

"She knows too! Oh no, not Mrs Fleming", exclaimed Alvin.

"Alvin, she has to know, you aren't the first she's dealt with this issue and needing to give permission for you to see the nurse about this problem".

"I guess I'll just blurt it out then and take the pain throughout my life then", Alvin walked to the kitchen and grabbed his lunch money.

His mother stuffed the diapers in his bag, "It will get easier, I promise".

"Fat chance of that", Alvin sighed, "See you later".

"See you later boys".

Simon turned to Claire, "I'll look after him, mom".

"I know you will Simon, thanks".

Alvin hobbled with Simon and Theodore to the bus stop, they walked in silence. Simon didn't know whether to initiate conversation or not fearing that Alvin might bite his head off for doing so. Whilst standing at the bus stop, Alvin heard comments about him.

"What happened?" asked one kid in the third grade.

"Nothing happened, bike accident no big deal".

"Oh ok", the conversation died at that moment as if it didn't occur.

"Typical idiotic, pathetic losers they call peers", thought Alvin bitterly.

The bus arrived ten minutes later and they boarded the bus, Alvin sat in his usual place, placing his crutches in between his legs and looked out of the window. He sat in silence defiantly looking into space until they pulled up outside the school; he heisted his bag on his shoulder and hobbled down the gangway of the bus. As he stepped off the bus, he could hear his diaper rustle underneath his clothing as an annoying reminder of his life to deal with. He hobbled to the nurses' office.

"Ah are you Alvin Seville?" asked Nurse Maria.

"Uh… yeah I am", replied Alvin sheepishly.

"I see you're a little bruised up, let me help you with your backpack", Maria offered.

"No, no its ok I've got it", Alvin replied only for him to struggle with his crutches.

"Now, now, you're injured and need some assistance, don't struggle ok", said Maria.

"Now you're sounding like my mom", said Alvin.

"Ok Alvin, I have been informed and read about your incident, I'm sorry that has happened to you", said Maria sympathetically.

"I hate this".

"I know, but it does get easier, would you like some counselling for this?"

"No, I want a functioning bladder, now can I leave these things with you and be done with it?"

Maria sighed, "Ok Alvin, but I urge you to get some counselling when you feel ready to come to terms with what happened, your supplies will be in tray nineteen", said Maria.

"Nineteen, right ok".

"Do you need changing now?" asked Maria.

"No, I'm ok for now", replied Alvin.

"Ok Alvin, just wander in when you need to, I'll know why you're here".

Alvin felt that he could trust the school nurse to deal with his diaper changes as he hurried to beat the bell.

Throughout the day, Alvin's attention was split between having a diaper on and whether anyone knew yet. Also on his classes as much as he paid attention, he didn't like the fact he was sat in a diaper in the classroom, to him it felt out of place and sort of made him feel younger than he should be. He wondered if because he was number nineteen in the nurses' organised system that there were in fact eighteen other kids who wear diapers to school too. He looked in front of him while doing his maths work, in the row in front of him to the right sat a boy by the name Marvin. He was a new kid who moved a few months ago, like Alvin was shy and had little to no friends. Alvin couldn't help, but notice that his pants were filled out more so than others, he diverted his eyes back to his work as he saw him turn around. He followed Marvin at recess at a safe distance before he realised what he was up to.

"Why are you following me?" Marvin asked Alvin.

"I'm uh not following you".

"Then what are you doing?" Marvin asked nervously.

Just then Mitchell and Carl wandered over to the pair and Marvin walked away from the scene. The two boys looked at Alvin and feigned pity only in a mocking fashion.

"Aww, diddums faw' down on his bikey-wikey?" Mitchell teased Alvin as he propped himself on his crutches.

"Yeah, thanks to you!" Alvin snapped back.

"We didn't make you go down the hill, you did, now we know why you wore a helmet, it's because you're a baby and can't ride a bike".

"Shut up!"

"Ooh, look who's trying to be tough".

Carl looked uncomfortable watching Mitchell do this to Alvin, but stood back and watched.

"I wonder what happens when I do …" Mitchell tried kicking at the crutches, "this".

"Knock it off!" Alvin tried to maintain his balance as Carl didn't get involved still stood watching.

Simon was out on the playground and saw this scene happen, knowing that he should do something, he walked over to Mitchells' amusement.

"Hey look, it's your nerdy brother, what is he gonna do?" Mitchell asked in a sarcastically feared tone.

"Mitchell, you're the biggest jerk I know!" he looked at Alvin, "Look what you did to my brother!"

"I didn't do anything, I didn't force him to come down the hill, he did it himself", he defended strongly.

"No, but you coerced him to do it!" Simon yelled, not taking his excuses.

"Uh co-erce?" Mitchell asked.

"Wow you are dumb, go read a book, educate yourself for a change! You might learn a few words like that!" Simon looked down and smirked.

"What are you smirking at?" Mitchell snarled.

"Did you guys get punished when I told my mom that you abandoned us in need? Or has she got no guidelines for a pair of no good bullies? Why did you guys leave, huh?"

"We didn't know that your mom got told and to answer your question we uh we were going to get help, but have you tried going up that hill without a bike? No chance".

"One of you could've stayed and helped, but oh no you couldn't do that because two dumb heads are just as bad as one", Simon was seething.

"We were going to honest", Carl looked guilty.

"Oh please, give me a break; I'll make sure your parents hear of this incident, just leave my sight, you two make me sick just looking at you".

"Ok we'll go", Carl guided Mitchell away towards some other kids.

The emotion of the scene just struck Alvin as he started to cry, Simon guided him to a nearby bench and sat him down as he sobbed. He comforted him, "Don't cry Alvin, you're at school, look, I'll inform the principal about them to not bother you anymore".

"I don't want to be here, Simon, everyone hates me", sobbed Alvin.

"Not everyone dislikes you", said Simon rubbing his back.

"I thought they were going to be great friends".

"They're jerks, Alvin, you don't need jerks as friends", said Simon looking around, "Look there has to be someone here that you can interact with; you can't mope around on your own every recess".

"Well there was this one kid, I tried talking to him, but he got nervous because I followed him".

There was only five minutes of recess left when he realised he had wet his diaper. He informed his brother that he was going to the 'bathroom', to which Simon knew what he meant. Not wanting Alvin to sit on his own at lunch, he said to meet him and Steve at lunch.

Alvin went back to the school building and headed towards the nurses' office. She recognised him from earlier that morning and led him to the back room. He felt nervous about allowing the nurse to assist on removing his pants since his crutches inhibit his ability to do it himself. Sensing his discomfort she tried to make Alvin feel as comfortable as she could, but maintain her professionalism. She expertly changed him out of the soaking diaper and cleaned him and re-diapered him. She sent him on his way with a note to excuse him for being tardy. He handed the note to his teacher who clued him on the assignment and directed him to his seat. During the lesson, he was preoccupied by Marvin that he found himself not paying attention to the lesson to his embarrassment. Later on in the lesson the teacher split the class into groups by last name so Alvin and Marvin fell into the same group. Alvin thought that this may be his chance to start something with him.

"You're Marvin aren't you?" Alvin asked.

"Yeah, so?" replied Marvin.

At least that got the dialogue started, but how to get the conversation going with an ice-breaker.

"What are you doing at lunch?"

"Eating, what else?"

"Me … too", he felt stupid that this wasn't a good start and nothing was established as they disbanded for lunch.

Alvin paid for his lunch and sat down with Simon and Steve, Steve looked over at Alvin who prodded his lunch around not feeling particularly hungry.

"I heard about the accident, Alvin, how are you feeling?"

"Fine, just a little sore still", replied Alvin.

"You poor baby", said Steve.

Simon almost choked on his juice as he coughed and Alvin looked at Steve suspiciously as he thought he knew that he was wearing diapers. Simon recovered from his little moment banging his chest.

"A little inappropriate don't you think Steve?" Simon said through embarrassment.

"What, can't a friend care about another friends' brother?"

"Well no it's not that, it's how you said it".

"What's wrong with him?" asked Steve as he looked over at Alvin looking suspiciously.

"Oh he doesn't like being called 'baby'", replied Simon.

"Sorry, mate didn't mean it in that way", said Steve holding his hand out, "No hard feelings, right?"

Alvin shook his hand and went back to prodding his meal once again.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, Alvin had wet his diaper again during class and debated on whether to ask Mrs Flemings' permission to have it dealt with. Knowing that she was notoriously strict on students using the bathroom during class, he decided to wait until he got home to be changed. When it was too late to do anything about it, he realised that his mom wasn't going to be home from work when he gets home meaning his brother would have to change him. He cursed under his breath as he realised this. When they got home, Simon looked at how he was walking and knew that the diaper was saturated, but asked anyway.

"Do you need a diaper change Alvin?"

"I … I'll wait until Mom gets home", replied Alvin.

"Mom did ask me to check your diapers, Alvin".

"No!" Alvin yelled in defiance.

"Alvin! You can't change yourself yet, you're still on crutches, at least for a few days you would be courteous enough to allow me to change you when Mom isn't here to do it for you, don't make this difficult".

Alvin sighed, "Fine, do what you want; I have no control over my situation no more".

He lay down on the floor and waited for Simon to get together the supplies. He stood over him and closed his eyes for a moment as he envisioned what he was about to do.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you, but you have to realise that you're injured and need assistance, ok, that means getting changed by me as well as Mom".

"Still doesn't mean I like it".

"I understand, come on, let's get this wet diaper off and give you a dry one", said Simon.

"Fine if you must", said Alvin as he took off his pants and underwear to reveal a sopping wet diaper.

"Wow that is soaking, when did you last change?"

"Uh, after lunch", replied Alvin.

"Geez, you really don't know when you go at all".

"Nope, did you read about the injury I had?"

"I can't say I have, no".

"I've damaged the nerves in the perineum".

"Ah ok".

"According to the pamphlet, it's the muscles behind the scrotum".

"Oh ok, I know that from biology", said Simon feeling uncomfortable with the whole situation, quickly dried his fur with a cloth and re-diapered him.

He stood him up and looked as though he wasn't getting his pants back on.

"Uh Simon, can I have my pants?"

"Well Steve isn't coming over if that's what you were worried about".

"Oh … then I'll be alright".

He went back to the kitchen, after an hour of trying to catch up on the schoolwork he missed, he felt his stomach grumble.

"Ugh, not again, once was fine", muttered Alvin.

Simon was in his room talking over their homework with Steve on the phone, he called for Simon to take his diaper off. A few seconds later he creaked open his door, "What do you need? I'm on the phone".

"Can you come here?" Alvin asked.

"What is it?" replied Simon as he got off the phone.

"Can you take my diaper off?"

"Do you need changing already?"

"Well no", Alvin blushed, "… but I …"

"What's the matter?" asked Simon.

"I have to uh poop", replied Alvin as he blushed.

"Why not just go in the diaper? They're made for that too", said Simon.

Like his mother told him, just use his diapers for its intended purpose whether it was pee or poop. He sighed and thought that Simon had to be reluctant to do such a task.

"Why can't you take my diaper off and let me use the toilet then re-attach the diaper on?"

"No sense wasting a good diaper".

"But you can re-attach it, can't you?"

"Those tapes will rip it and it would be no good after that".

"But you'll have a big mess to clean up!"

He sighed, "I know, but I'll change you once you're done and besides if I can handle our cousins' messy diapers then I'm pretty sure I can handle yours".

"This is embarrassing!" Alvin exclaimed, "I can't use the bathroom for anything anymore!"

"You're not the only one Alvin, I'm sure there are other kids out there in the same state as you are", said Simon trying to reason with him.

"Well actually there are", said Alvin.

"Really!" Simon exclaimed.

"Yeah uh, I think there are eighteen others before I got to the nurses' office that needs diapers at school".

"Would you know any?" asked Simon.

Alvin shook his head, "unfortunately not, but I am speculating on one kid in my class, Marvin is his name".

"Hmm why don't you invite him over?"

"I couldn't get a conversation going", Alvin replied sheepishly.

"That's ok Alvin, does he have any friends?"

"Not that I know of, no".

"Great, let's try it and find out about him, maybe he's pretty cool".

"Ok Simon I trust you", Alvin smiled slightly and frowned as he held his stomach, "Oh goodness".

He felt his control slip away as he lost it in his diaper. He blushed with embarrassment as he continued to fill his diaper.

"Oh munk, I'm sorry", sobbed Alvin.

"It's ok Alvin", said Simon as he comforted him, "Come on, I'll change you now".

As he was helped to his room the weight in his diaper drooped and sloshed against him, making him feel dirty and horrible.

Simon grabbed a towel from the utility and laid it on the floor for protection, Alvin reluctantly lay down to avoid squishing the mess that contained in his diaper. There was definitely a stronger odour than last time; he put his head on the floor trying to ignore the fact that Simon was actually cleaning his posterior right now. He sighed as he thought about the accident in greater detail, why was he so stupid? He wouldn't have Simon or his mom changing him if he hadn't gone down the hill. He whimpered as he looked up at the ceiling.

"Shh it's ok Alvin, you'll be clean in no time", said Simon to comfort him.

After five minutes he powdered him and put him in another diaper, before taping up the dirty one and putting it in the diaper pail.

"There all clean, that wasn't so bad, was it?" asked Simon.

"No I guess not", he sighed as he got up.

They went on the computer after Simon took the towel to the laundry room and washed his hands until their mother came home, Theodore joined them too. He picked up on an odour from Alvin to which he speculated that Simon just changed Alvin so he dropped his suspicion that Alvin needed changing again.

Before their mother came home, she stopped off at a medical supply store to pick up some more diapers for Alvin. She mentioned to the clerk that her son recently injured his bladder and was a heavy wetter. She also suspected that he would get used to using them for its intended purpose so she also mentioned that they needed to contain bowel movements too. The clerk recommended a trial product that was twice as thick as the hospital diapers and she mentioned that it can hold three times as much as the hospital generic brand. She took them and thanked her for the advice; secretly she enjoyed having a second motherhood to Alvin. She thought that this would be best achieved by putting her son in more absorbent diapers. She wanted him to try to enjoy them as much as she wanted him to though she wouldn't hold her breath on it.