Swirly Eyes and Sugarcubes

By Horatio Husky

Illustrated by FeduMedu

Commissioned by Ollie the Stinky Sheep!

    Ollie squirmed and wiggled around in his carseat, the safety buckles keeping him relatively in place as the lamb’s body barely contained his excitement.

    The tiny, living woolen coat eagerly pressed his face and hands against the passenger side window, gazing out on all the passing cars and pedestrians on the bustling Monday morning as his breath fogged up the glass. 

    The sheep’s bright green eyes shone with curiosity while he looked out on the excitement happening on the outside of his carseat, noting each and every single turn in his mind as the route he would be taking daily to his preschool from this point forward.

    That morning he had hopped out of bed with glee, looking up to see the little calendar that was pinned to his cork board above his play table.

    He had scribbled, “Furst Day of Skool!” in bright red crayon on Monday, September 1st. The white uncrossed squares of the following days of September gave the impression of potential and excitement to the little sheep.

    He almost forgot about the various patterns of sunny faces and rainy cloud stickers that covered the previous pages of the calendar. His cheeks had filled with red as he pulled down his pajama pants, peering down at the pullup that he wore around his waist. 

    To his relief, the stars that looked back at him indicated that he had managed to get through the night without incident. The little lamb’s hooves tapped on the floor as he ran in place with excitement..

“I think my little POGCHAMP is finally awake!”

Ollie turned around with his hooves in the air in excitement as the door to his bedroom opened. 

A pleasantly plump lady sheep stood in the doorway, accompanied by the tantalizing scent of blueberry pancakes. The little lamb’s mother was wiping her hooves on her apron as she posed a question.

“Stay dry, kiddo?”

Sheepishly, Ollie nodded his head up and down as a light blush adorned his cheeks.

“Good! How about some special first-day-of-preschool restaurant pancakes?”

With a tiny bleet of glee the lamb scampered out of his room, his little springy legs thundering down the stairs in a beeline towards the kitchen. 

His mother clucked her tongue in appreciation, recalling the days when the little tyke could barely manage to waddle from the coffee table over to the couch.

Downstairs, Ollie made quick work of his breakfast. After attempting to struggle away from his Momma who fought bravely to get most of the maple syrup off of his chin he expertly velcroed his sneakers on and grabbed the backpack that had been prepared the previous night.

Ollie’s cheeks blushed once more at the thought of the exact contents of the backpack, however since they were promised to be there only as a precaution he quickly allowed himself to be distracted by the looming visage of his new preschool.

Looking straight out of a children’s book, the stereotypical red brick exterior of the establishment had an inviting atmosphere. 

As the car pulled up to the front entrance, Ollie’s mother opened the back door and helped him out of the car, holding his hand as they walked over to the front door. 

    The lamb’s initial excitement shifted into a slightly more apprehensive state as the door opened and the beaming figure of a stout looking corgi.

    Dressed in a sundress with vibrant streaks of orange and yellow complimenting her fur, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi lady had a brevity of wit and delight surrounding her.

    “Well what a wonderful little lamb we have here! I’m sure Mary would be quite proud of just how charming and handsome you look!”

    She spoke with the hint of a southern drawl, as if she had spent a fair amount of her childhood sipping iced tea out on wrap-around porches. 

The compliment and general pleasantry emanating from the corgi in droves caught the lamb off guard, and elicited a smile reciprocative of the corgi’s own.

    With a knowing glance, his preschool teacher accepted the backpack Ollie’s mother handed him and ushered him inside.

    “My name is Ms. Marbles, and I’m going to be your preschool teacher this year! It’s very nice to finally meet you Oliver! Now, wave goodbye to Momma! You’ll be seeing her again this afternoon and there are a lot of toys waiting inside for you to play with!”

    Now distracted from any previous feelings of hesitation, Ollie turned around to wave goodbye at his mother whose chest was swelled with pride.

    “Bye honey! Be a good little lamb now!”

    The two padded inside, and Ollie’s eyes were greeted by the vast array of colorful decals on the walls, the toy chests, and various educational posters covering the walls ranging from the ABC’s to the 123’s.

    Ollie’s eyes were immediately drawn over to the corner of the room where a half emptied container of LEGO was strewn across the carpeted floor.

    “I see you’ve already noticed our big LEGO collection, why don’t you use that creative noggin of yours and build me something?”

    Eyes filled with stars, the little lamb’s ears flopped up and down as he nodded eagerly, depositing his backpack in a cubby hole by the front door of the classroom before scampering over to his corner.

    The lamb immediately took stock of what pieces were available, plunging his hands into the container and rifling around amongst the myriad of pieces.

    Taking note of the large amount of pink and purple blocks, he set forth into crafting a princess tower. 

    Glancing up, he noticed that a TV screen was placed above the LEGO building corner. To his delight, The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was on mid transformation.

The little lamb bounced up and down in his seat, masterful LEGO construction now forgotten as he tuned in to the collective defeat of the current super villain. 

Ollie became so engrossed in the screen he gently set aside his half finished princess castle and positioned himself in front of the screen.

Reflexively, his thumb crept its way up into his mouth and he began to gently suckle on it. His mind felt at ease as the pullup that still garnished his waist underneath his shorts served as a pleasant cushion for his TV time.

He gazed at the screen, becoming particularly entranced when the villain turned around displaying a giant screen with a hypnotic swirl displayed upon it.

Ollie found himself equally entranced as he gazed on the swirling colors, purples, pinks, blues, and oranges going around and around in an endless cycle.

Small dazzling sparks were occasionally flung away from the spirals, dwindling into smaller and smaller stars until they too disappeared into the aether.

The rhythmic movement of the spiraling patterns completely captured the little 

lamb’s attention, and he did not notice when the comforting warmth of the attractive array began to spread through the front of his pullup as well.

The rest of the preschool seemed to fade away as the only thing that his little mind could comprehend was the endless hypnotic pull of the screen.

After a suspiciously long period of TV air time, the spiraling screen was finally turned off by the triumphant Power Rangers.

Ollie blinked a few times, his sense coming back to him as he looked down at the half-finished tower he was constructing. He reached over to further rummage around in the bin of blocks and resume his constructive process when he noticed the significantly more distinct bulge between his legs.

The lamb looked down, his heart missing a beat as he saw a small gathering of dampness on the outer edges of his pullup. 

His cheeks flushed with red and he looked around furtively, nervous as to if anyone else had noticed. The keen eye of the corgi met his, and his preschool teacher immediately recognized the expression on the lamb’s face.

She glided over to the LEGO corner, deftly picking up the little lamb’s backpack out of his cubby hole as the formly canine knelt down discretely next to Ollie.

“Got a little bit distracted during playtime, sweetie?”

Unable to formulate any words, Ollie could only nod in agreement as he looked sheepishly at his teacher.

Ms. Marbles extended an inviting paw forward, and Ollie accepted it with his own. His other hand remained stiffly at his side as the two walked over to the classroom door, hoping that none of the other preschoolers now milling about the play areas would notice his little mishap.

To his relief, none of them paid him any heed as the two quietly exited the classroom.

Ollie sniffled, feeling upset that he had not been able to hold it during his very first day of class. Ms. Marbles set about comforting him immediately after she noticed her charge was not happy at his current state of affairs. 

“Oh darling Ollie, you’re not the first kiddo I’ve had to give a helping paw to on the first day of preschool! Everybody has an accident sometimes, even big kids like you! Here, I’ll tell you a little something.”

She leaned down, looking comically from side to side as if she were about to impart the juiciest secret.

Ollie was now temporarily distracted from the squishiness between his legs, and looked back up at her wide eyed as his ears perked up to hear the secret.

“Sometimes, adults even have the occasional accident too.”

Ollie’s eyes remained wide open as Ms. Marbles nodded solemnly, an amused twinkle gathering in her eye as she noted the little lamb’s reaction.

“So, now that you know that you don’t have to feel so bad about having one. It happens to everyone sometimes, and there’s no point crying over spilt milk or soggy pullups.”

With that, the two rounded a corner in the hallway and the corgi opened a door labeled, ‘Maintenance.’

To the lamb’s great surprise, inside stood a particularly large changing table, as if designed for children well above his age which stood sporting a plethora of changing supplies spilling out of its various drawers. 

The lamb stood in the doorway a moment, awed to see that this changing table seemed to stand as direct evidence for what the corgi had just divulged to him. It would seem that people of all ages really did have accidents.

Ms. Marbles gently unzipped his backpack, and took out the various diaper supplies that his mother had packed for him just in case an accident did happen.

Once more did Ollie’s shyness return to him, but Ms. Marbles reached down and picked him up off of the floor, gently depositing him onto the surface of the changing table.

“Now then, I’ve put four children through college and changed a lot of diapers through my years. I’m not going to see anything I have not seen before, just lie back and relax and we’ll be done in a jiffy! Sound good?”

Steeling himself, Ollie did as he was instructed. The corgi pulled a strap over his chest and clicked it into place on the other side of the changing table before setting to work.

Without hesitation, the corgi pried off the lamb’s shorts and slid him out of his now slightly cold pullup. 

The lamb tensed as the cold air rushed on his unprotected nether regions, but Ms. Marbles had already unfolded a fresh diaper from his backpack and was dousing the interior with fresh powder. 

Feeling as if he should be a little bit more fussy than he was, Ollie found himself instinctively raising his bottom up and allowing the corgi to pull the tapes over and securely into the landed area.

“There we go, that wasn’t so bad was it?”

Ollie had to nod a few times in agreement, Ms. Marbles had completed the task quicker than his mother usually did on nights when he had too much to drink before bed.

Humming a cheery tune, his teacher teased his shorts up his legs once again and tucked his shirt into them.

“There we go! I’ll have you know, as another little secret between you and me, that you’re not the only one in class today wearing some extra protection. A few of my little students came in already as padded as you are now, so you’re a very brave little dear for trying so hard with your pullups.”

She scratched his belly affectionately, eliciting a round of giggles from Ollie who suddenly did not feel so bad about having to wear a diaper during the day.

Lifting him high up into the air by his armpits Ms. Marbles deposited him once again onto the floor, zipping up his backpack and offering her paw to her charge.

“Alright sweetie, let’s get back to the classroom and you can finish the princess tower you were working on and maybe catch another episode or two of your favorite show!”

“That sounds great!”

Ollie exclaimed with glee, happily accepting her outstretched palm and walking back with her down the hall, now with a slightly more noticeable waddle.

Before the two entered the classroom, Ollie wondered how Ms. Marbles had known what he was building if he had not completed it yet. Also… how did she know that the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was his favorite show?

As soon as they reentered the classroom, he dismissed these questions as being merely things that all preschool teachers must know about their students. After all, she had just told him a huge secret, no wonder she knew so much.

Ollie spotted a friendly looking skunk in the corner who had also deposited herself by the LEGO bin. She waved at him, and he waved back.

“That’s Maggie, go and say hello Ollie!”

With one last toothy grin at Ms. Marbles, Ollie pranced over to the LEGO corner and held out an outstretched hand.

“Hi! My name is Ollie, today is my first day of preschool!”

The skunk giggled and leaned forward from her criss-cross applesauce position to shake his hand in turn.

“My name’s Maggie and this is my first day too!”

As Ollie positioned himself next to the bin, the two preschoolers exchanged their expertise on which particular piece would compliment each other’s projects. 

Curious, Ollie chanced a glance down at Maggie’s waistband when she was busy trying to take apart two particularly stubborn flat LEGO pieces.

    Although he managed to hide his surprise, he noticed a bulge around the midsection that looked suspiciously similar to his own.

    The End