✅ Potty Genius [NaNoWriMo 2022]

Forty

Hi folks! Sorry for not sharing this; the chapter should have been out a couple of days ago; it's on my release schedule, and it was written, but apparently it failed to post and I didn't notice. In  any case, this chapter is dedicated to Uwigi, with thanks for your support!

¿Did you get hypnotised again?

Yeah. I didn't mean to, I hadn't even thought about it. But of course, to enable that mode on the app requires you to go through the hypnotic process again. I should have thought about it sooner, because that was a part that I'd done before. And it's not like the one for the badges. The initial induction is a complex one that takes you into trance, then partly up again, and back down. Goes a little deeper each time, apparently that's the best way to make sure that you don't question a trigger at the time it's supposed to go off.

This one took even longer than most, because when it ends it doesn't wake you up. It puts you to sleep, telling you to take a short nap and let all the suggestions circle in your mind. I must have fallen asleep during it the first time I tried, and I hadn't even realised what was happening. This time, it was nearly two hours before I woke up.

¿Were you still on the train? How did you get home?

I opened my eyes and stretched, realising that I felt well rested. Then I let my eyes close again. I was too comfortable, and I was sure I would be able to nap a little longer. If anything important happened, a grown-up was sure to wake me. I squeezed my teddy tight, and tried to catch up with the wonderful dream that I couldn't quite remember.

In the end, it was the teddy that convinced me something was out of the ordinary. It wasn't Methplease, and it didn't feel like Junior. I opened my eyes again to find out who I was snuggling, and finally realised that I wasn't at home. Then I looked around, and tried to work out where I was. I seemed to be under a duvet in pastel rainbow colours, decorated with pictures of unicorns. I was lying on something that could have been a camp bed, with a low table over to one side. There were a couple of folding chairs, and I could see a coffee machine standing on a counter to one side.

I climbed out of the bed, and found that I was still dressed pretty much as I had been. I was starting to remember what had happened now, and realised that that stupid app must have put me in trance again. I panicked, not quite sure if I had remembered to remove the app before installing it on my new profile. But when I picked up my phone, I found that there were no notifications. And when I looked at the time, I was sure that the first penalty timer for missing yesterday's challenge would have already gone off. I was free. Now I just needed to work out where I was, and why.

When I pushed the door open, I was seeing a familiar location from a new perspective. It took me a couple of seconds to recognise the place, but that was probably because I was a little bit spaced out, and Baby Adrica was still wearing the teddy badge. Permanently now, because the badge was on the now-deleted copy of the app; the version now installed on my phone didn't know that I had ever used a badge, and still thought I hadn't gone through that part of the hypnosis. I idly wondered how long it would take for the badge to wear off.

I forced my thoughts back to the present, and looked down the little corridor of Dr Abbott's office. I'd just come out of the door marked 'break room', so I had to guess that the doctor slept in there. But hadn't I already thought that she slept on the couch in the therapy room? It seemed weird that she would have two sets of blankets in the office.

"Hey, Adrica!" Britney waved. I followed her voice and found her and Theo in the reception area, both watching TV on the big screen behind the desk. I waved back, and tried to get my thoughts in some semblance of order. Why was I here?