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Moving was seldom, if ever, a pleasant experience, and moving clear across the country was a very taxing ordeal to say the least. For twelve year old Sandy Evans, it felt like the longest few days of his life. The squirrel was moving with his mother and father to a place he had never been, and frankly, didn't want to go either. His parents, both teachers, had waited until the end of the school year before they moved, although there own house had been sold over a month ago, and their new house had already been closed on. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were told by their realtor in the area they would be moving to that when they arrived, everything would be ready for them to move in, with the realtor promising to go inside the house on the day prior to their arrival to turn on the air conditioning. Certainly a great way to get used to a new house in the heat of summer.

Sandy's father, Simon, was in the vehicle ahead of Sandy and his mother, Sonya. The adult male squirrel had volunteered to drive the U-Haul truck that was carrying everything in the world the Evans family owned. Sandy sat in the front seat of his mother's car, listening to his iPod and wishing that the seemingly endless journey would finally come to an end. After spending the past two nights in cheap motels with stiff mattresses, he was ready to go to his new house and stay there.

"Sandy, sweetie," said Sonya as she realized that the family was only half an hour from their destination. "I want you to promise me that you'll try and make friends this summer. Sandy?" His mother realized that between having his earbuds in and drifting in and out of sleep, he wasn't paying attention. She tapped on her son's thigh, getting his attention.

"What?" asked the boy.

"Take those things out of your ears, Sandy," ordered Mrs. Evans. She watched as her grumpy son reluctantly pulled the device out of his ears and paused the music.

"Are we there yet?" asked the road weary squirrel with a yawn.

"Almost," said Sonya. "Just half an hour more."

"Thank God," groaned Sandy.

"Sandy, I want you to promise me that you'll try and make friends this summer, okay?"

"Okay," he said in a none too sincere tone. That tone didn't go unnoticed by his mother.

"I'm serious, Sandy," said Mrs. Evans, growing frustrated with the lack of respect her son was showing her. "You're not going to just stay in your room all summer reading books and listening to music. You need to get outside and enjoy the summer."

"I'll try," said Sandy, the insincerity still obvious in his words.

"You'd better lose that attitude really quick," snapped Mrs. Evans. "And be glad that we're in a car right now, otherwise I'd be tempted to smack you for being so grumpy and difficult for the past three days! This move has been hard on your father and I too you know."

Sandy didn't bother to respond, knowing that he couldn't hide how miserable he felt. And saying the move was hard on them? Yeah right! They were the ones who were choosing to move, while he was the one being dragged along without any consideration to how he felt, what he wanted. That's what adults were, bossy, demanding and inconsiderate as far as he was concerned. Sighing, he put the earbuds back in and resumed listening to the music, trying to divorce himself from reality.

Half an hour went by, and Sandy, for whatever reason, was aware that they must only be a few turns away from his new home. Pausing his iPod once more, he removed his earbuds, waiting for the moment when they would finally be home. He looked out the window, seeing stretches of cornfields, occasionally broken up by areas of woodlands. It was a very rural area he was moving to; much different than the urban environment he was accustomed to. He groaned inwardly, thinking about how boring it was going to be living here. He just knew that the place was going to infested by hicks; the kind that were absolutely insufferable to be around. Why did his parents have to move?

"Here we are!" said Mrs. Evans, pulling into the driveway of their new home.

Sandy had seen pictures of the new house, but seeing it in person was something entirely different. The house was a two story dwelling that looked more modern than the homes that were close by. The property looked as though no one had mowed the lawn in weeks, and the backyard was particularly spacious with a patch of woodlands behind it.

"What do you think?" asked Mrs. Evans, turning the car's engine off.

"Not sure yet," said Sandy, opening the door and getting out. He stretched his arms and legs as it had been hours since he had last been out of his mother's car. Putting his iPod in his pocket, he looked over at his father, Simon, who had just jumped out of the U-Haul. The adult male squirrel looked quite pleased, smiling at his son.

"Well," said Simon. "We're finally home. Hopefully the realtor turned the air conditioner on. I'd hate to have to move into a hot house."

"When are the movers supposed to arrive?" asked Sonya, looking at her cell phone to find the time.

"They should have been here by now," said Simon. "Oh, why do I have the feeling that this is going to be a nightmare?"

"Can we go inside?" asked Sandy. "It's hot out here."

"Sure," said Simon, fishing around in his pocket for the new keys and handing them to Sandy. "Let's see our new home. You see those woods behind the house, Sandy? Those are all ours!"

"That's just fantastic, Dad," grumbled the boy. "Now, can we please go inside. I need to take a dump."

"Sandy!" yelled Simon. "You need to lose the attitude."

Sonya shook her head, watching her son walk towards the front door. "He's been absolutely awful this entire trip. I swear, I only wanted to smack him about a thousand times in the past three days."

"Let's go easy on him, okay, Sonya?" asked Simon. "It's never easy for kids when they move."

Sonya sighed, reluctantly agreeing to her husband's request. She looked back at the front door, seeing an angry Sandy coming back outside.

"What's wrong?" asked Simon.

"It's sweltering in there," snapped Sandy. "That's the problem!"

"Great," snarled Simon. "No movers yet, lawn not mowed, air conditioning isn't on. We're really batting a thousand today!"

An hour went by, and the movers finally arrived and were greeted by a very frustrated Simon Evans giving them an earful about their tardiness. The movers got right to work. Simon was so upset that he almost wished that he hadn't turned the air conditioner on; thinking it would have been a proper punishment for the tardy laborers to be forced to move all their belongings into a hot house.

Sandy had went around the house trying to get a feel for the place. There was a basement, unfinished and smelling very musty. Nothing much was down there besides a washer and dryer. The ground floor had a kitchen with fairly recent décor, and a separate dining room. There was a bathroom next to what would undoubtedly be his parents room. The living room was average sized, though bigger than his previous home. He wondered into the master bedroom, hoping that would be his room, but he knew better than that. Sighing, he went upstairs to see what else was there. There were three bedrooms along with an upstairs bathroom. Sandy opted to make the room on the west side of the house his room. He wasn't fond of getting up early, and taking the east bedroom seemed like a stupid idea since he didn't want the sun glaring in his room super early.

Even though there were professional movers handling the Evans belongings, Sandy took charge of moving his own possessions into his bedroom. The boy was very picky about other people, especially strangers, handling his stuff. He made sure to get the boxes that contained his books. He wanted to make sure those were readily available for when he went to bed that night. The squirrel went about moving more and more of his stuff upstairs, taking the time to figure out exactly where he wanted everything situated in his new bedroom.

It was at this time when Sandy was making his way back out to the U-Haul that he took notice of something. There had been kids of various species riding bikes down the street every now and then, but as Sandy was grabbing yet another box, he saw a young male raccoon on a bike who had stopped to see what was going on. Sandy wasn't sure why, but there was something about this that he found interesting. He looked the raccoon over, seeing that he was wearing dark sunglasses, a sleeveless ash t-shirt and baggy blue jean shorts. The raccoon smiled and waved at Sandy, who put his box down on the ground and went over to him.

"Hey," said Sandy flatly. "You . . . you live around here?"

"Yeah," said the raccoon, removing his sunglasses. "So you guys bought the Mitchell's old house, huh?"

"I guess so," said Sandy with a shrug. In truth, he had no idea who the previous owners were, and frankly, didn't care either.

"Too bad what happened to them," said the raccoon, shaking his head.

"Why? What happened to them?" asked Sandy

"Oh, they were brutally hacked to death by some psycho who broke into their house one night," said the raccoon.

"What!?" shouted Sandy, grabbing his chest. "You serious?"

"Nah," said the raccoon with a mischievous smirk. "I was just bullshitting you."

Sandy's expression gradually changed from horrified to humored. He liked the fact that the raccoon thought nothing of using profanity in front of him, or making up the story about the previous owners being murdered, it was like he didn't care what others thought of him. Sandy laughed.

"Wow," said the squirrel. "That's pretty twisted, man!"

"I'm a twisted kind of guy . . . . um, sorry, didn't get your name."

Sandy extended his paw in friendship. "Sandy Evans. Nice to meet you."

The raccoon took hold of Sandy's paw in a firm handshake. "Nice to meet you, Sandy Evans. I'm Robbie Atkins!"

"Nice to meet you, Robbie Atkins!" said Sandy. It was at this time that Sandy's mother noticed her son talking to the raccoon. She went over to them, smiling.

"Sandy, who's this nice young raccoon you're talking to?" asked Sonya.

"This is Robbie Atkins. Robbie, this is my mom, Sonya."

"Very nice to meet you, Mrs. Evans," said Robbie, giving her a bow before shaking her paw.

"Why, what a gentleman!" exclaimed Sonya.

"Would you like some help with your moving in?" asked Robbie.

"Why, certainly!" said Mrs. Evans. "Sandy, how about you have him help you with your stuff, okay?"

"Sure, Mom," said Sandy, his tone far more agreeable than it had been only an hour ago. Mrs. Sonya Evans watched as her son and the young raccoon hauled Sandy's stuff into the house. She prayed that Robbie would be the friend her son so desperately needed.

By the time everything was moved in, everyone was completely drained of energy. Robbie helped Sandy arrange everything in his room; setting up his bookcases and helping him arrange the books in a proper order.

"You're the only guy I know who alphabetizes his books, Sandy," chuckled Robbie.

"I'm kind of obsessive compulsive about it," admitted the squirrel. "I always want to know where my books are at."

Robbie aided him in the alphabetizing process as they continued their conversation.

"What grade you gonna be in, Sandy?" asked Robbie, pawing through the many titles in the squirrel's library.

"Seventh," said Sandy. "And you?"

"Same here," said Robbie. "Where'd you guys move from anyway?"

"Atlanta," said Robbie. "My mom and dad wanted to live somewhere 'different' they told me."

"Atlanta?" said the raccoon in disbelief. "Holy shit, that's a long ways away!"

"You don't need to tell me," laughed Sandy. "I've spent the past three days on the road, eating fast food, sleeping in crappy motels. Not my idea of a good time."

"By the way," asked Robbie, organizing the books on the floor. "If you're from Atlanta, shouldn't you be speaking with a drawl?"

"Very funny," said Sandy. "No, my parents aren't from the south originally. My Dad's from Vermont and my Mom's from Maine."

"That's good," observed Robbie. "I was worried for a minute there that if they were from the south they might be siblings."

"Hey, fuck you," said Sandy with a laugh. The squirrel threw a paperback book at Robbie. The raccoon just laughed it off.

"I guess I had that one coming, didn't I?" asked Robbie.

"Yeah, but I knew you were just joking," chuckled Sandy.

Sandy and Robbie continued talking as they got the squirrel's library in perfect order. Sandy discovered that Robbie lived about half a mile down the road and that his parents were art teachers at the local high school. The then realized that their parents would probably get to know each other quite well, as Sandy's Dad was a high school science teacher, and Sonya was a high school math teacher. As Sandy conversed with Robbie, he felt like he'd known him his entire life, almost forgetting that they had just met only hours ago. It had never been easy for Sandy to make friends, but the squirrel felt like he had a friend in Robbie. They finally finished Sandy's room, and the squirrel couldn't have been happier.

"Hey," said Sandy. "You wanna stay for dinner?"

"Sure," said Robbie. "I should probably call my Mom and let her know where I am, though. If I don't let her know where I am, I usually get beaten with an extension cord when I get back."

"What!?" said a horrified Sandy.

"Got you again!" said Robbie, pointing at Sandy. The squirrel gave his new friend a shove.

"I should know by now that you're completely full of shit," said Sandy with a laugh.

"You're learning," said Robbie with his mischievous smirk. "There's hope for you yet."

Robbie stayed for a few more hours, eating dinner with Sandy and his parents, who were impressed when the raccoon willingly offered to help with the clean up. Sonya was particularly pleased to see that her normally introverted, anti-social son had made a friend on the very day they had moved to the area. Robbie's stay came to an end right about the time it was getting completely dark. Though the raccoon had been riding on his bike, Simon and Sonya both offered to take him home in their car. With Robbie's bike in the trunk, and the four of them in the car, they drove the half mile and dropped Robbie off.

"Hey," said Robbie before getting out of the car. "You wanna come over to my house tomorrow, Sandy?"

"You bet!" said the squirrel. "Mom, is that okay with you?"

"It certainly is," said Sonya. "Is it okay if I bring him over at eleven?"

"Sounds good to me," said Robbie. "Maybe you and Mr. Evans could meet my parents too."

"That would be wonderful, dear," said Sonya. "You have a good night!"

Robbie stood in his driveway, waving good-bye as the Evans car went down the road. Sandy couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so excited about anything! He finally had a friend.

"What a nice boy," said Simon. "I hope you two can become friends."

"I feel like we already are," said Sandy. "I think I'm going to like living here after all."

Sonya laughed. "Is that my son talking?"

"Yes," said Sandy. "Why do you say that?"

"You sound a hundred times better than you did this morning," observed Sonya. "I hope you'll stay this way."

"Me too," said Sandy. "Thanks for letting Robbie eat dinner with us, Mom, Dad."

"You think you'll be ready for a sleepover with him?" asked Simon.

Sandy's expression reverted back to his moodier state. "Let's just go easy on that, Dad."

Sandy could barely sleep that night. The thought of seeing Robbie again was something that seemed to possess the young squirrel's mind completely. He couldn't stop thinking about how he wanted to spend his whole summer with Robbie, and he hadn't even known him for an entire day! When eleven o'clock in the morning finally rolled around, Sandy was the happiest squirrel in the world.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans took Sandy to Robbie's house, with Robbie introducing his parents, Richard and Rachael, to Sandy's parents. As the four adults chatted, Robbie took Sandy up to his bedroom for the very first time. Sandy noticed something instantly as he stepped into his new friend's room. While Sandy's room was packed full of books, Robbie's room was covered in artwork, almost every inch of his walls were plastered by sketches, paintings, drawings of all kinds.

"Damn," said Sandy, admiring the artwork. "Are you an artist?"

Robbie gave his friend a goofy look. "Duh, why would you say that?"

Just as the day before, Sandy gave the raccoon a shove. "I just wondered if you were the one who made all these."

"Sure did," said Robbie. "Who would have ever guessed that the son of two art teachers would have turned out to be an artist himself, huh?"

"Smart-ass," growled Sandy, shaking his head.

"Better than being a dumb ass," observed Robbie.

Sandy walked around the raccoon's room, admiring the fine detail that Robbie put into all his work. Sandy had taken art classes in school, though he wasn't very good at it, but he'd seen plenty of artwork that kids his age had made, but it was nothing compared to Robbie's efforts. Sandy came to a stop as he saw a very large portrait sketch of a raccoon in a military uniform.

"Who's this?" asked the squirrel.

"That's my older brother, Ricky. He's in the Marines."

"You've got a brother? Huh, I'm an only child."

"I might as well be an only child," confessed Robbie. "Ricky is fifteen years older than me, so by the time I was three, he had already graduated and was in Annapolis, studying to become an officer."

"What rank is he?" asked Sandy.

"Captain," answered Robbie, scratching the back of his head. "It's been a few years since I last saw him. I try to talk to him when I can, but he's usually pretty busy."

"You gonna join the Marines?" inquired Sandy.

"Me? Oh, hell no! Seriously, do thank I'm cut out for military life? Always having to say 'Yes, sir!' and never disobeying orders?"

"Now that you mention it, no, I can't see you doing that," stated Sandy with a laugh.

"Then you've been paying attention. A most admirable quality, I might add," joked the raccoon.

"I'm going to guess that you want to be an artist when you grow up, right?"

"Yeah," said Robbie, sitting down on his bed. "But other than teaching art, that's a pretty hard way to make a living; least that's what my parents have told me."

"I see," said Sandy.

"What about you? What do you want to do?"

"I'd like to be a professional writer," said Sandy.

"Really," said Robbie with a humored snort. "I would have never guessed."

"Oh, shove it," said Sandy with a laugh.

"I bet it's hard to make it as a writer, isn't it?" asked Robbie.

"From what I've read about my favorite authors, yeah, it's incredibly difficult. You have to be willing to take rejection, work long hours by yourself, and sometimes have no social life, though I don't really have much of a social life anyway."

"You're socializing with me, aren't you?" asked Robbie.

"I guess," said Sandy. "Hey, do you read comic books?"

"Yeah, sure," answered Robbie. "Why do you ask?"

"Because," said Sandy, feeling a brain storm formulating. "I've got some stories that I've written at home, and I bet you could turn them into a comic book!"

"Hey, yeah!" said Robbie, "I've always wanted to write a comic book, but I'm no good at coming up with a storyline, or writing for that matter."

"I'm surprised you're even literate," snickered Sandy.

"Yeah, yeah, fuck you too, nut eater!"

Sandy shoved his friend. "Just because I'm a squirrel doesn't mean I only eat nuts . . . you bandit!"

Robbie laughed, returning his friend's shove. "Just because I'm a raccoon doesn't mean I'm a thief either!"

"Really? Could have fooled me!" taunted Sandy.

"Shouldn't be too hard to fool a retarded nut-eater like you!"

"Alright, that does it!" shouted Sandy, pouncing on the raccoon. The two boys rolled around on the floor, laughing and trying to pin each other to the floor. Sandy was having the time of his life. He was an only child and was never, ever so close to someone his own age to engage in light-hearted fooling around like this. The two went at it for several minutes before winding down. Both of them panted as they lie on the floor, laughing.

"Oh," said Sandy. "That was fun!"

"Yeah," said Robbie. "You think you can ask your parents to take you back home so you can get some of your stories?"

"Sure," said Sandy. "How about I go do that right now?"

It wasn't long before Sandy had convinced his parents to quickly take him back home and retrieve some of his stories to bring back to the Atkins' home where he and Robbie tried to chose what stories to select to make into illustrated comics.

"How about this one?" asked Sandy, showing a group of papers to the raccoon. "This is kind of a detective story that's really dark and takes place back in the 50s."

"Cool," said Robbie, getting out his drawing utensils and putting them on his desk. "How about we make it black and white?"

"Yeah!" agreed Sandy. "We could make it look like old film noir!"

"Exactly what I was thinking," said Robbie. "Could you start reading the story to me? I want to get an idea of what the first frame should look like."

Sandy read the story to him, though he didn't realize that turning his written words into illustrations would take as long as it did. There were several times where Robbie drew one frame, only to discard it in favor of using another one. Though it was a time consuming, tedious process, Sandy couldn't help but admire his friends artistic talent, as well as his work ethic. Both boys parents went up to Robbie's room to check on them occasoinally and were pleased to see them working together and having fun.

"Oh my," said Simon, looking at the frame Robbie had just completed. "Your son is quite the artist, Richard."

"Thanks, Simon," said the elder Atkins. "Looks like our boys are going to make quite the team, huh?"

"Yep," said Robbie, starting on his next frame. "Atkins and Evans!"

"That's Evans and Atkins!" corrected Sandy.

"How about Atkins and Nutsy instead?" joked Robbie, turning around and giving the squirrel his typical smart-ass grin.

"Atkins and Evans it is!" capitulated the squirrel.

Richard and Simon laughed at the playful banter between the two boys. Their project continued for several more hours, with Sonya and Rachael coming up the next time to check on them.

"Sandy, sweetie, it's getting kind of late," observed Sonya.

"I guess so," said Sandy. "Are we going to have to leave soon?"

Robbie heard the mention of his friend leaving and stopped what he was doing that instant. Turning his attention away from his artwork, he looked over at Mrs. Evans. "Mrs. Evans, can Sandy spend the night here?"

Sandy was about to open his mouth in protest, but his mother answered for him. "Fine by me, though I'll have to go get some of his things and bring them here."

"Awesome!" said Robbie, resuming his drawing. "We're gonna have a great time tonight, aren't we Sandy?"

Sandy opened his mouth, trying to get the words out, but he only uttered a series of unintelligible syllables. Robbie looked over at the squirrel, completely confused.

"Hey, you having a stroke or something?" joked the raccoon.

"Um . . . no," said Sandy, his eyes wide as though something ominous was taking place.

"Sandy," said Robbie, no longer joking. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," said Sandy with a long, drawn out delivery. "I'll be . . . fine."

"Good," said Robbie, returning to his artwork. "Cause we've got a lot more work to do!"

Mr. and Mrs. Evans returned with a duffel bag of Sandy's things. Sandy wanted to tell his parents that he wasn't feeling well, attempting to get out of spending the night with Robbie, but he couldn't do it. As bad as it sounded, he wasn't really worried about lying to his parents as much as he was worried about upsetting Robbie by bailing out of their sleep over. He didn't want to lose the only friend in the world that he had.

Mr. and Mrs. Atkins ordered some delivery pizza, as the boys seemed to preoccupied with their project to come down and eat at the dining room table. Sandy was pleased to learn that Robbie, like himself, preferred plain cheese pizza, well, extra cheese to be precise. With it being summer vacation, Robbie's parents weren't worried about how late the boys staid up, allowing them to go to sleep when they felt the need. They worked long into the night, with Robbie finally emitting a loud, long yawn before putting his artwork down for the night.

"Damn," he said, stretching his arm. "I'm beat. You ready for bed?"

"I guess," said Sandy, slightly nervous.

"I've got a sleeping bag that you can use if that's alright."

"Good enough for me," said Sandy. The squirrel knew what was coming next. He didn't know exactly what Robbie wore to bed at night, but he would soon find out. Pulling the covers back on his bed, the raccoon yawned once more before removing his sleeveless shirt and shorts, leaving him only in a set of tighty whitey briefs.

"You gonna sleep in your underwear too?" asked Robbie, seeing his friend simply stand there like a statue.

"No," said Sandy, picking up his duffel bag. "I'm . . . I'm going to go to the bathroom to change."

"My," chuckled Robbie. "Aren't we modest!"

"I'm shy," said Sandy, taking his duffel bag out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. He returned several minutes later, wearing baggy cotton shorts and an equally baggy t shirt. Robbie shook his head at what his friend was wearing.

"That's too much clothes for me to sleep in," he said, yawning once more. "All I need is my underwear."

"Good for you," said Sandy, moving slowly into the sleeping bag on the floor.

"Good night," said Robbie. "Don't let the bed bugs bite!"

"Kind of hard considering I'm not in a bed," laughed Sandy.

"Don't let the sleeping bag bugs bite!" countered the raccoon.

"Whatever," said Sandy before Robbie turned off the lamp, leaving the room almost completely dark. It wasn't long before sleep overtook both boys.

Sandy awoke only two hours later in pitch darkness. He couldn't believe it had happened! He felt himself, and realized he had to remedy the situation quickly, and quietly. Getting out of the sleeping bag, he tip toed out of Robbie's bedroom and into the hall bathroom, his duffel bag underneath his arm.

Only a minute later, Robbie, for some reason woke up. Yawning, he saw that it was one thirty in the morning. Still groggy, he got up and left his room, needing to get a drink of water from the bathroom. He was so groggy and barely awake, it didn't occur to him that Sandy was no longer in his room, or that he was using the bathroom. Opening the door, he was met with the horrified look of Sandy, who was putting a diaper on himself!

"Close the door, close the door!" yelled the squirrel. Robbie closed the door quickly. Now wide awake, he went back to his room, trying to make sense of what he had just witnessed. He sat in his room for several minutes, waiting for Sandy to come back and give him an explanation, but instead, he only heard faint sobbing coming from the bathroom. Getting out of his bed, he went back to the bathroom, slowly opening the door.

"Sandy?" asked Robbie in a quiet voice as he entered the bathroom. Sandy was sitting on the toilet lid, wearing his diaper and crying.

"What's wrong?" asked the raccoon.

"What's wrong?" cried Sandy. "What's wrong is that you won't want to be my friend now!"

"Why wouldn't I want to be your friend?" asked the raccoon.

"Because you know my secret! You know that I have to wear diapers to bed because I can't control myself at night! That's why I didn't want to stay over here tonight because I just knew something like this was going to happen!"

"Hey, hey," said Robbie, pulling some toilet paper off the roll and handing it his friend. "I'm not upset. Come on, how about you dry your eyes and come back to my room. We can talk about this."

"O-o-okay," said Sandy, trying desperately to stop sobbing.

It took almost twenty minutes before Sandy had calmed down enough to have a rational conversation with Robbie. The two friends sat on the bed as Sandy started to talk about his long kept secret.

"I've had to wear diapers to bed my entire life," began the squirrel. "During the day there's no problem, but at night . . . I just can't control those functions."

"They don't have medicine for this?" asked Robbie.

"Believe me, my parents have had me try everything. Nothing seems to work. I'll probably have to wear these to bed for the rest of my life."

"I'm sorry," said Robbie. "Um . . . is this the reason that you guys moved so far away from Atlanta?"

Sandy went through the entire story. "Last year, I finally made a friend at school. He was this rabbit named Darren who I became good friends with. It's never been easy for me to make friends, not because of this, but because I just have a hard time connecting with people. Anyway, Darren invites me over to his house for a sleepover. I didn't want to, but he kept begging me to do it. Well, I staid the night there, but the same thing that just happened also occurred there. He didn't see me changing into a diaper, but when he saw that there was a used one under the sink in the waste basket, he called me baby, a pervert and a disgusting freak."

"He told everybody in school about it, didn't he?"

"Everyone found out after that night," said Sandy. "It got so bad, and so many kids made fun of me, threatened to beat me up, that my Mom and Dad had to pull me out of school and home school me. After that, they thought that it was best if we relocate some place far away where nobody would know anything about this."

"Sandy," said Robbie. "I'm . . . I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. It's not right."

"Thanks," said the squirrel, managing a slight smile. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?"

Robbie shot him a mischievous grin. "Give me your duffel bag."

"What?" asked Sandy, confused. "Why?"

"You'll see!" Sandy handed him his duffel bag and the raccoon rooted around inside until he found one of the diapers that Mrs. Evans had packed for her son. Unfolding it, he threw it on the bed before suddenly pulling his underwear down in front of the squirrel. With his tail and rear sticking out, he turned around, looking at Sandy.

"You like the view?" asked the naked raccoon.

With his underwear off, Robbie laid down on the bed, getting the diaper underneath his backside. Peeling the paper that covered the tape, he folded the diaper over his front, fastening it snugly around him before standing up and folding his arms right in front of Sandy.

"There," said the raccoon. "Now, why would I tell anyone that you wear diapers when I'm wearing one too?"

Sandy smiled. Getting off the bed, he went over and gave his friend a huge hug. Never in his life had someone showed such solidarity and friendship towards him. He almost felt like crying he was so overwhelmed.

"Robbie," he said, still hugging the raccoon. "You're the best friend I've ever had!"

"Thanks," said Robbie, releasing Sandy from the hold. "Now, how about you take off that t shirt and shorts. You don't have to hide anything from me now! By the way," saidthe raccoon, feeling the inner padding and rubbing the plastic outer part of the diaper and hearing the crinkling noise it made. "These things are actually kind of comfortable!"

Chuckling, Sandy discarded the clothing, leaving him in only a diaper, just like his best friend. He went to get back in his sleeping bag, but saw Robbie , now in bed, patting the other side of his bed.

"Come on," said Robbie. "Stay up here with me tonight, okay?"

Sandy got out of the sleeping bag and into bed with the raccoon. Pulling the covers over both of them, Robbie turned off his lamp, feeling Sandy pressing up against him, his arms around the raccoon's body. He didn't mind the touch at all as the two best friends drifted off into sleep once more.