Fresh broad leaves danced and jiggled in the afternoon breeze, creating moving spotlights on the floor of the dusty path in the woods near Parklands Elementary school. Cubs that were heading home after the day's classes went in all directions, most of them went along the trail. Some cubs had keen expressions on their faces, while others appeared more anxious. One of those who appeared anxious was Timothy, the six-year old raccoon. He rode his bike along the trail slower than he usually did, his training wheels making hardly any noise.
"Come on Timothy, you can ride faster than this." said Friendly - Timothy's ten-year old fox friend.
"I... I'm worried." Timothy managed to say, "What will my parents say about my school report card?"
"Don't worry Timothy. I've got my report card too. I'm sure our parents will understand the difficulties we've both been having lately."
"But... but I'm good at math! Why did I only get a C?"
"Well you did say you were having trouble understanding multiplying numbers. I had the same problem when I was your age." Friendly replied.
"Yeah but you didn't have difficulties with reading or spelling. I'm hopeless." Timothy sniffled, tears welling up in his eyes obscuring his vision. The raccoon pulled his bike over on the side of the path and struggled to hold back his tears.
"Hey buddy, come here." said Friendly, sitting on a tree stump and holding his arms out towards Timothy, helping the raccoon take his little red backpack off. The raccoon buried his face in Friendly's red-and-black shirt, crying quietly.
"Shhhh, come on Timothy. It's not all that bad." said Friendly, trying his best to reassure his friend. Timothy continued crying for a moment. Friendly gently rubbed the back of Timothy's blue t-shirt and glanced at his friend's orange flame shorts, with his red Lightning McQueen pull-ups peeking out of the waistband.
"Come on Timothy. It's okay. It's just a stupid school report. It doesn't mean much."

It took a few more minutes for Timothy to stop crying and recover the courage to keep riding his bike home. Friendly reassured him that he would come over a little later to check on him.
Timothy walked his bike into the open garage and then made his way towards the front door. He wiped an anxious tear from his cheek with his arm before turning the doorknob and walking inside.
"Ah, there you are Timothy. Let's see your school report, buddy."
Timothy flinched nervously at the sound of his dad's voice but opened his backpack and handed over the school report card.
"Hmmm... not quite what I expected buddy." Dad said, in a slightly disappointed tone. "Social Studies - Can identify certain regions of the world, though has trouble telling North America from South America and claims not to know where Australia could be located. More improvement needed. Grade C+"
Timothy didn't say anything, but blushed slightly.
"Language Arts - minimal improvement this term. Still has trouble reading and composing sentences. Spelling skills are becoming stronger but still need work. Grade C-"
"I try as hard as I can! I can't spell everything right." Timothy sighed.
"Math - can add and subtract sufficiently, though occasionally becomes confused with long equations. No effort to learn simple multiplication problems. Grade C"
Timothy's long face grew longer in shame. He looked up and sniffled. "But... but multiplication is so hard!"
"Only if you don't try to understand it, Timothy." said Dad. "You'll need to try before you simply give up. Trying won't hurt you."
Timothy looked at his dad, knowing what was coming next.
"Another thing you could try is trying to ride your bike without your training wheels..."
"No! I like my training wheels, I don't want to fall and hurt myself." Timothy protested.
"Timothy... buddy. It's okay. If you want to keep your training wheels a little longer that's okay, but I'm just saying you ought to try."
Timothy shook his head slowly, tears welling up in his hazel eyes.
"Come here little buddy, don't cry." said Dad, kneeling down to pick Timothy up and giving him a big hug, patting the seat of his shorts. "Shhhh, it's okay."
Timothy sniffled a little and rested his head against his dad's, closing his eyes with a long sigh.

A little later. Friendly came over to Timothy's house - true to his word. The fox left his bike by the garden gate, next to Timothy's bike which appeared to be sitting patiently awaiting the raccoon to return.
"Timothy was rather upset this afternoon with his report card. He'll feel much better when he sees that I've come to see him." thought Friendly, but then be began to doubt himself. "Do you think Timothy's parents will let you in if Timothy's not doing so well in school?"
Friendly shook his head. Timothy's parents wouldn't stop him from playing with the one true friend he had. Besides, Timothy wasn't failing any of his subjects, he just hadn't done too well with them. Taking a deep breath, Friendly knocked on the door, and Timothy answered.
"Hey Friendly!" said Timothy, smiling a little. "Come on in."
The two friends went up to Timothy's bedroom.
"Wow, looks like you really had to tidy this up. Toys were everywhere before." said Friendly.
"Yeah, but Mom and Dad helped me." said Timothy. "I had some really old toys I never played with anymore, so now my little cousin can have them."
"I know school report wasn't so good... are your parents upset?" the fox asked.
"Ummm... well not really."
"I didn't think they would be, they're as supportive of you as I am..." Friendly said. "My parents said you can come to a sleepover tonight, if you'd like."
Timothy beamed and gave the fox a big hug, the raccoon trilled happily and said: "I'd love to come sleep over tonight!"

That night, as the boys prepared to go to bed, Timothy spotted a pack of pull-up diapers under Friendly's bed. Timothy knew his friend was no bedwetter, so why were they there?
"Friendly? What are these doing here?" asked the raccoon, innocently.
"I... I don't want you to feel so bad about having to wear pull-ups to bed. If you have to wear one, I want to wear one too - and I think your race-car pull-ups might be a bit too small for me." said the fox, taking one of the monster-truck pull-ups from the pack and heading into the bathroom to slip it on.
Timothy couldn't help but giggle as Friendly admired himself in the pull-up undergarment. It was soft blue, with a blue and green monster truck print on the front and blue and green mud splatters on the back. Timothy stood next to the fox wearing his red racecar pull-ups and pretended to admire himself as well, before turning to his friend and giving the fox a hug, smiling gratefully that he had such a friend willing to go to such great lengths to comfort him.
It was a warm night - so warm that the two cubs didn't even reach for the duvet. Friendly smiled at Timothy and rested his paw on the seat of Timothy's pull-ups. "Goodnight Timothy."
"Goodnight Friendly."
Timothy closed his eyes, cuddling his teddy bear and trilling contently as he felt Friendly's paw gently rubbing the seat of his training pants, making them crinkle softly.

-----
The raccoon began to dream... dreaming that he was an orange race-car with white and blue flames. As he was admiring his paintwork, the race-car noticed a big blue and green monster truck. He smiled at the familiar face.
"Friendly! Let's go watch the tournament. Maybe we can join in the fun."
"I might be allowed in, I'm not sure if you will be though." said Friendly, looking at his friend's wheels and then smiling. "We can try though."
Timothy made his way down to the front and beamed as he watched the monster trucks racing each other in the muddy swamp of their racetrack. He and Friendly made their way down to join in. However at the entrance, a race official car stopped Timothy from going in.
"Where do you think you're going little race-car? Only cars and trucks with big wheels can go in there."
"I do have big wheels!" Timothy protested.
The race official looked at Timothy's wheels and sneered.
"You'll get stuck in the mud for sure with those little wheels. Go on, off you go."
"It's not fair!" Timothy pouted as he made his way back to watch the tournament from the stands, upset and confused as to why he wasn't allowed to join in. Friendly looked up at Timothy and sighed, joining in with the other monster trucks and lolloping around in the muddy mess, though not as enthusiastically as he would if Timothy had been allowed in too.
After the tournament was long over and everyone had gone, Timothy and Friendly went inside the monster trucks' racetrack together. The ground was muddy but Timothy didn't care, he was going in with his best friend.
As the mud became thicker and more slippery, Timothy's wheels started to slip and spin every now and again. Timothy kept going.
"I'll help you if you get stuck, little buddy." said Friendly, noticing Timothy's wheels were having a little bit of trouble gripping the wet mud.
Timothy continued driving into the mud, looking anxiously over at the monster truck.
PLOP!
Timothy's back wheels had sunk deep into the mud, the little race-car tried to keep going but his wheels just slipped and spun uselessly. Worse still as the little race-car spun his wheels trying to get out, his wheels sank deeper into the thick, sloppy mud.
"Friendly, help!" cried Timothy, as his little wheels struggled to get any traction. The little racecar gasped as he felt the mud splattering his undercarriage and cried out as he realized he was sinking deeper.
-----
Friendly's Dad came in to check on the boys as they slept. Turning on the low-light lamp by the window he walked over to the bed. Timothy was uttering quiet squeaks and breathing a little heavily. As Friendly's Dad looked at the raccoon's Lightning McQueen pull-ups he noticed they were becoming wet; so wet that they had developed a small leak.
"Poor Timothy's already wet his diaper. I'd better wake him up." he thought.

-----
Friendly the monster truck was having no such trouble with getting stuck, his big wheels meant he could plough through the sloppy mud and almost always have sufficient traction to keep moving. He turned around and looked at his race-car friend.
"Isn't this fun!" remarked Friendly, smiling happily as the mud was churned by his big wheels.
Timothy however wasn't having fun at all, his little wheels just kept slipping and spinning in the deep sludge as he tried to drive over to the monster truck. The little racecar had sunk even further, his undercarriage totally submerged beneath the mud. He began to cry. Friendly looked anxiously at his struggling friend and quickly backed up to comfort him.
"Hey, hey. It's okay. Don't cry. I guess this is too much for your poor little wheels... hold on." he said, hitching a tow cable to the race-car's front bumper. "Here buddy, I'll tow you!"
Timothy stopped crying and sighed with relief when the monster truck was able to pull him free of the sloppy mess, his mud-coated little wheels coming free with a loud sucking noise.
"Th... thank you." said Timothy.
"I'll always be there for you, my little buddy."
-----
Friendly's Dad gently awoke the sleeping raccoon by rubbing his back.
"Come on buddy, you need your diaper changed."
"...huh? Where... where am I?" squeaked Timothy, wiping his eyes.
"Come on Timothy. Your diaper got a little overwhelmed." said Friendly's Dad, "I'll go get the shower ready for you to get washed and into a new diaper, okay?"
Timothy looked down at his Lightning McQueen pull-ups and sighed as he felt how soaked they were. He gingerly clambered off the bed and blushed as his training pants wobbled clumsily. Timothy's teddy bear lay on the floor, seemingly forgotten and abandoned until Timothy picked him up and hugged him tightly, sitting on the floor with a very quiet squelch from his soaked pull-ups.
Friendly awoke at that moment and noticed his raccoon friend was no longer laying next to him.
"Timothy?" called the fox, looking at where Timothy had been laying and noticing a small wet patch on the sheet. Sitting up, he noticed Timothy sniffling and sitting on the floor.
"Hey, what happened?"
"I... I had a bad dream... and my pull-ups are soaked."
Friendly clambered from the bed and sat on the floor next to his friend, wrapping his arms around the chubby raccoon and resting one of his paws on the back of Timothy's training pants. Timothy began to trill and hugged the fox back. "Th... thank you Friendly."
"Come on little buddy, let's get you cleaned up." said Friendly's Dad. "The shower's all ready for you, now."
"Can I help?" asked Friendly.
"I think I got it. Go back to sleep Friendly. Timothy won't be long."
"Alright, goodnight Dad."
Friendly didn't go back to sleep though, he lay on his side thinking.
"Poor Timothy always wets his pull-ups around this time of night." thought the fox, as he looked briefly at the clock that sat on his bedside table - reading just a few minutes past midnight. "Maybe in future I could wake him before his pull-ups become wet so he doesn't get all upset about it."
The fox fidgeted and heard his own pull-ups crinkle softly as he did so. As he heard it he couldn't help but feel a little silly. What was a ten-year old fox doing wearing a diaper that he didn't need? Why was he wearing it when it was his six-year old friend that always woke up wet? He thought about taking it off and forgetting all about wearing them in future, but then he remembered how happy Timothy had been to see that he was wearing one too, the soft little giggle Timothy uttered as they had prepared themselves for bed just several hours ago echoed inside the fox's head, it was adorable. Friendly sighed and got out of bed, plugging in the nightlight in that he kept for when Timothy slept over, and clambered back into bed, waiting for Timothy to return.

It wasn't long before Timothy was clean, dry and wearing a fresh red race-car pull-up. With the help of Friendly's dad, the raccoon headed back towards the bed, blushing a little as his new pull-ups crinkled.
"Goodnight Timothy. Goodnight son." said Friendly's dad, leaving the door slightly ajar so just a faint glow from the landing seeped through the otherwise underlit room. Timothy clambered onto the bed and lay next to Friendly. As Timothy gazed at the faint silhouette of his fox friend, Friendly wrapped his arm around him, resting his paw on the seat of Timothy's diaper, giving his raccoon friend a reassuring nuzzle.
Timothy sniffled a little but smiled at his friend.
"Th... thank you." Timothy snuffled, wiping his eyes and beginning to trill contently.
"It's okay Timothy. You can't help it. But I can always make you feel better." said Friendly.
Timothy smiled, chittering a little more happily.
"Goodnight Timothy. Sweet dreams." said the fox.
"Goodnight Friendly... and thank you for being here for me."
"Huh? Oh... hehe. I'll always be here for you, my bestest little buddy."

-- The End --