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Welcome, Bethany. I also have periods of stress and urge bladder incontinence. In my case, they come and go as a side effect of other medical conditions Sometimes I don't need to use anything, but sometimes most products aren't enough.
I typed a longer response, but then the forum booted me out of logged in status for some reason, so I will try to reconstruct my advice more briefly.
If you're not consistently and completely incontinent and can/want to use toilets when you can, I recommend pull on "underwear." They don't have quite the capacity of briefs/diapers, but in my own experience, I don't have the dexterity to be dealing with fasteners while in extreme urgency. When needed, I use cloth overnight most of the time to cut down on the expense of high quality disposables and the odor of the trash they generate. For me, laundry doesn't tend to pile up as much and I have a machine in my own home, so this is more convenient at home. The times I don't use cloth are during heavy menstrual periods, when being able to discard a pull on outweighs the hassle of getting blood stains out of heavy cloth.
However, if one is regularly outside the home for several hours at a time-- in your case, at school-- using cloth means finding room to put bulky spares and figuring out how to conceal used ones so they don't cause social embarrassment is generally pretty inconvenient. You might mention that to your mother. So many of us, including me, use disposables then. Joe has mentioned the Abena line from Europe, which I find the best. Many people here use XP Medical, Magic Medical or North Shore Care, but they're also available on Amazon.com and Drugstore.com and some other sites. The best prices will vary depending on each site's promotions and sales at any given time and if you're buying one package to try out, a few or an entire case, so shop around a bit. Until you figure out what works for you, what you like best, and how much you're likely to use in a given time period (This can be a challenge for me as in my situation, my usage isn't consistent), don't go overboard and buy a ton of stuff just because something appears to be less expensive in bulk. I've been guilty of that.
I also generally like Tranquility pull ons, which are an American brand. Drugstore.com doesn't carry them, but the other sites I mentioned do, and you probably can even find them in some brick and mortar average retail stores, depending on your area, whereas I'd be very surprised to see Abenas in a store. Tranquility is less bulky than Abena, and tears a bit less easily. I've torn Abenas by accident sometimes. Tranquility is also somewhat less expensive. On the flip side, one tends to feel it more when a Tranquility is soiled. This can be a good thing, as we can misjudge when a pull on has reached capacity if we don't feel much, but in a situation when one can't change for a while, that might be uncomfortable. Also, because of Tranquility's trademark "peach" (orange) mat on the inside, sometimes it's hard to see how much blood has come out during menstruation. (Apologies to the men here, for being graphic, but sometimes advice needs to get real.) Most other brands are white on the inside.
If you leak small to moderate amounts occasionally or have enough control to slow the flow somewhat if you feel it coming, Attends pull ons may work for you, are even less expensive and more readily available in many places online and in stores. However, in my experience, if you have the possibility of massive flooding of most or all of a full bladder with little warning, as is the case for me sometimes, Attends won't be good enough, nor will they work overnight. As far as disposable pull ons go, you'll need Abena or Tranquility for that.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
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