Monday morning came.

“Oh come on, that is so unfair!”

“I think what’s unfair is you,” I sighed and shook my head, “siphoning my height, or whatever. I know you didn’t mean to originally, but-“

Aubrey stomped the ground. “Aggh! I don’t see what’s the big deal! I mean you hardly ever leave the house anyway, what’s it to you if you’re a little shorter.”

“I’m not just going to have you stealing something from me, ok!?” I grabbed my sister’s hand and moved it onto the regular position on my neck, “Now, please give it back so this can all go back to normal.”

“Ugh, fine….” She relented, still pouting. “But like, not all of it….I mean if I go all the way back, people might notice I got shorter somehow…it won’t make sense, they’ll think I’m a freak or something, they’ll-“

I sighed again, “F-fine.  Until we sort all this out, you can keep the 2 inches or whatever. But no more.” I couldn’t believe I was giving in, but I didn’t know what else to do. She’s always had that effect on me, I’m not good at putting my foot down.

“Oh, thank you big bro! Thank you thank you thank you!” She gave me a quick hug and peck on the cheek while we were still the same height, then returned the siphoned inches before running out the door to catch the bus.

Later that afternoon I got a phone call from Aubrey’s school.

“Hello, this is Ms. Thompson, the counselor at Alta Vista High. This is the guardian for Aubrey, correct?”

“Um, yes. I’m her older brother. What is this about?”

“I’m just calling to inform you that today Aubrey and another girl had a minor altercation today-“

“What? Aubrey, a fight!? Is she hurt?! I-I can’t believe this…”

“Sir, she’s perfectly alright. Like I said, it was only very minor. Neither girl is in any more trouble than having a call home like this one.”

“Well who instigated it? I don’t want Aubrey to be getting bullied there, this is her first year in a real school.”

“T-there was no one instigator, from what we can tell the girls just got into an argument that escalated. This sort of thing happens all the time.”

“A-alright. Thank you,” I finished before hanging up. I was worried for Aubrey, and yet I couldn’t get it out of the back of my mind that she could’ve been the one that caused it all. It seemed more and more lately like she had something to prove.

I waited for her to come home so I could ask what happened, but she completely ignored me and slammed her door shut. I knocked on her door but she had turned her speakers up all the way, blasting some godawful tween pop-punk. It went on like that for the rest of the night, without me able to ask her anything. Between the reverberation of the music in the walls and my worry about my little sister, I didn’t fall asleep until nearly dawn.

I sprang awake and looked over at the bedside clock. “Shit!” I had overslept by an hour, Aubrey was supposed to be on the way to school now. Was she asleep too, or had I missed her?

Getting up and sitting on the side of the bed, I noticed my legs dangled a good few inches off the ground. “Oh no, no no no….” My heart raced, my worst nightmare had come true. She must have snuck in at night and siphoned off over a foot from me while I slept. I felt hurt, but for some reason I felt more nervous for what she planned to do with it. I couldn’t let her go through with it. Hell I couldn’t even let her show up to school like that, with all the questions that would be asked it would ruin me and her forever.

I had to act fast. While rushing around looking for clothes I tried to dial her cellphone, but she didn’t answer. All of mine were too big, shirts draping me like a dress and pants too large to be salvaged by any belt. Wracking my brain for what to do, I came up with a solution. But not one that would leave my dignity intact.

I dashed into Aubrey’s room and opened up her closet. I estimated I was a little shorter than her original size, but all her things should still fit. I picked out a t-shirt with a pink cartoon kitten on it (somehow the least embarrassing thing I could find at the time) and a pair of tiny, tight fitting jeans that hugged me in ways I was not used to. I didn’t have time to wallow in the shame of wearing my little sister’s clothes, I had to find her.

Running out the door, I grabbed Aubrey’s bike that was propped up on the side of the house. The school wasn’t too far away and I made good time getting there. But I couldn’t just go in. I noticed the buses had already arrived but there were still students fraternizing out in the parking lot and surrounding grounds. I unassuredly made my way past the crowds, looking ahead and not even able to see the faces of the huge (to me) students. My heart raced and everything seemed amplified, the cacophonous chatter of gossipy groups of teen girls, the towering people brushing past me casually but nearly knocking my small frame off my feet. I could hear the giggling at my diminutive size and cutesy clothing. But what most alarmed me was every distant, insignificant cough and sneeze into the wind, germs threatening to rip through my threadbare immune system, the miniscule part left after I pawn the rest off every morning to keep the only person left I care about alive.

Yes, Aubrey, that was who I was here for. But wherever I looked, she wasn’t there. Finally, the crowd thinned out and I found myself at the edge of the grounds. Off in the distance, I saw a tall redheaded girl sitting by a tree, and another tall blonde girl approaching her. I realized the latter was my sister and sprinted after her. I could barely make out the girls’ speech as Aubrey got closer to her target.

“Um, hey. Do I, like, know you?” asked the redhead, rising from her seat on the ground. Aubrey just continued to walk closer, closing in and straightening out her back as high as it could go.

“Wait, wait, you’re that girl from yesterday. Abby or something? You kinda seem different. Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it so just chill out- Hey!”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My sweet, formerly petite, meek little sister was pinning another girl to a tree by her wrists. She only had about an inch on her, but I could sense the perverted determination behind her actions. The other girl struggled and squirmed, but Aubrey slapped her hard across the face.

Welling up with tears, my little sister’s victim shrieked, “What the hell, you crazy bitch!? Just let me go, I’m sorry for whatever! A-and why are you like, way taller…”

Finally within distance, I yelled out “Aubrey!” She turned around, releasing the other girl who slumped to the ground, sobbing. Aubrey bounded over to me, scooping me up in her arms with ease.

“Oh, big bro! I knew you’d come, I knew it! You care about me so much….” She exclaimed with joy, still holding me tight. I was unable to resist when she gripped me around the neck with her large, soft, but strong hand. “Thank you,” she whispered sincerely, as I felt myself shrink away in her grasp. I felt her hand grow until it wrapped around my neck and more. Her beautiful face, topped off with bright, crystal clear blue eyes, looked to be in complete serenity as she ascended. For a second, her eyebrows furrowed, as if she had just come up with a thought, and then I felt a strange sensation, like every muscle in my body falling asleep at once.

But it was all over in a second, and I was dumped on the ground in a pile of clothes as Aubrey reasserted her attention on the girl, who was now attempting to scramble away and get help. My sister had apparently kicked off her shoes before her latest self-induced growth spurt, but the rest of her clothes stayed on, in various degrees of either torn or strained. It was then, looking at the towering form of my once-little sister, now more like a statue of an ancient goddess brought to life, that I realized what happened.

I grazed my hand down my own arm and felt how bony it was, then back to my sister, whose arms were now mostly uncovered by the inadequate sleeves of her schoolgirl outfit. Her arms were very well toned, and a cute little bicep peeked out. The rest of her body had tightened in the same way. Now, I was no bodybuilder, but as someone who spends the vast majority of my time in mandatory exile indoors, I like to do regular exercise to stay fit. But now I was bordering emaciated. My little sister had stolen my muscle mass, my strength, and added it to her already freakishly tall body.

Aubrey quickly caught up to the girl trying to escape.  She reached out one long arm and caught the collar of her shirt, yanking back and knocking her on her butt. She then stood over her, leg on each side of the poor girl’s waist, and looked down, grinning with sadistic delight. The redhead just lay there, quivering in the shadow of a nearly 9 foot tall Amazonian bully. Aubrey made a hocking sound with her throat, and spit right on the girl’s face. The huge glob splatted and covered a huge area, the viscous fluid even covering her nostrils as the victim started to rapidly hyperventilate through her mouth.

“Aw, it’s ok little girl, calm down now,” Aubrey mocked, “nothing to be afraid of as long as you mind yourself where big people are stepping.”

Then she raised one unfathomably long, muscular leg and stepped down hard the girl’s stomach. Her huge foot, big toe peeking through a hole in a black sock that was stretched almost completely to its limit, took up nearly the whole girl’s torso. The redhead winced in pain, and my sister stifled a cruel laugh.

“P-please….” She begged.

“What’s that, little girl? Sorry, but it’s hard to hear you all the way up here. Honestly, I’m getting a little sick of your whining like a little baby! Maybe it’s time I put you down to sleep.”

Aubrey bent down, foot still pinning the girl to the grass, and went to place her massive palm over the girl’s mouth. She wriggled wildly but it was no use against the huge girl’s strength and rage.

Freeing myself from confines of the billowing tent of my little sister’s shirt, I spotted the two, my jaw nearly dropped when I saw what she was doing. Despite not even being two feet tall, and naked, I ran as fast as I could over. Wrapping my arms around her calf, my head not even coming to her knee, I shook as hard as I could to get her attention. “Bree!”

Thankfully, she turned around. “We are going home, right now!” I commanded to the gigantic teenager. I knew she could kill me, hell I probably couldn’t outwrestle her foot at this size, but I also knew she was my little sister still, and she loved me. It paid off, she seemed to suddenly come to her senses, or at least regain a healthy amount of fear of getting caught. She grabbed me and the clothes and hightailed it off the school campus. A girl as tall as that, with enhanced leg muscles, can apparently make very good time running. She held me against her chest with one arm the whole way, my face buried against her breasts, still very small even with the size change, but comfortingly soft and warm. A few beads of sweat dripped down her neck from the run, soaking her collar and dampening my hair. The fresh, rainy smell of my sister’s perspiration and the cool breeze rushing past as we traveled was bizarrely soothing.

“I love you big bro,” she stated, tinged with guilt.

“I love you too, Bree….”