Characters:

Bill: 6’1”

Jennifer: 6’4”

Stephanie, Jessica, Nataline, and Hannah: 5’6”

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Now, now, I thought.  What to do about my little sister.  I did have plenty of shrinking mix: the 20 inches worth I had from the first can, plus an entire bottle I got during the second run.  I decided that I would mix some of it in with her drink during dinner.

As soon as I got home from the bus stop, I went to my room, and locked the door, just in case Jennifer decided it was time for her to get excited.  Where could I put the mixes that no one would find?  I thought about that long and hard, until I decided that the best place to put them would be under a loose floorboard in my room, at least for the time being.  I grabbed the shrinking mix with most of it missing, and went towards the kitchen.  Since it was nearly supper time, I just opened the drawers, and shouted through the house, “What does everyone want to drink?”  I grabbed plastic cups so that Jennifer wouldn’t see the mix in her cup, and went ahead and preemptively poured it in.  I heard my mom yell water, and crossed my fingers that Jennifer didn’t.  After a couple of seconds of waiting, I heard her yell, “Chocolate milk,” and poured chocolate milk in her glass.  Then, I sat them down at our respective spots on the table, as my mom pulled some lasagna out of the oven.  As she fixed our plates, Jennifer came to the table and sat down at her spot, and grabbed her chocolate milk.  She took a small sip of it, and set it back down.

“Thanks for dinner, mom,” I said as she brought us our plates, something I can’t recall her doing for the longest time.

“Oh, no problem,” she said, pulling off her oven mitts and sitting down.

As dinner passed, I couldn’t peel my eyes from Jennifer’s glass.  The meal seemed to drag on and on, as Jennifer took only tiny sips from her milk.  By the time she was finished eating, she had only had about half of it, meaning she would only shrink down to 5’11” tall. 

I was desperately trying to think up a way to get her to finish her glass that wouldn’t sound suspicious before she dumped it out.  As she got up to put her plates in the sink, I bumbled, “Don’t you want to finish that nice drink I fixed for you?”  Damn, that was about the most suspicious thing I could’ve said.

“Why?” she asked.  “You fix drinks for me almost every night.”

“I-I know,” I stuttered, “but I tried a new method of making the chocolate milk, and wanted to see what you thought.”

“A new method?  Tastes the same to me.”

“Yeah, I, uh, took the milk, and, I, well, I added half the chocolate syrup I would normally put in, and then put in a couple of spoonfuls of Ovaltine,” I said.

“Huh,” she said.  “You want to finish it?”

“Oh, no, no, it’s your drink, you should finish it.”

“I should?” she said.  She had put up her plate and was walking back to the table now.  I stood up to put up my plate, and she noticed it—she was just an inch or two taller than me.  “Hell, I know why you wanted me to drink it now, you dirty, lying sneak!”

“Hey, hey!” I said, raising my arms.  “I didn’t do anything to it!”

“Oh yeah?” she shouted.  “Then take a sip of it, I dare you!”

I grabbed her cup defiantly, and took a tiny sip of it.

“Ugh!” she scoffed, “that wasn’t even a real sip!  You have to take a bigger one!”

Then I formulated a plan: I was going to make some crazy arm motion, and “accidentally” drop the glass.  Sure, my mom would get pissed because I broke a glass, but I wouldn’t have to shrink.

“You didn’t specify how big it had to be!” I said, throwing my arms up in some crazy gesture to annunciate the word big.  The glass slipped from my hand, and went soaring through the air.  Out of nowhere, Jennifer leaps through the air and catches it, after some of it spilled in the air, but before it can hit the ground.

“Damn it, you’re crazy!” she said.  “You could have killed someone!”

As she shrank her final bit, she took the remaining amount of the juice and forced it down my throat.  She was now 6' tall, and I 6’1”, though that was going to change soon.  I had no idea how much smaller I would become, because I didn’t see how much spilled.  For now, her eyes were about at my nose level.

Jennifer stormed moodily off to her room, slamming the door hard, while I mopped up the mess.  After a couple of minutes, I assumed I was done shrinking, and measured myself.  I now stood 5’8” tall, which made me mad.  I could just go back to my room and make myself bigger, but I remembered my dad once telling me a story about how too many changes in one day could mess you up.

That night, when I went to bed, I locked my door, fearing my vindictive sister.  To my amusement, I heard my door knob rattle at around midnight that night, followed by a whispered “Damn!”  I laughed quietly to myself, but knew I would have to be careful tomorrow morning.  I made a mental note to change the hiding place.