I woke up to Amelia tapping the top of my room.

"Luke, come on, it's time to wake up. You can't sleep all day. Come on, its 11:30, wake up. Don't make me wake you up.” So, with that threat in the air, I decided to stumble out of bed and out of my room, onto Amelia's nightstand." You know, you could not threaten me when trying to wake me up. I'll get out of bed without your threats.” I told her.

“yeah, but where's the fun in that?” she said through her laughter. “Anyways, today is the dance camp for the little kids at the studio. You can come with me, or you can stay here in your shoe box. If you come with me, I'll have to put you in my dance bag and you'll have to stay in my locker at the studio. It’s up to you. Either way is fine with me.”

“I think I'll just stay here. It’s probably a bit safer. With all those little kids running around, probably best I don't go.” I told her.

“Okay, well, I'm going to go take a shower, and then I'm going to go out. I probably won't say goodbye before I leave. I'm running a bit late. I'll see you in a few hours, okay? "

 "Okay, bye Amelia. " She went to take her shower, and when she did, I decided I wouldn't just sit here all day, I decided I was going to explore her room a little bit. So, I looked down to the ground. It was at least 50 feet drop at my height. Luckily, there was a lamp cord that I was able to use to slide down to the ground. Amelia was quite the neat freak. Her room had every little thing in order. I walked around for about 15 minutes when I heard footsteps. I assumed it was Amelia coming back because she forgot something. But what walked through that door, was what I least expected. It was not Amelia, but Amelia's friend Katie. Katie is a pretty big person. She's not fat, but she’s tall, curvy, and has the biggest damn feet you'll ever see. She has reddish brown hair and green eyes. She walked into Amelia's room, and I was immediately terrified. I had nowhere to run, if I moved, she would notice me right away, and even so, where would I hide? She was walking straight towards me. I was right in her path. I was going to get stepped on. I had no choice but to run. Big mistake. The second I did, she immediately stopped walking and looked right at me. I froze in absolute terror. Amelia had told me a little bit about Katie, although I never really knew her that well. But one of the things Amelia told me was how much Katie loved to play with bugs. She immediately picked me up, and I started yelling out to her, but she didn't react at all. She picked me up, looked at me a little bit, as I struggled to escape her grasp, which was threatening to crush my bones, she eventually just shrugged and dropped me into one of her dance shoes. Now, if you don't know much about dance, know that dancers sweat, a lot. With everybody dancing in the studios, it gets really warm, really quick. So I'm sure you can imagine their shoes smell horrid. Well, I’m literally inside her shoe. Not the best place to be. I tried to crawl out, but her shoe was set in a way, so that it was too steep for me to even think about climbing. So I waited. I waited for her to get to the studio, and prayed that she wasn't going to need whatever shoe I was put in. I eventually heard talking, I was able to make out that she and Amelia were talking, but I couldn't quite make out what was being said. Eventually, she picked up her bag, and walked to somewhere. We stopped for a while, and I heard an engine. We must be in a car, I thought. We eventually got to the studio, and Katie went in. She started going through her bag, looking for some of her shoes, I was able to make out from the little bit i could see, that she had hip hop first. Luckily, I wasn't in her hip hop shoes. But what happened next terrified me. She picked up the shoe I was in, and said

"don't worry, ballet is next, and that's when you'll be introduced to my feet." she then blew a kiss towards her shoe, and went off to dance. Of course, she placed the shoe so I was still stuck inside. I started to think. Why can Amelia hear me, but not Katie? It made me think that this must have been magic. I started to contemplate theories, but was interrupted by Katie's dance bag getting shifted around. I knew exactly what was coming. Ballet, Which was almost certainly going to be the death of me. I had to think fast. I figured my two chances were going to be the middle of the shoe where the curve of her foot was, or pray her shoes are big, and that I'd have some room in the front. I didn't want to take that chance so I immediately went for the middle of her shoe and laid down flat. It worked. Mostly. I was right in the curve of her foot. So I wasn't going to get squished. I was able to breathe, it wasn't good air, or a lot of it, but it was good enough. It was just every time she stepped her foot smothered me. If she was just standing normal, I was good. But walking, it smashed me with every step. And she was dancing. Let's just say, it was 2 hours of sweat, tears, and a giant foot on top of me. It was torture, but also heaven. This was something I had dreamed of for years. The only thing was, it was a bit to real. I very well could get killed in an instant. But I tried to focus on the positive while I was in her shoe, and for part of it, it was quite enjoyable until I started getting mushed again. At the end of the dance class, Katie came out and took her shoes off. She shook me out of her shoe, and held me in her hand. 

“you’re not dead? You must be one tough bug. I could use you as my toy, since you’re so durable, or I could crush you, there are many ways I could crush you, I could also eat you. Swallow you whole; let my digestive system do away with you. I think I'll eat you. I like that idea.” Katie said. I immediately started screaming out to her, trying to get her to notice me and realize that I'm an actual person, not a bug, but it was to no avail. She picked me up and hung me upside down. She held me over her mouth, and stuck her tongue out. She started to tease me. She would pretend to drop me, or lick my head. Eventually, she must have got tired of playing, because she really did drop me and I landed on her tongue. She slowly retracted her tongue with me on it, back into her mouth. As she closed her mouth, I lost all hope. This is where I die. She played with me in her mouth for quite a while. She tossed me around, almost bit me, slammed me against the roof of her mouth, she drenched me in her saliva. Also, she would push me to the back of her mouth, start to swallow, then stop. I started thinking,  what the hell is wrong with her, she does this with bugs!? Eventually, I heard a muffled voice from outside her mouth although I couldn't make it out. Eventually, Katie spit me out, and held me in her hand, which was half closed. She started talking to a girl about dance. When I heard the other girl’s voice, my heart leapt. It was Amelia! I was about to scream out, but then I heard Amelia say something. 

"so what kind of bug have you got this time? " Amelia asked Katie. 

"you know, I really don't know. It looks really weird. It almost looks human shaped, but it's like red and blue. I found it in your room, actually." She held out her hand and showed me to Amelia. Amelia gasped.

“Luke! Oh my god! " She immediately ripped me out of Katie's hand. She dried me off on her shirt, and held me against her cheek, which felt truly amazing. I was safe again. I was going to be okay. 

"what the hell happened? Katie! What the heck!?!? " 

"Um, Amelia, what the heck? Its a bug? "

"Well, no, not exactly..." Amelia proceeded to tell Katie about what had Happened between us. Then katie told Amelia what had happened with her shoes and nearly eating me. Amelia looked murderous. I was honestly worried she was going to rip Katie's head off. 

“Amelia, Luke, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. But wait, how come Luke didn't scream out or anything? I haven't heard a single noise out of him." Katie asked. 

"How did you not hear me!?" I yelled at Katie. 

"Well, I heard that. Why can I hear you now? "

 ”Wait, Amelia didn't hear me either, until she realized I was a person. So, maybe since I'm shrunk, people can only hear me once they know I'm human. Well, isn’t that just swell! "

 “Don’t worry, it will be okay. We'll make this work. We'll just have to be more careful from here on out.” Amelia said.

“Yeah, and I'll help you too! I'm so sorry about what I did. I really just thought you were some weird exotic bug. But, now I'll help keep you safe, don't worry." Katie told me.

“O-okay. Thanks. Let's just go home. I had a long day.” We went back to Amelia's house. Katie hung around for a while, and the three of us talked about dance, why I was shrunk, what we were going to do, and some other stuff. Eventually, Katie went home, and Amelia and I went to sleep, and decided we would talk in the morning.