Found

“Wait!” Madison said firmly before Amber could slam the book down on the tiny thing struggling under the blanket. “There is no way on earth we have mice in this house or cockroaches.”

“What?” Raven asked.

“I want to know what it is,” Maddie stated.

Gen clutched her hands to her chest defensively and shook her head.

“What it if it’s a big hairy spider?”

“Maybe we should just flatten,” suggested Amber.

Madison shook her head, and began slowly peeling back the blanket, movements cautious. Pausing she turned to Amber, “If it’s a bug, smash it,” she said.

Amber’s head bobbed, eyes locked onto the about to be revealed thing under the blanket as she adjusted her grip on the heavy tome. “Ready,” she said.

“On three,” Madison said, exchanging glances with the other girls.

Raven nodded. “Do it,” she said.

“One,” started Maddie, “Two.”

Gennifer looked away, please don’t be a big hairy spider or a bug she thought.

“Three,” Maddie said, pulling the blanket quickly back, revealing the tiny shrunken form of her disheveled brother.

“Oh my god!” said Amber in shock, halting the book in mid descent.

Madison sat back on her heels, bewildered and trying to process the impossibility of the situation, “Michael?” she said, stunned by the fact that the thing under the blanket was her brother.

“What is it?” said Gen, peeking from behind a shielding hand.

Raven looked down, head shaking incomprehensibly.

“It looks like my brother,” Maddie said, hands on her thighs.

Michael pushed himself to standing, the girls towering all around him.

Lowering her hands, Gen leaned down, “Holy crap,” she said. “He’s so small, and naked.”

“How? How is this even possible?” Raven asked, altering her position on the chair so she was leaning over the wide arm and looking directly down on the little youth.

Michael slumped forward, breathing a sigh of relief, wanting to laugh, weep, “You have no idea,” he said using his hands to try and cover his nudity.

Maddie shook her head, “You’ll have to speak louder, I can’t hear you,” she said, leaning closer.

Amber set the book aside while Gennifer dropped to her knees, eyes wide in wonder.

He paused a moment, feeling dwarfed by the bevy of gigantic girls around him. “I’m so glad you found me,” he said, nodding appreciatively, eyes lingering on Gennifer’s decorated face.

Still reeling from the discovery of her diminutive brother, “How are you so small?” Madison asked, dumbfounded.

Turning in her direction, he shook his head, “I think I was cursed,” he lamented.

“Cursed?” Amber inquired.

He looked up at her and nodded, before turning back to his sister, “The old flower peddler at the plaza. Her granddaughter, great granddaughter,” he corrected, “Told me she cursed me because of a flower,” he explained.

Maddie shook her head, blonde hair swaying back and forth across her upper back and shoulders, “So she made you small?” she asked, leaning closer and putting her right hand down comparing his body to her slighter larger pinky finger.

He nodded, “The old bat babbled something in Transylvanian or Gypsy or something, but her great granddaughter Lucie told me the crone had cursed me,” he stated.

“The old lady Adelina did this to you? For a flower?” Madison said, frowning, leaning back and pondering.

“I don’t know her name, but yes for a flower,” he repeated.

“How did you get home?” Raven asked.

He turned to his side, craning his head to look up at the black haired beauty, “I didn’t shrink until after I got home. She said ‘small man’,” trying to imitate her voice, “I felt sick, talked to my dad and came home. I went up to my room and basically passed out. When I woke up, I was like this,” he relayed.

“If you passed out in your room, how did you get in Madison’s room?” Amber inquired.

Turning his head to the blonde, “I had to walk down the hall. I nearly got stepped on when Gennifer went to go to the bathroom,” he answered.

“That was hours ago,” stated Maddie, brow narrowing.

Facing his sister, he ignored her comment, “I really need your to call Lucie,” he said, supplying her with the number, or at least as best as he could remember.

“Wait a minute,” Madison said, raising a hand, “If you came here hours ago, where have you been until now?” she asked.

He let out an exasperated breath, “Hiding, so I wouldn’t get stepped on,” he replied, shaking his head slightly.

“In my room?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said, as if the answer were blatantly obvious.

The girls exchanged looks with one another.

“So you could have tried to make contact at any time?” Maddie asked.

“Except you were getting your drink on and I certainly didn’t want to wind up a greasy stain on the underside of one of your feet,” he responded.

“Interesting,” she said, nodding her head slightly, “So explain to us then, how is it you wound up in Gen’s underwear.”

He paused, “Seeing as things were winding down, I went to her to try and get her attention, to help me,” he replied.

“By playing on her vagina?” Raven asked skeptically, trying to understand the logic thread in his response.

Clearing his throat, he looked up at the dark haired girl, “I was scared. I had to try anything and everything,” he acknowledged.

“Couldn’t have tugged on her toe? Had to climb up between her legs and right on top of her pussy?” clarified Madison, looking over to Gennifer.

“Maddie listen, you don’t understand, I need you to call Lucie, she knew this was going to happen, that’s why she gave me her phone number,” he asserted.

Frowning, Madison crossed her arms. “What I don’t understand is why you lurked in my room for hours and then when Amber and I went downstairs, you came out and climbed between Gen’s legs and started fiddling with her privates,” she stated.

Still kneeling, Gen put her hands on her hips, eyebrow arched, “What were you doing down there?” she asked.

Michael rolled his eyes and swiveled to face Gen, waving his hand in front of his face, “You might have a little something here,” he said.

Gen looked first at Maddie, who grinned and glanced away, then to Amber, who broke eye contact, finally settling on Raven, “Is there something there?” she asked, touching her fingers to the corner of her mouth.

Raven nodded, “More like all over,” she said, biting her lower lips and mimicking the gesture Michael had used.

Alarmed, Gen hopped up to her feet, crossing the floor quickly o look in the mirror attached to the back of the vanity.

Snickering under their breaths, Madison and Amber watched her go, as did Michael, while Raven’s gaze drifted back to the wee youth.

“You bitches!” exclaimed Gen, turning back, mouth open, brows raised.

Both Amber and Madison laughed.

“Tell me you didn’t use a permanent marker,” she said, shaking her head back and forth.

The two culprits giggled some more.

“This had better come off,” Gen warned, turning back to her reflection in the mirror and wiping at a couple of the black marks on her lips.

“You know if we added some whiskers, people probably wouldn’t even notice,” teased Amber.

“Haha,” Gen replied with a fake laugh, not bothering to look back, instead licking at her lips and using a thumb to try and remove the mark.

“Can we focus on the problem here?” Michael asked, voice almost a yell, spreading wide his hands.

“Yes,” Raven interjected, “I’m still waiting for an explanation as to why Michael was fooling around on Gen’s peach,” she said, sliding her hands under her chin and resting it on the arm of the chair, amused smile pulling up the corners of her mouth.

Taking a few steps back, eyes lingering on her reflection in the mirror, Gen returned to the group, kneeling once again. Her eyes on Michael. “Please do,” she said, cocking her head slightly to the side.

“I already told you why, I don’t know what else you want me to say,” he protested, adding a shrug for effect before facing his sister again, “Just make the call alright?”

“Answer the question,” she urged, nodding toward Raven but keeping her bright blue eyes on him.

“This is stupid and I won’t repeat myself,” he said acerbically, crossing his arms defiantly.

Madison chuckled, “I don’t want to speak out of turn, but I believe we were all thinking the same thing. You were in here for a fair bit of time and when Amber and I left, you saw an opportunity to take advantage of half-naked drunk girl,” she accused.

“Please,” he scoffed indignantly.

“I wasn’t drunk,” Gen defended.

Madison cocked an eyebrow and pointed to the dark haired girl’s face.

“Tipsy sure,” she conceded. Madison nodded, accepting the compromise.

“For fuck’s sake already, will you stop being such a mental case and just make the goddamn call,” he growled.

Instantly, Madison’s expression changed, storm clouds appearing in her normally bright blue eyes, “What did you just say?” she asked, voice dangerous.

“Ah,” he babbled.

“Mental case?” Madison said, eyes narrowed, brows furled, hands curling into fists.

He said it without thinking, and shook his head. In the last few years, whenever they would fight and he felt he was losing the advantage, or wasn’t getting what he wanted, he would call her ‘Mad Maddie’ or just refer to her as a mental case. Her therapist, Dr. Kearns had said those words in particular were trigger words, capable of eliciting an irrational emotional response. Michael figured he just might have pushed her too far.

 “I’m just scared and just want to get back to normal,” he explained, trying to sound contrite and looking up at her sheepishly. “Can we please just make the call?”

A sudden calm settled over Madison as she nodded her head slowly, the darkness boiling in her evaporating like fog on a bright sunny morning. Looking down on her brother, she shook her head, “I don’t think so,” she replied, ghost of a smile on her pretty face.