After a while she began to calm down and regain her composure. When she was sure she was confident enough she came out of hiding and finished the walk to the store. 

As she went in, memories of the last time she had been here came rushing back. When she was still big and how something as simple as trying to help someone else ended with her like this. 

Seeing the top shelves she was used to being able to reach with ease now towering well out of her reach was too much and she decided she’d take a cab downtown and do her shopping somewhere she was less familiar with where she wouldn’t have as many memories from before.

She went to the taxi stand across the street and waited with the rest of the people, trying to keep her head down and hoping no one noticed her. 

Luckily it was early enough that there weren’t too many people around so she was only behind three people.

As she opened the door and started to climb in she saw the door on the other side open and a woman jumped in.

She was about to get out and let her have the taxi when the woman noticed her and apologized, 

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you getting in. You stay, I’ll get the next one” and went to leave but Rebecca got an idea and said, 

“No, it’s ok. We are you going? Maybe we can share?”

“Really? That would be great” the woman replied, “I’m going downtown. I hate this store, they never have the things I want. How about you?”

Rebecca smiled and told her she was going there to and the woman offered her hand and said, 

“Great! We’ll be cab buddies then. I’m Sarah”

Rebecca hesitated a moment then took the much larger hand in hers and shook, 

“Hi. I’m Rebecca. Nice to meet you”

They shared some small talk on the way there, the whole time Sarah never once even mentioned Rebecca’s height. And not assuming she was a child at first was a nice change too. 

During the ride they decided that they would stick together for a while since they were going to the same place. Rebecca joked that she could probably use someone to help her with high shelves and Sarah added that she didn’t like bending for the lower ones and they both laughed.

She could tell this woman was a very kind and trusting person, plus she was very attractive which would meet Melanie’s requirement, and when they got out of the cab she saw that she was very tall. And not just tall in the sense that everyone was to her now, looking at her compared to everyone else she could see that Sarah was a few inches taller than most of the men and about a foot taller than most of the women.

As they walked and talked she found herself growing fond of this woman and was regretting the decision she was going to make but then she saw a reflection of them in a window and was reminded how small she was and her resolve was restored.

After they finished getting their groceries Rebecca asked if she’d come with her to buy some clothes and Sarah said sure.

They went to a small boutique not too far and split up to look for clothes in their respective sizes. 

When the cashier, a young girl with blue streaks in her blond hair, saw Rebecca her eyes went wide and immediately picked up her phone and started texting someone. She tried to ignore it but it was not to hear when the phone rang and she could hear the girl’s end of the conversation. Even though she was trying to stay quiet she wasn’t doing a good job of it,

“No, I’m serious. She’s like a midget or something. You have to see this”

silence followed by, 

“Yeah right. What if she notices?”

more silence,

“Her friend is pretty tall though. What if…”

another pause,

“Ok ok, fine. But if I get jumped by an angry dwarf I’m going to tell Vicky what you said about her”

The call ended and the girl went back to pretending not to notice them. Rebecca was sure she heard a camera go off followed by the girl laughing to herself but shook it off.

She was glad to not have Sarah around for this because of how awkward it was plus she realized she had no idea what her sizes were now and would have looked weird grabbing a bunch of different things to try on. 

Being more interested in making sure they fit than style she was able to find some stuff pretty quickly and was ready to check out when she saw Sarah come out of the dressing room wearing a long dress that accentuated her figure very nicely. 

She stood in front of the mirrors and twirled, looking pleased with herself. When she saw Rebecca heading her way she called her over and asked what she thought.

“You look great” she said honestly, “You should definitely get this”.

Sarah checked the price tag and her eyes widened, 

“Um, no way. It’s way out of my range” she said as she went to change out of it.

“Wait!” Rebecca yelled, a little louder than she had wanted to which turned a few heads and made her blush, 

“Let me see the tag”, she said while reaching up and turning it over. 

It was $250, pretty expensive for one dress but she figured if she was going to be choosing her she should at least give her a nice last day as a normal size person so she said she would get it for her.

Sarah tried to protest but Rebecca wouldn’t hear it and before long she was dragging her by the hand back into the dressing room to change out of the dress so she could pay for it.

While she was doing this she heard another click of the camera followed by the girl talking in a hushed voice again. Rebecca noticed this but ignored it and followed her into the changing room.

Sarah slid the dress down her long body and was standing in front of her dressed only in bra and panties. 

“You’re sure about this?” Sarah asked one more time, “I mean you don’t have to”

Rebecca stopped her and said, 

“Yes, I want to do this. I recently came into some money and I’m new here so I don’t know anyone. And you seem nice so…” 

she was interrupted by Sarah bending down and lifting her up and placing her on the bench. Even with this boost in height Rebecca was still several inches shorter than Sarah.

“Wow, you’re tall” she said, “How tall are you anyway?”

Sarah blushed when she answered, 

“I’m 6’3 without shoes but probably about 6’5 with them” she looked down at Rebecca and added, 

“And since we’re on the subject. How tall are you?”

Remembering the conversation from earlier she knew she wasn’t four feet tall so she went a little lower and said she was 3’9 then added, 

“but probably closer to 3’11 with shoes” and the two women laughed followed by an awkward silence that was only broken when Sarah bent down to get her clothes and got dressed again. Before she left the room she turned to Rebecca and asked if she needed help getting down. 

“Nah, I’m fine” she answered and jumped off the almost two foot bench which was apparently higher than she anticipated and she landed hard.

Sarah was kneeling down beside her immediately asking if she was ok. 

Rebecca stood up slowly and after a quick check found that nothing was broken except for her ego so she said she was and the two headed to the checkout counter.

Rebecca paid and asked the cashier if they could have separate bags.

With a huge smirk the girl replied, 

“Sure thing hon, which of these are yours?”

It was beyond obvious who was getting what and Rebecca wanted to say something but decided against it and just paid and took the bags.

Before she left an idea came to her and she said to the cashier, 

“You look familiar, have I seen you around campus?” to which the girl replied, 

“You mean college campus?” she laughed, “Nope. Not yet. I’m still in high school”.

“Oh”, this disappointed Rebecca but still holding out hope pressed on, “you look so mature. How old are you?”

“17” the girl replied with the same smile.

“Darn!” Rebecca thought to herself, “there goes that idea” but then thought to ask one more question, 

“Wow, are you close to 18 though?”

“Ha! I wish”, she replied, “I just turned 17 last week”

She started to say more but Rebecca had heard enough and left the store with a confused Sarah following her.