Gina strode the halls of her school, surveying what she considered her new subjects. By this time most of the other students had gotten the memo and stayed clear of her path. Those who did not quickly learned why they should with a hard shove or a knee to the face. Coming in at a little over nine feet she towered over every other student, and never passed up a chance to rub it in her classmates’ faces. Even the few she allowed to call themselves her friend she held a tyrannical rule over.
It was one such friend Gina had zeroed in on: a tall, shapely redhead who had been her partner in crime for years. She slapped the locker beside her with a powerful fist, making the girl startle. Though she was tall relative to everyone else she looked like a child next to Gina, the top of her head barely rising past her belly button. “Shelby,” she began, looking down at her contemptuously, “I see you’re still enjoying the view from my ankles.”
“Gina, you huge bitch!” Shelby replied. “I haven’t seen you all summer! Where the hell have you been?”
The tall blond smiled. “I was at basketball camp all summer,” she said. “I’ve been looking for you all day, but I seem to have forgotten my magnifying glass.”
“Hey, now that’s not fair,” Shelby protested. “I grew like half a foot over the summer!”
“And I grew a whole foot,” Gina shot back. “If you keep making such pitiful gains I’ll end up being the tallest girl in the school with naught but a speck at my side.”
Someone loudly clearing their throat behind her drew Gina’s attention. She quickly spun around, ready to berate some dwarf for breaking her concentration, and was surprised to find herself looking straight at a chin. Quickly she looked down, expecting to see this person wearing two-foot platforms or even stilts, and was taken aback to see her tanned legs end in a pair of flats. “I’m sorry Gina, what were you saying?” the stranger asked. “Some lie about being the tallest girl here?”
For once Gina was speechless. She hadn’t been shorter than anyone for years, and this girl had at least half a foot on her. Not only that, but she was gorgeous and a sharp dresser. Straight, jet black hair ran down to the small of her back, and pitch-colored eyes stared down from beneath expertly plucked eyebrows. Her purple top was simple but elegant, with white rings at the front and end of her short sleeves, and her cut-off jean skirt showed off a scandalous amount of her terrifically long legs, which came to end in a pair of plain but stylish black flats.
“I… but…” Gina sputtered, trying to come up with something to say. For as long as she could remember she had a quip ready for any situation, but she had never expected to run into something like this.
“What’s the matter?” the stranger teased. “Not used to feeling as small as you are?”
“There you are, Jenna!” some little mouse called out as she ran up to stand beside the titaness. Gina was astonished looking at them side by side. The shorter girl barely even came up to Jenna’s waist. “I see you’re already trying to replace me with new friends.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, Maddie” Jenna said, tussling the much shorter girl’s hair with a hand that engulfed her entire cranium. “No one could ever replace you, especially not this little twerp.”
“I am not little!” Gina exclaimed while trying to shove Jenna back. To her shock the taller girl did not budge, but she continued, “You’re just some sort of freak!” A crowd was gathering around them, much to Gina’s chagrin. Mere minutes before they were unwilling to even risk looking at her, and now they were witnessing her complete humiliation.
“A freak, am I?” Jenna replied. She stepped to the side, making Maddie give way before her, and squared up with Gina. The taller girl had her stuck against the locker with nowhere to run. “I’d rather be a freak than a monster like you. How long have you been bullying these people under the assumption there’d never be a bigger fish?”
Jenna grabbed Gina by the armpits and easily hoisted then slammed her against the bank of lockers with a tremendous crash. For the first time since starting high school Gina felt intimidated by someone, making her feel even smaller in comparison. In her mind Jenna was easily fifty feet tall, then a hundred, a colossus against which she could never stand. Gina looked at her fearfully, trying to come up with something to shout back without sounding ridiculous but coming up empty. The powerful hands gripping her while her feet dangled off the floor made her feel helpless, and she imagined herself disappearing into one of Jenna’s hands. Then it would only be seconds before her fingers squeezed, crushing her like a bug as she had done to so many tiny people.
The force holding Gina aloft suddenly relented, and she fell back to the floor. Weakness flooded her body and she collapsed to her hands and knees. She looked up at Jenna with tears welling in her eyes, who returned her gaze with a smug expression. “I hope you learned your lesson,” Jenna said, “but I’ll be around to remind you.” Gina felt like a speck compared to her. “Now get out of here. I’m imagining how you would look plastered to the bottom of my shoe and I don’t entirely dislike it.” Gina scampered away on all fours, struggling to get to her feet while she went, and nearly tripped over a shorter girl. The crowd didn’t part for her. They no longer feared her.
In that moment Gina resolved to get her revenge, and with a quick, muttered syllable in Jenna’s direction it was set in motion.