Things did get better for Paul, at least by a little. At breakfast the next morning he timidly approached Jules about taking on some custodial tasks. Jules was still a bit condescending towards the newcomer but respected his drive to help. Soon he had a cleaning schedule that sent him around the U to scrub down floors, pick up trash, and clean toilets. The work was monotonous but easy; he worked in every building but Barney's house, which was still strictly off-limits to him.

  In his work Paul got to know some of the other people. Many still treated him crudely and didn't trust him not to steal their stuff while he was cleaning, but others were starting to warm up to him if only ever so slightly. A couple of the models started chit-chatting with him when he stopped by, but the people nicest to him were the mothers. Most of them were in their late 20s or 30s and their modeling days were behind them so they were busy creating the next generation of models, but a couple of the mothers were younger than him.

  Paul knew that it was common practice to breed smalls when they reached the age of 12, but he doubted the common knowledge that they matured much faster than Bigs. He felt terrible for these moms—they were not deemed worthy enough to be models on their own but they came from modeling lineages so they were tasked with pumping out new models for as long as their reproductive system could take it, and when they were all done they'd be sent to live out their days among the Pixies on the farm. He knew the same fate met women of athletic backgrounds or companions who were never sold.

  One of the girls named Bethany was especially kind—she would knit in her free time and upon seeing Paul in his poorly-fitting clothes presented him with a shirt hemmed to his size, a gesture that deeply touched him. When he was cleaning out her room one day she revealed to him the main reason she had been so kind.

  “My father was a shrinker just like you.” Bethany said. “His family owned a large modeling op and they let him live there. He didn't even have to work but he worked very hard just like you do. He fell in love with one of the models and was even allowed to marry her. I was their fourth child; my father died when I was 10 and I was sold to your mother, then passed to your sister a while later. I couldn't cut it as a model but I was deemed good enough to breed. Sarah assigned Shawn to me and we're trying for my third.”

  Bethany understood his plight as she too was treated like property by her family; she had been sold by the people who were technically her aunts, uncles, and cousins, who might have seen her father as a person but only saw her as another product to be moved. It never occurred Paul to think about just how often shrinkers entered the pool of tinies. With one out of ten men and one out of twenty women shrinking they were bound to come up here and there, but as he quickly learned shinkers were as a stark disadvantage. While tinies had been bred for generations for specialized tasks while Bigs were—for a lack of a better word—regular people. That's why shrinkers were rarely bred with regular tinies; it would corrupt carefully curated bloodlines. They were usually kept by families as embarrassing little secrets or sent to live with the Pixies, who after all were no more specially bred than the Bigs. Either Bethany's father was exceptionally handsome or her mother was a truly top model because the fact Bethany was allowed to breed given her half-blood status was quiet remarkable.

  Barney's campaign of harassment continued but had ebbed ever so slightly. He still talked down to Paul and shoulder-barged him whenever he passed by, but he very rarely made more than the passing comment. As far as Paul could tell, as long as he kept his head down and did his work Sarah didn't have to think about him, and if Sarah didn't think about Paul then Barney wouldn't need to bother either. Barney still gave Paul a hard time about ordering the supplies he needed for his job, but he would always come through.

  Paul learned a bit more about Barney over the passing days. Barney spent most of his days “Around the U” as everyone said, but his evenings, nights, and early mornings were usually spent with Sarah. Paul learned that there was a special private lift in the wall behind Barney's house that brought him directly to Sarah's bedroom where Barney apparently had yet another smallhouse. He lived like a king among smalls; Paul learned he had his own fully functional bathroom and kitchen in his house on the U, and who knows what he had up in Sarah's bedroom. Barney was at Sarah's beck and call but she listened to and trusted him, so he pretty much had the run of the place and acted as both Sarah's ears and mouthpiece.

  Barney would often return to the U late in the evening once Sarah had gone to bed to party and drink with the models. He used his ability to make orders to the store to keep a fully stocked bar in his house, and he would invite those he would consider worthy to come drink with him. Only a few of the guys had this privilege—Jules being one of them—but there would be an ever-shifting cadre of girls among them. Paul would stand by his window and count: there would always be one less girl coming out than going in, and it would always be a different one, though Barney had his favorites. The “lucky” girl would usually make her way back home from his place in the early morning hours. Paul wondered about the risk of pregnancy given Barney's rather harsh warning to him on their first day, but he gathered that Barney had a supply of condoms in his house, a rather rare commodity for a tiny to have as usually they were either being bred or celibate. Paul wondered if Sarah approved of all this, but he doubted Barney would do anything Sarah didn't know about.

  As for Sarah, she would come into the room three or four times a week to conduct her inspections and consult with Jules and the other models. Apparently they were building for a major show coming in the next month and there were major cash prizes and accolades involved. Though Sarah was generally encouraging towards her models she did make a few veiled threats that she would be selling off underpreformers. The event was still a ways off but the level of tension around the house was noticeably rising.

  Sarah's boyfriend Charlie would make an occasional appearance. Paul had met him a couple times before he had shrunk; Charlie was a few years older than Sarah and worked at the same accounting firm she did. Sarah would show off her models to him, having the women put on routines for him. He had his favorite, though: Dianne, a tall, slender model with hip-length chestnut-brown hair who would leap energetically into Charlie's hand whenever he offered it to her. She would clutch his fingers suggestively and shoot smug glances back at the other women from his hand. Dianne would disappear for hours with Charlie or even overnight. It wasn't a mystery what they were doing because Dianne bragged about it to anyone she could, saying in a loud voice “Semen is great for the skin, especially when you get it all over you”. Paul wondered where Sarah fit into all of this but neither Dianne nor anyone else ever talked about it. No one ever talked about Sarah's personal life or anything outside her role as their owner and the administrator of their Op. That was the one thing that was private and out-of-bounds.

  After three weeks at Sarah's Paul was starting to find stability, if not actual happiness. He still pined for the people and things of his old life but he no longer went to bed crying. His world was the square footage of this converted living room which was now the tinies room, and his mindset was starting to shrink to fit. More and more he found his mind preoccupied with his cleaning tasks, gossip among the models, problems with getting the supplies he needed from Barney, and the upcoming event. He was looking forward to the tension releasing once the event was over, and the arrivals of new models that would just see him as part of the group and not just as the awkward new guy.

  One particular afternoon he had been cleaning the children's wing, and he brought over lunch for them from the cafeteria. The children liked him the most of anyone, probably because he was kind to them and didn't ignore them like most of the models did. When he first started bringing them lunch the models who cooked would give him a hard time, but once they realized it meant a child-free lunch for the models they were willing to load him up with snacks for the whole academy.

  “Where are you from, Mr. Paul Sir?” A seven-year-old boy named Tim asked between mouthfuls of his sandwich.

  “Someone told me he's Sarah's brother.” Another young boy by the name of James said. A 8-year-old girl named Chloe laughed wildly at that.

  “Of course he isn't, he'd have to be big!” Chloe said.

  “I used to be big.” Paul said with an amused smile. A chorus of “Wow” and “Woah” met his ear.

  “That's so cool!” Tim exclaimed. “What's it like to be big?”

  “It's fun, you can go a lot of places and see a lot of things.” Paul said. With a tinge in his heart, he refrained from telling the kids that being big also meant no one owned you and you could go where you want, pursue the life you want, and be with the person you want, three things these kids would never experience themselves.

  “So you're a shrinker?” James asked. “That's that they're called, right?”

  “Yes, that's what they're called.” Paul confirmed.

  “Can you ever grow back?” Chloe asked.

  Paul sighed. “No,” He said. “I can never grow back.”

  “Some people do!” Tim said. “I've heard of growers before!”

  “Growers exist, but they're very rare and they're never people who have shrunk before.” Paul said. The odds of growing were less than one in ten thousand, but in a city like Gettysburg there were a few cases per year. Some of the stories were rather nice; Paul recalled a story about a companion who grew and married her former owner. A tiny track runner also once grew and ended up buying her old team, owning her former teammates and leading them to multiple gold metals. However, he recalled that she herself was barred from Big competition because the unfair advantage selective breeding as a small had given her.

  More often, though, the stories were sad. Tinies were just not accustomed to being their own master and a lot of them ended up committing suicide or even killing their former owners. There was also a stigma attached of being once tiny even if one was now big. It was extremely stupid in Paul's opinion and he hated that these things were so deeply ingrained. The best most Growers could hope for was to move to a new city and start a new life where nobody knew their past. It was sad.

  “Could I be a grower?” Asked Chloe.

  “Maybe,” Paul shrugged.

  “If I was a grower I would buy the whole academy and make every day ice cream day!” Chloe laughed, delightedly.

  “You have to promise I can still work here once you take over, okay?” Paul asked.

  “Promise!” Chloe said. Paul held out his hand and she gave him a high-five.

  Soon lunch was over and it was time for the children to return to their lessons. Paul was left to clean up the mess they made, which was a fairly easy process despite them being messy kids. Having already scrubbed the floors of the learning hall it was time for him to enter the breeders building.

  He remembered how nervous he was the first time he entered; he remembered Barney's warnings that no men were allowed in here except for Jules and himself, and it was not until the women—overwhelmed as they were with childcare and pregnancy—practically begged Jules to let him clean their rooms. Apparently larger facilities had dedicated custodians and the fact that they now had one was seen as a godsend.

  At first Jules was constantly breathing down his neck whenever he cleaned the facility, making frequent visits to ensure he wasn't causing trouble. However, with the event fast approaching, Jules found himself too busy to keep his eye on Paul. Barney however was a constant menacing presence, always making himself known whenever Paul was around. However, today was one of the rare days in which Barney was accompanying Sarah in her worldly adventures, so there was no one to harass him today. He wasn't the only one breathing a sigh of relief—apart from him, the mothers seemed to be the only people who didn't take to Barney very much.

  He knocked on the first apartment within the breeding building. Wild sounds of children playing came from beyond the door with a woman's voice telling them to settle down as Paul knocked. The door opened and Sandra—a 35-year-old retired model and mother of four who had very kind eyes—appeared.

  “Want me to clean?” Paul offered.

  “No, it's okay,” Sandra said, smiling but also looking a bit overwhelmed at the boundless energy of the kids behind her. “Can you come back tomorrow?”

  “Sure,” Paul said. Sandra thanked him and closed the door. Paul moved on to the next one which belonged to Bethany, the young mother and daughter to a shrinker. Compared to the cacophony behind Sandra's door there didn't seem to be any sound coming from Bethany's apartment. He knocked, and moment later he heard the sound of footsteps coming to the door.