Half an hour later, the boy felt a shift in the living ecosystem that was Larissa's humongous body. Try as he might to stay steady, it was impossible once the girl started walking. If seeing Larissa march from afar was a spectacle before, it was his entire focus now that he was kept so close to her. Ted was bounced like a rogue popcorn kernel from corner to corner of the pocket in time with Larissa's mighty, fast-paced stride. Whenever he pinged close to the lip of the skirt pocket, he considered the possibility of clinging on, and waiting for an opportunity to jump once Larissa took a seat again. He had no idea how to go about surviving this mysterious transformation or how to reverse it, but first things first: he had to escape Larissa.
She didn't make it easy, of course. Shortly after the idea occurred to him, her hand re-entered the pocket. Larissa's gigantic palm and flattened fingers acted as a ceiling, pushing Ted back down each time he started arising toward the exit portal. Every step, her hand sank lower in the pocket, her fingers cuddling tighter around, until she gathered him back into her pinched fist. To an outside observer, Larissa would've simply looked like she had stuffed her hands in her pockets, even though the eighteen-year-old had a fragile human life caged in her fingers.
Though muddled through the double-barrier of skirt fabric and a giant girl's fist, Ted could detect bustling life outside. Larissa had apparently long-abandoned Room 110 and made her way to the main halls for the start of the school day. Feminine voices buzzed from every direction with just as much booming grandeur as his captor's own. A mélange of laughter, gossip, whining, and stern back-talking filled the air, and made Ted fearful of whatever was to come. Escape would be much tougher now, with so many equally gargantuan female bodies lumbering around. Even if he wasn't squished underfoot, who was to say anyone else would be more forgiving than Larissa?
The swell of voices grew louder, then expanded to echoes in a wider space. Given that the all-boys school was a sister site with the same schedule, Ted had a good idea of where they were. The entire school had gathered for morning prayers and announcements in the chapel before proceeding to regular classes. When Larissa finally took a seat in one of the pews, it wasn't long before Ted heard voices he recognized even without seeing faces, namely Tiffany, Kelsey, and Blair.
As it turned out, though, he didn't have to guess identities for long. Larissa's fingers fastened around him and easily dragged the puny boy out of her pocket, bringing him out in her open palm for observation by the trio of lovely underlings. The dull roar of conversation throughout the rest of the hall shielded the quartet of choir girls from being noticed by any outsiders with their curious trinket.
"Wow, I thought you were kidding in your text, Larissa!" Tiffany hissed under her breath. Her eyes boggled at the sight of the tiny thing, and perhaps by force of habit, she adjusted her bosom in the presence of a male. At his miniature perspective, even Tiffany's A-cups visibly jiggled for Ted.
Had he not been so paralyzed at the moment, it would've been a treat.
"That's insane. It's alive, right?" Kelsey whispered. She narrowed her vision, bringing her huge face closer to Larissa's hand until her warm exhalations could steam over Ted's body. "What is it?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out," the redhead replied. She curled her fingers up around Ted to discourage him from trying to leap over the side of her palm. "Any ideas?"
"He looks sort of our age, but I've never seen him before," Tiffany said. She prodded a pink-painted fingernail at Ted, flipping him over onto his back. Her trademark machine-gun giggle came instantly after. "I guess fairies are real?"
"I don't recognize him, either," Kelsey said.
"I do," Blair quietly snarled. The other three girls turned expectantly to the blonde, whose upper lip curled with disdain. Her vision narrowed to slits and her lips thinned, closely resembling the last time Ted caught her eye. Blair's volume lowered to a throaty murmur, but her words were unmistakable: "That's the boy who took a picture of my feet at church."
Ted's insides folded in on themselves. If he'd ceased to exist at this exact moment, that would've been just fine with him.
"Seriously?" Tiffany gawked. Her already-wide eyes turned wilder; her jaw dropped. "No way! Ew-ew-ew-ew-ew!"
"Are you positive?" Kelsey questioned. She blinked, looking the inch-tall man up and down, then tucked her pinky finger under his chin, forcing him to look up at her. "I don't recognize him at all. Besides, how could he be a boy that did that if he's only this big? And why would somebody take a picture of your feet, anyway?"
"Who knows? He's probably sick and gross and thinks feet are hot," Blair retorted. She crossed her arms and harrumphed at her friends. "It doesn't matter. That's him. I know it for sure. Where'd you find him, Larissa?"
The redhead remained quiet for a moment, her eyes glazed over, the gears churning within. She pursed her lips.
"On the floor in the study room," she breathed. "Between my... shoes. While I had them off. Wait a minute. Was... he at church yesterday, Blair? When I was telling you where I was going to work on Sister Margaret's history project?"
"Yes. Yes, he was."
The four girls went silent, and resorted to staring Ted down, as if their combined gazes might split him apart and reveal the inner workings. The shrunken boy himself couldn't be sure that wouldn't happen. Between Tiffany's disgust, Kelsey's mistrust, Blair's knowing hatred, and Larissa's cool and calculating presence, he was on the verge of cracking. Why, oh why, couldn't he just have been happy with his fantasies and stayed at school?
"Ew-ew-ew-ew..." Tiffany repeated. She jittered in her seat. "This is too gross for this early in the morning..."
"Definitely pretty nasty," Kelsey agreed. "What are you going to do with him?"
"Maybe Blair should decide that," Larissa crooned, a vile smirk creasing the corners of her plush lips. "You know. Since the little runt was perving on her feet, and all. It seems only fair."
"Blair? What do you think?" Kelsey asked.
The girls had to abruptly silence themselves as the morning prayer began. Ted was instantly sealed into the closed-blossom shape of Larissa's clasped hands. In the warm, fleshy pod of her thankful palms, the boy could only hear whispers and slow breathing from the quartet of giantesses just above the droning of the sister at the front of the chapel. However, by pressing his face to the crevice between Larissa's thumb and index finger, the boy could just barely see through. Beyond, he spied Blair, with her fingers laced together but her head decidedly unbowed. Rather, she was staring drunkenly into the mid-distance, not unlike how Ted's face probably looked whenever he caught a glimpse of a hot choir girl taking off her shoes in the stuffy cathedral. The blonde nibbled her lower lip.
"Do you see what she's doing up there?" Blair muttered.
"Who? Where?" Kelsey balked.
"The girl two rows up. Whatever her name is, Tracy? Who cares. Just look under the aisle."
"Hey, she's pulling her heels off. God, I wish my mom would buy me a pair that expensive..." Tiffany sighed. "Oh, wait."
"Yeah..." Kelsey chuckled. "She's just dangling them off. Look at all the room she's got down there to put stuff."
"Not bad," Blair said.
"Are you three thinking what I'm thinking?" Larissa riddled, though her haunting smile and effervescent emerald-iris glow already said it all. The matter was resolved. The judge, jury, and executioner had her prey right between her claws. She sealed her fingers tighter, blocking Ted's view out. Announcements carried on, but eventually, a longer session of prayer was called for. The student body hunched down on the kneelers. This was when Larissa's hands parted again.