Still, as she stepped into the room, she couldn’t help but feel her guarded nature rise up. She didn’t trust older people, especially ones who said they wanted to help. That said, these past few days had been... fun. Since the incident in the closet, the manual labor had all but disappeared, replaced by something lighter, more indulgent. And best of all? The little people.

That highlighted part right there says so much without giving any specifics at all. It explains Naomi's behavior throughout the rest of the segment, too. It seems as though Naomi's mother (fuck Victoria!) isn't the only adult to let the poor girl down. I wonder how many authority figures she trusted with the truth before and why they all refused to help her in the end.

If the abuse goes back far enough, I imagine Victoria had enough money and influence to make that sort of problem go away as much as she needed to back when she was married (I believe she's having financial problems nowadays, if I remember right). And now Naomi can't even trust anybody enough to say aloud that her mom hits her.

So now it makes even more sense why Naomi loves crushing tiny adults. We saw her make the decision to crush Edward back in S2 after he tried to use his "dad" voice and take control of the situation, and Naomi was caught in a crushing trance after not quite math teacher lady tried to lecture her on tinies being people. And before that, she took pure glee in yelling at that "bug" to kneel.

Authority has clearly been a crushing force to Naomi for her whole life, so of course she's desperate to crush it back whenever she sees it in a tiny. She had similar thoughts during her crushing session on the island too.

This also explains why she was never very responsive to Annabel, even before pissing the breaker off. Annie was just another authority figure to fear, to eventually betray her, to pretend to care only to reveal later that she never did. But Annabel, because of her own issues and guilt, cut right to the cruelty, not having the patience for what she thought was laziness and ineptitude from Naomi. So Annabel was unwittingly feeding Naomi's fears about her. It only makes sense that Naomi was so slow to trust her with the truth, even after they had started to get along better after the closet incident (RIP Edward).

On a bit of a lighter note, I think it's adorable that Annabel keeps calling Naomi "child" despite the small age difference. I'm not sure how much time has passed since Trevor gave that fateful advice to Annabel that changed her life (but not the lives of the tinies in her charge), but I remember that she was only 24 at the time. And Naomi was 18 at the island (and she's still in school, so maybe not a lot of time has passed?). So that's six years. Six years, and Annabel is calling her "child" and "sweet baby girl" like she's Naomi's grandmother! It made me laugh, but it was still very Annabel of her to do that. 

Not only that, but I feel like it was part of Annabel expressing her joy at being able to pass her knowledge on to another person! She was excited from the start that Naomi shared her ... interest in tinies, and it was more than just having something in common with the younger girl. Annabel wanted to be a mentor, and after getting past her initial frustrations with Naomi, she saw someone she could mold and help shape into a good a breaker as she is. Maybe she just wanted the distraction after what happened with Trevor and Donnica. Maybe she's feeling lonely after being shut out by Donnica. Maybe some yet-to-be revealed fallout with Annabel's own family has her eager to connect with someone, feel that bond, and she jumped at the chance with Naomi.

I'm not 100 percent sure what was driving Annabel to want to mentor Naomi, but her excitement at the prospect of doing so was straight-up adorable!

Back to the family fallout thing, Annabel figured out what the deal with Naomi was pretty damn quick. She recognized the signs of abuse and knew exactly what they meant once she saw Naomi react to the ruler a few times. And even then, she knew something was wrong right away, but she tried to bury that feeling, convince herself it wasn't a big deal or any of her business. But after seeing it a second time with that tap to her arm and that other one to her hand as confirmation, it clicked for Annabel a lot faster than I would have expected.

So now I'm wondering if Annabel went through something similar or maybe even just knew somebody who did. That might explain the whole "goddess mother' and "little brother Trevor" talk, as well as the motherly way she comforted Naomi at the end of the chapter. Seriously, though, the way Annabel softly offered to let Naomi crush not quite math teacher lady and Naomi agreed with that "Okay" struck me as a mother comforting their child and giving in to some small thing to make them feel better. But yeah, if Annabel herself went through some trauma like that, it would help explain a lot about her state of mind for sure!

Then again, the one memory we've seen that she has of her father seemed to be a positive one (I Wanna Know What Love Is), so maybe that theory is bunk? Or maybe she's clinging to the one good memory of her childhood. Who knows? I mean other than you?

But man, it was so satisfying to see Annabel figure it out and immediate soften up the way she did. She no longer blamed Naomi for the way she carried herself at the office. Annabel knew it wasn't laziness that caused that. And she felt like shit for using the threat of Naomi's mother against the teen, not knowing until that very moment just what it was she had been hanging over Naomi's head the whole time. 

Moments like these are why I love Annabel so much. She can be remarkably immature at times (RIP Chelsea) and bitter and cruel at others, but she also has this tremendous capacity for empathy. We saw it when she fell in love with Trevor, and we saw it here as well. I really enjoy seeing this side of Annabel, and it's those moments when this seems entirely absent from her being that make scenes like this one so sweet!

I was glad to see Annabel give Naomi a safe place to run to if she ever needs it, as well as a car service to get to Annabel's place. That was super nice of her, and, again, I love how much she cares about Naomi now that she knows what's going on. Of course, knowing the general tendencies of fiction, I can't help but worry that Naomi's access to Annabel's place is going to lead to some unforeseen complications somewhere down the road.

What a great way to close out the chapter! You kept hinting that we'd get back to these two by the end of it, but I didn't expect things to go in this direction so quickly!

This whole exchange between Trevor and Celine in S3 was so captivating!

Celine doesn't seem bitter so much as annoyed that Trevor, who is helping Donnica dominate all tinies, is trying to save her. I almost want to say that she likened him in her own mind to Ricci and Vikki at first, obedient tinies looking to serve their respective masters while living in the fantasy that this gives them some degree of agency. The only difference between them in her mind is that Trevor feels some degree of guilt for what he's doing, and she just happens to be the charity case he's trying to use to make himself feel better.

For someone of Celine's former pedigree, that's more an insult than a kindness.

But as Trevor persists, as well as show his frustration and smugness, which I'm assuming makes him different from the other tinies in Helena's Kingdom (Ricci and Vikki seem a bit brainwashed to me, but maybe that's just their personality; and yes, I said singular personality for the both of them! Ha!). Whatever it was, Celine finally got the message that he was legitimately trying to help her, not for personal gain or to alleviate any guilt (again, who "Jordan's" ensuring the integration of a system being used to subjugate a group of people and feels guilty about it at the same time?). And seeing those walls of hers start to crack was satisfying for the briefest of seconds, only to be followed by intense sadness at realizing that, underneath that crazy, calculated, unbreakable demeanor is someone just as broken and depressed as anyone else in her situation might be.

Still, I'm happy Trevor found a way to get through to her, and I'm hoping he can pull off the impossible and find a way to actually save her.

That's not to say that Celine didn't make a lot of good points. I continue to love there being someone to call out Trevor for his role in enslaving people his own size, and that point about Donnica maybe starting to think like them was chilling. Of course, this also shows that, for everything Celine does know, she doesn't actually know Trevor at all. At least part of him doesn't mind what happens to the average tiny at all! In fact, what's about to happen to them makes him more special in the eyes of the two women he loves, as the power not only loves him but it holds him above everyone else his size (and everyone normal size, for that matter) too.

However, Trevor caring about Celine raises an interesting question: Does Trevor really not care about his fellow tinies? Because it's frighteningly easy to not give a fuck about people you don't know, but Celine? He knows her now, and he seems determined, almost obsessed, with saving her. If he had only heard of her situation and never met her, would he care at all? And for that matter, if he had personally knew each and every one of those tinies Annabel killed to prove her point to him in her workshop, would he have been more worried about her than he was at the loss of life?

Or maybe it's Celine's talent that makes him so eager to help her. Maybe he sees in her how the world underestimated him because of his size before, that feeling that made (and still makes, given how seriously he takes his job) him feel like he has to prove how competent he is in everything he does, especially when giants are involved. And Celine's smug, unflappable exterior definitely has to remind Trevor of himself at least a little bit!

I don't know. I'm trying to figure out what it is that makes Celine such a special case to Trevor, and these is the best theories I can think of.

The "contest" was built up so well, too! Celine's sense of superiority and inability to even consider that Trevor's program might be able to handle her own made his victory so sweet! And his celebration and gloating were hilarious ... and well-deserved, given the way Celine was talking him down right up until the moment of her defeat.

Based on the way she "studied" that 83 percent so hard, I'm almost inclined to think that she's never lost at anything before. And given what we know about her "rivalry" (more on that in a minute) with Helena, that could very easily be the case!

But for her to go ahead and basically do a whole day's work in less than a minute while he was still basking in the glow of his win? Incredible! All the wind left his sails in the span of that minute, and Celine didn't even see fit to brag about it. That comment about grunt work hit hard, though!

But mostly, I love how Trevor's code was crude and ugly, yet it did the job so much better than Celine imagined it could. Even she had to admit that, even if she was as insulting as possible in the process.

Now, onto that Status-C revelation.

First, I want to commend you on what I think was a very nice, subtle hint at what was about to come. When Celine was "warning' him about what would happen if Donnica started thinking like them, she said that Trevor might end up in a cage right next to her. It was small, but I felt like this was a telegraph about Celine's Status-C, er, status. She had berated him before about being stupid enough to voluntarily give Donnica his Status-C, so, looking back (because I didn't make this connection right away), her telling him that he'd be in her exact position seems like a tiny tell that her registration status was the same as his.

As for the revelation itself, it makes a lot of sense. I was wondering how Helena could get away with treating Celine this way, as Celine is smart enough to have figured out some way to get word out about her capture if she wasn't literal property at this point. The question is how this happened.

My main theory is that, as I speculated on when "the rival" first turned up in the story, Helena's rivalry with Celine was one-way. I don't think Celine even realized they were competing (because, let's face it, we've seen enough to know that Celine would destroy Helena in anything that isn't physical now, let alone when they were the same size). I'm willing to bet that Helena cozied up to Celine, secretly hating her for being superior while Celine herself believed Helena to be a legit friend. Then, after Celine shrank, Helena used this relationship to get everything from Celine, even her Status-C. Because, as Trevor noted, Celine would have had to have voluntarily gone through the long process, so her doing so of her own free will would make the most sense.

Of course, Helena could have used the yet-to-be-seen sister as leverage to ensure Celine's cooperation, but then I have to wonder what said sister's status is. I don't know if Celine would have cooperated if her sister was also going to be forced through the process.

Unless Helena duped the sister into giving Helena her Status-C first! Now we might be on to something!

Ricci and Vikki seem like a lot of fun! I was expecting Vikki to counter Ricci's cheerful nature with a darker, more domineering one, given how she was dressed. But her matching Ricci's exuberance was a pleasant surprise. And the way they fawned over Trevor was cute! That prime number bit threw me for a loop, too. I'm assuming that's correct, but I'm not checking because I'm not a math nerd!

But yeah, all three of these tiny women outclassed Trevor with their intellects, yet each one came away impressed by him in their own way (because, yes, even though she didn't show it directly, I think Celine was impressed that Trevor beat her). I'd call that a win for him!

So everyone in the Kingdom is either a subject or a slave, huh? That's intriguing. So it seems as though not every tiny is destined to be a giant's slave in Helena's plan. I wonder how one earns the right to become a "subject" and what exactly is expected of them. Based on Ricci and Vikki, my guess is that you have to be exceptional at something useful. Just what is Helena planning? 

And it sounds like Ricci and Vikki aren't allowed to say Celine's name, either. I know Helena threw a shit fit when Trevor did that in the previous chapter. These are some interesting rules, for sure.

Oh, and I see that Donnica's emotions are getting in the way of her judgment again. Sending Alexandra with Trevor rather than Annabel didn't seem to have a negative outcome this time, but putting Trevor's fate in the hands of someone who doesn't give a fuck about him beyond their fear of Donnica herself is bound to bite her (and Trevor) in the ass at some point. I get that Annabel fucked up (although not nearly as bad as Donnica! Just sayin') and that Donnica is pissed at her, but she knows Annabel cares about Trevor and sees in him what she herself sees, so it's dumb to leave Trevor's fate in the hands of someone as indifferent as Alexandra when someone like Annabel is there to do the job, eager to do it, even. I think Trevor might be in trouble at some point.

Lastly, I want to backtrack to the beginning of the segment, this line in particular:

It was punishment — for going behind her back for the meetings with Helena's people, for letting himself get snatched, for letting her feel powerless — but more than that, it was protection.

I know this is from Trevor's perspective and not Donnica's, but he knows her so well that I think he captured her reasons for being angry perfectly well. I say that because the language here caught my attention. Donnica is pissed because Trevor let himself get snatched and let her feel powerless. This is interesting to me. It's an odd, selfless form of selfishness, if that makes sense. Like Donnica is making this about her with this language, making herself the victim, but the source of her "victimhood" is her love and worry for Trevor, a very empathetic, selfless concept. Not to mention that she thinks highly enough of Trevor to blame him for what happened; I mean, how many other people could make Donnica feel powerless? His place in her heart is massive, and sometimes it makes her vulnerable.

Given what I've theorized about her stance on weakness, I wonder if she'll ever realize that and, if so, what she'll do with that information.

"Shall we take our shoes off?" Helena asked lightly, her tone breezy, as if they were entering a spa or a hotel lounge, not standing above a mass of terrified, unregistered lives.

This made me laugh so hard! It wasn't the scene itself that was funny, but given how much we've talked about this sort of thing, I just fucking lost it here! I just pictured you getting to this scene and going:

"Okay, I checked shoe crush off the list last chapter, so now we can get back to real crush!"

But hey, I'm certainly not complaining! That cardboard city scene was fucking incredible from start to finish, with or without shoes! I love how you not only highlighted both Donnica and Helena's indifference as they walked through the city, but you even pointed out how a lot of giantesses would have reacted in this situation, which drew even more attention to every utterly uncaring step these two goddesses made into the city.

I think my favorite part was when Donnica took those absentminded steps as she contemplated Helena's plan to go after registration subsidies program. Even though Donnica was looking down in thought, she took absolutely no notice of her feet crushing a makeshift marketplace. There wasn't even any ill intent there; Donnica just felt like a few steps would help her process things and just didn't think or care about the consequences for the inconsequential beings so far below her.

But yeah, all of that scene was spectacular. Helena even picked up a little souvenir from the trip. How cute is that! I'm curious if that new pocket pal was just a bit of extra fun tacked onto the end of the scene or if she might end up becoming a character we might get more familiar with in the the chapters ahead.

And by the way, the detail you gave to city itself, describing all the garbage and debris the tinies used to build this "city," was awesome! Things like tin can taverns and tents made from banana stickers really helped paint a nice picture of the trashy towns (hey look, I did a thing!) the unregistered have to live in. I loved this!

Oh, and emphasizing that the tinies couldn't even comprehend Helena and Donnica's "seismic conversation" was a brilliant touch, too!

Okay, okay, I'm done gushing, I swear! I told you before that tiny city scenes are a favorite of mine, and I wasn't even thinking about garbage cities when I said that! You drew me into something I didn't even know I wanted until I read this segment!

Okay, really, I'm done now!

Honestly, my biggest takeaway from this segment is how much blame should really be placed on Donnica for everything that Trevor has been through with all this

Helena stuff. It's been at the back of my mind this whole time, but Helena straight-up telling Donnica that she created the environment that caused all this trouble for her tiny boyfriend really hit home for me. Helena may be terrible and pathetic, but she's not the least bit wrong here. Both the chair incident and Penelope claiming Trevor on Helena's behalf can be traced back to the office culture Donnica instilled ever since she overthrew John Turner (the one Helena cleverly tried to take half credit for installing, I noticed here). Not only that, but Trevor also told Donnica something similar to this when he tried to turn down the office manager job. Donnica didn't listen and just expected her force of will to be enough to make the office accept him anyway. As we've seen since then, that isn't enough to protect Trevor at all times, and she's definitely to blame for putting him in that spot.

But more importantly, it was revealed that Donnica knew about Helena's private system this whole time! This blew my mind! This was the whole source of the conflict between Trevor and Helena. Trevor has desperately been trying to integrate the office into LegalSync, thinking that Helena was being stubborn and hiding something, when really she was just abiding by the terms of her employment that Donnica had agreed to in the first place! Most of this could have been avoided if Donnica had just told Trevor this the first time he complained to her about Helena. Trevor would have never been with Penelope in the first place if he had known that!

So while Penelope is obviously still the most responsible for the Status-C debacle because she was the bad actor, Donnica is easily the second-most responsible here. Waaaaay more than Annabel for just not seeing the portal status change on her screen (she had better not have come down too hard on Annabel for that, knowing what I know now!). Trevor keeps paying the price for Donnica's cognitive dissonance, and as much as he's been able and willing to role with that, I'm beginning to wonder if there will be a point where he can't anymore. And he reaches that point, what does he do when he's literally owned by her?

Another thing I noticed here is the difference between Helena and Donnica when it comes to tiny people. Helena is dignified and subtle about it, but she really enjoys dominating those tiny people not unlike those women she looked at as lesser, digging in the dirt and screaming that they're the tinies' new goddess. Helena thinks the difference between people like Donnica and her and women like that is restraint, as is evidenced by the way Helena watched and evaluated Donnica when they laid eyes on the city for the first time.

But Donnica isn't like this at all. There was no evidence that she was savoring crushing the city and its residents under her heel. In fact, I don't think we've ever seen her truly enjoy punishing or killing tinies. She's mostly either angry at them or bored, maybe showing mild signs of amusement on rare occasion. I mean, how many times have we seen Donnica crush a tiny without any emotion at all? Even when she crushed that restaurant and all its patrons, I remember her looking down on a group of them with a bored curiosity before squishing them.

That's because, for Donnica, this isn't about indulgence or pleasure. She truly believes that this is a tiny's lot in life, scattering at her feet and hiding in literal garbage buildings at the sight of someone like her. In fact, she took more pleasure in thinking about how many of the tinies of the city were there because of her than she did actually crushing them!

I think this feeling comes from a place of bitterness for Donnica. From what we know about her past, she didn't have an easy life, growing up with parents who showed her little affection and were too heavy-handed when it comes to punishment for her. She was struggling as a single mom when Amber was young, dating men she didn't like who abused her daughter. She may not have known that last part, but it at least opens the possibility that Donnica herself had suffered some of that at their hands too.

So I don't think Donnica hates tinies. I think she hates weakness. And tinies, for the most part, are the embodiment of weakness, so that bitterness gets taken out on them. This would also explain why this bitterness doesn't apply to Trevor, as he has been a strong, supporting presence in her life when nobody else has ever been that for her before. That's why he's different from the other tinies in her mind.

But yeah, Helena is just an entitled, old-money monster who is using a thin veil of elegance to put herself above the common giant, while Donnica is channeling all the darkness and possible trauma of her childhood and early adult life into a disdain for the weakest class of people because she was raised to hate weakness and pulled herself out of a terrible life, leaving her with no sympathy for others who are stuck there.

Or that's my theory, anyway. I could be way off!

I do think that we saw this difference between them in a couple of their interactions, though. There were a couple times that Helena had to work to keep herself together and not yield under Donnica's authority when Donnica became upset. And Helena was afraid to even bring up keeping Trevor at her place until the transfer of ownership is complete (more on that in a minute). To me, that showed the weakness hiding under Helena's hard exterior, and we haven't really seen that from Donnica. Yeah, we've seen her break down emotionally over Trevor, but that was sadness, not fear. Helena was barely able to manage the might of Donnica's will at times here, even when she was expecting to get the brunt of it! 

The government registration system was an interesting piece of ... worldbuilding (hey, good job!). It makes sense that the government would try to step in to fill the gaps left by the privatized system of registration and that this program would be half-assed. And to find out that what Donnica and company have been doing this whole time is choking paths to private registration to overload the public system and turn public opinion against it? That's as brilliant as it is evil. After hearing time and time again how Donnica has cost people their registration, it's good to finally have some insight into how she's been doing that, as well as the larger plan behind it. 

And hundreds of thousands of tinies will suddenly become unprotected if they succeed? Fuck, that's hot! Uh, I mean, awful! Fuck, that's awful!

Then, you ended the segment on that little cliffhanger, hinting that Donnica was going to lay eyes on "The Kingdom." The fact that Helena decides that she has to tell Donnica the truth "in part" is pretty foreboding, though. Is she planning on cutting Donnica out of the "real plan" at some point (I don't think so, because my money is still on Helena having a thing for her)? Or is there a deeper reason that she wants possession of Trevor until this Status-C stuff clears up? Maybe Helena is thinking, "If I can't convince Donnica that Trevor is worthless, maybe I can convince Trevor about his real worth."

And it seems pretty obvious that Trevor will indeed end up spending some time at Helena's place in the near future, but I love Donnica's resistance to this, even after making up with Helena. I don't even think it was about a lack of trust in Helena but rather the fact that she wouldn't be living under the same roof as him for some time. We've already seen that she hates to take Trevor off her person, but to have him not even be in the same house? Agonizing.

Also, I was glad to see it clarified that the tinies that Donnica has taken have had families open investigations into her. I was wondering about that. To see her confidence at making those investigations go away was both chilling and sexy (given all the ways she chose to hide those tinies).

Great opening segment here. I love the fireworks to open things up!

So poor chelsea. I really felt for her. Her fate was not the best, and it shows the likely fate of most tinies especially owned, that even if they are perfect, they can be destroyed by the wims of these cruel giantesses. This once again demenstrates that Trevor is insane for giving his rights up. Annebelle has shown that she isnt stable. Donnica would kill her if she ever did hurt Trevor, but what good does that due to an already dead tiny. I am glad that you didnt drag out the drama on him belonging to penny or helen for long., I never like that trope. Its not you, thats a me thing. JUst glad you didnt drag it out for multiple chapters. I am interested to see how things will play out now that he is fully owned and the property of Donnice and Annebell. Curious to see if he comes to regret it, or actaully love it.

I am seriously interested in where you are going with the Amber and Rebecca story line. I cant wait to see more of that.

I just finished S8, and now I feel terrible for doubting Scarlett before!

But first, I liked that slight glimpse into Donnica's side of things after that call from Helena. I'm sure she was a wreck wondering where Trevor was before that moment, so that call had to be both a relief and a horror for her at the same time. You threw in some nice details to show how stressed she was, too. My favorite was her heels sounding like warning shots as she raced across the tile floor to go pick up Trevor.

Amber is really sweet to worry about her mom, and yeah, whenever someone says "Everything is going to be okay," that's usually the time you have to really start worrying!

Before we get into Scarlett proper, I wanted to commend you on how you (once again) masterfully set up the back half of this segment with the first half. There were so many little lines clearly designed to make us expect the opposite of what was going to happen, or maybe you just happen to be quite fond of irony. Things like Rebecca thinking about how Scarlet would be the kind of girl she'd be friends with if things were different, if they were the same size and she was younger, and all of those thoughts about how insignificant Rebecca thought she was to Scarlett and how indifferent the giant girl was to her existence were awesome to see flipped on their head later in the segment.

In particular, this line stuck out for me more after finishing the segment:

She was nothing to Scarlett. A speck in her world. A forgotten crumb.

Because, from the moment Scarlett discovered Rebecca's existence, this was not the case at all! Scarlett's first instinct was to save Rebecca's tiny life, an instinct I feel like most of the giants we've met so far don't possess in the least. Then, Scarlett was incredibly nervous and embarrassed at the state she was in while in Rebecca's presence. The opinion of that "forgotten crumb" was immensely important to Scarlett. She was extremely apologetic about her juices being on the fingers that saved Rebecca's life (most of the giants we've seen so far not only wouldn't have cared, but they would have expected Rebecca to be thankful that they'd bothered to save her at all and probably would have made her lick the juices from those fingers, too!), and when Rebecca saw that raunchy mixed-sized porn on Scarlett's phone, the giant was desperate to assure Rebecca that she would never do that to her or think of her as just some prop or toy.

Without even knowing Rebecca, the tiny immediately became extremely significant to Scarlett. There was nothing indifferent about the way she treated Rebecca.

Also, her nervousness was fucking adorable!

But this is why those doubts I had about Scarlett have gone away. This impromptu one-on-one time with Rebecca was unplanned and unanticipated. There were no witnesses to impress. Scarlett, when finding a seemingly random tiny in trouble, saved her and treated her more like a person than anyone else in the story has to a tiny. With Amber, there was always the possibility that she was trying to manipulate Amber to some end, as she had shown that potential when dealing with Amber before and therefore could have been doing the same again here. But with Rebecca, I can't think of any motivation for Scarlett to lie or deceive. This was just a random, genuine moment, and Scarlett showed us who she really is. And I liked the person I saw, maybe more than any other character in the whole damn story (and Annabel is in the story, so that's saying something)!

Not only that, but Rebecca immediately made friends with Scarlett. She calmed the big girl down and quickly went from fearing her to giddily admitting that she's Amber's girlfriend. And then she covered for Scarlett, lied for her! That's a great way to build trust and friendship. Scarlett seemed pretty grateful for the bailout, too!

Stepping back just a bit and revisiting Scarlett's time at the desk "alone," good God did every word of Rebecca's description of Scarlett leave me mesmerized! I shouldn't be surprised, given how strong your descriptions always are, but this one resonated with me in a way that was unique and enthralling. From the way the blue light from nightlight illuminating her facial features to the unwittingly cocky way she shifted weight between her feet and shrugged her shoulders, I don't think I blinked until the books started falling. I mentioned the irony and clever intention of Scarlett seeming indifferent to Rebecca's presence, but I also need to bring up how incredibly hot this was with how the whole thing was presented.

Even Scarlett's smelly feet (I'm not a smells guy, despite loving this story, if you can believe it!), but the way you tied that stench in with Rebecca feeling like a worthless speck in Scarlett's presence was just incredible! And Rebecca thinking of all the ways Scarlett could end her without even noticing? Chef's kiss!

Everything was so sensual in that scene. I know in the last chapter I speculated that Scarlett might end up being a romantic rival (unknowingly) fighting Rebecca for Amber's affection, but now I feel like maybe I should have been more worried about Scarlett fighting Amber for Rebecca's affection! Of course, this doesn't have to go the love-triangle route at all, and if this somehow ended up being a more ... traditional version of what Donnica, Annabel, and Trevor have going on, I'd be fucking thrilled! Seeing the three of them in such harmony at the end of the chapter was so sweet, and it got my imagination going a little bit, too.

I really have no idea what you have in mind for these three in the chapters ahead, but I feel like I'm going to be deeply into it regardless of what direction you choose to take them.

Of course, Amber woke up just in time to cut short what was turning out to be heart-melting moment between Scarlett and Rebecca, but I still love how protective Amber was of Rebecca here. Given how the last time a giant discovered Rebecca in Amber's room went (and thoughts of Sara were dancing in my head when Scarlett's hand shot down too fast for Rebecca to comprehend), her anger and concern are completely justifiable here.

Scarlett not only accepting but supporting their relationship was awesome too! She immediately figured out that Rebecca was not only the same girl Amber talked about so much but also Amber's girlfriend so quickly, and I feel like her natural open-mindedness played a huge role in that. Scarlett didn't once assume that Rebecca was Amber's slave or pet, and I get the feeling that Scarlett would have been disgusted if that had been what Rebecca was to Amber. 

But we also found out some other interesting stuff about Scarlett in this segment. She has two moms, first of all. She's also a "microsexual" (I love this term!) and seemingly has dated tinies before. This is all interesting to me, because I had speculated in my head that maybe one of Scarlett's parents had either recently shrunk or people at her old school had found out, and that's why she transferred. That could technically still could be the case, but I really have no particular reason to think that. I thought that might justify why Scarlett might be nicer to tinies (I was hoping she would be, even if I did have my doubts about her), but the microsexual thing kind of helps explain that a little bit. I mean, if she's attracted to tinies, it only makes sense that she's gotten to know some and has a better understanding that they're just people.

Also, the fact that Scarlett is oversexed helps explain why she would just sneak over to her new friend's desk and start touching herself like that. It's a compulsion she struggles to control, apparently. I love that her parents gave her such good advice on it, though. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Just, you know, do a tiny search first next time!

You were right: This was my favorite segment of the chapter! And I'm so excited to see what's in store for these three. Rebecca already seems to know more than Amber and Scarlett's soccer coaches, so could we see Rebecca giving Scarlett some more direct coaching instead of doing it through Amber? Will Amber's relief at having another giant accept her relationship with Rebecca make her more willing to "share" Rebecca, or will Amber get more greedy about her Rebecca time now that there's another giant friend who might want to hang out with her tiny girlfriend sometimes? Will Rebecca ever get used to the smell of Scarlett's feet, and how bad a sign is that if she does?

I know I called Penelope fucking up in my last review and thought she'd get a rude awakening once Helena found out what she had done, but fuck was the whole of S5 so, so satisfying!

You set it up so perfectly too. Building off of all that queenly stuff in the car, Penelope was so smugly elated once they arrived at Helena's place. She envisioned how happy Helena would be, how proud her mother would be for once after hearing that she had finally succeeded, and hell, there was even the fellowship (I'm assuming some sort of family fortune type thing?) to consider! Even her happiness at the reveal of Trevor to Helena fed into this.

And as soon as I saw Helena's immediate reaction, I was grinning from ear to ear. I figured Helena would be upset, but this went above and beyond my expectations. I mean, I knew Donnica was important to her somehow, but I didn't think it had reached the point where a few words from Trevor were enough for her to slap the shit out of Penelope!

To be fair, though, I think there was a little more to that slap than just the consequences Penelope raping Trevor might bring on Helena, although I have no doubt that was a factor. Based on the way she chastised Penelope when the young Brit called herself a "goddess-in-waiting" (I love how massively overinflated so many of your characters' egos are!) makes me think there's a code when it comes to owning tinies (owning in the general sense, not just the Status-C stuff). That whole "don't mess with another woman's pet" line makes me think that some of that anger came from Penelope being too petulant to understand that an "owned" tiny is off-limits, goddess or not. I found that to be pretty interesting.

But yeah, seeing Penelope's world crash down all around her was so enjoyable. I'm normally not the type to revel in the suffering of others, even fictional characters (unless it's hot, I mean!), but damn was her agony at Helena putting her in her place immensely gratifying!

And then the deeper implications sunk in for Penelope. I was so happy to see that she was concerned about this triggering an investigation. I mentioned before that I thought there had to be real consequences to someone (even with Helena's special status) just swiping someone's Status-C claim without reason and that Helena would be aware of that, so it was awesome to see that actually be the case! Not only that, but Helena has other reasons to fear an investigation, which is quite a curious development.

It seems as though this Kingdom of hers is probably what she's worried about the government discovering. I love the mystery you introduced simply by having your characters repeat that word a few times (and as a proper noun, of course!). So Helena has subjects? Man, my imagination is racing at the possibilities!

Does Helena have her own little city of tiny slaves? If so, is it Medieval themed? Saudi themed? Have I mentioned that giantesses in tiny cities (or city-like places) is one of my absolute favorite things in this fetish? I mean, the Kingdom could be something different entirely, but the possibilities here are really exciting!

Oh, uh, terrible. I mean, it's a terrible thing Helena is doing to those poor tinies, whatever it is (assuming they're mistreated).

But man, that threat Helena laid on Penelope just before carelessly handing off Trevor (I love the emphasis on that carelessness, by the way) was chilling. I still don't know if Helena's "need' of Donnica is more personal or professional in nature, but it's certainly really important to her!

The start of S6 was brilliant as well! Between the description of Penelope holding him away from her body in both disgust and fear and Trevor's attitude coming right back to him, this was handled so, so well! I love how Trevor so dryly taunted her. He had warned her about this (okay, maybe not exactly this, but that there would be consequences for her claiming him), and despite what she did to him, how she made him feel, he didn't even hesitate to kick her while she was down. Trevor is so fucking awesome

And Penelope whining and telling him to shut up is just perfect. She had the world at her feet five minutes ago and now she has nothing. Her fit about hating Trevor was great, like he would actually care about that. She's a brat who doesn't know how to deal with not only not getting her way but having someone there to mock her the way she mocks others. It's delicious!

And then she gets kicked out (and surely fired?) after putting Trevor in the cage with Celine. She just acts without thinking and assumes ignorance will save her, but that shit doesn't work in the real world, especially not with someone like Helena.

And just why does anyone even mentioning Celine, let alone seeing her, piss Helena off so much? Is she just desperate to have Celine be completely isolated from the rest of the world? Is she afraid that Celine is going to reveal some deep dark secret or blow up her plan? Does a part of her secretly like Celine and want her all to herself, burying that feeling with hate and anger? I mean, she did flip out way more after seeing then "entangled," and I'm not sure if that was jealousy or something else entirely.

Speaking of Celine, I'm pissed at myself. I briefly thought that Celine might be the rival before, but I dismissed the thought entirely. There's no way someone like Helena would lean so heavily on a tiny like that, and she definitely wouldn't rely on her hated rival!

So now Helena is pathetic and a hypocrite!

As for Celine herself, I can see why she always finished ahead of Helena in life. She's incredible! For most of this chapter, we see Helena flipping out and being angry because things aren't going her way (granted that investigation sounds like a pretty legit concern for her). Celine's life is hell! She lives in her rival's cage (assuming Celine even viewed Helena as a rival) and is tormented by her every day. Yet not only is she defiant, only willingly giving Helena anything at all because of her yet-to-be-introduced sister, but she's calm, cool, and collected the whole time! Sure, she seems a little ... unbalanced, but that comes off more as a personality trait, a way to keep people guessing about her, than it does something caused by everything that's been done to her.

And she's incredibly smart, too! She already knows damn near everything! And the way she pieced together what happened to Trevor with minimal clues to go off of (and Helena had to be told instead of figuring it out on her own) was honestly impressive. Not only that, but the way she says things makes her totally unreadable. Is she bitter that Trevor is helping the giants destroy tinies' rights or does she not give a fuck at this point? Does she just enjoy needling him or is she giving him a hard time because of that? Why did she jump him? Did she want to make Helena jealous? Does she know of some other reason Helena would hate that? Did she think it would get Trevor in trouble?

And holy shit! The way she called out to Trevor and asked him to visit her again in a sing-song voice (and right after being flicked away, too!) was hilarious. She's trapped in that cage and forced to service Helena's feet and ass, but somehow she still seems like the one in control in some ways. I really like her!

The negotiation between Trevor and Helena was interesting. Again, I thought Helena would never "stoop so low" as to make a deal with a tiny, especially Trevor of all people, but their conversation was mostly civil. She even set him down on the desk gently. I almost feel like there's a begrudging respect between them, even if neither of them will ever admit it. Whether Helena can accept it or not, Trevor has been a worthy adversary for her in the office, and apparently they're battling for Donnica's soul now? And for Trevor, we've already seen him admit to himself that the office needs Helena now.

I also love how Trevor handled this, knowing when to push and when to back off. I thought it was brilliant how he outsmarted Helena to get a session with Celine, demanding weeks or months with her, only to be thrilled that he got the one session he really needed guaranteed to him!

Helena, on the other hand, actually gave Trevor some information before shutting down and thinking of him as a pest. That probably wasn't so bright on her part, but maybe that's just her underestimating him? Or maybe she thinks Donnica coming back into the ideological fold is inevitable, so why not get her "pet" ready for what's coming?

Now we just need to wait and see what happens with Trevor's status. It seems like Helena is eager to get him out of her name, but will she change her mind and find a way to use this? Will Donnica demand that this be settled as soon as possible and get this settled quickly? I'm really curious if this Status-C ambiguity is going to stick around for awhile or if it's served its purpose and things get cleared up quickly.

So yeah, S5,6, and 7 were a great back end to all the drama you set up with 2-4. You gave us a legitimate scare and had us thinking maybe Trevor was really fucked this time, then gave us a satisfying conclusion (for now) and even teased us a bit on the larger story ahead. I really enjoyed this!

So I just finished reading S2 through S4, and man, you weren't kidding about the consequences of Annabel's mistake playing out really soon! Actually, I think the fact that she was so annoyed and frustrated over everything that she missed his name in the portal makes it even worse than if this had happened while she was spinning in Donnica's chair (you're right, that is a fun visual, by the way!).

Since I've already brought her up, I'm really curious what Donnica and Annabel's reactions to him getting claimed will be. The last time something happened with Trevor, Donnica went full scapegoat on Annabel (and it wasn't even her fault). With this new dynamic between them, I really have no idea how Donnica will react now that something so serious that was partially Annabel's fault (because let's be honest, this was almost entirely Penelope's fault, even if Annabel should have been paying attention to the portal). That should be interesting to see as the chapter progresses.

But I already know how Annabel will handle it. Even if Donnica puts all the blame on her and unleashes her fury on her, it'll be nothing compared to what Annabel puts herself through. Despite that bratty attitude, she deeply loves both Donnica and Trevor. Seeing what she put her goddess mother through will be bad enough, but after she finds out what Trevor went through, what she could have prevented with just a little bit more diligence, she might break. Again. That guilt is going to weigh her down for some time, I think.

But while we're playing the blame game here, we might as well throw some Trevor's way as well. It was noble of him to try to do what was best for the firm, for Donnica despite herself, even when it went directly against Donnica and Annabel's demand that he always be accompanied around the office. But this was also pretty stupid of him, especially since he really, really wanted to avoid using that emergency clicker.

Even without this Status-C stuff, it was only a matter of time until one of Helena's girls (or just anybody in the office, really) decided to do something stupid and put him in jeopardy, protected status or not. He even knows Helena hires fuck-ups exclusively (although not intentionally, I'm sure), so he should have made sure to remove himself from any situation that they could take advantage of, if even for a fleeting minute. So to put himself in the same room as Penelope, let alone test the posh Brit's limits (something Trevor loves to do with hostile giants), was a tremendous mistake on his part, one he's currently paying the price for.

But I don't think this is going to last, though. Trevor's status can't stay this way. You put too much emphasis on what all someone applying for Status-C has to go through to be granted it, both in the previous chapter and in this one. The "loophole" Penelope found, using Helena's position to override Donnica's claim, strikes me as more of a system thing than a legal one. As in someone like Helena could step in and override things if it's in the best interest of the tiny, not to claim them for themselves. There's no way the government would make you go through such an extensive process, one that many willing applicants have failed for fickle reasons if S1 is anything to go by, only to just allow someone else, even someone like Helena, to just swoop in and claim an applicant for themselves.

So yeah, this isn't going to last. I don't know if Helena is smart enough to realize this or if Donnica is going to have to file a lawsuit to regain her property, but Trevor's time as a true slave is limited. You're not fooling me, even if I still have that sense of dread in the pit of my stomach worrying about Trevor. Because as much as I believe I'm right on this, I can't really know that for sure. And even if I am, that's not going to help Trevor much in the short term, as we saw in S4 (which I'll circle back to shortly).

All of this, in my mind, makes Penelope nothing more than a gorgeous, entitled idiot. I don't see how she's going to come back from this, unless Helena can think of some legal basis to justify the claim override, like a false claim of abuse or something. That being said, you set her up as being the one to do this quite well. She thinks that tinies in America are basically up for grabs, that it's only a matter of waiting until their registration status changes and then no one cares. That last line about her loving America really drives this point home. She really thinks it's that simple here, and that she, a regal brit with a queen complex (I loved every single one of those royalty references, by the way!), can just grab Trevor up and take him, even though he was supposed to be claimed by Annabel and Donnica.

I also love that she actively sought to date registered tinies and tried to force them to serve her anyway. I'm also not surprised that some of them actually obeyed (and not just because you're the one writing the story!). There's that primal force going around that we've seen Amber and Rebecca trying to navigate (and even Trevor felt it during that big confrontation with Helena), so of course there are other tinies that fall victim to that when an obnoxiously dominant giant like Penelope taps into it. I'm actually surprised that some walked away from her, although I love that Penelope describes as having "the nerve" to walk away. Now that's bratty entitlement!

Also, it was interesting to hear that the UK (and presumably a good portion of the world) inherently protect tinies status as people rather than privatizing it like the U.S. does. That certainly plays into the greedy Americans stereotype pretty well, and the fact that this makes the country the envy of people like Penelope, foreign visitors who want to own a tiny with a will of their own, makes a lot of sense. I was intrigued that it was mentioned a couple times that Penelope had owned tinies before, though, and broken-in ones at that. The tiny trafficking trade must be alive and well under the shadows of Big Ben and Old Bailey!

Penelope "informing" Trevor of his new status was handled so well! Her pompous attitude, her challenge for him to hit the button on his clicker, her turning her laptop around to show him, let him see for himself his new lot in life: Everything was perfect! Then she picked him up like a loose thread on her desk (I love that simile!) and smashed his stuff and brushed the rubble aside like crumbs (I found the other crumb line!). As dumb, or maybe deluded is a better word here, as Penelope is, all of this was really fucking hot, right down to the way she shifted her fingers to remind him that she could drop him at any time.

But the pocket might have been my favorite part of these three segments.

I've praised your emphasis on giant footsteps quite a bit, but this was such a unique take on it! I love how carelessly she stuffed him in her skirt pocket, but it was how his whole world was utterly rocked with each step as she strutted through the office that really got me. You had me at the word thigh! That was such a great detail, her thigh knocking him down as it rushed up to meet him in the pocket over and over as she walked without a care in the world. So good!

And then there was the rape scene. There wasn't a lot of dialogue here, for obvious reasons, but I was hanging on every poshly spoken word to slip out of Penelope's lips. Her attitude, her demeanor, pretty much everything about her once they get into the car was so alluring and sexy but in the darkest of ways. To see her truly indulge in owning Trevor was hypnotic, and it really drew me in.

Speaking of her "owning" him, I was intrigued by how she kept thinking that, despite the fact that he's registered to Helena. I couldn't tell if this was more delusion, her fantasizing in the moment, or if she really thinks that Helena will let her "own" Trevor and just keep him under Helena's name for legal reasons. Regardless of why she's thinking this, I think she's in for a rude awakening at Helena's place (based on that line about Helena's estate and visiting him often, I'm assuming that's where they're going). Even if Helena is happy with owning Trevor and there aren't consequences for what Penelope did, I can't really see Helena sharing him. He'd be a special prize for her, not as special as the rival, but someone she'd want to keep for herself for all the trouble he's caused her.

So even in the best case scenario for Penelope, this is probably as good as it's going to get for her.

Anyway, back to the smut, your luxurious writing style worked its magic here. The way she lowered him to her panties so slowly, making him take in every inch of her, was awesome! Uh, disgraceful! I meant disgraceful! What a menace Penelope is. A sultry, bratty, sexy British menace. Um, what were we talking about again?

Oh right! Her pussy! What a fantastic job you did of showing Penelope's bliss and Trevor's suffering with that insertion scene. That unspoken command was great! Distinguishing the loving touches of Annabel and Donnica from Penelope using him was perfect! And your descriptions, as always, were on point and well detailed.

Then, of course, Penelope shoved him up her ass. I like how you tied this in with the bathroom incident with Helena, mentioning back in S2 that all of Helena's girls knew about that and made fun of him for it constantly. So Penelope talking about his skills inside an asshole wasn't random at all. I admit that I didn't see this coming back in S2, but I feel like I should have!

Jumping back to S2, there were a couple things about Helena that stood out to me. First, her racking up legal victories and seemingly working like mad to make herself indispensable was interesting. Given what she said about having Donnica by her side in the last chapter, I'm guessing that Helena, who probably wouldn't have much trouble getting into another firm, is motivated by something other than professionalism. Donnica is giving her the cold shoulder and Helena goes into overdrive? Sounds like Helena's trying to get back into Donnica's good graces, something Penelope's actions certainly won't help with.

 I'm even starting to wonder if Helena might be interested in Donnica romantically or something. There's not nearly enough there to draw that conclusion yet, but the way Helena is approaching this issue with Donnica has put the thought in my mind.

The other thing that jumped out at me was how often Helena is rotating assistants and that they aren't even being fired. My first thought was that hiring a bunch of fellow bigots is probably a part of the problem, with her likely prioritizing their sizeism over their merit. In my mind, that certainly applies to Penelope.

But thinking about it a bit more, I'm wondering if something is happening to these girls. Maybe I'm reading too much into this and their "disappearances" are just another example of how Helena bucking the office system is creating problems, but I kind of suspect that Helena is actually doing something to these girls. Unlike Donnica, who, even before all this goddess mother stuff, felt fond of her assistant, Helena has shown her own no love. I would think that them being fired would have to go through the system in some shape or form, so what's happening to them?

The conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe that Helena has figured out some way to weaponize the virus and that the penalty of for failing her is the loss of her assistants' "godesshood." That's a completely random theory I'm throwing out there and probably completely wrong (I mean, how would any of that even work?), but you made the thought pop in brain, so deal with it!

Oh, and I didn't forget about Celine and MINAR. When we first learned that Helena was being shady, I suspected that she was planning a coup, something we now know isn't the case. But that she has her own system and has been keeping track of things her own way the whole time is mind-blowing to me. I just assumed she was being difficult, but now we know she has something to hide. Namely Celine. Who the fuck is that? Is it even actually a person? Maybe some kind of codename or AI? What a great mystery you've sprung on us!

Damn, these three segments were gut-wrenching, yet intensely erotic as well! If this is how you do plot, fucking sign me up!

awesome chapter

Fantastic, as always. So many things are happening in this chapter, but the best is the new character Scarlett. What an incredible giantess, so happy for Amber and Rebecca, even if Rebecca is going to have to learn to enjoy another pair of stinky feet. And of course Celine, who was incredible tiny, I was scared she was going to be destroyed by Helena's treatment, but not at all; she does everything to piss her off. Fantastic One of the best chapters. And as a conclusion, fuck Penelope; she wanted to take Donnica tiny. 

Author's Response:

Yes I was so happy to show more about Scarlett, I love that you point her out. Same with Celine, another new character I am so happy to show everyone… and you’re right, she is absolutely NOT destroyed by Helena’s treatment, in fact, she not afraid to stand up to her at all.

Lol poor Penelope, she just want to make her mom happy :D

VIN-DI-CA-TION!

It turns out I was right on the guilt thing with Amber. Honestly, I didn't expect that to even come up again this chapter, but I love how you resolved those feelings later in the chapter. And the whole exchange framed around Amber's guilty conscience made S4 my favorite segment of the chapter! The emotional conflict here was perfect!

While I suspected that Amber might blame herself for Naomi almost killing Rebecca, I wasn't sure why she would do this. You tied this together really nicely! I kind of remember Rebecca warning Amber that having her out in the open part of the house was a bad idea, but I wasn't even sure if Amber was sober enough to remember that, let alone feel guilty about it after Rebecca almost died.

I love how this wasn't a constant thing thrown in our face but came out at just the right time. I don't think this would have had the same impact if it had been blatantly put out there before now. But, at the same time, this helps explain Amber's overly protective nature when it comes to Rebecca (like not letting Rebecca decide to help Sarah with her video to get Amber back to the cabin). And realistically, it makes sense that this was just simmering in the back of Amber's brain, too, only coming to the forefront now because Naomi is back in their lives and Rebecca wants to help her (which, again, is amazing; Rebecca is such a good person. mean streak aside!).

But this scene went deeper than that. Amber could barely even muster a response when Rebecca mentioned that Amber had also done awful things to her. That's what really broke the big girl down, I think. And I was so glad to see this come up again! The way Amber asked "How dare you say that to me?" barely a whisper, no hostility behind it, felt like that was the last vestige of her "master" defense mechanism falling apart in the moment. That was such a great line!

To see Amber asking Rebecca (really herself, though) why she did those things to Rebecca, why she keeps doing terrible things to her, was such a satisfyingly moment, too. For her to acknowledge that hesitation she has before going into "master mode" is a big moment for her, and I love seeing her emotional walls come down. It's also good to know that she not only realizes what she's doing to Rebecca sometimes but actually feels really bad about it.

Not only that, but we finally got to see what happens when Rebecca keeps fighting after "Master says no!" And yeah, since I claimed vindication at the start of this review, I should also admit that I may have been w-wro ... wron ... uh, incorrect-adjacent when I kept saying that Rebecca was losing herself to Amber's will. Of course, I still think that's at least partially true, since Rebecca did point out that something was happening with the both of them, but it looks like I was wrong (there, I said it!) when I said that, at some point, Rebecca was going to become so lost that she wouldn't be herself when Amber needed her most.

Having said that, it was so gratifying to see Rebecca stick to her guns on this and discover that there are some issues that she's willing to fight for! Child abuse is definitely one of those issues, but to hear her expand that to helping anyone in need, especially women (sorry dudes!), fits her personality so well! This really paid off, too, as we see both at the end of this segment and in S5 (more on that in a second).

But yeah, master said no, and Rebecca stood her ground. I was so happy to see Amber start to break down rather than toughen up at this. Amber's love for Rebecca trumps her need to dominate her, and if Rebecca really, truly wants to "disobey" Amber, the giant girl isn't just going to double down and force her. Sure Amber has been aggressive with her in the past, but a part of Rebecca actually wanted it too. Rebecca has been losing this fight because it's a handicapped one: Rebecca versus Amber and herself.

But not this time, at least not enough to stop her from winning for once. Rebecca was able to push down that need to serve, to obey, and she didn't give up when Amber pulled the "master" card. After that, it felt like Amber was trying to convince Rebecca that she was wrong rather than just leaning on the authority of her size and personality even more. Even when Amber kept yelling at her, Amber came off as desperate rather than dominant.

Then, once Amber broke down and Rebecca was able to finally bring her back, Amber was truly ready to listen. I love, love, love that Amber asked Rebecca wanted her to do about Naomi. Now that the root of her hostility, her lack of empathy, had been addressed, Amber was ready to support Rebecca in any way she could. That was so touching! And Rebecca didn't take advantage of it, deciding that they had done enough (although I imagine this could easily change in the chapters ahead). She didn't want to push Amber too far. Like she said, Amber doesn't need to change the world; they just need to leave it a little better than they found it. It looks like Amber took those words to heart, too!

I say that not only because of her softening up on Naomi a bit (at least when Naomi isn't around), but also because of what happened between Scarlett and her in S5. I mentioned back in my S1 review that Rebecca, in her own way, was trying to teach Amber the same lesson that changed Annabel's life after Trevor taught it to her after that older date never got back with her. Amber is learning empathy, and it is glorious!

So instead of dwelling on her hate, Amber kicked ass in practice, then decided to be open and honest (in her own, socially awkward way) with her new soccer rival. At first glance, this approach seems to have paid off in a big way

I'm not 100 percent sure I trust Scarlett yet. I want to, and I hope Amber and she become great friends, but all that shady, deceptive stuff she did before doesn't just go away. Then she initially answered Amber's question about lying and embarrassing her in front of the whole team with another obvious lie, which was a bad start for sure.

But Amber pressed her a bit, and Scarlett seemed to open up. It makes total sense that Scarlett would be taking whatever shortcuts and making however many enemies she has to now in order to secure her future. So what she said makes a lot of sense, and I want to believe her.

I couldn't help but notice that Amber warmed up to Scarlett when the transfer started complimenting her, though. Maybe she was just being nice. Maybe she actually likes Amber. But that's also manipulation 101: go for the ego. I don't know, maybe I'm just paranoid, but I'm still a little suspicious here.

That being said, I did enjoy seeing these two appear to really bond, and I hope that's legitimate! Seeing Amber let down her guard a bit and just be a normal high-school girl felt really good to read. She's had things rough, much rougher than you'd expect for someone of her standing, so, much like when the soccer team rallied around her at the dance, I was really happy to see Amber loosen up and have fun.

Of course, now I'm worried that Rebecca might have a romantic rival on the horizon! I also wonder if she was in Amber's room or in her bag as all this was going on (I assume the room, since Rebecca was never mentioned).

I wonder how Rebecca will react to this newfound friendship. Will she be proud of Amber? Will she be jealous of Scarlett? Will she be annoyed that Amber maybe isn't as available now that she's out with a new friend from time to time? Will she come to regret trying to get Amber to hang out with her friends? Or will Rebecca start to wonder if she's been holding Amber back by having to hide in the giant's room, keeping Amber away from enjoying the best years of her life?

And on Scarlett's end, how does she feel about tinies? Most of the characters we've met so far either feel vastly superior to them, hate them, or just don't care. I wonder if she'll be the same, or if she'll be one of those nice, charitable giants we hear about from time to time (checks author's name Nope, definitely not that one!).

This should be really fun to follow in the chapters ahead. This is only the first one of a new arc, and we've already got so much plot movement here! I'm loving this!