The University of Ruttsley has never been known for anything special since it was first opened around 1895. Surpassed by other southeast schools in almost everything, what attracted students to study there was the friendly atmosphere and the low tuition costs. Indeed, until the fateful year 1995, it would still be as obscure and forgotten.

It was homecoming day, and as was customary this time every year, there would be the traditional ball game between the Ruttsley Campers and the McBrisley Troopers – old rivals on the SEC. The centennial game was attracting a crowd, probably the biggest crowd the 20,000-capacity Campers Arena ever had until that day. Every year, the students selected the homecoming Queen and King, senior students in positions of honor among their classmates, to be the heads of the two day celebration of homecoming: the partying on the Saturday, and the actual Game on Sunday.

In 1995, the Homecoming election was heated. Sabrina Meyers ended up winning the title, just a few votes ahead of Mary Tink, a result that was contested twice after the elections – leading to both girls eagerly awaiting to hear who ended up being the Queen on Saturday morning. The whole school was there, on the school grounds, waiting for the Dean to announce the result. Both girls were dressed up, and waiting. Whoever won would be Queen alongside King Brandon Miller, who won his election quite easily – with that charming smile, who could resist him? Both would-be-Queens had voted him, and were glancing at him all the time, more so than the empty seat on the throne next to him.

“The centennial Homecoming Queen of the University of Ruttsley is….” The Dean started announcing, as everyone held their breath – “Sabrina Meyers!”

Cheering erupted from most of the students, as the girl, wearing her elegant white dress and white strappy kitten heels started jumping up and down from joy. Mary Tink’s supporters were saddened, but hey, this is a school celebration! Even them could not but join in the cheering crowds after they saw their own Mary bow to the winner, hug her, and then lead her to meet their King. It was only then that a few people noticed something odd. The two contestants were about equal in height – and both shorter than the King by some. Yet now, as they were walking, people noticed that Sabrina was about half a head taller than Mary. Indeed, Brandon Miller realized that when she approached – he had practiced the customary “Royal Dance” with both girls last night, and she definitely looked shorter last night.

“Congratulations, my Queen”, he greeted her, taking her hand and kissing it, in a most royal fashion. For a southeast school, Ruttsley loved their loyalty being royal, and they cheered their royalty as they turned to face the crowd, walking towards the edge of the stage, where Mary Tink, the first Maid of Honor, held the almost cartoony drum that the King and Queen would roll to begin the Homecoming Weekend.

Anyone who hadn’t noticed by then, had noticed now. Sabrina was not just as tall as Brandon, she was actually a bit taller than him by the time they stopped walking. He noticed that too, when he felt his arm around her waist moving up, as if she was growing, as they were walking. The cheering crowd stopped cheering, and when he turned to face her, he was looking at his Queen’s chin.

Sabrina, only then realizing what was going on, was suddenly able to look down on Brandon’s cute (as she thought it) hair. They both gasped, looking as each other for a moment in disbelief. Sabrina lifted her leg, looking at her kitten heels, wiggling her toes out of anxiety. Nope, it was definitely too short to make almost a foot’s difference by now!

The dumbfounded spectators could only watch as their queen slowly grew a bit more, until she was tall enough for Brandon to be eye level to her breasts. Only then, a girl from the crowd started screaming. Panic ensued, but most people simply kept watching, unsure what to do! Sabrina took the microphone from her flabbergasted King, and addressed the crowd:

“Erm…guys… I think we have a small problem here…well...not so small. But I’d like to, erm, declare this Homecoming’s beginning! Welcome all, students, parents, alumni, friends. Welcome!”

It was as if lightning struck the crowd. The screams stopped when they realized their queen had stopped growing. It was odd, but people accepted her. Everyone started clapping, and Sabrina took her partner’s hand on hers, feeling his small fingers on her palm. “Let’s dance, my Liege!”

The dance on the stage was less than perfect. Sabrina practiced with a man taller than her last night, but this one might as well have been her eleven year old brother. Her moves were smooth and graceful, but she could only stifle a small grin as her partner almost ran to match her steps on the floor. As the music slowed down into a more romantic tune, she took her partner closer, pressing his head on her…belly. She had grown even more during the dance, and by now she was nearing twice her original height. The crowd started laughing and cheering, clapping and calling to their King to match his Queen, as he looked more like a Princeling to them by now!

When the official dance ended, the real partying for the rest of the day would begin. Tents were set up across the expansive school grounds, barbeque and beer was abundant, and people were excited, talking, thinking not of tomorrow’s game, but of their “Big Queen”, as they called her.  Sabrina, taller than anyone else by now, her clothes thankfully following suit, walked among her classmates, her King practically running behind her to match her strides.

Sabrina was headed to the edge of the party grounds, where a few professors had already set up a table and were discussing. Biology and Physics teachers, they all watched Sabrina walk briskly towards them. She was by now about fifteen feet tall, her own King barely able to reach up to the bottom of her dress. Her small feet were now over two feet long, and her short kitten heels started challenging most high heels for height! Her every step was noticed by people around her, most of them moving out of her way.

None of the scientists could figure out what was happening. Sabrina sat down on the ground as they were examining her, still noticing how they couldn’t reach above her shoulder. A few news vans had already started arriving on the scene. “the Centennial Ruttsley Homecoming Queen is Big!” was the day’s headline.

Sabrina kept becoming taller and taller, and it was evident that her slow growth would not easily stop.  By midday, she was fifty feet tall. No one was particularly afraid of her, however. With feet longer than a human was long, she was carefully walking along the tents, bending low, saying hi to the party goers, asking for a burger or two – which people tossed in her grinning mouth as if they were footballs. The King was forgotten, somewhere with Mary Tink, discussing on their own, and both cursing Sabrina for stealing both their thunders.

Sabrina enjoyed her afternoon and day, and people even created a seventy foot clearance for her Highness to lay down during the night, as her growth hadn’t stopped. She would have to cheer her team tomorrow, after all!

Only that next morning, people realized that Sabrina had used up not only the seventy feet long area, but had grown double that and some more: a two hundred foot giantess wanted to watch her game, as she woke up,  her stretching hand punching a building on the side: no one was inside, but the punched building remained a landmark. She stood up, small tremors shaking the ground as her three foot heels dug on the ground, her sandals as long as a small bus dwarfing everything.

Sabrina still was able to watch the game.  She was tall enough to sit crosslegged outside the stadium and peek inside. Her cheering and clapping made the opponents quite nervous, as her mighty shadow was on top of them. National TV was covering the game, not because of any interest on the game, but because of the odd spectator.

The team was triumphant, and people were celebrating afterwards, yelling up at their partying Giantess Queen their thanks. A lot of people took pictures with her. Some people were  posing sitting on her comfortable stool-high toes, others wanted to be held on her hands, others asked her to kindly lie down as they posed on top of her head as a mountain climber that conquers a peak. She was really careful, and did not hurt anyone and anything those two days. As Homecoming was coming to an end, Sabrina was standing on the side of the campus, looking at the small buildings on her feet. It was fun, but she was just too big! At that moment, she slowly shrank down – but not her sandals, which stood as permanent monuments to the Queen.

People ended up creating a small airplane hangar around the gigantic footwear, naming it “the Queen’s Shoebox”, and it became Ruttsley’s first sightseeing spot.

No one ever explained what happened that year. But everyone was in for a surprise, when the Queen for next year, none other than second-time senior Mary Tink (she had to miss a year for undisclosed reasons), became a Giant Queen the same way as her predecessor. She never grew to be that tall, however, topping only fifty feet height, and her high heel blue sandals looked minuscule compared to last year’s on the hangar.

Nevertheless, in all years until this one, the unexplained phenomenon kept happening. Some Queens became taller than Sabrina, the shorter one managing only a meager twenty feet tall. The hangar was expanded every year with each queen’s footwear.

An official explanation was never released, and the Queens were more carefully selected to ensure public safety – and trained for the event. As for the King, his position was scrapped.

But enough about the past. It’s the year 2010, and Homecoming is nearing again.