Peter watched the seeming runway of the sidewalk coming along far below, his sister’s red Converse lifting up and moving forward in midair before planting back on the concrete to take a step toward the bus stop, still sitting comfortably in the palm of her hand, his tiny backpack hitched to his shoulders by the straps.  The bus stop was coming closer into view, and Peter’s heart couldn’t help but speed up with anticipation.

At five inches tall, Peter still took up the majority of his sister’s hand as she cupped him calmly, curling her fingers in slightly to ensure he didn’t fall.  His entire family had become well-practiced at walking normally while keeping their hands almost perfectly horizontal, fingers wedged upward like a miniature fence of flesh to protect him.  It was something he deeply appreciated, as despite his adventurous nature, getting around solo took a bit more time than getting a quick lift from either of his sisters or his mother, and two of the three were almost always too happy to oblige a request for a lift.

Looking upward at his sister’s serene face, her hazel eyes blinking calmly in the wind, her long eyelashes flicking together as she did so, he decided this might be an opportunity to try to improve his relationship with his oldest sister, as, for the foreseeable future, he would be needing her assistance for his day-to-day activities.

“So… are you… are you gonna join a bunch of the clubs?” asked Peter, fishing clumsily for something he had in common to speak to Erica.  He received no answer at first, so he gently tapped on her thumb.  “Huh?”

“I heard you.  And I don’t know yet,” said Erica, clearly not particularly interested in conversing with her tiny brother at the moment, even going so far as to shift her thumb a little further off to the side, making it harder for him to tap on it and try to get her attention.

Swallowing, Peter deduced it was worth another try.  “I sure am!” he said energetically, sounding a little more overly zealous than he intended, but he continued.  “I’m going to join the environmentalist club, and the dance club, and the cooking club, and…”

“You know I’m not going to take you to ALL of those, right?” asked Erica, frowning a little as she finally looked down into her hand and made eye contact with her sibling.

“I… oh…” sighed Peter a little dejectedly, reclining slightly against his sister’s other four fingers that were propped behind him.  “I guess so.”

“Don’t push your luck, okay?  I already have to take you to every single class you’re taking.”

“Really?” asked Peter, surprised.

“Yeah, really,” replied Erica, rolling her eyes, obviously not thrilled with the idea.  “Mom doesn’t want anybody other than me touching you while you’re at school, so I have to come find you in all your classrooms and take you to wherever you’re going next,” she snorted in annoyance.

“Oh.  Um, sorry,” answered Peter, silently blaming his mother for partially impeding his chance to build up a better reputation with his older sister.

“Yeah, whatever,” shrugged Erica, reaching into her pocket with her other hand and whipping out her cell phone to begin promptly typing out a response to the text she had received.  Her eyes fell away from Peter and to the screen as she read her message.

Slowly, Peter leaned all the way back against his sister’s fingers, crossing his legs atop the heel of her hand, and placing his hands behind his own head like a pillow.  As he did, Erica reached the bus stop, coming to a halt by the curb.  The sun was still a blushed shade of pink as it began streaking upward in the sky.  The sight made Peter feel even more hopeful for the possibilities of his day, and he could hardly stop himself from shaking.

“Can you just calm down?” complained Erica after a moment, so Peter stopped, smiling, pleased to at least have his sister acknowledging him again.

“Sorry.”

“You really can’t spaz out like this at school, or people are gonna have like a freaking heyday with you.”

“I… I know that, Mom’s been talking to me about…”

“Peter, get real,” said Erica, putting most of her weight on one foot in attitude, and using her other hand to pat the top of her head, making sure her silky locks were still perfectly in place.  She raised a condescending eyebrow at him as she elevated him slowly up from his chest level position of before and up nearer to her nose.  “Mom doesn’t know ANYTHING about high school.”

“She does!” said Peter in defense of his over-protective parent.  “She told me people would probably treat me a lot different, even more than most people who come visit us, because they’re not prepared for me, and I shouldn’t blame them.”

“Right,” said Erica with an amused smirk, nodding slowly, obviously having something else on her mind.  She wiggled her fingers slightly under her brother’s back, making him flinch for a moment before she brought her thumb back into its original safety position next to his body.  “Look, here’s what you gotta know: don’t act like a total weirdo, and maybe you’ll get through this year in one piece, okay?”

“What?” gasped Peter, shocked at the blunt honesty.  “R-R-Really?”

She nodded.  “Well, I don’t mean somebody’s going to try and rip you into two pieces, but really, yeah.  I mean, a lot of people know about you from the papers and stuff a while back, but all that’s gotten a lot quieter, right?”

“I know.”

“News flash:  a lot of that’s going to start coming back now that you’re going to regular school.  And a lot of people that didn’t know about you before… well, I don’t know.  Just try not to act like a freak, okay?  Because then Mom will fry me.”

“I…” said Peter, his mouth feeling a little dry as he realized the veracity of everything his gargantuan sister had spoken, so he stopped himself.  “Okay.”

“Cool,” she nodded neutrally, and at that moment the bus came screeching in to the stop, the door swinging open.  Peter pulled himself into a fetal position to make it more convenient for his sister as her fingers slowly pulled themselves tighter around his body to secure him as she scaled the bus steps.

“Mornin’,” drawled the 5 o’clock shadow-wearing bus driver, who didn’t even bother looking at Erica as she stepped onboard and entered the narrow alley leading into the main area of the seats.

Peter watched large, unfamiliar faces rush past him as Erica strode confidently for the back of the bus.  As he passed, each stoic, bored head, full of dread for another long year of school, seemed to transform: eyes bugged, heads turned, jaws hung open, even a few gasps were dropped.  Most of the talking stopped and quieted to a low buzz until Erica had stopped at the last row and plopped down in the seat next to her friend Lena, lowering out of view behind the shield of the leather seatback, for which the now-embarrassed Peter was grateful.

All heads had turned back to face Erica, eyes still wide as dinner plates, pupils dilated.  Finally, one girl who appeared to be a sophomore opened her mouth and actually spoke, pointing an accusing finger at the pair.

“He’s… he’s…” she gasped, swallowing hard in order to continue speaking clearly.  “He’s that one k-kid… the…”

“Yeah?” answered Erica confidently, raising an eyebrow at the girl, squinting with so much fire it looked like daggers would shoot out from her retinas.  “You have a problem?”

The girl lowered herself back into the seat, clearly spooked by Erica’s show of aggression.  She shook her head no.  Erica raised herself higher in the seat, looking over the rest of the bus.  “Yes, this is my brother.  His name’s Peter.  He’s really small.  You probably read about him somewhere.  Are there any QUESTIONS?” she yelled out for emphasis.  Peter shivered as he felt the vibrations through the skin of her palm as she cried out, and he couldn’t help but notice her flesh steadily dampening with a cold sweat.  She was obviously a bit nervous about what she was doing.

After another minute of silence, save for the gentle chug of the bus and the grinding of rocks under the wheels, the heads had all turned back to the front.  A few of the freshmen continued peeking back toward the rear seating area where Erica was seated, but for the most part, they were at least physically ignored for the remainder of the bus ride.

“Hi there, Peter,” whispered Lena, leaning close to him so that he could hear her clearly, grinning widely and reassuringly at him as she brushed her thick black hair back over her shoulder to get a better view of him.  “Feel ready for this?” she asked soothingly, her warm, minty-toothpaste breath steaming outward against his face.

“I think so…” he said uncertainly, slightly befuddled by the shocked reception he had received upon boarding the bus with his sister.  He had, of course, known in the back of his mind that this was bound to happen, but having it happen, and having to watch so many gigantic individuals staring at him and him alone as if he was some sort of hamster being carried to school for show-and-tell by his older sister’s protective hand, he couldn’t help but feel a bit tight in his stomach.  Nevertheless, he felt a warm sense of gratitude to his sister, who normally just did the bare minimum required to make sure her brother didn’t get trampled to death in his daily existence.

“Erica?” he asked slowly.  His sister was already busily typing away again on her phone with her unoccupied hand, and she didn’t even glance at him.  Nevertheless, he felt it was necessary to say:  “Thanks.”

She still didn’t look him in the face as her hand slowly came to rest on her knee, with Peter still reclining comfortably against her fingers, but the small boy couldn’t help but notice the tiniest of sly smiles cross his sister’s lips.

“Yeah, whatever, twerp,” she said as neutrally as possible, rocking the hand holding him in a playful manner, knocking him up from his comfortable cross-legged position, but splaying her fingers to make sure he could catch himself on her soft digits before falling onto her jeaned leg.  “My hand’s not an armchair, you know.”