“Of course it would,” said Mrs Fielding.

“Mum, thanks! I’d love to go!” said Melendy.

“Let’s not tell your father about this either,” said Mrs Fielding, “Too many people could find out after he’s had a few glasses of wine. I don’t drink.”

“I don’t think I ever will either,” said Lewis.

“Nor would I,” said Melendy.

On the next Friday night of youth group, Lewis arrived early at Melendy’s house, and they walked to youth group and arrived holding hands. Lewis had found it surprisingly comfortable to be with the giantess Melendy, even though single sized Lynda had met him at his most inexperienced stage of awareness of girls’ beauty. He had stepped up to the mark and offered his hand to Melendy, who’d happily accepted it.

There were a few familiar faces on the steps.

“What’s she doing with the midget?” asked one girl, named Gates Yale, making no effort to lower her voice.

“Don’t worry about them,” whispered Melendy, “Jenny lets me use her pool during the week. The other night, she told me all about the horrible way they talk of you.

They reached the stairs and started upwards.

Gates made a thinly veiled pretence of tripping a little on the stairs, fell deliberately towards Lewis, knocking him off the second step, so that he fell back onto the concrete courtyard and grazed his hands.

“You did that deliberately!” said Melendy, and shoved Gates with all her strength.

“Just trying to improve your taste!” said Gates, and slapped Melendy hard on the face.

Melendy kicked the girl in the shins, and the two were soon wrestling until Melendy had Gates bent over on the stair rail. The fall would not have hurt her, but her back was hurting from the positioning and the pressure.

“Let me go!” she coughed, as a crowd had now come out to watch.

“Why can’t you just let us be happy?” said Melendy, “I like him much more than anyone else here, and your size-ist wise cracks only show how small you really must be on the inside! I’d like to let you go all the way to the street footpath and hope you keep walking on out of here!”

Lewis had climbed to his feet. His left hand showed small traces of blood, and the skin was torn on both palms, but he wasn’t seriously injured.

“Melendy, it’s alright,” he said, “Nothing any of them say can ever possibly matter to me again, as long as I’m with you.”

“Stop it, girls, and tell me what happened,” said Jenny, who had heard the commotion and come out to the steps too.

“Look at his hands,” said Melendy, pulling Gates abruptly back into an upright position, “She feigned slipping and shoved him off the steps!”

“Is that true, Gates?” asked Jenny.

“Yes,” said Gates.

“Then I think you’d better go. You’re barred from the group for the rest of this year. If you come back in February and behave perfectly, I’ll see about another chance. The same goes for anyone else who wants to do something like this. These nights are supposed to be safe and fun,” said Jenny.