“Yeah,” Grace's voice thundered over Ava's world as she Facetimed with one of her enormous friends, “I have her do outside-in.”

In just one weekend, the shrunken girl on the floor had become very familiar with the phrase. Ava already had a passing awareness of it through social media, outside-in or inside-out were sometimes used to caption photos or videos of shrinkees working at their owners' feet. It wasn't particularly hard to understand the meaning: when you got home, did you make the shrinkee start by cleaning your shoes or massaging your feet?

Ava had never really given it any deeper thought. It was just one hashtag among many and since she had never owned a shrinkee, she had never actually imagined what day-to-day life with one was like. Even with Ethan's, she had always been more focused on what she and her boyfriend were doing to pay much attention to what the tiny guy was doing at their feet most of the time.

“I don't know if I could wait that long,” Rachel's voice was a garbled whine through the phone's speakers, “Especially today, Mr. Farley made us run so many laps...”

“It's not like I can track gym grime everywhere,” Grace responded, “My mom would kill me.”

On the floor, Ava did her best to keep from gagging as she dragged her tongue across the golden N of the giantess's pink New Balance sneakers. She had been dreading the task during her long day trapped in Grace's desk drawer. The giantess had made sure that Ava knew she had gym class that afternoon, going so far as to open the drawer and show her the enormous car sized sneakers so Ava would know how clean they needed to be after Grace got home.

“I still can't believe she just does whatever you tell her to,” Rachel sighed dreamily.

Ava could feel her face go flush with embarrassment while Grace laughed.

“Well, you know what they say,” the enormous foot in front of Ava rose up into the sky. The little girl stumbled and her neck craned back to stare at the pink sole as it twisted about before swinging wide and crashing to the floor behind her. Biting back a frightened yelp, Ava crawled forward to begin working on Grace's left sneaker, “Inside every shrinkee is a slave, even before they're tiny.”

Tears filled Ava's vision and she let them roll silently down her cheeks, unable to count how many times she had said that when a non-Immune classmate had done a favor for her. Sometimes she had even said something like 'I guess I'll keep you when you're small' instead of 'thank you.' Her whole body rattled as she choked back a sob, trying to imagine how she could have been so arrogant and so fucking dumb.

“I don't know, I don't think I'd just immediately give in,” Rachel mused on the other side of the call, “I'd rather just run or something.”

“Even if that meant you ended up beneath somebody's foot?” Grace laughed.

“I mean, yeah,” Rachel's voice made it clear that she was amused by the hypothetical, “Better to be crushed than a slave, in my opinion.”

Ava tried to block out their booming conversation as she clambered atop Grace's foot and began to dig out the laces from beneath the hefty tongue. Neither of them had any idea what they were talking about, she told herself. They didn't know how utterly terrifying it was to see someone towering over you. If they would just think about it for one second, they'd realize that obedience was better than being ground into a smear beneath an enormous tread.

Her stomach twisted as she thought of how many people she had crushed beneath her own shoes after they had done some humiliating task for her.

Any shrinkee an inch or smaller was basically useless as far as Ava had been concerned at her old height. She had once commanded some inch tall shrinkee to clean her shoes while she ate lunch and hadn't even noticed when she crushed it absentmindedly. Another time, she had been genuinely surprised with how hard a half-inch tall speck had worked to clear the dirt from under her toe nails but she was nowhere near surprised as they were when she smushed them beneath her big toe. She had even managed to convince a shrinkee to pick something out of her teeth before she brought her molars down right on top of it.

Now Ava realized how easy it would have been to keep any of them alive. She could have just kept them in a fish bowl on her desk or something. They'd probably have never even tried to run away. They would have just done... whatever she said.

The foot beneath her bucked like a bull and she was thrown to the floor as Grace's sock clad foot rose into the sky. The white sock was marred by dark splotches of grime in several spots but it was the stench of a day's worth of sweat that made Ava grimace. The floor rumbled as Grace rested her feet on their heels and crossed them at the ankles before the loud snapping of her fingers sent Ava scrambling.

The little girl gagged as she drove her shoulder into Grace's arch then began to knead the immense soles as best as she could. The second phase of her daily 'outside-in' routine was to massage Grace's feet with her socks still on. It was a grueling task that left Ava smelling more like the giantess's foot than her own sweat.

Rachel's next question cut through the tiny girl's misery, “So did you post it to your public story or just close friends?”

“Close friends,” Grace's toes scrunched overhead, “I didn't include Danielle or Olivia though.”

“They're going to find out.”

“Yeah, I'm sure more people than I let see it will find out but I don't know,” Grace sighed.

“It feels so stupid to tiptoe around them sometimes,” Rachel huffed, “Like, they shouldn't be so sensitive about it.”

“They can get so annoying about it too,” the floor shook as Grace stomped her heel in annoyance, “Like, seriously, what do they think is going to happen if they shrink?”

“I'd probably just step on them,” Rachel replied, “You know, put them out of their misery.”

“Really?”

“Ok, well, I mean, maybe I wouldn't? Like, how big would they be...”

The pair's laughter filled the room, making Ava's tiny body tremble in terror. She knew that she shouldn't be surprised, she had had similar conversations with friends over the years. The thing was, most of her friends were Immune. She had never really hung out with non-Immune kids and the idea of being friends with them but still treating them like anyone else who could shrink made her stomach churn once more.

The cotton before her shifted and then rushed past her as Grace yanked her socks off to reveal her bare feet. The faintest red splotches marred her otherwise creamy golden soles but Ava knew that the giant girl didn't want a better massage.

The last phase of the outside-in routine was to have her feet cleaned.

Ava shut her eyes and her whole body tensed as the massive feet crashed down to the floor. Opening her eyes, she watched the toes splay to reveal the spongy flesh between, marred by the girl's toe jam. With her whole body shaking, Ava crawled forward to began picking off the hunks of lint and dirt.

It was a slow, humiliating task because of how gentle Ava had to be. The first time that she did it through a haze of tears and coughing fits, she plucked too hard only to be immediately pounded by Grace's toes. The giant girl didn't even apologize, merely warning Ava that it was an involuntary response even though she said the words with a Cheshire grin.

“So, uh, was anyone else explicitly not on the list?” The leading tone of the question pulled Ava's attention away from the toes.

Grace was suddenly flustered, “Uh, lots of people...”

“What about a certain boy,” Rachel snickered, “In our pre-calc class...”

Ava's heart skipped a beat and her neck craned back. She stared up the long blue jean clad leg, past Grace's baggy hoodie to see the way her cheeks turned a bright pink. “No, we're not, he's... No... unless, do you think I should?”

Anger suddenly boiled in Ava's tiny body and she bit her lip as hard as she could to keep from screaming. Her eyes raked over her enormous captor and she tried to imagine in what fucking universe that Grace Park thought it was even possible that Ethan would be impressed that she had kidnapped his girlfriend.

Hell, even if Ava had never been born, there was no world where Ethan would even deign to look at the shrimpy nerd.

“No, probably not,” Rachel's voice went from glum to excited, “Wait, are you mutuals with any of his friends?”

The toes in front of her scrunched but Ava ignored them, her tiny eyes focused on Grace as the giantess scrolled through her phone. Her shoulders slumped a second later, “No, just him.” Then her face lit up, “But Chloe and Alex Levett follow each other.”

“So tomorrow when we come over to work on the project...” Rachel replied.

“You and Chloe can post on your stories, Alex will see it, and then she'll probably show Ethan.”

The two girls giggled at what they clearly thought was some kind of foolproof plan.

“Speaking of that project though, I do have homework to get to tonight,” Grace grumbled.

“Same, talk to you later!”

The call ended and Grace let out a dreamy sigh while Ava stared up at her from the floor. She couldn't comprehend what world that the giant girl was living in where she thought this was a good idea. The more Ava thought about it, the more she began to feel giddy with her own excitement. There was no way that her friends would simply let Grace Park keep her, not if the whole school was going to find out.

It would just be embarrassing for everyone.

Powerful digits suddenly clamped around her body and Grace's gaming chair groaned as she leaned forward. “What are you doing down there?”

“Nothing, mistress!” She shouted in terror.

Grace's toes released Ava at the same time the giantess flicked her foot forward, sending the shrunken girl tumbling across the hardwood until she smacked against the golden N of Grace's right sneaker. “Then get back to work,” the girl commanded as she turned her attention to her homework.

“Yes, mistress,” Ava called back, the words making her go bright pink. She hated calling Grace 'mistress', it felt so gross but she also knew that Grace would immediately lash out if she called her by name. Even 'Ms. Park' had seemed to annoy the giantess and all the other alternatives Ava could think of felt far worse than 'mistress.'

Grace paid her little attention for the remainder of the afternoon, only snatching her up once as she worked on her pre-calc homework. Her powerful fingers wrapped around Ava, her grip shifting over and over as her mechanical pencil scratched against paper below. The little girl alternated between holding her breath and gasping as Grace used her like a living stress ball until she was dropped back into the drawer while the giantess went to help her mother with dinner.

Thankfully, a few small scraps were set before her that night. Ava devoured the bits of greasy pork with reckless abandon, moaning in pleasure as she chewed, completely ignored by her enormous overlord. She remained on Grace's desk until shortly before the girl went to bed, when the giantess kicked off her slippers and again forced Ava to clear out the globs of grime from between her toes.

It would have been humiliating enough except that when she was returned to the drawer, Ava had to listen to Grace moan her boyfriend's name several times. The way the mattress groaned and the sheets shifted told her everything she needed to know before she heard the girl's excited whining. Her orgasm came in a low husky moan that was followed by her sneaking off to the bathroom to clean up.

Ava gritted her teeth through the whole affair, reminding herself that within a few days one of her friends would realize what was going on and come put an end to it all. That thought was at the forefront of her mind when she awoke the next day to listen to Grace getting ready. When the girl left, Ava couldn't stop herself from counting off the minutes till her captor returned.

Then the front door finally opened and three booming voices filled the house.

Their feet stomped up the stairs and the excitement coursing through Ava was replaced with fear. The little girl started to shake as the drawer around her began to tremble, the cacophony of Grace and her friends all talking at once filling her tiny ears.

Grace's plan was a bad one but not for the reasons Ava hoped but for the simple fact that Alex might completely ignore Chloe's stories. Or worse, she might simply click through them without paying them any mind. There was no guarantee that anyone would know where Ava was, even with Grace making it painfully obvious.

“God,” she began to plead but her words were cut short by the drawer being yanked open.

Ava didn't even have time to process what was happening before she was suddenly stumbling across the floor, her head spinning and her stomach feeling like it was somewhere far away in the sky. She fell down onto her knees and swallowed the bile rising in her throat.

Then a chorus of giggles erupted around her followed by the sound of rubber and leather stretching. Ava tried to calm her nerves as she lifted her head.

In front of her were Grace's Nikes, barely dulled from being worn after Ava had been forced to lick them clean on Saturday afternoon. The giant was dressed in black leggings that disappeared into her baggy pastel hoodie and for once her long silky hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, held in place by a purple scrunchie.

To her right, Rachel was wearing a pair of gold and white checkered Vans slip-ons, with white socks bunched around her ankles. Surprisingly, she was wearing dark blue jeans that day instead of shorts even though, as always, she had on her University of Minnesota hoodie. Her blonde hair was loose but she had a red scrunchie around her left wrist and a few natural colored hair ties on her right.

Ava slowly turned toward her left to find Chloe staring at her through her chunky dark blue hipster glasses like she was some offensive bug. The girl's severe bangs and chin length bob of dark hair stood in stark contrast to her pale rounded face. As she took in the giantess's dark jean jacket with several pins gleaming in the light, recognition started to dawn in Ava's mind.

Chloe had been in classes that mixed grades with Ava over the years. Always in the background, normally with her arms crossed or a judgmental sneer on her face. If she contributed more than an annoyed sigh, it was some long complicated diatribe on things no one in their right mind would even think about let alone be concerned about.

Her skinny jeans tapered off above her ankles, showing thick ugly woolen socks that stretched out of her maroon sneakers. The sneakers black laces and black rubber soles were thick and dirty enough that just looking at them made a lump form in Ava's throat.

Chloe took out her phone, its cutesy My Neighbor Totoro case seeming to clash with the rest of her aesthetic as she settled down on the edge of Grace's bed. “So you have her do outside-in, right?” Chloe asked with a glance toward Grace.

The world shook as Grace pulled her chair up and settled into it, crossing one leg over the other so that the dirty sole of her sneaker hung over Ava's world, “Yeah.”

Ava trembled as she looked from Grace's foot swinging overhead to Chloe's soiled sneakers in front of her. Then the floor shook so hard that Ava fell down onto her hands. Glancing over, she saw Rachel had simply stretched out before kicking off her Vans, “I still would rather have a foot massage first thing...”

“I don't really care one way or the other,” Chloe said as her foot slid forward to stop right in front of Ava.

“Good, cause I have her do Outside-in,” the pronouncement was accompanied by a snap of Grace's fingers.

With tears in her eyes, Ava crawled forward and lowered her head to lick the dirty sole of Chloe's sneakers. The sound of a camera app's click echoed across the heavens above.