I did my best to stay out of Tanisha’s way in the afternoon, and she was content to merely continue her harassment by blocking my view.  Maybe she’d gotten her fill at lunch, or thought that laying off me would encourage Meredith to give in.  Whatever her motive, I was glad for the reprieve.  My thighs had taken a pounding from her the last couple of days, not to mention my ego.  Not only that, but my physical response to her terrifying presence worried me.  I’d reacted this way to Meredith, and I doubted she was just flirting with me.

When the day was over, I went to wait for Meredith outside the yearbook room.  It usually took her about a half hour to finish whatever she was doing in there, and I had the time to myself.  After school the halls were almost empty, particularly this far from the exit.  I simply leaned against the wall, pulled out my phone, and began idly scrolling until it was time for us to go.

A shadow fell over me, and two strong hands grabbed my shirt.  Before I saw who it was, they yanked me into the middle of the hallway, then gave me a firm shake.  “Why you creeping around, creep?” they demanded.  I recognized Meredith’s voice and relaxed, then gazed up into the burning intensity of her brown eyes.  “Waiting for someone to walk by so you can creep on them?”

“No, I’m just waiting for a friend!” I protested.  “I’m supposed to be doing a lab experiment with my partner this afternoon, they’re running a bit late is all.”

Meredith scoffed, then replied, “It’s always something with you creeps, isn’t it?  A lab partner, or meeting with a teacher, or your parents are late to pick you up.  Well, I’m sick of it, and I think it’s time I taught at least one of you creeps a lesson.”

“What’re you gonna do to me?”  I did my best to act afraid: Meredith said it was more satisfying that way. 

“Nothing for you to be worried about.”  She gave me a smug grin and leaned down until our noses touched.  “In fact, it’ll make it easier for you to creep around.  You’ll just have to be more alert instead of playing on your phone, is all.”  Quickly she looked around to make sure no one else could see us, then let go of my shirt.  The shrinking process rooted me to the ground – at least, that was how we liked to play it – so there was no chance of me running away.

Though she was practiced enough she could make me the desired size in a split second, we both preferred when I dwindled a little more gradually.  I liked the increasing feeling of powerlessness as she became taller and wider in my view, steadily changing from a woman who loomed over me to what looked like a skyscraper that had taken human form.  For her part, she liked watching me get smaller and weaker, less able to resist her strength so she could do whatever she wanted.  This time she stopped when I was just a smidge taller than the toes of her ratty gray hi-top Converse, but significantly shorter than their tops.  Tonight, I would likely not be playing with her dolls.

Meredith spread her fingers and got ready to snatch me up before we were interrupted.  “Meredith, can you come here a second?” a voice called.  “We need you to help with something.”  She balled her fingers back into a fist, squeezing it tightly to dissipate the rage. We both knew carrying me in there would cause an uncomfortable amount of questions.

“I’ll be right in!” Meredith replied, then turned down to me.  “Okay, stay right here and don’t move, all right?  I’ll be right back.”  She walked away, leaving me with nothing to look at but the open fire doors that had been behind her, leaving me feeling exposed and vulnerable.

As soon as she vanished into the room, a figure turned the corner at the end of the hall.  A blond, feminine figure, that was demonstrating her height by dragging her fingers along the ceiling.  A small maroon t-shirt and tiny black shorts clung to her body, identifying her as a member of the volleyball team.  Two things were certain to me: this was Tanisha, and if she saw me I was in big trouble.

What could I do, though?  Meredith had told me to stay put, but in the middle of the corridor I’d stick out against the white tile.  If I stayed I was sure to be seen, but moving across the floor would draw her attention too.  This small interruption was turning out to be a tremendous problem.

I realized if I explained the danger Meredith would surely forgive me and figured I’d try the best way to avoid her notice.  Tanisha was walking down one side of the corridor so I headed for the other, sprinting for the wall as quickly as I could.  Black smudges and gray textures on the tiles were the landmarks as I sprinted over them, leaping between the cracks.  I’d always been fast, and even at my diminished size I could still blaze a trail.

When I was just under a foot away from taking shelter beneath the lockers an enormous black wall swung down in front of me, blocking my path and hitting me with a strong gust of wind.  I looked back and saw another black shape blocking my way back, but with more distance I could clearly see it was a shoe, complete with a black swoosh in relief.  Fearing the worst, I looked up and saw a pair of tremendous, toned legs above, converging toward the middle until they met at the crotch of a pair of black, spandex shorts.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Tanisha proclaimed.  I got the impression she was trying to be quiet, but her voice was still terrifyingly loud, more like a tremendous rumble than human speech.  “It looks like the littlest guy in school found a way to get even more little.  I wonder how that happened?”

“Okay Tanisha, look, there’s no reason we can’t both walk away from this!” I started, but her laughter cut me off.

“Your voice is so small!” she exclaimed.  “And high!  It’s just like in the movies!”  Her laughter continued, just as strong as before.  I wanted to wait until she was done to continue, but at this rate that might take all day and I wanted to have this settled before Meredith came back.

“There’s no reason you have to do anything here!” I shouted at the titaness standing over me.  “You can just walk away and forget you saw anything without doing something you regret!”

“Oh, you itty-bitty man, I would love to!” Tanisha retorted.  “I could have done that just earlier today!  But then your girlfriend had to turn down all my generous offers and refuse to teach me how to make people like you.  I really do want us all to be friends, but she’s refusing to teach me a fun skill, so… you’re a bargaining chip now.”

Before I could reply, a loud “Hey!” cut through the corridor.  “Get away from him!” followed, then a black streak slammed into Tanisha.  She crumpled with the hit, and the floor quaked from the impact of their two enormous bodies landing on the ground.  I was now trapped between two upturned black sports shoes with faded jeans laying over them, coming to end in a pair of ratty gray Converse.  Meredith had immediately realized what was going on and decided to rescue me.

There was no way I could be safe amid two tussling giantesses.  At this size, even a stray kick or throw that landed on me would be fatal, leaving little more of me than a smear on the tile.  As I withdrew Tanisha pulled her black Nikes up, making them scream as they dragged across the floor.  Colors whirled above me, then a wall of denim shoved me back, followed by a tremor from them crashing into the ground again.

I was no longer between their legs and ran to put as much distance as I could between us.  There was a loud scream, then two clangs as something slammed into metal – Meredith had told me that the yearbook people wear headphones while working, but this seemed like a lot to ignore.  Someone groaned, and I heard shuffling behind me while the other got up.  Without looking back I continued on my way, sure I could guide Meredith to me later with my phone.

A tremendous black shoe slammed down in front of me, killing any notions I had of evasion.  “And just where do you think you’re going?” Tanisha asked, her voice smugger than I could have ever imagined.  I stopped dead in my tracks.  “To the victor go the spoils, as it were.”  She bent over and one of her hands came toward me, its fingers spread wide.  It shot forward in a jab, and her fingers clenched around me.  Everything was dark and it felt like being inside an oven, and my insides dropped out from beneath me as she stood.

The sudden ascent stopped abruptly, and it felt like not only did my guts catch up to me, but they kept going.  Light struck me when she opened her fingers, and I could breathe freely again.  Unfortunately, I was between a pair of tremendous blue eyes with both pupils focused on me.  Each of her features I could see were my size, and there was nowhere to run.  Instead, I simply stood in the middle of her palm, trying to decide which eye to look into while she regarded me like, at best, a toy.

Her other hand reached toward me, thumb and forefinger extended, and I made no move to resist.  Tanisha pinched the back of my collar and plucked me out of her hand, then dangled me in front of her face.  She swung her hand back and forth a couple times, and I saw the sheer delight in her eyes watching me dangle from her fingers.

Suddenly she stepped forward and held me down to Meredith, just out of her arm’s reach.  She was in no shape to fight, and all I could do was look at her exquisite face clenched in pain.

“You know what this is, right?” Tanisha asked, shaking her hand just enough to start me swinging again.

“That’s my boyfriend!” Meredith said, trying but failing to get back to her feet.

“Yes, but he’s more than that,” Tanisha replied.  Even though there was no chance of Meredith snatching me out of her hand, Tanisha yanked me back hard enough that she knocked the wind out of me.  “He’s leverage.  You passed up all my offers of friendship, but now I have something you really want.”  She gave me another jerk to make me start swinging.  “It didn’t have to be like this, but you refused to negotiate.  Now he’s with me until we can come to an agreement.”

“Give him back!” Meredith spat, but Tanisha just laughed.

“I don’t think you understand the idea of leverage!” she said, laughing.  “Meet me in the cafeteria at 7:30 tomorrow morning and we’ll decide where to go from there.  Until then he’s mine, and I think I’ll have some fun with him.”  Tanisha pulled me back, and my view of Meredith was blocked by her fingers.

She let go of me, dropping me into her palm, while Meredith writhed helplessly on the floor.  “We’re going to have a good time, right?” Tanisha asked, nudging me with the tip of a finger.  She was talking to me like she would an infant, or a particularly cute kitten.  “Yeah, we’ll have a lot of fun!  At least, I will.  I’m not so sure about you.”  My body betrayed me again.  Though I wanted nothing to do with Tanisha, it seemed that with how helpless I was part of me did.  I just hoped we could keep that under wraps until this was over.

The world gently swayed back and forth, with Tanisha’s gait as she walked away.  Meredith moaned in protest, but there was nothing she could do about it now.  I was trapped under the gaze of two brilliant blue eyes and subject to the occasional jab from a finger when she wanted to make sure I knew who was in control.  When we got to her place, I figured, there would be no question at all, and she would unleash her full fury.