Troy Jenkins, a 17-year-old boy genius, is in his attic completing his life’s work, a fully functional molecular miniaturization machine. As a younger child he had been obsessed with a certain movie where a somewhat eccentric scientist had created a shrink ray and had accidentally and unknowingly shrunken his children. His mother Cindy; a middle aged blonde hair, blue eyed insurance agent, had assumed that him watching the movie over and over was harmless and when he began to study physics in an attempt to design his own device she told herself it was only a phase and at least he was studying. Now three years after its beginning his machine was ready for testing. He decided he would wait until all of his family was out of the house so he wouldn’t be risking any accidents, the movie had taught him something after all. 

He woke up as usual to the sound of his father, Ricky Jenkins, shouting down the hall, “Troy, time for school!”

Troy had this all planned out, he didn’t answer.

“Troy? Hello? Get your lazy butt up!” Ricky tended to be a little on the high strung side. He owned a diner in the town where his family lived and it was not what you would call easy going work what with the customer always being right. In Ricky’s mind the customer is and always has been a jackass. Unfortunately this stress followed him home at the end of the day. Running a business and being a father of three is not an easy task.

Troy waited with his head under the covers hoping his predictions would be correct, and they were. Ten minutes later there was a soft knock, and he managed to get his head out from under the covers just before his mother Cindy opened the door.

"Why does she knock if she’s just going to come in anyway?" Troy thought to himself but his plan had started, no time to hesitate, he let out a groan.

“I don’t feel good mom.”

Cindy entered and stepped over the discarded clothes and other objects that littered her son’s room that she had repeatedly told him to clean.

"Not going to school today are we?” She asked as she stood over him.

“I really feel cruddy mum.” Troy replied with another soft groan added in for good measure.

She felt his forehead, “You do feel a little feverish.” At least His blanket trick had worked. “Well I’ll be taking your brother and sister to school then. Will you be ok here by yourself today?” Troy nodded his head slightly and his mother walked out of the room. His plan had worked! 

Troy waited for half an hour listening to the sounds of his 13-year-old sister Amber, and his 12-year-old brother Adam doing their normal morning routine; chasing each other around the house, stomping up and down the hallway, getting Belle, the family’s dog riled up and barking, and finally getting ready and leaving for school. Troy jumped out of bed and peeked out the window to be sure there were no cars in the driveway, and he was off to the attic. 

As he entered the room everything was just as he left it; the dinosaur of a computer sitting in the corner, the ray on the table pointing at a chalk drawn square on the floor, it was all a little dusty and cluttered up here but it was an attic so that was to be expected.

Troy pressed the power button on the computer and waited patiently for the system to load up. He glanced around the room once more and let out a sigh, “So many boxes.” He really wanted his own lab but his parents still believed this was a phase and never in a million years would he be able to make an actual machine that could change the size of an object, that was just crazy, a child’s fantasy.

The computer beeped signaling that it was ready for work and Troy turned back and began loading the program size_edit.exe. The machine whirred to life. What should he test it on first? Surely not himself he was too smart for that. Human testing is never the first step. A bark resonated from downstairs,

“Belle you just volunteered!” Troy got out of his chair and went downstairs, returning shortly with the dog and its food bowl. Setting the bowl down on the square to ensure that Belle would not be moving Troy went back to his computer and began the firing sequence. “Here’s hoping you don’t disintegrate Belle” Troy said as he pressed the enter key. A bright flash that eclipsed the bulb in the lamp on the computer desk, and Belle was gone.

Quickly Troy jumped up with his magnifying glass in hand and searched the square his jaw dropped when his glass hovered over a tiny, confused, and barking Belle. The barks weren’t even registering to Troy’s ears. “Wow!” was all he could say as he returned to his computer, and with the press of a button and another blinding flash, Belle was back! Tail between her legs she ran down the attic stairs leaving her food bowl behind. 

It had worked! It really worked! Troy’s mind was racing as he contemplated the possibilities of his new invention; the end of world hunger reversing the ray could grow an apple to the size of the empire state building and feed millions, government spies could infiltrate enemy strongholds right under their noses! He would be rich! “But first,” Troy said to himself, “a successful human testing is in order.” He gulped nervously but he did not intend to chicken out after spending the last 3 years of his life on this invention. He turned to the computer and set the timer for the ray to fire in 30 seconds and then to reverse and fire after another 30. If all went right he would 
be the first person in history to successfully be shrunken and returned to normal size!

Pressing the enter key once again, he stood up and made his way over to the square, nudging the dog food bowl out of the way and closing his eyes as the countdown continued. The inside of his eyelids suddenly got very bright and then darkness he opened his eyes and looked around, his jaw dropped he had done it! Troy turned and saw lettering the size of his 2-story house “B.E.L.L.E. Oh my God!” it was the dog’s bowl it was titanic! 

Then something struck Troy as strange, it wasn’t this dark in here before was it? In fact the only light in the room seemed to be coming from the small octagon shaped window at the far side of the attic. Fearing the worst he looked over toward the computer, no signs of power whatsoever. He had in fact blown a fuse and the power was out in the entire house. “Oh no... No! No! No, no, no!” He was trapped like this; a bug in his own home, insignificant in comparison to everything in his house, and in deep, deep trouble! 

Hours had passed since the fuse had blown and Troy’s Troubles had started. He had yet to move from his chalk drawn square and had gone over every possibility in his mind until the realization dawned on him that he could not get out of this alone, he had to get help from someone in his house…

The sunlight streaming through the window told Troy that it was getting towards the afternoon his mother was probably picking up Amber and Adam from school right now...

“Well I can’t stay up here it could be days before someone comes up to the attic” Troy thought out loud as he stood up and brushed himself off. With one last look around the room that used to be so familiar he turned around and headed to the door and the unbelievably tall stairs.

Troy was definitely happy the stairs were carpeted. The fibers made it a much easier climb down. He had gone halfway down in an hour and at this rate may be he could make it before... As soon as the thought crossed his mind as he heard the front door open and the sounds of his younger siblings rushing in, dumping their backpacks and kicking off their shoes in the hall.

“IT’S FRIIIDAY IT’S FRIIDAYY YAY YAY FOR FRIIIDAYY” his little sisters voice reverberated all the way through the house.

“I’m only 4 stairs away I can do this”. The door at the bottom of the stairs, still ajar from where Belle ran out whimpering earlier creaked open in front of him and his mother appeared in the frame,

“TROY ARE YOU UP THERE? WE BROUGHT CHINESE FOOD HOME”. He cursed his habit of not answering his mother when he worked. If he had been a little more courteous in the past she might have realized something was wrong and come looking for him, but instead she disappeared from view leaving the door wide open. Amber rushed past the door being chased by Adam who was closely followed by Belle letting out barks like thunder. Troy looked back up the stairs amazed at how far he had come and when he looked back he was face to cold wet nose with the giant dog. “Wah!”

SNIIIIIIIIIIIIFFF. With hurricane scale winds Troy was lifted off his feet and into the air. “No! Bad dog!” Troy landed on Belle’s nose still screaming at the dog as it trotted up the stairs he spent so long climbing down. In a matter of seconds he’s back in the attic and he knows where Belle’s going even before he feels himself slipping, then falling, then landing in the empty stadium sized bowl.

Troy is so concerned about the giant furry monster looking down at him that he never heard the stairs creak as Adam came up to the attic. In fact He doesn’t realize there’s another human in the room until Adam reaches down and grabs his prison.

“Why is your food bowl up here Belle? Goofy mutt.” Adam turns in a circle looking around the room sending Troy rolling head over heels in the bowl. “Wonder where Troy is. Probably not even home, He gets away with everything, even skipping school. It’s not fair...” Adam’s gaze locks onto the shrink ray. “I wish this stupid machine would work may be he’d shrink into nothing and be gone forever.”

Troy couldn’t believe his ears, his little brother surely didn’t hate him that much! As Adam carried the food bowl back down stairs Troy tried to think back over the past few years had he been a bad brother? 

Troy could hear the thunderous impacts of Adam's feet on the stairs and the creak of wood under carpet. His entire line of sight taken up by the giant's body over head as he carries the bowl down to the kitchen. Unaware of his speck sized brother under his nose. 

"Adam, look down here! You have to help me! My machine works!" Troy screamed at his gargantuan brother but it was no use, his tiny voice couldn't even come close to reaching Adam's ears at this distance. 

The sound of Adam's footsteps change to the slap of barefeet on tile and Troy knew they'd crossed over into the kitchen. The transition caused him to panic because he knew if Adam feeds the dog then he's surely kibble. Luckily Adam simply set the bowl on the counter next to the sink and disappeared from view.