"This is such bullshit!" a discouraged Lexi grunted before drawing looks of disdain from her mom, "uh ... bullhonkey... sorry..."
"Well, you're upset ..." Lexi's mom sighed, taking the letter from her her frustrated daughter, "I don't blame you ... "
"I sense a 'but' coming..." Lexi replied,
"Well..." Lexi's mom said pensively, reading the letter again carefully,
The letter came from the board of administrators at the University of Miniborough responding to Lexi's request for University Housing for the upcoming semester. It read as follows:
"Dear Alexis Cole,
We regret to inform you that your application for University Housing has been denied in light of recent events and public safety concerns. The board of adminstrators feel that it would be a safety risk to allow you to live on campus at this time. We do however look forward to welcoming you back to Miniborough University for the upcoming Fall Semester!"
Lexi sighed just shaking her head when she felt a vibration from her pocket signaling a phone call. She looked down and forced a bit of a smile as she saw her best friend Leah Henderson's name flash on the phone's caller ID.
"I uh ... I'm gonna talk to Leah for a bit ..." Lexi sighed, "We can talk about what a failure I am later ..."
Lexi's mom let out a sigh of disgust following the melodramatic statement as her downtrodden daughter retreated, "Lex ... you are not a failure ... hon ... go tell her she's not a failure..."
"I think she knows..." Lexi's dad shrugs, before looking over the letter himself, "Still... I know she was looking forward to living on campus this semester ... I think it's a bit ridiculous..."
"Well I don't love it either ..." Lexi's mom replied with a bit of indecisiveness in her voice
"...I sense a 'but' coming..." Lexi's dad teased.
_______________________
Things at the Mini-Troop Headquarters located in Downtown Minitropolis had been extra hectic lately, both due to the recent prison break but also with the emergence of "ShrinkGirl" copycats and a new seemingly hyper-dedicated faction of criminals, be they Chaos Crew or other who seemed intent on swearing vengeance to Lexi.
Due to that extra risk, an Officer had even been appointed to periodically check on the Cole residence following Lexi's disappearance through a wormhole earlier that summer. The Officer, known as Carl Scolex had been scouting out the house for a couple months now although something about his behavior always seemed erratic to one officer in particular ; her name was Sonia Sanders.
Officer Sanders was one of the younger cops on the Minitropolis Police Force (affectionately referred to, or perhaps in mocking referred to as The Mini Troop) as well as one of the shortest, clocking in at just a tick over 5'1 but she also had a certain passion for her job, and even rarer, a sense of humor that differentiated her from her colleagues.
She was also incredibly observant of details, even during the ever changing landscape of fighting crime in a small city seemingly overrun with it. While juggling desk work, field work and all manners of patrol work she also found herself noticing many things about her colleague Officer Carl Scolex. Some of them could simply be attributed to stress or perhaps some details about the job assignment that she wouldn't be privvy too. But she couldn't escape the unshakable feeling that something was off about Carl.
"...there's something off about Carl" Sonia said out loud to one of her junior officers, Jeff Tannebaum.
"All due respect Officer Sanders ..." Jeff said, "I really need to finish this paperwork before 5 and ... I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say ... off..."
"Right. Sorry ..." Sonia sighed, but not because she was truly regretful. She just knew better than to air grievances aloud.
Perhaps part of Sonia's concern over Scolex came from their differing points of view on the recent emergence of Alexis Cole AKA ShrinkGirl as some kind of vigilante ne'erdo-well superhero in the small town. Sonia certainly didn't love everything Lexi did ... but overall she understood where the young woman was coming from and certainly never wished her harm or any legal ramifications in whatever avenue she chose to pursue.
Carl Scolex on the other hand jumped on the "ShrinkGirl is a menace!" bangwagon fairly early on and seemed to be dedicating the remainder of his career to delving into her case. While his approach could be a bit radical at times, it seemed his thinking on Lexi was by and large shared by the Mini Troop, which made Sonia's "ShrinkGirl Sympathy" as it was known feel somewhat out of place.
"Alright, listen up everybody!" an exhausted sounding Carl Scolex announced, standing in front of about a dozen of his peers as they either picked their heads up off of desks or turned to him while standing. "...I just got some news from the chief who was just on the phone with the mayor ..."
There was a long pause in Carl's speech as if about to announce something truly catastrophic. Finally, after a long drawn out breath, he made his announcement.
"...the mayor has decided to hold a public ceremony at town hall in a couple of weeks and was inquiring about police availability ..." Carl sighed. At this point, everybody seemed a bit bewildered. Not that it wasn't an important duty but these kind of events were always met with police presence, bomb sniffing dogs and the like.
"...the event in question..." Carl continued, speaking as though there were rocks in his mouth, "... is to celebrate ... ShrinkGirl..."
At the drop of this polarizing name, the police station was in a frenzy, as a cacoughphony of murmurs, whispers and quiet shouts could be heard reverberating through.
"I know .. I know..." Carl said in disgust, "Apparently he plans to ... honor her... in a ceremony and says it's for the best that the community embrace her as a ... as a hero..."
The words made the hardened officer sick to say. He shared the sentiments of his coworkers who all repeated the words with great astonishment.
"A hero? She's ... she's the reason we're so ragged? Are you fucking kidding me? She's a so-called superhero for chrissakes? can't she take care of herself?"
"Look." Carl said, after giving the Officers a moment to vent their frustrations, "I'm not thrilled about it either but I look at it like this. We all have a duty to the Mayor and the city of Minitropolis to conduct ourselves professionally and maintain safety."
A few people reluctantly offered their support.
"But additonally..." Carl added, "It may just give us an opportunity to see her slip up... so be alert, be tactful and do not hesitate to make an arrest if needed..."
One officer raised their hand as if to raise a question
"You mean ... if someone tries to attack her or the crowd?"
"I mean if SHE tries anything..." Carl said, a sneer of hatred mixed in with his voice.
____________________________
A few blocks away from the police station was a row of small businesses, consisting of a card shop for avid Magic the gathering gamers, a few small-time salons and eateries and a fairly new business that went by the name of Aztek Parts and More, owned by former Enormo Enterprises scientist, Dr. Trevor Hilfmann.
At this time, the main owner, aged somewhere in his late 50's was simply watching as a new hire, a woman with hair dyed light cobalt took her time looking through a database. The doctor appeared a bit tense as he watched her, silence befalling the room save for the rapid key clicks on a fairly dated computer keyboard.
The woman with light blue hair had striking but cold eyes of a similar hue as she remained steely in her focus, typing away before taking a momentary pause.
Trevor backed away for a moment, perhaps self conscious that he was crowding her space. The woman nodded a bit, seeming neither happy nor sad about the situation and gave him a fairly stone cold look before shrugging.
"You should be fine now Mr. Hilfmann" she said.
"Oh..." Trevor said, trying to hide his excitement even as he rejoiced internally, "Oh thank you so much ... I'm sorry, you rname was ... Aeriel?"
"Aeris" the young woman said, "and ... thankfully nothing of yours got too corrupted or anything. I appreciate the call. Had you waited much longer, who knows what may have happened to your files? Seems you've got a lot of valuable information on this server"
"Something like that ..." Trevor sighed, "I must admit, this is a tad embarassing for me ... I'm not exactly an out of date amateur when it comes to these kind of things but I guess in today's day and age, it helps to fortify one's cyber security"
"Of course" Aeris responded, her eyes occasionally fluttering between the computer and the kindly man in the white lab coat. "Well, for today it's just the one time charge of $249, unless...you'd be willing to try out our service that I mentioned..."
"Ah, the cyber security package..." Trevor responded, referring down to a business card in his hand from the new startup company Cyber-Tek.
Their advertisements were definitely ramping up as they got closer and closer to making the leap into the public domain. The company promised to be a more transparent approach to future technologies, working to create state of the art robotics, drones and ballstics and innovative solutions to thwart a new generation of cyber criminals.
The "more transparent approach" was a shot at their main competitor who had been in the area for over 2 decades ; Enormo Enterprises. Enormo always had a more "sinister" view in town due to the shady nature of just what it is they did (or the often unknown nature of it) and Cybertek looked to market itself as a "cleaner and kinder" face of the community, opening up in a nearby region.
Despite the public "battle" between the 2 companies, they were actually fairly friendly with one another ; borrowing techonologies from their counterpart to help advance both causes. It would be foolish after all for CyberTek not to accept some help from the "pros" when it came to such things as drones and surveillance, something that was a bit of a budding interest for young founder, Scott Travis.
"Simply something to ponder, Mr. Hilfmann..." Aeris proposed in a calming and professional manner even as her voice lacked a lot of emotion. "If I may ... infer ... you seem to be somebody who ... makes a decent amount of enemies? That's not a bad thing, really. In fact it usually means you're doing something right."
Trevor paused for a moment, not wanting to go too far into it, even though he was sure the young woman with whom he was speaking might sympathize. After all, she was a CyberTek employee so she'd be at least somewhat familiar with Trevor's former employer, the monolithic Enormo Enterprises.
"Well ... thank you and ... you're probably right." Trevor replied, looking back at the computer again as it finished the last of loading a few updates installed by the young woman Aeris.
While Trevor's attention was diverted, Aeris herself happened to snag a glance at a fairly elaborate workshop behind the Doctor.
"Heh, still keeping up on engineering, sir?" Aeris asked, remarking towards the piles of scrap and robotic experiments in the sealed off room. While nothing on the scale of CyberTek or Enormo Enterprises, it was indeed a modest showing by a single man running a small business.
"Oh! Oh ..." Trevor sighed, again embarassed to have left the workshop so exposed, "Yes ... I uh ... I suppose you could say that..."
"If I may be candid for a moment, sir..." Aeris said, "I think I remember your name coming up about a year or so ago ... when CyberTek was in discussions with Enormo about a possible merger..."
"Oh? Well that is entirely possible..." Trevor confessed, "and I remember some of those meetings myself when I was ... still there..."
"So you ARE the Dr. Hilfmann I remember?" Aeris said, a slight wryness to her otherwise automated sounding voice, "I thought you looked and sounded familiar ... but wasn't your last name something else at one time?"
"Uh... that's a long story" Trevor said, trying to shift the topic, "Is there... anything else I should know about my server? Or does your report cover all of it?"
"Well you're back online..." Aeris replied, breezing past the topic as if it were trash on the side of a freeway, "the program will do its thing to repair any directories that may have been hit and after that, the program will go ahead and delete itself. You'll get a confirmation of this sent to your phone to ensure your privacy is secured ... but like I said ... if you ever do decide to go with us for a more regular Cyber Security service, feel free to look me up ..."
"Thank you" Trevor said thankfully, "I'll be sure to do that"
Aeris nodded as she shook the man's hand began to walk away even as her eyes zoned in on one particular detail, a vial of what appeared to be blood taped to a tiled wall. The vial was detained along with a handful of others, all with different subsequent dates noted underneath and the name "ShrinkGirl" on them.
She simply remained still for a moment before showing herself out the front door.
___________________
It was a breezy summer day on camus at Miniborough University as the short, stout trees wavered in the breeze. Waiting for her best friend was a 5'6 brunette named Leah Henderson, mid-phone call with her friend Joshua James who had been hard at work on a birthday surprise for a certain purple and gold clad superheroine.
"Thanks again for getting them for me ..." Josh said, peering down at the near finished product on his lab's workbench.
While he wasn't quite as versed as a veteran engineer like Trevor Hilfmann, Josh had his own tricks up his sleeves and liked to refer to himself as Lexi's "man in the chair" for being able to come up with crafty scientific solutions to her problems.
More than that though, he considered himself a good friend and was more than ecstatic to surprise her for her birthday, and also found himself grinning ear to ear anytime he saw her image on a poster in town or even just thought about her. Heck, everything about Lexi just seemed to make him smile lately...
"Yeah ... well, it wasn't easy explaining to her why I needed them ..." Leah said with a sheepish grin as she rehoisted a fairly heavy tote bag over her shoulder. The weight inside was awkward as it contained a trendy metallic lamp. "Oh hold on ... I gotta go, I see her coming ... yes, okay ... talk later, bye"
As Leah knelt down a bit, the result of trying to balance all the weight she was carrying while hanging up the phone, Lexi showed up, all too ready to help.
"So this is the lamp?" Lexi asked with a grin, as if it could be anything else in the overflowing tote bag that swayed precariously on her best friends shoulder.
"Heh, yeah ..." Leah shrugged, before taking note of how quickly her friend had arrived, "Wait, how did you get here so fast? Finding parking anywhere this close is usually a bitch..."
Lexi simply grinned and slapped her purse, giving Leah an eyebrow raise.
The gesture would normally need more explanation but Leah and Lexi communicated often with simple non-verbal gestures throughout the years. It also helped that Leah had become all too familiar with Lexi's new life as a superhero by night ... and day for that matter. She knew Lexi liked to occasionally show off that her vehicle of choice, an interdimensional purple Stratacruze (more easily referred to as the "Shrinkmobile" could conveniently change sizes when needed.
"You shrank the car again, huh?" Leah said with a slight giggle in her voice
"Hey, if you buy a convertible, you're going to lower the roof sometimes" Lexi said in a bragging tone, "or in this case .. the whole car I guess..."
"Anyways..." Leah smirked as the two continued their conversation while strolling towards the University Housing, "are you sure you don't mind meeting me down here? I said we could go grab something at the mall after... I'm just stopping by my dorm for a bit to put this lamp in there ... plus I need to run some laundry while I'm here ... but that shouldn't take long..."
"I mean, I still go to school here..." Lexi said, trying to shake off the feeling of rejection she had, "and I'm sure I'll be crashing over Casa de Leah from time to time..."
"I just hope you aren't expecting me to clean up the place every time you show up unexpected" Leah teased, "because you know I won't"
"Trust me, I know" Lexi grinned, elbowing her best friend playfully noticing the lamp sliding around in the bag, "Hey, do you want me to carry that for you for a bit?"
"I mean... if you want ..." Leah shrugged, continuing to walk alongside Lexi as a trio of other students made their way by on the opposite facing path, "You sure you can handle it with that mondo purse you always have?"
"Piece of cake, Lee..." Lexi said with another air of confidence emanating from her voice, "after all, I saved a ton of room in this purse recently ... you wanna know how...?"
"Yes I know, Lex" Leah said with a playful smirk as she slipped the bag with the lamp over onto Lexi's shoulder, causing the duo to pause briefly, letting the other bypassers continue on their walk, "You shrank your car..."
Lexi shrugged as she slowly took on the weight of the lamp, its metallic surfaces occasionally grazing the side of her arm as it shuffled around in the bag.
What Lexi and Leah had neglected to notice was that at least one of the students that passed by them overheard the casual exchange and their eyes lit up, darting back to the two girls and quickly recognizing the 5'4 brunette.
"So you got this lamp from work?" Lexi asked, not finding it heavy but indeed hard to control as it seemed to always want to slip out of the bag which, to be fair, wasn't ideal to transport such a bulky object.
"Yeah, Sally was just going to throw it away but I think it looks super trendy ... and hey, it's free!" Leah giggled
"Congratulations, Leah" Lexi teased, "you're well on your way to being a thrifty old lady who hits all the garage sales"
"Fuck yeah, girl..." Leah shrugged, casually taking out her phone to respond to a text before the two stopped in their tracks, altered by a female voice behind them.
"Omigosh, is it really you? Lexi?" the girl asked.
Lexi wondered if it was too late to say no but the fact that she responded to the name at all made her awfully suspicious.
"Oh um... yes... yes I suppose it is" Lexi replied in a cheerful tone. She didn't want to be rude after all.
She turned to face the girl who asked for her and saw a pretty but anxious looking blonde girl with reserved blue eyes, tufts of blonde hair obscuring some of her facial features as it casually drooped along her face and down quite a ways past her shoulders. The girl, clad in a black t-shirt that clung to her curvy body also wore jeans to complete the fairly casual look, something Leah as a fashionista of sorts likely wouldn't approve of but it was right up Lexi's alley as she always appreciated a more "do as you please" approach to style.
"Hi... um... heh... sorry...." the blonde girl muttered, looking a bit nervous now, as if she had been caught doing something wrong.
"No need to be sorry, what's up?" Lexi asked, maintaining her positive demeanor even as Leah's damned trendy lamp threatened to give her long term shoulder pain with how it leaned and swayed awkwardly in the flimsy tote bag.
"Well I just ... ugh okay!" the girl said, her voice quickly gaining in both confidence and tempo, "I'm just going to ask ... uh ... are you ShrinkGirl?"
The question was asked so quickly and haphazardly that it caused both Lexi and Leah to pause. Not because they were upset or surprised but it was more that the girls demeanor in asking it seemed more akin to a groupie meeting their favorite rock star for the first time.
"Ummm... ShrinkGirl?" Leah asked, trying to play dumb for the sake of Lexi's perceived "secret identity" that was more or less no longer a thing. "Is that like uh ... Santa Claus? Lexi, are you Santa Claus?"
Lexi gave Leah a bit of an annoyed look to reassure her best friend that it was okay to drop the act.
"Yes ... okay? Yes..." Lexi said, maybe sounding a bit more irritated than she really was but only because of the extra weight on her shoulder, plus she felt herself experiencing those annoying tingles again ... something she had hoped ended a while back when Dr. Hilfmann had been treating her. "I am ... ShrinkGirl..."
"Omigosh!!" the woman giggled, her voice loud enough to draw the attention of a few uninvolved bystanders who quickly shrugged it off, "It IS you! I knew it! I knew it!"
"Heh yeah... I ... I'm sorry..." Lexi sighed, reaching out to shake the shorter blonde girl's hand, "I didn't get your name?"
"Oh! Oh shit! Yeah! Heh ... sorry I'm Krystal!" the young woman said, "I just ... ugh,. I'm sorry, you probably get this all the time... I know you're hanging out with your friend here..."
"Best friend" Leah said, with an air of smugness. Krystal frowned a bit, not meaning to offend either of them.
"Oh! Oh right ... I ... yeah..." Krystal nodded, "You must be uh ... huh. Does ShrinkGirl have a sidekick?"
"Sidekick?!" Leah grunted, a notable raise in her voice
"No no... I'm sorry... ugh can I start again?" Krystal sighed and the way she composed herself instantly caused Leah to soften up once she realized the girl was more overexcited than anything and wasn't trying to patronize, "I just ... I see so many posters of ... of YOU, Lexi... of ... ShrinkGirl .... I mean usually you're eating a burger or ... smiling into a camera..."
"Wow..." leah smirked, looking over to Lexi in a teasing manner, "Where did you learn such high end acting talent?"
"...but in all those posters I notice you're ... by yourself..." Krystal continued, "which is cool, by the way! I just don't know like ... when you fight crime ... like do you have a sidekick like a Robin or ... shit what was Spider-Man's sidekick?"
"I don't think he had one..." Leah said, sounding fairly confident
"To be fair, you also thought Alfred was Batman's brother..." Lexi smirked
"Look I've heard a few names from the comics ... I don't know their whole family tree, so sue me..." Leah sighed with defeat
"Anyway ... yes I'm sorry to bother you Ms. Lexi..." Krystal sputtered to which Lexi shook her head
"No no, you're fine... really" Lexi nodded, "you go to school here as well?"
"I'm starting this fall... I'm super excited!" Krystal said, her hyper energy a bit infectious and charming. "...but even more so if I'm going to school with you!"
"I'm here too, hi..." Leah said, half joking but a bit annoyed to be "Lexi's sidekick" in this impromptu exchange
"Oh, of course... ugh I'm such a dope, sorry ..." Krystal gulped shyly, reaching out a hand to shake Leah's, "My name's Krystal ... wait I already said that..."
"Leah..." Leah said, trying to ease the newcomers nerves, "and it's fine, really... we were just doing ... errand stuff, nothing special"
"Oh my gosh, ShrinkGirl and Leah do errands together?" Krystal gasped, seemingly a bit too excited about this news, "I do errands! Like all the time!"
Lexi smirked a bit and nodded
"I'm sure you're great at it..." Lexi said with a smile
"You mean that? Ugh, that's so cool! You don't know how cool this is!" Krystal blurted out, "I talk about you to my friends like all the time... I think you are SO awesome... the way you just ... ugh... so like... you can shrink, right? Can you shrink other people?"
Lexi nodded shyly, not sure how to feel about this overload of attention. It was making her feel a bit stiff, although that could have also originated from a number of things inflicting her physically at the moment, including a tingly numbing sensation that slid its way down her spine and into her legs.
"Omigosh..." Krystal eeped out, "Could you like ... could you shrink ME?"
Lexi's eyes widened a bit and she didn't look offended but also wasn't sure how to respond.
"Oh! Um... well... I ... heh..." Lexi said, grinning a bit to hide any nerves she felt, the tingling fading for the moment and allowing to move a bit more freely even as she carried the cumbersome lamp still.
Leah shrugged, slightly amused by the idea.
"I mean I suppose you COULD give her a demonstration ..."Leah giggled, "although you may wanna give her the warning first"
"The warning?" Krystal asked curiously
"Oh ... well it's not like .. .a sure thing but there's MAYBE ... just a SLIGHT CHANCE ... that your clothes don't shrink with you..." Lexi admitted with a bashful look on her face
"Yeah, this one left me tiny and buried in my dress in the middle of the forest!" Leah scoffed
"I was still learning!" Lexi groaned
"You guys are so cute!" Krystal giggled, "mind if I get a selfie?"
With a slight nod from the two girls, Krystal quickly deployed her smart phone, grasping it tight as she leaned in for a very awkward type of selfie where all three of the figures were barely in frame. She'd still observe it with a grin of pride, however.
"Gosh that's so great!" Krystal smirked, "Anyways ... sorry again to bother you two, I should probably catch up with my friends now but thank you so much for the picture and your time!"
"Heh... take it easy there..." Leah replied, waving sheepishly before glancing back at Lexi, "Nice girl ... a bit overzealous ... surprised you didn't shrink her"
"She didn't really give me a chance..." Lexi said, again feeling a cloak of lightheadness clouding her vision as she stumbled a bit.
"You sure you got that, Lex?" Leah asked, coming back at aide her friend, "you've seemed a bit out of sorts since you took the bag ... we don't have that much further to go..."
"I'll be fine" Lexi groaned, although held her head as she took an involuntary break by slouching at a nearby green metallic bench, setting the bag down at her ankles. Leah joined Lexi at the bench and tilted her head, appearing worried.
"Lex?" Leah sighed, prompting Lexi to turn and face her, "you sure you're doing okay? I know you told me about those weird dreams you've been having where you wake up really tiny"
"Oh! Oh yeah ... I didn't tell you the latest one, did I?" Lexi said, trying to change the subject as the mere mention of it was making her heart begin to race.
"Mara and the ice cream?" Leah smirked.
"Oh okay so I did tell you..." Lexi shrugged, her senses returning to normal now that she was in a sitting position, although her focus was shifting quickly to the logo on the bench as well as the corresponding logo on the building not too far from them.
The bench was green and gold to reflect the colors of the new cookie place on campus, known as KEKSE. Originally intended to be a small start up, and competition for "The Krazy Kookie", it would soon become the only cookie place on campus (plus what kind of campus needs 2 seperate cookie operations within walking distance of the other?) after a horrific attack left the Krazy Kookie in disrepair.
It was originally planned to be rebuilt but between the tradgedy of the attack and the incarceration of Cindy Rutschmann's lone daughter Rachel as part of the whole ordeal, Rutschmann cookies pulled their support and the business would ultimately decide to remain closed. It was something that still angered Lexi to this day -- not because she loved cookies, although they were good, but more that there was something about the KEKSE company she didn't trust nor like.
"Lex? Lexi?" Leah asked, practically snapping her fingers in her friends face to regain her attention
"Huh?" the dazed brunette responded
"Geez Lexi..." Leah sighed, looking a bit more forlorn, "You're getting me really worried, hon..."
"I'm fine... really..." Lexi grumbled before looking down and away, unable to maintain eye contact as she watched people casually shuffling in and out of the newly opened Kekse cookie kitchen. "It's just ..."
Leah keenly observed Lexi's hand balling into a fist as it rested on the sleek metal surface of the bench and she could already sense the impending anger coming.
"I know, Lex..." Leah frowned, "...I don't like them either ... plus it sounds totally stupid ... what kind of name is ... Cake...Sah?"
"I think it's German" Lexi shrugged, "but there's something more nefarious there I just don't trust ..."
"I hate what happened with the Krazy Kookie too..." Leah sighed, "but we can't just assume that this new place is ... holy shit, is that Justin Wright?"
"Is it?" Lexi asked, peeking her head up to see over crowds as they crossed her line of sight.
She peered into the restaurant very quickly to spu what appeared to be a boy with dark hair and withdrawn eyes. A boy who looked all too familiar as she remembered him briefly dating Leah but the whole thing turned out to be a scam ...
"Fuck, that IS him" Leah sighed, not really appearing upset or anything but there was a perceptible change in her demeanor.
"He's working at a cookie shop now?" Lexi quipped with a half chuckle, "how the mighty have fallen..."
"Lex, you worked at a cookie shop for like 5 months..." Leah said, very matter of factly
Lexi was going to retort with something, most likely in the wise cracking family but she felt woozy again. She didn't want to alarm Leah though and instead wanted to try and refocus to just enjoying the rest of her day. Perhaps a trip as far as possible from the stupid cookie place and Leah's stupid ex-boyfriend would do the trick, but she wouldn't get very far as she rose to stand up, her hand grazed the metal surface of the bench creating a stark static shock.
She'd have but a moment to perceive what happened as she yelped, instantly reduced to just a few inches tall and now standing at her newfound tiny size next to the toweringly tall bag containing the steel silver lamp which now looked like a skycraper.
Leah, a bit oblivious at the moment noticed Justin peer almost directly at her while she was "people watching"
"Oh shit, get down, Lex" Leah eeped in a quiet tone, only to look over and see her best friend no longer occupying the seat next to her, although her purse was still there. "Lex? Lex?"
"...down here..." the dejected Lexi squeaked, directing Leah's attention downward as she had to lean over the tote bag containing the lamp to fully see the fate of her best friend, now shrunken again.
"Geez Lex... I said get down like ... duck... but that'll work too, I guess..." Leah teased.
Lexi simply crossed her arms and grumbled... not so much because she was mad but rather she worried that this was the start of something more serious as she looked down at her tingling fingertips and observed their sparking.
Giantess World
