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After the turn of the millennium, something strange started happening to children as they got older. Adolescence had always brought changes--emotional, sexual, and physical--and for countless generations those changes started with children and eventually produced full-sized, fully adult people. The emotional and sexual changes have continued as they always have, but for children--at least male children--the physical changes are now quite different. Most of these changes are the same as always, muscles start becoming more pronounced, hair starts growing where once there was none, but instead of growing up, boys now shrink as they develop in to men.
Babies are born the same size as they always have been and young children grow and develop in much the same way as well. Only when a boy hits the full-blown awkwardness of puberty--as young as 12 in some and as old as 18 in others--does the shrinking start. It proceeds rapidly but quite naturally, much like the growth spurts that used to effect boys of that age. Boys shrink by varying amounts, some are reduced by a factor of 3 or so from what would have been considered their "normal" height, others are as much as 25 times smaller, although most young wind up about 4 times smaller than they normally would have been. While there are some quacks that can claim to tell a boy how tall he will end up, no one can reliably predict exactly how tall young boys will get.
Remarkably, girls and anyone conceived even a second before Jan. 1st 2001 GMT grew normally. Countless scientists and theologians have pontificated on what exactly has happened--but no consensus answer has been established. At first, the phenomenon went unnoticed--it wasn't until about 2012 that the first boy started shrinking. Along with shrinking men there came a drastic decrease in fertility rates as tiny men had trouble impregnating full size women. Even with an increase in the sexual aggression of women, pregnancy became rarer and rarer and populations started to decrease.
After 40 years of turmoil, society slowly started to rebuild in a new mold. Women were now in charge--from society at large down to individual families. Men fell in to a new role, as caretaker of the household. Most men happily thrived in their role--happy to have a women to take care of them and protect them from a suddenly frightful world.
Going to a coeducational university as a man can be both a challenging and rewarding experience. The obvious difficulties of being a man (and so small compared to everything) necessitate that every man in university is assigned a female roommate to look after him and make sure he can cope with life at 4-16 times his size. At least that's how they handle it at Warrington. From what I'm told, most universities have male-sized sections of campus and segregate most parts of the university where they teach subjects more suitable to men. At Warrington they try to teach men and women together as best as they can, although most men really just there to meet a rich wife, and men are allowed to study traditionally female subjects like science and engineering. Some see integrated dormitories as Warrington's dedication to "gender fairness" --doing their best to treat men and women as equally as possible--and celebrate the University as a model of progressive thought. If you're cynical, which most at Warrington become, the roommate policy is actually just a reflection of society as a whole; wherever you are in life as a man, there is always a woman in control of you.
For a man, your roommate is one of the biggest factors in your college life. A good roommate can make the whole experience bearable--even mildly pleasant--but a bad roommate can dominate and control you to the extent that your life becomes entirely hers. Each year roommates are chosen again--and thankfully men do have some input on the process after their first year--so a bad roommate will generally only last for one year. In the first year, though, roommates are randomly assigned by the University. No thought or negotiation, just a letter in the mail and then the next year of my life. And so, two days before I was to leave for college, I learned that I would be living in 214 Biller Hall and that my assigned roommate was named Erica Stewart. Erica had already been at school for a little over a week--freshman women arrive a week early to set up their rooms and get a basic course in taking care of a male roommate.
My parents were kind enough to drive me and my stuff 1200 miles to college. Parking the car, we started searching for Biller Hall and room 214. After about 15 minutes lost on campus, we located Biller and walked up to the second floor. Once we reached the room, my mother knocked on the door and after a few seconds the door opened revealing Erica's freckled face. She looked out and greeted my mother, "Hi! You must be Ms. Kowalski. I've been waiting for you to bring Ben by all morning. I'm excited to finally meet you both." She then adjusted her head and looked down at me, "You must be Ben! We're going to have so much fun together!" She then patted me on the head and picked me up and brought my face level with hers.
"It's good to meet you, too, Erica" I said, struggling a bit against her grasp. At just over 18" tall, I was far too weak to struggle against Erica's 5'6" strength. Other than my mother and stepsister, this was the first time I had interacted with a woman since I had started shrinking, and it was a little frustrating to be so much in her control. Erica could tell I was struggling with her, but instead of putting me down she brought me closer to her and held me against her shoulder. She held me there for a minute or so, letting me know that she was in control without having to say as much in front of my mother. As soon as I stopped struggling and gave in to her, she set me back down and invited me, my mother, and stepfather in to my new room.
I looked in to what would be my home for the next year. It was for me a very large room, about eight feet wide and ten feet deep, with a large bed in the rear of the room towards the window--this was clearly Erica's bed. In the far corner opposite her bed was a more reasonably sized bed for me, as well as a man sized desk, a closet, and a dresser. All the male furniture was on a small platform raised about three feet from the floor of the room with a small, man sized staircase leading up to the pedestal. It must have been designed symmetry, but the "man's room" was exactly 1/4 the size of the room as a whole, albeit without the walls. Erica had placed her bed in such a way that she slept overlooking what would be my room. On the side of the room near the hallway were Erica's desk and a much larger, female sized couch. A small, man sized staircase led from the floor up to this couch--I guess the sofa would be shared.
"This is it," Erica said, "kinda small, but it's all mine." Quickly correcting herself she said, "well, mine and Ben's at least. I'm sure Ben has some things he'd like to move in. Ms. Kowalski, I can help you with Ben's stuff if you wanted to bring it in."
"How sweet of you to offer, Erica. Ben's stuff is in our car just outside. I think the two of us can get everything in one trip." With that, my mom and Erica walked out to the car and got all 15 of my man-sized boxes and brought them to the room. My step dad and I started to unpack things and my mom and Erica sat on the couch and talked. It was a little embarrassing to have my mom treat someone my own age as my guardian and supervisor. After about half an hour of talking Erica's head off about her responsibilities and how important it was to maintain discipline with me, my mom said it was probably time to leave us kids alone and start the long drive home.
"I think Ben and I are going to be great friends," she said to my mother, "I hope that you know he'll be very safe with me." She picked me up again and brought my face close to hers. "I know we're going to be great friends."
"I really hope so," my mother said, giving Erica a knowing glance, "he's my only son and I'm going to be very worried while he's so far away from home. I trust you'll do a great job with him."
My mom picked my father up and hoisted him on to her shoulder and started out of the room. "You be good, Ben, and listen to Erica. She'll take good care of you. Erica, make sure Ben calls! We love you son!" My mom reached over to Erica as she handed me over, gave me one last hug, set me back down, and then left alone us in our room.