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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.  The original characters and plot are the property of the author.           The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise.   No copyright infringement is intended.

Three years before the Great Reduction and the Elevation of the Cheerleader

In her first week at Dupuy College, 18-year-old freshman Stephanie Searfass met the first great love of her life, Jason. He was coming off his redshirt freshman year and getting ready to start at quarterback for the football team. In Jason, she found strength and someone who was very centered. Jason was very kind to Stephanie -- at first.

She also met the first great bete noire of her life, Women's Studies professor Rachel Sanderson. Stephanie would have been just another freshman in Sanderson's "Introduction to Feminist Studies" lower level course, but for the wardrobe decision she made before coming to class.


Stephanie Searfass was very proud of making the cheerleading squad at Dupuy College. She had been a cheerleader in high school but knew she'd have some competition, even at the two-thousand student institution tucked in a Pennsylvania valley. Just before the Feminist Studies class, Stephanie had been over in the gym, getting her picture taken in her cheerleader outfit. She decided to wear it to class. She sat about halfway up the rows in the lecture hall, just one of a hundred students. But Professor Sanderson, a 30-year-old raven haired lesbian with a pageboy haircut, zeroed in on her.

"People, did you notice something?" The students looked around. "You, in the Dupuy er, uniform, would you stand up please?" After realizing she was the target, Stephanie complied.

"This is college, so you don't need somebody telling you how to dress. I'm comfortable with the range of casual to utterly slovenly that you find in a typical college classroom. But there is one item of clothing with which I am not comfortable..." she started to walk in a very exaggerated manner up the aisle... "and that is the symbol of patriarchy, the celebration of creepy male ogling and the objectification of women... the CHEERLEADER COSTUME!" She reached Stephanie and stared her straight in the eyes, never letting her gaze go. "What is your name?"

"S-s-Stephanie Searfass", she replied with a tremble in her voice.

"Stephanie, since you chose to make a sartorial statement in favor of patriarchy, perhaps you would be kind enough to define it for the class."

"I - I- I don't know", Stephanie replied.

"Ah, you see, this is what I was talking about. The values are so embedded in our society that those they oppress can't even explain them."

Stephanie Searfass looked at her instructor and blinked without much comprehension. "Are you saying that I am oppressed?"

"I am saying you are part of a system that upholds female powerlessness."

Stephanie returned her professor's gaze with her own watery blue eyes. "I don't think I'm powerless... I volunteer in the community... I think there's a lot of power and a lot of potential power in this uniform and what it represents."

"It represents the power and privilege of the male gaze. I counter that power with a gaze of my own. Stephanie, don't ever let me see you in this class with that outfit again." She then motioned Stephanie to sit down, walked back to the podium and continued with her material.

Thinking back on it later, Stephanie thought there was almost a sexual tension in that first encounter.
---


Eight months before the great reduction

The relationship between 20-year-old Stephanie and Jason continued to grow. But there were signs of trouble. Jason had done quite well, taking over the starting quarterback position. The team had won its conference championship two years in a row and entered the Division IV playoffs. That was making Jason a hot item, not just for fans, alumni and the occasional NFL scout, but for the campus women as well.

At the same time, Jason was making greater demands to control Stephanie's time. He wanted her to give up most or all of her extensive schedule of volunteering. Basically, he wanted Stephanie to be the accessory hanging off his arm wheneve he went out in public -- except when he didn't want her around. He even went off on the plush toys that filled Stephanie's side of her dorm room. "Quit the little girl stuff and throw them out. I'm
your toy and I'm not plush", Jason said.

"
"The plush toys are my little community. Sometimes I like to imagine what their lives are like and try to make them better. I like to match up the little girl toys and the little boy toys..."

Jason seized Stephanie by the shoulders, silencing her immediately.

"I don't give a damn about your toys or your volunteer work. If that's your idea of a relationship, it's not a relationship to me. It's up to you."

"Fine. I'll give up my plush toys when you give up your toys -- those other girls I see you with", Stephanie answered.

"Steph, those aren't -- ". Jason pounded his fist into Stephanie's dresser drawer top. "Sometimes I go out with the guys and we go to a club in the city and, I'm just trying to bond with the guys."

"Very well", Stephanie answered. "Bond with them or bond with me."

"You don't get it! I'm a quarterback! Those are the guys who keep the other team from pounding me into the dirt!" Jason picked up a porcelain doll and hurled it against the wall, smashing it to pieces. Then he stormed out. 

Three days later, the breakup arrived by text message. To say Stephanie was devastated, would be a massive understatement. Dormmates saw the usually sweet-tempered and almost oblivious Stephanie turn into a whirlwind of red cheeks and tears, throwing herself on the bed and crying for what seemed like hours. One of those who tried to comfort her was her newest roommate, a freshman named Sandy.

---

Four months before the great reduction

May had arrived and semester was ending, but Stephanie Searfass didn't have a new boyfriend. She had tried to meet people through volunteering and at classes, but no guy seemed to offer chemistry. Jason was a hot catch and Stephanie found others just not measuring up. Maybe her standards were too high. Maybe she had 'peaked' as an attractive young woman already, and it was all downhill from here. That thought chilled Stephanie to the bone. 

Summer break was coming and dozens of Dupuy students had volunteered to be camp counselors at a camp up the hill from the town of Dupuy. Stephanie was among them. Maybe she could find a guy there, she thought.

Before she left for camp, she decided to seek out an unlikely source for advice. Her old nemesis, the Women's Studies course instructor, 32-year-old Professor Sanderson. Of course, she didn't wear the cheerleader's outfit when she went to see her. But her T-shirt and jeans did little to hide her distinctive figure.

Sanderson drew in a breath when she saw who was walking across the quadrangle. One part of her shuddered when she saw the representation of patriarchy and everything else she
despised, moving in her direction. One part felt a tingle from seeing Stephanie approach. Sanderson had a hard time admitting the sexual tension she felt from Stephanie. Needless to say, her professionalism and university rules forced her to keep that under wraps.

The door swung open and sunlight streamed in. Stephanie closed the door and stood there, staring at Sanderson for a moment.

"What brings you to my office, Stephanie?"

"Professor Sanderson, I need your help. I know you can't stand me, so I figured you'd give me an honest answer. I'm a Dupuy cheerleader. I broke up with my boyfriend and I can't get another one. What's the matter with me?"

Sanderson's heart began to pound and her pulse began ringing in her ears. She kept thinking of that old movie, "But I'm A Cheerleader!" She fought temptation to tell Stephanie that maybe, just maybe, she was playing on the wrong team.

"You've been playing the sweet little love kitten. The game is getting a lot more competitive. It's time to stop being the prey. Become the predator. Get your queen cat game on, my dear Stephanie. You need yourself a game changer."

Stephanie thought she had found her answer at the counselors' dance one Saturday night in June. She noticed that several of the women were wearing their little black dresses -- and not all of them had anything on underneath. Having just turned 21, Steph was knocking back the booze. She went to the ladies' room and quickly stuffed her underwear into her purse. Then she decided she had to let that fact be known.

She walked up to an interesting guy with auburn hair named Dave. She started to converse with him, then suddenly exclaimed "My contact popped out! Could you help me find it?"

Stephanie then dropped to her knees. Her intent was to get Dave down to knee-level and let him see that she was pantyless. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that her skirt had blown up backwards, exposing her bottom and her womanhood to full view.

When she got back to her room, various photos of pantyless celebrities had been stuck to her door, cut out to spell the words HO HO HO. Stephanie's ears burned as she tore them down.

The day of the great reduction

When the green gas that triggered the great reduction arrived at Dupuy College, Professor Rachel Sanderson was fiddling with the bookshelf in her office. Her body seemed to tingle all over. As she sank into her clothing, she leaned on the bookshelf for support, causing it to topple. Fortunately, it caught on a desk before squashing the shrinking professor like a bug. But Sanderson was still in a heap of trouble. Actually, a heap of books, that
had fallen on her. One of which had fallen open on her now-nude body.

Hours passed before another human being walked through the door. A seemingly huge voice echoed through the room. "Professor Sanderson?" Sanderson was still groggy and didn't answer. "Professor Sanderson?", the voice called again.

Sanderson's mind swam. She wondered if she had died. Then the book that restrained her flew upward into space. Two warm hands picked her nude form up and she rose at a dizzying pace into the air.

Sanderson looked around. Her office had expanded to gigantic proportions. The desk at which she worked now seemed like the roof of a building. Then she turned to look at what was holding her up. The huge field of green in a Dupuy cheerleader's uniform, and inside of it, the watery blue eyes and round, beaming face of Stephanie Searfass. Stephanie the cheerleader. The very thing she had condemned, was now saving her.

One part of Sanderson thought she had gone to hell. The other thought she was in heaven.

"Professor, is that you?", Stephanie whispered. "Rachel, are you all right? Is anything broken?"

Rachel. The sound of her own name brought the professor face to face with the new reality. No longer was she in a professorial position over a student. In fact, Rachel knew she was no longer equal to Stephanie. Naked as a jaybird, five and change inches tall, Rachel felt subservient. The part of her that believed this was heaven took over,
and she got on her knees and threw out her arms to bow in worship.

"Rachel, what are you doing?", Stephanie laughed.

The professor wanted to blurt out, "Worshipping you, my mighty cheerleader." But she bit her tongue, even as her face flushed from arousal. "I - I - I'm all right physically. Nothing appears to be broken or bent. I guess I'm just a little disoriented... a little scared", Rachel said.

Stephanie cupped Rachel in one hand and began rubbing her back with the tip of her index finger. "Don't you worry, Rachel, I'll protect you. I'm not going to let any nasty cat get you." Then she gently kissed Rachel's back. Rachel almost lost it at that point. "We're gathering all the survivors at the women's dorm to get checked out by the doctors."

"Survivors?" The magnitude of what had happened began to hit Rachel. "What happened?"

"It looks like everybody in Dupuy got shrunk, except me."

"Everybody in Dupuy or everybody in the world?"

"I think just Dupuy. But we can't call anybody. Phones don't work, radios don't work, the internet doesn't work, nothing works. We can still get TV news, and they're saying some gas got released and everybody in Dupuy died. They don't know about us."

Rachel felt her own body to make sure she was still living. "I think I'm still flesh and blood! In fact, my flesh is feeling a little chilly. Is there something I could wear?"

"Right here!" Stephanie smiled and pulled a piece of fabric out of her purse. "I broke in the fabric store..." she blushed... "and got these four-by-four squares. Add a rubberband and you have a robe."

Rachel wrapped herself in the fabric.

"Now we need to give you a ride back to the dorm." Stephanie opened her purse and Rachel jumped in.

It was a short ride of course, short as a walk across the campus would have been at her old size. Rachel clung to her piece of fabric as she tumbled out of Stephanie's purse.
"Here's the line to get checked out by the doctors", Stephanie whispered. "I'm going back to look for more people." Then she bounded away. Rachel was in awe as the giant in a cheerleader's costume covered what seemed like hundreds of yards in a few steps.

Rachel looked around at the humdrum hall of the women's dorm, now apparently as large as a train station. She found herself in a line of students, faculty and townies, all dressed in those same bits of fabric. From the chatter, it seemed every one of them had a story of being rescued by Stephanie.

"The cat was about to get me, and then the Cheerleader shooed the cat away."

"I lost control of my car, and it caught fire. The Cheerleader broke out the window and pulled me out just before it blew up."

"We shrank on the street and we were almost meat for a pack of dogs! Then the Cheerleader reached up and pulled us into the sky!"

Rachel was struck by how, over and over again, people described Stephanie's intervention as almost godlike. She picked up on something else, too. Over and over, people referred to her as "The Cheerleader." Of course, most of them didn't know Stephanie's name. But it wasn't just "some girl" who rescued them. That cheerleader's uniform seemed to give her an authority, a power in the midst of chaos.

Rachel began to reconsider her view of the cheerleader concept. Yes, it could be a symbol of patriarchy. But there had been goddess civilizations in the past, with female sexuality at their center. Those civilizations were, to Rachel's mind, better than the male-based war cultures that superseded them. Had the strange incident in Dupuy created an opportunity to re-create a goddess-based culture? Especially since the outside world thought everyone in Dupuy was dead?

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