“This used to be a private school, a long time ago,” Penny explained, making her way across a meadowy patch of long grass and wild flowers that stood between the trees and the front of the building.

The damp, slimy grass was up to Jack’s waist, slowing his progress a little as Penny’s much larger strides cut through at a comparative knee-high level.

“I think it was an all-boys school, but it’s been abandoned for years,” she said, turning around and waiting for Jack to catch up to her.

“Wow,” Jack breathed, genuinely impressed that this was tucked away out of sight. This was a proper, old-fashioned building, probably over 100 years old and nothing like the vast majority of buildings he knew of locally which had been built in the post-GH era. It was in a pretty dilapidated state; Mother Nature had returned with a vengeance and the whole place was covered with moss, creepers and bushes of all kinds. The windows themselves were mostly shattered glass, though the door appeared to still be in place.

She seemed delighted by his awed expression, “I thought you’d appreciate it,” she smiled softly.

“I’ve been here a couple of times - it’s too small for me to go inside but I love the old brickwork, the details above the doorway, it’s so intricate,” she continued, pointing out parts of the building.

“Have you not been inside at all?” Jack asked.

“Well, I could do, perhaps, I just don’t want to get stuck or damage it or something…” she said, stepping out onto a front driveway of weathered tarmac with plenty of wild grass poking through the cracks. She sat down cross-legged on the road, swinging her bag around her body and reaching in to extract her sandwich. Jack sat down next to her, resting his weary limbs and eventually lay back, staring up at the sky.

The rain had held off for now and the clouds were starting to break up, revealing hints of blue-grey sky beyond.

He could hear the giant girl tucking into her food, but remembered her mentioning she didn’t like to be watched, so he stayed laid down and instead savoured the sensation of being out in the fresh air, away from the bustle of humanity.

“Here’s your bit,” Penny said, offering him a significant portion of the sandwich, which he sat up to accept gratefully and attempted to gnaw at.

The bread was so thick that he struggled to get purchase on it, it was like trying to chew a baguette that’s way too big to fit your mouth. Improvising, he opened up the sandwich instead and took small bites from the inside. It was pretty tasty, and as he ate he realised that he was actually pretty hungry after all.

He knew there was no pressure, it was just a bit of food, but it felt strangely intimate to share something like that with her. It felt like a proper friendship, which still hadn’t sunk in for him at all. He still didn’t know this girl very well, but he felt both instinctively comfortable and frighteningly self-conscious around her.

He ate what felt like a lot of food, but he’d barely got through half of the chunk he’d been handed before admitting defeat. Penny wrapped it back up in the packaging it had come in and placed it back in her bag, before lying back herself, looking to the heavens.

“How are you feeling?” she asked him softly, still staring up at the sky.

“I feel better, thank you,” he responded, leaning forward and hugging his knees with his arms.

The girl sighed gently, and rolled over to face him.

“That’s good,” she said, looking at him intently with her luminous green eyes.

“Can I make a really weird request?” she said, the intensity of her eyes flickering slightly.

“Yeah ok,” he replied, curious as to where this was going.

“Can you come here?” she asked quietly, gesturing for him to sit a little nearer.

He scooched himself a little closer, bringing himself near to the giantess’ large torso, looking down on her slightly as she lay there. She brought a long arm over and placed a very big, very soft hand on top of his own, gently gripping his hand in hers and lifting it up.

With almost childlike fascination, she compared her hand to his own, the oversized texture of her skin and the larger-than-life nails, digits and knuckles of her big hand dwarfing his own.

“I’m sorry, I just… I still can’t get over the size difference,” she explained, looking almost wistfully at the size comparison.

“I guess it’s a pretty big difference,” Jack replied, placing his hand on top of hers, measuring it against her own fingers.

“If this is just really awful and creepy, just tell me to stop,” she added, half-laughing in an insecure way.

“No, it’s fine, I don’t mind,” he said, telling her the gospel truth.

He could feel how warm her hand was, how close to her he was again, her gigantic face close enough to touch. He felt a pang of excitement, and then, embarrassingly, another pang, a more… intimate one.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t envisage her in that way, he just… hadn’t been thinking of her in those terms because she was so nice, and kind, and wonderful…

His attraction and affection for Penny were based on things that were pure and meaningful, so to him it almost felt like his body was betraying him by responding to her in a physical way.

It was also very hard not to feel very melancholy about any potential attraction, not only because he was convinced Penny only saw this as a platonic thing, but because of his traumatising experience at the hands of Caitlin. She had done a great deal of damage by associating his most sexual thoughts towards the overabundance of the female Alpha form with dominance, humiliation and utter helplessness, things that did not just brush off a person’s psyche overnight.

Everything about Penny was very calm, cautious and controlled, the polar opposite of Caitlin. Despite her size, she was careful with him, and the respect that she gave him was incredibly rare.

He looked at her oversized but wonderfully feminine body and could only imagine how wonderful it would be to curl up in her arms, to have her look at him the way the women in those old movies did, in this impossible, romantic, overwrought way he had fantasized about for so long.

It made him feel like a love-sick idiot.

She let go off his hand after a while and he repositioned himself so that he could minimise the obviousness of his present situation. She was thankfully completely oblivious to his dilemma, and rolled back to look up at the clouds again.

A very large black cloud was beginning to fill the sky, rolling in with the wind as it picked up once more.

He saw her close her eyes, and he took the opportunity to close his own, trying to think of something boring, and unromantic. Trains, Maths homework, anything…

It didn’t take long, though, for the raindrops to arrive, darkening the unforgiving grey tarmac around their bodies.

“Let’s get to cover, quick,” he found himself announcing without thinking, rising to his feet and heading towards the school building as if on autopilot.

“Are you sure we can get inside?” she said, sitting upright, practically at eye level even with him on his feet.

He went over to inspect the front door, it was a hefty-looking wooden one, but it was ever-so slightly ajar. He ran up the steps and pushed against it, but it wouldn’t budge. It was broken off its hinges slightly but it was too heavy for him to shift, like it was caught on something.

“Think you can push it open?” he asked, as the sudden downpour began to turn from a shower into an all-out onslaught of water.

“I don’t want to break it!” she protested, getting to her feet, her long hair growing slick from the intensifying deluge.

“It’s already broken, you just need to move it,” he yelled over the hiss of the rain.

“Ok, I’ll try,” she said, striding over to the big door as he stood to one side, and placed her hands on it. She had to bend down slightly to get good leverage, but the heavy wooden entrance was no match for her strength, swinging open with a loud crack as a rusty deadbolt gave way.

“Woah,” she exclaimed, surprised by her own strength, “That was… pretty easy.”

Jack darted inside, beckoning for her to follow. She crouched down as low as she could and followed him in.

It was dark, and musty, and the noise of thousands of raindrops ricocheting against the old metal roof sounded like sustained gunfire – it was really throwing it down outside.

The entranceway opened into a long corridor, the tiles of which were dirty and cracked and covered in a layer of dirt and dust. There didn’t appear to be much around other than broken tables and chairs in each room, most of the doors had been kicked open; the place had probably been looted several times over the years. A few books were strewn across the floor in one of the rooms he looked into, but anything of real value had long since been taken.

“Can we go in there?” Penny asked. Her voice, ordinarily soft, was quite loud and echoey in the enclosed hallway space.

He looked at her to see where she meant, and then saw the entrance to the school cafeteria space a little way further along to the right.

He entered the room, which was larger than the others, with a slightly higher ceiling. Penny was still unable to stand straight, but she took the opportunity to get up from a crouch and bend herself at the waist instead.

“Definitely not built for me,” she laughed, looking on as he wandered around the abandoned cafeteria, examining the debris all around.

“This place is really cool though, it’s a shame it’s so unloved,” she added.

The sound of the wind and rain outside was very spooky. It was quite dim inside the building, and he could hear the rattle and creak of the old building as it withstood the sudden turn in the weather.

“It’s like a haunted house,” he said, noticing more and more stuff was littered everywhere; broken plates, rusty cutlery, what looked like a salt shaker - all very antiquated in design.

“You don’t believe in ghosts, do you?” she asked incredulously.

“Well, no, they’re not real, I’ve never seen any evide…” he continued, nudging at an old spoon with his shoe, as he saw a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye.

“Boo!” Penny exclaimed at the same moment she grabbed him lightly on the shoulder, startling him and causing him to flinch.

“Oh ha ha, very funny,” he said sarcastically, recomposing himself and trying to act like she hadn’t just given him an almighty jump scare.

“Sorry, it was too tempting,” she admitted.

They had a bit of an explore around, but Penny expressed hesitation when Jack suggested they look upstairs. There was no telling if the floor would be strong enough to support her weight, and whilst he was more than welcome to go off on his own, he decided against it, he would rather stay with her.

They returned to the cafeteria space, and Penny sat herself down on the floor, allowing herself to stretch her limbs and not be hunched over double the whole time. Jack walked over to the wall, where he could see an undamaged chair, and dragged it back to where Penny was so that he could sit next to her on a more eye-level basis.

The rain was still bucketing down, and it made no sense to try and get home in it as they would be soaked to the bone. It would be much more prudent to wait until it relented slightly.

All the walking around had afforded him some time to put his ‘urge’ out of his mind, and instead, his thoughts had started to dwell on what would happen back at school.

He really wanted to confide in Penny, and tell her his fears, what he’d been through with Caitlin and make her understand why he was so… so pathetic, and timid, and scared. He would need her help, along with Delon and perhaps even Alex, if that was even an option, just to get through the day.

“I’ve been thinking about tomorrow,” he said, as the giantess turned to face him.

“Oh,” she said, wiping her dusty hands off onto her denim-clad knees, and sweeping her hair away from her face. She was quiet, and patient with him, allowing him time to articulate his thoughts.

“I’m going to have to go in… to school, that is, and I’m really, really worried about it,” he admitted, taking a dry swallow.

“I don’t feel safe, even if I don’t run into her tomorrow, it’s just a matter of when, and… if she comes to find me… I…” 

Penny’s expression mirrored his own; worried and downcast. She didn’t like to see him get upset.

“I’m sure between Delon and I, we can try and accompany you around school as much as possible,” she explained, “We already discussed it, actually, although only briefly.”

“I just… it’s complicated,” he said forlornly, pressing his fingertips into his cheek.

For the next 20 or so minutes, Jack explained to Penny what had actually happened with Caitlin the first time Penny had found him in the cubicle, and then went on to chronicle the further degradation he had experienced during his kidnap, before she had rescued him. He was acutely embarrassed, and felt like he was blurting things out that he shouldn’t tell her, or even anyone, but he was strongly compelled to tell her everything because something about the girl was… special, he felt he could confide in her in a way that perhaps he hadn’t ever been able to with another person before.

He used language that described some of the more sexual things he had experienced in a less specific way, but the picture was a wholly complete one, and as cathartic as it felt to finally let it off his chest, every time he looked across as Penny he could see how distressed and horrified she was. As he went on, his voice cracking on occasion and requiring a few long pauses to compose himself, Penny’s hand raised itself further and further over her mouth in shock. He couldn’t tell if she was appalled because of how he had been treated, or if this was a whole arena of experience she was completely unaware of, but her concern and disbelief were palpable and genuine. At several points, she went to wipe her own eyes, and appeared to be on the verge of crying herself. It wasn’t his intention to upset her, shock her, or make her pity him, in ways it was more about letting it out, and she was, more than anyone, the person he felt could help him release the bottled-up emotion and angst he felt.

As he reached the end, explaining the rescue from his perspective, trapped in the laundry basket, Penny abruptly leaned in and cradled him with her much larger body, incredibly carefully and gently, but also with all that underlying power and size. Her giant frame was shaking gently at the emotion coursing through the pair of them, and for Jack this was a powerful and validating show of affection from a person who, to all extents and purposes, was as capable of debasing him and forcing her will on him as someone like Caitlin.

“I’m so, so sorry,” she finally said, releasing him and repeatedly brushing away the tears that were forming in her eyes.

“I… I thought it might be bad, but she’s sick… it’s dehumanising,” she continued, “I don’t know what to say… are you sure you can’t get the Police involved?”

“Delon thinks it’s too risky, Caitlin’s family are too well-connected,” he said quietly, blinking back his own tears.

“But she can’t get away with it, it’s not right,” Penny said, anger permeating her usually gentle voice.

With a sudden move of her arm she slammed her fist to the floor, knocking up a cloud of dust and sending a loud ‘crunch’ reverberating around the old school. A fist-shaped hole in the ground, full of cracked tiles and dirt, was visible after the dust settled. He could see bits of debris stuck to her whitened knuckles as she clenched her hand for a few more seconds.

“Believe me, Jack, I’ll do everything I can to help you,” she explained, loosening her fingers, her shot of adrenalin seemingly evaporating as quickly as it had descended. He could see what looked like small rivulets of blood forming where the broken tiles stuck in her hand, and quickly, without thinking, got down on his knees and ran his fingers over the back of her knuckles, removing any of the ceramic shards that he could find.

“Penny… you’re bleeding,” he said, concerned, “Does it hurt?”

“Not really,” she replied, a dismayed look washing over her face, “I’m sorry for losing control, I didn’t mean to get angry.”

“I just don’t want you to hurt yourself,” he explained, “You might need to get it disinfected, I’ve got some solution at home.”

He got to his feet after removing as many bits as he could, and looked at her as she looked right back at him sadly. She was looking at him differently to before, as if she was struggling to say something.

“We should probably go,” he suggested, noting that the din from the roof was much less noisy than it had been previously, and he wanted to see to her hand as soon as possible.

“Yeah, I think so too,” she replied, carefully getting up into a crouching position and patiently following him as he led her back through the building.