During the summer transfer period, you tend to only see two kinds of people at the Julienne Academy for Girls. Year-rounders, whose families don't want to see them, and the newbies. As such, July and August are peppered with student cruelty on a massive scale: girls steal or hide one another's things, spit in one another's food, spread nasty rumors that take months to defuse, throw bleach on one another's uniforms . . . it can get pretty bad, and let the deity of your choice help you if you happen to be from out of state.

Like Rita.

At 5'9" and 161 pounds, Rita is taller than most girls at Julienne by several inches and considerably curvier, her dyed green ear-length hair is startling (and against classroom regulations, so she's forced to wear a hat and tuck her hair into it), her tattoos make her stand out even further (and the school's efforts to remedy this by making her wear thigh-high stockings and the long-sleeve winter uniform at all times don't help when it's upwards of 90 degrees during intro courses), and so of course she gets singled out. 

As is typical of people in general, the girls attack Rita for being different, and no secret is made of how much most of the girls hate her. Not only that, most of the ones that don't seem to cast her as some freaky rebel, and they try to shunt her into this rulebreaker mold that she honestly doesn't fill- the only rules she breaks are the "no snacking in class" restriction and "no cell phone use before 8 PM", both because she's yet to adjust to the timezone shift from moving so far.The only exception to this, Rita's only friend at Julienne, is Jandon.

Jandon herself was a bit of an outcast at first for her olive skin and easily-mocked pear-shaped body which left her with wide hips and thighs but a rather modest chest, however this being her third year she's settled into a role of being on generally good terms with just about everyone. At 5'1", she's not the shortest girl at Julienne, but she's still a full head shorter than her new friend. Her shoulder-length sandy brown hair and round spectacles give her a definite geeky aura, only made more prominent by her role as the librarian's assistant.

The friendship was attributed to Jandon just being her amicable self, but it turns out the two have more in common than you'd think . . .

*** AUGUST 6 - 6:35 PM ***

"Anything new in the bin, Jan?" Rita asked from behind her shorter friend, surprising her.

Jandon gave Rita an admonishing smirk, but replied, "Actually, yeah- about a half dozen new copies of Utopia, Lord of the Flies, a dog-eared Phantom Tollbooth, a copy of Camilla that is probably going to have someone deciding they're a lesbian for a week, and . . . this," she said, holding up a weather-beaten leather-bound book with no author- just a title in intricate, looping gold leaf: "Numbers".

"Huh. No donation tag?" Rita asked, flipping open the cover and looking around- a few girls were gossiping it up at one of the reading tables in the librarian's absence, but no one was really here.

"Nope. Book has no author, no donation tag, almost like it was just written and donated by the same person. Looks old, though," Jandon commented, "so maybe it was an estate thing. Those are never tagged."

"Maybe . . . look at this, Jan," Rita said softly so as not to be overheard. She showed the brunette what was inscribed on the first page of the book:

Counter Magic- should you ever need to reverse the effects of any incantation in this book.

Incantation 1: Revertere in sole, expellat tenebras

All incantations in this book must be spoken whilst touching the book.    

"I'll be damned," Jandon grinned. "A spellbook. Here, in the twenty-first century. I feel like a sorceress already."

"Let's flip to a random page, see what we get," Rita smiled, closing the book and reopening it somewhere in the middle.

Giant Growth- Should you need the size and power of a giant.

Incantation 67: Me tam excelsus ut elephantum

"Sounds fun," Rita grinned. "It might be fun being as big as people exaggerate me to be."

"Alright, then," Jandon smiled, "but I get to pick a spell next."

"Deal," Rita nodded, obviously thinking malicious thoughts regarding the gossiping girls at the other end of the room. Their backs were turned- this was going to be easy. "Me tam excelsus ut elephantum," she said clearly.

The jade-haired young woman felt a tingling in her body, a rush of power and heat, and suddenly she shot up to twelve feet in height. The now quite massive young woman pouted, and seated herself on the floor in disappointment. "What kind of giant can stand up in a school library?"

"A classic, mythological one?" Jandon shrugged. "We didn't start imagining fifty-foot women until we had buildings that it'd take a woman that big to move. I'm more surprised that it actually fucking worked. Like, real magic? Are you kidding me? This is huge!"

"Keep your voice down," Rita hissed, the explicit power of her sheer size shutting Jandon up immediately. "So, we've established it works. Great. But there's no fucking way I'm letting power like this out of our hands, which it will if you draw attention to us."

Jandon was shocked and chagrined- Rita had a point. If those girls on the other end of the library turned around, or the librarian came back, the two could kiss "Numbers" goodbye. However, this line of thinking seemed even more angry than Rita typically was . . . Jandon put it out of mind. She was probably imagining things, Rita's anger just seeming more frightening because her friend had more than doubled in size.

"Alright, then," Jandon breathed, calming herself, "but it's my turn now."

Rita handed over the book, and Jandon did as Rita had done- rapidly closed and opened the leather tome, picking a spell at random. 

Myrmidon- Should you need a big problem to become smaller.

Incantation 12: Reducere homines in ea, formicae

Jandon grinned up at Rita in excitement. She had no idea why, but this new power was . . . thrilling. Half sugar high, half orgasm, the knowledge that she could make people smaller with a few words was quite intoxicating. "I got a shrinking spell."

"Well then . . . I think we show those bitches the power of magic," Rita replied, equally excited, her voice tempered with sheer malicious glee.

"What, you mean . . . them? Now?" Jandon hesitated. The feeling of power still tingled through her body, but she knew those girls. She was friends with them. 

"Yes, them. Yes, now," Rita huffed. "I know you can feel it, too. That . . . that fucking rush. Try actually using the spell. I'm sure we can find some memory-wipe spell or something, but I want you to at least try the spell you got."

The short girl couldn't argue with that logic. "Alright, then . . . reducere homines in ea, formicae," Jandon purred, holding one hand before her in a classic sorcery pose. The magic seemed to pull from the book, through her arm, into her body . . . and unleashed itself, flying out of her arm and leaving a delightful tingling feeling behind. 

Across the room, all six gossiping girls shivered, and promptly vanished from view. Immediately, Rita and Jandon rushed across the library to see exactly how teensy Myrmidon had made their targets.

At the bottom of the depression formed by decades of girls sitting in the library chairs were six two-inch toys that had been students mere moments before. They squirmed and shrieked in horror at seeing Rita towering impossibly high above them with a sadistic smirk, and Jandon's presence with an eager grin only amplified that fear.

"It was your shrinking spell, you pick first," Rita grinned wolfishly, removing a single uniform loafer and peeling off a single stocking.

"What- why are you taking you shoe off?" Jandon recoiled as the sharp, overwhelming scent of Rita's foot overtook the air. "And what the hell do you mean, pick first?"

"Well," Rita grinned, "I'm taking my shoe off because I want those little bugs cleaning the sweat from between my toes as punishment for their fucking bitchy behavior. But, I'm not going to be so presumptuous as to take away your right to play first, Jan."

"I'm not going to play with them," Jandon hissed, caught off-guard by how quickly Rita had gone mad with power, "and you shouldn't, either. I'm going to look for a memory spell like you said."

"If we're going to be wiping their memories anyway, might as well have fun first," Rita smiled, snatching up four of the bug-sized babes and depositing them between her sweat-soaked toes before pulling her stocking and shoe back on. "Man, I can't tell you how often I've thought of making people clean all this fucking sweat off my feet. I'm always fucking boiling in this getup."

Jandon frowned, wondering what was up with Rita as she looked through the book. Eventually, she hit what she'd been looking for:

Memory Loss- Should you need information to be easier forgotten.

Incantation #4: Oblivisci.

Jandon was admittedly startled by how short the incantation for a memory loss spell was, but tried it regardless: "Oblivisci," she said softly, feeling power channel through her once again. The two teensy teenagers on the chairs immediately fell unconscious, and Jan felt that upwelling of power once again. She could shrink people, toy with them, and erase their memories so they never knew it happened . . . oh, she had one more thing to do. "Revertere in sole, expellat tenebras."

Both girls returned to normal instantly, still unconscious.

"See? No problems to be had. We're good," Rita purred, "oh yeah, you little shits, keep licking . . ."

"You still can't harm them," Jandon reminded Rita, "because if they get hurt, even memory erasure won't be able to help us out." That said, the power pooling in her body made the brunette question her own words . . . suddenly, she felt the need to test something. "Rita. Take the book, fix them, erase their memories, and get back to normal."

"But I don't wanna make them normal again . . ." Rita whined, and at that point Jandon knew something was up, and the jade-haired girl caught it, herself. Reluctantly, she took the book and removed her shoe and stocking once more, flicking her tiny servants free of her toes before chanting, "Revertere in sole, expellat tenebras."

Rita returned to normal size in an instant, but the sweat-soaked tiny girls still shrieked ineffectually. "Okay, I wasn't myself at giant size, but . . . that felt good. Really good. I already wanna do it again . . . just shrink everyone, stomp them flat . . ."

"Hand me the book," Jandon said experimentally, realizing that her own temptation for power had faded a bit. As Rita handed it back, however, that powerful desire to subjugate, to take command, returned . . . "It feels fantastic, but it's definitely some fucked up shit. Oblivisci. Revertere in sole, expellat tenebras."

The four girls on the floor were still utterly drenched in the sweat from Rita's toes, but we're unconscious and minus any memories of having been shrunk.

Rita frowned. "Still, I'm sure as hell not going to trust anyone else with this. Let's go back to my room, figure out what to do."