Ingrid sat on her bed browsing away at YouTube videos on her laptop after Ivory made good on her word to finish her lecture later . She stated that she had a very good mind to ground her daughter for her transgressions. Right when Ingrid thought her mother would swing the gavel and give the sentence she added a caveat, that Tanner's intervention changed her mind. She sounded reasonably understanding that Ingrid was trying to be thoughtful, but she reminded her to always remember that Tanner was “special” and needed to be treated as such. Ingrid escaped by the skin of her teeth and now it'd be wise to lay low for the rest of the day.

“ Hey there cuz.” So much for that . .

Ingrid deliberately began typing louder at the sound of Marcelle's chipper voice, she wasn't going to give her the time of day. The mischievous young woman drew closer, welcoming herself in and taking a seat on the bed next to Ingrid who all the while kept her eyes glued onto the monitor trying not to acknowledge her cousin's presence.

“ Cute.” Marcelle thought, her lips in an amused smirk at Ingrid trying so hard to ignore her. “ Why do you always have to be that way?”

“ Shut up and tell me what you want.”

“ I don't want anything, I came to check and see how you were feeling after Ivory going apeshit.”

“ Since when do you care how I feel?”

Marcelle ran her hand through her wavy hair seeming like she was actually contemplating the question before shrugging her shoulders. “ Dunno, but we're both adults now or close to it, so it's not like I can fuck with you like I did back in the day. So I guess I have to be a little nicer to you now.”

Her downplay of her past acts of bullying earned a quick snort from Ingrid. “ How kind of you, is that why you focus all your efforts on an easier target like Tanner?”

“ Don't you ever get tired of treating him like your kid?”

“ He's not my kid-”

“ He may as well be.” Marcelle interrupted. “ You have so many responsibilities dumped on you because of him.”

Ingrid's typing came to a halt with that comment, in spite of her efforts to ignore her cousin, that comment captured more of her attention and she was now listening more actively.“ I don't mind, it's what siblings are for.”

“ Oh really?” Marcelle didn't believe it for a second. “ C'mon, you've got to be feeling a little frustrated at least. Can't we just have a girl talk? I've even brought a stress reliever, take a look.”

Deep down Ingrid knew she shouldn't have looked, curiosity won over discipline and she took a peek over laptop screen anyway and what she saw made her put the entire computer to the side.“ Where did you get that?” Ingrid knew for a fact that Ivory wasn't much of a drinker save for the occasional glass of wine, so Marcelle must have brought the bottle of vodka with her.

“ That's really what you're concerned about right now?” Marcelle berated for as much chicanery as she delves into, her ability to access vodka while being underage shouldn't be all too surprising.

“ Whatever, I'm not drinking any.” Ingrid knew where Marcelle was gonna go to next and attempted to beat her there.

“ Relax, it's not like I want you to down the whole thing.”

“ Don't care.” Ingrid was sticking to her guns.

“ Ugh, why are you being such a wuss? You'd be far from the first person to dabble in underage drinking. Trust me, the police won't barge in.”

“ Drinking doesn't bother me, drinking with you bothers me.” Ingrid made sure to emphasize.

“ You're going to break my wee heart. I can't imagine you get the chance to do this often.”

“ Getting screw faced drunk?” Was what Ingrid assumed she meant.

“ No, getting to speak your mind freely and openly.” That statement buckled Ingrid in her tracks who had nothing to rebuke that claim.“ I bet you always have to mind your tongue around Ivory and especially Tanner.”

Fuck she hated admitting when Marcelle was right about anything, but this was a case where something was so blindingly apparent Ingrid couldn't deny it no matter how stubborn she was. There was hardly opportunity for her to speak unfiltered without having to worry about being judged, even around Blake. Marcelle was a lot of things, but Ingrid would agree she was not one who cared a lot for political correctness.

Ingrid shook her head in disbelief, coming to grasp the fact she was having the most cordial conversation with her cousin that she's had since . . .ever. “ Okay, you win.” She said, snatching the bottle out of her hand.” With a firm grip she popped the cap and it's strong aroma immediately invaded her nostrils.

“ It sucks sometimes. It's like I need to file a complete report of everything I do.” Ingrid complained taking a quick swing of the bottle.

“ I figured as much, I didn't think Ivory would blow up THAT much.” Marcelle added.

“ Heh, I did. She's ready to flip out the second I even take Tanner to the front yard. I swear she's such a fucking helicopter mom when it comes to him.” Ingrid responded taking another chug.

“ In fairness she has good reason to be, he's so tiny!”

“ I get that, but I still have my life to live! I swear, it reminds me of that dumb project where you have to take care of an egg, only for me it's 24/365. ” Ingrid and Marcelle cackled with laughter at the joke. It only took a few swings to get Ingrid to loosen up as expected, but she didn't show any intention to slow down now that she was buzzed.

Ingrid's speech started become more labored with periodic pauses in between words as her brain tried to come up with words.“ I swear . .it's hilarious how someone the size of my finger can be such a smart-ass...”

Marcelle gave Ingrid a playful shove accustomed to her being a hard-ass.“ You say all that now, but you're such a softy when it comes to him.”

“ Oh shut up. Every now and again I wish . . . .I wish I could just.” Ingrid held up her digits, curling her index finger onto her thumb. “ Flick. Right off the table and then squish.” She chuckled at how easy it'd be, rubbing the ball of her foot on the ground.“ I mean . . . I love him . . . but it's such a pain in the ass sometimes.”

“ Speaking of love, you've had to have noticed that Tanner likes you.”

Ingrid sucked on her teeth. “ I'd hope so . .considering all I do for him!”

“ No, no. . LIKES you.” Marcelle clarified.

Ingrid was in the midst of another drink before spitting it out. “ Pfft, liar!”

“ Ask him for yourself if you don't believe me.” Though Marcelle only meant her statement rhetorically what she didn't anticipate was Ingrid planning to follow through.

“ Fine then . . I will.” Ingrid stated as she stumbled out of the bed.

“ Uh, I don't think that's such a good idea right now. .” Marcelle got up and warily put her hand on Ingrid's shoulder to try to stop her. Her coordination may have been gone, but her strength wasn't and the athletic teen easily pushed her to the side as she made her way down the hallway one clumsy step after another.

Tanner rolled out of his bed into an upright position, stretching out his body to it's maximum length before moving any further.

“ It's about time you got up lazy bones, c'mon.”

Tanner turned his head to see Ingrid at the door frame tapping her foot impatiently. She was dressed in full soccer attire with a ball in hand.

“ Where are we going?” Tanner dumbly asked.

Ingrid shook her head. “ Don't you remember you said you were going to help me practice outside.”

With that jog of the memory Tanner slapped his forehead for being so forgetful. “ Oh right, sure I remember.”

“ Uhuh.” Ingrid responded, clearly not buying it. “ I'll be waiting outside.” She appeared ready to take off before stopping to take another look at her stepbrother. “ I swear I can't get over how much you grew, here I was thinking I'd always be the taller one.” She commented as she scanned the entirety of his 5'10 body.

“ Keep dreaming, you know I've got a lot of teasing to pay you back for.” Tanner smirked. “ I'll be out in a minute.”

“ Tanner.”

Not wanting to keep his stepsister waiting he quickly washed himself up in the sink and found some sporty clothes. After throwing them on Tanner started to walk down the hallway towards the front door.

“ Tanner, you know you can't do that right?”

“ We're only going to play some soccer, relax.” Tanner responded, pulling the string to his shorts to tighten them further.

“ Just stay inside dear, it'll be much better in here.”

Tanner continued arguing with the voice that kept trying to dissuade him from his attempts to leave. While he did so he failed to notice that despite his efforts in walking he was covering less distance by the step. He was also too distracted to regard his gym shorts which became too loose fitting on his body and ended up sliding onto the floor. The same applied to his tank top, the straps falling past his shoulders and seconds later accompanied his shorts on the ground.

Tanner gasped in confusion by the time he reached the door that inexplicably towered above him like an ancient monolith. Certainly it wasn't that big when it was several feet away from him. He looked up at the door knob, which from the ground up had to have been 3 feet in the air just slightly above his head. He tried to get on his toes to reach the knob, but once he came within centimeters of touching it his body inexplicably stopped. It wasn't of its own volition, instead more like something actively trying to prevent him from doing so.

Tanner attempted one last time to reach for the door knob and not only could he not reach for it, his arm was retreating back down to his side. His eyes drifted to his wrists where he primarily felt the resistance.

“ The heck . .” He mouthed with his lips, after focusing he noticed very thin strings on his body. They were hardly detectable to the naked eye, were they always on him? He didn't notice them a few moments ago for sure.

“Tanner why don't you listen to me?”

Tanner wasn't able to pinpoint where her voice was coming from, but from that last statement the voice had a clear source. He craned his head up above to see the roof vanished and looming high above with the might and size of the inescapable sun was none other than his stepmother Ivory with controllers in her hands.

“ Tanner wouldn't be it be a far better idea for you to stay here?” If he had any control over his limbs, Tanner would've been covering his ears from the booming voice of his stepmother ringing in his ears and echoing in the hall.

He intended to stand his ground, but with zero control over his body it was a moot effort. With some nimble motions from her fingers Tanner's mouth began to move. “ Yes Mom, that sounds great.”

“ After all you're so very tiny.”

“ Yes I am.” Tanner said after another couple of gestures from Ivory's controllers. After he forcibly spoke he had to perilously watch as he saw the door knob rise further above his head and away from his grasp. Tanner could practically feel Ivory's satisfactory grin as she watched his hopes for getting out dwindling as speedily as his height was. At a meager height of 3 inches tall the door seemed to stop rising.

He didn't know what he expected to accomplish, his odds of reaching were already nonexistent yet he still tried to reach out for the door knob again.

“ Oh sweetie, why must you be so difficult.” Ivory sighed, she didn't bother to prevent him from moving and let her teeny stepson engage in his pointless efforts. They were becoming increasingly pointless as everything around him started expanding again. He watched hopelessly as everything started becoming absurdly gigantic with no signs of slowing down. His a meager 3 inches, turned to a pitiful 2, to an abysmal 1, down to centimeters, and eventually down to millimeters. Nothing he knew could've compare how everything looked to him, he may as well have been a flea on the floor once the shrinking finally stopped. The floor beneath him was as expansive as an ocean.

“ Tanner, where you at!?” Came Ingrid's voice as she opened up the door. He barely was able to distinguish her voice at at such a minuscule size of 1 millimeter where it mainly came off as an enormous rumble for the most part.

If he had any dominion over his body he'd yell and scream to get Ingrid's attention, but his body was again paralyzed courtesy of Ivory. Granted at only 1 millimeter tall there wasn't a snowballs chance in hell she'd ever hear him and that was the least of his concerns with the tremors generated in the ground from her footsteps. The enormity of her body was past anything he thought was feasibly possible, her kneecaps was the farthest his vision would allow him too see, even with control over his body there was no way he'd escape her strides.

He couldn't muster a single movement and was only able to watch her monumental pillar of a leg raise up as she prepared to move. The entire underside of her Nike soccer cleats easily overshadowed his body hundreds of times over, leaving him waiting as her foot slowly descended.

“ I told you should've listened to me.” Ivory said in a chiding voice.

Tanner jerked awake thankfully realizing he was just dreaming, for once he was quite happy to be 3 ½ inches tall. A far better deal than being the size of an insect. There wasn't much time to revel in the fact it was only the dream once he looked up to see his stepsister hovering above his house watching him and something was clearly . . .off about her.