An hour later, Clyde finally trudged through his front door. It was only mid morning, so with them skipping school, they had nothing but time to kill. Clyde sat down on his bed and just put his head in his hands.



"What. . . What the fuck happened dude? One minute, we successfully take down the most popular girl in school, the next, none of us are friends and I'm getting bitch slapped to within an inch of my life by the biggest nerd in the tri-state area."


"For the first time in a while Clyde, I don't know what to tell you." Jason admitted.


"But you agree Mya was totally out of line right?" Clyde asked, looking for positive affirmation.


"I. . . She. . . She was, but I'm not 100% sure it's completely her fault. . . "


"Not her fault? NOT HER FAULT!? How can you even say that? Nobody made her hulk out on me! You know they pressure me. I was just pointing out the injustuce dude! Neither of them know what it's like when Emily comes around and you're on the wrong side. . . . . Jason. . . . . When we threw that bomb. . . . . . . I've never seen anyone so angry in my life."



"Clyde. . . . . Can I finally show you my theory?" Jason asked solemnly.




Jason opened the first year book. 6 years old. Kimmy's freshman year. He flipped through the pages til he found the sports section.


"Look here, I'm using the girls volleyball team for reference because they have the same coach as they did back then." Jason said, pointing to the only male in the picture. I know that he is about 5'9. Notice how the shortest girl here is 5'4, a starting freshman. Not ideal for volleyball but with some technique, she could compete. The tallest girl is 6'3. 3rd tallest girl in the district. That year, the team got 4th at state."



"Ok, I'm with you so far." Clyde said, studying the photo.



Jason flipped pages again to a picture of the girls choir.


"Right here, girls choir. None of these girls needed to be tall for any advantage. Still the shortest here is 5'3. This freshman girl . 75 percent of these girls are on average 5'6 or above. I sized up a picture and kimmy was 5'4 at this point. Maybe 98 pounds. Taking that into account, her size projection should have been 5'7 117 by senior year."


"Yeah no, Kim's been 5'10 forever. She would always lord it over my dad because he is shorter and lighter than his daughter." Clyde responded, scratching his chin.


Jason kept the year book open, and moved to the next year.


He opened to the picture of the volleyball team.


"Ok, here you juuusst start to see what I'm talking about. One year more of freshman, this time, the shortest girl is 5'6. The tallest, 6'5, she is now the biggest in the district. The average height is 5'10. They got 3rd this year."


The side by side comparison showed that not only were the girls catching coach Mathews in terms of height, he began to get outweighed by about half of the girls. Their calves and thighs becoming marginally thicker and stronger looking.


The choir picture told the same story.


"This is where it gets a little crazy." Jason explained.


" the shortest freshman girl here was 5'6, the same as the volleyball team. The tallest is 6'2. This girl has no sports background or anything. The average is 5'9 now. A whole 3 inches more in just a year. Kimmy was now 5'9 125lbs."


"Holy shit man," Clyde breathed as he ran the numbers in his mind.


Jason opened the next yearbook.

Following form, they looked at the volleyball team.


"5'8. . .6'6. . . .6' even. 1st place." Jason said, paraphrasing. Mathews only has the lightest girl on the team by 6 pounds at this point."



"Choir team 5'8. . . 6'2. . . 5'10. Non athletically the lightest girl is giving up only 25lbs to Mathews. Kimmy is fully grown. This was also Emily's freshman year. She was 5'9 145lbs."

Clyde was silent, and just waited for Jason to continue.

He opened the last yearbook.

"5'11. . . .3 girls at 6'6. . . .average is 6'2" Jason said quietly, letting the gravity sink in. "Every girl on the team outweighs Mathews. 1st place in state and nationals.

"And choir?" Clyde asked, his face having gone pale.

"The shortest girl is 5'9, the average is 5'11, the tallest girl was 6'3. The lightest is within 10 lbs of you know who. Emily is 5"11 160lbs and getting bitchier with every pound she gains."

"Hey, how does that figure in? I'm guessing they were getting more gangy and aggressive throughout this evolution weren't they?"

"I imagine so, but that isn't something I can measure."

"Still man!. . . This is. . . This is like concrete evidence of. . . Of something at least." Clyde stammered.

"That isn't the whole thing. I don't have the next two years of books, but if the trend continues. . . .by the time Kylie is a freshman, she will already be Emily's current size."

"So. . . .when she's a senior?" Clyde asked, genuine fear on his face.

"It's best not to think about it. . . . At that point, it isn't going to matter how big we are. My parents won't have any actual control over her. "

"So what. . . .are we just talking about this or getting to the bottom of it or what?" Clyde inquired, anxious to do anything with this newly acquired knowledge.

"Oh shit! I almost forgot! Clyde, turn on your computer." Jason said, turning to the screen.

A few minutes later, they were online.

[Brooklyn and Anthony O'Neal] Jason typed. He held his breath as the computer loaded the results.

. . .

. . .

. . .


"NO FUCKING WAY!" Jason shouted as he saw the first suggestion.

"Missing persons? Who are they?" Clyde asked, reading over Jason's shoulder.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. . . I really need to call MY-" he stopped mid-word as he remembered that he may not even be on seeing terms, let alone speaking terms with her right now.

"Just tell me, man! We don't have anyone but each other now. At this point, I'm willing to believe just about anything."

"These people. . . . . I . . . I saw them in a vision or a dream, or something."

"Like. . . . .you professor X'd them?!" Clyde said, trying to wrap his head around what Jason was saying.

" I couldn't tell I was in a dream. It was more real than it has been before. And the information I needed, was given to me in natural way. I thought that I hacked Mya's dad's computer, and in it, I found videos of these twins. . . . . The lab. . . This sketchy lab. . .they were running all types of test on them. Both of the twins grew and got stronger and smarter. This guy, Anthony. . . .he gained a few inches and pounds, but the girl. . . . .she became a monster. No one could stop her and I think she killed her brother."

"So you told Mya all of this, and she literally showed zero interest?" Clyde asked in disbelief


"Yeah, pretty much. She was only interested in her role of the whole dream."


"Her role?" Clyde questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"If I tell you, you have to promise not to judge her."

"She did something shitty, didn't she?" Clyde guessed, a mildly pissed off tone present.

". . . .yes. . . Well no. . .kind of." Jason decided finally. "When she left me in her room to go to Mertle's, right before she left, she threatened to pretty much squash my head if I touched anything or went anywhere. That DID happen. I was pissed off, so I jumped off of her dresser. When I hit the ground, I guess knocked myself out, but the dream seamlessly took over in the blink of an eye. In the dream, I don't know if they had security cameras or log in protocol, but she knew I had gone through her dad's files. She didn't bust me right away though, she played it off, you know. She got blankets and drinks for you and Rachel, acted normal. I'm 99% sure she drugged you guys, because when she did come for me a few hours later. . . Neither of you guys would wake up. From there, she took me to her room, and after telling me I was caught, she really did squash my head until I passed out.


"I'm not judging her. . . . But all of that sounds exactly like shit Mya would actually do." Clyde pointed out. "Like, you know she put some serious thought into exactly how she would break you, should we say. . . ."the need ever arises."

Jason knew he was right. Clyde wasn't even there to see the look on Mya's face when she threatened to squeeze his head. The look of finally executing some long hashed out plan.

"It's just her personality man, how her brain works. I don't think she meant anything by it." Jason said, vouching for her.

"Whatever dude. If you want to put your trust in someone who has thought in probably great detail, about how she would crush your bones, or stomp you out, that's on you. At least with Emily, you know where she stands. She doesn't offer advice one minute, then pin you down and almost knock you out the next." Clyde said, as he went back to looking at the computer.


"I'm tired of thinking about Mya anyway. We need to find Rachel." Jason said, turning and sitting on the edge of the computer desk.


"Can we take a few hours man? I think stupid ass Mya is right for once, we or at least I, need a break from them. Everyone should be at school, so it's not likely that she got captured. Even if she did, they probably would have brought enough girls to get all of us at once. We wouldn't have been able to do anything. I think Emily is done playing games, and the next time we see her, pain is coming with it."





Jason took in Clyde's words. "The next time" a very profound statement. Jason had spent this entire escape, not thinking about the next time. He couldn't avoid her forever. Either of his siblings. Whether small or regular size, he had to go home. His mind drifted to thoughts of his sisters.


In the past few days, unbeknownst to Jason, Emily's constant toxic attitude had begun to affect Kylie. She had taken to bullying her smaller classmates as a means to cope with the verbal abuse that Emily would dish her. With her size advantage, nobody was safe as she had her way with girls and boys alike, taking anything she desired and pushing her weight around.


Jason had always stressed that she needed to be a gentle giant. To help those smaller than her, but it seemed his teachings were far from her mind now. On the other end of the spectrum, he thought of Emily.


Looking at his watch, Jason knew that Emily would be in study hall right now. Probably sleeping like she always did. It never crossed his mind before, but due to his active imagination and dreams, he couldn't help but wonder what Emily might be dreaming of. He imagined it was of the things her and her friends would do, when they finally caught up to him and his.