Even now, I can hardly believe this was happening. A couple days ago I had to spend the most agonizingly long morning of my life waiting for my aunt, or anyone really, to either pick up her phone or just get home before I had a stroke or something.
And of course, while she did come earlier as she had promised, I felt every single second of the wait. I could feel my mind playing tricks on me, almost like my surroundings and clothes were getting bigger with every passing second, although I knew that it was nothing but me panicking, at least for now.
After she finally got home I wasted no time and attempted to explain to her the situation. Her response? 'I'm sure it's nothing. Probably your cold is playing tricks on you.'
OK, fine, maybe that wasn't word for word what she said, but such a dismissal wouldn't have been better whichever way you coated it to a panicking girl. I didn't know if I should've been taken aback or offended. Sure, I had spent the last 4 hours or so in denial, but by that point, I was dead certain that this was a thing that was happening.
Even after I showed her the video, explained to her how I could no longer reach the cereal boxes, which admittedly was a bit flimsy to take as evidence, and trying to compare our current heights, but we had no real point of reference as we hadn't ever really bothered with something like this. it was only when both my sister and my cousin came home and told aunt Beth about how the school staff had mandated a one week break and for all students to go get check-ups after news broke in that she gave in.
She decided that we'd be all going to the local clinic early next morning. Sighing with relief, I tried to relax for the first time all day.
It was when we got to the clinic that next morning when we all realized why procrastination is a bad thing. Saying they had their hands full was a bit of an understatement, never in my life had I seen such a long line of people, one possible exception being when I went to Disneyland when I was six.
Naturally, we spent our entire morning on a line just to get booked for the next day. It sucked, I cannot describe just how bad it sucked, there were snot-nosed brats yelling and running all over the place, a single father with his goddamn crying baby right behind us and the sun was shining as brightly as ever without a cloud in sight. To top it off, this was ANOTHER day that I had to see pass by while becoming increasingly perceptive to my slowly changing surroundings.
---
Finally, here we are, back at the clinic. There still seems to be quite a sizable line outside, but thankfully this time we managed to avoid it as we are currently sitting in what I'd guess is a reception of sorts, waiting for our turns.
This place seemed to be fairly clean, as one would expect. The secretary, or maybe a receptionist? I'm not really sure how clinics work. Anyways, she was filling some documents with a tired look on her face, the last few days must have been heavy on the staff. She was a woman not that much older than me, if I were to ignore the bags I'd say she was around 23, she had black hair and was wearing a baby blue uniform.
Aunt Beth was reading some gossip magazine, that she got from a pile of similar magazines laying on a small table, and both my sister and cousin were playing Tic Tac Toe to kill time while I just sat quietly checking my phone and watching the clock on the wall. My cousin, Ash, was wearing a baggy black hoody with the logo of some obscure metal band, while Vivian wore her favorite Frozen dress with blue leggings.
After quite a while, a teenage girl and her father came out of the doctor's office, I took notice of the man's sullen looking eyes which contrasted with the girl's overall nonchalant demeanor.
'Oh come on dad! It'll be fine! I'm sure mom will take care of you, but you probably gotta sweeten the deal before giving her the news, won't you? Let's think about that later, I can't wai-' They were too far for me to keep hearing the one-sided conversation between the depressed man and her daughter. Not like I wanted to, what little I had heard had already triggered my anxiety, images of the man, small enough to fit in the palm of his daughter's hand. Those images then turned into the man, much smaller than before, laying on the vast landscape of a wooden nightstand looking towards the horizon, where the blurry image of his wife rested her nude form on top of her bed, she moving in ways the diminutive man couldn't fully appreciate despite being right next to her, a gargantuan shadow covering the man as the hand of what was once his wife reached for...
My train of thought was lost as I was snapped back to reality when I realized that Vivian was staring straight at me with an inquisitive look on her face. 'So?' She seemingly asked, crap, did she ask a question?
'Erm, sorry wasn't listening, did you ask something?' I said, but a second look around the room made me raise one more question, 'Where are Aunt Beth and Ash?'
'I asked you about what you were thinking, did you not notice when they went in?' I shook my head and asked her why didn't we go with them, 'Dang, daydreaming much? They seem to only be able to accommodate two persons at a time, Aunt Beth told you to pay attention for when they call our names, did you miss that too dummy?' She finished with a sly grin on her face.
'Shut it, shrimp.' The sentence barely managed to leave my mouth when I bit my tongue after realizing the selection of words I had used in such a situation.
Vivian on the other hand, or perhaps the same hand, looked like she had the perfect retort for such a situation. But before she had the chance to, the tired looking woman called our names. Oh boy, here we go...
---
'Approximately, what are your girls' heights?'
'Er-'
'She's 4'10'', I'm 5'4''.' I smugly interrupted Vivian, knowing she herself didn't know the answer to that question. She flashed me a quick annoyed look before the doctor continued talking.
'As you may be aware of, we are currently understaffed for the number of patients we have to diagnose, that means we will only test you on the most superficial symptoms as to do this as quickly as possible. Don't worry, if anyone tests positive we will book you at a later date.' The doctor continued talking while filling some papers while directing us to one of those measuring machines 'Now, if you may.'
Vivian was the first go, with the Doctor needing to help her and take the most accurate measurements possible. The Doc was a woman named Helen, she was somewhere in her 30's with black hair, she didn't seem anywhere near as tired as the woman outside, in fact, she looked positively stunning considering the amount of stress she must be in. I'm sure Candy would think that anyways, she has always had an eye for these things.
'...That's a 4'10''... and a half. Congratulations Missy, it seems that not only are you in the clear, but you are in fact gonna get bigger.' Said the Doc with a small smile, Vivian was pretty excited, more from the prospect that she still has growing to do rather than avoiding the contrary.
'Your turn, Miss Mary.'
Anxiety took over me, feeling increasingly nervous as I walked towards the apparatus, maybe my aunt was right and I was panicking over nothing, maybe it was just a cold after all...
'...That's a 5'2''...' My heart sank. '...and a half.'