The next morning, Rachel was getting ready for class.  She showered, and put on jeans and a t shirt.  Her roommate, Katie, was one of the people who ended up shrinking.  Needless to say, even before the shrinking event, they did not get along.  And now that Katie was shrunk, it was even worse.  “You gonna hurry up or what!?” she heard the tiny girl yelling from their coffee table as Rachel was doing her makeup. 

Rachel gave a long, disgruntled sigh.  ‘Pain in my ass,’ she thought.  “Can’t you just get an Escort like everyone else?”

“I don’t have a way of contacting them!  Duh!  Just do it yourself, what’s the big deal!?”

Rachel rubbed her forehead, losing her patience.  “They come by every week with signups.  Why the crap don’t you just sign up with them, or let them know you want them to pick you up?”

“It’s not like I’m heavy or anything, and our classes are right next to each other.  Who cares!  You can just do it!  Quit being so stupid about it!”

Rachel lifted her head and groaned.  ‘Light give me strength,’ she thought.  She was fixing her hair down in a long braided ponytail.  She had dyed her hair one side a pale green, the other a pale pink color.  She liked the way it looked, especially if she could get the braid looking right.  It was almost like dragon fire, in a way.  Or at least very dragon-like.  After she finished and was content enough, she stepped out and grabbed her book bag.

“Gawd.  It’s about time.  Let’s get going, already!” Katie said.  She wore the typical female clothing that the tiny people were given, the mid-length skirt and blouse in the school colors.  She had short, light brown hair.  For all Rachel knew, based on the way she looked and acted, she must have been a cheerleader during high school, so she had no idea what she was doing in a university like this one. 

Rachel walked up to the coffee table and sighed impatiently, hands on her hips and scowling down at her shrunken roommate.  Katie stood with her arms crossed, looking up at Rachel expectantly.  Rachel pursed her lips to the side, considering the fact that the coffee table was low enough to where she could easily just sit on her.  ‘I wish,’ she thought, ‘maybe if she were normal size I’d sit on her face and smother her, but there’s going to be unholy hell for messing with tinies right now.’    She sighed, something she found herself doing more and more often since she arrived at the school several months ago, and picked up her slightly obnoxious roommate and left their dorm to head out to their lecture hall.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

After she dropped off her roommate, Rachel was feeling a lot better.  It was lab day today, one of her favorite kinds of days where the students donned white lab coats and did some hands on science.  She liked the feeling of wearing them, it made her feel like she was a real biologist already.  She snuck some looks at her partner.  ‘Damnit, Val,’ she thought.  She didn’t even think professional doctors wore the lab coat as good as Val did.  It looked like she was meant to be wearing it, and made her look oddly mature and distinguished.  The way she carried herself sometimes, she could easily be mistaken for faculty.  Literally.  On a dare, the first time Valerie put on the coat, they had her walk into a room full of new students and start winging a lecture.  No one even questioned anything until the real professor came along and kicked her out. 

Rachel blushed.  Valerie’s hair was done up in some kind of swirly bun in the back of her head.  She could look gorgeous  and confident in anything.  Oddly enough, that was where her girlish tendencies mostly ended.  Other than that she was basically a tomboy.  “You doing alright there, lady dragon?” Valerie asked, grinning as they stood over their labwork, noticing Rachel’s glances.  For the lab they were looking at plant specimens in their microscopes and filling out assigned worksheets. 

“Y-yeah, sorry, you just look good, is all.”  Rachel rolled her eyes.  “Not that that’s news.”

Valerie giggled.  “Nice to know I still have such a mighty dragon tamed.”  She peered through her microscope for a moment, jotting down notes.  “Roommate still ruining everything?”

“Urgh.  Yeah.  Basically.”  Rachel paused as she too worked for a bit.  “Gorram.  I swear I’m just going to sign her up for the Escorts myself and let them farkin' deal with her.”

“Honestly surprised you haven’t done that yet.  There’s no words to describe the amount of patience you have, putting up with that.  Your well runs deep, o ye dragon.”  Valerie gave a half-smile.  “I’d hate to think what I’d do if she were my roommate.”

Rachel frowned in thought as she worked, though not because of the work itself.   “I should’ve just given her to you, honestly.” 

“Yeah,” Valerie replied, mostly concentrating on the work.  “Missed your chance baby girl.” 

—————————————————————————————————————————————

“Don’t you have to pick up the ol’ ball n chain?” Valerie asked Rachel.  They had finished class and were on their way back to the dorms. 

“Urgh.  She can find her own way back.  Let the Escorts handle her.”

“Oooo-oooh!  You’re going to get it when she gets back, woman!” 

Rachel rolled her eyes.  “Yeah, yeah.  Whatever.  I’ll deal.”

“She gawn kick yo ass somethin’ fierce!”

“The worst thing she could do is crawl inside my ear and start yelling.  Which come to think of it is terrible and horrifying enough.”  After walking a few more paces, she asked,  “You want to hang out at your dorm?”

Valerie giggled.  “Sure, woman.  I’ll help ya forget about ol’ K.K.”  She put her arm around Rachel and hugged her. 

“Thanks,” Rachel sighed, reaching up and gripping Valerie’s hand momentarily.  They were now walking by the library when Joseph stepped out, teeth clamped down over his pipe. 

“Ahhh!”  He clapped his hands together.  “Hello ladies!  Just the two lovely people I wanted to see.”

Valerie grinned up at Joey.  “Well hello!  Nice to see you’re upping your game, big boy.  Did you bring the handcuffs?”

Joey chuckled.  “No.  Not this time.  But don’t worry, they’re comin’.  Was wonderin’ if I could speak to ol’ girl here.” he said, gesturing with a quick nod at Rachel.

Rachel looked to and from Joey and Valerie confusedly.  “Uh, who is he again?”

“So glad you asked!”  Joey said cheerfully, giving his business card to Rachel.  “Word on the street is the tiny folk are going missing, and I’m investigating it.”  He blew a few bubbles out of his pipe.

Rachel skimmed the front and back of the card before putting it in her pocket.  “I, uh, see.”  She looked at Valerie.  “Is he, like, for real?”

Valerie giggled.  “Sure, I can vouch for him!  After all, despite however he may seem… he IS a very dangerous boy.”  She narrowed her eyes as she stared at Joey, smiling.

“Hey, I’ll take the compliment where I can get ‘em.”  He stared back into her eyes, grinning through his pipe.  And though they seemed friendly enough on the outside, a silent, unspoken message was understood between the two of them. 

Rachel was not aware of it, though.  “But,” she began, “I don’t have to?  I mean, you’re not the police or anything.”

Joey shrugged.  “Even if I were the police, you could do what you want unless I arrested you.  I’m just trying to figure things out, here, ya feel me?”

Rachel sighed.  “Well, so long as it doesn’t take too long.”

“Don’t worry.  With me he was in and out real quick.”  Valerie gave Joey a wink.

Joey gave a bewildered look.  “Come on, you’re like… ten years younger than me, man!  Shiiit!” 

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Rachel said, “I’ll answer your questions.  But I want to be able to leave if I feel like it.  This is my relaxing time you’re cutting into here, gorram it.”

“Sure sure.”

Valerie squeezed Rachel’s hand.  “Let me know when you’re back, my dear dragon, and we’ll get to helping you forget about all your problems.”  Valerie smiled, kissing her cheek.  Rachel blushed.  Valerie then turned to Joey.  “Now you be gentle with her, or I’ll eat you alive, boy.”  She grinned mischievously, and left the two behind.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Rachel and Joseph sat across from each other in a study hall.  It was large and spread out, with only a handful of other students there, so they wouldn’t be disturbing anyone.  “So,” Joey began, “How long have you known Valerie?”

“Val?  Since I got to this school.  We have different majors, but biology is our core.”

“So, before the shrinking happened?”

“…Yes,” Rachel gave a single quick nod.

“Did you notice a change in her behavior or anything after people shrunk?”

“Well, no.  I mean, because of that whole thing, she’s thought of different ideas to help the tiny people.”

“Helping them, hm?”

“Yep.  The Escort thing?  That was actually her idea.  There’s a kind of little people club here, and she helps them out and fights for them and stuff.  Comes up with ideas to make their lives easier and passes it over to school officials.”

“Huh.  I didn’t know she was so… helpful.”

“Yep.  She’s a handful,” Rachel blushed, “but she’s something else.”

‘Shit,’ Joey thought.  ‘I was so damn sure she was at least one of the reasons the shrunken people were disappearing.  Has she just been fuckin’ around with me this whole time?’  Joey gave an exasperated sigh.  Rachel tilted her head at Joey inquisitively, and Joey just shook his head.  “Don’t worry about it.  So, did you know this Crystal character?”

“Yeah.  Her and Val were like bestest friends.”

“Do you know what happened to her?”

“Uh… s’far as I know, she and Val went out to the movies.  The shrinking thing happened.  Val lost track of her and couldn’t find her anywhere.  She was there for a long time, too, trying to find Crystal.”

“Allegedly.”

“Yeah.”  She tilted her head again, frowning.  “I have no reason to doubt her.  I mean, they were like sisters.  And come to think about it, I don’t think Val’s really lied about anything.  She teases and messes around, but doesn’t straight up lie.”

“Alright.  One last question.  How long have you had, uh… blossoming feelings for Val?”

Rachel blinked.  “Blossoming.  Feelings?”

Joey chuckled.  “Yeah, come on, you know what I mean!  When did you fall in lesbians with her?”

“Jeez, man.  I mean, she’s hot, so there’s always been something.  We only started going out about a month ago, though.”

Joey laughed.  “Alright alright.  Just curious.  You’re good to go.  Go and be free.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Valerie was reading when she heard the knock on her door.  “HOLD ON A SEC!” She yelled in a low pitched voice.  She jumped out of bed and opened the door.  “Eyy, Rayray!”

Rachel entered Valerie’s room, and shut the door behind her.  She slowly met eye contact with Valerie, trying to maintain a serious expression, but a smile crept up on her face and she started giggling.  “Light be damned.  What did you do to that poor man, Val?”

“What!  I barely talked to the guy!”

“He looked so deflated when I told him about the Escorts, and what we’ve been doing.  I think he really had his hopes set on you.”

“Yeah, well, we can’t have that.  I mean, I’m spoken for, joo know?”  She wrapped her arms around Rachel and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. 

Rachel blushed up at her, and Valerie giggled.  No matter how far they went with each other, she always acted so shy with her.  It was endearing to her.  Rachel smiled, hugging Valerie around her waist.  “We could tag team him if he gets too close to the truth,” Rachel said, “You could hold him down, and I’ll sit on his face.”

Valerie laughed.  “What’s with you and sitting on people’s faces all the time!?”

“What?  I’m a petite lady!  It’s the most threatening thing I can think of!”

“Now, now.  You should be saving some of that action for me,” Valerie grinned.

Rachel’s face reddened a bit more.  “Ahem.  Yeah.  So I guess we should be fine, so long as we’re careful and don’t say anything,” Rachel said.  “I can’t believe you’re going to get away with everything.  I should’ve totally done something to MY roommate the day of.  Me n’ my stupid human morals at the time.”

“Missed your window, baby girl, I told ya.”  Valerie smirked.  “You could always find more of them to, how shall we say… take your aggression out on?”

“Bah.  It’s just not the same!” Rachel said, giving Valerie a pained expression.  “One of these days I’m gonna snap on that little bitch, and I don’t know what-“

Valerie interrupted her with a long, deep kiss.  Rachel gave into it, kissing her back as the two made out for a short while.  Eventually Valerie pulled away.  “Speaking of which,” she whispered,  a bit breathlessly, resting her forehead lightly on Rachel’s.  “Why don’t we help you out with that?”

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Joey entered the hotel room that night, groaning, and flopping onto his bed, letting the door close itself behind him.  “That bad, huh?”  Robyn asked.  Joey replied with another, much longer and louder groan.  Robyn stood and sat on her own bed, across from him.  “Come on Jojo, use your words.”

“What’d I say bout callin’ me that?  Ugh.”

“Well, it worked.  You’re using words now.”

Joey rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling.  “What are we even doing, Robyn?  This is impossible.”

“Well… yeah, it’s hard.  Every case is.  Though yes, this one is particularly troublesome.  What’s got you so down, though?  Usually you don’t get like this no matter what the case entails, and we're still at the early phases here.”

Joey threw his notepad over to Robyn’s bed.  “All this time and effort, and everyone’s still as much a suspect as everyone else.  If a person is even responsible for this shit.”

“Well,” Robyn said, maintaining a reassuring voice, “We did have George investigate the grounds for any kind of critter that could be responsible.  No bats, no stray cats, nothing like that.  So we know it has to be a person.  Or persons.  Especially if one just randomly gets snatched up off a bench within five minutes.”

“Yeah yeah.  But ugh.”  He rubbed his eyes.  “I dunno.  Maybe just had a bad day.  I had a good several suspects I was feelin’ pretty good about, but today it turns out they’ve either got alibis or they’ve got plenty of cover for their asses.  There’s no way to prove one way or the other without a whole confession.  Even then, unless it’s one of the ones responsible doing the confessing, it’s an uphill fight of one person’s story versus another’s.  The school won’t let us set up surveillance or anything either.   I mean, what the hell, exactly!?”

“Maybe you need a day off.  We should tag out.  You know me, I have my ways.  I can do people, too.”

Joey hated the idea of sifting through information, but the fact that it was looking more and more tempting to do so was probably answer enough in his mind.  “Yeah.  Sure.”  Joey thought for a moment, then added, “Do what you need to do.”

Robyn raised her eyebrows.  “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“Yeah.  We don’t really have a choice.  I’ll sit here a couple of days if that’s what it takes for you to try out your ideas.”

“Hm.  Well, okay, so long as you’re sure.  I’ll go over everything and decide who to hit, and how.”

“Yup.”  Joey sighed.  He never cared much for this part of the job, but he knew it was also a necessary part of it.