DZ wasn’t the most selective sorority on campus, but it did have a reputation as one of the more difficult ones to pledge. Knowing that only 1/3 of a given pledge class made it through didn’t do anything to deter Allison, though. Athletic, blonde, tan and confident, she’d made it through the formal rush period without any major headaches, and genuinely enjoyed meeting the girls in the house. After visiting all of the other houses on campus, she’d decided that the bid she most wanted was from DZ. There was just something about the house that made her excited about joining. Well, she’d made it all the way to bid day, and as she walked up the steps to the campus rec center where the bids would be given out, she trembled with excitement and anticipation.
It was pretty loud in the campus building, with hundreds of girls milling around. The bid envelopes were passed out, and a hush fell over the room as the head of the Pan-Hellenic Council began to speak. “All right ladies, on the count of three everyone open your cards! One… Two… Three!” Allison opened her card and squealed with delight as she recognized the Greek letters written on the inside. She’d been selected by DZ! She quickly made her way over to the DZ table, excited to meet her new sisters. “We’re so glad you made it!” exclaimed Amanda, a girl she’d gotten to know over the course of the last two weeks of rush. “Here’s what happens next…” she began, as she led Allison over to the larger group of girls to explain the continuation of the pledge process.
While Amanda was explaining the process to the soon-to-be pledges, two of the existing sisters, Marissa and Katherine, looked on, amused. “Looks like a good group this year, shame there are so many pretty ones. Always makes it hard to choose” said Marissa, using one hand to keep her blonde hair out of her face as she shook her head. “Eh, I’m not too worried” said Katherine, “I heard that Emily was a little bit more liberal this year with her selections so we’d have more leftovers at the end”. “Oh, really?!” exclaimed Marissa, brightening a bit. “That’s a great idea, actually, supply is running a bit low from last semester. Hear that, slave?” She and Katherine both glanced down at her left flip flop, specifically at the tiny shock of red hair, and the tiny girl it belonged to, between her big and second toe. “Looks like you’ll have some new friends soon! Also, I didn’t say you could stop licking!” Marissa and Katherine laughed at the barely audible squeal as Marissa scrunched her toes together. “I really hope this semester’s leftovers are better at listening than last semester’s.”
Two weeks later, the pledge process was in full swing, and Kylie was having none of it. She’d wanted a bid from KD, but then her envelope had said DZ on it, and rather than try to beg the other sorority for a bid, she’d decided to give this one a shot. She wasn’t enjoying it so far. Right now, all the girls were working together on a float for homecoming, when Emily, who was serving as the the pledgemaster this fall, called them all over for a moment. “Pledges, over here for a minute. I’ve got something to show you.” Grumbling, Kylie stopped messing around on her phone and moseyed over to join the 70 other pledges who sat down on the floor around Emily. Turning to look over her shoulder, Emily should “Amanda, could you come in here for a minute?”. She was soon joined by the petite woman from the other room.
“Now, as you know by now, a major part of the pledge process is education about our sorority. Amanda’s here to tell you about the position she holds in the house, and the next part of your pledge process. Amanda?”
“Thanks Emily. Now, as some of you know, I currently hold the position of Standards Chair. Essentially, it’s my job to make sure that every sister upholds the values of DZ in everything that she does. If I (or the executive board) determines that a sister hasn’t, we’ll dole out an appropriate punishment.” Bored, Kylie returned her attention to her phone. “Excuse me a moment, Kylie, isn’t it? Am I boring you? Kylie looked up from her phone to see Amanda pointing some kind of device in her direction. Before she could open her mouth to speak, Amanda exclaimed “What a perfect opportunity to demonstrate what I’m talking about!” Then there was a flash. When her vision cleared, Kylie found herself in a world of booming chaos, as enormous structures she couldn’t identify moved all around her. Unsure what had happened, she began to scream.
“… to demonstrate what I’m talking about!” Allison had been watching the exchange between Amanda and Kylie, who’d she’d decided definitely didn’t belong in the sorority, when she was startled by a flash from whatever Amanda was holding, and the disappearance of Kylie. “It’s ok, it’s ok!” Amanda reassured them. “Could you please clear a path to where Kylie was sitting? I have something to show all of you.” Black flip flops slapping against her heels, Allison watched as the pledges scrambled out of her way to let her over to the space where Kylie had so rudely been messing around on her phone. “Ah, there it is. Can you all see it? No? There are so many of you this year, hold on, I’ll take a picture on my phone and send it to you.” Amanda bent down and snapped a quick photo with her phone. Was she showing off her pedicure? What had happened to Kylie? Allison opened up her phone, and looked at the Snap she’d just received. It filled her simultaneously with wonder, amazement, and a little bit of fear.
The titanic booming and rustling had ceased, but Kylie had been blown over by some unexpected wind. Was she outside!? What the hell had happened? She thought she’d recognized some voices in all the chaos, but they’d been too loud to be real, she must have been hallucinating. She found herself facing a black wall, textured, like foam. Some loud thumps sounded from above, and she raised her head to look at the top. And screamed. Enormous toes wriggled with excitement, and she could just make out the red pedicure that decorated each one. Raising her head further, she recognized a cell phone pointed in her direction, and was blinded again by the flash as someone snapped a photo. She’d… shrunk? People didn’t shrink! Wait, wasn’t Amanda wearing black flip flops? Had that think been some kind of shrink ray!?
“First shrink! #standards” read the caption on the photo Amanda had just sent to Allison, and all the other pledges. Right next to her toes, about a quarter of an inch tall, was a tiny girl that had to be Kylie. “An DZ woman is first and foremost respectful of her sisters” said Amanda. “Kylie, you’ve been nothing but disrespectful since almost the first minute you started pledging our house. Standards has decided your pledge period is ending a bit early”.
Kylie trembled on the ground as Amanda’s enormous voice echoed all around her. Ending? What did she mean, ending? The enormous wall moved again, and Kylie was knocked down. How could something so big move so fast?! Pushing herself up off the ground, she noticed shadow surrounding her. “No, nonono, nonononono…” Kylie mumbled to herself, trailing off into a shriek as the shadow increased in size around her. Gazing up at what had to be the bottom of Amanda’s cruise ship sized sole, she felt lower than she’d ever thought possible. As the wrinkled ball of Amanda’s foot got closer and closer the smell and heat increased, and Kylie found herself forced onto her back, tiny hands pressed up against the warm, slightly sweaty sole. Suddenly it stopped, and the pressure relented. “Lick” she heard Amanda thunder, and without thinking Kylie pressed her face against the warm skin and began licking the warm, salty flesh. Then the pressure returned, and Kylie felt pain everywhere, and then nothing.
“First squish! #standards” read the caption on the video that Amanda had sent to the entire sorority. Allison had just watched as Amanda kicked off her flip flop, brought her foot over Kylie’s head, taunted her, and then crushed her. The pledges had watched, stunned and frozen in fear, as Amanda had recorded the whole thing, including making one of the pledges film poor little Kylie under her foot as she squelched her. The tiny screams and the desperate attempts to please the giant sorority girl after her single command of “Lick” had just been the icing on the cake. The final part of the video was just Amanda’s upturned sole, flexing and scrunching with the tiny smear that had been one of her fellow freshmen decorating the bottom. “See, standards are important!” Amanda exclaimed to the group of pledges with a smile, as she started passing around the pledge manual.