The rest of the year was difficult.  My students immediately noticed, and some of the more sympathetic ones even asked what happened.  I had to come up with a lie about some accident in the school lab so they wouldn’t ask any further: I doubted anyone would believe what really happened, and if they did Jessica would come to me for revenge.  Besides, I could not bear the thought of what a madhouse my classroom would become if it got out that one of my students had such an enormous influence on me, to say nothing of how my professional reputation might suffer.

Even without complete anarchy breaking out, I lost control over my classes within a couple of days.  I could no longer stand behind the podium during lectures without a stepladder, and my alternate solution of pacing back and forth in front was far from ideal.  Since I was about as tall as their desks only the students in the first row could even see me, and the rest felt free to speak whenever they wanted, whether I was talking or not, and I gave up trying to curb that quickly.  This brought along with it rampant cheating: since I could not see the top of their desks and no other staff members wanted to help, even the previously diligent students began to slack off.

As for the rest of the staff, none of them seemed to care.  They had always known me as “the short teacher,” and simply accepted this as a deepening of my role.  There was no attempt to make accommodations, nor even talk with me about what happened.  When word of my explanation reached the chemistry teacher, she simply shrugged and said that it sounded likely.  Without opening a formal investigation into it I did not see any way to draw more attention to my situation, not that I wanted to in the first place, and no school authority would seriously investigate a story about a student shrinking a teacher. 

Worst of all, Jessica was right.  Once the small amount of excitement regarding my reduction in size died down, even the few students who were concerned began to see it as funny.  They were taller than me while sitting, and some of them would make a point of looking down as I walked past while they were at their desks.  Some of them, particularly the shorter students who marveled that I was only waist-high to them, made a point of standing when they spoke to me.  I heard them talking among themselves about how amazing it felt to tower over someone like they did me.

Jessica and her crew, however, were the worst about it.  They made a point to stand on either side of me and talk over my head, as though I weren’t there at all, often about me.  When I tried to get their attention so they’d move they would step in even closer, making me feel even smaller between them, until I finally had to duck out of the situation entirely.  If they wanted to talk to me in particular, even just rattle off prattling nonsense to make themselves feel better, they waited until they found me in a corner or against a wall, using their imposing bodies to block my escape.  Remarkably, as an adult I found myself bullied by high schoolers.

When the school year ended, I was overjoyed.  The problems that cropped up this year could be headed off at the start of the next, and I could feel like a decent teacher again.  It was expected that all faculty members would attend graduation, and I sent the RSVP that I would be going with relish.  Not only did I want to support the few students who hadn’t turned against me, but I needed to see Jessica walk across the stage.  It was the only way to be sure she officially graduated and would be out of my life from then on.

On the day of the event, I made my way to the faculty section and found my seat.  They had graciously provided me with an aisle spot so that I would be able to see the proceedings and not be wedged between two of my colleagues towering over me, one of the few accommodations they made for me.  I climbed into the chair and turned around, kicking my feet idly while I watched the ceremony.

The night was unexciting, a bog-standard graduation like the dozen or so others I had attended.  We clapped politely for each student as they crossed, either out of decorum or joy to see them moving on, and some families in the audience got way to excited when they heard their child’s name.  When they called for Jessica, however, I nearly clapped my hands raw as she strode across the stage in her black gown and yellow honor’s sash.  This would be the last time I’d ever have to see her, and I no longer had to live in fear of reprisal from a spoiled girl.

When it was over I rushed to get out of the stadium and back to my car, satisfied that I could get some sense of normally back in my life.  Unfortunately, every aisle and walkway was clogged by people giving congratulations or a last embrace before going their separate ways, and I got bogged down trying to weave between the sea of legs in front of me.  I could not force my way through the throng of people all around me, so I simply had to wait for some of them to clear out.

Finally, when I was able to move, I walked as quickly as I could for the exit amid the small stream of remaining people.  Before I reached it, a large hand gripped my shoulder and yanked me to the side, throwing me into a massive pair of legs.  The hand kept me from falling backward, and when the impact’s daze faded I looked up to see who had accosted me.  Standing over me, peering down at me with piercing blue eyes that stood out amid the night sky and her black gown, was Jessica.

“Hey there, Mr. Tiny!”  She spoke quietly, but even with the noise still coming from behind us I could hear her clearly.

“Hi, Jessica,” I replied.  “Congratulations on graduating with honors, you certainly earned it.”  I hoped my lack of enthusiasm would deter her from lingering so I could get back home and start forgetting about her.

“Thank you!” she exclaimed, kneeling so she could look me in the eyes more easily.  No such luck.  “I really do owe a lot of my success to you, if you hadn’t given me another chance, I might not have graduated at all.”  If that was how she wanted to view it, I was not about to correct her.  “Come on, give your favorite student a hug in congratulations!”

“No, really, I –“  Before I could finish my protest two strong arms had already wrapped around me and Jessica pulled me tightly against herself.  I did not resist, since if anything that would only encourage her.  Instead I simply went limp, letting her squeeze me as tightly as she wanted.  It was her night, after all.

After fifteen seconds she finally released me, and I staggered away from her.  She stood back to her full height and looked down at me again, a mischievous smirk on her face.  Her blue irises were starting to swirl again, and despite the uneasy feeling in my stomach I could not turn away.  “You know,” she began, the light from her eyes getting brighter, “my parents got a hotel tonight so I could have a party, and you would be more than welcome.”

“Thanks for the invitation,” I started, “but I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up on.  You understand, right?”

“C’mon, it’ll be fun!” Jessica pouted.  I felt compelled to meet her gaze as she spoke, almost as though it were a hypnotic suggestion.  “We managed to get a keg and everything, and my parents ‘forgot’ to lock the liquor cabinet.  Besides, it’ll just be me, you, and my friends…”  She bit her lower lip and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, as though she were trying to seduce me.

“I really shouldn’t,” I insisted, though below the surface I desperately wanted to accept.  “The implications for my career alone if I were seen there would be catastrophic.”

Jessica laughed, and the light from her eyes reached a pitch.  “You’re so funny, Mr. Tiny,” she declared.  “You’re assuming anyone would even know you’re there.”

“Jessica, I really don’t want to go.”  I knew all too well what was coming, though I kept myself in denial.  “Is there any way you could give me a pass, just this once, considering how much I’ve helped you this year?”

She smiled, and I lost myself in the vortex of her eyes.  “Are you forgetting our first and most important rule?”  I did not need to give an answer, she simply gave a quick nod and finished, “You really don’t have a choice.”  All day I had been terrified and waiting for her to do something like this, and if I had managed to sneak out I might have been able to avoid it.

Gradually her impressive height increased while I stared up at her, helpless to do anything.  She must have been practicing shrinking people so she could maximize her enjoyment watching her quarry dwindle, since it took me several seconds to reach her knees.  All the same, it felt like my feet were stuck in a thousand pounds of concrete, since I was rooted in place.  My view slid down along her shins while she looked at me smugly, eyes still radiating a powerful energy, then I descended below her ankles.  Soon I was looking up at her pumps, then the toe of her nearest shoe, while individual blades of grass blocked my view of the titaness.

“I’ve got some more bad news for you,” she boomed, making a show of patting her thighs.  “I don’t have any pockets in this thing, so I’ll have to get you back to my house in a somewhat less conventional manner.”  She slipped a foot out of one of her pumps and set it down beside me, squashing down the grass beneath it.  I looked up at the foot encased in flesh-toned nylon beside me aghast at what she had clearly planned.

“Wait, Jessica, stop!” I cried.  “There has to be some other way you can get me there!”  Just that morning I had woken up drenched in sweat from a nightmare about riding in her shoe.  I would do anything if it meant not having to experience that again.

Jessica laughed again at my protests.  “You’re so cute, Mr. Tiny,” she declared.  “You think I pick these things based on what’s best rather than what’s most fun for me.”  She began kneeling and I turned the other way, her spell over me broken.  Being lost on this field for the rest of my life was better than being jammed into her shoe again.  I sprinted away from the gigantic young woman trying to claim ownership of me, weaving between blades of grass as I went.  Hopefully she would have trouble tracking me amid all the greenery and I would be allowed to finish out my days tiny but free of her torment.

The grass above me parted, and whatever meager hopes I had were dashed.  Her hand came crashing through the forest, and a moment later her fingers were clamped around my body.  My tiny legs pumped uselessly in the air after she plucked me up from the ground, and I felt her rumbling chuckle while I tried in vain to resist her.  She had begun pulling me back toward herself before I finally caught on, letting my body go limp in her grasp.

Jessica dangled me above her open pump, letting me squirm in her grip for a moment.  “Now, I don’t want to hear a single word of complaint about this later,” she boomed, grinning.  “There are dozens of guys and girls at school who’d love for me to step on them, and you’re getting it without even asking.  Really, you should be thanking me for this.”  Her fingers opened, dropping me into her shoe, and I flailed for the whole brief descent.  I landed in the middle of her insole and rolled down the incline, coming to a stop in the indentations left by her toes.

Through the top of her shoe I could see her already standing again, and I knew I had very little time to get somewhere safe.  Jessica’s enormous foot slid into her shoe, blocking off any chance I had of going back up the ramp, and her gigantic, nylon-clad toes drew closer.  I looked around in a panic for somewhere to go, but all around me I only saw the black leather of her pump’s toe and her own tremendous toes sliding toward me.  Desperate for any chance, I backed away from the toes coming toward me, going deeper into the leather cavern provided by her shoe.

All light was squelched from my vision when her foot slid into place, but I had managed to avoid sliding beneath her toes.  I pressed myself as deep as I could into the point of her shoe, hoping to maintain some measure of autonomy.  When she swung around I was pushed even further into it, centripetal force treating me like its plaything, and my bones quaked when she set her foot back down.  The leather contorted around her foot while she prepared to step off, and I reacted to each new crease with a cringe.

When Jessica stepped with the shoe I was trapped inside I was thrown out from the point I had taken refuge in and tossed against her big toe in front of me.  It pitched upward, sending me tumbling down to her sole, before it came swinging down with tremendous force.  My limbs went limp from the powerful impact of her foot hitting the ground, and I looked for any way to minimize the next one.  Unfortunately, I heard another series of creaks while she got ready for another stride, and I had no time to brace myself.

The next time I was thrown up by her foot I grasped desperately for anything to hold on to, so long as it would stop me from being tossed around like nothing.  Almost by sheer luck I managed to hook one of my arms in one of the strands of nylon pulled tight against her toe, keeping me from being thrown against the ceiling.  Her foot rushed back down, and I was able to slip my other arm into the same part of the mesh.  It hit with tremendous force that made my insides jump, but at least I had taken some modicum of control of my situation.

For the rest of my trek inside Jessica’s shoe I did not relax, convinced that my firm grip keeping me tight against her toe was the only thing saving me from being thrown about like nothing.  Even when the churning forces of her gait receded while she was driving I did not relent, since I knew it would start again sooner or later.  Sure enough, mere seconds after her engine turned off I was thrown about inside the toe of her shoe again, the only thing keeping me steady among the incessant pounding from her heels the tight grip I’d maintained on her stockings.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of torment at Jessica’s feet, including a trip up the stairs, it was at an end.  She began sliding her foot out of the shoe and I let go of the nylon mesh I had been clinging to, hoping to get a break.  Her foot slid out the rest of the way, leaving me alone at the base of her pump.  Jessica towered over me as I rested inside her shoe, but her powerful blue-eyed gaze still managed to find me immediately.

“Aw, is Mr. Tiny all tuckered out?” she teased, puckering her lips down at me.  “That’s fair.  I’ll give you a bit of time to recover while I get ready.”  Jessica took a moment to smirk at me before continuing, “You’ll need all the energy you can get to make it through this.”  She stomped out of view, her enormous feet slapping the ground with tremendous quakes, and I was left to imagine what horrors this party could possibly hold for me.