I let the rest of the guys go ahead of me, and by the time I got mine all but one other guest had been herded off by an unusually aggressive woman. Trying to act natural, I took a long drink from the cup while surveying the landscape. Everyone else looked like they were having a good time, laughing and smiling while they talked and did the usual party thing. Being courteous may have cost me the opportunity of my college life. For years I’d been hearing about how great these parties are, and now that I’d gotten an invitation, I squandered it. Typical.
Off to the side I spotted a woman who seemed to be above it all. Pale and rail-thin, with long black hair and wearing a lab coat as a costume, she took an occasional sip of her drink before resuming looking around the room nervously. She looked remarkably out of her element, just as I felt, and didn’t seem to fit in with the others. There were worse ways to spend a few hours than chatting up a fellow wallflower, I figured, and when we ducked out early we might even be ducking out together.
I approached the dark-haired beanpole, arriving right when she was taking another swig of her drink. She must not have seen me coming in the dim room, since when she lowered the cup and saw me, she just about jumped out of her skin. After a quick gasp she smiled nervously and looked down at me. Up close she was taller than I expected – she had about a foot on me – but cuter, too. We looked at each other in awkward silence for a moment, neither sure which one should start.
“Um, hey, you scared me. Didn’t see you there,” she finally offered, keeping her nervous smile strong. Even though the music was low, it was difficult to hear her soft voice, so I took a step closer. She prickled at me getting closer but stayed in place. “I’m Lana. How’s it going?”
I told her my name, then answered, “Not too bad, just not sure what to make of this thing. It’s really not like any other party I’ve ever been to.”
“Yeah, same here!” Lana replied. “Not that I really go out to many parties to begin with, and usually when I do it’s just me and a couple friends, and we hang out on the back porch or patio.” She was more nervous than me, which is quite the accomplishment. “Normally I’d have found a larger place so I could just hang back and watch people, but Fulda’s always been cool to me, so when she invited me to this I kind of felt obligated to come, you know?”
I took another drink and asked, “You’re not a Gamma then?”
Lana gave a quick chuckle and sipped her drink, then said, “Oh hell no!” Realizing that might have been too enthusiastic she hurried to add, “I mean, the Gammas are great and I’m friends with a couple of them, but sorority life isn’t for me. I do, like, one social event a semester, and that’s enough for me.”
“Really? You look like you’d fit in great with them, though.”
“Why, because I’m tall and statuesque like they are?” Lana laughed, a pleasant sound like the tinkling of wind chimes. She brushed a strand of hair behind an ear and continued, “It’s just not for me. When Fulda told me about it I was interested, but then she told me all the stuff I’d have to do to pledge and… yeah, no thanks. Speaking of fitting in, though, have you noticed something, I don’t know, unusual about the guys here?”
I took a long drink, thinking what she could possibly be referring to. “Nothing that I’ve noticed, why?”
“Well, it’s just…” Lana fidgeted with her cup while her dark blue eyes glanced around. “Sorry if this is a sensitive thing for you or something, but you’re all so short! Like, usually there are a couple shorter dudes, but I’m like a foot taller than all the guys here, it’s… I don’t way to say weird, but unusual at least!”
I took another long drink while I figured out how to respond to that, because she was right, and it was a little strange. Before I could answer, though, a loud cacophony of three syllables drew our attention, and our heads snapped back to see the pink-haired witch with glowing gold eyes. Rays of iridescent blue light shot between all the sorority members until it filled the room, becoming so bright I had to turn away and close my eyes. Just before my eyes shut I saw Lana, or rather Lana’s knees, right in front of me, and they seemed to be getting higher.
When the light faded and I opened my eyes, it was like I had been transported to a different world. Everything was bigger, even the carpet, which was thick enough for me to sink into. It took a second for me to realize that Lana was in front of me, but she, too, was much bigger. Rather, a flat four stories tall was in front of me, and her enormous foot filled it. I looked up to see her ankle and monolithic, stocking-encased leg, then a long stretched of white lab coat. Once I finally got past that I saw her face looking back and forth, trying to figure out what happened. She was looking for me, I hoped, but why would she think to look for me beside her foot?
“Hey, Lana, down here!” I shouted, waving my arms. “I’m still here, just look at your feet! I don’t know what happened, but I need your help!” No response, not even a reaction. Lana kept sipping her drink and surveying the room, paying no notice to me shrunken beside her. I must have been to small for her to hear, at least from the floor. If I wanted to get out of this situation – and out of here with her – I needed to get higher up, or at the very least noticed.
I trudged through the carpet until I stood at the base of her gigantic, black suede flat. Cautiously I placed my hands against the material, running my hands along it, and found it surprisingly rough at this size. With a short hop I grabbed onto the side, kicking at the inverse slope below to push myself upward so I could get to a less precarious position. In a rush I scrambled up the side of her shoe, half-running half-climbing up the slope until I crossed over the rim of her shoe and onto the black nylon floor covering her foot.
Standing on a woman’s foot while gazing up at her gigantic body was a surreal experience I had no intention of repeating. Lana’s toes twitched, sending waves of movementup the rest of her foot that made me stumble, and I knew I could not remain here for long. Cautiously I approached her ankle, trying not to draw her wrath before I had her full attention. My caution cost some time, but when I stood before her ankle and looked up the great tower of her leg I knew it was well spent.
I grabbed onto the mesh and pulled myself up, pressing myself against the rock-hard cliff face of her shin to support me. Even though I could not have weighed more than a couple of grams the nylon stretched under my mass, making me dip away from what little progress I made. Undeterred, I grabbed the next mass of nylon a few millimeters higher and pulled myself up again, the elastic material snapping back against her leg when I let go. If she couldn’t feel my weight she couldn’t feel that, I told myself, and continued my slow yet steady ascent.
After fifteen minutes and sweating profusely, I was disappointed to find I had only made it halfway up her shin. This was the most I had exerted myself in years, and I still had another five feet and change to go? It was absurd how tall she was, especially compared to me now, and I was starting to feel serious doubts about this plan. Hopefully she would notice me before I got to her waist and save me a lot of trouble, but with how the night was going I had no delusions about anything being easy.
The cliff shifted slightly and I looked up, certain that Lana was coming to carry me the rest of the way up. She was not even looking at me, however, and kept looking ahead at a lot of nothing. Her hand swooped in, fingers out, and pressed against her shin above me. I tried to cry out, but by the time my jaw was moving her fingers were already swooping down, scraping against her leg. They hit me with an irresistible force, throwing me from my climb, and I landed back on her foot. Inertia made me bounce several times, and I rolled until I was back at the rim of her shoe near her toes.
Being thrown off her leg was discouraging to say the least, but I was far from defeated. I got back to my feet and started back toward her ankle, my resolve to at least reach her waist doubled. Unfortunately, I was unused to walking on a taut stocking surface, and my toes caught in the mesh. With a cry I stumbled forward, faceplanting on her foot, then rushed to get up so I could resume my quest to get noticed.
The ground wobbled again, and a massive object entered my peripheral vision. Lana’s other foot raced toward me, and I stood frozen, watching it approach in horror. There was nothing I could do about it, even bailing off the side was out of question as it was simply too fast and large to evade. In an instant her heel was poised above me, and I could see the minute specks of dirt and grime in the grooved surface. It was so enormous that it commanded all of my attention, not that there was much else to look at.
Lana’s heel descended, striking me hard enough to knock me over. It continued down, pressing against me while she laid her foot on top of the other. I screamed and tried to fight back, but there was no way I would ever move such a tremendous object, let alone one that was actively working against me. My body groaned under the pressure, and I cried out in agony as her foot pressed down. In an instant my body crumpled, flattened into nothing more than a splotch of blood and viscera on Lana’s stocking.
Lana rubbed her heel back and forth, scratching the itch on her foot. She just realized her stocking was wet too, making it even worse. As she looked around she took another drink, wondering where all the men had disappeared to. The one she had been talking to seemed to have potential, but he had apparently ducked out when she wasn’t looking. Perhaps she would see him around campus later. For now, she needed to get another drink.