I trudged through the hallway, shoulders slumped, my backpack slung over my shoulders.  It had been a rough day, but nothing out of the ordinary.  My shoes squeaked on the tile as I made my way for the door, excited to get outside.  Doing well in my classes felt good, and I knew it was a solid investment in my future, but it did not win me many friends.  With no one to give me a ride home, I would be walking alone again.

At the last intersection before the exit, someone stepped around the corner and bumped into me.  My face slid between a pair of breasts, and her hand grabbed the strap of my bag hanging over my shoulder.  Before I could react her fingers cinched around it, and with a forceful shove she pushed me away.  I staggered back, just managing to keep from toppling over.  Ironically, not having my back was probably what kept me upright.

I took a moment to regard my assailant.  With most people I would have considered this an accident, but Jennifer had been harassing me since our first day of freshman year.  Straight orange hair came down to her shoulders, with eyebrows to match, and bright blue eyes seemed to gleam.  Her pale skin radiated in the fluorescent lighting, and the white floral dress did not help diminish it.  She smirked as she looked down at me, confident that she had the upper hand, and I could see her toes flexing insider her white Keds.  Though I was no fan of hers, I had to admit she could coordinate an outfit.

Jennifer held my backpack as far overhead as her arms could reach so the straps only dropped to her eyes.  “Come on little guy, reach for it!” she teased while I looked up at the brown suede bottom.

“Come on, we’re both seniors!” I protested.  “Shouldn’t this sort of thing be beneath us by now?”

“The only thing beneath me right now is you,” she shot back.  “Now do you want to talk, or do you want your stuff back?”

“You can have it,” I told her.  “There’s nothing important in there anyway, all my books are in my locker.”

I tried to squeeze past her, but a large hand on my chest stopped me.  Jennifer steadily pushed me back until her arm was fully extended, and I was powerless to resist her.  “How do you not get how this works by now, nerd?” she asked.  “I took your stuff, and you’re gonna try your hardest to get it back.”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll beat the piss out of you and let everyone know that you let a girl beat you up.  You’ll be the target of every girl who needs a self-esteem boost in the school in no time.  I’ve seen some of the freshman girls, even they’re gigantic compared to you.  So, would you rather it be them, or me?”

She had made her point.  It was bad enough that she was doing it, but I was not sure if my already limited ego could handle one of the freshmen joining in.  I made a half-hearted grab for the bag, just swiping my hand over my head.  This was a weekly occurrence with Jennifer, and if she insisted I play along after all this time I would give it the bare minimum of effort.

“Come on, you’re not even trying!” Jennifer teased.   “It’s like you don’t even want your stuff back!”

“Oh no, I want it back so much,” I said in a complete deadpan, weakly reaching up to try and touch it again.  “Please don’t take it for yourself and read my physics notes to your friends, it would be so embarrassing.”  I made another unenthusiastic grab for the backpack and fell short, just as I expected.

Jennifer reached forward and grabbed my shirt, coiling her fist around my collar.  With a sudden jerk she pulled me toward herself, smashing my face into her abs.  Maybe I was just off-balance, but it seemed like I should have run into her a bit higher.  “Listen here, you little shit,” she growled.  “You’re going to try your best to get this out of my hand even if that means using your pathetic little legs to jump, got it?”  This was the most aggressive she had been about it in a while, so I simply nodded.  If she wanted me to play this role so we could get on with our days I would happily oblige her.

I jumped up, stretching an arm as far as it could go only to have Jennifer lift it just out of my grip, and my fingers scraped along the bottom of the backpack.  “Come on, give it back!” I protested, acting like it was actually important to me.  “I need it!”  Once more I leapt to grab it, and this time my fingers whiffed through the air as she pulled it away.  She was tall, but somehow this seemed wrong.  Quickly I glanced to her instead of at my backpack, and found my eyes were about level with her navel.  Either she was having a sudden growth spurt or I was getting smaller.

“Hey, this doesn’t seem fun anymore,” I said, hoping to break the chain.  “Do you think you could just give it back?  I promise, I’ll tell everyone you made me beg for it.”

“Sure, here you go,” Jennifer replied, lowering it down to my level.  I reached to grab it with both arms, and she suddenly jerked it out of my grasp.  “Ha!  Did you really think it would be that easy?”  Admittedly, I should have seen that coming.

Looking back to Jennifer, I saw that I barely came up to her waist now.  Her head was not bumping against the ceiling, so the only rational conclusion, no matter how unbelievable, was that I was getting smaller.  “Come on, this is serious.  I think I’m getting smaller the longer you do this!”

“I don’t care how small you are, you little twerp!” Jennifer shot back.  “I’m going to keep you here until I get bored, got it?”  I understood perfectly, but I no longer wanted to play along.  Already I was the shortest person in my class, maybe in the school, and maybe no one would notice the difference if I walked away now.  With a final look at her, I turned around and started walking away.

A huge hand clamped down on my shoulder, and strong, powerful fingers dug into the skin.  I winced in pain, and Jennifer spun me around, stopping me cold.  After a quick survey, I surmised I was no longer taller than her legs.  She was probably twice my height, and I had no way of getting away from her.

“We’re not done until I say we’re done,” Jennifer insisted.  Her voice was louder than before and seemed to come from all around me.  “And I won’t say we’re done until you have your bag back.”

I looked up at it, at least a foot out of my reach if I jumped with all my might.  “Come on, this isn’t fair!” I complained.  “There’s no way I’ll ever be able to reach that!”

“Life isn’t fair, pipsqueak,” Jennifer replied.  “The strong – that’s me – do what they can, and the weak –you – endure what they must.  And you’ve always been very weak.  Now, you better do what you can to get this bag away from me or you’ll never get out of this hallway.”  As she spoke, she seemed to grow larger.  It was too much to be my imagination, and when she stopped growing I was only halfway up her thighs.

She had made it clear that I could never get it out of her hands, but maybe I could get it back another way.  If I knocked her down, I could just take it out of her hands, and she could not do a thing about it.  I dashed forward, slamming my shoulders into her thighs, and wrapped my arms around her knees.  Jennifer was like a concrete pillar, unmoving no matter how hard I pressed into her, though I gave it my best.  To me she was an immovable object, and I was far from an irresistible force.

Jennifer reached down and grabbed the back collar of my shirt, and with a sudden jerk pulled me away.  My arms slipped free from behind her knees, and she held me aloft for a moment.  When she released her hand, dropping me back to the floor, I was even smaller than before.  At best I came up to her pallid knees while my few possessions were still far overhead.

“Are you done trying to get around this, short stuff?” she challenged.  Jennifer had to lean forward at the waist to give me even the illusion of a chance.  “You can’t go around me, you can’t get away, and you can’t knock me down.  The only thing you can do is grab this backpack and hope I’ll have mercy on you afterwards.”

Incensed by her words and the hopelessness of my situation, I attacked it more fervently than ever before.  I hopped up, reaching for the bottom of my backpack, and each time she moved it just out of my reach.  Once I figured out she was reading my movements I simply sprang up and managed to dig my fingers into the stitching along the bottom.  Jennifer simply gave it a firm shake, dropping me from the bag so I fell back to the floor.

When I recovered from the fall, I found I only came halfway up her shins.  “Want to know a secret?” Jennifer teased.  Her voice was louder now, with a significant booming undertone.  “I’ve been putting your size in your backpack.  If you can take it away from me, you can have it back.”

I figured she was bullshitting me, but I could not take the chance that she wasn’t.  The backpack was larger than me now, and with no evidence of where it had gone, it was possible my stolen height was inside the bag.  Coiling my legs, I leapt up and tried to grab onto the bag as Jennifer dangled it above me.  She yanked it away just as my fingers got close, and I landed in a crouch to launch myself upward again.  Furiously I jumped, trying to grasp it and claim even a small victory, but each time she pulled it just out of my reach.  Each the time I landed the bag was always a little bigger, meaning I was that much smaller.

By the time I was tired of jumping, I was down to Jennifer’s ankles.  She almost doubled over, holding the backpack over my head like a treat bag.  “Come on, just a little more!” she pleaded.  “I know you’ve got a couple more jumps in you!”  Over the past few minutes, her voice had undergone a full transformation.  It was dusky to begin with, but now it was a low rumble.  Her voice blared louder than any sound system I had ever heard, and it even managed to penetrate through my hands cupped over my ears.

“No, I’m done!” I shouted up at her.  “I’m not playing your game anymore!”  If she could shrink me, I could find someone who could restore me.  I ran to the right, trying to outflank the toe of her shoe, and she compensated by sliding her foot forward.  As soon as I realized what was happening, I was looking at the bottom of her laces tied in a bow.  Thinking quickly I tried to jump over them, but she simply raised her shoe so I slammed into the white wall.  The shoe seemed to grow around me as I hung across it, then I fell off and landed back on the floor.

Jennifer set her shoe back down, and I realized just how puny I had become.  While her entire shoe was stark white, the horizontal line at my eye level marked where the sole attached to her shoe.  I looked up at her, shocked at her sheer size.  It would be a climb just to reach her ankles, to say nothing of the towering heights up her shins to her knees.  From there her billowing dress took over, obfuscating my view further up as its pleats waved around her thighs.  Beyond that, I could see her blue eyes staring down at me from hundreds of feet above, her gaze never wavering from me.

“Looks like the game’s over,” Jennifer boomed.  “With how minuscule you are, there’s no way you’ll ever get your stuff out of my hands.”

“Why?” I asked.  “Why would you do this, and to me of all people?”

“I bet you’re wallowing in pity, wondering ‘why me?’” she bellowed.  If she could not hear me, she was doing a good job demonstrating it.  “Quite simply: because I could.  You were small and pathetic, so it was easy to make you smaller and more pathetic.  Plus, it already felt like you were puny compared to me with how little you fought back, so I really just had to give you a little shove downwards.”

“This is excessive, even for you!” I shouted up at her.  “You’ve had your fun, now grow me back!”

Jennifer leaned forward, placing her hands on her knees to stop her dress from billowing.  She stared straight down at me, her big blue eyes seeming to accuse me of something as they gazed downward.  “You understand that you’re a bug now, right?”  That did not bode well for my survivability.  “Do you know what happens to bugs?”

I gulped, and Jennifer stood back up to her impressive height.  Before I could move away she picked up the foot nearest me and moved it forward, letting it linger over my head.  I stared at the brown rubber that seemed to encompass the sky, my eyes trying to find a pattern in the chaotic lines above me.  Her foot quivered minutely while she held it over me, making the sole dance as I struggled to take it in.  It stretched as far as I could see in every direction, and even if I started now I could not get out from beneath it.  Jennifer’s sole was the sky, and I was subject to her whims.

As I stared at it, the sky started to fall.  The brown sole came closer, and I could see progressively less of the expansive squiggles etched into it.  Jennifer’s foot knocked me onto my back, then kept coming and pinned me against the floor.  After a brief, hopeless struggle it won, and a wave of intense pain flooded my body, accompanied by my vision going white.  My body gave way beneath Jennifer’s final feat of bullying, reduced to a small red smear on her shoe.

Jennifer grinned when her shoe squished her pathetic victim.  The satisfying crunch he made was like music to her ears, and she raised her heel.  She ground the toe of her shoe against the tiles, further pulverizing his remains.  He was barely human in her eyes before, and now no one would mistake him for one.  Satisfied, she raised her foot and stepped away, humming happily to herself.  Whatever notes that nerd had taken would be of use to her and her friends, and she was going to make use of them while he got erased from existence by a floor buffer.