Jason rode the tram to his first class. He ignored his hoodlum friends, because it was them who convinced him to break the law in the first place. Sadler, Hack and Blip were dropped off first,  because Jason’s class was on the other side of the campus. When he exited the tram, he found his seat, which has been miniaturized down to his scale. There was a ledge where he could sit and pay attention to the teacher and the other students.

A girl was the first of the other students to arrive, she was a Latina the same age as Jason. She approached him and introduced herself.

“I’m Regan Ramirez, I want to be a journalist when I grow up, so I was hoping I could interview you. Is that cool?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Jason replied.

Regan got out her electronic notepad and brought up a file with questions she had typed out some time before. “How do you feel about the Therapeutic Occupational Youth program you’re currently a part of?”

“It’s embarrassing, but I think it sends a strong message to criminals, it might make them think twice before breaking the law again.”

“You make it sound like you’re not cut from the same cloth as the other juvenile offenders,” Regan replied, “What in your mind makes you different from them?”

“I fell in with a bad crowd, and they wanted me to join them in their criminal exploits. I’m just a guy who made a mistake in life, I’m not a career criminal.”

“What was the crime you committed to end up in the TOY program?”

“My criminal friends convinced me to try to steal a roll cage made of an alloy that is ten times stronger than titanium. Sadler, the leader of our group, has a convertible and he wanted the roll cage for his car. His on and off again girlfriend talked him into doing it, because she felt it was unsafe to ride in Sadler’s car without one. We got caught trying  to carry it out of a warehouse we broke into and we all got a year of probation, as well as some fines we have to pay off.

“Why isn’t she in the TOY program?” Regan asked.

“Her parents hired an expensive lawyer, so she got a slap on the wrist. We all had public defenders, so we got shafted.”

Other students started to shuffle into the classroom. “Can I meet up with you in the quad during break after second period to continue this interview?” Regan asked. “There’s a table near the spot where the tram can drop you off.”

“Sure!” Jason replied, eager to spend time with the attractive Latina.

By the time second period was over, Jason rode the tram to the spot where Regan had agreed to meet with him. She collected him and took him to a table where a group of students gathered around him to check him out.

Four cheerleaders with red hair approached the table. Regan told Jason: “Those cheerleaders are named Maude Sienna Todd, Ruby Thompson, Scarlett Turner, and Ginger Trexler. They are known as the Crimson Quadros, otherwise known as the Crimson Quartet. Maude is their leader, so they are sometimes known as the Maude Squad. They think they rule the school.”

“I’m familiar with them from last year,” Jason replied.

Maude stood in front of Jason and Regan. “I’ve always wanted to swallow a shrunken man, will you volunteer? It’s not against the law if you let me do it, as long as I puke you up afterwards!”

“He’s not going to let you swallow him, Maude!” Regan shouted. “Get away from us!”

Maude turned away, but before leaving, she said, “I have my eye on you, Jason!”

When Jason boarded the tram to get to his third period class after break was over, Sadler sat next to him.

Sadler said, “Me and the other TOYs are planning on hacking into the government database and downloading one of the inventions brought over by the Reality Trekkers and selling them to North Korea. The invention allows you to communicate instantly with a base on Mars by manipulating a temporal displacement field. We need your help to accomplish this, I checked the decryption website and it said your program was 99% solved.”

“Are you serious?” Jason asked. “I don’t know about this, let me think about it first, Sadler.”

Jason thought about Sadler’s proposition throughout third and fourth period. When lunchtime arrived, he took the tram to his dorm and saw that Sadler had been correct. His decryption program had almost completely solved the code for the communication technology that would make it possible for people on Earth to communicate with people on Mars instantly.

Jason quickly ate his lunch in his dorm, then took the tram to the quad, where his sister Lavender was socializing with kids who had gone to her junior high school the previous school year. Regan was waiting for Jason, and approached him.

Lavender joined Regan. “Jason,” said Lavender, “don’t fall under the spell of peer pressure! If Sadler tries to get you involved with more trouble, turn away!”

“I’m not dumb enough to get involved in another scheme,” Jason said to Lavender, not completely convinced of his own assertion.

“You’re my brother, I know when you’re lying! If Sadler is trying to get you wrapped up in another scheme, just think of the consequences and don’t do it!”

Lavender turned and walked away. Regan remained, hovering over Jason with her electronic tablet.

“The school newspaper assigned me the task of interviewing you and the other TOYs. They gave me more questions to ask you.” Regan looked away, and spotted a group of girls approaching. “Oh no, it’s the Maude squad!”

Maude Sienna Todd, Ruby Thompson, Scarlett Turner, and Ginger Trexler approached the table the inch tall Jason was standing on, while Regan stood over him.

“Jason,” said Maude, “last school year we got along pretty well, if you had been an athlete we might have gone out. Then you ended up with hanging out with Sadler and those losers, and now you’re in the Therapeutic Occupational Youth program.”

“What about it?” Jason asked.

“Would you go out with me? And experience love on the scale of Gulliver?” The other three redhead cheerleaders signed audibly, thinking this size disparity was somehow romantic.

“What do I have to do?” Jason asked.

“I’m chewing bubble gum, let me stick you in my mouth and blow a bubble with you inside!”

“That’s gross!” said Regan.

“Maude is one of the hottest girls at our school, Regan!”

“I’m willing to let you do that, Maude!”

Maude picked up Jason, and lifted him up over her open mouth, and said, “Prepare to surrender to the tongue of a sovereign sixteen-year-old!” Jason could see the ample pink gum below him that had been chewed up in Maude’s mouth

She dropped the inch tall Jason into her mouth, and tried to blow a bubble, failed, the pulled Jason back into her mouth with her tongue.

Ruby Thompson, one of the members of the crimson quartet,  mentioned that it would be funny if the size inhibitors within the spines of the TOYs couldn’t be de-activated when their probation was up, and they were forced to remain at one inch tall. This caused all four members of the crimson quartet, including Maude, to laugh uncontrollably, causing Maude to swallow Jason.

“I can’t believe I just did that!” Maude shouted, with a concerned look on her face.

Regan acted swiftly, breaking a glass panel containing a neural stimulator and rushing back to where Maude was standing. She pointed the device at Maude’s head and pulled the trigger, causing Maude to vomit instantly. Regan caught Jason as he fell out of Maude’s mouth, covering her hand in vomit.

“Jason, are you okay?” Regan asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay, a little wet, but none the worse for wear!”

Regan turned and looked at Maude. “You’re getting charged with a crime for this, I hope you know that!”

“My dad will just hire the best lawyer in the county!” said Maude. “I’ll beat this rap!”

After the first day of school was over, Jason was in the study area of the dorms, an area that was built to his scale. He studied with Sadler and the other TOYs. Meanwhile, Maude was taken to court, and within 20 minutes her father’s lawyer got her sentence reduced so that she will be a TOY for only 24 hours, and received 6 months of probation. 

She was taken to the auditorium where she was miniaturized, and a nurse placed her in a tram, where she was taken to the dorms. Maude Sienna Todd showed up in the study area, much to the surprise of Jason and the other TOYs. 

“How long are you on probation for?” Jason asked.

“I will only be shrunk for 24 hours, and I got six months of probation.”

Jason and Sadler were astonished. She continued: “I’m not a real criminal like the rest of you, I was just clowning around.”

Jason responded: “I only broke the law one time, just like you, so I should be seen in the eyes of the law as being just like you!”

I disagree,” Maude replied. “If you guys had never been caught, you would still be out breaking the law whenever the whim suited you. I screwed up one time, and one time only!”

Jason’s personal electronic tablet beeped, and it was a message from Regan.

“Jason, I’m in the library if you want to study with me.”

“I’ll be right there, Regan!” Jason replied, and he gathered his belongings and headed to the tram station. In less than a minute he was in the library, and exited the tram. He was retrieved by Regan and brought over to her table. She had study materials strewn across the table, as well as her electronic tablet.

“I wanted to talk to you about something,” said Jason.

“I wanted to talk about something, too!” said Regan. “You go first!”

“I think you’re cute, and next year, when I’m normal sized, would you consider going out with me?” Jason asked.

“You’re cute, but my dad is a police officer. You being a member of the therapeutic occupational youth program causes complications. I don’t think my dad would approve of you going out with me!”

“Your dad’s a cop?” Jason asked.

“Yes, and his dad was a cop, and all of my uncles are cops. You would have to completely turn your life around for me to date you!”

“What was it that you wanted to tell me?” Jason asked,

“Do you want to join the cryptography club with me? They meet here in a few minutes.”

“Sure!” said Jason. “I have a program running from last school year, when I was a sophomore. It’s 99 percent solved!”

“Whoever is the first to decrypt an invention wins pizza for the whole club, the teacher running the club will pay for it,” said Regan. “It sounds like you’re closing in on being the first winner!”

Soon, the students who were members of the club began to file into the library. There were about eight of them total, counting Regan and Jason. The teacher was a woman, about 40 years old, with an attractive face and dressed nicely.

“I am Ms. Heidner. Before we begin, are there any of you who were in the club last year?”

Jason raised his hand. The teacher called on him and had him give her the web address to the decryption sequence his program was working on, and it was shown on the main view screen in the library.

“Has anyone else come this close to decrypting an invention?” the teacher asked.

Nobody in class raised their hand.

“Has anyone from last year made any progress at all?” Ms. Heidner asked.

One kid raised his hand. When his decryption program was shown on the main view screen,  it was 58 percent solved.

Jason raised his hand, and Ms. Heidner called on him.

“If my program decrypts the invention, do we all get pizza?”

“Yes, but only if someone else outside of the club doesn’t decrypt it first.”

“Ms. Heidner, if we get pizza, how will you get it to my scale?” Jason asked. “My miniaturized body can only assimilate foods that have been reduced to my smaller scale.

“Principal Navarro has granted us permission to use the miniaturization equipment in the auditorium for just that purpose.”

Jason seemed more thrilled about the pizza than he was about possibly decrypting an invention.

The remaining three members of the Crimson Quartet entered the library while the decryption club was being held. 

“Don’t the three of you have cheer practice to attend?” Regan asked.

“Not today,” Ruby replied. “We came to see why Jason got our friend in trouble! Maude got sentenced to probation for swallowing him!”

“It serves her right!” said Regan. “Jason only stands an inch tall, Maude had no right to bully him!”

“He doesn’t look in too bad of shape,” Ruby replied. “In fact, one could even imply that it was consensual. Maude is one of the hottest girls at this school, so I doubt it bothered your little boyfriend to kick around in her stomach for a time or two!”

“Inch tall people can’t give consent to being swallowed, that’s the law!” Regan shouted. “If you disagree with that, wait until you’re old enough to vote and take it up with your local senator.”

“We’ll see about that!” Ruby shouted, and grabbed Jason in her hand, and held him above her mouth. “I might as well join my friend Maude on probation!”

Ruby dropped Jason into her mouth and swallowed him, just as Regan tried to jump and stop her. By the time Regan tackled Ruby down and the two of them were in the carpet, Jason was already within Ruby’s stomach.

“It’s too late!” Ruby shouted. “He’s already treading chyme in my gut!”

Ruby’s laughter filled the library as Regan ran to the fire equipment and broke the glass container that held a neural stimulator. She grabbed it, pointed it at Ruby’s head, and pulled the trigger. Almost instantly, Ruby began vomiting.

Twenty minutes later, the police had arrived and Jason gave them a statement while standing on Regan’s palm. They took Ruby away to juvenile hall to await sentencing. When Regan and Jason returned to the inside of the library where the decryption club was still being held, the teacher in charge of the club had good news for Jason.

“The decryption program you created successfully decrypted the invention that will allow instantaneous communication with bases in other parts of the solar system!” said Ms. Heidner.

“Does that mean we get free pizza today?” Jason asked.

“Yes, and a news crew is on their way!” Ms. Heidner continued. “You are the only one who can access the schematics, so you can sell it and become very rich!”

“All I care about is the pizza!” Jason replied.

The news crew arrived at the same time as the pizzas. There were fifteen large boxes of pizza. Jason gave a quick speech about progress and the future of the human race. When the news crew left, the teacher carried about six large pizzas to the auditorium while Regan carried Jason there. After Ms. Heidner miniaturized the six pizzas, she handed them to Jason, and Regan carried Jason to the tram station and he went to the dorm common room.

Jason invited Sadler, Blip and Hack to enjoy some pizza with him. Maude was there, too. She was still miniaturized until the following day when she would be restored to normal.

“My decryption program broke the code to an invention!” said Jason.

“Have you thought about who you want to sell that technology to?” Sadler asked. “You’re the only one who can access the schematics. I have a contact in North Korea who will pay a king’s ransom for that tech!”

“I’ve decided not to sell the technology to North Korea,” said Jason. “I want to sell it to a legitimate U.S. company!”

Little did Jason or the others know, that night, someone else would have their own plans… 

In another part of the city, 12 year old Amelia Andino was watching the news on the television in her bedroom. She saw that Jason Lynch was an inch tall student who had unlocked access to an invention that could make someone rich beyond measure if they got a hold of the schematics. Before the news cast was even over, Amelia was on her cell phone calling the members of the Death Matrix, a gang that can be hired for custom work like kidnapping. Her parents gave her access to a bank account with enough cash to hire them, and her parents would be unaware that she was involved in criminal exploits.

After finishing her supper, Amelia said she was going to the mall with friends and took off. In reality, she met with a Death Matrix operative around the corner to plan the kidnapping of Jason Lynch. The gang members were all older than her, and familiar with what they would need to do to pull off the kidnapping.

They cut off power to the school, then Amelia made her way to the dorms and found the common room and bashed in the roof with a mallet provided by the Death Matrix crew. Jason was still enjoying some pizza when the roof collapsed, and found himself clenched within the fist of a towering twelve year old girl. She had dark blonde hair just past her shoulders, and was cute enough to have been a model. She was neither fat nor skinny, and her plump arms seemed to be due to natural muscle mass rather than puppy fat.

Amelia looked Jason over, recognizing him from the news cast earlier that evening. Since the Autumnal Equinox was still a ways off, the Sun had yet to set on this September evening. Amelia made her way back to the vehicle, and the driver took them to the hideout where the Death Matrix gang made their home.

Jason was thunderstruck. He had been kidnapped by a young girl and taken away, and he was powerless to stop her. Could he sue the school? What was this girl going to do with him? Was he going to spend the rest of his life as someone’s pawn? Would he be forced to spend the rest of his life entertaining his captors like Gulliver in Brobdingnag?

Meanwhile, Amelia got dropped off down the street from her house, after making the bank transaction fee required by the gang members for their services. They wouldn’t have even negotiated with her if she didn’t have the money in her account to pay them in advance, if she had tried to promise them a cut of the money when she sold the schematics for Jason’s decrypted invention, they would have laughed at her and hung up on her without even meeting with her.

Amelia held Jason above her face and spoke to him. “I’m Amelia Andino, I need to swallow you before I take you home so my parents don’t know I kidnapped you! Don’t be alarmed, I’ll vomit you up in the bathroom connected to my bedroom.”

Amelia lifted Jason above her open jaw, and she dropped him onto her wet pink tongue. There would be no escape for the inch tall captive, he plummeted into her mouth and she quickly sent him to the back of her throat with her tongue and swallowed him! On the way down her esophagus, he wondered how many times he would be swallowed by girls before his year of probation was over.

Amelia Andino walked through the front door of her home, and her parents shook her down. They searched her purse and her pockets, looking for contraband or anything she might have stolen from a store. When they saw that she was clean, she was permitted to go upstairs to her bedroom. 

She went to her sink, plugged it up, and pulled out a neural stimulator from a drawer. She aimed it at her head. This electronic device stimulated the area of her brain that controlled gagging and vomiting, so she puked within seconds, and Jason Lynch plummeted into the sink.

Amelia rinsed him off, and brought him to her desk. She set him down, and turned on her laptop.

“I’m on probation for theft, so my parents don’t trust me any more. That’s why I had to swallow you. My parents shake me down every time I come home from somewhere. They would’ve found you if I put you in my purse.”

“What do you want with me?” Jason asked.

“I want you to log in to that website where that invention was decrypted, and I want you to authorize access of it to me exclusively!”

“The feds would find out, and any money you make would go straight back to me!” Jason reasoned.

“Maybe we could split it then, you authorize for me to get half!” said Amelia.

“I won’t authorize for you to have anything, Amelia!” Jason shouted.

“The guys in the death matrix said this might happen. I’ll just log in as you and download the schematics, then sell it on the dark web! Now, what’s your password?”

“I’m not telling you!” Jason shouted.

Amelia lifted Jason up in the air.

“You’re pretty rebellious for an inch tall teenager, aren’t you? What would happen if I swallowed you? Nobody else knows you’re here, so if I sent you crashing to the depths of my titanic twelve year old belly, no one could save you!”

Jason thought about what Amelia was saying. “I guess you have a point! The password is Metallica, with the M uppercase, the rest of the letters lowercase.”

Amelia typed in the password, and she was in. “Perfect! The system thinks I’m you. I’ll just download the schematics, and contact the dark web!”

Jason looked Amelia over. She was beautiful, but if she was on probation, she probably couldn’t ever be trusted, and was possibly dangerous. If she succeeded in her plan, what would happen to him? Would he be discarded, or worse, swallowed by this predatory preteen? Jason knew he had to find a way to escape from her bedroom. If her parents didn’t trust her, then possibly, they could become his allies if he could contact them.

Jason had read up on the effects of miniaturization, and knew with his decreased body mass, he could jump down each step of the stairs with ease, with no possibility of injuring himself. It was just a matter of escaping from Amelia. She was paying attention to her computer, so he leaped down onto her bed, then onto her carpeted bedroom floor.

He was halfway across the room, running at full pace, when Amelia noticed he wasn’t on his perch.

“Hey!” Amelia shouted. “There’s no escape from me, tiny one!”

In a matter of seconds, Jason found himself clenched within the left fist of the acquisitive adolescent. The strength in one of her hands was far greater than the strength of Jason’s entire body. It would take ten people Jason’s size just to overpower Amelia’s index finger.

“I already swallowed you once, don’t make me swallow you again! If I do swallow you a second time, it might be on a more permanent basis!”

Amelia kept him imprisoned within her fist as she continued working with her laptop, trying to secure buyers for the communications technology Jason had decrypted. She planned on selling the tech to the highest bidder!

While clenched in Amelia Andino’s fist, Jason realized he had a transponder built into his class ring. If he could activate it, someone at his parents home should be able to track down the signal. All of the TOY’s were given one, in case of a kidnapping. He reached over with his right hand to his left and screwed the top, activating the transponder.

Back at the Lynch residence, Jason’s younger sister Lavender was emerging from the bathroom when she heard a beeping sound coming from Jason’s room. She went into her brother’s bedroom and saw the control panel lighting up with the signal from the transponder. Her mother was out shopping, so she knew she should find Sadler and his crew to help track down Jason. She used a flash drive to document the transponder signature and the location, and took off to find Sadler.

She rode her bicycle to the high school, which was less than a mile from her house. She dropped the bike when she found the habitation module for the TOYs shattered. When she peered inside, she saw that only Jason had been taken. Sadler, Blip, Hack and Glitch were inside, safe and sound.

“Sadler, can you help me track down my brother?” Lavender asked.

“First you need to restore power to the school!” Sadler told her.

Lavender reached in and scooped Sadler up in her hands, then followed his instructions. She found the spot where the step down transformer box supplied power to the school from the nuclear fusion plant several miles away. She hooked up the cables that had been disconnected by the Death Matrix, and the school once again had power.

Lavender took Sadler back to the habitation module and gently dropped him back inside. She dropped the flash drive into the module so Sadler could download the transponder signature. He hooked cables from the flash drive to the computer and tried to track down the signal where Jason’s ring was transmitting from.

Within five minutes, he had the address. 

“It’s the Andino address, and the laptop is registered to Amelia Andino. She must be a kid!”

“Can you set up a meeting with her? Convince her that we are interested in buying the schematics to the communications technology Jason decrypted!”

“I sent her an e-mail!” Sadler replied.

Within another few minutes, Amelia replied. Lavender instructed Amelia to meet her at the high school, and they would conduct a transaction with a  debit card. Sadler did as she instructed.

“She’s on her way now!” said Sadler.

Lavender got her cell phone and called the local police department, and told them what had happened. They agreed to send an unmarked unit to hide from Amelia until she showed up. Once she did, the police nabbed her and returned Jason to Lavender.

“This isn’t fair!” Amelia shouted as they put her in handcuffs.

The police told Lavender to take the other TOYs home, and they would have the habitation module repaired by morning time. The TOYs spent the night in her bedroom, and Lavender and Jason’s mother had food sent over that had been miniaturized down to the scale of the shrunken students.