MAJOR/minor Generation Gap Chapter 8: SIZE/disparity

Being a CYCLO meant that people looked up to you, literally in most cases but there was also the expectation that you were a pillar. A foundation that held the highest standard of MAJOR society. You were the strongest, the smartest, never wrong and always right even when you were neither. In the survival of the fittest rules that every MAJOR lived by whether they knew it or not, a CYCLO was the fittest. Magnolia Rose always held herself to that high standard and expected as much from those around her. Excellence demanded excellence, so why was her one and only son born a minor? Why did she feel so insecure as a mother. 

She could feel the tiny vibrations of her diminutive son in her hand as her husband drove. She could see his face flinch as her warm breath touched his skin. She could hear the low stutter in his voice whenever he spoke to her. 

Why was he afraid of her? Magnolia always felt the term society chose to give her kind of superior MAJOR as a label of excellence rather ironic. In mythology cyclopeans were considered monsters. Perhaps that title was fitting and it’s true intent was to mock her species and serve as a warning for a monster is what she truly felt she was. 

“Tell me about your schooling.” Rose asked down to her son in the quiet dark of the passenger seat. Her words breaking the tense silence of the car. Her husband was busy at the wheel since driving a car sized to accommodate a CYCLO was a skill that took concentration and the other MAJORS in the car lacked the courage to speak unless spoken to. She noticed her husband perk up a bit at her query. They both lacked the capacity to show it, but were keenly interested in their child’s life experience. 

“U-um…well. I just kind of hangout in my room most days when I’m not with…Riley. Y’know?” 

Rose noted the pause in Elliot’s speech. He was hiding something or he would be if his mind weren’t an open book to her. The minor was usually very guarded with his bond but Rose was his mother and reading his thoughts was as easy as breathing. 

“You have a girlfriend?” Magnolia Rose stated. 

“Really?!” Charles Reynolds chuckled. “Hmm.”

“An older woman even.” Magnolia mused. “We’ll have to meet soon.” She was endeared by her son’s embarrassment. Minors would always be cute and her precious son had that quality in excess. “If you don’t wish to talk about her then we can change the subject but don’t think you can hide things from me.” Rose added. 

Elliot blanched and trembled at that. 

Rose felt a pang of shame. What had she done wrong. Her statement was meant to be a comfort but instead Elliot was now on edge. She could feel the quickening of his pulse. 

“Your cooking.” Rose said desperate to change the subject. “You said you passed your course.”

Elliot took a breath noticeably more at ease. “Yes I did!” he said with an uneasy smile. “They really liked my cheesecake recipe!” 

“You’ll have to prepare some for us.” Rose spoke.

“Of course, ma’am!” Elliot replied back too quickly. 

Rose winced at his reply. That had come off like an order when she hadn’t meant it as such. 

“It was really good. Mrs. R.” Riley-Anne chirped from the backseat. 

Magnolia Rose turned to regard the MAJOR girl that had befriended her son fourteen years, nine months, seventeen days ago and counting. The girl who had picked up a small boy who had fallen off a swing, pushed too hard by his nervous MAJOR father and his scared to even touch him CYCLO mother despite being near toothless and ignorant of the disparity in their potential. A girl who had helped teach him to swim and protected him, a young minor in a climate where he would be prey to those that had lacked self control. She had done her family a huge favor by just knowing Elliot and it was a shame she had chosen to reject his romantic companionship. Shame that Magnolia had inadvertently shown in the slightest disappointed furrow of her brow, that was still enough ro render the girl and her apparent girlfriend silent as if scolded. That was not her intent, but she was beyond caring too much if she intimidated other MAJORS by this point in her life. Even sweet Riley-Anne.

“You should call your parents more often Riley-Anne.” Rose suggested. “They worry about you.” 

“Yes, ma’am!” Riley-Anne answered. 

Again? Rose sighed. 45 years on this Earth and still Charles was the only MAJOR that had taken the time to understand her. 

“We’re here!” Charles announced as the vehicle came to a stop. 

They had pulled into a very famous diner known for catering especially to minors. A popular franchise known as McShakey’s.. And yet, Elliot seemed crestfallen. 

He gave a glance expecting the door to be opened but Rose didn’t comply.

“Speak, Elliot.” Rose ordered although regrettably, shamefully, she already knew the answer. 

“I-I don’t really like McShakey’s.” He stated. 

Of course! Rose screamed internally. A mother for over eighteen years and she was still very, very, bad at it. 

“I hate this.” Moonie whined. 

“Well get over it!” Hilda sneered at her spoiled granddaughter. “A little work once in a while won’t kill you, in fact it might do you some good.”

“I shouldn’t be expected to do this!” Moonie continued. “I have better things to do then prepare rooms for people I don’t even want here!” 

“Your cousins are eight years old and have never been in this house before. You know these rooms like the back of your hand. Be a good role model, a good big cousin and help them!” Hilda ordered. 

“They’re eight years old!” Moonie argued back. “They can find their own rooms and make up their own beds. You have to learn responsibility some time!”

Hilda experienced a mental whiplash so severe she felt she would faint at the irony of Munalune’s words. 

“Do. It.” Hilda said evenly.

“But?”

“DO! IT!” Hilda repeated with base in her voice. 

They held painfully long eye contact invisible daggers flying between them that would be lethal if they were real. Moonie blinked first. 

“Fine!” She shouted in defeat. “Fine!” 

“We don’t like it.” Sunflower “Sunnie” Maldera stated. “It’s too small and there are no windows.” She was the bold twin with the two afro puffs although her mother had long ago untied them so she more matched her twin sister’s wild unkempt hair except she chose to have it combed back so you could see her eyes, or more so she could see you and let you know not to mess with her. 

“It’s fine.” Azalea Maldera said. “Dark is…fine.” 

“No it isn’t! Zaza!” Sunnie insisted. 

“Too bad!” Moonie said, raising her voice. This had been the third room in a manor with over a dozen in the main house and several more scattered throughout satellite buildings on the property. Munalune had all night to guide them but not the patience or desire to. 

“What about that room with the double doors across from Nana’s?” Sunnie asked. 

“We’ve been over this.” Moonie said through gritted teeth. “That’s my room!” 

“It looked empty to me!” Sunnie stated. That was a purposeful mistruth. It was indeed very furnished and obviously occupied. The truth was minors furniture just didn’t take up much space in a MAJOR built home and Moonie had only been living with her grandmother a few months. Not enough time for even a superlatively spoiled minor such as herself to accumulate the necessary access to make a MAJOR room seem lived in. 

“It’s not!” Moonie seethed at the annoying MAJOR brat. 

“It has a window overlooking the pool!” 

“I know!” Moonie exclaimed. “That’s why I chose it!”

“Well, we want it!” Sunnie said. 

“Well, you don’t always get what you want!” Moonie said. 

“Trade with us!” 

“Trade what?!” Moonie gasped. “You brats have nothing to offer me!”

Sunflower stepped up to Munalune making their fleeting size difference known. Munalune was nineteen, Sunflower eight-ish. The age gap made the disparity less significant but still notable. A MAJOR even a prepubescent one was still a physical threat to a minor. Thinker bones, larger proportions even if she barely had an inch on Munalune. 

“Trade with us.” Sunnie commanded pressing an open palm into Munalune with barely a gesture, but enough force to make her fall back on her butt. 

Moonie’s eyes went wide at the clear attempt at physical intimidation. Immediately a plethora of options ran through her head. Relinquishing to the spoiled brats demands and explaining the event to her grandmother at a later time was probably the most proper, and more mature move. For just an instant Munalune even considered it. This was not worth her time…..but why waste an opportunity to teach a lesson? 

Sunnie walked up to loom over Moonie with a smug look of satisfaction at over-powering someone her senior. Azalea for her worth didn’t indulge in the bullying but neither said or did anything to stop her twin. Moonie couldn’t decide who she was more disgusted with, the bully or the quiet one who tacitly approved of the bullying for her benefit. 

“How old did you say you were?” Moonie asked as she lifted herself up off the ground and adjusted her disheveled night dress. 

“Eight next month.” Azalea found the guts to state. 

“That’s old enough not to feel too guilty about this.” Munalune thought with a dark smile. Time to teach a lesson in respect.

They didn’t have many options. Not many establishments truly catered to CYCLOS and minors at the same time, so finding a suitable dining location had proven to be too much to ask. So Magnolia Rose didn’t. The school opened the test kitchen for her even though it was closed on weekends. They provided a booth for her even though it took 3 MAJORS that were at home to drive over and set it up for her. They would then stay on call until her dinner was over despite the sky turning dark and the time table for her meal left to her discretion, and more importantly than any of that Elliot would cook for her, not because she secretly wanted him too, but because he wanted to, which meant more to her than anything. 

She watched with quiet pride as her son worked the kitchen with Riley-Anne and her girlfriend she had yet to approve of. Magnolia Rose even removed her heels and let her feet breath. Most considered her to be 30ft tall, but the truth was closer to 27. She wore 3ft custom heels for the effect. She wasn’t even the tallest CYCLO on record, just in the top 5 and it was a game of inches beyond that. Thankfully there were proving to be diminishing returns on MAJOR height. She figured it was nature’s limiter. Any taller was probably unsustainable. 

“Look at him go!” Charles observed as their son handled a comically large skillet with expert skill. He was tossing a dish of noodles and vegetables that seared in the hot pan, a dash of liquid and a flame erupted and their son smiled confidently.

“No, not that much!” He shouted to the short MAJOR before a puff of flour bloomed into the air causing all three of them to cough.”

Magnolia had never seen him like that. Confident enough to shout at a MAJOR, It alone was worth the night and the thousands of thousands she was paying the school and the beyond thousand she was donating to assure Elliot didn’t get any favoritism. 

“Are we…am I…doing a good job.” Rose asked her husband. “Raising our son.” 

“That’s not something I can answer.” Charles stated. “I wish I could but I’m afraid of breaking him just as much as you.” 

“We haven’t bonded in so long either.” Rose sighed. “I don’t even know what he thinks of me anymore. I just feel the fear.” 

“We could both do better at talking to him more.” Charles admitted. “Not just about school but about things that interest him.” 

‘Like cooking.” Rose stated. “I hadn’t even known he liked it until he picked his major.” 

“Or this girlfriend of his.” Charles suggested. “An older woman, that’s interesting.”

“How much older is what I want to know. I swear is some vapid post grad is using our boy as a plaything and hurts him I’ll step on her!” 

Just then Charles phone buzzed. He looked at his smart device and smiled.

“We’ll have plenty of time to find out.” He stated. “They finally closed on the property.”

“Good.” Rose said with satisfaction. She just hoped Ellior would be happy with the news. 

Munalune gingerly closed the door for her two sleeping cousins. They seemed like angels when their eyes were closed and they weren’t talking. God did they talk too much. She’d learned that and more about them. 

“How did it go?” Hilda asked down to her granddaughter, causing her to jump in shock. 

“They’re demons.” Munalune griped. “But I think I’ll enjoy having them around.”

Hilda wasn’t sure what that meant but knew she didn’t want to know. “Junior is in the pool house. So no more parties in the grotto.” Hilda stated. 

“Why?!” Moonie screeched.

“Believe me you do not want that horny bastard anywhere near this house! He’s worse than his father! He stared at my ass. I’m his grandmother and he was staring at my ass!” 

“I hate that you’re doing this to me.” Moonie seethed at her grandmother. “Uncle Richie shows up with a sob story so you have uproot my life! I hate you!” 

“Do you even hear yourself, Moonie!?” Hilda spat. “Oh poor me! I live rent free in a giant mansion with my grandmother who lets me have free reign to indulge in my every base desire, yet I have to share my more than lavish living space with a few extra people! She won’t let me use a smaller, more private pool for my self gratifying hedonistic parties! How will I corrupt a generation of pliable minds into my cult of controversial ideas if I can’t woo them with my unearned luxury!?” Hilda’s condescending rant was emphasized with a less than flattering imitation of Munalune’s tone. 

“Aren’t you a little old to be mocking people grandmother?” 

“Aren’t you a little shit?” Hilda asked back. 

Hilda sat in her bathtub letting the day’s stress melt into the hot water. She had candles lit and a good book to read on her tablet covered in a water tight cover. It was a cheesy volume of her favorite romance light novel series about a minor woman being wooed by numerous MAJOR lovers. It was written by a minor novelist only known by her initials II but had apparently been based on real life experiences. It was trashy but it often got her horny and now that she had a minor lover of her own the book did wonders for getting the fire going. Now was in a rather tame chapter, the author had a penchant for motor vehicles and often went on tangents about her hobby. She laughed at a dumb joke and just as she was starting to think that her bath would be all the more satisfying with her minor soaking in the water between her welcoming busoms her tablet dinged with a notification. A message from the love she was just thinking of. 

E: Can we see each other soon?

H: Of course!
E: I have news.

H: Good news I hope!

E: Not sure but I think it’s better to speak in person

Hilda felt worried for just a moment thinking perhaps he wanted to break things off. She would accept it graciously if he chose

H: Tomorrow afternoon good for you?
E: Yes. See you then.

H: Looking forward to it love!

Hilda panicked! She didn’t mean to say “love” but she had typed it without thinking. Was she really in that deep already?

E: Me too.

E: Love

Hilda’s heart nearly burst.