Sarah struggled with her classes during all of last week. No wonder her parents were pissed off at her.  Over the weekend, she did her homework for chemistry class, but there was no way her graphs were accurate. They were doing basic thermodynamics for a couple of weeks now, and they had to know the material for the midterm exam in a few months. She was stressed walking into the lecture hall, knowing her professor was going to look over their work. Oh well, she thought. The worst thing that could happen is that the young professor would give her another “Are You sure you have everything under control?” Question that really meant nothing, or at least to her that’show she felt about him. He was new. He wasn’t the greatest professor, but she felt like his words were empty to him.

It was a slow Monday and Sarah walked in turning in her papers. Professor Martin, a man who barely looked thirty and skinnier than a twig, was at the desk of the lecture hall. Upon turning in her papers and walking to a free seat, Martin spoke to her. 

“Hey Sarah, can we talk after class?” He asked, “I wanna help you with your work”

Sarah turned her head. “Sure, thanks” she replied, walking to her seat.

Sarah took as many notes as she could during the lecture. She didn’t understand everything she was writing down, but she enjoyed the chemical reactions the professor would do to demonstrate whatever topics they were covering. It was why she was so fascinated in chemistry.

After the hour, the entire class left except for Sarah. “Great now to deal with the professor,” she muttered to herself. 

Sarah wasn’t wearing anything that would classify as sexy, just a t-shirt and jeans, but she did notice the Professor’s occasional glances to her chest. She figured he wasn’t any better than a college student.

“Sarah, my dear,” he started. “I just… I‘ve been looking at your recent homework and I don’t get it, are my lectures going too fast for you?”

“No…” She said.

“Is the homework too hard?”

“Yeah maybe, I guess it’s just hard to figure out everything from a single lab,” she said.

“Ahh” he nodded. “Ok, you’re more of a reader-learner”

Sarah nodded, “Yeah I guess.” 

Martin opened his desk. “Usually I do not give these to students, but if this can help you in any way, I will be willing to give this to you and help you with your understanding.”

He pulled out a large textbook that read “Chemistry II” on it.

“Just use the table of contents and find basic thermodynamics” He said. “Hopefully there you can read and hopefully understand better.”

“Ok, thank you so much!” Sarah said smiling.

“No problem,” Martin replied. “Now get out of here, I’m sure you’re hungry. Go get some lunch.”

“I will haha,” Sarah laughed awkwardly, and started to walk away. “Bye!”

—-

As she started to walk out, she ran into her dorm roommate, Phoebe, who had finished her class just half an hour ago. 

“Oh my god! Sarah! He was literally watching your ass the whole time you walked out of the hall,” she giggled.

“Ew, can we not? And why were you looking through the door anyways?” Sarah told her.

“Well, the rest of the class walked out and I didn’t know where you were” she replied.

“Ehh whatever,” Sarah muttered as they hopped on their bikes and began peddling down to Miami, which was only an hour bike ride down and back.

Southern Florida State College wasn’t a terrible school at all, but it was definitely a bottom-half school. It had an 85% acceptance rate, and it had meaningful degrees. But really, Sarah applied because it was close to home, and it was a party school. She and Phoebe have been trying to find a sorority that they can get initiated into, because the Greek life was a huge part of campus life. There were tons of fraternities and sororities, and there was a whole park that was surrounded by the houses. 

“Hey, so guess what?” Phoebe said as they were gliding down a small hill.

“What?” 

“I found a sorority that is looking for more freshmen to join! Theta Alpha Zeta” 

“Taz?” Sarah joked.

“No, it’s not spelled like that. It’s a bunch of Greek letters” Phoebe laughed. “It’s pretty cool. The girls are a little bitchy but they’re all pretty girls. I told them about you too. They have rooms for both of us.”

“How bitchy are we talking?” Asked Sarah as she resumed peddling.

“They said that they ‘scared’ away all the other interested freshmen’” Phoebe replied. 

“Phoebe that’s significant!” Sarah exclaimed

“No, like they were nice to me” she said. “Here, I was going to show you one of their seniors. The girl said she would be one of our big sisters”

“Ok. I believe you” Sarah said.

They reached their destination, Katie’s Kitchen. They had a low-calorie diet plan to try and get fit so they have been eating a salad for lunch 6 days a week.

“I love the salads from here, we should go here more often,” Sarah commented.

“Yeah! I think the diet’s working. It’s been almost six months now right?” Phoebe asked 

“Yeah.” 

“It’s been working for you clearly, look how thin you’ve gotten!” Phoebe stated, pointing at Sarah’s stomach area.

Sarah ran her hands down her sides. She had definitely developed a better hourglass shape since college started. “Haha thanks but you too.” 

She wasn’t lying, but Phoebe wasn’t as good looking as Sarah, who was starting to look like serious wife material. Phoebe was more of an introvert in high school, she claims, but now that she is at a party school, she wants to come out of her shell. She wasn’t skinny or fat before. She was rather flat too, with Sarah humbling her in both the chest and rear area easily. Her face was scarred from untreated acne in high school.

In short, Sarah was the prettier one.

Both of them ate their salads and afterwards, started the journey back from downtown.

“Ok, we have plenty of time,” Phoebe looked at her watch. “I think they want to see us in front of the student center around 6.”

“Six. Ok” Confirmed Sarah. They biked back to their dorm. “So after the rest of my classes? Meet up?”

“I’ll probably go early so we don’t keep them waiting.”

“Ok. I guess I’ll just see you there” said Sarah, and left for class.

——

Six o’clock came quickly. After Sarah finished up her classes, she began her bike trip straight to the student center. 

There, Phoebe was already talking with two other girls. 

“Hey, what’s going on?” Sarah asked as she greeted Phoebe.

“You must be Sarah,” said one of the girls. Sarah nearly gulped. She looked very bitchy. She had a ton of makeup on and had a nasty look on her face.

“Hey, I’m Emily,” she said nicely. “I’m the leader of Theta Alpha Zeta”, and stretched out her hand. “How are you?”

Sarah was shocked. She was surprisingly calm for someone who looked like she was ready to humiliate you any second.

“I’m good.” 

“Awesome,” Emily replied, as she opened her arms towards the girl next to her. “This is Tiffany. She’s a senior this year, she will be one of your older sisters!” 

Tiffany also looked bitchy. “Ohmygod hey!!!” She cheered. “I’m Tiffany, how are you?” She said, coming in for a hug.

She was 5’0 so it was a little awkward for the 5’6” Sarah to hug her back as she was nearly a head taller than the brunette. “You’re so pretty!!! And you’re not even wearing makeup!!”  She exclaimed with a frozen smile on her face. 

Yeah, maybe this was the bitch that she imagined Emily to be for a second.

“So, how do we get initiated?” Sarah asked, walking to Phoebe and holding an arm around her.

“We have an initiation all set up for tomorrow night. You better be ready. You’re about to get introduced to the college life, girl,” Emily giggled.

“Oh I’m sure you will do great!!” Tiff added. “It’ll be really fun.”

Tiffany then whispered into Emily’s ear, coping her hand as she did so.

Emily chuckled and then whispered back, leaving Phoebe and Sarah in an awkward spot. They looked at each other and continued to laugh.

“Yeah,” Emily said. “Ok do you know where our house is?”

“No,” Sarah and Phoebe responded simultaneously.

“Ok. Take this down ready? 7 Athena Street” said Emily.

“Ok I’ll remember that,” Said Sarah.

“Yay!!” Exclaimed Tiffany. “We’ll see you there”, said Emily. “Don’t be late”.

“Okayy,” Sarah replied.

Phoebe and Sarah were walking back to their bikes when she heard Tiffany say “yeah, he flew in from California yesterday, I picked him up...” to Emily. She shrugged, it probably wouldn’t matter to anything anyways.

—

On the way back, Sarah got really exhausted from biking to the point where she thought she was going to black out. Once they arrived, Sarah was yawning a lot, feeling super fatigued.

“Ugh… why do I feel so sick?” She groaned.

“I don’t know… I feel fine,” Phoebe said. “Did you get good sleep last night? You got home late after seeing your parents”

“Yah…”.she groaned. “Maybe I just need some sleep.”

“Yup, You need to be in shape for tomorrow night.” Phoebe cheered. 

They had just got back and made themselves comfortable on their beds when Sarah received a call from her mom. 

“Ugh,” she groaned again. She just wanted to sleep right now. She was tired as hell.

“Yeah hey mom,” Sarah answered with a moody tone. “Wait wait? Slow down so I can understand what you are saying.”

Phoebe listened and watched Sarah’s jaw drop as her mother told her the news. She could hear her friend’s mother speaking loudly and quickly to the point where she just had to wait until Sarah spoke again.

“No way!” Sarah finally commented as she immediately put the phone down.

“Phoebe, go to apple news or something! There’s a virus from California and it’s making people grow humongous!”

Phoebe laughed. “What?” She looked at her news feed. And there it was: headlined in bold text across the top of her phone, it said RISE OF THE GIANTS. She tapped on the article.

“Oh…” she admitted. “Umm.. you’re right”

Sarah was still on the phone. “Yeah, Phoebe has it pulled up on her phone”, she said into her mic.

“Sarah, just stay safe. It grows people but it also could potentially put you or others in the hospital, so please, be careful” Her mom warned her.

“Of course mom, I don’t want anything to happen to you,” she said. 

“I love you Sarah.”

“I love you too mom,” she replied.

Sarah hung up her phone only to begin chuckling. “Wow who knew this ‘virus’ would immediately loosen tensions between me and my mother.” 

“Come over here,” Phoebe interrupted her with a serious tone. “Look at this you won’t believe it”

Sarah walked over to her bed. She looked over Phoebe’s shoulder as she skimmed the article.

“How about that..” Sarah said. “Yikes, look at those pictures”

“I know. It’s incredible how big these people have gotten and how they’ve completely retained their figure,” Phoebe said.

Phoebe scrolled to a picture of a giant thirteen year old girl next to her mother, who was in a a medical-induced coma at the hospital. “Like, look how big this girl is. They are nearly at eye level and she’s sitting down.” She said.

“Yeah… but why is the mother still small. Doesn’t the virus spread easily by air?”

“Yeah it does,” explained Phoebe. “But there are a lot of people who don’t get affected by the virus. They don’t know what it is yet”  

“Hmmm, you don’t think I have that, do you?” Sarah asked, remembering she felt tired and woozy.

Phoebe giggled. “I hope you do! You would be an amazing giant!” She said, winking at her. 

“Not funny,” Sarah mumbled and rolled over. She shut her eyes, or rather she stopped trying to keep them open and she plummeted into a deep sleep as her body began to tingle everywhere. 

Phoebe didn’t go to sleep until 8, doing her homework for the next two hours. She looked over at Sarah before going to sleep. She had never taken an afternoon nap for so long. Maybe she’d last the whole night like that. Either way, without a roommate to keep her awake, Phoebe fell asleep at a very early time for her, not realizing that her roommate was about to look a hell of a lot different once they woke up.