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The day of the game no one had seen Alice around. She called sick and didn’t come to school in the morning. Of course, she had to make sure she had an alibi. In the afternoon, she cautiously sneaked inside the gym using the backdoor, making sure nobody was around.

The game was about to start. As the sound of her steps filled the empty corridor, she could already hear the loud crowd gathering to see the game. She grinned, knowing that, if everything went according to her plan, those idiots wouldn’t see any game at all. She picked up her pace, following the corridor, until she reached the door of a locker room. It was the same she used with her team when she played. She knew it well. The only difference that day was the team inside, getting ready for the final: it was Trish’s. Alice could hear her teammates’ voice through the door, chatting happily and being positive about the upcoming match. They are so damn confident, she thought. She could even hear Trish’s squeaky, stupid, annoying voice. She wanted to slap her until she stopped talking. Soon enough, she said to herself.

 

The locker room was quite isolated from the rest of the gym, and Alice double checked if someone was coming, but the corridor was desert. She sat on the ground and untied her left gym shoe. A faint scream came from inside, as she removed her sock-clad foot. A small figure emerged from inside her shoe. She didn’t even know his name: it was the drunk quarterback that annoyed her at the party the previous weekend. He had been shrunk and thrown in her shoe for days, and she never even bothered to address a word to him. Alice was honestly surprised he resisted for so long.

 

“Hey, loser”, she simply said, trying to appear as threatening as possible while hiding a smile. “You have a chance to go back to your normal life. If you do me an itty-bitty favour, I’ll grow you back. What do you say?”. The small guy burst into tears and screamed at the top of his lungs: “Yes! Yes please! Anything to get out of here”. Alice was satisfied with the answer. She thought about how much he must have suffered beneath her… and she didn’t even notice him. His pain, his tears… meant nothing to her. Nonetheless, she needed his help. She put him on the ground and focused on his tiny form.

She rarely used her power in reverse, but she had done it before. And so, he grew him back to his former size. Minus a few centimetres, that Alice didn’t restore as payback. But in his joy, he didn’t seem to notice at that moment. The titaness who tortured him for days was now just a little taller than him, just a regular girl. Alice quickly interrupted his newfound happiness: “Now for your part of the deal…”. She approached the door of the locker room. “You seem to be pretty strong… when you’re not ant-sized. After I get in, your task is to keep this door shut. You won’t open it whatever happens, whatever you hear, whatever you think. I’ll tell you when I’m done”. The guy just nodded with a perplexed expression on his face, unsure of what was happening. “It’s not that difficult, so even an oaf like you should be able to do it. If not… You’ll spend the rest of your life inside my shoe” she said calmly, picking up her discarded gym shoe to remind him of the peril. It was enough to convince him. She put her shoe on and went inside the locker room. She shut the door behind her, and her accomplice obeyed to her orders.

The girls’ chatting stopped when they saw Alice coming inside the locker room. They were already changed in their uniforms and ready for the game, but they all knew she couldn’t stay there. However, the whole team was worried by looking at Alice’s crazed smile. Everyone, except Trish. The captain of the rival team walked towards her with a broad smile of her own. “Well? What are you doing here, loser? Came to visit the winners?”. Alice was about to lose her temper again but remained focused. “Not really. Because you won’t win anything today”. She closed her eyes and raised her hand. She focused on five of the six girls of the team in the room. She never used her power on more than one target at the same time. She didn’t know if she were able to do it, but she didn’t have much time and had to try. “Are you kidding?” Trish joked, but was surprised when Alice’s body began to emanate a feeble light. The other girls knew that something was wrong and tried to run away, but the door of the locker room wouldn’t open, as if someone was blocking it. In a few seconds, the entire team began shrinking. Except for Trish, who closed her eyes in terror.

 

 

When she opened them, her team was gone. Alice was looking at a few small insects on the floor. Weird insects… They almost looked like…

 

 

“Wow, your teammates are not very tall, are they? I don’t think that they’re really fit for basketball. Are you sure they won all those games?”. The tiny girls scattered around Alice’s shoes, confused and panicking, were trying to avoid their gigantic rival’s steps. “You know, they’re smaller than the ball, I don’t think they can do any good passes today”. Trish was frozen in fear, all her confidence was lost in the moment she saw her friends getting shrunk before her eyes. “W-what did you to them…?” she muttered incredulous. “H-how did you…”. Alice ignored her. It didn’t take a genius to answer those questions. “And the opponent team of course will have formidable players… What’s the point of a good defense when you can just step on the players”. Alice moved a foot over two girls, doing their best to escape from her. The dirty, plastic sole of her gym shoe was upon them, ready to come down at any second. Trish was watching in horror. “What are you—“. Alice interrupted her: “What do you think two miserable players will sound like when they are crushed beneath the foot of a top-notch player?”. Tears began running down Trish’s cheeks: “Please, Alice… Don’t… They’re my friends…”. “Not for long” said Alice, as her foot began to descend on the poor girls. Trish screamed. “Please, PLEASE, I beg you! I’ll do anything, don’t hurt them! The did nothing to you! Please, pick on me if you have to!”. Alice stopped and turned to Trish with a smile: “That is precisely what I wanted to hear”.

 

Alice bent down towards the tiny girls she almost crushed and picked them up from the floor one by one, while explaining to Trish what to do. “On behalf of your team, you’ll go out there and forfeit the game. At that point, the team with the most points will win the tournament, that is, mine. Come up with any excuse, your team is sick, demotivated, on a trip to Alaska, I don’t care. Do it, and your precious little friends here will be free”. She showed her the palm of her hand, where her five little teammates were kept while screaming, horrified. “It’s only because you’re the team leader that I didn’t shrink you. It has to be you to do it. But refuse and…”. She formed a fist with the other hand and placed it above the other. The screams increased. “NO! I’ll do it, I’LL DO IT” Trish screamed on the verge of tears. “Good girl”, Alice said, smiling.

 

“What the hell happened in there…?” the boy at the door asked when Alice and Trish passed by. He was still horrified and pale as a ghost. “None of your business. Now go home and never tell anyone about this. Or else”. Alice slammed a foot on the ground. The scared quarterback fled toward the exit of the gym, never turning back. Then Alice turned to Trish. “Do your thing. Me and your precious little friends will be watching you from a safe spot. Closely. One mistake, one alert, and they’ll end up clapped between my palms”. Trish nodded, tears in her eyes, and slowly walked away.

 

. . .

 

For Trish, what was going to be a great day turned into her worst nightmare. Her rival Alice did something impossible. And it was even more terrible than winning the tournament. She couldn’t conceive how it could even be possible that her friends were shrunk. She forfeited the game on behalf of her team while everyone was in utter disbelief. Then, without saying a word, she went back to the locker room, where Alice was waiting for her. “Well done. Thanks for leaving the victory to those who really deserve it”. Trish knew she deserved it. She and her team had trained hard, day after day. But she couldn’t disagree with that monster, for her friends’ sake. “Now turn them back to normal, Alice. I did what you asked” she said, attempting to hide her desperation. “Hmmm, nah, not yet…” Alice replied with a smug smile. Trish heart sank.

 

“You know, you always thought you were better than me… Well, as you can see, you aren’t. You can’t shrink people with your mind, sorry. Nobody obeys to you just to avoid being crushed… By me… A literal giant. How could you even think of being above me?”. Trish knew Alice was crazy, but she couldn’t even imagine that she was so out of her mind. “Time to give you a lesson in humility, Trish. You won’t underestimate me ever again. I promised you that you were going to beg on your knees. Do it. Now. Beg me to spare your friends from a horrible end” Alice declared, dead serious. She sat down on a bench, the tiny girl still wriggling in her sweaty hands. And she waited. Trish just wanted to cry. Did she really wanted her to do it?! Her friends’ lives were on the line, she couldn’t afford the risk. She swallowed her pride and kneeled before Alice. “Please… Alice… Let them go. It’s not their fault…” she whispered. Alice smiled proudly. “One more thing. I always do… weird things with the people I shrunk. But if I let them go, you’ll have to do it instead of them”. Trish gulped and asked: “what is it..?”. Alice’s smile broadened as she lifted the dirty bottom of her worn gym shoe from the ground and held it before Trish’s face. “Kiss. My. Shoe.”. Trish couldn’t believe it. It was a nightmare. The grip of Alice’s hand tightened. She had no choice. Alice was in control. She closed her eyes and leaned closer to the greyish plastic sole, disgusted. Then, her lips made contact with the revolting surface. Alice burst into laughter.

 

A few minutes later, five battered and devastated girls left the gym. Normal-sized. “You know, it’s a pleasure to make deals with you, dear Trish” Alice declared, satisfied. “Please Alice… Let me cry in peace, now” said Trish, alone, in a corner of the locker room. Alice sat down beside her with her happiest smile. “No, really, a few more favours like that and you could even become my friend. Maybe next time there will be no need of threatening to crush any of your friends”. Trish wanted to scream, her desperation turning into frustration with Alice’s teasing. “Alice. Go away. You took enough from me today”. “Oh, is that so?” Alice continued, curious. “I think that if you really cared, you would have fought for it. But you’re too weak… Oh well, fine by me… Maybe I should take your win even in the next tournament. It wasn’t that hard after all”. Now Trish was mad. She didn’t want to see Alice win, to see her proud, to see her happy for something she didn’t do.

 

Without even thinking, Trish formed a fist and punched Alice right on her disgusting, smiling face. Again. And again. The rush of adrenaline and rage inside of Trish lasted until her opponent responded with a powerful blow to her stomach, knocking the air out of her body. Trish fell on the ground, breathing hard, defeated once again. Before she could react in any way, she saw her world beginning to spin… And she realised she was shrinking.

 

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