A great crash interrupted Mr. Henniker's droning history lesson. The haggard and balding middle-aged teacher in his baggy shirt and creased trousers looked to the ceiling and sighed in frustration. He sat down at his book-covered desk, rubbing the temples of his head to soothe the headache. There was no stopping the chaos that was about to erupt. All the students jumped from their chairs, pushing and shoving one another to turn as they around gathered to look out the window. Henniker rolled his eyes and placed the textbook he had been reading aloud to the class down, knowing that it would be futile to coral his class back to his seats. Such quakes were commonplace in a mixed-sized school, as the footfalls of the giants tended to be an annoyance the smaller teachers and students had to get used to. Yet this sound had been harsher, more destructive, like the rending of metal shrieking its death throws. All the class saw the black loafers, akin to the size of a bus in height and length, pressed right before the school’s Block C building. A faint yell came from above. Being on the second floor of Block B, the more minute of the school’s three main buildings, the students were afforded the best vantage point to witness a giant schoolmate passing through. When the classmates looked, an immaculately dressed blonde-haired giant loomed over Block C. The giant was averting her gaze down to her side, desperately avoiding looking at something on the roof. Tiffany had turned her head, attempting to hide her smile and blushing cheeks.
Whoever was yelling now shouted even louder. “Come on man, you can do it!”
There appeared to be silence, but something was happening on the rooftop, something that had drawn the giant’s attention. All the class could see was how Tiffany fidgeted on the spot, pulling on her grey blazer and tugging on her navy blue skirt as though they no longer fit so neatly. She then started fiddling with her luscious blonde locks, twirling a strand of golden hair in one finger and then letting it uncoil. Her noble features kept delving into deeper shades of red as if her cheeks were becoming sunburnt with each passing moment. Tiffany giggled to herself. She lent over the block, her slender body pressing into the concrete and against the glass panes. Though sturdy, a giant pushing into it tested the rigidity. The reinforced windows started to shatter, and parts of the building began to crack. For all the strength of its foundations and meticulous engineering, it still wasn’t enough to withstand the power a giant could bring to bear.
One of the class let out a long whistle. “I hope whoever's on the fourth floor is getting pictures.” He pointed at her chest and hollered. The lads around him laughed. A girl beside him rolled her eyes in indignation.
Just when it looked as though nothing was happening, a sudden outburst of joyish excitement erupted. “Y-Yes!” Tiffany boomed.
She then picked up a student from the rooftop as though she had plucked a miniature doll. Tiffany fawned over him in her hand and then perched him onto her shoulder. A teacher came out from the doors of Block C, trying in vain to have Tiffany unhand him so he could get back to class. Either ignoring him or deaf to the squeaking on the ground, she carried the student away as she walked towards the open field beyond the courtyard. Bits of flattened metal fell from her shoe, showing the path between Block B and C with small bits of debris. Where Tiffany has once been standing was an indent in the courtyard. The heel of her loafer bored into the tarmac. Pressed into that indent, however, was a plethora of crushed bikes that had almost been melded together, as if they had all gone through a compressor. The teacher who had tried to talk to Tiffany turned pale as he surveyed the remains left behind. Nearly all of the rack had been crushed without the giant schoolgirl even deigning to notice.
With the commotion dying down, Mr. Henniker finally spoke up. “Alright everyone, funs over. Get back to your desks.”
The crowd of students dispersed back to their seats, yet all of them were laughing or joking about what they had just seen, rather than bothering to give Mr. Henniker their time or focus. A choir of voices stirred the gossip, each student generating some wondrous insight and answer as though they had some form of intimate knowledge about what has just occurred.
A gaggle of girls in the right-hand corner spat out their venomous remarks. “Oh come on, the only reason someone asked her out is because of her boobs. If the boys could look any higher than her chest, they clearly wouldn’t want to be with that slut.”
Those who had their desks by the windows kept on looking out as teachers patrolled around Tiffany’s heel mark, pointing at them and the crater. “Wait until it rains and the school’s got a new swimming pool!”
A group of guys in the middle were having a stimulating debate with one another, “Nah mate! She’s going to take him out to the field and stick that guy into her bra! Tiffany is a god damn perv!”
One of the members waved away the notion. He scoffed at the very thought. “Everyone knows Tiffiany is a bitch. I bet you she's taking him out to step on him, or he’s gonna end up as some snack.”
Amongst all the inane chatter, Joey leaned back on his chair, reading his phone and glanced over at the crater left by Tiffany’s shoe. “Huh… wasn’t there a bike rack outside Block C?”
In front of him was a despondent classmate, slumped over on his desk and not partaking in any of the conversations around him. “Hey Tom,” he asked “You alright?”
A thin black-haired teenager stirred from his stupor. His uniform was a size too big, making his blazer, shirt and trousers drape on him. With a great huff, he deflated like a balloon as he spoke. “My bike was there man...”
“Oh shit. Did it cost a lot?” Joey slipped his phone into his pocket and sat up straight. He gave Tom his full attention.
“Yeah…” Tom’s voice trembled. He held back his tears as best he could, lest he be mocked for a show of weakness. “I worked my ass off for it.”
“Fuck man.” Joey rubbed the back of his head. He did not know how to handle Tom who looked as though he was able to break down crying. “Maybe you can ask teach if you can go down and check. You know, just to make sure?”
Tom nodded. That glimmer of hope, no matter how small the possibility, was what he really needed. He thanked Joey for the idea, picked himself up from the chair and went to the front desk where Mr Hennkier was calming himself down. A thick vein throbbed on the teacher’s head as he rubbed his temples to soothe the tension.
“Hey, Mr. Henniker.” Tom rubbed his arm and looked at the floor rather than directly into Mr. Henniker’s thoroughly bloodshot eyes. “Can I leave the class? I think the giant stepped on my bike.”
“No.” He stated bluntly. His hand tightened into a fist and then loosened. With a heavy sigh, Henniker focused his weary gaze on him, analysing Tom from top to bottom. “Please go back to you-”
Unbeknownst to the teacher, the girl's debate had escalated into a full-blown argument. Insults were hurled at one another. Then, Kelly jumped out of the chair and slapped Charlotte across her cheek. After a moment of shock, both now were screaming at top of their lungs at each other as Charlotte lunged for Kelly, throwing weak punches and pulling on her hair. Classmates pounced on the new opportunity, forming a semi-circle around them to watch a fight unfold between the two. Hooting and hollering abounded again as the two girls fought. They thrashed against their desks as the student's circle morphed to allow their brawl to continue unimpeded. Mr Henniker pulled out a hall pass from a drawer on his desk in an instant and then turned to Tom to address him.
“No more than ten minutes understand?”
Tom nodded, swiped the pass and left the class. Mr Henniker, meanwhile, sprung into action by parting through the wall of students and ripping Charlotte and Kelly from one another through brute strength. The dirge of jeers and echoing laughter of all his classmates died down as he went through the hall, down a flight of stairs and out of the Block C into the expanse of the courtyard. The summer breeze picked up around him as the sun shone to give the dull industrial grey tarmac a sheen that almost gave it a hint of vibrancy. He could hear all the students in the other classes going through the same motions, with teachers desperately forcing them back to whatever lesson they were going through. There were faculty members still gathered around where the bike shed had once been. They all looked equally confused. Exchanges of snide bickering came across, how they shouldn't have to deal with these sorts of issues. In front was the administrative hub, more akin to a brown-bricked rectangular block than an actual building with any notion of architectural coherency. To his left was Block A, a five-storey high building and the largest of the school’s buildings for the tiny students. However, behind that were three monolithic complexes whose shadow drowned out the surrounding landscape, for they were designed specifically for the giants. Such monolithic structures rose higher than anything could hope to construct. For their part of the school, each storey was the equivalent to an entire Block A. They had been named Blocks D, E and F to relate them to their more minute counterparts. Such naming conventions, however, only served to make the buildings seem smaller. Tom approached where the bike shed had once been. A pang as fierce and violent as a punch to the gut struck him.
A teacher broke from conversing with his peer and walked up to Tom. “What are you doing outside of your class?”
Though he spoke to Tom, he appeared to be deaf as his face became void of colour, turning a sickly pale shade as he inspected the crater, meeking out “M-My bike.”
Tom pointed to a crushed grey frame, a husk of what had been a bike now firmly pressed into the tarmac. The teacher looked over his shoulder and responded in a firm voice, “I’m sorry about that, but you need to go back to your class.”
“It was brand new…” Tom whimpered. “How am I going to get home now?”
The teacher looked to his partner for support. Both did not know what to say that could comfort Tom, but they knew they had to be a voice of authority. He exhaled. “I can’t do anything about it. If it meant that much to you, get your parents to talk with the headmaster, but you need to head back to your class for your last lesson.”
As Tom tried to speak, the ground beneath shifted and shook to a rhythmic pulse. When he turned around, three giants who all eclipsed the blocks in height were making headway towards them. One of the teachers put his hand on Tom’s shoulder as if he were steading him. The trio’s quaking footfalls unsettled the earth, as though their tread would crack the tarmac on the courtyard. One giant alone was enough to create havoc for the classes. The combined power of three walking together was more liable to tear the blocks down. Soon enough, the teachers and Tom found themselves beneath the shadow of the giants. The girl's bus-sized black loafers stood only a few paces away from them. Their shoes formed a dark wall in front of them, punctuated then by white socks that rose like pure ivory towers before them. All those below were forced to crane their neck backwards to glimpse who dwarfed them. Tom gulped as he caught sight of who was leading the group.
A colossus, a fair-skinned giant even amongst her own kind, had a lurid half-grin plastered on her face. Whilst her schoolmates who flanked her side wore their uniforms in the neat and correct fashion, their leader had instead tied her burgundy blazer around her waist, pulled her skirt high up around her slender stomach, rolled up her sleeves and unbuttoned the top of her snow-white shirt, proudly display her well-endowed chest for all to see. She flicked her exuberant mane of flowing golden hair, brushing it out with a flick of her hand as if to announce her arrival in a more spectacular and melodramatic way. Her soft elegant features contorted into a sneering smile as her cool purple eyes, coloured like lilacs in bloom, gazed over Tom and the teachers crowding around him. Of all the giants to be met with, it had to be Sophie.
“Aw… what's all the fuss about?” Her voice reeked of contempt and mockery. The two giants beside her started tittering.
“It's none of your concern.” The teacher’s words did well to hide his stammer and reveal his subtle fear. Though in essence, he held authority over the giants, that meant little when the being you wished to command stood before you and dominated you through sheer height. His peep was akin to mewling to the trio and the teacher recognised he was more beholden to the whims of the giants than they were to him.
“Oh? Is that right?” Sophie rose her foot, her black loafer hung above the teachers as if threatening to stamp them. Then, she moved over to the remnants of the bike racks.
“Wait! What the hell do you think you are doing!” The teacher barked out.
Other faculty members went to raise their voices to stop Sophie. Fear, however, inclined them to keep their mouths shut. Dread overcame them, worrying instead that she would tread onto them. An improbability for most giant students. Teasing was a usual affair. Sophie, however, was one to push boundaries. Each had heard of the incidents involving her. None of them could prove it, however. But like any rumour, there is always a hint of truth buried within, and they weren’t willing to see what was fact or fiction about her. They decided to flee instead, much to the enjoyment of all students now watching the events unfold. Sophie in particular was enjoying the sight. How these high and mighty teachers scampered away before her shoe. Yet, they were not her target nor the object of her focus. All the trembling tinies around her were a pleasant sideshow to the main event. Sophie then began to press onto the bike rack, slowly letting her shoe grind down the metal more and more. Her pink glossy lips etched into a cruel, vindictive grin.
“What the matter teach? I thought it wasn’t any concern?” Each word oozed enjoyment at how powerless all the teachers were to stop her, how all they could do was stand around as her shoe effortlessly crushed the remaining bikes.
With a dull thud, Sophie’s shoe pressed into the tarmac of the courtyard, snuffing out the structure and adding her own crater to the one beside Tiffany’s. The girls around her let out a booming laugh, revelling at how distraught all the teachers were. Sophie placed her hands on her hips in triumph, sneering at the teacher who had dared talk down to her. She felt a sense of pride for in one fell swoop, she had humbled the teachers and left her own mark for the tiny students. Even now when she looked at the Blocks. Sophie could see the minute specks within their quaint little classrooms, all the ruckus and mayhem being caused because of what she was doing. Seeing all those reactions fed into that sense of superiority. Those at her feet were teachers, but they held no sway nor control over her, and all the students they meant to control loved her for humiliating them so. Sophie's ego welled from all the attention, spilling over like a flood as she embraced being the focus of everyone around her. It was then she noticed a small student who had backed away from her, grinning in delight as having found her next target.
“Aww, what's the matter?” Sophie went to unleash a barrage of scathing insults, but something arose within her.
It was subtle at first. Too subtle in fact. It was like a single drop falling into an ocean. The pathetic ripple it caused should have died out immediately but it built, growing in strength as though it had birthed a violent storm within her. A wave of emotion overcame her as she looked at Tom, this tall scruffy-looking tiny. Before focusing on him, he had looked like any other tiny. Small, weak, worthy only of her contempt, yet Sophie started to see him as something more. She attempted to dispel the thought, but anytime she did, it came back a thousand times stronger until it became the only thing in her mind. This tiny student looked beyond dashing, surmounting anything she had witnessed before. Beforehand he had seemed benign, bearing only plain features on his thin pointed face, but to her now it was as though he had surpassed the fantasies of her wildest dreams. This tiny had transformed in an instant into a handsome figure, this beauty that made the rest of the tinies around him look all the more hideous and disgusting by comparison. Sophie began to blush, her cheeks turning blood red. She had to take his eyes off him. Everyone was watching her, focusing on her. They most certainly could not, would not be allowed to see her in this state.
Yet Tom remained silent. Though Sophie’s words roared out like a crack of thunder, his focus remained on the scattered parts of his bike. Fury arose within the giant attempting to ridicule him. The insults lodged in her throat. She wanted to toy him, poke fun at his pathetic lamentations. Her efforts to goad him into a response became entangled with the sorrow she started to feel welling up. Whatever this tiny felt infected her as well. Sophie could not fathom it. Her emotions felt like they were caught like a ship within a storm, swaying to-and-fro, thrust from one extreme to the next. Rage to remorse, powerful to pitying. This tiny had to be toying with her. Such a thought was infuriating to even entertain. How could someone so small be toying with her? He had to be doing something to make her thoughts swing as violently they did. The teacher then stepped in between them and again desperately asserted himself to regain control, but it gave Sophie a target to focus on. She had to look away from Tom, or she thought she would be caught forever in this terrifying spiral of emotion.
“T-The headmaster will get you expelled for this!” He yelled, balling his hand into a fist to control his rising anger. The giant grinned. A sense of strength and control returned to settle her. This was the natural order of things. A return to normality.
“Pff, see if I care.” Sophie scoffed. She waved her hand like swatting away the threat as though it was as inane as a puff of smoke. Seeing as the teacher was more than happy to engage with her, she wanted to elicit more from him, to drive home that indignation of being so utterly useless against her.
Grabbing ahold of the Block B building, her hand cracking part of the concrete, Sophie balanced herself as she scrapped the few recognisable bits of the bike rack off her shoe. Hunks of metal crashed into the ground several paces away from the teachers. “Is that really the best you tinies can build? It’s soooo flimsy!” Sophie joked, flicking off bits from her sole.
The giant to her right, who had since grown bored of Sophie’s antics, let out a long exaggerated yawn and rolled her eyes. “Are you done yet? Let’s go find Tiffany.”
Sophie sighed. “Oh fine.” She lowered her foot, deliberately placing it right before the tiny teachers in one last show of dominance, slamming it down to throw them to the ground.
She examined the trail of footsteps, following the tread left like the tracks of some great lumbering beast. “Looks like she went to the field.”
As the trio left for the field, Sophie heard the classrooms of the tiny students going wild. Her smug grin widened and she flicked her golden mane behind as if she were brushing away the events as though nothing had happened. Yet she slowed her walk and threw a look behind. Her soft eyes fell onto Tom, still despondent and unmoving despite all the chaos she caused. At first, she scowled at him for daring to ignore her, but as the teachers hurried him back into the Block, fearful that the giants may decide to turn back around, a pang rose in Sophie. She poured over every detail of him, minute as he was, yet soaking in every part of him made her heart pound. It had already been racing thanks to the intoxicating sensation of being the centre of attention. Having so much fun at the expense of the tinies made her giddy, lapping up the cheers of the small students.
However, seeing Tom made it feel as though her heart was about to burst through her chest, its beating becoming stronger until it seemed it was the only thing that she could hear. She gave him one last look over, just to confirm to herself he was as mewling as the rest of the tinies. Her breath was stolen away, and she became light-headed, unable to peel her focus away from him. Butterflies abounded in her stomach and her thoughts became scattered, forgetting she was meant to find Tiffany. She tore herself away. Yet, her mind instead flashed images of Tom, bringing them to the forefront of her thought instead. This unknowable tide of emotion had rolled back in and it had overwhelmed her. She must have seen him beforehand, one of many insignificant tiny students over the years at this school. Sophie questioned why this sensation was beginning now. What had changed to make tiny such a focal point for her attention?