The young Rachel Rutschmann would be finishing up her own endeavor as she came out from the back room of Aztek Parts and More, the surprisingly successful computer repair store that had opened up in Minitropolis right across from the Crazy Jester card shop. It was surprising because nobody had even heard of the head mechanic, Trevor Hilfmann, who seemed to fund the entire operation which opened rather quickly, but speaking of speed, their fast turnaround times and all around great customer service was likely responsible for such early success.
To that end, Rachel would meet her new customer with a smile at the counter, tilting her head a bit as this was a customer she knew.
"Gloria?" Rachel asked, referring to the tall, dark haired girl across from her who stood at 5'11. She was familiar with her from the somewhat brief time they spent together on cheer team. Gloria had been the former co-captain before an incident with Chrissy and some uh ... misplaced marijuana got her kicked off the team. Since then, she had been relatively quiet on campus, "You still up ... here at Mini U?"
"Yeah, just been working on some projects" Gloria answered, seeming fairly cold as she set her laptop down on the counter to be looked at, but it was more than most had heard her speak in weeks, "How fast can you have this fixed, and also ... nobody's going to look at the hard drive, right?"
That was an odd question, Rachel thought to herself but she proceeded to make note of Aztek's privacy policy which clearly stated ...
"...Aztek respects the privacy of all clients and will never search personal or other such files in the case of any repair that is needed relating to the hard drive without express written consent of said client and ..."
"Okay" Gloria sighed, not needing the whole brochure read to her, "...sorry. Just been a lousy couple months, I guess"
Rachel frowned
"S-Sorry to hear that ... y'know, I'm seeing Chrissy later ... if you wanted to maybe join us? Or? Maybe not?" Rachel winced, remembering that may have not been such a good idea
"Chrissy... uh ... no thanks" Gloria groaned, "She still hanging out with that freak Alexis?"
"Lexi?" Rachel frowned more, her nerves beginning to shoot up quite a bit, "...um... yeah... I uh ... never got why you hated her so much"
"Girl is a freak" Gloria repeated, this time seeming a bit more aggressive as she leaned on the counter a tad. Upon noticing a raised eyebrow from the older man in the back, she backed off, not wanting to arouse any more suspicion. "Just ... please take a look at the computer for me. The sooner the better ..."
Gloria would then walk away, not making much more small talk or conversation.
Truth was, Rachel was seeing both Chrissy and Lexi, as Chrissy mentioned last minute that Lexi would be joining them. She had only seen Lexi in passing but had heard quite a bit about her from Chrissy who seemed totally enamored with her. She could remember how Chrissy practically begged the rest of the team to let her on the squad during the beginning of the Fall Semester, only for Lexi to mysteriously go missing. Then again, she could understand Chrissy's fondness for the girl after she exposed Gloria's plan to plant a blunt on her clothes to frame her.
"Sometimes I wish I could just ... not pick sides..." Rachel would think to herself before being interuppted by her boss, Trevor Hilfmann.
"What's that? A new client? Did you get their name?" Trevor asked
"Oh. Oh ... well ... no, not officially but I know her from school ... it's Gloria Graff" Rachel stammered
"I ... see..." Trevor replied, a hesitance in his voice as he sighed,
"Is there a problem, sir?" Rachel asked, seeming a bit nervous herself now, she could tell something was wrong
"Well, you didn't have her fill out the paperwork for the laptop intake... you kind of just let her ... walk away without getting information about the problem or charging the diagnostic..." Trevor sighed,
"Oh" Rachel sighed, seeming a bit out of it. She had been in a bit of a funk lately and was usually much more attentive to such details but Gloria's presence was a bit surprising and, as usual, intimidating.
Seeing the tenativeness in his employee's voice and body language Trevor would relent, also knowing that he had an incoming call.
"Just ... please be more aware of that kind of thing ... you're a real smart person and I know you didn't mean it ..." Trevor sighed, going into his pocket to fish out his phone. "I apologize but I do need to take this"
Rachel nodded, returning to the counter and slumping a bit. What was wrong with her? She had felt so anxious lately. Between her grades at school being on the decline, not much of a social life outside of Chrissy and the pressure of trying to carry a couple different jobs, all the while feeling like her mom was abandoned her to keep her cookie empire at large yet simultaneously checking in super often to prod her "prodigal daughter" into any and everything. It was just super overwhelming. Perhaps she could use some of that optimism she always heard about from ...
"Lexi..." Trevor Hilfmann muttered, while pacing around in the back room of the surprisingly high tech small time computer repair shop, "is everything okay? this is the fourth call this week"
Lexi was in her room at the moment, hunched down on one knee and shaking her head as she forced out the words, "I ... I think I need to see you again ... I need more of ... wh-whatever it was that you gave me last time... I don't think the last dose took or maybe it took too well, I don't know?"
"Lexi, this is very concerning..." Trevor sighed "I didn't wanna spook you before but the last tests we ran..."
"I kinda figured they weren't good..." Lexi chuckled a bit, not meaning to make light of the situation but it's how she coped, "...when you were hesitant to say anything afterwards ... look whatever this is..."
"Whatever it is ..." Trevor cautioned, "is unprecedented for anyone in the science field and we can't exactly just bring you to the ear, nose and throat doctor to have you examined..."
"W-Well you're a Doctor, right Dr. Hoffnung?" Lexi asked, a bit concerned now
"Hilfmann... please" Trevor sighed, "but yes, technically ... although I don't think I can do much more for you than..."
"Please." Lexi said again, a pause in her voice while her cat Tiny made himself at home down by her feet, curling up and letting out a low purr. Lexi's face would return to a smile in response. "Just one more dose and we'll go from there, okay? Also I'm curious since last time when you said you had some new gadgets you wanted to show me"
"Y-Yeah..." Trevor answered hesitantly, his eyes darting between the office and the store where it seemed things were picking up, "We can ... we can still do that demonstration... I just ... I worry..."
"I know ... and I'd be lying if I said I didn't as well" Lexi sighed, bending down to pet Tiny and rub her face briefly with his, causing her to jostle the phone. The befuddled doctor on the other end would hear some ruffling noises as the phone gently thunked against the feline's head.
"You ... you still there?" Trevor asked, confused before being interuppted by Rachel who called to him from the desk.
"Umm... Mr. Hilfmann, sir? Could we see you out here for a moment, please?" she asked on behalf of an angry customer
"I gotta go..." Trevor murmured, tucking the flip phone back in his pocket to end the call before going back to work. Lexi let out a sigh.
Shortly after her call with Trevor she'd slump onto her bed again, feeling another jolt of what felt like electricity despite not being anywhere near it. The last month or two she'd have intermittent spells of the electrical instability, which would sometimes be as mild as a static shock to her losing feeling in her fingers but other times she would inadvertedly alter her size. Luckily that didn't happen too often but it was enough to be very concerning.
Since confessing this to Dr. Hoffnung ... er.. Hilfmann, she had attained some relief in the form of these new experimental nanites he had been working on from his time with Enormo. Had Operation Delta been more tested (or let's face it, morally ethical, legal or anything of the sort) they were a sort of medicinal treatment that could perhaps slow the experiments adverse effects on the human body and help the host better control its benefits. They worked for a month or two but now Lexi was feeling the electrical discharges again.
As she was about to seek refuge on her bed again, she'd refuse another message, letting her know that she'd be hanging out with Rachel later that evening if she were interested in joining. Lexi smiled and nodded, thinking this was just the distraction she just may need.
"Sounds great, will see you tonight" Lexi texted back.
-------------
"So these are ALL real?" Leah asked, leaning over and reading Josh's list of ShrinkGirl messages the website had received since being open, scrolling through them with curiosity as an intrigued Josh watched in his own amazement at some of the requests. "Barbie doll got flushed down the toilet? Ouch"
"Oh, Oh I like this one ..." Josh would exclaim, trying to hold back his laughter, "Coins fell between the seats in my Chevy ... you know how hard it is to get in that little space?"
Leah would shake her head in wonderment, "Y'know when you made this website, I'm not going to lie, I thought it was kind of a silly idea"
"Really? I'm pretty sure you DIDN'T lie ..." Josh replied, "you were very upfront about silly you all thought it was"
"Well ... I still am not sure I've changed my mind but if nothing else, it's good for a laugh" Leah noted, bending down to finish packing her backpack with the necessary items for her next few classes, "oh and seriously, thank you for the extra help with that science homework the other night"
"No prob" Josh replied cheerfully, "you think you're ready to ace that biology test?"
"Ace? Eh ... but a solid C? I can feel it in my bones" Leah would confidently joke
"And home ec?" Josh asked
"I actually feel pretty good about that" Leah replied, "I make a mean cupcake, lemme tell you... and you can be my test subject when finals roll around"
"Heh, pull my arm" Josh smirked, as he'd start getting his own things ready for class before pausing, "...what about Lexi?"
"What about her?" Leah asked
"Well it's just ... she doesn't talk about class much ... I don't have any classes with her so ... I can't say but I just worry I guess" Josh said
"Yeah ... I'm a little worried too, to be honest ... with everything going on, I'm sure she's gotta be feeling burnt out ... she'd never be the type to tell you either, which can be doubly dangerous... I know she barely made it through our chem class together last semester so she opted to take Philosophy along with her art classes... which she SEEMS to be doing okay in" Leah explained before pausing, deciding to take the discussion into a more positive direction though as she remembered all the wonderful qualities about her best friend, of which there were many. "But hey don't worry about Lex, yknow? She's a tough cookie for sure"
---------
Speaking of cookies, the exhausted Rachel Rutschmann would return home to the lavish white house with gold trim, that is after clearing the extravagant gates with the "CR" initials embroidered upon them. She may have wanted to keep her affiliation with Rutschmann Cookies on the downlow but her mom was all too happy to make it public knowledge with a gaudy mansion in the middle of an otherwise average suburban neighborhood.
The introverted blonde would hope to just make a beeline for her room but her hopes would soon be dashed as she heard her anxious mother on the phone and raising her voice just as Rachel drew closer to the door.
"Yeah well my daughter may be able to help since you can't ... hold on one second" Cindy Rutschmann said, addressing her latest phone victim before turning her ire towards her fatigued young daughter, "Rachel hon, could you come here for a moment, please?"
It was there Rachel would soon find herself in the relatively dark room, surrounded by a lot of ethernet cables, wiring and flickering lighting, all the while watching her mom, bushy auburn hair, green eyes and chapped lips, in her usual puffy white suit jacket and matching pants pacing around, a hand on her hip in impatience as she continued lecturing the person on the phone.
"What now...?" is all Rachel could think, trying to hide her angst as her mom would look at her with a smile but it didn't feel like a warm loving smile. It felt more like the smile one gets from somebody who needs something just before they deliver their calculated request.
"Rachel, you work in IT ... " Cindy said, "why don't you tell this man we don't need his help anymore?"
"I'm ... sorry?" Rachel stammered, not completely understanding the situation, as the pair stood in one of the houses many "server" rooms which oversaw security for the whole house.
"Ugh, never mind" Cindy said dismissively, and Rachel herself was perplexed as to whether the dismissive response was intended for her or the IT person on the phone but either way she was immediately put off and even tempted to walk out of the room altoegther before her mother stopped her. "Hold on honey"
Rachel would stop dead in her tracks ... for now.
Cindy would rudely and abruptly hang up the phone.
"Sorry about that dear, just some of these security IT people are just ... ugh..." Cindy scoffed, not finishing her sentence completely, a chronic habit of someone who often seemed to be going a million miles a minute, "so how was your day?"
"Honestly, a bit tiring... I have to get some homework done real quick before meeting Chrissy and ..."
"Oh the blonde cheerleader" Cindy said, leaping right back into the one sided conversation, "I swear, I don't know why you still associate with her ... nice girl for sure but she's not really helping you get anywhere, yknow? She's a cheerleader, she's nice but ... I mean, does she have any references? Is she going to ..."
"Mom... I just want to have a social life...yknow?" Rachel stammered, feeling once again steamrolled by her mother's overbearing approach to pretty much everything, "Not everything is about advancing"
"I remember when I was young..." Cindy stated, nodding her head as if she somehow pitied her daughter, or youth in general, "But anyways ... I could really use your help ... see... there's something wrong with the security codes here... the safes are only locking some of the time when detecting a potential intruder ... I had the butler test it earlier and after only getting tazed once...."
"You had our butler tazed?" Rachel asked
"I didn't ... the security system did ... well, when it worked" Cindy sighed, not seeming very concerned with much else other than her own projects, "But the point is, something is wrong ... the security codes that govern this system are very important ... now I thought since you work in IT..."
"Mom, I work at a computer shop ... I know a LITTLE bit about rewiring hard drives because I've been learning from Mr. Hilfmann but ..."
"Ah ... see now THAT'S somebody who can help you out ... your boss at work is very good with computers, maybe HE'D know how to rewire the security alarms... the codes, you see ... don't seem to be working" Cindy repeated
"Mom, that's not really what we do at Aztek parts" Rachel muttered, seeming frustrated by this conversation. Once again her mom wanted her to provide a magic solution for a problem that wasn't even a problem in her own opinion, not that her opinion ever seemed to matter in most cases.
"Ugh, fine..." Cindy sighed, waving her daughter off, "it's fine... I just thought ..."
Before the controlling helicopter mom could finish her sentence, she received another call, "...ugh hold on..." she'd take the cell phone call and almost immediately jump into her angry mode, "what? no ... no no no no no... those orders need to be delivered before the 24th ... well, I don't care how much the shipping is, just get it done"
Rachel would take this time to dismiss herself, feeling more disgruntled than ever, her backpack slung over her shoulder while she headed upstairs to change.
"What's the difference anyway?" she thought to herself, pertaining to the stupid security codes, "only thing in that safe is the cookie recipe... who's going to bother stealing a cookie recipe?"
Giantess World
