Monday morning came, and it was time to head back to school. It was a regular day for any other student, but for me school was going to be different from now on. Very different.

Before school even started, my mom had to rescue me from beneath my dog’s butt, since she decided to jump on my bed and sit on me and whip me up with her wagging tail. Mom also had to make me up a bath in a little plastic tub. Then it was my new breakfast routine. I couldn’t get my own breakfast now, I had to sit on the kitchen table and my mom served me something like what I used to have, except tenfold smaller. I drank out of a plastic egg holder, and even that was still too big. Mom had bought me small utensils, but they were literally doll toys, and I was still too embarrassed to use them. So egg holder cup it was today.

After breakfast I watched some TV, while my dog tried to again figure out how to climb onto my lap without squashing me again. She was starting to learn to sit next to me instead, but if I petted her or gave her the slightest encouragement, she would eagerly scoot closer and plonk her big furry butt on my legs, and while keeping me pinned, try to lick my face half off. She’d also started trying to grab my sweater in her mouth and drag me around the house like a toy, until Mom had once again rescued me.

The doorbell rang. My dog perked up and dashed down the hallway to see who it was. A second later, my mom went over to the lobby and got the door. I went over to see.

Alex was waiting there, with her school backpack on. I wandered up and stood by my mom’s tall legs, which were now like tree trunks, and my dog stood protectively beside me.

Alex looked down at me and my dog and giggled like she’d forgotten how small I was. . She put her hand to her mouth to try and stifle it. I looked like a little rider next to his horse, beside my mom who utterly dwarfed me, and made me look much smaller by comparison.

Alex looked like she wanted to say something – probably a jab at my size – but quickly composed herself and got serious.

“Hi, Tad,” she said, maybe realizing that laughing at me in front of my mom was not a good idea. Without thinking, my mom bent and scooped me up under my armpits.

“Mom!” I groaned, flaming red with embarrassment as I was cradled affectionately against my mom’s ample chest.

“Hi, Alexandra,” mom said, while stroking my hair and ears.

“I just hoped you’re doing okay, Mrs Flynn,” Alex said with a bright smile, “And I hoped Tadley is too. And I just was wondering if he can come to school with me today. My dad said it’d be good for me to help you rehab him so he’s doing normal stuff like the big kids.”

She scuffed her battered looking hi-top lace-ups, looking angelic.

My mom considered this and said:

“Yes, I remember we had that discussion with Tobias. That’s very kind of you to offer to look after Tad,” my mom was surprised. Alex came across as disarmingly confident and mature given everything. It was probably reassuring, plus a counterpoint to the reckless side of Alex who put me in the re-fab in the first place.

“We should talk about the specifics another time; you probably need to be going very soon,” mom said, “otherwise you might miss the bus.”

Alex pulled her backpack off and opened it up, and before I could say or do anything, my mom slipped me into the bag opening, where I dropped down out of sight, and landed softly at the bottom of the bag. To my surprise, Alex had cushioned it with a blanket, and her Nintendo Switch, even though it would get confiscated if the teacher found it. The tiny controls of the switch were playable for me despite my size.

The bag smelled like a combination of books and Alex’s personal brand of bubble gum. There were even some wads of chewed gum at the bottom of the bag, but luckily they were all scrunched up in used gum paper so it couldn’t get on me. I got comfy on the blanket and leaned against her books.

“I think I can trust him with you, Alexandra,” my mom’s voice came from outside the bag. She seemed emboldened by Alex’s dazzling confidence.

“Don’t worry, Mrs Flynn,” Alex said brightly, “he’s not going anywhere while I’m around.” She made a show of saying:

“Do you like it in my bag, l’il Tadster?”

“It’s okay,” I said bashfully. It was dim lit in the bag, and I didn’t even know what I was touching. My foot came down on something squishy, like a raisin. I hoped it wasn’t gum.

“’Okay’..?” Alex challenged me. “It’s way better than ‘okay’!”

Apparently this also did not satisfy my mom.

“If you want, Tadley,” she said, “we can get you a special little harness that Alex can wear, so you can be attached to her for most of the schoolday.”

“Mom, no!” I groaned. “I love it in Alex’s bag! It’s really great!.”

Alex chuckled.

“I’ll look after him, Mrs Flynn,” she testified solemnly. “I promise.”

After saying bye to my mom, Alex headed back down my front path and went on down the block, toward the bus stop. The bag lifted and dropped gently around me with her steps, it felt a little like being inside a moving elevator. I couldn’t see anything except the sky straight above, through the half unzipped bag opening. Cars droned past, and Alex hummed to herself.

Finally she meditated out loud:

“I feel like your mom doesn’t think you can do a single thing on your own. Like, what is the harness for …does she think I’ll lose you or something?”

“I don’t know, she’s my mom. That’s what moms are like.”

“Poor l’il Tad. I got worse though.”

“How?”

“I can’t go out on weekends. And I got to look after you now, weeny butt.”

She stopped moving; we must have reached the bus stop. Some other kids were chatting nearby; I couldn’t see them and I was too embarrassed to let them see me. One of them was a guy I used to ride the bus with, his name was Cody, we talked sometimes and sat together. Suddenly, he said:

“Hey Alex, where’s Tadley?”

Many of the kids had been told what happened to me by now, but it sounded like Cody had accidentally not been told.

“Well ,” Alex began all self-importantly, stringing him along, “maybe he’s right here with—”

Alex’s hand swept in and went to wrap around my middle. She wanted to take me out and show me off to the kids and they’d say ‘wow!’ and step in for a closer look. I desperately pushed and kicked on Alex’s intruding hand until she got the message and some decency, and retracted it again.

“—Actually,” she said smoothly, “I just remembered; I don’t know where he is. Probably sick.”

Pretty soon there was the squeak of bus brakes. Alex got on the bus and took a seat, and placed the bag on the seat next to her, on the window side.

A guy from my class passed our seats on his way down the aisle. He must have heard from someone what happened to me and that I was with Alex, and he leaned in:

“Hey Tad…How you like being Alex’s G.I Joe? Are her Barbies your girlfriends now?” he said.

There were stifled chuckles as if he was dared to say it, and just fulfilled his dare.

Alex twisted around in her seat, pulling her bag closer.

“Least he has way more girlfriends than you so shut up!”

The other kids thought Alex’s dad was a mad genius and ribbed her for it. She was used to it and quick to bite back. But it seemed like when they went after me, it hit a nerve with her. I wasn’t used to this kind of attention.

“Sorry,” she said, glancing at me.

I didn’t know if she was sorry for the outburst, sorry for what the guy said, sorry for shrinking me, or sorry for all three.

“It’s okay,” I shrugged.

She tried to relax, patted me on the head, and then gently pushed me back inside her bag. Whenever she reached in her bag for something she gently knuckled my head to annoy me. The third time I decided to annoy her back by trying to karate kick her fist. She got wiser and stuffed her hand right inside the depths of in her back and started trying to hold me down on the bag floor and tickle me. I couldn’t laugh because if the kids heard it would have been the most embarrassing thing ever. I fought to tolerate it in silence. After persisting for a few minutes, Alex finally gave up and I won some peace and a break for the rest of the bus ride. I played her Switch while she texted on her phone – which also would be confiscated if found, but she only took it out for recess.

My school was told what happened to me but no one was prepared for my new size. Kids stared at me like I was the flavor of the week.

Alex dropped me off at my homeroom before quickly heading off to her own before class. My homeroom teacher got an aide – an older student – to pick me up and carry me to my first class, which was math.

Mr Carlson, my math teacher, was fascinated by what happened to me, and even used my shrinking as an example to demonstrate some of the calculus we were learning. Which was kind of embarrassing, although it made the lesson really clear for me to understand.

After math class, I had English, and my aide returned as the kids got up and shuffled out. Although I wanted to try walking to class, by the time I got there I would be late. My aide picked me up and carried me anyway. It made my size more public. Kids noticed me and some who never spoke to me before said: ‘Hi Tadley.’ Most guys were okay, although I felt like some kids were trying to be nicer to me which was annoying. When I dropped a pencil off my desk, someone quickly picked it up for me, even though I could technically get it myself. Some girls smiled at me and giggled or said ‘Awwww!’ which was even more annoying. I hoped Alex didn’t see that. I hated to think kids were coming aside and asking her weird or funny questions about me in class.

The aide took me into my next class, English, and I was put on top of my desk because I was too small to sit in the chair. I had a miniature notepad to write my work in and miniature pens and pencils. One girl who sat next to me let me borrow her Harry Potter keyring, which was a working quill that was ridiculously tiny size, 20% pen and 80% feather. I didn’t need to, but she leaned over and pushed it into my hands anyway, because she thought it would be really cute if I used a pen with a giant feather, like some tiny wizened scholar, or fairy or something. Within a minute I realized she just wanted an excuse to talk to me.

I saw her in class before but she never talked to me. Now she was staring at me like I was a new student, an exchange student from a foreign land.

“You have really cute shoes,” she said, reaching down and squeezing one of my feet. I was just wearing a pair of sneakers and hated to admit they were actually doll shoes.

She corrected herself with a small smile:

“You have a really cute everything.”

“Um…thanks,” I replied, looking at my shoes, and not at her. Girls didn’t talk like this to guys in class. I felt weird.

These were my classmates; the same people I’d sat next to on a regular day. Now they saw me as a toy person. It was right out there. Just another thing to get used to, I guess. Kids love oddity and my size drew kids in like moths to a light, inviting them to poke around in and interrogate my miniature existence like it was a self-guided tour. They couldn’t imagine what it was like and needed me to fill in all the spaces for their imaginations. Some kids just wanted to check I was real, the same person. I was, but they needed convincing.

When the bell rang for recess, the kids began filing out of the classroom in haste. I sat on the desk while the teacher came by to see if I needed to call for another teacher’s aide to take me outside. This was my chance to walk outside on my own if I wanted. I wouldn’t be ‘late’ for class. I mulled over saying ‘No’, even as the thoroughfare of foot traffic surging along outside the classroom door made me hesitate.

Then there was a knock at classroom doorway, a special coded knock that I immediately recognized.

“It’s okay, Mrs Landry, I’m taking Tad out to recess today.”

Alex had stopped by the classroom. She was assigned to be my school ‘buddy’ for outside breaks. Or had assigned herself.

Satisfied, the teacher went to get her things and head out to the break room.

Alex sidled up to my desk, tossing me a laidback smile.

“Hey, ya weeny,” she said, “you wanna hang out with the cool kids today?”

Without warning, she grabbed me and held me up, level with her chest. She held me with one hand wrapped around my chest, and her other palm supporting my butt like a seat. She then carried me unselfconsciously in her arms, through the school halls.

We came outside and went across the school grounds, while kids played and ran around in their own worlds. Only in weird forgetful dreams did I hang out with Alex at school, and now we were hanging out in real life. It was like hanging out with your sister or cousin, though Alex was neither. She was just close enough with my parents, with me, and I saw her more than my own aunt, uncle, and cousins. And since she didn’t have a brother herself, she had space for an ‘imaginary’ brother.

She took me around the field, where kids were running sports matches. To the side, the ‘gym girls’ and cheerleader girls had a matt out and were practicing.

“She’s going to try out with them,” Alex said, with a hint of disdain. “So don’t laugh, okay, or you’re dead.”

She was talking about Bruna, who was sitting off to the side, watching the gym girls avidly. Gymnastics was not really Alex’s thing.

“We’re hanging out now?” I said. I had suddenly noticed Alex was heading over to where Bruna was sitting.

“Yes, Tadley Flynn, we’re hanging out now,” Alex said mechanically. “If you really want to.”

She said this with an edge, as if to test whether she was cool enough for me. Way cooler actually, but I would never admit that.

“Okay,” I said. Then felt my stomach shrivel up the closer we got to Bruna, and the realization sunk in. This wasn’t just today. It would be every day.

My best friends at school were girls now. No more playing with the boys. No more being just one of the boys. My parents must have talked to the school and said they were concerned I could get hurt if I played sports and stuff. So they must have arranged with Alex’s parents that Alex would make sure I hung out with her and Bruna and kept me away from the more physical games. All my guy friends usually played basketball during recess, there was no way I could join in.

No one told me any of this, probably to not embarrass me. Which was somehow worse, since it was like I couldn’t make decisions for myself anymore, was very sensitive, and a couple of girls had to mind me at school like babysitters.

As I thought over this, Bruna looked up and saw us.

“Hi, Alex,” she said automatically. And then she glanced down at me and her eyes widened before she caught herself staring. “Hi…uh…Tad…ley...”

Alex drawled back:

“Hi, Bruna Sad-as-frick Kadare.”

Bruna’s middle name was ‘Sadaf’ which Alex found hilarious, and more hilarious in retrospect since, in three years, Bruna would plunge into the goth scene.

“Oh, and it’s ‘teeny weeny’ Tad now,” Alex explained, matter-of-fact. “And he’s going to hang out with us from now on so all the big boys don’t tread on his teeny weeny toes.”

I cringed, hating that she was so honest.

“Oh…okay!” Bruna said lightly. There was a note of surprise in the way she said ‘okay’. Seeing how casual Alex was, Bruna’s curiosity came out all at once and – just like plenty of other kids before now – she stepped in closer to get a good look at me up close. Only, this was my friend, so it felt extra awkward.

Alex held me up a little to give Bruna a better look.

“I heard what happened,” Bruna said to me, although it felt like she was hovering majestically somewhere up over my head. “Her dad told my dad.”

“Well, my dad is such a liar sometimes,” Alex scoffed. “What honestly happened is me and Tad were trying to do a really cool experiment but then it got way too genius for anyone to even understand, so we had to stop, unfortunately.” She looked down at me and grinned. “But I think we’re both pretty glad with all the findings we got and stuff.”

“He’s so – ,” Bruna couldn’t even keep a straight voice for giggling so much, “—he’s like, just too tiny! What does he feel like? He must be really light now!”

Bruna’s laughter made Alex laugh.

“He feels like just the same as usual,” she said, weighing me with her hand, “but he’s lighter than a lighter bulb.”

I squirmed in her grip, trying not to think that I probably felt like a doll to her. Her thumb casually grazed around my shoulderblades, and then my ribcage, delicately feeling every rib, which must have felt utterly tiny to her. Meanwhile, on my other side, Bruna was tentatively touching the side of my head, and petting my hair. She then gave my hair a playful tug the way she used to do.

“I could pick him up with just my pinky strength probably,” Alex bragged. “You want to hold him?”

Before I knew it was being passed from Alex’s grip into Bruna’s, which was very soft and gentle since she’d never held me before.

“Wow,” Bruna said solemnly, feeling my diminutive weight in the palms of her hands. She spluttered into laughter. “I can’t believe you, Alex! I can’t believe you actually did it to him! You shrunk him!”

“Well, he wanted to go to the next level of smallness every time!” Alex countered. “Don’t tell his mom, but we were going to make him even tinier before we had to stop,” Alex said. “Imagine if we kept doing it, Tad,” she exclaimed to me. “You could be as big as a marble now. Then I guess your parents would make you go to school in my pocket.”

She savored my discomfort. She was not serious and was actually trying to rile me up a little, and could see it was working.

Now Bruna was starting to experiment with squeezing me a little, to get a firmer grip on me. She avoided squeezing my chest t too much and pressed the firmest around my stomach since it was soft and could take it. Alex’s nails were quite short, but Bruna’s were a fraction longer, and it was a little strange and uncomfortable to feel her nails digging slightly into my torso but at least she had a good grip and I didn’t feel like I was going to fall out.

The girls sat down to watch the rest of gym practice. Alex crossed her legs and sat me up on one of her knees. They took turns asking me which girl each boy in class liked.

“I don’t know!” I said. “Why would I know that?”

“You’re undercover now, you have to tell us everything you know.”

“I don’t know anything.”

“Then maybe you just have to tell us who you like. Actually,” Alex changed her mind mid-sentence. “You have to choose: who do you like more; me or her?”

At this, Bruna clammed up like the both of us were complete strangers.  

“No one,” I said loudly.

“Trust me,” Alex alleged to Bruna, directly over my head, “he likes someone. He’s just not telling. I bet we could get him to confess though – you hold his legs.”

She was planning on tickling me until I screamed out a name. I tried to jump off Alex’s leg, but she grabbed me around the middle and squeezed so I was trapped.

“No!” I yelled, fighting in her hand, as she began trying to tickle under my arms as a joke.

“I told you!” I said. “I don’t know – I mean – don’t like anyone!”

Alex hesitated, and exchanged a look with Bruna, who had gone very shy.

“Don’t you want to find out who he really likes?” she demanded.

“No,” Bruna said in a very small voice.

Alex looked puzzled, but let me go.

“You’re saved today, weeny,” she said. “But you’re not saved forever. I just know you really like someone, and we’re gonna find out one day.”

I tried to look unconcerned, but I was secretly wondering if the rest of my school days would be a constant battle of trying not to be teased by Alex in some way.

“What do you guys do all recess?” I said, keen to change the subject, “Do you ever play ball or anything?”

“We can play ball,” Alex said. “We can do it anytime we wanted. You think girls can’t do that? Don’t be a dork.”

“I can’t,” Bruna butted in, “if I kick a ball it’s going to ruin my pedi.”

“You got a pedi?!” Alex lit up, “You did not!”

“I got it at the salon when my mom thought I was getting my hair done. I’ll show you after school.”

“Beauty queen!” Alex thrilled. “Did your mom have a meltdown when she found out?”

“She doesn’t know about it,” Bruna started laughing. “So shut the eff up, okay?”

“Did she see the polish I accidentally spilled on the prayer rug?”

“No, I flipped it over.”

“Savior!”

Both girls laughed loudly.

“Are we still playing ball?” I said hopefully.

We did not play ball. We played gossiping about some of the other girls in Alex and Bruna’s class, and I played the Nintendo switch, and then Bruna shyly asked if I’d come over to her house one day so she could paint my nails, ‘or you know, something’, while Alex laughed mockingly.

“Don’t say that!” she exclaimed. “Then he’ll never come over.” She looked at me inquiringly, playing innocent:

“You want to go to her house and get a makeover“ – she said this like it was death – “or you want to come to my house and do something really cool like get in the re-fab again?”

I was horror-struck; the last thing I needed was to be tiny and have painted nails. I also could stand to not be shrunk again, but having painted nails was even worse than being tiny. The guy on the bus wouldn’t just call me G.I Joe anymore; he’d ask if I was trying to replace Alex’s Barbie. No one would take me seriously ever again.

Worse, the girls could hold me down and paint my nails if they really wanted. Maybe this wasn’t really a great idea after all; being doll sized and hanging out with a pair of girls. Did my parents ever consider that?

Bruna was blushing furiously now. Her jaw was set like she regretted ever saying anything. Alex not only teased me, she teased Bruna sometimes as well. Bruna normally took it like it was nothing – and dished back – but for some reason it hit a nerve today and she wasn’t acting herself.

Alex must have registered my discomfort, but she thought I was growing bored with the gossiping. She took her dual Switch controller out and slipped it into my hands. I played on my own for a little while and then took turns playing against Alex and then Bruna.

Then the bell rang. Alex stood and dusted herself off and glanced at us.

“Well…Sad as frick,” she said, glancing from Bruna to me, “Small as frick – are you coming?”