The next morning Sandra and Sherri were the first up, and Sandra was happy to have Sherri’s help back in the kitchen to prepare brunch for everyone. Everyone else got up and they soon had breakfast, then generally milled around the place. No one knew what to talk about with reagards to the competition; since there had been no information given, there was hardly anything to talk about.

            In the afternoon they had a snack, and at percicely one o’clock Betty arrived at the door. Annie let her in warmly and offered her some food.

            “No thanks, I ate already.” Said Betty, making her way into the living room where they all sat or stood.

            “So today marks the first competition.” Said Betty, addressing the group. “I’ll need you all to come out into the yard where I can explain it more fully.”

            Everyone followed Betty out into the yard, anticipation building. What kind of competition would it be? Would it disadvantage the small people, giving them little to no chance to grow? That’s what Bill feared, although he suspected that wouldn’t be the case. Turning tables and changing sizes was the name of this game.

            They all stood looking at Betty, smaller people in front as she began to explain: “This game is a team game. There will be two teams of four people; two big and two small. That way both teams will be on equal footing. The objective of the game is this; hit the targets.”

            From the side of the house came several targets on a track the players had not seen. The targets were large, and they came in two layers. On the side of each target was a pipe that looked like it would fire something.

            “You will use suction-cup guns to hit the targets for safety,” Said Betty, hanging out the guns to each of the bigger players, and smaller ones to each of the smaller players. “The targets will also fire suction-cups at you. They won’t hurt, and they probably won’t even stick.”

            “It will work like this: one small person will be on each big person’s back. The small people will try to hit the high targets, the tall people will try to hit the low targets. When I say ‘half!’, you will switch the small person with the other player on your team. Each target hit by a big person is a point. Each target hit by a small person is two points, that is provided that it is the correct target. Any hit on you is registered as minus two points. When time runs out, the most points win.”

            “Now, I bet you would like to know the stakes of this game.” Said Betty. “The stakes are this: the loosing team will be shrunk to half their original size.”

            The players let this sink in. So some of them were going to be even smaller than they were now. Two players would remain normal height, four would be half normal height, and two would be one-fourth normal height. That was less than eighteen inches tall. That was seriously tiny.

            “I have selected the team captians at random from the Big people.” Betty said. “The captians will be Dave and Sandra.”

            Dave and Sandra moved from the crowd, smiling at their responsibility.

            “Team selection will work this way.” Betty said. “Dave, then Sandra will pick their full-sized parter. Then each captian and each partner will pick the small person to have on their shoulder. Okay, Dave, you pick first?”

            Who did Dave want to rule with him as the other big person? Annie or Sherri? Well, he wanted Annie shrunk, so he said: “Sherri.”

            “Sandra, that leaves you with Annie.” Said Betty. “Okay, Sandra, who would you like to have on your shoulders?”

            “Serine,” Sandra said right away. Of course she would; Serine was the best athleate among them and probably had very good aim. Serine walked over to Sandra and Sandra put her hand on Serine’s little shoulder protectively and possessively.

            “Dave, who do you want?” Betty asked. Dave had to choose between Bill, Cameroon, and Tom. Cameroon was a faster runner, but Bill probably had better aim.

            “Bill.” Said Dave. Bill walked over to him. Serine and Bill exchanged a look: no matter what happened, one of them was going to be bigger than the other.

            “Annie, who do you pick?” Betty said.

            “Cameroon.” Said Annie. She rather liked Cameroon, and would rather give him a free ride on her shoulders than Tom.

            “And that leaves…” Said Betty, smiling. Sherri smiled and motioned for Tom to come over. Tom did so reluctantly, asking why me in his head.

            So the teams were finalized. It was Dave, Sherri, Bill, and Tom against Sandra, Annie, Serine, and Cameroon. The distribution of boys and girls was not even, but then again there were already 3 girls full-sized and only one boy. The end of this game would either re-balance or further separate the genders.

            “Okay, the game will start in one minute. Teams, get your players on your shoulders.”

            Dave lifted Bill roughly onto his shoulders. Bill was still not happy with Dave’s punching him in the shoulder and would have happily ridden on someone else’s shoulder, but such as it was he had no choice.

            Sherri made a drama about lifting Tom. She moved slowly towards him as if she were a monster out of a B-class movie. Tom did not move, but failed to stop a look of fear from escaping when Sherri looked at him with a sneaky smile. Sherri picked up Tom, marveling at how small he was, before placing him on her shoulders. She made him almost fall off so he had to grip her head tightly to keep from falling off. Sherri liked this very much.

            Sandra put Serine on top of her shoulders. They gave each other a high-five, Serine’s small hand hitting Sandra’s big one. Annie smiled as she lifted Cameroon onto her shoulders. Cameroon smiled back, excited about the game. Annie was very attractive to her, even if she was a bit of an airhead.

            “Are you ready? Go!” Shouted Betty. Immediately, the targets started moving. They were not slow and sluggish, but very fast.

            Immediately Serine and Cameroon turned out to be very good aimers. They scored several hits in just a few minutes. Dave wasn’t bad either, but he moved around so much Bill could barely even aim. Sandra and Serine worked as a very effective team. Sherri was pretty good, and she allowed room for Tom to shoot.

            Annie cried out as a sucker hit her. For the most part, she stood mostly still and allowed Cameroon to shoot. With Serine on their side, they were winning.

            “Switch!” Called Betty. Instantly Sandra and Annie ran together. Sandra grabbed Cameroon and put him on her shoulders, and Annie took Serine. Dave and Sherri met. Dave took Tom, and Sherri took Bill.

            Instantly they got back into fighting. The Sandra-Cameroon duo did very well. But the Annie-Serine team duo started to fall apart. Annie kept moving into directions that didn’t suit Serine at all. Serine finally lost it and yelled at Annie, which made Annie so frusturated she nearly though Serine off.

            The Sherri/Bill team was doing very well. They connected a lot better then Sherri and Tom. Bill managed to knock several out right away. Dave was very rough and Tom had a time getting used to him, but soon they started synergizing as well. Suddenly, time was running out, and Dave’s group had almost reached an equlibriam.

            “Five seconds! Tie score!” Betty said. At the last moment, Tom shot out from his cannon and hit a target. “Time’s up! Dave’s team wins!”

            Sherri walked over with Bill to Dave and Tom. “I can’t believe it, squirt!” Sherri said, looking at Tom with delight. “You actually won the game for us!” Tom quite couldn’t believe it either. He was relieved that he wouldn’t be even smaller.

            Annie was reacting with shock. She couldn’t believe that her team, the team with Cameroon and Serine lost. Serine…Annie was mad at her. If only Serine had not kept yelling at Annie then Annie could have done better and they would have won. Annie put Serine roughly down onto the ground. Serine was mad and scared too…she was going to be one fourth her normal size.

            Sandra put down Cameroon. “Well,” Sandra said. “We tried our best.” Sandra was trying to be level-headed, but she was afraid of what lied near. Annie didn’t say anything for anger. Cameroon went over to concil Serine, now that they would be the two tinies of the group.

            Betty broke the lines of confrontation, celebration, and grieving. “Okay, follow me into the compound!” The eight people followed in, still separated into two teams, but Sandra’s team walking somewhat apart.

            “There is enough room in the shrinking booth for the loosing team to fit all together.” Said Betty. “It might be a little tight, but after you are shrunk you will find it quite spacious.” Betty smiled at Sandra’s team, which looked like they quite hated Betty right now.

            “Go on,” Said Betty, urging them all in.

            The four people walked into the booth. Cameroon found himself pressed up against Annie’s legs, and Serine stayed on the other side of Sandra away from Annie. A second later there was a flash and the room was suddenly big as a fair-sized bedroom with a very high celing.

            Their proportions were all the same to each other, of course, but they were all smaller. Annie and Sandra had not been shrunk yet, and they looked up at the room with horror and fear. Serine looked around, finally starting to feel the fear. She was immensely tiny: the room was huge. Her tough exterior was giving way to the fear residing inside of her. Cameroon was also the same size, but he was trying to hold in his own fear.

            The door on the other side opened and they walked out to find Betty waiting for them. Annie and Sandra had the same experience that five people before them had, looking at that giant body that seemed to be too big to be belivable. But to Cameroon and Serine, this was an unimaginable giantess. They barely came up to Betty’s knees and they were the size of large trees. Her gigantic hands could easily wrap around their whole body. Cameroon quick calculated that she was sixty four times his mass!

            “Well,” Said Betty. “This will be quite a shock to adjust too, expecially you smallest ones. But I’m afraid there is no time to wait. Come, I will re-introduce you to your teemates.”

            With great reluctance, the small people followed Betty down the now-bigger hallway and Betty opened the door to introduce the two groups.

            There was a great gasp as big, small, and smaller looked at each other. To the eyes of Sherri Cameroon and Serine were small as dolls, cute as dolls too. Dave just looked at tiny Annie, just what he had wanted. Annie tried very hard not to meet Dave’s eye. Sandra was to scarred to look at the big people, so instead she walked over to Tom, who was the same size, and said, “So this is what it feels like.”

            Bill looked at the tiny Serine with a look of concern on his face. Serine came over to him, almost running, and Bill scooped Serine up in his arms and held onto her. Bill decided that no harm would come to Serine while he could help it. Despite Bill’s original intention to be in the game to win and no other purpose, he felt an attachement to Serine and a responsiability to her, and he was going to protect her while he could.

            “You will all now go back to the house to spend the evening together.” Said Betty. “Tomorrow there will not be another competition like today, but rather an act of voting as you had yesterday which could change your sizes again. I will meet you at three o’clock.”

            The group left and walked out, Dave leading the way. He liked to think of himself as a leader and hoped that things would work out that way. He didn’t intend to bully anyone, but he would not hesitate to use his size advantage of any of the little guys gave him lip. Of course, he would keep a soft spot for the little ladies.

            Sherri came up behind Cameroon and effortlessly lifted him up into the air. Cameroon didn’t expect it and let out a whoop of fear as he was suddenly hoisted four stories into the air.

            “I didn’t think you could keep up.” Sherri said, cradeling the little doll-like figure. “So I decided to scoop you up and carry you along.” Cameroon didn’t react, but he was feeling a bit of anger and embarrassment towards Sherri for being this way. After all, she was one of the original group shrunk along with him. But he was strangely attracted to her all the same.

            The eight of them returned to the house, a great deal smaller than before, to find one significant change. Two of the bedrooms had disappeared! They had known the house was a collection of bolted-together pieces and they could be added and removed, but they didn’t expect two of the bedrooms to suddenly go missing.

            “Do they expect us to share?” Asked Tom.

            “I guess so,” Said Sandra.

            “How are we going to do this?” Asked Annie, whining in fear looking around the house that now seemed so much bigger than before.

            “Well, people will just have to sleep with each other.” Dave said, trying to sound as matter-of-fact about it as possible, but really he was excited inside.

            “How are we going to divide that up?” Asked Tom.

            “Maybe it should be up to us big ones, since we’re naturally in charge,” Said Dave, but there was an uproar about that at once.

            “You can’t do that!” Said Bill. “You’re a tyrant!”

            “He’s right,” Said Sherri, the other giant. “It’s not right, and I wouldn’t let you do it.” Instantly a great ripple of relief went through the minds of the six smaller ones. Dave won’t stay full-sized long, thought Tom. That guy had no sence of strategy.

            “Serine and I will share,” Announced Bill, after a whispered conversation with Serine. Serine nodded.

            “Okay.” Said Sherri. “Now I suppose I should be the one to take Cameroon here.” Sherri was still holding Cameroon in her arms.

            “Don’t I get a say?” Cameroon was outraged. Tom saw this a major blunder for Sherri, and he decided that he had been overestimating her.

            “Yes, I’m sorry,” Said Sherri. “Who do you want to sleep with?”

            “I don’t know yet.” Said Cameroon. “Please give me some time.”

            “Okay.” Said Sherri, who finally listened to Cameroon’s nonverbal protests and put him down on the ground.

            “Well, I’ll prepare dinner, I don’t need any help.” Sherri said. “Dave, you could start a movie for the others.”

            “Um, okay.” Dave didn’t know what else to say. He certainly didn’t like Sherri taking the lead role and pushing him to the side, but he’d find a way to regain equality or even achieve superiority with Sheri.

            Sherri did start making dinner and Dave did turn on a movie. He felt powerful, all right. It seemed like he was babysitting children with all the little ones there. He sat in the chair and watched as all the other sat in the couch. Annie certainly looked cute small. Even Sandra was cute. Serine was really tiny, and she was sitting in Bill’s lap. Tom was siting next to Sandra, talking, and Cameroon was sitting on Tom’s other side, not talking.

            Bill was the most comfortable tiny, having been this size for the longest amount of time. He was starting to become the leader of the tinies. Silly Bill, thought Dave. He was still little, as Dave remembered well. If he had to he would show him who was in charge around here, but he thought that if he acted to blatantly the others wouldn’t like him.

            Tom was starting to feel better about being small. Of course, he wanted to be big like anyone else, but now that all but two people were as small or smaller than him he was starting to feel more comfortable with the idea. He decided to be as friendly as possible to the others, and particularly to get Sandra on his side. Dispite her aloofness, Sandra did seem to have a fairly high intelligence, which might come in handy for Tom at some point or another.

            Sherri bounced around the kitchen happily making dinner. She cooked for three, thinking that the six tiny people would probably eat one person’s worth altogether. That was even an overestimate, because the shrunken people’s mass together was just over half of a normal-sized person.

            Sherri didn’t see any need to serve dinner at the table. The half-size people had enough trouble reaching and the quarter-sized people wouldn’t be able to reach at all, so she just served the food where they sat on the couch and chair. Everyone appreciated this and they all ate up, and Dave even helped with the dishes.

            After dinner there was more milling about, more talking. A lot of times the tiny people tried to keep their words away from the big people, as if they were worried about something bad happening if the big people overheard.

            Sherri sat on the couch and streached out her legs, so her feet almost touched a group of Bill, Serine, Tom, Cameroon, and Sandra talking. She felt so good being big; she felt an almost overwhelming sence of power. Her feet were half the size of Cameroon, who was sitting just a few inches from them. She was in control; she only had Dave to balance her and he was such a dimwit that it scarcely mattered.

            At the same time Dave was talking to Annie. Dave had started out by apologizing for his behavior before and trying to talk to Annie politely. Annie allowed this, partially because she didn’t want to annoy a giant, but mostly because she wanted to give Dave a chance. She wanted to see that Dave was not merely the jerk he always seemed to be. Annie did feel a bit intimidated by him still, but knew if anything Sherri would be able to keep Dave in balance. Just yesterday morning Annie was the giantess comforting Sherri, now with Sherri as the giantess she would probably do that for Annie.

            After a few minutes the group of five finished talking and they started to dissipate. Tom decided he was going to find something to do or maybe talk to Sandra one on one, when he heard a voice call: “Oh, Tommie-boy!”

            It was Sherri. She was looking at him with a smile on her face. Tom frose.

            “Can you do me a favor?” Asked Sherri. “My back has been bothering me for a while now. Can you rub it?”

            “Can I rub your back?” Tom asked, not sure what to make of the question.

            “Yeah,” Sherri said. “It won’t be hard and I won’t tease you. Afterwords I’ll rub your back, okay?”

            Tom was reluctant, but he found himself agreeing anyway.

            “Excellent!” Said Sherri, and with that she streached fully out on the couch, her backside up.

            She’s so big! Remarked Tom in his head. He couldn’t belive how much sheer space Sherri took up from head to toe. Not to mention how big all her individual parts were. Tom climbed up onto her lower back, still amazed at the expanse of it all. He put his hands down and started rubbing.

            “I can hardly feel you!” Sherri said. “Push harder! Put all your bodyweight into it!”

            Tom dug his feet into the spaces between couch cushions and pushed as hard as he could. So hard it would have hurt a person his size. But Sherri said: “Mmmm, that feels good. Keep going.”

            It seemed to take Tom ages to cover all the parts of Sherri’s enormous back. Eventually he did cover it all, right up to her shoulders, which she particularly liked. Sherri told Tom he was finished.

            “That was very good!” Said Sherri, sitting up and making Tom get off her back. “Now I promised that I would rub your back. Lay down and get ready!”

            Tom laid down on the couch taking up just a fraction of the space Sherri had taken up. The area was still full of her body heat and Tom soaked in its warmth.

            Sherri leaned forward and put her hands on Tom. To Tom it felt like her hand covered his whole back, and in truth they weren’t far off from doing that. Sherri didn’t even put any body pressure on it, but her hands were so powerful in themselves that it felt that way to Tom. She kneeded his back, pushing it hard. Tom couldn’t believe how great this felt.

            After several minutes of joint-popping pressure that seemed to put Tom’s body back into shape, Sherri stopped. It had only taken her a fraction of the time it took Tom.

            “Did you like that?” Sherri asked.

            “That was—that was very nice.” Said Tom honestly.

            “Say,” Sherri said, leaning over Tom. “I say we give Cameroon his own room tonight.”

            “Are you suggesting…” Tom asked.

            “You know I am,” Said Sherri. “Are you scared of me?”

            “A little.” Admitted Tom.

            “That’s alright.” Said Sherri. “But why don’t we have a bit of fun?”

            “Alright.” Said Tom, pretty sure he was quite out of his mind.

            “It’s settled then!” Said Sherri. “You know where to find me.”

            Elsewhere, Sandra had joined the conversation between Dave and Annie. Pretty soon Cameroon had drifted over as well. Bill and Serine sat by themselves, Bill stroking Serine’s hair. After a few minutes, Annie walked by and shot Serine a dirty look. Serine recoiled, but Bill gave Annie an angry look back.

            “I’m sorry about her.” Bill said, trying to make Serine feel better.

            “Maybe I shouldn’t have yelled at her.” Serine said. “But if she had played better and not kept running in the same directions I could have won the game for us.”

            “And it would be me in your lap instead of the other way around.” Bill said.

            Serine smiled up at him, “Yes, I suppose it would be that way.”

            “How would you like that?” Asked Bill. “For me to be smaller than you?”

            “I think I could manage that,” Serine said, winking.

            Pretty soon it was well after nightfall and everybody wanted to get to bed. Cameroon left first, unhappy about the whole affair. There he had tried to be nice and to be good to everyone, but he was the smallest person there. First because of a random card drawling and then of a stupid game. Well, thought Cameroon as he struggled to get up into his bed, maybe I have to concentrate on getting my size back instead of being nice.

            Annie went off to bed soon thereafter when Dave wasn’t looking. Dave himself went to bed next, followed by Sandra. Bill carried Serine off to their room in a second. Only Sherri and Tom were left.

            “Are you ready?” Sherri asked Tom playfully?

            Tom sighed. “Ready.”

            Sherri scooped up Tom and carried him off to her room. They didn’t get to sleep for a good number of hours.