The bell rang, cutting off Ms. Connor mid-sentence and cueing a loud cacophony of book bags being moved and unzipped as the students stuffed their school materials inside them before heading to their next class.  From his perch atop her head Steve could hear Kelsey blow a whistled sigh through her teeth before his world shifted to the left as she reached down to unzip her own bag.  He instinctively clamped onto the strands of her hair that he’d held loosely in his hands since she’d returned to her seat about half an hour ago.  The fragrant, silky soft locks were deceptively light, belying their strength as they held firm in his hands.  He could tell that she was making extra effort to make her movements small for his sake, but he quickly found himself breathing a little harder from the exertion of keeping himself in place.  With every deep breath he inhaled the sweet, fruity aroma of her shampoo mixed with Kelsey’s own pleasantly earthy scent.  He hoped that she couldn’t feel his half mast erection on the top of her head, the side effect of his fragrant surroundings and his wandering mind during what was possibly the most boring class on earth. 

“Remember, there will be a test on the last four chapters on Monday, I expect you all will be prepared,” Ms. Connor announced to her departing class.  “And,” she said, pausing for effect, ”it will be all essay questions, no multiple choice this time.” The class groaned loudly, and Steve could hear the smile in the sadistic teacher’s voice as she continued,”No retakes! Be prepared to discuss Mr. Swift’s use of allegory.  You’re dismissed!  Have a pleasant week-end!”

“Bitch,” came Kelsey’s soft whisper, audible only to herself and her tiny passenger.

As she straightened her head Steve took a chance and scooted forward a little on his belly until her could see the world through the silver piping of Kelsey’s birthday tiara.  She rose from her seat, causing his stomach to lurch just slightly, and he could see her brightly lit iPhone screen as she raised it to her view.  Kelsey opened her Facebook app as she walked out of class and began scrolling through happy birthday messages, making soft, contented little noises to herself as her fingers flew over what was, to him, a massive touchscreen display.  Suddenly an alert dropped down from the top of the screen, letting Kelsey know that she had a new voicemail from Mom.

“Why do they always try to call me when they know I’m at school,” she sighed to herself (and possibly for Steve’s benefit) as she tapped the alert and started to listen to her mom’s message.

It was long, lasting nearly as long as it took Kelsey to walk to her next class.  Steve craned his head to the side, trying to make out what was being said.  He only understood one out of every few words, but he gleaned that Kelsey’s parents were going away for the week, something about their timeshare opening up unexpectedly and they were really sorry about missing her birthday, and they would make it up to her when they got back, and oh make sure that Brianna eats and goes to school and doesn’t have any boys over blah blah blah.  Steve’s eyes glazed over when Kelsey’s mom started to talk about money left on the counter and making sure to take out the trash, and he contented himself with watching Kelsey wade through the sea of teenagers making their way to their next period.

He guessed that Kelsey was an average sized girl based on the heights of the giant high school students around him.  The air was thick with laughter and talking, and Steve could occasionally hear a shouted “Happy Birthday” as students whizzed past Kelsey at what he perceived to be an astonishing speed.  Realizing that many eyes were focused on her sparkling tiara, Steve sunk back into Kelsey’s hair, most of his outside view slipping away as he wished in that moment that his giantess hostess would make him even smaller.  But the trip was without incident, and Steve was relieved to hear Kelsey open the heavy metal door to her next class as she tucked her phone into the pocket of her hoodie.

A sharp smell invaded Steve’s tiny nostrils, a chemical miasma rudely cutting through the heady scent that had been arousing Steve for the past thirty minutes.  He correctly guessed that Kelsey had entered the Chemistry lab, and held on tight as he heard her settle onto her lab stool and slough off her backpack, letting it drop with a thud onto the tiled floor.

“Hey Kels, happy birthday!  Ooh, nice crown!” a slightly accented feminine voice called from somewhere above Steve’s head.  Without warning a pink-nailed light brown index finger and matching thumb loomed way too closely over his head, their tips nearly brushing against him as they moved to grasp onto an edge of the tiara.  Steve fought the urge to scream as he pressed himself flat against Kelsey’s scalp, trying to make himself as small as possible.

“Hey Karen!  Hands off the merchandise, girl,” Kelsey said with an annoyed tone in her voice.  An instant after a slapping sound the fingertips withdrew, only to be replaced by the now familiar sight Kelsey’s own as she straightened her hair, giving Steve a few light taps in the process to assure him that he was okay.

“Geez, ow, sorry.  You don’t gotta be so rude.  But I’ll forgive you ‘cause it’s your special day,” said Karen, her hurt sounding voice moving to Steve’s side as she took her seat next to Kelsey.  Steve cautiously looked through the dark strands of Kelsey’s hair and was greeted with a view of a sweet-faced hispanic girl gingerly massaging her wrist.  Steve smiled and gave what he hoped would be a strong enough pat to the top of Kelsey’s head for her to feel it.

“So are we still going out tonight to get your ink?” Karen inquired, all traces of what just happened erased from her tone.

“Yeah, definitely,” Kelsey replied.  “And it turns out that my mom and dad won’t even be home for a whole week, so I won’t have to worry about hiding the bandage like I thought I was going to.”

“Score, girrrrl, party at Kelsey’s house!” Karen said laughing.

“Oh, uh, no.  I can’t.  Have a party.  I mean, I told my mom and dad that I wouldn’t,” Kelsey lied.

“Shit, chica, like that’s stopped you before.  We’ll clean up just as good as last time.  C’monnnnn.  I’m sure Marco could score us some beer again,” Karen pleaded.

Steve could feel a light sweat start to form beneath his body as Kelsey dove deeper into her lie.  “Nah,” she said, affecting an air of nonchalance, “I don’t want to have to bribe Brie again so she won’t tell on me.  Besides, we’ll have plenty of fun tonight, I promise.”

“Hmph, okay.  Whatever you say, birthday girl,” Karen said, defeated.

The class hushed suddenly as the instructor walked in the door and started to take roll.  A few minutes later Steve heard the distinctive scrape and whoosh of bunsen burners being lit all around him as the class settled into their lesson for the day.  Kelsey and Karen’s conversation turned to their experiment, and Steve found himself with little to do but play with the soft strands around him.

A couple of hours later Steve started to wonder how anyone ever made it through a day at school.  Thankfully about a minute after Kelsey left her next class he could hear the din of voices quiet down until nearly all that remained was the rhythmic clop clop of Kelsey’s footfalls.

“Hi Steve,” Kelsey’s voice came loud and sudden to his ears.  “I’ve raised my phone to my ear so that anyone who might happen to see me won’t think I’ve lost my mind when they see me talking to myself.  I suppose I could always claim I was wearing the world’s smallest bluetooth thing, but I would like to try to avoid any questions, mmkay?”

“Haha, okay,” Steve replied.  “Is it lunchtime, or something?  Where are we going?”

“Back out to my car.  It’s a closed campus, but I know the security guard and he lets me eat in my car, so we’re cool.”

It was a short trip to the parking lot, and soon Steve could hear the beep of Kesey’s alarm disengaging before she opened the door and settled into the backseat.  He heard her work the key into the ignition and plug in her phone to the car’s AUX jack, softly filling the car with pop stylings of OneRepublic.  Suddenly he felt the world around him start to contract as Kelsey grew him to a few inches tall before wrapping her fingers around his waist and plucking him from her head.

“Hey there, little fella.  Hungry?” she asked, her deep green eyes regarding him playfully.

Kelsey set Steve down on her shoulder as she deftly unpacked a set of bento boxes from her bag, setting them on the tops of her thighs.  She opened each one in succession, revealing raw veggies and tofu, with kale chips and sage honey for dessert.

“You, uh, have anything besides rabbit food in there?” Steve asked, eyeing the boxes skeptically.

“Har har, little guy,” Kelsey responded, her voice dripping with sarcasm.  “I don’t really think you have to eat anyway, but just because I’m a benevolent goddess I raided Brie’s shelf of crappy, processed, white flour filled food in the pantry and brought you this,” she said, producing the tiniest bento box in the set and placing it between her knees.  She opened it to reveal a single Oreo.

“Aww, you shouldn’t have,” said Steve with a sardonic smile.

“Just trying to keep my man happy,” said Kelsey with a wink before plucking Steve up and placing him in the box with his lunch.

Steve reached his hand into the crevice of the Oreo and stuffed his face with the sweet cream.  He grinned broadly and gave Kelsey a thumbs up.

“Guys are so simple,” she said, returning Steve’s goofy grin.

She kissed the tip of her index finger and pushed it playfully against Steve’s tiny lips, only to pull it away and see the very tip covered in frosting.  Wrinkling her nose distastefully she stuck her finger in her mouth, letting the bleached sugar goo dissolve on her tongue.  She pulled her finger from between her lips with a small pop and smiled before speaking again.

“Oh hey, that reminds me.  When we get back into class would you mind not poking me with that thing the whole time?” she asked, using her damp index finger to gesture in the general vicinity of Steve’s crotch.

“It’s very distracting!” she said as she wriggled her eyebrows up and down while using her other hand to pop a baby carrot into her mouth.

Steve eyes bugged out as he failed at attempting to not choke on a big hunk of cookie he’d just shoved in his face.