Tales of the New World Chapter 7: Friends Like These

                Tyler woke in darkness and an overwhelming sense of dread. He could hear the tremors of his wake-up call already and his entire room vibrated with increased intensity. His roof lifted far more gently than he was used to and soon he was looking at the face of Lauren wearing an expression that seemed to match the way he felt inside. He knew if one of his older sisters was waking him up that only meant one thing.

                “It’s Monday isn’t it?” he dead panned.

                “Yeah.” She grumbled in exasperation. “Whoopty damn doo.” They shared a look connecting in the mutual disdain for weekdays.

                “Be ready in fifteen minutes.” She yawned. “And expect Pop-Tarts for breakfast.”

                After the chime of the elevator door closing behind him Tyler was greeted with the not entirely unfamiliar sight of an empty kitchen. It was the weekday so his mom was off taking Sammy to school and Emily was surely off busy with whatever work being a celebrity involved. This left either Megan or Lauren with the responsibility of getting him to school. Megan often ran in the morning incorporating her jog into her route to school. Tyler was adamantly against waking up that early so more often than not that meant Lauren was his ride.

                This had its pros and cons. While this meant he got some appreciated extra hours thank to them both having a healthy respect for sleep it also meant a meager breakfast. Lauren didn’t have the innate sense of caring or household duty his mother had nor the health and fitness mindset Megan had. It was often a trade-off between sleep and a balanced breakfast.  He grumbled as he grabbed the Pop-Tarts fresh from the toaster. He scanned the counter until he found a brown bag with his name on it next to a red thermos. He smiled. At least his mother had the foresight to prepare a decent lunch. He looked inside and was pleased to find a whole orange, a bag of Doritos, cut baby carrots and what looked to be a foot long meatball sub. He was constantly impressed by how his mother managed to prepare his meals at her new scale.

                He could hear the tremors as Lauren came down the stairs looking very much the typical home body. Her hair was a mess and she was still dressed in an oversized shirt and the loose boy shorts she often slept in that barely went past her butt cheeks and were skirting the line on what constituted decent exposure. This normally didn’t bother him except she walked him to school which meant the entirety of Westmont high regularly got a nice look of his sister’s goods. His guy friends were not shy in telling him it was often the highlight of their morning.

                “You ready?” she groaned offering her palm. He sighed excepting the fact that appearance was something she generally didn’t care about. He was surprised she’d even bothered to put on sneakers.

                “I guess when you’re over a hundred feet tall it doesn’t matter how many horny boys get a peek at your cooch.” He thought. He climbed into her expecting grasp and soon enough they were out the door.

                The morning was a warm one which might explain Lauren’s loose appearance if only barely forcing Tyler to remove his black jacket. The walk wasn’t very long but Lauren had to take caution. They lived in a mixed neighborhood so amongst the retrofitted homes were tiny normal residents. They were sectioned off but there was still the possibility of her crushing a car or bus if she wasn’t careful. Tyler couldn’t really complain and it did give them both a chance to catch up. Sometimes it was the only time they ever spoke during the week.

                “How’s school?” Lauren asked with mild interest.

                “It’s school.” Tyler replied. “Books, teachers, girls, bullies, the standard stuff you see on TV.”

                “Bullies?!” Lauren eyes opened a little wider. “You want me to?” She trailed off but Tyler knew what she was insinuating.  He suddenly felt a little scared knowing even the threat of being crushed under her shoe would deter almost anyone.

                “It doesn’t happen to me so much!” Tyler half lied. He was lucky enough to have a few elevated friends but it was getting rough for normal students who weren’t as fortunate and truthfully no normal really escaped. “People know about you guys and that scares most away.” He gritted his teeth in a nervous smile.

                “Okay Ty.” Lauren accepted but he could tell she knew he was hiding something.

                Lauren came to a stop which meant they had reached the school gate. It was giant even to Lauren which was important considering the nature of over half the student body. She pressed her hand against it in sauntered through to be greeted by a massive flood of students of varying sizes scurrying around her ankles, or knees, or waist, or in a few occasions eye level. They all took a moment to glance at the disheveled class 2 that had joined them before most went back to the idle morning chit chat.

                He looked up and could see his sister’s pupil’s move about scanning the area they then focused as she headed towards the east side of the building. Westmont was a direct result of the government’s new legislature involving education for the new generation. It like most schools was now mixed and under heavy renovation. The once single story school was now a massive multiple story city Tyler could only compare to the Vatican. This was not only accommodating the new height of the students but the massive influx of fresh attendees. Rumor was the campus would even absorb some colleges. Over half the children in the city went to Westmont; the other half went to Eastmont the sister school.

                Lauren eventually reached her destination a small balcony on the third floor and sight of his first class. The school ran on a floor structure. The smaller students regardless of grade had the upper levels that circled around the ground floor that was dominated by class 2’s. This however didn’t discourage students scurrying underfoot on the ground floor from a need to interact with class 2 friends which led to some “incidents” and fortuitously no deaths.

                “You okay here?” Lauren asked.

                “Yeah.” Tyler nodded before turning.

                “I’ll be back at 3:30.” She informed.

                “Mom’s not picking me up?” Tyler questioned.

                “Sammy’s got that field trip today remember?” Lauren reminded. “She won’t be home till after 5.”

                Tyler face palmed from his ignorance. Sammy had been yapping non-stop about her field trip for weeks. Soon Lauren was off toward home giving eager students the pleasant view of her shapely backside and Tyler was left to start his day.

                And boy did it. Tyler could swear he felt her shadow before he saw it. He wanted to scream but knew it was pointless. As soon as Lauren had exited the campus and rounded the corner he felt her grasp upon him. He was instantly lifted in the air and was greeted with a tan face, the blue eyes that were perfectly round and slit at the corners, the button nose, the white teeth with a small gap in the front, upturned evil smile, and the dirty blonde hair pushed back by a pink head band. He sighed to himself. It was Sheila.

                “Fuck.” He cursed under his breath.

                “I hope he’s okay.” Rain professed to her worried friend. The sensation of four arms being wrapped around her was still new but she was happy she could be a shoulder for her friend to lean on.

                “The cops didn’t say much they just found him collapsed next to a prison.” Amanda managed through worried sobs. “He’s in the hospital!”

                “They didn’t say he was dead did they?” she asked.

                “No but they didn’t say he wasn’t!” Amanda wailed.

                “Where is he?” Rain probed.

                “At county general.” Amanda spoke. “Oh god! They don’t have any of his medical information!” her arms wrapped tighter and suddenly Rain was off the ground.

                “Calm down I’m sure he’s fine.” She reassured. “You shouldn’t worry too much until you know for sure what happened.”

                “They said he had a gun!” Amanda cried. “What if he’s been shot?!”

                “Calm down Amy.” Rain patted her friends head. “We’ll go visit him after school together.”

.               “You’d do that for me?” her friend asked.

                “Of course.” Rain smiled. “But now we should really get to class, plus your kind of squeezing the life out of me.”

                “Sorry!” Amanda released her grip dropping her normal friend to the floor. The two girls parted ways to their morning classes that were in the opposite direction.

                Rain was a normal girl. Normal by societies standards anyway and she had absolutely no problem with it. Even as her friends and family elevated around her she was more than content with herself and her place in society. Since she was little she’d been fascinated by Indiana Jones and the like and as far as she was concerned being a 200 foot giant would  only make exploring undiscovered caves and temples more difficult. When the people around her sprouted up or learned to set things on fire with their mind she didn’t bat an eyelash and for the most part the more things changed the more they stayed the same. Amanda for all her newfound power and confidence was still a neurotic little daddy’s girl at heart and no amount of extra arms would change that. Then there was Tyler her best friend. His entire family had elevated but he was still the dimwit she’d known for years who refused to pick up the hints she’d been dropping since middle school.

                There was only one thing that truly bothered Rain in this new world she found herself in and that was bullies. She’d hated them before elevation and that disdain only grew as some of the worst people she knew were suddenly given power. It kept her up at nights and lately was even taking a physical toll on her. She could feel her body tense and ache at the sight of it. Did being elevated really make you so much better? More often than not she found the opposite to be true. If you were an asshole elevation only made you a bigger one. She shook her head. These thoughts weren’t helping her they only served to anger her and feel her with pent up frustration and energy. She even felt her muscles bulge and tighten with a vigor she hadn’t experienced before.

She rushed down the hall to her first class advanced algebra. It was a boring class with the one exception. Tyler was in it. She relaxed at the pleasant thought of sitting next to him and soon she was brainstorming ideas on how to bridge the gap from best friend to girlfriend. She doubted any would work but she was a glass half full kind of girl.

“You never know what could happen.” She thought as she rounded the corner. She froze at the sight before her and ground her teeth. She could feel her body tense back up all most instantly.

“Fuck.” She cursed under her breath.

“What do you want Sheila?” Tyler spat at the class 2 blonde. Their little morning meetings were becoming a standard operating procedure he was quickly growing tired of.

“Homework tiny.” She smiled.

“You’re a class 2!” Tyler growled. “And on the dean’s list, can’t you think of better things to do than bully a normal into doing grade school math you could do in your sleep?”

“I would.” She mused. “But my times way more important than that and frankly making you do it is more fun.”

Tyler sighed. He knew she was only doing this to fuck with him. It would’ve hurt less if she weren’t so cliché about it.

“So you’re just being a bitch?” Tyler shot.

“Watch it Ty.” Sheila gave him a squeeze that pushed the air out his lungs. “It’s a status thing. My times more valuable than yours now, It’s only makes sense that you normals are kept busy with grunt work so we can attend to more important matters.”

“That’s bullshit.” He defended.

“That’s life.” She justified. “I don’t see what your complaining about it could be so much worse for you.”

“What!?”

Sheila huffed at him in annoyance. “You really are thick aren’t you?” she gave him a disappointed sneer that Tyler didn’t understand. Was he missing something?

“Put him down Sheila!” Tyler heard in a familiar voice. He recognized the tone in new things were about to get ugly.

Rain body quaked with anger as she glared at the oversized bitch accosting her friend.

“What did you say shrimp?” Sheila replied more in shock than anger.

“I said put him down. With such huge ears you think you’d be able to hear better.” Rain wise cracked.

Sheila was taken aback by such rude treatment. Who was this girl? She clearly didn’t know how easy it would be for her to simply crush her flat. It would almost be an afterthought. She probably wouldn’t even get charged.

“You’re not serious?” Sheila questioned in disbelief.

“Dead serious.” The girl replied.

“Rain stay out of this.” Tyler spoke up. “It’s nothing really we’re just talking honest.”

“Rain!” Sheila thought. She recognized the name. This insolent bitch was also in her morning class. Suddenly an idea crossed her mind and she couldn’t hide her dark smile.

Tyler suddenly became worried. He’d seen that look on Sheila before. It was a look she got when she’d decided to screw someone over. He had to find a way to keep Rain out of this.

                “Look we can talk at lunch okay, I promise this is nothing.”

                “It doesn’t look like nothing to me.” Rains eyes narrowed and Tyler trembled. He’d seen that look too and it was clear Rain wasn’t going to back down. She turned her attention to the giantess who still held a tight grip on him.

                “Just put him down Sheila.” She continued. “This is ridiculous and honestly really pathetic.”

                That last comment was all it took for Sheila. She was contemplating whether or not to take action as there would have been consequences involved; detention, suspension, expulsion were all very viable options but she no longer cared. Nobody called her pathetic.

                “I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot here.” She said with her most winning smile. “There’s no reason we can’t all be friends right?” She moved in just a little closer toward the defiant normal.

                The girl look puzzled and gave her a skeptical grunt. “I guess we can start over if you put him down.”

                Sheila smiled placing Tyler down and giving him a light pat on the back. “See he’s fine.” Rains expression softened almost immediately. “Friends?”

                “Friends.” Rain replied in relief. “I’m sorry I just get riled when I see stuff like that I guess.” She offered a hand towards the giantess.

                Sheila offered a finger and giggled at the tickle as her digit was embraced by the tiny hand. “Sheila Murphy.” She recited.

                “Rain Rodríguez.” She replied.

                Tyler was taken aback. This was not how he’d expected this to go down. Sheila was a bitch before her elevation and she was a bitch now. Rain hadn’t really done much but it didn’t take much to get Sheila riled. Something was up.

                “Now that we’re all friends I would honored to offer you a ride to class.” Sheila smiled.

                “Not necessary.” Rain declined. “It’s only down the hall.”

                “Oh please! I insist.” Sheila persisted still wearing that shit eating grin. Suddenly Tyler had an idea what was about to happen.

                “Sheila don’t!” he protested rushing toward Rain, but he was too late.

                In one moment Sheila snatched Rain in her palm and lifted her with ease into the air.

                “Put me dow-.“ Rain was cut off a she was shove abruptly into Sheila’s side pocket. She turned to face Tyler a sadistic smile plastered to her face.

                “You can’t just!”

                “There’s always room for one more Ty.” She gave him a malevolent wink.

                “Fuck.” He cursed again.

                Rain’s heart pounded with an intensity she’d never felt before. She could feel her temperature rise to match her anger. She’d been played way too easily. Her body tensed and vibrated in angry fervor.

                “You fucking bitch!” she screamed. Suddenly she was pressed against the rough fabric of Sheila’s pocket by what she assumed was her hand. She screamed again but her voice was now muffled by the new pressure. She could feel her heart rate rise and a sudden jolt ran through her body. Then her body went numb. What was happening to her?