“After they see my performance, they’ll be naming the tournament after me.” Mike said this with a conceited beam, staring directly into the mirror, his jaded friend sitting behind him.

                “Oh, get over yourself. Everyone else says the same thing. There are far too many rounds in the tournament to be calling yourself king already.” Aaron said.

                Mike adjusted the black bandana around his forehead. “I know half the people in this damn school. And I know for a fact that I have more hexes than any of the kids in this school do.”

                “It doesn’t matter how many magic skills you know,” Aaron shook his head in embarrassment. “What matters is that you can outcompete the opponents you’re given. You have a niche for maneuverability, so maybe you can climb up some walls. Great. What if your opponent uses a temperature alteration spell and it heats those walls up? All of a sudden, your little tricks are irrelevant…”

                Mike shook his head. “It’s all about mindset. If I can scare my opponent before we begin fighting, I’ve got the upper edge. Which is exactly why I’m testing my appearance ahead of time.”

                Mike began to apply the special body paint to his face. He was coating himself in black, from head to toe, his black clothes covering his black-painted body, and he was nearly done. He hoped the paint couldn’t melt or get washed off his body so easily, but it was a risk he was willing to take.  The competition wouldn’t be for a week anyway, this was simply a test run, and he’d be able to see what the paint would be able to endure so he could maintain his ostentatious appearance.

                “Were you going for a Dark Knight appearance? Because to me, you look like a brain-dead ant.”

                “Maybe I should be a flying ant. Because at least I’ve been practicing my levitation hex.” He looked back at Aaron with a smug expression.

                Aaron sighed and shook his head. Levitation was one of the most fundamental skills to learn and Aaron still couldn’t get it down. He looked back at his phone and continued playing a game.

                Mike took a long look at himself in the mirror and smiled. He did notice the resemblance of an insect, all he was missing was a couple of legs and the size. He was relatively proud of how threatening he thought he looked though, and smiled ear to ear. Mike turned around and waved to Aaron.

                “Hey, do you think I need a cool name to go along with my appearance? Maybe it should be a pun…or maybe based off of a famous figure.”

                Aaron looked back down at his phone, disinterested. “Maybe you should be spending more time practicing your spells, and less time thinking of some corny ass name for yourself. The competition’s in eight days.”

                “You are one big buzz kill. Why would I need to practice when even the dean fears me?”

                “He fears you because you have trouble controlling your damn magic! You’re just lucky they haven’t kicked you out of the school yet.” Aaron grunted.

                “Don’t be silly, I’ve been taking my pills. I’m ready for whatever they throw at me.”

---

                “How do I look, Brianna? Scary? Threatening? Dangerous?”

                “Idiotic.” She replied.

                Mike and Brianna were sitting with a group of people in the lunchroom, their conversation between only them. Aaron was trying his hardest to avoid Mike, leaning increasingly further from his edge of the table.

                Brianna was a beautiful girl that Mike had a bit of a crush on. He thought that his dominance was a turn-on to her, but in reality, she was the one who enjoyed being dominant. She was very anal about everything, desiring supremacy in every situation. This wasn’t uncommon for girls in the school; the unfriendly environment had trained them to be bumptious and domineering.

                She had light skin, not pale but not tanned. Her skin was very shiny, on her legs, arms and face—it reminded Mike of leather clothing. She had long blond hair, her hair split into two sections on her head, most of it hanging down and two curly strands in front of her face. It was amazing how she could be so beautiful with so little makeup on. Mike had to refrain from kissing her at every fleeting thought. She also was wearing a denim jacket with a white shirt underneath, her jeans cut at the knees, and a pair of black ankle combat boots. Her face made her look very feminine, while her clothing made her look like a tomboy.

                “Oh, come on Brianna. Even you have to know that appearance is half the battle.”

                “And the other half is to brag, right? Get over it, Mike. You’re not scaring anyone.” She laughed.

                “You just wait and see. Even Aaron told me that I looked threatening!”

                Aaron turned around in his seat towards Brianna. “I never said that.”

                Brianna smiled. “I know. I’ve never trusted a word he’s said anyway. He’s all talk and no do.”

                While Mike felt like he needed to take control of the situation, he somewhat enjoyed being insulted by Brianna. His dick twitched every time and he had a feeling that Brianna knew it, because there was a slight smirk that crawled across her face after every time.

                Mike shrugged and smiled. He continued poking at his lunch, dry and cold grade D peas and chicken nuggets, provided by the school. He pushed it aside and opened up his paper bag, a self-made peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The saran wrap stuck to it as he pulled it off, and he sat there thinking that anything that entered the school automatically became contaminated.

                Brianna sat there uneasy. She acted tough and condescending to Mike, but she knew he was better than he was. If he advanced in the first round, and she advanced in the first round, she would be facing Mike. While he was a complete idiot, he did have a strong arsenal of magic hexes that he could use against her, and she was sure that she would lose. Her diffident side kicked in, she fell painfully silent, imagining her embarrassing loss to a kid with the IQ of a jar of pickle juice. She needed to be dominant, and she needed to prevent such a scenario from happening.

                Before he could get the saran wrap off, she prepared a series of spells in her head, ones that she could execute without any noise at all. She knew a spell where she could alter the size of her victim. She couldn’t do it right here though, so she had a great spell to combine it with. She had recently studied an ability where she could make any object she choice a medium for passing on a spell. She could simply look at the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he was about to consume, and tag it with a shrinking spell. Once he touched it, he would shrink before her eyes. But she needed to make sure its effect was delayed, otherwise it would be very suspicious. She didn’t know if she would be able to execute it correctly, but it might be the only time she would see him until the competition—and she needed an early advantage in case they banned this ability in the competition. This was certainly cheating, but she was not concerned in that split second, the only thing that was important was eliminating her imminent threat.

                She took a chance, and as soon as the saran wrap was peeled off, she executed a series of spells in her head, staring directly at the sandwich, transferring her power to the sandwich. She included an extra spell in there where he would be unable to die if he were to get injured in his miniscule size. The power was transferred from her very eyes into the sandwich sitting in front of him, a faint glow from her eyes and then nothing at all. She twiddled with her hands under the table nervously, unsure if the delay effect would work properly.

                Mike quickly consumed the contaminated sandwich; the mere touch of his fingers against it should have triggered the effect. There was surely a delay, but it was not for as long as Brianna had hoped. She wanted it to take at least half an hour to kick in, giving her enough time to escape and him to be left by himself. Rather, it took around half a minute, his shrinking gradual and unnoticed by him.

                Her eyes widened and she realized that she would need to pack him away and get him out of there as fast as possible, before anyone noticed. Not many people look in his direction anyway, but it would be very suspicious and against the rules if she was caught tampering with her future opponent.

                She got up and scurried to the other side of the lunch table, positioning herself next to Mike, getting ready to secure him. She sat down, getting herself comfortable and smiled awkwardly at him. He looked back at her, his head tilting up.

                “Whoa, Brianna. Have you grown? You’re actually taller than I am right now, I never really noticed that.” said Mike.

                She giggled. “Y-yeah, I think I hit a growth spurt recently. Pretty funny how those things work, eh?”

                He was down to less than a meter tall already. She was amazed that he hadn’t yet realized what was going on. As she revolved her head in circles, she could see that no one was paying attention. She was a bit surprised because he was the only one in the cafeteria who was painted, but then again, the staring of fellow students probably died off right as they realized who was wearing it.

                After he fell to around 30 centimeters, he fully became aware of the fact that he was shrinking. He had no idea how it was happening, but his brain essentially went dead out of shock. He completely froze and tried shaking his head rapidly side to side, in an attempt to wake himself up. Only ten centimeters now, he was nearly hyperventilating. He looked up at his giant friend Brianna, who was looking down at him with concern. Then she surveyed the room again, ensuring that no one was looking in their direction.

                Once he hit five centimeters tall, she cupped him in her hands so no one could see him. She shoved him in her denim jacket pocket quickly, buttoning it closed and escaping the lunchroom. She knew that her own spells couldn’t affect her, so she quickly took the sandwich to prevent suspicion and reoccurrence among other students. She stood up and quickly escaped from the room, sweating from her forehead and almost tearing up.

                Mike slammed his fists onto the soft cloth that enclosed him in darkness. He started to yell, knowing very well that his friend had concealed his existence behind closed buttons. She did not react to it at all, her only actions that were heard was the scurrying of her combat boots on the tiled floor. He was down to two centimeters tall and finally stopped shrinking. He couldn’t reach the flap of the pocket anymore, a faint glow emanating from the crack into freedom. It was hopeless though, the fabric was too strong to break and the flap was too high to push. He slouched down despondently and got used to his bumpy ride. He didn’t even bother postulating what could have happened to him.

---

                He tried to drift off to sleep, but just after he shut his eyes, she opened her pocket. He tried to regain his composure in an attempt to spring out of her pocket, but her fingers encircled his body much too quickly. He couldn’t breathe as his face was shoved into her finger and his chest compressed between two of them. He quickly ascended into the air, wiggling his legs, trying to escape from her grip. He couldn’t help but open his mouth a little bit to get a taste of her fingers, and it was barely noticed by her. She dropped him gently in her palm.

                He sat up looking at her gargantuan face, staring down at him with concerned eyes. It extended past his field of vision, and while he dissimulated the feeling well, he was overwhelmed by fear. It was like a jolt of panic that shot down his spine, telling him either to curl up into fetal position or escape. He ignored the instinct and tried to act tough still.

                “What happened to me, Brianna?! This is fucking crazy, I don’t know if you did this, but you don’t know who you’re messing with. I need an explanation, what happens when my friends come looking for me? Are you tak…”

                She covered his mouth by placing her finger across it, shutting him up. Her finger extended from his mouth all the way down to his knees. At that moment, he realized how much bigger she truly was and how powerful she was. She constantly insulted him and loved to fight. She was even pretty muscular for her size, and dressed like a tomboy. He had no doubt that, while she might be being gentle now, she wouldn’t hesitate to squish him if he stepped out of bounds. He shut his mouth and kept it shut. He sat down with his knees sticking up, staring up at her with a coy face.

                “Please, be quiet.” She whispered. “I’ll explain everything. But you need to be obedient. I won’t hurt you.” She gave a slight smile. “Okay?”

                He began to nervously tremor, not in the slightest calmer than before, and gave an obedient nod.

                She smiled and began preparing a reasonable defense in her head. She wasn’t good at lying, she would typically prevaricate instead of lie because of her honest nature. But this was a huge exception to the rule. She cared too much about maintaining her own integrity to be honest. She also didn’t want to risk being kicked out of the competition.

                “So um…I noticed that you were shrinking down, so I sat next to you to make sure that I wasn’t just imagining this whole thing. I had to compare your size to mine. I was in so much shock that I couldn’t bear to say anything to you, my mind froze.” Brianna equivocated.

                “Why were you looking around everywhere?” Mike doubtfully protested.

                “I was…trying to see if anyone was trying to shrink you. I was looking around to see if anyone was using a spell on you, holing up behind a wall or something so they could manipulate you.”

                Mike put his head down trying to make sense of the situation. “Those bastards…why did you shove me in your pocket and run away?”

                She giggled nervously. “Isn’t it obvious? I needed to get you out of there as fast as possible. Whoever was shrinking you wasn’t going to stop. I needed to get you to shelter, away from danger.”

                Mike smiled. “Thanks… I guess I appreciate that.”

                Brianna smiled back, tilting her head to the side. There was a slight flaw in her plan though.

                Mike raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you have a size manipulation hex yourself? Couldn’t you grow me back to regular size?”

                Brianna readjusted her head and began to feel even more edgy. A nervous giggle again, a bite on the lip. “N-no, no. I have no such hex.”

                Mike squinted his eyes. “I remember you using it in class during a practice session. You shrank someone down and the teacher let you know that that was against the rules. You brought them back to regular size.”

                Brianna nodded. “Yeah, that was when I had full control of that hex. Ever since that incident, I stopped using it and I lost that ability forever. You need to keep a hex fresh in order to use it.” She was lying so badly right now, the rapid fire of spurious comments had upset her stomach.

                “You couldn’t try using it? I need to grow back to regular size, I don’t have time for this.”

                "Aww, but you’re so cute. All that paint makes you look like a little ant.” She became hoarse towards the end of her sentence. She coughed with her mouth shut to get it out.

                Mike just crossed his arms and looked up at her with stern eyes. He didn’t appreciate the joke.

                Brianna readjusted herself. “Sorry, just trying to brighten the mood. I’ll try to grow you back.”

                She focused on him hard, fixating her eyes directly on him and tensing her muscles. She made it look convincing, like she was giving an honest effort to regrow him. She couldn’t let that happen though, she’d come too far, so she decided not to call the spell to her mind. She simply moaned and tensed, her eyes becoming glazed over. She wasted around 20 seconds, Mike maintaining perfect eye contact with her, and then she sighed.

                “I can’t do it. I tried, but I can’t get the hex working.” She placed him on her bedside table. “We’re going to have to find another way.”

                Brianna had no idea what to do. She needed time to seriously think about how she would refrain him from escaping, but convince him that she was still on his side and wanted him back to regular size. She decided to let another lie slip from her mouth to give herself time adequate time to conceive a plan. She pulled out her phone and widened her eyes.

                “Man, I have class in five minutes. I’ll be back, just rest here and I’ll get you out of here at regular size.”

                Mike leaned back against her lamp. “Okay, I’ll be waiting here.”

                She quickly picked up a plastic dixie cup from her floor and trapped him under it. She took a switchblade out of her pocket and flicked it open with her thumb. She poked a few holes into it to supply him with air.

                “What’s this cup for?” Mike became a little aggressive.

                Brianna paused and thought of a lie. “My roommate should be coming back soon. I don’t want her to see you like this. You’ll be safe under there.”

                Before Mike could let another word out, Brianna scurried out of the room. She picked up her backpack and slammed her door shut. Mike was left sitting there, trusting her mendacious words, hoping that Brianna would return before her roommate. He got comfortable, propping his body up against the cup, and attempted to rest for what lied ahead.