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Story Notes:

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Author's Chapter Notes:

A short intro for our short protaginist!

 

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Alex paced back and forth, glancing impatiently at the clock as it ticked silently on the wall. Any moment now, and the front door would burst open. Any moment...

The minute hand nudged forward, pointed squarely between the digits of the number twelve on the clock face. As if on cue, the knob on the front door rattled, jiggling open and letting a wall of morning sunlight pour down the hallway. Beams of light just barely reached the edge of the countertop, reflecting off the polished granite surface and making Alex squint slightly at the illumination.

“Alex!” A shrill voice cracked through the hallway, followed by the rapid thumping of shoes on a hardwood floor. “You ready?”

Alex winced slightly at the sound, knowing what was behind the whirlwind of footsteps and feminine laughter. A girl rounded the corner of the hallway, thigh high stockings sliding on the hardwood floor as the girl’s momentum tugged her into the room.

“Hey Lily,” Alex said, watching the girl’s hair swirl about her face as she skidded to a stop. Platinum blonde streaks rippled through the otherwise brown wavy hair, the ends brushing against Lily’s shoulders as she bounced on her tiptoes. A slender hand extended out to the countertop, fingernails clicking gently against the surface as Lily smiled.

“C’mon, Alex, we’re gonna be late!” Lily’s excitement for school carried through in her voice, though it was not a joy shared by Alex. She had won the genetic lottery, carrying the one-in-a-million mutation that left her stranded at one inch tall when she was only eight. Everyday tasks became a daunting challenge overnight for Alex. Things like going to school, being with peers who were suddenly hundreds of times her size, and the inevitable drama that came with high school and teenagers. The fact that the mutation made her quite resilient to physical harm was a small comfort to Alex as she suffered through ten years of bullying at her previous school. She silently hoped that her senior year would be different, now that she had been relocated to another district over the summer, along with a handful of friends she felt comfortable around. One of them being Lily, her next door neighbor.

Alex sighed and shrugged her minuscule backpack higher onto her shoulder, then hopped up onto Lily’s waiting palm. The sense of vertigo from being hoisted into the air had almost become second nature to her when she was around Lily. Though the girl was easily the smartest kid in any class, Alex wondered if the platinum blonde streaks in her otherwise brown hair was a sign of Lily’s occasional forgetfulness around her. She smirked at the thought, and reclined against the curved surface of Lily’s cupped palm. The sound of the door latching shut, followed by the low rumble of the bus filled Alex’s ears, her view eclipsed by Lily’s dainty fingers.

Lily stepped onto the bus, and worked her way to the back rows of seats. She shielded Alex with both hands, trying herself to ignore the confused glances coming her way from some of the students already seated. Her rear collided with the seat just as the bus lurched into gear, sending a jolt through Lily and her miniature companion.

Alex glanced up at Lily as the diesel engine grumbled along, sending subtle vibrations through the skin she rested against. Small details like this were usually tuned out by people, but at Alex’s size, even the softest whisper was amplified, sometimes giving her a feeling of sensory overload. She closed her eyes and gathered a deep breath into her lungs, exhaling slowly as she felt her heartbeat over the rhythmic rumble of the bus.

“One more year,” she muttered to herself as the bus pulled into the school parking lot.

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