By the time class ended the rain had stopped, but the smell of moisture clung to the air. Feeling more confident, Elaine had opted to leave her jacket unzipped, allowing Hebe to see the campus clearly for the first time as they swung back and forth from their jacket pocket. Elaine had to take extra care as Hebe leaned out and held onto her bra strap for support, but she didn’t want to stifle her friend’s bewilderment. The two crossed the main pavilion of their campus to the courtyard, in the middle of which was a small fountain surrounded by newly blooming tulips.

              “Can we go to the fountain?” asked Hebe excitedly. They had twenty or so minutes before their calculus lecture started, so Elaine couldn’t see why not. She walked through the grass over to the fixture and squatted down. Carefully, she took Hebe from her jacket pocket and removed her jacket, placing it beneath her to sit on. She took off her shoes and socks to feel the grass beneath her toes as she sat and watched Hebe explore.

              Hebe had explored the grass in front of their apartment, but this grass was different. It was denser, greener, and was short and uniform enough that it barely reached their waist. Because of its density, they had to hike their legs up a bit farther with each step toward the tulips, but it wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle. Elaine watched from above, grinning at how much fun Hebe was having, but ready to intervene at any moment should something happen.

              Ever since Elaine and Hebe met, the two had been inseparable. Elaine was always a natural at the gentle care required around Hebe. The foster program had cruelly forced Hebe to go to a normal school despite the dangers (Elaine secretly suspected that the fosters had hoped to get rid of Hebe, but it wasn’t a thought that should be entertained). Ever since then, she had acted as Hebe’s de facto caretaker. She had hidden Hebe in her room all through middle and high school, and once she was of age, they moved out together.

              “Check it out!” Hebe’s tiny shout woke Elaine from her train of thought. Hebe had found an orange tulip petal that had fallen to the earth and was wearing it like a cape. Elaine giggled and reached out for Elaine to join her on her hand.

              “That’s adorable, it looks great on you!” Elaine said with admiration in her voice. Despite Hebe’s size, or perhaps because of it, they were much more adventurous and outgoing than Elaine, who was an introverted home-body. The two complemented each other well. “Hurry up, we gotta get to class.”

. . .

              The two entered the stuffy math building. It wasn’t like the open concept floors of the Liberal Arts building. Quite the opposite: the hall was lit by flickering fluorescent lights, and the ceiling was made of the weird white foamy squares that make up the ceiling of most things built in the seventies. “God,” said Elaine, “we’re gonna die of asbestos in here.”

              Hebe quoted in their best TV voice: “If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may be entitled to substantial financial compensation.” The two had a good laugh at that while Elaine walked through the seemingly labyrinthine narrow hallways and up the concrete staircase.

              “Seven… thirty three!” Elaine said as she found the correct room number and opened the door. Inside a few students were already sitting at their tables, mostly too invested in their phones to look up. The classroom was small and stuffy like the rest of the building. The tables were set up with four chairs at each in a square facing each other. At the front of the classroom was an old chalkboard that hadn’t been cleaned properly in a while. Elaine sat at the only table with another girl and set up Hebe’s little corner as they waited for the professor to come in.

              Exactly two minutes before class was scheduled to start, a graduate student appearing to be in her mid to late twenties came into the room holding stacks of paper and books. She looked frazzled and rushed as she threw things down on her desk and wrote her name and the class number on the board. As she made the last stroke with the chalk, she spoke up.

              “Hey class, I’m Anne Schubert, pronounced Shoe-Bear. I’m a math grad student here at CU, I’ll be teaching Calc 1 for you this semester. Sorry for the rushed entrance, beginning of semester is always crazy,” she said breathlessly, and started sorting the papers into piles. She combed her short pixie-cut brown hair with her bright red fingernails before gesturing for the class to come pick up the papers on the desk.

              After everyone had gotten their syllabi and worksheets (Elaine took two of each), Anne gave the class directions. “Don’t get too comfortable,” she said, “I’m gonna randomly split you up into groups for the first couple days, after that you can pick wherever you want. To prevent cliques and shit like that.”

              Elaine looked around and asked quietly, “Uh, ma’am… What should I do about…” she pointed toward Hebe. Everyone in the room looked confused: the only person who could see them was Elaine. Anne’s eyes lit up with recognition.

              “Right, right…” she said. “You can just leave them there. I’ll have you go to that table of three.”

              Elaine began to object, but Anne had already begun directing students to different groups and explaining the worksheet.

              “Keeping it simple this week,” she said as she wrote a couple simple pre-solved equations on the board, “just want you to prove these equations are true. There’s more than one right answer, so get creative.” She turned around and saw that Elaine was standing frozen by her original seat. “Ma’am, could you please take your seat?” she said, pointing to the desk she had directed Elaine to earlier. “Why don’t y’all start by saying your name, major, and a fun fact or something, I don’t know.”

              Hebe and Elaine looked at each other nervously. Elaine mouthed the word “sorry” to Hebe before moving to the other side of the room. Hebe was nervous, but they knew they’d have to do something like this at some point. They pushed over the plastic desk divider with some effort and made their way forward so the other classmates could see them.

              In all the commotion, two others had taken a seat at the pod along with the girl who was there before Hebe came in. One by one they introduced themselves to each other, not noticing Hebe at first.

              “Hey, I’m Hal,” the first spoke up. “Uhh I’m a music tech major, and fun fact… I speak Korean, I guess.” Hal was an asian man with straight short black hair. He was wearing a generic grey hoodie, and didn't seem awfully energetic.

              “That’s so cool!” one of the other newcomers spoke up, twirling her incredibly curly blonde hair. “Do you speak it at home?”
              “Yeah,” he responded, “my parents grew up in south Korea. We moved here when I was like six.”

              “Fun!” she said, before introducing herself. “I’m Maria, I’m a game design major, and uhhh… I’m on the top ten leaderboard for the world record speedrun of Super Metroid.” Everyone at the table was silent at that. “Okayyyy uhh, I make my own cheese at home?” Again, nothing.

              The student who had been there first broke the awkward silence. “I’m Rose,” she said in a bored tone, “uhh I do computer shit, annnnd my dad’s in prison for tax fraud.”

              “Niiiiice,” said Hal, extending his hand for a fistbump. Rose looked at his fist, and then him, with something akin to disgust. He was left hanging.

              “Uhm,” Hebe said, trying make themself heard, “I’m Hebe?” they said, obviously unsure of themself.

              At first everyone at the table looked around to see where the voice had come from, before Maria noticed them. “Oh! Sorry, we didn’t see you. Can you repeat that?”

              “I’m Hebe,” they said, yelling slightly now. “I’m undeclared, but I’m thinking science writing. As for a fun fact… I mean-“ they gestured at their body, indicating their size, “is this interesting enough?” Judging from the group’s response, it was not all that interesting. Hebe presumed they had been forewarned about Hebe’s presence. They opened up the worksheet and started discussing strategy.

              Hebe tried to participate, but their small voice was overpowered by the voices of the giants towering above them.

              "Are we sure these are actually correct?" asked Hal.

              "I don't think the professor would give us a trick question on the first day of class," responded Maria, scratching her scalp with a pencil.

              Rose didn't seem interested in participating. Hebe could see her scribbling nonsense on her paper and she was chewing gum loudly.

              Hebe attempted to chime in. "I think if we start by setting the variables equal to each other, we can work backwards from-"

              "Try like moving all the variables to one side," Hal said, seemingly unaware that Hebe was talking.

              Hebe huffed and stood up. They were becoming frustrated that they weren't being heard. In an attempt to be more audible, they picked up their things and moved closer to the center of the cluster of desks, but just as they passed Rose’s right arm, Rose flipped the page of her packet and sent Hebe tumbling down over to the side of the table, and Hebe’s legs went tumbling over the side. They tried to find something to hold onto, but the rounded edges of the plastic desks proved to be too slippery to hold, and Hebe found themself falling toward the floor. They started swinging their arms around in their disoriented state, desperate for something to grab onto. They managed to grab hold of Rose’s red-and-black flannel shirt, which she had taken off and draped over the sides of her seat.

              “Uh, guys?” shouted Hebe. “Help!” No one at the table appeared to hear their missing classmate, or even notice that they were gone at all. Hebe was forced to take stock of their situation. They were very athletic (you have to be at that size, just to get around), but as they looked up the sleeve of the shirt, they were certain there was no way they’d make it all the way up: the fabric was already difficult to grab on to. Hebe looked around, desperate for something to swing to, but found nothing. Finally their grip began to slip, and they realized their only way out was down. Hebe gripped the shirt with their arm as securely as they could and began to make the descent, sliding down bit by bit. It was going smoothly at first… but about midway through, Hebe felt the sleeve of the shirt start to move.

              They looked up. Rose had put her pencil down and was pulling on the back of the shirt that Hebe was hanging from, presumably to put it back on. The sleeve was jerked from their grip and Hebe tumbled further toward the ground and landed by Rose’s feet.

              Hebe was dazed for a moment, but quickly got their bearings. They had made it most of the way to the ground in their climb, and they had become used to falls like that. They stood up and looked around their new environment. Directly above, Rose’s tight light-blue jeans were bouncing up and down with her leg. Hebe moved away from Rose’s Adidas just in case her foot happened to move. They looked around the underside of the table, trying to gain an understanding of where exactly they had landed. They identified that to their right sat Hal: his long lanky legs were outstretched so far that they nearly reached the seat where Elaine had been sitting before. Hebe identified him by his purple high-tops. Looking past his long legs, Hebe saw a pair of clean black flats, and rising from them were pale white legs. By process of elimination, Hebe identified them as belonging to Maria.

              Now that Hebe had identified their options, it was time to form an escape plan. In front of them, the heels of the purple high-tops were resting with the toe of each shoe in the air. These looked easier to climb than the others, but with the length of Hal’s legs, it would be a much longer journey, and Hebe wasn't sure they’d make it before class ended. They made note and kept looking. Maria was the shortest and least fidgety, but she was wearing shorts, and her legs were clean-shaven which would make them near impossible to climb.

              That left her with the fidgety, and proven to be absentminded, Rose. Her Adidas would be okay to climb if they would just stop bouncing for a second, and her neon green socks wouldn’t be a problem either. Hebe reckoned they could reach the hem of Rose’s jeans from there.

              Plan in mind, Hebe took a deep breath and cautiously moved toward Rose’s bouncing left foot. The toe of her shoe rested on the ground, while the sole and heel were rising and falling erratically with the motion of her leg.

              Hebe was now close enough to touch Rose’s shoe. They looked up to plan their ascent along the inline of Rose’s jeans. Hebe looked up along the seemingly endless legs, and as their eyes reached the top, they made eye contact with Rose. Hebe was saved! They waved and yelled frantically to get Rose’s attention, but Rose didn’t react. She just kept staring.

              Hebe grew more and more concerned at Rose’s lack of reaction. Feeling defeated, they began to move toward Hal’s long legs. But when they started walking, they heard a loud stomp and were knocked backwards by a gust of wind. When they opened their eyes, they found that a large Adidas shoe blocked their way. They looked up, past the neon socks and endless light-blue jeans to meet Rose’s eyes again. It was clear to Hebe now that Rose actually had noticed her, but had no intention of helping her.

              Hebe, not knowing what to do, panicked and began to run. But everywhere they ran, they found their path blocked by a white Adidas. Rose moved much faster than Hebe could hope to, but Hebe was too panicked to think about that. They were running for their life, and running out of breath, but Rose’s smallest movement of her leg thwarted every effort to escape.

              After what felt like hours, Hebe was slowing down. They didn’t know if they could keep this up for much longer. In their frantic scurrying, they tripped over a loop in the carpet and fell flat on their back. Panting, they tried to force themself to get up, but their legs screamed in protest.

              Rose saw that her plaything had run out of steam and used the tip of her right shoe to take off her left. She moved her gigantic neon-socked foot back next to Hebe, and raised it above them, flexing her toes.

              Hebe saw all of this but was powerless to do anything about it. As Rose raised her foot above them, the light filtered through her sock, revealing the silhouettes of long toes, scrunching in anticipation of their prey. In one last escape attempt, Hebe pushed themself up with the strength remaining in their arms and began to crawl away, but their efforts were in vein as they felt a moist and immensely heavy object press down on their back.

              Rose was now completely ignoring the other two at her table and was enjoying the struggles of her tiny classmate against the sole of her foot. Her eyes glossed over with enjoyment as she gazed down at her toy while the other two finished out their worksheets. Rose didn’t apply more pressure than she thought Hebe could take, but each movement Hebe made excited Rose more. She pressed down and released repeatedly with the ball of her foot, occasionally twisting slightly. She closed her eyes and focused on the sensation of Hebe’s movements.

              Hebe was pressing up on Rose’s foot with all their might, but it yielded nothing. The pressure was gradually increasing, and Hebe wasn’t sure how much more they could take. They would occasionally try to squirm to the side to escape, but the neon ankle sock would follow them without fail. Rose’s gargantuan foot moved up and down Hebe’s body. They struggled against the pressure of Rose’s toes. Occasionally they could move one of them, but it would just push back with even more force a moment later. Rose then slid her foot forward and grinded Hebe into the rough carpet with the soft ball of her foot. Rose, feeling that Hebe could take more pressure than she had expected, moved her foot forward more to let the weight of her heel rest on Hebe’s back. She gradually applied more and more pressure, but to her surprise and glee, Hebe kept pushing back against Rose’s heel.

              Just when Hebe felt they were about to suffocate, they felt the pressure on their back release. They rolled over to see Rose’s long fingers extending to capture them, but they had no energy left to resist. Rose picked Hebe up between thumb and forefinger and brought them up. Hebe thought Rose had finally decided to release them, but found that when Rose’s hand stopped moving, it was above her own empty Adidas shoe.

              Rose could feel Hebe’s movements slowing and weakening, and she didn’t want to kill the poor thing, but she did want to keep it. When Hebe’s movements finally came to a halt, Rose quickly snatched up her prey. Just as she was about to claim her prize, she saw students at the other tables standing up. Afraid to get caught, Rose quickly brought Hebe’s face right next to her lips. “Don’t you dare say a fuckin’ word, you got it?” she threatened. Hebe nodded feverishly, and Rose placed Hebe down by their original workspace and packed up quickly before Elaine came over to pick up her friend.

              Hebe allowed themself a moment of rest, letting their eyes remain closed for an extra second. As they saw Elaine approach, they looked toward Rose who was leaving. Rose made meaningful eye contact just before exiting the room, a glance that said “I could do worse if you narc.” Hebe stood up despite the exhaustion in their legs and examined themself. As far as they could tell, there were no injuries, other than maybe a few bruises on their arms and legs. They felt strangely impressed by their unexpected fortitude but didn’t have too much time to think about it before Elaine poked them on the back to get their attention.

              “Hey stranger, how was class?” Elaine asked in a cheerful voice, but she pulled her finger away in surprise. “Eww, why are you like, sweaty?” She examined Hebe more closely. “And why are you out of breath.”
              Hebe thought about what Rose had said, and the cold glare of her brown eyes was burned into Hebe’s mind. “Oh, it’s nothing. Math is hard, y’know!”

              “Uhh, okay weirdo. Here, hop on. It’s time for lunch!” Elaine extended her hand and Hebe happily obliged, glad to feel the warmth of someone who wasn’t smothering them.

              As the two walked toward the cafeteria, Hebe had a silent de-brief of sorts with themself. What had just happened? Why had Rose acted that way? Was this something that was common with normal size folks? What could Rose do if Hebe snitched? What would snitching even accomplish? None of these questions had immediately obvious answers as far as Hebe could tell. But they knew one thing for sure: nothing was going to stop them from coming back to school. They had been waiting to finally experience the outside world for years, and one creep’s crush (aha, nice) wasn’t going to stop them. They also had to think about Elaine. Hebe knew she would never forgive herself if she found out what had happened while she was away. If she knew, she might drop out, and make Hebe come with her, and Hebe didn’t want to crush Elaine’s dreams just because of a mishap. Hebe decided to keep it to themself for now.