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Monday, November 2

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     Monday morning signaled a return back to the regular schedule for Marcus and Jessie. The young girl’s father had all but forgotten about what had happened on Tuesday just under a week ago, when Jessie had gotten drunk and initially tried to hide it from him. But they had seemingly moved on, forgiven and forgotten. And after letting Jessie take him trick-or-treating on Saturday night, and then eventually bring him along to Veronica’s party, it seemed fairly evident that she pretty much was no longer grounded.

     So when he mentioned that he was going to be taking her to school again today (which was a good excuse for him to wake up early anyways), she took it a step further and asked if he could take her to Starbucks on the way. “Sure, if you’re gonna pay for it, right?” was his response as they pulled out of their driveway.

     “Yeah, of course Daddy, but what if in addition to me paying for it, you also raise my allowance by 4 bucks too?” she asked with a smirk, and he chuckled at her comeback.

     “Well you already get 15 dollars a week, so an extra 4 dollars would be like a 30% raise. Which is a lot more than I ever got at my old job!” he said with a laugh. Obviously 4 dollars wasn’t a lot, but considering this was basically free money she was getting just so she could practice basic financial literacy and spending money wisely, it wasn’t bad for someone her age.

     “Yeaaaaah, Daddy, but like… OK, what if, instead of you raising my allowance, you just bought the coffee for me,” she said with a cheesy grin, trying to appeal to him with her puppy dog demeanor instead. “I’m not old enough to get a job even if I wanted to, but I do help out around the house with things you can’t do.”

     “Those are called chores, Jess. You don’t get a reward for doing what you’re supposed to as a part of the family.”

     “Why not?” she challenged. He glanced over to her, and he could tell she honestly wanted to know, and wasn’t just arguing with him for the sake of rebelliousness. And admittedly, he couldn’t think of an immediate answer. Because ‘that’s the way it’s always been’ isn’t a really good response. And ‘because I said so’ isn’t any better. “We learned about something like that in science class last week when they were talking about experiments they did on rats and stuff,” she continued. “It’s called positive reinforcement I think. Or positive… something. Anyway, anytime the rats did something good, they would give them a little bit of cheese, and then the rats learned to step on the button or whatever and they’d get their food. But Ms. Yao was saying there are all these like, real world applications, like how being paid at a job is a kind of positive reinforcement because you do a good, and then they pay you, and if you do bad then they fire you so you wanna do a good job so you keep making money. Or when a crowd cheers at a football game, it helps motivate the team to play better. I mean, if you think about it, you already do it with me, kinda like her example with someone’s job. Because I get my allowance every week, right? But if I get grounded or do something wrong and you have to punish me, then you take it away. So I’m encouraged to have a good behavior because I know that I’ll like, keep phone privileges and get my allowance and stuff like that every week.” She looked to him to see what he thought of her little speech, and he glanced at her again, but with his eyebrows raised this time. He was impressed. Shit, she’s starting to get pretty smart. I’ve gotta admit, I think she’s right.

     “So you’re saying you wanna be a rat then?” he finally said, and broke out into laughter as his daughter facepalmed and groaned at him purposefully having skipped over the point entirely. They pulled into the Starbucks drive-thru as Jessie looked back up with a more serious face, although with the hint of a smile on the edge of her lips.

     “If it means getting a free coffee, then sure, I’d love to be a rat.” Now Marcus was the one rolling his eyes as she giggled, but went on with her point. “You already buy my clothes and toiletries and other stuff. This is just coffee, it’s not like you’re actually paying me like a salary or anything for helping out around the house, that wasn’t what I meant.” The car ahead of them moved forward, so Marcus rolled down his window as he pulled up to the sign so she could order. The barista greeted her though the speaker, but Marcus interjected before she could make her order.

     “OK, fine, I’ll get you your coffee,” he whispered, and she silently cheered to herself her fists before giving her dad a quick hug.

     “Thank you thank you thank you!” she quietly squealed.

     “But remember, this is a privilege,” he replied. “Your clothes are necessary, but this something you’ve earned, so I’ll take it away if I need to. Sound good?” She nodded up and down approvingly; it sounded fair to her. “And I’m only paying for a tall, anything bigger you can buy yourself.” More nods of agreement. “Alright, you can order now,” he said, and her joyful spirit returned, putting a smile on his face at seeing her so giddy already before her caffeine.

     “Hi, can I get a tall matcha green tea latte,” she proudly proclaimed.

     “Sure, anything else?” the man on the other end replied.

     “That’s it!”

     “Great, that’ll be $4.24 at the next window.”

     “Thanks!” With a content smile on her face, Jessie sat back as Marcus pulled ahead. She always got a satisfying feeling whenever she was able to convince her dad to buy her things.

*    *    *    *    *    *

     Later that day, Marcus was waiting in the parking lot of her school, as he had also agreed to picking her up since he had plenty of free time. So after her practice, she came up to his car and shrugged off her gym bag and backpack in the backseat. But looking at her in the rear view mirror, it seemed like something was off. Not in the way she was acting, she seemed to be in a good mood, so practice must’ve gone well. But it looked like something was on her neck…

     “Hi Daddy,” she chirped, hopping into the passenger seat as he started up the car, “thanks for picking me up.”

     “Hey hun…” He was practically staring at her neck as she got in though, and she hadn’t even buckled in her seatbelt by the time she noticed he was looking at her funny.

     “Uh… everything OK?” she asked, and he furrowed his eyebrows.

     “Everything’s fine with me Jess, is everything OK with you though?” He was pretty confident he knew what he was looking at, but he didn’t want to accuse her of anything again without asking some questions first. “Did practice go okay, did you get injured at all?”

     She shrugged, “No. I mean, yeah, it went fine and no I didn’t get hurt.” She returned his quizzical look. “Daddy, it’s obvious something’s wrong, what is it? Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

     Marcus sighed, “Well, I don’t wanna accuse you of anything, but there’s some kind of bruise on your neck, and it looks like a hickey.”

     Her eyes immediately grew to the size of saucepans, with panic overtaking her expression. “Oh my god, are you serious? Wait, really?” She quickly fumbled for her phone and opened up the camera, but couldn’t see anything right away. So then she folded the sun visor down to see herself in the mirror, while leaning forward and holding up the camera behind her neck. Now it was visible. Seeing her screen in the mirror’s reflection, she could make out red and purple discoloring on the are where her shoulder met the backside of her neck. “FUCK! I can’t believe that’s been there all practice, oh my god, why did nobody mention it to me!” She slid further into her seat and practically curled up into a ball, hiding her face between her legs in embarrassment.

     “So… it is a hickey?” Marcus asked. She silently nodded, still keeping her head buried between her legs that were wrapped up in her arms. “I was… UGH, I can’t believe I’m about to tell you this… but I was like, flirting with one of the boys at Veronica’s party on Halloween, and then we were texting some of yesterday but I don’t have any classes with him this semester. But then I saw him after school and he like…” she sighed out of exasperation. “I don’t even wanna— this is so awkward, Daddy… I literally, just like…” She let out a muffled scream into her hands. “AHH, and I can’t believe nobody told me!”

     He had to keep himself from laughing at how much his daughter was freaking out over a hickey. He felt bad for her, of course, but he knew she was good at makeup, and would be able to hide it until it went away in a few days. That’s what his girlfriend did in high school when he gave her one, and back then she seemed more annoyed than embarrassed. “Jess, I’m not mad at you if that’s what you were thinking, I just wanted to make sure you were OK. You don’t have to tell me the details, I don’t need to know. And tomorrow morning I can help you put some concealer on it if you can’t reach behind there yourself, it doesn’t look that dark.” He wasn’t mad, but he was still surprised. He had had “the talk” with Jessie before, but he didn’t know when she’d start growing into that part of herself, or if she had already.

     His daughter sighed, but collapsed her little ball of shame and sagged in her seat, reluctantly putting on her seatbelt. “Whatever. I guess.” He grimaced with a tinge of a smile as he pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto the main roads. She stared out the window, and he wished he was still big enough to be able to reach over and rub her back. I guess she’s getting to that point though. I’m surprised at how quickly she’s grown up. Here was his daughter, starting to kiss and lightly mess around with boys, and after over a decade of dozens of hopeless dates and short-stinted relationships, he was still single himself. It put a pang of hurt in his heart, especially knowing how much harder it would be to find someone at his size. What if I never find someone? That thought scared him, and he glanced over at his daughter again, memories of her growing up over the years flashing by in his head. But I’ll always have her though. And I wouldn’t trade anything in the world to have it any other way.

*    *    *    *    *    *

     “You know, Claire asked me something kinda like, interesting today before practice,” Jessie mentioned as she tossed her backpack and gym bag into her room, referring to one of her volleyball teammates. Marcus had picked her up from school again today, and they’d just gotten home. “She wanted to know if we’ve ever wrestled before,” she said, grabbing a carton of juice from the fridge and pouring herself a cup, hungrily gulping it down while she looked to gauge her dad’s reaction.

     “Uh… wrestled? You mean like after I shrunk?” Jessie nodded and set down her glass while Marcus mulled over the question. “Well, does she know how short I am?” he chuckled. Most people with DSD lost less than a foot of their height, but he’d lost more than half. It made him a minority case in an already minority population.

     “Yeah yeah, I told her,” she shrugged with a smile. “Apparently one of her cousins developed it as a baby, so at family reunions all the other kids would wrestle with him. Like even though he was smaller than them, apparently he won a couple times because he was older so he had like, strategy and was a bit smarter and stuff. Like David and Goliath.” 

     “I can only imagine why you’d be bringing this up,” he smirked, knowing plenty well where this conversation was about to end up.

     “She was the one who asked me!” Jessie insisted, defending herself. But after a few moments, continued, “Yeah though, it kinda made me curious.” 

     Marcus tilted his head to the side like an amped up TV wrestler, widening his eyes with faux craziness as he approached his daughter with an exaggerated strut. “Oh, so you think you can take me then?” he asked, lowering his voice while staring up at his daughter, putting on an animated personality while she bit her lip to keep herself from laughing at her dad. “You think you… can take me?!” he repeated, and shoved his arms against her thighs, attempting to shove her backwards. But she didn’t even budge, and the look on his face fell as he realized what he was up against. To him, she weighed as much as an 800 pound monster, but bundled up in the appearance of a teenage girl. But it was too late for him to back out now; he had already instigated a rivalry with his daughter, and she dawned a coy smile, cracking her knuckles as she slowly stepped toward him. “Oh… crap. Now that I already committed, I have to go through with this, right?” She giggled and silently nodded her head up and down. “And I can’t back out now and change my mind?” A head shake from the young giantess.

     “Hey, you could win,” she said. “I dunno how, but you’re not that small.”

     Marcus rolled his eyes, Oh yeah, I’m ‘only’ two and a half feet tall, big whoop. “You really believe I could take you down? Your friend’s cousin was probably playing against kids, and even then you said they didn’t win all the time. And you’re probably better at wrestling than a child.” 

     “Technically I am a child,” she said, and ushered him towards the living room, where the floor was carpeted and there was more space. 

     He sighed and followed her guiding hands to the other room. “You know what I mean, no need to make this any more humiliating for me.” 

     “And no,” Jessie continued, “I think I can beat you pretty easily. So I guess this is like more for me to see how fast I can win, instead of just if I can. But how about, to make it a bit more fair, I can only use one arm.” She tucked her left arm behind her back and got onto her knees. “And I have to play on my knees.”

     “And I only have to knock you over. But you still have to fully pin me down.” Marcus thought that his additions would make it more fair. “Even with all that, you’ll still probably beat me, but at least it’ll be a little more fair.”

     Jessie shrugged her shoulders, “You’re right, I probably will still beat you.” She grinned and widened her legs apart, solidifying her knees’ stance, and held her arm out as menacingly as a single arm can be. Which, to her miniature father, was pretty menacing. “You ready?” Marcus nodded, bending his own knees so he was in a ready position. 

     They just sort of stood there for a few moments, each waiting for the other to make the first move. “You know, the longer you wait to attack, the longer I can say I lasted against you,” he said. Jessie grumbled and stomped forward on her knees, swiping towards his body with her free arm. But he dodged out of the way, towards the left side of her body where her other arm was held against her back. Unable to reach him with her other arm, she started to turn around, but not before Marcus charged forward and slammed into her side. And to both of their surprise, it was with enough force that she began falling to her side—until she whipped her hand towards the floor and steadied herself before fully toppling over. Shit, he thought. But at least I know I can do it. That was probably my best chance though. Taking their match more seriously now, Jessie suddenly lifted her left leg into the air and spun on her right kneecap, pivoting her body around so her leg flew over her dad’s head. Then she bent her knee 90 degrees and boomeranged it back towards her dad, her calf catching against his backside and send him falling forward towards the ground. Glancing behind her to make sure she could see what she was doing, she rolled onto her side and shimmied back more, aiming to catch his head in a leg lock. “Wait…” he began to say, before her leg wrapped behind him again and pushed him closer to her, knocking him over once more. But this time he fell into one of his daughter’s thighs. Wasting no time, she positioned each of them around his neck. Well, that was her goal anyways. Because of how small he was, the end result was more of his neck and his head being suddenly squeezed together by Jessie’s bare legs, as one of them bent behind his head to ensure he was properly locked in. The only thing that took up his view was his daughter’s upper legs and butt, with their living room in his peripheral, except angled sideways from the two wrestling on their sides on the floor. Because his neck wasn’t long enough, his daughter couldn’t actually cut off his oxygen supply with her legs since they couldn’t fit in the half-sized nook between his shoulders and his head, which was the only thing keeping him breathing. But as her soft, pale thighs pressed against the sides of his face nonetheless, he was hopelessly trapped in. 

     If she’s flexible enough with her back legs, she’d be able to keep tightening her lock and maybe even push me up against her butt. She was supposed to be standing on her knees though, this sideways-wrestling isn’t fair because it’s physically impossible for me to do anything to her, that was why I just had to knock her over. He scowled, Why do kids always forget the rules? “I said wait…” he managed to say. “You were… supposed to be… on your knees…” He could breathe mostly fine, but all the squirming around he was doing to try and escape his daughter’s vice-like leg lock was making it hard to talk straight. “This wasn’t what… we agreed… to…” He knew Jessie was strong, but the years and years of playing sports had really made her impressively strong. He didn’t want to call his daughter ‘thick,’ but it was clear from the muscles flexing within the trunk-like thighs on his face that she was incredibly fit to say the least. If she’s this much stronger than me at only 13… His mind started to imagine what she’d look like in college, after a possible decade of playing volleyball and continuing to grow taller and bigger while he stayed merely two and a half feet tall.

     But she heeded his complaints, and released her dad from the bind of her legs. “You’re right, sorry Daddy, I forgot.” She took a deep breath and sat upright again, but this time on her butt, so her legs were stretched out in front of her instead of behind. “It kinda hurts to play on my knees, can I do it this way instead?” 

     Initially Marcus thought she might be giving herself an advantage, before he thought a little more about it. If I just have to knock over her torso instead of her torso and the top half of her legs, that means a lot less weight to have to topple. Plus I only came up to her upper chest before, but now we’re more eye level. So I can tackle her from higher up, which helps me out momentum wise because it’s further from her center of gravity…

     Right? He didn’t actually know if his science was adding up, but it sounded about right to him. The first part, of him needing to knock down less weight, was definitely true at least. He was confident of that much. “Alright, sure. I think that’d still be fair, yeah.” He walked back around to his starting position and assumed his former stance. “Ready?”

     “I’m not charging first when I have to hop everywhere on my butt now,” she laughed, looking down at her predicament. 

     Marcus smiled but rolled his eyes, “Fine.” Skirting to the right, and then the left, his daughter’s gaze followed him, her arm always at the ready. Deciding he had come pretty close last round and it was worth trying that strategy again, he ran towards her left side, where she wasn’t able to use her arm. But Jessie had figured he’d try that move again because of his near success, and suddenly pushed with her feet and spun clockwise, expecting him to maybe try pushing her over from behind. Reaching behind her with her right arm, she was able to twist herself and catch him in his tracks. He attempted to duck out of the way from her arm swinging overhead, but it just swooped down along with him, and as her body continued to contort towards his direction, she caught him under her arm. Once again his head fell prey to one of her limbs, as she gripped it between her side and upper arm. Then her hand was able to grab at one of his legs and push it upwards, sending his face into her armpit. He was immediately greeted with the leftover stench from her recent practice that day. “Ugh, mmmph” he mumbled, struggling to push himself out from her armpit’s grip. But much like with her leg lock, escaping his daughter’s grasp was hopeless once she got a secure hold over him. She giggled at his attempts for freedom, and pushed upwards with her hand again, sliding his face so deep into her pit that it almost felt like his head was able to fit right into it’s little cave-shaped nook. He was just glad that she hadn’t grown any hair yet, so at least there wasn’t anything rough rubbing against him, but that hardly mattered since her dried pit sweat was the first thing on her mind. After a bit more struggling, he was able to slowly slide his body down just far enough so that his mouth wasn’t pressed up against her smelly skin any more, and manage to say something again. “This isn’t…” he panted, “pinning me down…” He began to chuckle despite the situation he was in, knowing she would never be able to truly “win” under the current circumstances. “I might be stuck,” he huffed again, “but I’m not pinned… like real wrestling.” Jessie grumbled, understanding the point her dad was trying to make. 

     “But this can last forever, I don’t have to let you go anytime soon,” she said. “I’ll… let you win if you take me to the store tonight,” she said, squishing her dad’s face into her armpit again to remind him of its sour stink. But as much as it was a pungent smell, Marcus wouldn’t give up that easily.

     “No,” he defiantly mumbled, like a kid too stubborn to know when they were finished.

     “Fine, you want me to make you lose?” she asked, a grin growing on her face as an idea formed in her mind, giving her the faint taste of a possible victory. Without waiting to see if he’d respond, she tightened her grip on his leg and pulled him out from under her pits, holding him upside down. As soon as he realized how she had been holding back, he stopped flailing, knowing it was about to be over. From his upside down point of view, he felt like a toy being held by a kid at playtime—and the truth wasn’t far off. She swung him outwards towards her leg, and his body flopped against the floor, before her giant, pale thigh immediately crashed down on top of him, making sure he wouldn’t go anywhere. Her butt hopped to the side a few times, towards the rest of his body, as her outstretched leg twisted with her to make sure her dad was always kept beneath its hefty weight. Until finally, one more bounce from his daughter crashed her weighty behind right onto his hips, silencing his legs’ thrashes. With her father now completely beneath her weight, she bent her legs towards her, bringing her bare feet inwards and raising them just a few inches above her dad’s face.

     If it hadn’t been obvious when she held him upside down, without her needing to even stand up to keep him suspended over the ground, his loss was plenty obvious now. Like he had just moments ago complained about her not doing, she had truly “pinned” him now. Maybe not in “normal” wrestling terms, but it was close enough, and what they had agreed upon. From the space between her bare soles, he looked up to her face, that was looking back down at him with expectant eyes and a raised eyebrow, as if taunting him and asking ‘is this good enough for you?’ She had clearly won. He sighed, “Alright, y—“

     Before he was even able to get a second word out, she slammed her pinkish, pale bare feet against his face, cutting him off before he could finish talking. Just like her armpits, her feet still smelled from her long day at school and her several hours of volleyball practice. They had had some time to air out since coming home, but were still plenty warm, and almost 10 hours of being cooped up in her socks and shoes had given his daughter’s feet a musky, sweaty stench that he had hoped to avoid. His head, only 4 inches tall, easily fit right into her arch, as her sole practically curved around the contour of his head, as if they were made for each other. His arms quickly came up to try and push her ankles off his face, and Jessie let him try to budge them for a few moments, knowing he wouldn’t be able to. Every time he tried pushing them off, she just pushed her feet down even harder on top of his head, pressing his face even further against her smelly, dough-like skin in order to anchor herself better. But eventually Jessie effortlessly reached forward with her single free arm, and grabbed both of his wrists using only her right hand, and held them up tightly above him. Now she was pretty much able to pull his shoulders up, as if her dad’s face could be driven any deeper into her young, victorious feet. 

     “Have I won yet?” she asked. “Does this count as pinning you down?” Beneath her smelly feet, he managed a slight nod to indicate a ‘yes.’ “So does that mean you’ll take me to the store now Daddy?” she repeated, and it sounded like she giggled afterwards, tugging up on his arms a couple more times while the balls of her feet mockingly rubbed his forehead to remind him of his current situation. He paused to think about it. Does she mean I have to pick one or the other? Surely not, right? Obviously she’ll let me go even if I say no. I am her father after all… right? Her phone started vibrating from nearby on the floor, and reached over with her left hand go grab it, figuring she didn’t need to keep her arm behind her back anymore. “Hold that thought, I’ll let you think about it,” she told him. “Paris is trying to FaceTime me, let me know what you decide in a couple minutes.” A couple minutes?! He tried to say something to protest, but his daughter simply pulled up on his arms again, mashing his mouth into the soft skin above her heel and reminding him to be quiet while she was on the phone with her friend. “Hey!” she exclaimed, greeting her friend. “No, I’m not too busy right now, what’s up?”

     I lost, fine, I guess this is my ‘reward’ for being the loser, he inwardly grumbled, unable to fight back. So he stopped fighting, and simply lay beneath the 800 pound girl, while his 13-year-old daughter’s smelly feet rubbed against his face as she talked to her friend.

 

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