===================
Tuesday, October 20
===================
Jessie sighed out of exhaustion as she slumped her backpack and gym bag off at the door. It was a little after 8pm, and she had just gotten back from her volleyball game. One of her teammates lived nearby, so Jessie carpooled home with them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when they typically had games (with the exception of the week before, which had been a bye week). Jessie’s team had won, but it didn’t diminish how tired she felt. Twice a week, she had a schedule of waking up early to go to school for 7 hours, then spend time between school getting out and volleyball working on homework, and then another several hours at practice and eventually the matches. All to come home and have less than an hour to herself before she had to go to bed. Luckily, volleyball was the only sport she played, so her hectic schedule only occurred two days a week. But it was still tiresome.
Sprawled out on the couch, Marcus felt a bit self-conscious as he saw her come home, and sat up in his seat a little. Here he was, having done almost nothing productive all day, while his daughter had spent a little over 12 hours learning, studying, and getting exercise. At least he used to be able to say he provided for the two of them and took care of her. But after shrinking, it wasn’t totally fair to say he did the former anymore, and it was becoming increasingly evident to him how little he was now able to do of the latter. She trudged over to the living room where he was seated, and crumpled to the floor, sitting criss cross with her back hunched over, and looked up at her father. He pursed his lips, seeing how miserable she felt after such a long day, even by an adult’s standards. “Looks like your day was harder than mine,” he admitted, and she couldn’t help but smirk at his remark, falling back onto the floor.
“Yeahhh…” She extended her arms and legs out as she stared up at the ceiling, and slid them back and forth across the floor like she was making snow angels in the carpet. Marcus smiled at her juvenile behavior, while Jessie lay and felt like she was wasting her precious few minutes that she had before she had to take a shower and get ready to go to bed. She lifted one of her legs up, holding her knee straight and pointing it right towards the sky. She had already stretched after the game, but it still felt good to do again now, to feel her flexible hamstrings at work.
“I guess you got a good workout in too, huh?” her dad asked. This wasn’t her first year playing sports, but it was her first year playing as a part of her school’s team instead of just a neighborhood club. Still feeling relatively new to the more “official” experience, she wasn’t sure yet which she preferred.
She bent her calf downwards, nearing her foot to her torso, and reached to slip off one of her blue and black athletic socks that had been confined in her shoe for the entire day. “You tell me,” she smirked, and bundled the thick sock into a big, musty ball, throwing it playfully at her dad. He dodged to the side to avoid being struck in the face, and it bounced off the couch and onto his lap. Even though she wore a fresh pair every day and had only spent a couple hours actually being active in them, he knew better than to let the stale garment hit him in the face. Marcus chuckled at her antics as she lay back down on the ground, slipping off her other sock with her toes after realizing how nice it felt to finally air them out. Her expression fell as she thought about how she felt. “I hope this isn’t what adulthood is like. Just doing a bunch of stuff 24/7 and never getting any free time to yourself.”
Marcus sat back, not having expected her to get so serious all of a sudden. “I think it depends on what kind of adult you plan to be,” he mused. “If you have a bunch of kids of all ages, then yeah, it’ll eat away at your time I think, and you won’t get many breaks. Or you can have no kids at all, which a lot of people seem to be doing more often these days, and is totally fine, and then you can have tons of free time. It was only a few months ago that I was working full-time, raising you, and I don’t get the help of a second parent.” Jessie’s head turned to the side, feeling the slightest tinge of guilt as she was reminded of what her mom had done shortly after Jessie was born. “But I still felt like I had a lot of time to myself despite all that. And I obviously wouldn’t trade having you for anything in the world.” Jessie smiled and rolled her eyes at her dad’s cliche. “Even having my height back.” She looked at him now, and could see that he meant it. Jessie mattered more to Marcus than anything in the world, way more. Despite the enormous weight that he felt bore down on him now that he was half-sized, it paled in comparison to the thought of losing his only daughter.
The two of them let Marcus’ words hang in the air for a few moments, before Jessie broke the silence. “It’ll probably be a lot easier when I don’t need to go to bed so early. Even people who work a 9 to 5 job get to start an hour later than I do, and they don’t need to sleep for fifty hours a night,” she grumbled sarcastically, rolling over onto the floor, and yelling into the carpet. Marcus chuckled, but was instantly reminded of just how empty his day was. He typically didn’t have time to take her to school, so he never had, but now his days were wide open. He was sure that she was aware of this, yet he admired her humility for not even asking for some help from his end, despite how much he still had to offer at his reduced size.
“What if I were to take you to school in the mornings,” he said, and her face instantly lit up.
“You mean, just for tomorrow? Or like, every day?” she asked excitedly, propping herself up on her elbows.
“Well, at least until I get a new job, yeah. Every day. I obviously have the time to now, and if you didn’t have to take the bus, you could leave, what, half an hour later?”
Jessie shrugged, “Yeah, something like that. It takes about twenty minutes, but the bus drivers try to get there super early.”
“Well then, if I start taking you, then you’ll be able to wake up half an hour later, which means going to bed at 9:30 instead of 9. I know you usually don’t have a lot of time on volleyball nights since you need to take a shower but you come home so late, so hopefully that should give you a little more peace of mind and let you relax for a while longer.
Jessie was bursting with joy, her dad’s new rules sent a surge of energy throughout her tired body, and she leapt into the air. Marcus smiled warmly at her reaction; it always made him feel good to see her so happy, especially if he knew it was because of something he said or did. “Thank you so much, daddy!” she squealed, and hurled towards the couch, her body collapsing on him as she slipped her arms behind his back and squeezed him into a hug. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you,” she repeated, over and over, planting kiss and after kiss on his cheek.
“OK, OK,” he laughed, trying to push his excited daughter off of him. But she was much too strong in comparison for him to stop her. “I knew you’d be appreciative but didn’t think it would mean this much.” She reminded him of all the times they’d play together when she was younger, and she’d clamber all over him, but now she was more grown up, and he was the tiny one. She felt his small nudges and pushed herself off of him, her body leaning against her arms that were propped against the couch on both sides of his head. He felt slightly intimated with how much of her head seemed to take up his field of view at his size, and it was still a foot or two away from him.
“It’s the little things, dad. An extra half hour each night is a lot when I normally only get 10 or 15 minutes to myself.”
“That’s true,” he said, ducking under her arm and scooching away from her. He obviously wasn’t angry with her for how she showed her affection or gratitude, but sometimes it could be a little much. “Well I’m glad you’re happy then. I’ll be ready tomorrow morning, and we can leave by 7:40 if that sounds good with you.”
“Perfect!” she beamed, standing up straight. “I’m gonna go take a shower then, and watch Friends in bed before going to sleep.” She reached down to his lap and grabbed her dirty sock, which he had completely forgotten about. “See you in the morning, good night!”
“Goodnight sweetie,” he called back, and turned to watch her bounce towards her room. Smiling to himself, he turned on the TV to watch the nightly news while reflecting on how proud he was of his parenting skills.