Ten Steps to Him.

Step 1: First Encounters - Santa Claus is coming to Town.

Riley felt like a shrimp; and not like a big shrimp either, she felt like one of those teeny tiny baby shrimp that should be hiding behind seaweeds and shuddering in their shells when predators swim around. It was her first day as a senior in a new High School, thanks to her Mum and Dad's grand idea of following their dream and already she was tired as she fought her way through the giants walking down the hallways, trying to find her locker.

What were these kids' parents feeding them anyway? She didn't expect to recognize any faces around here but these kids seemed to loom larger in her vision as if they had been brutalized by a growth spurt or were being force fed hormones. She'd barely clocked an extra inch over the summer, practically begging her growth hormones to feel a little pity on her tiny frame and it did just that, feel a very little pity. Riley now checked in on the height meter at a grand total of five feet three inches in her socks.

Riley blamed her mother one hundred percent for her present predicament, wondering why her mother had felt it absolutely necessary to pass down everything of hers. Yes, she appreciated her mother's hazel eyes and the thick dark hair that she'd inherited with gusto but couldn't her mum have backed off a bit and let daddy contribute to the pot? He himself towered over everything at six feet and she sometimes wondered how he managed to breathe the thin air at such heights.

Taking a deep breath, Riley ducked her head and forged on through the thickening crowd, realizing that if she didn't get a move on it now, finding her locker would be almost impossible before her first class started. Sweeping her eyes along the numbers, she wiggled her way through bodies and voices, shaking her head at some of the things that entered her ear. Fighting the urge to shout "Get a room!" or just plain old "You're nasty," at some of the couples with a shudder, she turned the corner and felt relief swamp her as she spotted the numbers printed on the piece of paper in her hand plastered on a locker door in the top row.

Literally stomping forward since victory was in sight, Riley started to reach for the combination lock before her hand was cut off by a slab of beef with fingers. She followed the slab of beef with her eyes up to an elbow and a shoulder, before landing on the cow itself.

"Uhm, what are you doing?" Riley asked.

Mr. Moo looked around and scratched his head at the sound of her voice but considering the fact that he was taller than her by almost a third of her height, he didn't seem to see her and just continued fumbling with the locker.

Rolling her eyes, Riley started tapping her foot impatiently when she realized he didn't even see her.

"Hey doofus, I asked you a question!"

He looked around again, but this time with a frown on his face as if he didn't appreciate being called doofus. Eventually, he lowered his sights and saw Riley staring up at him with an impatient face, crossed arms and a tapping foot.

"You talking to me?"

"You talking to me?" Riley repeated in a low, dumb voice. "Of course I'm talking to you, dimwit. What do you think you're doing?"

It was clear from the scowl on his face that Mr. Moo didn't appreciate Riley's mocking tone and threw his shoulders back in an intimidating manner.

"You gotta problem with me?" he growled, adding a menacing voice to his intimidation tactics.

Rolling her eyes with a tired sigh, Riley shook her head and tried to walk around him but only got through with two steps before a meaty arm threw itself in front of her.

This time, Mr. Moo was the one who huffed impatiently. "Look, you're annoying me. I'm guessing you're a freshie so let me enlighten you to a few facts of nature around here. This is my locker. Always has been and it's not gonna change this year. Got it? Now leave me alone."