Incredible Shrinking Haley

A Little Meeting

After making it to where Dana told me to meet her with a 25 minute walk, which probably would have been less than half the time originally, we arrived. Funnily enough, it was the same building where i would have had my morning class. I texted Dana to let her know I had arrived, and she asked for a few minutes to come down to get me. For the next three minutes or so, I couldn't get over just how tall and pretty Liz and Annie were now, and it didn't help that they were wearing sort of slutty outfits and heels, amplifying their size.
"It's crazy to think that just a few days ago, I would still have been taller than y'all even in those crazy 4 inch heels. Now that I think about it, doesn't it seem crazy that we wear heels to go out clubbing?!"
"It's too weed out the smaller boys, or the unconfident ones. Not everyone is like you and doesn't mind shorter guys." Liz replied.
"Yeah, well, if you care so much about dating a taller guy, why not shrink down too? You shouldn't have any issues at this size!" We all laughed as Dana emerged from the elevator. It feels good being able to joke about what happened to me.
"Hey!! What going on!? We gotta hurry, so we won't be late."
"Oh, sure!" I said approaching her, to hug her and greet her properly. "Is it ok if my sister and Liz join?"
"OH! Oh my gosh, how did I not notice that is your sister?! You guys are practically twins. Hi! I'm Dana. It's so nice to meet you!! I wish we had more time for a proper introduction. Unfortunately, this little... "get together" is intended for those who were affected by the virus. Having you two tower over us little ones would ruin any sense of normalcy we might have. Besides, we have special equipment that would make it seem like y'all grew instead of us having shrank."
"Special equipment?" I thought to myself. What exactly did I get myself into?
"You guys are totally welcome to walk with us to the room, but I have to ask that you guys don't go inside. You can look the the window on the door too to see what's going on. Please try to be respectful and discreet though!"
"Sure!!" Annie chimed in. "That is better than nothing. We have some time to kill anyways, so I would love to see what is going on. It is sort of a mystery to all of us! And it's nice to meet you as well!"
We all made our way into the elevator and were making small talk.  The whole time I was wondering what I had gotten myself into. Dana didn't give any details, and I didn't really ask about it. We made it to the buildings fourth floor, walked a little, and finally arrived to the classroom. From the outside, it seemed like a regular classroom, with a door that was way too tall for me to see through the window.
"Man, how did people see through the window before?" I asked. Annie and Liz were peeking inside already, making comments like "aww how cute!" Or "so adorable!".
"I never was able to, for the record haha. Well, unless I got on my tippy toes! The world wasn't that accessible at my previous size. Of course it is less so now, but I am hoping that since millions are already affected, and possibly more will continue to get affected, hopefully something will change. What we are doing in here is hopefully a start to that."
"Wow, what a smooth transition." I told her, as she pried that giant, heavy door open. She struggled a little bit, but when Annie reached to help, she insisted she had it.
"I won't always have a full-sized person around to help me. Thank you though! This is where i have to ask y'all again to please respect this moment for us. Again, feel free to watch from out here!! You probably won't be able to hear anything though. Ready, Haley?"
"Sure! .... I think?" Dana opened the door and I was completely surprised to see what I found.
"How is everything... our size?" I waited for the door to close behind us before uttering those words.
In the giant classroom was... shrunken objects? Desks, tables, and chairs that were appropriate for my size. Of course, tons of miniaturized people that were exactly my height. Whiteboards that I could write on while standing on my own two feet. Other than the room itself being twice as large as I would expect, everything else felt so normal. I totally understand what Dana meant by normalcy.
"Well, a little embarrassing, but a local Pre-School were upgrading their desks at a super convenient time. We asked if we could keep them, and after they heard what we were about, the principle was more than willing to let us have the desks, since her daughter was affected as well. She should actually be here! She is a little younger than us. Anyways, I haven't told you what this is all about." She started explaining this is a weekly meeting where people who were shrunken can meet up, share projects they are working on, coping strategies, etc. It is essentially another resource for me to have, which is awesome. I definitely want to ask where some of these people got their clothes, since they look like they are wearing regular clothes. Dana filled me in on a couple of "rules" such as no shrinking jokes, since others might be sensitive to it. There is a "don't ask, don't tell" policy on how tall we were before being affected, for some reason. I found that one odd.  We shouldn't comment on anything that might make someone "feel small", such as me wearing a little girls dress. In many ways, this was progressive, but in other ways, it felt like these people were stuck in the past. I mentioned that to Dana, and she expressed a similar concern. "I am working on that. Acceptance is the first step, after all! We're about to start, so let's take a seat. I have a presentation to do, so I will do that, but then come right back." We sat down as the meeting began. I was still so... immersed in everything. The past few days have been so weird, especially today, but it all just seemed like a dream when I was in an environment where I was "full-sized" again. I probably looked like a fish out of water with how wide-eyed I was, looking around, and just smiling in appreciation of these efforts. It might sound silly, but it really worked.
My immersion was ruined, however, when Erin finally replied. All I sent her was a "hey!" A few hours ago. She replied with a "Hey, little cutie ;) didn't think you would text me so soon! Miss me already? Sorry for the late reply. I was with some sorority sisters. I'm back at home now getting ready to go out tonight. Want to come with?" I didn't know what to think of that. She seemed like she was hinting at having some of that "fun" she mentioned earlier. Dana seemed like she was up next, so I tried to block out all thoughts of the ginger giantess and my possible feelings for her. After a few minutes of the current presenter, Dana stood up from the seat next to me, and then went up to give her presentation. She presented with such amazing composure and grace. She was talking about tons and tons of projects she has been working on about the betterment for those affected, both with school government and local government. She had that total politician vibe I mentioned earlier. Seeing her speak was inspiring, and I realized how lucky I am to have her as a friend. I was so interested in what she was saying, I completely lost track of time as she spoke about all the stuff she was working on, and had worked on, largely by herself. When she was done, everyone started clapping, but I couldn't help but stand to clap. I was legitimately moved by her speech. When she was coming back, we locked eyes, and she had this big smile on her face. I could tell she was proud of herself, and she absolutely deserved to be! I wanted to hug her so badly (in a friendly way!).
"You were so amazing!! Oh, my gosh I didn't realize how involved you were! You're so amazing!"
"Thank you!! Let's talk more later!" She said as she sat down and hugged me. "We don't want to be rude to the others by talking." I nodded, and looked forward to the next presenter. They were totally different though. A lot of them were talking about how they have been coping, strategies used to get to life, blah blah blah. Nothing too interesting. It was about an hour and a half total, which went by very quickly. At the end, the initial presenter, a very fit, black man who looked a little older, maybe his 30s, wearing a very nice button up and dress pants that seemed tailor to his new diminutive size, asked if there was anyone else who wanted to present.
"It can be anything, doesn't have to be projects you are working on, or strategies. I see some new faces here, so if you even want to just say hello, feel free." Dana was nudging me with her elbow, and was looking at me in a way that showed she was encouraging me to go up. I didn't feel confident enough to go up. I figured I would screw something up by saying something pertaining to my "past height", like how I used to play volleyball. I passed this time around, but i really like this meeting, so I would love to be more active. Especially in helping Dana. No one else wanted to get up to say anything, so the meeting was officially over. "This is the best part, in my opinion. This is when we get to talk to everyone." We got up and Dana went around introducing me to all the members. Since I am struggling a lot with clothes, the first thing I noticed about everyone was what they were wearing, and I was trying my best not to ask where all their "adult" looking clothes was from, since that might violate some of the rules. But I noticed none of the women were in heels. We meet some really interesting people, like the principle's daughter who donated all the desks, tables, and chairs. We finally got to the man I was most interested in, Brandon. Dana introduced me, and he warmly welcomed me. I greeted him, but something about him seemed... off? I am not sure how to put it. But it felt like he was scheming. I hope I am wrong though, since this is a great organization.
"Brandon, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" I asked him
"Sure, feel free to ask anything. I don't mind. Let's take a seat?" He asked, while pulling out a chair for Dana and I.
"Thank you! Well, I was affected this past weekend, and, well it is all new to me. Dana has helped me so much these past couple of days. More than i even deserve."
"Yes, Dana is quite amazing. She will do amazing things for us in the future, I absolutely believe it."
"Aww, you guys are too nice!!" She chimed in. I was so zeroed on Brandon, I sort of forgot she was there. I noticed already I had gone from being suspicious to Brandon, to intrigued by him. He seemed to have so much wisdom. It's the way he carries himself. I still had some suspicions about him, however.
"Brandon, let me ask you this, because I am not sure what I am now. What do we call those affected, like we were?"
"I don't think there is an official name. I have heard shrunken people/persons, miniature people, midgets, dwarves, little people. The latter half doesn't even apply to us, since this isn't genetics. I've even heard more outlandish stuff like 'tiny-ized'. More demeaning stuff, like kid-sized, pint-sized, squirts, etc."
"Wow. That is... pretty disrespectful. One I have been using quite a bit is Barbie Life Sized Doll. I kinda like that one, though. I find it funny."
"Yeah, everyone reacts differently. I haven't heard that one, to be frank," He said while laughing. "To me, it's kind of scary to realize that I am the same size of a doll."
"Smaller, actually. By about two inches." Dana threw in. I wouldn't dreamed about saying something like that, but it seemed they have good rapport.
"Well, I know what not to get my daughter if she asks for it for her birthday."
"Oh, wow! How old is she?!" I asked.
"Turning five next week. She's... already taller than me." He let out a sign while hanging his head. "I was affected int he first wave, but my daughter at that point was still shorter than me at that point. Stronger, yes, admittedly, but at least I was taller. When we went out, people started asking 'how old are the twins?' To my statuesque wife. She would, of course, then explain we weren't twins. A common response she would then get was 'aren't they too young to be boyfriend and girlfriend?' It was extremely embarrassing. I noticed a huge reason I was being mistaken as a young child was because I was wearing their clothes."
"Oh, tell me about it." I quickly added, while looking down at my pink dress.
"I see you are struggling with it too. Yes, it was more loosely fitted, so you couldn't see any muscle definition. I had to scour to find someone who could make more appropriate clothing for someone of my size. It took a few months, but I noticed a world of a difference after I had a more appropriate wardrobe back. They are very expensive, naturally, but, in my opinion, absolutely worth it. Dana and I were discussing to see if we can bring it to anyone's attention how they are charging us way too much for goods and services, especially since a lot of those affected aren't working. I am fortunate that my gorgeous wife and I are able to run our own business. Here's their card." Brandon handed both of us. "They noticed how much money they can make with us, so they have shifted their entire operation to making double the amount of clothes with the same amount of cloth, and charging more money. They have almost tripled their profit by focusing on this new demographic. Heh, even their business cards are modified to be for people our size now. They're smart. Speaking of our size, I believe we were talking about my daughter, right?"
"Yeah! I am so interested in hearing about life with her now, if you don't mind sharing?"
"Of course not. I'm like Dana and don't believe in some of these softer "rules", so I am just going to say it. I was never a big man before. I was 5'8" while my wife is 6'2"." Him saying that made me think of Lucas and I, and then Erin, who I haven't texted back yet, and it's been, wow almost 3 hours?? "I figured my daughter would take after her and be taller than me one day. I was hoping for when she was 14, maybe? So she could be an aspiring basketball player, if she chose to continue that path of course. She is a little on the shorter side, but she was projected to be 5'11" to 6'1". Unfortunately, she got taller than me at 4, and not 14. And now she is growing like a weed. She hasn't even hit her growth spurt. It's very embarrassing because she of course doesn't understand why I shrank, so she thinks it's so we can grow up together. She always asks her mom if I am going to school with her, and if I want join her in her play dates. I am sure the other parents now that I was affected just cause she is so funny and talks about everything. I can't be mad, of course. In fact, she helped me accept this. She is a large reason as why I started this group, which is still looking for an official name, by the way." Something about the way Brandon was able to weave seamlessly into different topics while talking was interesting to see. I can see him being a good leader. People were starting to filter out, and Brandon looked at his wrist, but I didn't see any watch. "Ha, still haven't gotten used to no wristwatch yet." He pulled out his phone, I did the same and saw it was 10 o'clock now. "Ladies, this was nice. It is nice to find like-minded people who are open to discussing these changes. I don't like beating around the bush, personally. But, we are only able to rent this room until 10, so I must ask that we all leave."
"Don't you want help cleaning up? You would think people shrinking would cause them to be more considerate after seeing how are treated, but they still leave such a big mess!" Dana asked.
"Big to us, little to the night cleaning staff. Those full sized workers have no issue cleaning up our child-sized paper plates, or adjusting our little desks." We followed Brandon out, and sure enough, there were 3 full-sized cleaning ladies towering over us, waiting for us to leave so that they can do their jobs. They were all on their phones, and their phones were all angled at us I was wondering if they were recording us or taking photos.
"Sorry about the mess, y'all! We'll try to be better next week." I said. I made a mental note to make sure to mention cleaning up when I introduce myself next week.
"Awe, don't you worry your cute little self, you little thang! We'll get your little messed cleaned up in no time!" One of the giant staff said. Brandon shook his head and muttered something under his breath. Dana and I bid him farewell as he and his absolutely enormous wife, who was wearing what I assume were 6-inch heels, walked away, holding hands.
"Y'know, I can see why people think he is her kid." I said to Dana, and we both laughed.