Brianna, Bri, was taller than most of her classmates growing up and was used to being tall. When she got to college, she was 5’10". This made her taller than most of her peers. However, Bri lived a double life. She found out that when she wore her high school ballerina flats and went to sleep, she would wake up and be shrunk down to 5’0". It was a mystery to her how it happened but she explored what it was like to be tall and what it was like to be small. She created two different people and hid her smaller/taller “alter” ego as if she was Batman.
Bri would go to her college classes in jeans and a professional shirt and be her “taller” self, and then go home, put on the shoes, shrink down, and hang out with her other friends at 5’0". She loved the variation in perspective. On one hand, she could be the “astute” kid who people would go to for advice, and on the other hand, be the “dainty” cute woman in make up and flats. She enjoyed how the process shrunk her a little bit in all dimensions. Her proportions still matched her 5’10" frame. When shrunk, she would always dress up and wear cute clothes so that she felt like a princess. Her closet was filled with clothes that were two different sizes. She loved being able to create two different identities that clashed with each other.
As her tall self, Bri was a star student. She excelled at all her classes. Wrapping up her bachelor’s degree, she started to seek out opportunities to work on a master’s degree where dissertations could be worked on. At her height, she was one of the tallest women in the class and around the same height as most of the men. This made it easy to have conversations with them. Wearing a polo and jeans, she often theorized economics with her classmates and earned a reputation as one of the popular students. She enjoyed helping others out with their work and found it rewarding. She took it as a part of the challenge to help other students in her class also achieve high grades. The professors noticed.
As her small self, Bri would hang out with friends and enjoy the perspective shift. Sitting on a couch, when she would normally feel a little bit “big” for the couch, she could no longer sit back and let her shoes touch the floor. They would dangle a few inches in the air. She quite literally “felt” weaker and smaller, almost all the time. She noticed how people treated her differently. Her friends would call her “cute,” they would talk sweeter to her, and there was an aura of people “trying” to dignify her as a human being - as if her smallness made it more challenging to respect her as one. She enjoyed watching people look down at her and struggle to connect because they were more interested in how she looked than by what she said. As she would look up at them, she enjoyed how she could let go and feel small and not feel like she had to perform to get attention.
Then, Bri got the opportunity of a lifetime. While she was finishing up with her bachelor’s, her college professor offered her a scholarship to another university to work on her masters degree which included early dissertation work. She would move locations and wouldn’t know anyone over at the new campus. Bri, being an outstanding student, hatched an idea for personal growth. She was up for making her college classes a little more challenging. She theorized that if she stayed small while on this opportunity, it could set her up for future work down the line when dealing with bossy men. Being shorter, daintier, and cuter always has academic disadvantages, she read online. People mansplain to you, they think you aren’t that smart, and they tend to try to do the work for you. It was a man’s world and she knew she would be facing the gauntlet if she stayed shrunk throughout her masters program. She knew inside that she could dig deep and find a way through. If it became too overwhelming, she could always transfer away to her old identity and grow back. The idea was that she was going to become “Batman” not just for a casual evening out, but for a few years.
Bri made sure to shop around for more outfits and even picked out different colored flats for the ordeal. These outfits obviously added to the challenge. Men for sure would be all over her, giving her strange attention, thinking that she was a star student mainly because of her looks. Little did they know that she was still the same star student she always was and had earned her accolades. Only now, shrinking herself would allow her to become even more stellar. Bri didn’t pack any of her “taller” clothes with her; she was committed. Packing up her suitcase at 5’10", she told herself this was the last time for awhile she could have the strength to even lift it. She knew that when she shrunk, even just a little bit to 5’0", that she was hard-pressed to lift anything remotely heavy. She put on her flats and went to sleep, ready to travel for the next day.
Freshly shrunk the next morning, Bri grabbed her suitcase and rolled it out the door. She went into the bus station, and, holding the suitcase with both tinier hands, heaved it up onto each bus step with her entire body. Being smaller obviously has its physical drawbacks as well as its academic ones - these are amplified for women. Already out of breath from heaving the suitcase up two stairs, Bri rolled her suitcase into the first seat, sat down, and dangled her legs, crossing them at the knee. She was too short to reach the floor. Her little flat dangled a few inches above the bus flooring. A bit of fear already crept up into her. She was going to be this size for the next few years, she thought. Maybe she was getting too deep into it already. But her resolve came back as she rested on the bus. It was only the first day. She was used to being this size before. She just had to push through, day by day, and accept it as a challenge.
As Bri walked into her first classroom, it was obvious she had another challenge at her height. The class was 80 percent male. Already lumbering around her height normally, these men were towering over her tiny stature and made it much harder for her to fit in as just another one of the students. On top of it, she was the only person in the entire class dressed up and wearing make up. Everyone seemed to pass over her as she walked by them, making minimal eye contact. She sat in her seat, dangled her slightly shrunken legs above the floor crossing them at the knee, and smiled. She was in. She was going to prove everyone that she was still the strongest student, even if she was the weakest, shortest, and cutest physically.
“Open your books to page 20.” The professor said. Bri leaned over and reached into her school bag and pulled out “The Working Class.” It was a 300 page hardcover on economic theory. Physically weakened by her shrunken size, she needed both arms to pull it out. She was surprised with how heavy the book had become. She already had read and studied this book, but she was always 5’10" when she did. At this size, it seemed behemothly, like The Book of War. The professor continued.
“Who knows what caused The Great Depression?” Immediately and confidently, Bri raised her hand into the air. The professor looked around, even to her direction, and then called. “Yes?”
“A multitude of factors, uh, inexperienced stockholders, and uh, overestimations, and uh… yeah.”
Bri hadn’t been called on. She continued to hold her hand in the air, she knew the answer.
“Yes,” the professor continued. “But you must know that it was the flawed economics itself that caused it.” Bri’s thoughts and the professor’s words matched exactly. She knew the answer. But she realized that at her tinier size, she was already not being taken seriously - not only by her classmates, but by the professor himself! It hit her that not only was she going against the male psychology, but also that her smaller stature literally made her smaller and less noticed in academic contexts. It was a cascading effect of disadvantages. She again, smiled to herself. This was what it was all about. She just had to build the right connections, and she didn’t even need the classroom attention. She began to think of more plans.
As the class ended, Bri walked up to her professor, who stood at 6’2". “Excuse me, Mr. Snack?” Bri said, tugging on the bottom of his suit, looking up at him. She already knew her voice was shrunken, and so she gave her voice a little more noise than usual. She had to talk in a way where she was talking louder than normal, but not quite yelling.
“Yes?” The professor responded. “Are you lost, little miss?” His voice was a familiar one. It echoed like a tuba’s overture - her tinier ears were “perceiving” someone deeply loud and scary. But she had trained for this with her friends for years.
“I was just wondering…” Bri said, “Can I work on my dissertation under you?”
Surprised, the professor looked aghast at the little lady. He was a yogi, and any motion that was presented to him, no matter how ridiculous, was an opportunity for his own growth.
“Sure, you can. Just make sure you do your homework, little miss.” He gave her a genuine pat on the head and assured her that he would take it to consideration.
“Thanks, I won’t let you down, professor.” Bri said, slightly squeakily. She knew she was in.
As the classes wore on, Bri was subjected to continued “special” treatment for her diminutive stature. In spite of her continued academic excellence, Bri was undergoing a subtle personality shift that invaded her subconscious. Before, when she was physically taller, Bri would be assumed to be smart and was in constant interaction with many classmates and mostly talked economics. Now shrunk, Bri was under constant attention - but a much different kind, and it was out of her control. She found herself constantly warding off advances and awkward men’s approaches. Even worse, women also seemed to give her a different kind of attention. They would blankly stare at her as if she were alien in this world of academia. Her height did not help - being over six inches shorter than the next shortest woman, she was always craning her neck up at them. The “Coux de Grace” were her outfits. Instead of complimenting her size 5 flats and dainty dresses and skirts, the girls would make comments that implied it shouldn’t be her style at that size. She even overhead one woman remark: “She should at least wear heels if she’s going to do that.” Somehow, the comment made Bri feel even smaller than how small she already stood. All of this made her guarded against everyone on a psychological scale. Every time she tried to help her classmates, one of the men would step in and share what he thought. She was always talked over and could never get a word in. Naturally, this led to Bri isolating herself into her work and in building a relationship with professor Snack. He was the only one who seemed to appreciate her intellectual brilliance.
Her original theory was working. Driven mad by academic isolation and daily reminders of her new height, Bri’s only solace was in her work. Her tinier stature caused every day to feel bigger and more overwhelming. Remembering times past when opening doors was not worth a passing thought, her body reminded her that she was weak and tiny. Presently, the wind was keeping her from opening the door to the school one-handed. She dropped her books, pulled open the door with both arms, and attempted to swing it out. As she picked up her books, the wind snapped the door shut on her. A passerby noticed. “Need help?” He asked.
“No!!” Bri shouted back. The effects of tiny social isolation had driven her to solve every problem by herself. But the man approached, opened the door, and let her in.
“Thank you,” she said, “I’m sorry, I’ve had a rough day.”
“No worries,” said the man. “I’m Tim. Nice to meet you.”
“Bri.” She slightly squeaked back.
“Have a good one, Bri.”
She found it nice that someone helped her. There was a sence of mutual appreciation. This feeling, at its infancy, triggered the shoes to shrink very slightly, which very slightly shrunk Bri down to a height of 4’11 1/2". It was the beginning of a curse that neither person could control.
In moments of solace at home, Bri would reflect on her progress. She was clearly changing, and perhaps would never be the same. But she was also seeing how she was getting used to the grind of cascading smallness. Despite her setbacks, Bri saw she was gaining mental fortitude and was much better at dealing with her classmates’ subtle bullying or misunderstandings. She was only two years away - then she could grow back and be an unstoppable force in the world of economics. Being this size was like army bootcamp. She missed her old stature as an army cadet misses home. She looked down at the shoes which were responsible for this challenge with appreciation. But she kept thinking about her original height. There were no advantages to being smaller in her situation - she was simply littler. She clearly preferred being 5’10". She vowed to herself she would never shrink herself again once her dissertation was complete.
“Macroeconomics in a Growing World” she typed, crossing her legs at the knee, sitting on a pillow on top of a chair, her feet dangling a foot above the floor. She continued typing away. “Think Big,” “Grand Scale,” and “Living Large” were some of her key topics. Bri was a little lady with Big in her sights. She appreciated that being smaller is always harder to navigate on a deep level. “Small scale forces won’t get you in the door,” she wrote. The overall premise was simple: Size Matters.
Professor Snack read the draft of Bri’s dissertation. “Most excellent… you clearly understand the situation.” He said. She smiled.
“Yes, yes I do.” Bri noted.
"Listen. You’re excelling at the course. I think you’ve earned the chance to graduate early. Bri’s tiny ears perked up. It was as if “Batman” was about to permanently save Gotham.
“Really?” She slightly squeaked. She could hardly contain her excitement.
“Yes, yes…” Professor Snack continued. “You’ll need to put up with a lot of slack, but you’ll do great in the business world. You should get in and get the experience soon.”
Bri nodded up at him. “Thank you, professor.” She reached out her tiny arm, and Mr. Snack met her at the 2/3rds point between them with his hand. It was nearly twice the size of hers! Their “handshake” completed, Bri now had an early pass at graduating tiny bootcamp.
Leaving his office, Bri went outside and started towards her car.
“Hey,” Tim said. “You look like you got a bit of pep in your step. What’s up?”
Bri craned her tiny neck up at Tim. Excited, she shared openly. It was the first time in over a year where she was able to fully express herself.
“I’m getting academic advancement!” She exclaimed. “And I will be starting work soon!” Bri continued as Tim looked down at her intently. “And I’m always tired and exhausted. People here just put up with me…” Bri started to quiver as she spoke, as if her voice were shrinking. “I’m always feeling so small around here…” Bri started to cry. “I know now what feeling small really means…” she quivered, with tears in her eyes. She put her hands in her face and sobbed. “…and I hate it…”
“Hey,” Tim said, wiping a tear away with his index finger. “You’re clearly amazing. You earned this. And just because you’re short doesn’t mean you should feel bad about it. Personally, just to be honest, I think it makes you look pretty cute. Love the style.”
Bri was staring up at Tim with wide eyes, blushing. With her last year of hellish grind unconvinced, she genuinely questioned: “Really?”
“Yes, you’re beautiful.” Time shyly blushed and turned his head as he said it. Bri curtsied her arms and twisted and moved her legs, raising one heel off the ground.
“Well… I think you’re pretty cute too.” Bri responded, seeing Tim’s candor.
“Let’s go to the woods. There’s a nice creek and it’s gorgeous back there.”
Bri blushed. Oddly enough, she appreciated being small around him. She felt normal and comfortable. Around him, there seemed a palpable benefit to being littler. It made her feel more cared about and protected. Far from the ogling, mansplaining, or ways other men intimidated her, Tim seemed to have an understanding of exactly where and when she needed his help. Presently, he was carrying her bagged belongings on his shoulder and walking slowly so her little legs could keep up.
“Here’s the entrance,” Tim said, pointing over. “You good with a little dirt on those shoes?”
Bri looked up at him and smiled. “You’re so silly.”
“Haha…and you’re a cutie.” He gazed down onto her and smiled back.
As Tim said the word “cutie,” Bri felt a deep sense of attraction to Tim. It was magnetic. Her shoes, designed for such a moment, began to shrink. Bri shrank along with them. Within a few moments, she was standing 4’6".
“Let’s go over there. I see some ducks.” Tim pointed over to a lakeside bench. Bri followed. Somehow, at her shorter stature, Tim seemed to match her gait’s pace; both were unaware of what was happening. Bri shrank further and approached the bench at 3’11". Seeing her struggle to climb it, Tim helped her up.
“Thanks…this must be one of those giant benches, not suitable for littles like me…” Bri squeaked out. Tim smiled. His infatuation with the moment made him unaware of her shrinking stature. Only latently aware of her size with feelings of intensifying infatuation, Bri continued to feel more and more comfortable around him as she shrank.
“My pleasure. Look, the ducks are parents.” Tim pointed nearby. As Bri crossed her legs at the knee towards Tim, she saw little hatchlings in the tall grass by the pond. She shrank down below 3 feet tall. Her field of view began to shrink, too - the end of the pond became misty and invisible. She felt relaxed and comfortable. These feelings intensified as she became smaller.
As Bri shrank below two feet tall, Tim reached over to wrap his arm around her. He missed. He looked over, then down, and found Bri “down there.” He widened his eyes, and then rubbed them. He looked again. Yes, Bri was a witch alright, who was shrinking before his very eyes! His heart raced as he did not know how to tell her. Bri noticed Tim’s gesture from the corner of her eye. She felt content and leaned her head over towards him. Her head found rest on his leg. Still shrinking, Bri started to close her eyes. Tim, looking down, was not sure what to do. He was in the classic dilemma of having a cat sleep on you in an uncomfortable position. Bri let out the cutest, tiniest sigh, and fell into a slumber. Tim placed his hand around her body, tucking her close. He waited a few minutes. Then, he picked her up and carried her home in both his hands. She had stopped shrinking at six inches tall. He gave her a gentle kiss goodnight.
Having completed her dissertation, Bri graduated from college and started her new job. She excelled at her new line of work.
“What do you think?” Tim asked, typing away at the keyboard. “I thought the customer might like the smiley face at the end.”
“It’s perfect.” She said, putting her hands on her hips, her shoes pointed forward. Looking up at the monitor, it was as if she was at a government bureau studying battle plans on a giant screen. Her work appeared on it. On the desk below the monitor, appeared Bri.
“Good. ‘Send.’” Tim rubbed his finger on Bri’s little tiny head. He nuzzled her chin and she tucked herself under it, holding his finger with both of her hands, twisting her legs underneath it in an effeminate way. She gave Tim’s index finger a warm tiny hug, nuzzling her head against it.
She had decided to take the challenge of being small after all. She felt she was made to be that way.
