Teensier Tina

[coolguy69]

“Teenie” Tina is what they called her. You never knew when, but she would suddenly show up at gatherings at 4 feet tall, shrunk. Normally, she was 5’5", but she had discovered in her high school years that she could shrink herself if she dressed up in make up, wore cute ballerina flats, and was around people.
The undiscovered bouts of science could explain the phenomenon of her shrinking stature. In physics, the double slit experiment proved that when light is observed, it goes from being a wave to a particle. Shiny flats and shiny makeup which reflected a lot of light were key elements that directly correlated with this. Uranium-238, which is radioactive, was in-part (by accident) built into her flats. This caused them to create a reaction that created the potential for the effect. Tina, only when being observed when wearing the flats, would therefore shrink down in height. This would happen until she reached an equilibrium, which generally happened when she reached 4 feet tall.
Tina did not know the science behind all this, but she enjoyed spending time at social gatherings at her tinier stature. She had done it several times. Last time, she had her mom help her - she dressed up as Alice in Wonderland, had her mom in the room with her, and shrunk down to 4 feet tall. She spent the night at that height at the party and had fun “actually” being Alice - seeing everyone at mid-torso height. When she walked onto a scale, she was almost half of her weight, which meant half of her strength, and as a woman, she had fun with that. People would challenge her to reach, and she would stand on her tippy toes trying to touch their hand they had held out across their body. Being smaller lends itself to some very fun interactions. People would tease her, always calling her “Teenie Tina.” That day it was “Teenie in Wonderland.”
However, being a little bit smaller does have a drawback. It means you can’t legally drive. So Tina would always have to ride home with someone back, usually her mom, who was still in the car, passively observing her. It wasn’t until she got home and was alone in her room when she would start to grow back to her normal size. Tina was used to this process, she had done it dozens of times, and at this point being a little bit smaller did not bother her. She was just happy she could have fun.
This time, it was a friends’ Christmas party. “Teenie” Tina decided to wear her patented ballerina flats and make up with a shiny pink top and a shiny checkered black and green skirt, with pink pantyhose. She themed herself as a “Christmas elf.”
What Tina did not know is that wearing more shiny clothes would reflect more light, which made an equilibrium shift. This time, she shrank a little bit smaller - which put her at a mere 3 feet tall now. As her mom was helping her, she noticed her mom’s hands being a little bit bigger than before. When they got into the car, in her even more shrunken state, she noticed how everything seemed a little bit bigger, too, and her heart started to race. What had happened to that extra foot of height she normally had in her shrunken state? But she kept telling herself that everything was okay - just like in the beginning. Being just a little bit teensier was not going to stop her from having fun. She just told herself that maybe Santa’s elves were also this size, and as to assure her, played into the role.
When she got to the party, everyone noticed that “Teenie” had become “Teenie”-er. She had to crane her neck up a little higher now to see her friends - they were now at torso height to her eye level, so she had to really “reach” for their reactions. People kept crouching down to her and their seemingly giant face would approach her, as she stood there freshly shrunk, and share how cute she was as an elf. Her costume got a lot of praise and her friends played games with her. At this size, her heart kept pounding - she was always a combination of scared and excited to be shrunk. The “new” shorter height that she did not expect amplified this. Her friends made her hand out presents, as she was the elf, and she would try to lift them - but at this stature, she was perhaps a third of her original strength. The big boxes, she could only slide a few centimeters at a time. Pushing them with full force of her entire body, the box hardly moved. A hand would reach down and “help” her push it - it was amazing to her watching how much stronger everyone else was by comparison. She did manage to carry a couple of the tinier presents over - but even these small bags which contained gifts of jewelry seemed like they were like “normal” sized presents to her. Everyone kept saying how cute she was struggling with everything, but also how adorable she was at this tiny size, dressed up. She couldn’t contain her blush whenever she got attention like this.
After everyone had opened up presents, a man crouched down to her level and asked if he could pick her up. Her friends had silently allowed Tina to have some autonomy when she shrunk - as she was still a dignified woman - this was the first time someone wanted to challenge that. She nodded up at him, and he picked her up and kissed her. Blushing, and at her tiny size, she sort of turned away, but could not contain her reaction. He smiled and kissed her again. Noticing her reaction, he said, “How about we take a ride home tonight?” She looked up at him, and blushing, nodded. Her heart, she thought, must have been racing faster than ever before.
The man carried her out to the car, and everyone said their goodbyes. “Have fun with the elf!” Someone shouted as they left.
“I will!” said the man, as they all laughed together. But for Tina, this was no laughing matter. When shrunk, everything becomes a little bit out of proportion of reality - what originally seemed silly to everyone else, was in her reality, something which brought fear, anxiety, and hidden panic. Worse was that she enjoyed it. The man put her in the passenger seat of his car and started to drive. Tina, leaning over the seat, with her legs dangling in the air, crossed her legs at the knee and asked the man where they were going. He said he wanted to try something, but he wouldn’t share exactly what it was yet. He said he was going to try something “for science.” Tina knew what that meant, and was slightly put-off, but she decided to do what she always did when “Teenie,” to trust the other person. She told herself he probably just liked her and this was a sort of first date.
The man went into his driveway, parked the car, and said, “We’re here!” “Teenie” Tina could not see very much at her size sitting down, so she curiously stood up in her passenger seat to get a view. She saw a quaint, suburban home. “But before we go in,” the man said, “let’s try something.” He pulled out a thin sheet of metal which had a series of double-slits built in, and looked at her through the film. As light shone through each slit, photons bounced off, creating a cascading effect with Tina’s outfit, which reflected the light. As Tina stood on the car’s passenger seat, she saw the view of that home slowly leaving her point of view. Now, standing up, she saw the car dashboard and the sky, but no home. Soon, she could hardly even see that. To her vantage point, suddenly, it was as if the sitting part of the seat had become a small field of black all around her. The rest of the car was a series of objects that looked almost foreign like she was in the inside of a video game outer space station. Having shrunk before, she knew what was happening. She was shrinking! But she had never, ever, been this eensie teensie before. The man, satisfied, put his sheet metal down, and saw “Teensier” Tina, now 4 inches tall, standing on his car seat, absolutely stricken with terror on her cute little face. Her cute outfit shone and almost seemed to glow as she shrunk, and with the finish, had returned to its usual shine. Tina opened her mouth agape as the hand approached her. The man grabbed her, kissed her tiny little forehead, and whispered to her: “For science.”