John F. Kennedy High School, Orange County School District, Friday, 3:12 PM
“And since the class average on the last test was only 71.6%, I have decided to help those of you who are willing to do some work over the weekend in order to improve your grades…” Mr. Taylor said, while speaking to the students in his physics class.
Every student groaned. But they all realized that they needed to do something in order to improve their grades, for the class was boring, the teacher was strict, the material was difficult, the labs were impossible, the homework was demanding, and the tests were horrendous.
“You will have the next three minutes to find a partner. Then you will team up and write a 500-word essay covering the material from chapters 11 and 12 in your books. And I want these essays on my desk by Monday afternoon or else I will award you the grade of zero for this. Have I made myself clear?” the teacher said, while he strolled down the aisle in the center of the classroom.
Peter closed his eyes for a moment; for he realized that his weekend was now shot, thanks to this. Luckily he had several friends whom he could ask to be his partner. But he found physics to be his most challenging class and he needed to get a good grade for this. At that moment, he just wanted class to be over. He looked up at the clock and realized that there was still two minutes to go. But he just wanted to get going, his impatience had the best of him, so he just kept his eyes closed and silently commanded the school bell to ring two minutes early.
Suddenly every student gasped when they heard the loud RRRRIIINNNGGGGG in the hallway! Wasn’t the bell too early? It didn’t matter, class was now over. The students stood up and gathered their books and bags, and everyone tried to squeeze through the narrow door to make their way through the hallway.
As soon as Peter got up, Jason tapped on his shoulders.
“Hey Peter! Can we be partners and do the paper this weekend?” he asked him, while Peter was still busy putting his books and notebook away in his backpack.
“Sure, Jay. Let’s get together and work on it tomorrow…” Peter replied.
Immediately Ty grabbed Peter’s hand and pulled him towards him.
“Peter! I’m going over to Allen’s house to play some video games, okay? You got your key to the house?” Ty asked him.
“Yeah, I think so…” Peter said to him.
Just as Peter was about to put his backpack’s strap around the shoulder, Mike had walked up to him.
“Hey Peter, I want to ask you a favor…” he began to ask him. But Mike was interrupted by Daniel, who tugged on Peter’s sleeve.
“Dude! Don’t forget the article about the wildlife preserve for next week’s school newspaper, okay? I need that by Monday!” Daniel reminded him.
At that moment Jenny joined Mike while they were waiting for Peter to finish talking to Daniel.
“Golly! He’s one busy guy! What were you going to ask him?” she wondered out loud.
“Jenny, this guy is a Wizard. He has the power to make us shrink until we’re super duper tiny! If we ever want to try this out, then we will need him to shrink us…” Mike said to her.
“A Wizard? You’re joking! Nobody can make people shrink! How do you know this?” she said in disbelief.
“I’m serious! You won’t believe the stories I heard about this guy! He has the power to change us into whatever he wants!” Mike assured his girlfriend.
“I don’t know… I think we’re catching him at a bad time, Mike! He seems to be extremely popular… Everybody wants to talk to him…” she replied.
“We’ll wait…” Mike said, with a smile on his face.
“Peter, I don’t want to blow your weekend, but I really need this article by Monday…” Daniel pleaded with Peter.
“Oh come on! Can’t you give me another week to write it?” Peter asked him, feeling very disappointed that he had to write this paper for physics class and an article for the newsletter in the same weekend.
“NO! This is the last issue of the trimester and if I don’t get it Monday then it will have to wait till after the summer! Help me out here, Peter!” Daniel asked him. Peter just rolled his eyes and sighed.
“Alright… I’ll do it…” he said, as he turned around and slowly made his way to the classroom door. Mike saw that nobody else was talking to him, and he jumped at the opportunity to ask Peter the big favor.
“Peter! I need to ask you a favor…” Mike began, as he walked next to him.
“Oh please, Mike… Please don’t ask me any more favors… I got plenty on my mind right now…” Peter mumbled as he began to feel a little annoyed.
Suddenly Allen came running down the hallway and grabbed a hold of Peter, almost pushing Mike out of the way with such force, that Mike almost lost his balance and fell on the floor.
“Peter! Are you going to swimming practice tomorrow? We need you! We’re training for the State Championships! You must be there!” Allen shouted at him.
“Holy cow! With everything else I got going on this weekend…” Peter said, while he realized that he was going to be very busy.
“What are you doing tonight, big guy?” Allen asked him, while he was still preventing Mike from talking to Peter.
“I thought about going to the gym with Rob… Why?” Peter responded.
“Oh okay… well in that case, I want you to gain twenty pounds of muscle right now, just so you’ll be ready for the swim practice tomorrow! See you later, champ!” Allen then turned around and ran down the hallway and out the double doors.
Mike immediately grabbed Peter by the shoulders. Just at that moment, Peter’s body became frozen. Peter couldn’t move, because his muscles began to expand…
“Hey Peter! Listen, dude… Everyone tells me you got this magic power thing…. Can you make me and Jenny shrink down to nothing, and then grow us back again? We just want to feel what it’s like…. Good Lord! What’s going on?” Mike said, as he witnessed Peter’s chest as it filled up his shirt.
“I’m having a muscle growth spurt…. No way, Mike. Let’s do it some other time, dude. I got way too much going on right now, without having to worry about finding people who I’ve shrunk down to size…” Peter replied.
His abs became more defined as his legs began to press tight against his jeans. Peter cringed for a minute, but he was relieved that he didn’t grow any bigger.
“Golly… I was afraid I was going to bust out of my clothes again… I’m happy I only gained twenty pounds…” Peter mumbled at himself as he examined his shirt, which now barely fit on his body. The buttons on the shirt were barely hanging on, as his chest stopped growing.
“Wow, Peter! If you can grow so fast, then you can make us shrink just as fast, right?” Mike asked him. Jenny was astonished by the way Peter suddenly gained muscle while they were talking, and this made her realize that Mike was really telling the truth about Peter after all! Unfortunately, Peter became annoyed by Mike’s constant requests.
“Mike! Leave me alone right now! I don’t have time for this! Let’s talk about this next week, okay?” Peter said to him, in a louder voice, clearly indicating that Peter was slowly becoming frustrated with Mike.
Peter started to walk away when Ty came running back down the hallway.
“Hey Peter, have you seen Allen?” Ty asked him.
“Yeah! Can’t you tell? Just look at me!” Peter said, as he held up his arms so that he could show Ty his muscular body. Ty just chucked, when he got his wallet out of his pocket and handed Peter a twenty Dollar bill.
“Peter, since I’m going over to Allen’s house… Can you buy us some bread and cereal at the grocery store? Dustin had actually asked me to do it, but since I’m not going home, I wondered if maybe you could pick up some groceries at the store where you work at?” Ty asked him, as Peter reluctantly took the money from Ty’s hand.
“Yeah, I’ll do that, too….” Peter said feeling even more disappointed now.
“Thanks, cousin! Oh and by the way… I’ll give you another pound of muscle… in your chest! Just because muscle looks so good on you! See you later, champ!” Ty said with a chuckle, as he turned around and ran out the building.
Peter’s chest immediately inflated a little more, just enough to make all five buttons pop from the shirt, leaving the torn shirt hanging over his broad shoulders, exposing his muscular abdominals and his pectorals. Peter just stood there for a moment, obviously feeling a bit at a loss of words. Then Mike gently walked up to him, followed by Jenny.
“Wow, Peter! You look just absolutely… incredible!” Mike began to say to him. “Now, about this shrinking trick you got…”
“MIKE! Can’t you just LEAVE ME ALONE for one second?” Peter shouted at him with an angry tone of voice.
“All I wanted to ask you is if you could shrink us…”
“ALRIGHT THEN! You will shrink AN INCH PER MINUTE! So now… STOP BUGGING ME!” Peter shouted at them.
At first, Mike and Jenny were frozen. They felt a warm tingling feeling throughout their bodies, as they slowly began to shrink. Luckily for them, their clothes were shrinking along with them, so they would not be left naked.
Peter gasped when he realized what he had done, but it was too late to stop it.
“I’m sorry…” he whispered to Mike, when he noticed that both Mike and Jenny had dwindled down a little already. He was about to wish for the shrinking to stop, when Conchita gently tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey Pedro…. Como estas?” the Hispanic girl said to him. She grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him towards her. Peter was now distracted and forgot about Mike and Jenny, as Conchita continued to talk to Peter about the dance party from the previous week.
While Peter and Conchita were talking, Mike grabbed Jenny by the shirt and they quietly walked out of the building and into the parking lot.
JFK High School, Student Parking Lot, 3:28 PM
“Mike… I feel funny. I have this feeling like there are butterflies in my stomach…” Jenny said, as she grabbed Mike by the shirt. Mike used to be 6 feet tall and Jenny was about 5’4” tall, but now they felt like they were at least 2 inches shorter.
“I know! I have this feeling as if I’m falling… Come on, let’s walk on over to your house!” Mike said, as he slowly began to walk to the street.
As Mike and Jenny walked on the sidewalk, they looked over and saw that the chain linked fence that surrounded the school appeared to be growing taller and taller. Mike was easily able to look over the 5 foot fence, but now he was barely able to look over it, and Jenny had already shrunk too far down to even make it over the fence.
“Mike… When is this shrinking going to stop? I mean, what happens when we reach zero inches?” Jenny began to wonder out loud.
“Don’t worry about that, Jenny…. I know Peter pretty well… He won’t leave us hanging.” He replied, as he placed his arm over her shoulder.
JFK High School, in the hallway near the lockers, 3:40 PM
“Oye, Pedro… You know something? I thought you danced really well the other night…” Conchita said to Peter, as she looked up at him with her big, brown eyes.
“Thank you for dancing with me. I hope I didn’t embarrass you… I kind of have two left feet when it comes to dancing…” Peter said, with a smile on his face.
“Gosh, have you gotten bigger? You seem to be more muscular now…” Conchita had observed, as she gently ran her finger over Peter’s pectorals, which were showing because the buttons on the shirt got ripped off by his growth spurt.
“I suffer from muscle growth spurts…” he said to her, with a grin on his face.
“Well, I suffer from growth spurts as well… I grow in my love for you…” she whispered, as she clearly enjoyed running her soft fingers over Peter’s muscles. This made Peter blush, for he didn’t know what to say.
“So, you grow more muscular all the time? Gosh, I find that so sexy… I was such a fool, hanging out with Sergio and Doug… What was I thinking? They are nothing compared to you, Pedro…” Conchita said with her soft, calm voice. Peter just cleared his throat, not knowing what to say to the beautiful, Hispanic girl.
“Te amo, Pedro…”
Peter then looked at the big, round clock that was hanging over the entrance of the building.
“Conchita, I have to go now… I have to buy groceries and then I’m going to the gym with my brother Rob to work out. I’ll see you on Monday, okay?” he then said to her.
“You’re going to the gym to become even bigger than you already are?” she asked him with a smile on her face.
“Well, I need to go home first and change, before I grow again and rip the rest of my clothes apart. So, you have a good evening, okay?” Peter and Conchita then said goodbye while he held the door open for her. She then made her way home. Peter waited for her to get out of sight so that he could wish himself to appear in his bedroom so that he could change. For the moment, he had forgotten about Mike and Jenny.
1700 block of Washington Street, 4:04 PM
Mike was now about 3 feet tall, as he noticed that he had lost about half his height!
“Mike! We’re shrinking fast! It’s been over half an hour and I feel like I’ve lost almost three feet in height!” Jenny said to him, with a very worried expression on his face.
“Don’t worry, Jenny! I won’t leave you! We’re finally at your house. Is your mom home yet?” Mike responded, as he held Jenny’s hand. It had taken them longer than normal to walk home, since they were shrinking the whole time. Their legs were continually growing shorter and shorter, so they were walking slower as time went by.
When they finally got to the front door, Mike had to give Jenny a lift because he barely could reach the doorknob. Both Mike and Jenny were looking like two very young kids!
“My mom went grocery shopping! I really hope she gets home soon!” Jenny said, as she struggled to walk up the stairs to her room, especially since her legs were now so short.
Everything in the house seemed weird to them. The furniture, the chairs, the tables all seemed gigantic! When they got into Jenny’s bedroom, they decided to climb on her bed. From there, they jumped over to her chair, and then they looked over her desk.
“Maybe we can type something on the keyboard!” Jenny shouted.
Mike reached over and moved the mouse with his baby-sized hands, clicking on the icon of the word processor program. Then Jenny started typing. She typed “HELP, MOM! IT’S ME, JENNY AND MIKE AND WE’RE SHRINKING! GO GET PETER FROM SCHOOL SO HE CAN MAKE US GROW BACK!” She made the letters as big as possible but it was getting harder and harder to type since she was becoming smaller.
A whole ten minutes had gone by, and Jenny was now about a foot tall, and Mike was just a few inches taller! From the desk, they walked over to her dresser, which was luckily standing next to her desk.
Jenny had to give Mike a lift, allowing him to get on her shoulders. Once he was on the dresser, he extended his hand to her, and pulled her up. But it was getting harder and harder to get around, since they were still shrinking.
“Mike, I don’t know about you, but I feel like I just want to kill that friend of yours! How could he do this to us? This is ridiculous! How is it possible that we’re shrinking like this?” she shouted at him, almost to the point of tears.
“Jenny, are you crazy? He’s the only person who has the power to grow us back! I’m not saying anything bad to Peter! Listen to me, Jenny…” Mike said to her, as she began to sob while he was holding on to her shoulders.
“If we keep on shrinking like this, then sooner or later we will disappear! Then what are you going to do, Mike? We will disappear from human sight! Then nobody will ever find us again…” she began to cry. Tears were flowing down her cheeks, as Mike gently held her head against his chest.
“Don’t cry, Jenny. I know Peter very well. He’s very powerful, and he will be able to find us. Let’s just stay in one place and wait for him…” Mike said, while trying to calm his girlfriend. Mike could only hope that he was right about Peter….
1600 block of Duval County Road, 4:14 PM
Ty grabbed the remote for the TV and sat down in the recliner as Allen brought a bottle of soda pop into the living room. Ty was staying at Allen’s house, and they had decided to watch some TV before they would try out his new video games.
“Oh cool, you got the cheesy potato chips! I love those…” Ty said, as he grabbed a handful of chips and stuffed them in his mouth.
Just at that moment there was a knock on the door… Allen got up and took the mail from the mailman. He looked through the pile and pulled out a magazine. Then he sat down next to Ty.
“Hey I got my brother’s muscle magazine!” Allen said, as he looked at the cover of the magazine, which had a muscular young man on it. Ty immediately had a wide grin on his face, because he thought about what would happen if Allen were to intensely look at a photo with muscular men on it.
Allen flipped through the pages until he came to a page that had an article on it: “How to work out so your biceps grow HUGE”.
“Wow, look at the guns on this dude! I bet you he must be very strong!” Allen said excitedly.
“Well, I wonder what Peter’s doing… I hope he’s not holding anything in his hands right now…” Ty thought to himself…
Anderson’s Grocery and Drugstore, 3300 Thomasville Road, 4:17 PM
Peter was slowly pushing his cart as he walked down the familiar aisles of the grocery store where he also worked part-time. But this time, he was just shopping around himself, and he had already grabbed the cereal and the bread that his cousin Ty had requested him to buy.
When he came to the aisle where all the shampoo and deodorant was, he stood and looked over the abundance of different brands, types, and sizes of all the bottles. He saw one plastic, green bottle and grabbed hold of it so he could read the label. Just at that moment he felt a tingling feeling in his arms, and both of his biceps grew several inches thicker, causing a surge of muscular strength to work its way up to his hands. Peter suddenly squeezed the bottle with such force, that the spout popped open and squirted a big green blob of the thick shampoo all over his hand, dripping it on the floor.
“Oh Peter, Peter… Why are you so clumsy all the time?” he mumbled to himself, as he watched the mess he had made on the floor. Just at that moment Brian walked by. Brian was his coworker and he was actually on duty at that time.
“Oh come on Peter! You made a huge mess! No fair! You’re not on duty, so now I got to clean up the mess you made! Besides, you need to pay for the shampoo before you can use it, you know!” Brian began to complain.
“Don’t worry, Brian! I’ll clean it up…” Peter said, as he squatted down so he was right over the spill.
“Yeah, right… Just hang on while I get the mop… Thanks a lot for giving me more work, Peter!” Brian replied with an angry tone of voice.
As soon as Brian had walked away, Peter held the open bottle of shampoo close to the spill on the ground.
“I want all of the shampoo to flow back into the bottle through the open spout!” he commanded, and immediately his awesome magical powers went to work. The thick, green liquid began to flow from the floor into the spout of the bottle that Peter held in his hand. Even the shampoo that was spilled all over his hand began to flow into the bottle. Just when it was all gone, Peter got up and closed the spout of the bottle with his finger.
Brian just returned holding the mop in his hand, when he realized that Peter had already cleaned everything up.
“There! All clean, Brian!” he said, with a smile on his face. Brian just sighed as he rolled his eyes.
“Great, I got the mop for nothing. Sometimes you drive me nuts, Peter! If you keep this up, you’ll force me to go visit a shrink!” Brian complained, as he turned around and stumbled his way back to the warehouse, dragging the mop behind him. But what Brian said got Peter thinking.
“Shrink? A shrink? Shrinking? Did I shrink somebody today?” he began to wonder to himself.
Peter proceeded to the first available checkout counters. While he was standing in line, he was going down the list of friends in his mind. Did he use his powers on anyone that day, which he could have forgotten about? Did he use his powers on Ty? Or Salvador? Jace? Allen? Cory? Derrick? Rob? Duncan? Jason? Ricky? Sandra? Wendy? Angela? Sergio? Doug? Rachel?
“Hey, kid… Do you want paper or plastic?” the gentleman behind the checkout counter asked him.
“Oh, I’m sorry… I was thinking about something… Plastic, please!” Peter replied.
Peter was obviously distracted, as he was thinking about the events of that busy Friday, from the moment he got up to the moment he walked into the grocery store.
“Your total will be fourteen Dollars and sixty-three cents. Will it be cash, debit or credit?” the clerk asked him again.
“Sir? Cash, debit or credit?” the clerk repeated, as Peter was staring in front of him.
“Oh I’m sorry, I was in deep though. It’ll be cash!” Peter replied, as he handed the clerk the twenty Dollar bill he had received from Ty at school.
“You have to pay attention, my boy. Why, do you attend JFK High School?” a heavy set lady asked him, who was next in line at the checkout counter.
“Yes, I go to JFK!” Peter replied, as he grabbed the plastic bags from the clerk.
“Well then you must know my daughter, Jenny! She also attends that school. She hangs out with that redhead boy… I think his name was Mike…” the lady replied.
“Mike and Jenny?” Peter wondered out loud, as he walked out the doors of the grocery store. And then it struck him like a bolt of lightning.
“Oh, NO! I SHRUNK MIKE AND JENNY!” he shouted in astonishment.
“I beg your pardon?” the lady asked him.
“Something happened at school this afternoon! I had talked to Ty, Allen, Daniel, Conchita and Jason. It was right after class… It was over an hour ago! Oh no! I got to find them…” Peter began to wonder out loud.
“Well Jenny and Mike usually walk over to my house after school. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re more than welcome to ride home with me!” the lady, Mrs. Johnson, offered him.
With that said, Peter grabbed her grocery bag as she unlocked the door of the car. Peter then walked around and got in the passenger’s side. She started the car and slowly pulled out of the parking lot.
1700 block of Washington Street, 4:26 PM
There was a magazine, a little plastic ruler, a pencil, and a stick of lipstick on Jenny’s giant dresser. Mike and Jenny were now very small, and Mike decided to lie down on the dresser and to lean right next to the ruler. He placed his head right where the “0” was marked on the ruler, and Jenny walked over besides Mike to read the mark on the giant ruler where his feet were.
“Gosh, you’re exactly one foot tall right now!” Jenny said. Jenny began to feel very uncomfortable about the whole thing. Not only that, but it seemed like she was now shrinking much faster than Mike! “Wow! Look at the size of my lipstick!”
“Go lie down besides the ruler so I can measure you!” Mike said, as he got up. “This is so weird! You have to admit that this experience is really cool!”
Jenny lay down by the “0” mark and Mike saw that her feet were just by the 4 inch mark.
“If my calculations are correct, then we’ve been shrinking for about an hour now! I was exactly six feet tall, and now I’m only a foot so we have both shrunk by five feet! Peter was correct! We are shrinking at a rate of an inch per minute!” Mike said. Then he looked down at Jenny, who was now just about three-and-a-half inches tall.
“Mike! I’m really scared!” she said, as she sat up on her dresser. “I only have three more inches to shrink! What’s going to happen to me? Am I going to disappear?”
Even though Mike was just a foot tall, to him it seemed like Jenny was just coming to his ankles! She was like a little kid to him, but he noticed that she was shrinking rapidly! He got on his knees so he could be as close to her as possible.
“Listen, Jenny! You will just continue to shrink okay? Peter will come to rescue us! You’ll be fine! You’ll just be so small, that… that…” Mike said, as his eyes began to fill up with tears. Jenny was now less than 3 inches tall.
“Mike! Can’t you do something? I’m about to disappear from sight! What’s going to happen when I have nothing left? Are we ever going to grow back? Mike, I’m really scared!” she began to cry. “What happens if we don’t stop shrinking?”
Jenny was now half her 4 inches and she was now not even 2 inches tall while Mike still had 10 inches to go.
“Mike! I feel like I’m falling really fast… I have real bad case of the butterflies in my stomach! Why is this happening? What did I do to deserve this? I don’t want to die…!” Jenny sobbed, as her tears were rolling down her eyes. Mike was now 9 inches tall while Jenny was only 1 inch, almost like a small toy to Mike. Mike now seemed to be like a giant to Jenny, while he was now lying on his stomach.
“Jenny! Oh my gosh, you’re shrinking so fast now! JENNY!! Don’t leave me! I LOVE YOU, JENNY!! Can you hear me? I LOVE YOU!” Mike cried, as he sobbed as he closed his eyes. He almost couldn’t bear to see his girlfriend shrink to nothing. She was rapidly growing smaller and smaller.
“Mike… MIKE! Oh my God… Oh my God… This can’t be happening!” I love you, Mike! I LOVE YOU! What’s happening to me? OH NO I’M NOTHING! I’M ABOUT TO DISAPP…” Jenny shouted at Mike. But it was the last Mike could hear.
“JENNY!! OH MY GOD… NO! NOOOOOO!!! JENNY, DON’T LEAVE ME!!!” Mike shouted, as he saw his girlfriend shrink down so small that he could no longer hear her.
“SPEAK UP, JENNY! I CAN’T HEAR YOU! OOH NO YOU’RE SO SMALL THAT I CAN’T SEE YOU! JENNY!!! JENNY!!!” Mike shouted, as he tried to look intensely at the spot where he saw her shrink from existence.
“Oh No… No… How could I have been so stupid? I’m sorry, Jenny! I’m so sorry… Please forgive me! Do you hear my Jenny? Please, forgive me for making such a stupid request to Peter!” Jenny…” Mike cried, as tears rolled down his face on to the hard wooden floor. Mike just lay there and sobbed, trying his hardest not to take his eyes off the spot where he last saw her.
Mike was extra careful to not walk where he last saw Jenny. As he slowly got up, he walked over to the magazine that was on the dresser. The magazine cover was about as big as a football field to him now! He stepped on the paper, which was soft and smooth. He walked over the cover as he saw the giant letters that were printed on the paper. One of the letters was the letter “o”. He walked over to it and sat down, right in the center of the printed letter. He figured that he must have been about 6 inches tall now.
Outside Jenny’s house, 4:32 PM
“Alright, Peter! We’re here…” Mrs. Johnson said, as she parked the car in the driveway, which led to the garage door in the front of the house. Peter got out and followed Mrs. Johnson to the door. There, she got her keys out of her purse, and she unlocked the door so that they could come in. As soon as she opened the door, she offered Peter to come in.
“Jenny! I’m home! I’m here with Peter, a boy from school! Jenny?” Mrs. Johnson said, as she slowly walked her way up the stairs to her room. Peter was right behind her when she finally made it to the top of the stairs. The bedroom door was wide open, as they both walked in her room.
“She’s not home, I guess…” she said to Peter, who began to intently walk around the room.
“Wait, if they have shrunk, then we may no longer see them! I need to concentrate on them and see if I can perhaps hear them…” Peter said as he walked around the room, studying every inch of her desk and her bed.
“What are you talking about, Peter? You can’t honestly expect me to believe that, do you? Nobody shrinks, and especially that small! That’s impossible!” Mrs. Johnson said in disbelief.
“Please, you’ve got to believe me! I shrunk them! I can prove it to you!” Peter replied, as he tried to make her understand the urgency of the situation. But Mrs. Johnson started to look at Peter like he was making fun of her.
“Young man, I have seen and heard a lot of weird things in my life, but I have never heard of such gibberish! People don’t shrink! That’s just impossible!” she argued back.
“Alright, I’ll prove it to you! I’ll make myself shrink right before your eyes! I have the power to change people! Please, you must believe me!” Peter pleaded with her, as she folded her arms in front of her chest, still not believing a word he said.
So Peter then closed his eyes and wished for his body to shrink down to 3 feet in height. As soon as he made the wish, he waited for something to happen, but nothing happened! Instead, he felt a weird tingling sensation in his legs.
“Oh no… I want to shrink, not grow! Oh no… I’m going to grow! Not now!!” Peter said, as he opened his eyes.
“Peter, if you think you’re being funny…” Mrs. Johnson began to say in a stern tone of voice, when suddenly Peter’s jeans ripped at the seams with a loud “RRRRIIIPPPPP”! His quads began to swell and forced the jeans to tear at the seams. Mrs. Johnson gasped when she realized how Peter’s muscles had grown so sudden.
“Oh my goodness!! Your legs are swelling up! What’s happening to you? Oh my gosh, are you alright?” she said, since she thought that there was something wrong with Peter.
“I want to wear my basketball shorts instead of these jeans!” Peter commanded, and immediately his jeans disappeared and instead he had on his blue basketball shorts, which revealed his increased, muscular legs.
“My God! How did you do that? That’s impossible! Nobody can grow so fast…” she said, as she continued to look at the boy who was standing before her. Peter just smiled as he realized that this growth spurt was exactly what he needed in order to convince Mrs. Johnson that Mike and Jenny were shrinking away.
“You see? If I can make my muscles grow, then I can also make Mike and Jenny shrink until they disappear!” he replied with a smile on his face.
“Oh no… My daughter… Peter, please find my daughter! I’ll do anything, I’ll give you anything! Please, get my daughter back!” she begged him.
Peter looked around and saw the clock on the desk with the time. It read “4:37PM”. He figured that Mike must now be at least one inch tall, and he closed his eyes. Luckily Mike saw that Peter and Mrs. Johnson were in the room, but he was too small to get their attention.
“PETER!! OVER HERE!! I’M RIGHT HERE! IT’S ME, MIKE!!!” he shouted, as he stood on the magazine cover. He was now less than an inch tall.
Peter closed his eyes and concentrated. Then he opened them again.
“I can hear him! I can hear Mike… But, where is he?” Peter wondered out loud. “MIKE! WHERE ARE YOU?” Peter shouted, as he continued to look around the room. Then he picked up the word “dresser”. Peter immediately turned around. “They’re on top of her dresser!” he said.
Just as Peter walked over to the dresser, he saw Mike, waving his arms above his head. Mrs. Johnson walked over and gasped when she saw how tiny Mike was, and he was shrinking fast! Mike was on the cover of the magazine, right in the center of the letter “O”. Both Peter and the lady looked at him, as the tiny man rapidly shrunk away until they could no longer see him.
“Oh no! He’s disappeared!” Mrs. Johnson said, in panic.
“No, he’s still there! He’s just too small for us to see. I can only find him if I shrink myself down to their size, or smaller…” Peter explained to her.
“Well, what are you waiting for, my boy? Please, get them back!” she replied, as she became even more concerned.
Peter just stared at her. For a moment, she felt like she was growing taller. Then she realized that she was the same, but Peter was now actually shrinking, and his basketball gear was shrinking with him. Peter rapidly shrunk down to about 5 feet, when he hopped on the bed. Then he continued to shrink, until he was about 3 feet tall. He then stepped on to the desk, which was next to the dresser. There, he continued to shrink down until he was one foot tall. In the meantime, Mrs. Johnson just stood there, as she watched the 6 foot 3 inches tall teenage boy shrink to just a foot in height.
Peter asked her to let him stand in her palm of her hand, so she could set him on the dresser. To Mrs. Johnson it seemed so strange, to hold a tiny human being in her hand. She gently set the tiny Peter on the dresser, close to where the magazine was. From there, Peter continued to shrink until he was only 4 inches tall.
“I’m going to disappear now, but I’ll be right back, okay? Don’t go anywhere!” he said to her. She could barely hear him, so she had to move her face closer to the dresser so she could watch Peter as he continued to shrink to nothing on Jenny’s dresser.
“Alright, Peter, thank you. Please get my daughter!” she said to him, with tears coming down her face as she watched the teenager shrink into nothing. When Peter was gone, she pulled up Jenny’s chair and she decided to sit down, reading the message on Jenny’s computer. It was just too much for her, and she felt scared that she might never see her daughter again.
It was a vast, barren landscape which closely resembled that of a desert. Everything was made out of wood particles; there were mountains and valleys which had rectangualr shapes to it. It wasn’t a real desert or canyon, no this was the top of a wooden oak dresser, but seen from the eye of a human being who had become so tiny, that she felt like she was looking at everything from a microscope.
The landscape was rough, there was no level surface to walk on, and Jenny was constantly trying to maintain her balance. She was in another world, in one where there were no people. She was in the world of microscopic organisms, and she wondered if this was going to be her fate. How was she going to get out of this place? Would she die in this place?
Suddenly she heard a male voice call out her name.
“Jenny? Jenny? It’s me, Peter! Please say something if you can hear me…” Peter said.
Jenny heard him but she couldn’t see him.
“Peter? I’m here? I’m… I’m… I don’t know where I am!” she shouted back.
“Just keep on talking, Jenny… I’ll find you in a few moments…” Peter replied.
“I’m so happy you came for us. I was really wondering what was going on, ever since we started shrinking at school! Please come quickly Peter! This is such a weird place! I can’t believe where I am now… But I can’t wait to get out of here as soon as possible… Where are you, Peter?” she said out loud, as she looked around.
“I’m right behind you, Jenny…” Peter said calmly.
Jenny turned around and saw Peter standing right behind her, just a few feet away.
She slowly became angry as she walked towards him. She wasn’t aware of the fact that she was still shrinking, while Peter had stopped shrinking already. So Peter appeared to be growing bigger and taller to her.
“You incredible JERK! How DARE you shrink us out of existance?” she began to shout at Peter, as she pounded her fists against his growing chest. “And why? What did I do to you? You have NO RIGHT to shrink us into nothing! Who do you think you are? After this is over, I will NEVER want to speak to you again, Peter!” she said, as she began to sob while leaning against Peter’s growing body. At first Jenny reached to hism shoulders, now she was barely coming up to his torso and she was now looking at his quads when she looked straight ahead.
“How come you’re still growing?” she said, as she tried to wipe the tears from her face.
“I’m not growing anymore. I forgot to stop your body from shrinking even further.” Peter said quietly, clearly feeling hurt by Jenny’s angry remark. But Jenny now realized that she needed Peter in order to grow back to normal!
But luckily Peter didn’t hold it against her. Jenny stopped shrinking, and she slowly walked back to the teenage boy, who appeared like a giant to her. She was just as tall as his legs.
“Listen, Jenny. I can perfectly understand why you’re angry at me. The whole thing was my fault, I made the mistake and I’m responsible for it. I’m sorry for the horrible experience I made you go through. And if you don’t ever want to talk to me again, well I can only accept that.” Peter said in a sad tone of voice. Jenny felt strange, getting an apology from a kid who was over twice her size! But she felt relieved that Peter was honest about the whole thing and that he apologized to her.
“I forgive you, Peter. We all make mistakes, even a Wizard can make a mistake now and then!” she replied, smiling back at Peter for the very first time.
“Well, let’s find Mike so that we can all grow back!” Peter said to her. Peter allowed Jenny to grow a little until she was just as tall as he was. Then he gently grabbed her arm and wished for them to appear wher Mike was and for them to be Mike’s exact height.
Immediately Peter and Jenny were in a white surrounding, with large black circles surrounding them. They were walking on a smooth, white surface which seemed like plastic, and the black circles were dots of ink.
Peter and Jenny quietly walked on past the giant black objects. It seemed like there were thousands of them, for this is all they could see, even past the horizon.
“Mike? Hello Mike! It’s Jenny and Peter!” Peter shouted out loud.
“Mike? MIKE!!” Jenny repeated, when she saw Mike walking past another black circle.
Mike and Jenny then ran towards each other and they embraced. The hugged and kissed, although it was getting more difficult for them to hug one another since Mike was still shrinking. This time, both Jenny and Peter still appeared to be growing to him, and he soon found himself looking up to Peter and Jenny, who were becoming like giants to him.
“Oops, I better make you stop shrinking, Mike. Before we lose you again!” Peter said, as he silently commanded the shrinking to stop.
Then Peter grabbed both Mike and Jenny by the arm, and ordered all three of them to grow to exactly one foot in height.
Mrs. Johnson was sitting in Jenny’s chair, when she noticed something happening on the top of the dresser. At first, there was a small speck. Then there were three specks next to each other. Within moments, she recognized the tiny figures of Jenny, Peter and Mike, as the three continued to grow rapidly.
Mrs. Johnson’s eyes lit up and she became elated when she recognized her daughter. At the same time, she stood in awe when she saw how small they were.
Within moments, they were about a foot tall. Mrs. Johnson extended her hand with her palm facing up, and she allowed the three tiny teens to walk on to her hand. She then placed her hand on the floor, so the three walked off and stood there.
Peter once more grabbed Mike and Jenny’s arms and commanded them to grow back to their original sizes as fast as possible! Within moments, the three of them were growing past 2 feet, 3 feet, 4 feet in height. Jenny stopped growing first, when she reached her original height of 5’4”. Mike continued to 6 feet, and Peter continued to 6’3” since he was the tallest of the three.
Jenny and her mother embraced right away, while Peter and Mike talked.
“Mike, I owe you a huge apology! I’m sorry for blowing up at you in school today. I was just frustrated, stressed and overwhelmed by all the things I had going on this weekend, and I just lost it when you asked me to shrink you. I’m sorry; there was simply no excuse for that. I feel really bad about this…” Peter said calmly.
“Forget about it, Peter! I’m just happy you came after us! I’ll have an incredible story to tell in my biology club about this!” Mike said excitedly, as he placed his hands on Peter’s shoulders.
“Is that why you asked me to shrink you?” Peter wondered.
“Oh yeah! I just wanted to experience it and feel what it was like. I wanted to be in a microscopic world for just a little while. I know I was asking the impossible, but everybody around school told me that you were the guy who could make my wish come true!” he replied, with a wide grin on his face.
Peter’s jaw dropped wide open when Mike told him this, for he realized that more people knew about his powers than he thought. For a moment, the thought of the whole school knowing this upset him and he began to feel sad, but Mike picked up on it and decided to cheer him up.
“Peter, you’re the most famous guy at school! Everybody knows who you are and what you’re capable of doing! Trust me; your secret really isn’t a secret anymore. The bullies fear you, the geeks admire you, and the jocks respect you. That’s why you’re so busy when classes end every day! Most people will stand in line to talk to you, Peter! So cheer up and enjoy the spotlight!” Mike explained to him.
“Hey Mister Wizard, can I ask you for a favor?” Mrs Johnson said to Peter, as she tapped on his shoulder.
“I have here four empty bowls. Can you fill them up with ice cream?” she asked Peter. And Peter loved to grant wishes like this, and he immediately used his psychic powers to find out what the favorite ice cream flavors were for Mike, Jenny and Mrs. Johnson. Suddenly, each bowl was filled with a different color and flavor of ice cream!
“I’m going to have to go on a diet after this…” Jenny said, as she took her first bite.
“Maybe Peter can make you shrink again!” Mike replied.
“I think we’ve had enough shrinking and growing for one day!” Peter said.
And the four burst out in laughter.