"What?" Fitz squeaked as he fumbled with his backpack.
"Taller." Ed repeated slowly, flicking his ears back and waving a hand above his head. "You know, tall? Vertically advantaged? Possessing of height?"
Nate snorted, but kept his eyes on the road.
"I am not!" Fitz argued, but bit his lip. After all, he hadn't... well, he hadn't CHECKED. But still!
"Oh don't look so upset," Nate scolded as they pulled into the school parking lot. "You're acting like we accused you of a crime or something. We're just curious, is all. I mean, Ed and I never got as tall as Pete."
"Nobody got as tall as Pete," Fitz rolled his eyes as he shoved his door open and got out. "DAD didn't get as tall as Pete."
Fitz decided that him wearing (and almost fitting) the last of Pet's hand-me-downs at this very moment (minus the shoes which he OUTGREW) was not important for this conversation. At all.
His dumb older brothers were still just hanging out around the car. Fitz shuffled his feet, and tried not to fidget. Why did this feel so awkward? He and the twins had always been close - height-wise and otherwise - so it wasn't like anything had changed. And he wasn't taller than them anyway!
Nate wandered over from the driver's side and eyeballed Fitz up and down, and let out a low whistle as he ran his hand from the tips of his ears over to Fit's head, where they smacked right into his own.
"Oh come on, ears don't count!" Fitz decided this was the dumbest most childish argument ever and the three of them didn't deserve to be upperclassmen for having it.
Nate and Ed shrugged and took off for school, Fitz following with a grumble and maybe a slight hunch.
"Good thing too," Ed called back cheerfully. "Those things add like four inches on you. Could you hear the teachers from inside the car?"
"My ears aren't big," Fitz muttered petulantly.
"Giant." Nate smirked, walking backwards. "Like, unreal even. I can't believe I didn't notice sooner. We should have at least checked at home, all official, after you came back from the mall with KANGAROO shoes."
"Pbbt." Fitz offered a raspberry as his final argument as he slouched off from his dumb, still totally taller than him, older brothers.
"Hey Fitz!" Leo, Fitz's ironically named squirrel friend beamed up cheerfully from their shared locker space. Fitz quickly stopped fussing with his totally normal ears and smiled while he waited his turn to put his books away.
"Hey Leo. Good summer?" The two hadn't seen much of each other for the last few months; Fitz moved and Leo had some camp thing, which must have been much cooler than they'd thought if he came back with an eyebrow piercing. Somehow the acorn design was the perfect combo of punk and dorky; it was great to see him again!
"The BEST. Just wait until you hear - wait did you get taller?"
"Ugh." Fitz groaned as he slouched against his locker.