I stared at the inside of my locker outside my college gym's changing room, pretending to try and find something, desperately hoping Marissa would walk on by me after she got done terrorizing her latest victim. She had always been a bit of a bitch, but since a couple of years ago, what with her dad leaving her mom for a girl just a year older than herself, she'd gotten much worse. I almost understood, I could hear the whispers when it first happened, the pity, the small snickers directed at her. By becoming the biggest threat in the school, she'd shut everyone up pretty fast. I wished I was that bold, that confident. I was only here on scholarship, I would never have been able to afford this place otherwise. I went to public school most of my childhood, and only got into this school because I had won a dumb essay contest in middle school and got into a fancy high school with a partnership with the university.
It was a nice school, it was clean and there were no fights, per-say, and it was essentially an 8 year track from high school through college if you could pay, but I had to work so, so hard to keep up the scholarship. Overall, I didn't belong here, and people like Marissa knew that. I was only here because of a contest years ago, and even though I had gone to the same high school as these girls, they never saw me as one of them. While Marissa got whispers and hidden laughter, I got called "rat" and "charity" to my face constantly. It wasn't a welcoming environment, but if I ever wanted to move out of my parent's tiny apartment and do something with my life, it was what I had to do.
I heard the sound of something snapping, and I peeked through the slits in the locker door. Marissa was leaning into the other girl's face, a broken pen in her hand.
"If I ever catch you trying to talk shit about me again, I will snap your fucking finger like I snapped this pen, do you understand?"
The girl nodded quickly, her eyes wide. I shuddered. Marissa would do it, too. She had already been caught putting glue in a girl's hair, pushing one down a flight of stairs, and another time she was found to have been making a classmate eat erasers to "clean her name off the bitches' tongue". And that was just since starting college, in high school she'd ruined lives... She was almost untouchable. The only thing she got in trouble for was the glue, and the school just called it "a prank taken too far". The stairs were explained away as her tripping by mistake, knocking into the other girl, and the erasers were "non toxic" and the girl "ate them herself" so there was no crime done, according to Marissa's family lawyer.
In my mind, I'd thought Marissa would level out after she got into college, away from all the high school drama, the petty stuff. After all, they always said "high school is nothing like the real world", but to Marissa, it didn't matter. With her money and influence over the school from her family, she could treat college as just another 4 years of high school, and once she graduated and joined her mother's tech company, I had little doubt that she'd just keep being herself there, too.
She pushed the other girl against the lockers, making them clang, and turned to walk away. I looked at her, our eyes meeting for a second. Her round face drawn in with her half lidded sneer, a look she almost always had, a look that said "you're not worth my time" without as many words. Her brown hair framed that cruel expression with a wave of layered curls, accenting her green eyes and making her look like a princess or duchess who had just seen something disdainful. My throat closed, and I felt myself shrink back.
"What's wrong, Rat? You want me to give you attention too?" She said, her voice low and dangerous.
I smiled, trying to fake a kindness I didn't feel and I forced a laugh. "Oh, no, I was just getting my gym clothes, I'll be going now!"
I grabbed the clothes on top of the pile and walked away, my heart pounding. The other girl glared at me, angrily. I had abandoned her, and I knew it, but I couldn't have done anything anyway, and it's not like I could make any new friends at this point anyway...
I changed quickly and sent a text to my only friend in school, a girl named Henrietta who was here from Germany. Her family owned a company that sold blood around the world, and the other girls had taken to making fun of her accent, and calling her "Frau Bludsauger" as a reference to her family's business. The mutual bullying and ostracization we experienced drew us together, making me one of her only friends as well.
'Hey gril, srry im late, had a lady m sitch, omw in'
The reply was instantaneous
'Oh gods, are you ok?'
I shot back a confirmation I was, and headed into the gym proper. It was a good gym, it had rows of equipment, mostly focused on cardio, but there was some basic weight equipment as well, for toning and staying trim. Henri and I, though, we stuck to the cardio. I jogged over to her sitting on a weight bench and gave her a quick hug.
"Hey girl, ready to pump it up?" I asked, cheerfully, trying to ignore the shakiness I'd felt from dealing with Marissa just a moment before.
"Ha, ja, of course. But are you really ok, Amber?" She asked, her german accent still slipping in despite years of trying to hide it.
I nodded and climbed onto a treadmill.
"It's ok, it wasn't me she was targeting, it was another girl, the one whose dad owns the bank on West Main? I don't know her name. I was just caught in the crossfire."
"Ok, sweet thing, if you say so, let us get pumped up then!"
She stepped onto the machine next to me and we started off, matching each other's pace. We had an unspoken contest going, to see who could out pace and outlast the other each time. If I raised the speed on my treadmill, she'd bump up hers, if she raised her incline, I'd do mine too. Last woman standing won, and the loser had to buy the winner a smoothie. We never had actually said it out loud, but it was still our thing, and we never started without the other.
I flicked on the TV in front of us as we ran, and watched the news as I jogged, focusing on the reports of local crime, the stocks, the upcoming election, and apparently, the spread of the compression energy particles to our town. They had gotten into the water supply in a small Russian town years ago from a lab catastrophe, and had been spreading ever since. They only affected about 1-3% of the population, but if you had the genetic mutation that allowed them to 'latch on' to your body mass as an energy source, it'd eat you away until you were out of usable genetic material. For some people that meant they'd lose an arm or a head, or have lopsided, twisted bodies. For others, they'd just get smaller. In some cases, it'd cause a catalyst trigger that could compress you and your surroundings all at once as the particles 'ate' all the mass around the victim, burning through their body quickly. It was dangerous, and people died a lot because of it.
If they were in our town's water supply already, that could be... fun. I fantasized about Marissa getting infected, and losing chunks of her body, or better yet, loosing so much mass that she wasn't considered human anymore... It was rare, it only happened to about 1/5 of the affected, but if you lost more than 90% of your body mass, the government considered you a "class B citizen", so if you died accidentally or if your family couldn't take care of you, there wouldn't be any legal repercussions. It was the result of a big court case that happened when a powerful business owner accidentally killed his wife after she was infected, and his legal team got creative with the manslaughter charges.
If you were killed outright, the law would get involved, but it was basically the same as killing an animal at that point. If she was a class B citizen, and I found her... I could do whatever I wanted with her, she'd lose her power, I'd be the school hero, even. I shivered at the idea in excitement, maybe she'd even just... disappear... plenty of the 1-3% had "ideal compression makeup" and just compressed away into nothing, their entire body just vanishing into particles of compression energy.
"Uhm, darling?" Henri's voice jolted me out of my fantasy. "You have been... in the clouds for quite a while, what is up?"
I grinned, sheepishly. "Well, I was just imagining if Marissa was a genetic match for the compression particles, and... how things would change for us if she was..."
Henri's eyes widened. "Ohhh no, no, no, do NOT wish evil on someone, Amber, even if it is her, and please do not say such things out loud! It is far too dangerous..."
"Well, it's not EVIL, per say, it happens to a lot of people..."
"It is pretty evil... It is like saying... you wish her to get cancer, it's not even as common as that, and it can be much much worse..."
I blushed and nodded, feeling icky inside. "Oh, yeah... When you put it like that, my grandfather died of cancer. I hadn't thought of it that way, I guess."
"Ja, well, I understand you're just feeling hurt, we will ignore it from now. But now... I think it is time for smoothies, do you agree?"
I glanced down at my machine and realize I had been running at the base setting for the full session. I looked over at Henri's, and saw she was jogging along at quite a brisk pace. I sighed.
"Yeah, ok. I'll buy today, my treat."
She clapped in victory and squeezed my shoulder as we turned off our treadmills and headed to the showers. "I think I will get... blueberry and banana today!" She thought out loud, in a teasing voice "I really earned the extra sugar today!"
I smiled lightly, the mild ribbing was nice, it made me feel closer to her, like we really could trust each other against the world.
~~~
I walked into my apartment, and found my parents sitting on the sofa watching the news. My mother looked over at me and pointed over at the TV.
"Look, did you see that virus got here? It'll be all over town soon."
"Yeah, I was talking about it with Henri, it's kinda scary, but interesting, too, isn't it? We could lose neighbors and stuff..."
My dad cut in. "Well, I'm just saying, we need to be proactive about this, I heard you can turn in class Bs to the government for a lot of money, if we can find one... Just keep an eye out at school, ok?"
"Oh, uhh, ok Appa, sure." I said. I highly doubted I'd actually sell any I found, if I found one... I was keeping them. Even if it wasn't Marissa, the status bump, the class of having your own class B... I'd be upgraded from "Rat" to Amber in no time. My dad could get over it. I fixed myself a plate of rice and mandu in the kitchen, and headed upstairs to study.
I munched on the dumplings, the crunchy veggies mixing with the soft tofu and mushrooms and doughy outside to make a delicious, healthy snack. I appreciated my parents being willing to make concessions to my diet, even if they weren't vegetarians themselves, they still made an effort to cook the same meals they always had, but without meat, just for me. My parents were a bit rough and a bit pushy when it came to my schoolwork, but they made sure I had what I needed to succeed. My studies were going pretty well tonight, I had made very decent progress on my paper for my world religions class, and I think my flash card drills were starting to stick for my physics test next weekend.
I finished my dinner and cracked open a sparking water. It was a low chance that'd I'd catch the compression particles, but from now on, canned or bottled water only, just to be safe. I switched off my computer and flopped down on my bed, scrolling my phone and watching old black and white shows until I fell asleep. Tomorrow, I would be on the hunt for anyone affected with the virus, but for now, I just wanted to be cozy.
~~~
I woke up to my alarm going off and I groaned. I picked up my phone from under my pillow and looked at it through crusty, bleary eyes. I had a text from Henri, asking if I wanted to meet her at the park for a jog, and a notification that my religion paper was due soon. I could respond to Henri later, and I knew when my paper was due. I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the bed, running a hand through my hair. I needed to get a shower- oh, hm. I'd taken one last night at the gym, was the water still safe enough to bathe in? I'd need to test it somehow...
I checked on my phone to see how to know if you had the right genetic makeup for compression, and the first search result recommended that you put a drop of infected water on your thigh. If it started to hurt by the end of the day, you had the genetic makeup needed to compress. The thigh had a lot of volume and no vital bits close to the surface, so even if it did compress, it wouldn't lead to permanent damage. I didn't really want to risk the pain, but I needed to know if I could bathe, especially if I was going on a jog today. Unfortunately, I assumed the water wouldn't necessarily compress the skin on my thigh right away, so I might have to be stinky for a while. I'd heard it took hours for some people, especially if they only had a little of the required genetic material.
I sighed and went to the bathroom, using some hand sanitizer from my purse instead of washing my hands. After shaking my hands to dry them, I carefully turned the tap on, letting it run for a few minutes so the old, potentially uncontaminated water ran out, then dipped the hand towel in the stream. I carefully held it over my leg and watched as a single drop of water fell off and splashed on my upper thigh. I quickly turned off the water and watched my leg, waiting for any sign of pain or compression. If it was just that one spot, my skin could just get tight and stretch, or it could very well tear open and rip, which... I wasn't looking forward to at all.
After a few minutes, I didn't feel anything, and the water was almost dried up, so I wiped the rest off with a paper towel and put my pajama pants back on. I'd just have to be extra aware of that spot on my leg for the rest of the day, if it started hurting for any reason, I'd know I'd have to start buying water by the jug to bathe in. For now though, Henri was waiting on me, and I wanted to get some breakfast before I headed out. I pulled out my phone and responded to her as I picked out some light clothes to wear to the park.
'hey grl im down jst lmk whn yr gonna b here 2 pick me uo, gotta get food first'
She texted back almost instantly.
'Alright! I am heading that way now, so I will get there around 9:43, meet me outside your apartment complex then?'
'kk'
I rolled my eyes, that was only ten minutes from now. Her and her dumb car, usually she just walked over to my house from the dorms, but the park was all the way over by the mall, so it did make sense for her to drive us. I wouldn't have enough time to really eat a full breakfast, I'd need her to swing me by somewhere for lunch later. I threw on my workout top and some shorts and grabbed my phone, slipping it into my thigh strap after cramming my cards in the case so I'd have money for later. I held back another yawn, and opened the door to the hallway. My dad was at the counter eating some cereal already, and I could hear the sound of the sink running in the kitchen.
"Mom, are you using the water?" I asked, walking up behind her, "You know it could compress you, right?"
"I'm not worried." she said dismissively, still washing her dishes, "If it gets me, it gets me. Are you not using water?"
"I'm testing to see if it'll affect me first..." I said, getting a breakfast bar and a banana, "I'm not touching water until I'm sure I won't compress."
"I think it's pretty hard to avoid if you have the... DNA?" my dad said, "It's best to get it over with, right?"
"No, Appa, I'm going to live safely, no tap water, only purified bottled water." I said around a mouthful of banana.
"And who'd going to buy all this bottled water?" my mom said, arching an eyebrow, "Enough to fill a tub?"
"Aw, Appa loves me, he'll buy it for me!" I said, giving him a side hug.
"I suppose I would..." he said thoughtfully, "But you don't know if you have it yet, right?"
"I'm testing a spot on my leg." I said, "I'll know by tonight."
I glanced at the clock. "I gotta head out, I'm going on a run with Henri. I'll see you later?"
"Be back by dinner!" my mom demanded, "And bring Henri, she needs the company!"
"Yyyup." I said, grabbing my apartment key and slipping out the door. Henri ate with us about half the time these days. She didn't have a kitchen in her dorm, and the food hall was too expensive for her budget, so if she didn't eat with us, it was usually noodles or microwaved dinners. My mom took offense to that, and as a result Henri was a regular addition to our dinner table. Her and I usually watched TV after in my room, and then she'd head off to her dorm to sleep. We'd tried to do sleepovers during the week, but it didn't work out with our schedules. Plus my room was too small for a blow up mattress and she'd usually end up in my tiny twin bed, which was just uncomfortable.
I walked out front to see Henri already pulled up next to the curb, her off-gold sedan looking as unimpressive as ever. She'd saved up her allowance for it while we were still in high school, making sure to have enough money by the time she got her driver's license so she could drive us to school. Most of the other girls at school had cars too- or more impressively, drivers- so Henri's ancient car didn't really raise her up much in the social rankings, but she still at least got kudos for having one. I didn't even have my license yet, and I was almost twenty one...
"Good morning, Amber!" she said, smiling at me widely, "Are you ready to enjoy nature?"
"What's with the perky attitude?" I asked, "You hate mornings."
"I got up a few hours ago." she admitted, "There are a few missing persons already reported around town, I went to the mall and did a few laps to see if I could find any compressed people that got stuck there overnight."
"I... didn't know you wanted one?" I asked her, unwrapping my breakfast bar, "I never took you for a class B owner. You were getting onto me last night for wanting Marissa to compress."
"No no no, I do not want to keep one, I want to have the ten thousand dollars for turning one in!" she laughed, "I would not wish it on anyone, but if they are already small, it is no harm. I myself am too busy to care for a little person though, I would never be able to keep up with all the rules."
"Oh, so I if I do end up compressing, don't go to you, got it."
Henri looked at me with a funny look on her face and swallowed. "W-well, no, if it was you I would take very good care of you. I would learn all the rules, and I would be the best guardian ever, of course."
"But only if it was me." I clarified.
"...Please do tell me if you compress." she said, still with the funny look on her face, "I promise I will care for you to the best of my ability."
"Ok, fine, I'll tell you." I shrugged. "I'd kinda like to find one, to have one for myself, it'd be... nice, I think."
"Not the money?" Henri asked, "You could get a new computer, or a car of your own!"
"My computer can still run Last Legend 28 at medium-high, and why do I need a car when I have a Henri?" I joked.
"You need to learn to drive eventually, I cannot cart you around forever..." she gave me a wistful smile.
"Yeah, but you never say no, and... I prefer going places with you. It gives me someone to talk to."
"I suppose." she said, "If you ever need driving lessons-"
"I'll get my dad to teach me." I told her, poking her shoulder, "I'm not letting miss 'five tickets in a single year' tell me how to drive."
"They- I never got in an accident..." she protested, "It was mostly because my speedometer was broken, anyway!"
"Whatever." I said, crumpling the breakfast bar wrapper and stuffing it in a cupholder, "I just don't want to learn right now."
"Fine, fine, no car for Amber. If I find a class B though, I am turning them in, so you will have to beat me to them if you want to keep them!"
"It's a deal." I nodded, "I agree to those terms."
"And if we both see one at the same time on our jog... First one to them gets them."
I made a face. "Maybe let's not bum rush the tiny, fragile human who just had their life upturned. Let's just rock paper scissors for it."
"Deal." Henri nodded, and we shook on it.
~~~
I leaned against the car, panting as I tried to catch my breath. We'd done three laps of the trail, and it was almost time for lunch. I was feeling pretty worn out, and we hadn't seen any traces of class Bs anywhere at the park the whole time we were there. I stretched my back and pulled my sweaty hair out of my face and eyed Henri, who'd thought to bring a water bottle with her, something I regretted forgetting.
"Gonna share?" I asked, pointing at it.
"Mm, mwha, get your own." she said, pulling it away from her mouth, "We can go to that one taco shop I like in a bit and you can get one of their spicy milkshakes to cool off."
I shook my head. "No, I can't eat anything spicy right now, I'm way too hot. Can we go to the sub shop instead? I want a veggie wrap."
"Ugh, I guess." Henri rolled her eyes as we got into the car and headed out. "That is all the way past the school though."
"Perfect! I have a change of clothes in my locker at the gym!" I said, "I can at least get out of these sweaty ones, even if I can't safely shower yet."
"You are just... not showering?" Henri asked, tilting her head, "Amber, I do not agree with this course of action."
"Only until I know if I can be infected." I told her, "I'll know by tonight."
"I showered this morning to help wake up..." she mused, "I suppose I will find out too. But I thought the virus acted fast?"
"It can, sometimes there's a few hours delay, depending on the person." I said, "That's why we'll see people compressing across the town for at least the next three days or so as more people come in contact with water and stuff."
"I shudder to consider the ones who compress imperfectly..." Henri said, "To think, up to three percent of our city will become forever changed by this weekend..."
"It's a scary thing, but like, we can't do anything about it." I waved a hand. "Aside from looking for class Bs, of course."
"How quickly we so callously degrade the biggest virus in human history arriving at our town to a fun day of hunting for infected to sell to the government..." Henri tapped her steering wheel as we approached the school. "Do you think our blasé attitude was orchestrated by a coordinated effort from the government to promote class B content in order to make us less worried?"
"I have no idea, that's conspiracy territory." I shook my head. "Although, it would explain all the influencers and tv shows that have class Bs suddenly popping up over the last couple years."
"I just wonder about it..." she said, parking the car around back by the gym entrance, "It seems I see a class B every time I open my phone, I feel it is being normalized at me."
"I dunno, it's been a while since it started, we might just be used to it?" I opened the door for her and she curtsied slightly. "Humans will get used to anything if we spend enough time with it. No government plots required."
"That is no fun though, I want there to be a conspiracy, it makes the world more interesting..." Henri eyed the hallway to the showers. "...I am already infected, if I can be, I am going to rinse off before we go out to eat. See you in a bit?"
"Yeah, I'll bring you your spare clothes after I change." I said, heading to the lockers.
"Thank you!" Henri called as she vanished around the corner.
I stepped into the locker room and headed for mine, peeling my phone strap off my thigh before undressing. I wasn't too sweaty, and I had deodorant in my gym kit. I'd be fine. I dropped the dirty clothes on the bench in the center of the room and put in my combination, digging through my stuff. I had a pair of shorts, a t-shirt with an anime girl on it that I honestly couldn't believe I'd brought to college, and a tank top. I considered the options as I slid the shorts on, and eventually went with the anime shirt. I needed to get it home anyway, it was supposed to be pajamas, not school clothes.
I reached for my dirty clothes to stuff in my laundry bag and my hand hit my phone, knocking it through the crack on the seat and under the bench. I sighed in frustration and bent over, pawing for it on the smooth tile. My fingers couldn't seem to find it, so I ducked my head under to check where it'd landed, and I froze.
Against one of the legs of the bench, was a class B, terrified and pressed against the metal in an attempt to hide from me.
I stared at her, she stared at me. She was about three inches tall, maybe a little more, and she was wearing black flared pants and a fitted off-yellow top. She was pale, with brown hair and green eyes, and a look of horror tinged with a familiar disgust that I couldn't help but recognize, even on her new tiny face.
"Marissa..?" I whispered, my voice catching before I could say any more.
"If you even think about touching me, I will sue you so hard-" she started with a snarl.
I reached out and plucked her off the ground as easily as picking a flower, cutting her threat off and turning her words into a scream.
"You're so small..." I whispered, my eyes roaming all aver her as she squirmed. Her hands were so small and delicate, I could shatter her ribs with a jab, she had so much detail in every bit of her body despite being the size of my finger. She was a person, and I was holding her. I'd never seen a class B in real life before, somehow it was so much more powerful and impactful than I'd ever imagined. She was in my hand, I could just squeeze her and-
This was Marissa. Marissa. I wanted to squeeze her. I wanted to get her back for all the pain and hurt she'd put me through. The suffering, the mean names I couldn't escape from, the ruined birthdays no one showed up to, the rumors that destroyed my life, the time she'd stolen my digital pet and thrown it in the toilet. I just- I wanted to- I could just end it, in an instant, snuff her out. I had that power... Had I manifested this? Had I caused it to happen by speaking it into the world?
"I- I need you to turn me in, I would like to be brought to my house at the earliest convenience, so that my family can-" she said loudly, her voice almost hiding the tinges of fear creeping through.
I tuned her out as I thought about it. Turn her in? I could get the money if I did, but I'd lose this, I'd be throwing away the most power I'd ever had in my entire life. I couldn't just get rid of that, I wanted to hold her and keep her and squeeze her more, I could just... never let her go. Why should I? I didn't strictly need the money, and she deserved to be kept, for me to keep her and torture her and- well, at least, she deserved to be put in her place, and I was the only one I trusted to really do that. I had no choice, I had to keep her.
"No." I said at full volume, cutting her off as she recoiled at the sound. "No, I'm keeping you."
Her eyes widened and she locked up, her fingers turning to claws as she fought off the panic. "I can give you far more than the paltry ten thousand the government is offering, I can assure you, my mother will pay fifty thousand- no, a hundred thousand for you to return me to my family! Just turn me in, and you'll be rich, at least, as rich as a rat can hope to be."
"I don't want the money." I said, feeling a coldness in me.
I didn't want the money, that was odd, why didn't I want the money? Ten thousand is a lot, but a hundred thousand could get my life set up for good. I could stop writing essays all summer for scholarships and use it to start up the print-on-demand business I was planning on opening. Why wouldn't I take that deal? I watched Marissa's face flush white and she pushed herself back against my fingers in an attempt to get away from me. That was dumb, my fingers were me too, she was just pushing herself harder into me. I adjusted my hold, wrapping my fingers around her more fully. I felt more powerful, more fulfilled in this moment that I could ever remember feeling, I had her, I had Marissa, in my palm!
"You aren't allowed to call me a rat anymore." I told her, emotion completely gone from my voice.
"I won't." she said, annoyed, her arms twisting against my tightening grip as I held her in place, "As long as you return me to my house."
"I think you need to understand something." I told her, my voice getting breathy as I brought her to my face. My heart was racing, I felt like a goddess, I couldn't go without at least this much. "I'm honestly still debating if I'll keep you as a toy, or squash you. Either way, you're not allowed to call me 'Rat' anymore."
"That's murder, you bitch!" she snarled, wrenching one arm free and trying to use it to pry her body out.
"It's an accident." I said, petting her head with my other hand. Her hair was soft, I wondered what conditioner she used... "It's me not looking where I'm walking and tragically stepping on you by mistake."
She looked like she was going to cry, but masked it with a cold, hateful fury. "You're not up for this, Rat, killing me or keeping me. Did you even take the class? Are you licensed? Do you even know how to care for-"
The door opened to the college basement and I snapped into action, I couldn't let anyone else see her. I could just throw her to the ground and stomp- but I wasn't done with her yet, she needed to actually pay for the past six years of bullying. I grabbed my laundry bag and tossed her in, dumping my clothes on top of her, muffling her screams to nothing. I snatched my phone off the ground and headed for Henri's locker, trying to look casual. One of Marissa's friends, a girl named Quince, walked in and looked around carefully. She glared at me and stomped over, but I noticed she was taking careful note of where she was stepping.
"You, Rat! Have you seen Marissa here?" she snapped at me.
"Y-yeah, I did?" I said, opening Henri's locker and taking out her little bag of clothes, "Sh-she was here last night, uh, w-we didn't talk much..."
"But not since?" Quince looked around the room with a glare, "Not even like, her clothes or anything?"
"Nnno?" I said, "Is she ok?"
I pressed the bag of laundry against my side, hoping that Quince couldn't hear Marissa's muffled shrieks.
"She's been offline since last night, and her location is still here at the gym." Quince said, making her way to Marissa's locker and opening it up. "See? Her locker isn't even latched, and- oh... here's her phone."
Quince looked at the phone in her hand and then at the locker, her face hard. She turned to me and pointed to me. "Show me the bottom of your shoes, now!"
"A-alright..." I said, turning and showing her the treads. I was glad I hadn't stepped on Marissa, that would be hard to explain after just claiming I hadn't seen her.
"Ok, ok..." Quince said, her shoulders relaxing a little. "Tracy is concerned Marissa may have... compressed, she was supposed to meet her and Darcy at Chrysós last night, so she'd have showered here after our match, and she never called her driver to pick her up..."
"Oh, gods..." I said, covering my mouth, "W-well it's just me here, but Henri is in the showers, maybe she saw something?"
"Bludsauger? Huh, it would have happened in there, if anywhere. Alright, let's go. You're helping me look." Quince demanded.
"Me?" I asked, "I'm not even friends with her!"
"Yeah, but- but she could be in danger." Quince said, her concern clear on her face. "Even if you don't like her, she's still- she- she'll owe you, big time, and I will too. I'll fix your social shit if we find her, swear to god."
"Fix it how?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at Quince, "You don't have nearly as much sway as she does."
"I will once I register her and keep her for myself..." Quince said under her breath.
Marissa must have heard that, because she stopped moving and went quiet at once.
"Y-you'll keep her?" I asked, "Like, as a pet?"
"Duh." Quince rolled her eyes, "She's my best friend, of course I'll keep her."
"I thought Darcy was her best friend?" I frowned, Quince seemed more like a lackey than a sidekick.
"She is, but Marissa is mine. And I'll be hers once I have her registered." Quince said quietly as we entered the showers, "Now you start looking in the stalls, I'll talk to Bludsauger."
I supposed it made sense that Marissa's friends would want to keep her for themselves, whoever had her could basically take her place as the queen bitch. Well, I couldn't. Not yet anyway. The issue was, I didn't have the license I'd need to keep her legally, or the money needed to buy her from the government, even with the reward for registering her. I didn't know how much it was total, but I doubted it was something I could afford.
I pretended to look in the stalls as I walked around the showers. Marissa had instantly stopped trying to get Quince to find her once she realized she was going to be owned by her, was she really that bad? I'd just threatened to kill her to her face, and actually considered it too, what would Quince do that was worse than that? She was the most energetic of the four girls who ruled the high school and currently the best tennis player at the college, although Marissa would probably argue that fact. Was the idea of being owned by her rival too much? Or did she think Quince would genuinely be a worse owner than me?
"Hair, watch the hair, bitch!" Quince said, and I looked over to see her covering her signature dual afro puffs with her hands, "Ugh, stop trying to soak me, I'm just asking questions!"
"I am naked." Henri said angrily, glaring at her as she poked her head out of a stall, the faucet still in her hand, "I do not wish to be interrogated, I have not seen Marissa anywhere, and I would like to be seeing less of you!"
"Nothing? Not even clothes in a stall?" Quince asked as I walked up, "She has to be somewhere!"
"I didn't see anything anywhere." I told Quince as Henri ducked back into the cubical to dry off, "Maybe the staff found her?"
"I was already at the office asking about her, the maids had already cleaned down here by the time she sent her last message..." Quince said, her face torn between a scowl and a worried crease.
"Maybe she tried to find someone to help her?" I shrugged, "And she ended up outside or in the workout room itself?"
"Not outside, the doors are too heavy to open if she compressed to a size small enough that we couldn't find her easily, and she'd be too small to get up the stairs too." Quince said, pacing.
"Clothes?" Henri said, poking a hand out.
I passed her the smaller bag, keeping the Marissa bag under my arm. "So she's either in the workout room, or... she compressed away to nothing?"
"I've heard of class Bs that are the size of a fingernail..." Quince said, shuddering, "Ugh, Jesus Christ, this was supposed to just be a simple trip to pick up my recently compressed friend, now I'm... I think I need to go find a magnifying glass..."
"Well, good luck with that." Henri said, coming out of the cubicle, "But Amber and I have to go to lunch."
"Wait, no, she could be anywhere!" Quince protested, "I can't look all by myself!"
"Then call Tracy and Darcy." Henri glared at her. "I honestly do not care if you do find her, and if I found her, I would keep her for myself, so there."
"Sorry, Quince." I said, trying to sound genuine, "I'll keep a close eye out for her though."
"Whatever, fine." she grumbled, "At this point I'll have to risk one of the other girls getting her first just to make sure she doesn't die..."
"Oh no, so sad, we are leaving." Henri said, pulling on my arm.
I followed her along out of the building, her eyes tracing every inch of the ground as we left. She wanted Marissa for herself too, I got it, but how would she react when she found out I'd already found her?
~~~