Will took off across the concrete without another word, Liam scrambling to catch up to his foster brother as he led them away from the part of the playground set aside for the littler kids. They got more than their share of strange looks as they passed increasingly bigger children during their walk to the other side of the school, Liam cowering beneath their glares while Will (who trembled within as they traveled through the valley of the giant preteens) somehow managed to keep a stiff upper lip. It wasn't until they reached their destination that Will finally let the mask drop, the boy so relieved at finding his friend that he for a moment forgot the utter humiliation of now being so much smaller than him.
“Um...” He peeped, the fifth-grader frowning at the strange kid who had interrupted his reading. “...hi...Julio...”
“Uh, hi.” Julio looked confused as he stared up the pair of small boys from his seat against the wall, unable to shake the feeling that he'd seen one of them before. “Can I help you guys with something? And how do you know my name?”
“Julio, it's...” Will took a deep breath to keep his little voice from quavering as he made the unbelievably embarrassing confession. “It's me. It's Will.”
Julio gasped, half in amazement and half in fearful despair. “Oh no.” He squealed, clambering uneasily to his feet, and letting his book tumble out of his grasp. “I knew it! There must have been a camera, or a microphone or…I’m so sorry! I didn’t think…I didn’t mean to!”
“Calm down!” Will soothed, moving to put a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder. The height difference between the two made the protective gesture a little awkward, however – and in the end he resorted to giving Julio a brief little hug, letting the large boy squeeze him tight. “What are you talking about?”
“This is all my fault.” Julio said dejectedly as he pulled away, clutching his head in distress. “Last night…I was just trying to be like Alex Law, like you said – but I found these files, in my Dad’s office and…and…” he turned away. “He must have found out. I don’t know why they’d punish you…Mr. Byrd must have heard us talking, or Lucas, or someone….”
“It’s nothing to do with that.” Will hurried to explain. “I was being stupid. Abby – our mom – she caught me snooping red handed. Didn’t even hesitate before she gassed me right where I stood.”
The boy looked momentarily relieved at the news that he wasn’t to blame, but his panic soon returned as he took in the full extent of the damage done to his friend. So strikingly mature and confident just 24 hours earlier, the boy’s rosy round cheeks and adorable button nose reinforced that his spunky former classmate was now little more than a rambunctious second grader “This is bad. Really bad.” He restated. “God, you’re like a little kid! I’m so sorry!”
“Stop apologizing!” Will said firmly. “Like I said, it was my own fault. And don’t call me a little kid! They only made me a little bit younger.”
“Only as little as me.” Liam added cheerfully, offering up a goofy grin in a bid to calm his brother’s neurotic friend.
“This is Liam, my foster brother.” Will said calmly. “We were hoping you could help us out a bit.”
Julio nodded, although his occasional side eye scans of the playground revealed that he was still very uncomfortable to be talking so openly. “I’ll do my best.”
“Do you know if there’s any way of making people older again? Any way to reverse the gas?”
The older boy gave a sullen look before he hesitantly shook his head. “No – at least, not that I’ve ever seen. Once people get little, they stay that way. Until they grow up normally, obviously.”
Will let out a frustrated groan, but he refused to let his hopes wither away entirely. “What about your dad’s office? What did you find?”
“Well…” Julio shifted his eyes nervously back and forth. “My dad, he and my mom are on the council – you two do know about the council, right?” The brothers nodded impatiently, drawing closer to the older boy to better make out his wary whispering. “All I found were these files, with like information and details about people. There were pictures and forms, signed by all the different members of the council.”
Will nodded sagely. “I think they all have to approve it. Whenever they do it.”
“The only thing....” Julio continued, his voice betraying an even more heightened degree of fear than before. “In my file, there were like three different forms! They all looked pretty similar, but I didn’t get to look at them before I heard someone coming and I had to get out of there.”
“...I see.” Will murmured, chilled by the confirmation that Julio too had been stripped of his adulthood – so much so that encountering evidence of his demotion sparked not even a fleeting memory of the boy's former life. At the same time, the sandy-haired eight-year-old was befuddled by Julio's claim that he came across three versions of the same form, Will terrified that his diminished reasoning and critical thinking skills had made it impossible to figure out why that was the case. “Do you remember what they said on the top?”
“Um...request for reclamation, I'm pretty sure. Do you know what that means?”
All too well, Will thought to himself as he frowned at Liam, who was clearly and rapidly losing interest in the conversation. A chill went through the boy as his foster brother looked longingly across the grounds at his friends screaming and laughing as they played, Will knowing that it was but a matter of time before he was just as distractible – before he cared about nothing but having as much fun as possible. The reminder spurred him to think all the harder on the meaning of Julio's discovery, feeling like his head was a moment away from bursting when he suddenly gasped in realization.
“Julio...” Will began softly, knowing that he needed to be gentle in sharing his conclusion with the sensitive boy. “I think...I think your parents might've – ”
“God, are you really such a loser that you're making friends with babies now?”
Will and Liam froze as a horribly familiar voice rang out behind them, as the taunt it carried drew equally recognizable snickering from Lucas' brown-nosing buddies. Julio seemed just as mortified as his little friends were, jumping to his feet as he worriedly wrung his thin paperback like a wet rag. Though his eyes kept darting to the other side of the playground as if silently imploring the smaller boys to make a run for it, the brothers were too paralyzed by their panic to move a muscle – to do anything but whimper beneath the trio of enormous bullies as Lucas roughly clamped his massive hands on their skinny shoulders and spun them around.
“Aw, did da widdle guys get lost looking for their binkies and babas?” Lucas smirked as Will and Liam squirmed and stared at the ground, both indignant at the teasing but willing to bear it so long as they weren't recognized. “Don't you know that this part of the playground belongs to the...big...kids...?”
“Lucas?” Goon One frowned when the pudgy preteen trailed off. “What's up?”
“...you.” Lucas lowered his voice to a sharp hiss as he stared at Liam, fidgeting as he felt the bully's eyes bore into him. “You're that brat from yesterday who was in the forest with the new kid. Which means that you...”
Will squeaked in bottomless shame when Lucas trained a fat finger on him, knowing without looking up that the boy was grinning viciously as he took in every embarrassing detail of Will's newer, smaller, cuter self.
“Oh, this is just too perfect.” Lucas declared. “I should've known that I wouldn't have to get my dad to make you little, you're such a dumbass that you did it to yourself. What happened, Billy boy? Did you get in trouble with mommy and earn yourself a trip to first grade?”
“I'm in second grade!” Will blurted out, clenching his tiny fists and burning from head to toe when the trio howled in amusement at his childish defiance. “Stop laughing at me!”
“You don't want to be laughed at? Okay.” Lucas shrugged as his eyes glinted wickedly. “How about we make you laugh instead?”
“Wha – ?” Will blurted dumbly as he felt a heavy pair of hands lock around his shoulders from behind. He tried to break free, but the lackey had a firm grip around his skinny arms, rendering them as useless a pair of inanimate little twigs compared to the strong meaty barrier holding him in place.
“Are you a ticklish ickle baby?” Lucas teased, leaning over with an intimidating leer before suddenly shooting his hands quickly under Will’s t-shirt. The feeling of the older boy’s greasy fingers dancing across his soft sensitive belly was almost unbearable, but Will refused to let himself laugh – biting down hard on his upper lip as he squirmed and kicked about in futile resistance.
“Sto-oh-oh-ohp!” He finally hiccupped out, his cheeks burning a hot humiliated beetroot as his t-shirt was hitched up around his chest, exposing him to the entire playground.
Liam let out a battle shriek, ramming his tiny form uselessly into the bullies before starting to hammer uselessly against Lucas’ side with two balled up little fists. “LET HIM GO!” He shouted over and over again, endlessly frustrated by his insurmountable impotence in comparison to the much larger boys.
Lucas momentarily halted his assault on Will’s tummy, grabbing one of Liam’s arms on the downswing and pulling it painfully down behind his back. “Looks like someone wants in on the fun.” He commented smugly, snaking his arm over Liam’s soft neck and pulling him into a headlock. “Hold Billy boy down.” He instructed his first goon, before pointing authoritatively at the second. “You, help me with this one.”
Meanwhile, Julio was looking on ineffectually, the presence of the second flunky by his side paralyzing him halfway between action and inaction. As the goon moved to help Lucas with Liam however, he finally managed to work up the courage to say something “You better let them go!” He warned, taking a few half-hearted steps towards the scene.
“Stay out of this, loser.” Lucas snarled. “Unless you wanna join ‘em.”
Julio’s face quivered in momentary fear before he forced his eyes to narrow in determination. “I’m getting a teacher!” He suddenly declared, darting across the playground. One of the goons made a loose grab for his collar as he passed, but the boy nimbly wriggled away – sprinting at full pace towards the seemingly ignorant pair of playground monitors milling around near the doors.
With his hands full and his two lackeys also occupied, Lucas had no choice but to let him go. “I’ll be quick.” He assured his nervous looking stooges, pushing down on Liam’s shoulders so forcefully that he collapsed onto the dusty ground. With his goons’ assistance, he soon had both boys laid out supine on the tarmac – wiggling in vain against their beefy captors holding them down on either side. “Awww.” Lucas smirked at the sight. “Two tiny babies waiting for a change. What is it Billy? Did you make a poopy in your diaper?”
“Frick. Off.” Will spat aggressively. He’d wanted to say something even harsher, but the naughty word had entirely blanked from his mind.
“Someone’s cranky.” Lucas laughed. “Don’t worry, you’ll be a happy giggly little baby soon enough.”
He kneeled down in front of Will, hooking his fat thumbs around his cargo shorts before yanking them swiftly down to rest around his shoes. He laughed as Will’s childish blue and yellow piped y-fronts were exposed, a few preliminary tickles around the smaller boy’s thighs prompting the smaller boy to spasm his legs powerlessly around on the gritty ground.
“Ohhh.” Lucas exclaimed in mock surprise. “Looks like mommy’s got you in big boy undies today. That’s a mistake. Little Billy’s going to be so excited he’ll pee right through ‘em.”
“And we can't forget about your big brave brother!” The bully gleefully declared as he tugged on Liam's cotton shorts, jerking them down to his ankles as the boy squealed in protest. He wriggled and kicked while Lucas snapped the bright red waistband of his tiny Pokémon undies, both brothers feeling tears spring to their eyes as the ruckus attracted the attention of every tween within earshot – all of whom, of course, gathered round to get a front row seat to Will and Liam's lowest moment. “Aw, look – the two of you attracted an audience by being gosh so darn cute. Why don't we give the nice people a show, hm?”
The crowd tittered and whistled as Lucas began tickling both his captors at once, Will and Liam's wails of laughter echoing throughout the playground as their thighs and sides and smooth little armpits were mercilessly teased. Held in place by the impossibly strong grip of his goons, neither boy could so much as twist away from Lucas' fingers, small bodies aching as they shook with giggles and lungs burning from a growing lack of oxygen. More pressing than all that, however, was the realization that they were too overwhelmed to manage even their most basic functions – including, they began to understand with mounting horror, the one Lucas had predicted would fail them. Though the boys put every ounce of strength into holding back the dam, both knew all too well that it was but a matter of time until it burst. Even now they could feel a few stray drops sneak past their defenses and soak into their undies, both Will and Liam on the verge of bawling as they hurtled helplessly towards full-on accidents.
“Eww, look, there are wet spots on the fronts of their undies!”
“I can't believe they're going to piss themselves, that's so gross.”
“Bet the nurse puts them in Pull-Ups for the rest of the day.”
“WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON OVER HERE?!”
The vicious teases launched by the crowd stopped when a much deeper and louder voice boomed out over them. Though the tickling ceased at once, both Will and Liam needed a moment to catch their breath and wipe their eyes before they could look up and see the furious figure of Mr. Byrd – with a wide-eyed, trembling Julio by his side – cutting his way through the crowd. Lucas and his goons released the brothers the instant they saw the teacher but not quickly enough to earn any plausible deniability, Mr. Byrd studying the paling trio in cold silence before turning and addressing their audience.
“Show's over, folks. Everyone skedaddle.” The crowd dispersed in an instant, tittering to one another and throwing curious looks over their shoulder as Julio pulled the sniffling, panting brothers to their feet and helped them back into their shorts. Mr. Byrd, meanwhile, was standing over Lucas and his goons with his arms crossed and a finger tapping impatiently against his bicep. “Lucas, on what planet is it okay for three fifth-graders to torture two second-graders? Have you lost your mind?”
“They're not really, though!” Lucas insisted. “Both of them used to be – ”
“Be quiet, Lucas.” Mr. Byrd sharply cut the boy off, both he and his goons cowering beneath the finality of the man's tone. “The three of you need to learn a lesson, and that starts with losing the rest of your recess. Back into the classroom, NOW.”
Each member of the trio shot Julio and the brothers the dirtiest look they could muster as they sulked away from the scene and towards the double doors. Mr. Byrd made to follow them but stopped first to turn and smile at Will and Liam.
“You guys okay? Do you need me to get your teacher?”
“...uh-uh.” Will managed in a tiny voice. “We're fine.”
“Sure.” Will nodded, surprised by the genuine look of concern on the teacher he’d so quickly dismissed as a phony the day before. “Err…thanks Mr. Byrd.”
“You’re welcome, Will.” The man smiled, but that smile soon returned to a concerned frown as he turned his attention to Liam. Where Will had managed to construct a feint façade of confidence, his shell-shocked brother was not faring even half as well. Hands placed awkwardly over his crotch, he was shaking uncontrollably – a few tears of distress forming in the corner of his eyes. “Kiddo, are you doing okay?” Mr. Byrd asked softly, placing a fatherly hand on his shoulder.
“I…I had an accident.” He confessed, moving his hands to reveal that the tiny spot visible on his undies had since grown into a sizeable blotch on the front of his gray cotton shorts. Will cringed at the sight, glad that he had managed to reassert at least some control over his shamefully sensitive bladder since the tickling stopped. It seemed Liam had not been so lucky.
“Oh, buddy.” The teacher comforted, rubbing his arm “Don’t worry. Nobody will think it’s your fault.” He turned to Will, looking at him with the kind of momentous trust reserved for the charging of very serious duties. “Can you be a big boy and take Liam to the nurse’s office?”
“S...sure,.” the boy agreed.
Will was unwilling to leave Julio, still eager to discuss the latest revelations about the regression program, but his brother’s needs took priority. Besides, Mr. Byrd looked as if he was going to interrogate the older boy about the incident he had witnessed, nodding gravely at his breathless recounting of the tale as he led him back towards his own classroom.
Will took his quivering brother loosely by the hand, walking confidently through the sea of tittering preteens and following Mr. Byrd’s directions to an entrance on the other side of the playground. Ducking indoors, he knocked curtly on the nurse’s door, offering Liam a weak smile. His brother returned the gesture, but his cheeks were still moist with tears. As they waited nervously outside, Will did have a silly thought that the childish taunting they’d been tormented with might actually come true – suddenly struck with a horrible premonition of them both being sent back to class in toddler’s training pants.
His fears were baseless, however. The nurse – Miss White, a kindly young woman with an upbeat demeanor and an understanding attitude – made the whole procedure quite painless. She didn’t have any spare undies, but she was able to offer Liam some old gym shorts from the lost and found bin. His briefs a total wreck, the boy otherwise went commando. Blessedly hidden behind his cargo shorts, Will couldn’t work up the courage to confess his own accident. Miss White did, however, direct him to the staff toilet down the corridor, finally allowing him to relieve his bladder. He felt the nagging little wet spot still present in his underwear with every step he took as he journeyed up and down the hall, but when the alternative was no undies at all, he decided that he’d just have to grin and bear it.
By the time he and Liam emerged back out on the playground, they still had a good five minutes left of recess.
“You holding up okay, bud?” Will asked his brother. Liam had wiped away his tears, but he still looked plenty shaken.
“Yeah. I just hope those idiots get what’s coming to them.”
Will seethed, unable to conceal his low opinion of the uneven way justice seemed to operate in Viridia. “I wouldn’t bet on it…”
“Oh wow, they actually came back outside! I thought they'd be way too embarrassed to ever show their faces again.”
Neither Will nor Liam knew who the irritatingly familiar voice was referring to until they turned to see Damon marching their way. A small crowd of second-graders trailed in his wake, all of whom whispered and giggled to one another as they approached the confused brothers. Will, sensing trouble, grabbed Liam's hand and tried to lead him away – only for a grinning Damon to jump in front of him and block his way.
“Where ya going, new kid?” The boy taunted. “Do you and your brother need to go change each other's diapers?”
“I don't know what you're talking about, Damon.” Though Will managed to get the denial out with some conviction, the sudden flush to his cheeks – to say nothing of Liam gluing his eyes to the ground – gave away that the bully had touched upon a nerve.
“Oh, there's no point in denying it, Baby Billy.” Damon cooed. “Everybody already knows that the two of you got tickled until you peed yourselves in front of a bunch of big kids.”
Will fumed as the boys and girls that surrounded them tittered and snickered. He should've realized that news on the playground – especially of such an embarrassing event – would spread quickly enough that even the littlest kids would be immediately aware of it. Though his initial instinct was to fire back an indignant denial, Will composed himself enough to realize that denying things at this point would only make it worse. That said, scrambling for something else to say meant suffering under a silence that only grew heavier and more horrible with every passing second. Liam's grip on Will's hand grew tighter as Damon's companions, emboldened by the brothers' humiliation, began joining the bully in teasing the put-upon pair.
Will could endure this torture only until he heard the soft sound of Liam's sobbing clear as day through the shouts and insults. It was in that instant that the fury bubbling within the boy finally boiled over, the incensed eight-year-old seeing red as he jerked his hand free to lunge at Damon.
“Whoa! Hey, stop!” Damon shrieked as he leapt away from the attack, the overweight boy having to call upon every bit of his meager agility to dodge Will's wild swings. He yipped as he was clipped on the hip and again on the shoulder, glancing blows that nevertheless put Damon on the defensive. “You're crazy! Somebody help!”
Eager as the small crowd had been to join in the bullying, none were jumping at the chance to mix it up with the wild-eyed, snarling Will. An awestruck Liam watched through shimmering eyes as Damon snuck in a sloppy counterpunch that staggered Will for a moment, the bully's attempt to follow up on the attack cut off by his opponent grabbing the startled boy and wrestling him to the concrete. Though Damon could put his slight weight advantage to better use on the ground, Will – still supercharged with rage – was able to grapple him to a standstill, neither boy able to gain an advantage over the other before the contest came to a sudden stop.
“DAMON!” The high, chiming voice that cut through the ruckus somehow carried an authority that belied its timbre. Damon, for his part, reacted by peeping as he released Will and scrambled to his feet – which allowed his former opponent to turn over and see that it was Amanda who'd brought the castigated boy in line. “Are you fighting Will because you're mad he talked to me?”
“No!” Damon squeaked. “I was making fun of him and his brother for peeing their pants, and – ”
“Why would you make fun of them for that?” Amanda demanded. “I told you that I'm not going to be girlfriends with a bully! I'm breaking up with you, Damon!”
“Ooooooh!” The crowd of second graders hooted in amusement, their short attention spans easily diverted onto the latest dramatic episode.
“What?” Damon blubbered, sounding rather hurt. “You can’t!”
“Yeah, I can.” Amanda insisted, crossing her arms dismissively. “I don’t have to be girlfriends with you if I don’t want to be.”
“B…but…” Damon stuttered, his eyes drawn down in genuine devastation. He drew a little closer to the girl, whispering out the rest of his objection. “What about your bracelet?”
“Keep it!” The girl declared dramatically, ripping off a clumsily constructed circlet of pink threading from around her wrist, clearly some symbol of the pair’s half pretended puppy love. She threw it unceremoniously to the ground, eliciting another wave of amused whoops from the assembled crowd of kids.
“FINE!” Damon seethed, repeating the gesture with his own matching blue bracelet. He clenched his teeth, giving a final wounded look to Amanda before turning to address the crowd. “I didn’t even like her anyway!”
He waded his way purposefully through the pressing throng of amused second graders, clearly trying to maintain his air of fledgling masculine superiority but failing to hide the moist glistening appearing in the corner of his eyes. As the kids rushed after him, shouting questions, taunts, and jokes, the boy burst fully into tears – heading hurriedly towards the classroom door.
“Are you okay?” Amanda asked as the little patch of the playground around where Will was still sitting steadily cleared out.
“Yeah…” Will reassured, dusting himself off as he rose to his feet. “Tough day, that’s all.”
“I heard what happened.” The girl sympathized, giving a nod to acknowledge Liam. “To both of you.” The other boy returned her nod, but didn’t look particularly interested in conversing with the girl. He’d wiped away his fresh wave of tears and was staring with amusement at the throng of kids harassing Damon at the door, clearly feeling more than a little schadenfreude.
“It was nothing.” Will reassured.
“I heard that Mr. Byrd was really furious!” Amanda remarked with wide eyes. “And he never gets angry. The boys that did it are supposed to be in really big trouble!”
“Yeah…” Will confirmed, not really knowing what else to say. He kicked the ground, feeling a little uncomfortable as the girl continued to stare at him with a concerned frown. “Sorry about your boyfriend…or whatever.” He added.
“I don’t know what got in to him.” She explained apologetically. “He was really nice in first grade, but he’s been acting super mean lately for whatever reason.”
“Well, thanks for saving me.” He said, cheerily. The girl returned a shy smile, and he scanned her face suspiciously – trying to suss out whether he might be able to extract any more information from her. “This might sound kinda weird.” He began. “But your brother Teddy – do you know like…who he lived with before? I mean, before your family adopted him?”
Amanda shook her head. She was too polite to say it, but the corners of her lips turned up in amusement revealed that it was a silly question. “’Course not.” She smiled. “My mom just wanted another baby, and eventually we got assigned one.”
“Assigned?” Will pressed. “By who?”
“The town council. My mom’s the treasurer.”
Will was about to ask another question, but the bell rang – cutting him off. At once, Amanda skipped off dutifully towards the classroom door, waving him a curt goodbye.
“...aren't you coming in?” Liam asked as his brother watched the girl go. “We don't wanna be late.”
“Yeah.” Will sighed, the tidbit revealed by Amanda leaving him with more questions than answers. The simplicity with which she'd laid out the process was chilling, as though it were perfectly normal for families in Viridia to grow the way hers had. What frightened Will the most, though, was the girl essentially declaring that her mother had gotten a new baby simply because she'd wanted one. Did that mean they regressed someone undeserving – not that anybody deserved this – to fill that need? He could all too easily see an important town employee like the treasurer having the ability to bend the ear of a councilmember, to get them to stretch the rules for candidacy so she wouldn't have to wait long for her second child.
Lost in his thoughts, Will didn't realize that they'd returned to the classroom until struck by the sonic assault of a gaggle of second-graders chatting and shouting and laughing as they enjoyed their lunch. He suddenly felt weak and extremely hungry – the anger that had propelled him through his fight with Damon had left Will drained of adrenaline and in desperate need of a recharge. The boy noticed that very few of the kids were at their assigned seats, and that those within the class were allowed to eat wherever they liked (though Mrs. Murphy floated throughout the room to ensure nobody made too big of a mess).
“Wanna eat?” Liam offered, smiling from ear to ear when Will readily agreed. The pair fetched their lunchboxes from their desks before convening in a relatively quiet corner of the room, munching silently for a moment on their PB&Js and taking small sips from their bottles of milk. Neither knew what to say after the whirlwind of activity that had been recess, Liam still too embarrassed by his accident to be talkative and Will too distracted by thoughts of the council and the power they wielded. Just the same, both felt better sharing that companionable silence, taking comfort in their shared plight and the unshakable knowledge that each of them were there for the other.
“I'm glad we got to have lunch together.” Liam peeped after a bit. “The last two days I ate while in Jane's office, but today we're seeing her after school instead.”
“We?” Will frowned. “You mean our appointment's at the same time?”
“Yeah. Didn't mom tell you?” Liam shrugged when Will shook his head. “I guess it's because we're the same age now.”
Will didn't need a reminder of that, much less for Liam to say it so casually. His real concern, however, was what Jane had in store for them this afternoon. From the way Liam had described his last appointment with her – which he spent mainly playing videogames – it seemed as though she'd managed to make him embrace his more childish instincts without him even realizing he'd done so. As he nibbled on a homemade cookie, Will worried whether he had the mental fortitude at this age to rebuff Jane's efforts. It was a worry Will carried with him as Mrs. Murphy implored everyone to finish up and return to their seats, the boy having to endure an infantilizing afternoon as a second-grader before he could even think about the next challenge to his maturity.
