After reforming, you dusted yourself off, grabbed your affected-sized phone, and pulled up the Tiny Travels app.
A revolution in affected transportation brought about by your own younger sister's organization (the Fair Tiny Treatment Foundation) partnering with pro-tiny tech giant Small Wonders, Tiny Travels was an app that allowed affected individuals to hire transportation perfectly sized for them, akin to Uber or Lyft. However, unlike those other apps, Tiny Travels was only for affected people, and the vehicles were piloted by remote GPS tracking and automated technology. You could order both RC cars (capable of going up to 30 miles an hour) or even drones (faster but more expensive).
Of course, being the older brother of the founder meant that you had unlimited free rides, a service you'd thanked Jenna for profusely and had used extensively for the past five years since its inception.
Yes, it wasn't perfect. Due to being piloted by automation, the vehicles couldn't always adapt to unexpected travel conditions, and god forbid you fell out as you'd absolutely be left behind. The cars had a durable roof that could resist being run over should such a thing occur, but couldn't exactly dissuade an over-eager child from snatching up the vehicle from the ground. The drone version had had problems running into aggressive birds before, and now came equipped with a short-range stun baton to ward off avian predators...when it wasn't bugging out and zapping its tiny passenger instead!
Still, it was a marvel of engineering and a blessed service to millions of tinies countrywide, and you couldn't be prouder to have such an amazing sister as Jenna.
Using the Tiny Travels app, you put in the destination for Weston University, and only ten minutes later you were hopping into the RC car that pulled up in front of your house and blasting off down the street towards the college.
Weston University had, frankly put, changed rather immensely since your own days attending the campus all those years ago. The campus had expanded in every possible way, constructing more buildings, adding more dormitories to accommodate a huge influx of students, offering more programs and degrees, and started bursting at the seams with schools and clubs. It was, in fact, the largest college in Maryland now, and easily the most attended. It had been much more small scale when you'd gone there, and you were still getting used to the new paradigm.
However, quite a few of the changes you felt confident you'd never get used to. Chief among them was the new dean of Weston who had been hired about ten years back: Penelope Fucking Graham, your old archenemy and school bully.
Before her massive accumulation in fame and power, you'd last known that Penelope was an adjunct professor at Weston University. Presuming that her teaching duties would keep her too busy to continue trying to ruin your life, you'd mentally written her off as a threat (instead focusing on women like Bea Parker and Rika Inoue, more immediate dangers). You'd even foolishly believed that shepherding the next generation would give Penelope a change in perspective and lead her down a more righteous path.
You couldn't have been more wrong.
Right as the CTC was poised to crumble into dust thanks to the efforts of Jenna and others, Penelope (who'd garnered a reputation as a cool, confident, and charismatic professor on campus) was there to catch it gently and lift it back up. It had been little secret that Weston's board of directors had always taken money from and given to the CTC, so Penelope was heralded as a hero for still championing the rights and authority of the CTC amidst the changing perception of society towards tinies.
In record time, Penelope ascending from a simple adjunct professor to a full-time professor, to the head of her department, to the secretary to the dean, and then finally to the position of Dean of Weston. Her meteoric rise was unprecedented, and yet Penelope met every challenge thrown her way with a smooth smile, pleasant little words, and an unflappable determination to maintain the CTC's iron grip over Weston, and all affected unfortunate enough to find themselves on its campus. This was also buoyed by Penelope managing to secure a position on the Oakland council, effectively giving her two votes in every county decision.
For as long as you'd known her, Penelope had been obsessed with power and control over others, having come from a hard and trauma-filled childhood of abuse by those stronger and smarter than her. Now, Penelope had found herself with all the control she'd ever want...and yet she still wanted more. From what you'd heard, she was actively pursuing a larger role in the political world, perhaps seeking to become state senator. With her ties to the CTC, the mere idea of someone like Penelope influencing the political stage of the United States horrified you.
So, it was hardly an exaggeration to call Weston University a hellhole for all affected kind. It may not have appeared as such on the surface, as Weston surely did put up a friendly and welcoming façade. But in reality, the campus was rampant with harassment, bullying, and mistreatment towards tinies, and over 90% of all Oakland missing-persons-reports came from there, with regards to tinies. The Omega Gamma Phi sorority, Penelope's little pet project, was the worst of the bunch, its members exclusively comprised of despicable tiny-abusing sadists.
And yet, the sad reality was that Weston University was simply inescapable. Not only was it the closest college around, but it offered simply everything a prospective student could ever want, and at jaw-droppingly low prices. And so, thousands upon thousands of students attended the campus daily, including your two daughters and all of their friends. It didn't make you happy, but it was what it was, and you dealt with it as best you could. At least you'd been able to avoid Penelope so far, as you were far from eager to reignite your old torment at her hands from your own school days.
Although...that wasn't strictly true, in a roundabout sort of way.
Through a sheer cosmic twist of fate, Riley had ended up butting heads with none other than Persephone Graham, Penelope's only daughter, mere days into her first semester at Weston. Ever since, the girls had been practically glued at the hip for all the wrong reasons, constantly arguing, bickering, and fiercely competing in every sport imaginable. Colloquially known as 'The Doll of Weston', Persephone was beloved for her beauty and as a sports prodigy, but your daughter was just as much her match in both regards, and the girls got on like oil and water...until you looked closer and realized they'd probably start making out if they could just both set their prides aside!
Which was its own issue, really. You'd normally be happy for your daughter to find a girlfriend, but the fact that she clearly (though would never admit it) had feelings for your nemesis' daughter unsettled you. Persephone had a fearsome reputation for being a destroyer of tinies at Weston, following in her mother's sadistic footsteps. The only reason you hadn't forbidden Riley from seeing her was that most of the unaffected in your life (Mari and your daughters included) didn't realize Persephone had that reputation of destroying the lives of tinies, and a part of you hated being the one to have to burst their bubble like that.
And the less said about Persephone's close friend, Ivy Green, the better. The daughter of an ex-CTC bigwig who'd bitten off more than she could chew and found herself fired and disgraced for it, Ivy was the spitting image of her hefty and curvaceous progenitor. Loud-mouthed, energetic, and with a nearly uncontainable sexual appetite, Ivy loved nothing more than gratifying herself with some tiny abuse and torment. She was more demon than human, really, and just the mere thought of someone like her being around your daughters sent shivers down your spine.
*****
Finally, your RC car made it to Weston, and you hopped out and ran towards the quad, ducking and diving between the stomping feet of oblivious college students. After finding a spot to catch your breath, you stopped and recalled exactly why you'd come to Weston today in the first place.
1) Jenna texted you last night and said her son, Aiden, hadn't come home from Weston. She wanted you to please look for him, and you agreed. While he could be anywhere, your mind is immediately drawn to the Omega Gamma Phi sorority, infamous for kidnapping and enslaving tinies who draw too close to its innocuous doors.
2) Dodger, Sydney, and Rosa have summoned you. Though they haven't mentioned yet what they need help with, they wanted you to stop by their joint Music class to participate in the lesson in some capacity. Confused but intrigued, you agreed.
3) The Drama Department, gearing up for their big production of Beauty and the Beast, sent an email to parents asking for help with props and costuming. Always having loved theater, you agreed to pitch in, writing on your form that you were 'down to help with anything'. Hopefully you don't regret that choice of words...
4) One of your daughter Juli's professors summoned you to campus for a meeting. You aren't sure who the professor is, or even why the meeting is happening, but Juli seemed nervous when you first told her about the meeting. Hopefully it goes well.
5) Grace Morrow, the tiny daughter of your good friends Selena and Viola, is making big strides in her burgeoning career as a pro-tiny civil activist. She's planning on holding a protest today on the campus quad, and has recruited quite a few likeminded students to her cause, all affected. You're here to show the headstrong spitfire your support...but you can't help but worry the protest might not go over well with Weston's CTC-inclined student body.
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
