[Going Small: Marie'De]: [Going Small: Chapter One]

[Going Small: Marie'De]

    It was a regular day of Raytide. The warm summer breeze blew through everyone's hair, kids were giggling as their parents bought them and their friends an ice cream as they goofed around in the park. Then there was Marie’De and her friends, today she was hanging out with Cordelia, Richard, and Luis.

    “My gosh it's hot out here” Luis whined as he dragged himself behind the other three, they were on their way to the pool so everyone could cool off and have some fun. “The pool is literally right there Luis, you can wait 5 more minutes.” Cordelia snickers quietly at the guy's argument and Richard rolls his eyes at Luis.

    As they arrived at the pool entrance the employee asked for them to pay for their day ticket fee, Marie’De brought out her wallet and paid for everyone quickly following behind Richard as they all entered the pool area.

    Immediately, Luis ran up to the pool and cannonballed into it, splashing everybody in the process. “Luis! What the flip!? You didn’t even get changed yet” Cordelia groaned as she wiped the water from her eyes, her mascara smeared over her face “I don’t need to get changed to enjoy a pool.” Richard just flipped Luis off and headed to the dressing room, slowly following behind him were Marie’De and Cordelia drenched in water.

    Everybody, aside from Luis of course, had gotten changed into their swimsuits. Marie’De wore a pink and white swirled bikini set that had a few star prints, Cordelia wore an all-black bikini set, and Richard wore white swim shorts and took off his shirt. “Why is your boyfriend such a bitch?” Cordelia and Marie’De were hanging out in the bathroom while she tried to fix her smeared mascara. She wore a smug look on her face as she turned to Marie’De for an answer. “He’s not my boyfriend” Marie’De crossed her arms over her stomach and wore a grin on her face as well, flustered by Cordelia’s comment. “But you wish he was-” Cordelia was about to make another statement when there was a knock on the door. “Can you guys hurry up, I want to push Marie’De in the pool, but I can’t do that if Marie’De isn’t near the pool” Richard chuckled from outside the door and Marie’De yelled an annoyed ‘Hey!’ at him.

    “I’m done, this time I put waterproof mascara on so Luis doesn’t ruin it again” Cordelia ran a hair through her hair and opened the bathroom door as she and Marie’De walked out and headed over to the pool area with Richard. Just like Richard had promised, he pushed Marie’De into the pool when she got close enough to the pool. She let out a scream which turned into a laugh as she splashed some water at him and pulled him by his leg into the pull. Following behind them Cordelia stepped into the pool and so did Luis.

    The group of friends goofed around in the pool, talking, playing pool games, and whatnot for the next thirty-five minutes. Beacuse of the constant swimming, Marie’De got hungry and looked around for a concession stand hoping to buy some snacks. “Do you guys see a food stand anywhere? I’m so hungry right now” Cordelia swam upwards and out of the pool, leaning on the side next to where Marie'De was sitting, “What did you say?” “I asked if there was somewhere I could get some food, i’m starving” Almost as if on cue, Marie’De’s stomach groaned out of hunger. “Uhm, I think there’s one right outside the pool” Cordelia points over to a food court-like area near the entrance of the pool. “Thanks!” Marie’De stood up from her spot on the edge of the water and grabbed her wallet as she made a beeline to what looked like a food stand.

    “Excuse me?” standing in front of the stand, Marie’De looked around to see if anyone was even in there. Suddenly and out of nowhere, Aoki rose up from behind the counter making Marie’De shriek, again. She smiled warmly to meet a now pale Marie’De in front of the stand. “Hey Rie’De, welcome to my stand, what can I getcha?” Aoki leaned right in Marie’De’s face and shot finger guns at her as a friendly gesture. “Cordelia said that you had food here? I was hungry and I was just looking for somewhere to get a snack” Aoki thought for a second before rummaging through some boxes and pulling out a bag of chips. “Something like this?”

    “Yes, exactly. Is it for sale?” Aoki placed the chip bag on the counter in front of Marie’De and typed something up on the register. “Everything in this stand is for sale, as long as you make a reasonable bargain for it. Oh, and those chips are 5 Nereri” Marie’De nods and opens her wallet to hand Aoki the money and get her long-awaited snack.

    After paying, she heads back over to their seating area and sits down under the umbrella and in one of the pool chairs. As she sat down, she opened up the chip bag and popped one into her mouth. “Salty. I guess it’s for the extra flavor” she spoke to herself through her thoughts as she continued munching mindlessly on the bag of chips. But, something didn’t feel right. After eating at least half of the bag her stomach started to grumble. Confused and unaware of the events about to happen, Marie’De eats more chips thinking she is just hungry.

    As the last chip entered Marie’De’s mouth something started happening, her arms started shrinking, her legs began too small for her bikini, and before she knew it, her entire body was shrunk to about the size of a water bottle. “What the- AH why am I small!?” Not only did her body shrink, but her voice also became high-pitched and squeaked making her sound like a child. Since only her body shrunk, she was naked and trying to find her way out of her clothes as she shrunk into her swimsuit. Just then, footsteps. Thump thump thump, they got louder as they started to approach where she was ‘hiding’ naked under her previously fitting swimwear.

    “Marie’De!? Is that you? What happened? Why are you tiny? And naked?” A concerned and worried Cordelia bent over to make sure that she was looking at Marie’De and hadn’t gone crazy. “Longstoryi’llexplainilater, I NEED CLOTHES” An even more panicked Marie’De shouted at Cordelia in a high-pitched voice. “Gosh, you’re lucky I’m a fashion designer.” Cordelia quickly ran over to her beach bag which conveniently had a sowing kit with a few other clothing materials like buttons, bow ties, and zipper handles. She ran back to Marie’De’s chair and got on her knees so they were both at ‘face’ level.

     “Okay, Luis and Richard are both in the pool so nobody will notice you before we find a way to swap you back to normal. I’m going to make you a suitable dress made from leaves so you're not booty-cheek naked the whole time, but first, we need to get to the bathroom so I can actually make the dress” Marie’De nods her head stepping onto Cordelia’s hand as she held it out for Marie’De to climb onto. She puts Marie’De into her beach bag so they can slip their way to the bathroom.

     So far everything was going smoothly, they almost reached the bathroom door until boom, Cordelia bumped into Luis who was looking for Marie’De. “Oh, hey Dee. Have you seen Marie’De?” Cordelia was a good liar so she wasn’t afraid of getting caught with a tiny Marie’De in her bag. “No, check over by the stand over there, that’s the last place I saw her” Luis nodded and thanked Cordelia as he zoomed over to the stand Cordelia pointed at.

     After making sure Luis was gone, Cordelia dashed into the bathroom and to the nearest stall before locking the door and taking a big deep breath. “Coast is clear, you can come out now” Marie’De poked her head out of Cordelia’s bag and she climbed out to stand on the toilet seat lid that Cordelia put down so she wouldn’t accidentally fall into the toilet. “Okay, I’m going to start working on the dress, you just sit tight” Marie’De nodded again and sat down on the toilet lid admiring how big everything looked when she was ten times smaller than before.

     Cordelia finished sowing together the leaf dress which was mainly just two leaves, longways, put side by side and held together by some interesting sowing mechanics, and for the top was a single leaf that was cut and sowed into a ‘cute’ top “If I wasn’t in the most desperate state, I would have called this leaf-fit trash” Cordelia gasped and put a hand to her heart dramatically, “Oh I’m sorry, would you like me to kindly rip it off your body and leave you in that same state you were when I found you?” Cordelia said passive aggressively which made Marie’De quickly take back what she said and shake her head 'no'.

   “Alright, we need to focus. How did you even get in this situation to begin with?” She ran a hand through her hair as she began interrogating Marie’De. “I have no idea” Cordelia raised an eyebrow at her and sighed, “Okay, let me rephrase that. Before you shrunk, what exactly happened?” Marie’De sat there for a moment thinking, what did happen? “Well, I remember buying this bag of chips from Aoki-” “Wait wait wait WAIT! You bought, a food item, from Aoki, THE town's alchemist?” Cordelia immediately butted in at the mention of Aoki’s name. “Yeah? What’s wrong with that?” Obviously not understanding what Cordelia was getting at Marie’De tilted her head in confusion and shrugged. “That bag of chips wasn't just a bag of chips,” Marie’De was starting to understand now. “They were one of Aoki’s enchanted foods, each one having a different spell cast onto it.” Marie’De made an ‘O’ shape with her mouth, to that Cordelia pinched her nose and shook her head. “The one I ate must’ve had a spell of shrinking enchanted on it” “Glad you finally noticed” Cordelia snarkily commented on Marie’De’s slowness at processing the situation.

     “So how am I going to turn back!?” There was a moment of silence as Cordelia stopped to think “I guess the most reasonable thing to do is find Aoki and get her to reverse the spell” “Well what are we waiting for? I never said I liked being tiny!” Marie’De crossed her hands over her chest and stood up. Cordelia laughed at that and opened up her bag for Marie’De to climb into. “Where did you find that stand again?” “Just right outside the pool, around the corner” “Got it, now stay hidden until the coast is clear, okay?” After a confirming nod from Marie’De, Cordelia unlocks the bathroom stall door and makes sure no one is watching before beelining towards the door.

     She again made sure Luis and Richard weren’t in the area and then stepped out of the bathroom. As she closed the door Richard was standing right behind it with an unamused expression on his face. “You shrunk Marie’De?” Cordelia almost choked “How does he know!?” She quickly fixed her posture and raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about? I haven’t seen Marie’De since she left to go get snacks”

     “I’m not as slow-brained as Luis, I know she got shrunk,” He pulls a wrapper out from his pocket to reveal the same bag of chips Maire’De ate. He pointed at the label which read ‘Contains shrinking enchantments, refer to guide on back’ “It says you’re only supposed to eat a third of the bag to have no effects, she ate the whole thing” Cordelia and Marie’De knew they were caught and Cordelia sighed before opening her bag. Marie’De popped her head out of the bag and waved awkwardly at Richard. “Hi, Richard” Richard groaned in annoyance and pinched his nose. “I can’t bring you anywhere without having you getting into problems, but I don’t have the time to scold you. Where’s Aoki?”

     Marie’De pointed a tiny finger to the food stall where she had previously purchased the bag of chips. “That’s her stand” “Come on, let’s get you back to normal size” The three of them walked over to Aoki’s stand and Richard knocked on the counter when they got there. While they waited Maire’De admired the assortment of items she had in her shop.

     “Hello, welcome to my stand, my name’s- Oh, hi guys!” Aoki waved at the two friends standing in front of her stand. “Where’s Marie’De?” Cordelia cleared her throat and opened her bag, a miniature Marie’De climbed out and onto the counter and waved back at Aoki. “Aw! Aren’t you just adorable” Aoki cooed at the tiny Marie’De as she booped her nose with her finger. “Not the point Aoki, how do we get her back to normal?” Aoki stood up and looked at Richard with a raised eyebrow, “What do you mean normal, how did she even shrink to begin with?” Richard placed the empty chip wrapper on the counter and Aoki quickly understood what happened. “Marie’De honey, you need to start reading warning labels on things that you use.” Aoki shook her head at Marie’De and started rummaging through her things looking for a cure or ‘reverse’ to the situation.

     “Here, I think that’ll do” Aoki placed what looked like a wrapped chocolate on the table. “She just needs to eat a little bit of this chocolate and she’ll grow back to normal size.” Richard nodded and got his wallet out to pay, to that Aoki pushed his wallet back towards him. “It’s okay, on the house today, for a friend” Aoki shot finger guns at Marie’De and she lit up with glee.

     A few hours after the whole incident, Marie’De ate the chocolate and went back to her normal size, Luis finally caught on to what was happening the entire day, and everyone just enjoyed the rest of their day at the pool, no more shrinking spells, and no more chips.