The group of teens made their way through the halls until coming to the junction where Zay and Joey needed to split off for Gym class. Lauren, Cam, and Sophie took the lead down one of the halls while Zay started to walk down the other.
However, Joey and Roni were still a little hesitant to separate.
“You going to be okay?” Roni asked with genuine worry in her voice.
Joey didn’t answer right away. He honestly just wasn’t sure. Everywhere he looked he just felt like everyone knew, that they were staring at him and judging him, and where as before he didn’t really care about people’s opinions of him, now it was all he could think about.
Finally, running his hand through his hair, he let out a sigh. “I’m really not sure, Roni” he said, so only she could hear. “It’s like, I dunno, I feel like everyone is just watching me; like I’m an outcast, a freak..”
“Joey,” Roni said immediately, taking a step closer and looking up at him, “You’re not a freak, Joey. Physical changes don’t erase who you are. You’re still you — and that’s someone we all care about.”
Despite this though, Roni did see what has referring to as she looked around the hall, a couple of students looking their way with odd looks. “Just, don’t mind them, okay? Even if they know, so what? You’ve got me, Joey. And You’ve got Sophie, Zay, Cam, and Lauren. We’re here for you. I swear”
Before Joey could respond, though, Zay’s arm suddenly wrapped around his shoulder.
“Yeah dude, we got you covered.” he said, giving both Joey and Roni a big smile. “Go on Roni, I’ve got Joey for now. A little exercise will do him some good.”
“Roni! Hurry up! I might have a free period, but that doesn’t mean you do” exclaimed Sophie as she ran up and grabbed her hand, tugging her along down the hall. “See you in a bit, you two!” Sophie called back, frantically pulling Roni along behind her.
“C’mon, Joey. We gotta get moving or Cartwright will be on my ass” Zay said as he turned to head to the gym.
Roni and Joey shot each other a quick look before each turning to go their respective directions. Roni let out a small sigh, which didn’t go unnoticed by Sophie.
“Don’t worry Roni,” she said softly, squeezing her hand reassuringly, “It’s not like he’ll change right now. Besides, he’s with Zay. He’s as taken care of as he can be. Let him find a way to blow off some steam.”
Roni turned to look at her, and reluctantly nodded. It did make sense, she thought. They had basically spent all weekend together. Joey probably could do with some guy time, especially when it involved doing something physical to get his mind right. “Yeah, I guess you’re right, Sophie.”
After a brisk walk, Zay and Joey entered the locker room and started changing into their gym clothes.
“Hey man,” Zay said quietly, making sure no one else could hear, “I know it’s rough right now, but I meant what I said. We’ve got you.”
Joey looked up and offered a weak smile. “I know. It’s just… hard to explain.”
“I get it. One day everything feels normal, then out of nowhere—BOOM! Turns out you’re genetically different, and suddenly people act like that means you’re less.”
“Wow,” Joey muttered. “You’re great at this whole cheering-up thing.”
Zay snorted, about to reply—when the locker room door banged open and Coach Cartwright burst out of his office.
“Martinez! You’re late! You know I expect you here five minutes before the bell!” he barked, then glared at Joey. “Calhoun, is this your doing? How many times do I have to tell you—leave your family business out of my football program!”
“Come on, Coach,” Zay said, stepping between them. “Joey didn’t make me late. I know the rule—I just got caught in the hall.”
Cartwright looked between them, fuming, then sighed. “Dammit, Martinez. You’re a returning receiver next year and a captain. That means showing up. Practice, meetings, even gym.”
“I know, Coach. I’ll do better. Promise.” Zay offered a hand, and the two shook.
“Anyway, Coach, Joey and I were gonna sit this period out. I wanna run routes, and Joey’s the only one here with a decent arm.”
Cartwright rubbed his chin, then grunted. “Fine. But you’re doing extra laps in weight training later. And you—” he pointed at Joey—“have you thought about playing for this school instead of that private team? We could use a center fielder with your arm.”
Joey shook his head. “Sorry, Coach. Same issue as always—family obligations come first. I wouldn’t want to let the team down during a work week.”
Cartwright sighed again. “Fair enough. Better excuse than most of the milk drinkers around here.” He turned away. “Get your asses to the gym, Martinez. We’ll talk later.”
With that, he returned to his office as Joey and Zay grabbed a football and jogged into the gym.
The pair made their way to one of the base lines before spreading out, and began tossing the ball back and forth to each other. After a few passes, Zay cleared his throat.
“So…what were we talking about?” he asked as tossed a spiral to Joey.
“Well, I believe you said I don’t matter anymore,” Joey said with a small laugh as he threw the ball back to Zay, who frowned when he caught it. “Sorry Zay. I know you didn’t actually mean that but, It’s not like it’s not true right?”
“Dude that’s bullshit and you know it,” said Zay, “I can’t speak for Cam or Lauren, but you know Sophie and I think these laws are just as dumb as you and Roni do. We aren’t as outspoken about it, sure but…” he wound up and tossed the ball a little higher so Joey needed to jump and get it,”That doesn’t mean we see littles as less than people. Or you for that matter.”
Joey made a good catch and landed back on the floor. “You don’t really think Lauren and Cam are going to treat me differently, do you?”
Zay could only rub the back of his neck as he considered it. Of the group, those two, more so Cam than Lauren, weren’t the most progressive towards littles. On top of that, Cam was always a bit pragmatic and opportunistic by nature. She always wished Joey would have used his influence a bit to help them regarding their social status.
auren, on the other hand, never talked about Littles. She didn’t say anything bad — just stayed quiet. Maybe it was confidence. Or maybe… she’s hiding how she really feels.
“I dunno dude,” he finally said, catching the ball again and throwing it back, “You know how Cam is. I don’t think she’d think you’re inferior. I don’t even think she’d treat you any differently and give it to you blunt like always. As for Lauren, she’s just been closed off on the subject entirely. I kinda worry about her when it comes to it, if I’m honest.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” replied Joey as Zay walked closer to him to get ready for route running. Joey tossed the ball up in the air a few times as he mulled over his thoughts.
Sighing, he looked over at Zay, “You know what the real shitty thing is, Zay? The fact that I just…thought I was going to do something positive for the world. I spent time learning about homo parvus, pushing myself academically and trying to come up with ideas to get hired by Generitech to help…and it’s just…pointless now.”
Zay nodded, before running from the baseline so Joey could throw him a pass. Once caught, he jogged back to where Joey was standing.
“Joey, I’m not gonna lie. It does suck. It’s unfair and stupid that you’re basically losing everything,” Zay started before handing the ball back to Joey, “but you need to appreciate where you’re ending up, man. Yeah, you’ll be a little, but you’ll be with a person that loves you in Roni, and with a family that cares about your wellbeing in the Hales. Most people? They aren’t that lucky.”
Tossing the ball back into the air and catching it again, Joey nodded in agreement. “I know, I know…I just thought I’d do something meaningful with my life. Now, I’m just a commodity. A burden.”
Zay pushed Joey in the shoulder, making him stumble before he looked at Zay to see him cross his arms. “First off Dude, you are neither a commodity or a burden. Second, you still have a chance to have meaning. It’s just going to be in a different style. You’ll still be helping Roni get through life, just like you always have. Plus, she’s going to rely on you for more than just emotional support. You don’t actually think you won’t be going to classes and shit with her, do you? You’ll be right there, learning just like her, and helping her where she gets stuck. Yeah, she’s hella smart, but so are you, Joey. You can help her get farther in life, and in turn, you’ll get further.”
Joey stared at Zay for a moment, rubbing his shoulder from where he had pushed him, and realized he had a point. Roni isn’t going to just leave him in a box day in and day out. He’ll be out with her, experiencing school, work, social scenes, everything. It probably won’t be too much like it is now: just Joey will be smaller.
Seeing that he was getting through to him, Zay smiled and took another step closer. “Plus dude, think of it like this. You’ve had insurmountable pressure on your shoulders since you were born. And you put your own pressure on yourself. Maybe—you know—maybe this is a good thing. You finally don’t have your family’s reputation and name to constantly think about. You can finally relax, Joey. Enjoy some peace. Be taken care of, instead of having to prepare to run a whole company at the drop of a hat. Hell dude, I’d kill for that. You’ve seen how my abuelo is at the restaurant. It’d be dope to just not have any responsibilities. I think at least.”
Joey wanted to say something, but it sort of clicked for him that Zay was right. This really did mean he didn’t have to put in as much effort in school, or learning the family business. Joey didn’t even really have to worry about embarrassing his family at all now.
A smile slowly started to form on Joey’s face as he thought about it more, his shoulders relaxing as he gave Zay a nod. “Thanks man. You’ve…given me a lot to think about”
Zay grinned back at him, playfully shoving him again. “No problem dude. Now, let’s see how well you can hit me on an up and out route.”
0) Love that you’re doing images now.
1) “Everywhere he looked he just felt like everyone knew, that they were staring at him and judging him, and where as before he didn’t really care about people’s opinions of him, now it was all he could think about.” Big revelations tend to have that effect.
2) “Go on Roni, I’ve got Joey for now. A little exercise will do him some good.” Joey and Zay boring out should be good.
3) “It’s not like he’ll change right now. Besides, he’s with Zay. He’s as taken care of as he can be. Let him find a way to blow off some steam.” Sopie is right, Roni would need a break too.
4.1) “have you thought about playing for this school instead of that private team? We could use a center fielder with your arm.” Some how I don’t think training Joey would be a solid investment on Cartwright’s part.
4.2) “Sorry, Coach. Same issue as always—family obligations come first. I wouldn’t want to let the team down during a work week.” LIAR!
5) “Cam was always a bit pragmatic and opportunistic by nature. She always wished Joey would have used his influence a bit to help them regarding their social status” sounds liek she was something of a social climber, or gold digger
6) Lauren would be an interesting character to learn more about, especially why she’s button lipped about it.
7) “First off Dude, you are neither a commodity or a burden. Second, you still have a chance to have meaning. It’s just going to be in a different style.” Zay telling Joey what he needs to hear.
8) “You finally don’t have your family’s reputation and name to constantly think about. You can finally relax, Joey. Enjoy some peace.” I think he’s lost more than he’s gained with that one, bud.
1&2) I agree
3) Roni is stressed about him changing and is already in guardian mode.
4) yeah that would be a lot of waisted training that he isn’t interested in anyway lol.
5) she has red flags that even as a little she would try to use him to get social status by having a famous little
6) you could make her what ever you want for the story
7) I think being Roni’s little helper would be a step up from what he is doing now and he could be handed down to help the other girls as they go through high school or even middle school for the youngest
8) being little gives him long life and heath and a opportunity to design products for littles from a littles perspective for Generitech part time
9) and he gets to be doted on be giant woman all day, not a bad life lol.
3) lol she’s pretty much always in guardian mode to an extent.Sisterly love will do that.
7) idk if Roni would do that. It’s not really a possessiveness thing for her. She’s just the primary guardian and would probably think it’d be a betrayal to Joey to do something like that. Now if he offers to help them as needed, it’d be a bit different. as it’d be his own choice vs being forced into it. but it’d still probably end up being like over video chat or something. idk where Roni plans to go to college yet, but she’s a really really good student and can probably get an academic scholarship anywhere.
8) I still want to see how that works out in the main story. like how guardian owned littles can have jobs at generitech. I think it’d be a cool one shot to see
I am interested how he has a love life because at their age that is all my friends and I ever thought about or did lol. I never hear about it in the smallara high school or older story’s and just seems not quite right for that time period in a persons life. And if littles took on many small animal traits, wouldn’t that make them more want to think about sex stuff because small animals have fast reproductive systems and breed a lot to keep their population up because they are always being preyed on by larger animals.
I think that really depends on how similar to small animals they actually are. From how I’ve read it, they are still closer to humans than anything else biologically. Thus far we haven’t seen any hints to the littles having a increased sex drive. For the most part, all of them seem to function more like humans minus a few physiological traits.
as far as the lovelife stuff goes, that’s just a me thing at this point. most of the characters I have in place are all under 18\age of consent, so I’m just not comfortable with going into details about that sort of thing. Dating I’ll probably loosen up with as the story goes on as it’s more realistic, but I doubt it’ll be very detailed.
Thanks bud, I understand the under 18 thing. That can become creepy. I think from reading many chapters, they have sight, hearing, tighter and stronger muscles and they have multicable births. In a way littles are a improved evolution of the human race that is less of a impact on the earth. Smaller and more in tuned to the planet with the many improved animals senses. Maybe the virus is a defense mechanism of the earth.
0) it’s a lot of fun, up until you render it and it just doesn’t work and you need to look through logs or close every window to make sure you have enough vram lol but i like doing it. Still a lot of practice to do. Like Joey’s skin’s darker than i meant for it to be but i can’t remember how I set him up so i might have to redo his model.
1)yeah. I’d say the whole things givin him more anxiety than he’s used to. I actually didn’t htink about this until now, but he usually didn’t care too much about peoples opinions of him, but I guess it could be a character trait of his that he developed subconsciously because he comes from some serious wealth and now that his status is gone, he might feel even more vulnerable
2) I agree. Plus I think it’s cools to see in a story for at least a little bit as most of the interactions in universe have been either female and female or male and female. I’m sure Gavin and Jordan would interact a lot more if Mal would allow it
3) agreed. plus I don’t think I gave them too many courses together. I need to find the schedule i ended up making for them all.
4.1) lol probably not
4.2) I mean technically it was true at one point haha Joey wanted to play baseball, but playing for a private school would be a bigger commitment for him than a club team. Like he’d hate to let his school down for not showing up vs the club team he played for.
5) I’d say social climber. I need to flush her background out a bit more, but she’s the second wealthiest of the group, now the wealthiest. But She doesn’t like the popular group that’s currently at the top and likes her friends way more, but wishes they could take them down a peg and kinda saw joey as a way to do that, but respected his desire to not use his status for anything. it’s kind of a odd way for her. Plus my main idea for her wealth is that it came from “new money” so she’s rich, but she and her family lack status.
6) I have some ideas for her. I’ve been more focused on Sophie and Zay as far as development goes, but Cam and Lauren will have their moments. I’m still learning how to manage characters and keep things balanced so i can stay on track and consistent without going insane lol
7) He really needs to hear it a lot. I think it’s just ingrained in him that any help given is a bad thing\weak so he hates it lol
8) probably true. but at the same time, he’s basically been doing family buisness stuff for a year or two straight, while growing up with the expectations that he would inherit a extremely large and influential company and that in itself comes with pressures and expectations. Plus he also put a lot of pressure on himself to be at the top of the class and stuff. He’s still losing a lot, but if i knew I no longer had any of that pressure to think about, I’d take a moment to enjoy it.
I don’t use Daz but I have been using AI picture create which has been fun lol.