While Zay and Joey were somewhere in Gym Class dealing with Coach Cartwright, Roni and Sophie had made their escape to the library for their free period.
They settled into their usual table near the back—sturdy, slightly uneven, and bathed in that mellow light from the tall windows. The library smelled like old paper, carpet glue, and the faint citrus of the janitor’s overly ambitious cleaning spree that morning.
Sophie was hunched over her notebook, scribbling furiously. Her curls bounced with every intense punctuation mark. Roni sat across from her, arms crossed loosely on the table, watching the performance with mild amusement.
“Hold on,” Sophie muttered, “I am exactly six words away from not failing Ms. Bramble’s definition of a ‘conclusion paragraph.’ Do not distract me. Do not breathe.”
Roni raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She leaned back slightly and glanced at the bookshelves. A dramatic sigh from Sophie pulled her attention back.
“And… boom.” Sophie capped her pen with a triumphant snap and dropped it like it had personally offended her. “Essay vanquished. Bramble can now sleep peacefully knowing I care about metaphors in To the Lighthouse.”
Roni smirked. “Didn’t you say last week Virginia Woolf needed a hug and a nap?”
“She still does. But now she also has my closing paragraph, so we’re even.”
Roni let out a small laugh, but it faded quickly. Her gaze drifted down to the stack of books in front of her.
Sophie picked up on the shift immediately. “So… how are you doing with this whole ‘Joey’s my Little’ thing?”
Roni’s gaze snapped up, her expression caught between sadness and frustration.“I don’t own Joey, Sophie. I’m going to be his guardian, not his warden. He’ll still have the same autonomy he has now…”
“I know, I know,” Sophie said quickly, voice gentle. “That was a stupid way to put it. I’m sorry.”
She straightened up, took a breath. “I meant—how are you doing with all of it? Truthfully.”
Roni’s shoulders sagged. She let out a long sigh, her fingers toying with the edge of a book. “I don’t know,” she murmured. “The more time passes, the more real it feels… and the more pressure I feel.”
She caught the corner of a page and flicked through a stack, letting them cascade back with a soft frrp. “The shitty thing is, Sophie, I need Joey. I still lean on him. Even though I’m supposed to be the one holding it together for him now… I still need him to hold me up too.”
“Oh, Roni…” Sophie’s expression melted with empathy. “I know this is hard. Watching him change… watching him struggle—it’s so much. But you don’t just have him. Just like he doesn’t only have you. You’ve got me. And based on what Joey said earlier, your family’s behind you, too. So please… don’t think this all falls on your shoulders alone. We’re here. For you and for him.”
Roni looked up at her, and the tension in her face finally started to ease.
“Thanks,” she said softly. “It’s just… it’s been a lot, you know?”
She adjusted her glasses, then gave a humorless chuckle. “I mean, I knew it would be a huge responsibility. But the registration fees, the mandatory classes, the laws that’ll govern him… everything about his life now runs through my life. I’ve been so focused on making it all work that I never stopped to think about how logistically heavy this was gonna be.”
With a groan, she let her head fall forward onto the table, hands folded behind it.
Sophie twirled a pen between her fingers, her brow furrowed in thought. “I still don’t get one thing,” she said. “Why did his parents even agree to this? They’re practically royalty. His brother could’ve taken care of him without blinking.”
Roni lifted her head, her eyes narrowing.
“Don’t even get me started on those assholes,” she muttered, the memory of yesterday’s visit still raw. “God. If they weren’t so damn connected…”
Sophie gave a soft laugh and reached across the table to pat her arm. “Easy there, killer. I know his parents are rough, but that’s just how some parents are.”
But Roni looked back at her with fire in her eyes. “No. Rough is yelling sometimes or being overprotective. Joey’s parents are monsters. The way his dad—” She stopped herself abruptly, remembering the paperwork she’d signed at Generitech. “Let’s just say some people are crueler than others and leave it at that.”
Sophie’s eyes narrowed. She leaned in.“He didn’t tell us everything, did he?” she asked, her tone sharp with realization.
Roni fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. “I… wouldn’t say that exactly. Maybe he just… left out some mundane stuff—”
“Roni,” Sophie interrupted, irritation creeping into her voice.“We’re supposed to be best friends. What could be so horrible that he wouldn’t tell us?”
Roni looked away, struggling. Sophie wasn’t wrong. Joey probably would have told them everything. He’d already opened up about the shouting matches, about trying to push the company in a more humane direction. They knew his parents hated that. They knew working the warehouse had nearly broken him.
But this wasn’t about Joey not wanting to share.
This was about risk.
If Sophie knew—and it slipped—if the Calhouns found out… Roni didn’t trust Generitech to shield them. Not fully. Not forever.
“Well?” Sophie pressed, more softly now but still firm. “Are you going to tell me or not?”
Roni glanced around the library. A few students milled nearby, but no one was close enough to overhear.
She leaned in. Her voice dropped. “You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to say. I mean it, Sophie. No one.”
“I swear,” Sophie said without hesitation, holding up a hand. “Not a soul.”
“Good,” Roni said. “Still, I’m calling my lawyer. You’re signing an NDA.”
Sophie blinked. “Wait—lawyer? Roni, what the hell could you possibly—”
But Roni was already fishing for her phone.
A few minutes later, after a hushed exchange of words barely above a whisper, Sophie sat back in stunned silence. Her hands were clenched. Her eyes were wide. And the scowl slowly forming on her face said everything.
“Those fuckers” she hissed, processing everything Roni had just told her about yesterdays meeting with Joey’s parents. “I ought to go over there right now and give them a piece of my mind! Who does that or says that to their own kid!”
Roni looked at her with an amused but nervous look as she heard this. “Sophie. Take a breath. This is exactly why I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell you…”
Sophie wanted to say more, but froze, knowing full well that Roni was right and letting her emotions take over and cause a scene was the worst possible thing to let happen. Quickly, she closed her eyes, took some breaths, and hummed, until she was ready to talk again.
“Sorry,” she murmured, kicking herself internally for basically confirming the reason why they didn’t tell everyone what had happened.
“You’re fine,” said Roni forgivingly, waving it off to make her feel a little better. “It’s not like I didn’t feel the same when I saw it. My dad even told me about some of what he said to them when we left the room and, well, let’s just say his word choice was about on par with mine.”
Leaning back, Sophie nodded, at least happy that everyone was on the same page with how she herself felt.
“Still though…” she started quietly, “To just…want to send him away because he’s going to be a little and to call him a disgrace…that’s so horrible.” she finished, shuddering at the idea of her own parents saying anything like that about her.
“I know. I keep thinking about that moment, too.” Roni said with a sigh, “Like if I ever have any doubts, I just think about that, and the fact that I’m not losing him, and I remember it really is going to be worth it, challenges withstanding.”
“It definitely explains the stress you’re facing and the way Joey was acting earlier,” agreed Sophie.
Sophie glanced down at her closed notebook, her fingers drumming lightly on the cover. “He’s lucky to have you, you know. Even if he forgets it for a minute or two under all that weight.”
Roni offered a soft smile. “I think I’m the lucky one. But yeah… we’re figuring it out.”
There was a brief pause, not awkward, just full.
Then Sophie clapped her hands once, breaking the moment. “Okay. If I sit in this chair any longer, I’m going to fuse with it and become part of the library. We should move.”
Roni chuckled. “You mean you don’t want to live your days haunting the non-fiction aisle?”
Sophie stood and stretched dramatically. “Only if I get a tragic backstory and unlimited interlibrary loan access.”
Roni rolled her eyes as she gathered her things. “Come on, ghost girl. It’ll be time to go to actual class soon, and you need to turn in that paper.”
The two of them got up and headed to the library, both feeling a bit better, where Roni was happy to have the extra support from Sophie, and Sophie was happy to be in the loop so she can better support them both.
However, as they were passing some students on their way to the door, the hushed voices drifting through the hallway made both girls instinctively slow their pace.
“Yeah,” said a girl around their age, her voice just loud enough to carry, “I guess it happened last week. That’s what my cousin heard, anyway.”
“Status doesn’t mean much when it’s in your blood,” a boy replied, tone edged with something between pity and judgment.
“Hmph. Figures,” muttered another girl. “Never had bothered making social moves. Makes it seem like they knew the whole time.”
The whispered conversations slowly died out as Roni and Sophie quickly left the library, too afraid to hear what would be said next.
A) I think Sophie will be another Giant girl he can snuggle with to feel safe with when Roni is doing something else and she will feel he is protected.
B) I’m sure her sisters will give Joey a outlet play around with someone instead of watching Roni do school work or plays. I am guessing Joeys new sisters will through time get a lesser but still strong physical bond with Joey like Roni has and even at some point a mental bond wanting them always wanting him close to their body’s to protect him which seems to be in females of all ages I learned in baby classes for my daughter lol.
C)It seems like Joey at least for the first few years will have a full team of people that will keep his little ball of of energy body full of fun and working on his projects for littles.
D) I hope you write about how he spends his little time with all the people that care about him.
E)I think the more Roni lets the people that love him help her with him after of course she trains them the better it will be for Roni like letting her sisters help feed him and tend to his needs if she is busy because I think now that they are family , they are all in on helping Joey, their little older brother lol.
A) she’ll definitely be someone that’ll be able to help, same with Zay. They didn’t really talk about Cam or Lauren in this chapter but I can say both are a little uncertain about them. I’d say at this point that Zay and Joey have known each other about 3-4 years and Sophie and Roni have know each other for 5, and the 4 as a group basically just clicked when they entered high school and meet Cam and Lauren freshman year and they clicked as well. just to kinda put a reasoning on the stronger friendship between the 4 of them and why they have their own uncertainties
B) Sandi and Ciara will get time with him, but it’ll be at his and Roni’s discretion. Ciara especially. Roni would want to not be in some major project and leave joey with her when she’s that busy just cause she would want to react immediately if needed. Sandi is a bit more responsible given her age and empathic nature so it’ll probably be less restrictive
C) He for sure has a good support structure. I have actually retconned Mr. and Mrs. Hale a little as I wrote their chapters to make them less bigoted than they would have been. still will be under a similar premise, but more believable given how easily Roni persuaded them into the adoption part
D) I’m going to do my best for sure. I want him and Roni both to have moments with the side character I put in so A: there is an established relationship and B: it gives me more to work with. Just tough to manage everyone for me given this is my fist story lol
E) I think she will eventually. It all kind of depends on what kind of guardian she ends up being.
I think since Joey had such a strained parent relationship, maybe staying extra time with his new mom Mrs. Hale would be a good thing because as a little he could Bond faster then a normal human baby does to a mother with the physical touch thing and it would be good for him to be more mellow and agreeable like most boys are around their mom. I think It would make Mrs. Hale really feel like his mom and help out more.
I think that’s fair. Mr and Mrs. Hale and Joey have some story line potential considering how Mrs. Hale never really thought about littles and Mr. Hale was basically taking his sisters word for it until now, but at the same time both want Roni to have her own life and not a life devoted to a little. there are a lot of thing i’ll be considering pre-little, though for now, post little is what i’m focused on as we haven’t seen it yet. i’m mostly hoping i’m hitting everything canonically
i think your doing a great job, I am looking forward to the changes he has to deal with after he becomes a little. will he get a little girl friend?, or will Roni or another human girl feel empowered by him being small to ask him to date them. Power dynamic changes will make people act different. will the youngers sisters become more doting on Joey because they now see him as a cute baby brother they can pick up and cuddle instead of the other way around when he was big. will his design and 3d printing little stuff speed up because he will know first hand what he needs.
1) ““I am exactly six words away from not failing Ms. Bramble’s definition of a ‘conclusion paragraph.” that’s a precise number, Ms. Bramble musty be very specific.
2) “So… how are you doing with this whole ‘Joey’s my Little’ thing?” Good question, definitely something she’ll need to work out.
3.1) “I don’t own Joey, Sophie. I’m going to be his guardian, not his warden” legally those are the same for littles
3.2) “He’ll still have the same autonomy he has now…” they’ll try, not sure they’ll succeed though.
4) “The more time passes, the more real it feels… and the more pressure I feel.” she’d definitely be getting that feeling
5) “I need Joey. I still lean on him. Even though I’m supposed to be the one holding it together for him now… I still need him to hold me up too.” and you’ll still have him to do all of those things.
6) “Why did his parents even agree to this? They’re practically royalty. His brother could’ve taken care of him without blinking.” Because his parents hate Littles in a way that makes Sara Reeves look like Chrissy Watson.
7) “Are you going to tell me or not?” I’m sure sophie would understand if Roni said she legally can’t.
8) “Those fuckers. I ought to go over there right now and give them a piece of my mind! Who does that or says that to their own kid!” Reasonable reaction, though would be a suicide run with the legal storm it’d kick up.
9) “Like if I ever have any doubts, I just think about that, and the fact that I’m not losing him, and I remember it really is going to be worth it, challenges withstanding.” it is motivating
10) “He’s lucky to have you” … “I think I’m the lucky one. But yeah… we’re figuring it out.” They’re both lucky to have found each other.
11) “, the hushed voices drifting through the hallway made both girls instinctively slow their pace” Maybe Joey’s story is spreading, but it could realistically be completely unrelated.
1) lol you’d be surprised. AP English in the US has stupid requirements like that
2)still navigating things the best she can, but I’d also say she isn’t facing them directly on her own. The more people ask about it though the less she can ignore it, which is good.
3.1 and 3.2) I agree with both of those, though i guess if you put it on a slider, guardian would be on a less controlling more supervising end while warden would keep them locked down and doing hard labor lol
4) I know I would
5) it’s funny. Until now I hadn’t put a lot of thought into it, but she’s subconsciously looking at him differently. Like she isn’t really seeing that he’ll still be that emotional support when he’s a little. glad you’ve pointed this out haha
6) That’s all been behind closed doors for the most part. Generally speaking only Roni knows about their dislike of littles (though prior to his vulnerability, she didn’t know the extent).
7) She would, but luckily they have a lawyer from generitech on retainer lol i was going to write in the phone call with Mr. Hunter and Tanya but opted not to, also. It’s probably a quick text message to the two of them for now
8)for real. she’d get tackled running through the gate haha
9) agreed
10) absolutly. THe worst case scenario between them, I think, is that Roni needs more time to herself as they get older, but she schedules it and talks with Joey on figuring out what is and isn’t acceptable. other wise I don’t see them running into huge issues as far as being together.
11) yeah. there’s really no telling at this point. Their paranoia could make them see it as directed at Joey
10) That works both ways. Joey is going to want some “me time” as well.
for sure. and them finding a balance or arguing about it would be a real thing that two extremly close best friends like sarah and gavin would talk about. which is good from this story’s POV as that is my inspiration
10) Because of Joeys needs being a little, Roni has great support from her sisters. She can easily train them on handling Joey with Joey and Roni making it a daily fun thing to get everyone used to Joey being a little and his needs. It sounded like when Roni gets older because of Joeys long life span he might go to one of the younger girls.
although Joey has not shrunk yet, don’t forget that afterwards some type of extraction can made and given to Roni to extend her lifespan. This was mentioned in Madison’s World and hinted at in Smallara by Sara when she tells Jordan that they will spend the next 100 years together.
replying to both: Dark is right. the extraction will first go to Roni. if there is enough left (which brings up a good point as to what determines that there is enough for a next dose)
but at the same time, assuming the is answered, I think, strategically, Ciara would get the treatment first before Sadni, as hear breaking as that is to say, just cause they have a more pragmatic bond. I think emotinally Ciara is closer to Joey, but that’s just cause Joey is good with kids in general
overall, though, it really all hinges on Roni’s ideals once being a trained little and seeing what generitech says about littles
your right, i remember what your saying. i was reacting to the quote in one of the chapters i think one of the parents said he would live long enough to live with the youngest sister but i couldn’t find the quote quickly lol.
Now that I think about it. It would have been a real jerk move by Joey’s parents if they decided to keep control of Joey solely for the benefit of the longevity injection they would have gotten. This could become an interesting plot line for other stories as a motivation to get yourself a fresh Little.
What are Generitech and Preema Tech doing to exploit this? Or the government for that matter?
2) I think its something Joey needs to work out also because he will be very needy and they both might need help from their sisters.
3.1) The law and by everyday living, he lives by her rules and goes where she takes him. Sounds like being a dependent.
3.2) He cant have the same autonomy because he will need heat from a humans body a lot of the time he is out, will need to be caried everywhere because it is not safe on his own and help to get anything.
5) I think you will crush him when he is a little lol.
10) I think if Joey is able to create with a little
computer and a 3D printer and can get physical support from one of the girls to learn what he is doing, he could make is own stuff plus he gave her a lot of money she could put a little in a account he could use for buying stuff would be a big help to everyone.