The dish clinked faintly against the tabletop as Ezra lowered his face to the water.
Cool, filtered, faintly plastic. Underneath it, that stubborn, clean chemical tang clung to everything in the cafeteria, the ghost of sanitizer wipes and a mop bucket that had seen too much. He hated how thirsty he was. Hated that his tongue had to flick the surface in small, careful pulls instead of just… drinking like a person. Hated the pace of it, the humiliating slowness.
But the lapping worked.
That was the sick part.
It didn’t just pass through him the way it had earlier when he’d tried to sip from something upright. It stayed. It settled. He could feel it sinking into him gradually, like his body understood this new rhythm on an instinctive level. Like it had been waiting for the bowl, for the correct form of “hydration,” for the kind of consumption designed for something small and domesticated.
He swallowed, throat tightening.
He hated that even more than the bowl.
He hated that Dayton understood his body better than he did. That she’d been right about the pellets. Right about the gulping. Right about the way his new physiology didn’t care about his pride.
Around him the cafeteria roared, a cathedral of adolescent noise: laughter that burst and echoed, chip bags crackling, plastic forks tapping trays, chair legs screeching in sharp little screams. From this low vantage point, placed deliberately on the table like an accessory, Ezra heard it all with a strange clarity.
He tried to stay small. To disappear into the normal chaos.
And then a shadow fell across the table, clean sharp edged and adult.
“Hi, Ms. Whittaker!” Hayden said brightly.
Ezra froze mid lap. His nostrils flared on instinct as his brain latched onto the name.
Cassie.
Not Ms. Whittaker in his mind, not in that first flash. Cassie Whittaker, his student teacher, the one who used to hover at the back of his classroom with a clipboard and a too eager smile, the one who’d tried to mirror his tone until she found her own.
Her silhouette stretched long over the tabletop, blazer crisp, shoulders squared, blocking out the cafeteria’s cheap ceiling lights like she brought her own professional lighting rig with her. Hayden had noticed her first, but Nicole and Hannah chimed in with polite echoes, their voices suddenly syrup-sweet in that automatic way kids did when they wanted an adult to think they were innocent.
Ezra didn’t dare look up.
Not while his mouth was still wet. Not while a single wrong movement could turn him into a choking, sputtering spectacle. If he jerked his head now, he’d spill. He’d cough. He’d look like a toddler.
But if he kept drinking?
He’d look like what he’d become.
Dayton’s Little. Dayton’s pet.
He swallowed carefully and forced his body into stillness, muscle by muscle, the way he’d taught kids to settle when they were spiraling. Then, slowly, he rose, easing back onto his knees in the little booster pad Dayton had placed beside her tray.
It was humiliatingly soft. Plush, like a tiny pet bed. And it wasn’t meant for comfort. It was meant for positioning. For a Little sit. For neatness.
His spine stayed stiff. His hands curled into his lap. He kept his eyes down even as Cassie’s presence pressed in above him.
Ms. Whittaker, now.
She didn’t look at him for long. Her attention went where the new power was.
Dayton.
“I just wanted to tell you I’ll be taking over as your English teacher,” Ms. Whittaker said. Her tone was crisp, professional, the parent-teacher-night voice Ezra remembered, tight-lipped and rehearsed. “And I wanted it understood there’s a clean slate between us. I don’t want there to be tension over… what happened.”
Her eyes flicked briefly, clinically, toward Ezra’s collar. Then back to Dayton.
“Dayton,” she continued, “I’ll be grading fairly. Based entirely on your work.”
It was a peace offering.
It was also a boundary. A quiet promise that she would not be him.
Ezra’s chest tightened. Something old and instinctive rose in him, that reflex to manage, to smooth, to reclaim an adult footing in a situation that suddenly felt like it was slipping away forever.
“Cassie—” he started, voice low, trying to force dignity into a throat that no longer carried authority.
Dayton’s head snapped toward him with lightning speed.
Ezra felt it like a leash tug, even without a leash.
“She’s a teacher,” Dayton said, and her voice wasn’t loud, but it had a blade in it. “My teacher. You will address her as Ms. Whittaker.”
The correction hit him harder than if she’d shouted. It wasn’t just about etiquette. It was about the fact that she could correct him publicly and he had no social weight to resist it.
Dayton’s eyes flicked up to Ms. Whittaker again and her tone shifted seamlessly, like she’d toggled modes on a screen.
“Thank you, Ms. Whittaker,” Dayton said. “And sorry about him. A lot happened today. I’ll make sure my Little addresses you properly going forward. That’s on me.”
Ezra watched it happen in slow motion: the teacher’s polite smile tightening, the way her gaze slid over him without landing, like he was an item on Dayton’s tray, not a colleague who used to stand six feet tall and hold a room with his voice.
Like he didn’t exist.
Ms. Whittaker nodded once. “No worries,” she murmured, and then she was gone, heels clicking toward the staff lounge with the kind of authority Ezra used to wield without thinking.
The shadow lifted. The cafeteria sound rushed back in.
Ezra’s throat felt raw. “She was my student teacher,” he said, quiet and strained, as if stating the fact might anchor him. “We have a—”
“You will address my teachers respectfully or not at all,” Dayton cut in, not even bothering to look at him as she twisted open her iced tea with a sharp snap. “You don’t have a student teacher anymore, Ezra. You don’t have a class. You don’t have students.”
Each sentence was a door shutting.
She took a sip, calm as ever, then glanced at Nicole. Nicole’s mouth twitched like she hated that a part of her enjoyed seeing Ezra corrected after years of watching him zero in on Dayton like it was a hobby. She didn’t like this. She just… understood it.
“You’re a Little,” Dayton added, setting the bottle down. “And Littles don’t get casual with my teachers. That’s kind of the problem, isn’t it?”
Hayden leaned forward a little, eyes bright with that half-mischief, half-honesty she couldn’t turn off. “Also… it’s kind of weird, Ezra. There’s like a line. Student-teacher line.”
Nicole rolled her eyes, but she wasn’t disagreeing. “You’re basically an extension of Dayton. So if you’re calling her Cassie, it’s like Dayton is calling her Cassie.”
She lifted a crisp and crunched it like punctuation. “And that sounds… too cozy.”
“It is a little creepy when you say it like that,” Hannah admitted, her voice soft, shoulders rising in a small shiver.
Ezra’s jaw tightened. “It wasn’t—”
“It was,” Hayden said immediately, then softened because she couldn’t help herself. “Not like… creepy creepy. Just like… you trying to be an adult in a kid space when you’re not… that anymore.”
The words landed with a thud.
Ezra looked down at the table. The water dish sat there, innocently stable, rubber-bottomed, impossible to tip. A tool made for a body like his. A tool that didn’t care what he used to be.
Nicole, already trying to drag the mood back toward normal, pulled out her planner. The motion was so familiar it felt like a magic trick. Like she could erase what had just happened by making school feel like school again.
“So,” she said, flipping a page. “Ms. Whittaker is probably going to assign something insane to prove she’s not him. Should we write our next essay for the group project from the point of view of a Little?”
Hayden’s face lit up. “That’d be hilarious.”
Hannah giggled. “Oh my god. Like, ‘I am tiny and everyone is loud and I hate bowls.’”
Nicole nodded thoughtfully, already planning. “We could do it as like… dystopian realism. Make it actually good.”
Hayden leaned in toward Ezra, grin returning, like the table needed a joke to breathe. “You can be our Little consultant.”
Hannah followed, smiling too, but gentle. “Yeah. Like, you can tell us what’s accurate.”
Ezra’s first instinct was to bristle. He didn’t want to be “consulted” like a novelty.
Then, underneath that, something colder and more practical slid in.
Academics was one of the only arenas he still understood. It was a place where size didn’t automatically erase competence. Where his mind, at least, could still be useful.
He swallowed, the faint taste of pellets still on his tongue, water cooling his throat.
“I…” Ezra began, and he hated that his voice sounded careful now. “If you’re writing from that perspective, you’ll need to avoid turning it into parody. It’s not just ‘everyone is loud.’ It’s… scale. Risk. Dependency. Routine.”
Hayden blinked. “Okay, Professor,” she said, but it wasn’t mocking. Not really.
Nicole’s eyes sharpened with interest. “Wait, that’s actually good. Like… the sensory stuff.”
Hannah nodded quickly. “Yeah. Like how you said the water stays. That’s… a detail.”
Ezra felt something strange in his chest. Not hope. Not forgiveness.
A small, uncomfortable sense of being used in a way that wasn’t purely ornamental.
Dayton watched him for a second, expression unreadable, then went back to her lunch, the conversation sliding naturally into weekend plans and boba flavors and what thrift stores counted as “cute” versus “musty.”
Ezra sat on his booster pad beside her tray, collar charm faintly jingling whenever he moved, and realized with a sick clarity that this was how the world would keep going.
I figured Cassie would take over Ezra’s class; It wouldn’t have made any sense to introduce her, and then she would disappear from the story forever.
Sometimes people are introduced to be part of stories later. But you were right in this case. She was introduced to take over his class.
That makes sense. The comparison I thought about making in my original comment was between Cassie and Mia Lawson’s sorority sisters in the Birthday Shipment, where you introduced them briefly and then plan to expand on them whenever you return to that story.
I kinda figured SEA would hold her partially responsible (since she was helping with how the district handled Mr Rhys) and arrest her.
She was viewed as caught in the illegal operation. Just trying to make a living. A full sized victim.
Lucky her
No shocker on cassie taking over his class. kind of an over reaction on Daytons part, though. What’s she going to do if\when he talks to friends or coworkers he had a close relationship with, just tell him he’s not allowed to do that? Seems pretty harsh to make him address people he was close to (not saying he was close to cassie, this is just kind of indicative of whats to come) with formality, unless she just wants it that way in school, which i guess is not as bad…
Well the issue was that she is her teacher. If Dayton introduces him Kayla she’s not gonna make Ezra call her ms. Wallace.
The issue is that is her teacher and the perception would be she was getting special treatment as her little is cozy with the staff.
Dayton wants him addressing her teachers professionally.
She has been consistent about professional vs private identification. Professional relationships are Mr or Mrs x and private and friendly are just first name only.
Like he can now just call her Dayton as they
Have a personal relationship.
In a school setting where she is a student she doesn’t consider it appropriate. As she doesn’t want the opportunity for people to view her as getting special treatment because of Ezra.
1) “He hated that Dayton understood his body better than he did. That she’d been right about the pellets. Right about the gulping. Right about the way his new physiology didn’t care about his pride.” Completely fair, Dayton is the kind of character you don’t want being right.
2) “From this low vantage point, placed deliberately on the table like an accessory, Ezra heard it all with a strange clarity. He tried to stay small. To disappear into the normal chaos” Disappearing sounds preferable in his situation
3) “If he jerked his head now, he’d spill. He’d cough. He’d look like a toddler. But if he kept drinking? He’d look like what he’d become. Dayton’s Little. Dayton’s pet” Quite the delema
4) “His spine stayed stiff. His hands curled into his lap. He kept his eyes down even as Cassie’s presence pressed in above him. Ms. Whittaker, now.” I’m surprised he knows to call her that instinctively.
5) “I just wanted to tell you I’ll be taking over as your English teacher,” I kinda asumed SEA would be taking her away, she was quite involved in how they handled Ezra
6) “And I wanted it understood there’s a clean slate between us. I don’t want there to be tension over… what happened. Dayton, I’ll be grading fairly. Based entirely on your work.” A peace offering makes sense, given the power Dayton’s proved she can wield, lol
7) “She’s a teacher, My teacher. You will address her as Ms. Whittaker.” Damn it, Dayton, you were doing kinda ok.
8) “The correction hit him harder than if she’d shouted. It wasn’t just about etiquette. It was about the fact that she could correct him publicly and he had no social weight to resist it” That’s the power Dayton craves
9) “Thank you, Ms. Whittaker, and sorry about him. A lot happened today. I’ll make sure my Little addresses you properly going forward. That’s on me.” He did nothing wrong here; your ego just wants to humiliate him, wants to put on display your control
10) “You will address my teachers respectfully or not at all,” Nothing about how he addressed her was disrespectful.
11) “Nicole’s mouth twitched like she hated that a part of her enjoyed seeing Ezra corrected after years of watching him zero in on Dayton like it was a hobby. She didn’t like this. She just… understood it” That’s fair from Nicole, if Dayton wasn’t just as bad as Ezra, I might enjoy it too.
12) “You’re a Little, and Littles don’t get casual with my teachers. That’s kind of the problem, isn’t it?” You can’t tell me Dayton hasn’t been waiting for this, the chance to publicly ‘correct’ his behaviour
13) “Also… it’s kind of weird, Ezra. There’s like a line. Student-teacher line.” a line he’s recently been forcefully dragged across.
14) “You’re basically an extension of Dayton. So if you’re calling her Cassie, it’s like Dayton is calling her Cassie.” No, the fuck it isn’t. He’s his own man with his own relationship with her, not a part of Dayton who needs to fall in line with hers.
15) “Not like… creepy creepy. Just like… you trying to be an adult in a kid space when you’re not… that anymore.” It’s not “creepy”; he is an adult, even though he’ll likely never be treated like one again.
16) “Academics were one of the only arenas he still understood. It was a place where size didn’t automatically erase competence. Where his mind, at least, could still be useful” That’s true, he likely wasn’t the first and definitely won’t be the last Little teacher.
17) “If you’re writing from that perspective, you’ll need to avoid turning it into parody. It’s not just ‘everyone is loud.’ It’s… scale. Risk. Dependency. Routine.” Turning a joke serious is a good comeback,
18) “Ezra felt something strange in his chest. Not hope. Not forgiveness.” No, those two things would be too nice for him and his situation
19) “A small, uncomfortable sense of being used in a way that wasn’t purely ornamental.” sense of purpose isn’t too bad though.
1) the only thing i can think of that is worse for you would be Sara being right.Those are all lethal nightmares.
2) It would be the preferred option in this situation.
3) I would choose daytons little. I would rather be Daytons little then be viewed as a toddler.
4) Well he knows the students would call her Ms Whittaker. He isnt fully on board with the idea of him having to do it. He knows Dayton probably wants him too but chooses to not to listen to himself.
5) She was an innocent victim in the whole thing doing what she needed to do keep her job.
6) Yes, plus just wanting to be clear and open is always a good path. Dayton doesnt have any issues with Whittaker so its a clear slate.
7) This one does seem reasonable in my opinion. As it would be viewed as awkward if basically what is legally surmounts to your pet is cozy with your teachers yet somehow everoyne is suppsoed to believeyou arent and you arent getting special treatment? Even if you arent people will always view it as you are.
Its also not like Cassie was his best friend or even a friend. She was just someone he worked with who was learning under him.
8) Dayton may not have even thouht of it as a power thing thought. She may have just wanted the distinction between teacher adn student to be clear. Ezra is on Team Dayton whether he wants to be or not he was drafted.
9)I mean he even thought and figured what would be apporpriate then just chose not too.
10) Well its disrespectful in that she wouldnt have just called him Ezra and goes into her original ask of wanting to be miss harris. She is expecting that he calls her teachers similarly even if he doesnt need ot address ehr as miss harris as he belongs to her.
11) Nicole has watched him torment her friends for years. So its a fair response I agree.
12) I could but you probably wouldnt belive me.
13) It was paritally his own fault He has some fault in the actions and decisions he chose. If something is to good to be true it often is. A school letting a little teach this early in the timelien is supiscious.
14) He’s his own man under Daytons banner. Waving the dayton flag. A citizen of Daytona. Ruled by dayton. A Daytonite if you will. So he has some soceital and cultural influences he needs to fall under.
15) I guess its that old philosophical question. Well he is an adult just not of their species.
16) He sitll could thrive and find value here. As in theory he could help dayton. Maybe not in every class but a good number of classes.
17) Well when it comes academics he goes all in. LIke with Dayton and hayden in class earlier.
18) lol
19) Purpose would be important. Jordan has a sense of purpose in his role with Sara. Which helps him.
1) Dayton being right is worse.
3) I’d stop without making a mess
4) He did figure it out and even included the name change form Porter to Whittaker.
5) And entirely opportunistic, I saw her eyeing off his job
6) Good think Cassie didn’t really like Ezra that much.
7) This to me is one of those “person behind the Little” moments where Dayton needs to accept that Ezra had his own life and isn’t going to have the same relationships she does, is she also expecting Ezra to call Mrs Harris “mom”?
It was obvious that Cassie resented a Little having a class while she didn’t.
8) I doubt it wouldn’t have crossed Dayton’s mind, moments to correct him like this are why she wanted him
9) It’s only wrong if Cassie says that’s what she wants to be called, but this is Dayton making a decision for Cassie and Ezra.
10) But Ezra already has a relationship with Cassie, it’s what he’s always called her. I do feel like this is a humiliation tactic as she’d know it’s not mandatory but wants to do it any way to strip his authority.
12) You’re right, I wouldn’t, I know Dayton too well
13) It was too good to be true, but Ezra choosing not to look a gift horse in the mouth is understandable too.
14) Did You write that or had the Spirit of Dayton take control in that moment?
16) Question is would Dayton deserve his help? or at least make it worth his effort?
17) Good trait for a teacher
19) Sad part is no purpose Dayton could give him would match the one she orchestrated being taken from him.
5 + 6) I woudlnt say she hated ezra but she was indifferent to his plight. She didn tlike a little having a job over her. But she wasn’t going to report him but wasn’t going to stop it either. She did tip him off he needed to be careful.
7) its not so much dayton herself is the perception so its everyone else that Dayton is thinking about. As all of that would have an affect on her but not ezra.
Dayton had enough of prof fluff acting like a baby little so she started treating him like one
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nafcmQeGGRDX46GbjM0gA9MoLL6UEIaT/view?usp=drivesdk
I’m back !!
Oh boy ….. I’m growing but still not fully liking Dayton and Ezra relationship granted it only been a few hours but still
I hope we still see the sense lost purpose and conflicting emotions from Ezra until he’s see Kingsley and other littles just so that the moment feels like it has weight to it and not just brush aside
Like I hope we get a moment where Ezra is like staring into the void that is his world with sense of giving up but Kingsley comes up to him and even calls him Mr rhyes again even if he encourages her to call him Ezra since everyone is now but her respect for him is still there.
Ezra saying he miss her personality in his classroom and then talking about how he’s doing and he opens up about his feelings and thoughts but Kingsley reassures that what he deals with and her and Nicole concerns as well because they’re are team and sorta family in a way. And it bring Ezra to tears to hear that ( of course you get the Dayton and co thinking it’s adorable) kinda like the owl house sense with Hunter and Luz with her saying he’s family now ( if you haven’t seen it yet then watch that goated show lol)
Overall I have some hopes and doubts but we’ll see
that would be fun I agree
good to have you back. I See you starting to come around on things.
The once teacher/student rubs in that she is a teacher and he isn’t.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UlQQDg9UV2DOeKZGudzKittQjcU-KOhx/view?usp=drivesdk
This one has restricted access.
sorry fixed
now she is just being mean lol
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nly7i1U5-J2o–x8PL6kKq_yGsAsOUg1/view?usp=drivesdk
that escalated quickly.
I know right, when I was doing the AI some of the more racy stuff I hold back not to offend, AI likes to be rated R lol.
I didn’t notice this earlier, but why did Cassie’s surname change from Porter to Whittaker?
its not a very exciting reason. It started out as porter but i had forgotten i named her cassie porter so i referenced her as whittaker. When i realized i already had so many chapters written so i had to decide do i correct it o whittaker or correct it t porter. The porter references were fewer so i went that route.