Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Chapters 6 and 7 by Sofia Hammerstein

Connor Slane has grown up to be one of the brightest kids in his dimension and one of the most ambitious computer science majors at his top university. Now, thanks to an exchange program between his university and his mother’s alma mater, Emerson University in another dimension. Connor has the chance to forge his own path in computers and his other love, filmmaking. Having seen still images of their amazing holographic films, he hopes go to Emerson, and then return to build his own empire - and maybe even find his true self, as his mother did.

Beth Sylvester is a Tweener herself and another child of influential parents in the other dimension. Her wealthy Big mom is the daughter of a disgraced former CEO, and her dad is the first and only Tweener to serve on the Supreme Court. Connor’s mom and Beth’s dad were good friends while she was in the dimension, and they’ll quickly discover that they enjoy hanging out with each other. They’ll also discover that if either is going to survive to the end of the semester academically or as mature adults, they’ll need to help each other out. If not, Connor could quickly find himself on the one-way road to being adopted by some Big, and Beth might not be far from that fate either…

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The Legal Stuff: Lights, Camera, …What?!? By Sofia Hammerstein
 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Copyright © 2023-2026 Sofia Hammerstein.
 

 
 

Chapter 6: Preschool Chic
 

ACROSS FROM THE doorway we entered, I saw three walls with three, four, and three setups of lofted beds above desks. The beds looked weird, though! There was an almost organic curve to the ends by the head and footboard areas, with a ladder coming up one end to an open swinging door. Through the middle of it was a curved half-circle made of transparent Plexi-like material running the length of about eighty percent of the bed, which I guessed let you quickly check on the occupants. The odd thing was that the sides all went up at least five, maybe five-and-a-half feet, above the mattresses. ‘It’s a lofted crib with an exit ladder!’ I thought to myself incredulously.

Below the bed was a desk set up that looked short enough for my new smaller frame. Some bookshelves, electrical outlets, and a chair that looked like an ordinary desk chair back home completed the furnishings. The desk and bed were made out of a wood that reminded me of a light maple. I noticed that our names were already printed in a cutesy font in a frame at the end of our beds. Each featured a hand-painted picture of a fox kit. I noted that mine was in a corner on the wall to the right of our entry door. I turned and saw that Liam and Noah were speechless.

“Umm… That’s a weird bed…?” Noah finally said.

I turned and ignored him, noting the changing table that took a place of ‘honor’ along the wall, adjacent to the door through which we had entered. Another door went to our left and was marked with a sign that said ‘Potty Time is the Best Time!’

“I know you’re all itching to explore, but why don’t you go ahead and get your bags over by your study pod? That’s what we call your bed and desk. When you’re done with that, get a uniform on from in your box. We’ll hang the rest of your stuff up later after lunch.” Makenzie suggested.

“Sure,” I told her and made my way to my ‘pod.’ The box had been made to open with a string pull, so I didn’t need a knife or scissors. Opening it up, I found two dressy sweater vests embroidered on the chest with the Emerson crest, six pairs of what almost looked like dress slacks, five white dress shirts, and five… white dress shirts with onesie tails on them?!?

I blushed at the sight of those!

I looked through the box to see a couple of ties and two glossy pairs of black dress shoes. I took a closer look at the pants and saw that they only loosely resembled dress pants. The waistbands were elastic to make them easy to pull up and down. I also noted that snaps were going along the inseams up the crotch to enable easy changing access. ‘I think Mom told me her dress slacks had those too… part of why she never wore them!’

Surprised not to see any protection, I walked over to where Mackenzie was watching over us . She had a rocking chair that she was sitting in, alternating looking between us and her phone.

“Umm… Miss Brown?”

“Yes, Connor?”

“After our presentation with Dean Northrup, I think I would like to play things safe here?”

“How do you mean…?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“Umm… protection?”

“You think you should wear Pull-Ups to be safe?” She cooed, loud enough that Liam and Noah heard it.

“You’ve to be kidding, Connor!?! You’re really going to go along with that gay shit?” Noah spat.

Makenzie quickly but gently pushed me to the side as she stood up and went to chase after Noah. He stood his ground. “What? You going to report me to the Dean?”

I watched her shake her head, “Nope, I can take care of this myself.”

I was impressed by how quickly she picked him up, ripped his pants down, and sat back down in the rocking chair. Equally impressive was the speed and strength of her hand as it landed on his butt!

“We,” she spanked.

“Do!” Spank!

“Not!” Smack!

“Ever!” Smack!

“Make!” Smack!

“Fun!” Smack!

“Of!” Smack!

“Others!” Smack!

I grimaced, even as I felt like he had it coming to him. Things only got worse for him, though.

“Oh my God! Aren’t you supposed to be a potty-trained adult?!?!” She smacked him six more times, punctuating every word with another smack, “You do not pee on me!”

By then, the fight had long left Noah, and he was a blubbering mess of tears as I could see his butt was fiery red in color! She stood up with him and walked straight to the changing table. “I definitely don’t trust you out of protection. You’ve earned yourself three days of diapers since you can’t hold your pee like a big boy. If you’re good, maybe, I’ll let you wear Pull-Ups next week on your first day of classes!”

I watched as he struggled a bit more once she laid him on the table, but two additional smacks stopped that. A chest strap and another on his arms and shoulders were added as well, holding him down. “Which one…?” she mused, looking at what I now realized was a veritable store of diaper choices. “I think this one will do,” she said with a giggle.

I couldn’t see what she held, but I noticed a lot of pink on the shelf that I thought I saw her pull it from.

A moment later, he was standing on his own two feet in a weird wobbly position, wearing just the diaper she’d put him in. Noah looked like he was still in pain from the spanking he had gotten, but I was sure the redness of his face had far more to do with the pink diaper he wore. It looked like it had lots of hearts, stars, and the words ‘love’ and ‘cutie’ splayed over it. He made a threatening gaze at me, but quickly looked away when I raised my eyebrows.

“Now that you have your proper protection on Noers, why don’t you go see if your uniform pants will fit over them…? If not, we’ll have to have you go in just your diapee since we won’t have time to get you some new pants for that diaper butt yet.

He looked visibly struck then, and I watched him hobble back over to his desk.

She left for a minute, and I found myself basically frozen in shock at what happened to Noah.

It didn’t take her long to swiftly return in a new pair of slacks. As soon as she walked back she turned her attention back to me, and I felt my stomach tumble. “Come here, little guy, let’s see if we have any Pull-Ups small enough for you. I’m a little worried about your size.”

I grimaced but walked over to her. She started pawing through packages in some cupboards and came away with one a moment later. “This is the smallest Pull-Up they stock for us…?”

She handed it to me, and I blushed at the blue-colored garment. It had cartoon pictures on it as I unfolded it, but I could see that it probably wouldn’t fit.

“Umm…”

“Let’s try it on really quick… if it doesn’t work, we’ll have to go with diapees if you want to be safe.” She whispered, “And you’re a smart little boy for doing this without me suggesting it!”

I started to walk for the bathroom but instead found myself flying through the air in her arms until she put me down on the same changing table Noah had just occupied. Before I could possibly complain, she had my shoes untied, pants down, and underwear discarded next to me. The underwear I’d worn to the dimension was pulled down, and I had just enough wherewithal to go “Wait…” but the deed was done, and my lower body was exposed for the world to see.

Liam was just coming back in from the bathroom with a poorly aligned tie when he took in the scene of first me on the changing table, and then Noah trying in vain to pull a pair of pants over the massive diaper.

As Mackenzie said, “Step in,” to me, my attention was brought back to myself. I saw the leg holes of the Pull-Up opened, and I followed directions as she pulled it up my body. But, unfortunately, it just kept going above my groin and instead to nearly my armpits!

“Hmm… Definitely too big,” Mackenzie told me. I looked at her in the face, and she seemed disappointed in that.

“Do they make any smaller ones…? I can’t be the smallest Little out there…?”

She shrugged, “You’re not… I’ve heard stories of one crazy Little from years back that was barely over three feet tall. The problem is that most of those who are that small here don’t use training pants.”

“Oh,” I said.

She spoke softly to me, “You seem to be understanding things here faster than your friends?”

I sighed, “My mom went to school here?”

She gave me a puzzled look, “She moved over to your dimension afterward?”

I shook my head, “No, she came over here for school. She… depending on what stories you’ve heard about that tiny Little, it might have actually been about her?”

Right then, her watch dinged, and she looked at it. Then, with a sigh, she said, “You and I are having a private conversation later. I want to know more?”

I nodded.

“In the meantime, you’re being smart and asking about protection. It’ll keep you out of trouble. Unfortunately, I don’t have any Pull-Ups in your size, but I do have some diapers?”

“Please tell me they’re not pink?” I nodded towards Noah, who somehow had now shoehorned himself into a pair of pants.

She giggled, “No, it’ll be a regular baby diaper. They were left over from a student last semester – he was about your size.”

I just shrugged, “I can get myself out of them?”

“Should be able to?”

“Go ahead…” I told her.

She gently pushed me down onto my back and, without any warning, pulled the poor-fitting Pull-Up off of my legs. Mackenzie left me naked there for a moment while she dug into a cubby and brought back a diaper that looked identical to any modern baby diaper in our dimension. It even featured some cartoon characters that looked familiar to me.

While she hurried through the process, I couldn’t help but feel mortified as she lifted my legs into the air to set the diaper underneath me. Then, she squirted some lotion on her hands and proceeded to rub it into my intimate areas. I did my best to not react in any way, but I was ticklish, and it was really difficult to sit still! While I knew diaper changes might not go quickly in the future, I guessed I was taped into the infantile garment in less than a minute.

She sat me down on the floor and said, “Go get your uniform on now; I’ll put a few extras of these in your backpack.”

I gathered my uniform pieces without further prompting, started pulling on the pants and the dress shirt, and tucked everything in. You could see the slight bulge of a diaper, but not like Noah, who was having trouble even toddling around right then. “Liam, can you come here for a moment?” I heard Mackenzie ask.

I was about to disappear to the bathroom to go tie the tie but quickly figured out it was a clip-on. ‘Well… if you think someone is a baby, I guess a real tie would be too much,’ I admitted.

I pulled the vest on and took a brush to the bathroom to brush my hair nicely again. In the mirror, I saw that the clip-on tie definitely looked like it wasn’t real, but with the vest on, I knew I at least was better off than the girls’ summer dress option! Looking at myself in the mirror, I knew at least my diaper could be mostly hidden out of sight in this outfit, even if the snaps going up the crotch of the pants gave away that it was likely that I needed them!

I took just a couple of moments to brush my shoulder-length hair down and pull it into the low ponytail Mama insisted I keep. She’d never been a fan of me having long hair, but Mom had always told her to drop it since she had her own long hair in high school.

“You about done, Connor?” I heard from the main room, “We need to go get your ID pictures taken!”

I sighed and said, “Coming,” as I walked out and dropped the brush in my backpack. I took just a quick moment to place three spare diapers inside and hook the straps on my shoulders. The other guys looked every bit as upscale preschool chic as I felt, but neither grabbed a bag.

“Okay, let’s get going, my little kits!” she told us.

I noticed a rope with little plastic rings, for us to hang onto, hanging by the door, and was surprised she didn’t make us use that!
 
 

Chapter 7: Face to Face
 

BETH STOOD WITH Amanda, a woman who had been like a distant aunt to her while growing up. Her dad was much closer with Megan and ‘Meggy,’ but apparently, he’d stayed with Amanda and Fred for a while recovering after Beth’s real grandmother and aunt went nuts. They’d had countless occasions together, but she still considered Grandma Ruth to be more of a grandmother.

They had arrived early and been shown a table they’d been assured would have Amanda’s grandson sit with them. Beth was really curious to meet him, given she’d been assured she’d met his mother a few times before everything went wrong in college. ‘If he’s a Little, I hope he lasts longer than I did the first time!’

One of probably the most disappointing things about learning, as a teenager, that her life wasn’t just quite what she thought it was, was also learning what a failure she’d been in life!

‘Daddy never gave up on me though,’ she reminded herself with a sigh.

Since Amanda was a bigwig Professor Emeritus, complete with a building named after her, it had been easy for her to get an invitation to this luncheon. Moreover, knowing that her grandson was a computer science major, she’d even been able to get most of the computer science majors to be at a round table with them.

Littles started coming in, a few Betweeners like her, and one or two Bigs that were clearly not from around there based on the clothing. Then, she noticed several Littles talking surprisedly to two boys who must have broken the odds and come through taller. One definitely qualified as a short Big, which was unusual in her experience.

She’d seen these ‘exchange’ groups come through last year. It wouldn’t surprise her if she didn’t see many of them around by the end of the semester. Things were a lot better in Ames now that her dad and Grandma Ruth had been able to be on the moral side making decisions against blatant sizeism at a national level, but there were always loopholes. Even if they’d given a higher allotment of demerits, Emerson’s demerit policy continued to be a huge problem in her mind.

Instead of sixty percent of a class of Littles disappearing by the end of the first semester, now maybe twenty percent did. She did at least have to give the university its due on no longer penalizing ‘protected’ Littles who had accidents of any type in their classes or lunchrooms.

That’s how they’d gotten her to give in to her own adoption the first time around… She’d had one demerit remaining at the time and did NOT want to end up in the university’s daycare. Even to this day, it still gave her the creeps as she walked past their playard of babied Littles!

Most of the Littles in the room had not yet figured out that it was best to play it safe with padding. She could tell that they probably had refused the option when given it. They’d soon learn, though... ‘Especially when coming to an event like this!’ she couldn’t help thinking. She felt terrible but giggled quietly when she saw one Little boy under five feet tall that must have already gotten in trouble. He was having a hard time walking… Toddling was more of a correct term, and his ‘big-boy’ shirt had come untucked already as the pants slid around the diaper. The pink of the thick princess-themed diaper now easily shown above the pants as a Nest Mother helped him sit down on a booster seat. ‘I’m surprised he’s not in a high chair already…’ she mused.

She felt bad for Littles when they were tricked, but she figured he’d probably actually done something to deserve it at this stage of the game. ‘Must have really pissed off his Nest Mother!’

Beth was sure she had to have seen a picture of Connor at some point on the digital Christmas cards her parents shared, but she couldn’t recall his face. Watching Littles to see if she recognized someone, she was beaten to spotting him by Amanda standing her aging frame up and walking over to one Little boy.

She could see he was ‘properly’ dressed in the Littles uniform, and the thin padding on his rear showed he had a fair amount of common sense that seemed lacking in the rest of the room. Against Amanda, he appeared positively tiny, especially as she bent over to hug him. He didn’t even come up that much further than her knees!

Beth found herself also rising to go up to him. She noted they were gathering some attention from around the room as she did so. She was shorter than Amanda by enough to know she would pass for a first-grader if she was dressed the right way, but even compared to her, the boy only came up to her waist.

“Beth, this is Connor. Connor, this is Beth,” Amanda introduced them.

‘His eyes are so pretty!’ she thought to herself as she held her hand out to him.
 

I COULDN’T BELIEVE my luck in meeting Grandma at the luncheon! Mom had conveyed her plans to me, but I was still just grateful to have a friendly face! As she hugged me, I felt every bit of love that Mom had always said she had from the woman.

This new girl, Beth, was one that Mom had told me very little about. They’d been casual acquaintances briefly in college for a couple days, but then she’d been adopted. Somehow, even though she had been as old as Mom, she’d been through something so screwed up that Mom refused to even explain it.

“Look… it’s complicated… To save Beth, she was rebirthed by my friend Cameron’s wife.”

At my glance that I was going to ask more, she had shaken her head, “It is every bit as messed up as you’re thinking, and no, I’m not going to talk more about it. I think they were right in the end to do it… but it’s definitely one of many screwed-up things you might see in that world.”

“Beth, this is Connor. Connor, this is Beth,” Amanda introduced them.

I looked up at Beth and noticed that she had beautiful red hair that fell down past her shoulders. Her hair color made the brilliant green eyes she had even prettier, in my opinion. But, as I only came up to her waist, it definitely made our greeting awkward. “Hi,” I told her.

“Hi,” she said back almost as awkwardly. “Umm… welcome to Emerson!”

“Thanks!” I told her, “I’m glad I’m meeting you like this!”

Just then, Mackenzie intercepted us. “Can I help you? Are you another of the exchange students?” She asked Beth.

Beth snorted, “No, I’m a sophomore. Professor Westerfield was invited to this luncheon, and she asked me to accompany her as her plus one.”

“Do you all know each other somehow?” She asked suspiciously. She narrowed her eyes at me, and I could tell her curiosity was beyond peaked at this moment.

“First time I’ve met my grandson in person!” Amanda told her with a smile.

“Grandson…?” She asked incredulously. “Connor…?”

Before any more of an inquisition could occur, an announcement was made for us to take our seats. We each had a name card to direct us to the proper seat. Grandma helped me climb into the seat beside her, and Beth sat on the opposite side, insulating me from a nest mother and six other exchange students seated at the table.

I heard a voice call for attention from the head table, which featured Dean Northrup, Dr. Benson, Dr. Owens, and six other people I had a feeling we would be introduced to.

A tall Amazon stood at a lectern and spoke into a microphone, “Good afternoon! It’s so great to have all of you here! My name is Doctor Ryan Barnes, and I have the pleasure of serving as the President of Emerson University! The university and I are so excited to have you join us on your exchange visits! In total, we have four sets of exchange students from four different dimensions this spring, and we’re excited for you to learn about us and for us to learn more about you all! During your stay, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office for assistance if you need it! We want you to be successful and take home your knowledge and new experiences to benefit all of our societies!”

The nest mother sitting at our table snorted but quickly hid her reaction behind a napkin. I felt like Beth may have made a similar noise, but she hid it better.

I shook my head as Dr. Barnes continued, “Before we begin our meal today, catered by our amazing university catering center, I would like to introduce the distinguished guests at our head table! First, our Dean of Littles, Doctor Sydney Northrup,” she stood up then and smiled in a way that made me uneasy. “Next to her is Doctor Emma Greene, who serves as the Head Nest Mother for Sanders Hall, where many of you are staying.” Then, he introduced the others, one of which was the Head Nest Mother of Wenig, but apparently, none of our groups were staying there this semester. Finally, our two professors and three others from the other dimensional groups were introduced.

“Finally, we have many faculty around, and I can’t introduce all of them, but I would like to make sure you all meet emeritus professor Doctor Amanda Westerfield at least once on your visit! She’s one of the pioneers of AI development in our world and no doubt directly or indirectly responsible for almost every major Artificial Intelligence breakthrough in the past twenty years. She has most recently won the Bremer Prize for Computer Sciences, the most distinguished such award in our dimension.”

Grandma blushed, waved, and then sat down. I looked up at her in awe, “Does my mom know about that one?”

“It just happened last week…?”

“You have to tell her!” I told her while getting a glare from the nest mother at the table.

“Now, we understand most of our guests are smaller compared to their statures in their normal dimensions, so we’ll be bringing food to each table to avoid awkward buffet lines. There are two options, chicken or salmon. Please select your preferred option on your interactive placemat now. Bon appetit, and we’ll have a few more remarks at the end!”

“Congratulations on the award Professor,” the nest mother said.

“Thank you, Lilah,” Grandma said to her.

“You remember me?” the girl asked in surprise.

“Not every day that I see an argument with a hologram in a class!”

“That was six years ago…” she blushed.

“That was quite memorable,” Grandma told her with a smirk.

The girl was spared any of us getting to the bottom of the story by food arriving. “Here you go,” a uniform Big said as he placed a monstrous plate of salmon in front of me.

I looked at the piece of fish and made my own fish face at it. “That’s huge!!!” I couldn’t help but say in shock.

Beth laughed, “And that’s a small portion!”

“You’re kidding?” I looked at her.

She nodded, “In a few weeks, there’s a couple of events that are eating contests. You should come check out what a lot of food looks like to a Big!”

I shook my head but seeing everyone else had food felt safe to pick up a fork and start trying the dish. I saw some gigantic rice pilaf on the plate and some sort of vegetable medley. “Are these carrots?” I asked, pointing with my fork after placing the giant napkin on my lap.

“Yep, broccoli and cauliflower too?” She told me.

I looked at the broccoli and knew I would have to chop it up multiple times to fit in my mouth! But, knowing some things Mom had taught me and seeing the nest mother eyeing everyone as they ate, I took time to go ahead and try some of the vegetables first. The colossal piece of salmon was second, “This is really good,” I said. “It does taste different than I’m used to, though?”

“That’s because the university made it,” Grandma laughed, “We’ll have you over for dinner this weekend, and I’ll let you taste what good food tastes like. Beth, you’re welcome to come too if you want?”

“I’d like that,” she told her.

“So… tell me about yourself?” Grandma said, “I know we’ve talked on interdimensional video chat over the years, but it’s different when you’re here!”

“Wait, you really do already know each other?” I had just noticed that Liam was at our table because it was hard to see over it.

“Yes, Connor’s Mom was my adopted daughter while she was here in college.”

“Wait… Connor is her son…?!?” Lilah, the nest mother, asked.

Grandma chuckled, “Yes, Connor is my grandson through her.”

“Why do I get the feeling that even though Mom graduated thirty years ago, they’re still telling stories about her?”

Beth snorted, “Because they are. She was infamous for making it through the gauntlet after graduation. Somehow, she helped prevent all but one person from being adopted at graduation that year. But I think ultimately it was her taking down the person who tried to adopt her so easily that really made her a legend.”

“I heard she broke both of her arms, ankle, and knee?” Lilah said with amusement.

“Just the ankle, actually,” Amanda corrected.

“She never told me about that part of the story,” I told her.

“I’ll tell you the rest sometime while you’re here,” she assured me. Knowing that things were never ‘safe’ around nest mothers, I nodded and continued eating.

I continued munching away at bits of the meal, ensuring I ate a disproportionate amount of the vegetables over the salmon to be safe. I was filling up quite quickly while listening to some of the other conversations.

Across from me, Liam was talking with a couple of the other exchange students from different dimensions. “So, you have like an entire world of water now…?” I heard him ask one boy.

Before I could try and get more of the story, I heard from across the room at Noah’s table, “Aren’t you going to eat your vegetables?”

“I can’t… I’m full,” the voice said, sounding remarkably like Noah’s.

“Come on, take a bite for me, sweetie,” I heard. It seemed like just about every eye in the room found his table and the Nest Mother holding a fork spearing what looked like a carrot.

“No, I don’t want to.”

“You need to eat your vegetables, hon,” I heard the patronizing voice as other conversations died off.

“Just eat the vegetable,” I found myself whispering alongside Beth’s voice.

The two of us made eye contact for a second and looked back just in time to see the fork and carrot fly through the air and land in front of the head table.

“Shit, I said leave me alone!”

“Miss Anderson, would you mind escorting that young man to my office and waiting for me there? We’ll make sure someone else helps guide your Littles to the next event?”

“Certainly, Dean Northrup,” the tall girl said as she suddenly picked up the struggling Noah and threw him over her shoulder.

“Put me down, you stupid bitch!!!” I heard Noah shout as he was taken out the door.

“He’s toast,” Beth said beside me.

I looked over and said, “Yeah… But, honestly, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”
 

BETH LOOKED AROUND the room and noted most of the attendees looked confused and didn’t understand what had just happened. ‘Blissful ignorance for them, I wonder if any except Connor really know the horror movie ending they neared with an act like that…?’

She shook her head and looked to her side where Connor sat. “So, what’s your major? What are you hoping to learn here?”

Connor replied, “I’m doing a double major in Computer Science and Filmmaking. Mom has shown me some stills of the holographic film technology here… I’m hoping to learn how to do it and take that knowledge back home. We’ve just reached the point of holograms that can look halfway decent, but nothing that looks life-like yet.”

Beth smiled, “That’s cool! So, you’re going to take a couple filmmaking classes? I’m actually signed up for one this semester to get my art credits out of the way.”

“What’s your major?” Connor asked her.

“Electrical Engineering,” Beth told him. For the next five minutes, they forgot about the lesson one of the exchange students was most definitely learning then.

Lunch seemed to pass quickly for them as they chatted. As the plates were cleared, a small bowl of ice cream was placed in front of the smaller diners. Beth saw a larger bowl placed in front of those who were her height and taller. The smaller ones were drizzled with chocolate syrup, while the larger portion she had was given a garnish of some sliced berries instead. Amanda was just as involved in questioning Connor to get to know him but was also responsive to questions from the other visitors on programming and computers in this dimension. Before too long, there was a clinking sound at the main table.

“May I please have your attention one last time?” President Barnes said.

Everyone turned towards him, “Excellent! I hope you have had a great lunch! We’ve had a little change in plans from what you may have been told earlier, so I’ve been asked by Dean Northrup to give you an updated schedule for the next couple of days. Exchange students, you will now be taken back to your dorms and given a quick orientation of your room by your Nest Mothers. After you get the information from them, you’ll have this afternoon to get settled in before they’ll take you to Zentner, our dining hall, for dinner. Then, you’ll have the rest of the evening before bed to relax and maybe watch a movie or something.”

Beth did the math in her head and knew that there wouldn’t be enough time before dinner and bedtime for a movie! She glanced at Connor and felt bad for him. She didn’t remember the dorms herself, but she’d had plenty of friends since she’d come to Emerson the second time who had told her about them. Things had gotten better to keep Littles from being adopted off the street, and it was an even longer road to demerit out of Emerson, but at their heart, the Little Dorms were a type of Little Mill preparing students for eventual adoptions!

‘Of course, he’s already wearing a diaper…?’ Beth thought to herself, ‘I doubt he did something to get in trouble, probably just the only smart one in the room.’

She turned her attention back to the President as he said, “Tomorrow, there will be some placement tests to make sure you’ll get the most of your time here. Your Nest Mothers will help get you where you need to go on time. Good luck this semester, and Fly On Griffins!”

Beth shook her head at the trite saying that they used at sporting events for their teams. They even had a hand gesture that accompanied it with their middle three fingers curled almost to a fist, while their pinky and thumb moved in and out like wings to fly. She hated it, but, she kept her mouth shut about believing it was silly around campus. She’d seen Littles forced to move their arms and flap like birds before when they’d commented on it!

Amanda had turned to Connor, “So it sounds like you have most of the afternoon free after your meeting. Since you shrank so much, I assume the only things that fit are your uniforms and the clothes you arrived in?”

Connor nodded, “That’s right… we’re not really allowed to wear non-uniform clothes, though, right?”

“Pajamas and casual clothes in your rooms or on weekends are fine as long as you have your ID. Also, if you’re coming over to our house, you probably would want something more comfortable?”

Connor nodded, “That would be nice. Mom somehow has a bank account set up for me here. She said you would have access to it?”

Amanda nodded, “I do. Do you want to go shopping then?”

“Please?”

“Beth, you want to come too?”

“Sure! I thought we were all meeting my parents and sisters anyway, though?”

“Now I know for certain: I didn’t want to assume on your part, Beth. Maybe you had some better plans! Some hot date you haven’t told your parents about?”

Beth laughed, “I wish!”

As Connor struggled to get off his chair, Amanda couldn’t keep herself from helping him. Beth watched Connor whisper something in her ear and wondered what he said.
 
 

Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment if you did so and press the Kudos button! I should be posting a couple times a week until this is fully posted here on BC. This first full novel is complete (73 chapters plus Epilogue) and published on Amazon if you wish to be impatient though! I hope to have Book 2 published there in the next few months as well.

All of my published works have AI read audiobooks available for them. I’ve spent some time tweaking pronunciations, and they’re pretty good when you can’t afford thousands to pay for audiobook creation! They’re a $1.99 addon to the $6.95 price on Kindle. If you’ve already purchase the book it should come up as only $1.99. They’re also available on Audible directly, but that’s $10.95 versus the cheaper price! https://www.amazon.com/author/babysofia