Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Prologue and Chapter 01 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. Of course he has, given that his mother, Stacy Slane, is responsible for the most impressive discoveries in AI in their world. Connor knew that her experiences in another dimension, which she had taken a portal to go to school for college, were a major part of her success. Now, thanks to an exchange program between his university and her alma mater, Emerson University, he 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.

The only problem is that the other dimension is not like our own. Three ‘races’ of humans exist there, Littles, about our own height and four feet to six feet on average, ‘Tweeners’ who are between six feet and about eight-and-a-half feet tall, and ‘Bigs’ who average a towering ten to twelve feet high on average! Since Littles appear to be the size of Bigs' babies and toddlers, they have a compulsive instinct to baby them – literally! Though Connor is at least Tweener size in his home dimension, he knows there is a risk he could shrink to Little height 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.
 

 
 

Prologue
 

I LOOKED AROUND my room, glanced at the two closed suitcases alongside my backpack, and tried to make sure I didn’t forget anything. ‘It’s just a semester,’ I reminded myself, eyeing a couple things I was leaving behind. Several half-done projects in builder’s blocks, half-painted figurines, and other knickknacks didn’t really mean much to me, but they gave me things to do as a teenager stuck at home.

“Connor, are you ready?” I heard my sister Riley’s voice behind me.

I turned and lowered my gaze to look at her. I’d gotten most of Mom’s height, but she was all Mama’s, six inches shorter than my six-and-a-half-foot frame. She had the same long dirty blonde hair that I had, but her blue eyes had a look of sadness that made me grimace. “I guess; what’s wrong, Riley?”

“What’s wrong?!?” She asked in a voice above a normal speaking level, but not quite a shout. “You’re going to the other dimension, idiot! You know Mom almost didn’t make it back several times!”

I sighed, “I know…?”

“And you know how Mom wasn’t like she is now when she left or got back!”

I shrugged, “I know… but like she went for their programming, I really want to go there for their film industry. You’ve seen those cool pictures that Grandma shared with us! If I can learn to do half of what they do with filmmaking, I can be our generation's Alfred Hitchcock.”

“IF you make it back…?” She insisted, and the tears streaming out of her eyes tore at me.

I leaned down and wrapped her in the best big sibling brother hug I could give her. “I’ll be okay, Ry,” I told her. “I’ll make it back, I promise.”

She pushed me away and punched me hard in the arm. “You’d better!!!”

“Connor, Riley, you coming?” I heard Mama’s voice shout.

“Coming,” I said while throwing my backpack over my shoulder. I grabbed the handle of one suitcase and was prevented from taking the other one by Riley beating me to it.

Downstairs, Lila and Hannah were arguing about some cheerleading drama, but stopped and stared up at us. “Come on, everyone, we need to get Connor to the university to meet his exchange group.” Mom said sadly, looking at me and motioning to the door to the garage. Mom pressed a button, and the doors to our large family van opened up. Riley and I took our customary seats in the back row while our baby sisters jumped into the middle row they had taken over as babies.

With the four of us being within four years of age, we were pretty close most of the time – but we fought like siblings did the rest. Riley was getting ready to finish her senior year of high school this semester when they went back to school next week, and Lila and Hannah were blazing through their junior year at the private school we had all attended. I myself had graduated from there a year and a half ago. I was in my fall semester of sophomore year when the possibility of an exchange semester was brought up at our university.

I was currently pursuing a film and computer science double major. Growing up with Mom and Mama meant that we were good at math and science and understood computers better than any of our peers. Riley steadfastly refused to major in anything computer-related, though. When she went to school next year, she instead planned on going into art. Ironically though, she was using art like Mom did, making incredible 3D printed works that were already selling at high prices! I loved to tease her for trying to be a Luddite but doing art with computers anyway!

I looked over at her while she clearly was looking at her phone. She had dressed in a grey sweater dress and leggings outfit that she had told me was cute and ‘comfy’ over the years. So she was sending me away in her comfort outfit, and I knew it showed just how much she thought I was an idiot for going through the portal.

Lila and Hannah were just casually dressed in a set of their cheer pants and sweatshirts with their school’s name on them. I noticed then that Mom had turned her seat around after starting the vehicle’s drive to the portal. She looked back at us, making eye contact with me. “You sure you have everything?” She asked me.

“Pretty sure,” I allowed.

“You have Grandma’s number?”

I rattled it off to her. “I can just find her at Emerson, too, right?”

She shrugged, “I know she’s still insisting on maintaining her office, but I don’t think she goes in every day.”

I nodded at that, “How old is she now?”

Riley poked me, “That’s not very nice!”

“What? I’m just asking… I know she’s older than Mom, obviously…?”

Mom shook her head while Mama giggled slightly. Finally, mom looked over at her, “What?”

“Just cause you look way younger than your age doesn’t mean you’re a spring chicken yourself. It’s okay for Connor to be curious.” I mused at the fact that after Mom came back, she ended up stuck looking like a kid who failed potty training for years afterward until she somehow sorted herself out. Now she still looked under thirty, while Mama looked their actual age of early fifties. Technically, according to her government-issued birth certificate, Mom was only thirty-eight, even though they’d lived the same number of years.

Mom sighed, “I guess you’re right. Your grandma is seventy-two now, and grandpa is seventy-four. Both of them are doing pretty well health-wise though!”

“Do people live the same length of lives there?”

“The Bigs do. Free Littles are about the same too.”

“Adopted?” I asked, expecting her to say their lives were halved by their captivity.

“Depends on if they’re rejuvenated or not…?” Mom paused, “Normal adopted Littles lived to like one-hundred-ten years normally. The ones who were being given the rejuvenations were making it to at least one-hundred-twenty-five when I left. No one seemed to know how long they would live as very few of those Littles had died of natural causes.”

I nodded.

The basics of life in the ‘other’ dimension I was traveling to had become common knowledge in ours. Three races of humans lived in that dimension; Bigs, or Amazons, were these huge humans that grew on average to between ten and twelve feet tall and basically ruled the dimension. There were Littles on the other side of the spectrum that were mostly the same size as us, being under six feet. Sometimes they were smaller – child-sized even by our standards. Finally, in the middle of all of them were the Mids, or Betweeners, between six and eight-and-a-half feet.

People did argue and debate about whether things were really as bad for Littles as some stories from people returning claimed.

I’d asked Mom once, and she’d said, “Yes, Connor, I was in diapers and babied a lot by your grandma during college. Most of my friends were adopted by the time we graduated.”

My eyes had widened at the fact it was the truth, but she had gone on and explained she’d known what she was getting into. Riley and my sisters had badgered her for more information over the years, and it became apparent that she had made a crazy gamble pay off to make a fortune in our dimension. Single-handedly, Mom’s AI development company had changed the world since she returned. Among her success stories was perfecting the software for the L5 self-driving vehicle we were currently sitting in. It was fully capable of automatically driving us safely to the university, where I was to meet our group.

“Connor,” I heard and squirmed at the poke in my side.

“What?” I squealed.

“Mama asked if you were alright!” She told me.

I looked back up and realized they were all staring at me.

“I’m fine… Just… well… nervous butterflies, you know?”

“You can still back out, sweetie,” Mom told me.

“Mom, you and Grandpa always told me that Slane men have always gone on adventures, right? So it’s just my turn.” I forced a nervous smile, “Besides, I want to do for movies here what you’ve done for everything else!”

“Riiiight,” Riley said beside me.

I did what any good older sibling does and stuck my tongue out at her.

“Try not to do that over there, sweetie,” Mom said. “Maturity is everything… especially if you end up getting shorter.”

“You only got short because it was your second trip, right?” Lila asked.

“We were never completely sure,” Mom told us, “But I never risked going back since I didn’t want to get even shorter a third time!”

“Don’t worry, Con,” Hannah said, “I’m sure you’ll be at least as tall as Mom was!”

“Hopefully taller than that… I mean, Mom was toddler-sized even by our standards here!” Lila retorted.

I groaned.

“Not helping, you two,” Mama said.

“Who said we had to help?” Lila giggled.

“With sisters like you two, who needs enemies?” I said aloud.

All too soon, our large vehicle came to a stop outside the university building I was meeting our group. “I don’t get why they aren’t taking you through the main portal,” Mom worried.

“Supposedly this is safer…?” I said, silently sharing those concerns. “Besides, we’re supposed to be given diplomatic status for our trip.”

Mom shook her head, “Don’t depend on it, even if they give you a visa with that listed on it.”

The four of them insisted on walking me to the third-floor lecture hall, where we were supposed to get instructions before using a university-operated portal. As we stopped, I could see a few others standing around the room inside the doors. Riley rolled the suitcase she had next to me and then wrapped me in a big hug. “You better come back here!” she said, looking up at me.

I nodded, “I will!”

“I expect baby pictures if you become a Little!” She smirked at me.

I just shook my head, “In your dreams!”

Lila and Hannah came up to me one at a time, and I lifted them off their feet and hugged them like I’d done most of their lives. While Riley had nearly crossed six feet too, Lila and Hannah, for some reason, were only in the mid-five-foot range. They were wiping tears away as I turned to Mama. “I love you, Mama,” I told her.

“I love you too, Connor. It was hard seeing your mom go all those years ago, but this is harder. Take care of yourself and stay safe!” She told me as I leaned over and hugged her.

Last was Mom, who had an odd look of resignation as I leaned up to hug her. “I love you, Mom,” I told her.

“I love you too, Connor, more than you can know.” She paused for a second and pushed me away to look at me, “You have your grandparents’ contact information, right?”

“Yes, I have Grandma and Grandpa’s numbers memorized and Aunt Megan and Aunt Bella’s on my phone.”

She then squeezed me back into a tight hug and whispered, “I’ll love you the same even if you end up as a Little. Be safe and take care of yourself. Keep the toy I gave you safe!”

I nodded and wiped some tears away from my face. “See you soon!” I told them as I gathered my two rolling bags and walked into the hall’s door. I purposefully didn’t look back until I was sure they'd be gone.
 

BETH LOOKED OVER at her parents sitting on one side of the plane’s aisle, quietly talking about something. She blushed as her dad gently kissed her mom, and she rubbed his far shoulder with her draped arm. Having parents with such differences in size seemed weird to everyone else, but it was just the way it was to her. Jason and Laura sat on the other side of her towards the window, both obviously completely engrossed in the movie they were watching on their headsets.

Along with all of her siblings, she had received the gift of the state-of-the-art headsets for Christmas. Beth was a little more careful about using hers, especially in public! She wasn’t technically a Little… ‘Well, at least now…’ she admitted. ‘Knowing you’re the height of a first grader doesn’t make you feel that safe!’

‘I still can’t believe the story… even though I know, it’s true.’ A quick glance over at her dad, and she could guess why she had fallen for him long ago before having her mind and body utterly destroyed by her grandmother’s company. ‘I still can’t imagine what it must have taken for Daddy to be willing to try to save me that way.’ Save, of course, was a relative term… She was alive, and biologically you could argue she was the same matter and creature she was before, but truthfully, she didn’t remember anything before she was reborn. ‘The closest I ever got was when Daddy showed me the ‘Inches’ poem I gave him.’

That still hadn’t been a clear memory… but there was a deep feeling that she had made it. Her brain had been destroyed by a chemical in a test product she and her real mom had unwittingly used. Her… ‘mom’ had suggested trying to rebirth her to reset her body. So, using the newest technology at the time, her addled body was implanted into her mother’s womb for nine months and reborn as a bouncing baby girl. Her body had been able to grow again, and her brain learned everything all over again, just like a normal infant. That she had then caused her mom’s womb to suddenly work and gained three siblings made them seem like the perfect family. ‘At least until they admitted to me what happened!’

All of that was ancient history now, and she was on her way back for her fourth semester of college at Emerson – her parents’ Alma Mater. Lance had stayed home and was waiting another day before going back for his second semester at Hamilton University, where their Dad had earned his law degree. It was the university her Dad had wanted her to attend too, but something about Emerson had pulled her back to Ames.

‘Even if I was a Little, there has been some progress there. Thanks to Daddy and Grandma Ruth, Littles rights had made significant gains in the past twenty years!’

She knew that the elderly Ruth Jones was not her biological grandmother, but she affectionated her dad as a son after years of knowing him. She’d insisted as soon as Beth could talk that she was to be called Grandma. Indeed, she was proud to be able to call a Supreme Court Justice her grandmother!

It was a bit weirder having one as your dad, though!

Her friends assumed she’d follow in her dad’s footsteps and become a lawyer, but she was leaving that to her siblings. Instead, she was studying Electrical Engineering. She loved the subject from what she’d learned so far but wasn’t particularly looking forward to her upcoming semester’s course load. ‘Calc IV, Signals and Systems, Data Structures, alone would be bad enough…Being stuck in that stupid Western Civilization History Class will only make it worse!’ She mused that at least she was taking one ‘fun’ elective course in filmmaking for her arts elective.

She glanced back over at her siblings and realized that her own headset would be getting a fair amount of use this semester.

She reached into the bag in front of her with a sigh and pulled out a book she had started reading over the break. Her dad apparently imported from the other dimension, and she couldn’t put it down as it told a story of a ring of power and a weird race of Little sounding creatures called dwarves.

It fully distracted her for the remaining half-hour of the short flight!
 
 

Chapter 1: Departure
 

CONNOR LOOKED AROUND at the group of eleven other students and two professors sitting in a circle of chairs on the lecture hall floor. A man who looked just shy of forty, with midlife-crisis-bleached-blonde hair, stood and spoke, “Okay, I think we should all know who each other are before proceeding with our briefing and then transportation through the portal today. First, most of you have met me preparing for the semester, but there are a few I’ve only emailed with. So… I’m Doctor Matthew Owens. I’m a professor of history here at the university and will be going along as one of your academic advisors at Emerson. I’ll be taking advantage of the time there to study Amazonian History and its parallels to our own dimension’s.”

There was a round of polite applause as he nodded towards a woman of similar height, both of them short of six feet tall, who stood now as he sat. I guessed she was probably close to his age, but her brown hair was natural and well cared for. “I’m Doctor Katherine Benson. I believe I met all of you for your initial physicals last fall. I’m a professor of medicine specializing in nanite replication. I’ll be spending time with my counterparts at Emerson University’s hospital studying their nanite advancements while also checking up on your health and advising you like Doctor Owens.”

“Now, let’s get to each of you,” Doctor Owens said. “Amelia, you’re next to Doctor Benson; how about you go next?”

“Umm… what do you want me to say?” The very short college girl asked, clearly nervous at speaking in front of everyone as she stood up. She was pretty with her strawberry blonde hair and striking green eyes, but I would have been worried she was in middle school at most if she wasn’t here with us. I guessed she was about four-and-a-half feet tall at best! ‘She’s going to be in so much trouble over there!’ I thought.

Doctor Benson rubbed her shoulder gently, “How about you all tell us your name, age, major, and why you decided to do the program?”

I felt terrible for the poor girl. She was clearly not happy with the situation. Finally, she sighed and said, “Well, okay then… I’m Amelia Silverston, but my friends call me Amy… I turned twenty-one last fall - even if no one ever believes me!” There was a general chuckle at that from the group. “I’m studying Physics. That’s why I’m going… The other dimension supposedly is at least thirty years ahead of us in understanding quantum and particle physics.”

She looked at Doctor Benson as if to ask, ‘Enough?’ When the short girl received a nod, she breathed a sigh of relief as the slightly taller girl beside her started.

“Hi, I’m Ava…” a girl only slightly taller than her stood. “And I fully understand the short people problems, Amy!” The brown-haired girl explained, “I’m twenty and an archaeology major. I’m interested in similar things as Doctor Benson, actually.”

An average height and slightly overweight guy with closely shaved hair stood and said, “I’m Oliver Sanders. I’m twenty-one as well and studying Electrical Engineering. I want to go and study some of the new conductive materials the other dimension has been developed, as well as their battery cell technology.”

The second tallest guy besides myself stood then, “I’m Asher Colson. I’m twenty-one and studying music. There’s been a lot of back and forth about technology over the years, but no one has really studied music in the other dimension to see what’s different!”

I nodded, ‘Musicians don’t strike me as the type to survive adoption attempts.’ Asher looked like he was probably reasonably strong, but he didn’t strike me as a fighter like I had been brought up by Mom.

Another tiny girl, who I knew would have a future mommy’s fan club fawning over her, stood next. “Hi, I’m Mila Olson, I’m twenty-one, and I’m studying Early Childhood Education!” She smiled, “I know the rumors out there, but I want to see how they care for their kids!”

Mila was the epitome of a cheerleader as she spoke. ‘Maybe I should be playing a game of who will be first adopted…?’

The others followed in relatively rapid succession. Avery was a twenty-two-year-old Psychology major with bright pink hair that definitely made her stand out. Tatum was a larger guy in girth but still under six feet in height. He was studying Chemical Engineering and seemed pretty bright. Then Noah, a very short guy at about five feet, would be sharing some computer science courses with me in theory. He was definitely overweight, and the way he spoke made me feel like he had a massive chip on his shoulder about being smarter than everyone else.

Luca was another short guy at just a few inches over five feet. “I’m studying astronomy and am curious to see if their solar system matches up with ours! Also, I’m really interested in their current planetary colonization efforts!”

Liam was another computer nerd studying computer engineering and claimed he was interested in learning about the other world’s chipmaking processes. I shook my head, knowing my mom was as far along with following their technology as anyone would ever be. He was just above five-and-a-half feet himself. Something about how he carried himself told me he was at least a moderately well-trained fighter.

The final girl before me was Willow Kastner, one of our oldest members at twenty-two, who was just a smidge over five feet in height and overweight. She was an art major, and the bright blue hair she wore went well against the other odd colors in our group.

Finally, I stood myself, “I’m Connor Slane. I’m twenty and dual majoring in Computer Science and Filmmaking. My mom went to undergrad at Emerson, and I’m looking forward to experiencing the more advanced filmmaking technologies there!”

Doctor Owens gave me a warm smile, “Thank you, Connor.” Then, he stood and turned to the rest of the group as he activated a projection screen at the front of the hall. ‘Dimensional Exchange Briefing’ was the title of the first slide.

“We will all receive an additional briefing on the other side at Emerson, but we have been strongly suggested to brief you all in advance of the many things you need to be aware of in the other dimension. First, for transportation, we will be using the university portal that you can just walk through. A conveyor belt will transport your luggage to a parallel portal beside you when you arrive. Meanwhile, you will step straight through one yourself.”

“What’s it feel like?” Mila, the short girl who wanted to study early childhood education, asked.

“A bit like a rollercoaster and airplane ride… but not. You may or may not end up nauseous from the trip. We have been advised that it can be a bit better if you close your eyes just before you walk through.” He paused, looking for other questions.

Tatum waved at him, “Is it true we may shrink as we go through?”

“Shrink or grow…” he said. “Most people shrink, but it seems random and is still being studied. It’s part of why in a few minutes before we go through, you will all be measured and weighed here, and then same on the Emerson side.”

“How short do people get…?” The shortest girl, Amy, asked.

“It just depends,” he said.

“You can end up pretty short,” I told her myself. “My mom, on her second trip through, ended up under forty inches in height.”

“That’s a toddler in our world!” Mila said.

I nodded, “Yes!”

“No worries of you shrinking that far?” Asher said.

I shrugged, “Who knows…?”

“May I continue?” Doctor Owens asked impatiently.

“Yes, sir,” several people said.

“Good! Once you make it through, there will be a medical examination to ensure nothing has gone awry with your health. There isn’t anything expected, so this is more of a routine checkup for visitors. One of Emerson’s hospital staff doctors will administer this, overseen by Doctor Benson for your protection.” He looked around as if waiting for questions but moved on. “You’ll be reunited and assigned a dorm at that time.”

“Why haven’t we already been assigned?” Asher, the only person close to my height, asked.

“Due to the randomness of height changes, it was suggested we wait. If, for instance, you are below six feet in height here, you might find yourself taller than that there. On the other hand, you could also likely be above six feet here and be shorter there.” I squirmed at that thought, “In either case, they find it’s best to have people separated by height in dorms due to the dimension’s extremes in height. If you were shorter and trying to use a sink or shower in the Big dorms, you may not be able to reach, for instance.”

“So, we may end up in the Little dorms?” I found myself asking.

“Yes,” he said to me. “I know you had tried to make some alternate arrangements there with family, Connor, but they insist that our group stay on campus in the normal dorm arrangements, so you get the full experience.”

“With family?” the girl next to me, Willow, whispered.

I nodded, “I’ll tell you later.”

“So back to arrival… Once you’re assigned a dorm, an RA will collect you and help you get settled into your room. If there are any issues, you will be able to contact Doctor Benson or me, and we’ll try and help negotiate a solution. Please note, though, that per the agreements you signed, Emerson has full rights to assign you the dorms of their choice.”

I felt my stomach squirm at this, knowing some of the stories Mom had told me about her friends.

“That should take us to just before lunch, I believe, when our group will meet up for a quick lunch meeting with one of the deans. They will schedule a couple of meetings after that with you, and then you’re supposed to meet with your assigned advisor before dinner. After dinner, you’ll be able to finish getting settled, and then you’ll have the next four days, including the weekend, to acclimatize and be ready for classes to start on Monday.”

“What about books?” Noah asked.

“Everything will be on a tablet assigned to you, is my understanding. Emerson has already arranged digital copies of textbooks so that you don’t even need to go to the bookstore.”

“And for other items we need?” Liam asked.

“There’s a bookstore on campus and a nearby mall. You can get a ride on their carshare system to get clothes or anything you need.”

“Wait, will any of our clothes fit on the other side?” Mila asked, suddenly panicked.

He shrugged, “My understanding is that it’s hit or miss. The university has promised to provide funds for you to purchase up to two weeks of clothes as needed to get you by if the ones you bring don’t fit. Whatever you wear through the portal should size down or up with you.”

There were a few other inane questions and some nervous questions then too. The portals had been open now for forty years, but travel through them was still not a commonplace thing. In the past twenty years, there had been many scandals and incidents with adoption policies in the other dimension that had all but eliminated any non-government official travel until about five years ago when the tourist companies had finally been allowed to restart.

“A few other reminders before we get to our last checks here. Please remember we are guests at their university and must follow their rules and procedures. Failure to do so may mean you are removed from the program.” I grimaced at that, knowing that probably didn’t include a trip back home. “You have been granted a special student visa for your semester that gives you some rights that are near diplomatic immunity but not fully considered that. I highly recommend that you don’t depend on that to get you out of trouble, though! They’ll go over the university rules and procedures with us themselves when we get there. Please know that you have one date home through their portal at the end of the semester; you must come home on that date. You can’t come home before or after that day.”

I found my palms sweaty at that statement; it was very much what Mom had dealt with. ‘I’m only going for the semester; I can figure out things and get back here!’ I thought to myself. ‘And if it’s a one-way trip… Well, Mom and Mama still have my sisters.’

I jolted back when I heard, “No more questions? Then let’s get moving to the portal!”

I stood up alongside the others and pulled my luggage along. We were led to an elevator and a sub-basement where I heard rumors about a test nuclear reactor for the physics department. There had always been security guards around the entrances, so I figured it was true. ‘I wonder if there’s that and the portal, or it’s just been a diversion from the portal…?’

Unsure of how deep we were underground, I couldn’t help but feel slightly nervous as I followed the group down a fairly old-feeling concrete-walled hallway. We made a few turns before coming into a larger open room with two shimmering portals. One had a conveyor belt running into it, and the other was being used by someone walking through it just then.

“Good afternoon, I’m Professor Menger, and I run the operations here for the portal. First, we need you all to leave your non-carry luggage on the belt before following Doctor Lethbridge into that side room. Then, we’ll document your height and weight measurements there before you come out here and walk through one at a time to the other dimension.”

I noticed the professor seemed to be a bit freakishly tall, as he was even taller than I was! ‘A Mid or an Amazon from the other side…?’ I wondered.

I followed the group forward and ended up midway in the line. Avery was declared ‘Five-foot nine, one-hundred-thirty-seven pounds’ as she slid her slip-on shoes back onto her feet.

“Next?” The man said. “Name?”

“Connor Slane…” I told him, looking up into his face. I noted that he was one of the very few people I had met that I had to do that with!

“Please take your shoes off and step onto the scale,” he told me.

I stood on a metal plate with the digital readout you could see above it. A moment later, a laser flashed and measured my height while my weight was checked by the scale.

“Six feet, six-and-a-half-inches, one hundred-seventy pounds.” He loudly announced to the technician taking notes in the system.

“You can put your shoes back on and rejoin the group.” He told me, “Good luck over there.”

I looked up at him and wondered if there was a double meaning with that statement but muttered, “Thanks…” to him as I strolled out to meet the others.

‘I wonder why they’re really collecting the data?’ I thought as I moved closer to the portal with everyone. There was a nervous quiet that had descended upon the group. Surely the others had heard of the stories… all true, according to Mom!

Finally, we were all lined back up and told, “Take a deep breath and close your eyes as you pass through. We’ve found that it tends to keep your chances of feeling motion sick down.”

One at a time, I watched as the first five of our group, led by Doctor Owens, stepped through. The light was shimmering as I approached it, and I knew I had this last chance to go back…

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and stepped into the portal, feeling a strange static sensation pass over my body.

 
 

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!

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

Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Chapters 2 and 3 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 2: Stats
 

BETH FOLLOWED HER parents out of the terminal to the waiting Luxuria limo her dad had reserved. It was a comfortable and secure vehicle that had become necessary when he traveled, due to his status as a Supreme Court Justice. They even had a bodyguard in plain clothes following them at a short distance, just in case something came up.

‘I’m glad Daddy has his dream job, but seriously there are some nutjobs out there!’ Beth thought to herself. They had made a quick trip to the restrooms when they got off the plane, before walking to the luggage claim area. She was the only one who needed actual suitcases to bring stuff back to school, so her parents had used their family’s baggage allowance for a couple of other things.

Jason was in a hurry for some reason, like always, so he hustled to be the first one inside the large car. Laura stayed alongside her and their parents as they pitched in, carrying her large suitcases. As she got inside the vehicle, the holographic avatar Luxuria let her sit down and buckle up before asking, “Would you care for any refreshments?”

“No, thank you,” she told her.

“Very well,” she said.

“Justice Sylvester, would you care for anything?”

“A cup of coffee would be nice,” her dad told the hologram. “You should have my settings on file for that?”

“Yes, Your Honor, we certainly do.”

Beth’s dad soon had a to-go cup of coffee in his hand. He drank the hot beverage alongside his wife as the vehicle made its way through traffic and to the hotel they were staying in for the night. The hologram passed off their luggage to an awaiting holographic attendant when they arrived. ‘These newer holograms are so lifelike you clearly don’t need humans or robots for this anymore!’ Beth mused to herself.

It had no problems picking up the suitcases and placing them on a cart. The hotel had been prepaid, and there was no reason to stop by a front desk. The holographic attendant led them upstairs, and they were soon settled into a two-room suite where Beth’s mom and dad had a room to themselves, and she shared a room with Laura and Jason.

He wasted no time putting his bag down on a bed and claiming it, leaving the other bed to the two girls. “Do you think Mom and Dad will be ready to get dinner soon?”

“They said we’re meeting Aunt Megan, remember?” Beth told him.

“Oh… I forgot about that,” Jason said. But then, his smile brightened, “She has nice toys!”

“You mean Meggy has nice toys!” Laura kidded.

“Well… I guess they are really hers… Some are Sam’s, though!”

“And I’m sure she’s going to kick your butt in every one of those games again, too,” Beth felt like she needed to needle him.

“It’s not fair! I have to like study and stuff… she gets to just game all of the time! She doesn’t even have to stop to use the potty!”

“I’m sure Mom could find some diapers that fit you,” Laura told the younger but taller boy.

“You little…” Jason rounded on Laura threateningly.

“Ahem…” we all froze at the sound of Dad’s voice.

“Hi, Daddy,” Beth said with a smile.

“Settling into the place like a normal set of kids, huh?” He looked up at me and asked.

“Just like at home!” Laura said innocently. From the corner of her eye, Beth caught the cute angelic smile Laura used to wrap him around her finger. ‘We all know he wouldn’t ever say no to me, but Laura gets her way almost as much!’

“Ready to go then?” their Mom came in.

“I think they are,” her dad smiled at her mom.

“We’re going to Aunt Meg’s place, right?” Jason asked.

Beth watched her mom shake her head, “We’re actually meeting them at a restaurant. Amanda and Fred are supposed to be there too.”

Beth watched Jason’s face fall, “Oh, well then, I guess I won’t get a rematch with Meggy…?”

Their mom laughed, “Take your headset; she has one too. You two can play with each other while we’re waiting for food. Just no shouting out loud when she beats you!”

Beth shook her head, grabbed her purse from where she’d stuffed it inside her backpack, and followed her family down to another waiting vehicle. ‘Aunt Megan’ was really just a close friend of her dad’s that had become like an aunt to them growing up. Meggy was kind of their cousin by that metric, but actually her parents’ age and one of her dad’s best friends from college. Aunt Megan had adopted Meggy to keep her safe during Meggy’s last year of college. Other than the diapers, bottles, and other baby treatments that seemed to have petered off over the years, Meggy was more or less just a stay-at-home gamer these days. She was quite talented at it, and won major tournaments regularly over the years, while managing to keep her real-world identity as a Little secret! About five years ago, they’d even bought a holographic caregiver system so she didn’t even have to go to daycare anymore.

It didn’t take all that long to arrive at the restaurant in question, and soon, everyone was embracing one another. Aunt Megan was just a few inches taller than Beth’s own seven-foot-seven-inches, so it didn’t seem all that awkward for her to hug the bottle-haired woman. She noticed that she seemed to have gained a few more wrinkles since she’d seen her last. Amanda was shorter than their Mom and just an inch taller than Jason. That meant she was still taller than just about everyone else! They each carefully hugged the taller gray-haired woman who somehow still looked younger than her seventy-two years would bely.

Fred was hunched over a bit as he hugged everyone, his receded hairline, wrinkles, and gray hair definitely made him look like his seventy-four years had passed. He walked with a cane, but still seemed to have given Jason a solid handshake based on how her brother shook his hand out!

Beth looked down at Meggy as she hugged the woman who just reached her waist with the top of her head. It truly felt like Beth was hugging a toddler with a three-foot difference in height. Designer nanite treatment options had become all the rage in the past twenty years for Littles. Being able to change just about any aspect of a Little’s appearance appealed to most Bigs in her experience, and she’d seen some dreadful choices they’d forced on some of them before the passing of the most recent laws. Aunt Megan made plenty of money practicing law and could have done anything to Meggy, but the only thing modified on her was a rejuvenation treatment. It had been a present to Meggy for her fiftieth birthday, which she had been excited to receive. Now she looked like she might have still been a teenage Little with the healthy skin, hair, and muscles visible. Beth merely hugged her when she came by, but Laura couldn’t help herself - picking her up and placing her on her hip like a small toddler to cuddle. With the treatments, Meggy’s body looked a couple of years younger than Laura’s.

Leelah was next on the hugging train. Her thirteen-year-old pseudo cousin was about six inches shorter than her still. She looked pretty in a blue dress covered in pastel flowers that would have looked great in a smaller version on her ‘baby’ sister. Sam, her brother, just looked awkward as his nearly nine-foot-tall frame was still new to the fifteen-year-old. Beth grimaced as the poor guy almost knocked over her Dad as he shook his hand. Her dad laughed it off, though, used to gangly teenage boys still learning their sizes!

When at last, everyone had greeted each other, they were led to a private room for their meal. Beth sat down next to Leelah, Laura, and Sam, while Meggy and Jason sat next to each other and instantly started talking about games. Sam was in the middle, and while he spent most of the time talking to Megan and Jason, he occasionally turned to join the girls too. Leelah, Laura, and Beth had a typical teenage girl conversation about boys in their lives. Both gave Beth a hard time about not having a boyfriend at all in her first college years, but she just shrugged, “I haven’t found the right one, honestly.”

“You don’t have to marry them. Just date them!” Laura said to Beth.

Beth was grateful when the food arrived, but when everyone was eating, she heard Amanda say to her Dad, “You hear about Stacy’s oldest son coming to Emerson this semester?”

Her dad nodded, “Yes, she sent me a message. I’m hoping maybe he and Beth can get together and study during the semester.”

“If he doesn’t come through as a Little!” Sam said.

“Why would that matter?” Beth asked.

“Because they never let Littles actually make it through college, everyone knows that!” He looked at his ‘baby sister’ as proof. “They’re always catching them in some trap?”

“Your Aunt Stacy made it,” Aunt Megan told him.

“Only because Aunt Amanda was there helping,” Leelah said.

“Maybe…” Amanda said. “I think Stacy would have made it on her own probably regardless. I tried to get the university to let Connor stay off-campus like we did with her, but I think someone was mad at her graduating and added a new rule there.”

“So, if he’s a Little, he’ll have to be in their dorms?” Beth said, worried for anyone in that situation.

“I’m afraid so.”

“How tall is he in their dimension?” Beth asked.

“Six-foot-six,” Amanda said. “Doesn’t mean anything, though. Stacy was about six feet before she came through and ended up smaller than Meggy and Bella.”

They often talked about ‘Stacy’ in their family when they reminisced about college. From what Beth could tell, Stacy, Meggy, and their dad had been a trio who hung out a lot. Her dad hadn’t really understood when Meggy had wanted to give up, but had always been grateful that Megan had ultimately adopted her. She glanced at her dad, remembering he had also been ‘adopted’ by their mother for a time due to a court order. Back when he was fighting for justice for Beth and her mother… her real mother that she couldn’t remember.

‘Part of why I haven’t dated anyone is I still don’t even know who I should like… I mean, I used to love my own daddy apparently before my brain was destroyed and I ended up being put inside my mom’s womb…?’ Beth shook her head. She was glad her parents had told her the truth, and she really did think of them and love them as her parents, but it definitely helped shed some light on odd things that would feel familiar every now and then in her life. The first time she’d stepped on the campus of Emerson, for instance…

‘I wonder what Connor will be like?’ she couldn’t help but wonder. She knew Amanda, Megan, and her parents wanted to try and see him the next day and help him go shopping for things.

‘Maybe he can be my boyfriend to help take the heat off the comments…?’
 

I STUMBLED FOR just a second as I landed on the other side of the portal. It would be like just walking through a hallway if it wasn’t for the static charge I had felt for a few moments. Then, opening my eyes, I looked around and smiled as I recognized that I had made it.

“Please don’t stop. Keep moving forward,” I heard a voice order.

I did so and rounded the end of a metal ramp down to the floor. A tall woman looked down at me, “Name?”

“Connor Slane,” I told her.

“Mister Slane, please follow those green lines on the floor to the arrival exam point.”

I saw the lines she mentioned go off along a wall and into a hallway. Given how soon after I followed the last person when I walked through, I expected to see someone behind me, but there was no one. “Where is the next person behind me?”

“There are about two minutes of time lag in the portal. So the next person will be here in about a minute.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said.

“Go ahead and find the exam room, please,” she said with the kind of smile women always reserved for a cute kid.

I sighed and followed the signs, wondering how tall the woman had been. She had seemed enormous, and I wondered if that was just because she was that tall or if I had shrunk.

I was hoping I’d shrunk rather than grown; honestly, I hated being as tall as I was back home! ‘And I hate everything else about being me!’ I thought darkly too.

I was deep in my thoughts as I walked down the hallway, following the green line. I had grown up looking like I must be the perfect athlete, but I hated sports from the time I was enrolled in them. Coaches at my high school had always tried to get me to go out for basketball, track, football, or anything. Finally, I’d given in with mom forcing me to at least try swimming for the school like she had done. I’d even made it to a bronze medal at State my sophomore year but flatly refused to do it my junior and senior years. Every time I swam with the team, the team uniforms just made me hate my body more. I did keep up my swimming, but only at home with my family in our pool.

Tae Kwon Do was the only ‘sport’ I did stick with. Mainly so I could avoid being killed by my sisters, who loved sparring with our ridiculously dangerous mom. All four of us had our black belts by the age of eight. Riley and I both had our Fourth ‘Dan’s’ by the time we were seventeen. She liked the competition aspects of the discipline, but I tended to just train and spar without the need for the contests. I’d won several big tournaments myself back in middle school, but it just wasn’t fun to deal with the attitudes of so many of the other competitors. Also, most of the time, we had final rounds of me versus Riley… As much as I enjoyed kicking her butt, I never liked being the one to take her down and make her lose a competition. When I was fifteen, I told my moms’ that I just wanted to study – Riley and my sisters could have the competition!

To my relief, Mom had completely understood and agreed with my decision!

I stuck with band through my middle school and high school years and insisted to Mom and Mama that I was doing something outside of academics then. I’d also joined a film club our school ran. I even did reasonably well in a state-wide filmmaking contest for high schoolers in my senior year. Between my grades and those events, I managed to earn a full ride to college. That meant the funds my parents had put aside in trust would be available to buy a house or something when I graduated.

My musing was stopped at a reception area where a woman dressed in scrubs was handing Amy a hospital gown. I felt my blood turn cold though at a realization, ‘She’s the same height as me!’

She turned, and her mouth dropped open, “Connor?”

I nodded and looked up at the nurse, realizing I probably had shrunk that much!

“Move along, please. Nurse Elsie over there will take you to your exam room.”

I watched Amy get led away, following another tall nurse, and looked up at the one in front of me.

“Name?”

“Connor Slane,” I told her.

“Full name?”

“Connor Stacy Slane,” I said. ‘If I had to end up with mom’s girly family name that three generations of men had, at least it’s a middle name… couldn’t it have been a better girl’s name, though?’

“Birthdate?”

I responded to several other questions in a row from her before she eyed me up and down and reached onto a shelf for a hospital gown. The gown was a plain blue color that seemed relatively inoffensive.

“You’re going to follow Nurse Elsie to an exam room. When you get there, please change into the gown. We’ll do your check-up after that.”

“Umm… Thanks,” I said as I turned to follow the same giant Amy had followed.

“Hi, Connor?” She asked.

I nodded, “Yes, ma’am.”

“I’m Elsie; it’s nice to meet you! Welcome to our dimension! We’re just going to do a normal check-up to see how your body reacted to the portal and do a general health scan.”

I nodded, “Okay.”

She opened a gigantic door, and I could tell that I was in the true danger zone with my size as I looked up at an exam table and couldn’t see the top. Counters, door handles, chairs, and everything else seemed ridiculously high to me. ‘Just how short did I get?!?’

“Please put on that gown, and I’ll be back in a second to get your scan started.”

She motioned to the gown I held and closed the door behind her. Not wanting to see how quickly she would like to ‘help’ me, I decided I wouldn’t waste time changing. As I pulled my clothes off, I couldn’t help but note that my skinny body had not grown any chunkier in the portal. If anything, my ribs seemed a little more visible now on my sides. I couldn’t tell if my musculature had changed any, but I wasn’t even sure how I would be able to check that. I left my socks and underwear under the gown and prepared to remove them if asked.

I was just folding my clothes and placing them on a too-large chair in the room when she returned. “Done already?” She smiled, “Good!” Her voice seemed to naturally squeak a little higher into a baby talk range, and I grew even more nervous about this new size.

“By the way, where’s Doctor Benson? Wasn’t she supposed to be here?”

“She got held up in her own exam. We were told to just move things along? It might delay things by a couple hours if we wait?”

I sighed, “So, what next?” I asked, trying to get things over with.

“First is a full-body medical scan,” she told me. “I’ll need to get you up here on this table. Do you mind if I help you up here?”

I shook my head nervously, “I guess I don’t see how I’m getting up there without help.”

She smiled, “You did come in smaller than average.”

I held my arms up to her like I’d seen kids do all of the time. She gently picked me up under my arms and stood me up on the exam table surface. She centered me on one different colored square of the vinyl table and said, “Stay still for a moment!”

I watched as she stepped back, “Begin intake scan.”

‘Intake…?’ I thought nervously.

I saw a quick flash of light around me that was red. At the same time, a weird tone sounded, and a display showed up flashing red around an image of a human body around its groin.

“You still have your underwear on?”

I nodded.

“We need them off for this scan.”

I sighed but said, “sure.”

I was about to reach for them myself but was beaten to the punch by her large hands that lifted the edge of the gown, pulled them down, and sat beside me. “You can have your undies back in a second,” she told me.

I didn’t have a chance to respond before she said, “Resume scan,” to the interface.

“Scan complete. Subject healthy.”

“Destiny, please display vitals and health history.”

I looked at the air in front of us. A virtual projection displayed everything from my measurements to my hair and eye color.
 

Connor Stacy Slane

Age: 19

Pre-Arrival Height: 6’6”

Pre-Arrival Weight: 170lbs

Arrival Height: 48 inches

Arrival Weight: 58 pounds

Eye Color: Hazel

Hair Color: Blonde

Blood Pressure: 110/78

Pulse: 80 Bpm
 

My jaw dropped at those stats!
 
 

Chapter 3: Reality Check
 

“I’M ONLY FOUR feet tall now?!?” I exclaimed.

“Yes, you are a little one, Connor... Forty-eight inches is quite small, even in Little terms. Amazing how random the changes seem to be. You were well into Mid height before you left. I would have expected you to be at least a foot or two taller than you are now.” She shrugged, “Seems to be impossible to predict how things will go. Fortunately, the university will have small uniforms for you while you’re here.”

I grimaced at knowing what a Littles uniform meant for me, but had long accepted that it was a likely possibility on this trip.

“Go ahead and put your clothes back on, and we’ll get you to the room where you’ll be getting room assignments and everything.”

“You act like you do this every day?” I asked her in surprise.

She shrugged, “Not every day, but we’ll do an exchange group through the portal two or three times a year. We have three other university groups arriving this week, about forty exchange students in total.”

My eyes lifted at that knowledge, ‘Mom mentioned universities were Little mills…?’

I shook my head as she left the room, and I quickly put my underwear, pants, and sweatshirt back on. Not a minute after throwing my backpack back over my shoulder, the door opened, and another nurse in scrubs opened it up. “Ready, Mister Slane?”

“I think so!”

I followed the new giant down the hallway. My vision was low enough that I was sure my head didn’t even reach the top of her thighs! I had to take about three steps for every stride she made, and I felt like I was putting in jogging levels of exertion when she finally pushed open the door to an area where most of the group was present.

“Connor, right?” a girl I vaguely remembered being named Mia said as she stared down at me.

I nodded

“What happened to you?” she giggled, “You were the tallest person, and now you look like a kid even compared to me!”

I grimaced, “Apparently, my family likes to shrink a whole bunch when they come here… My mom is seven feet tall back home, but here she was only barely above three feet tall.”

“How tall did you end up?” She asked as we stood in the room that seemed to be a small classroom.

I blushed, “Four feet even…?”

She laughed, “Well, you and Amy will be good friends then, I’m sure!” She pointed to where Amy was blushing and talking to Willow. She was probably a foot taller than us, I guessed.

“This will be so awkward,” I told her as a very tall Amazonian woman with a severe bun entered the room.

“Please take a seat,” she said, motioning to the long counters and chairs behind them. I found myself awkwardly clambering onto the giant seat and then being hardly able to see above the counter!

I glanced around and could see most of our group was there, but two of the guys and Dr. Owens were missing. Then, finally, the incredibly tall lady cleared her throat and got our attention.

“First of all, welcome to Emerson University, and what I hope will be an incredible learning experience for you these few months you’ll be joining us. I am Dean Northrup, the Dean of Little’s here at Emerson. The woman just walking in is Doctor Emma Greene. She’s the Director of the Dorm your rooms will be in. If you’re wondering, your other friends are meeting with a separate Residential Director to get them situated. We split your professors between you so they can assist before we get them to their faculty housing assignments. As soon as we get all of that taken care of, we’ll meet up for a luncheon with our other exchange students.”

I glanced over at Dr. Benson, and she also looked to have shrunk quite a bit during the trip.

“So, first of all, let me make sure you know that our dimension is sized very differently from yours. You probably noticed it was a struggle just to climb into those chairs, and several of you, including Mister Slane, can barely see over the counter…?”

I blushed as all eyes seemed to zero in on me.

“No one really understands how traveling through the dimensional portal affects height, but the end result is that all of you are considered ‘Littles’ legally here in our dimension. We have three separate categories for grown adults here; Bigs, Mids, and Littles. You may hear Bigs called ‘Amazons’ by some, it’s generally frowned upon as rude, so I would recommend using ‘Bigs’ when you converse. Mids are often called ‘Betweeners’, or ‘’Tweeners,’ here. All of those are considered okay in polite conversation. Essentially, everything here is designed and built for the height of us Bigs. It’s easier to fit a Little’s smaller body in a larger space than a Big into a space that’s too small for anyone but children.”

I saw a hand go up and wasn’t surprised to see it be Mila’s.

“Yes, Miss Olson, right?”

“Yes, ma’am, just out of curiosity… what age of children are we the size of…?”

“Well, you, in particular, are smaller than our average two-year-old, but no one in this room is bigger than our average three-year-old.”

I heard several group members breathe out in surprise, but I just nodded and thought back to some of my talks with Mom, ‘And that makes me about the size of a six-month-old?’

“As you can imagine, this will make getting around at times challenging in our world. Due to this factor, we’re giving you dorms in our New Little Housing at Sanders Hall. This is a brand-new dormitory that we opened just this last fall dedicated to serving the needs of our shorter students.”

I couldn’t tell, from their reactions, if anyone in the room knew how bad that could be going for everyone in this room. Of course, I had hoped to retain my height and be in a standard dorm, but I had also steeled myself for losing a few inches and barely missing the required height. ‘Missing by feet wasn’t what I expected, though!’

She continued on, “For our new Sanders Hall, our rooms are a bit different than you might be used to. You’ll be sharing a communal dorm room containing our revolutionary sleeping pods with nine others. Also, all of the furniture is scaled to your sizes in your ‘nest,’ as we call them. Each nest has a residence life staff member in charge of helping you live, study and stay on track to successfully finish the semester!”

‘This is where Mom would probably be laughing in her face…’ I thought, barely keeping a smirk off my own.

“We have to share a single room with that many people? Are showers communal too?” Luca asked.

“They have privacy walls around them, but they are in one room attached to your Nest room. There’s also a bathroom with five potties to give you close access when you need to go to the bathroom. One thing that Sanders residents also have are four jetted bathtubs that you can soak in too.”

“That sounds nice,” the blonde-haired Tatum said.

“Now, you also need to be aware that our Little students are also bound by a separate code of conduct. Since you are here for this semester as Emerson University Griffins, we require you to follow that same code of conduct.”

She gestured with her hand, and a projection filled the air behind her. ‘Wow! They’re using holographic tech to replace old-school slide presentations!’

Little Rights for Visitors popped up above a few projected Little students in the university’s Littles Uniform. It looked unchanged from Mom’s time, with the three girls shown in the variations of the skirt and blouse, summer dress, and the slacks outfit Mom said she never wore. They looked like characters out of an old British school film back home. Nowadays, even in Britain, this uniform style had faded away as a relic of the past.

“That’s so cool,” I heard Liam say.

“Huh?” One of the girls asked, perplexed.

“The projection, not the uniform,” he quickly backpedaled.

“Oh, that’s right, you haven’t seen this technology before, have you, dear?” Dean Northrup asked.

We all shook our heads, even though this was precisely the tech I had wanted to come and study for filmmaking. The hologram made the projections look like real people with as solid and realistic as they appeared! The text beside them was suspended next to it, as if in some sort of comic bubble.

I returned my eyes to the image of the Little boy in his slacks, vest, shirt, and tie. Without context, that outfit didn’t necessarily make the guy, who appeared college-aged, look like he wasn’t an average adult. However, I did notice that all four of the characters on the slide had puffed-out bottoms, and the one with the dress looked like it had just a little bit of white hanging below the skirt.

“First of all, you’ll notice a uniform present for our Littles. I’ll go into that here in a few more slides. But I want to cover your rights and protections while you’re here studying with us.”

Guardianship popped up on the slide. “First of all, due to your status as Littles, Emerson is considered to have guardianship of you during your time here. This allows us to intercede on your behalf for any medical or legal issues you may encounter. It also prevents you from being adopted as long as you are a university student without your permission.”

Luca’s hand flew up, “Adopted?!?”

“I’ll get into that more later. Please just be patient. You have many rights and protections that should keep you a student as long as you are here studying.” She looked around, and I felt like she made it particularly unpleasant to ask questions. “We have insisted on this clause in particular for any accidents that may happen given your next of kin back home probably won’t be able to respond in time. Any situations where there needs to be an opinion due to your incapacitation would come to my office.”

I squirmed a bit at that, hoping she was a better person than the Dean was back when my mom was in school.

The slide switched over to a new one with the model students now sitting at 3D desks, seemingly occasionally moving and making gestures that they were paying attention. Well, all but one of the girls were paying attention. The one wearing the slacks version of the uniform looked to be doing something on a tablet instead of paying attention to the professor.

Demerit System was now showing as she continued, “For our Little students, we operate on a Demerit System for any behavioral or academic issues. Our current policy is that our Littles get up to thirty demerits in a year before being expelled from Emerson. Since you are here for just a semester, that number is set at sixteen. You earn demerits for any behavior that is unsafe, breaks academic standards, or brings the university into a bad light.”

I watched as a bubble popped up that showed examples that seemed a bit normal, got draconian, and then caused my fellow travelers to gasp.
 
 

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!

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 add-on 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

Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Chapters 4 and 5 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 4: Rules
 

AS MY CLASSMATES gasped, I read the text hovering in front of us and compared it to what Mom had told me. A few of them looked to have changed from what she had told me.
 

Possible Demerits

•Consuming Alcohol

•Using Illegal Drugs

•Academic Dishonesty (Not limited to Plagiarism/Cheating)

•Not Turning in Assignments

•Disrespecting Professors

•Violent Behavior

•Endangering Self or Others

•Swearing

•Insubordination/Talking Back to Staff

•Disobeying Nest Mother

•Violating Curfew

•Having Accidents Outside of Protective Undergarments

•Removing Mandated Protective Undergarments

•Causing Other Hazards to Health/Safety of University Members

•Uniform Infractions
 

“Nest Mother?” I heard someone beside me mutter.

“Protective undergarments… They mean diapers…?” Someone else muttered.

‘How dumb can you be not to know that was likely…?’ I thought to myself.

“If you’ll please hold your questions, I will go through each of these points one by one?” Dean Northrup said.

A new slide flashed, zooming into a very realistic pile of alcohol at a college party. The realism of the projection made it look like you could grab a bottle of beer and open it up to take a drink. I heard a bit of squirming from next to me, and an uncomfortable silence began.

“Now, I know that many of you are above the legal age in your dimension, but for your own safety, we forbid alcohol and drug consumption for our Little students. Particularly as Portal Littles, as you’ll be referred to, often find our alcohol effects are significantly stronger than in your dimension. We’ve had some students who have chosen to ignore this rule in the past. I will warn you that it tends to have consequences that build up beyond the alcohol. Very few students manage to stay around after that!”

I looked up at her and noticed she seemed to be staring particularly at the boy, Noah, next to me. She moved on though, “Drugs are likewise forbidden, and for your own sake, I would remind you that it would be like a toddler in your home dimension using drugs. Your likelihood of overdose cannot be overstated!” That was accompanied by her panning about the room with her glare.

Other than pot, I couldn’t see most of the students in the room having done drugs regularly from my first impressions. I guessed that most of us, including myself, probably hadn’t even smoked weed! ‘It makes a lot of sense that things could go wrong there.’

“Academic Dishonesty is a policy that, I’ve been assured by your traveling faculty, looks identical to your own university policies. Should you be accused of plagiarism, cheating on a test, or other academic dishonesty violation, a hearing will be held. If the accusation is verified, you will be automatically expelled from our university, and I’ve been assured you would likely be expelled from your own university. If you’re struggling with coursework, we have plenty of student services to help you succeed – please do not jump off this bridge.”

The slide moved on; Turning in Assignments was now shown.

“We at Emerson feel we are bound to do everything we can to support our students’ successes. Due to this, we have included turning in assignments as a requirement in our Code of Conduct. While in your home dimension, there is only the consequence of failing your class, here, this is considered a Code of Conduct violation, and you will receive demerits and other consequences. We want you to be successful! Do your homework, and this will never become a problem.”

With another gesture, she advanced the slide to Disrespecting Professors, and discussed behavior that would be considered in violation of this. Then, she went into the violent behavior issues on another slide and said that fighting would never be tolerated.

Swearing showed brightly in the text box next to a Little who angrily yelled at another Little. “This one has been an issue more so for our visiting students. While you are present at our university as a student, it is considered against the Code of Conduct for you to use any of the following swear words...” A list of just about every imaginable vulgar word I had ever read or thought of accompanied others like ‘crap,’ ‘sucks,’ and ‘dangit.’

‘Crap!’ I thought to myself. I don’t use the other words, but that one was one my moms’ had always used and been okay with.

“This list is by no means every word that can cause problems for you, but it is the majority. Not all of these infractions get brought to my office and end up with demerits. Being perfectly transparent here, your Nest Mothers have some leeway in determining appropriate punishments for this violation. They may offer you an alternate punitive measure instead of coming to my office. Keep in mind that the violation is one demerit for use for minor words. More serious words that are in red on the screen are considered worth three demerits per use.”

I noted that the ones I used usually were in a lighter color, while the major words were all listed in red. ‘Shit could get many people in trouble,’ I noted, with it being that deep red. ‘Alternative punishments… spanked and mouth washed out?’ I wondered. ‘Could have one of those locking pacifiers stuffed in your mouth, too…?’ I shuddered at that one.

She didn’t give anyone a chance to ask any questions before moving on to Nest Mothers for her next slide.

“First, I know you most likely have no idea about a Nest Mother beyond what I’ve told you so far. They operate much as your own RAs do at your university. They live in an apartment adjoining the Nest Room, and it’s their job to help make sure that you follow the rules with curfew, uniform requirements, do your homework, go to class, and things like that.” She smiled, “We call them ‘mothers’ because they act as surrogate mothers while you’re here at Emerson. Many of our students develop close relationships with their Nest Mothers, often staying in very close contact even after graduation!”

On the face of that, it didn’t sound horrible other than being overbearing. I knew better, though! ‘Close contact while they nurse?’

“Your Nest Mothers will be introduced to you as soon as we finish this presentation. Then, they will get you settled in and over to Westerfield Hall and the ballroom where we’re meeting all of this semester’s exchange students for lunch.”

“Excuse me, professor?” I heard Oliver ask.

“Yes, Mister Sanders?”

“What time is it…?” He paused and held up his wrist and the smartwatch it held, “I only ask because it would be lunch back home already?”

She laughed, “It’s fourteen o'clock right now. Two hours before noon, when we’re having lunch!”

“Huh?” I heard from somewhere.

“I need to keep going with our presentation, but just to answer that burning question, our days in this dimension are longer than yours. We have a thirty-two-hour long day here… so I guess that’s an extra eight hours compared to yours?”

I could feel everyone in the room nod.

“Very well, back to your Nest Mothers… I think I covered most of this, but they are ultimately in charge of your Nest Room. They have full say on bedtimes, meal breaks, etc., within the room. Should there be an issue with you not following their directives, it will be a cause for anywhere between eight demerits and expulsion.”

The number of shrugs and apathy at this statement made me squirm. ‘Mom never had to stay in the dorms… She was able to stay with Grandma and Grandpa as her ‘foster parents.’ All she ever told me about the dorms was the number of friends who checked in but never checked out. These guys should be worried about this rule!’

Violating Curfew popped up on the next slide. A little video of a Little sneaking out of a room and physically running into a Big and falling down ran on a loop as Dean Northrup spoke, “Especially due to concerns of keeping you all safe, there is a curfew strictly enforced for Littles. We will put all of you in with some second-year students, so that curfew will be twenty-four hundred hours each night for you.”

I did the math in my head and converted that to eight in the evening here, or 6 pm back home, but no one else said anything.

“We’ve found that time is the optimal time to let you get a full night’s sleep and be awake at seven in the morning for showers and breakfast.”

I saw more than a few people grumble about the waking up part. ‘Fifteen hours in bed every night…?’ That’s got to be part of why bedwetting is a thing for Littles?

“If you earn special permission, you might be able to join an exercise group in the morning before that if that interests you. Most of your classes will start between nine and ten in the morning.”

She fielded a couple of inane questions before Accidents showed on the screen.

I felt embarrassed for the boy shown clearly with wet pants. Others in the room shuffled around in their seats, and I knew that while they may have known of some of the Amazonian tendencies to baby Littles, they probably didn’t really believe everything.

“Okay, this next part will be an uncomfortable conversation for you all since you are from a dimension where you are supposedly fully potty trained. We are not quite sure why this is a problem when you come here, but it is very common to find that you will begin to have issues with making it to the Potty. Some of this may be an issue due to our toilets being too tall and difficult to reach, maybe the distances are longer for your shorter body to reach a bathroom, the length of our days, something environmental…? We really aren’t completely sure. Our own Littles regularly have issues with controlling their bladders and bowels reliably, so we have a set of rules in the Code of Conduct that address this.”

“First, if you have an accident in any public space on campus like this boy with no protection, it is an automatic two demerits. Should you be determined to have an accident of the other nature, a case of messy pants, then in every place other than a dining space, classroom, or lab, that is worth six demerits.”

“That won’t happen, right…?” I heard someone breathe quietly.

Dean Northrup had to have heard it but ignored the comment. “Inside a classroom or lecture hall, this constitutes a more serious breach. For that reason, those spaces cause the infraction to double to twelve demerits if you defecate yourself. Also, due to significant contamination concerns, anyone who has an unprotected accident in a lab has the initial amount tripled for a messy accident, meaning it’ll be eighteen demerits.” She paused, “As I said before, we have concerns that this may be an issue, especially since you all only have sixteen demerits possible. That means you cannot afford a single one of these!”

I took a quick look around at all of the stunned faces in the room. ‘They haven’t even had their first accidents yet!’ I thought to myself. ‘Wonder who’ll be first?’
 

BETH LOOKED AROUND her dorm room as her mom, Laura, and dad helped her put things up and reclaimed empty suitcases to take home.

“Mom, those don’t go there,” she said as she was about to hang up shirts in the wrong order.

“Really, Mom?!? You’re the one who always insisted our colors be together in our closets?” Laura laughed. “ROY-G-BIV!”

Beth giggled at that while her Mom glared at both of them. “I raised a pair of monsters!” She groaned but got back to fixing her mistake. Laura was helping with her underwear drawer while her dad was helping put together a new lamp for her desk that she’d gotten for Christmas. Jason, of course, had his headset over his head and was sitting in the common room.

Laura finished her job and placed Beth’s stuffed red panda, ‘Rings,’ on her bed.

Beth could remember Laura giving her a hard time about the stuffed red panda as she packed to start her first year in college.

“I can’t believe you still have her?” Laura had said.

“Why? What’s wrong with having a stuffie?” she replied defensively.

“I don’t know… it’s just weird! You’ve had her since you were a baby?”

Beth laughed, “She was dad’s first, you know?”

“Huh?”

“Dad gave her to me after… well… you know… after I was reborn. I guess Mom gave Rings to him when he was her adopted baby?”

Laura shook her head, “I can’t believe Daddy didn’t just burn her!”

“I think he felt like it was a special gift for some reason…? I don’t know? I do know that anytime I feel like I need a hug from Mom or Daddy, Rings is always right there for me.”

Dad had just finished turning the lamp on when she heard his phone ring. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, glancing at it for a second, “Hi, Amanda,” he said.

Beth looked up to see what might be changing in their plans. “Oh,” her dad said, looking at Beth, “I guess she would be up for it. Is that a good idea, though…? She’s not a Little, but she’s still not…?”

Her dad laughed, “Yes, I know she’s taller than me! She never lets me forget it!” He listened for a second, “You’re right, it would be fine, and this way they meet each other… Let me just ask her real quick.”

Her dad looked at her, “Apparently, they’re having a welcome luncheon for all of the exchange students that arrived today. Amanda wants to know if you would like to go with her as her plus one? You can meet Connor that way? We’ll all go shopping this afternoon together for anything he needs then, and after dinner, drop you both off on our way to the airport?”

“Do we know how tall he is now?”

Her dad asked Amanda over the phone and shook his head, “Not yet…?”

“Might want to hold off on the dinner idea then? If he’s a Little now, they won’t let him be out that late,” she reminded her dad.

“Right… Well, we’ll play it by ear. Maybe we should just go earlier for dinner.”

Before agreeing, Beth thought for a second, “Sure, I’ll join Amanda. Where is it at?”

Her dad got the details for a few minutes before hanging up. “You like the light…?” He asked her.
 

I COULD FEEL the temperature in the room drop as the word Protection now showed on the screen. Four students were shown modeling their ‘big-kid’ Pull-Ups, and a couple more sported full on diapers that had Emerson graphics on them. I couldn’t help but note that all but one of the Pull-Ups, and one of the diapers, were yellowed with urine. It looked like one of each also had a bit of brown color at the back!

‘At least I knew this would come up,’ I thought to myself, thinking back to a conversation with Mom.
 

“Connor, are you really sure you want to do this?” Mom asked me.

“Mom, you went to learn about more advanced programming; I want to learn how they do their holographic films!”

She sighed, “If you’re going, you need to know some facts.”

“Mom, I’m a Betweener in size. I’ll be fine! Who knows? Maybe I’ll grow with the trip and be a full Amazonian in size? Be taller than you for once?”

Mom laughed at that, “That would be a sight!” She seemed to fight with something but said, “Look, I know you think both of those are more likely, but I also thought I would be taller on my second trip. They may have some sort of control on the portal that shrinks us. Really, I think a couple people grow or stay the same just so they don’t give anything away. If they do, in fact, have control over it, I’m worried they’ll shrink you to get back at me…?”

I looked at her, “You don’t believe they still hold a grudge?”

“Venture never was fully taken down. I know for a fact that Amanda has dealt with them a couple times since then. Cameron and Addy had some dealings since they were in cahoots with Addy’s mom, but it’s definitely not dead as an organization. You won’t have much protection over there if they decide to target you.”

I nodded, “You really think I shouldn’t go?”

She shook her head but shrugged, “Your great-grandfather once told me that every Slane had an adventurous spirit. Even hundreds of years ago, we can trace our family as explorers who were some of the first people to come to the New World. I don’t think I could talk you out of this, and I won’t. I do want to arm you with knowledge, though.”

“Like what?”

“I’ve told you about being baby-sized and being babied, right?”

I blushed, “Yes…? I’m going to be housed at the university, though, since they won’t let me stay with Grandma and Grandpa. So I shouldn’t have to worry about that?”

“The thing is, Connor, if you’re a Mid or a Big, it’ll be just like your university. If you shrink, though, and it doesn’t even take much to get you below six feet, you’ll be in a Littles dorm, I guarantee it!”

“What are they like…?” I had asked.

Mom had told me about the games that had been played at her friends’ expense. Mom told me that as embarrassing as the baby treatment with Grandma and Grandpa had been, at least she’d been safe. However, she ensured that I understood that protection wasn’t really optional if I wanted to avoid demerits.
 

Around me, I heard, “We don’t have to wear those, do we?” from one female voice. A male voice said, “No way!”

A quieter girl’s voice said, “He’s kind of hot!”

“Please, I know this may be a bit disturbing for you, but you’ll remember I said non-protected accidents are worth demerits. If you wear training pants or diapers, you don’t have to worry about demerits for accidents. In the past eight years, we’ve even exempted poopy accidents in classes and labs from them as long as you’re wearing protection.”

“You expect us to wear diapers?!?” Luca exclaimed.

“You’re kidding, right? This is some sort of ‘prank the new kids’ stunt, right?” Noah added. “Some initiation…?”

“I haven’t worn diapers or had an accident since before I was two!” I heard one girl say.

Dean Northrup gave a piercing glare to Noah and Luca, followed by a steady gaze around the room.

Every person took in Dean Northrup’s gigantic size and consequently shut up!

“Now, like I was saying, I know this may be a bit… disturbing for you. But, it is by no means required to begin with during the day for you all.”

There was silence there, which surprised me because I expected more arguing. ‘Maybe it hasn’t registered that Northrup didn’t exclude night…?’

“I highly recommend you consider wearing at least a pull-up garment. I will have no mercy on potty infractions if you are not wearing protection.”

“The Pull-Ups are enough…?” I heard a girl, possibly Avery, ask.

“Pull-Up garments do meet the requirements for protection. However, your Nest Mothers will be keeping an eye on if they are used enough that it makes more sense for a tape-on garment instead. Similarly, if your professors note a pattern of behavior and see too many leaks happening, they may also insist on a more absorbent undergarment for sanitary reasons.”

Some back-and-forth questions came flying toward her about where to get Pull-Ups that can fit them, who pays for them, etc. I don’t really think it made everyone feel better that the university provided all we would need! I sat there quietly, listening and keeping silent about my knowledge of what was coming to us. As I looked at the used diaper of one of the models, I thought to myself, ‘It would really have been easier if I’d been a Mid…’
 
 

Chapter 5: Eyrie
 

I SAT THROUGH the discussion of uniforms without saying a word. I noted that the Littles’ uniforms were unchanged from when Mom was in school! There were some complaints from my fellow students for several moments before Dean Northrup finished her presentation, still clearly in control.

“Now, while I’ve been meeting with you, our residence life staff has been working hard to place you in Nests for your semester. The rest of the student body won’t be here until at least this weekend, so you’ll have a couple nights to acclimate to your new living spaces before they get here. That means I was able to get your Nest Mothers to come help you find the way to your dorm.”

As if waiting for her signal, the enormous door opened at the end of the room. and four giant women in their twenties walked through. “Good afternoon, ladies. Before I tell our new students which Nests they’re in, how about you introduce yourselves?”

“Sure!” One of the tall girls said, “Hi guys, I’m Madelyn Lewis! I’m working on my doctorate in Early Childhood studies when I’m not helping out around the dorm!” The girl reminded me of a camp counselor I remembered. Always peppy, happy, and more than a little bit irritating! She was exceptionally tall, even for an Amazon, and based on the door frame she walked through, I guessed that she was over twelve feet tall! Her blonde hair hung loosely about her face, which seemed to somehow emphasize how she was exceptionally skinny for her height, with a much smaller chest than the girls around her. She did a weird pointing show with her arms to the next slightly shorter giant next to her, cementing my first impression of her.

“Hi, I’m Mackenzie Brown, and I’m working on my master’s degree in Early Childhood studies. I can’t wait to meet all of you too!” I guessed she was probably near perfect for Amazonian body dimensions, if not a little skinny still. She had a more developed chest than Madelyn, and dark brown hair that matched her last name. I also noticed that she had very distinct amber-colored eyes.

The next girl was a little taller than Mackenzie but still shorter than Madelyn. “Hi, I’m Kaylee Miller. I’m in my last year of working on my doctorate in Psychology!” Kaylee was definitely overweight, but she didn’t seem overly so. Her brown hair was a few shades lighter than Mackenzie’s.

Kaylee motioned to the short bleach-blonde-haired girl to finish off the round of intros. I noted that if Kaylee was overweight, this girl looked nearly dangerously obese. “And I’m Lucy Anderson; I’m also in my last year of study, but in Child Psychology.”

“Thank you, ladies,” Dean Northrup said. “Please go stand with your Nest Mother when I call your name. They’ll take you to where you can pick up your other luggage, get your uniforms, settle in and change, get your IDs, and finally, to a special welcome luncheon!”

I felt my stomach growl at the extra time before my next meal.

“If these girls will please go with Miss Madelyn: Amelia, Mia, and Willow.” I noted the term ‘Miss’ being used and was sure we would be getting told in the dorms that their first names were well out of bounds for us. “Miss Kaylee will be taking Ava and Avery.”

I watched as the five members of our groups went to stand next to their tall caretakers. The closer they stood to them, the more I could see just how much they towered over them! Amy, in particular, looked like she was probably a newborn compared to how tall Madelyn was!

‘And she’s the same height as me!’ I thought worriedly.

“Miss Mackenzie will be taking Noah, Liam, and Connor,” I heard. I looked up at the tall giant as I approached. She was not quite three times my height, I guessed, and it was way more intimidating than standing next to my mom! “Hi, Guys!” She said quietly. “I can’t wait to get to know you all!”

Noah rolled his eyes then.

“Nice to meet you; I’m Connor,” I said quietly.

I barely registered that Luca and Tatum ended up with ‘Miss Lucy.’

“That’s it for here. I’ll see you at the luncheon.”

“Come along then,” my new Nest Mother insisted. She led us ahead of the other groups that were moving slower and talking to each other. I had to take four steps for every step she took, but the pace meant we reached a room where our luggage had been stored before everyone else.

I noted that the security seal covering the TSA-standard lock I had on the suitcase had been broken open, but wasn’t surprised. ‘Hopefully, Mom’s hidden compartment held up like she thought it would?’

We followed her down the hallway to another room with a series of stacked boxes. She looked around and said, “Here, Connor, these should all work for you,” handing me a box with my name on it that I couldn’t easily juggle with my suitcase at that moment. I set everything down while she found the others and found a bungee cord I’d placed in my backpack. I discovered that my suitcase hadn’t shrunk quite as much as I had, so there was plenty of room at the top for me to secure the box.

“Well, aren’t you the resourceful little guy?” Mackenzie said, just as the other groups caught up.

I blushed, “I try,” I told her. Liam and Noah seemed to be struggling more, even though Noah was half a foot taller than me, and Liam seemed to have a few more inches above that.

We were walking down the hallway when I saw a bathroom sign. “Umm… Miss Brown?”

“Yes, Connor?”

“Do you mind if I stop here real quick?”

“That’s a great idea to do a potty break right now!” she said in a babyish tone that took me back to preschool. “I’ll watch your stuff! Does anyone else need to go?”

To my surprise, the other two shook their heads, but I didn’t want to risk the next stop being a bridge too far! She kindly pushed the gigantic door open for me. I left my suitcase and the box there but kept my backpack. The room presented me with my first problem here – gigantic toilets!

‘Shit!’ I thought inside my head as I looked at the toilet seats through the open doors. With my new shorter size, my armpits just barely cleared the height of their huge toilets! Climbing onto one was going to be like scaling a boulder!

I looked around to see if there were any smaller toilets, but the shortest thing was a ‘short’ urinal – also really too tall for me. I hadn’t intended on needing it, but I dug in my backpack for a collapsible step stashed inside that I sat on the floor in front of the urinal. ‘Have to remember to sanitize this later!’ I thought to myself as I was pleased that it got me to just have a long aim, rather than an impossible one! Not wanting to get accused of wetting my pants, I made sure that I used some toilet paper to wipe to be safe before pulling my pants on as the door opened.

“Need any help?” I heard Mackenzie ask, poking her head through the door.

“No thanks, I’ve got it, I just need to wash my hands!”

“Really?” She asked, surprised. “Is there anyone else in there with you?”

“No?” I told her. I moved my step over to the sink while I waited. There was a shorter sink present that I could just reach with the step stool. Soap was out of reach, but Mom had suggested a small bottle of it that I pulled from my bag. Squirting some on my hands, I quickly washed them with hit-or-miss water from the automated jets. I was just collapsing my step stool and placing it into my bag when I noticed she had fully opened the door and was staring at me with a shocked look.

“You brought a step stool with you?”

I zipped my bag shut and shouldered it. I shrugged, “I thought it might be a useful item?”

She stared at me as I walked back out the door, where the other two looked bored. “Done going potty?” Noah taunted me.

I nodded, “You sure you guys don’t want to go while we’re here?”

Liam shook his head, “I’m good for a while yet. Let’s just get to the dorm.”

“Not all of us are on the road to being a diaper baby here…” Noah said softly enough to avoid Makenzie hearing.

I shrugged, “Good luck with that thinking,” I told him. “I guess we’re ready, Miss Brown?”

She smiled, “Great, Connor! Let’s get going!”

Makenzie led us outside, and I saw the other groups were now well ahead of us. I didn’t care, though, knowing that the two of them may have made a huge mistake just now!

The building we came out of was labeled Bremer Hall, and I wracked my brain trying to remember if Mom had mentioned it. ‘Must be new?’ I wondered to myself. Mom had drawn maps for me of the campus as it was when she was in school. I soon recognized Zentner Hall and noted another new building called Westerfield Hall. ‘Named after Grandma…?’ I wondered.

I remembered from Mom’s map that we were pretty close to Wenig Hall, but we walked past it to a much newer-looking building labeled Sanders Eyrie for Littles. A large fountain sculpture of a Griffin with a nest of newborn chicks and one coming out of its shell stood in front of the building wearing a stylized cloth diaper. ‘Not too subtle, or realistic, that,’ I thought to myself.

“Come on, almost there,” Makenzie told us as we approached the building. I watched her wave her wrist over the scanner and realized her watch must have a chip to open the door. It automatically swung an outer door and an airlock door open for us. “We’re on the eighth floor,” she told us with a smile, “Best view of the campus!”

As she happily led us inside the building, I couldn’t help but note the decorations were already leaning towards those of an elementary school or daycare. The initial wall featured a giant sea mural with fish and other anthropomorphized creatures smiling at us when we walked in. On the other side, a mural depicted diapered baby griffins, and seemed to try and tell a story about smart Littles wearing their diapers. Both walls reminded me of the classic boy wizard tales where paintings moved, because they were very smoothly animated. Their smiles in that context were especially creepy!

Inside, the elevator was easily large enough to triple our group size and still have room. The elevator continued the primary-colored theme with wall colors, ceiling and floor colors, and artwork. I noted a double panel set of controls, one at her height and one at our height. The one at ours had square buttons styled like baby blocks. Meanwhile, hers were the standard circles I had grown up with. ‘I’m surprised they still have physical buttons,’ I thought. When I looked back down, I noticed that there were ten numbered circles marked out with stickers on the floor with the implication they were telling us where to stand. She didn’t mention them, but I had a feeling that command would be coming on future trips.

The ride up to the eighth floor was swift, and we were soon led into a hallway filled with colorful paintings of baby griffins who reminded you to do your homework while listing the ABCs around it in big baby blocks.

We soon came to a door surrounded by baby fox kits with their artwork showing their diapers. Above the door, it said The Kits and Miss Mackenzie’s Nest. I knew without a doubt that meant we were at our new home!

I watched as she opened the door and showed us the room we would be sleeping in for the semester. The fox kit theme carried all the way through the room design. A playful mural of a forest allowed them to have room to move around in the design. ‘If this was in a daycare, it would be cute,’ I admitted. ‘I think I might need to vomit waking up to this every day, though!’

 
 

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

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

Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Chapters 8 and 9 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 8: Nesting
 

I WAS STILL blushing as I followed Liam and Mackenzie back to our dorm. Of course, since Noah had been removed from the luncheon, we hadn’t seen him. ‘I doubt we do again…’ I couldn’t help but think. I had noticed that Professor Owens had followed Dean Sanders out in the middle of lunch, so maybe he could intercede on his behalf.

That had been about as dumb of a meltdown as he could have had, though. Just clicking through my memory of the presentation earlier, he would have easily been able to rush through the sixteen demerits if they chose to go that far. I figured fifteen was the fewest he might have ended up with!

“Excuse me, can you hold up a second?” I heard Grandma Amanda’s voice behind us.

Mackenzie turned around, “Umm… yes, Professor Westerfield?”

“How long is your room meeting going to last?”

I looked up at Mackenzie, who narrowed her eyes a bit, “Probably about an hour to cover everything?”

“Do you mind if I come to pick Connor up then?”

“Why?”

“I haven’t seen my grandson in person before. I’d like to get to know him! Also, he has some other extended family in town that want to get a chance to meet him.”

“When would you bring him back?”

“Lights out for them is at eight, right?”

“That’s correct; they have to be in their beds by then?”

“I’ll have him back at seven then if that works for you? He can finish getting settled then?”

“Umm… I don’t know if this is really okay. Maybe you should check with Dean Northrup?”

“I already did; she okayed it,” Grandma told her.

“I guess that would be fine then. Connor does need to get everything unpacked, though? Suitcases will be taken to the storage units later.”

“I’ll help him out when we get back if he’s not done, and I’ll grab his suitcases while I’m at it.”

“This is really unusual, Professor.”

“If you knew his mom, you would know that was normal!” She laughed. “See you in an hour, sweetie,” she told me.

“Come on,” Mackenzie said while Liam just gaped at me.

We made it to the dorm room, and I headed for the restroom. “Where are you going?” Mackenzie asked.

“I need to go potty,” I told her.

“Do you need any help getting your diapee off?”

“I don’t think so? You told me I should be able to remove it?” I replied.

“Why don’t I go with you this time and make sure,” she told me.

I blushed as she followed me into the restroom I hadn’t even entered yet. I noted that there were no urinals along the walls; everything was toilets separated by colorful stalls that would block my view of my neighbors. Still, someone taller would have no problem looking in and seeing if the Little boy was being good and going potty.

I tried to keep ahead of her and went towards the nearest… potty…? The more I looked, it didn’t look like a regular toilet. It really truly looked like a ceramic rendition mocking a baby’s toilet training potty. I shook my head, pushed my pants down, and pulled my shirt out of the way. I began pulling at the right diaper tape, and at first, it didn’t budge!!!

I pulled on it with a lot more effort, and it came a little bit loose. Harder yet, and it finally popped off the front of the diaper, leaving me with the diaper hanging awkwardly from the other one. Before I could reach for it, a big hand beat me, “Let me get that one… those aren’t impossible for you, but it’s a lot of work, and I don’t want you to have an accident!”

The invasion of space and privacy was embarrassing but nothing I hadn’t prepared myself for. The tall giant pulled the diaper out from my crotch and pushed me by the shoulder down on the potty.

“Go ahead, show me what a big boy you are!” She cooed.

I blushed but immediately began letting out the urine that urgently needed to be released before I even noticed that the ‘toilet’ had a pee guard seat. I pushed out a log while my feet dangled, unable to press against the floor even on what was essentially a baby’s potty! Then, I heard Liam come in and ask, “Do you have to be in here with us?”

“Yes, actually,” she told him. “Are you still dry?”

“What?!?” Liam asked. I began wiping myself clean as I heard a shriek of surprise next to me.

“Good boy! You are all dry! Are you sure you don’t want to wear some protection to be safe?” She asked him as I stood up.

“I’m good, thank you.”

Deciding to bail him out, I reached up to press the flushing button at the top and looked at the odd contraption again. It appeared to be a fully working toilet, but had a light blue seat on it that looked like it belonged on a training potty to keep a little boy from peeing out of the toilet. It was also firmly attached, so there didn’t seem to be an easy way to stand and use it. On the backside was a shorter water reservoir covered in a decal of fox kits waving and happily smiling. The whole thing was short enough that at least I could climb onto it unassisted.

As I pressed the button, I heard a sound effect like a ‘victory’ in a game.

“Good boy Connor!” Mackenzie said as I pulled my pants up. “Let’s wash your handsies, then we’ll get you in a fresh diapee before we have our little meeting. Maybe we’ll have Noah back by then?”

I didn’t comment back to her, just walking over to a low sink with my pants pulled up awkwardly without underwear instead. The counter was clearly designed to be shorter like the toilets, but I could still have used a couple more inches in height to use it comfortably. The top was just below my armpits, so I had to really reach to get soap from an automated dispenser and wash my hands in the sink.

As soon as I was done, I felt my stomach fall as I was picked up and held to her side, “Let’s get you into a fresh diapee. Not that you need them like some Littles, but at least you’re smart enough to wear them just in case!” She practically cooed at me.

She placed me down on the changing table and clicked a strap that she hadn’t used earlier closed across my chest. My pants were unceremoniously pulled down, and she looked at my crotch. “Did you shave before you left?”

I nodded, “My mom suggested it…?”

“That was smart,” she said with a bemused expression. “Normally, I have to shave everyone on their first night here. I won’t have to do that with you.” I watched her straighten for a second, and she placed some gloves on her hands and then grabbed some sort of lotion, “Let’s put some more of this on you just in case you do have an accident. It’ll help keep that tush nice and clear of any icky rashes!”

Mom had made a face when she described diaper changes that I hadn’t entirely understood. Now, during my second one, though, I got it. This relative stranger placed her hands completely indiscriminately all over my groin and butt. Even going so far as to rub it inside my crack. It was all done in seconds, but for those seconds, I felt… violated.

Mackenzie apparently wanted to hurry, so by the time Liam came out of the bathroom, she had already pressed the two Velcro tabs down on the diaper to close it. She tossed her gloves into the trash can in a quick, practiced motion, pulled up my pants, and undid the strap.

Then, she placed me on the ground and said, “I’ll be right back, guys. I just want to check on Noah.”

I walked over to my desk and sat down, hearing a crinkle as I did so. Liam walked over and whispered, “What the hell? Like Noah asked, why the hell are you going along with this stupidity?”

I stood up and got close to him and whispered, “Liam, I can’t tell you everything – she won’t be gone long enough, but if you have any hope of making it back home and not ending up adopted by a young mother like Mackenzie, you need to get a grip! I highly doubt Noah will be returning to this room, or home, at this point.”

“What do you…?” He asked

“Everything okay, guys?” Mackenzie asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied. “Any word on Noah?”

“Umm… I hate to be the one to say this, but Noah’s not going to be allowed to continue here at Emerson.”

Liam’s eyes opened wide in disbelief. His eyes turned to mine, and I gave a slight shrug.

There was a moment of awkward silence, so I broke it and asked, “I guess can we get this meeting done? My grandma is going to be here soon?”

“Sure, thing, sweetie, especially as you’ve been the model student so far!” She sat down on the ground and said, “Why don’t we just sit down here together, and we’ll go over some of the basics?”

I found myself sitting down cross-legged about six feet from her, and Liam did the same with a sigh.

“First off, even without Noah, you’ll have seven other roommates when everyone gets back on Saturday and Sunday. They’re all second-year students, and I think you’ll both find you fit in with them well. I know Dean Northrup went over the Code of Conduct with you, but I highly recommend you look at the copy that’s on your tablets in depth before tomorrow night is over. There are quite a few rules that you don’t want to get on the wrong side of.”

‘She almost sounds sympathetic,’ I thought. ‘That’s a weird trait in a Nest Mother. I still don’t think I can trust her though!’

“So, among those rules which she may not have gone over… Let’s start with the ones you’re going to hate the most. First up, potty charts!”

“What?” Liam asked in disbelief. He looked over at me, “Why are you completely unsurprised by most of this stuff?”

Mackenzie looked at me with her own curious eyes, “I have to admit I’m curious about that too, but let me get through these rules, and then maybe Connor will be kind enough to tell us the story?”

I shrugged and nodded, “Sure, it’s not exactly a secret.”

“Anyway, yes, Liam, you each have a potty chart on the wall over there. In this world, you have to have figured out you are much smaller than those of us ‘Bigs’ or ‘Amazons’ as I know many Littles refer to us as. I do recommend against the term Amazons, by the way, it’s really not seen as polite by most of us.” She said as an aside. “Anyway, you are the size of our native Littles, who have traditionally had issues with making it to the potty at times. To help businesses understand which Littles fit their companies upon graduation, we have a star chart system that gets sent along with your transcripts.”

“But we’re only here for one semester?” Liam tried to object.

“True, but you have to follow all of the rules of our normal students, right? I know they went over that with you before you left and earlier with Dean Northrup too?”

I nodded with a scowl, and so did Liam.

“Anyway, the way it works is we will check you in the mornings and when you come back from classes. If you have absolutely no potty accidents in a semester, you get a Gold Star. Silver Stars are earned by having five or fewer wetting accidents in a semester - or one poopy, and one wetting accident. Bronze Stars are awarded if you have less than ten wetting accidents, or two poopy accidents, in a semester.”

“Why would we have accidents? There’s been all this talk of accidents, but I haven’t peed my pants since I was in preschool?” Liam complained.

“Then it’s nothing you’ll have to worry about, sweetie! You’ll be guaranteed to have that Gold Star no issue then, right?”

He looked nervous but nodded.

“Now, I told you I wanted to get the bad out of the way. Unfortunately, due to the way our curfew works for our Littles, you will not be allowed to get out of bed from the time of Lights Out until I wake you up in the morning.”

“For any reason?” I asked.

“Absent a true medical emergency like you’re vomiting, have severe diarrhea, bleeding, or dying, no.”

“We can’t get up and use the bathroom?!?” Liam asked, finally getting it.

“No,” she answered. “Because of that, every Little in the dorms is required to have protection at night until they go at least one semester without accidents.”

“So, some of our nest won’t be wearing protection?” I asked.

She shook her head, “It’s possible, but none of your fellow kits are in that situation. I think there might be one girl in the junior class that’s made it to that point.”

“What do we do if we wake up and need to go?” Liam asked, clearly still not getting it.

“That’s why you wear protection, sweetie! You can just go in your diaper and go back to sleep.”

“But…”

I shot him a warning look, “Liam, it’s okay. We’ll both probably never need it since we’re not from here. It’s a rule; we just follow it and deal with it, okay?”

He looked at me like I had horns coming out of my head, “Easy to say for you! You’ve already admitted defeat and agreed to wearing diapers!”

“Defeat?” Mackenzie laughed, “No, honestly, Connor’s the smartest exchange student I’ve ever seen. You’re the one who’s practically admitting defeat, sweetie. We’ll talk more later, though. Other things you need to be aware of… oh, if it is truly one of those rare emergencies, there is a red button in your pod you can press. It’ll set off an alarm in my room - that’s adjacent if you haven’t figured that out - and I’ll come check on you. I also tend to be nicer than most of the other Nest Mothers. I’ll come make a pass before I go to bed. If you’re wet or poopy when I come by, I’ll give you a quick change.”

Liam squirmed at that more. ‘He’s going to have a really awkward time this afternoon while I’m gone.’

Mackenzie went over some other rules about study hours, bringing girls into our room – not allowed – and how we could arrange for special events like leaving campus. “Make sure you always have that student ID around your neck, though! It should never really leave your neck unless you get one of the student ID bands at the bookstore. Some of our students prefer those as they can’t be lost as easily.”

She looked at us to make sure we understood, and continued when we nodded, “Now the last part of this is something that will seem odd to you both as you are fully adults, but anytime you address me from here on out, it is to be as Miss Mackenzie, or Miss Kenzie.”

“We can’t just call you your first name?” Liam asked.

She shook her head, “No, it’s a rule here on how Nest Mothers are to be addressed. I know some of the Little girls skip over it and just jokingly call their Nest Mothers ‘Mother’, or ‘Mommy’. Honestly, I’d be okay with that, but little boys usually don’t like to do that.”

Mackenzie then took us on a quick ten-minute tour of the dorm and showed us the laundry room where our laundry was washed for us. “We don’t have to do it ourselves?” Liam and I asked in stereo.

She laughed, “Because of how small your clothing is, and how small you all are, the university did a study years ago that it’s better to have a service available for our Littles. We have a maid for each floor that will also change your bedding if you have a leak, or twice a week otherwise. Just leave your worn clothes in the hamper next to your bed each day, and Jenny will get them washed and back in your wardrobe or dresser!”

We were shown a gym full of giant equipment, but nothing in our sizes. It was clear that it was for the Nest Mothers, not the Littles. “Dean Northrup mentioned we could get up early and exercise if we got permission?” I asked.

She looked surprised, “Yes, that’s possible. What would you want to do?”

“Swimming would be my first choice, but I doubt that will be allowed. So practicing my katas or going for a jog each day would be my backup choices?”

“Hmm… Swimming might actually be possible here; let me show you.” As she scanned her ID and pushed down another hallway, she presented me with a room that had a small pool by their standards in the middle and a couple of infinity pools along the side. “I happen to like waking up and going for a swim. So if you want to join me in the mornings, I would be open to it. We need to get you some swim diapers, though, and a swimsuit?”

“I honestly expected you to say no. I’d appreciate that!”

“There is a price to this, though?” She said as she walked us back to the elevator and our room.

“What’s that?”

“The story?”

“Oh, I guess I can do that if that’s all you want!”

“Do you mind if I sit in my desk chair?” Then, I asked her, “You can sit on the floor, so maybe we’re a little closer in height?”

She giggled, “I don’t think that will help you, sweetie, but if it makes you feel better!”

I pulled my desk chair out and around. Liam looked skeptical but drew his near for the storytime as well. She sat nearby on the floor on a carpeted area that looked much like a daycare would have. I ignored that as I was almost at her shoulder height now with me in the chair. “Before I start, is there any rule against bean bag chairs or inflatable couches?”

“Inflatable couches, yes, bean bag chairs are allowed. Most Bigs have them in their dorms; for some reason, Littles don’t buy them for their rooms?”

I shrugged, “I might keep my eye out later. Anyway, I guess the short answer to your question is that my mom came over here thirty years ago looking to go to college. She’d been here on one of the early tour group trips with her parents and fell in love with the technology and computers here...” I spent the next fifteen minutes giving a very highly sanitized version of how mom had shrunk down to thirty-eight inches of height and stayed with her adopted parents. I didn’t go into all of the adventures she had, but I did mention that she was good friends with Beth’s dad as well. I told a bit more, and finally, Liam’s eyes opened, “Wait, your mom, is that Stacy Slane?” at the same time as I heard Mackenzie gasp and say nearly the same thing but ‘Stacy Westerfield’ instead.

I nodded, “That’s her.”

“You’re like super-rich, dude! Why are you even going to college?”

I laughed, “First of all, my mom is smart enough to not just give us all a fortune. We have trusts that pay for school, expenses, and some spending money, but not as much as you would think. She and my mama have set it up to where we will be wealthy someday when they pass away, but most of their wealth will be given to charities.”

“But she… she’s like one of the biggest legends around here!” Mackenzie said. “My aunt was here at school at the same time! I…”

Thankfully, a knock at the door saved me from any more of an inquest.

“May we come in?” I heard.
 
 

Chapter 9: SaveNow
 

BETH LOOKED INTO the Little ‘Nest’ and felt queasy just being inside the building. Granted, it wasn’t even the same dorm room she’d been in, but even as much taller as she was now, she knew that she could easily be forced to come to join Connor in one of these other dorm rooms. Amanda, her dad, her mom, and Laura had decided to come up as a group to ‘spring’ Connor, as they were calling it. Amanda, in particular, was highly annoyed that she couldn’t get custody to keep Connor safely at her house, or at least at her sister Megan’s.

The ‘nest’ was everything Beth had heard about. The ‘beds’ above the desks were nothing but dressed-up cribs. She could even see that the ends had doors that would swing closed once each Little was put to bed for the night. She guessed that the side of the cribs could lower to let the Nest Mother gather her charge in her arms without worrying about them escaping…

The most chilling thing about them was that she was sure they were long enough for her to stretch out in them!

The changing table and Potty Charts gave her the creeps, especially as she saw Connor’s name on one. His Nest Mother, Mackenzie, was sitting on the floor in front of Connor and the other exchange student, who were in their short chairs. She took another quick glance around and had to remind herself she was in a college dormitory, not a daycare!

Mackenzie looked up after Amanda called out and said, “Oh, Professor Westerfield, I didn’t realize it had already been an hour? But I guess it has!”

“Yes, it has. Now, I’ve cleared it with Dean Northrup and Doctor Greene. So we’re going to keep Connor until seven o’clock?”

“That’s fine, Professor.”

“Also, I got it approved that Connor will come to visit us overnight, Friday night to Sunday afternoon this weekend.”

“I’m not sure about that. How is Connor going to get to know his nestmates?”

Amanda laughed at her, “I’m sure he’ll manage Sunday when he comes back.” Connor, are you ready to go?”

“Let me grab my bag Grandma,” he told her.

Beth watched as Connor grabbed the bag and looked inside it for something. As he rummaged through it, she spotted some extra diapers in the bag, which surprised her.

As Connor started walking towards them, she watched the nest mother’s eyes widen. “By the way, I’m Mackenzie Brown; I’m just now realizing I hadn’t introduced myself formally to all of you.”

“Nice to meet you, Mackenzie,” her dad said. “I’m Beth’s dad, Cameron,” he put an arm around her protectively.

‘Always an awkward gesture when he’s shorter than me!’ Beth giggled in her head.

“This is my wife, Addison. This is my other daughter Laura.”

“Are you?” Mackenzie said.

She caught Laura rolling her eyes and stopped herself from doing the same.

“Am I?”

“Are you the Supreme Court Justice?”

Her dad laughed heartily, “I guess you could say so. But I really do define myself on my daughters here. They’re amazing and way more of an accomplishment than my career.”

Mackenzie looked lost for words, and Connor reached for his bag then. “Shall we go?” Beth suggested.

“Nice meeting you!” Laura said, coming out of the room with a giggle.

Outside the building, they had more of a chance for everyone to introduce themselves to Connor before they started down the path to where they could catch their ride. Beth was walking with Connor sandwiched between her and Amanda. They were about to pass the Student Union when she had a thought, “Connor, you just have that lanyard ID right now, right?”

He looked at her and nodded, “They mentioned another type being available?”

“Sort of… you are supposed to have an ‘adult’ with you to get it.”

Connor nodded, “I’m not surprised. Does Grandma count?”

Amanda laughed, “I think I do, though some days I think your grandfather would dispute that! Let’s do that before we leave campus.”

She was glad she’d suggested it then, as there was almost no one in the bookstore since most students wouldn’t return until the upcoming weekend. Amanda took the lead with the clerk, who seemed surprised to see such an entourage with one Little. “I need to have an adult family member present to verify this?” The girl seemed nervous as she pulled up Connor’s record.

“I’m his grandmother and a Professor; I think I count?”

“Umm… Do you have any proof? I show a mother, Stacy Slane, and a second mom of Gabriella Ann Dubois-Slane?”

“My mom’s maiden name is Westerfield,” he lied to her. Then, he pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to the clerk. “This shows my proof?”

The clerk said, “Just a minute…?”

Ten minutes later, a manager and calls to Dean Northrup by Amanda and another from her Dad to President Barnes apparently allowed Connor to finally receive a fitted student ID band. “I saw you’re an exchange student. Make sure you come to see us to remove this before you go home. There’s no other way to remove it without our equipment.”

“Will do,” Connor replied.

When they finally reached a waiting Luxuria limo they’d called, Connor looked tired until he climbed in the open door.
 

I LOOKED AROUND the limo...? That was really all I could classify it, and I forced my jaw back into my face. “Whoa!” I said. “This looks expensive?”

I found myself awkwardly climbing into a vehicle that felt like a train car at my size. Suddenly a woman showed up in front of me out of nowhere. “Greetings, let me help you get into your seat, little one.”

“Wha…?” I tried to say even as I was picked up into the air. An infant car seat, complete with a carrying handle, panned into my vision.

I was buckled in before anyone else even had a chance to say anything.

“There you go, baby boy,” she cooed.

“Luxuria, please note that Connor is not an adopted Little and should be treated as an adult,” Cameron said.

“Records do not show Connor in the system?”

“Create a new record for Connor Slane, age nineteen, grandson of Doctors Fred and Amanda Westerfield and exchange student at Emerson University,” Grandma told it.

“New rider record created. If all riders are on board, where would you like to go?”

“Please take us to the Nexus Point Mall?” Addison told it.

The vehicle immediately started moving, and I could see from my latched position that everyone else was just sitting on regular seats comfortably. “Do I have to be in this seat?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Beth said. “You do realize how small you are now, right?”

I sighed, “Yes… At least I’m taller than Mom was.”

“That bar was pretty low,” Cameron said. “Look, we’ll probably stay with you all for a bit, but then we have to head to the airport after dinner. I wanted to be sure to meet you, though, as I owe your mom a huge debt. If you ever have any problems or need help while you’re here, please don’t hesitate to call me! I’ve emailed you all of my contact information, and your grandmother has it too.”

“Thanks. Mom told me I could count on you.”

“We all owe your mom at various times, Connor, so please know we’ll do everything we can to help you,” Grandma said. “Now, we’re about five minutes out; what do you need from the stores?”

I mentioned needing some casual clothes, since all I had at this point were uniforms and the clothes I arrived in.. After hearing that Mackenzie was up for letting me swim, a swimsuit was high on my priorities.

“You’ll need swim diapers too, then,” Grandma said.

“Yeah, they definitely won’t let you near that pool without one on,” Addison agreed.

“Speaking of diapers…?” I blushed, “The only ‘protection’ they had to meet that guideline to fit me was diapers. Of course, they’re not ‘Little-Proof,’ but I struggled to get even one side free earlier. Do they make anything like a Pull-Up in my size?”

Addison shook her head. “No…?” While Beth nodded, “Yes, they do.”

“Huh?” Addison said.

“We just need to go to a store that sells training pants for Little babies.”

“Huh?”

Beth shook her head, “Mom, really? I know you’re clueless sometimes, but you know that Littles have to diaper and potty-train their own babies, right?”

Her mom blushed, “I guess that would be the case. I never thought about them having different products, though?”

“SaveNow stocks them. Is there one nearby? I’m sure Connor would rather not wear diapers he doesn’t need?”

“He doesn’t need the Pull-Ups either,” her dad agreed.

“Actually, I think for his safety, he really does, Daddy,” Beth told him and gave me a sympathetic look. “As long as he has at least Pull-Up on, there are fewer ways to ‘get you’ at Emerson now. The Littles who still refuse to wear any protection are the ones that disappear. Even if you’re full-time diaper-dependent you can graduate now… As long as you’re wearing them it’s a lot easier to stay out of trouble.”

I looked over at her, “Can we stop there first?”

“Luxuria, would you please stop at the nearest SaveNow first?” Her dad requested.

“Certainly, Your Honor,” Luxuria replied. Then, I felt the vehicle leave the freeway we’d been on, and make a few turns before coming to a stop.

“We probably don’t all need to go in, right?” Cameron said.

“Right,” Addison said. “Why don’t you leave this up to Amanda and me?”

“Why you two?” her daughter Laura asked.

“We’re the biggest and most intimidating people here. No one will mess with Connor if we go with him.”

“You’ll need me there too,” Beth said.

“Why?”

“Because I actually know the brands you’re looking for?”

“Why do you know so much about that?” Amanda asked curiously.

“My best friend’s mom runs a daycare for Little Babies and toddlers… I got a lecture when I went with her to see her mom.”

I couldn’t tell what was so wrong with that, but the looks they were giving her were not pleasant. “Is that wise…?” Her mom asked.

“Her mom is a Little. It’s safe.”

Her dad shook his head, “Go on, you all, so we can get moving!”

“Yes, Daddy,” Beth said.

Beth reached into the car seat and grabbed at the buckle to release me before picking me up and setting me down on the limo’s floor. “Let’s go,” she told me.

This grocery store looked a little more rundown than most stores I’d been in back home. It reminded me of one I’d been to in a big city, in a poorer part of town. As if to confirm that fact, I could see tall pillars meant to prevent carts from leaving the store.

“Beth, I’m not sure about this neighborhood,” her mom whispered.

“Relax, Mom, it’s fine,” she told her, leading the way.

The store doors were so much bigger than me that it felt like I was walking through a commercial sized garage door back home. The automatic doors had swung open with a creak that belied their age. Beth looked around for just a moment before making a beeline for the baby and Little aisle.

Something about the way Beth walked made me sense some false bravado, while Grandma and Addison flanked us both on our trek.

Soon my nose was filled with the scent of baby powder, and my eyes widened at the baby aisle. One side of the long aisle appeared to be stocked for genuine babies, and the opposite side contained the same items for Littles. I grimaced as we passed some of the locking pacifiers Mom had told me about, but for the most part, the aisle lacked most of the terrifying things I knew existed in the dimension. On our right were soon training pants for babies, and on our left were training pants for Littles.

Beth leaned down to me, “I should have asked you before we came in. How much do you weigh?”

I blushed, “Sixty-five pounds. I lost two-thirds of my weight.”

She nodded and turned to the name brand Pull-Ups for the dimension. I blushed as she looked up and down for a second before settling on a package that said L7T. “I think these would fit you fine, Connor,” she said quietly.

Grandma had moved down the aisle and came back with another package, “These would also work.”

Beth’s package was clearly made for potty-training Little toddlers. A glance to my right had revealed the smallest product for Amazon and Bigs had begun at one hundred pounds, but this one seemed to be fifty-five pounds and up. In addition, a set of sickeningly cute characters were displayed on the package of what I assumed was a toddler show in the dimension.

Grandma’s package was apparently the smallest size in what looked like a product just made for bedwetting. It was plainer with just some moons and stars on a blue background.

“Which one is better?” I whispered.

“Beth’s would be easier to change,” Grandma said, “These would be more mature out of the two…?”

“Your Nest Mother might be more inclined to let you wear them if they have a more… immature… cute print?” Beth said.

I looked up at her and blushed. “Let’s go with those then,” I said, pointing towards the real Pull-Ups.

“Okay then, let’s grab you enough to get you through the next few weeks,” Grandma said. I watched as she grabbed two boxes with forty-eight in each. “Beth, can you grab one more box there?”

“Sure,” she told her. “Anything else?”

“Mackenzie should have wipes, right?” Grandma asked.

“Yes, but maybe some for Connor’s bag?”

I blushed but watched as a package was added to Beth’s arms.

I looked over at the swim diapers and said, “Oh… Don’t forget my Nest Mother said I could go swimming with her in the mornings?”

“That’s right, you need swim diapers,” Addison filled in. “Down here.”

The aisle had stayed clear of anyone else until right when she picked up a couple packages. A Big mother was pushing a cart with her genuine toddler inside. “Aww… looks like someone else is getting ready to learn how to use the potty too!” She commented on everyone’s full arms. I, unfortunately, made eye contact with her then, “Can’t be this baby boy, can it?” She looked at Beth, “Must be this big girl here…?”

“Come on,” Beth said before anything else could be made of it. At the check-out, the checker was a Mid just a bit shorter than Beth and made no comment about any of it. Grandma paid without letting me even consider doing so.

At the exit, she asked, “Do you want to get changed into one of your new pants?”

I blushed but nodded, “Yes…?”

“Do you want to use the car or the bathroom there?”

I felt my stomach plummet at the thought of having a diaper change in front of my new pseudo-relatives. “Bathroom?”

She squeezed my arm, “Beth, can you take the rest of this out to the car? We’ll get Connor into a more appropriate set of underwear here.”

“Sure!”

I blushed as I watched Beth open the package of Pull-Ups and hand one to Grandma. “Do you need wipes?”

“No, we’ll be fine,” Grandma said. She surprised me then by picking me up, holding the Pull-Up in hand, and walking deeper into the store again. I could see the restroom signs for men and women and another that said ‘Family Room.’ Honestly, I expected her to go into the Family Room, so I was surprised when she took me into the women’s.

“I…”

“This works better, trust me,” Grandma leaned over towards me.

I sighed but walked in with her. Inside I was grateful to see a wall of stalls to grant privacy to anyone inside. She led me down the row to an open stall. I felt my face blush as she followed me inside and closed the door behind her. “You’ll have to take your pants and everything off,” she told me.

I nodded but felt a blush spread over my entire body right then! I kicked my shoes loose first, then grimaced as I pulled down my pants to expose the diaper. I tried to undo the tapes myself, but her strong, large hands reached down first and ripped them for me, pulling the diaper out from between my legs. I watched for a second while she took the training pants under her arm and, meanwhile, balled up the diaper to dispose of it.

“All dry!” she said to me. “Why don’t we have you try the potty while we’re here?”

I blushed but didn’t have any chance to say anything as she picked me up and held me precariously on top of a much too-large toilet seat. “Don’t let go,” I said nervously.

She laughed, “I promise I won’t. See if you can’t go, though?”

I tried to pretend she wasn’t holding me. I tried to pretend she wasn’t in the room…

It wasn’t until I was startled by a sink running in the bathroom that I managed to let loose the stream of urine into the bowl. A woman was having a discussion with a young girl, it sounded like, but fortunately, by the time I finished peeing and the door had opened, they’d left!

“All done?” Grandma asked me.

I nodded, “Yes, Grandma.”

I was mortified when she brought some toilet paper over and wiped both sides of me to make sure I was clean. Then, she stood me up on the floor and fluffed out the Pull-Up. “This is so tiny!” she cooed as she did so.

I groaned but stepped in the leg holes of the held Pull-Up. It was covered in characters that looked vaguely like a cross between a Disney character and Sesame Street. I was far too embarrassed to ask about their names! I wasted no time pulling my pants back up to conceal them, and slammed my feet into the shoes I had been given in my uniform package.

After opening the door, she tossed the diaper just as a teenaged girl just a bit younger than me saw it and gave me a knowing look and smile. I just turned away and followed Grandma to the sink. ‘Just how many humiliating experiences am I going to have today?’ I wondered while washing my hands.

Back in the Luxuria vehicle, another followed as Laura picked me up and sat me in the infant carrier seat without anyone asking her to do so!

 
 

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

Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Chapters 10 and 11 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 10: Urgency
 

I COULDN’T HELP but blush as Laura began talking to me about things right after buckling me in the baby seat. “So, what did you do in high school?”

I shrugged but found my shoulder movement limited by the stupid straps. “I swam freshman and sophomore years, and even medaled at the state level sophomore year. I like band more, though, so I stuck with just music my last two years.”

“Any other sports?” Jason asked.

I noted that Beth and Grandma were both listening to my responses.

“No, I’m not really much of an athlete…?”

“Weren’t you like taller than everyone else around you, though?” Jason pushed.

I shrugged, “I was, but more gangly than a massive pile of muscles that would do football or something.”

“Didn’t you study Tae Kwon Do like your mom?” Grandma asked me.

I made eyes around the car. Cameron shook his head and laughed, “You don’t have to worry about saying things in here, Connor. You can guarantee the moment your grandmother sat down in the car, she scanned for anything bug-wise. The actual vehicle AI was written by her, so I have a feeling she also has a way to make Luxuria forget about anything?”

“Just a simple privacy mode, Justice Sylvester.” She smirked.

“So…?” Grandma asked.

“I thought Mom told you this?”

“Not everything. The portal communications are way riskier for being overheard.”

I nodded at that, “I get that.” I looked at her, “Yes, my siblings and I have been practicing Tae Kwon Do with our mom since before we were out of diapers.”

Laura snorted.

“Laura!” Cameron hissed.

“Sorry, it’s a normal pun Daddy,” Beth tried to help her sister out. “I heard it was used on you once upon a time?”

I watched the Justice turn red himself then too. His glare seemed deflected from some sort of invisible shield though as Laura looked unphased.

“So, are you good?” Jason asked.

“I’m good enough,” I told him with a smile.

“Further than your mom was when she came?”

“When she left,” I told Grandma.

She looked a bit surprised then, and I realized Mom hadn’t been sharing that information. “Your great-grandfather would have loved to meet you,” she told me.

“Mom’s said that too,” I told her.

Suddenly the holographic woman reappeared and said, “We have arrived at your destination. I’ll wait here for you.”

“Thanks!” Beth told her as she wasted no time in reaching over to help me out of the seat.

“I’m going to grab a spare couple of Pull-Ups to put in my bag,” Grandma announced to the whole world.

“I won’t need them, I hope…?”

“Never know,” Addison said, breaking her silence. “You just had that lunch with all of the other exchange students. I wouldn’t put it past someone to have messed with visiting students there.”

I groaned but knew that was true. Beth sat me down outside the large vehicle and asked, “Where to first?”

“You probably need everything clothing-wise at this point?” Grandma asked.

“Except underwear, apparently,” I said with a blush.

“Let’s just hit a few of the big stores, Beth. We shouldn’t need to hit every teen store that you and Laura love here. Most won’t even have clothes in Connor’s sizes.”

“Go to a couple of the Little shops?” Laura suggested.

“Maybe… I don’t think we’re looking for baby clothes though, Laura,” Cameron said to her. He looked at his watch. “This will have to be a bit of a speed trip, I’m afraid, if we’re going to catch dinner before we leave.”

“Let’s get to it then!” Addison said and reached down to hold her husband’s hand.
 

BETH WAS ACTUALLY genuinely amazed at how quick a trip to the mall could be made when her mom and Amanda put their minds to it. Even the super-shopper Laura looked outpaced as they made it from one store to another.

“You’ll have to wear your uniform most of the time,” Amanda had told Connor as they started. “Let’s just focus on several pairs of jeans, maybe some slacks, a few t-shirts, dress shirts, and that swimsuit you mentioned?”

Connor had clearly been prepared for the trip, but even so, Beth watched him shirk into the group more as they passed some Bigs who were even taller than her mom. At one point, he was looking at a pair of pants Amanda had handed to him, when a teenaged salesgirl asked, “Do you need help trying on those pants? I can help you!”

“No thank…” was all poor Connor got out before the girl was already popping the snaps of his uniform pants open.

“Excuse me, he doesn’t need help. And if he does, he’s got me, his grandmother, and my mom to help,” Beth found herself saying to the tall girl who towered over her. She had just about turned Connor’s pants into a skirt by pulling open the snaps but suddenly stopped when she realized the looks she was getting.

“Umm… Sorry about that, I’ll go help another customer!” The girl dashed away to the checkouts, and Connor was left blushing the cutest shade of red ever.

Unable to help herself, Beth found herself leaning over and redoing the snaps for him. Fortunately, the ones furthest up his crotch hadn’t yet been undone, so it avoided a bit of awkwardness. “Sorry about that,” she apologized to Connor.

“It’s okay,” he said with a sigh, “thanks for stepping in.”

“Happy to,” she smiled at him. ‘He really is cute… I wish he’d come through at his own height!’

A few minutes later, she held onto the pants for him while they got a key to a dressing room. They were told that Littles weren’t allowed in one on their own according to store policy, so Amanda went with him. ‘Dad probably should’ve been the one…?’ Beth couldn’t help thinking.

While they were at the checkout counter, the girl shriveled when her mom gave her a stern look. “Mom, you don’t have to terrorize everyone,” Laura said.

“Only people who deserve it?” Beth said. “And she deserved it.”

“What else do we still need?” her mom asked Amanda and Connor.

“Swimsuit?” Connor said.

“Excuse me, do you have any swimsuits in Little sizes available?” Beth asked the girl who was finishing bagging their purchases.

She shook her head, “It’s not quite time for them to be in-season for us. You might try Littlecise? They’re a few doors down?”

“Thanks,” Amanda told her.

Beth grimaced; she’d walked past those stores before. “You sure you want a swimsuit…?” She asked Connor. “If that’s the only store carrying them right now, it may not be worth the trip?”

“How bad?” Connor asked her.

“Probably a six or a seven out of ten?” she responded.

He shrugged, “I don’t want to get fat, and none of the exercise equipment in the dorm is sized for me. Mackenzie said she would take me with her to swim in the mornings if I got a suit?”

“I’ll walk beside him,” her mom said to her. “Amanda and I’ll go in with him. Why don’t the rest of you go do a quick fifteen minutes, and we’ll meet you outside the store?”

Beth saw the look on Connor’s face and felt terrible for him as he realized the group was about to be less protective. “I’ll go with you too,” she told them.

“You sure, sweetie?” her mom asked.

“Yeah, sis? They probably carry things in your size there…?” Laura looked at her in surprise.

She shot her sister a laser glare and said, “We’re just two college students. We’ll be fine.”

Laura shook her head and said, “Jason, let’s go down over there and see if they have any of those headset accessories Meggy told us about!”

Beth looked up and followed her mom and Amanda down the hallway with Connor beside her.
 

I COULDN’T HELP but be nervous based on the signals I’d been getting as we walked into Littlecise. It instantly became apparent why Beth had been worried about this store. Immediate inside were racks and racks of ballet leotards, dresses, and other dance apparel appropriate for a three-year-old’s first ballet recital!

The following section consisted of some sort of wrist and ankle cuffs that led your Little in guided aerobic exercise. Another area featured safe mats you could fall onto. It was adjacent to a section of balance beam type units and even some sort of VR headset attached to a baby bouncer.

Grandma and Addison moved quickly through the store until we were greeted. “Good afternoon! Oh my gosh, your baby boy is so cute!” She said, looking at me. “You must be such a good big sister too, huh?”

Beth looked like she wanted to die right then.

Thankfully Addison spoke up, “we’re looking for a swimsuit for Connor here. We were told you might have some in stock?”

“Oh, you have a wading pool somewhere for him?”

“Something like that,” Amanda said.

“Well, over here, we have the selection. Of course, there are about four girl choices for each boy choice. Boys’ clothes are so bland, aren’t they?” She looked at Beth as she said that.

Beth shrugged, “I guess.”

Internally I actually agreed with the woman completely. I had always thought it wasn’t fair how many more choices my sisters had.

“It looks like we have these five styles in small enough sizes. They’re based on the latest competition suits we say, but the important part is they’re basically a romper and will keep him from accidentally falling out of his suit, or worse yet, his diaper. About six months, I’m guessing?”

“That’s right,” Amanda said.

She looked and held out four options. One was a light blue with white horizontal stripes that looked pretty girly to me. Another featured cartoon sharks on them, one had flowers, and another had ‘Handsome’ on its butt. All of them were like a wetsuit almost with sleeveless shoulders that would cover all the way down to a pair of shorts. ‘I like that it covers me more…’ I thought. ‘Too bad these were banned from competition back home, I might have kept swimming longer…’

I did grimace about the patterns and decorations though, as Grandma asked, “Which ones do you want?”

“I guess the sharks and the blue ones?”

“How about the flowers?” Beth said, “I know a lot of guys who have that style?”

“I also even have a matching larger one-piece for your sister here, too, if you pick it!”

Before Beth or I could say ‘no,’ Addison said, “Sold, show me the other suit!” with a wink at Beth.

Poor Beth looked like she was about to die, but got let off the hook when they discovered her size was unfortunately out of stock. ‘I would kill my mom if she did that… but she would do something like that too!’

I paid for the swimsuits… or rather, Grandma paid for me, before we headed out to rejoin the others. “Find something?” Cameron asked us.

I nodded, “Not great, but they’ll work.”

“Almost found something for Beth to match, too,” Addison smirked.

“Really? Cute?” Cameron looked like he was enjoying picking on his daughter as well.

Beth looked at me, “Tell me your parents are just as crazy?”

I laughed, “My mom came here before me on an exchange program; what do you think?”

By that point, I had jeans, shirts, sweatshirts, pajamas, socks, shoes, and now swimsuits in my new size, so I figured we were about good. “Dinner now?” I asked.

They looked at the watch devices on their wrists, and Cameron said, “It’s early, but we have to get to the airport for our flight, and you’ll need to get you back to your dorm and unpack the rest of your stuff before bedtime.”

“Seems like we’ve got a plan then,” Grandma said. There was a bit of discussion on where everyone wanted to eat, finally settling on a casual place that Cameron and Addison apparently used to frequent. “I’ll call Fred and have him meet us there.”

The walkout to the car was almost successful, until I suddenly felt the urgent need to go pee, followed by some sudden cramping in my stomach! “Is there a bathroom on the way out?” I asked.

Beth looked at me, “How bad?”

“Bad…?”

“This way to the closest one,” she said as she reached down and grabbed my hand, and pulled me along. Grandma and Addison followed right behind us as I caught a glimpse of a bathroom sign.

The urgency inside my gut was growing fast! It was faster than it had been when I’d been the victim of food poisoning one time. My need to pee suddenly felt like I’d been holding things for an entire day!

Beth looked down at me as we reached the restroom and said, “Almost there!”

I watched her force the large door open and couldn’t help but note that even though I was only waist-high to her, the door made her look like a tiny kid pushing it open!

The grumbling in my gut grew stronger even as an open stall appeared! Finally, I managed to pull my pants and shirt out of the way, but before I could even fathom whose arms were trying to help, I lost the battle.

Epically lost the battle!

I felt a pile of muck begin to fill the back of my Pull-Up!

Its stickiness was just registering in my brain while the front was being soaked by my urine. There was literally no stopping it, and I just stood there helplessly as Grandma and Beth’s eyes watched me.

Whatever had affected my stomach was vicious because my intestines must have emptied everything they had right then. I looked down in horror as I realized the leg gatherers had given up in their battle to hold everything inside. Small gooey droplets began climbing down my legs like some sort of slugs.

I looked up helplessly as Beth said, “I’ll give you two some privacy…?”

My heart broke as I figured any normal relationship between us was probably ruined.

After several long moments, I heard a mom come in with her young daughter. “Go potty, sweetheart, then we’ll go play in the playpark for a bit!”

“Mommy, it’s stinky!”

“Now, sweetie, sometimes that happens in the potty room. You don’t smell so good sometimes yourself! Do you need me to help you on the potty?”

“Mommy! I’m five now! I’m a big girl! I don’t need help to potty!”

I heard a giggle, “Okay, but you know I’ll help you if you change your mind!”

I heard the adjacent stall door close, even as Amanda asked, “Done?”

I could feel my stomach clenching in some sort of painful after-effects. My abdominal muscles that had been forced to release my bowels felt like they’d been beaten up in a tournament where I lost every match or something. “I think so…? Why did that happen?”

“I’m guessing there was something at lunch; Beth was right to be worried. You’ll probably go back to find the rest of your friends also had some issues.”

“Not you?” I gasped, realizing now I had to get out of the mess I was in. I was concerned my pants would get ruined, so I tried kicking them off.

“I’ll get those,” she said. “I’m guessing they only put it in the desserts of Littles, or they may have only used a small dose that would get someone your size.”

“Can I complain?” I asked, annoyed at being poisoned.

“Not worth it,” she told me as she managed to free my shoes and feet from the pants. Thankfully, they were still clean. “I know you’re not going to like this, but why don’t we get you cleaned up on a changing table. It’s a bit easier on my old bones,” she told me.

I nodded, “Okay.”

She motioned for me to follow her out of the stall to where a couple countertop changing tables were situated. Grandma pulled something from her oversized purse to place down on the table. She was just about to lift me up under my arms onto the table when I heard, “She’s a stinky baby! She missed the potty!”

I winced, guessing my hair threw her right then.

“Now, sweetie, that little boy can’t help it any more than you could a couple years ago! It’s not nice to pick on Littles who can’t help themselves! Now apologize!”

I was being lifted up by Grandma as the girl came toward me and said, “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to be mean.”

I winced as I was sat down on top of the counter and more poop squirted out of the leg holes. “Umm… apology accepted,” I had no idea what else to say.

“Well, we’ll let you get back to clean up there. From the back, I figured he was a girl. That’s some long hair for a boy!”

Grandma laughed, “family tradition.”

She looked at me with sympathy and pushed me onto my back. The girl and her mother washed their hands even as she began pulling at the Velcro sides of the Pull-Up. “This isn’t going to be pleasant,” she whispered.

“Sorry…”

“Unfortunately, you couldn’t help this at all. I’ll talk with your grandfather about getting you some things like we used to have for your mother to help. We’ll have something for you when you come home with us this weekend.”

I nodded as she lifted my legs effortlessly awayfrom the disgusting Pull-Up, just like one would a tiny baby. Baby wipes came out, and she brought one up to my butt. I winced at the intimate touch as she began first down the middle of my butt, then made her way to both cheeks with a second and third wipe. Finally, she used one hand to wrap everything in the destroyed Pull-Up and tossed it into an adjacent disposal chute.

Still holding my legs up, she wiped me with a few more wipes and then asked, “Do you want to wear a diaper to be safe? You may not be done with all of that?”

I felt my eyes open, “I thought the point of the Pull-Ups…?”

“Not when the deck is being stacked against you. I’d honestly say you probably should wear a diaper to dinner, and you’ll have to at bedtime regardless. Try your Pull-Ups again tomorrow?”

“What if I need to go?”

“They’ll hold anything you can throw at them?”

I didn’t know how things went so far off the rails so quickly, but I couldn’t think of a good response right then. Instead, I just stared at Grandma with my jaw open…
 
 

Chapter 11: Family
 

BETH FELT HORRIBLE for poor Connor! She might not remember her time as a Little, but she could remember seeing the looks of horror on the faces of all those Littles around her as she grew up the second time. Even in the State of New Haven where she’d grown up, while forced babying didn’t occur as often, pranks from Bigger students to Littles were not unheard of. One time, her friend Elsie had been the subject of a spiked drink while they were at a dance.

It was horrifying to see her poor friend going from looking like a princess in a beautiful gown when they arrived, to leaving in a school diaper and onesie. The worst part had been the school forcing her and six others with the same problem to wear diapers for the next six months until the end of the school year. Elsie had been just under six feet tall, but most of the others had been shorter. Lindsay had been the exception, as she was as tall as Beth was now. Nearly eight feet tall and spending her junior year in diapers had been horrible for the poor girl. She’d eventually transferred to a school in another town to escape everything.

Beth knew all too well about the ease of discretely using the products that had evolved from ones her mom’s mother had developed. Some of them didn’t even require ingestion now, so she was sure Connor hadn’t stood a chance of resisting.

Her mom asked her some inane questions as everyone stood around waiting for Connor to be cleaned up.

The door opened, and she saw a Big mom and her young girl coming out. “Mommy, why was that Little in Pull-Ups? Shouldn’t he wear diapees?”

She shook her head, Ames was better now, but there was no doubt that prejudices still ran deep here towards adult Littles. A few minutes later, Amanda held the door open for Connor as he came out.

Connor had been wearing the Pull-Up before, which was slightly thinner, but now definitely had additional padding on his rear. He looked embarrassed and refused to meet anyone’s eyes as they walked to the waiting vehicle. Her dad and the others had gone on ahead, so Amanda and she were the only ones there as the limo’s door lifted open for them.

Beth bent down to Connor and said, “Hey, don’t worry about this. It’s not going to be the last time someone spikes something on you, and you can’t let anyone know it gets you down.”

Connor looked at her in surprise, “Why would you care?”

“Well, your mom apparently had a close friendship with my dad, which means she must have been a special lady. I know they were never more than friends, but I think they were pretty close friends? I’m not exactly a ‘family member,’ like Amanda is, but we can be friends too?”

Connor was red with embarrassment but looked up at her and said, “I can definitely use friends.”

He held out a hand to her, but she leaned over and hugged him instead. “Better get used to hugs if you’re going to be my friend!”

“Aww…” Laura said from behind her.

She turned and glared at her baby sister, “Hush you!”

Some giggling broke out, but at least some of the tension left Connor’s shoulders. Luxuria buckled Connor in again, and they were soon off to a restaurant that Beth knew had been a favorite of her parents when they had been in school. Apparently, it was being run by the original owner’s daughter now. The menu had changed some, though, and she personally appreciated that there were some more modern dishes on the menu!

Her parents were both recognized by the hostess, who, after seating them, ran to the back to let the owner know they were there. “Cameron, Addy!” the woman, a bit younger than her parents, said happily in her chef’s jacket. “I’m glad you came!”

“Wouldn’t miss it, Ginny!” her dad told the woman. “Needed a place to take the kids to eat before leaving them to eat the horrors of campus food for the next semester.”

“Those are horrors,” she agreed. “I didn’t go to Emerson, but I’ve heard enough horror stories to know it’s best to be avoided. Beth, you’re the one going to school here, right?”

Beth looked up at the woman, surprised she remembered her name, “That’s right.” She inclined her head to where Connor sat in a booster seat between her and Amanda, “And this is Connor; he’s also a student.”

She smiled in a way that made her believe she probably didn’t want to rip Connor from the booster seat and baby him. “Nice to meet you, Connor. How do you know this clan?”

He pointed to her dad, “Her dad was friends with my mom in college.” Then, he pointed to Amanda, “She’s my adopted grandmother.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you! Feel free to come here and eat sometime if you want. I don’t let anyone bother customers, if you know what I mean. Enjoy the meal!”

Beth took that cue to start looking at her extensive menu while noting that a smaller, but identical, version had been handed to Connor. Many empty seats were still present at the table for the rest of Amanda’s family, who was supposed to be arriving soon.
 

I LOOKED AROUND the menu for a few minutes, deciding what I wanted to eat. I didn’t remember Mom mentioning this place, so I assumed it wasn’t one that she went to with Grandma. I was just about set on picking something that was a spicy chicken roast dish when Grandma waved at someone, “Over here.”

I turned and saw a small entourage coming inside then, and I assumed this meant I was going to meet the rest of the family. Walking in front was a couple made up of a larger man and a shorter woman. I recognized my Great-Aunt Megan from pictures mom had shown me, which meant the man next to her must have been her husband, Matt. A couple of taller teenagers walked beside them, while Megan carried a toddler-sized Little on her hip that I knew must be mom’s friend Meggy from pictures I’d seen.

What surprised me was how young she looked! ‘How does she look younger than me?’ I could help but think!

Behind them was an older giant of a man using a cane to help stabilize himself, and a shorter Little with two taller teenage Littles, a boy, and a girl, beside her, walked in front of him. I was soon introduced in a flurry of hugs. The shorter Little was my Aunt Bella, and the other two Littles were her kids, Ryan and Shelby. After everyone was seated, I really wanted the full story of how an adopted Little had kids but had been given a whispered, “We’ll explain this weekend.”

I was used to our family of six, which was a fair amount of chaos, but this large table of extended ‘family’ was a bit overwhelming, so I went back to the menu. A dish labeled ‘Spicy Stuffed Cantalonian Chicken’ intrigued me. Mom had raised us to eat the ‘spiciest foods on the planet’ according to my sister Riley’s friends. Of course, none of us blinked an eye at it, but apparently, that wasn’t normal.

The waitress came by, taking orders, “And for you, sweetie?”

“I’ll take this spicy stuffed chicken?”

“Umm… I don’t normally get like this, but our shorter guests typically can’t handle that dish?”

Grandma laughed beside me, “I’m guessing he’ll be fine with it. His mother had weird taste buds, and I have a feeling he takes after her with that.”

The woman raised an eyebrow at us but continued down without further comment to Beth, who ordered some sort of pasta dish with seafood. I watched the odd family dynamics as Meggy and Bella had bibs velcroed around their necks. Meanwhile, Bella’s kids, Ryan and Shelby, were treated like adults with booster seats to help them reach the table. Ryan looked a little older than I was. Shelby talked to Laura about both graduating in a few months from high school.

I did my best to track conversations to learn about this group, but there was so much going on! Beth must have sensed it, “Not used to this?”

I shook my head, “I mean, I have three sisters, so it gets loud sometimes, but this is pretty chaotic?”

She laughed, “It can get worse, you know? Wait until you’re eating in the cafeteria tomorrow?”

I shrugged, “That always seems different. I don’t care about others talking. I’m just curious to get to know all of these ‘relatives’ I’ve never met here. I know Mom said Aunt Bella had two kids, but I didn’t know I had cousins before? Mom and my Mama were both only children.”

Beth looked at me and said, “My dad was an only child too, and my mom’s sister has been in prison with a rejuvenation sentence for as long as I can remember, so I can understand that.”

I found myself giving up tracking all the different conversations, and just chatting with Beth then. I was genuinely surprised at how easy it was to talk with her. I also appreciated that she hadn’t once brought up my accident in the mall! Eventually, food arrived, and I felt my eyes practically explode at how large the food was.

“This is enormous!” I exclaimed.

Amanda laughed, “That’s pretty close to your mom’s reaction when she first saw our food. I should have remembered to ask them to split the portion into a box.”

I nodded, “Do our dorms have refrigerators?”

“They do have some common area fridges, but I wouldn’t trust anything left in them,” Beth told me. “Something like that left in a fridge is just asking for tampering.”

I sighed, still remembering the feeling of my bowels suddenly being outside of my control earlier. Even now, I could feel my guts occasionally groaning in protest. ‘I hope this meal isn’t a mistake!’

The waitress seemed to hover in the distance after delivering our meals, and I felt like she was particularly watching me. But, for that matter, so were most of those at our table.

“What?” I asked as I sliced a piece of the chicken and collected some of the stuffing onto the bite.

“Just waiting,” Aunt Bella said beside Grandpa Fred.

He had his own twinkle in his eye, “Go ahead,” he said.

I shook my head and went for it. Mom had said something about eating contests with Grandpa Fred once. The bite was quite flavorful but only left the barest tingle on my personal spice meter. “Were you all waiting to see if I would cry from it being too hot or something?” I asked, spearing another bite and ensuring a pepper was now wrapped around the meat.

Aunt Bella shook her head from the high chair she was sat in. “Your mom was just as weird. I don’t know how you can eat that!”

The waitress came by about ten minutes later, “Everything okay?” She asked.

“It’s good,” the chorus came.

“And you, sweetie, that’s not too spicy for you?”

I laughed, “If you think this is spicy, you really need to get out more…?”

The waitress looked at me like my body had sprouted a couple of extra heads. “Umm… Does that mean you don’t like it?”

“Oh, I’m happy with my choice. It is tasty, just not spicy?”

She left soon after, shaking her head, which made Beth giggle. “I wonder if any spicy food contests are coming up on campus?”

“The bigger question is if they’re during hours that a Little may attend,” Grandma said beside me. “Fred had difficulty finding contests in the right hours to take Stacy to.”

“My mom did spicy food contests here?” I felt cheated by not having heard this story. “She never told us that one?”

Grandpa Fred had been listening and jumped in from the head of the table, “Your mom always had a theory that since in your dimension, the smaller the pepper, the spicier it is, and since ours were so large, that nothing really was as spicy as yours. It took until we found some hybrid pepper before I ever saw her even sweat!”

I laughed at that, “We’ve gone to a few special shows out of town for spicy foods over the years. I never knew that Mom was hustling people here, though?”

“Oh, she definitely was!” Cameron said. “I always enjoyed her having fun at some moron's expense. She put plenty of Bigs to shame on what she could eat. You definitely should try and hit up a contest if there is one!”

After that, I became the center of attention with stories from Mom’s time from Cameron, Grandma, Grandpa, and Great-Aunt Megan. Meggy contributed a number of the better stories. Some of my favorites included the escapades that she, Megan, and Beth’s dad had gone on together. I knew they were together when Meggy had to be adopted but didn’t bring that story up!

Eventually, dinner was wrapped up, and we were waiting for the check that Beth’s dad insisted on picking up. I heard arguing from everyone about that, but just tuned it out, waiting instead for a chance to say thank you. Grandma nudged me then, “Need to use the restroom before we leave?”

I could feel my bladder was kind of full, so I said, “Yeah, actually?”

“Fred, you want to take Connor to the men’s room with you?”

“Sure, Mandy,” he told her.

“Come on,” he told me. “Anyone else need to go?” He looked at Bella’s son Ryan.

“I’m good, Grandpa,” he told him.

I followed the giant man through the restaurant with my backpack. I noted his cane didn’t seem to be all that necessary and wondered if he was just dealing with some sort of recovery from something. Then, finally, the bathroom was opened up, and he asked, “Just need to pee?”

I thought for a second and nodded, “I think so.”

“Let’s get you out of that diaper then. I think you can reach that urinal over there?”

He motioned towards an ultra-low urinal that kind of surprised me, actually. It seemed even lower than the fixtures in the bathroom in the dorm, so obviously, the restaurant was okay with Littles using the potty here. Fred undid one tape and asked, “Is that enough?”

I nodded and moved towards the urinal. It was a relief to go like a normal person this time! He used the taller urinal next to me while I went. I was done long before he was and tried to figure out if I could restick the Velcro tab myself. I gave it an attempt but was sure it wasn’t tight enough when I reattached it.

“You get it?” He asked.

I shook my head, “I don’t think it’s tight enough?”

He picked me up and sat me on the countertop, undoing the tape quickly, and resticking it much tighter. “Better?”

I nodded, “Yeah.”

“Good, let’s wash our hands and get going! I know Cameron and Addy have to get going to make their flight soon!”

When we came back out, I found Grandma and the others just standing up from the table. “Thank you for dinner, Cameron,” Fred told him. “You didn’t have to do that!”

Cameron laughed, “You didn’t have to help me years ago either!” Then, he looked down at me, “You all good?”

“I think so?”

“Well, let’s get you and Beth back to campus then, and then we’ll head to the airport!”
 

BETH HUGGED HER dad and mom goodbye. “I love you guys! See you soon!” Laura and Jason got hugs, too, though Jason looked annoyed by his. ‘Boys!’ she thought.

Meanwhile, Amanda and Fred had loaded everything they bought into Amanda’s car to store some of it. She looked at her watch and saw it was an hour before Amanda had told Connor’s Nest Mother he’d be back. ‘I’d go help move him in… but I really don’t want anything to do with that building!’

She watched her parents drive off a few minutes later while Connor and Amanda had loaded up his backpack, arms, and her arms with as much as they could carry. It looked like they were getting all of the swim diapers and one box of the Pull-Ups in one load. Amanda had a case of water for Connor that she somehow handled well too. “I guess I’ll see you around, Connor,” Beth said, “It was nice seeing you again, Amanda,” she added.

“Don’t be a stranger, sweetheart,” Amanda said. “Why don’t you come over in a few weeks for dinner? A nice home cooked meal?”

“That sounds nice,” Beth told her. She looked at Connor, “I’ll email you later, so you can get my email? Sounds like we might have a class or two together this semester. Maybe we can get together and study?”

Connor’s face brightened, “Sure, that sounds like fun!”

Beth made the awkward trek away from them and towards her own dorm room with the goodbyes finished. She had just reached the elevator and pressed the door-close button when she heard, “Wait!!!”

She reflexively hit the door-open button and smiled, “Livy! You’re back!!!” She gave the slightly taller girl a hug, before noticing the backpack and rolling suitcase with her. “Just got back?”

“Yeah, my flight got in about an hour ago. Got a Bruber back just now.”

“Cool!” She said as she pressed the elevator to go to the fourth floor, where their rooms were next to each other.

“When did you get back?”

“Last night, but I only came in to drop my stuff off this morning. I spent the rest of the day with some… family members and an exchange student.”

“Exchange student? They’re almost always Littles?”

“Connor is…”

“Ooh… Connor?”

“You’re horrible… It’s not like that. My dad and his mom were great friends back when they were here at college.”

“Wait, his mom? I thought you said he was an exchange student?”

Beth laughed, “I don’t know the full story… but what I do know is crazy…!”

Beth and Olivia talked for a long while about Connor’s family story. She couldn’t help but think, ‘I wish he was taller. I actually thought he was kind of cute!’

 
 

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

Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Chapters 12 and 13 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 12: First Night
 

I LOOKED AROUND the room as I walked through the door to my ‘nest’ with Grandma behind me. I felt a bit of my stomach pop out as I saw Liam standing in the corner of the room with his nose against the wall in nothing but a diaper.

A well-used one at that! The back of it looked discolored, and there was a clear smell in the air that I unconsciously wrinkled my nose at.

Mackenzie chose the same moment to walk into the room from her own adjoining room. “Oh, hi, Connor! You’re back!”

“Yes, Miss Mackenzie,” I told her politely.

“Oh, and you bought some new big-boy underwear too?!?” She said with a smirk.

“Connor said you didn’t have any Pull-Ups in his size, so we went to the store and bought some,” Grandma told her.

“Here, let me take those from you!” She opened the box and took a package apart to put in a cubby marked with my name next to the changing table.

“He has some swim diapers here, too. He said you told him it might be possible for him to swim in the mornings with you?”

“I think that should be fine as long as you’re up to waking up at five tomorrow morning?” She added, “That’s when I normally go?”

“Sounds good,” I told her.

“Great!” Mackenzie said with a smile on her face.

“I figured I’d help Connor finish getting settled in here before leaving him. I’ll be back Friday at three in the afternoon to pick him up?”

“Sounds good. You said you cleared it with the Dean?”

“Yes, Dean Northrup and Doctor Greene both gave me approval. I can forward you their messages if you’d like?”

“That won’t be necessary, Professor Westerfield… We all know who you are, after all!”

“Great! We’ll finish getting him unpacked then!” Grandma told her and walked towards my pod area.

When I had first moved away to college, there had been a full mini-trailer pulled behind our car by my parents. Mom and Mama had insisted that I have everything I might need for my dorm room. The result of which had barely fit in the storage I had with my dorm that year!

Coming to this dimension, especially knowing size changes were likely, I had packed a lot lighter! Two small portable game systems were placed on one edge of the desk, and we quickly looked through the clothes I’d brought in one suitcase. “None of these will fit,” Grandma asked.

“No, they’re all way too big!” I told her

A whimper from the corner from Liam made me want to look his way, but instead, I focused on the task at hand. Grandma took the first suitcase of clothes and closed it while I started on the next one. A quick glance around the room showed me that Liam was still facing the corner, and Mackenzie must have gone back to her room. I pressed a hidden button on the bag’s underside and pulled a small package out. I looked at my backpack and realized it had sized down with me better. That was good because the small case was designed to pack away seamlessly in the front compartment. Fortunately it still fit! Hidden once again, I turned my attention to the rest of the bag.

A couple of Riley’s printed artwork pieces showed us popping out of one as siblings, and another showed our moms with us. She’d given them to me for Christmas to bring with me. I knew she charged at least a grand per picture when she did these for other people, so I really appreciated her thoughtful gift!

Both pictures took up the space on either side of where I set my small computer up. “Those are beautiful!” Grandma said.

“Yes, they are. Riley does some amazing work!”

“I know your mom figured that out over here, but we still don’t have anyone selling things like this.”

“Well, you probably have some holo versions?”

To my surprise, she shook her head. “For some reason, photos like this are still all shown on 2D displays or printed on paper.”

“Weird,” I told her. “Riley is probably one of the best at it back home, but others are copying the concept.” I smiled, “But speaking of that!” I pulled out a larger box from the bag. “Riley sent one for you and Grandpa.”

I handed her a sealed box that had barely fit in the bag.

She smiled widely and opened the end of the box to slide out the photo just as Mackenzie came back into the room. “Wow! That’s really cool!” She said, looking over Grandma’s shoulder. “Did you make that, Connor?”

I shook my head, “That’s my little sister Riley’s work. My mom figured out how to make these while she was here, but Riley has taken her method to a whole new level.”

“You all look like you’re completely real tiny people. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sculpture so realistic?” She pointed to the background of the field of wildflowers behind us. “Even the background looks like those flowers are popping out? Like you could pick the miniature flowers! How did she carve that?”

“It’s printed,” I told her.

“That’s cool!” she said. “She could make a fortune here selling those!”

I nodded and watched Grandma push it gently back into the box. “She’s doing pretty well back home already with it.”

I turned my attention to the bag and grabbed a few more stray odds and ends I’d brought out of it. Most of it was adapters and chargers, but some pens, pencils, and things like that also came out to be set on the desk. Moments later, my bags were empty, and Grandma took them from me. “I’ll keep these at our house until you leave,” she told me.

“Thanks, I appreciate that.”

“Well, it looks like that’s all for now.” She bent over and squeezed me in a hug, “I’m so glad to finally be able to meet you in person, Connor! Your mom should be very proud of you! Make sure you let her and your sisters know you made it? I think you should have a good fifteen minutes before getting ready for bed.”

Mackenzie nodded, “Yes, it’s about that long, and then we’ll get Connor and Liam in their jammies for nighttime.”

“I’ll see you Friday, Connor!” I watched as she walked out the door.

I felt a bit of a drop in my mood as the only person in the dimension who truly cared for me left the room.

I looked up when Mackenzie said, “Liam, your timeout is over. Do you have anything to say to me?”

I could hear one of my mothers asking us if we were ready to apologize to each other after our worst sibling fights when we were little.

“How did you even know…?” Liam started out. “Did you do something to me…?”

I groaned internally, ‘not a good way to start an expected apology!’

Mackenzie was more patient than I guessed any of the other Nest Mothers would have been. “Liam, I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t do a thing to you, but when I heard from Miss Kaylee and Miss Lucy that they already had some new pants poopers, I suspected something was in your lunch. Do you see why it was better to have a diaper on?”

“But… I could have… made…?” He sounded like he was about to have an anxiety attack as she closed in on him.

She shook her head and looked over at me. “Connor, be honest with me. Did you have an issue?”

I thought about lying but didn’t trust there to be some way of busting that lie. “Yes, I did. Luckily, I had a Pull-Up on.”

“Is that what you’re wearing now?”

“No, my grandma thought it would be smart to wear a diaper until tomorrow morning.”

“Did you throw a tantrum about it?” Mackenzie asked me.

“No…? I mean, I wasn’t happy about it? But I didn’t exactly get much warning before…?”

“Liam, what would have happened if I hadn’t put you into a diaper?”

“Umm… I would probably have had an accident…?”

“And you remember the demerits happen if you aren’t protected, right?”

He groaned but nodded.

“So, do you have anything to say to me?”

Liam looked past her at me, and I mouthed, ‘say you’re sorry!’

“Sorry,” he said.

“Good boy! Let’s get you out of that stinky diapee into your PJs, and then we’ll do the same with Connor. You two have a big day tomorrow with your placement tests!”

I watched as she picked up the small man and carried him to the changing table. A strap was placed across his chest, and she got to work cleaning him up.

I turned my attention to my computer and quickly used the info I’d been handed to connect it to the wireless data connection in the dorms. It took a couple moments to enable some tools Mom had given me, but I was able to send a quick message letting them know I was okay, had had dinner with Grandma and everyone else, and was getting ready to go to bed in my nest.

I sighed.

I had hoped not to be in a nest!

I had just pressed ‘send’ when I felt a large hand on my shoulder. “Ready to go night-night?” Mackenzie asked me.

I nodded.

“Need to go potty first?”

I took stock of my bladder and nodded, “Yes, please. Can you undo this diaper?”

“We’ll do it in the potty.” I stood up and began walking in that direction while she told Liam, “Go ahead and start getting settled in your pod. I’ll check on you in a moment before I turn the lights off.”

Mackenzie caught up to me in the bathroom, standing in front of one of the fake-looking toilets. I pulled my pants down. Rather than go straight for the diaper, she said, “Let’s get you out of those!”

Without warning, she knelt down, pulled each shoe off, and said, “Step out!”

It was the first time I had been undressed like that since I was little, and I felt my face turn bright red. Mackenzie folded my pants neatly next to her feet and then reached to pull the diaper open. “Dry!” She said to me with a smile.

I could feel that might not last long, though, so I hopped on the toilet and began relieving myself. The piece that prevented you from peeing outside the bowl was appreciated as it also concealed me a little bit. I felt some residual runny poop drop out of my rear and took some offered toilet paper. I awkwardly leaned over to my right to reach my bottom and used a few wads before feeling like I was clean.

I stood up, and my shirt rode down almost far enough to cover myself. Unfortunately, I was still naked, and Mackenzie had my pants in her hand. She walked in front of me for a second and said, “Let’s get you dressed, and then you can come back in here and brush your teeth.”

“Can I wash my hands first?” I asked, red from being embarrassed.

“Sure,” she said. I watched her reverse course and head to the sinks. She turned on the water for me, and I stepped up to the low counter. I quickly washed my hands and took the paper towel she offered me to wipe them dry. Following her back out to the room, I could tell Liam was watching me from inside of his ‘pod.’

I blushed, knowing he got a full mooning a second later as Mackenzie pulled my feet into her hand and lifted my bottom off the changing pad to slide a diaper in underneath me. Instead of immediately taping it closed, she pulled a bottle out and squirted some gooey lotion onto her hand. “In case you do end up using this diaper tonight, I want to make sure you don’t get a diaper rash,” she told me quietly.

I couldn’t help my physical reaction as she rubbed the lotion first into my front, then my butt, and then massaged my legs to get the rest off her gloved hands. Finally, the diaper was put together with two quick little ‘scritch’ sounds of the Velcro material, and she pulled off the gloves.

“Onesie or footed pajamas?” She asked me

“Huh?”

“For your pajamas?” She reached down and held up a t-shirt onesie that would snap closed over the diaper, and a set of footed pajamas.

I blushed but pointed to the footed pajamas. “Those, I guess?”

I wasn’t ready to just leave my diapered butt hanging out to the world in the shirt.

And, truthfully, I’d had my own set of footed pajamas at home that matched my family’s! They were comfy, and right then, I felt a slight chill too. I watched her unzip the green garment, realizing it had the Emerson crest on the left chest and a stylized hood with ears. She undid the strap and guided me to stand up on the table. Mackenzie held the pajamas for me as I stuck my feet inside and then took charge of zipping the extended zipper from my foot to my collar.

“There! Why don’t you go brush your teeth, wash your face, and then we’ll get you settled in for the night?” She told me as she set me on my feet on the ground.

I nodded, “Okay,” and gathered the small attaché case I’d brought. Over the past ten years back home, these custom ‘U-shaped’ toothbrushes had become the standard back home. Initially created for kids, they did a better job getting all of your teeth clean much quicker. As soon as I looked at mine, I realized it was much too big for my smaller mouth, and wasn’t going to work. I sighed and went for the backup manual toothbrush Mama had insisted I bring. Before washing my face, I dug into my bag and used a hair tie to pull my hair back into a short ponytail. I washed my face, put everything back inside the case, and walked out to my pod.

Mackenzie waited by my pod and watched me set my stuff down in the small cabinet attached to my pod. “All good?” She asked me.

I nodded. “So, can we go swimming tomorrow?”

“You sure you want to risk being tired for your test?”

I nodded, “It’ll wake me up, honestly. My sisters and I grew up swimming every morning before school?”

She shrugged, “I’ll get you up then. You just need to put on a swim diaper and a swimsuit before you go?”

I nodded, “I can do that. I might drink a bottle of water or something too?”

“That should be fine,” she told me. Mackenzie motioned to the small ladder leading up to the pod. I climbed up into the pod and immediately was even more sure of the parallels with a crib when she closed the end door behind me. She came back around to the side and pushed something, causing the front to swing down.

‘Definitely a crib!’ I thought to myself.

“There’s your emergency button,” she pointed out to me. Like I said, I’ll swing by before I call it a night and check on you.” She reached down and pulled out a nearly me-sized stuffed griffin. “Want a stuffie to sleep with?”

I groaned, “Sure…?”

She smiled and put the giant stuffed animal beside me, before pulling the covers of the bed over me and tucking us both in. She pushed the side of the crib up, sealing me in. “Night, night,” she told me.

The way the room was set up, there was no way I could see Liam, so I assumed she must have already put him to bed, as she immediately turned the lights off. Above me, I saw a pattern of stars begin to glow. The constellations actually tracked slowly across the ceiling as I watched.

With a sigh, I rolled over, grabbed onto my pillow, and got comfortable for the night.

‘Tomorrow is going to be a long day!’
 

BETH LOOKED AT the clock on her screen and sighed, ‘I’d better call it a night,’ she thought.

She’d finally made it back to her room after the interrogation from Livy. Once done, she’d spent time going through her room and making sure everything was where she wanted it to be. She’d left a few things in a hurry when she’d gone home for Christmas, so she took some time to fix how her school supplies were organized.

Looking around the room, she wasn’t sure what seemed off, but she felt lonely since her parents had left.

‘Hard to believe I won’t see them again for four months,’ she admitted. Then, with a sigh, she stood up and walked to a drawer where she kept her favorite fleece pajama bottoms and grabbed a long sleeve top she swore was made of the softest fabric invented! Upon changing into her pajamas, she walked to the shared bathroom and completed her nightly routine of tying her hair out of the way, cleaning her face and teeth, and using the toilet.

She locked the door and turned off the light when she went back inside her room. Then, climbing into her bed, she hugged Rings tightly, “At least I have you here with me.”

Sleep was hard to fall into that night, as she realized she genuinely liked Connor and was worried he’d be demerited out before she got a chance to know him!
 
 

Chapter 13: Wake-Up
 

I JUMPED WHEN a hand rubbed my back. “Connor?” I heard.

“Mom?” I asked, confused.

I heard a laugh and realized where I was.

“Umm… Sorry, forgot where I was,” I quickly said as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. “Is it early enough to go for a swim?” I asked Mackenzie, who had opened the front wall of the ‘pod,’ to reach me.

‘That confirms it’s just a fancy drop side crib,’ I thought.

“Yes, it is,” she said. “Mind if I help get you dressed so we can move faster…?”

“Umm… I…” was all I got out before being picked up and manipulated like an infant with our vast size differences. She carried me to the changing table and unzipped the pajamas I was wearing. I felt her squeeze the padding of the diaper I wore. “All dry…?”

I shrugged and whispered, “I don’t usually wet the bed. I don’t get why that’s a surprise?”

“Everyone else here does,” she said. “Let’s get this diaper off, and you can use the potty before we go.” She carried me into the bathroom and pulled the tapes free of the diaper so I could sit down on the potty there. I did need to go, so I found myself urinating a large amount of liquid into the potty-shaped toilet before giving my rear a quick wipe to be safe and standing.

“Good boy!” She cooed like I was a two-year-old potty training.

I sighed.

She held out one of the swim diapers we’d bought the day before, and I pulled it over myself like a set of training pants. I looked at the weird garment and realized it was like the third or fourth type of ‘protection’ I’d found myself in less than a day here! Ignoring Mackenzie for a moment, I walked over to the sinks and washed my hands before following her out to the room. She’d already found one of the swimsuits we’d purchased, and I quickly pulled up the foreign looking suit to cover the diaper and my chest. I adjusted the form fitting tank top style tops, and then messed with the built-in shorts to avoid a wedgie. A moment later I grabbed a towel and goggles.

“Ready to go?” She asked me.

I nodded, “Please?”

She had her own towel and goggles in her hand, and I was finally awake enough to realize she had a swim cap on her head. I got a pretty good jog in to raise my heart rate while keeping up with her to the pool. She scanned the watchband she wore at a reader by the door, and it slid apart to open for us. I guessed the main pool wasn’t the largest size pool, but it would be at least an Olympic-sized pool by my standard. A small ‘kiddie’ section seemed to be netted off to prevent ‘Little Ones’ from accidentally going into the deep end. It was complete with a ‘kiddie’ play area and a water slide. I shook my head and looked up at Mackenzie who had cleared her throat.

“You can really swim, right?” She asked me as she pulled a pair of yoga pants and a shirt off to reveal a one-piece suit.

“Yes, really well.”

“Okay, I will give you a chance to prove it to me here. I’ll get in the water first and swim beside you. We’ll make this a daily thing if you can make it to that end and back without help.”

I smiled, “That’s all?”

I suddenly realized I’d walked all of the way to the pool in only my socks. I pulled them off while Mackenzie jumped in. I moved to the edge and executed a perfect dive. I started a nice cautious freestyle stroke to begin and loosen my muscles up. The lap felt longer than usual with my new unfamiliar size and the large pool, but I soon reached the wall, flipped, and switched to breaststroke. Every now and then, I would look at the bottom of the pool and realize it must have been around twenty feet deep!

I stayed with that stroke for another ten laps, then switched to the butterfly stroke for ten more. Finally, I reached the initial side of the pool and started treading water, looking for Mackenzie. She was standing on the bottom near the entrance with an incredulous look.

“Do I pass?” I asked her.

“Umm… yeah?” She looked a little confused for a moment. Then, “Are you done?”

I laughed, “I’ll keep going as long as we have time here?”

“Umm… Maybe another half-hour then?” the stunned giantess said.

“Great!” I told her and took off again, alternative styles every twenty laps.

She eventually caught my attention by getting in the way of the path I was taking, and I sat up. “That was thirty minutes already?”

“Yeah… why do I have a feeling you’d go another hour or two?” Mackenzie asked.

“If I’m upset, that’s a distinct possibility?”

“Too bad they don’t have a Littles swim program here. You would medal at every event!”

I smirked, “Yeah, I have no doubt your longer frames would leave me in the dust in an unequal pairing!”

“Maybe not as much as we should, though. Let’s get you upstairs and changed for your tests. Hopefully, you’re not worn out?”

I swam towards the edge of the pool. I had trouble grasping the top but managed to get my slippery hands enough traction to beach myself on the ledge. “Nope, not now. If I did another two or three hours, maybe?”

I walked towards the towel and was drying myself off when two other Nest Mothers came in. They looked at me in surprise and saw Mackenzie. “Mackenzie, what’s going on?”

“One of our exchange students, Connor, wanted to join me for a swim this morning.”

“The shallow end is still covered?” One of the girls asked worriedly.

“I don’t need that end,” I told her. “I’m a strong swimmer.”

“Kenzie?” The other girl asked.

“I don’t have time for him to jump back in the water, but let’s just say I honestly think he can swim faster than you two.”

“Huh?” I looked up.

“They’re not on the swim team,” Mackenzie smiled. “Come on, let’s get you and Liam ready for breakfast.”

I wrapped myself in the towel and pulled at the strands of wet hair dripping down my head. “I need to get a swim cap,” I told her absently as we waited for the elevator to rise to our floor.

“I’ll see if anyone has them for their girls. You have really long hair for a boy?”

I shrugged, “I just like it long?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t cut it before coming here?”

“Actually, I did have a trim?”

“I meant down to a normal boys length!” She said as she opened the door to our nest. I could see Liam through the clear glass, trying to claw his way out for some reason. “Why don’t you go grab your uniform for the day,” she said as she passed me one of my new Pull-Ups, “and then hop in the shower? I’ll get Liam sorted out here? Just put that swim diaper in the trashcan there.”

I nodded, noticing that Liam looked like he was turning bright red then. He looked frustrated, and I had a feeling he’d fallen victim to being unable to leave his ‘pod.’ I had grabbed my uniform and was on the way into the bathroom when I heard, “See, this is why we have you all wear protection, Liam.”

“I could ha…” his voice was lost as I stepped into the bathroom and was grateful for some autonomy as I made my way to the showers. Opening a door, I was closed inside a stall that contained a slightly too high for me bench and a convenient hook I could hang my shirt on. I did so and looked up at the attached large shower stall. Just above my height, a control panel reminded me of the units my mom had installed recently. I selected a temperature that seemed normal, and then it gave me an option of shower spray styles. I pressed something that looked pretty strong but spread out and pressed start. Inside the unit, I watched a spray of water begin to flow and thought it looked nice!

Hopping in, though, I found myself bouncing right back out!

‘Right… different base math… different temperatures?’ I asked myself, realizing the temperature I selected was cold! I tested a few times before finding a suitable temperature that I liked and jumped back in. The shower provided fantastic pressure, and I was able to rinse shampoo and conditioner out of my hair easier than back home! The fact the pressure was good helped offset the softer water I was feeling. Even with an expensive water softener system at home, we still had water Mama griped about. Having finished with my hair, I used body wash on my body and had just rinsed off when I heard another shower start up next to me. A surprised shout let me know Liam had his own experimental difficulties!

I turned mine off and got to work using the towel to dry myself off as best I could. I ran my brush through my hair and winced at a couple snarls. Then, with the tangles out of my hair, I dressed in the Pull-Up and the uniform. I was brushing my teeth after shaving when Mackenzie came in, obviously having done her own morning routine.

“Want help with your hair?” She asked me. “I didn’t see a blow dryer in your stuff?”

“Mom figured there’d be one here?”

“The girl’s nests have them, but the boys don’t. You can use mine, though?” She suggested.

I shrugged, “Thanks.” I put the rest of my toiletries back inside the bag I had brought and followed her with my brush to the door I knew led to her room.

I was a bit nervous about entering her room! She had a small apartment inside, complete with a small living room, kitchen, one-bedroom, and a bathroom she led me to.

“I don’t think the cord will reach the ground,” she said as she picked me up and sat me on the cabinet. She started to hand me the blow dryer, but we quickly realized the problem.

“Umm…” I said as she transferred part of the weight to my hand.

“That’s not going to work, huh?” She said with a giggle. “Well, I’ve wanted to play with your hair since I saw you!”

I didn’t have a chance to retort before she started up the jet engine level sound and took my brush from my hand. I’d been growing my hair out since I’d entered middle school, so I’d been attacked by my sisters, Mom, Mama, and several girlfriends. Yet, somehow her giant hands stroking my hair and using the blow dryer made me feel even younger than a diaper change had!

Something was soothing about it, though, and I felt goosebumps go up and down my body at how gentle it felt.

Before too long, the loud sound was turned off, and she said, “I’ll see if I can’t steal a small one for you later?”

“Thanks, I’d appreciate it!” I looked in the mirror and was relieved that other than being a little straighter, she hadn’t really done anything different than I usually did.

“You’re welcome; I wouldn’t mind playing more with your hair though. I’m always jealous of the girls who get girls’ Nests!”

“Why is it that you’re a girl in charge of boys anyway?”

“Well, there are occasionally a nest daddy or two, but none this year.”

“Oh,” I replied.

She sat me down on the floor, and I followed her out of her apartment to the nest. On the way, I couldn’t help but notice there were two high chairs and a playpen folded up along the side of the living room. They didn’t look like they’d been used in a while, but just the fact that the infantile chairs were there made me wonder who they were for!

Liam was dressed in the room but looked like he was missing padding underneath his pants. Mackenzie noticed that, too, “Come on, Liam, let’s get you in your diaper.”

“I don’t want to wear one! I don’t need them!”

“Liam, yesterday you had a poopy accident, that means you have to wear protection until I say otherwise. Trust me, you do not want to have one of those accidents without protection during the test!”

“What about Connor?”

“He’s wearing a Pull-Up,” she told him. “You can wear one of those instead once I feel like I can trust you. After yesterday though, you need to be in something that I’m not worried about you taking off in the middle of your test.”

“What if I need to go…?”

She shrugged, “It didn’t bother you enough yesterday to avoid it?”

I could tell he was about to go nuclear, “Liam,” I said his name.

He turned and looked at me. “Trust me, she’s trying to help you. Noah didn’t last a day. Do you want to be gone too?”

“Back home?” He asked, “Sure, I didn’t sign up for this!”

I walked over to him and whispered, “I guarantee you Noah did not go back home. He’s in a daycare… or something somewhere right now. Your only chance to get back home is to not fight her. You won’t win!”

“Connor?” Mackenzie asked.

“Yes, Miss Mackenzie?”

“You’re not being mean to Liam, are you?”

“No, just trying to help him. Same as you?”

“Well… What’s it going to be, Liam?”

He sighed and looked at me, “Get it over with!”
 

BETH WOKE UP and decided she’d take advantage of breakfast for once that morning. So she sent a text message to Livy, ‘You up?’

‘You know I am!’

‘Had breakfast yet?’

‘Just leaving, go together?’

Beth smiled and sent a message affirming she’d see her downstairs. The two walked to the dining hall and had just sat down when the Nests started coming in the small groups with exchange students.

“Did they already demerit out all of the Littles?” Livy asked nervously. With both of them below eight feet tall, they had shared interests in not ever being seen as Littles themselves!

“No, those are just the exchange students. I don’t think the others are allowed back until Saturday.”

“You know this, how…?” She asked nervously.

“Because my family went shopping with one of them yesterday?”

“What? Are you crazy?” She asked.

“Remember who my mother is. Do you think anyone would get me with her there? Let alone, my dad?”

She nodded, “Right… I always forget you’re not a normal Tweener.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Beth said.

“Huh?”

“Maybe I’ll tell you sometime… it’s pretty private.”

“Too private for your best friend?”

“Family secret,” she said quietly. “Really… I’ll tell you sometime. It’s just hard to talk about.”

“Huh…” She said, “Who’s the Little you were with then?”

Connor’s group walked in right then, “The short one with long blonde hair there.”

“Her?”

“Him,” Beth corrected.

“Really? That’s dangerous hair for a boy Little to have. Does he know that?”

“Probably better than you do,” Beth said. “His mom is that legendary Little, Stacy, that we hear about every now and then.”

“She went back to their dimension, right? Why in the Hell would you let your son come here?”

“Ahem,” she heard a throat clearing nearby. A tall girl looked down at her. “There are children present?”

Livy smiled, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. I’ll be careful not to say big words you shouldn’t be hearing yet around you.”

“You!” the girl started towards her.

A friend put her hand on her shoulder, “Kelly, leave it.”

“Nevaeh, I know you think I’m too harsh on Littles, but they can’t cuss!”

“Kelly, they’re Mids! Do you see a uniform on them? You can’t go all psycho mommy on anyone shorter than you!” She looked up at Beth and Livy, “Sorry about that, her time of the month.”

“You…!”

“Come on!” Nevaeh hissed.

“That was a close one,” Beth said as the two left.

“You have no idea,” their friend Cassidy appeared.

“Hey, Cassie!” Livy said and scooted over for her to set her tray down on the booth table.

“You should be careful with that Kelly… I’ve watched her do things not only to Littles this year that should have gotten her expelled.”

“Safe for now, at least!” Livy smiled. “How was your break…?”

 
 

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

Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Chapters 14 and 15 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 14: Testing
 

BREAKFAST WAS RUSHED for Liam and me due to his being a pain about the diaper. I’d grabbed my backpack and made sure I had a few spare Pull-Ups and, at Mackenzie’s insistence, two diapers. I had also made sure to put a bottle of water from the pack Amanda had for me inside after discreetly checking the cap. She had modified the bottles with a simple line on the lids that would be unnoticed by most, but I could tell if they’d been tampered with.

I sighed as I left behind a half-finished plate of bacon and sausage to get moving to the tests. “Where are we taking our tests?” I asked Mackenzie who we had to run to keep up with after she had let us use the Littles Restroom downstairs in Sanders Hall.

“Destiny Hall,” she told me with a smile. “It’s one of our larger lecture halls.”

“How long do these tests take?” Liam asked. “What’s on them?”

“Oh, it’s just to establish a baseline of your knowledge compared to those who grew up here. There’s a little bit of everything on there, I guess?” She shrugged, “I’ve never taken this one before, but I’m guessing it’s like our first-year placement tests!”

We entered a vast building and were quickly led to a large lecture hall that Mom had told me about. Just as in her time, there were smaller seats at the front that I found myself being led to. I hadn’t counted yesterday, but I thought they said there were four sets of exchange students present this semester. ‘That should be about forty-eight?’ I thought to myself.

I looked around the room at the others and only counted twenty-two fellow Littles, eight Mids, and one or two Bigs! ‘Already lost that many?’ I wondered, a bit worried.

“Connor?” I heard as I was beginning to pull out the seat booster Mom had me pack. I turned and saw a tall guy I remember being shorter than me from before we left.

“Oliver, right?” I asked.

“What happened to you?” He asked. “Or, I should say, all of you?”

I shrugged, “Supposedly, it’s random, but my Mom shrank a ridiculous amount when she came through too, so maybe genetics plays a role?”

“Maybe… So, where is your dorm?”

“With the other Littles,” I said, pointing around the vast majority of exchange students who were Littles.

Before we could talk anymore, a tall man walked in, accompanied by two younger college girls who looked to be TAs from my experience. “Guess that means we need to sit down,” Oliver said. “I’ll catch you later!”

I placed the portable booster on the seat, and Liam asked, “Where did you get that?”

“My mom suggested I bring it,” I told him. It was a clever plastic piece that worked with interlocking rings locking and stacking up but folded flat when done. It raised me a good ten inches and meant that I could reach the edge of the desk that flipped over the seat.

“Good morning, everyone!” The tall professor called out. “If you will, please take your seats! I am Doctor Welsh, the head of the Math Department here at Emerson. My assistants will begin handing out testing tablets and styluses to you. Please don’t do anything with them until we instruct you to do so.”

I sat patiently, just wondering what the placement tests would bring. As I received my test, I noticed that Dr. Benson and Dr. Owens were now standing at the front alongside six other professors of varying heights. Dr. Owens seemed to have gotten lucky and grown to a pretty respectable size. He didn’t seem ten feet tall, but he was definitely taller than Beth. Dr. Benson seemed to have shrunk a good ten inches and was a definite Little. ‘Wonder if they have a Little professor’s dorm with cribs…?’ I wondered.

After a few minutes, Dr. Welsh looked at everyone with devices and spoke again, “Like I said, I’m the Math chair here, and I’ll be proctoring our math placement exam. Due to various differences between dimensions, we find it is best to have students take a placement test before setting their schedules. Following this exam, there will be a fifteen-minute break, then there will be a general sciences exam we will have you all take to get a baseline for which courses you should be placed in. After that, we’ll have one more fifteen-minute break and administer a computer programming exam. If you are not scheduled to take any computer science courses, you may leave after completing your science exam.”

He paused and looked around, “Following your exams, you’ll meet with advisors this afternoon to schedule your classes for this semester. Please do your best on these tests, as they do limit which courses we can successfully enroll you in, regardless of classes you may have taken in your home universities! It should go without saying, but do not look at anyone else’s work around you. Each person’s test is randomized in such a way it wouldn’t help anyway. You will have ninety minutes for this first test. If you have not used one of these test tablets before, you will press on the top corner to activate it, and the stylus you were given may be used to select your answer. Please include your work on math problems as that may impact where we place you. Any questions?”

He looked up again, “In that case, you may begin; your ninety minutes start now!”

I looked down at my tablet and followed his directions to activate it. There was a spot for the student ID number, which was helpfully shown on the band of my wristband to remind me. Mom had tutored all of us in math from the time we were in Preschool. As a result, I found the problems simple even with the addition of the Base 60 math that, for some reason, was used in this dimension. Given Mom never intended us to travel here, it was a surprise that she had taught us so thoroughly there. Back home at my university, I’d tested out of five semesters of math, even though, at Mom’s suggestion, I’d done the last two courses to be safe last year.

That meant I was at the end of the test well before the ninety minutes was up. I pressed submit and looked up at where Dr. Welsh had sat down to watch us all. He looked down at a tablet in front of him, looked at me, and then walked over. “Done?” He asked.

“Yes, sir! Is it possible for me to use the restroom while the others finish the test?”

He looked at me skeptically, “I’ll have to send one of the assistants with you. Just to make sure you don’t communicate with anyone?”

I shrugged, “Fine?”

He motioned to one of the tall brown-haired girls. “Mindy, Connor here is done; he wanted to hit the potty before the next test? Would you please take him?”

“Sure, Doctor Welsh!” the girl said. “Come on, sweetie!”

I got some glares from others as I followed her up and out of the large lecture hall. Once we were out of the doors, she asked, “Did you need to go so badly you just skipped half the test?”

I shook my head at her as I saw bathroom signs ahead, “No, I finished for real. I’m good at math. Can you open the door for me?”

She smiled, “Sure, sweetie,” she said and pushed open the women’s door.

“Umm… I meant…”

“I know what you meant, but you’re not going to be able to manage the adult potties here on your own.”

As soon as we entered, I understood what she meant and sighed. I walked to an open stall door and realized the potty was again at my shoulder level, and there was no urinal in this bathroom. Without warning, she pulled my pants down and squeezed the padding of the Pull-Up. “Wow! What a good boy! You’re all dry!”

Before I could register how rude that was, she pulled my Pull-Up down to expose me before placing my bottom down on the toilet. I was embarrassed but glad she kept a hand on my back because I was way too small for the seat! My legs were just over the edge, and I found myself using them to help keep myself upright. My upper leg muscles were getting a workout, even as I tried to make myself pee with a pretty girl holding my back.

I struggled for a moment and grunted before a stream started, and another cramp forced out some small pieces of poop.

“Good boy!” the tall girl told me.

Without waiting for me to ask for toilet paper, she already had some in hand. Then, without hesitation for any remaining personal space or modesty, she used a wad to wipe me dry in front before pushing me to crunch forward and wiping my rear for me!

“I can do that…?”

“Oh, I don’t mind, sweetie!”

A couple of wads later, she said, “That’s it, all clean!”

Hands went under my armpits suddenly and sat me down. I managed to raise my Pull-Up and pants myself before she pushed her way in to help me tuck the shirt back in and straighten out my vest and tie. Then, without warning, she picked me up, sat me on her hip, and carried me to the sinks.

“Hold out your hands, little guy,” she told me as she pushed my hands in front of a soap dispenser. I rubbed them together and placed them in the water that started. A moment later, she handed me a paper towel that I used before she led me out the door.

“Umm… thanks,” I told her outside.

“No problem, sweetie! And if your test doesn’t go like you think it did, I would be happy to tutor you for free this semester!”

I could see a look in her eyes that Mom had always described, but I’d never quite gotten right in my imagination. There was a hunger…? A desire…? Craving…? Like some wild beast...? Just as I stared up at her, she groaned. “Not again!”

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry about it, sweetie. Let’s just get you back into the hall.”

As she opened the door, I noticed her shirt looked like she’d spilled something.

I thought for a second.

‘Oh…!’

I scrambled back to my seat and carefully tried not to notice that she had disappeared for a few minutes and had added a sweatshirt on top of her body.

She was clearly an Amazon needing someone to baby, and I just hoped to stay clear of her!
 

BETH LOOKED AT her friends and giggled.

“Come on, one date won’t hurt you…?” Livy suggested the boy they were talking about.

She shook her head, “He’s a neanderthal! All he can do is run up a field and knock people down!”

“Your problem is you’re too picky!” Cassidy said to her.

“Like you’re any better?” Beth shot back. “How many dates did you turn down before finals?”

Livy giggled, “She’s got you there, Cass.”

“I guess none of us really have much of a romantic life right now, huh?” Cassie sighed.

Beth sighed as well.

Livy suddenly stared at her, “What was that sigh, Beth?” She narrowed her eyes, “You have someone you DO like!”

Beth shook her head, “It would never work!”

“Too tall…? Your dad was just fine with your mom?” Livy added.

“Umm…”

“Ooh… Too short…?” Cassidy asked.

“Enough about me!” Beth said, feeling her face turn red.

“Is it that Little you told me about?” Livy asked.

“No,” Beth said, “I can’t date a Little… the last thing I want is to have kids smaller than me!”

“You’re short, Beth, but you’re definitely a Mid?” Cassidy pushed.

“I wasn’t always, though…?”

“Huh?” Both her friends said in stereo.

“Look… just drop it for now…? I have a hard time talking about this with my family even… You two are my best friends, and I don’t want you to change how you look at me…?”

“Now you’re just getting us more curious!” Cassidy said.

Livy looked and said, “This is what you were talking about earlier?”

Beth nodded. “Look, just leave it be, please?”

“You don’t trust us…?” Cassidy asked, clearly hurt.

“No! I do trust you! It’s just…?” She groaned, “I just can’t talk about it… Alright?”

Beth could tell Cassidy wanted to push, but Olivia put her hand on her shoulder, “Leave it, Cassie. She’ll tell us when she’s ready.”

She could tell that Cassie was hurt, so she suggested, “How about we go out for dinner tonight? My treat? One last chance to not eat cafeteria food?”

“Deal,” Cassie and Olivia said together.
 

I SAT STILL as the new professor got everyone to quiet down. “Good morning; I’m Doctor Faulkner, the head of the Computer Science department here at Emerson. I see we have eight of you who stuck around for this test. Because it’s a smaller group size, and I want us to have access to proper computer terminals, we’re going to move this test upstairs to another room. If you’ll please follow me!”

I quickly stood up and grabbed my booster. It was a quick press of a button to collapse it, and I threw it into my bag before getting in line behind several other test-takers.

“How did you do on the earlier tests?” Liam asked me, even as he seemed to be wincing as he walked for some reason.

I shrugged, “Pretty well, I think?”

“I’m sure you’ll do well on this one then?” He asked.

“We’ll see… This world has been about twenty or more years ahead of ours since my mom came to school here. I have a feeling we’ll see some things that were only dreamt of when she was in school?”

Doctor Faulkner led us to a large elevator which had no issues with holding her, a TA, and the eight of us. Only one of our group was close to being a Big, and another was a Mid. The other six were clearly Littles - though I was the shortest!

Looking around at the group from my shorter stature meant people’s rears were more in my view. I quickly noticed that all but the two larger ones and one smaller student were padded. Liam drew my attention with a wince, and I wondered what was wrong with him.

“Right this way,” the tall younger TA said as she directed us to follow her. Doctor Faulkner took up the rear. We found ourselves in a computer lab with terraced levels a moment later, and I climbed on my designated chair.

The computer keyboard in front of me was gigantic! I sighed, knowing I would have to hunt and peck instead of type the way I usually did. ‘Where’s the screen, though?’ I thought for a moment.

“Here, let’s get you a better keyboard,” Doctor Faulkner said, handing me one that felt like I was an elementary school kid on a big computer then, not an infant!

“Thanks!” I told her.

She passed out keyboards that fit better to everyone before coming around and giving everyone a pair of eyeglasses. “What are these?” Liam asked.

“Those are your immersion lenses,” Dr. Faulkner told him. “Just put them on, and you’ll see what I mean.”

I did so and was suddenly in awe of how much further their wearables had gotten! Projected in 3D in front of me was an interface that said, ‘Emerson Computer Programming Placement Exam, please wait for further instructions.”

“Okay, everyone is on the test start screen now, right?” She asked. I nodded and assumed the others did, too, as she continued. “You’re going to have ninety minutes for this test. It’s a pretty comprehensive test of thirty questions, from basic programming skills to more advanced concepts we teach in our upper-level courses. Don’t worry if you don’t finish it; even our students who grow up here don’t make it that far! Just do the best you can so we can figure out the best match of courses for you in your short semester study here. Make sure you program in a standard language and nothing too obscure, and the software will automatically determine if your solution works in that language. You will not be able to compile and run your code, so make sure you proof each solution to make sure you don’t have any major syntax errors. We will work hard to have your results in time for your advisor meetings this afternoon. If there are no more questions?”

“Umm, professor, there’s no mouse or anything…?” I heard a girl ask who I didn’t know.

“Just use your hand to press and flick if you need to,” she said.

“Huh?”

“Like this,” she said as she demonstrated.

I mimicked the movement, and the page moved down for a second before recentering.

“Weird,” I said quietly.

“If there are no more questions, you may begin!”

I moved my hand to press the button in front of me and was surprised that somehow there was a haptic response I received. Soon I was presented with a question and began writing code to respond as quickly as possible. I proofread each in my head before submitting and moving on to the next question. Like Mom had told me, they started simple with Fibonacci sequences, game of life concepts, algorithms for removing duplicates, checking for patterns, etc. Mostly, it was all things I had done before with Mom or in classes in college. The few that weren’t were ones that I leaned on that prior knowledge and was sure of my solution. Question number thirty, the final question, suddenly displayed, and I wondered how much time I had left.

As if to answer me, a digital readout of twenty-one minutes and ten seconds showed up, counting down at the top right of my view.

It was the final question of a test she had said we wouldn’t finish.

I could probably just give up and be okay with the classes I wanted to take…

But being my mother’s son through and through, of course, I had to try! Mom told me on her test, there was a final question regarding autonomous robotics that no one could solve usually. Things seemed to have changed here.

‘Given ten parameters of damage in a cell, create a solution for a nanite to correctly identify and sort each type of damage to DNA. Additionally, program the gene splicer function to repair the damaged section of DNA with the corrected section of the genome.’

‘This is the kind of stuff that wins you a Nobel Prize back home!!!’ I griped. I noted that the problem said nothing about creating the nanite, so instead, I looked through a couple pages of attached documentation and determined there were already pre-built call functions I could use. Sighing, I began typing what I hoped would work as a solution as quickly as I could on the keyboard. I was just putting an end character on the final line when I realized the countdown was at two seconds. Desperately I pressed submit and hoped it cleared!
 
 

Chapter 15: Warnings
 

“AND THAT’S TIME!” Dr. Faulkner said. “If you would go ahead and pull your immersion glasses off and leave them on the table.”

I shook my head and said, “Those are cool!” to the girl beside me.

“Yes, they are! I’ve had some reality goggles at home, but nothing compares to those!”

“Never really been a fan of the ones we had back home,” I admitted. “Those might change my mind, though!”

“If you like those, you should check out the artificial lens option!” The TA for the class said to me as she collected my glasses.

“Contacts?” Liam asked.

“Basically! Everything the goggles can do, but you can just go on with life in an augmented reality setting.”

“They work?” I asked.

She turned towards me and pushed on her eye, revealing just a hint of the circle of different colored material. “Yep, I use them all the time! It beats carrying a tablet or a laptop around. Just carry a portable keyboard like you were using, and you can do everything you can with a screen. The bonus is that it has some limited neuro interface connections too.”

“That’s…” I started to say.

“Erin,” I heard Dr. Faulkner sound like she was scolding her TA. “They need to get going; you can’t geek out with them all day!”

“Sorry, Professor… I think they’re ready to go. You want me to lead them over to Sanders?”

“Well, just the Littles; the others should be able to find their own way…?”

I noted that our two taller group members were blushing and looking nervous. “Yeah, we’re good,” the Mid-sized boy said nervously. He and the other taller boy took no time in high-tailing it out of the hall, and we watched an elevator door close in front of us as we waited for another car.

I noticed that Liam was squirming a bit and realized it was probably due to the diaper drooping and attempting to take his pants with it. Erin looked at the same thing, “Oh, you poor thing, you need that diapee changed badly, huh?”

“I wouldn’t if I wasn’t stuck in this…?” He complained

Erin smiled, “If you’re stuck in one already, I’m guessing it was because you didn’t behave for your Nest Mother?”

He looked stoically at the floor, “She was being mean.”

I heard one of the two girls with us giggle at that. “It’s not funny,” Liam complained.

“The rest of you probably need a potty stop too?” She suggested with the doors still closed.

“Now that you mention it?” I replied.

“Do you have a spare with you… I didn’t get your name…?” She asked Liam.

“Liam… No…?”

“Well, let’s see if there’s a backup in the bathroom here…? You all can still use the big boy and girl potty…?” She asked the rest of us.

I nodded.

The taller of the two girls with us, who I knew was from another dimensional group, snorted. “I’m not about to wear one of those baby diapers!”

“You made it through yesterday without one…?” The shorter girl asked.

“It was close, but whatever they poisoned us with must have been dosed with you shorter kids in mind.”

“Umm… Okay,” Erin interrupted. “Let’s get you to the potty and see if I can find a change for Liam here.”

She led us down the hallway to a set of bathrooms with boys on one side and girls on the other. Most of us started going into the boy’s bathroom, with the two girls following Erin. Erin had to physically pull Liam with her, and I could hear him complaining that he shouldn’t be in the girl’s room even as the door shut.

I shook my head and pulled out my step stool to help me reach the urinal. One of the boys beside me said, “That’s really smart; where did you get that?” Even as he struggled to aim high enough, I could see he missed initially and caught part of his pants.

“I brought it from home,” I told him.

“What? Were you this short back home?” A third boy asked as he was struggling to reach his own urinal. He was a bit taller, so it was almost possible for him.

“No, but my mom was when she came through, so it seemed wise to be prepared?”

“Your mom came here?” Then, the first boy asked, “Like on a tour or something?”

“Initially, but she went to college here at Emerson.”

“Even knowing everything about this place, you still came here…?” the third boy asked. “By the way, I’m Jack.”

“Connor,” I told him, “Yeah… Their tech for film and using their holographic systems is so cool and way beyond what we have back home? I want to learn about it and take it home.”

The first boy pulled his pants up, and I hoped no one noticed the small amount of pee on his pants from aiming poorly. “I’m Nikolai,” he said, moving to the sink and doing a weird hop-up and down as I took the time to reach in my bag and grab a wipe to clean myself before pulling my Pull-Up back up. “Why are you wearing one of those diapers anyway?”

“It’s just a Pull-Up, and it’s way better than getting busted with pants around here that aren’t protected?” I responded and blushed.

“Yeah, but we’re adults, we’re not going to have accidents,” Jack said.

I straightened my shirt and tie out before dragging my stool to the sink. Jackson was trying to figure out how to get up there while Nikolai was hopping up and down and spilling water on his shirt. The accessible sink was lower, and with my step stool, I could just reach the sink and wash my hands without making a mess. I noticed Jack staring at me, “You want to use it before I put it away?”

“Thanks!” he said, “I’ll have to get one of these!”
 

BETH WAS SPENDING some time relaxing with a book when she heard a knock at the door. ‘I was just getting to a good spot!’ she thought as she sat up, slid off her tall bed, and went to the door.

She opened the door to find her RA there, “Hi Tracy, what’s up?”

“May I come in for a moment?”

“Umm… sure?” Beth said and moved into the room so she could let her in. She noticed that Tracy looked closely around the room and ran a hand down the back of Rings’ tail as she saw her nearly bending over to do so with her eleven-foot-tall height. “What’s up?”

She felt things grow more ominous as the door was closed. She had her phone in her pocket and activated an instant recording app her parents had insisted she installed years ago, “I’ve been asked to stop by and do a wellness check on you?”

“Huh? What?”

“A few people just want to ensure you are doing okay? We know you’re not a Little, but we know sometimes those of you who are a little shorter do still struggle? I understand you were out at the mall with a Little yesterday?”

Beth looked up at her, “Yeah? What of it? He’s a college student and, more importantly, a family friend? My dad wanted to make sure we met?”

“Well… let’s just say we know some of the people who were at the meal yesterday had some potty issues, and there were some concerns you might too?”

Beth looked up at her incredulously, breathed, and said, “No, I have not. Fortunately, I was not poisoned like all of the Littles were.”

“How can we…?”

A knock on the door came, “Just a…” Tracy tried to say, but Beth pushed by her and opened the door.

“Hi, Cassie!” She said with a smile.

“Hi Beth, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay? I thought RA’s weren’t supposed to be in our rooms with closed doors, Tracy?”

“Well, I just needed to make sure Beth was doing okay…” she started to say.

“I’m sure she is. You ready to go to lunch, Beth?” Cassie asked.

“Yep! Thanks for the check-up Tracy,” she told her. She felt her stomach churn but knew she couldn’t leave things at that, “And just to make it absolutely crystal clear to you, given who my dad is, I wouldn’t go trying to generate some fake evidence of me having issues. Even if he doesn’t take care of it, my grandmother will tear you apart.”

She motioned for the much taller girl to leave the room and locked up behind her. A surreptitious press on the side of the new lamp her dad had assembled for her ensured a recording was now being made of the room while she was out.

‘Damn it! I hate when he is right about things like this!!!!’ She griped. ‘He’ll never let me hear the end of this!’

“What was that about?” Cassie hissed when they were out of the dorm.

“I think I’m getting ready to have someone targeting me…?” She told her quietly. “I think it is just because I went shopping yesterday with my family and Connor, that exchange student?”

“What?” Cassie said, “Why?”

“Good question!”
 

AS SOON AS I was led into the cafeteria, I noticed Mackenzie look at me and smile. I groaned as I went to get a tray of food and was intercepted by the perky woman. “How did your tests go?” She asked excitedly.

“Umm, I think they went…?” I started as suddenly she put her hand on the front of my pants, “well?”

“Well, I hope they did. It feels like you’re dry? Is this the same Pull-Up you put on this morning?” She asked me.

I groaned, “Yes, it is, actually.” I took a deep breath, “I’m hungry. Do you mind if I get some food?”

“Sure, I’ve got Liam at a table over there; come join us when you have your food,” she smiled. I followed her hand to a weird table with high chair-looking seats around it, with one normal-looking chair that was clearly Big-Sized. I saw other tables that looked less demeaning and was debating about my argument when I heard.

“Hi, Connor,” from my side.

I looked up and saw Beth, “Hi, Beth,” I said. I noticed she was looking a bit nervous.

“Umm, Miss Mackenzie, may I eat with my friend Beth instead?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t making a mistake.

“I don’t know, Connor…? I’m supposed to get you to your advisory appointment after lunch. I know that Liam will need some new pants before then too? His diapee leaked on the ones he’s wearing.”

I felt my insides turn at that, “You could go and come back?”

“Who’s his appointment with?” A giant girl towering above Beth asked, “Can we get him there?”

“Dean Northrup?” She told her.

“I know where her office is,” the taller girl said. “We’ll get him there?”

Mackenzie looked a little flummoxed and clearly couldn’t find a good reason why that wouldn’t work. “Okay, but if he doesn’t make it, I’ll ensure you all have consequences?”

“Sure,” Beth said. “Come on, Connor, let’s check out the slop that is Emerson’s finest dining hall food!”

As we were far enough away, I said, “Thanks!”

“Don’t thank us yet; I need to talk to you,” Beth said. “By the way, this is my friend Cassie,” she said.

“Hi,” I said, “I’m Connor.”

“So I’ve heard!” She said with a slight giggle.

‘What’s that about?’ I wondered.

I walked with them around a few stations and used some preplaced steps at the rails to reach in and use tongs to grab a burger, fries, and a piece of pizza. Because the food was all mixed together for Bigs and Littles, in this case, I felt like I was probably safe even more, as Cassie grabbed almost an identical meal. I skipped a drink since I had a water bottle from the store run in my bag. Beth led us to a corner of the dining hall with more mixed seating. There was a cool booth with one side taller for someone shorter like me and another with a regular-size seat for Bigs.

“Scoot in, Beth,” Cassie told her as she moved to the regular-size seats. “Here, let me put that on the table for you, Connor,” she told me, taking the plate. I used a set of steps to climb onto the taller bench and found myself sitting pretty evenly across from Beth. In contrast, Cassie’s taller frame definitely loomed over us both.

I looked over at Liam, who looked surprised, and a couple other Littles I recognized from testing earlier. All of them were with their nest mothers. I was sure they were wondering, ‘how was I so lucky?’

“Thanks for the save there,” I told Beth.

“Well, I’m not sure how much of a save it was,” Cassie said. “Beth needed to talk to you, so it was kind of convenient.”

“About what?”

Beth looked around and verified no other people were near our table. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but my RA came to see me because of you?”

“Huh?” I asked as I put a fry in my mouth, “Why would she care?”

“I don’t know, but she was pretty threatening, Connor. Did you do anything to upset anyone yesterday?”

“I came here?” I smirked. “Not that I can think of?”

“Well, you need to be really careful, Connor. I’m not sure if she has her eyes set on adopting you, or if someone else does, or…?”

“Beth!” Cassie hissed in a way that made me realize something was going on. “So, Connor, you really decided to come study…?” She was saying louder when another shadow arrived at the table.

“Oh, hi, Kelly,” Cassie said. “What can we do for you?”

“I don’t know, Cassie; seems like maybe you’re cossetting a Little and a Tweener to be your new girls?”

Cassie laughed, but the look in her eyes said it was forced, “Kelly, unlike you, I can actually have babies when I want them! These are what you call friends!” She giggled, “I know you don’t have any, so it’s okay that you don’t understand that.”

“You watch it Bitch,” Kelly said.

“Or what?” I asked. I hated bullies with a passion!

She glared at me, “Who the hell are you looking at, baby boy? Or is it baby girl?”

I shrugged, “An entitled prima donna?” I looked at Cassie and Beth, “How close am I?” I turned back to her, “Sorry, I must say first impressions of you aren’t very positive. Now, why don’t you go have your hissy fit somewhere else so we mature grown-ups can enjoy our lunch?”

She was about to say something else when one of the nest mothers came over, Lucy, and asked, “Is everything okay over here? Miss Mackenzie asked me to ensure you were okay while she ran Liam to change his pants?”

“Yes, Miss Lucy,” I told her.

“Kelly, I have a feeling you’re not wanted here?” Lucy told her.

“Fine!”

Lucy shook her head, “Sometimes I wonder if we need to enroll a few more people in our dorm. Have a good lunch,” she told us.

“Connor, that was awesome!” I heard Cassie say simultaneously as Beth hissed, “Connor, that was stupid!”
 
 

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

Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Chapters 16 and 17 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 16: Schedules
 

“CONNOR, YOU CAN’T antagonize Kelly or others like here!” Beth hissed at me. “She’ll find a way to get to you!”

I sighed, “I know, but I couldn’t let her keep going at you, Beth. So I gave her a better target so she’d stop.”

“Why?” She asked.

“It was the right thing to do,” I said with a smile. “Besides, when am I even going to encounter her?”

“You never know,” Cassie said, suddenly more on Beth’s side.

“Anyway, you were saying about your RA?” I asked, seeing we were clear again.

“She didn’t want me talking to you at all anymore. I have no idea why, but I think someone is out to get you?”

I nodded, “Probably? Mom was kind of worried there would be some people holding grudges from her time here. That, or people maybe who have a grudge against my grandmother.”

“You really think of her as your grandmother?” Beth asked.

I shrugged, “I know my mom has always thought of her as her mommy? She considered bringing us to visit a couple of times but decided it was too risky for them. I think as much as she didn’t want me to come, she was at least looking forward to her being able to meet one of her kids.”

“What are you talking about with your mom?” Cassie asked, “Aren’t you one of these portal exchange students that just got here?”

I smiled, “Long story, but my mom went to school here. She was able to go home afterward.”

“She made it home free?” Cassie asked in shock.

“Apparently, his mom was good friends with my dad in college,” Beth told her. “Anyway, Connor… you really do need to be careful?”

I nodded, “I get it; I’ll do what I can. But, in the meantime, tell me about yourself?”

She shrugged, “I’m sure you figured out my dad is a bigshot?”

“I just guessed you all had money? Wait, didn’t Mackenzie ask if he was a judge yesterday?”

She nodded, “He’s a Supreme Court Justice,” she told me.

“That’s pretty cool,” I told her. “All your life?”

She shook her head, “He’s been a judge since before I was… born,” she hesitated just a second, I noticed, “but the Supreme Court appointment only happened a few years ago.”

“What’s it like having a dad like that?”

“He’s just my daddy,” she told me with a smile.

“Daddy?” Cassie grinned.

Beth smacked her head, “I can’t go anywhere with you!”

Beth laughed, and I joined her, “My sisters call my mom ‘mommy’ pretty often too.”

“What do they call your dad?” Cassie asked.

“They don’t; we have two moms,” I told her. “We all call our other mom ‘Mama.’”

“That has to get confusing,” Cassie said.

I shrugged, “Other kids have always said that, but we’ve never had a problem.” I didn’t want to linger on a conversation I knew made many people uncomfortable, “So what do you do for fun around her? I’m guessing I’ll be limited from joining in much of it since I’m a Little now?”

Cassie and Beth nodded, “I wish you had come through at your normal height,” Beth said.

“Normal height?” Cassie asked.

“I’d be a Mid - I’m six-foot-six back home.”

“What happened to the other feet?” Cassie asked.

“Good question!”

I learned more about both girls over lunch. Beth and Cassie told me about movies they liked, music, and some of the hobbies they had. “You like filmmaking?” I asked Beth.

“I always messed around with some cameras at home and did some projects in school with one in high school.”

“That’s cool! It’s the main reason I came here. I want to learn how you all make holographic films work. Mom was able to get a copy of one to sort of project at home last year. It was really cool!”

She nodded, “I’m taking a course this semester that’s supposed to help me learn more about doing it. Of course, I’ll never use it for my career, but it’s an art elective for my major.”

I was just about to ask her more when Mackenzie appeared.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we just finalized the meeting schedule with Dean Northrup, Connor, you’re supposed to meet with her in forty-five minutes. Are you ready to leave? Liam is supposed to meet with her just before you.”

“Umm… I thought we were walking there…?” I looked at Beth.

“We can walk Connor over like we said?” Cassie said. “We’ll let him eat those last fries and head over?”

I looked at my plate and saw five mouthfuls of fries remaining.

Mackenzie looked suspiciously at her, “You might take him by the potty, too.” Then, without warning, she reached over and felt the front of my pants, “Feels dry still. Let me know if you need to change his pull-ups by then.”

“I’m sure he won’t, but we’ll make sure to stop by the bathroom,” Cassie said.

Mackenzie walked away and gathered Liam, standing with his arms crossed beside Lucy. I guessed she’d left him with her to be babysat and grabbed him by the hand to lead him away. “She’s going to be a nightmare,” Cassie told me.

“I think she’s probably the best of them, though. She at least let me go swimming this morning.”

“Really?” Beth asked.

I nodded, “She doesn’t seem as bad as most. I hope you didn’t make her mad here, though.”

“I highly doubt she will try and be too aggressive with you given who your grandmother is, and being friends with me won’t hurt.”

I nodded and shoveled the last of the fries into my mouth. Then, I grabbed a drink and said, “I do need to find that bathroom, though!”

We walked to the front of the dining hall, where a set of bathrooms were located, and I hopped into the men’s while Cassie stood guard outside. I used my stepstool to successfully reach the urinal. However, as I washed my hands, I looked at the regular toilets and worried, ‘I’m not sure I can get onto one of those even with the stool!’

Folding it up and going outside, Cassie leaned down, “Sorry, Connor, but I have to do this.”

“Huh?” I started to say as she pulled down my pants. Miss Madelyn and one of the girls from her nest stood there as she examined my Pull-Up visually and squeezed the padding.

She turned me around, pulled the back from my skin, and said, “Good boy! All dry and clean! I’ll make sure Miss Mackenzie knows so she can give you an extra special sticker today!”

I was the reddest color I could have been, even as I saw Mia blush too. I noted her stance was wider than normal and wondered what padding she wore beneath her uniform skirt. Without any interaction from me, she pulled the pants back up and said, “Okay, let’s get you to your meeting like we told Miss Mackenzie we would!”

Beth stood a little way away and gave me a grimace but shook her head. I took the hand she offered until she let go outside of the building. “Sorry about that, Connor; Madelyn is one of the worst! Last semester she had most of her nest taking turns nursing from her in the dining hall before the break. Be glad you didn’t end up with her.”

I shuddered, “Is that why she has all of the smallest girls from our group?”

“Probably,” she told me.

“She’s also really manipulative,” Beth said. “Be careful around her!”

I nodded and walked beside them to a large administrative building. Mackenzie was waiting outside an office labeled ‘Dr. Sydney Northrup, Dean of Littles.’

“There you are, Connor!” Mackenzie said with a smile; she looked past me. “Did you have to change his pants?”

“Nope, he was all dry and clean,” she told her. “It was nice meeting you,” Cassie told me, “Beth and I need to get going.”

“Nice meeting you too,” I told her.

“Thanks for watching him!” Mackenzie told her like she was sending away the babysitter.

I shook my head.

“Come sit next to me!” She insisted and, without warning, picked me up and sat me beside her on the couch. My backpack was still on my shoulders, which was a little awkward. I swung it off my shoulder and pulled it to sit on my lap. “It’s so exciting that you’re already making new friends!” Mackenzie said to me. “Are you having fun so far today?”

I shrugged, “Tests this morning? Not really time for fun yet, Miss Mackenzie.”

She nodded at that, “True! When you finish meeting with the dean, I’ll take you back to the dorm with Liam, and you two can have the rest of the day to settle in. I think Miss Lucy and Miss Madelyn wanted to get our groups together in the common room to watch a movie before dinner.”

“Oh… sure, that sounds like fun,” I told her, even as my alarm bells rang.

She began peppering me with questions about my favorite colors, foods, and things that reminded me of a conversation with a babysitter from my childhood. I was growing tired of it as the door opened, and Liam was led out. I couldn’t help but note that the bulge around his waist seemed thicker than earlier, stretching his pants to the limits. ‘No question you’re in a diaper,’ I thought sadly. He had a grim look on his face.

“Connor?” I heard from the dean who followed him.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

“Come on in!” she said while motioning me to follow her inside.

I jumped off the tall couch and heard a worried “Careful!” from Mackenzie. I passed by Liam, who was grimacing and walked into the office. “Already wet again?” I heard Mackenzie say before Dean Northrup closed the door behind me.

She had a tall chair in front of her desk with a set of steps leading up to it. Beside it was a highchair, complete with all the straps Mom had told me about, making my blood grow cold. “Have a seat,” she directed me vaguely forward, and I used the freedom to use the chair with the steps.

Only then did I notice a third chair to the side with Doctor Owens, who was clearly taller than me, but I guessed it was only a few inches taller than Beth. “Good afternoon, Doctor Owens,” I told him while finding a place to hold on and climbing into the chair. I grimaced when I realized this chair had a seatbelt, but I left it undone behind me.

“How are you doing, Connor?” He asked me as Dean Northrup made her way around the desk. I had to guess I could stand on top of Doctor Owen’s Shoulders, and still, my head wouldn’t be taller than hers.

“I’m doing okay. Bit of an adjustment being so small compared to everyone!” I told him.

“Tell me about it! Even though I’m double your height, I’ve still been told I’m only about the average height of a tween here in this dimension.”

“I think I can relate,” I said, motioning to myself.

As Dean Northrup sat down, I noted she had a diploma showing a doctorate from Emerson in Little Education and another beside it from New Albany University in Psychology.

‘Double doctorate in manipulating Littles. I guess there’s a reason she has her job,’ I mused darkly. I was high enough in the chair that I could see pictures of her ‘babies’ showing off around as well. There were pictures of the two girls in dresses showing off their diapers while their brother crawled in only a diaper. Another showed the two girls in ballet tutus with seemingly exaggerated diapers. At the same time, they tripped over themselves and attempted a pirouette. ‘Definitely not one of the good ones,’ I told myself.

“Well, Connor, it’s nice to meet you! I understand you are Dr. Westerfield’s grandson?” she said as she sat down.

“Yes, ma’am, though I only met her in person for the first time yesterday.”

“Still, between all Matthew here has told me and all I’ve learned from Amanda, I feel like I already know you! I was surprised to learn you would be in my care for the semester. I believe you were Mid height back home?”

“Barely, but yes,” I told her.

“Yes, but barely here would be the equivalent of my height here.” She shrugged, “No one seems to understand the portals, though.” She began quickly typing on a keyboard, even though I saw no screen visible. I guessed she was using one of the contact implants I’d heard about earlier. She noticed me looking, “Don’t worry, I’m not pretending to do everything here, just using my eye display here,” she pressed the contact to the side of her right eye. I saw a tiny bit of blue plastic show. “Since Bremer industries introduced them a few years ago, I haven’t wanted anything to do with traditional displays or tablets. It’s way more convenient!”

“One of the TAs helping out earlier mentioned them,” I told her. “I might have to look into them myself.”

“Unfortunately, there’s a size limitation in the technology still. The smallest we can make is one for about a third grader so far. So you’ll be limited to headsets, unfortunately.”

“That is too bad!” I agreed.

“Now, I’m looking at your test results here and… wow!” She looked at me, “I’ve heard your mom was smart, but these are really unusual?”

“How so?” Doctor Owens asked.

“Well, for our first two exams, we essentially use our CARE exam that we give entering Little students to the university. However, we have added parts for higher-level math content since some dimensions we get visitors from have better education systems. I can’t recall any visiting student scoring higher than Connors?”

“How high?” I asked.

“You missed one question,” she told me, “A total component score of 796 out of 800.”

“What did I miss?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“It was more of a physics question concerning portal physics. Your written answer was missing one more step to be correct. You stopped one level of work early.”

“Oh,” I said, vaguely remembering that question. “I’ll have to find out how you’re actually supposed to solve that.”

She shook her head, “Unless you plan on changing majors, I see no need. Your results and transcript from back home mean you have the prerequisites for anything in the math department. You don’t strictly have to take a math class here. Still, I see on your initial request you were hoping to take Mathematical Analysis I?”

“Yes, I know it’s on the required courses for Math Majors, but reading about some of the theories the course covers intrigued me?”

“I think your nuts there,” she told me, “But you qualify, so I’ll add that in there.”

“How about the sciences test?”

“You did very well on all of that as well. But, again, Portal Physics was really your only nemesis. I don’t see any requests for courses on that subject?”

I shook my head, “No, I’m really just here for the filmmaking and holographic courses.”

She nodded, “I have heard you all are about twenty years behind us there?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know that we’re that far back on the projecting technology, but we are on the stasis fields you use to make them solid?”

“Solid?” Doctor Owens piped in.

“You didn’t know that you could touch them?” I asked. “I was in a car yesterday with a built-in holographic hostess that could even pick me up.”

“That’s cool,” he said. I noticed he was kind of fidgety in his seat, and I hoped he wouldn’t start having his own potty problems this semester!

“Anyway, so where did that test place me?”

“Your score of 720 would place out of the first four semesters of chemistry, first two of biology, and first two of physics if you were a normal student.”

“And the computer science test?” I asked.

“It hasn’t been graded yet…” she started to say, but her eyebrow twitched. “Pardon me one second,” she said and typed on her keyboard.

I looked at Doctor Owens, looking a little uncomfortable. “Doctor Owens, if you need to take a break for a moment, you are more than welcome?” I suggested to him, guessing his problem.

She suddenly started talking, “Doctor Faulkner, you asked me to call?”

I grimaced and wondered if history was repeating itself.

“I see? Well, you know who his grandmother and mother are, right? Probably not that surprising that he would do well?”

I heard silence as she listened, “You said you checked? No signs of cheating, right? You even checked the headset?” I heard more silence. “Look, I actually have him right here in my office, Doctor Faulkner. Given his math and science scores, I think we can just determine this to be a legitimate test score. I don’t think he had any way to cheat.” She paused, “Yes, I know it’s hard to believe a Little could do that, but remember, he’s not from our dimension. I have no problem with the additional testing security you’re requesting for his future exams, but I doubt they’re needed.”

I squirmed, ‘What more security could they use?!? I had a headset on my head!’

“So, assuming this was an honest result, what was the final score?”

I wished I had a phone I could overhear the other side from.

“Very well; please submit that into the system in the next few minutes so I can finalize his schedule. He requested a class or two that will need those prereqs covered. Have a good afternoon,” Northrup blinked, and I realized that she might have even been having a video conference with the professor.

She looked back at me and shook her head, “You are going to cause a lot of problems here this semester, I’m guessing.”

“Problems?” Professor Owens asked, concerned.

“Not what you think. Every now and then, a Little tests better than some believe they should be able to because of prejudices. From the stories I’ve heard of Connor’s mother, she was the same way. So, Connor, congratulations, you scored a perfect score on the computer science exam.”

“Really? My last solution worked?”

“Yes, and that concerned Doctor Faulkner a lot. Enough so that he’d already investigated you for cheating. I know that question was added since the last time your grandmother was involved in the test design, so I know there’s no way you could have had the question in advance. You must be brilliant to get through it.” She shook her head, “Okay, with that information, let’s look at the rest of your schedule. You requested Engineering 349, Holographic Field Theory. Your physics placement just barely allows for this class. I would make sure you plan to seriously study if you want to do well in that class. It regularly flunks about sixty percent of the students who attempt it.”

I nodded, “I’ll work at it. It’s the whole reason I came here, though!”

“Very well, ‘Computational Intelligence I’ was next on your request. Do you still wish to take that one?”

“What else would I take?”

“Your results technically mean you can take any computer science course through graduate coursework?”

“Let’s just stick with that course,” I told her. “It fits in with my degree plan back home that way.”

“Fair enough, next you requested two film classes. ‘Film 230: Cinematic Narratives’ and ‘Film 241 Screenwriting’ are nearly full, but we’ll go ahead and register you in both.”

“Great, that’s all the classes I requested before I came, right?”

“Right, but we also have to add another. We’re going to assign you to Littles Seminar II this semester. You’ll be with the second-semester freshmen, but it is a very beneficial resource and class. It meets just one day a week but helps us ensure you are well taken care of in that time?”

I squirmed but knew I wouldn’t be able to skip it. “Okay, I know my mom took it.”

“Yes, I’m sure she did. Now, this is a pretty full schedule. Are you sure you’re up for taking this many classes?”

“Yes, ma’am, I should be fine,” I told her.

“In that case, unless you have any objections, Doctor Owens?” She looked at him.

I noticed he was really bouncing then. “None,” he said.

“We’ll finish this one up then.” She said.

“I’ll be right back for the next meeting,” he said as he jumped off his chair and ran out the door.

I heard a small giggle, but when I looked at the dean, she had a stoic face. “I’ll email you the schedule. Here is a packet to ensure you can get everything you need for your courses. You should already have a tablet to hold all your textbooks in your room.”

“Thanks,” I said as I stepped out of the chair and took the folder from her.

“You’re very welcome, Connor. Welcome to Emerson!”

I walked out the door Doctor Owens had left open and saw Mackenzie standing there holding Liam on her hip. “All done?” She asked as I walked out.

“Yep, what’s next?”

“Let’s head back to the nest, and we’ll play it by ear…” she told me.
 
 

Chapter 17: Break-Ins
 

I FOLLOWED MACKENZIE as she carried Liam back to the dorm. He looked pitiful in her arms and clearly was embarrassed about being carried around like a toddler. Liam was not quite a foot taller than me, but he looked about the size of a year-old baby at best in her arms. I couldn’t help but notice her patting his back like one as we walked across campus, and he buried his head in her shoulder.

‘He’s going quick!’ I couldn’t help but think. He struggled to free himself one last time as we reached the door to Sanders Hall. Still, she bounced him like a fussy baby and said, “I’ll put you down when we get inside. We still need to talk about what happened earlier,” she warned.

‘What happened earlier?’ I couldn’t help but wonder! ‘He didn’t stay for the computer science test… so it could be during that time… or after she took him back to the dorm? Or something while he was with the Dean?’

He had hurried out almost as fast as Doctor Owens had. I couldn’t help but wonder if he had actually made it to the potty in time!

Back in our room, she finally put Liam down on the floor, and he moved as quickly as he could to his desk, away from her. I walked over to my desk and pulled my backpack off my shoulders before saying, “Miss Mackenzie, I’m going to use the potty real quick?”

“Go ahead, Connor; I’ll be there in a second.” I walked towards the open doorway to the bathroom and pushed my way into a stall. Pulling down my pants and hopping back onto the potty-shaped toilet was just a little effort but far more accessible than the big toilets would have been earlier! I took advantage of the smaller potty to empty my bowels and bladder, which had grown fuller as we walked back.

I was just getting ready to reach for the toilet paper when Mackenzie opened the stall door. She knelt and looked at my Pull-Ups, “All dry and clean here! Smells like you made a poopy in the potty?” She asked, even as she pulled me forward and looked down at the bowl. “Wow! What a good boy, unlike Liam! I think you’ve made it every time today!”

I was red as a tomato then and only got redder as she grabbed some wipes from up above somewhere and proceeded to ‘help me’ get clean. Her efforts only required a few moments, and then she dropped them in a wall-mounted trashcan and stood me up. I reached down to pull my pants up but was slower than her, so she finished the job.

“Why don’t you wash your hands, and then we’ll update your potty chart together!” She said happily.

Earlier that day, Mackenzie seemed like a better Nest Mother than the others, but suddenly the ‘mommy’ part of her seemed to be out in full force.

I sighed and went to the sink while she went to the main room and said, “Come on, Liam, let’s change that diapee!”

I took my time washing my hands, but she still was in the middle of lifting his butt up into the air to moon me as I walked out. I looked away and walked to the desk, turning on the computer and inputting my login information. Obviously, I didn’t trust their laptop, so I opened up my backpack, pulled out my computer, and sat it beside the desk.

“Why are you using that computer?” Mackenzie startled me.

“Because it’s one from home with all my documents on it?” I told her, “Not to mention, it’s more familiar to me. Also, I have a camera from home that I brought to take pictures of my time here that I can’t connect to your computers?”

She started to object when I said, “Say, can we take a picture together? My moms will love to put a face to a name?”

“Umm…” she was shocked by the suggestion.

“Liam, can you come to take a picture of Miss Mackenzie with me?” I asked. He gave me a look like I was nuts, but I glowered at him to take the hint. “Miss Mackenzie, how about you sit on the ground, and I’ll sit on your lap?”

“You’re sending this to your moms?” She asked.

“So they know I’m okay and in good hands!” I told her. “Don’t tell me none of your nest has ever asked you to take a picture with them before?”

“Umm… actually, no, they haven’t?”

“That’s kind of silly,” I told her. “Go ahead, sit down there. Here Liam, take the camera,” I told him.

He hesitantly stepped forward and grabbed it. Mackenzie clearly didn’t know what to think but ended up sitting down, and I clambered onto her lap.

“Okay, umm… three, two, one,” he said, and the flash went off.

He took a few for me, and I said, “Here, let me see it,” I told him. I pressed some buttons, and it pulled up the zoomed-in photo of us looking like a mommy and her baby. “Here, Miss Mackenzie, you want to see it before I send it?”

She was still on the ground and said, “Umm… sure?” She sighed as she looked, “Aww, it’s a cute picture of us! Thanks for asking me to take one with you! Liam, you want one?”

“No, thank you,” he said.

He started walking away, but she said, “Let’s update those potty charts for you two. Liam, we’ll do you first.”

Without warning, she picked him up and placed him on her hip. Some stickers appeared from somewhere, and she said, “Okay, we didn’t do yesterday yet, so here’s a poopy sticker for your first accident. Can you be a big boy and put it on Wednesday?”

I grimaced for him as he said, “Do we really have to do this?”

“Well, if you want to just plan on diapers for the rest of the semester, we don’t have to do a potty chart? Since only big boys get underwear, they’re also the only ones who get potty charts?”

“Fine!” he said. I watched as he put a brown sticker on Wednesday.

“Then let’s see, we went through three more diapers yesterday, so let’s put those down on Wednesday too!”

He grumbled but put some yellow stickers down on the chart.

“You had one time you did use the potty yesterday, so go ahead and put this down on Wednesday!” I could tell it was a gold star from where I was sitting.

“Now, this is the morning spot; you had a wet diapee then, so put this yellow one there!”

“I wouldn’t have been wet if you had let me out to use the potty! You were gone when I woke up!”

“Aww, sweetie, I actually checked you before Connor, and I left. You were already wet, but that’s okay. Night diapees are normal in our Nest.”

“I was…?” He started to say. “Now you had two more wet diapees, and then that poopie diaper just before we picked up Connor. Then the wet one I just changed, so let’s put three more pee pee stickers here and one more poopie.”

He was bright red as she did this while holding him underneath the diaper bulge with one hand. When she was done, she bounced him up and down, “Liam, I’m sorry to say you aren’t going to be earning a Potty Star this semester. You’ve already used up enough accidents to make even a Bronze Star impossible!”

“But…”

“It’s okay; it’s not the first time a Little has burned through their stars so fast. I need to tell you, though, that if your chart looks like this every day for the next week, I’m going to just pull it down, and we’ll go with diapees only.”

“But…”

“Now, why don’t you go explore and check out your textbooks? They should be on your tablet,” she told him and set him down. A pat was made to the rear before she said, “Come on, Connor, let’s update yours too.”

I walked over to her and found myself in her arms like he’d been. “You said you had a poopy diaper yesterday while you were out?”

I blushed but nodded, “Yes.”

“So here’s a poopy sticker for that.”

She handed me a sticker that was shaped like an old poop-shaped emoji back home, complete with a frowny face on it. I grimaced but put it down on Wednesday.

“Now I think you used the potty five times yesterday, according to my records and what your grandma said, so here’s five gold stars!”

She handed me one sticker at a time, and I put them on the chart.

“And you’ve been a good boy all day so far, so from the records, I have you earning seven more gold stars today!”

I took each ridiculous sticker and covered a fair amount of the area on the chart. Mackenzie bounced me up and down like a fussy baby, “You, unfortunately, have that one accident that will keep you from a Gold Star, but I think you might be able to achieve a Silver or a Bronze still!”

“Great,” I told her.

She sat me down, “Okay, you two, why don’t you check out your coursework and schedules from the Dean and start planning everything you’ll need next week for a bit. I’m going to be in my apartment for a while. Don’t try and leave the Nest, please.”

Liam looked like he was about to challenge that but instead joined me in saying, “Yes, Miss Mackenzie.”

I walked over to the computer and camera I had left on my desk. A quick glance that she was gone and Liam was occupied let me pull up the camera card memory. While the camera displayed the picture that Liam, or anyone focused on, the actual image recorded was far broader. Nearly 360 degrees wide! Liam’s body was the only thing blocking the camera’s rear, but even his face and body were completely imaged.

I began typing an email to Mom, making it as innocuous as possible but still attaching the ‘real’ images.

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know everything is going well here! Well… at least well enough.

Unfortunately, I’ve shrunk two and a half feet, so I’m definitely a Little. At least I’m taller than Mom was! (Not that it’s saying much since I’m tied with the shortest in the exchange group) This morning we took our placement tests and got our results, and set up schedules this afternoon. I did really well on the tests… including scoring a perfect score on the programming one! Math and Science I only missed things related to Portal Physics since I’ve never studied any of that!

As a result, the courses I requested before I came are the ones I’m signed up for. Well, those plus I have to take that Little Seminar you told me about Mom.

I met Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Bella, Aunt Megan, and all of their family yesterday, as well as Uncle Cameron, Aunt Addison, and their kids. Beth is here going to school and is really cool. I ate lunch with her and one of her Big friends earlier. She’s like double my height, but really nice! I hope I can hang out more with her this semester!

Anyway, I need to keep exploring what I have been given for textbooks and things, but I’ve attached a picture of my Nest Mother here. Miss Mackenzie was nice enough to take me swimming this morning, and she’s mostly been nice to me, at least. I’ll write again soon! Love you all,

Connor

I wiped some moisture from my eyes and played with the ends of my long hair as I explored my textbooks on the tablet they’d given me.
 

BETH WAS JUST about to enter her room when her phone rang. It showed her mom’s picture on the screen.

“Beth, don’t go into your room; go downstairs instead,” her mom told her.

“What? Why?”

“Just go! I’ll explain when you’re away from your room.”

“Okay…?” Beth was confused that her mom even knew she was about to go to her room before remembering she’d enabled her family tracking location on break. ‘Got to remember to turn that off!’ she griped.

She walked down the stairs and reached the bottom, “Okay, now what?”

“Someone got into your room and planted some used Pull-Ups to try and prove that you’re not mature,” she heard her dad’s voice.

“What?!?” she hissed.

“Luckily, your dad’s Christmas present recorded it all,” her mom said. “You’re going to go to your RD right now and show her the video. If you recognize the culprit, that will help. We’re sending it now; please call us back as soon as you’ve shown her so we can be on the line.”

Beth was shaking then with anger as she hung up and received the video file from her dad. She watched as Kelly’s friend Nevaeh entered the room and put a wet Pull-Up underneath her bed covers, another in the trash can hidden by the limited trash she had so far, and a stack of unused ones in her underwear drawer. The bitch actually stole all of her panties while she was at it!!!!!

Deciding that calling her parents later would be too late, she instead opened an app she’d installed that allowed for a call that couldn’t be seen while she was showing the video. “Mom, just stay quiet. This is going to stay open so you can hear me. Mute your side; I know the culprit.”

Her face was red as she walked up to the RDs apartment and knocked. The door opened suddenly and revealed that Kelly was inside with their RD, Penelope Rogers. “Oh, there she is now,” Kelly said.

“Can I help you?” Penelope asked.

“Yes, can I talk to you? But without her around?” Beth motioned to Kelly.

“I’m only trying to help,” Kelly said, “I’ll talk to you later, Penelope!”

She didn’t even argue as she left. Instead, once the door was closed, Beth said, “I have a complaint to make about a break-in into my room.”

“A break-in?” she asked.

“Yes, a girl, Nevaeh Dominguez, broke into my room and planted some used Pull-Ups. If I had to guess, Kelly was just trying to say she’s been catching me having accidents or some other made-up story?”

“Well, actually… she did say she thought you were having some potty problems?”

“Here, let me show you this video,” Beth told her.

“You know it’s not a big deal if you’re having…?”

“Watch this video, please!” Beth told her and used a built-in projector from the phone to project the video of her phone physically to a mid-sized image in the air in front of them. Unfortunately, the 3D mockup of her room wasn’t physically stable like a real projector. Still, it quickly showed the whole thing, from the sounds of a series of beeps from outside the room to Nevaeh committing the crime.”

“Oh my…” Penelope said, taking in the situation. She glanced up at Beth and seemed to realize she was well-connected based on how white she had turned. “This is a serious problem. Let me call campus security…”
 
 

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

Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Chapters 18 and 19 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 18: Connected
 

I WAS JUST flipping through my Cinematic Narratives textbook when I realized Mackenzie had reentered the room. “Okay, boys, let’s go downstairs; a few of our nests are going to have a movie party before bedtime!”

I looked at Liam, who I noticed seemed to grimace. “Miss Mackenzie, may I use the potty?” he asked.

“Why? It’s not like you’ll be earning a star this semester?” she teased.

“Please?” He asked.

“Well, I guess we’ll give you one more chance here,” she told him. “Connor, why don’t you come use the potty before we leave too.”

I quickly made sure all my devices were locked as I stood up. I hadn’t drunk a lot, but I went pee nonetheless and also pushed out a little bit of poop. I hoped they wouldn’t try to use anything hypnotic on us right then, but being empty would be wise if they did!

Mackenzie rewarded us both with gold star stickers before leaving to go downstairs. “Good boys,” she had cooed. Before leaving, I grabbed one of my sealed water bottles. I ensured it looked untampered, even though I knew I couldn’t leave anything unattended in that room and trust it long!

‘Hopefully, Grandma can help me figure that one out…?’ I worried.

I didn’t know if ending up full-time in diapers like Liam was probably about to would matter in the long run with the new rules not penalizing protected accidents. Still, I probably would be better off ending up with a silver or a bronze star than none like he would.

Mackenzie led us to the elevator and pressed a button for a basement floor I didn’t remember on the tour. “Where are we going?” Liam asked.

“There’s a small movie theater in the basement,” she told us.

“Why didn’t we see it on the tour?” Liam asked.

“Time; remember Connor had to get out of here?”

‘Way to blame me…?’ I thought.

“Can we come down anytime we want?” I asked.

She shook her head, “No, because we need to make sure you study; this is always going to be something of a group event with our nest or occasionally as a dorm event.”

As if to prove the limited access, she had to scan her watch at the door, and it opened, revealing most of our exchange group. I noticed Luca and Tatum weren’t in the room, and Lucy, their nest mother, was missing too. I could see about seven other girls I remembered from the luncheon from other dimensions too. “Sorry we’re late,” Mackenzie said, “Time got away from us.”

“No worries, we just chose a film,” she said. Then, she looked at Liam and me, “Sorry, the girls chose one, so you are stuck with a bit of a chic flick here.”

Liam groaned, but I just shrugged, “This is a holographic film?” I asked, taking in the room. There was a variety of seating around the room. In the back, on a raised level, were enormous Amazon-sized couches and a couple recliners sized for them. In front of that level, some odd couches seemed to have triangular-shaped pieces that could be chairbacks or move around to make other shapes. The girls had taken most of that seating already. I saw one space open next to Amy and Ava.

“Connor, come over here,” Amy said, “Join us here! Liam, you can take that chair thing there!”

Liam stood there while I joined the girls and put my back against the triangle piece they had used as a backrest. My small form had no problems joining them, and I found myself leaning against Ava suddenly when she pulled me in with her arm to her side. “Come in; we decided this will be like a daytime slumber party.”

“Except the boys part,” Madelyn, one of the girls’ Nest Mothers, said.

“I don’t know; I had a bunch of ‘slumber parties’ with boys back home,” Willow said slyly.

Several girls giggled.

I noticed that at the front of the room, almost a theater stage took up most of the front wall. Someone turned out the lights, and the area filled with three-dimensional images and the audio filled the room as loud as any theater I’d been in back home.

“How are you doing?” Ava asked me quietly in my ear.

I looked at her, but she squeezed me and said, “Eyes forward.”

“Okay, I guess,” I whispered.

“Potty issues?”

“Other than yesterday, none so far. You?” I asked.

“I’m the only one who hasn’t so far. Everyone else is in Pull-Ups except Amy.”

“What about her?” I asked; she was just far enough away I hoped she wouldn’t hear us.

“Said they didn’t have Pull-Ups small enough…?”

“Oh,” I said.

“What did you find?”

“Some off-campus,” I told her.

“Off-campus?” she whispered as the screen came to life, showing a scene from a high school. Most of the students were Bigs, but a handful of Mids and two or three Littles walked into the classroom.

“I have family here,” I told her.

“Shhh…” Someone nearby whispered.

“Talk later?” She asked.

I nodded.

I wondered if there would be any hypnotic suggestions in the film, but instead, it seemed to be a typical trope-filled movie about life in HS. The main character was a shorter Amazon girl who got picked on quite a bit. The girl was really good at drawing and was entering an art competition.

About twenty minutes into the film, I felt Ava play with my hair, “You have really long hair… Can I braid this?” she asked me quietly.

I blushed and felt goosebumps, as I loved when anyone played with my hair. I nodded, “Sure.”

The film showed that the main character was also actually friends with several Betweeners, who she watched get picked on and tried to stand up for. As one of the main points of the plot came out, I felt her tie off the bottom of a long braid with a hairband that was missing from her wrist now. She patted my head, and we watched a feel-good ending with her convincing people to be nice to them and earning a scholarship to a prestigious art school.

If that had been the only thing in the film, it would have been pretty good!

Unfortunately, the film constantly featured Littles having accidents, needing help from a Big to get to the nurse for a diaper change, suggestions that the Tweeners needed to wear Pull-Ups, and even a scene where the main character was forced into a too-small Pull-Up before being saved.

All-in-all, it reminded me very much of the ones Mom had told me about while she had been there.
 

BETH LOOKED UP at the tall security men who had come at Penelope’s call.

“So you say someone broke into your room?” the officer asked.

“Yes, sir, I have a room lamp designed to track break-ins.”

“Why?” the other asked.

“My dad wanted me to have a little more security this semester,” Beth said.

“Well, let’s go take a look at your room.” The first one said, “If this is legit, we’ll have to fully investigate this.”

Beth walked to her room with the three of them and noticed that Kelly seemed slightly surprised by the security officers when she passed her. She made a weird face, and Beth suspected this was not the way she’d expected she would be returning to her room!

“Can you scan your code?” The officer asked Penelope.

“Why not hers?” she asked.

“Assuming this is legit, I want to verify she hasn’t entered, and I don’t want an extra confusing entry data point.”

She shrugged and used her watch to open the door. Beth stayed behind them as they went first to the trash can. The officer pulled on a pair of gloves and dug through to find a Pull-Up that wasn’t just wet; she could see a brown stain too.

“Eew,” Beth found herself saying aloud.

“Do you have a trash bag or something?” He asked Beth.

She nodded and pointed to a small box of them on a cabinet. Beth watched as the officer pulled one out and put the Pull-Up inside. He then went over to the bed and discovered another wet one there, and he said, “You’re going to have to wash these sheets. Unfortunately, it’s soaked in here.”

“I can’t believe someone would do this,” Penelope said, seemingly genuinely surprised. Then, another trashbag was used to gather up all of the Pull-Ups left inside her underwear drawer.

“Well, this verifies that video you have, Miss Sylvester. So you said the young lady’s name was Nevaeh Dominguez?”

“Yes, she’s friends with Kelly Danvers, who was trying to tell Penelope I was having accidents and get her to investigate me.”

“Is this true, Miss Rogers?”

“She was saying she thought Beth was having accidents and trying to cover them up. She didn’t tell me I’d find this in her room…?”

“But you would have been mandated to investigate today, correct?” The other officer said, “Meaning you would have discovered this?”

“Probably,” she admitted.

“Do you know what room we can find this, Nevaeh?” the one holding the trashbags asked.

“Room three-eighteen,” Penelope told him.

“Why don’t you give Miss Sylvester a hand with that bedding while we confront these young ladies.”

“I’m sure she can…?”

“I don’t want another report of her having accidents making it to us or your desk. So please do her the favor of getting those sheets discreetly laundered and back,” another voice came from the room’s doorway. Beth turned a bit white when she realized the President of the University, Dr. Barnes, was standing at her door.

“Umm… yes, of course, Doctor Barnes. May I ask why you’re here?” Penelope asked.

“Miss Sylvester’s father called me, concerned that she might be getting railroaded by some students and not get fair treatment. Seems like that is the case from what I can see. The student you have the video of will be in my office in an hour, or people will be looking for new jobs. This other young lady that’s involved, if you can find evidence, I want her there too!”

He turned and left then, and Beth couldn’t help but wonder just how big of a hole Kelly would be shoving her ‘friend’ into.

“Who the hell is your dad?” Penelope asked.

“My dad,” Beth told her, “Mister Sylvester. Now can we please take care of the bedding? Dr. Barnes is right; I don’t want to deal with someone deciding I’m wetting the bed here?”

She shook her head, “Alright!”
 

I WALKED WITH Ava and Amy to dinner that night. Instead of each nest going independently, those in our little get-together walked to the dining hall as a group. Liam gave me several glares for some reason then, but I couldn’t tell what his new problem was. As far as I could tell, we all had made it to the ‘potty’ just fine after the movie. Other than the crinkling protection most of the group now wore, it was almost like being in college back home.

My hair was still braided in a long braid down past my shoulders. As I swiped my wrist ID to enter, the lady said, “Have a good meal, young ladies!”

I blushed but kept walking beside the other two, gathering a few different kinds of pasta and some chicken for dinner that night. The three of us managed to sit at a Littles table as far to the side as possible, and Ava started asking questions.

“Connor, what did you mean you had been off-campus yesterday?” Ava asked. “We were told we couldn’t go anywhere?”

I shrugged, “My grandma got permission for me?”

“Grandma?” Amy asked.

I sighed, “Remember back to the meeting yesterday? I mentioned my mom came to school here?” I could tell yesterday was like a fog for them too, but they tentatively nodded. “When she came, Mom was smart enough to know she didn’t want to stay in the dorms… so she basically set up her own adoptive family. Grandma and Grandpa let her return when she was done studying.”

“Why aren’t you staying with them?” Ava asked.

“I tried… I think Mom made people mad when she was able to go home. From what I can tell, a few rules were created because of her.”

“That su…” Ava started to say, but Amy poked her lightly as their nest mother, Madelyn, walked up. “...prises me.”

‘Good save, Ava!’ I thought to myself.

“Are you girls having a good time?” Madelyn asked us.

“We are; Connor here is a nice guy,” Amy told her.

Her eyes narrowed, “Oh, I didn’t even realize you weren’t one of the other girls. Just to let you all know, though, you have about a half-hour, and then we’ll head back to the nests for the night. So make sure you get plenty to eat!”

“Yes, Mommy,” Ava and Amy said.

As she walked away, I mouthed, “Mommy?!?” to them.

“It’s easier to go with it now,” Amy said. “Anyway, did you say you found some Pull-Ups that fit instead of these diapers?”

I nodded, “There were some ones designed for Littles that fit…?”
 

BETH HAD CALLED her parents as soon as Penelope left with her stuff. Their holograms appeared before her, “Dad, did you really have to call the university president?!?” She was a little embarrassed and worried it had been overkill.

“I’m not letting anyone mess with my baby,” her mom said. “I was the one who actually called, Sweetie.”

She sighed, “Well, I don’t know what you accomplished, but I’m pretty sure my RD will grovel at this rate.”

“So, your sheets were wet from that Pull-Up?”

She sighed, “Yeah.”

“Did you check the mattress itself yet?” Her mom asked.

“Umm… no…?”

“Better look and take a picture if there’s a stain. The last thing you want is for that to be blamed on you at the end of the semester or sooner with that move.”

Beth grimaced but left her phone projecting the holograms on her desk and climbed onto the lofted bed, “Crap, there is a wet patch.”

“As soon as we get off the phone, make sure you email your RD and document that it’s from this incident. Then, I might suggest they replace the mattress.”

“Everyone is going to think I’m a bedwetter, Mom!”

“No, everyone is going to know exactly what happened, I’m sure, as soon as this is all resolved.” Her mom responded.

“Sweetie, it’s not like this one was your fault? Who was this girl anyway?”

“She’s the friend and lackey of a bitch who has it out for me,” she told her dad.

“Language…” Her mom chided.

“I think this probably applies, actually,” her dad agreed. “So you think her friend put her up to it?”

“Probably, but proving it is going to probably be impossible. I’m guessing Kelly will happily let Nevaeh take the fall for her. I don’t even know why she would have gone through with it, given she’s usually the more moderating influence on Kelly.”

“Blackmail, maybe?” Her dad suggested.

“Could be, I guess…?”

There was a knock on the door, “I’ll be right back, I’m turning your holos off, but I’ll leave the connection going.”

Beth quickly pressed some buttons and ensured the volume was muted so no one would hear her parents. At the door was one of the security officers and Penelope. The officer aggressively held Nevaeh’s arm to ensure she wouldn’t go anywhere. Beth noticed the scraps of cloth in a Ziploc-type plastic bag carried by one officer. “Nevaeh has something to say to you,” Penelope said.

Beth looked at Nevaeh and realized she seemed truly terrified right then. “I’m sorry I broke into your room and tried to frame you.”

“And?” The officer prompted.

“I’m sorry I stole your panties and chopped them up.”

Beth realized now the cloth in the Ziploc was all of her panties. There was no salvaging them right then, and she felt her stomach turn at the loss of clean underwear!

“Umm… Thank you for apologizing,” Beth decided to diplomatically say.

“And thank you for saying that. We’ll take Little Nevaeh here to see Dr. Barnes now. She will be responsible for any damages she caused you, including replacing all those panties for you. So if you can go pick up replacements and save receipts,” Penelope told Beth.

“Umm, you might also need to replace the mattress, too,” she decided to speak up.

“Huh?” the officer asked.

“That Pull-Up she put on the bed leaked through the sheets and left a patch on the mattress.”

“We’ll add that to the list. Give me an hour, and we’ll switch mattresses from Little Nevaeh’s room, assuming it’s not wet. Those Pull-Ups obviously didn’t get wet themselves! I won’t be surprised if she’s been having the problem and brought them here to get rid of them?” She glanced at Nevaeh, who shook her head frantically and was bright red from embarrassment. “I’m not sure it will be clean because of that, so I may just have to call someone from maintenance to bring a new one,” Penelope told me.

They took a picture of it and left, pushing her in front of them. Then, turning the holo feature back on, she saw her parents patiently waiting. “Well, at least they’re handling it. Why don’t you get one of your friends to go with you for some new panties and dinner?” Her mom suggested.

Beth nodded, “Guess I don’t have much choice now! I’ll let you know if I hear of anything else.
 

WE HAD BEEN sitting for a long time after finishing eating just talking, when a loud screech of laughter interrupted my sentence. I turned towards the door and noticed a dozen Amazons practically peeing themselves right then laughing at the sight of an Amazon girl who was probably about ten feet in height entering. She was wearing a uniform blouse of a little and a diaper.

Her hair was done up in loose pigtails tied with gigantic pink bows. The Big seemed to have an enormous toddler backpack-style leash on as Dean Northrup guided her by the shoulder into the dining hall. I watched as she approached the other nest mother our dimensional girls were with. She spoke loudly enough we could hear twenty feet away. Of course, it didn’t hurt that all other sounds went silent as everyone listened.

“Miss Kaylee, Nevaeh here has made some rather poor choices that have left us with very few choices on how to deal with her behavior. Instead of being expelled from the university and arrested for breaking into a big girl’s room and trying to plant evidence of potty problems, she will join your nest for the rest of the year. If she can behave and somehow get a Bronze potty star for the semester, we’ll consider letting her back into a big girls’ dorm next year. Her stuff is already being moved into your nest, and we’ve set her up in your empty Pod.”

“Oh, that’s great! We can’t wait to have Little Nevaeh here join us, huh?” She squealed.

“They’ll do that to each other?” Ava gasped.

I just shrugged and kept eating the last bites of pasta on my plate. ‘What the hell happened with her?’ I couldn’t help but wonder. But then, I noticed that girl Kelly who had been a problem earlier, glaring at them.
 
 

Chapter 18: Savory
 

BETH, CASSIE, AND Livy got a Luxuria car to pick them up to go to the mall. Beth had panties that she liked to wear when she worked out that she had to get from one place, another place was her everyday favorite, and she felt the need to pick up some fancy ones from a lingerie store too to replace the ones that had been destroyed. So she’d also stopped at a specialty store that sold some she used during her period. The fabric was coated with nanites that cleaned any spotting if her tampon leaked or she started early.

She knew she’d had about thirty pairs of panties in her drawer, so that was how many she replaced. The bill ran way higher than she would have wanted to cover alone! ‘Mom and Dad would probably yell at me if I spent this much normally!’

It wasn’t like they couldn’t afford it, though!

After their shopping spree, Livi and Cassie spent some Christmas gift money on some clothes too. Then, they decided to eat in a restaurant attached to the mall with a little bit of everything on the menu and amazing cakes for dessert.

“Welcome to The Savory Fork!” The hostess said as they walked up. “Three?”

“Yes, please,” Cassie said, taking the lead.

“Any booster seats?”

“No, we’ll be fine. A booth if you have one?”

“Sure, right this way,” she told them.

Beth sighed but long ago learned that it was easier when the three of them were out to let Cassie pretend to be the older sister of the trio. Sure enough, when they were seated, “Do you want the kid’s menus for these two?”

Cassie shook her head, “They’re college students just like me; please just give them the regular menu.”

“Sorry, I figured they were your baby sisters or something…” the waitress apologized.

“It happens; just leave the menus, please?” Cassie said.

“That gets old,” Livi said.

“Yes, it does,” Beth agreed.

The three flipped through the menu, and Livi said, “Ooh, chicken and waffles, that sounds good!”

“Are you sure you’re not a Little?” Cassie shook her head.

Livi stuck her tongue out at her, “Pretty sure!”

“So, what do you think happened to Nevaeh?” Cassie asked as the three pulled out their phones and scrolled through some pages.

A giggle from Livi became a full-on laugh that she couldn’t stop, “I think I found that out!” she pressed a button on her phone. A projection of Nevaeh’s earlier entrance to the dining hall played above their table.

“Oh, my God!” Cassie said, giggling. “I guess that’s better than kicking her out?”

The video played through Dean Northrup’s explanation and confirmed that. “That’s justice!” Livi said.

“That’s terrifying,” Beth said.

Both their faces fell at that, “Keep in mind, if it can happen to her, none of us are safe…?”

That put a bit of a damper on the mood, even as Beth did appreciate that some comeuppance had happened for the crime. “So Connor earlier?” Cassie asked after they had ordered.

“What about him?”

“He’s kind of cute?”

“In that baby brother kind of way?” Livi asked.

“No, I mean totally cute. He could be the one for you, Beth!”

Beth felt herself turn bright red. “If he was taller, sure, but with an attempt to frame me for accidents already, I can only imagine what they’d say if I was dating a Little!”

“Not to mention one of the shortest ones around!” Livi agreed.

“He is a nice guy, though,” she said.

“You do like him!” Cassie laughed.

“If only he’d come through at his normal height,” she shrugged. “What about you? How’s the Jake project going?”

Cassie turned red then, “Not so well. I swear he’s clueless! I’m practically holding up a neon sign saying, ‘Date me, date me!’”
 

I FOLLOWED MACKENZIE back into the nest and headed towards the bathroom. “You boys have just about an hour until lights out,” she told me when I came back in. She unceremoniously pulled down my pants and verified the Pull-Up was dry before holding me up to put a sticker on the chart. “Lots of gold stickers for you today!”

“Liam, do you need to go potty?” She asked him as she sat me down.

“Please?” he asked.

“Come on,” she said, waving to him to follow her into the bathroom. I made my way to my desk and found several messages from Mom, Mama, and my sisters!

Conn,

We miss you already! I know you would have been away right now anyway, but knowing you’re in another dimension makes you feel further apart. I hope you learn what you want to, but please stay safe. We want our big brother back!

Love,
Lilah

Hannah’s message was almost identical to Lilah’s, and I quickly sent off two quick replies a little longer than theirs.

Connor,

I’m really worried about you. Mom showed me your email and the picture you took. Your nest ‘mother’ is huge!!!! Well, that and you’re tiny. I mean, if you come back that short, I am so totally going to pick on you myself! It would be nice to be the tall one for once?

Seriously though, you have to make sure you come home. I can’t live without my big brother helping me out!

Love,

Riley

I felt my eyes water a bit at the three messages but managed to focus enough to reply to Riley too. Unfortunately, Mama’s message was even harder to read.

Connor,

You have no idea how hard it is to watch your best friend leave to go to some new dimension. When your mother left, it just about tore me apart, but at least it was kind of what all of our friends were doing at that point – splitting off to our own lives everywhere.

That had nothing on leaving you to go to that dimension yesterday. Your mom insists it’s your family legacy, even as she and I cry way too much. She’s never told me everything, but I know enough that you’re not safe there. So please do everything you can to make it back home to us! Do your homework, listen to the ‘adults,’ and stay out of trouble!

Congratulations on doing so well on your tests, though I’m not surprised. Brains have never been your issue! (Common sense is another thing!) So stay safe, and make sure you get back here!

Love,

Mama

I was crying then, and there was no hiding it as Mackenzie walked over. “Are you okay, Connor?”

“Sorry, just reading some messages from home. My moms and sisters like to make me cry,” I tried to laugh it off.

“Okay, if you’re sure, you have about twenty minutes until it’ll be time to get ready for bed.”

“Okay,” I told her.

I steeled myself and opened Mom’s email.

Connor,

Thanks for letting us know you made it alright. I appreciated the pictures to put a face to the name of your nest mother. That’s quite the ‘bed’ you have there.

I hope things can go okay for you there. I’m glad your tests went well for you! I’m impressed by the programming one, which had to have gotten more difficult since I took it – and it was hard then! I’m glad you’ll be able to take the classes you want to. Please let us or Grandma know if you need any class supplies. I know she said she plans to pick you up tomorrow after lunch to go home for the weekend. Make sure you take your swimsuit with you; you should have time to get a good swim in since they have an indoor pool!

Behave and keep your head down. I don’t want you to attract the kind of attention I did. We love and miss you so much already; make sure you get back to us!

Love,

Mom

Based on her comment about the bed, I knew that she got the real information I had sent her. I wanted to respond to both of my moms, but I knew I wouldn’t have the time individually. So I ended up sending a message to both of them.

Hi Mom and Mama!

I’m just getting ready to head to bed here. I’m looking forward to seeing Grandma again tomorrow and then the rest of the family. You really didn’t tell me how large our family here is!!!! It was like having a small madhouse at dinner the other night.

I’ll do my best to keep a low profile… But I’m not sure how well that will work, honestly!

Anyway, it’s almost time for bed here, so I have to go. (You know how they are with Littles and bedtime!) I’ll take my computer with me to Grandma’s and try and write you more then. Maybe we can video chat with the family together? I’m sure you and Grandma already have a plan for that, knowing you!

I love you all and will see you at the end of the semester!

Love,

Connor

‘I may have been a total idiot to leave home behind,’ I worried.

“Okay, why don’t you both try the potty, and then we’ll get your night diapers on?” I heard Mackenzie say from the doorway to her apartment.

“Okay,” I said, closing down the computer.

I walked over to the bathroom and sat on the toilet one last time for the night, ensuring I got everything out! I patted myself dry and made sure to wipe before walking back out to the room and finding Liam mid-diaper change.

“Well, Liam, if you can behave like this all day tomorrow, I might consider letting you have training pants instead of diapers.”

I blushed on his behalf and just appreciated it seemed like she was finally willing to let go of whatever had happened when I wasn’t around.

“Which pajamas do you want?” I heard her ask Liam.

I could only understand a mumble but saw he was zipped into a set of footed pajamas and placed on his feet. He blushed when he saw me, shaking his head. His diaper must have been thicker because it clearly showed through the fabric of the sleeper and made him walk oddly, more of a toddle, as he approached the ladder to his pod.

I turned and saw Mackenzie staring down at me, “Ready to get ready for bed?”

I nodded and walked over to her. She gingerly picked me up and stood me on the changing table, quickly pulling my pants down and setting them aside. She pulled my shirt off then and examined the front of the Pull-Up. “You stayed dry all day today! Good job!”

I blushed, “Thanks.”

She pushed my shoulders down then and guided my nearly naked body onto the changing pad. I was grateful a piece of disposable paper was on top; I could only imagine what horrors had been on that table! A strap was pulled across my chest before she pulled the sides of the Pull-Up apart like a diaper. She held my ankles and effortlessly lifted my legs briefly off the old garment.

I watched her roll it up and toss it into a can beside her as I grew more uncomfortable with the paper starting to feel weird against my body. Finally, she reached into one of the cubbies, and a folded-up diaper appeared in her hand. I watched her open it, fluff it, and then she once again lifted my legs by my ankles and sat my butt gently down on the soft fabric of the diaper. I figured she’d get to taping it straight away, but instead, she squirted a bottle of stuff onto her gloved hands and began rubbing the lotion into the skin above my groin, onto my intimate parts, and used a hand to lift my legs and spread it in and around my butt. Her hands felt odd but warm through the gloves, and unfortunately, I was having an embarrassing reaction to the treatment. ‘Can you not do this right now,’ I griped at the body part that seemed to always have a mind of its own.

I watched her pull the gloves off then, and she reached between my legs to grab the front of the diaper and finally pulled it to cover my groin. I turned my head for a second and blushed as I realized Liam not only had a view of the table, but he was morbidly watching.

I turned my attention back to Mackenzie instead. She smiled at me as she pulled one, then the second tape a cross to seal me inside. “There, all diapered up, but probably won’t need it, huh?” She practically cooed.

“Hope not…” I said.

“Do you want to go swimming again in the morning?” she asked as she pulled out another of those sleepers and put my right foot inside a leg while gathering the rest of the sleeping beneath me. She unhooked the safety strap and threaded my body, still lying on top of the garment that apparently zipped completely down to the other foot to easily change someone lying down…

“Please?” I asked.

“Sure, I have a feeling my friend Lilly will be showing up too… She didn’t believe me about you!”

“That was that girl who showed up?”

“Yes, and she’s another Nest Mother, so she’s MISS Lilly to you in the morning,” she gently told me.

I nodded, “You said she’s not really fast?”

She laughed, “It could be close, but I’d guess you’re faster. You were like a fish in the water.”

“My mom jokes that my sisters and I are actually all part dolphin actually,” I smiled.

I sighed, missing them.

“You’ll be so busy soon you’ll not feel homesick long,” she told me gently. “Do you mind if I brush your hair out before I put you to bed?”

“Sure,” I smiled, “I haven’t done that yet tonight, and that would be nice!”

Her face lit up, and clearly, she was looking forward to it!

I expected her to set me down on the floor, but instead found myself placed on her hip as she carried me quickly into her apartment. “I managed to get you a hair dryer from the store room earlier,” she told me as we entered her apartment. “I’ll put it in the bathroom after we put you to bed.”

I noted I was still nervous as she carried me, but something was reassuring about her hold on me. She walked to an island counter between her Kitchen and the dining room and picked through a grocery sack. Inside was a purple hairbrush, several scrunchies, and a pack of multi-colored hair ties.

“Here, don’t move,” she told me as she placed me on the counter and began pulling off a couple of hair ties from the card. I looked down and was still amazed at how small I was. A drop from the counter would be more than my height! ‘My head wouldn’t even reach the top of her kitchen cabinet doors,’ I noted, looking around. Having been so tall since I was a little kid, being in the Amazonian-sized space was more than a bit intimidating!

“Got everything!” She grabbed me again, and I expected us to return to the main room, but instead, she carried me to a couch facing a large, oddly deep television. She sat down with me on her lap and said, “Mike, turn on the TV; turn on Food Channel.”

I watched as the TV somehow became a deep-looking holographic view that felt like the host of a cooking show was mere feet away from us, cooking at a stove.

“We can’t stay up too late doing this; I don’t want Liam to get jealous,” she told me, placing me sideways on her lap for a moment.

I nervously noted that turned that way; I could have been placed at her breast quite easily! Instead, she pushed me forward on her lap to where I could see the host cooking with some peppers that were probably small to him but were practically large jalapenos in my view. Apparently, he was cooking a spicy dish as she ran the hairbrush gently through my hair. I was torn with my attention as her huge hand gently pulled the brush through my hair, and the other danced around, grabbing pieces here and there.

“That looks tasty,” I said, trying to make myself feel less involved in her doing my hair.

“It would be waaay too spicy for you,” she told me.

I tried to shake my head, but she had a grip on my hair then, “I doubt it.”

“Every single portal Little says that to me,” she laughed.

“In my case, I think it’s the truth? I tried something yesterday at the restaurant. Even though everyone was standing by like I was eating poison, I barely felt a tingle!”

She stopped for a moment, “What did you order?”

I racked my brain momentarily, remembering, “Spicy stuffed Cantalonian Chicken?”

Her face appeared around my head, “Did they go light on the spice?”

I shrugged, “Grandma told them not to?”

“And it wasn’t spicy?”

I shook my head, “Barely a tingle?”

She resumed brushing my hair, “In the next couple weeks, there are a few events…. You should probably be in bed for them, but maybe I can get permission to let you go to one. If you’re telling the truth, we might make some fun money betting on you!”

I smiled but was surprised she’d be open to breaking the rules.

“Wouldn’t that be against the rules?”

“If you’re being a good boy, as your Nest Mother, I can grant some exceptions. Doesn’t usually happen, but I’m allowed.”

I felt her start pulling at my hair in a way I recognized from my sisters braiding my hair. Sure enough, she soon used one of the black hairbands to tie off a long braided ponytail. Even braided, my hair still landed below my shoulders. She stood up as the chef had some guests try the spicy food and stood in front of a mirror to show me.

The hair definitely did not look boyish, and I couldn’t help but smile at that before hiding it. “Thanks for doing my hair,” I told Mackenzie politely.

“Thank you for letting me play with it! It might be my price to let you do one of those contests?”

I smiled, “Deal!”
 
 

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