HTTYD - Day 5, Part 3

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Monday, October 19 (cont.)

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Marcus was riding on Jessie’s shoulder, holding onto her hair for balance, as the two of them entered into her first period class. It was supposed to be Social Studies, but the schedule for the day had been adjusted a bit to give everyone shorter, 30 minute classes, so that the school’s first periods could be extended for the Career Day. “Good morning Jessie,” her teacher said, warmly greeting the two of them. She was a modest but warmhearted woman, somewhere in her early 30s, with curly brown hair and set of thick rimmed glasses. “And Mr. Tilden, nice to see you again. How’ve you been doing?” Jessie’s teachers had all been informed of her dad’s shrinking, just in case the subject ever came up for parent-teacher meetings or other things. A few of Jessie’s friends knew too, but for most people at the school who didn’t know Jessie that well, the fact that her dad had developed his condition was news to them. He could feel most of the eyes in the room as they soon caught sight of the 9 inch man riding on their classmate’s shoulder. And it wasn’t easy not to feel self-conscious with so many kids staring at you curiously.

“Pretty healthy all things considered,” he replied with a manufactured smile. “I mean, Jess still has her dad and I still have her, so it could’ve been worse.” He wasn’t really that positive about the whole situation, but it was a polite enough answer.

“That’s a good attitude to have,” the teacher responded, then leaned in slightly and lowered her voice. “I’m a single parent too, and I don’t even wanna imagine what my son would go through if something were to happen to me.” Marcus grimaced at the sudden somberness, but nodded along anyways with an understanding look on his face, as a few moments of silence followed.

“Um, I know you said our parents were supposed to register with you ahead of time, but—“

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Miss Shepard said, shaking off the formality. “I forget what it is that you did though…” she said, scribbling his name into her schedule before glancing up at him cautiously.

“Well I used to work as a cameraman at KTLA, but,” he gestured down to his body, shrugging.

“Mmmmm, I’m sorry to hear about that,” she cooed.

“But I figured I could talk to them about what it’s like to have DSD, some stereotypes that some people have had about people like me, maybe answer some questions if they have any. I know it’s not exactly a career, although I’ve heard there are a lot of jobs as in-home nurses or people who run living facilities for those who have it even worse than me or nobody who can take care of them full time.” Jessie bit her lip and spaced out as she thought about what her dad had said. Taking care of him full time? I guess that’s what I’m doing… she realized. But wouldn’t that mean that he’d need her to watch after him for the rest of his life? It’d be like a parent whose kid has a serious disability, but in reverse. The personal caregivers like he talked about would be expensive, she wouldn’t be able to afford that til way after college, if ever. And the ‘shrunken homes’ as they were called would be like sending him off to a nursing home before he was even 40. He was big enough to look after himself for the most part, but there were still plenty of things that she had to do for them nowadays. He’ll probably never be able to live on his own again. I’ll always need to live with him. Or he’ll always need to live with me. Being a caregiver to a family member wasn’t an easy task, but having that kind of responsibility placed exclusively into the hands of an only child was an enormous burden.

“Jessie, hello? You there?” The girl snapped out of her trance as she realized her teacher was trying to get her attention.

“I was just saying that you were the one who had that idea,” her dad told her.

“Huh?” She really had been out of it.

“To talk about my condition, and what it’s like.”

“Oh yeah!” She paused, remembering back to their conversation at breakfast. “Yeah, sorry, yes that was me,” she smiled comically.

“Well why don’t you two go sit down then,” Miss Shepard said, “class is gonna start in a few minutes.”

*  *  *  *  *  *

“Can everyone give a round of applause to Mr. Field?” Miss Shepard led her students in clapping for the fire fighter as he waved at the kids and headed to the back of the class where the other parents who’d spoken were seated. “And last up we have Jessie’s dad; for those of you who were unaware, Mr. Tilden developed DSD a few months ago, which stands for…” her eyes circled around the room until a girl raised her hand, and Miss Shepard nodded at her.

“Diminutive Size Disorder,” the student answered, and Miss Shepard nodded, until another student piped in.

“Also known as, ‘da shrinking disorder,’” a boy remarked with a smirk, eliciting a couple of giggles from nearby kids.

Miss Shepard glanced at him for a moment but decided to ignore the comment and move on. “Now, whenever—“

“Real funny joke Michael,” Jessie interjected with a flat tone. “You turned ‘size’ into ‘shrinking,’ that was super clever dude. No wonder everyone thinks you’re hilarious.” Her reply got even more chuckles from the class, since Michael was one of those kids who thinks they’re a lot funnier than they really are. Marcus, still perched on her shoulder, glanced over at her, somewhat surprised. He knew she was outgoing and not afraid to speak up for herself, but he had no idea she was so sassy too. She was never like that at home. It was strange to see a new side to his daughter, although he’d been doing that a lot lately as she grew older and her personality became more developed.

“Alright guys, how about we move on, okay?” Miss Shepard said. She turned around to her desk and picked up the thin and simple headset that some of the teachers with spacious classrooms used, and offered it to Jessie. “Just in case your voice doesn’t carry,” she explained to Marcus. “Don’t feel bad if they can’t hear you, even I need to use it some days or else I wouldn’t have it.” She turned back to the class as Jessie put the headset over her own head, but turned the microphone around so instead of being in front of her mouth, it faced her dad still sitting on her shoulder. “So! Yes, Clarissa, DSD stands for Diminutive Size Disorder. We’ve actually had a few students with DSD over the years, usually it doesn’t develop until you’re an adult but sometimes kids experience it too. It’s actually a pretty common condition if I remember correctly, you just don’t see people with it as often in public since it’s harder for them to get around on their own. But I’ll pass it off to Mr. Tilden now and he can fill everyone in on the rest.”

Jessie’s dad thanked her teacher, and then went on to give a backstory of when he was diagnosed, what it felt like for the couple of weeks he was going through the shrinking process, and how life is like now. He mentioned how since it was just him and Jessie, she ended up being the one to take care of him, but that there are lots of jobs for other people to take care of shrunken people, from babysitters to full time caregivers. Then Jessie took over for a few minutes to talk about what that looked like in her life: for the most part, it just meant she had to do all of the chores in the house, but it also meant fixing tiny appliances when they broke, making sure he has food that he’s able to eat on his own. But ultimately it didn’t really feel like a job; there were days she wouldn’t even need to do anything at all.

After a bit of them talking about their new lives, Marcus told everyone that he could answer some questions, and half the class seemed to raise their hands in response. He felt a bit proud of himself seeing that, because in his mind, it either meant that they were interested to know more about his condition, or at the very least had been interested enough to pay attention. And both sounded good to him. Since Jessie knew everyone’s names, he let her pick the questions to answer, and she began by pointing to a boy in the first row: “Do you always ride on her shoulder, or does Jessie ever carry you around?”

“That’s a pretty good question, I get around for myself most of the time like I talked about, stairs and ladders and stuff. But yeah, Jessie has to pick me up a lot of the time, and honestly it’s a bit safer sitting on her hand where she can grab me in an emergency than high up on her shoulder.” The boy nodded and Jessie called on another kid.

“Do you feel weird about like, just anyone being able to hold you, or handle you?” the girl asked. “I dunno if ‘handle’ is an insensitive way to put it.”

Marcus brushed off her wording, “No, it’s fine. Generally, uh, it’s not a huge deal to me I guess. Obviously as long as they ask me first, or if I tell them. We had Jessie’s grandparents over a few weeks ago, and my mom just scooped me right up out of nowhere while we were talking to get a closer look at me. That was pretty annoying, it kinda feels like getting tackled but without the falling down part.” The girl nodded and then propped her head up with her arm, starting to think about what that was like.

“Can we meet you up close?” another girl suddenly asked without having raised her hand.

“Meet me?”

“I just mean like, see what you’re like up close. I think DSD is kinda interesting, my aunt works at a shrunken living facility.” Marcus was put off by the question initially. My body hasn’t changed in appearance, I’m just smaller. It’s not like I’m some alien species or something, I don’t get what the big deal would be. But the class (and some of the parents in the back) seemed to have gotten pretty invested, and he didn’t want to say no. It’d just make him look shy, and he didn’t want anyone thinking that.

“I guess if you guys want to,” he began saying, to which several kids immediately nodded at the chance. Jessie was surprised at his willingness, given how antisocial he’d been just a few days ago, but she didn’t say anything.

“Since it seems like a few people are interested,” Miss Shepard said, “Jessie, why don’t you let Mariam see him, and then you guys can pass him around so everyone gets a chance to meet him. As long as that sounds good with you Mr. Tilden?”

Marcus had assumed Jessie might just walk around the room so people could see him closer, which would’ve already been awkward in itself, being showboated around the room. But since you’ve already suggested it, I don’t really have an option to say no now. “Sure, that’s fine I suppose. As long as everyone’s careful.”

Jessie brought him over to the front corner of the glass, and set him on the table of a quiet-looking Asian girl. “Hi, um… nice to meet you,” she said, waving at him awkwardly with a quaint smile since she was unsure how to shake a shrunken guy’s hand. He sighed on the inside, but smiled back at her and gave her a polite nod. Why did the teacher ever think this’d be a good idea…

“I know there were a lot more people who still had questions,” Miss Shepard announced as the first student to meet Marcus carefully passed him on to the person behind them. “So Jessie why don’t you continue calling on people for your dad.”

“Do you ever hang out with other people your size?” a girl asked after Jessie picked her.

“Not really… but I’ve only had DSD for a few weeks, I’m still kinda adjusting. Definitely something I’d love to do in the future but for now my social circle is just a bunch of people way bigger than me.” As he said this, he got passed into the hands of a gentle giant, the biggest boy from their class but also the most careful with Marcus so far, who explained that one of his cousins had DSD too.

Jessie chose another boy, who’d been looking at Marcus with slightly squinted eyes most of the presentation, as if he couldn’t believe 9 inch tall humans could really exist despite how many of them there were in the world. “Has anyone ever accidentally stepped on you?” he asked, with an expression that said he found the idea both gross and a little funny.

Jessie swallowed nervously and blushed, although nobody was paying her much attention, and Marcus took a deep breath before answering. Should’ve expected a teenager to ask a question like that sooner or later. “Not yet as a matter of fact, Jessie knows how to watch where she’s going,” he lied. But he was instantly brought back to his experience of barely two hours ago, and the feeling of her socks rubbing against his body, while her sole was literally bigger than his entire body. He was held out to be passed on to the next teen in line, but she was really anxious and shook her head, saying she was too scared of dropping him. Marcus sighed, I’m not gonna break in half if I get dropped. Wouldn’t even get hurt. But he didn’t say anything and just let the girl get skipped to someone else instead.

Jessie picked on a new person, a girl in the back row. “Have you ever been in like a little kid’s room or something and had them think you were a toy or try to play with you?” Jeez, why these humiliating questions all of a sudden? he thought with disdain. And yet the kids who were posing them seemed to be asking innocently.

“Oh, God no, that’s never happened,” he quickly answered, visibly repulsed just by the idea of being objectified in such a humiliating manner. “And I definitely hope it never does.” A couple of the students giggled at that last comment, although it was far from a joke for him.

He continued answering questions from Jessie’s classmates as they all got to observe him up close, like some kind of science experiment. Most of the kids were normal, a couple were nervous and weirdly awkward. And there was one girl who creeped him out, cuz she kept looking him up and down while breathing a bit quickly. He was glad when she finally passed him along.

But soon afterwards, Career Day came to a close, and the students all had to start school like normal. Marcus was able to get a ride back home from the parent of one of Jessie’s friends, where he proceeded to spend the rest of the day not really getting anything done, since he felt like his one trip to the school had made him feel productive.

When Jessie got home from practice that afternoon, Marcus asked how the rest of her day went as she was shrugging off her backpack onto the couch. “There were actually a lotta people who were talking about you afterwards,” she said, heading to the kitchen to grab a bag of chips from the cupboard.

“Talking about me... in a good way? Bad way? Neutral way?”

“Good way,” she nodded, like she was impressed. “Lotta people were just like, talking to me, like people I never really talk to you know? And some of my friends, like friends I don’t hang out with outside of school but I’m friends with them in class, there were a couple who were suddenly like ‘oh hey we should hang out sometime’ and stuff.” She threw some of the chips in her mouth as she thought about it, while Marcus had a bit more difficulty processing his reaction. On one hand, he was glad he’d done something that seemed to have had a positive impact on her classmates, or at least take part in something educational. But he felt uneasy about what she said too; there was no way that it was merely a coincidence that the day that a shrunken guy shows up to school, suddenly everyone starts acting like they’re friends with that guy’s daughter. He didn’t think there was anything malicious about it; most of the kids seemed to just be really, genuinely curious, so it probably just had something to do with that (although he obviously didn’t want a bunch of kids to only see him as some kind of freak of nature). But there was still that one girl who’d put him on edge… What if she was one of the girls Jessie was talking about? I don’t think I’d feel comfortable having her in my house.

“Anyways, I think it’s a pretty good thing,” Jessie continued, as she slipped her shoes off and kicked them over by the door while rolling the bag of chips back up. “We wanted you to get out and around more people, right? So now that you’re seeming to be a bit more comfortable with others, I might invite a few of them over or something.” She put the bag away, and began heading back to her room to relax before dinner. “Maybe I should even throw a party or something,” she suggested nonchalantly without even looking back, closing her bedroom door behind her.