Woke (Chapter 1) (Patreon)

Kayla watched the tiny university auditorium roof mechanically folding closed for the upcoming lecture like a paper fan, all so she could see inside. It was a pleasant feature to have discovered on her first day of class while exploring campus, since the Omega had fully expected to end up just watching a recording of the lesson on her tablet screen instead of seeing the actual professor down there along with the rest of the actual class. Granted, the man was so small and quiet by comparison to his newest student that Kayla needed her mic earpiece and the screen anyway, since this was roughly equivalent to watching a concert from the ultra-nosebleeds box. Still, the very fact that a university which was scaled primarily to cater to Alphas, and not their mile-plus counterpart class, had accommodated her at all in such a way as to make her feel like she was participating, Kayla couldn’t have felt more supported.

Unfortunately, while the giantess was pleased with the treatment she received from the university, despite being an exchange student with a body taller than the campus was wide, her mood was nonetheless severely dampened once the lecture began. Her first course was Introduction to Intra-Class Ethics, a subject Kayla had signed up for due to her inherent respect for all living things, no matter how microscopic they were. This was the attitude she assumed everyone else to have as well. The girl had thus expected a lesson regarding how to be polite when interacting with people smaller, or significantly smaller, than oneself. Instead, she’d found far graver subject matter waiting for her this first cheerful day of school.

The professor, although appearing nervous at first when the roof pulled back to reveal a smiling feminine face that filled up the entire expansive skybox above, had pulled no punches. He launched into a discussion of current events involving not, as Kayla had guessed, merely poor manners between classes, but in fact acts of barbarity committed by Alphas upon Betas. Specifically, he catalogued cases where entire Beta neighborhoods had mysteriously vanished with no investigation, Beta families split apart with the missing members later revealed to have become the pets of Alphas, and even acts of public violence where Alphas had flicked, kicked, and swallowed Betas alive, sometimes on this very campus.

While listening, at first Kayla thought the professor was just using dark humor to initiate them all, which she found to be in poor taste. Then, using her tablet’s camera to zoom in on the auditorium audience, the girl found no one else had an especially shocked reaction. The effect of the professor’s fiery rhetoric on the listeners ranged from bored indifference to grim sadness. No one was laughing at any “joke.” This was real. Kayla, having grown up in a community of 97% Omegas in a far-off land, with only the occasional loner Alphas hanging around, had never even met a Beta, and so had no frame of reference for the horrors upon which she was now being educated.

The Omega, sitting cross-legged in her designated “landing” field beside the auditorium, gradually leaned closer to the rectangular rooftop opening over the course of the hour: her body going rigid, her fingers tightening around her tablet, her eyes bugging and watering to a glassy well. It was a surreal lesson, to be sure, and unlike anything the Omega had experienced in her grade school years, where she was surrounded by people of her same size and same everyday-problems. To learn that, on this side of the globe, there was an entire class of people, toy-sized to Alphas and dust particle-sized to Kayla, that lived in fear of being made into a meal or roadkill, either on accident or on purpose on any given day, made her feel guilty for having been so gleeful to come to campus. The biggest problems Kayla ever faced, meanwhile, usually revolved around the inconvenience of stepping through cities and suburbs without damaging property underfoot.

As the lecture concluded and the roof folded shut again convertible-style, Kayla took a minute for herself, dabbing her eyes and ensuring not to swipe away her tears, lest the droplets splash down to a nearby sidewalk and either soak an Alpha or, God forbid, drown a Beta. There weren’t many of the smallest class at this campus, a historically Alpha-centric institution, but the times were changing, or so Kayla had thought; that idea of inclusiveness she’d seen printed on the university brochure was what drew her to this particular school in the first place when she elected to go abroad. As it turned out, based on what Kayla heard from the professor, that image printed on the pamphlet of an Alpha girl grinning while a Beta boy stood in her palm was a bunch of bull. Had she even made the right decision to come here?

The giantess, who had the stature and strength potential necessary to peel most of the university right out of its stone roots like crumbled graham cracker if she so chose, had never felt quite so powerless.

“Excuse me?”

Startled by the tiny voice, Kayla felt very vulnerable then, realizing how strange it must look to someone below to see a young woman the size of a mountain quivering and damming up gallons of tear water. She got ahold of herself, brushing aside her strawberry-blonde bangs while aware that her eyes were still pink, and looked around for the source of the sound. Around the height of Kayla’s chest, standing at the tip-top of the astronomy observatory, was an Alpha student leaning over the railing and waving in the Omega’s direction. Surprised to be addressed so directly by an Alpha, since this was the first time it had happened in months, Kayla smiled warmly and rotated on her grassy plain, until she was facing the observatory tower instead now.

Steadily, so as not to spook the Alpha, who clocked in around one-fifth of an inch by comparison to Omegas, Kayla leaned in closer and squinted. With her nose within bumping distance of the tower, the giantess could now distinguish that she was speaking to a bespectacled dark-haired female Alpha in a sweater. It was tough to gauge, since details were hard for Kayla to spot on such a miniscule face, but she was pretty sure the little speaker was about her same age.

“Yes?” Kayla boomed in her lowest possible whisper.

“Hi! Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you,” the Alpha said, trying energetically to speak up, though the Omega nevertheless had to practically strain her ears to get every word. The miniature girl was all but hanging over the tower’s edge. “My name’s Erin. What’s yours?”

“Kayla.” The Omega cleared her throat, nonchalantly cleansing her last tear, then renewed her smile. “Sorry if it took me a second to find you.”

“Don’t worry, I, uh, can see how that might get confusing, when you’ve got all of us down here,” Erin reassured her. She panted. “Also, sorry again that I’m out of breath. I kind of ran all the way up here as soon as that lesson ended in the auditorium, and it’s a lot of stairs.”

“Oh, you were in that class too? I didn’t get a chance to see everyone’s face very clearly,” Kayla said with a sniffle. “It was… um.”

“Awful, right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s Intra-Class Ethics for you. Nothing can get you down faster than being reminded that Alphas are still just a bunch of selfish assholes, no matter how evolved we’re supposed to be now as a species,” Erin snarked. “And, there are a lot of assholes, but… I like to think so long as some of us aren’t, and want to do something about it, there’s always hope.”

Sad as Kayla felt after that lesson, it was nice to see that at least one person wasn’t too terrified to speak to her. The Omega was shy enough already, without the added social burden of being a genuine colossus who intimidated all she met just by existing. Granted, Kayla now had a few biases against Alphakind after hearing of the atrocities committed by a few, but after only a minute of chat with Erin, Kayla was confident in surmising that this was one of the hopefully many good Alphas: not only charismatic and more outgoing than the Omega, but apparently morally centered.

“That’s a good way of looking at it,” Kayla agreed with a sigh. “I… don’t know much about this, really. I’m not exactly from around here.”

“I guessed that,” Erin laughed. “No offense, but you guys are hard to miss.”

“That’s true,” Kayla said, allowing herself a smirk in spite of her sorrow. “How… exactly, do you do something about it?”

“I’m happy you asked that,” Erin said. “To tell you the truth, the reason I came up to you at all is because I could see you… up there… reacting the way you were to the lesson.”

“Oh, God…” Kayla murmured, embarrassed. “I’m so sorry if I was distracting you. I tried to stay quiet, honest. I just had no idea about any of that, so it… it…”

“Please don’t worry. You didn’t make a sound. But the look on your face was, just like the rest of you, kind of hard to miss,” Erin said. “I know it, cuz that’s the same face I made during my first intra-class ethics course in high school. Just… you know… a lot smaller than yours. It made me sick, thinking about how Betas are treated.”

“Me too.” Kayla said. A fresh glistening tear formed, but she didn’t bother to mop it this time, and let it roll down her cheek. “I wish I could do something to help.”

“I want to ask you something. And, please, I know it must be strange for you to be so new here and make it work on this dinky little campus and learn all this new stuff, so you shouldn’t feel any pressure at all, I promise,” Erin said. “But, I’m already part of the EquiSize movement here on campus, dedicated to peacefully fighting for justice between size classes. Would you consider joining us? The group meets a few times a week to share stories and strategies, plan for protests, and find ways to help Betas to-”

“I’m in,” Kayla interrupted softly. She nodded, smiling with newfound determination. Maybe she hadn’t chosen the wrong university after all. “Where do I sign up?”