January 28, 2016
A week later…

The Monarossabergie House is up and alive in the early morning as two out of the three residents are scrambling to get ready to head to practice.

In the kitchen, Joseph Cramarossa is pouring a tub of Greek yogurt into a bowl as a way to prepare his breakfast. Brandon Montour is already sitting on the other side of the island, munching on an almond butter sandwich.

With his sandwich to his mouth, Brandon turns his head from side to side with searching eyes. “Hm, where’s Nicky?”

Joseph shrugs with a roll of his eyes. He walks away to toss the tub in the trash.

Brandon places his sandwich on the plate and pulls out his phone. He turns it on to check up on the time. “Oh man, we gotta leave in twenty minutes…!” He slides out of his chair as he slips his phone away.

“Hey, I’m gonna get Nicky-- I’ll be back,” Brandon tells his roommate. He then walks down the dining room and the living room and disappears around the bend.

Joseph returns to his bowl of plain Greek yogurt that is sitting on the island’s top. He then leans down to the cabinet and sifts through the bags and boxes of snacks and ingredients. He straightens back up with a new bag of small, dried cranberries.

“Hm, I’ll try these out,” he murmurs to himself. He rips the plastic off from the top of the zipper, then pulls the top open. He then tilts the bag with two hands and shakes it to pour the small, red raisin-like topping onto the creamy surface of his yogurt.

Joseph plops the bag on the counter’s top, grabs his spoon from the bowl, and stirs the cranberries into the yogurt. He then scoops up a bit and pops it into his mouth.

He nods his head in approvement: sharp, sour, with a hint of sweetness.

“I like it,” he mutters lowly. He mixes his spoon into the yogurt to scoop up some more.

He then feels a strange spring of energy swirl inside of him. His eyes widen at the feeling as he freezes himself in place.

Suddenly, he is thrown parallel to the floor and falls backward as he begins to rapidly decrease in size. The layers of outlines from his previous sizes are fading out in front of him as he extends his arms into the air with widen eyes and yells. His voice slides higher and higher in pitch: “AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…!!!”

The atmosphere grows deeper and wider as he descends further toward the ground.

Finally, he hits the cold, tile flooring with a small thud.

Joseph lays on his stomach, still for a moment as he embraces himself for a second supernatural experience. Yet he sense nothing conjuring inside of him.

So with a groan, he peels his upper body off from the floor and sits up on his knees. He lifts his eyes up at the towering “walls” that are to his left and right, casting a massive shadow over him.

“Where am I?” he says in an undertone. He flicks his eyes downward. “This is the same flooring as the house…” His eyes drift ahead, catching sight of a ginormous spoon laying out feet away from him.

He makes a funny look at it. “A big spoon… Since when did big spoons exist?” He squeezes his eyes and shakes his hands. “Whatever, I’m gonna find the—”

Suddenly, the ground begins to shake as vibrating thuds emit from beyond the walls. Joseph throws himself onto the floor once again and latches onto it for safety.

His eyes then widen with rare fear as he hears a frightening, strange sound: a deep voice echoing from above: “Joey, I got Nicky up—”

Brandon is strolling back into the kitchen. “--so we’re gonna leave in fifteen minutes…”

He halts on the other side of the island, noticing that his roommate is nowhere in sight. A bewildered expression crosses his face. “Joey? Joey? Where are you—?”

“Where is that deep voice coming from?” a high-pitched voice squeaks out from the other side of the island. “There’s a major earthquake going on! Where the heck am I?”

Brandon stares ahead with a horrified expression. “What the heck?” He then slowly shuffles around the island, toward the voice, and peers down around the bend.

His eyes immediately widen to the size of pucks.

There is Joseph, a good three inches tall, sitting on his knees in the space between the island and the countertop where the refrigerator is situated.

“JOEY?!” Brandon blurts out with shock.

Joseph catches sight of his mountainous roommate, jumps to his feet, and stumbles away from him. He then composes himself from fearfulness to graveness.

“Why’re you so big?” Joseph snaps at him with his high-pitched voice from Brandon’s point of view.

Brandon shoots him an odd look. “Uh, I’m not big—” He points down to him. “--you’re small.”

“No!” He swipes his index finger in the air. “I’m not small!” He slams his fist at his chest. “I’m just as tall as you!” He reverts his hand to his roommate. “You just grew big—!”

Brandon leans over and pinches the back collar of Joseph’s small shirt. He then lifts him up as he straightens himself up.

“Hey!” Joseph shouts. He begins thrusting his body from side to side with two fists, attempting to be set free. “Put me down! Put me down! Don’t pick me up, don’t pick me up—!”

Then, the majestic view of the dining room and living room beyond the kitchen comes into view for Joseph. With this immense view of the house, he immediately stops fidgeting.

“And the house grew with me, right?” Brandon asks from behind him sarcastically.

Joseph just stays in place, fuming. Brandon lowers him toward the counter’s granite top and sets him on there.

Brandon places both elbows on the table and rests his chin on his hands as he scrutinizes his roommate’s predicament. “How the heck did you turn so small?”

Joseph throws his hands into the air. “How am I supposed to know? I didn’t intend to make myself small! I’ve never wanted to be small! I was just eating my breakfast and then this happened!”

“Did you...touch anything?”

“I touched the stupid yogurt and spoon!” He kicks a crumb with the size of a large pebble out of the way.

Brandon knits his eyebrows. “That’s it?”

He bares his teeth at him with raging anger. “What’s what I touched got to do with this‽”

“Because I am ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent sure this is another one of Icemare’s curses.”

Joseph throws his head back and yells: “ARUUUGH!!!” He shakes an angry fist in the air. “Curse you, Icemare!!!!”

“Chill, Joey, chill—”

Joseph whirls to Brandon with flashing eyes. “I’ll like to see you all chilled when you’re smaller than a penny!”

Brandon’s eyes fly open. “Whoa, you’re smaller than a penny?” He pulls out a Canadian penny from his jeans’ pocket and places it next to his small roommate on its thin side. It is obvious that that Joseph is taller than it by an inch.

He pulls the penny away from him and back in its place. “No, at least you’re taller than something—”

“I’m small!” Joseph bursts out. “Things that aren’t supposed to be bigger than me are bigger than me!”

Brandon’s eyes swing to the left, catching sight of the salt and pepper shakers that are tucked against the wall at the end of the counter. “Yeah, like the salt and pepper shaker!” He slides the shakers in between Joseph.

Joseph glowers at him while growling.

“Wait…” Brandon pulls out a spoon and holds it up next to him. “Ha ha, you can sit in here!” He then exchanges the spoon for a cup. “This is like a mini jacuzzi for you if there’s hot water in it!” He grabs a napkin and lays it out in front of him. “You can sleep on here tonight if you’d like.”

He then holds out his two hands in front and behind his tiny roommate. He gradually begins closing them in on him. “Hah, I can totally close you in like this—”

“That’s enough, Brandon!!!” Joseph shoves the hands out with as much strength as he can conjure in the state he is in.

From the wall that makes up the foyer, Nick Ritchie pops his head into view. “We gotta leave now, Monty,” he calls out in his sleepy tone.

Brandon peers out his best friend. “Okay, Nicky, I’ll be right there! I, um--” He flicks his eyes down to Joseph, then back up. “--we got a small problem here…literally.”

Nick steps out into the living room and lumbers into the kitchen. “What happened?” He has a subtle expression of interest on his face.

Brandon stares at both of his roommates with a tentative expression. “Joey is…”

“I WILL get bigger soon!” Joseph shouts, pointing a strict finger in the air.

Nick beams down on him. “Aw, he’s so cute.” He reaches his two fingers out to him and rubs their tips against his small cheek.

“Don’t touch me, you bear!” Joseph roughly pushes himself away from his roommate’s fingers.

Nick retracts his hand and turns to Brandon. “Wow, he’s a hundred times as feisty as he is a hundred times as small, eh?”

Brandon gives him an uncertain grin. “Yeah…”

“Well--” Nick nods his head toward the front door. “--let’s get to practice—”

“But what about Joey?”

“I’m coming!” Joseph shouts from below him.

Brandon peers down at him. “Why?”

“Because I’m on the team, you idiot!”

“But you can’t play if you’re that small!”

“Yeah, Bryan’s already enough,” Nick pipes in.

“I WILL go to practice!”

Brandon crosses his arms with a serious expression. “Okay, so explain to me how your jersey will fit you.”

A few moments later, a massive white Gulls’ jersey is thrown next to Joseph, inches from taking him out.

The two best friends loom over him with a hint of a mocking manner.

Joseph steps over to the mountainous lump of white cloth. He then bends over and crawls into one of its crease, disappearing in it.

The pile of cloth begins to shift and wiggle slightly as Joseph shrill mumbles echo from it.

“Point proven?” Brandon asks the jersey with raised eyebrows.

Joseph replies in a muffled tone, “It just needs tailoring— OOF!” The jersey is then swept up into the air, causing Joseph to tumble onto the granite surface and land on his bottom.

Brandon lowers his hand with the jersey out of sight. “Face it, Joey, you can’t go to practice like this. Don’t worry though, we got your back. We’ll just tell Coach you’re sick, okay?”

Joseph is fuming with his eyes narrowed at him.

He nods to him. “See you later.” He then turns to Nick. “Let’s go.” They then turn around and stroll down the room, disappearing into the foyer and opening and closing the door behind them with a slam.

And from the outside of the Monarossabergie House, even the seagulls can hear Joseph’s treble scream: “ARRRUUUGGGH!!!”

Joseph is now back up on his feet and is pacing around the countertop with his hands clasped behind his back.

“How am I gonna grow big? How am I gonna get back to normal? I can’t be pushed around like this. I can’t have Monty and that bear bigger than me!” He halts in his pacing and stands still with a determined pose. “I can’t stay on this countertop forever!!!”

He rushes over to the rounded edge of the countertop and peers over it. The drop seems to go down for miles, disappearing into the darkness.

“Ohhh…” He steps back with rising trepidation. “...how am I gonna get off?” He then looks behind his shoulder, catching sight of the napkin Brandon compared him to.

A few moments later, Joseph is floating down right beside the cabinets. What is aiding him is the napkin: He has his hands above his hands, holding the corners of the napkin as it is being used as a parachute.

He rocks back and forth to the gravity that is working with him. Once he is close to the floor, he lets go of the napkin and jumps on the floor with the help of his hands. Following him is the napkin, which gently lays itself over him like a blanket.

“It works,” Joseph mumbles from under the napkin.

He shoves the napkin off of him and begins to trek down the vast area of the kitchen.

He takes in his surroundings of his new point of view of the home. “It’s gonna take me an hour to pass the kitchen at this rate.” He rolls his eyes as he continues strolling past the end of the island.

Long, numerous minutes later, Joseph has made his way into the now wide hallway. It is obvious that he is getting tired by running his fingers through his thick, black hair and wiping the sweat forming on his forehead with the back of his hand.

“I think I walked a mile,” he groans. He gazes around the lower portion of the hallway, spotting dust particles one of normal height would not usually notice. “What object will cure this curse? Something that will make me normal…”

He then feebly presses himself against the door to the closet that is situated at the end of the hallway. “Oh no…” He peels himself off from the door, spotting the edge of the door jutting out close by him.

He steps over to it and collects all of his strength to pull the thin door open. Once the door is ajar, he strolls into the darkness.

“Would it be outside? Inside? Something noticeable? Something unnoticeable? Ugh…” He stops in his tracks to hold his head with both hands. “This is painful.” He then leans against the doorjamb of the door with a heavy sigh.

Joseph slips his hands down his face. His eyes snap up, catching sight of a string hanging in his hand’s reach.

He makes a suspicious expression at it. “Why is there string hanging here--?”

He yanks at it, causing him to fall back due to the force of the string snapping out from whatever it was stuck under.

Joseph lands on his bottom once again with the palms of his hands against the floor. He then hears creaking from in front of him. He snaps his eyes up; they immediately widen.

The miscellaneous items with a giant stuffed teddy bear as the centre of attention on the top shelf begin to sway dangerously back and forth. Then with one last lurch backward, they tumble forward, all raining down on Joseph.

“OHHH--!”

From afar, the giant teddy bear innocently plops onto the wooden floor. Other small items of household junk follow along and bounce onto the floor.

Close up, the teddy bear begins to shift and shake. Joseph them emerges from underneath its stuffed tummy.

He lets out a sigh. “I think I’m fine…” Suddenly, he feels the same spark of energy blossom from inside him. His eyes fly open with raised eyebrows and pursed lips. “Oh no.”

Notes

E.6 "Down Here, Up Here!"
Part 1/4
Episode 6/20