"Hmm." Daisy put a finger to her chin. "I could see if Hazel's around."

"Hazel?" Max had heard the infamous sophomore's name several times during his first month at Ventus, but never in a positive context. "Wasn't she the one who hacked all the security cameras in the fitness center?"

"Yeah, that's her," said Daisy, shaking her head. "She's... kind of a handful sometimes. But she's also, like, the smartest person I've ever met. And  I'm pretty sure she's a chem major."

Max's ears perked up. "You think she could help me out?"

"She might be a good person to start with." Daisy seemed ambiguous. "What do you think?"

Max shrugged. While he didn't love the idea of placing his fate in the hands of yet another of Proserpina's slobby, horny gooners, he was willing to be proven wrong again. If it meant improving his odds of returning to normal, he'd take all the help he could get. "Sure, might as well."

"Cool," said Daisy, picking Max up and rolling out of bed. "I'm guessing you don't want to go back in my underwear?"

Realizing that Daisy was making a joke, Max smiled. "Yeah, maybe not."

"Alright," she said, gently sliding the three-inch-tall 18-year-old into the right pocket of her sweatpants and stepping over to the door. "Here we go."

Because Hazel's room was just a few doors down from Daisy's, the huge junior and her shrunken freshman passenger only had to spend a minute or two out in the open. It didn't hurt that the hallway was relatively empty since most of the other girls in the house were either still asleep, off at lunch or simply holed up in their rooms, immersed in their usual unspeakable routines. When the giant shut-in stepped up to her neighbor's door, a motion-activated wireless speaker duct-taped above the doorway played a prerecorded message.

"If you're hearing this, I'm either sleeping, shitting, or gooning. Leave a message at the beep."

Waiting for the beep, Daisy took a deep breath. "Hey Hazel, it's Daisy. I've, uh... I've got something you might be interested in. If you want to just text me, I—"

Before she could finish, the door swung open, revealing House Proserpina's brainiest resident in all her glory. Wearing polka-dotted sweatpants and a hastily-buttoned striped blouse that left nothing about her chubby, pear-shaped figure to the imagination, with her long, greasy brown hair up in a messy ponytail, the bespectacled, buck-toothed nerd looked like she'd just rolled out of bed. Judging by the half-dozen hentai-filled monitors behind her, the thin layer of sweat on her face, and the sticky film on both of her hands, Daisy had caught her neighbor right in the middle of her customary midday goon sesh.

"Well, well, well," said Hazel, grinning, "you finally came around to my offer, huh?"

Daisy rolled her eyes. "Hazel, for the last time, I'm not letting you anywhere near my ass."

"Aww, c'mon!" In an instant, Hazel's expression went from her usual self-assured smugness to impotent frustration. "Just a little taste? Every time I see you coming out of the bathroom, it's like torture!"

Down in Daisy's pocket, Max listened in disbelief. If this was the girl Daisy was counting on to find a cure for his condition, he wasn't sure he liked his chances so far.

"Look, I..." Forcing herself to stay on topic, Daisy shook her head. "This isn't about that. Can I come in?"

"Sure." Stepping back from the doorway, Hazel beckoned her neighbor inside. "Fair warning, I had Indian food last night."

Like most dorms in House Proserpina, Hazel's home base was more cave than bedroom. From the porn posters lining the walls, to the clear computer chair mats lining the floor, to the formidable water-cooled desktop PC that took up most of the far side of the room, the space was well-suited to the lifestyle of a reclusive gooner—although that made it fairly inhospitable to everyone else. The only seating options were a well-worn gaming chair — which, naturally, Hazel immediately claimed for herself — and a stained mattress covered in sex toys. Not wanting to risk the mattress, Daisy decided to stand.

BBBBRRRPPPPPPTTTTTTTT

"Whew!" Hazel giggled, grinding her hips into her chair. "That was a wet one!"

"Gross," said Daisy, forcing herself not to roll her eyes again.

Meanwhile, still safely pocketed, Max was resisting the urge to cough with all his might. If the room's existing potpourri of dried cum, stale farts and sweat wasn't bad enough, the blast of hot, fresh gas currently flooding his tiny lungs was every bit as foul as Daisy's. From what he'd heard about Hazel, he wouldn't be surprised if she took supplements to make her various bodily functions even worse.

"Like you're one to talk," said the buck-toothed nerd, tapping a few keys on her desktop and triggering the homemade smart lock on the door. "So, what's up?"

"W-well, uh..." Rather than trying to explain, Daisy simply fished into her pocket and pulled out Max. "This."

Face-to-face with another infamous member of House Proserpina, Max did his best to stay calm. Based on her pronounced front teeth, pudgy physique, greasy dark brown hair and serious acne problem, Hazel fit the profile of the house's membership just as much as Daisy. The only things that really threw him were the expression on her face — some strange mix of surprise, arousal, and hunger — and her absolutely rancid breath. "H-hey there," he said, forcing a half-hearted wave. "Hazel, right?"

"Whoa! A miniguy!" Barely acknowledging Max's greeting, Hazel glanced up at Daisy in disbelief. "Is he... a gift? For me? You shouldn't have! I mean, obviously, I accept, but-"

"No, Hazel," said Daisy, instinctively pulling Max against her considerable chest. "I just found him this morning in the common room. I'm trying to see if there's any way to grow him back."

Hazel scowled. "Back to normal? Why? If I were you, this guy would be on a one-way flight to pussytown." Eyeing the three-inch-tall freshman again, she licked her lips and snaked a hand down the front of her sweatpants. "With an overnight layover in butthole city after that..."

Trying not to think about how good it'd feel to have Max squirming around against her vagina again, Daisy scoffed. "Very funny. Do you know what he got dosed with? Or who might have done it?"

"Obviously, you're lookin' at some kinda shrinking serum situation." Hazel shrugged. "Probably one of those goth chicks in Juno. I actually just mixed up a big batch for them a couple weeks ago."

"R-really?" For a moment, Max felt a brief, possibly irrational surge of hope. If Hazel was telling the truth, she might be just the person he needed to talk to right now.

"Best guess," Hazel continued, ignoring the shrunken 18-year-old's question, "one of them tried to tag him and bag him at some party last night, and he fell out of her bra on the way home." She shivered. "Or her lacy black panties..."

"Hazel," said Daisy, trying to curb her neighbor's insatiable horniness. "Focus. If you know how to make this stuff, can you find out if there's any way to reverse it?"

"I could." Hazel grinned. "But what's in it for me? Actually, don't answer that. How about this: if I can't find a way to get miniguy here back to normal, I get to keep him."

Hearing this, Max instinctively looked back to Daisy—and when the giant shut-in saw the expression of pure, helpless terror on his face, she sighed. As much as she'd been hoping to get through this interaction without playing her trump card, she knew Hazel wouldn't settle for anything less.

"Better idea," she said, returning her attention to the brainy gooner. "If you can get to the bottom of this... I'll let you eat my ass."

Hazel's eyes went wide—and the motion of the hand down her pants intensified. "Really?"

"But just once," said Daisy, grimacing. "And after that, we're never going to talk about it again."

Watching this interaction play out from Daisy's hand, Max was stunned. The fact that she'd just volunteered to do something so uncomfortable to protect someone she'd just met went against everything that everyone else on campus proclaimed her to be. "Daisy," he said, staring up at his giant guardian in disbelief. "You don't have to..."

"Hey!" Hazel barked, rising from her gaming chair. "Quit cock-blocking me, miniguy!"

"Hey yourself," said Daisy, stepping forward to loom over her neighbor. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

"I thought you'd never ask," said Hazel, voice husky with lust. "So when do I get to claim my reward? Do I get to choose what you eat that day?"

"Not until you figure this out," said Daisy, already regretting her counteroffer. "How long do you think it'll take?"

"Well, I'll need a DNA sample." Eyeing Max again, Hazel winked. "Maybe some cum, just for good measure. But after that... four weeks?"

Max groaned. This was going to be the longest month of his life—although, in the grand scheme of things, he knew it could be much worse. At least he had Daisy backing him up against Hazel.

"Max," said Daisy, "is that alright with you?"

"Huh?" Snapped out of his inner ruminations, Max shrugged. "Oh, uh, y-yeah, sure."

"Alrighty then," said Hazel, withdrawing her hand from her sweatpants, spitting on her palm and extending it toward Daisy. "So, do we have a deal?"