I had been practicing almost non-stop for the past week and I had actually gotten a pretty good handle on my gifts. I could now reliably use my stored momentum to shoot pretty much anything that could fit in my hand. I had also figured out how to control just how much I used, so instead of launching stuff at full speed, I could actually limit how fast my projectiles went.

I was still working on my accuracy though. When there aren't any sights to tell you where you're aiming it's more of a guess than anything. It did seem like I had some level of instinct on how to aim, things generally went in the direction that I wanted them to, it was a bigger problem at longer distances.

We also figured out why some things shot off when I released my hold on them. For the majority of cases, I had to touch something to actually store the momentum. But it turned out that I could actually absorb a small amount without even touching them. So I could actually collect the energy of smaller things without even touching them.

But there was still something that we had yet to figure out. My hair. As I stored more momentum it would gradually shift from blonde to orange and finally the same dark crimson that it had on Saturday. It seemed like it was just meant to gauge how much energy I had stored, but I didn't need that, I could feel roughly how much I had collected.

There was another thing that I had yet to test out again. I wanted to over-absorb again. I needed to see what exactly happened when I did, I learned so much from the first time, so theoretically I would learn more the next time.

Emma did not approve. She was scared because of the first time. I only won her back by showing her that I actually had some semblance of control over my abilities afterward. She was still worried about what would happen if I went too far. She thought that I might go into a coma or something like that.

But eventually, I convinced her, once again by telling her that I'd be doing it regardless of her help or not. It felt kind of manipulative but it was the truth, especially considering my newfound motivation for training.

So that's what we did. The next day we were back in the woods, under the treehouse again. Except this time we planned it out so that Molly would (hopefully) not be there when I passed out.

Once again, Emma dropped the big rock from the treehouse. And I caught it and gathered its momentum. This time it didn't feel as powerful.

I knew it!

I could store more energy now! Perfect!

We brought the rock back up again. After catching it another time I could feel my reserves reach around half-full.

"Two more times!" I shouted back up to Emma.

Emma groaned.

"Please??? We'll be done after that"

I began rolling the rock to the ladder when I heard Emma's voice call out from above me. She had poked her head out the window and was looking down on me, "Actually, wait. I have an idea! Get under the window"

"Okay?" I walked underneath the window and waited, "What are you-"

Emma jumped out the window and began screaming as she fell.

I shouted in surprise, something that sounded kind of like "Whaemwharydig"

It was meant to say "What? Emma what are you doing!?" But I was too shocked to finish each word, let alone separate them.

Luckily I was able to catch her, barely. She hovered in front of me, surrounded by the brightest magenta glow yet.

"Why?" was all I managed to get out through my confusion and surprise.

Emma shrugged in the air, "I don't know, you get to do something dangerous so I decided it was my turn"

"Well, that was dumb! What if I couldn't catch you! You would've gotten hurt."

She folded her arms, "Yeah, and what if your powers hurt you?"

She had a point. My gift hadn't seemed dangerous, but she was just trying to look out for me.

"I'm sorry... I didn't..." I didn't know what I wanted to apologize for. Thankfully, Emma took over for me.

Emma's gaze shifted down, "Me too, I guess I've just been worried, you passed out last week and it really scared me, I think I might be overreacting"

"Maybe a little" I shot her a playful smile, "Anyway, I should probably let you down now."

Being able to keep Emma suspended like that was unlike anything I had felt so far. It didn't physically hurt, but it was uncomfortable to hold her there. It was more of a mental strain, I had to focus pretty hard to keep her from flying off in some other direction.

I booped her nose. I felt a surge of warmth shoot up my arm and torso, then it overflowed into the rest of my body. Emma dropped onto the ground with a thump.

The warmth swirled around inside me. It was relaxing and refreshing, but nowhere near as overwhelming as the first time. Soon after, the energy faded, leaving an empty void in its wake. It left me completely drained, I almost collapsed onto the ground, but I barely managed to keep myself upright.

Emma picked herself up off the ground and patted the dust off of her butt. "You okay?"

I nodded, "yeah, I'm fine. Just really tired."

"Okay, well let's get you back into the house so you can rest."

When we got into the house I noticed that I was looking up at Emma. Which wasn't too uncommon, Emma and I were the same height but she often wore heels or shoes with really thick soles.

I flopped down onto the couch and closed my eyes. "Why are you wearing heels?"

"I'm not?"

"Oh, You just looked taller, I guess it was nothing."

I felt the couch shift next to me, presumably from Emma taking a seat. "No. Actually, I thought you were shorter than me for a sec there. Maybe you are?"

I opened my eyes and stared at her, "What do you mean?"

"Your hair changed color, who's to say that your height couldn't change too"

"But that's ridiculous" unless... maybe it's not. She had a point, "Come with me"

I jumped to my feet with energy that I didn't have. I pulled Emma up with me and I took her to the bathroom. Normally looking in the mirror was a big no-no, but I figured it was the only real way to figure this out.

Standing in front of the mirror, it was immediately obvious. For whatever reason, I was now several inches shorter than Emma. Now that I noticed the difference I could even feel how much smaller I was. My feet were loose in my shoes and the ends of my pant legs dragged on the ground as I walked, which made me wonder how it took us this long to notice.

"You're so tiny!" Emma patted the top of my head.

I looked up at her and gave her a disapproving frown. I was always kind of short, but being this short was... not preferable. I was happy with my previous height, I was just a little below average, but now I was so smol, probably somewhere around 5' 1". Yet another reason why I needed that shapeshifter's help

"I really hope this is temporary. Lisa is going to tower over me." I walked out of the bathroom and flopped face-first back onto the couch.

Emma followed me and sat on a different couch. "So you didn't pass out this time. That's a good sign"

I lifted my face from the cushion, "I might... I'm very tired, but at least I'm not giggling like a maniac."

I spent the rest of the day recovering. Which mostly consisted of laying down and trying to sleep. Over the course of two hours, my energy returned and my height reverted back to normal.

It was very strange experiencing a drastic height change that quickly. Everything seemed like it was shrinking very slowly and it took a while for my mind to fully comprehend what it was experiencing. I had tried to use my gifts while I was recovering but they didn't seem to be working, But that's kind of what I had expected.

Eventually, my gift returned and I was mostly back to normal. I'm not sure how normal I could be when I kept changing size and color, but back to my... usual? default? whatever state.

Emma and I chatted about lots of stuff, school, life, my gifts. We talked about my abilities a lot. We both knew the basics; taking and using the momentum of using objects, but we spent a lot of time speculating about what exactly I might be able to do. Obviously flying entered the picture at one point, but I wasn't even sure that I could use my powers on myself, not to mention just how much energy it would take to fly like that. So we tossed flying into the "probably not" category.

So far there was definitely a limit on my abilities, but each time that I crossed that limit it would grow. The question that we had; was there an actual hard limit on how much momentum that I could store or was it potentially limitless? That also seemed pretty unlikely, but it was a very good question to be asking.

Another thing was the weird changes that came every time I over-absorbed. First, it was just my hair, next it was my height. What comes after that? Was there a limit to what could change? Why was it temporary?

Obviously, there was only one way to answer those questions, but neither of us were ready for that yet. I had to get a handle on whatever might have just changed.

Eventually, Molly got home and we had to stop talking about it. Despite Emma's hesitation, she now seemed fully on board with helping me figure my shit out. It seemed as if jumping out of the window of a treehouse might have changed her mind. I still don't understand why she did, but now she isn't objecting, and I'm not complaining.

Emma and I decided that It was a good time for me to go home.

"Alright, get in the car, Tiny"

"You know what, I'm not very fond of this new nickname" I grumped down onto the passenger seat, "I'm not even short right now"

"Hmm, okay" She tilted her head to the side slightly, "Mini? Smalls? What about Teensy"

I was stuck with a nickname either way, but Tiny was the least humiliating one.

"Fine... Tiny"

Emma smiled to herself as she started the car and drove me home.