Mina was so excited she was almost sick. She had never expected to be invited to a party like this—the kind where girls all did each other’s hair, told stories, and then slept on the floor. Her mom didn’t understand it and kept asking why Mina was so intent on sleeping on the couch or floor of someone else’s house when she had a perfectly good bed at home. She never had sleepovers as a kid, and she definitely didn’t have sleepovers at a girl like Casey’s.

Casey was one of the most popular girls in the 5th grade. She was smart, friendly, and pretty. Recently, she dyed her hair lavender purple and Mina was so jealous. Mina’s mom never let her color her hair.

Mina had been surprised when she had been handed one of the coveted invitations. At first Mina thought it was meant for Theresa, who sat behind her, but Casey had giggled and shook her head.

“It’s for you, silly!”

Mina’s jaw had dropped, right there, in the middle of science class. It was for her? She got to go to a Casey sleepover birthday party?

“Th-thanks so much!” Mina managed, hugging the invitation close to her heart.

“Yeah! I always wanted to invite more people, and this year we got a bigger house, so mom said I could. Can’t wait to see you, Little Mina.”

It stung to still be called Little Mina. Sure, Mina had always been the shortest girl, and Casey was one of the tallest, but she hated having that pointed out. That, and Mina was quiet. A little voice for a little girl, her mom would say.

Convincing mom into letting her go had been a bit of a challenge. Her mom didn’t like it when Mina was out too late. To her, a sleepover was like Mina abandoning the house and all her chores. Mina had promised to do double the chores on Sunday to make up for whatever she missed tonight, and after pleading, begging, and making ridiculous promises that no 10-year-old should rightly make, her mom relented.

“Just be good, ok?” Mina’s mom had made her promise.

“Always, Mama.”

And here Mina stood, shaking with excitement, in her favorite pair of powder blue PJs, waiting to be let into the best party of her life. When the big French doors swung open, Mina held her breath. There was Casey with her lavender hair and equally lavender PJs.

“You made it!”

The way Casey beamed made Mina feel like she was royalty, not just a girl from her class. Casey took Mina’s hand and led her inside. Mina was sure tonight was going to be extra special.

Like all good parties, the first and most important activity had to be attended to first: the pizza. Casey had invited every girl from class, so they were going to need a lot. Mina slid into a chair at the huge table in the dining room. It felt like it was almost too big, or maybe she really was that small? As Mina tried to scoot in her chair, a thick hand grabbed the back and gently pushed her in. When she looked up, she had to force lips shut. She was not going to gape or gasp.

Casey’s mom was huge. Not huge as in overweight, but huge as in muscular. She looked like a body builder, with every square inch of her a bulging muscle barely contained by the athleisure wear she was sporting.

“Th-thank you,” Mina whispered.

Casey’s mom smiled the way Mina imagined a boulder would. “You’re welcome. Let me guess, you’re Little Mina?”

Mina felt even smaller, “y-yes miss.”

The boulder softened a little, and she pat Mina’s head’s shoulder. “Don’t look so scared. I used to be little too, but then I decided I wasn’t going to be anymore. I got strong and big, and it’s been great.”

“Oh, yes.”

How else was she to respond? Happily, the doorbell rang; the pizza had arrived. Mina felt like the only one who noticed how Casey’s mom was able to carry all ten pizzas by herself, all with one hand. Maybe that wasn’t very impressive?

Mina quickly forgot Casey’s mom once the pizza was in front of her. Just like all the rumors said, Casey’s family ordered pizza from one of the big national chains. That meant that there was a good ratio of cheese to sauce to dough, and that the pizza didn’t turn to greasy cardboard after being left out for more than ten minutes. Once the girls had gorged themselves on pizza, Casey took them to a huge living room with a TV that took up the size of the wall. Her family had one of those big couches that could have all the parts moved and changed so that everyone could have a seat that they liked. That’s when the movie started. Casey had all the streaming services, and so she was able to get the brand-new Disney movie straight to her TV. If Mina hadn’t come, she would have seen it for at least three months!

In the middle of the movie, Mina saw Casey’s mom move in the hallway. She made her way around the living room and to a door with a set of stairs in it–and Mina realized she was going to the basement. Casey must have noticed too because she shrugged.

“Don’t worry, Mom’s just going to her Exercise Heaven,” Casey explained in a rehearsed tone.

“Exercise Heaven?” Mina asked, and a couple other girls looked over.

Having so many eyes on her made Casey beam, while Mina shrank away. “Oh yes. Mom got this big fancy house after my dad left, because we got a lot of money. She was so excited to be able to choose what she wanted in a home. So, she made the whole downstairs this nice personal gym. She’s got a treadmill and a stair master and a bunch of weights. It’s really cool, but Mom doesn’t like me playing down there so we can’t go.”

The story seemed to satisfy everyone in the room. Everyone except for Mina. Throughout the movie, she kept looking back to the basement door. She swore between quiet scenes she could hear Casey’s mom talking. The words were at just the right distance that she didn’t know what they were, but it was that low hum of noise that made it clear there was a conversation being had.

But then the activity changed. There was hair braiding, nail painting, and bouncing on the couch. Mina was so small when the girls bounced, she nearly fell off the couch. Then when they were playing tag, her legs were too short, and she constantly made “it.” Then when it was time for cake, Mina was given one of the smaller pieces.

“Because you’re so little, you’ve got a smaller stomach, so that means you get a smaller piece,” Casey explained.

“I guess,” Mina said, feeling tiny and weak as she stared at her little piece of cake.

After cake it was time for crafts. Casey had given everyone a cardboard unicorn to decorate. Even though everyone had safety scissors, Mina’s were too big, and she clumsily cut out the colored paper strips she wanted. The glue bottle she had was all stopped up and she couldn’t squeeze it, so Theresa let Mina borrow hers.

Once the unicorns were set to dry, the girls were beginning to feel tired. Mina grabbed her pillow and tossed it on the floor, thinking she had to sleep on the rug.

Casey caught her and shook her head, “Oh, no, we’re all sharing the couch. Mom!”

There was a thud and stomp from below, and Casey’s mom came through the door to her Exercise Heaven. As if the couch segments weighed nothing, Casey’s mom picked them up and moved them around, turning the couch into a giant cushion pit. She then hefted a giant basket of pillows and blankets and dumped them onto the new, giant bed.

Again, when Mina stood near Casey’s mom, she felt tiny and insignificant. Casey’s Mom was so tall, and her muscles were thick, and even though she had just been working out she didn’t have that gross sweat smell. The adult noticed as Mina stared, and she winked as she set down the basket that had previously been full of bedding.

“Impressive, right?” Casey’s mom said.

Little Mina couldn’t help but nod. “You got so strong by going to your Exercise Heaven?”

Casey’s mom’s eyes flashed. “Yes. It took a lot of work, but you could get strong like me too, Mina.”

“Casey said we’re not allowed in the basement.”

“Casey isn’t allowed in the basement, that’s true,” Casey’s mom corrected, and headed upstairs.

***

It was somewhere around two o’clock in the morning when Little Mina woke up. Usually before bed she had a glass of water, but during the party she hadn’t. Her throat was all dry and itchy, so she climbed out of the couch pit and headed for the kitchen. Casey’s fridge was big, sleek, and silver. Mina was just a bit too short to reach the water dispenser. She tried to pull over a chair to climb up with, but it was too heavy. With an annoyed huff, she opened the fridge, found a juice box in one of the lower shelves, grabbed it, and then angrily sat on the floor to spitefully drink.

“I wonder what it must like to be big and strong,” she muttered halfway through her refreshment. “I bet big people never have problems.”

As she thought about becoming big and strong, the sounds from earlier in the evening echoed back in her mind. Whispered voices saying nothing understandable then, but now Mina was sure they had been talking about her. It was like she was hearing them all over again but clearer. They giggled about how small she was but whispered that she didn’t have to be. There were ways to make someone bigger. She didn’t have to suffer as Little Mina. It would be hard, but she could get everything she wanted if she just allowed herself to be stronger. Something gently tugged her, and Mina was on her feet, heading across the house. The voices were louder, taunting her, pointing out her tiny fingers, tiny toes, skinny arms, and knobby knees. How could she ever measure up to her friends if she was this small? How could she ever get what she wanted if she was so weak?

Little Mina blinked, and she was at the door to the basement. Her hand was already on the knob. It was cold. She was cold. When she breathed out, there was a puff of air, the kind that appeared when it was about to snow. Slowly, she peeled her little fingers off the silver doorknob. She looked back, over her shoulder, to the living room and the pile of girls all asleep. All too big to notice the small space left empty on the edge of the couch pit, where Mina had been sleeping. She looked back at the door, which for a moment looked so much larger, and then perfectly sized, and then it was open. Mina made her way down and didn’t even notice when the door shut behind her.

The stairs felt like they extended deep down, farther than any stairs should go. As if she were floating in a dream, Mina held onto the thick banister and tiptoed to the basement floor. The hallway down was dark, but there was a bright white light at the bottom. Now that she was waking up, she had to squint because the light was too harsh, especially after walking through so much darkness.

Casey’s Mom’s Exercise Heaven was huge. It was like an expensive gym, the kind that people paid hundreds of dollars to work out in. There were gleaming silver machines with thick black weights, a treadmill that looked pristine and brand new, a rack of dumbbells and kettlebells—Mina stopped.

How did she know that? She had never seen any of these things.

As she tiptoed deeper into the Exercise Heaven, she became aware of the difference between the rower machine, barbells, and how the different colored plates described their weights. She dragged her fingers along the cool and comforting edge of the stair climber, suddenly and acutely certain as to how to use it. She braced both palms on the rails of the machine, gazing up at it.

“Hello Little Mina,” came an echoing voice that she knew and didn’t.

The little girl glanced upwards at the towering figure of Casey’s Mom.

“Hello,” she whispered.

“I see you’ve made your way here. It’s good you did; I could feel it. You need this place as much as I do.”

“I do?”

“You do,” Casey’s mom nodded. “Because you don’t want to be Little Mina anymore, do you?”

“No,” she shook her head, the room growing colder, Casey’s Mom feeling warmer, the machines calling out to Mina and telling her how to use them, what to do, how to become strong.

“Then come with me, Mina,” said Casey’s mom as she extended a thick hand, already dusted with grip chalk.

There was a moment where Mina almost thought of home, of her mom, of her promise. But when she looked at Casey’s Mom, she saw the wall of mirrors behind her. She saw herself, but bigger, stronger, taller—everything she wanted to be all at once. Glancing up at Casey’s mom, she nodded and took her hand.

She wasn’t going to be little anymore.