Casey hated to admit it, but once you got past their egos, the sensational sisters were really cool. She may not of had their fashion sense, or love for everything aquatic, but Casey did share the same views the sisters had on shrinkees. Out of all of Ash’s friends, Casey was the most ruthless when handling shrinkees. She had more respect for cockroaches then she did for the tiny people that now covered the globe. While Misty was prone to handling her shrinkees roughly and killing them quickly, Casey had perfected the art of making her tiny victim last. Never had a shrinkee escaped Casey’s clutches, she had a mean streak towards those little men that went deep. Maybe it was there weak bodies, or the fact that Casey could easily dominate over them that made Casey so vicious towards Shrinkees. It was a miracle that Casey even acknowledged Ash as her friend, considering how little she thinks of shrinkees.

“Have you really worn shrinkee earrings? I’ve heard about them, but never saw a pair in my life.” Casey watched with fascination, as the girls beamed as they talked about something that they were world famous for besides their underwater talents, their collection of rare shrinkees.

“I’m not surprised that you’ve never seen them, only the most fabulous people can wear them and no offense dear, but your not that important,” Violet said off hand, sipping her wine as Casey looked at her with interest. The sensational sisters thrived on being the center of attention and they very much enjoyed being admired, even if they thought the person admiring them was an uncool tomboy.

“But how do they work? Do they shove a needle into the shrinkee’s chest and sell them like that?” Casey ignored the comment Violet had made about her being unimportant. Sure, it pissed her off, but she reminded herself that these were celebrities and to them, anyone that had never sold out a show was unimportant.

“Don’t be silly, if it was that simple, you’d have cheap rip offs being sold on all the street corners. To make shrinkee earrings, first the producer carefully inserts a pin into the lower back or the shrinkee. This paralyzes them, but keeps them alive and breathing. Once the tip of the pin leaves the other side of the body, the tip and most of the shrinkees chest, are burned into a circular cut metal where they are ether attached to a chain or used as studs. The procedure is done carefully, so not to rupture any organs or kill the shrinkee. The shrinkee will survive for up to five days, until they die from hunger or sickness. Because it takes hours to make one shrinkee earring, they are very expensive and most are sold as soon as they are finished. We were going to get you one Misty, but Daisy accidentally suffocated your shrinkee while we were packaging it.”

“That’s alright, it’s the thought that counts,” Misty told her sister as she looked down at a slightly green Ash. She hadn’t seen anything wrong with the concept of shrinkee earring, they were used for everything else, so why not accessories? Ash hadn’t held that belief and was looking rather sick after hearing how shrinkees were getting pins shoved into their spines and metal burned against their chests. While Misty looked at Ash with concern, Casey was smiling her ass off.

“That is soooooo cool,” Casey giggled, trying to picture herself with a pair of shrinkee earrings. She was so busy fantasizing; she never noticed her meal staring up at her frightfully. Still grinning like an idiot, Casey reached down absentmindedly and picked up her shrinkee entrée. Her mind raced with how cool a pair of earring would be and never looked at her shrinkee as she brought him closer to her mouth. She opened her maw and slowly began to lower the shrinkee onto her tongue. Just as she was about to realize him and let him drop onto her tongue, she heard someone shouting her name.

“Casey!”

Caught off guard, Casey let go of her shrinkee and he landed squarely in the middle of her tongue. She pulled her tongue in and closed her mouth, savoring the taste of the shrinkee as she looked around for who had called her name. Misty was busy trying to console Ash after hearing about the shrinkee earrings, the sensational sisters were gabbing among themselves and no one in the restaurant was looking their way. So who had called out her name? Casey was about to swallow her appetizer, which was starting to lose some of his fight from inside her mouth, when something occurred to her. Could her appetizer have called out to her? Deciding to investigate, Casey picked up her napkin and brought it to her mouth. Discreetly, she spit out her shrinkee, feeling his limp body fall into her napkin. Curious about whom she was about to eat; Casey peeked into her napkin to see. Her eyes widened in shock at seeing whom she had almost eaten.

“BRAD!” Casey screamed. Everyone in the restaurant stopped eating and looked at the badly dressed girl sitting in their expensive restaurant. Casey blushed at all the unwanted attention her outburst had caused. At that moment, she felt even smaller then a shrinkee.

“Sorry,” Casey meekly said as everyone went back to ignoring her and eating their high-priced shrinkees. Misty’s sisters glared angrily at Casey, not enjoying being embarrassed by her uncouth behavior.

Misty returned Ash to the top of the table and started feeding him bits of bread. Her sisters watched on with sick fascination as their sister degraded herself, in their opinions, by feeding an insignificant shrinkee. They were so drawn in by the strange actions of their sister, that they swallowed their shrinkees without taunting or torturing them. For the sensational sisters, simple eating shrinkees was rudimentary, any commoner could pop one of them down. No, what really set people apart were what they did with shrinkees before swallowing them. Do they nibble off part of them and eat them in chunks? Or play mind games and reduce the shrinkees to quivering wreaks with promises of painful digestion? Or do they swallow more then one at once, piling two or more in so they can suffer together? Eating shrinkees was easy, the torment they go through before the end on the other hand was a different story.

“Excuse me, I think we need to go to the bathroom and…. freshen up,” Daisy said quickly. The sisters pulled out their chairs and left the table, but not before giving Ash one more brief glance. Ash missed it, but their eyes were cold and detached. Not good signs for him and Misty. While Misty fussed over Ash and the sister left, Casey picked up brad and cleaned him off with the napkin. He had passed out from terror inside Casey’s mouth and had yet to awaken. Casey was having trouble sorting out her feelings as she looked at a man she once admired and had a crush on. Her instincts screamed for her to eat him, but her heart disagreed. Not able to decide, she tucked him away into her back pocket with her other shrinkee. She didn’t know what to do with him, should she eat him like all the other shrinkees she’s come upon, or is he like Ash, a friend.