Running • Iggy

Photography

"I'm tired!" Kat whined. We had been walking up the same hill for the past half an hour, and Kat had been repeating the same thing for the past 20 minutes. Melody was sitting on Jackson's shoulders, being the tallest of our group. She giggled every time he almost walked her into the autumn leaves of the trees above. He really wasn't the most graceful person.

"I'm tired!" Kat groaned more insistently this time.
"I'm tired of your whining!" RJ retorted with a grin. "It's not even a steep hill, moron. Get a grip."
"But I'm tired!" Kat whined again. "I don't like walking!"

I tapped Kat on the shoulder. They looked over at me, frowning. "Yeah?" They asked. I crouched and gestured to my back. "Get on. For my sanity, please." I practically begged. Kat freaked out almost instantly. "What?! I'm pretty sure I weigh like, three times as much as you do! I'll crush you!" They shook their head.

"You will not crush me. Believe it or not, I work out frequently. Get on before I lift you myself." I threatened. After a moment of hesitation, Kat got on my shoulders. They weren't heavy for me, as expected. I stood up easily, adjusting to the weight for a second or two, before resuming my usual pace. Kat was actually taller than me by a bit but was probably the closest to me in height. If I had to guess, Kat was 5'4, Daisy was 5'4 and a bit, Vienna was 5'7, RJ was 5'8, Mello was 5'9 and Jackson was probably 6'0 even. Melody was obviously shorter than me, though. I think any scrap of my ego I had left would be ruined if an 8-year-old human girl was taller than me.

I heard Mello's shutter go off before he walked up beside me, and like hearing my internal dialogue, brought his hand up to a height gesture above my head, comparing it to his own height. "Think you're going to grow much more?" He asked in such a blank tone of voice, but I knew he was teasing me nonetheless. It's how he was sometimes.

In response, I rolled my eyes and faked a jab at him. "I wish." I huffed. "Max is only older than me by a few months, and she's like... 5'9. Actually, I don't have a good sense of height." I adjusted Kat slightly. "And Nudge - she's my younger sister - she's taller than me now and she's only like, 13 to 14. Gazzy is around 10 and he's almost the same height as me, same as Angel. It's so unfair." I pouted.

"Yeah, they're weirdly tall though," Jackson commented. "Like, I'm tall for my age and I'm 6'1 and a bit. What height is James?" He looked down at me as I nudged Mello in the ribs when he raised the camera towards my face. He made a show of throwing a mini fit, dropping his camera - strap around his neck, of course, crossing his arms and turning his head away from me. I turned my attention to Jackson.

"I need to ask him to get his actual height checked, but I think he's between the heights of 6'5 and 6'8. He's still growing though, but I suspect he'll stop fairly soon. He turned 18 five days ago, and I don't think you keep growing much more after that age. When I was 10 - 11, the last record we charted down for his height was 5'7, so he's grown 10 inches minimum, 13 inches maximum in the past 6 - 7 years. I, on the other hand, have grown maybe 6 inches in the past 7 years. I was taller than him when we were younger, though." I turned my attention back to the hill we were walking up.

"6'5. That's insane." RJ turned to me. "Wait, so you're older than us right? 17?"
"Yeah." I confirmed.
"And James is 18?"
"Yeah."
"But you're both in lower years than what you should be."
"Yeah."
"So you failed grades?"
"No. We were homeschooled and needed to join a lower year." I adjusted Kat on my shoulder. "Well, they needed to join a lower year."

"Citrus is really smart. I've seen it." Mello had taken a photo of me before I could flip him off.

-

"Citrus!" Melody span around in a big circle, her pink dress billowing out at the edges. She was laughing and skipping over the autumn leaves. The clearing in the forest we had found was covered in crunchy leaves. Mello was fidgeting with his beloved camera, testing the different lenses he had brought. Kat was sitting down with Vienna and Daisy, and RJ was begging Jackson to let him sit on the taller's shoulders so he could be 'taller than Mello'.