Relative Height

Fiorella's not that tall, but she used to be.  In her sixth grade picture, she's the female steeple in the back row, center, but by the time she hit tenth grade, she was relegated to the front row, edging toward the side.  Yeah.  Five-four at age fifteen did not give her the same height advantage as  five-four at age eleven had.

Not that she saw it as an advantage.  Short girls  were petted and told how cute they were while tall girls were expected to be mature and responsible.  Besides, she was taller than the boys, which was becoming increasingly important to her because Fiorella was definitely heterosexual.  In fact, she has long maintained that her first words, five minutes out of the womb, were, "Where's my boyfriend?"  .

Her first indication she had shrunk, relatively speaking, was when the sophomore girls' PE teacher lined the class up for archery practice by height.  Fio walked automatically toward the front of the queue and was relegated to the tail.  She was short and cute at last

But even today, five-three and shrinking, she still feels like the tall, gawky steeple in the back row.