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Original Airdate: 10/13/97
Morning finds Eric in the kitchen reading the paper while making the kids' school lunches. Simon runs down and starts brushing his teeth in the kitchen sink. When Eric asks him, he says Ruthie locked herself in the bathroom again, BEFORE Mary and Lucy had a chance to get in. Simon notices an article in the paper about the Heaven's Gate cult and asks how one guy can convince a bunch of people they had to kill themselves to be taken aboard an alien ship. When Eric explains how a group can influence you, he is shocked when Simon likens that to church. Eric offers to try an experiment – he tells Simon to insist to the other family members that he is shrinking and then eventually the others would believe it. He says to get Ruthie to help. Simon is excited and first tries it out on Matt who just let Simon's antics pass by.At school, all of the kids in turn unpack their lunches and find various kitchen utensils in their bags. Mary and Lucy spot a girl, Shelby Myers, hurry off from the lunchroom and they start to talk about the rumors that Shelby is bulimic. Lucy says there is only one way to find out, and invites Shelby over for dinner, which Shelby graciously accepts.
Mrs. Bink and Eric go to check on a friend, Mrs. Hinkle, who used to play the organ at the church. Mrs. Hinkle mysteriously put her house up for sale and moved into a retirement home and Mrs. Bink is suspicious. She tells Eric that she has tried many times to get in to see Mrs. Hinkle or call her, but each time she has been told that Mrs. Hinkle doesn't want to be disturbed. Eric tries, to no avail, and asks to leave a note. When the receptionist writes down her room number, Eric peers over the counter and reads the number and makes a note of the room number.
After school, Simon is watching TV on the couch with Ruthie when Matt comes in and sits down in a chair. Simon and Ruthie start talking about how Simon's feet used to touch the floor when he sat on the couch, and now they don't – he must be shrinking. Matt looks at the pair kind of weird and then leaves the room. Simon quickly takes the yellow pages out from under his cushion and slides them under the couch, eliminating the evidence. Matt later comes in and inspects the couch but finds nothing.
Eric goes back to the church office and gets a page on his beeper, and while trying to call the number, it beeps again. He is further annoyed that the number he is supposed to call is busy, and then the beeper goes off again. Finally he just hangs up the phone and waits for it to ring – it's Mrs. Bink. She tells him she is going over the wall to rescue Mrs. Hinkle and he can come along if he wants. Eric agrees and when they knock on her door, they are shocked to find that she is happy to be in her new place. She says the house was too big to take care of herself and that she felt vulnerable and unsafe there alone.
Simon and Ruthie go to plan B – making Ruthie look taller compared to Simon to further his plot to make Matt believe he is shrinking. While they are telling their mom the plan, Matt overhears at the door and decides to give Simon a taste of his own medicine.
Shelby comes over for dinner and Annie overhears Mary and Lucy talking about how they will finally know if Shelby has an eating disorder. She tells Lucy she is disappointed in her, but Lucy says maybe some good will come out of it – if they find out she has an eating disorder, they can help her.
Eric stops over at Mrs. Hinkle's house that is being shown by her daughter and son, and introduces himself. They give Eric the exact same reasons for selling the house as Mrs. Hinkle did. So exact, in fact, that Eric gets the feeling they all "studied for the same test." Later he and Mrs. Bink confront Mrs. Hinkle about what is really going on and she tells them that her son has a lot of bad credit debt, and her daughter wants to go on a real vacation. They eventually convince her that she has to stop bailing her kids out every time – and she agrees and decides not to sell the house.
Mary notices that Simon's play pants look a little long and tells him he is shrinking. This bother's Simon, because he knows he didn't touch the pants. He goes to his closet and notices that all the shirts and things are hung a little higher than they should be. Matt comes in and looks at Simon weird and gives him a hug to judge his height. He tells Simon he thinks he IS shrinking. Simon panics and goes to his car poster – since he knows how high he comes up on that. To his shock, he doesn't come up as high as before. Simon collapses on his bunk and doesn't move until Annie comes in to ask what's wrong. He tells her he is shrinking into nothingness and maybe she can find a cute, blonde kid to adopt and call him Simon II. Annie calls Matt in and Matt says it was all a joke to get Simon back. Annie tells him to take Simon to the doctor to make sure he isn't shrinking – and to take a couple weeks' allowance with him in case she wants money up front.
At dinner, Simon tells the family that he is NOT shrinking, and is in fact an inch and a half taller and broader around the chest. After the meal concludes, Shelby asks where the bathroom is and Annie follows her upstairs. Annie asks if she is OK, and Shelby realizes that they all think she has an eating disorder. She says she doesn't have bulimia, it's simpler than that – she has to brush her teeth because of her braces – and she's hungry. Her mom was taken off welfare and Shelby apologizes to Annie for using her to get a good meal. Annie tells Shelby it is their secret, but she is going to try and help.