"So Rick man, have you heard this crazy rumor going around?" They were both a little drunk as Brian queued up another game of pool at their favorite spot. Alex and Steve were somewhere unknown. Steve probably studying, Alex probably trying to crash some sorority slumber party. Rick had spent the week going out of his way to try to spot Becka, trying to figure out if he should be worried about being crazy, or if what he saw actually happened. Trying to figure out if somehow the iodine trigger had made a person grow right before his eyes, so what Brian said next shocked him into sober attention. "These two roomates somehow got taller and hotter overnight." His face registered a huge look of shock. "I know it sounds crazy, but I know a guy that lives next to them, and he swears they both just sprouted up practically overnight. You're the med-student, is that possible? Maybe he's just pullin' my leg."
"That is not possible," and a year ago, heck even a week ago he would have meant it. Right now he wasn't so sure.
"But they are saying it's not just these two roomates. One of the vollyball players got taller too." The minute he heard vollyball, he knew it was all true. It had to be. But how? One of the research fellows at the drug trial insisted no Becka Allerton had been a participant. Was he wrong? Did she do it under a different name? Was there another drug trial? His jaw dropped with a thought bigger than he could contain. Was the drug serum somehow spreading? His brain went into drunken overdrive trying to process what he knew of the study to understand if the trial could be spreading. "Rick. Rick! Are we playing pool here or what, it's your shot."
---
"That's her, over there." They were at a practice vollyball game, and Suzanne pointed out the team member she thought for certain was the target of the growth rumor. The rumor she knew to be true.
"We should have just gone to your grandparents and got the rest of that vial." Several hours after drinking the rest of the brown liquid, Lynn had sprouted up nearly three inches, maintaining their mismatched twin sister bond, albeit slightly taller and hotter sisters. However, it was just too amazing not to repeat. Lynn wanted more.
"I told you. I called my grandmother and she didn't remember giving me anything. She's a little senile at her age. Let's just talk to this girl, and if we can't figure it out, I promise we can go visit my grandmother." The two of them were quiet during the rest of the game, patiently waiting for their chance. And it took alot of patience. Even after the game, the team members stood around chatting forever, then disappeared into the locker-rooms. The place had almost entirely cleared out by the time the girl reappeared wearing sweats and carrying a gym-bag. They quickly approached her. "Becka? Becka Allerton?" She nodded to them. "Can we talk to you for a minute? In private?"
"Sure." Becka waved off another teammate that was headed her way, and walked to a far side of the empty stands of seating where they had as much privacy as she was willing to offer. "What's up you two?"
"We heard something, and we just want to know if it's true." Suzanne didn't know exactly how to say the words without sounding crazy to herself. "We heard you got a couple inches taller in days, and we're wondering if it's true." Becka averted her attention, shook her head and started to get up.
Lynn, too petite to have any real chance of holding an athlete like Becka, grabbed her wrist to try to get her to listen. Just as Becka was about to use the little effort it would take to shake her off, Lynn stopped her in her tracks, "we know it's true. It happened to us too." Becka stared back at them. She had heard rumors, and not just about her. She heard some her teammates saying it happened to some roommates. Could these be the two? She found herself too curious to leave, so she sank back onto the bench.
Suzanne and Lynn explained what had happened to them. Becka hadn't admitted anything happening to her, or even said a word, but she sat silently listening to the story, which gave them confirmation enough. "That's a pretty fantastical story. Let's say I did believe it was even possible. Why contact me?"
Suzanne and Lynn looked at each other trying to see if the other was going to respond. Lynn was so determined it hadn't occured to her she'd have to even say it, "we want to do it again of course!" Suzanne smiled a half grin, the kind you used when you were not quite sure you agreed. The whole situation was fantastical enough for her already, she was prepared to let it pass away as a one time event, the most unusual event of her life possibly, but one time. Over the several days she had to think about it, she decided she really didn't need to be taller. Five-foot-eight was more than average for a girl. Besides, she often felt like she had more up-top than she needed, and with the way her bosom surged during the growth, she was a little concerned about a repeat occurance. Still, her and Lynn were like sisters, they did everything together, and her personal concerns were not big enough to confess, not yet. That's why she had made up the story about her grandmother not remembering what she gave them. She had never called her, and she had no intention of doing so.
Becka was starting to see new possibilities. She had tried to pretend the growth hadn't happened at all. She stood a little differently, she wore shorter heels at night. She heard her teammates murmur about it behind her back, but nobody had outright said anything. When her coach brought it up, and he eventually would, she'd just convince him the records contained a clerical error, that this had been her height all year. Even in just a week the deception had been taxing. The new possibility of some friends she didn't have to pretend with was refreshing. Their story had already given her a hint about which component of the antiseptic had caused it. Plus, she wasn't about to do it again herself, she already was having trouble hiding it. "Okay, let's do it." She paused, and the way they looked at her felt like they had just instantly formed a bond that couldn't be broken. She pulled out a scratchpad and wrote down her address and cell number. "Meet me here later tonight, about 7pm." With that she stood and walked off, wondering what this all meant.
---
"I can't just call them and tell them there are rumors on campus, they already think I'm a nutjob." Annie patiently let Rick vent about the situation. It had been on his mind a little too much lately. Here friends would show up at the bar any minute now, and she did her best not to see distracted as she looked for them. "This thing could be a real danger. Somehow it's affecting people not in the study. They need to know about it. They need to investigate. Someone is going to get hurt." He didn't seem close to calming down and she just spotted her friends across the bar. She wondered what else he could be stressing about, exams, studying. She even wondered if he was just trying to find a reason to fight with her. Whatever it was, she wasn't going to find out tonight.
She kept his hand in hers as she stood up to give him a hug. "Rick, I'm sure this is all going to work itself out. These researchers are smart, they'll figure it out. You need to focus on your goals. You're working towards med-school, remember? I can see how much this is eating away at you. Just let it slide. It's not your responsibility." She calmed him off the ledge, she always knew just the right things to say. "My girlfriends are here, are you okay?" He nodded. "You sure?" He kept nodding, and she took her exit.
---
Suzanne woke to her typical morning routine. An orange juice, some time sitting still for her brain to wakeup, her overly-alert roomate greeting her. She knew her nightshirt wasn't close to fitting properly. It was now more of a crop-top, and she was stretching it thin and bursting out of the top. She held her arms in tight to fight the chill. Lynn didn't say a word. She too looked like she made an accidental trip to the junior section. Her pajama bottoms unreasonably short at the ankles, and her unusually large asian boobs were unusually larger. Coffee in hand, Lynn sat next to her, seemingly waiting until Suzanne looked awake enough. She obviously couldn't contain herself as Suzanne lazily looked her way, "can you believe it? I still can't believe it actually worked again!"
Suzanne couldn't share her excitement, both because she had just crawled out of bed minutes before, and because she was starting to wish she hadn't followed Lynn into the abyss. She had always been ridiculously cute, and she knew it. That crazy freak event, it was just that, crazy. Somehow she had stumbled upon the impossible, and it had boosted her height to five-foot-eight, something she had decided was just about as ideal as it gets. Guys had noticed her all her life, and somehow, during the last several days she felt certain they were noticing her even more. Why did she go and ruin it? Why couldn't she have just told Lynn no? "I can't believe it either." Her emotions controlled her tone and frowning her face, telling a story her voice was not ready to share.
"Are you kidding me? How are you not thrilled about this?" Lynn pulled the juice out her hand and dragged her towards the bedroom. A moment later they were standing in front of the mirror, giving Suzanne a better view of the damage she had done to her nightshirt. It was torn on the shoulder, and the front was stretched so thin she could see right through it. It barely reached far enough down to cover her. The measurements they had taken last night put them at just about six-feet-tall, which explained why the nightshirt was about seven inches too short. "Look at us! We were cute before, now we're crazy hot!"
The two of them were still a mismatched pair of twins. Dark hair, dark eyes, slender and busty, and they were still the same height. She couldn't argue, the girls in front of her were crazy hot. The overstretched pajamas only contributed to the boy's wet dream looking back at them both in the mirror. Suzzane felt like she didn't even know them, didn't know herself. "Back in China, hardly noone is taller than five-seven. Five-nine and you're a runway model. Look at me! I'm a six foot tall native born Chinese girl. Do you know how rare that is?!" She was giddy with excitement, "and look at you!" Lynn stepped behind her, leaving Suzzane's reflection alone in the mirror, with only Lynn's head talking over her shoulder. "That girl can have anything she wants. Boys are going to be eating out of the palm of your hand." Lynn was always more boy crazy than her. Everything she did seemed to somehow come back to pleasing men. Suzanne always guessed it was some deep rooted set of asian cultural expectations. She was momentarily startled when she felt Lynn reach underneath her arms and saw her gesture her hands around the huge breasts in the mirror. "What I wouldn't give for these babies. Boys are going to beg for them."
Suzanne swatted her away as Lynn just laughed. Seeing herself move in the mirror was starting to make the whole thing seem just a little more real. She touched her hands against her wide-open bare tummy before running them down the sides of her hips and thighs. She turned to the side and surprised herself with the way her breasts jutted out from her frame even without a bra. She cupped them and noticed they seemed firmer, more buoyant than she was used to. Lynn stood up back to back and mirrored her movements. She couldn't help it, watching themselves in the mirror was turning her on too much. As Suzzane finally found herself shifting to acceptance, she broke the mood, "we're going to need some new clothes."
---
Annie was sitting across the table at the coffeshop. "Okay, okay, I've seen them around campus, but I don't know what you want to do about it. "Rick now knew that the campus rumor was alot more than a rumor. He had seen these girls together more than once. At first he was just concerned, but as he took opportunities to watch them, he found himself seeking them out for different reasons. There were three of them, and he'd see them together all the time. He recognized Becka immediately from treating her in the first-aid clinc. They were all really tall, but there was something more. At first he just wanted to stare to catch a glimpse of boobs that would be at home on a teenage wet-dream pin up photo. However, he could see it was more. No girl looked like that, not naturally anyhow. There was something about their proportion that was just, different. Rick started to obsess over them, and Annie was not the least bit happy about it.
"I want you to befriend them. It's effects from the drug trial, I'm sure of it. I've already ruined my short at a good reference from that internship by pressuring them to look into it. They are just too worried about their FDA approval to stir the pot investigating anything." He needed a way to talk to them, to warn them, but they had to trust him first. Perhaps Annie could help create that trust. "They all had recent growth spurts, just like you. Maybe you can..."
Annie held her hand up to cut him off, standing up from the table. "Alright. I have to get to class. I'll try." She hoped that it might at least get him to stop following them around like a stalker.
---
Twenty minutes after she had introduced herself, Annie felt like these were closer friends than any she had on campus, except for Rick of course. A weight was lifted off her shoulders of being able to talk about her growth spurts. She left out the details about the actual drug trial that caused it, mostly because she was still contractually obligated to keep it under NDA. However, it was more than that. She's girls all shared a similar experience, and somehow she felt everything they said just made more sense to her. Becka bent low over the table, her body language indicating what she was to say next was not for public consumption. "Annie, now I know you just met us, but we could use your help." All the girls tucked in a little closer around the table, preparing to talk a little softer. "You see, I received a grade I don't think I deserved, and I need some help talking to the professor." Annie backed herself away in alarm. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear anything about this, but Becka calmly gestured her back in. "No no, nothing improper. I'm just going to go talk to him about my grade. I just think having some distracting scenery might put him in the right mood, loosen his pen a little if you know what I mean. All you have to do is stand there and look, well, like yourself." It sounded harmless enough, and Annie was eager to connect with her new friends, so she agreed.
The walk was shorter than she expected. It was just one building over, and Becka stopped them all in the stairwell. "You don't need to say anything. Just stand there, fiddle with something in his office, stare at him, you know, do something distracting." She then led us down the hall and knocked on her professor's door. "Mr. Stevens, it's Becka. Do you have a moment? I'd like to talk about my grade."
He must have motioned her in, as she entered and the girls followed. Becka waited to close the door behind them. The office was small, and lined with bookshelves overstuffed with books that looked mostly untouched. He sat behind his desk, and two metal frame chairs faced it. "These are my friends, Lynn, Suzanne, and Annie."
He nodded to each of us before returning to her. "What can I do for you miss Allerton?" Somewhere during the last few minutes, Lynn had opened a button of her shirt, and was now showing a distracting double bubble of cleavage.
Becka approached the desk and slipped her exam onto it. "I know I can do much better than this. I was just having a horrible day." Annie really didn't know what to do, so she just stood in the back. Lynn had seated herself at one of the chairs and sat as neatly and properly as she could while still leaning over enough to give the man a pleasing view down the opening in her shirt. She could see from his eyes it was working. Suzanne was wandering the edge of the room, mock-skimming the spines of the books in his bookshelves as she made her way around.
"Well Miss Allerton. Everyone had the same test, if I re-administered a test every time someone had a horrible day I'd be administering them all semester." His response was clear enough, perhaps even rehearsed, but Annie could see he was fidgeting and acting just a little nervous. As she thought about the four of them she could see why. Six feet tall; Lynn with her open blouse; Becka with her miniskirt and pouty story; and Suzanne making her way slowly around the room like her boobs were two giant ticking time bombs.
"But my parents called me to tell me my childhood doggie Thumper had died. I couldn't stop thinking about it. How many students had a treasured family pet die that day? You must understand, it was like a death in the family." Becka's plan was just to keep him talking. She figured the longer they were there, the better her chances of a higher grade.
"I'm very sympathetic for your loss, but a family pet is not what the school board has in mind when they allow people to grieve for a death in the family. However, let me take a look at the situation." He took the exam from her, and opened up the drawer to his left, pulling out a logbook. As he flipped it open to find Becka's grades, he spent equal attention checking out Suzanne's stunning profile as she made her way along the rear of the room. She pulled a book out and flipped a few pages before slipping it back into its place. "Hmm. It appears your grades have been consistently better than this exam score." He quickly faced front when Suzanne turned to catch him looking at her. "It's possible you could make up this grade, but you'll need to do some extra classwork." Becka turned and sat on the corner of the desk, beaming him a smile and nodding. "Come see me next week and I'll have an extra homework packet for you." He slammed the file shut louder than any of us expected.
"Thank you, thank you Mr. Stevens." Becka accepted her test back from him, and the girls all made their way for the door. They had barely made it to the stairwell, when they all burst out laughing, even Annie. "Thanks girls, I owe you one."
---
It was guy night, and Rick was already toasting off drinks with Alex and Steve when Brian practically ran up to them. "Rick, you have got to tell us what is going on." He showed them all a puzzled look. "Guys, I saw Rick's squeeze hanging out with those growth spurt girls. Did you know the roommates got even taller? They're all six-feet-tall now. Rick you have to give us the inside scoop!" Rick did his best to claim ignorance, which wasn't hard, since Annie hadn't told him anything yet. She said she made friends, that's about it.
"I'm sure they are all just bonding over being tall girls on campus. I mean, wouldn't you?" Rick wondered how long this whole thing would stay under wraps before people, heck before the world found out about it.
"Rick, your girlfriend is just tall, but these girls, it's something else. Something triggered them to get taller, like overnight." Brian was pretty excited about it. "Do you think it's the same thing that happened to Drew?" Now there's a name none of them had heard in a while. Ever since Rick and Annie started dating, and Drew started running in the athlete circles, he hadn't seen her around. Brian looked Rick straight in the eye, "you and I both knew Drew was not this tall last year."
"I've heard the same rumors you have, and ya, Drew did sprout up over the summer. I'm not sure what you're looking for Brian." Rick felt like he was in the hot-seat and desperately wanted to change the subject.
Brian got to the heart of the matter. "Have you seen that ultra-hot asian chick? Her name is Lynn. Get Annie to introduce her to me!"
Alex took his que to add something to the exchange, "Brian, grow a pair and just go talk to her. Not that those girls are going to want you, they are probably getting nailed by some tall jocks." Leave it to Alex to both encourage and neuter him in the same breath. Rick had a new thought on his mind, maybe pushing Annie to meet them wasn't such a good idea.
---
The vollyball game was almost over, and Annie was really satisfied with her new friends. She had hung out with them quite alot in the past couple weeks, so much that she had stop noticing how busy Rick was with his schoolwork all the time. Even now Lynn and Suzanne were busy flirting and chatting up some boys that were sitting next to them. However, when the game ended, they quickly lost interest, waiting for Becka's athlete boyfriend and his friends to come by. Lynn immediately brought it up when she arrived alone. "Where's Brad?" Becka swashed her hand and rolled her eyes. "I thought his friend was really hot, can we meet them later?"
"Believe me, you don't want to meet them. I think Brad and I are done." The girls were starting to stand to leave but that comment sat them all back down as they each looked at her with a glare that meant, you're going to have to tell us more than that, sister. Becka took the hint and sat down to join them. "We've been fighting for a while now, really ever since I got taller, ever since that," Annie interjected, trigger, "yes, ever since the trigger. At first he just kept asking me to see a doctor, asking if it was permanent. Seems he liked the old me better. The old me when I was shorter than him. And to think I was putting off getting taller. Do you know how much it would help my vollyball career to be just a couple inches taller? It's already done so much, I'm first string, at the net. With a couple more inches I'd be virtually guaranteed to go pro." She paused for a moment. "I'm giving up men, at least for a little while."
Annie was drinking a soda and almost spit it out at the thought. They all turned to her wanting an explanation. "It's just, I dunno. Ever since the trigger I'm kinda horney all the time. Maybe you can give up men, but I can't imagine it. I guess I'm just lucky, my boyfriend loves it." Lynn was nodding in agreement, obviously having no plans to give up boys herself. Annie wasn't normally very comfortable talking about sex, but she felt sharing with the girls so comforting. "In fact, sometimes we joke about it, about me getting taller, and it gets him hot every time."
Suzanne piped up, "speaking of your boyfriend, when is it we're going to meet this guy we've heard you beaming about all the time?"
"How about tomorrow?"