Dinner for Four - by Snorri Sturlson (~BBW (Multiple), Eating, ~MWG)

[Snorri Sturluson]

~BBW (Multiple), Eating, ~MWG - Four growing girls share a new life

Dinner for Four

by Snorri Sturluson
(Inspired by the earlier work of Flaming Hades)

[Author's Note: For those of you who may remember, "Dinner for Four" was originally posted by Flaming_hades, who never continued to the work and the story was subsequently moved to the discard forum. I liked something about it, though I can't say what, and decided to rewrite and expand it. This is a rather heavy rewrite; if more than three consecutive words remain from Hades' original version, I would be surprised. Something to note is that this is not meant as a “wiki wiki weight gain” story, and I hope it doesn't come across as such.]

Part One

Five young women sat around an old, heavily used, coffee table. They chatted animatedly about their summers - where they traveled, what they did, who they dated - while playing a fast paced game of BANG! A few rays of the amber August evening illuminated the otherwise poorly lit room.

Susan Barker, a chubby woman with long dirty blond hair, knew she had lost the moment she played her last BANG! card and missed. As the Sheriff, with only one bullet of life left, there was no way she'd survive another round. Instead of mulling over the poor turn of luck, she reached up to turn on a lamp, revealing a nice potbelly peaking out from underneath her grey shirt. She sat back into the couch, waiting for her fate to be complete, and absentmindedly swung her meaty, pink pajama clad, thighs back and forth underneath her wooden rocking chair, accidentally knocking off one of her fuzzy bunny slippers. Her faintly pudgy face and thicker-than-she-desired arms hinted at a jiggle as she crossed her arms over her large C sized, nearly D, breasts, which complimented her larger body rather nicely.

On the couch next to Susan, Tammy Gouche leaned forward, her long and straight red hair clinging slightly to the fabric. She quickly ran her hand across the side of her head, causing some hair to sit nicely atop her A breasts. Her stomach, clearly visible through the thin pink tank top that she tended to wear with her blue miniskirt, didn't even try to pudge as she stretched for the deck of cards on the table, pulling the standard two to begin her turn. It was a bit too far and she was forced to make a lunge, lifting her small but and slender thighs off of her seat.

As the Sheriff's Deputy, Tammy shot at the brunette with short wavy hair that was next to her on the couch, the only opponent that the game's rules allowed her to target in her given situation. Elise Dimeo leaned forward to pick up her cards, making her stomach, which only appeared to be flat, bunch a tad. She shuffled through her hand and pulled out the Missed! card to counter Tammy's Bang!. Tapping it against the words "Girl Power" that were printed on her shirt, which was itself stretched across rather shapely C breasts, she pondered if it would be better to absorb the hit and keep the card for an emergency. Setting the rest of her cards on the blue jeans she had borrowed from Susan (and, since she had shorter legs, they covered her white ankle-high socks a little), she triumphantly played the card, saving her character for now. Despairing at loosing the game (as she would when the Sheriff died), Tammy threw a "Jailed" card at Terri Evans, the girl next to Elise.

Elise had little to do in her own turn, as the Renegade she couldn't kill the Sheriff till the Outlaws were dead. She played the Salon card that she drew at the beginning of her turn, restoring everyone's health by one, including the Sheriff's.

Terri, the first of the Outlaws, nearly forgot to draw for the Jail! in her eagerness to shoot the Sheriff. The woman next sitting next to her reminded Terri just in time. Pulling the first card off the top of the deck and flipping it over, the heart at the corner of it allowed her to escape the jail without penalty. Being the shortest of the lot, at 4'11", she had to lean very far forward to even reach the table, causing her immaculately styled brown hair, tiered and highlighted quite skillfully, to cover her face, with its high cheek bones and slender chin. Rather than pudging as she bent, her stomach flexed her mighty abs which had put more than one male on campus to shame. When she sat back up straight, the cards on the table nearest her had been skewed by her almost comically large breasts; judging from the way that they generously overflowed Terri's D sized green bikini, none of the girls believed she was that size.

Tossing a Bang! card onto the table, being able to hit the Sheriff from where she was thanks to the rifle she had placed in play earlier, Susan was unable to do anything and took the hit. Terri looked to Molly, the other outlaw and final individual at the table, to finish up the game. The largest girl there, Molly actually stood an inch shorter than Terri but a good deal rounder, weighing in at twice the poundage of any other woman there. Still, for her height and size, she looked rather fit, with a radiant glow and fine tone that was the result of her summer spent trekking through most of South East Asia. Her clothing was actually quite baggy, having lost a substantial amount of weight with the constant walking and Asian eating. Triumphantly, she carefully placed down her one and only Bang! card, which she had just drawn at the beginning of her turn thanks to a bit of luck. Susan had nothing to stop the bullet, and her character died.

Looking rather forlorn at the turn of events, now that the game was over, Molly politely glanced at the wall clock and said that she had better be leaving. She had transferred to a different University and was only in town to see her old friends and roommates one last time; Susan Simons and Benjamin B. Welshton University happened to be on the way to Stanford, her new academic home. Giving each woman a hug in turn, and tearfully kissing Susan on the cheek, Molly left for perhaps the last time.

As the evening hours waned, after Tammy and Terri had gone to bed, Susan sat sprawled on the couch, munching on a bad of leftover corn chips - the salsa having run out a while ago - and starred blankly at a magazine. Elise had a printout of a course syllabus and was attempting to actually be ready for classes this semester. Her eyes continuously tried to close as she read about American Indians... or was it Differential Equations?

Before she had a chance to give up the ghost, however, Susan broke the silence. "Elise? I think I am going to lose some weight."

Snapping fully awake at the mention of losing weight, Elise looked at her friend. "It really isn't my place to say if you need to lose weight or not. Being healthy is always good, but beyond that I'd say to each her own. Mind if I ask what brought this up?"

Setting down her magazine, Susan stretched. "Well, seeing Molly for one. She looks good. And also, with her moving to Stanford, I'm now the biggest one here. I love her, but I guess it was sort of comforting to think that at least I wasn't as big as Molly is."

Elise decided to choose her words as carefully as she could, "Not that you aren't pretty, but I think Molly looks amazing, and she is still at least twice your weight, and a fair bit shorter to. If this is just about looks, do you really want to go through all the pain and suffering that comes with loosing weight?"

"Well, I would like to get a few more looks than I do when I walk across campus..."

Elise smiled, "Dear, you just have to keep your eyes open a bit more. You get them now."

"... and I do tend to eat as a sort of hobby. I mean, look at me now." Susan motioned to her crumb covered shirt.

"Maybe you need to find another hobby instead then. As for looks, as I've told you before..."

Susan rolled her eyes, "Not more of this philosophy of beauty stuff."

Elise stressed her words a little upon hearing this, "...as I have told you before, being confident in your beauty makes you beautiful. If you think it, you are. The McKenzie study in '97 showed that a person's perception of themself at a given moment alters what other people perceive them as."

Susan got up and hugged her friend. "You do know that I have no idea what you just said, right little Ms. Philosophy major? But I appreciate the sentiment... at least, I appreciate the sentiment that I think you expressed." She turned to head off to bed. "Hmmm, you know, I might take up cooking."

This time Elise couldn't help but laugh. "You want to lose weight and you will do this by taking up cooking? As they say, never trust a skinny chef."

"Hey, you never know. My mother is a wonderful cook, judging from how my father looks, and she is as thin as a rail. Maybe I inherited it from her."

Elise thought for a moment, then called out after Susan as she walked down the hallway. "Alright, you may have a point, but if you want to loose weight you can't sample your own food. I'll taste test for you, if you want, and I'll see if I can get Tammy and Terri to as well. We need to try some new things anyways. Who knows, maybe you'll make us bigger than Molly was."

"Before this last summer?"

Elise's eyes widened, "If you can cook that well, I will certainly be impressed. And in desperate need of new cloths, but mostly impressed."

Susan turned back around, but noticed Molly's empty room at the top of the stairs. "Hey, didn't you have someone lined up to move into the empty room?"

"Yeah, my old friend Sheila. I've known her since high school. She's originally from the Netherlands. Don't worry; she is well suited to taking the place of Molly. Last time I saw her, about two years ago, she weighed about 230 lb. She was snacking pretty heavily then too. I suppose I should warn you, she is a bit too nice and has a tendency to fatten other people up with her, if they aren't careful. Women tend to suffer the most damage from her, but it you saw a silhouette of her old boyfriend I doubt you could tell if he was standing up or laying down; she made him as round as a tire, only worse.”

Susan thought over this factoid as she said good night and went up the carpeted stair at the end of the hall, which led to the upstairs balcony hallway, past the large empty room that would soon be Sheila’s, and into her own. Setting her alarm, she flopped down onto her queen sized bed and snuggled into the oversized red comforter, falling asleep in minutes.

***

Waking up to the hideous, infernal wail of her alarm clock, Susan rolled over and fell out of bed, clawing her way into a standing position. "What the hell was I thinking, getting up this early? The dayball hasn't even risen yet."

Stumbling out of her room and nearly falling down the stairs, she focused all her efforts on making some coffee. The very smell helped wake her up and soon enough she was sipping on a rather larger mug (a soup mug, really) and preparing for her trip. She slipped on a skirt (only worn once before) and her largest shirt (which wasn't as large as it had been last semester), grabbed her purse, and went outside. In a minute she was back, having forgotten that she took out her wallet the other night to write a check for rent, and having forgotten shoes. Deciding that tying things took too much effort in the morning, Susan sought out a much-used pair of flip-flop sandals. It was still technically summer, she supposed, but she wished someone would tell the morning air that.

Leaving her deluxe apartment building (a town house, really, though the manager didn't call it as such) and hoping on her bike, she entered an entire world that late-risers seldom experienced; the quite, cob-webbed filled, dewy hours of the morning. She lived in what qualified as a city, but the campus itself (and thus the majority of student housing) was set in the older parts which still had the quaint look of a small town that just reeked of academia.

The streets would be crowded soon, but not yet. Parking her bike at the opposite edge of campus from where she lived, as the city had very few bike racks, she walked about another half a mile to the "Early Bird Bookstore," a little shop owned by an elderly, portly, and balding couple. Owen, the owner, waved a wrinkled hand gripping a duster at her as she entered. A large smile crossed his face, as Susan was one of his favorite customers. He called out to Edna, his wife, but she was already making her way towards the front of the store with a mug of homemade hot chocolate and a freshly baked "breakfast" cookie. She smiled happily at Susan, pushing the try towards her merrily, and asked what brought her in so early.

Huffing and puffing from her trip, she responded that she was looking for cookbooks and explained her new hobby to them. Owen shuffled spryly over to the cooking section and began to pull books with such speed that it seemed to be from memory. Edna came up behind and shooed him away, looking at the books he had already pulled, placing some back and taking others out. "What do you know about cooking?"

Puttering around to the other side of the shelf, Owen reached over and pulled his books back out. "Who do you think taught you in the first place?"

Rather quickly Susan found a rather impressive mound of books before her as she sat in a burgundy overstuffed armchair, sipping on her hot coco, nibbling on the cookie, and flipping through the books. Edna or Owen would occasionally look over and comment on the particular book she was looking at. "That one has the best Flan you'll ever taste, but the author must have let someone else write the recipe for the ginger chicken." "That one has the most addictive cinnamon rolls." "Owen pulled that book, dearie? Ignore it, unless you like bland food."

Perhaps she bought more than she had intended, but after hearing Edna and Owen describe the various recipes she couldn't resist. There were several on breakfast foods and dinner foods specifically, ethnic ones as well, old fashioned and health conscious, as well as several index cards with the couple's own recipes, "because good cooking isn't limited to books, you know."

Owen even offered to drive her to the grocery store, to stock up on ingredients that she had never heard of before but apparently needed, and dropped her off at her apartment. "Wish I could help you with those," he said, rubbing his hands, "but my grip just isn't what it used to be. I do love scrambled eggs, but not when the sidewalk is where they're cooked."

Susan thanked him profusely, hugged him, kissed him on the cheek (at which he blushed and chuckled gleefully, as if he never expected someone so young to do so), and slipped an extra twenty in his pocket to cover his time and gas. He helped he get her bike off the back of his car and finally drove back to the store.

At seven o'clock, or there about, she walked into what seemed to be a brand new kitchen (well, it had been remodeled over the summer), with its well-stocked refrigerator, gleaming clean counter tops, the new island they had put in, the dual oven, and gas stove. On counter was nearly covered with her cookbooks, several of which were now opened to this dish or that.

Opening the large (even her mother and father didn't have one so large) fridge, she began pulling out supplied, placed two frying pans on the stove, began to preheat the oven, and fished around for mixing bowls, knives, and measuring cups. She heaved one bag of flour (there were three more) out from one of the lower cabinets and began a baking spree.

Around eight o'clock Elise woke up to a smell that was utterly foreign to her. It took her nose a moment to recognize it as the smell of breakfast cooking (a bowl of cereal was fancy, in her opinion). During that moment her body had already found itself through her slightly open bedroom door and into the kitchen, where the smell was nearly overpowering to her (apparently) hungry stomach.

On the kitchen island, set next to mounds of dirty dishes, sat a variety of foods that the early morning wouldn't let her mind count. Bacon, three kinds of sausages, ham, donuts, bagels, four kinds of omelets (one for each of them, apparently), scrambled eggs, fried eggs, pancakes, and waffles. Susan was at the counter, nearly covered in flour, icing the last tray of cinnamon buns (another tray was set aside to cool).

Looking up, Susan smiled. "Good morning, Elise." Looking around, she realized what she had done and looked abashed. "I hope you don't mind that I got a bit carried away with the 'cooking breakfast' aspect of breakfast."

Before answering, Elise took a good look at Susan and realized that she looked quite cheerful; the flour on her face and cooking stains on her cloths seemed to accentuate her features nicely. Then, glancing at the veritable mountain of food, she found herself speechless. She could only nod that she didn't mind and Susan motioned for her to sit down. Giggling at herself, she gabbed a plate and began dishing up food for her roommate. There was a lot more than Elise usually ate, Susan knew that well, but the food needed to go somewhere and there was no way it would all refrigerate well.

Desiring to clean herself up a bit before tackling the mess in the kitchen, Susan set the overflowing plate before her friend and began heading upstairs. Turning back to see if Elise liked it, she saw a strange look in the other's eyes as she bit into a donut (cream filled). Then with an unusual ferocity that Elise only had shown before for a good book, she began to devour it and grabbed another before she was even done. Susan smiled at her success and then continued up to her room.

Stripping out of her now well-used clothes, Susan looked down at herself. Now that she had another hobby besides eating (and she was rather surprised to find that she liked cooking so much, Edna and Owen's recipes were a kick), she needed to work on getting rid of some of that flab. Remembering the look on Elise's face, something clicked in her mind. Part of what was disturbing her so much was that she was now the fattest one in the house. Exercise would help, but so would making everyone else fatter. If Elise was right, Sheila would help that along rather nicely as well. Things would be wonderful if she could get Tammy and Terri to put on some pounds as well, since she felt the worse going out with them. Compared to fit figures such as them, she always felt fat.

Given how well Elise took to her cooking, Susan didn't doubt she'd gain weight. The other two might prove a bit more of a challenge; Tammy had one of the fastest metabolisms ever. Terri might gain some weight if Susan could slowly get her hooked on her cooking; a blitz like the one against Elise would probably fail with Terri. Still, they didn't need to gain much weight, just enough to put them in the realm of mortals like her. As for Sheila, depending on how she actually looked, she might have to be fattened up as well, but Elise had indicated that she liked to snack. Susan grinned as she began formulating plans for her "assault" on the other girls.

When she came back downstairs, Susan she almost fell down the last few steps. The sight in front of her was outside of her frame of reference. It took a moment for her to even register what she was seeing, and it took her another moment just to rectify what she was with what she thought she knew about reality.

Tammy lay on the couch, rubbing her flat belly, but surrounded by three plates that had obviously held quite a bit of food not too long ago. Elise was still eating non-stop, much to Susan’s surprise. She wasn't going at it as fast as she had been, understandably, but Elise had never indicated that she liked big breakfasts before, or that she liked big any-meals. As Susan approached, she could see that Elise had pulled down her pajama bottoms a little to make room for a very bloated belly. Next to Elise, who rubbed her belly with one hand as she ate, sat Terri, still in her bikini from the other night. In front of Terri, however, was the devastation of countless donuts. Crumbs littered the table like fallen soldiers at Normandy, bits of pancakes and waffles rested on her chest, and there was still a group of a few donuts, which she gleefully nibbled on.

Glancing into the kitchen Susan was further astounded to see that the once feast-sized breakfast had been reduced to mostly scrap; though the three had saved a significant portion of everything for her. Grabbing a still-warm bagel, Susan suppressed a grin and walked over to a door on the opposite end of the living room. She opened it and went inside the room that she hadn't spent many hours in.

Terri and Tammy had turned what might have been intended as a small 5th bedroom or study into a workout room. She was lucky that both of them were fitness models (for local magazines and gyms), which resulted in a lot of equipment that was available for her to use to help her lose weight. Thinking back on the dishes in the kitchen, Susan almost thought that that might be enough workout for one day, but she steeled herself and got on the Stairmaster. The first fifteen minutes crawled by, which was made only slightly easier when Susan discovered she was attempting Terri's (or Tammy's) difficulty setting. Even after adjusting it, though, it seemed to take a lot out of her. Walking (well, stumbling) over to the mini fridge next to the Bow Flex, she pulled out a water and gulped half of it down in an instant. Feeling a bit cooler, she tackled the treadmill next. Five minutes in she was sure her body was causing her such pain out of spite. The next fifteen minutes were pure will, ended only by her legs giving out. She fell off the back of the treadmill and judiciously decided she was done for the day. Her grey shirt (the one she had worn the night before and which had now been dubbed her "work outfit") was drenched in sweat. It was too small for her now, but hopefully in another month that would be a different story. She sat down on the row machine for a second, to catch her breath and give her legs a moment to acknowledge signals from her brain again. With great effort she stood and realized that her shorts, which barely covered her behind, were so soaked that they left marks on the seat. Taking a towel to wipe away her sweat, she nearly fell over again. Deciding to give her legs a well earned break, she moved onto ab-improving exercises. Three push-ups seemed like a mistake afterwards, but that led into two crunches, the last of which nearly ripped her pants. Sitting down on the weight bench, she struggled with five-pound weights. Though her arms hadn't received the punishment that the rest of her body had, they seemed to be behaving in solidarity with her legs and barely worked. After a set of four reps for her right arm (a set of two reps for her left) she ended for the day.

When she left the room she was so soaked in sweat that it looked like she had just stepped out of a shower. Luckily for her, Tammy and Terri had gone out onto the deck to relax (and digest) in the Jacuzzi. Elise was reading a book (Susan's neck wouldn't turn enough to allow her to read the title). She looked up, visibly impressed, and commented as such. "Wow, it looks like you have a good start on the weight lose thing. Though don't hurt yourself."

Susan nodded and nearly fell forward when she did so; her skull seemed so heavy now. Stumbling to the bathroom, she barely was able to lower herself into the bathtub and turn on the water. Ice cold water poured out for a while before finally warming, but she didn't seem to notice. She soaked for a good twenty minutes before even beginning to clean herself. Afterwards she came down stairs, feeling uncomfortably exhausted, wearing a long but cool skirt and a Florida T-Shirt. Elise was still in her pajamas, monkey prints, and both Terri and Tammy were still out in the Jacuzzi. It was near noon and just then the doorbell rang. Both Elise and Susan walked over and opened it.

On their front porch (the porch light was still on from last night, Susan noticed) were two women. One of them, the shorter and by far thinner of the two, was maybe twenty-three and possibly out of college. The other, an amazingly fat woman who was almost triple the size Molly had been last night, smiled happily as Susan looked back, a bit aghast.

Elise stepped forward and hugged the large woman (or tried, as she couldn't get around her girth), then spoke up. "Susan, I would like you to meet my best friend from high school, Sheila. Sheila, my best friend from college, Susan."

Radiating good will, Sheila grabbed Susan's hand and shook it firmly. "Susan! Elise has told me wonderful things about you. And Elise, Susan, this is my cousin, Ileana. As I told you the other day, she just graduated with her bachelor's last year and is here for her doctorate work. I am so grateful that you are able to take her in.”

Susan did a double take. "Wait. I thought Elise said you were the one living with us."

Sheila laughed, "Did you Elise?! You must have misunderstood. Sorry, but I doubt you could... accommodate me regardless." She patted her paunch gingerly, which seemed rather stuffed currently. Sheila pushed her cousin forward a bit. "Well, I would love to stay longer, but I have to go. Places to see, buffets to clean out, and the ever pressing matter of work. Good luck, guys. Be good Ileana, I am sure you'll all get along wonderfully."

Even Ileana seemed a bit taken back by her cousin's abrupt exit; all three women watched Sheila walk to the parking lot. Susan found herself slightly surprised at her grace; she walked much lighter than her weight would otherwise suggest. Still, it was rather satisfying to see her van sag tremendously as Sheila climbed in and drove off, leaving her cousin standing on Susan and Elise's doorstep with three suitcases. The older women turned and smiled sheepishly. "Hello."

Regaining their composure, Elise and Susan greeted Ileana and tried to help her with her bags. Susan found she was still exhausted and sore from her workout - she was barely able to drag the suitcase across the room - and Elise found that she was too stuffed to carry the suitcase comfortable. Ileana barely noticed, coming back and fetching the bags from them after she had placed the first in Molly's old, now empty, room.

As she tramped back and forth Susan got a better look at the girl. Her hair was very dark, nearly raven black, and might have been waist length if it wasn't up in a style that Susan had never seen before, but which involved a lot of knots and loops.

Her skin was in stark contrast, giving a new meaning to the phrase "white as a sheet," and broken only by slightly rosy cheeks and her pale slate grey eyes. She seemed to walk slightly hunched, as if she spent most of her time bent over a desk (and, considering that she was getting a Doctorate, Susan supposed that she did), but curiously straightened herself at random, as though she caught herself in bad posture.

[Snorri Sturluson]

PART TWO

Susan followed Ileana into her new room and talked as she began riffling through her suitcases and hanging up clothing.

"Oh, this isn't everything. I have a bed and stuff, but there was no way Sheila and I would have been able to fit it into her van. She wasn't very thrilled about waiting for the moving-truck either. For one, that would have interrupted breakfast,"Ileanachattered

Susan laughed lightly, as Ileana continued

"And for another thing, that would have delayed us several hours. She mentioned she needed to get back to her campus today to meet up with her boyfriend, but I didn't realize she was on a tight schedule."

Setting the skirt she was admiring down, Susan raised an yebrow. "Boyfriend? Is this the same one she had in high school?"

Ileana picked up the skirt and slipped it on a hanger. "Oh heavens, no. He discovered that he was borderline diabetic and starting exercising a lot and cutting back on the amount that he ate, as well as what he ate. Sheila tried to encourage him, she even started exercising with him, but he said that she was a bad influence; she never would give up eating as she liked. They broke up shortly afterwards. I hear he is doing quite well."

She went over to the closet to hang stuff up and continued. "Sheila is actually quite popular with the boys at her school."

Susan nearly scoffed at the idea.

"In fact, she was somewhat reluctant to date her current boyfriend steady-like. She told me that it was a wonderful feeling to go out with a different guy every other week. But she still gets the offers, which is just as good."

"What kind of guy would want to go out with someone so f... um... unique?" Susan asked, fingering the fabric of some unusual pants.

"You mean someone so unbelievably fat?"

Susan was genuinely surprised that Ileana had said that.

Ileana just chuckled at her reaction. "Actually, my cousin wants me to gain some weight, to become more like her. We were quite close as children, but when her family moved we drifted apart. I guess she wants to bring back some of our similarities."

Ileana giggled as she recalled, "I remember once we snuck into my parent's freezer and each ate a tub of ice-cream. Good lord, the headache and stomach ache we had after that."

She smiled at herself for a moment. "But I digress. There are a lot of guys who'd want to date women like my sister. For one thing, she is confident. There is nothing sexier than a confident woman and confidence trumps almost anything else. For another thing, some guys find that kind of figure attractive."

Feeling like she was getting to know Ileana, Susan jokingly asked, "These guys wouldn't happen to be desperate, would they?"

"Not at all. Oh sure, there are a few creepos that ask her out, but what girl doesn't get a few of those."

Susan, who hadn't had an offer for a date in quite awhile, remained silent.

"No. Most guys have this or that preference. Some like red-heads, others brunettes, still others blonds. Some like us tall, short, or average. Still others like a balanced figure," Ileana motioned classic curves in the air.

"some like inhumanly large breasts," she mimicked cupping her own breasts though two feet farther away from her chest,

"And others like us fat," she mimed having a bloated belly. "Sheila calls them FAs."

Susan tried out the term. "FA? Hmm... sounds like she has been just waiting to use that one for a while. Fat Admirer?"

"Yeah, good guess. She got it from somewhere; the Internet, maybe. I dunno. I don't really care about boys right now so I wasn't listening too carefully. Well, that as I was too busy eating."

She patted her non-existent gut. "A bit of my cousin is starting to rub off on me, I guess."

Late in the afternoon the moving truck arrived with Ileana's furniture and a few boxes of items that couldn't fit into suitcases. The movers hauled in the frame and mattress for a California King sized bed, which made Susan a little jealous, a feeling that was fleeting as Ileana came in huffing with an apparently heavy box. As she set it down just inside the doorway Susan caught sight of a bulge of fat. Her plan to be fatten up her roommates, so she would fit in a little better, came back to mind.

"I wonder how much of her cousin actually has rubbed off on her..." she thought to herself.

Ileana noticed Susan looking at her and gave a single word explanation for the heavy box. "Books."

***

Time passed, as it is wont to do. Susan continued with her newfound hobby, though toned down as Tammy and Terri were reluctant as it was to touch her cooking again after that first belly-busting breakfast.

To her pleasant surprise, Ileana seemed to enjoy doing dishes, taking a great burden off of the otherwise enjoyable activity of cooking good food. Out of the four girls that Susan was cooking for, only Elise seemed to allow herself free rein, though Ileana seemed more than desirous on occasion.

Following through with her resolution, Susan also attacked the exercise room every day, except for the five days after her first workout; for those days she could barely move at all and decided to build up to a great workout, rather than starting there.

Tammy and Terri had a few modeling shoots, as gyms were gearing up to con as many new college students into joining their ranks as possible. They still used the exercise room themselves, though seemingly seldom at the same time as Susan. Indeed, Susan had made a habit of exercising when they were eating. She didn't want to be comparing herself to them while working out. Truth be told, she liked the idea that she was getting more in shape while they were hopefully stuffing (a loose term, she hated to admit) their faces.

Other than cleaning dishes, Ileana helped Susan in the kitchen in other ways. Perhaps her cousin had rubbed off on her, as it seemed like every amazing dish Susan made would be turned into a culinary miracle with Ileana's tutelage.

Certainly neither Tammy nor Terri were progressing quite to Susan's desires, but she was almost positive that they had gained a pound or two over the past few weeks. Ileana even shared a few recipes with Susan, and Susan in turn shared a few with her (though she only had Edna and Owen's to exchange, other than the ones in the books).

Classes started as well, requiring determination of steel for Susan to get up early enough in order to cook breakfast (still a grand affair) and pack lunches. Tammy and Terri commented that the lunches were too big for the first week, but afterwards seemed content. Elise was always quite thankful for the lunches and full of praise for the cooking, but never commented on the size of them, despite the fact that Susan made sure to give her just a little more each day. Out of all the girls, Elise's waist was easily advancing the most.

With large meals and constant studying (she swore that she needed to keep on top of her homework this semester), the pounds were starting to show, particularly since she was too busy studying to get new clothes as her current wardrobe got smaller.

***

About a month into the semester Susan, Elise, and Ileana were out in the Jacuzzi, talking about recipes, classes, politics, religion, dating, clothing, and which boys on campus were date-worthy.

"There is this one guy in the Philosophy Department, Clifford Stemmons, that has the most wonderful mind..." Elise began, before Susan interrupted her.

"Wait, isn't that the name of your practical philosophy professor?"

Elise blushed a little, but Susan didn't notice in the cool of the evening. "Isn't he like seventy or something, and married?"

Elise excused herself, claiming that she was going to get a snack (which Susan certainly hoped was true), and got out of the tub. Susan got the idea that she had been too harsh and sat silent for a while, a little ashamed of herself.

Ileana, however, decided to ask her about her attempts at weight loss. "I guess it didn't quite register before that you were trying to loose weight. I mean, we had that discussion about Sheila the first day, but something didn't click, especially since you can't be much heavier than me right now, and I weighed 132 pounds this morning. I wouldn't have thought you would be worried about that. I should have been helping you make the food healthier, not heavier. Well, at the very least I can start making diet meals for you and the others."

Ileana did have a tendency to add a lot of oil, butter, and even lard to the dishes Susan prepared (though the other girls didn't know it was lard, at least not yet).

Susan beamed at Ileana's comment, partially since she wasn't being berated for her behavior towards Elise. "Oh I'd really appreciate it if you could fix light fair for me, though the other girls aren't worried about their weight so the heavier stuff works fine."

"Perhaps, but I know I've gained a little weight, as have Tammy and Terri. Only a blind fool would say that the food hasn't effected Elise most of all."

Susan thought for a moment on how to dissuade her new friend from ruining her plans to fatten-up her roommates. Something in Ileana's face sparked a moment of great trust in Susan and she decided to come clean.

It took quite a while to explain everything, as it was really the first time Susan had even put her own thoughts into words. Going beyond her motivation and present goal, she also confided in Ileana her frustration with Tammy's metabolism of steel. It was a fearful few seconds for Susan before Ileana nodded in approval.

"If this is what you want to do, feel free to ask me for help. Whether it is cooking diet meals, helping you with your workout, or just stuff in general, I'd be happy to help you out. I think it actually might be good if Terri and Tammy gained some weight; I'll assist you in cracking Tammy and breaking the remains of Terri."

Seeing Elise walk by the sliding glass door with a bowl full of cookie dough, Ileana paused for a moment before beginning again in a quite voice. "Looks like she isn't coming back out. Well, we both know that Elise is no problem. Heck, it is like Sheila has possessed her or something. At this rate she'll be bigger than you in no time."

Susan sighed and starred at the stars for while she explained her problem. "But that is the pickle in the matter. Although I do want Elise to gain some weight, she is my best friend. She has shown me nothing but a lot of kindness and loving support. It isn't like she has ever really insulted me either. I sort of feel guilty about what I am doing and will do to her. I am glad she is so easy, but I just want her to gain a little weight so I won’t be the fat one of the house. I don't want to utterly ruin her figure."

With nothing to say, Ileana nodded but got out of the hot tub and walked into the apartment with a bath sheet wrapped around her. Susan followed her inside after turning the Jacuzzi off and wrapping herself well with her own bath sheet. Ileana saw her come inside and go upstairs. Thinking back to what her new friend had said, she went looking for Elise and found her in the kitchen, this time nibbling on a chocolate cake that she had helped Susan bake earlier in the day.

Ileana took a good look at Elise, really looking at her body for the first time, rather than her face and personality. It was clear she had gained more than a few pounds, maybe even five or ten, which might explain why she tended to wear skirts or pajamas when around the apartment (and more often than not outside too). Looking around, Ileana decided that Terri and Tammy had already gone to sleep, so she just stood there watching Elise. Finally she put her fork down, though not before consuming a hefty chunk out of the cake, and turned towards Ileana.

Elise had chocolate covering her face and a fair bit of her clothes, it seemed like she hardly cared for her appearance these days. "Susan went upstairs, if you are looking for her." She turned back to finish off the cake, already pulling a leftover cinnamon roll from that morning nearer.

Ileana nodded absentmindedly, but then walked over to Elise and grabbed her cheeks, forcing her to look straight at her. "Why do you continue to eat? You know you are gaining weight and if you don't slow down you'll become fat. You are too smart not to know this."

Ileana calmed herself a little, returning to her usually quite voice. "And you are too smart not to notice that someone wants you to continue eating.

Elise smiled and wiped her face off with a napkin. "My story might take a little while and it is late already."

"I'm in no rush."

Elise took a bite of the cinnamon roll and got a glass of milk before starting. "What do you know about Molly?"

Ileana had heard the name, but didn't know much else and she said so.

"Molly was the one who had your room before you. She was great, but like Sheila she was big. Not nearly as big, mind you, but big enough to out distance the rest of us easily. We all liked her, she was great fun, but Susan was particularly comforted by having her around. Apparently her mother always pointed out how she was the fattest child. I've seen her three sisters, they are stick thin. Her brother wants to play football but he is two years older than she is and is still smaller.

It isn't so much that Susan is so fat as is it that her family is generally freakishly thin. Sure, she might be a little overweight, but not by much. As you can imagine, she didn't have much of a self-image when she came to college. The freshman food was bad enough for everyone, but it just seemed to confirm her belief that she was overweight and, in her mind, that means failure. I am sure she hears her mother's voice when she thinks about that."

Elise drained her glass of milk and motioned for Ileana to sit. "I knew her that first year and she was miserable more often than not. We found out about this apartment and decided to move in together. She was considering dropping out of college but I was able to talk her out of it. Susan is an amazing person when she forgets that she doesn't believe that she is amazing.

"Anywho, so we moved in. Molly was the one who found the apartment and we were her first roommates. Susan was almost a changed woman after that. She and Molly became quite close, though that did result in Susan gaining a few pounds. To my utter shock, this didn't bother her at all. It took me a while to realize it, but with Molly around Susan was no longer the fat one. In her mind, that made all the difference in the world."

Elise seemed rather full, but finished off the cinnamon roll. "I started my major course work in our second year. I have no idea what I am going to do with a philosophy degree, but it got me thinking about a lot of things. One of these was beauty. I read about Greek ideals of beauty, Roman ideals, Medieval ideals, Chinese, Japanese, Native American, more ideals that I care to list. Do you know what I realized after I found out what so many cultures thought about beauty?"

Ileana grabbed herself a plate of grapes and munched away as she listened; she gently shook her head, no.

"I realized that humans are sick fracks. I don't care if it is foot binding, neck lengthening, corseting, or dieting; women have gone through a lot of inhumane things over the centuries. Still, all these things were considered beautiful once, but except for dieting they are seen as barbaric. It gives me hope; maybe dieting will go the way of foot binding in a few hundred years."

Elise sat back, rubbing her stomach gingerly. "But it got me thinking on less dramatic concepts of beauty. Are blondes more beautiful than brunettes? If so, then why do some guys like brunettes over blondes? There are all sorts of women whom all sorts of guys find beautiful, but almost no two the same or for the same reason.

It seems so shallow to say that all these women aren't beautiful, but are only so because some MAN decides she is beautiful. It places the merits of beauty in the person who perceives it, not in the person who actually is beautiful. That, my friend, is barbaric. I realized that beauty wasn't in the eye of the beholder; it was in that which is beholden. In other words, women are beautiful, inherently beautiful.

Given the wide range of women that are found to be beautiful by men, and women, then it stands to reason that all women are beautiful. But if all women are beautiful, how can one guy think it and another not?"

Ileana, as a doctorate student, was sitting forward in her seat, eagerly listening. "Beauty isn't in the eye of the beholder, but the ability to perceive beauty is. Thus, if all women are inherently beautiful, but not all men see women as such, the fault lies with the men, not the women. I decided I'd try to expand my mind to perceive the truth that I now knew; that all women, and indeed every human, is inherently beautiful, if only one would see."

Clapping lightly, Ileana chimed in, "I respect your thinking, but what does this have to do with Susan?"

“Sorry, I thought it was a bit obvious. Her self esteem takes a blow when she is the fattest one around; Molly was her comfort and estemm restorer. I, now, firmly believe that I am just as beautiful at one hundred ten pounds as at ten hundred ten. If me gaining weight will make her a little happier, and I get to eat great food too, well that sounds like a great deal to me.”

Cleaning up after them, Ileana thought for a moment before asking, “But you two can’t be together forever. Someday she’ll have to go out on her own. Aren’t you just supporting a bad world view?”

Elise hugged her before answering. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear the phrase ‘world view’ outside of class. It makes me feel like I am not totally wasting my time with philosophy. But as for Elise... well Molly was a wonderful person, but perhaps not the best role model for her. She wasn't the most outgoing, or the most self confident herself. If I can show her that it is possible to be fat, sexy, and successful, like your cousin Sheila, then maybe she can accept herself."

Dusting cake crumbs off of Elise' tight shirt, Ileana asked another question, "And your decreasing level of concern regarding your appearance?"

"Nothing escapes you. Susan expects to see a fat slob; I can be that slob. But if she can see a fat slob pull herself together and see that being 'together' doesn't mean being thin..."

"My head is ready to burst. Do you actually think this will work?"

"Perhaps... if not, I'll have at least been able to take advantage of some wonderful cooking."

The two began to head for their bedrooms to call it a night, but Ileana wasn't done with her questions. "Did you know that she is trying to fatten Tammy and Terri up too?"

"Yeah... I thought about telling them but Susan is only cooking, not stuffing it down their gullets. Either they'll learn self control, or they'll have the chance to accept themselves at any weight."

"She wants my help with breaking Tammy's metabolism."

"Good luck with that one. Tammy eats more than I do, more often, and look at her. If science could only harness that metabolism for the good of the people..."

Ileana smiled, a result of the poor joke and the late hour. They parted ways to the bliss embrace of their blankets and sleep.

***


[Continued in post 5 of this thread)

[Observer]

Excellent rewrite job - much more detailed character and ploy development -as well as carrying the original forward quite a bit.

One question: Did you inadvertantly leave something out or are you anticipating additional chapters? The ending was rather abrupt.

[Snorri Sturluson]

Yes, there will (ideally) be more. In general I only have 15 minutes here and there throughout any given day (or less) to work on it. I actually hadn't intended to post that very last section yet, specifically because it was abrupt (being incomplete and all).

Also, thanks for the formating changes (and any other changes I did not notice).

[Snorri Sturluson]

PART 3

True to Ileana’s prediction, Elise surpassed Susan's weight in no-time flat; barely a week had passed between divination and reality. Susan was pleased and in general a little more buoyant as she went about her classes and practiced her cooking, but she was not totally satisfied.

It still seemed to her that she was the fat one; sure, Elise might have weighed over 150 pounds, but walking around campus she barely looked different (if at all) from the hordes of other women about, many who had put on a few pounds themselves since going to college.

Terri and Tammy hadn't improved much either. Terri had discarded some of her old clothes, but she always had liked them tight anywho and as such didn't have that much room to grow nefore she needed new ones. Other than wearing slightly looser garments, Susan couldn't see a difference in her friend. Perhaps even more frustrating, Terri had finally given up the ghost and started buying double D bras and bikinis (undoubtedly the switch had been made necessary by near-invisible extra weight). She might have gained more weight, but with the first few extra pounds she began working out all the harder, often using the exercise room with Tammy first, then Susan.

As for Tammy, her appetite rivaled and outdistanced Susan's. The rest of them had to learn some degree of self control over the years, for one reason or another. Tammy, with her seemingly undefeatable metabolism, had never batted an eye at calories. She might stay away from this or that food, but never because she was afraid of her weight. Susan and Ileana, who began to plot fortnightly tigether, decided that this was actually her weak point.

At least twice a week all the girls would receive an email from Tammy... well, technically at least. Their roomie had the bad habit of believing and forwarding the latest email about health, weight loss, politics, or whatever came down the pipeline. For a while when they had first met Susan had shown her how these emails were bunk, sending her links to websites that specifically handed mass email mythologies. After several months to no effect, she had given up.

Ileana, however, reasoned that if Tammy, since she was so gullible, began receiving emails with health information that would help slow and counteract her metabolism, then she would be defeated without ever knowing better.

The crunch was that it might be too suspicious if it came from either of them. A simple solution was that they both mass-emailed random people on the school's email network about how sleeping right after a meal would help burn more calories, how snacking throughout the day would prime a metabolism to burn more (if done with regular sized meals), and more.

Susan's favorite email, however, was Ileana's idea. A rotating diet of no carbs one week, no protein the next, and no fat the third, was a sure fire way to loose weight, or so the spam said. In reality it would merely put a body into starvation mode without starving. A body would do all it could to conserve on energy under such a diet, and when the protein, or carbs, or whatever was re-introduced, the body would go crazy and encourage the person to eat more than normal.

For Susan's part, she began circulating an email about how Tammy's favorite birth control pill was actually was hazardous to one's health and another product (with the wonderful side effect of weight gain) was a superior product.

Within weeks they both were receiving their own spam emails back from Tammy. The best part was that the mass emails had no traces back to either Ileana or Susan. Both girls realized that Elise knew where these emails originated, however, since that night in the Jacuzzi things seemed to be much more at ease between the three, especially Susan and Elise, than previously.

Despite her knowledge, Elise acted like she entirely believed the mass emails and started forwarding them herself. Curiously, as Halloween approached (and as Elise widened the weight difference between herself and Susan), new mass emails were circulating that the two had nothing to do with. They included promises that this or that herbal supplement would lead to improved health, improved energy, fuller hair, fuller breasts, easier leg shaves, and so forth.

Ileana, being a medical student, was aware of many of the supplements, but knew little about the specifics of the new topics. Upon urging from Susan, who thought Elise might be the one behind this wave, Ileana began researching them. Some of them had clinical trials that implied that their claims were true, to a limited extent, and each study also showed a statistically significant (though small) weight gain in the subjects. Susan tried to bring the matter up with Elise, but each time the topic was approached the other would excuse herself for another plate of food.

True to her overly-trusting nature regarding the internet, Tammy followed all the recommendations she received. It was a victory, but of inches, not miles. The following weeks were almost painfully slow as Susan watched Tammy' day and night for the slightest hint that her metabolism might be weakening. Perhaps she was softer here, perhaps her muscles weren't as well defined there, but it was when they were both in the exercise room that Susan finally found her suspicions confirmed.

Through a determination that she never knew she had, Susan had managed to reduce her weight to a fairly happy 125 lb, causing all her clothing to be rather loose. Tammy had taken to making it a point to exercise with her, "to offer moral support." Until this day she had always worn a matching pink sports bra and bicycle shorts when she worked out, yet today it was a baby blue outfit that had never seen the light of day before. "Nice outfit, Tams. Where'd you get it?"

Tammy seemed slightly put off by the question; she slowed her bike pedaling for a moment as she thought how to answer. "I've actually had it for a while. My mother sent it to me freshman year."

Susan asked the follow question that Tammy would have rather skipped. "Why haven't you worn it before?"

"Well my mother thought that I had gained a little weight during the year and bought me some larger clothing. It was actually slightly embarrassing; some of the stuff is larger than this."

Oddly, Susan found she wasn't as happy at the implication as she thought she'd be. "So why are you wearing it now? Is your other outfit dirty?"

Leaning forward as the stationary bike began to simulate an incline, she tossed out rather off handedly, "No, it hasn't been fitting as comfortably as it used to."

"Oh, I know how that goes. This stuff hasn't fit well for a month," Susan commented, her voice genuinely void of the slightest trace of gloat.

Stopping, Tammy glanced over. "You know, my mother never gave me the receipt for those clothes so I still have them all around, including the larger stuff. I probably have something that will fit you." She got off the bike to go look.

Susan set down the weights she was working on and followed her to her room. "Are you sure you won't need them?" It might not have been the most tactful thing to say, but knew Tammy would assume her friend actually was just trying to consider her needs first.

"Nah. I guess your cooking has just been too good lately."

"I could try cooking something else, if that would help." Susan offered, as she rethought over her plan. Her best friend, Elise, seemed to be going down hill; she was becoming the classic definition of a slob. Another friend was for the first time finding her metabolism wasn't up to the task of keeping her thin, yet another friend, Terri, was becoming anti-social due to the increasing amount of time she spent in the exercise room.

Even Ileana had put on enough weight to definitely qualify as plump. Through all this, Susan found herself feeling more secure in her own body, but she was missing the sense of satisfaction she was sure she would get from successfully bringing her plan to fatten up her roomies to fruition.

Tammy didn't even think Susan's request over, "You kidding me? I LOVE your food. I'd be a blimp, even with my metabolism, if I ate as much of it as I wanted! But taking away even that which I allow myself to feast upon? No, I'd rather just work out more, or just get fat... though I guess I can't really afford to lose my job."

She opened her closet door and pulled down a box.

"Anywho, here it is." She opened it and rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a green workout outfit. "Try this on."

Susan did as she was told; it was a perfect fit.

"Wonderful, feel free to keep it, and anything else in here that you'd want." Tammy said, gesturing to the box.

Susan looked through, found a few more items of the same size, but noticed that some of the cloths were even larger.

Surprised by one item, she pulled out a rather lovely evening dress, elegant and revealing. "How did something of Molly's get in here?"

Tammy blushed a little. "Actually, my mom sent that one too. She called it a warning against letting myself go."

Spreading it out, Susan saw that it wouldn't have fit Molly.

"Holy crap in a basket. Look at this thing; all of us could probably fit in it and it would still be loose."

"Yeah. Actually, she had it special made. A rather expensive, and unnecessary, warning if you ask me."

Putting the dress back and taking the clothes that would fit, Susan thanked Tammy, who told her not to think of it asshe headed back to the exercise room. She tossed the clothes into her room, knocking off an unlit candle on her nightstand that she didn't notice. Susan then strolled back to the exercise room, by which time she found Tammy cooling off on the couch. She was muinching from Elise's overflowing plate of dessert treats that Susan had cooked that morning. Speaking of overflowing, it was with satisfaction and disappointment that Susan saw Elise's now rather noticeable gut poke out prominently from under her too tight shirt, which was itself covered in food stains.

"Hey, Susan, would you mind cooking up another batch of these cakes?" Elise asked around a full mouth. "They're great, but I don't think they'll last the night."

Hesitating, Susan thought it over. She really wanted things both ways, fat friends but friends who she wasn't plotting against and whom she hadn't ruined. Somewhere in her mind she could hear her mother’s voice telling her that she was ruining the lives of her friends by making them fat.

Curiously, it was Elise's own voice in Susan's head that told her that her friends wouldn't be ruined by fat. Yet, it was Tammy voice, from the person rather than Susan's imagination, which sealed the deal. "Yeah, I could really go for some more of these."

So it was that Susan went off to the kitchen rather than finishing her exercise routine.

***

As this year would be Susan's first attempt at cooking a Thanksgiving meal, she wanted to go all out. Her mind still battled with her choice to fatten her friends up; sometimes their weight gain excited her, other times she regretted ever having the idea. Yet Thanksgiving was not a product of either emotion, but rather a sense of pride in her constantly growing abilities as a chef. She had even taken Owen and Edna a home baked pumpkin pie the other day - her modification of one of their own recipes - and they were quite impressed (though, of course, Owen refused to say it was better than his own).

The oven was turned on two days in advance and was baking something almost constantly from that point until the day and the meal itself. Pumpkin pie, apple pie (three kinds, with one reaching a full foot and a half in height), sweat potato pie, mince meat, banana cream (two, actually, as Elise claimed she loved it to no end), blackberry, blueberry, strawberry cream, cherry (two types), pecan, rhubarb, peach, and a Lemon meringue pie for good measure. There was French loaf, Italian loaf, sweet rolls, whole grain, sough dough rolls, all with plenty of butter, jam, and oils for spread. The potatoes themselves were legion, with mashed, scalloped, baked, sweet (as well as yams), salad, French fried, boiled, steamed, and variations that Susan and the other's had never heard of until glancing through cookbooks.

There were gravies (five), corns (on and off the cob, with multiple types for both, as well as multiple forms of cooking), casseroles (only two, as at this point Susan got the distinct feeling that she had gone well beyond overdoing it), other vegetables (asparagus, white asparagus, carrots, green beans, and others), a honey glazed ham, a roast duck, and a 20 lb turkey (with the appropriate stuffings, both cooked inside the turkey and others on the stove).

Susan began loading the table (luckily, they had a rather long and sturdy old thing) on Thanksgiving morning and by the time she was finished (or as finished as surface area would allow), there was barely room for plates and several dishes still remained on the counter.

Having been reduced to leftovers while Susan prepared the feast, the other girls woke up and instead of eating breakfast began immediately on dinner. They ate beginning at 9am, taking a break around 11 to welcome Molly (who had come back to visit for the holiday, and who eagerly joined them in the feast), resuming around noon only to take another break around 1 to welcome Sheila (who had come to visit her cousin and friend, as her boyfriend had flown home for the holiday, and who was herself amazed and overawed by the amount of food).

The feasting continued well into the night. Throughout the day, excluding the first hour, the eating had been slow, each girl forcing more down as their stomach worked endlessly (though hardly tirelessly) to digest the heavy assault of food. Tammy and Terri put away impressive amounts of food for their size, Elise stunned everyone by what seemed to be sheer determination to clear the table on her own, even Molly and Sheila (who both put noticeable dents in the feast) were eventually conquered by the meal.

Ileana faired poorly, in so far as remaining comfortable went. Throughout much of the day she matched Tammy and Terri plate for plate, yet when her cousin arrived it was a different matter. Sheila constantly pushed more food onto Ileana’s plate. When that stopped working, she pushed it directly onto her fork, and even after she was too full to willingly eat more on her own, Sheila laboriously fed her. Even when Ileana had fallen asleep throughout the day from eating too much, Sheila tried to continue feeding her (and succeeded, though not particularly splendidly).

It was hardly surprising that Ileana was then the first person to walk away from the table, though such a term is hardly appropriate. Too full to stand up straight and too full to stay at the table with her cousin always trying to force another forkful into her mouth, she waddled, slumped over her engorged belly, to a recliner and sat down. She exhausted herself tossing and turning (albeit slowly, as she was just too full to do anything quickly or without great pain). Finally she realized that no position would relieve the pain in her abdomen (even slightly) and thus she fell into a rather deep sleep.

Sheila briefly looked like she was about to take a plate of food to her cousin and try continuing to feed her, but she had packed away too much food on her own and couldn't manage to convince herself that it was worth getting up over. She fell asleep herself around 9 that night.

Tammy and Terri retired next, each holding their bellies rather gingerly. Terri had given up on pulling her shirt down; it now performed the duties of a bra (which she had never put on that morning). Her stomach was overstretched in a lovecraftian manner and pushed her ample breasts up to such as degree that, with the shirt, it looked like they were actually supported by the proper undergarments.

Tammy had favored another pair of clothes that her mother had sent long ago. These, while quite loose in most places, were made of fabric that strained as it tried to cover her newly massive gut. Terri stumbled to her room and fell asleep as soon as her head hit a pillow. Tammy, on the other hand, waddled to her room and gleefully took of her shirt, thankful for the miniscule decrease in pressure on her stomach. The very thought of lying down was unappealing, so she just slumped against a pile of clothing and likewise fell asleep.

Molly had planned on driving home that night, but crashed on the couch. Only Elise and Susan stayed up later than ten that night. Susan had put her diet aside that day and ate like anyone else. However, without the proceeding months of practice, she just couldn't fit the same amount in. After having rested from the time Sheila fell asleep to the time Tammy and Terri left, she was able to stand up (painfully) and began putting the perishable leftovers away.

All the while Elise forced more down her throat. She grabbed one of the remaining pies (an apple, as of yet uncut) and began scooping fork after fork into her mouth, swallowing as one might swallow a rather larger pill, and avoiding actually looking at the food; those times she looked at what she was eating her face turned a light shade of green. Around eleven Susan had everything that needed to go into the refrigerator (and that could fit) in it, and most of the rest of the leftovers covered or put in Tupperware. Elise was still diligently working on the pie.

Though tired, Susan sat down next to her friend and watched until she finished it. Thinking her friend would need help getting up, Susan stood, but Elise asked her to pass some of the remaining rolls. Susan obeyed, but asked, "How can you still eat?"

Elise tried to answer, but felt that she might throw up and paused for a moment. Finally, after a few seconds, she felt better and responded. "Mostly I don't think about it. Really, it is a wonderful mental exercise, like those monks in Tibet. Mind over matter and all that."

Patting Elise's gut, which caused her friend to turn a little green, Susan responded, "Maybe, but that is a LOT of matter to overcome."

Shrugging, Elise slowly began eating a roll, nearly covered in an inch of butter. Recalling her earlier doubts, Susan confessed to her friend that she had been trying to fatten her up. Elise, in turn, told her much (but not all) of her conversation all those months ago with Ileana. She left out why she was willing to get fat, among other similar things. "Besides, I would have to be dumb to think nothing was happening. I gained five pounds in the first few years of college. I've gained nearly forty pounds since August... fifty if you count all the food in my gut right now. Something had to be up."

"I'm sorry; I don't really know why I wanted to make everyone fat. I'm sorry if I ruined your life."

Elise patted her friend on the arm (she was too full to reach her shoulder). "Hey, I am the one that ate the food, as did the other girls. Cooking isn't something to be ashamed of." She finished off her roll. "Now... can you help me into my room?"

Susan happily did as her friend asked, though she was rather surprised at how far she had to pull out Elise' chair just to get her belly to clear the table. "Good lord, is that all you?"

Elise groaned as Susan hefted her up. She just couldn't stand on her own and between the two Elise was half carried, half dragged to her room. "Yeah, it is all me. And I am sure there will be more soon."

Susan looked ashamed and apologized again. "Sorry for making you fat."

"Don't be sorry, I made myself fat, not you."

They made it to her bedroom and Elise struggled herself into bed. Susan placed as many pillows as she could find to prop her friend up into a more comfortable, but still very painful, sitting position. "But if you want to make it up to me..."

Jumping at the idea of atonement, Susan prodded her friend to continue. "What can I do?"

Elise smiled diabolically. "One, you can go get me the remains of the banana cream pie. Two, you can promise me that you wont stop cooking large amounts of food. And three, you can promise me that you won't feel bad about it. What I've done I did because I chose - its not your fault."

Her shame wanted her to refuse the deal, but Susan was only too eager to fulfill her friend's requests (except the first one, which she feared might be too much), especially as the second request meshed oh so nicely with what she wanted to do anyways. The third she would have to work on, but her Elise was being rather saintly about the matter.

"Deal, though are you sure you can handle another pie?"

Elise fell asleep as she tried to answer. Seeing as she had promised, Susan got the pie and set it next to her friend's sleeping form. She happily went to sleep herself, at the foot of the bed since she was rather tired from the marathon cooking and eating sprees.

[Continued in post 9 of this thread]

[Observer]

OK - editing for chapter breaks and unscrambling of character names done as requested. Hope it is satisfactory and we look forward to the next installment.