chapter 1- the race for the room (p3)

“Ugh… *Pant* ahh... This was not a fair challenge Mia, I don’t think the cross-country girls could even have kept up with you.” Kate mumbled, as she struggled to catch her breath.

“Sorry Kate, don’t blame me. I may have picked the challenge, but you had all summer to train for it.” Mia said with a tang of innocence in her voice while she smirked.

“Yeah, whatever.” Kate gasped, as she shakily walked toward the kitchen for a glass of water, “I think I overheated. I’m sooo hot right now.”

“You’re telling me, look at that bod!” Mia joked, as she gave Kate a sporting smack on the ass. The loud slap the motion produced caused Kate’s butt to jiggle quite a bit in response. Unlike Mia’s masterfully firm rear end, Kate’s felt softer to the touch, like a thick pillow. Kate’s naturally heart-shaped bottom had low-set buns giving her a more tapered look from her waistline to the bottom of her butt, but even so, Mia felt like Kate’s butt and hips looked a tad bit fuller than they did sophomore year.

“Ouch! Rude!” Kate grunted, as she scurried away from Mia and quickly filled herself a glass of water in the kitchen. Mia could tell Kate wasn’t in the best of moods at the moment. It was understandable, after all, she’d just lost the best room in the house to Mia. Looking to make peace, Mia extended the metaphorical olive branch.

“Relax, the boys are not going to be able to take their eyes off us this year.” Mia confidently smiled, as she waited for Kate to cheer up. She was a bit annoyed when Kate appeared to ignore her while she guzzled a glass of water. Hoping to get more of a response, Mia emphasized her previous statement with her patented ‘sexy look.’ Kate raised an eyebrow once she caught a glimpse of Mia biting her lip in a horny fashion and looking suggestively into Kate’s eyes. It only took a mere wink from Mia to send Kate’s temper over the edge.

“Oh, stop. You look like a skinny sex monger.” Kate spat with more resentment than she had intended to reveal.

A summer away from Mia’s perfection had done Kate some good but starting junior year off like this was not what she had wanted. She trained all summer for this grudge race, all because stupid Jessica had to back out of the lease agreement. In some ways it was both good and bad. Kate admitted it would be nice to live in a house built for three college students, without the extra person. There would be more space, more privacy and less drama. She and Mia were lucky, their parents were wealthy and didn’t mind paying for the vacant position. On the down side, Kate would now have to spend her year suffering the consequences of living with little miss perfect. Mia was smart, beautiful, athletic and extremely competitive to a fault. This loss was just the most recent in a long line of ‘challenges.’

These ‘challenges’ started freshman year at Douglas University all because Kate and Mia had a small room and needed to bunk their beds, the only problem was that neither of them wanted to be on top. Kate winced as she remembered it was her who suggested the first challenge, a quarter mile race on the school’s track. Kate had beaten Mia back then, probably because Mia had entered college about 10 pounds heavier than she was now and was quick to gain the freshman 15 during the first few weeks of the fall semester. Back then Kate had been the boss, but things soon changed toward the end of freshman year. Mia got her act together and lost the beer weight and before Kate realized it she became the only one stuck gaining the dreaded freshman 15 over the second half of their freshman year. Kate regretted insisting that the winner was the only one who could decide the next challenge. She really paid for it sophomore year as the challenge stakes related more and more to boys, chores and paying for alcohol.

It all seemed like a bad dream. As Kate put her glass in the sink, Mia continued to parade around the house in triumph while she began to lug her stuff up to her new room. Part of Kate still wished Mia was still that slightly pudgy freshman, then Kate would still be winning these lame challenges. Then she might have gotten the room on the second floor WITH a balcony. Kate’s anger boiled over as she was brought back to reality by the sound of shattering glass. Mia was no longer in the kitchen, Kate poked her head out of the doorway and saw Mia had broken her large mirror on the steps.

“Jeez Mia, watch out you’ll give yourself bad luck.” Kate warned, as she stepped out of the hallway to assess the damage.

“I’ll take bad luck any day for a room with a balcony.” Mia snobbishly said. Kate didn’t really have a response. Mia continued up the steps to her newly won room, while Kate looked on. Mia really made her feel like such a loser..

Standing alone, defeated, Kate looked at her warped reflection in the shards of Mia’s broken mirror. That’s when she was suddenly struck with a devilish idea.. What if Mia gained the freshmen 15 again, like, as a junior? What if.. What if she gained more than that? Then Mia would have no chance in their little challenges. Kate would have the boys, the attention, the respect and the status she craved. Her heart was pounding with a thrilled excitement Kate hadn’t experienced in quite some time. In Kate’s mind it was settled, she was no longer going to play second fiddle. Mia Preston, darling of Douglas University, was going to put on some blubber. Whether she liked it or not…