Rolling meadows

Chapter 3 - Day 1

The six weeks dragged by as I waited for the official beginning of the study. I was largely pre-occupied with preparing for the move to the housing for the study – named Rolling Meadows – and paid little attention to the lives of my roommates who I just told that I was moving to a new place. I omitted the parts about what I had signed up for as I didn’t want the rail-thin and looks-conscious Elise to think anything strange of me. I wasn’t sure what to think or expect of the study though. The material they gave me about the apartments made them look airy and spacious, but I couldn’t help but be apprehensive of what might happen over the next decade. But I had committed, and I was determined not to quit, so I swallowed my fear and packed up my last things the night before the start of the study.
I didn’t end up keeping much of my things, so I was able to fit it all in Elise’s car. She helped me move my scant possessions up to my apartment, which came with some basic furnishings (we were told anything beyond the basics would need to be provided by us). She didn’t ask too many questions, but gave me a big hug before she left and we made very loose plans to grab coffee soon. The official welcome wasn’t until the afternoon, so I took a walk around the grounds to familiarize myself with the Rolling Meadows complex. Nobody I saw looked especially fat, in fact several people looked quite thin. I wouldn’t call myself curvy, but I definitely felt a little larger than some of the people I saw walking around. I meandered around the complex, which felt a little like a college campus with a communal hall, a gym and swimming complex, an outdoor space with a pond, and a couple of buildings that looked like restaurants or dining halls. It all seemed very idyllic and I felt very relaxed walking around. As I sat on one of the benches near the pond, a beautiful woman sat down next to me and introduced herself as Mae.
“What brings you to this little experiment?” she inquired as she got comfortable on the bench next to me.
“Honestly, I just wanted a change, and I was intrigued by the prospect. Not that I ever wanted to get fat, but it seemed…enticing. What made you sign up?”
“Well sweetheart” she drawled “I want to get fat. Really fat. I want to get so fat that I can’t fit through doors, so fat that I can’t hardly find clothes to fit me, so fat that I can’t even get out of bed, and not to be too lewd in our first conversation, but so fat that if someone goes to eat me out, they might make it out, but they also just might suffocate down there.” She laughed as she finished explaining her motives and I felt myself becoming more and more curious about who was signing up for this study. The orientation was to start soon so the participants gathered in the large multi-purpose room that was in the same building as the dining hall.