Chapter 4 - the children

Not wanting Kelly's first impression of her to be while she was barely decently dressed, Leah waddled up to her room to change into real clothes.

Now comes the time for some back-story. Kelly is one of Emma's college friends, and the only one she regularly kept in touch with. They only rarely saw each other because even though they lived in the same town, Kelly was employed by Disney cruise lines and often out on the high seas. Until recently, her children had stayed with her husband during these trips. However, just this year they had divorced.

With an extended work trip looming at the beginning of summer, Kelly turned to her best friend Emma for help. Though Emma had her own job, she offered Kelly the services of her daughter Leah as a summer nanny. Glad for any opportunity, Kelly snatched up the offer.

Today was the first time she'd be meeting Leah since she was in middle school. The plan was to have everyone meet each other today, then for Kelly to spend a couple days teaching Leah what to do before leaving later that week.

About fifteen minutes after heading to her room, Leah came back down. She had had some difficulty finding things that fit over her bloated belly. This didn't overly concern her though; she reasoned that it was simply bloating from her brunch. To an extent, this was true, but to a larger degree she was simply getting fatter.

What she finally decided on was a skin tight tee shirt and some sweat pants, which fit rather better than her top.

"So when are they coming?" she asked Emma as she entered the kitchen.

"One O'Clock, and we're eating a late lunch with them, which you have to help me make," Emma replied.

"Now? They're not going to be here for like two hours!" Leah complained.

"Yes, now," Emma answered. "The cake needs to bake for an hour, then cool for another thirty minutes, which means we're starting now."

At the word "cake", Leah immediately snapped to attention and began helping. It was a good thing, too, because the cake they were making was much larger than it would generally need to be for six people.

Whenever her mom wasn't looking, Leah would scoop a bit of cake batter into her mouth, something never have done while in cheer-leading.

After the cake was in the oven, they didn't have much to do, as the main course would be burgers and chips, and Kelly said she would bring a side dish or two with her. After cleaning up the kitchen, they still had well over an hour before their guests were expected to arrive.

To pass the time, Leah and her mom each grabbed a bag of chips and sat down in front of the TV. After watching the end of The Devil Wears Prada, Emma got up to take the cake out. Once she left the room, Leah pilfered her bag of chips, switching them with her own nearly depleted bag.

Finding the new bag just as empty, she went into the kitchen and found Emma had taken a phone call and gone into another room for privacy. Leah then opened the pantry and grabbed the first thing she found- a package of Oreos. Along with them she took a half gallon of whole milk, and absconded to her room for a little snack.

She logged onto her computer and opened Facebook. Finding none of her friends on, she just as quickly logged back off.

"I wonder if I could eat them all," Leah mused aloud, looking at the Oreos. "Only one way to find out!"

With that she opened the Oreos and began eating. Quickly at first, but soon she slowed to a more steady rate. The first row she finished without trouble, and began the second confidently. About halfway through though she found she could no longer keep up her current pace. By the end of that row Leah felt quite strained.

She collapsed back onto the bed, her belly rising above the rest of her. Not feeling as though she could eat any more, she grabbed the milk, as she was immensely thirsty. She chugged about half straight out of the container. Soon afterwards she had an enormous burp, and she immediately felt less full.

With renewed energy, she launched herself back into the Oreos. Through sheer will power she managed to finish all the cookies, after which she proceeded to down the rest of the milk.

It took her three minutes to stand up, and as soon as she accomplished that, the door bell rang. It was Kelly!

Leah came down just as Emma was showing them inside. As they all sat around the Kitchen table, Kelly introduced her four daughters to Leah.

"This is Amy and Becky," she said, pointing to a pair of skinny twin girls who looked about thirteen. "This is Cynthia," and gestured to another skinny girl, this one about ten. "And this is Hannah" she finished, pointing to a rather chubby girl of about eight.