Chapter 1 - prologue

When I started college three months ago, I fully intended to pay attention in class, do all my homework, and earn those ever important A’s my parents were expecting to see at the end of the term. That’s not exactly what happened though. My days and nights were spent on other pursuits instead. And by pursuits … I mean people watching and potential life meddling. Just a little bit.

I would like it noted for the record that the “watching” and “meddling” weren’t entirely my fault. They were brought about after meeting this cool guy named Jack my first day. And by meet … I mean got stuck in a doorway with. We do that a lot. We have incredibly bad timing. Also, before you go getting the wrong idea, there’s nothing going on between us, he’s into bros, not boobs.

It’s also probably worth mentioning that I’m into boobs, not bros. While it’s not an important detail now, it might come into play later. We’ll see. Anyways, back to how Jack is the cause of my impending bad grades. See, he’s super smart and has practically invented these supplements and a diet plan that make people gain weight in a healthy and safe way all on his own.

His stuff is so good that the college is letting him conduct a trial using students to test it out at one of the campus labs. When we became friends, I started hanging out there a lot. Sometimes we’d study together in between trial participants and lab stuff, or I’d study while he worked … or I’d just sit around waiting for him to finish so we could go out and get something to eat or just hang out.

If it wasn’t obvious from the tone, it was mostly the last one. That doesn’t really matter though. I’m getting off track again. What does matter is the hobby I picked up while doing all of that waiting, and occasional studying … people watching. I couldn’t help but watch on and listen in as Jack was doing intake assessments and check-ins with the trial participants.

What can I say, it was interesting stuff? Everyone had different reason for being there. Some needed to gain weight for sports or because of a medical condition, while others just wanted a little extra junk in their trunk. Those are the fun ones by the way. There was more to it than that though. They didn’t just have different reasons for gaining weight, they had different stories to tell about it.

It wasn’t long before I found myself observing them outside of the lab as well and taking notes. Paying attention to their eating patterns and how people treated them as they began to gain weight. More importantly, paying attention to their behavior and emotions regarding those things. Yeah, I’m super smart too, it just tends to be focused on the wrong things.

For the most part, with the exception of an occasional bully or asshole, it was all positive. The more weight they gained, the happier they got. Some had their grades improve. Some became more outgoing. Some even fell in love. And all of it was thanks to Jack and his supplements, something he seems to be completely oblivious to thanks to his self-deprecating nature.

Anyways, the more I watched the trial participants happiness grow and their lives get better, the more I began to notice the opposite in others around them. People unhappy with what they were eating or their waistlines being too big, or sometimes too small. People whose lives were sucking because of genetics or some standards set by the people in their lives or society in general.

The more I watched, the more notes I took, the more unhappy it made me. I wanted to help, to do something. I found myself thinking … if only there was a way to sneak them some of Jack’s supplements so they could get past whatever is holding them back and see that their lives would be so much happier and better if they just gave in and got the food and the pounds that they crave. Then it hit me. I could do that!

On top of being super smart, I’m a super good baker. I could just make them delicious goodies that they wouldn’t be able to resist, sneak them the supplements that way. A bit devious and underhanded, I know, but it was for a good cause. Right? They would be much happier and better off, I knew it. It was justification enough for me to go through with it, but who would I bless with the gift of pounds this Christmas?

As I looked back through my notes and continued to observe, four stood out from the rest …

Anna lurks in the shadows, which isn’t hard to do since she is practically a skeleton. The girl needs to eat. She’s outgoing and wants desperately to fit in, to be a part of life on campus, but a skin condition is holding her back. I’ve watched her turn to food for comfort, only to be stopped by a meddlesome mother who shows up and berates her, telling her she’s never going to make friends and climb ladders if she’s fat too (ugh).

Darrell has a smile and a laugh for everyone, but if you look hard enough you realize they are mostly a lie. Avoiding food isn’t his issue. That boy can eat. The problem is, no matter how much he eats, he never gains a pound and it is making him unhappy. More than once I’ve caught him squeezing his belly, and … ummm … moobs, with this puppy dog look on his face because there isn’t nearly enough to hold on to.

Logan is an interesting one. I’ve caught him pacing outside of the lab on several occasions, clearly wanting to go in but too shy and nervous do it. At first, I just thought he wanted to be part of the trial after watching him slowly but surely gaining, but then I realized there is a bigger issue holding him back. The way he looks at Jack when he thinks no one is watching, there’s no denying it, that boy has a crush.

Then there is Maggie, a lover of not only life, but food. She’s always eyeing the different options longingly at lunch, especially the desserts, and savoring every bite she allows herself to take. But she doesn’t take nearly enough of them thanks to her fellow members on the pep squad always being on her about her weight. More often then not, I see her suffer through small portions and salads thanks to them (yuck).

All four would be perfect and open to the gift I could give them, that Jack and I could give them. There was just one little problem … getting Jack to go along with it. I knew exactly how he felt about making people involuntarily gain weight after the experience he had with his friend Emily in a feeder community a year ago (**Trick or Eat Story**). It’s why he designed his supplement in the first place, as an alternative.

If I could just get him to see how much the four of them really want it though, and how happy it would make them, maybe I could convince him to help. So, I buckled down. I focused my observations and notes on the four of them, gathering the data and evidence I needed to present my case to Jack. Then, right when I was about to do just that, I got a text from him that threatened to derail my plans.

The reason for that text … Our friend Andrea, a trial participant, apparently lost her shit on Thanksgiving Day. She had her family members restrained at her house and was force feeding them food and Jack’s supplements as revenge for the way that they treated her after she started to gain weight. Perfectly understandable if you ask me. Yeah, it was that bad.

Don’t worry though, it all turned out alright. Her family saw the error of their ways, except mommy dearest who called in the cops had the shart to top all sharts (that’s shitting while farting), and they are closer than ever. (**A Thanksgiving Stuffing To Remember Story**). According to Andrea, they are even eating and enjoying food together, but that’s getting off track again.

That happy ending twist gave me the leverage I needed to propose my plan to Jack, and I did just that as we left Emily’s house that night. The entire car road home was spent convincing him. I even got him to come up to my dorm room to look over all of my data and evidence. He was kind of impressed at how much work and thought I put into it and went home to think about it.

The next morning, he reluctantly gave in, and we spent all of that day and the next coming up with a more concrete plan and setting it into motion. By the morning of December 1st, four empty advent calendars had been delivered to my doorstep and each day on them had been filled with my famously irresistible truffles, containing a special ingredient courtesy of Jack of course.

With them in hand, and a Santa hat on my head, I set out to deliver them to Anna, Darrell, Logan, and Maggie’s doorsteps … along with notes of encouragement and some other little gifts/nudges I put together just for them. Don’t worry, we’ll get to those later. I then sat back, watched, and observed, as my little gifts played out, or better yet grew, over the next twenty-five days.

These are their stories …

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