Stephen Grows By B-36 Stephen and Mikiko had been friends for as long as either one of them could remember. They lived next door to eachother and Mikiko was two years older than Stephen. Both Stephen and Mikiko were always exceptionally short for their ages. But, Mikiko, being two years older, had always been a couple of inches taller. Mikiko had two other distinguishing characteristics. One was that she had always been a beautiful little girl. Even upon reaching that awkward adolescent stage she had kept her beauty. She had thick, straight black hair that cascaded to her waist and her face was just gorgeous, classically Asiatic with high cheekbones and a pronounced epicanthic eyefold. The other one was Mikiko carried a disproportionately large amount of weight in her legs. Mikiko was Japanese-American. The Japanese have a term for girls with thick legs. The term is daikon ashi, radish legs. Mikiko liked to say she had stonehenge ashi, legs like the pillars of stonehenge. It was an accurate term. Mikiko was normal above the waist. But, she carried so much weight in her legs that she outweighed many of her classmates despite the fact that she was always the shortest kid in the class by far. At the end of 5th grade for Stephen and 7th for Mikiko, Mikiko moved to Japan. Her parents were Japanese even though she had been born in the US and her father worked for a Japanese company. The company transferred him to Japan and her parents decided that the family would accompany him. So Stephen and Mikiko said a tearful goodbye and that was the last Stephen saw of Mikiko for a whole year. Like Mikiko, Stephen had always been the shortest kid in the class. But, at age 11, he hit a huge growth spurt, shooting up a foot in a year. By the end of 6th grade, he was taller than half the kids in his class. Stephen was quite happy with this development. Late in 6th grade, Stephen got a phone call. It was Mikiko. "Stephen!" She said excitedly "I'm coming back! My dad was transferred back to the United States. I'll be back in two weeks!" Stephen was so happy he was going to see Mikiko again. He had missed her. Two weeks later The doorbell rang and Stephen went to answer it. Mikiko stood in the doorway. Unlike Stephen, Mikiko had only grown about an inch and a half. So now Stephen towered over her. But her legs were thicker than ever. Stephen found the fact that he was now much taller than Mikiko very disconcerting. His legs were like threads compared to hers. And, while this had always been the case, it had never bothered him when she was taller than he was. But, now that he was taller, it made him feel.....spindly. "Stephen!" Shouted Mikiko, throwing her arms around his neck. She had to stand on tip toes to do it. "You've gotten so tall! How tall are you now?" "5'1." "Oh my god. I'm 4'4". The last time I saw you you were shorter than I was and now you're 9 inches taller! You've left the shrimp club!" "Yup." "Is something wrong?" "No. Why?" "You don't seem happy to see me." "I am happy to see you!" "Well I'm happy to see you! Let's go do something. Stephen was reminded of the saying "Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it." All his life he had wished he was taller. Now we was taller and he found himself wishing he wasn't. He had never imagined that being taller could have a negative impact on his self esteem. But, it had. He had never been particularly thin, and he still wasn't. In fact, he was almost exactly average in both height and weight now that he'd had his growth spurt. But being around Mikiko made him feel thin because, relative to her, he was thin. There were girls in his class who were shorter and heavier than he was. But, they were all overweight. Mikiko wasn't. Her legs were solid as rocks. He didn't know why that made a difference, nor did he know why the fact that he was now taller than she was made a difference. But they did. There were other feelings that had found their way into the mix. For the first time, he had noticed how beautiful Mikiko was, and he found himself attracted to her. He figured it had something to do with that puberty thing he'd been hearing about, something to do with hormones. He wanted to be around her, but when he was around her, he felt inferior. His feelings had him all tied up in knots. He'd never admit it to her, but he found himself wishing Mikiko had never come back. He decided that this would be a good thing to discuss with his shrink. His parents had started taking him to a child psychologist 6 months earlier. He had thought it was a waste of time. But now the shrink could come in handy. Three Days Later It was Stephen's 12th birthday and he had invited his friends to his birthday parting. That included Mikiko, of course. A friend of Stephen's dad had a pool and was out of town. Stephen decided to have his party over at his house. Stephen's parents drove Stephen and his friends to his dad's friend's house. Stephen watched Mikiko take off the clothes that were over her swimsuit. She was wearing a blue bikini. Her legs looked planetary. Stephen suddenly felt like there were two hairs in the leg holes of his swim trunks. But while his legs felt small, the thing between them felt big. He jumped in the pool to conceal his erection. Even his friends noticed Mikiko's legs. "Mikiko, you have some big ass legs." Said his friend Charles. Mikiko flipped him the bird in reply. Stephen and his friends played water polo. He and Mikiko were on opposing teams and Mikiko seemed to catch him from behind every time he had the ball. He'd be swimming along toward the opposing goal as fast as he could, when he would feel Mikiko's little hand snake around his ankle. It got to be where he was in his own private game of keep away from Mikiko and the water polo game that was going on around him lost importance. While Mikiko seemed to have no trouble catching him, he could never seem to catch Mikiko. She was like a human torpedo, with her stonehenge ashi as a propeller. One time he was able to catch her. She turned around, put her small feet on his chest, and pushed him halfway across the pool, pushing herself in the opposite direction and scoring a goal. Mikiko's team won the game 62-60. After the game, Charles went to the bathroom and discovered a bathroom scale. He brought it back out with him from the bathroom. Stephen's friends proceeded to weigh themselves. Charles went first. He and Stephen were about the same size. He weighed in at 99 lbs. Then Neil got on the scale. At 4'6", Neil was the second shortest member of the group after Mikiko. He weighed in at 76 lbs. Big Henry, who at 12 was almost as tall as Stephen's dad, was next. He weighed 154. Stephen weighed in at 100 lbs even. Finally, it was Mikiko's turn. A little voice in Stephen's head told him he shouldn't look at the scale when Mikiko was on it. But his curiousity got the better of him and he glanced down at the readout when she stepped on the scale. Mikiko weighed 115. Stephen was mortified. Mikiko was 9 inches shorter than he was and 15 lbs heavier. Two Days Later Stephen was sitting around playing a video game that he'd gotten for his birthday when the doorbell rang. He paused it and walked over to it to answer it. Mikiko was at the door. "Hi Stephen." She said. "Hi." "What'cha doin'?" "I was just playin' video games." "Can I play too?" "Sure." They sat down on the couch next to eachother. Mikiko crossed her legs. Her calf flattened out on top of her kneecap and Stephen saw that it was bigger than his thigh. Mikiko noticed him staring. "Stephen, what's been bothering you?" She asked. "Nothin'." "Don't give me "nothin'"! I've known you long enough to know when something's bothering you." "You wouldn't understand." "Try me." "I'd rather not." "Stephen, I've noticed you looking at my legs a lot. Have you developed a crush on me or something?" "Well, that's part of it. But what's really bothering me is the fact that I'm taller than you are." "You're right. I don't understand. Explain." "Well, actually, that's not exactly right. What's bothering me is the fact that I'm skinnier than you are, which didn't bother me when you were taller, but does now that I'm taller." "Why?" "I have no idea." "You're not a skinny kid, Stephen. You're average." "But, around you I feel skinny." "Because of my legs?" "Yeah." "Stephen, I have stonehenge ashi. My legs are bigger than an african elephant's." "Exactly. My legs are threads compared to yours." "Now wait a minute. This can't be the first time you've run into somebody shorter and heavier than you. What about your classmates?" "There were girls who were shorter and heavier in my class, but they were all overweight." "And the fact that I'm not makes a difference?" "Yeah." "Why?" "I have no idea. But I'm going to talk about it with my shrink tomorrow." The Next Day Stephen walked into his shrink's office. For the first time, he actually had a sense of purpose in going there. Stephen's shrink was an affable guy about 40 named Frank. He sat down in his chair. "I have a problem." Began Stephen. "Well, that's what I'm here for." Said Frank. "Remember I told you about Mikiko?" "The friend of yours who moved to Japan?" "Yeah." "Well she came back." "Oh. Well that's good." "There's a problem." "What is it?" "I'm taller than she is." "I don't follow." "Neither did she. Mikiko has really really thick legs. That never used to bother me before because she was always taller than me. But I hit a growth spurt last year and so now I'm a lot taller than her. But her legs are still way way thicker than mine and she weighs 15 lbs more too even though I'm like 9 inches taller." "So, it bothers you to be taller and thinner, but it didn't bother you to be shorter and thinner." "Right." "Why?" "That's what I was hoping you could tell me." "Well, Mikiko is older than you. Right?" "Yeah, two years." "And older people are what compared to younger people?" "Bigger. Yeah, bigger. It didn't bother me before when she was bigger because she was older and older people are supposed to be bigger. But, she's still older. The only thing that's changed is I'm taller. But why does that make a difference?" "Let's try a little word association. I'm going to say a word to you. Clear your mind and give me the first word you think of when you hear it." "OK." "Ready?" "Bigger" "Better." "Stronger." "Better." "Taller." "Disappointed. Huh? Disappointed?" "That's what you said." "Why'd I say that?" "Think about it." "I'm disappointed because I got taller? No. I'm disappointed because being taller didn't give me what I wanted. I wanted to be taller because I wanted to be bigger and stronger than all the people who were taller than me. I thought that being taller was the only key to that. But it's not. Mikiko is proof of that." "But there's something you need to keep in mind, Stephen. You're 12 years old. You have a lot of growing to do. You will get bigger and stronger. You already have. You just have to give it time. Mikiko has a two year head start on you. Don't compare yourself to her. On top of that, you can accelerate your increase in size and strength by lifting weights." "Yeah. I can." Later that Day Stephen knocked excitedly on Mikiko's door. Mikiko answered it. "Mikiko, I talked to my shrink and I realized that seeing you made me disappointed because I'd done all this growing and it hadn't given me what I wanted which was to be bigger and stronger than all the people taller than me. But my shrink told me that I still have a lot of growing to do and that I will get bigger and stronger and that I shouldn't compare myself to you because you have a two year head start on me." "That's great Stephen. By the way, remember when you said that developing a crush on me was part of the problem?" "Yeah." "Well, the truth is, I've ALWAYS had a crush on YOU."