Steve, part 1
By Elmo, elmo101@excite.com
Steve notices that his little sister is getting bigger


As Steve walked through the airline terminal alongside the woman in the
airline uniform, he thought about his summer. He spent the last two and a half
months with his dad who lived in Massachusetts. While he liked spending time
with his dad, he didn't have any friends in Massachusetts, so he was kind of
glad to be getting back to his regular life.

After his mom and dad got divorced, his dad moved around a lot. His mother had
custody of him during the school year, so he only saw his dad during the
summer, and once or twice a year when his dad would fly to Wisconsin for a
visit.

He wished that his parents hadn't got divorced. All his mom would say about it
was that "things didn't work out," although his dad seemed to be a little more
bitter about it. It took Steve a long time to figure things out, but he
thought he had the story of his mom's marriages pieced together. He knew that
his mom dumped his dad for Chuck, his mom's second husband and his sister's
father. Women said that Chuck was a "hunk," although usually they didn't say
it when Steve was in earshot. Steve's father was a rather nerdy looking
accountant, average height but skinny. Chuck, on the other hand was 6'2" tall
and quite muscular. He played football in high school, but never went to
college. His mom's marriage to Chuck didn't last very long. Chuck cheated on
his mom, and after only three years of marriage, his mom was divorced a second
time. Unlike his dad, who paid child support and made sure to keep in contact
with Steve, Chuck just abandoned his mom and his sister Jenny. No one even
knew where he lived. Steve was glad to see Chuck leave. He was only seven when
Chuck left his mom, but he remembered not liking him. He didn't understand why
his mom couldn't be with his dad, who was always nice to him, and would play
chess with him and take him to see science fiction movies.

As his sister Jenny grew older, Steve noticed that Jenny seemed to take after
Chuck. While Steve was skinny and intellectual, like his dad, Jenny was not a
great student, but she was tall and good at sports. She wasn't fat, but
neither was she skinny. Steve was jealous of her, because he hated being
skinny and bad at sports. At school, the kids picked on him, and he would take
it out on Jenny by picking on her. Although Jenny was tall and athletic for
her age, Steve was still five years older than her and had no problem pushing
her around. But things seemed to be changing. Steve only grew an inch during
the last year, and now stood at 5'9". And he still wasn't gaining much weight.
People kept saying he would "fill out" when he got older, but so far it hadn't
happened. He wasn't especially short for a sixteen- year-old, but because he
was skinny he appeared smaller and younger than his age. Meanwhile, Jenny
added several inches to her height. When Steve left Wisconsin at the beginning
of the summer, Jenny was 5'4".

Steve soon arrived at the area where parents pick up their children flying
alone. And there, waiting for him, was his mother and his sister, Jenny. His
mom ran up to him and hugged and kissed him. "Oh, my baby! I missed you!" she
exclaimed. Steve grimaced. He missed his mom also, but why did she have to
embarrass him like this in front of the woman in the airline uniform? Then his
mom said, "now hug your sister, aren't you glad to see her?" Steve reluctantly
did as he was told. Steven noticed that it didn't feel like hugging a little
kid, but more like someone his own size. Did she grow more during the summer?

"Did you grow taller?" Steve asked.

"Yes, I'm five feet six inches!" she cheerily replied.

"Wow," said Steve. He didn't know what else to say. For some reason, he felt
kind of intimidated. And jealous. Steve was just a little shrimp when he was
11 years old. If he was that size when he was 11, the kids at school wouldn't
have picked on him and made his life miserable. He looked down at his sister's
legs, and noticed they looked thicker than he remembered them. He gulped. They
looked thicker than his own skinny legs.

Steve, his mom and Jenny then proceeded to the baggage pickup area. Jenny was
mesmerized by the baggage carousels. She might be really big for her age, but
she still took a child's delight in something like luggage going around in a
circle. When Steve pointed out his big blue suitcase, Jenny said "ooh, can I
take it off the revolving thing?"

Steve tried to protest that it was very heavy, but Jenny ignored him and
grabbed the suitcase. To Steve's surprise, Jenny was able to grab the suitcase
from the carousel and set it down on the floor without too much difficulty.
Steve was surprised, because it really was pretty heavy, as all of his stuff
for an entire summer was stuffed in there. He could barely lift it himself. Or
maybe he just imagined it was heavier than it really was.

When they got home, things returned to normal. Summer was over, and school
would be starting in just a few days. His mom prodded him a few times to say
what he did with his dad during the summer, but there wasn't really much for
him to say. It was kind of boring, and when his dad was at work, mostly he
watched TV and played videogames. Meanwhile, he heard about his sister's
basketball camp. She said she was really good at the game because she was so
tall, and that she was looking forward to playing on the middle school
basketball team when school started.

For the first few days at home, Steve got along with his sister. He guessed
that maybe absence really does make the heart grow fonder. But every time he
looked at her, he couldn't help but notice how much bigger she looked than
before he left for the summer. To satisfy his curiosity about his sister's
size, he snuck into her room one day when he was alone in the house. He found
the jeans she was wearing the day before, in her drawers. He took off his own
jeans, and tried on his sister's. To his chagrin, his sister's jeans, which
fit snugly on his sister, were loose and baggy on his own skinny legs! As soon
as he let go of them, they fell down from his skinny waist went right down to
the floor! He wasn't imagining things, his sister was definitely thicker than
he was. At least the lower part of her body was thicker.

After a few days, his sister started to get annoying again, like she was
before he left for the summer. One afternoon, he was annoyed that his sister
was watching some dumb show on Disney when he wanted to watch Star Trek.

"Jenny, you've been watching TV for over an hour, it's my turn," he said.

"You're the one who watches TV all the time, I hardly ever watch it, so if I
want to watch it should be my turn," she replied.

Steve decided he would make her give up the TV. He grabbed her arms, and tried
to twist the remote control out of her hands, the way he would have done a few
months ago. But her arms didn't give ground like he expected them to. She
pushed his arms back without even realizing what she was doing, and said "no,
it's my turn." Steve's heart started beating fast. He wasn't imagining
anything, that was strength he felt in his sisters arms! She was only three
inches shorter than him, and her body was thicker. Was he still stronger than
her? If he tried the force the issue, would he suffer a horrible
embarrassment? Steve decided that maybe he didn't want to find out what would
happen.

"Maybe you're right, you didn't watch TV yesterday so I guess it's fair that
you can watch the good TV today."

"Thanks," his sister said, seeming somewhat surprised. As if she was expecting
to be forced to give up the good TV, as usually happened in the past. Steve
hoped that she didn't suspect the real reason that he didn't press the issue.
He hoped that she didn't realize he chickened out. He disappointedly went down
to the basement to watch the old TV which didn't work as well as the newer and
bigger one.

To be continued.