Like Mother, Like Daughter by Steve the Z "Aw Dad, do I have to?" Katie whined when I told her to go outside and mow the lawn. "Yes, young lady, you have to!" I said. "You just got your driver's license and if you want the privilege of driving the car you'll have to do some chores around here first." She stamped her little 16 year old foot, but consented. We had just bought a John Deere X300 mulching mower with a 42" deck for over $3000. The wife and I and Katie had gone through the manual so we all knew how to use it. "You'll have fun." I said. "That new lawn mower is fantastic! But be careful! It weighs 593 pounds (I remembered that from the instruction manual) so don't hit anything with it for god's sake!" "Ok, ok." she said. "I just don't feel like cutting grass right now. I was going to go to the mall with Laurie." "Hold on a sec." I said, heading downstairs to my basement lab, but not before noticing Katie raising her eyes to heaven. I returned a minute later with a bottle of little green pills. I shook one out and handed it to Katie. "What's this?" she said, eyeing the pill suspiciously. "It's a new pep pill I invented. It'll motivate you to do some work. And don't worry, it's just a mixture of vitamins and organic stimulants. And," I continued. "Change your clothes before going to the mall. Those shorts aren't decent to wear in public!" "What do you mean Dad?" Katie asked as she popped the pill into her mouth. "What's wrong with them?" It was my turn to raise my eyes in supplication to an unseen deity. Katie was wearing a Go Kitty t-shirt, cut raggedly off about six inches above her waist, and a pair of cut-off denims that were short enough to show the inside pockets and low enough to show a few inches below her belly button. "Katie, please don't argue with me, ok? I'm getting a headache and I don't need any lip from you right now, allright?" "Oh allright already." she said sullenly. "I'll go cut the darn grass and then put on some Victorian old lady's dress!" She spun on her tennis clad heel and a second later the kitchen door slammed shut. I waited until I heard the mower start up (the engine hummed like a kitten) and then decided to lay down on the couch and take a nap while Katie cut the lawn. I dozed off, to be groggily awakened by the slam of the kitchen door. I heard Katie's footsteps coming into the living room as I sat up on the couch, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. At least my headache had dissapeared. I looked up when Katie entered the living room, at first thinking I was mistaken and somebody else had entered our house. But as I dried my watering eyes with my fists, I suddenly realized it was Katie standing there. "Oh my god!" I practically yelped. "Hey!" Katie said, startled. "What's wrong Dad? Hey, you know what? I can lift the lawn mower over my head! There was a rock or something and I thought like maybe I nicked the blade, you know? And when I tried to lift the blade thingy up to see it the whole thing just almost tipped over! It was so light I picked it right up! It must be made of aluminum or something, huh?" I just stared. Katie was - big! Her Hello Kitty shirt was now at least 2 or 3 sizes too small for her, the lettering stretched almost into illegibility across her massive chest, which was totally pumped up with muscle! Her shoulders were wide and powerfully built, her arms thick with new bulging curves. Her exposed abs were twin rows of what looked like rock-hard plates, and her unmistakably longer legs were pillars of strength. "Dad?" Katie said, looking a little worried. "You're as white as a sheet! Are you ok?" "Yuuu- yes, I'm fine!" I managed to croak as Katie came closer, giving me a good look at her muscle-bound thighs. Was her tan even deeper? Her skin looked almost bronzed. She looked down at me, a puzzled expression on her face. "Uhm, Dad...?" "Y-yes?" I said, staring up at her and waiting for the rubber to leave my legs so I could attempt to stand up. "That pill you gave me seemed to work a little! I almost felt like mowing! Hee hee, but, uhm, this may sound a little weird but, are you, like, smaller or something?" "God no!" I said, heaving myself to my feet. "I think the pill worked a little too well Katie! You, er, you're sort of more fit looking!" "Now you're standing in a hole!" she said, looking surprised. She was a head taller then me! Then she looked down, to her, way down, and saw our feet almost touching. "Hey, wait a sec! You're not standing in a hole! And look at my legs! Where'd all those muscles come from?! Daddy, what did you do to me!" "Now now, don't get upset Katie!" "I'm some kind of freak!" she screamed, holding her arm up and squeezing her little fist so we could both stare in awe at her bigger-then-a-baseball bulging bicep. "No wonder I can lift the lawn mower over my head! I"ve got muscles like Arnold what's-his-name!" "Listen Katie," I began, "I had no idea the pill would affect you like this! I..." "Of course." she said, interrupting me with a raised finger. "Maybe there are some advantages of being stronger then your Daddy and your big, I mean former big brother - combined!" "What - what are you talking about?" "Well, for one thing, I don't have to change my clothes. I'm going to the mall just like this! I think some of the boys there will like these big muscles. Anyway, one way to find out!" "Katie! I forbid....awk!" Katie had casually pinched my righ bicep between the thumb and forefinger of her left hand, looking down at me with a malicious smile. "Itty bitty Daddy, don't you ever talk to me like that again! I don't want to hurt you!" She sort of flicked her hand at me. It felt like a pile-driver hitting my chest and I was forcibly seated on the couch again, my breath whooshing out of my lungs. "By the way, I'm taking the car." she said, turning her back on me and sauntering away on those impossibly long, strong legs, her shorts pulled so tightly they bared more then half of the best developed glutes I had ever seen. Her shoulders barely missed the sides of the doorway to the kitchen before she stopped and turned back to regard me, hands on hips. "Oh, by the way. You can cut your own gnarly grass from now on! I've got more important things to do with my valuable time!" "Gulp! Ok honey...ok!" "I knew you'd see it my way! Such a good little Daddy!" Seething, embarassed, outraged, etc, I watched Katie sashay away. I paced the living room for a while, wondering how to get out of this mess before Anita, my wife, got home from grocery shopping. Every way I could think of it, I was in big trouble! Finally, the obvious solution hit me. Take a damn pill myself! "Why didn't I think of this sooner?" I said to the air as I took one of the pep pills. "If it did that to a 16 year old kid, just think what it'll do for me!" Well, I waited around for a half hour, and nothing happened. What did I do wrong? I rushed outside, got on the John Deere, and re-cut the already trimmed lawn, hoping there was some connection between that and Katie's muscle growth. But when I went back inside, leaving the mower in the driveway in my rush to look at myself in the mirror, I found that I looked and felt no differently then before. Then I heard a screech of tires as someone pulled in the driveway. A moment later the kitchen door slammed open, and in trooped Katie with three husky fellows trailing behind her. "Now what are you doing, Katie?" I asked in perplexity. "Oh nothing Daddy!" she said flippantly. "These guys were working out in the gym at the mall and when thsy saw me walk by they all rushed out to talk to me, so I recruited them to help move yours and Mom's stuff out of your room." "What!" I said. "What are you talking about!" "It's my room now! It's much bigger and nicer then my grubby little bedroom. You and Mom can move in there, or down in the basement for all I care!" "Do we start now?" the tallest of the three gym-rat boys said, although he was still an inch or two shorter then Katie. Despite them all being obvious weightlifters, Katie still managed to make them all look rather underdevolped compared to her perfect physique. "Follow me boys." she said, leading them down the hallway. I was about to go after them when another car pulled in the driveway. Oh-oh, Anita's back! I thought. I went into the kitchen to hold the door for my wife, who came in carrying a bag of groceries. "Hey babe." she said, putting the bag on the counter. There was a thud, followed by a curse, from our bedroom. "What's going on here?" Anita said. "Honey, let me help you put the groceries away while I tell you something." I said. Five minutes later we closed the pantry, and Anita said, "You're kidding!" I didn't reply and she walked out of the kitchen towards our bedroom. "Hey Mom!" I heard Katie's voice greet her. "You not kidding!" Anita said as she came back into the living room. "I can't believe it!" "My fault entirely." I said, exasperated. "I should never have given Katie an untested pill. I don't know what came over me. Must have been the headache, but that's a lousy excuse, I know." "Why don't you take one of the pills, grow some muscles yourself, and put a stop to this mess right now?" Anita demanded. "Don't you think I thought of that?" I said. "I told her that part of my afternoon too. "Oh dear, oh dear." she said, thinkng hard. Suddenly, she put her left hand on her hip and stuck out her right hand, palm up. "What?" I said, bewildered. Tapping her tiny foot, Anita said. "Give me a pill then! No wait, better make it two. Those guys, not to mention our daughter, are pretty big." "But..but..but, don't you think..." I spluttered. "Do you want our daughter, our 16 year old daughter running our lives from now on?" Her logic was indisputable. Wordlessly, I took the small metal pill canister from my pocket, shook out two of the pills and placed them in Anita's waiting hand. "Maybe you should change first." I suggested, eyeing her white blouse and dark grey pantsuit. Because..." "No time for that." she interrupted. "We have to stop this right now!" As she popped the pills into her mouth, a sudden rumble of thunder made us both jump. "Better pull the mower into the garage." she said. "I saw it sitting in the driveway." "Oh yeah, be right back." I said, scuttling outside. It was already sprinkling as I started the John Deere and parked it in the garage, made sure the windows of the cars were rolled up, and then hurried back through the now steady rainfall into the house. When I got back into the living room, I was shocked to see that Anita was already more muscular, her long-sleeved blouse starting to stretch both across her shoulders and her chest, and the risen hem of her slacks showing that she was several inches taller. The bottoms of her calves, rounded with muscle, were thus revealed, and her pants were clinging against the newly curved contours of her thighs. "My god!" I said, stopping in my tracks. "It's already working!" Anita smiled as she raised her right arm. "It sure is!" she said. "But I wonder why it didn't work on you..." she flexed her bicep and her sleeve instantly tautened around it's bulge. "Like it's working on me!" "I have absolutely no idea..." I whispered hoarsely, watching my wife as she grew a few more inches in height, her pant's legs, now tightly encasing her powerful calves, splitting apart across the big, heart-shaped muscles as they grew even larger. All at once Anita's shoulders broadened, her legs lengthened, her biceps bulged even more, her forearms thickened, her chest expanded, more muscle was added to her thighs, her clothes tightened, seams split across her shoulders and thighs, buttons began popping off her blouse, her skin darkened as if tanning at super speed, her short black hair thickened, started growing longer and wilder, spilling across her wide shoulders and down her back, her cheekbones rose, her brows assumed a more authoritative slant, her hazel eyes turned emerald green as her lashes grew longer and thicker, her lips filled out, became redder against her perfect white teeth, a perfect set of textbook abs rose under the flattening taut skin of her stomach as her blouse was pulled high by her swelling pecs, obliques formed like granite nodules besides her stomach muscles. "Oh....my....god...." I whispered, involuntarily stepping back as Anita was transformed into some kind of super Amazon before my very eyes. She soon became as tall as, then taller, then significantly taller then me, the cuffs of her ruined slacks now above her knees! Her eyes blazing, looking down at me from what must have been six-eight or six feet ten inches tall, Anita spoke... "What's the matter Dan? You look absolutely terrified! I...I know I've changed, but am I really that intimidating?" Even her voice was imposing; deeeper, sultrier. Goosebumps erupted up and down my arms and a chill ran down my spine. "Y-y-yes!" I spluttered, pointing to the hallway mirror. "Look!" She turned on her heel and took a very long-legged stride to the mirror, She stopped and stared at herself for so long I thought something was wrong. Just before I was about to say something, Anita turned away, the top of her head missing the doorframe by only two inches, and came to stand before me again. "Oh, you poor dear!" she said, staring down at me with pity. "What? What do you mean?" I said. "Well, you know Dan." she explained. "You're so short, and I'm so tall; you're so weak, and I'm so strong; you're so, well, normal, and I'm so much better then before! That's what I mean!" "But - but - but just a few minutes ago you were..." I began. "I know that, silly!" she said with a musical laugh. "But this (she put her balled hands on her hips and took a deep breath, popping the remaining buttons from her blouse so her swelling chest stretched her pink spandex bra almost to the breaking point) changes everything!" I simply stared as she plucked the remnants of her shirt away with her long-nailed fingers, dropping them to the carpet. "Pick that up and put it in the trash can like a good boy while I go and take care of our unruly daughter." she said, patting me on the head before heading for Katie's 'new' room clad in her skin-tight slacks (the part above the tears was stretched like a drumhead around her hips) and her bra, the back strap trying but not really succeeding to dig into the heroically rippling muscles of her powerful back. Numbly, I bent to pick up Anita's torn blouse, while I heard first a yipe, then a "MOM! Is that YOU!", and then a couple of thuds as of two male heads being knocked together, followed by a quick running and stumbling down the hallway and out the door by Katie's two new 'friends'. Anita emerged from our bedroom holding Katie's ear pinched between two fingers. Amazingly, she made our daughter look small despite Katie's incredible physique. "And as for you, young lady." Anita said. "You put everything back just the way it was, and then you're grounded for a week!" "But mom..." Katie whined. "Don't talk back to me! You can spend the time doing homework and doing push-ups for all I care! Now move!" Head down, Katie 'yes mam'ed' her way out of the living room. "And that takes care of that!" Anita said. "Now as for you Dan. I notice neither you nor Katie trimmed. So while I go find some clothes that will fit me, why don't you get that trimmer revved up and finish what you started? And if old Mr. Nosey next door gives you any lip about making too much noise just tell him to come see me, understand?" Anita had made a fist and raised her arm while talking, and I gulped at the size of her huge side bicep. "Yes Dear." I said as humbly as I could as I headed out the kitchen door. I knew that from now on I'd be saying that a lot! The End (?)