The bell signaled the end of the first final, and a chorus of sighs and groans echoed through the classroom. For Maureen, it couldn't have come a moment too soon. She had completed her in-class essay on Old Man and the Sea twenty minutes prior and she had sat impatiently checking her writing for errors for the remainder of the time. "I hope college is harder than this," she mumbled under her breath.

She strolled out the door, checking her phone for messages. It was strange, she hadn't heard from either Alex or Caitlin since Saturday evening when Caitlin had her psycho outburst and apparently chose to find solace in the Chinese buffet. She hadn't known Caitlin to be a stress eater in the past, but the way she'd seen her waddle out of the place, she had obviously found some kind of comfort there. Maureen shuddered, unable to even contemplate the idea of gorging herself on food and what that would do to her figure. Caitlin had been looking a bit fuller lately.

Fuller indeed! While she didn't want to think she was going crazy, she could have sworn that Caitlin had some kind of growth spurt. While such things weren't uncommon, she knew for a fact that she had been two inches taller than Caitlin since the eighth grade, when a late growth spurt popped her up a couple inches to 5'6". Ever since the car accident, however, she noticed that Caitlin seemed to be a bit more statuesque than normal. Maureen tried questioning Caitlin about it, but Caitlin either didn't notice, didn't care, or both. Asking of some other girls on the soccer team was even less helpful since, despite Caitlin being on the team, few of the girls could even remember her, and the few that did had no idea how tall the girl was or had been.

Then there was the boobs. She remembered Alexis' constant chirping about the subject ever since they had gone to see Caitlin at her house. While at first, she had ignored the subject, she had to admit that Caitlin was looking a bit fuller as well as taller. Maureen gave her full marks for her ability to hide it, but there was no question that Caitlin was doing her best to hide the fact that she sure as hell wasn't a 34B anymore. She was at least a C cup. A well hidden C, but a C nonetheless. She knew that Caitlin was anything but an exhibitionist, but somebody was bound to notice soon.

But seemingly no one had, and Maureen was pretty sure that she was getting bent out of shape over nothing. Maybe I just need to relax. Maureen thought. I have been working pretty hard lately. She gave one last passing thought to the matter as she glanced down at her heels, which aided her denial about the matter of Caitlin's sudden lengthening. As if no cue, Jason met her at her locker. There's what I need, she thought, a little stroking of my ego. Jason smiled as he saw her approaching, and Maureen played coy.

"Hey gorgeous, English final giving you some trouble?"

"Yeah, it was a real nail biter," Maureen replied, rolling her eyes. "I'm surprised to see you. I figured you'd be studying the for the chem final."

Jason smirked, "You kidding me? I got that in the bag. With what I got on the line for that one, you better be ready for a night to remember."

Maureen smiled, pleased with herself that she could act as academic muse to the varsity quarterback. He was still rambling on about his confidence, and she gave him a half smile. "You'd better hope so. I don't do dinner dates with idiot jocks."

Jason seemed undeterred by the comment. "We'll probably hit up that downtown restaurant. You know? The Japanese one. Not the one with the sushi or whatever. Like hell I'm eating raw shit. That one with the barbecue. That place sounds good cause they've got wings and…I…holy…sh…"

In her own world, Maureen suddenly sensed a disturbance in the natural order. Jason had trailed off in mid sentence and he was talking about food. Something certainly wasn't right. The hall seemed to lose it's nervous, finals week energy as conversations all around them seemed to similarly trail off at the same time. "What?" Maureen said loudly, though she had not actually meant to audibly speak. Oddly enough, no one seemed to take notice of either her outburst, or even her. All eyes were facing the opposite direction.

A girl she certainly did not recognize had just entered the halls through the side door and was headed away from them toward the opposite end of the hall. She was a bit sore that whoever she was seemed able to tear Jason Kline's attention away from her. She was quite tall, with dark black hair which shone brightly and fell to middle of her back. She wore a simple, undersized black t-shirt which showed a bit of midriff, and form-fitting jeans which she recognized immediately as belonging to Alexis. This girl, despite the fact that she was around Alexis' height and wore her pants, was not Alexis. Rather than emanating Alexis' unbridled energy, she walked with a remarkably familiar cantankerous swagger. Adding insult to injury, the girl also wore two inch clog sandals which accentuated her already substantial height and eliminated any chance that it was Alex. Actually, outside of the height, the body shape more closely resembled…

"No," Maureen muttered to herself. "It can't be. It couldn't possibly be…"

Caitlin?

She wanted to say her name, but she was partly afraid that if it wasn't her, she'd be acknowledging an irrational fear, and if it was her, her life had just become some kind of funhouse. No matter. This girl had the had undivided attention of every student in the hallway, and seemed to not care at all. If anything, she seemed slightly uneasy about it, looking slightly back and forth uncomfortably. She quickened her pace and rounded the far end of the hall, with one of her spectators actually peeking around the corner to continue to watch her.

"Who the hell was that?" Voices in the hall seemed to vocalize Maureen's thoughts. Jason, also in a daze a few steps behind her, was stammering and trying to pick up his conversation where he had left off, but having some difficulty. Maureen, letting her curiosity get the better of her, whirled around and headed in the other direction, hoping to meet whoever this girl was at the other end of the hallway, but with the halls crowding that became increasingly difficult. She figured she could at least put her mind at ease and head to Caitlin's locker, which was--a chill went down Maureen's back--at the far end of the other hallway. Exactly where the mystery girl was headed.

Maureen shoved her way down the hall, and felt a bit more at ease when she saw the girl standing at a locker that was not Caitlin's. The girl, however, didn't appear to be at her own locker, but talking to someone at a locker not her own. The girl was still facing away from her, and Maureen craned her neck to try to see who the girl was talking to. Actually, now that she thought about it, that was Steve Rubins' locker. What was she doing at that sleaze ball Steve Rubins' locker?

As she got there, she could see Steve holding a soccer ball under his arm and grinning like an idiot. He was also shamelessly ogling the girl's chest, which, she could now see was the major source of the generous midriff the girl was showing. Maureen noticed that the girl's wedge sandals propped up her already imposing height, allowing her to be looking down substantially at Steve. She did some quick math in her head, knowing that when she wore 2" heels, she was about as tall as Steve, putting him at around 5'8". The top of Steve's head came up just past the girl's nose, but he didn't seem to mind being closer to her chest. She couldn't hear the conversation, but it seemed to end abruptly with the girl offering the words "slimeball" and "Go fuck yourself," as he she shoved him, rather roughly, into his locker.

The inflection of those words sounded familiar.

Maureen was nearly on top of the two of them when the girl suddenly whirled around to storm off. Having unconsciously drawn rather close to the conversation, Maureen found herself unable to get out of the way in time, and the two girls collided, sending Maureen crashing, rather ungracefully, to the floor. Dazed, Maureen, involuntarily reached around to gather her items which had been strewn about, while the mystery girl seemed relatively unfazed by the collision.

"Sorry about that, I was just dealing with some unfinished…" the tone suddenly changed. "Maureen?"

Maureen froze. This isn't happening. She silently told herself. I'm not on the floor in the hallway, my stuff is not actually scattered all over the place, and there is no way I am going to recognize the face when I look up, so I may as well not even look.

"I didn't even see you there," the familiar voice continued. "I must be in my own world." Maureen noticed manicured burgundy nails attached to long fingers that were helping retrieve her belongings, and another arm reaching under her hers to aid, no, lift her to her feet.

"…jeez, you should have made a noise back there or something. You okay?"

Still dazed, Maureen looked up to reply.

"Yeah, I think I'm…" she could barely breathe as she made eye contact. "fine?"

It's not Caitlin.

"Good. I'd hate to sideline the women's soccer team captain."

It's not Caitlin.

Maureen's mouth, at this point, was just hanging open and her eyes looked almost glazed over. The girl shifted uncomfortably and pushed a lock of dark hair out of her face. "Yeah, new look. I had help, obviously." She tugged down at her mini-tee, causing the dark Abercrombie logo on her t-shirt to swell rather prominently in response. Smiling slightly, her rich violet lipstick contrasted the slight glint of her teeth. She widened her shadowed eyes and peered expectantly at Maureen, restless for some response or even a sign of life from the girl.

"Hey bitch! Throw me a fucking bone here!"

It is Caitlin.

And Caitlin looked stunning.

Her hair, which had formerly been a light brown, was now a rich raven black. Bright blue eyes, formerly Caitlin's only prominent feature, now shone in piercing contrast with her dark hair and subtle makeup, which darkened her facial features as opposed to her usual pale china-doll look. The t-shirt, which Maureen had actually given Caitlin as a gift last year, flattered the prominent curves of her breasts. Caitlin's smaller B's had fit her body well when she was 5'4", and now, six inches later, the her larger D's brought a kind of proportional balance to her height. At the same time, the shirt, being undersized for her frame, emphasized the length of her body and complimented her lean shape. Though Caitlin still didn't have the bombastic curves that Alexis had, the stretch jeans flattered her legs, which lacked the gangly look of most girls she knew following a growth spurt. Finally the sandals, adding at least two inches must have put her around six foot, leaving Maureen, who was wearing flats that day, staring at Caitlin's neck.

A pause hung in the air as Maureen wasn't sure how to react and Caitlin wasn't sure what more she could say. The five-minute bell signaled the next period and Caitlin saw her opportunity to end the encounter before it got more excruciatingly awkward. She did however have a whimsical thought before turning to walk away. She stepped toward Maureen and crouched slightly to embrace her in a one armed hug, pressing her now much larger body against Maureen's comparatively smaller one. Maureen, still frozen in place, had barely the cognizance to return the embrace with anything more than a pat on the side.

"There's the bell. I've got a trig final. I'll see ya' later." Caitlin straightened up and strided away to her next class, tossing her backpack over one shoulder. Maureen couldn't remember whether or not she had another final, and if she did, what or where it was. She didn't even try. A sea of bodies shifted around her, clamoring for classrooms, but Maureen could still make out a bobbing head of black hair, a head above many others, moving away from her before rounding the corner and disappearing out of sight. Maureen stood in the hallway, half-hearing someone say something about a U.S. History final, but she couldn't move if she wanted to. She remained planted in her spot until the bustle cleared, leaving her alone and flabbergasted as the bell echoed deafeningly through the empty corridor.