Tara and the Gang - Chapter 4

“No! Ari! You can’t! You don’t know what it will…” Tara interjected, but it was too late. Ariana was already reading the first poem she had stumbled across.

Jealousy

Dark-eyed jealous gaze doth fill me,

turn mine wants to gifts of envy

What thou hast wilt I devour,

bathe me in black thieving power.

Before thine eyes, my needs be met,

leaving thee to weep and fret.

“Omigod!” said Tara, her eyes wide in concern. “That one sounds badass! A little too badass!”

Ariana shivered as she lowered the book. “Did you feel that?”

Tara shook her head, though she knew the feeling Ariana was talking about. She had felt it when she had read the poem about dreaming the previous day.

“My turn,” said Tara, reaching for the book.

Ariana, however, pulled it away from her. “I think I’ll keep it a little longer.”

Tara stamped her foot in frustration. “What?! That’s not fair!”

Ariana shrugged, her taut, gymnast muscles tensing as she clutched the book to her chest. “Like my dad always says—life’s not fair.”

She ran off, leaving a frustrated Tara to stew outside the bookshop.

As she turned to walk dejectedly home, Tara had little doubt that Ariana would use her new power to grow her tiny body into absolute magnificence, just as Anna had. Her friends were all going to leave her behind!

At the rate they were going, only she and Chloe were going to be left as their tiny selves. It seemed that everyone else they knew was going to be tall, gorgeous, and amazing!

There had to be a way to change her fate. She could go after the book—although something told her that Ariana would hide it well. Maybe she could persuade Ariana to let her read it? Just one more poem?

That jealousy one sounded as if it had potential. Maybe Ariana would let her read that one? The more she thought about it, however, the more she began to understand Ariana’s reluctance to let her read it. Maybe only one person could have the power of a poem at a time. Maybe if she read the poem, she would have the power and Ariana no longer would.

But those thoughts led her back to the poem that she herself had read and her dream from the previous night.

Of course!

She might still have the power to dream changes to herself! Just because she had dreamt of Anna the previous night didn’t mean that she could only dream of Anna. What if she dreamt of herself? Maybe she could dream herself beyond even Anna’s level, a six-foot statuesque stunner, eclipsing her sister and friend with her amazonic beauty...

The thought sent a shudder of desire through her diminutive form. She would be soooo sexy! Her heart began to race as she considered the idea of becoming more desirable than her sister, attempting to visualize just how impossibly gorgeous she could be.

But she quickly tamped down on the excitement. It wouldn’t do to get her adrenaline pumping right now. Her thin lips curled into a mischievous smile. She needed to remain calm. She had some napping to do before the beach party today...

***

Ariana ran all the way home. When she arrived, she glanced around to ensure that Tara hadn’t followed her. Dropping to her knees, she pried back the board under the porch of her house that was always loose, and shoved the book into the darkness inside. Replacing the board, she rose again, dusting the dirt from her knees. That should do for now. No one would find the book there. Not even her parents. She felt a twinge of guilt for not letting Tara borrow it, but then Tara had already had a chance to read the book. It wasn’t Ariana’s fault if her friend had spent its power improving Anna rather than herself. She had no intention of allowing the book’s power to go to waste. She intended to use it!

As she marched up the steps to the front door, pulling it open, she thought of the words she had read. Could it really be as simple as it sounded? Could jealousy really give her what she desired? She supposed there was only one way to find out...

“Ari?” called her mother. “Is that you?”

“Yes, mom,” said her daughter, walking toward the stairs that lead to her bedroom.

“Don’t forget your meet at noon!”

Ariana had nearly forgotten! She would have to ponder the poem later. Running up the steps to her room, she pulled her hair into a ponytail, removed her earrings, and donned her favorite leotard.

As she descended the stairs, she focused her thoughts on the coming competition, her pretty features hardening with determined concentration.

***

Ariana walked into the gym, seeing girls all around her warming up. But it wasn’t until she laid eyes on one particular girl that her heart sank. The leading gymnast in the state, Michelle Montoya, was a member of the opposing team, several inches taller than her, with a body far more muscular than her own, the girl’s tumbling passes were things of local legend. She had heard talk that the girl was good enough to be able to make the next Olympics!

“Hi, loser,” the girl sneered, strolling up to the shorter Latina. “Ready to get your butt kicked? I hear you haven’t been able to finish a balance beam routine without falling in like three months.”

Ariana felt a surge of anger rise in her slender chest. “Well, at least I didn’t fall flat on my face dismounting the uneven bars!” she shot back.

Michelle’s eyes widened at the fiery Latina’s audacity before narrowing into a sinister smolder. “That was two years ago. But that’s to be expected. I mean, I haven’t missed on anything this entire season,” she snapped. “Unlike a certain miniature freak I know.”

Ariana felt her fingers curl into fists at her side. What she wouldn’t give to beat Michelle just once! Michelle stormed past her, planting her hip into Ariana’s side as she passed by, knocking the smaller girl to the mat.

A few minutes later, the competition began. Michelle was first on beam. Ariana, still seething, watched her from afar. Her eyes taking in the girl’s perfect form, her graceful transitions, her impeccable balance, Ariana felt the stirrings of jealousy. What if she had legs that long? What if she had that girl’s sexy, if still fairly modest, curves? What if she had perfect balance and the ability to perform those powerful flips and jumps?

A strange tingle rolled down the length of Ariana’s legs. Looking down, she saw that they were growing. Her thighs began to stretch upward, growing longer even as hard cables of sinuous muscle seemed to expand under her smooth mocha skin. Her calves tightened into hard balls of sleek sinew as they too were infused with Michelle’s strength.

Despite the pounds of dense muscle packing onto her expanding legs, however, Ariana felt lighter. Her body began to move differently, her awareness of her body’s positioning and balance improving as she shifted her weight from side to side, balancing nimbly on the balls of her feet.

Michelle, meanwhile stumbled on the beam, her body wavering as if she had had a dizzy spell. She jumped up but was able to gain very little height. As she came down, her foot slipped off the side of the beam, and she crashed down to the mat below.

Her cheeks flushing with embarrassment, her body seeming shorter and thinner than before, the girl pulled herself back onto the balance beam, only to fall off a second time.

Ariana continued to feel changes across her body, her barely A-cups grew steadily outward, gaining the volume of Michelle’s B-cups on top of the small swells of flesh she already possessed. Her posture straightened, and she extended an arm, feeling an awareness of motion like never before. The arm moved like that of a ballerina, flowing elegantly from her body in a way that it never had before.

The book!

This had to be the result of the book! She had felt jealous of Michelle, and she had gained everything she had wished for!

Beaming, she watched Michelle struggle through the rest of her routine, nearly collapsing on her staggering landing. As she stormed away from the apparatus, Michelle looked absolutely furious, shoving away her coach and parents to take a petulant seat on the bench by herself.

Hearing her own name called, Ariana strode confidently toward the beam. By now, she felt absolutely weightless, though the six inches of height she’d gained in her legs gave her some pause. Mounting the beam, it looked so far away now! But despite that, she moved across its four-inch width with a surety of purpose and confident grace that she had never before possessed.

When it came time to throw her first trick, she took a deep breath, unsure how it would feel on these longer legs and with so much more weight in her chest than normal. She crouched, then sprang upward. She flew so high that it felt as if she had taken flight, her far stronger legs propelling her at least two feet higher into the air than she had ever managed before. Spinning not once but twice before landing solidly on the beam, her anxious expression turned beatific.

Unable to help but let a delighted giggle loose from her smiling lips, Ariana spun, doing a walkover onto her hands, and extending her long, shapely legs above her. Twisting her legs into various positions, she felt absolutely glued to the beam, as if it were twice as wide as it actually was. Never making even the slightest wobble, she finished every one of her moves with perfect precision.

As she dismounted, she added an extra full-body flip before planting her feet into the mat with a definitive thud. No extra step, no hesitation, not even a quiver disturbed her landing. The dismount was utterly flawless. Ariana’s hands exploded upward in a statement of resounding victory as scores befitting an Olympic-level gymnast flashed onto the scoreboard on the wall.

“That was amazing!” cried her coach, running over to give Ariana a proud hug, raising her arm into the air. The young Latina shot a curious glance toward Michelle, seeing the girl giving her an evil glare.

That’s right, bitch, thought Ariana. Who’s jealous now?