Stepfordized: Part 7 (Patreon)

Weekends in Ansley Park were a mystery to Kelsey. She had expected such a peppy, preppy, upbeat population to be going out and holding fairs or festivals every weekend but for the most part it was all business as usual. She rarely noticed anyone out and about from Friday evening to Sunday night despite having a constant traffic flow of plump or pregnant moms pushing strollers up the street during the week. She wondered if it was that they were all home with their families, sitting around a hallmark card of a fireplace in their Sunday best, talking about their dreams and praying to Jesus about something stupid and unnecessary to further augment their already cushy lives. Or maybe they were off at some lavish garden party, gossiping about who was fucking who and who was trying too hard or whatever over a plate of decadent pastries. Kelsey started to snerk at the thought of such an obnoxiously domesticated gathering before she remembered that she had already been to one such herself. 

Even worse was the thought that she didn’t hate it.
She mentally justified her attendance as a way of getting familiar with the locals on their terms as a way of not making enemies right out of the gate, and rationalized her fond memories of the event by attributing them to the time she spent with Lihua. She wasn’t really sure what to make of the fit Asian girl from what little time they’d spent together. One day she was a fierce face kicking machine and the next, she was a bubbly, champagne sipping sweetheart. Kelsey wanted to try and attribute the different attitudes to her being multifaceted and capable of adjusting to the scene, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt like she was dancing around the real issue. 

Kelsey decided to postpone the obligatory gay panic she went through every time she had the occasional girl crush by taking a walk down the street. It was a lovely day per usual, with few to no pedestrians out and about to pass her an unnervingly sweet smile or try to strike up a conversation that she’d respond to be polite but have no idea how to escape from later. The few people that she did see were either men in nice clothes driving cars past her on the street or the odd college girl walking either in or out of either a coffee shop, pastry shop, boutique, or restaurant. 

At first the sight made her roll her eyes, as it seemed more and more that the girls on campus were absorbing the local color rather quickly. The women at DGWA had started off as anyone would expect a diverse women’s college population to be, but within only a month’s time, cliques had sprouted up nearly everywhere. The only strange thing about that had been the fact that almost all of them were veering in the same direction.

Just as she’d had the thought, a perfect example of what she was thinking happened by. A young woman came jogging gently around the bend as she’d approached the college area. More bouncing up and down in a jog-like cadence really, as the girl’s pace was only barely faster than a brisk walk, but Kelsey imagined that the extra airtime must have counted for something. The girl was pretty, but obviously chubby and seemed completely unused to running. Or if she was, it was to such an extent that she was comfortable doing so without tying her hair back or even removing her makeup beforehand. She looked in every way like a naturally curvy girl who’d gained weight right after starting college and was now making a cosmetic attempt at losing weight while simultaneously advertising that she was looking to date someone. Kelsey smiled and waved politely as the girl did the same, lifting her chin and showing off her plump, glossy lips as she bobbled by without looking even the slightest bit winded.

(1)

Before too long Kelsey’d found herself wandering onto the school campus just to kill time, still contemplating the subtle changes she’d seen among the other students, growing increasingly insecure about her own image. The most obvious occurrence was a viral outbreak of what appeared to be little more than the Freshman 15. More and more girls were spending nights partying and eating out instead of studying, but in a new school with zero upperclassmen, that was kind of to be expected and easy to dismiss. The other occurrence was a sudden emphasis on relationships. While it was normal for college girls to want to be in a romantic involvement, it seemed that there was a sudden rush to be with virtually anyone who was available. Many of the women would shack up with each other just out of convenience and availability, those who did end up in relationships with men were talked about excessively and seemed to be even lauded by the teachers for being publicly involved with a man. Several of the more home-oriented classes even offered tips on how to attract a man of their own and were among the few courses actually taught by women.

Almost every bit of the advice offered was geared towards landing a rich family man or how to show a guy that you would make a good wife and mother when the time was right. Initially almost all of them were vocally against the notions set before them, but by the fifth week of hearing it a couple girls had already begun dolling themselves up on the sly. It was slight, really and few in number. But It was becoming apparent that the number of girls wearing makeup to class or updating their wardrobes with some brighter outfits seemed to be steadily increasing.

“Hey there!” Said a fat, familiar-looking woman in a black dress, snapping Kelsey out of her headspace.

“Kelsey, right? Drama club? You’re in the beginner’s group?” The woman asked directly, her interest and upbeat attitude sounding just as wary and uncertain as Kelsey felt having to converse with her.

(2)

“Yeah, that’s me. Charlie, right?” Kelsey responded. She knew full well who the heavyset girl in front of her was. Charlotte Wigg or Charlie, was the teacher’s pet of the advanced drama group who basically spent all her time kissing the director’s ass and was rewarded for it with both high marks and lead positions in virtually anything she went out for including the upcoming production of Heathers: The Musical. She was a either totally friendly and exuberant or a notoriously catty bitch depending on whether or not she had decided to like you. Everyone knew who she was, but it did come as a surprise to the skinny punk that Charlie had any idea that she existed. Not that she really cared, but it was still surprising.

“Yeah! Hey! Are you here for the health and fitness club? I’m actually headed there right now if you wanna come with.” Charlie said, smiling in a way that seemed both superior and hopeful at the same time. Kelsey genuinely didn’t know what to make of it, but also didn’t have anywhere better to be either.

“Oh. Uhh, I didn’t know that was a thing, but I’m down to try.” She shrugged casually.

“Trust me, it’s great. The instructor is totally cool and it’s helped me drop like 20 pounds already.” Charlie said as the two girls began walking together down the pavement and towards an open area of the campus. “It may be slow to start, but I promise that after a few weeks you’ll start seeing results at a faster pace. When I first started I was just like you, but now I’m like really into it and I know you’re gonna thank me by the end.” Charlie gushed.

“You were just like me?” Kelsey asked quizzically, unsure of just what the black-clad fat girl was insinuating or what she expected to happen, but was morbidly curious if she should be offended or not.

“Well, you know…” Charlie began. “You look like one of those girls who just kinda got caught up partying and put on a little weight after moving to town and don’t really know how to fix it yet. But like seriously, TRUST ME, I was *just* the same until I found this group. You’re gonna love it and we can totally be like…fitness buddies and get skinny together.”

The notion that she had gained weight and was no longer what a fat girl like Charlie considered skinny was both offensive and jarring to Kelsey. She was about to rip the smirking drama goth a new one when she turned to see a group of girls moving through a set of synchronized, flowing movements with Lihua herself at the front of the group. Instantly, the angry woman’s heart skipped a beat and her breath caught in her throat. Mild nausea swept over her and her head grew feverish at the thought of being instructed by her secret girl crush without proper time to work herself up. With several slow, open-mouthed breaths, Kelsey felt the will to throw a fit evaporate the closer they got to the group.

Lihua looked over at the two approaching women, shooting a look of investigative surprise towards Kelsey by furrowing her brow and tilting her head, but keeping a slight smile as she did.

“Alright everybody, let’s get some water real quick, okay? Hydrate or diedrate, let’s go!” She cheered in an authoritative but sweet voice. 

(3)

As Charlie and Kelsey approached she made her way over to them, smiling broadly at the sight of her friend from the garden party.

“Heyyyy….I know youuuu…” She teased, pointing a finger at Kelsey, scrunching up behind it and narrowing her eyes for effect. “You here to join the class?” Lihua asked eagerly, her eyes shining optimistically in favor of a positive answer.

“Hell *yeah*!” Kelsey blurted out recklessly. With the look she was getting from the fit, beautiful Asian, there was no way she could bring herself to say no.

The class itself was a simple beginner’s Tai Chi lesson. Kelsey didn’t get any special treatment for being there, but she did get several approving looks and the occasional one-on-one correction that made her heart flutter every time she was physically grabbed and moved to the proper position. Then it was over. Before she knew it, the hour had flown by and everyone moved on either to their dorms or to their next class. Kelsey had hoped to get a moment with her new instructor, but the best she got was the opportunity to walk Lihua to her cooking class. They chitchatted idly about the lesson for the little time they could, and by the time Lihua had vanished into the classroom, Kelsey had failed to gather any new information or make a solid, lasting impression. There was a solid few minutes where she legitimately considered waiting outside for her to come out, but she felt like that was a bit too creepy and sitting outside on the DGWA lawn for an hour and a half didn’t sound overly appealing. In the end she chalked the day up to good social progress and walked home, suddenly acutely aware of the feeling of her thighs rubbing together.

*Knock knock knock*
Ahanu groggily wandered over to the door and opened it, surprised to see Kelsey up and at ‘em as early as 7AM. For the first time, she wore no makeup and was dressed in a black sports tanktop over a pair of stretchy gray pants, pulling one of her legs up behind her small, curvy butt.

“Uhhhm…..Morning…” Ahanu grumbled, her voice gravely from tiredness. “What’s going on?” 

Kelsey released her leg and began jogging in place slightly, bouncing back and forth in an effort to raise her heart rate.

(4)
“Hey! So I was thinking I wanna start exercising in the mornings and wondered if you would be down to join me maybe?” The brunette said, her bright eyes an offense to the tired Dakota girl. 

“Why are you only asking me now? Why didn’t you say something last night?” Ahanu complained, irritated by the dewy morning chill and the fact that she’d been woken up so early without prior notice.

“Well, I only thought of it just now. I mean it’s cool if you don’t want to, I was just-“ Kelsey said before she was interrupted.

“-I don’t want to.” Ahanu replied dryly. 

Kelsey bobbed her head to the side and twisted one side of her lip in disappointment, but yielded nonetheless.

“Welp. Alright. Sorry to bother you, get some sleep.” She said.

“Yep. Will do. Enjoy your run or whatever.” Ahanu said through a yawn and closed the door.

The tawny woman stood in her kitchen for a moment, shivering slightly from the chill. She grabbed a honey bun from a box in the cabinet and ate it cold while standing barefoot by the stove, unwilling to move even from the warm spot she’d created under her feet.

(5)

“It’s too damn early for this shit.” She said, finishing her snack and tossing the wrapper on the counter before moving back to bed, unaware of the slight, fluffy jiggle on her waist.