User blog:MrTyeDye/Fanfiction: A Load of Bulk (Chapter 2)

[Part 1]

Lana awoke the following morning with a yawn and a stretch. As the gears in her brain started turning again, she began to recall that today was a special occasion - the day that she'd get to see the effects of last night's sampling. With her heartbeat accelerating in anticipation, she threw off her pajamas and slipped into her signature shirt and overalls. As she got dressed, she couldn't help but notice that her outfit felt just a little bit more snug than it usually did; she figured it must have shrunk in the wash.

She walked out into the hall, and was promptly greeted by a smiling Luna, who was ascending the stairs with a guitar amp in her arms. "Oh, hey, Lana, look at you! 8:30 and you're already up and at 'em!"

Lana chuckled, scratching the back of her head. Lana usually slept in on summer days (as did most of the family), so Luna's surprise was understandable.

"Guess I didn't want this summer day to go to waste," said Lana, as Luna reached the top stair. "Say, what are you doing with that amp?"

"Oh, this? Just bringin' my equipment up from the garage," Luna said with a grunt of effort. "Had a heck of a practice session last night."

Upon hearing that grunt, Lana was struck with a new realization - one that caused a smile to break out across her face. Though she didn't know it, Luna had presented Lana with the perfect opportunity to test her might.

The young rocker plopped the amp down onto the floor, panting a little. "I'm gonna head down and grab my axe," she said. "Watch the amp while I'm gone, will ya?"

Lana grinned, rubbing her hands together. "How's about I do you one better?" she asked, bending down and slipping her hands underneath the amp.

"Whoa, hey!" cried Luna. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Lana. That thing weighs thirty pounds. You could hurt yourse-"

But Lana didn't give her a chance to finish that thought before following through with that task. And with a heave-ho, she hoisted the amp into the air. To her surprise, the weight of the amp was pretty manageable - not light, mind you, but not overwhelming, either. With the amp in her arms, she marched towards Luna and Luan's room, while a slack-jawed Luna watched in awe.

"Good golly, Miss Molly! What on earth have we been feeding you?!"

Lana giggled. "What can I say? I'm a growing girl. Now, where should I set this down?"

"B... by the bunk bed," uttered Luna.

Lana nodded, entered the room and set the amp down right by the foot of the bed. She felt a little bit of fatigue from the feat and a slight burning in her arms, but she figured that those would wear off before long. And once they did, she'd be fully ready to test her strength again.

In the meantime, Lana decided to help herself to some breakfast. She bounded downstairs to the kitchen, popped in some toaster waffles - three, instead of her usual two - slathered them with syrup, and scarfed them down. In her haste, she barely even noticed Luan, who happened to be at the table enjoying an orange and some coffee. Or, at least, she wouldn't have noticed, if Luan hadn't decided to chime in with one of her signature quips.

"Whoa, hey, Lana, slow down! I know the meal's called breakfast, but still!" She followed up her quip with a bubbly laugh, as she was wont to do. "Get it?"

Lana just rolled her eyes, grabbed her dishes and dumped them into the sink. As she did, she noticed that her fatigue had already worn off, and her arms felt good as new. It was time for her to look for another way to test her strength - and before she left the kitchen, she found one. Right after clearing her place, she noticed that the trash bin was full to bursting.

"Oh, hey, looks like Linc forgot to take out the trash," she said, straining to hide the excitement in her voice. "Lemme get it."

"Are you sure?" asked Luan. "It's pretty heavy for someone your-"

Before she even finished that sentence, Lana grabbed the fully loaded trash bag, tied it shut, and hoisted it out of the bin with hardly any sign of effort. She then slung it over her shoulder and skipped out of the room, taking delight in how light it felt, and even more delight in the fact that her feat had just left Luan speechless. Just before she got to the front door, she glanced over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of Luan's face. As expected, her bulging eyes were still fixated on Lana and her mouth was gaping half-open.

After giving the stunned Luan a wink, Lana pranced out the door and tossed the full trash bag into the garbage can. Unlike Luna's amp, the bag was barely even a challenge for her, so her thirst for a true test of her new strength was still unquenched. Still, she reminded herself that it was still pretty early; once the rest of the family was out and about, eventually someone somewhere would need something heavy lifted.

Sure enough, an opportunity came just a couple of hours later. Lana was in the kitchen, helping herself to a snack, when she heard grumbling coming from the living room. She walked in to see an irate Lori on her hands and knees, reaching under the sofa, while a concerned-looking Leni stood by her side.

"Leni, could you go get Lynn?" she said with a groan.

"You mean our sister, or Dad?" Leni asked.

"Either," said Lori. "Someone kicked the remote under the sofa and I need someone to move it."

"Why can't you?"

"Are you kidding me? It's way too heavy. I'm not going to throw my back out looking for some stupid remote."

Lana donned a confident smirk as she crept towards the sofa, sizing it up. ''Too heavy, huh? Not for Super Lana, it isn't!''

She marched up to the sofa, planted her feet, hooked her fingers under the edge, and pulled upwards with all her might. A massive grin erupted across her face when she felt the heavy furniture yield to her strength and rise off of the floor. With a grunt of effort, she hefted it another inch upwards - and then another, and another, and another, until she finally brought her arms to their full extension and lifted the side of the sofa over her head.

Lana's only regret was that the couch obscured her view of Lori and Leni's bewildered faces - and even that wasn't much of an issue, since she could hear them just fine.

"Um, t-t-thanks, L-Lana," stammered Lori, grabbing the remote from underneath the sofa. Once she did, Lana let the sofa drop from her hands, and it hit the floor with a clattering bang.

"No need to thank me, big sis," she said, wiping the dust from her hands as she moseyed back into the kitchen.

Over the course of the rest of the day, Lana went from sibling to sibling, going out of her way to assist them with any of their tasks - particularly the ones that involved heavy lifting. Lori needs to carry her laundry upstairs? In comes Lana. Lynn's basketball hoop needs readjusting? Lana to the rescue. Lucy needs a pallbearer for her pretend funeral?Lana's up to the task. And whenever her siblings were unoccupied, she'd keep herself busy by doing push-ups in the backyard, interspersed with a few sets of squats (can't skip leg day!). She'd also managed to work up quite an appetite, as she found herself making frequent trips to the fridge in between tasks.

As the day went on, Lana noticed that her clothes were getting tighter and tighter. They had already felt unusually snug when she got up this morning, but with every passing hour, they seemed to grow more and more constricting. Lana started to doubt that this was the result of them shrinking in the wash, but then, she wasn't exactly an expert when it came to laundry, so she guessed that the shrinking could just be a gradual process.

Still, by the time dinner rolled around, her shirt and overalls were so tight that they started to feel a little restrictive. As she headed down the stairs to the dinner table, she could feel the seams of her clothes digging into her. She figured it was better to deal with the problem sooner rather than later, so after she took her seat at the dinner table, she decided to bring it to her parents' attention.

"Hey, Mom? Dad?" called Lana, raising her hand. "I think my clothes are getting a little small on me. Can we get new ones?"

"Well, I-" Rita began, only to stop cold once she got a good look at her daughter. An awkward, tense silence ensued as she and Lynn Sr. stared at Lana, wearing inscrutable expressions somewhere between shock and intrigue.

"Um, s-sure, Lana," uttered Rita. "We'll go to the clothing store sometime this week."

Lana smiled. "Thanks, Mom!" she chirped. "Well, guys, let's dig in!"

And so she did. Lana's boosted appetite hadn't waned by dinner time; if anything, it had only grown stronger. She wolfed down her plate of goulash in little to no time, chugging it down her throat like a freshman chugging beer at his first frat party. By the time she was done with her second helping, most of her other siblings had barely finished their first. This didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the dinner table, as Lana noticed several of her siblings' eyes lingering on her over the course of the meal. Lana found that a little strange, as it was far from the first time that she had worked up a major appetite, but she decided not to press the issue.

After polishing off her dinner, she threw her dishes into the sink and took off. As a member of the Loud house, she knew better than to linger too long after a meal. To quote Lincoln: ''those who stay, put dishes away. Those who flee, get to watch TV.''

In this case, however, she was a little too tuckered out for the tube after a full day of being active, so she took a direct route towards the bathroom to start getting herself ready for bed. She climbed up onto the step stool, took one look at herself in the mirror, and gasped with wonder at what she saw staring back at her. Suddenly, Rita's bizarre spell of silence and all of those errant stares at the dinner table made sense.

Her clothes weren't shrinking. She was growing.

And how.

First she noticed her arms, which had grown thick enough to fill out the sleeves of her teal shirt. She pulled back her right sleeve and flexed, causing her bicep to swell into an avocado-sized mound. She then flexed her left, and was elated to see it swell to an equal size.

And it didn't stop at her arms, as Lana found out after looking at herself from several other angles. The denim legs of her overalls were pulled taut over her expanding thighs and calves, while thickened shoulder and chest muscles bulged through her top. Out of curiosity, she slipped a hand under her shirt and felt up her stomach; to her delight, she felt the beginnings of a rigid six pack.

This is incredible! she thought as she started posing and flexing in the mirror. ''I mean, look at this! I'm huge! I'm ripped! I'm-''

"Lanaaaa!" Lola cried from outside the door. "How long are you gonna be in there?! I need to take my bath!"

Lana lost her smile, as Lola's interjection brought her journey of bodily exploration to a swift halt. "Just a minute, Lola," she said with a groan.

But regardless of the damper that Lola put on Lana's mood, it was hard for her not to get excited about what the next day would have in store for her. As she got herself ready for bed, her smile gradually crept back onto her face. Her mood heightened even further once she exited the bathroom and passed Lola in the hall, as she caught the pageant princess doing a double take at her new body.

Drink it in, Lola. Feast your eyes on the new Lana.

Lana's smile grew into a full-on grin once she got back to her room and started changing, and found that she had to squeeze her bulky new bod into her pajamas.

This is awesome, she thought, giggling with glee as she stuffed herself into her pajama top. ''I'm bursting out of all my old clothes! Guess Mom and Dad'll have to get me some extra large ones. Ooh! Or maybe they'll just let me walk around naked!''

The last thought elicited a snicker, as at her age there were few things more amusing than impromptu nudity. Once she was done contemplating that, she turned the lights off, slipped under the covers, gave her bicep a kiss goodnight, and shut her eyes, figuring that the earlier she went to bed, the sooner tomorrow would come.

July 31

8:30 p.m.

''The effects of my formula on the rat have been striking, to say the least. I noticed a significant increase in muscularity when I first started observing it this morning, and over the course of the day it continued to grow. By now, I estimate that its muscle mass is 40 percent greater than it was when I started the test. Furthermore, its musculature hasn't just increased in mass; it's also increased in density and pound-for-pound strength. I watched in awe as it demonstrated strength comparable to a young capybara.''

''I await tomorrow with bated breath. If the test continues to yield positive results, I see another Junior Nobel Prize in my future.''

- Lisa M. Loud