santa's list

santa's list

he knows when you've been bad

disclaimer: if you should not be reading this story — don't!!!

it was the week before christmas and all through the mall, not a store was empty as shoppers walked the halls. the stores were all stocked with items galore, in hopes that you and i would spend a little and then spend some more. on gifts in wrapped boxes and those in designer bags — everyone was acting good and no one acted bad.

except for laurie metzer, that is.

she and her mother, mary, had just entered intimate secrets, the mall's #1 store for speciality lingerie. they had visited the store not to buy a christmas gift, but because laurie badly needed a new bra. she had outgrown her old one and could no longer buy one off the rack. a fact that troubled mary, but made laurie the happiest and bustiest girl in school.

mary, walking a step behind laurie, deferred to her daughter. she did that a lot lately. deferring to laurie's wishes. it was like she was the[censored]and laurie was the adult. and looking at the two of them physically, mary sometimes wondered if that might be the case. laurie, without a doubt, had the more mature figure of the two.

a figure that mary found unbelievable — especially on her fifteen-year-old daughter. it wasn't that long ago, she remembered, that little laurie was complaining about not developing as fast as her friends. mary found herself quoting verbatim what her mother told her when she was laurie's age. how girls developed at different rates. how laurie would develop in due time. how you couldn't rush nature and a bunch of other stuff that probably annoyed laurie as much as it did the adolescent mary.

to be honest, puberty wasn't really much of a big deal for the metzer women. no significant breast development, curves, or increases in height were expected for laurie.

and mary didn't have the heart to tell her daughter that she would be short, flatchested and built like a stick for the rest of her life. so, she did what all metzer women before her did — she lied to her daughter. she built laurie's hopes up, promising a delayed puberty that she knew would never come. thinking that one day, laurie would realize she wasn't going to get a new body and just accept her old.

but laurie didn't accept her old body. she hated it. she hated being the smallest girl in her class. the flattest. the skinniest. she soon tired of her mom's 'pep talks' that basically said one day she would develop but never said when. laurie was impatient, frustrated and angry. and she directed most of these negative feelings towards mary.

looking back, mary wished she had been more aware of what laurie was going through. it probably would have spared them their present problems. but at the time, mary had problems of her own. she was losing her man to another woman.

she remembered the day her family fell apart. she was in her bedroom, talking to robert about laurie's dissatisfaction with her body. she could tell he wasn't paying attention, but figured it was a 'guy thing'. she continued talking, hoping the quantity of her words would be enough to engage his attention. it did, but not the way she planned.

"shut up, mary," he suddenly said, cutting her off.

"what?" mary asked, stunned by robert's rudeness.

"you heard me," he said. "i'm sick of you talking about laurie. be a woman about it and tell her the truth. tell her the body she's got is it."

"but robert—"

"don't 'but robert' me," he said cutting her off. "all you do is lie to the kid and then come in here and obsess about it. i'm sick of it, mary."

"well, excuse me for talking about our daughter," mary replied, instantly using her weapon of choice — guilt. unfortunately, guilt wasn't going to work this time.

"my daughter? she ain't my daughter, mary," robert said coldly. "yeah, i helped you raise her after that loser left you. but laurie ain't mine. she's yours. the spitting image of her mother; god help her!"

"what do you mean by that?" mary asked, becoming aware of the look on robert's face. she noticed how despite his rage, robert was having a hard time looking at her. his body language was showing incongruity. and she suddenly knew why they were having an argument.

"you're seeing another woman," she cried, realizing the truth.

and robert didn't deny it. he didn't say a word. he watched the tears run down mary's face, shaking his head in a pitying manner, and made for the door.

mary watched as robert turned away from her. it was like he was moving in slow motion. they always seemed to move in slow motion. robert. laurie's dad. and the others. always leaving her. always this way. she couldn't keep a man. she just couldn't keep a man.

"robert!" she screamed, grabbing him. "don't leave me! we can work it out! i'll do better, i promise! don't leave me!"

and robert felt mary's bony limbs encircle him. he tried shrugging her off, figuring that his greater size and strength would make her a pushover. but it wasn't that easy. mary's desperation had made her toothpick-like arms amazingly strong and robert found that he actually had to exert himself.

"let go, mary!" he yelled, sweat running down his face as he grappled with the woman. "you're making a fool of yourself. i said let go!"

and with those words, he finally freed himself from mary. an action that sent the woman sprawling towards the ground.

robert, his hand on the doorknob, looked at mary laying on the floor. her dress had gotten ripped. her hair needed a stylist. and her tear-stained makeup made her look like a clown. he realized in that moment that although he had once loved mary, he didn't any more. he couldn't remember when he stopped loving her, he only knew that if pressed he couldn't think of one good moment they shared.

he opened the bedroom door. finally. and looked over his shoulder. he saw mary for the last time and felt compelled to say something. a one word summation of her and their relationship. a word he could no longer choke back. the word?

"pitiful!"

robert faced the hallway. laurie was standing before him. she must've been eavesdropping, he thought, seeing the hurt expression on the kid's face. he saw her tears — like mother, like daughter — and knew she was waiting for him to say something. something reassuring. something that wouldn't shatter her world. but he couldn't say anything like that. all he could say was: "talk to your mom, kid," as he exited laurie's and mary's life forever.

mary, seeing laurie outside her bedroom, got off the floor. she approached her daughter awkwardly — not exactly sure how much of the conversation laurie heard. her face wasn't telling mary anything. it was a mask — blank and featureless. her eyes had lost their color and looked dully at mary, unblinking, as she walked the three steps separating her from laurie. three steps. that was all that divided mother and daughter, but to mary, it felt like miles.

she reached laurie with her arms outstretched. she desired — no, needed — a hug. but a hug wasn't forthcoming. laurie didn't move.

and neither did mary. she kept her arms in the air until fatigue forced her to lower them. laurie didn't seem to notice. or care.

"laurie..." mary began, wanting so much for everything to be the way it used to be. but if her daughter's response was any indication that wasn't going to happen. at least, not any time soon.

"you lied to me," laurie said in a voice so cold that mary couldn't believe it was human. it was a voice that lacked warmth, heart, and feeling. it was a voice that made her involuntarily shudder, the same way she did when someone's fingernails scraped a chalk board. a response that appeared to satisfy laurie, who, once it happened, turned her back on her mother, stomped into her room, and slammed her door.

mary instantly went to laurie's door and knocked. "laurie," she called through the wooden barrier separating her from her daughter, "open the door, dear. we have to talk about this."

laurie didn't respond.

mary tried opening the door, but couldn't. it was locked. a fact that hit her hard. laurie had never locked her door. despite the normal problems of growing up that every[censored]faced, she had never felt the need to shut her mother out. that she did this time was maddening to mary, who started beating on the door — screaming for laurie to open the door.

laurie listened to her mother rage against her bedroom door. pounding. screaming. she knew eventually her mother would have to stop. it wasn't humanly possible to continue such an onslaught indefinitely. and so she waited. and when the inevitable moment came and her mother no longer continued, laurie went to the door, keeping it locked.

"mom..." laurie said, catching mary by surprise.

"yes, laurie," mary replied, a wave of relief washing over her.

"i hate you."

mary did a double take. she couldn't believe those words had come from her daughter's mouth. i must be hearing things, she thought, laurie would never say that to me. i must—

"did you hear me, mom?" laurie said in that cold, metallic voice she had used earlier. "i said, 'i hate you!'"

mary felt each word stab into her like a dagger. i(stab!). hate(stab!). you(stab!). and started crying again. why were her loved ones leaving her? hurting her? first, robert and now, laurie.

"why?" she asked. "why do you hate me, laurie?"

"because you lied to me."

"i — i didn't mean..." she began and stopped. what was the point? laurie was right. she did lie to her. repeatedly. she could come up with a multitude of excuses — reasons why she did what she did — but the fact remained that she lied to her daughter and got caught. nothing could change that. she could only hope that in time laurie would forgive and forget.

it never happened.

mary couldn't regain her daughter's trust. no matter what she did. begging, cursing, bribing, whatever — it had no effect on laurie. the fourteen year old had built a wall around herself — unclimbable, unscalable, and impenetrable. a barrier that made a mother-daughter reconciliation impossible. if there was only a way in... if somehow the wall could be broken...

laurie suddenly started "blossoming" and an overjoyed mary believed the wall was history.

she was wrong.

she watched her daughter defy the fate of all metzer women and actually benefit from puberty. she watched little laurie grow from a petite, almost-four-footer into a statuesque six-footer. her face, once homely, looked as if the world's greatest plastic surgeon decided to use it as a classic master of old would a mound of clay — shaping and sculpting laurie's features to a level undreamt of by mother nature. as did her skin, no longer marred by the blemishes of youth, looking like it was treated by a master dermatologist. the results were astounding. laurie, still stick-like in build, was a perfect blend of height, beauty, and thinness. a supermodel. and it wasn't long before the designers of the world came knocking on the metzer's door.

unbelievable sums of money. trips to exotic places. introductions to the rich and famous. that and more was promised to laurie, whose future was so bright — that it blinded her. mostly from her pain. laurie still had problems — issues both personal and painful — with her mother.

mary's lying, for starters, which laurie had neither forgiven nor forgotten. mary's trouble keeping a man, which in laurie's eyes was the reason both robert and her biological father walked out on them. and mary's body, which made supermodel laurie doubt her newly acquired beauty by reminding her of what she used to look like on the outside and probably still did look like on the inside.

these thoughts were the notes of discord ringing in laurie's soul. notes that if blended harmoniously would've helped her deal with and ultimately overcome her pain. but laurie could no longer hear these notes. her modeling future not only blinded her, but deafened her as well. and the problematic relationship between mother and daughter, which needed fixing, was buried. replaced by some delusional form of détente in which laurie and mary were the best of friends. the détente lasted as long as laurie's modeling career — one month. it was the shortest modeling career in fashion history.

laurie's backers were about to spring her on the world in a blaze of marketing glory. her image would be everywhere. tv, magazines, billboards, the internet. it was a plan of global domination, militaristic in design and execution. its chief weapon, laurie's incredible beauty. its objective: making the world love laurie. a goal that was pretty much a fait accompli.

and then puberty reared its ugly head.

laurie was gaining weight. clothes that once fit her perfectly had to be 'let out' by the various designers. a fact that put her reputation as 'the model who could wear anything and look good in it' in jeopardy. her backers, realizing that they had a problem on their hands, took swift action.

believing laurie's sudden weight gain was caused by a failure to stick to her diet and established exercise regimen, they ordered her nutritionist and trainer to keep her under twenty-four hour watch. they were supposed to stop supermodel laurie from gaining weight, using any means necessary. excluding death, of course.

laurie's dietitian and trainer took it upon themselves to tell her their new orders. they did this expecting the worse, their past experience convincing them of the tempestuous nature of models, especially those aspiring to be supermodels. but surprisingly, laurie not only accepted the 'bad news' without throwing a tantrum, she actually welcomed the added attention of these two industry experts. she, too, was worried about her sudden weight gain and wanted to take every precaution to ensure it didn't effect her modeling future. nothing else mattered. after her ugly duckling-like past, she had to have a swan-like future.

the experts did their jobs, discovering that laurie not only stuck to their respective programs, but greatly exceeded their expectations. they had, knowing the nature of novice models, built margin of errors into their respective programs, allowing the models to cheat and still meet their goals. these precautions, however, proved to be unnecessary when it came to laurie. she had unbelievable discipline.

and yet she was still gaining weight.

it wasn't long before the added weight began to show on laurie. her stick-like figure began developing curves. curves that laurie's costumers were finding harder and harder to camouflage. curves that ultimately got laurie 'let go' from her agency and the modeling industry at large.

laurie and her mother tried fighting the unfairness directed at them but it was hopeless. her backers were just too experienced. masters of the game. they had laurie and her mom sign contracts with so many loopholes and small print that the idea of a court case was laughable. the metzer's chances of taking on the modeling industry and winning ranked right up there with pigs flying and snowballs surviving in hell — zero.

and so laurie and her mother went home — coach. victims of a career in which a beautiful fifteen-year-old went from rising star to fallen has-been in a month's time and no one gave a fuck. that was fact; not self-pity. no one in the fashion industry cared about laurie. she was a nobody. worthless in her backers' eyes. lucky to be given transportation home — where the heart is, they thought.

fashion people don't go home too often. if they did, they'd know that although home is where the heart is; it's also where the heartache is, as well. they'd know that you don't tell a girl she's going to be a supermodel one month and then send her home the next. if they knew any of these things, they might have prepared laurie for the shitstorm coming her way. but since they didn't care or think about her; why should they warn her?

laurie and her mom arrived home in darkness. drained by their experiences, they only wanted to go to bed. to sleep away the hurt and dream away the pain. they wanted to bury what mary would later dub the 'modeling fiasco' in a bottomless pit and live their lives. that's all they wanted: a return to normality. and if they never heard the words model, fashion, and laurie used in the same sentence ever again, then theirs would be a good life.

unfortunately, they got a bad one instead.

news of the fallen supermodel spread through their community like a virus. infecting all with some of the worst qualities known to man: jealousy, bitterness, and spitefulness. no one was immune. friends, more fairweather than true, had initially detested mary when she told them her laurie was going to be a supermodel. it didn't seem fair to them that whole ugly duckling to swan stuff. where did laurie get off transforming into a being so beautiful that she warranted fortune and fame? it didn't happen to them or their daughters and so, by all that was right in the world, should not happen to mary's brat. that was the mindset of mary's and laurie's friends. kept hidden, of course. why be open and honest when you could be bitter and smile?

mary's and laurie's enemies had a different mindset. before her transformation into a supermodel, their life had been one big season of duck hunting. always open. always permissible. a season in which they hunted one duck. an ugly duck. a duck named laurie.

the parents had used laurie's arrested development as a weapon. one that kept mary in her place: lower than them. they took something that mary took for granted — puberty having little or no effect on metzer women — and turned it into a curse. former homemakers, now doctors of quackery, carried around medical books, always ready to give their 'professional opinion' on what was wrong with mary and her daughter.

mary, initially, laughed at her neighbors' diagnoses. "i think i need a second opinion" was her usual response. but as the second opinion became one of double digits, she lost her resolve. maybe they were right. maybe there was something wrong with her and her daughter. maybe that was why men like robert and laurie's dad left her. maybe this and maybe that. it was psychological warfare at its best and mary was definitely a casualty. first, she lost her confidence, then her self-esteem, and finally laurie, who had her own battles to fight — and lose.

not at first, of course, since the pre-pubescent laurie was just like everyone else. she was one of the gang. parents, teachers, classmates; they all liked her. it was only when puberty began transforming those around her that she became a target. one impossible to miss.

the reason was simple: laurie stayed the same. her body, like peter pan's, was that of a[censored]and seemed determined to stay that way. a group like pan's lost boys, who shared in her forced childhood and understood what she was going through, might have made things easier. they might have formed a clique, offering laurie the support she needed. but laurie didn't have a group like that. she was alone. absolutely, totally alone.

friends, who used to spend every waking moment with her, suddenly couldn't spend one minute with her. and the time they did spend with laurie was always private. never public. they made sure of that. always looking over their shoulders, scanning the area, making sure no one saw them with her. it was the popular thing to do and so, at first, only the popular[censored]treated laurie like that. and she understood. treatment like that was considered normal, everyday behavior in her scholastic world. something the popular[censored]did. but when the nerds and nerdettes began avoiding her, laurie knew she hadn't just fallen down the ladder of popularity, but off it. and the season of duck hunting had officially began.

overnight, laurie became fair game to anyone looking for a target. adults, who wanted to belittle her mom. popular[censored]who felt it was their divine right to punish those below them. and those who traditionally suffered at the bottom of the scholastic foodchain — the outcast, the weak, and the powerless. this last group was fed up and they weren't going to take it anymore. they wanted respect. they wanted revenge. they wanted to kick some ass. not the asses of the popular kids, of course. that sort of thing would never happen. it couldn't happen. why, the very thought was unthinkable. no, they wanted to kick the ass of laurie metzer.

why? because, they could. what could little laurie do about? nothing, absolutely nothing.

the shortest[censored]in school, daily recipients of pygmy jokes and atomic wedgies, accepted anything and everything those taller than them dished out. they accepted. with a smile, in fact. enjoying their mistreatment with a pleasure bordering on the masochistic.

afterwards, they would look up to their tormentor, resisting the urge to thank them for the 'session' they had just received, with a look of total satisfaction. they then exited the scene of their humiliation, still smiling, with one thought on their mind: finding laurie metzer. it was never a difficult thing, finding little laurie; she always seemed to be underfoot. sometimes literally. but once she was found, the short[censored]would get their payback. laurie would get a similar treatment to what they received. only worse.

it was survival of the fittest and, to those around her, laurie wasn't fit to survive. the short, the skinny, the homely, and flatchested, all, derived strength from the knowledge that no matter how bad off they were; laurie was worse. she was powerless and friendless and did what any girl would've done in that situation. she turned to her mother.

she began asking mary questions about her body. why she looked the way she did? why were the other girls developing so much faster than her? would her body always look like this? this last question, more than any of the others, really troubled mary. it troubled mary, because she felt the facts were right before laurie's eyes.

mary, herself, was short, skinny, homely, and flatchested. all the metzer women were. that was laurie's reality. her truth. but laurie didn't want the truth; laurie couldn't handle the truth. her mother knew this and did what any mother would have done in a similar situation: she began lying to laurie.

the lies were little, white ones at first. lies so subtle that it didn't even feel like mary was lying. she was just helping her daughter, she thought, completely unaware of the future ramifications of such help. how could she know the future when she was missing so much in the present.

like laurie's problems. mary was totally clueless about what her daughter was going through. she couldn't see why laurie was making such a big fuss about everything. especially, since so many of laurie's big problems were things that mary, herself, went through and survived. it was natural. a normal part of growing up. mary survived and her daughter would as well.

that was her attitude in a nutshell. an attitude far removed from that of laurie's. it had to be, mary was older. an adult. a parent. someone whose school years were nothing but a memory. a distant memory. one that could be distorted and manipulated at will. little laurie didn't have that kind of option.

she just had her mother, who became her lifeline. someone laurie needed and relied on more than anything else in her existence. a position, unfortunately, that mary wasn't fit to occupy in her daughter's life. she didn't know that her words were the salve that made the hurts of laurie's world better. she didn't know why laurie was repeatedly asking her the same questions. she didn't know a lot of things. and that ignorance caused a rift to develop between her and her daughter.

laurie soon tired of mary's 'pep talks'. lifeline or not, laurie was getting fed up with her mom. she was sick of hearing how one day she would develop; how one day she would get everything her heart desired. one day this and one day that. that was her mom's message and laurie couldn't take it anymore. she wanted specifics, she wanted results, and she wanted them now. and if she wasn't getting what she wanted, well, there was only one person to blame. her mom, of course.

that was laurie's mindset when she overheard her mom and robert talking. when she discovered her mom — her lifeline — was a liar. when she witnessed robert, like her biological father, walk out on laurie and her mom. when laurie hated her mother more than any person on earth. that was her mindset and she verbalized it. i hate you, she said to mary, meaning every word.

her mother, of course, had to test laurie's resolve. mary knew daughters were always saying how much they disliked their mothers. it was a part of growing up, she thought, knowing in her heart that laurie couldn't really hate her mother. but time and laurie's steadfastness soon convinced her otherwise. laurie really did hate her.

mary tried to regain her daughter's love and trust, but she couldn't. no matter what she did, it resulted in failure. begging, cursing, bribing, whatever — it had no effect on laurie. mary was beginning to think it would take a miracle to reunite her and her daughter. but who believed in miracles anymore?

apparently mother nature did, bestowing to laurie a gift of unimaginable beauty. a gift? that was what it was supposed to be. a gift for laurie who endured so much. but then those damn modeling people had to reject her. send her home to those — those jackals. why can't they just leave us alone? mary had asked numerous times since her and her daughter's return home.

but the metzers weren't left alone. who could resist kicking a fallen supermodel and her mother when they were down? no one. and so everywhere laurie and mary went, they were reminded of the modeling fiasco. raised voices, always in laurie's and mary's presence, recounted their experience in minute (and painful) detail to any who cared to listen. 'pointers', individuals who felt an irresistible urge to identify laurie by pointing her out to strangers and friends, singled her out as an object of ridicule on an almost daily basis. it was an experience that always reminded laurie of a police lineup on some copshow: "that's her, officer, i'd know her anywhere: laurie metzer, ex-supermodel. she's the one who went away a star and returned a nothing. lock her up, officer, innocent people like myself shouldn't have to witness such failure ... it's criminal."

and there it was. the people had spoken. laurie metzer, tried in a court of public opinion, was ready for sentencing. it was loud and clear. she was pronounced a failure. a beautiful failure standing six feet tall, but a failure nevertheless.

fuck that.

laurie was through playing the victim. that was a role for the old laurie — the ugly duckling — who was short, homely, skinny, and flatchested. that wasn't her anymore. okay, she was still flatchested and somewhat skinny (by real people's standards; not those of the modeling industry), but she definitely wasn't short and homely. she was a swan, now, and it was time she was treated like one.

laurie displayed her new confidence the very next day. aggressively. she used her height and incredible beauty like a bullhorn, yelling "look at me! look at me!". and those around her looked. looked and ran away. it soon became apparent that the new laurie — the swan — was as much an outcast as the ugly duckling.

the reason was simple: laurie intimidated those around her. those who physically overpowered the old laurie — the almost four footer — ran in fear of her now that she stood six feet tall. those who ridiculed her looks when she was homely were speechless when faced with the beauty of an ex-supermodel. and everyone was afraid of her newly-acquired confidence. a confident laurie, in a word, was dangerous.

the reasoning went like this: height and beauty are liabilities to the insecure; weapons to the confident. the laurie who returned from the modeling fiasco with her mother was definitely insecure. she didn't just prove the first part of the axiom; she embodied it. her height and beauty were used against her, making her feel awkward, gangly, and unsure of herself.

but confident laurie was a mystery. a fearful unknown. someone those around laurie didn't want to have any dealings with; and so they didn't. no one wanted confident laurie to prove the second part of the axiom and use her height and beauty as weapons against them.

laurie, of course, was unaware of how she intimidated those around her. the thought never would have occurred to her. contrary to her confident facade, laurie's self-esteem was still on the low side. she didn't think people were avoiding her because they were intimidated, but because there was still something wrong with her. she couldn't win, she thought. ugly or beautiful. short or tall. laurie metzer was still an outcast.

and her mind knew the reason why: laurie metzer was an outcast because she was flatchested.

that was the big, elusive secret of laurie's universe. her holy grail, lost ark, and temple of doom combined. she had searched and she had found. eureka. she should have figured it out sooner, but better late than never. big breasts. that's what people wanted. the evidence was right in front of her eyes; how did she ever miss it? the most popular girls in her school had big breasts. the most popular women in her town had big breasts. it was obvious; big breasts = popularity.

at least, in laurie's mind they did. and the teenager was determined to grow some. she wanted to have not only big breasts, but the biggest around. she felt it was her right. her destiny.

and so it was.

as soon as laurie made it her goal to grow the biggest breasts around, she grew them. simple as that. she went from pancake flat to adult sized bras in a single step, skipping training bras all together. she was growing so fast, in fact, that soon she required specialty bras. and the best place to buy those were at intimate secrets, the mall's #1 store for speciality lingerie.

mary remembered the first time she took her daughter to intimate secrets. it was supposed to be a gift for laurie, a way for mother and daughter to connect. a way for mary to show laurie that she shouldn't be ashamed of her new endowments. she wanted her daughter to feel blessed and confident.

mary got what she wanted ... and then some.

laurie's confidence was somewhat superficial prior to her visit to intimate secrets. more illusion than substance. she had her big breasts but she hadn't yet experienced the power that came with them. she needed a reference. something concrete. and a session at intimate secrets provided it.

the staff at intimate secrets had never seen anyone quite like laurie. sure, they were trained to say that about all their customers, but when it came to laurie they actually meant it. they had seen tall girls. they had seen beautiful girls. and working at a store like intimate secrets, they had seen incredibly well-endowed girls. but they had never seen anyone combine all three in one package and to the degree that laurie did. the girl was amazing and they just had to tell her. over and over, again.

laurie, of course, took their excessive praise as proof that big breasts = popularity. they were the professionals. the breast experts. they had said laurie was special and so it had to be true.

the intimate secrets staff completed laurie's session, expressing their desire to see laurie in the near future. it was their standard closing. something they said to all their customers. a line stated so often that most of the staff did it by reflex. but to laurie it was a command. an order. something that would ensure her as having the biggest breasts around.

but what did they mean by the near future, laurie wondered. months — weeks — days? laurie didn't know. so she decided on two weeks between visits. why not? two weeks was as good an interval as anything else. she would grow so much in the next two weeks that her mom would have to bring her back to intimate secrets. that was her goal. one that was a little out there and a bit unrealistic, perhaps, but laurie didn't know that. all she knew was that two weeks after her initial visit to intimate secrets, she was back. she had outgrown her bra, forcing her mom to buy her another, just as she planned. mission accomplished.

two weeks later, laurie accomplished the same mission. again. she had outgrown another bra. and, two weeks later, another. surprising her mother and the staff of intimate secrets, who watched laurie's visits to the store turn into a bi-weekly event.

what was causing the[censored]to grow so much and so fast, they all wondered.

the intimate secrets staff was stumped. they had seen some serious breast expansion amongst their clientèle, but laurie was something different. something special. a girl who needed a new bra every two weeks? it was impossible, and yet every two weeks, like clockwork, laurie and her mom were seen walking through the front door.

as laurie's bi-weekly escort, mary, more so than anyone, was aware of her daughter's incredible breast expansion. she was determined to help laurie through this 'period of growth', as she called it. after the modeling fiasco and everything leading up to it, she felt she owed her daughter. but having to buy her daughter a new bra every two weeks? it was too much. speciality bras added up, and mary was wondering how long she could keep up these bi-weekly trips to intimate secrets. she also wondered more and more what was causing laurie's growth. it wasn't natural.

she tried to piece together in her mind exactly when laurie started growing. she tried to come up with anything — anything at all — that might be responsible for her daughter's growth. and the only thing she came up with was putting laurie on the pill. it was a precaution mary took prior to their leaving for laurie's fabled modeling career. there was no way she was going to let some european lothario impregnate her daughter, so she put laurie on the pill. and that had to be the reason why laurie's breasts were growing the way they were.

laurie's doctor disagreed. he said that actually laurie's growth wasn't as unique as mary thought. he said that a lot of girls were growing as fast as laurie; maybe even faster. there was documented proof to that fact and if it wasn't for doctor-patient confidentiality, he would be glad to show it to her. but he couldn't. all he could do for mary was reassure her, as a doctor with an impeccable reputation in the community, that there was absolutely nothing unusual about her daughter's breast growth.

mary wasn't completely satisfied. her instincts told her, contrary to what the doctor said, that laurie's growth wasn't natural. she thought of getting a second opinion, but didn't. mary, like a lot of people, came from a background trained to treat the words of a medical professional as gospel. the man said her daughter's breast growth was normal and commonplace and so that's what mary believed.

and the bi-weekly visits to intimate secrets continued.

mary still worried about the cost of laurie's bras. they weren't getting any cheaper. but now she had a new worry. laurie's attitude. it was getting worse as laurie's breasts got bigger.

mary, noticing the change in laurie, tried talking with her daughter; but was ignored. she tried punishing laurie, but that proved an effort in futility. looking up at six foot tall laurie and her ever-expanding chest, mary felt powerless. child-like. afraid. she could raise neither her voice nor her hand to laurie. she could only watch laurie's attitude get worse. which it did — every two weeks. month after month. on up to the holiday season.

it was the week before christmas and laurie needed another bra. so, she and her mom made their bi-weekly visit to intimate secrets. mary was becoming more and more reluctant to take laurie to intimate secrets. the girl was turning into a real horror and she hated subjecting the staff to laurie's ever-worsening behavior. but mary didn't know anyplace else to take laurie to get her bras, so they ultimately did anyway.

when laurie and mary entered the store, the regular, more experienced staff members got scared. they had all been victims of laurie's worsening attitude and wanted to avoid the girl like the plague. so, donna got to wait on laurie.

donna was the newest addition to the intimate secrets staff. she hadn't yet encountered laurie. so when laurie and mary entered the store, donna greeted them with a cheerful: "welcome to intimate secrets!" donna's smile quickly turned to astonishment when laurie removed her coat. the girl was huge.

"oh, hello," laurie responded looking at donna ,"you must be new. i'm laurie metzer, i'm something of a regular customer of intimate secrets."

donna was still speechless, as laurie steered her into one of the store's special dressing rooms. it was the policy of intimate secrets to make their clients feel special and one way they accomplished that goal was with individual dressing rooms. laurie's visits had become so routine that she had her own dressing room specially reserved for her bi-weekly visits.

mary watched as laurie and donna entered the room. she feared for the intimate secrets' worker. she knew how abusive laurie was to the staff. she had suffered those abuses personally. but not this time. mary decided she wasn't going to enter laurie's dressing room. she felt for donna, but the newest member of intimate secrets would just have to be on her own.

in the room, donna asked laurie to take her top off. she made this request like a trained automaton. she wasn't even aware the words were coming from her mouth. it was intimate secrets' superior training, more than anything else, that was enabled her to do her job. without that training, she undoubtedly would have been mute.

laurie took off her top revealing her last intimate secrets purchase. she did it proudly, knowing what an effect her chest had on first-time viewers. donna was no exception. she let out an audible gasp when confronted with laurie's pulchritude.

donna, without looking, stumbled over to where the measurement tapes were kept. she knocked over a mess of equipment, filling the room with a cacophony of noise. laurie laughed. she loved slapstick comedy and donna was performing like a veteran of vaudeville.

donna, with measuring tape, went to laurie. her hands were shaking as she prepared to measure laurie. she studied the bra, noticing that it was an exceptional example of design and construction. an intimate secrets original. with its many hooks, straps, and quality stitching, donna felt like she was seeing a work of art. a work of art somehow desecrated by fifteen year-old laurie overloading the bra — her flesh overriding the sides. it was unthinkable and, yet, the proof was right in front of donna's eyes.

donna checked laurie's records from two weeks ago. she was amazed by the girl's stats. could she really be that much bigger in two weeks? there was only one way to find out.

donna preceded to take the first measurement below the bra. the tape read 28 inches. donna added six to the number and came up with a 34 band size.

laurie wasn't surprised. she had been a 34 for awhile. she knew the only measurement of hers that was increasing was her cup size. that's what made these bi-weekly visits so necessary — her outgrowing her bra cups. so without waiting for donna's request, she removed her old bra. its tightness was starting to annoy her.

donna watched as laurie removed her bra. she was hypnotized. unable to take her eyes off even the smallest gesture. she didn't blink. her eyes fixated on laurie's every move. and then laurie's bra hit the floor.

donna's eyes seemed to double in size. she knew laurie was big, but apparently her old bra was doing some minimizing. how, she didn't know. but without the bra, laurie was huge — immense, even.

donna had to regain control. that's what the intimate secrets training manual said. be in control. so, she proceeded to measure laurie. when in doubt — whip it out. she wrestled with the measuring tape. she had to; laurie wasn't helping. it was an effort, but she finally got the necessary figure: 44. hmm, she thought 44 minus 34 is 10. that would mean laurie was a j-cup. a j-cup? impossible. but the tape didn't lie; laurie metzer was indeed a j-cup.

laurie heard donna announce her new growth with indescribable relish. she was huge. and she was still growing. there was no telling how big she would ultimately get. she was already a j-cup at the age of fifteen. not many people — certainly none she knew of — could say that. and as a test she asked donna how big she was.

"a d-cup," donna responded nervously, which was strange for her. in the past, she loved sharing the fact that she was a d-cup. it made her feel special — womanly — especially since on her slight frame, a "d" looked huge. but laurie's asking felt different. uncomfortable.

"a d-cup, eh," laurie replied. "that means i'm more than twice as big as you are." she said shaking her tits in front of donna, who felt a strong desire to cover her endowments, which she did with her hands. unconsciously.

"well, yes, i suppose you are" donna said in a nervous tone of voice. she was staring at laurie's breasts. twice her size? they looked ten times her size.

"but look at me and look at you," laurie continued. "my j's are so much bigger than your d's. if i was standing next to you outside this store would any guy pay you any attention? i think not. i mean, c'mon, i make you look like a child. flatchested. d-cups, what a joke?"

donna listened as laurie continued. and broke down. she wasn't prepared for an attack like laurie's. it wasn't in the training manual — what do you do when a fifteen year-old wearing a j-cup bra belittles you? so, donna did the only thing she could: she left the room, crying.

laurie watched donna's departure. mission accomplished, she thought to herself. she so enjoyed being the biggest around. but more than that, she enjoyed letting everyone know she was the biggest. donna just happened to be the first to hear the news, but by day's end, everyone in laurie's community would know she was now wearing a j-cup bra. she guaranteed it.

mary watched donna exit the room crying, and her heart went out for the intimate secrets employee. mary knew her daughter had gone too far this time. she was going to speak to laurie. it was long overdue. it was time for mary metzer to become the mom, again.

laurie dressed and completed her transaction. it was automatic, almost instantaneous now. the store had an idea of laurie's wants and needs with regard to her brassieres and had the desired styles and sizes on-hand. her mother's credit information, thanks to laurie's bi-weekly visits, was also on hand. and the intimate secrets staff was increasingly glad to see laurie leave their store — knowing two weeks later, like clockwork, she would again darken their door.

laurie exited the store, oblivious to her mistreatment of donna, and was stopped by her mom.

"laurie, i want to talk to you," mary said.

"but what if i don't want to talk to you?"

"listen young lady, i've noticed your attitude of late, and i don't like it. i don't like the way you treated that saleslady, at all," mary said loudly. she hadn't raised her voice to her daughter in a while and was somewhat out of practice.

"oh, you don't like my attitude. am i supposed to care what you think?"

"laurie..."

"look, i'm really not in the mood for a lecture, okay? i probably wouldn't listen if i was in the mood, but i'm certainly not going to stand in a mall and let you try to play mom, okay? so i'll catch you later. and don't wait up, okay?"

"where are you going?" mary said, watching as laurie turned her back on her and walked away.

"don't worry, mom," laurie said, turning to face mary with a smile. "i'll get a ride home, okay? when you're a j-cup, like me, transportation isn't hard to come by."

mary heard those words and started crying. that wasn't how it was supposed to happen, she thought. i'm the mother — i'm the mother — i'm the mother!

mary was still crying, when she was suddenly offered a handkerchief.

"wipe your eyes, mary," a voice said. mary took the handkerchief, doing what the voice commanded. she turned around and standing before her was santa or the guy playing him this year.

"laurie sure is naughty this year," he said.

"wha — what?" mary said not quite hearing the santa's comment. "laurie being naughty? i guess so."

she then looked at the man in the furry red suit. her mind instantly recited the part of "'twas the night before christmas" that described santa claus. and the description fitted the man to a tee. he had the child-like dimples and twinkling eyes. his cheeks were like roses. his nose a cherry. his beard was indeed white as snow. and if it wasn't for the no smoking law, mary was sure he would've had a stump of a pipe held tightly in his teeth, while smoke was encircling his head like a wreath.

"santa," she said reflexively, and the man nodded his head.

"but how?" she asked him, and he said:

"mary, believe it or not, i keep something of a low profile this time of year. parents, friends, neighbors, and the mall santas out there do a pretty good job of keeping my legend going, so i'm not as busy as i used to be. i handle special cases and you and laurie are what i call a special case."

"but what's so special about our case?" mary asked.

"well, you see, laurie's on my naughty list. and i really don't think she should be on it."

"you don't?"

"i don't," santa said with a smile. "i know she's been something of a troublemaker lately and i find her treatment of donna, the lady who just waited on her in intimate secrets, unacceptable; but i know that's not the real laurie."

"it isn't?"

"no, mary, it isn't."

"but how can you be so sure?" mary asked.

"i'm santa, remember?" he said, gesturing to his outfit.

and mary laughed aloud, feeling a little stupid. of course, santa would know if laurie was naughty or nice, it was in the song, duh! but she still wondered how he was going to get laurie off his naughty list.

"on christmas day", he told mary,"i'm going to give you the best gift a mother could receive."

"what?" mary asked, wondering what gift he was talking about.

"your daughter, mary," santa replied. "i'm giving you the gift of family."

and that was almost a week ago. in the days following that encounter, mary began to have doubts about the santa encounter. did she imagine the meeting? was that even the real santa? and if he was santa; how was he going to give her the gift of family?

mary didn't have a clue. the only thing she knew was that laurie was getting worse. corrupted by her j-cup bra, the fifteen year-old was out of control. mary felt powerless to do anything about her daughter's behavior, believing that only a miracle could help her now. a miracle? well, this was the season. and the big guy, himself, had promised mary a miracle on christmas. she only hoped the miracle was big enough to do the job.

christmas day arrived with a scream. one of laurie's. the fifteen year-old had risen from her bed effortlessly. which didn't make any sense. she was a j-cupper, carrying around so much babbage that getting out of bed had always taken some effort. but not this morning. something was missing.

laurie bought her hands to her chest — her flat chest. they were gone! her breasts, her j-cup sized breasts were gone, and she was screaming.

mary, hearing her daughter screaming, did what any mother would do: she got out of bed, making a beeline for her daughter's room. she never got there.

mary felt a strong pressure squeezing her chest. she thought it was adrenaline at first. stress caused by hearing her daughter screaming. but the closer she got to laurie's room, the stronger the pressure became.

mary stopped running, trying to catch her breath. she put her hand on her chest, reflexively, hoping to relieve the pressure. her hands touched her breasts. her breasts? mary unbuttoned her pyjama top and couldn't believe her eyes. her breasts were growing.

she watched as the mounds on her chest, initially no bigger than her nipples, began to assume shape. becoming rounder. globe-like. bigger. firmer. covering her torso, as they continued to grow — inch by inch.

mary's mind needed to put her growing breasts in some sort of perspective. she immediately thought of her daughter's j-cups, which to her surprise, were dwarfed by what she was sporting on her chest. i'm bigger than laurie. laurie? and mary's maternal instinct resumed control — she had to see why her daughter was screaming. she was moving towards laurie's bedroom as fast as she could, when she felt something collide with her breasts. it wasn't painful, a surprised mary thought. in fact, it was rather sensual. and for a quick second, mary was tempted to caress her tits. seeing if she could increase the sensual feeling she had just glimpsed. but, no, laurie came first. she had to see what was wrong with her daughter.

mary looked at the ground. she wanted to see what ran into her. but her breasts blocked her view. i can't see my feet, mary thought to herself, or anything below my waist.

and then she heard laurie's voice coming from the ground. her daughter sounded like she had a hangover, and mary quickly realized it was laurie who collided with her. she backed up slowly, allowing laurie room to stand up.

laurie stood up, and mary was shocked to see laurie without her j-cups. laurie, of course, was equally surprised to see her mom with tits!

"mom, is that you?" laurie asked not believing her eyes.

"in the flesh, dear," mary responded realizing how significant her statement was. she had flesh alright — acres of it.

"but how?" laurie asked.

mary looked at her daughter and looked at herself. she concluded this was her gift from santa. it had to be. but she couldn't see how giving her breasts and taking laurie's away was suppose to unite her family. but she told laurie about her meeting with santa. she was through lying to her daughter.

"that's impossible, mom" was laurie's response. she called me mom, mary thought, recalling how laurie hadn't been doing that for awhile. and then she realized that her and her daughter were actually having a conversation. a real conversation.

mary had told laurie that the proof of her santa meeting was right in front of them. and laurie had to agree. she didn't know any other way to explain the loss of her j-cups or how her mother suddenly developed a pair of humongous tits. it had to be santa.

and, without thinking about it, mother and daughter had agreed on something. they had both agreed that santa existed. this one step on common ground setting the stage for a reconciliation they thought impossible.

so they talked. really talked. and they listened. really listened. and it was like old times. good times. they laughed. they cried. they even measured mary's new tits, discovering that she was an enormous 34-u (more than twice the size of laurie's j-cups). and while mother and daughter talked, mary received the gift that santa talked about. she had her daughter back. she had her family. laurie wasn't naughty anymore.

and it was true. laurie had gotten off santa's naughty list. she was nice again and with the shift in her attitude, her j-cups returned.

"mom, look!" she yelled, "i've got my j-cups! i've got my j-cups! wait until i show those flatchested—"

and with that shift in attitude, laurie's breasts started deflating.

"laurie," mary said to her daughter in a reproachful tone of voice.

"i'm sorry, mom. i'm sorry, santa!" laurie yelled. "i'll be nice. i promise!"

and with that promise, laurie regained her j-cups. and when she broke that promise, she lost her j-cups. it was part of being one of santa's special cases. a trial period, of sorts. but in a rather short period of time, laurie truly became nice and no longer had to worry about her breasts disappearing whenever she lost her temper.

she was her mother's daughter again — inseparable from mary. it was santa's gift. a gift displayed for all to see when mary and laurie became star attractions on the strip circuit. the biggest mom and daughter team in the history of stripperdom.

but that, dear readers, is another story.

the end

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