This choice: The next day brings more changes. • Go Back...Chapter #8The next day brings more changes. by: Wassel   At least, this was how you left it on the Friday. By the Saturday, when you next spoke to her over the phone, your opinion had shifted significantly. As had hers. The very first thing she said to you being, "Okay. I think you're right. I think what you said before... About me looking taller... it's not just in your head. I definitely am!"
"Whoa! What, uh... What do you mean?" you asked. Being taken aback by this statement.
"Well, when I woke up this morning I went to put on my favorite jeans. You know those cute ones with the little pink rabbit on the back pocket?..." she began rambling. The words coming out of her mouth a mile a minute. "...And when I pulled them on, they... Well they don't fit! They're much too short! And at first I thought that maybe they'd shrunk a little in the wash, but it's the same with my black ones. Not to mention that my shoes feel way too small. Which doesn't make any sense at all as I just had them on yesterday and I... I kinda feel like I'm going crazy!"
This did admittedly sound strange. But despite how panicked she sounded, you didn't want to jump to any conclusions too early. Settling instead for trying to deescalate things. Telling her, "You're not. You're not going crazy, Alli. Just... Just calm down. I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation." There has to be... right? Instructing her
to stay where she was while you headed on over. Having apparently not even mentioned any of this to her parents yet. Who, for the time being, were out. Hightailing it at double speed on your bicycle and being greeted by her once again at the door. Though this time she was nervously hiding behind it. Her blue eyes darting too and fro as she beckoned you inside. Clearly not wanting anyone else to see her.
"See! I mean just look at me!" she said, once you were both standing in the hallway.
Near enough doing a double take when you saw the entirety of her frame. What the fuck!? It perhaps having been ambiguous the previous time whether or not she'd grown, but it certainly wasn't now. Allison being only a couple of inches smaller than you were. Plus, the cute little pajama bottoms that she was currently wearing were creeping quite dramatically up her legs. As if they had indeed shrunk in the wash. Which left you at a complete loss for words. No... No way!
"How on Earth is this happening? I haven't grown an inch in like almost two years!"
Which she hadn't. It was you instead who'd shot up about six inches since then. Remembering when the two of you had been roughly the same size.
Having no other answer for her but, "I... I dunno. But, uh... Maybe we should get a tape measure."
Which you did. Allison fetching one out of the kitchen drawer and positioning herself next to the wall while you took her measurements. Not being 100% sure but you almost felt like her chest was a little larger too. Poking out a little more from her pajama top. Though with everything else that was going on and how much she was currently freaking out already you decided not to mention it. Instead verifying, without a shadow a doubt, that she was 5' 8". Being a full four inches taller than she used to be.
"Okay. Maybe... Maybe it's a late growth spurt or something," you proposed. Trying to make sense of what you were seeing. Asking both her and yourself, "Those can happen right? I'm sure Freddie Anders shot up a whole two inches just before the summer."
"Yeah, but that's different. He's a boy!" she pointed out. Slumping down at the kitchen table and letting out a sigh. "Boy's grow for a lot longer than girls do."
"Then what? You think... You think that whole Project Gargantua, brain transplant thing is responsible?" Bringing up the very same idea that she had joked about before. It being the only other explanation that you could think of. "That the doctors were wrong about it not working and this is some sort of crazy side effect?"
She could only shrug however. "Maybe. I'm not sure." Having no more answers than you did.
Whatever the reason was you needed to find out. Especially if it was going to continue happening. As four whole inches in less than two days wasn't exactly nothing. Deciding that the only option was to give Dr. Kerry a call. Who'd given Allison his number before she'd been discharged. Just in case, as he himself had put it, "anything crops up". And something most definitely had! Not bothering to wait until her parents got back and talk it all through with them first. There not really feeling like there was any time to lose. And especially not if it was connected to the whole secret military experiment thing. Which neither Mr. or Mrs. Lowry even knew about. Needing to break the NDA that you'd both signed before you could even begin to explain.
And so, on calling Kerry up he appeared very intrigued by this apparent side effect. Telling Allison to come see him at the hospital straight away to "See if we can't get to the bottom of this and find out exactly what's going on."
Which was why, after leaving a note for her parents, Allison got herself dressed in a loose top and skirt and squeezed her feet into a pair of sandals. The two of you rushing then to catch the next bus to the hospital and arriving there a good half hour later. During which time your visibly anxious girlfriend couldn't stop fiddling with the bottom of her skirt. Feeling extremely nervous about what the doctor might say was wrong with her. Sharing her concern with you that she didn't want to end up like some sort of giant freak. Which you did your best to assure her she wouldn't. Even though you really had no idea. Being just as much out of your depth with all of this as you had been with the whole brain transplant procedure. Still not really understanding the half of it truth be told.
On arriving at the hospital and Kerry's office, the short, mustachioed doctor was immediately taken aback by what he saw as well. What with Allison being taller now than he was. Which was the opposite of what they'd been before. Hurrying you both inside his office and telling you to take a seat behind his desk. Wanting to know absolutely everything that had happened. When you'd first noticed these changes. How frequent they had been. Appearing utterly fascinated by the answers, and continually looking Allison up and down. Which you were pretty sure made her feel self conscious. But then so had the entirety of your bus journey. As well as the short walk here.
"Okay, first things first," the doctor said, once you were finished. "I think we should take some blood samples and then run a few tests. Then we can maybe start to figure out what exactly is going on."
To which Allison nodded. Being even more keen than he was.
The next forty minutes being spent doing exactly that. Dr. Kerry and Dr. Saunders (who showed up not long after) leading her into various different rooms with various different pieces of equipment. Taking all sorts of scans, measurements and readings. While you were forced just to sit there in their office and wait. Wait to see what it was they found. And what exactly was happening to your girlfriend.
Which, when they finally returned with the results a good hour and a half later, wasn't the news either of you had hoped for. Having wanted them to tell you that it wasn't nothing to be concerned about, and that girls in their mid teens often experienced an extra growth spurt. It all being perfectly natural. But instead what they actually told you was that the work they'd done with Project GARGANTUA had, unbeknownst to anyone else, actually been a success. The results having simply failed to show up in the test subject. Instead taking the transplant procedure and addition of Allison's brain to activate the process. Meaning that on a hormonal, cellular and genetic level, her body was indeed changing. The growth plates in her bones having been reactivated, while her muscle tissues was similarly effected. Expanding now as the rest of her body did. And, from what they were able to decipher from their tests, wasn't showing any signs of stopping any time soon. Which came as a huge shock to you and an even bigger one to Allison. This being exactly what she was afraid of. Leaving you both at a complete loss for words.
"Now clearly this isn't anything that we could have anticipated or foreseen," Kerry explained. Appearing rather flabbergasted by it all himself. "It's... It's... I don't know... A one in a billion fluke! Project Gargantua was supposed to be a failure. At least that's what General Mankowitz told us." This presumably being the person who'd was in charge.
"But what... What happens now?" Allison queried. Once she'd finally regained the ability to speak. Asking the most pertinent question that she could think of. "How much bigger am I going to get?"
To which he answered, "Well that's... That's the thing I'm afraid. We simply don't know. Project Gargantua was intended to create super soldiers. Men who were much bigger and stronger than the human norm. But what effect it will have on you there really is no way of telling. You could grow an extra couple of inches, an extra foot, or perhaps even more. We really won't know until it stops."
"Oh God!" she whimpered. Placing her hands over her face at this uncertain and terrifying news. Growing an extra foot being insane. But more than that... You couldn't even begin to image.
Thinking to yourself as you did your best to try and comfort your girlfriend, This... This can't be real! It's got to be some kind of joke...
Unfortunately it wasn't. This was actually happening. She was growing and would soon be just as tall as you. If not taller. Which was something that you were both going to have to get used to.
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