“Adriana!” snapped Mrs. Serkis. “Are you stuffing your bra?”
The class giggled and Adriana turned red.
“Well?”
“No, Mrs. Serkis.”
“It’s true,” said Miss Courtney, the classroom aide. “She didn’t do anything.” Miss Courtney winked. Adriana’s chest was packed with tissues, but she and Miss Courtney knew that technically she had no bra to stuff.
While Mrs. Serkis’s back was turned, however, the girls were passing around a tiny box full of mints. Each girl took one and passed it on, but Adriana didn’t get any. “Miss Courtney!”
“Shhhh!” said Kelly, who sat next to her.
“But what—“
Suddenly a death stare from all the girls withered Adriana like a stuffed flower. She sheepishly looked at her work. Then, when Mrs. Serkis was writing multiplication tables on the board, they all popped the mints in their mouths.
None of the girls wore training bras that day. The school cut down because bra-stuffing was getting out of hand; all the tissues in the school had disappeared, and twice the bathroom stalls were out of toilet paper, even in the boys’ room. It was a surprise to Adriana when, after half an hour of sucking, her classmates’ breasts began budding.
Their nipples showed through their shirts, pushed out by slowly-swelling chests. By lunch time each of the girls was giggling, their tits shaking and with each laugh. The candy was still in their mouths, and each suck swelled their chests imperceptibly, but little by little they got bigger and heavier. By the time gym class started, coach made them sit out from jumping jacks. They sat on the sidelines, grinning and swelling. When gym ended most of them were sent home. When they came back, Adriana knew, they would be far beyond training bras. Adriana watched them walk away, shirts straining and breasts bobbing underneath.
“It’s not fair!” Adriana pouted.
Miss Courtney shook her head. “If I was in your place, I’d enjoy my age while I could.”
“I’ll trade with you!”
“That’s not what I meant, but thanks.”
“But why do they get those mints. I wanted some!”
Miss Courtney shook her head. “It was kind of a dick move.”
Adriana gasped. “You swore!”
Miss Courtney put her finger to her lips and slid a piece of paper across the desk. Adriana read it; “Cheerleaders” was all it said.
Adriana’s heart sank.
“Don’t tell anyone.”