"Hello once again!" The short-haired brunette in a lab coat and T-shirt gestured to herself. "I'm Jordan, and this-" She gestured to the pony-tailed brunette in a lab coat and pant suit beside her. "-is Flora."
Flora gave a polite nod. "How do you do."
"We're here to do more science."
"I couldn't help but notice that we're both in lab coats," Flora said. "Which one of us is the subject of this experiment, pray tell?"
"Neither of us."
Flora arched an eyebrow. "Really."
"Really. It's the sort of science that we need another person for." She turned, waving someone over. "Come on!"
A caramel-skinned young woman with deep brown shoulder-length hair confidently walked into view, dressed in green latex bike shorts and a crop top that left her toned midriff exposed. "The name's Kesia. How's it going?"
"Quite a bit better," Flora replied, "knowing I won't be getting very small or very large for once."
"But I will," Kesia said. She gestured to her abs. "I know you had me wear this to show off, but not in the usual way."
Jordan reached into the pocket of her lab coat, producing several index cards. "Usual for most people, maybe, but not for you. Flora?"
"I'll be right back," Flora said, walking off.
"Thank you. Now then, let's talk about food. Food has calories, but what we call 'calories' is actually known as a large calorie, kilogram calorie, kilocalorie, or food calorie, the symbol for which is 'Cal' with a capital 'C'. The symbol 'cal' with a lower-case 'C' denotes the small calorie or gram calorie, and is defined as the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius at standard atmospheric pressure. So food calories are basically measures of the amount of energy required to heat one liter of water one degree Celsius."
"You brought me here for a lecture?" Kesia asked.
"It's for science." Jordan threw an index card away. "Now, the average woman needs 2,000 calories of food per day, and any calories in excess of that are typically turned to fat. One pound of fat is approximately equal to 3,500 calories so, for example, if Kesia or I ate 2,500 calories a day we'd be gaining one pound a week." Holding a card between two fingers, she sent it spinning away in a lazy arc. "Coincidentally, do you know what else equals 3,500 calories?"
There was a pregnant silence as Kesia stood there with her hands behind her back, waiting patiently for a few seconds before glancing over at Jordan. Jordan made an encouraging gesture with her free hand, to which Kesia replied by shrugging. Jordan rolled her eyes, though before things could continue Flora returned, wheeling in a large table stacked high with boxes and trays of thick, creamy white discs.
"Cheesecake," Jordan said.
"Oh!" Kesia laughed nervously. "Sorry, you didn't explain what was going on."
"She usually doesn't," Flora said, setting down a chair. "Enjoy."
Kesia's gaze went from Flora, to the table, to Jordan, back to the table, then back to Flora. "For real?"
"Yes."
"All of this-" She gestured. "-is for me?"
"Yes."
"For science," Jordan added.
Kesia rubbed her hands together, licking her lips as she sat down. Picking up a slice, she brought it to her open mouth, neatly inhaling it in two huge bites. "If'h goob!"
"I know, right?" She took a second to read the topmost card in her hand. "So let's say that Kesia here is a hundred and forty pounds, and she's interested in becoming three hundred pounds."
"She's certainly on her way," Flora said, watching her devour the food.
"She'd have to gain a hundred and sixty pounds, or take in 560,000 calories. That's the equivalent of three hundred and twenty cheesecakes." She let the card drop just as Kesia began working on the second cake. "Anyone could do it, just not in one sitting."
Kesia let out a muffled "mmf" and pointed to herself, holding a half-eaten wedge of raspberry swirl cheesecake.
"Don't worry, I was getting to that. Now, the average human stomach holds thirty-three ounces and can stretch to a hundred and thirty-five. That's a little more than a gallon."
"I'm reminded of the time," Flora said, "that you recorded yourself doing the gallon of milk challenge and acting like it was absurdly simple in order to trick others into doing the same and getting sick."
She laughed. "Yeah, that was great. Anyhoo, that's not a lot of room for food when you get down to it. If you wanted to eat all of that cheesecake in one sitting, by the time you were done your stomach would be four feet across and weight about six hundred and forty pounds."
Flora and Jordan looked over at Kesia as the latter threw another card away. She was making rapid progress; her abs had lost their definition, replaced by a soft bulge.
"We might be here a while," Flora said.
"Dnn wrr-" Kesia held up an index finger, swallowing what was her mouth. "Don't worry, I'm willing to do whatever it takes for science."
"That's the spirit!" Jordan replied.
Following that statement Kesia fell silent again as she ate unrelentingly, without pause. Her gain was both slow and fast, a gradual swelling that started out round, then became ever so slightly teardrop-shaped once it was large enough to be burdened by gravity. It grew onto her lap then, as she spread her legs, filled the space between them, curving around her as it merged with her newfound love handles. As cakes continued to disappear and be delivered by Flora and Jordan she sagged towards the floor, forced to sit bow-legged due to its size. Eventually they began stacking the food up on the shelf of her belly once it rested against the floor and, after what felt like hours, the last of the cakes disappeared down her throat.
Kesia smacked her lips. "That was good." She leaned forward, spreading her arms across the swell of her distended gut. "That was -so- good."
"I can't imagine you'd have the opportunity to do it too often," Flora said.
"Oh, no, I have a figure to maintain. Besides, food is more expensive than water or air."
"Now," Jordan said, putting away her phone and pulling the index cards out again, "let's talk digestion. The breakdown of food varies depending on where it is. Carbohydrates, like sugars, break down in the mouth, proteins in the stomach, and fats in the intestine. Digestion takes about six to eight hours, but that's for a normal meal. Something like this-" She patted the side of Kesia's stomach. "-would take several orders of magnitude longer to break down."
"As an aside," Flora added, "all of this is discounting certain... other bodily functions."
"Yeah, you'd need to go somewhere else for that." She threw the card over her shoulder. "Finally, the average human contains 110,000 calories, or about thirty pounds of added weight. But don't eat people."
"Don't tell me what to do with my life," Kesia retorted.
Flora and Jordan eyed Kesia warily before exchanging a glance and quietly edging away from her.