Layla – the Beginning

OK, I actually wanted to put this up last week alongside the "Bigger than a Breadbox" set, but I wanted to get some time seperated from that before putting this up.  Pretty much this better explains the first pic of the set….partially since it was written after that first tale.

Sophomore year: the year in high school between the naiveté of freshman year and the intensive college preparation of junior year.  If there was one year of school that you do not want to screw up, this was it.  While many students didn’t really have to worry after a successful freshman year, others had a lot on their mind as they prepared to put on their uniforms, pick up their books and head out for another year of learning.  If they screwed up tenth grade, then they could say goodbye to that highly rated university!
Layla Kira Richardson was one of those students for whom things didn’t quite go as planned during her Freshman year.  When she first started high school, she became a bit more enthusiastic about starting a social life than worried about her studies.  Within three months of starting, she had over a hundred phone numbers on her cell phone and spent every Friday or Saturday with a group of girls hanging out at the local pizzeria, the mall or the movie theater.  Unfortunately, Layla was never the leader of these girls or even the center of attention once!  Instead, she was “just one of the groupies”, thrown together with a bunch of popular or extremely attractive ladies who ran around with their bellybutton rings sticking out and their perfectly glistened hair hanging down their bodies.  While the leading ladies were the goddess of the school, she was merely “one of the many cute ones”, a slender female, five foot five inches with cute auburn pigtails that hung down her head and hazel eyes looking out at the world.  Her clothing were rather modest, seeing herself covering her physique to enhance her face.  And when it came to the opposite sex, she never really got anywhere: the dates she did have were either arranged due to a group get-together or merely as a stepping stone for the attractive ones to be alerted to them.  As much as there were many parts she didn’t like about this, Layla at least felt comfortable that she had someplace and someone to be with in this school.
Unfortunately, while her attempts of being a social butterfly was barely making progress, Layla’s grades during freshman year were barely enough to allow for promotion!  With most of her concentration based on trying to call up friends on her cell phone and creating a MySpace site for them and to show off herself and her stuffed animal collection, she merely put a bare minimum effort on her studies, if only enough to know what the heck she was reading.  By the end of the year, the fruits of her accomplishments allowed her to receive a C in biology, a D in English and a C- in her algebra class!  One of the only classes she was able to at least get an A in was world history: somehow her parent’s rabid interests in learning about where the world was and where it was going was enough to let her dive in to learning about ancient, medieval and modern civilizations.  The only other class she even came close to that much study was her first level Spanish course, upon which she had no choice to study in order to pass the class and understand what everyone was saying. (she got an A- there).  Making matters even worse than her scholastic achievements was her grade in gym class: though she claimed she put in all the effort she could, she never found herself skilled or able to pass any of the physical aptitude tests, let alone cared to play or be a very good teammate with anyone.  It was this that lead her to get a D- in her physical education, dragging her GPA further while almost making her held back if it weren’t for her As!
It was around late August, weeks before the start of sophomore year, that the school contacted both Layla and her parents about her progress.  The three of them went to school for a conference on the Thursday before Labor Day, where a teacher and a guidance counselor talked about what she should do.  Although her parents found out for the first time, Layla knew that they were going to tell her to spend less time on her cell and the web and spend more time hitting the books.  Since she already had that speech planned in her head prior to coming here, she knew what was coming and made it seem like a terrible loss.  But at the same time, she knew that within weeks she would probably be back to how she was regardless of her study schedule.
It was then that the counselor brought up a more sensitive topic regarding Miss Richardson’s future: her physical education.  Since she could not just study her way out of getting a D- like she did last year, Layla knew she had to do something if only to shut them up and raise her average and her class ranking to something more respectable.  A gym teacher from the school was brought in to talk about several options open to those that wanted to get more active, if only to help her in the long run.  Since there was no way Layla was ever going to get on a varsity team without any experience and since she knew that they would probably pass on her for cheerleading (since some of her “friends” were already on that squad), there were only three options left for her: an interschool league, weight training or her own personal routine.  The sporting options for the interschool leagues varied that fall between sports such as volleyball, soccer, touch football and even tennis, but none of them really rung too well in the teen’s ears.  Then there was weight training, which appeared an even more tedious option!  Layla remembered looking at some muscle magazines at a bookstore, where she got grossed out seeing these huge slabs of flesh on these men and women as they grunted and grinned with their tan skin and their veiny, fatless flesh!  The women in particular looked freakish, like men who had to get implants in order to show off a tiny fraction of feminine appearance!  So that left creating her own personal routine, which Layla knew was probably going to be active for two or three days and then fall apart as she either studied or hung out with her girlfriends.  In the end, she had to pretty much relentlessly choose weight training, since it would force her to at least try…as well as the option of keeping things moderate instead of turning into a veiny she-man.

Ms. Richardson’s first day of weight training occurred at the very end of her first day back at school.  After she finished learning all she could, she made her way to the gym locker room and got changed into a modest, cute outfit consisting of a pair of shorts that went down to her knees, a long T-shirt and a sports bra hiding her non-existent chest from prying eyes. (the gym teacher told her that wire bras were probably not going to be a good idea)  She kept her pigtails up even though she was advised against it and then walked her way into the weight room.  It was a modest-sized white room filled with all sorts of equipment and weights for any possible imagined muscle group.  As Layla arrived, it was already filled with several members of the football team, each of whom were pumping their bodies for the home opener coming up in a couple days.  A couple of girls were in there as well, one of whom was one of her “friends” who was lifting small dumbbells of 20 pounds for her arms.  As she watched the slender arm rise slightly as the weight went up and down, she wondered whether to ask her about her routine or maybe trade some tips.  But instead, she pulled off a couple of five-pound dumbbells from the same rack and found herself sitting on the other side of the same bench.  The weight felt like she was holding a heavy rock in each of her arms, making her feel rather nervous that she would start with something like this.  But since it was one of the few she could lift up rather easily, it wasn’t too much of a big deal.  From where she sat, she was in eye view of another football player, shirtless and lifting a huge barbell with two-hundred pounds, which she promptly closed her eyes to after her previous feelings.
With her mind set, her breathing calm and her body extremely unsure about what she was doing, Layla started to slowly lift up the small dumbbell in her left hand.  As she did, she felt the pressure of the heavy object as it rose not from gravity, but from her own force.  As soon as she had it from her bent position, she let gravity take over as it fell towards the ground.  Layla repeated the same action in her other hand, lifting the right dumbbell to the same height as the left before letting it down.  As she felt them fall, she felt like she was slightly exhausted from merely the first action.  Was this what it took to lift five stupid pounds?  Her hazel eyes looked out towards the large man at the barbells, sweating and breathing heavily as he continued pushing the two-hundred pounds above him up and down, working out each of his upper muscles until he was tired and greased all over!  It was this that made her happy she wasn’t this guy before going back to work.
Layla chose to do her rep with the five pounds for ten repetitious bends, going up and down with each motion.  As she pushed them, she felt the weights gaining more and more weight, as if her biceps were tiring out from merely this action!  After that, she altered it up a bit, using the same weight, but standing up and lifting instead of bending to work her triceps.  The first one was just as hard as the bicep lift, but she slowly got used to it as she wore down her arm muscles from merely the repetition.  With part of her body exhausted from merely her introduction to exercise, Layla used that as an excuse to not be more adventurous and try ten.
Seeing one of  the weight machines free, Layla decided to try the leg lifts next, in order to alter her routine instead of just the arms.  Walking over to the machine, she saw that someone had left it on 70 pounds, which was more than she knew she probably couldn’t do!  But seeing how she remembered how legs were probably a bit stronger due to how we had to walk, she decided to start with 30 pounds instead.  After setting the machine up, she placed her sneaker-covered feet on the pedal and began to push.  The amount she had felt a bit heavy compared to what she expected, but she slowly got used to doing reps with each push.  Instead of concentrating on just lifting, she pushed the weight slowly in order to get each and every fiber below engaged in trying to get it up.  After working with her thighs, she then turned around and began using the pedals in the opposite direction for calf and butt development.  Compared to her thighs, the teen’s calves and glutes had a much harder time lifting the weight.  She contemplated going back down to twenty, but her stubborn mind said that if her thighs can do it, than the whole thing can!  After pulling up and down for close to ten repetitious motions, Layla felt like her legs were turning into jelly instead of muscle, so she stopped!
With most of her body extremely sore, tired and wanting out, she decided to at least do one more set of lifts, but this time for her back.  Her arms were screaming in pain, wanting to relax, but she at least wanted her whole body limping out of here if she was going to get this gym assignment done instead of just part!  Moving to another part of the weight machine, she adjusted the knob to about ten pounds, then placed her hands behind her as she took the bar hanging above.  With one thrust, she pulled it down as best as possible, feeling it not only in her back but in her shoulders and ultimately her arms as well!  Even Layla’s pigtails felt the rush of the motion she was trying to accomplish.  But since she had such a big deal with merely five pounds for her biceps and triceps, ten for the rest of her back did not go as planned!  Within moments of her jerk, she felt her arms being tugged back upwards, flying until she heard the clank of the weight smashing down behind her in the machine!  It was this noise resonating through her ears that made her almost give up, but she felt everything needed a chance today.  She pulled the heavy ten-pound slab up and down several more times, not even counting how long since she knew that she would probably be tired soon anyway.  And, as Layla expected, she slowly felt the pain of the rest of her body spread to her back and shoulders, having not ever felt so much pressure outside the occasional heavy book she dragged back in freshman year!
It was at this point, sore, tired, with her heart beating insanely and her breath nearly throwing up out of her body, that Layla finally decided to call it a day.  It was merely the first day of training, so feeling horrible and sore was perhaps expected.  Everything from her arms, chest, back and legs felt extremely wobbly as she staggered across the room and towards the door out of the weight room, so much so that her pigtails bounced with every motion of her five foot five frame.  As she took one last look in the room, she saw the look of those disgusting football players, shirtless, rippling and trying to prepare themselves for the defensive line of the other team.  The cheerleader was also there, but she was stretching her body nimbly on a mat as she prepared for her own ordeals.  As she walked away from the room, she did a couple stretches around her arms, trying to engage her flat pecs while knowing her whole body was sore from everything she did.  She also moved her legs down and put a bit of pressure, limbering the joints allowing her to continue walking down the hall without falling flat on her face.  With a heavy sigh, Layla hoped that she would get used to this weight and then keep it up without too much change and then, maybe, she would pass gym.  But what she didn’t expect was that this first workout would be the mere spark of a physical awakening that would change her life forever!

Over the next several days, Layla returned to the gym every day in order to continue her little project.  After that first day, she slightly feared going back and wearing herself out on all of those weights a second or a third time.  But the determination of not failing gym class again and pushing her GPA down even further pushed her to go back!  To make matters easier on her, she brought in an MP3 player filled up with all sorts of cheesy poppy songs from her play list!  As she pushed the small dumb bells and the slabs on the machine up and down steadily, she lifted in beat to the sugar-coated love songs and ballads.  Unfortunately, she caught the disgruntled face of one of the football players one day, who could not believe that someone who was lifting would be so girly and cute, attacking his own masculinity!  Unfortunately, it wasn’t like Layla was going to move over to super hardcore rap or guitar-driven songs anytime soon, so he was forced to bare with barely hearing the stuff.
When Layla began her routine at the start of the month, her original intent was to stick with the weight that she had for probably most of her term.  But it was a couple days after she started when she realized that the five pound dumb bells were not as heavy as she originally thought.  In fact, what had been exhaustive merely two days ago had suddenly appeared light as a feather!  Seeing how she couldn’t keep lifting without a bit of resistance, she did the natural thing anyone would do: walk over and increase her dumb bells to ten pounds.  The same was happening to the rest of her initial routine: her 30 pound leg lift became 50, while exercising her back and pecs went from 10 to 25.  Within several days, this limit too became lighter, to the point of barely even noticing she was lifting it!  The teen girl thought that maybe she should take it easy, perhaps stick with this limit for a few weeks!  But when she returned to the gym a couple days later and found herself accidentally picking up twenty-pound dumb bells instead of the ten and feeling the resistance she wanted, she just chose to go with the flow!  Sure a little more strength on her thin body wouldn’t be too bad, just as long as she didn’t turn into a freak!
The remainder of her first month of school was rather hectic in many ways other than her lifting schedule.  Her new teachers showed no mercy in piling up homework and assignments by the score, all in the name of education.  Within two weeks of the start of school, she had three tests, five pop quizzes and a report that was due in the middle of October.  For about a week or so, Layla tried with all of her might to change her study habits from the horrible ones she kept all of Freshman year.  But after nearly drowning her mind in the notes and postulations and vocabulary she had to go through, she nearly lost it!  While she could work away stress of the school day on her gym program, she broke down in trying to keep up with her work at home!  It was soon after barely getting a C on the first English test of the year that she started calling her friends and hanging out in the crowd as she had before.  While she was trying hard to get better grades in class, the life of a super studier was not for her, particularly after seeing several girls get As on tests after touching and doing nothing!  Her main concern in boosting her grades now lied in boosting her horrible phys ed grade..which meant continuing with her weight training to help her scholastically!

It was a Friday towards the end of September that Layla started to realize the outcome of what she was doing.  She had been to the gym earlier in the day, having made her way to fifty pounds dumbbells that were starting to feel rather light, as well as pushing towards 75 pounds on the machine for her legs. (even though she probably couldn’t even touch 70 earlier in the month)  She really never got a good look at herself, but someone said she should probably start with the barbells if she was getting bored with the little stuff.  Layla didn’t see herself as bored, but didn’t really want the challenge of lifting a giant heavy bar up and down like the freaks who did.  It was around this time that she had been feeling rather strange as of late, as if she was starting to feel a bit fatter all over her body all of a sudden.  Her clothing still fit her, but it felt like her skin was touching her shirt as she wore it.  Even her chest felt weird, but she really didn’t want to look at it since it was probably the feeling of sweat between her nipples and her sports bra.  She really couldn’t bring herself to look in a mirror outside her face since that’s all that mattered to her girlfriends and the guys.  As long as both pigtails were cutely in place, she was happy.
With a couple hours before her big mall date, Layla ran into the bathroom to get herself ready.  As she bolted in, the first thing she did was unbutton a dress blouse to prepare her skin for the wet ritual.  As she took her shirt off, her eyes were unknowingly in front of a mirror, looking to see if all of her hairs were in place before taking the pigtails off.  But as she looked ahead of herself, something didn’t quite look right in the reflection.  Her eyes followed it down her torso towards her arms, but they didn’t seem like her arms.  Layla knew that her arms were slender and bony, but what she saw appeared toned and developed.  She moved her eyes towards her other side and saw that the other side was the same.  Was this really her?  She began to move her arms around, seeing the reflection with the tight limbs was doing the same thing.  With her breathing deepening, she then lifted one of them and curled it up.  As she did, she saw a low, rounded lump rise upwards from her arm, centimeters to an inch higher than relaxed.  Below, the muscles appeared to tighten for a couple centimeters as well.  Layla tried with her other arm and saw the same thing, a bicep that rose a couple centimeters, looking rather cute as opposed to a menacing or gross behavior!  Nerves began running through her head: was this actually muscle?
Ms. Richardson then stepped back for a couple feet to get a better look at the rest of her and see what else was going on.  She saw that her entire body, not just her arms, felt tighter and more aligned than it ever had before.  It was as if her skin and her structure were fusing together, allowing for something to pass through.  Between her chest and her bellybutton, she saw a line emerging, separating two separate sides.  She began to tighten her stomach and saw what appeared to be the beginnings of an abdomen taking shape!  Taking off a school skirt, she saw that her legs also appeared tight, as if skin and muscle were coming together and making her feel more complete.  A quick turn-around showed that even her back felt like it was “coming together” in tightening and showing off a bit of muscle on the outside.  But most intriguingly was how her chest felt the same way as the rest of her, even as her A-cup bra remained on her body.  Had they been altered as well?  Moving her fingers behind her and taking off a white bra strap, she slowly took off her support…and finally saw why she felt so full up there!  Two small mounds, rising and falling like a nearly flat hillside, appeared straight ahead of her, complete with her nipples pointing outwards in a perfectly aligned position!  Apparently, lifting seemed to finally let puberty get kick started around there, seeing how having a bit of a chest was better than wearing a bra for no reason! 
As she looked at her body, nearly nude and as it was, Layla’s mind began to race once again with possibilities both good…and bad!  In one month, she had gone from a thin waif girl to a cute, slightly toned female that perhaps could get a better gym grade.  And all of this was from somehow easily being able to increase her abilities to lift and get a bit stronger!  But as she looked once again around her body, the fear began overtaking her.  What if this was the beginning of her road to becoming one of those muscle-bound she-men?  If lifting for one month would tighten her up, then what would happen next!?  But once again, she flowed her eyes down to the soft, small lumps on her chest and the abs that were appearing from flexing…even the small biceps from before!  After one month of bodybuilding, she was still cute and attractive and not the least freakish or ugly!  While she knew that there was a chance of getting worse, she was intrigued by how far she could take this development.  Perhaps she could just stay as is and feel great.  Or perhaps her body could buck the trend: gaining a bit more mass and development and become a much sexier female instead of a muscle-bound freak!  Not to mention that if she stopped now, the emergent muscle she had could quickly turn to fat, making her even worse off than she was as that skinny rail of a cutie.  Of course, she would have to keep this a secret to those females  she hung out with, but the imagination of having maybe a slightly larger chest and a tone, maybe fitness-like body, was intriguing enough to keep going..at least for the time being!  But before Layla entered the shower, she made a firm pact: the moment that things get too much is the moment she stops.  She may like it now, but who knows what the next month would bring.

As an afternote, Layla discovered one more tiny thing that night that she didn’t really care about too much.  While her pants still felt a tad roomy as she put them on, she saw that they seemed to have been raised a tiny bit above where they were when she wore them several weeks earlier.  Sure she could now see a bit of her sock instead of going down to her shoes, but gaining an inch of height with everything else wasn’t too much of a bother.