Not much changes in Peach Creek, Nazz thought to herself as she reclined in a fold out lawn chair. It was a blisteringly hot afternoon in late June and the cul-de-sac was alive with the shouts and laughs of children on summer break. A lawn mower whined in the distance, and somewhere, a little girl threatened to tell her Mom "if you don't let me play with you." If she were to get up and walk between the house and the fence to her front yard, she would see kids skipping rope, riding bikes, and playing in big, red-faced groups, their lips stained with Kool-Aid and their hands sticky from Freeze-Pops. If they were to fall silent and you wanted to find them, just look for the house with a bunch of bicycles dumped in the front yard. Boomers on Facebook - like Nazz's mom - swore up and down that they were the last generation to step foot outside, but Nazz knew better, Kids still played, still teased and taunted one another, still watched cartoons on Saturday mornings, and still stalked the streets during summer like restless spirits...just as she and her friends had done.

Nazz was twenty-three and studying on and off to be a beautician. Currently, she was off and didn't know if she would ever be on again. In her teen years, the idea of being paid to play with hair and make-up (more or less) really appealed to her, but now, she wasn't sure that that was what she wanted from life. She didn't have a "plan" for her life - mapping something out and hitting bullet points takes the fun out of it - but she saw herself staying in Peach Creek, working at the beauty salon downtown, and living in a nice house. Maybe she'd get married and have kids, maybe she wouldn't; the jury was still out on that. She liked kids and she liked guys, so it would probably happen. She was just old enough that she realized she was still young, and decided to focus on herself for now. Not in a self-centered party girl type of way, but in a responsible "I gotta get my shit together" way. After the past couple years...okay, decades...the economy wasn't the best and the job market kind of sucked. At some point, she realized that she would never live in her dream house and have nice things on a small town beautician's salary and that took some of the wind out of her sails. She wasn't a materialistic person and was happy with the small things in life, but…

She didn't know. Like every young person her age, she had a lot of thinking and planning to do. That was for another day, however, today, it was hot, bright, and she had nowhere to be. That morning, she carried the lawn chair into the backyard, unfolded it, and sat down, intent on getting some sun. She was clad in a crop top over a black t-shirt, a skirt, pants, and sneakers, not exactly optimal sunbathing attire, but eh, who cared? She wasn't the type of person to dress all skimpy and flex their body on others; she usually wore jeans and T-shirts, so it's not like anyone would see her pale parts anyway. And if they did, well...she doubted they'd care too much.

Anyway, it was too nice a day to worry about life, so here she was, relaxing with a cold drink beside her and a magazine tented on her chest. As she crisped, her mind wandered off to fond childhood memories. Being a kid was great. You didn't have a care in the world and every day - in the summer, at least - was a wide open adventure waiting to happen. The cul-de-sac was filled with kids then as it was now, and there was always someone to hang out with.

A lot of the kids Nazz grew up with had left Peach Creek for various destinations. Eddy, Sarah, and Johnny were still around, but Rolf and Jimmy had both moved, one six years ago and the other three. Nazz had them on Facebook but she rarely ever checked it, and they rarely posted. Double D graduated high school early and went off to work for NASA or something, Ed joined the navy and, per Sarah, recently beat a court martial for negligence. Apparently, he was stationed on an aircraft carrier and goofed somehow, causing a five million dollar Black Hawk helicopter to fall into the ocean. Sarah said Ed's commanding officer said "Biden gave our choppers to the Taliban now you're giving them to the fish." He was probably going to wind up being dishonorably discharged. Nazz felt bad for him, but she wouldn't lie; she'd be happy to have him back. The town and life in it hadn't changed, but the people had, and Nazz was always happy to see a familiar face.

Children's laughter rang through the neighborhood and for a moment, she was eleven again, without a care in the world except what flavor Snocone she was going to get when the ice cream truck finally decided to show up. She and her friends used to get into all kinds of mischief, and they were such characters. Especially the Eds. They got picked on a lot but she always thought they were kind of cute. Not cute enough to date, maybe, but cute in a puppy dog sort of way. They were all weird and Eddy was mouthy and greedy as hell, but looking back, she felt bad for them. They got picked on a lot and really didn't have any friends but each other. Eddy still lived with his parents and worked at the video store - yes, Peach Creek still had a video store and no, not many people used it. She saw him all the time and made it a point to talk to him. He didn't make much money and drove an ancient El Camino that belched smoke from its hood every time he started it up, but he was dating a girl from across town and seemed happy. It might be mean to say this, but she was perfect for him because she was just as scummy as he was.

Not to hate on him, but he kind of was.

Nazz flopped onto her stomach and allowed her arms to dangle over the sides of the chair. The sun felt good on her back, so she reached behind her and hiked her shirt up, letting the light soak into her bare skin. She drew a deep, contented sigh and closed her eyes. It was starting to get really hot. Maybe she would go down to the river later. There was a spot she and Kevin used to go to every day in the summer; there was an old railroad trestle that you could jump off and the place was usually deserted. Yeah, that sounded like fun, and after that she'd go to the ice cream parlor in town. She might even get her childhood favorite: Triple chocolate chip. It had been years since she had that; these days, she really liked pistachio.

Funny how your tastes change over the years. Funny how everything changes over the years. She could try to recapture the peaceful, easy feeling of her childhood (and she did), but that was like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. She was grown up now and she would never see the world through the rose colored glasses she wore as a child.

Boo.

She was beginning to drift on the razor's edge of unconciousness when a heavenly smell found her nose. She took a big whiff and her mouth began to water. She pushed herself up on her arms and looked around, trying to figure out where it was coming from.

And what exactly it was. She had been this close to falling asleep and her mind wasn't working right. While not a rocket scientist like Double D, she wasn't a derp; her head just got really foggy when she woke up. She sniffed the air again and firmly put her finger on what it was.

BBQ chicken.

Someone was grilling yumminess nearby. Her stomach rumbled so hard it hurt. She was never a breakfast kind of girl and usually didn't eat until at least noon. Today, she wasn't hungry when noon rolled around but she sure was now.

What kind of neighbor has an epic cookout without inviting the cute blonde next door? She was going to give them a piece of her mind...and take a piece of chicken for the road.

Swinging her legs over the edge of the chair, Nazz got up and walked down the alley formed by the side of her house and the fence separating her yard from the neighbor's. Off to her leg, a group of girls skipped rope in the street while boys ran around shooting each other with Nerf guns and shouting military slang they picked up from Call of Duty. Was that game still popular? It was when she was a kid but that was a while ago. God, was she getting out of touch? Hey, fellow kids, want to go back to my place and listen to Beatles records? Hey...why are you laughing? I'M NOT OLD, YOU'RE OLD.

That thought cut off when she spotted the source of the small. Across the street, the Kanker sisters had dragged a grill and a picnic table into their front yard. Lee, clad in high waters and a blouse, stood at the grill with a spatula in one hand, a can of beer in the other, and a cigarette jutting from her thin lips. May and Marie sat at the picnic table, Marie fiddling with her phone and May ripping green stalks from ears of corn. A radio sat on the table, and from here, Nazz could make out country music.

Two years ago, after the cul-de-sac started to empty of its former residents, the Kankers moved into one of the vacant houses. With what money, Nazz didn't know. Maybe they robbed a bank. They certainly seemed the type. The Kankers had a fearsome reputation among the children of Peach Creek and were known as "The Dreaded." They were bullies but not your average bullies...they were bullies who bullied the bullies. Everyone was downright terrified of them and with good reason. One time, they were looking for a ship in a bottle that May had lost and went door to door, forcing their way into people's homes trying to find it. They nearly destroyed the neighborhood and wound up getting the cops called on them. Since then, they had each started dating a guy - their only goal in life - and had settled down a little.

Despite their past, they seemed to have turned over a new leaf.

And their chicken smelled really good.

Nazz started over but stopped. She couldn't walk up to a BBQ empty-handed; she had to bring a dish of her own. She dashed back inside and looked around the pantry, but the shelves were dangerously close to bare. Darn it, Mom hadn't been shopping yet. Her eyes fell on a bag of Utz potato chips and she snatched it up. Better than nothing.

Bag in hand, she crossed the street. Lee transferred several pieces of chicken and some hamburger patties onto a plate and glanced at her sisters. "You want cheese?" she asked.

"Double cheese," Marie said. Over the last couple years she had gained a lot of weight.

"What about you, May?" Lee asked. "Cheese?"

"I don't like cheese on my chicken," May stated.

Lee's lips turned down in a sour frown. "Not on your chicken, dumbass. Your burger."

May's face brightened. "Oh, I like cheese on my burgers."

They saw Nazz and tensed. "Hey, guys," Nazz said. "That sure smells good. You mind if I join you? I brought chips." She held the bag up and shook them enticingly.

Marie's eyes lit up. "Sure you can, now give 'em here," She held out her hands and wiggled her fingers like a greedy baby. Nazz gave her the chips, and she ripped the bag open, spilling chips across the table. She looked at them for a second, then began to peck at them like a chicken.

Lee sat the plate down on the table. "Hey, stupid," she said and whacked Marie in the back of the head, "don't you know we got company? Act normal, will you?" She looked at Nazz. "Have a seat next to May there. You're the only in this piece of shit neighborhood I don't hate so you're more than welcome." She took a puff of her cigarette and coughed.

"What about me?" May asked, hurt.

"You heard me," Lee said. She went over to the grill and started flipping burgers while Nazz sat next to May. May reached for a chip but Marie hissed at her, stopping only when Lee shot her an icy look. "How's the beauty school going?" Lee asked Nazz. Marie scarfed down the chips and licked her fingers.

"It's going good," Nazz said. "How is, uh, your job going?"

She had no clue what Lee did for work.

"She doesn't have a job," Marie snorted.

May smiled proudly. "We're welfare queens."

"They give us money for doing nothing," Lee said, "it's great." She slapped a hamburger onto a bun and added a bunch of ingredients. From where Nazz sat, she couldn't see what they were, but it sure smelled good. When she was done, Lee brought it over and sat it in front of Nazz, who blinked in surprise.

"It's green," she said.

That wasn't entirely accurate. The buns were their normal bun color but the filling was the color of old garbage. And filling it was. It had the consistency of Sloppy Joes and was drizzled in red sauce that saturated the bread and made a little puddle on the plate.

"It's a Kanker Burger," Lee said, "you haven't lived until you tried one."

Nazz cringed. It looked...well...it looked gross and if a restaurant served it to her, she'd send it back...and she wasn't the kind of person who sent their food back. She just accepted and ate it, mistakes and all. The Kanker sisters were all looking at her expectantly, and Nazz got the feeling that turned her nose up at it wouldn't go over well. She sniffed it, and it smelled good, so maybe it was edible after all. She picked it up and grease dribbled down her hands, icking her out. She brought the burger to her mouth and gave a nervous chuckle. It smelled good, yeah, but she couldn't get over how it looked.

"I gotta go home real quick," she said. She sat the burger down and got up. "I, uh, forgot something."

She started to hurry away but Marie jumped up. "We got a runner!" she said.

Oh shit.

Nazz did, indeed, try to run, but Marie, despite her bouncing belly, was fast, and tackled her to the ground. Lee came over and handed her the burger. Marie took it and tried to force it into Nazz's mouth. Nazz whipped her head back and forth to avoid it. "Get off of me! I don't want it!"

"Yes you do," Marie said.

Finally, Marie was able to get the burger into her mouth. For a second, nothing happened...then the flavor hit Nazz and her eyes widened like Spongebob's after tasting a Jim Patty. "Oh...my...God," Nazz drew.

"You like it, huh?" Lee asked and crossed her arms.

"Like it?" Nazz asked. "I love it! Is there more?"

Lee grinned.

Marie got off and Nazz jumped up, mouth tingling with goodness. A plate of Kanker Burgers sat on the table, and Nazz ran over, throwing one into her mouth, then another. Grease and sauce dipped down her chin and stained the front of her shirt, and her throat bobbed as she swallowed entire pieces of the sandwich whole. Before she met the Eds, she was kind of chunky. After being picked on in first and second grade, she decided to lose weight and eat right. She hadn't chowed down like this in years and her stomach ached as it swelled with all the food.

"Wow," Lee said, sounding impressed, "she eats more than you do, Marie."

"I know," Marie said, a hint of jealousy in her voice.

Nazz's face flushed with shame, but she was powerless to stop herself. The more she ate, the more she wanted. She had no idea that the Kankers were such good cooks."This is so good," she said around a mouthful of food. "I can't stop eating."

"That's the point," Lee said. "That's how we hooked our men. It sure wasn't our looks. At least not for fatty and dum-dum."

"My boyfriend's very happy with me," Marie said.

"So's mine," May saud. "He told me if I didn't do butt stuff he'd dump me so now I do butt stuff."

Any other time, Nazz would have been thrown for a loop and then gotten uncomfortable by such a creepy and cringy comment, but she was too busy pounding Kanker Burgers to really take it in and comprehend how messed up it was.

When Nazz was full, she picked her teeth with a toothpick Lee gave her. "We should hang out more often," Marie said. "You're cool."

Nazz belched. "So are you guys."

That was the honest truth. Plus, Nazz had lost a good many of her friends to moving and adulting. The Kankers were always around so she would never be born. "How about tomorrow?"

The Kanker sisters all grinned.

*Tomorrow*

Nazz met Lee, Marie, and May at the pool hall downtown. Despite the federal smoking ban in bars and clubs, the air was hazy with cigarette smoke and smelled of stale beer and old vomit. People sat at the bar and the Kankers stood around one of the pool tables, Lee with a cigarette and Marie with a huge plate of fries and chicken wings and French fries. "You play pool?" Lee asked.

"Sometimes," Nazz shrugged.

Lee picked up a pool cue and racked the balls with one hand. She let Nazz go first; aiming her cue, Nazz broke the formation and sank a striped ball into the side pocket. Lee, cigarette in mouth, took her turn and sank three solids in a row. "Put some music on the jukebox, why don't you?" Lee asked May. May went over and put a dollar in. A moment later, trashy Southern rock began to play.

As Nazz expected, Lee won; she also won their next two games. Afterward, Nazz beat May and Marie, then lost to May, but only because Nazz accidentally sank the 8 ball before clearing her color off the table.

When they were done, they went to the park where Lee suggested they wrestle, one of her favorite things. Nazz and Marie were on one team and May and Lee on the other. Nazz took May down easily and twisted her arm, making her tap. "Nice job, stupid," Lee said, "you made me look bad."

Next, they did some things that Nazz liked, like roller skating and playing tennis. Marie wasn't very good at either while May turned out to be a roller skating prodigy.

Over the next couple weeks, Nazz spent more and more time with the Kankers and found that they were actually really cool. Though they collected welfare, they did work, Lee and May as mechanics and Marie at a car wash down from where Nazz worked. Because they got off at the same time, she hung out with Marie more than the others. Marie was actually really intelligent and funny, something that, for some reason, surprised Nazz.

Marie's favorite hobby was eating. One afternoon, while they were alone in the house, Marie came in with a container full of cupcakes. "You wanna play a new game?"

"What?" Nazz asked.

It turned out to be force feeding, which struck Nazz as really strange. Marie laid on the couch while Nazz sat on her chest and shoved cupcakes down her gullet. She actually got into it; pinned beneath her and unable to do anything but eat what Nazz gave her, Marie was totally powerless.

Nazz didn't know why but that was really hot.

Next, Nazz let Marie do the same thing to her and as strange as it may be, she really, really liked it. They began to force feed one another a lot. They would go shopping together and buy cakes and pastries, then take them back to hers' or Nazz's house. One time, they ran around Nazz's backyard with handfuls of cream pie, flinging it at one another and laughing like lunatics. At one point, Nazz tackled Marie and shoved the food into her mouth. The way Marie licked Nazz's fingers turned her on.

Nazz never thought she was gay, but when she held hands with Marie, it felt right.

Over the course of two months, all the force feeding made Nazz balloon up in size. Her thighs, hips, and ass spilled out of all her clothes and her tits went from a solid B to massive Triple Zs. She panted when she walked and began to sweat at the slightest movement. One night, as she and Marie sat on the couch like two beached whales, they began to kiss and touch one another. It ended with them in bed together, their quivering fat rolls slapping wetly together. They kept their relationship a secret from May and Lee, Marie worried how they'd take it. Marie broke up with her boyfriend to be with Nazz and Nazz had never been happier.

Six months later, Nazz, Marie, May, and Lee went to the beach. All of them had gained so much weight from eating cake and Kanker Burgers that they burst out of their bikinis. While sitting on the beach, Marie struggled to her feet and said, "I think now's the time. I hereby dub Nazz an honorary Kanker."

Nazz blushed.

"Welcome to the club, sister," Lee said.

She, May, and Marie swept Nazz into a big, fat, sweaty hug. "Let's take a dip," Lee said, "it's hot as hell out here."

"We'll catch up," Marie said. "We got something to do first."

"Suit yourself," Marie said. She brushed past May and started running to the water's edge. Her fat jiggled and sweat lightly coated her fat like butter on dinner rolls. "Cannonball contest!" she cried.

May gave chase, huffing and puffing. When they were gone, Marie took Nazz's hand and led her behind a large rock. The moment they were alone, Marie took Nazz's face in her hands and molded her lips to Nazz's. Nazz gripped Marie's hips and kissed her back, their tongues messily licking and massaging one another.

They lost themselves in each other and didn't realize that fifteen minutes had passed, then twenty. They only came back to reality when a massive shadow fell over them. They looked up and their hearts stopped.

May and Lee stood over them, so big they blotted out the sun. Water dripped from their bodies and their tiny bikinis clung to their bulging curves. There was no way Nazz and Marie could wiggle out of this.

"What are you doing?" Lee asked.

Nazz said. "Making out," she said. "Marie and I...are together." She took Marie's hand and Marie squeezed her hand. "We've been keeping it secret for months because we were afraid you wouldn't like it."

Lee and May looked at each other. "I don't care," Lee said. "I'm just surprised you guys kept this a secret."

"So...you're not mad?" Marie asked hopefully.

"Nah," Lee said. "It's all good. You guys ready to head out? I'm starved."

An hour later, they all sat on the Kanker sisters' couch with a feast of Kanker Burgers and fries arranged on the coffee table. Nazz kept hearing a strange creaking and cracking sound but ignored it and kept eating.

Finally, the snap of breaking timbers filled the world and in an instant, the floor below them broke open. The couch and all four fatties on it fell down into the basement in a rain of floorboards. Nazz hit the basement floor and the Kanker sisters all landed on top of her, knocking the breath out of her lungs.

They all moaned in pain.

"Maybe we should go on a diet," Nazz suggested.

Her eyes fell on a fallen Kanker Burger and she sucked it into her mouth.

Okay.

"Starting now," she belched.

THE END.