[Silver Spoon]

Chapter 3: The Secret Word of the Day is "Spurt"

Hana, Chisa, and Ryo watched as the coin continued to twirl in the air for another second before falling to the ground. To Hana it felt much longer, though, her heart racing at the thought of kissing her childhood friend Ryo. Until her she never saw him as anything but a friend; would that change if they kissed? They were 18 now..

"Tails!" Chisa announced as she picked up the coin from the ground. "Pucker up, Hana-chan!"

"E-E-Eh...!!" Hana attempted to say, nervously apporaching Ryo and quickly giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"No! No! No!" Chisa yelled, forming her arms into a X. "That's not how you kiss someone!"

"But I'm scared..", whined Hana, unfamiliar with kissing anyone but her parents and other relatives.

"Then close your eyes and move your lips close to his!" Chisa explained as she puckered up her lips next to Ryo, inches away from his own lips. "It's not hard."

"O-O-Okay..I'll try.."

The second attempt turned out to be much better; Hana successfully kissed Ryo. Granted, it was on his forehead, but still..

"Eh! Close enough", Chisa shrugged as the three headed off to the arcade. Tonight was the night you could play four hours of games for the price of one, and they weren't going to miss this opportunity.


At the Arcade

Just like at school, Hana got stares at the arcade as well; one type from guys, and the other in the "Wow, she's tall" category.

On the plus side, being tall made some games that much more fun. One example was a punching game, where you hit a plastic bag as hard as you can with your fist. Hana was able to rank up 730 points out of 1000, as opposed to her usual 300 or so at her original height.

Another advantage when it come to height was when she played Dance Dance Revolution. Although her tall legs made it slightly cumbersome at first, in no time she was getting higher grades and a higher score overall than she ever did before. She even got to play full games without failing a song once, which she had a hard time doing back then. And after she finished playing, she was given claps from some of her onlookers.

Even games she could play even when little, such as Skeeball, seemed much easier now. Her longer arms and taller body made it easier to see where to throw the ball and predict where it lands, which resulted in Hana ranking up quite a bit of points. She even won one free game!

All that came to a halt, though, when Hana overheard some people in the arcade talking about something not too far from her area of hearing. It was of two 12 year-olds; one was a boy with dirty blonde hair who was wearing a black baseball cap, a t-shirt, and jeans. The other was a pink with short, pink hair who was wearing dark blue overalls.

"Hey, Kagome! How are you?" the boy asked the girl who had just recently came up to the arcade to meet him.

"Great! I think I hit my growth spurt recently!"

"Oh really? How big was your spurt?"

"My spurt was about 2 inches or so. I'm now 4'9"!"

"That's great, Kagome! And you were worried you were never going to have a growth spurt."

"Yeah..I guess it was silly of me to think that way."

Hana wished she didn't hear that conversation, because even more than ever people were staring at her. The mentioning of "spurt" three times caused the girl to grow an additional 5 inches, now pushing her height up to 6'10". She was now taller than almost every machine in the arcade. Her shirt looked it like shrunk in front of her eyes, revealing her bellybutton. Her shirt felt even tighter as her breasts had grown to an E cup, poking her bra meant for a C cup. Her shorts barely covered up her butt, and her toes felt extremely uncomfortable next to her now small sandals.

I got to get out of here! Hana said to herself as she ran out of the arcade.

One advantage Hana found with being taller was that her longer legs allowed her to run faster (even if it hurt her feet to walk on cement and concrete). Her friends followed her when they noticed her bolting out of the arcade, interrupting their current games to go after here.

Hana finally stopped at a nearby bench 7 blocks down from the arcade. She did this for two reasons; she was tired, and she noticed her friends and stopped for them. Her friends soon showed up a few moments later.

"Hana, what happened?" Ryo asked, sitting down next to his friend. Hana scooted over to make room for both her friends to sit on the bench with her.

"Well...I found out there's a word that triggers my growth", Hana explained with a drooping face.

"And what's that?" a concerned Chisa wondered.

"Let's just say it's a certain word that rhymes with 'hurt'", said Hana, her sad face focusing away from her friends.

"Dirt? Bert? Shirt? Skirt? Spurt?" Chisa asked.

"No! Don't say that last word!!"

"What? Spurt?"

"Yes! Don't say it!!" Hana cried, now 7'2" in height. "It makes me grow bigger!"

"How big are we talking?" Ryo asked as Hana stood up to reveal her size to her friends.

"I'm now over 7 feet tall", Hana sighed as she cried some more. "You must think I'm a freak!"

"No we don't!" Chisa stated. "You're still Hana-chan! You're just very, very tall, is all."

"Yeah. We're your friends, Hana. We'll stand by you even if you become 100 feet tall (which you might)."

"Ryo-chan!" Chisa fumed as she hit the boy's foot with her own. "Don't say that!"

"I'm going back home", Hana said to her friends with a drooped head. "I'll see you guys tomorrow..if I can fit through my front door."

"Tomorrow will be better! I promise!" Chisa said to her friend, hoping to cheer her up.

I hope you're right, Chisa Hana sighed as she headed back home in a slow pace.

To Be Continued