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[Mini Story] Solving for X-tra Large

Published: December 23rd 2024, 1:09:30 am

Hi Hi ✨

Finally bringing you Friday's story - Solving for X-tra Large! Watch what happens when math tutoring gets a growth twist 😅 T3&4 members, you'll find some extra images in your folders!

📦 Grab the full res image from the attachment section of this post. ⬇️

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Solving for X-tra Large

"Mum, I really don't need a tutor," Larry groaned, sprawled across the living room sofa, his calculus textbook abandoned on the coffee table. "I can figure it out myself."

"That's what you said last month," Jane called from the kitchen, the smell of her signature lasagna wafting through the house. "And the month before that. Your grades say otherwise, love."

Larry rolled his eyes, scrolling through his phone. "My grades are fine."

"A D in calculus is not fine," Jane retorted, poking her head around the corner. "Samantha will be here any minute. Please at least try to look somewhat presentable?"

"Whatever," Larry muttered, though he did make an effort to sit up straighter and smooth down his perpetually messy brown hair. "Still don't see why I need help from some old lady who probably hasn't done maths since the Stone Age."

The doorbell rang, and Jane wiped her hands on her apron. "Be nice," she warned as she headed for the door. "Sam's one of my closest friends from uni."

Larry slumped further into the sofa, already dreading what he assumed would be an hour of tedious lectures from one of his mum's boring middle-aged friends. He heard the door open, followed by excited greetings and his mum's laughter.

"Larry!" his mum called. "Come say hello!"

Heaving a dramatic sigh, Larry hauled himself up and trudged toward the entrance. "Hi, Mrs..." His voice trailed off as he caught sight of their visitor.

Standing in the doorway was definitely not the stuffy old teacher he'd been expecting. Instead, he found himself staring at a young woman who couldn't have been more than twenty-five. Her black hair fell in gentle waves past her shoulders, and her gray sweater somehow managed to look both professional and stylish. She had a warm smile that made her dark eyes crinkle at the corners.

"Just Samantha is fine," she said, extending her hand. "Or Sam, if you prefer. You must be Larry."

"Uh, yeah," Larry managed, shaking her hand and trying not to stare. "I mean, yes. That's me. Hi."

Jane looked between them, clearly amused. "Sam's just finished her master's in mathematics. She's brilliant at explaining complex concepts - aren't you, Sam?"

"I try my best," Samantha replied modestly. "Though I have some... unique teaching methods that tend to help students engage with the material better."

Larry found himself suddenly very interested in learning calculus.

"Well, I'll leave you two to get settled," Jane said. "I'm just finishing up dinner - you'll stay after the lesson, won't you, Sam? It's been ages since we've had a proper catch-up."

"Wouldn't miss your cooking for the world," Samantha grinned. "Still making that amazing lasagna?"

"With extra cheese, just how you like it," Jane winked before disappearing back into the kitchen.

Larry led Samantha to the living room, hastily gathering up his scattered textbooks and notes. "Sorry about the mess. I wasn't expecting... I mean, Mum didn't mention..."

"That I'm not ancient?" Samantha teased, settling into an armchair. "Don't worry - I get that a lot. Most students expect their tutors to be retired professors with elbow patches and reading glasses."

"Yeah, exactly!" Larry laughed, feeling more at ease. "When Mum said her friend from uni was coming to help with maths, I thought..."

"That I'd be her age?" Samantha finished. "Your mum and I met when I was doing my undergraduate degree. She was finishing her PhD in Chemistry - did she ever tell you about the time she accidentally turned all the lab rats purple?"

Larry's eyes widened. "No way! Mum did that?"

"Oh, the stories I could tell you," Samantha grinned. "But maybe we should save those for after we tackle some calculus?"

"Right, yeah," Larry nodded, surprisingly finding himself not dreading the idea of studying. He pulled out his textbook, sneaking glances at Samantha as she leaned forward to look at the problems. Her perfume smelled like vanilla and something else he couldn't quite place.

"So," Samantha said, pulling out a notebook of her own, "your mum tells me you're having trouble with derivatives?"

"Among other things," Larry admitted. "It's just... none of it makes sense. Like, when am I ever going to use this stuff in real life?"

Samantha's eyes sparkled with amusement. "Oh, you'd be surprised. I have some demonstrations planned that might change your mind about that." She glanced toward the kitchen, where they could hear Jane humming as she cooked. "But before we start, I should probably warn you about something..."

Larry leaned forward, intrigued. "What kind of demonstrations?"

"Let's just say," Samantha smiled mysteriously, "that I have a rather... growing interest in making mathematics more engaging for my students."

The pun went right over Larry's head as he nodded eagerly, suddenly very invested in learning calculus. "So, where do we start?"

"First," Samantha said, settling back in her chair, "tell me what you think about maths in general. What parts do you enjoy? What parts make you want to throw your textbook out the window?"

As Larry began explaining his frustrations with calculus, he couldn't help but notice how Samantha listened intently, genuinely seeming to care about his answers.

Samantha settled into the armchair, pulling out a small notebook. "Let's start with something simple. What's my current height?"

Larry studied her for a moment. "Er... 5'7" maybe?"

"Correct!" she beamed. "Now, what's 75% of that?"

"Um..." Larry grabbed his calculator. "That would be... 4'3"?"

"Let's find out if you're right," Samantha winked. Before Larry's eyes, she began to shrink, her gray sweater suddenly looking baggy as her frame diminished. The armchair seemed to grow around her as she reduced in size, until she was noticeably smaller than before.

"Holy..." Larry blinked rapidly. "Did you just..."

"Measure me," Samantha encouraged, standing up. Her sweater now hung past her knees like a dress.

Larry grabbed a measuring tape from his mum's sewing kit nearby, his hands shaking slightly as he held it up. "4'3" exactly. But how did you..."

"Magic," she said simply. "Now, what's 150% of my original height?"

Larry punched the numbers into his calculator. "That would be... 8'6.5"?"

Samantha grinned. "Watch closely."

This time, she grew upward, her sweater riding up as her legs lengthened. Her head nearly brushed the ceiling as she expanded, muscles beginning to fill out her frame. The sweater, which had been loose moments ago, now clung to her increasingly athletic build.

"Brilliant work with the percentages," she said, her voice unchanged despite her new size. "Now, let's try something more challenging. If my bicep is currently 16 inches around, and I want to triple it while maintaining proportional growth throughout my body, how tall would I become?"

Larry stared up at her, trying to focus on the math rather than the fact that his tutor was now towering over him. "Okay, so... if everything grows proportionally... we need to find the scale factor?"

"Exactly," Samantha nodded encouragingly. "If something triples in one dimension, how does that affect overall height?"

"Well..." Larry thought hard. "Since we're scaling up proportionally, and the bicep measurement is a circumference... we'd need to use the cube root? Because volume increases with the cube of the scale factor?"

"Go on," Samantha prompted, beginning to grow again. Her sweater stretched across her expanding shoulders, the fabric straining as her muscles developed further. Her biceps swelled visibly, pressing against the sleeves.

Larry watched in fascination as he continued working out the problem. "So if the bicep triples, that's a scale factor of 3 for the circumference. Taking the cube root of 3 gives us... about 1.44 for height. So at 8'6.5" now, multiplied by 1.44..."

"Almost there," Samantha encouraged as she continued growing, her head now firmly pressed against the ceiling. She had to bend slightly to fit in the room. Her sweater had become alarmingly tight, the fabric stretched to its limits across her enhanced musculature.

"12'3"!" Larry announced triumphantly, then gaped as he realized just how massive Samantha had become. Her sweater had ridden up, exposing her midriff, which was now rippling with muscle definition. Her legs, still proportional but enormously powerful, made his own look like twigs in comparison.

"Very good," Samantha said, carefully shifting her weight to avoid damaging the floor. "Would you like to verify those measurements?"

Larry nodded dumbly, approaching with the measuring tape. He had to reach up significantly just to measure her bicep, which had indeed tripled to 48 inches around. The muscle was rock-hard under his fingers, warm and solid as steel.

"This is incredible," he breathed, barely coming up to her waist. "But how are we going to explain this to Mum?"

"Don't worry," Samantha smiled down at him. "Your mum's quite used to my teaching methods. Now, ready for something really challenging? Let's talk about inverse proportions..."

From the kitchen, they could hear Jane humming as she cooked, seemingly unconcerned by the sound of her ceiling creaking under Samantha's new height.

"For this next problem," Samantha continued, "we'll need to calculate what happens if we reduce your height by the inverse of the golden ratio. Do you know what that is?"

Larry's eyes widened as he realized what she was suggesting. "Wait, you can change my size too?"

"Only if you can solve the equation correctly," she winked. "The golden ratio is approximately 1.618. So what's its inverse, and what would your new height be?"

Larry quickly worked it out, aware that his own size could change at any moment. "The inverse would be about 0.618. So at my height of 5'9"... I'd be around 3'7"?"

"Let's test that theory," Samantha grinned, reaching down with one massive hand to ruffle his hair.

Larry felt a peculiar tingling sensation spread through his body. The room seemed to expand around him, or rather, he was shrinking within it. His clothes became looser as his frame diminished, while Samantha, already huge, appeared to grow even more gigantic from his new perspective.

When the change stopped, he found himself standing level with Samantha's knee. Her powerful legs now resembled tree trunks from his diminutive height of 3'7".

"The math checks out," she said, her voice booming from far above. "Now, for extra credit, can you calculate the ratio of our current heights?"

Larry had to crane his neck back to look up at her towering form. "You're 12'3" and I'm 3'7", so..." He quickly did the division. "You're about 3.35 times taller than me!"

"Excellent work!" Samantha beamed. "Your understanding of ratios and proportions is improving already. Though I think we should return to our original sizes before your mum finishes cooking - I'm not sure the dining room chairs could support me at this size."

With another wave of her hand, they both began to change. Larry felt himself growing back to his normal height while Samantha shrank, her muscles diminishing but not completely disappearing. Within moments, they were both back to their original sizes, though Samantha's sweater remained somewhat stretched out.

"That was... amazing," Larry said, still processing what had just happened. "But I don't understand - why don't you just teach maths at a school if you can make it this interesting?"

Samantha smoothed down her sweater with a laugh. "Can you imagine the parent-teacher conferences? Besides, I prefer one-on-one tutoring. It's more personal, and there's less paperwork involved in explaining why the students occasionally change size."

From the kitchen, Jane called out, "Dinner's ready! Sam, dear, I hope you worked up an appetite with all that growing!"

Larry's jaw dropped. "Mum knew?"

"Of course I knew," Jane appeared in the doorway, wiping her hands on her apron. "How do you think I got through my PhD? Sam's quite the effective study partner when you need help visualizing three-dimensional calculus."

As they headed to the dining room, Larry couldn't help but notice that his calculus textbook suddenly seemed far less daunting.

"This lasagna is amazing as always, Jane," Samantha said, taking another generous bite. "I still remember how you'd make it for our study group during finals week."

"Oh god, those all-nighters," Jane laughed, passing the garlic bread. "Remember when you grew too big for the library chairs and we had to move our study session to the gymnasium?"

Larry looked between them, fascinated. "You used to study like this too, Mum?"

"Of course! How else do you think I managed to understand molecular orbital theory?" Jane grinned. "Though I never quite got the hang of growing myself - that was always Sam's specialty."

Samantha twirled her fork thoughtfully. "Speaking of which... who's up for a little dinner entertainment?" Her eyes sparkled mischievously. "Quick derivative question: If h(t) = 5.5 + 0.07t², where t is time in minutes and h is height in feet, what's the rate of change?"

"h'(t) = 0.14t," Jane answered instantly, before Larry could even process the question.

"Still sharp as ever!" Samantha laughed. "Well, since you won... that's your growth function for the next twenty minutes."

"And since you lost, Larry," she turned to him with a playful smile, "your height will decrease by half that rate. Better eat quickly while you can still reach the table!"

Larry felt the familiar tingling sensation beginning again, but this time it was more gradual. He noticed his chair seeming to grow slightly larger beneath him, while across the table, his mum was slowly rising higher.

"Oh, this takes me back," Jane sighed contentedly, her head steadily climbing toward the ceiling. Her cotton blouse began to strain slightly as her frame expanded. "Though I must say, it's much more fun being on this end of the equation."

Larry found himself having to reach up a bit more for his glass of water. "So... if I'm shrinking at half the rate, and Mum's starting height was 5'5"... where will we end up?"

"Good question!" Samantha beamed. "Let's work it out. What's the time derivative telling us about the rate of change?"

"Well," Larry thought aloud, having to speak up as the distance to his mum increased, "after 20 minutes, t would be 20, so... the rate would be 2.8 feet per minute for Mum?"

"Keep going," Samantha encouraged, casually passing the salad to Jane, who was now having to hunch slightly to fit under the light fixture.

"So Mum's total change would be..." Larry paused to calculate, even as his perspective of the room continued to shift. "About 28 feet added to her starting height? That's massive!"

"And since you're shrinking at half that rate?" Jane prompted, her voice coming from increasingly higher up.

"I'd lose 14 feet from my starting height," Larry realized, now having to kneel on his chair to reach his plate properly. His clothes were starting to feel noticeably looser.

"Though of course," Samantha added, seeming to grow larger from Larry's diminishing perspective despite not changing size herself, "we'll stop before it gets too extreme. We don't want you falling into your lasagna!"

The next fifteen minutes were surreal. Larry watched as his mum gradually outgrew the dining room, having to carefully maneuver to avoid hitting the ceiling light. Her blouse had ridden up slightly, exposing a strip of midriff that was becoming increasingly toned as her body enhanced proportionally.

Meanwhile, Larry found himself shrinking steadily, his feet no longer touching the floor from his chair. His hoodie now hung off him like a dress, and he had to keep rolling up his sleeves to use his fork.

"I have to say," Jane remarked, her head now brushing against the ceiling as she carefully took another bite of lasagna, "the growth is much more comfortable when it's gradual like this. Remember when you used to make me grow instantly during our study sessions, Sam? I lost so many good jumpers that way."

"You did get better at sewing though," Samantha pointed out with a laugh. "Those reinforced seams you developed were quite innovative."

Larry, now barely able to see over the edge of the table, called up, "So Mum, did you ever use this for teaching chemistry?"

"Once or twice," Jane admitted, her voice booming from above. "Though it's trickier with chemistry. One wrong calculation and suddenly you've got a giant exothermic reaction on your hands."

As the twenty-minute mark approached, Larry found himself at roughly the size of a toddler, while his mum had become a veritable giantess, having to sit cross-legged on the floor to continue eating.

"I think that's enough for one dinner," Samantha decided, noting how Larry was struggling to reach his water glass. "Shall we return everyone to their original dimensions? I believe there's still dessert to consider."

"Oh yes, I made tiramisu," Jane said, her voice reverberating through her now-massive chest. "Though perhaps we should change back first - I'd hate to accidentally eat it all in one bite at this size!"

With a wave of Samantha's hand, both Larry and Jane began returning to their original sizes. Larry felt the familiar tingling as he grew back to his normal height, while his mum shrank down from her towering stature, her clothes returning to their proper fit.

"That was incredible," Larry said, adjusting his hoodie as he settled back into his normal size. "But I still don't understand - how did you two even discover you could do this?"

Jane and Samantha exchanged knowing looks.

"Well," Samantha began, "it's actually quite a funny story. It all started during a particularly stressful differential equations exam..."