Better Living Through Chemistry

Author's note: Not all science fiction involves outer space, aliens, other dimensions, mind control and such. This piece is old school hard science fiction, chemical science fiction in fact. It may seem to start a little slowly but once it gets going hopefully it's worth the wait. All characters are 18 or older.

School was out. We'd graduated. It was hard believe but this was to be our last summer together here in our hometown. The three of us had turned 18 early in our senior year of high school but we'd be going off to college, together still, just not here in our hometown.

Summer was just starting and we'd only just graduated high school but due to use of advanced credit classes, assorted tests and applications we'd each gotten full ride scholarships at the local state college which would set us up just fine for graduate school soon enough wherever.

We were the three chief nerds by far in our school, probably would be most any place as far as that went. We were all into just about any field of science and engineering.

It was all fun to us, I tended to lean toward chemistry while Bob was into electronics and Neil mechanical engineering.

All this matters because we'd gathered here in the workshop we'd reclaimed from an abandoned building on my folks farm at the edge of town. It was our usual beginning of summer break ritual.

Since sixth grade we'd planned a "project", some challenge or invention that would either be fun for it's own sake, possibly make money, or perhaps even both.

So far, though we'd had enough hopes for our last two to consider patenting them till we'd found what that would cost, it was all just for a fun challenge.

We were having trouble this time coming up something that seemed worthy and fit our budget and time available.

Everything was either some small thing we'd likely do anyway just because or obviously took too much time or money.

Taking a break from that subject we drifted into how things were shaping up for our summer job situation. The trick here was to find something that gave us enough money without taking more than about two or three days a week to give us the time to use the money.

The job was at least coming along fine it developed. We were sort of proud of ourselves this time.

Over the winter we had found a good amount of quality used lawn equipment cheap and gotten it back into good shape inexpensively. We had also paid careful attention to our classmates whose parents ran professional lawn care businesses.

Not for tips on how to do the job, we knew that. No we listened to develop a very short, specific "hit list" of potential customers and it had apparently paid off quite well as we now had three customers. Two were on opposite sides of the same alley.

We only needed three because we figured that was the most time would allow and if we had to let one go there would still be enough with the other two.

Our list was special because we had been listening for the customers that were most complained about. Not because they were bad at paying, who needed that?

No we wanted the ones that complained too much, were too picky, just plain crabby, whatever. We figured we could put up with just about anything once a week as it wasn't like we were trying to build an empire.

We might have been right about that too but as it turned out that part was to get thoroughly muddled in short order. We hadn't gotten our project settled yet but by the end of our first week of yard work it just sort of fell out sideways, sort of, kind of.

While the yard work was about what we'd expected, our customers were a bit of a surprise. One was a quite pleasant surprise, one annoying and a little bittersweet, and the last annoying to the point of being very hard to ignore.

The pleasant surprise was Mr. Brown. He turned out to be Dr. Brown in fact, a retired theoretical Physicist no less! The reason he'd been a problem was just basic communication with the lawn care folks.

He wanted to to do some fairly serious "amateur" herb gardening which required some specific micro climates to be set up and maintained. Really not that hard if you knew what he was up to but they thought he was "picky".

When he heard us start trying to solve the problem as he'd first presented it he immediately picked up on the engineering design cycle in full application and asked what kind of lawn care service we were.

It was at that point we found out who he was and he us.

His neighbor, Miss Green, across the back alley was the bittersweet case.

She was about the same age as Doc Brown, fifty something, and lived alone on a sprawling four acre lot that though it had just a small patch of green out front had a much larger lawn out back that eventually graded off into pretty dense forest for the last hundred feet before the alley.

The yard work was going to be a challenge but we'd gotten her to agree to take it in stages.

The problem with her was she wanted attention which tended to come across, especially in our young cases, as flirting and wanting to chat which took extra time and she'd get grouchy if ignored.

We'd compensated somewhat by asking her about whatever was in the headlines of the paper she always had on the veranda but it still took extra time.

The really annoying case though was a few blocks away at a very nice, nearly modern two story split level with a beautiful front yard, a huge backyard and pool with a tall fence all around it.

Really a nice place and when we realized Mrs. Thompson was the owner we couldn't believe she'd ever be a problem of any sort to any one.

She was a very successful local accountant of some kind and the sweetest little red haired, green eyed thing you could imagine.

It turned out she wasn't the problem. It was her two fraternal twin daughters. Which if we'd really thought about it should have been no surprise at all.

We'd known the girls all through school. Up until a year ago and especially in grade school had had great times with the two tomboys in summer bible school and various school events.

For some reason unknown to us though at the end of their junior year they had begun turning into terrors. We had really had no interaction with them since then. We all saw it as a real shame about we could do nothing.

At the beginning of our senior year they had become cheer leaders. Shortly after their 18th birthday they had become head cheer leaders and turned into a pair of "queen bees" of the worst sort.

They were pretty athletic after all even if no longer the tomboys we recalled. They were also really good looking but we knew pretty was as pretty did. We had fond memories of times past but as things were at the moment they held no particular interest for us.

We still prayed for their coming to their senses now and then but it looked like it was going to take a long time.

Turns out we were wrong about that.

The problem that gotten them on our list was that apparently they'd picked up the habit of pestering, for lack of a better word, the lawn care help to the point distraction. Then they'd complain to their mom if any of those poor souls complained about their teasing.

We had kind of figured they might ignore us as they had nearly totally at school for the last year.

Wrong again.

Now that it was summer I guess they had no one else on which to focus their attention so we were in for it all. We figured we could just let them go as customers if necessary but really hated to treat their mom that way because of their bad behavior.

Discussing these things Thursday of the second week of summer is what caused the sideways fallout of our "project" and the title of this story.

Bob had popped off with the comment it would be great if there was some kind of a "nice potion" you could give people to make them nicer. We all laughed but it got us to thinking.

A few minutes of web work revealed that there really wasn't anything practical to be done about a "nice" potion. It got me to thinking though.

I asked why we couldn't perhaps instead come up with something that would simply intensify what was already annoying us. Bob and Neil wanted to know why we'd want to do that.

I told them it had occurred to me that perhaps if they went far enough they'd embarrass themselves into stopping.

After a moment's thought they agreed as to how it might work if you could make such a potion.

An hour's web work later and we realized we could be onto something. By late that night we had identified most every ingredient we'd need.

It turned out there actually were things that were the opposite of decongestants. They stimulated mucus production and weren't very exotic or hard to come by.

There were at least a half dozen relatively common plant extracts we could concentrate which were supposedly female aphrodisiacs. It even looked as though there might be some actual truth about about them too.

Capsaicins from a variety of chili peppers used in slight moderation caused heat and swelling and so on. What wasn't in our shop already from previous projects, was either at the pharmacy over the counter, or in Doc's herb garden.

So we had our project after all. We started in early Friday morning and by afternoon were well into compounding while I worked on delivery methods.

We had micro encapsulation stuff we'd rigged up for small batches from a previous project a year or so ago and I re-tasked it to handle nearly microscopic body temperature melting gelatin capsules.

A few hours effort and a look through the microscope showed it to be working just fine. We pulled an all nighter getting that first batch done but when we knocked off about 3am we had a good 2liters of the stuff in 20mL syringe bodies and in the fridge.

We hadn't written down the whole formula or preparation instructions at that point. Given what happened we're still not sure we ever will.

We rested till after lunch Saturday and then took care of our chores at home. Sunday was not just church but also a potluck so it wasn't till we met Monday we had time to figure out delivery methods and so on.

The schedule was for Doc's place Tuesday morning and Miss Green after lunch the same day. The two girls would be Wednesday morning.

Bob got the task of handling the delivery Tuesday while Neil and I supplied distraction as needed. I lost the flip and got delivery Wednesday while they supplied distraction.

That was probably best as they were the ones the girls would be most interested in teasing while I was busy placing our concoction.

Bob was big enough, and in good enough shape, to have been a back on the football team any time he wanted. They'd asked a few times in fact but he just didn't want to.

Neil was taller and had the moves for basketball, dive team, and so on but also didn't care to. Besides they were the two who'd paired up most often over the years when we were kids. Bob with Chloe, Neil with Helen, while I was hanger on.

I on the other hand was the smallest kid in school and though fairly good at the pole vault of all things was still only about two thirds their height and half their weight.

I could just about look the girls' mother in the eyes but her daughters were a quarter again my weight and five or six inches taller being well muscled cheerleaders and all. So it was decided, Doc's neighbor Miss Green Tuesday and the girls Wednesday.

We had our usual physics visit and then got Doc's work done quickly. We also thanked him again for the harvest of a few of his herbs Friday and told him we'd let him know if they helped any with our secret project.

Little did we know how soon that was going to be. Some lunch and a bit more physics with Doc and we headed over to Miss Green's.

This was easier than it had been since we'd put matching gates across from one another in the alley and a path through her woods last Thursday.

We went around front and sure enough there she was still in her night clothes after breakfast. As usual it was something filmy and almost decent for outdoors. She'd been getting looser and looser I guess in an effort to get some reaction out of us.

We dropped into the distraction mode having already scanned today's paper before we arrived. Bob allowed as how he needed to find the restroom and excused himself.

It took him a while. When he returned he gave us a big wink and we left the porch to get to work.

Eventually Miss Green went in to change as she often did.

We kind of got lost in work for a bit before we noticed she'd returned in a light summer blouse and knee length skirt. Bob had allowed as to how he'd dosed all her panties in the obvious place but since she practically never wore a bra had settled for an application to her blouses instead.

Even though the day was warming up quickly she seemed to be using her fan more than usual. It wasn't till she came back out with a big pitcher of lemonade we saw that our concoction was having some kind of effect.

There was a noticeably bluer patch on the front of her skirt and even her white blouse showed some signs as well.

This was because her breasts were standing practically straight out with quite noticeably pointed nipples. Wow!

She motioned us up to have a drink. She made really good lemonade and we told her so after a long cold drink.

It was hard not to look where we shouldn't. Her blouse was really standing out now even sitting at the table. She started to speak but seemed to be having trouble catching her breath.

I was beginning to worry that maybe something we'd put in there was causing an allergic reaction but she didn't show any signs of that other than trouble getting out whatever she wanted to say.

She was starting to perspire a bit, sort of a glow.

"Boys I've never felt anything like this. Oh my," she said. Then giving us the strangest look she asked, "I wonder could you fellows help me?"

The look intensified and she continued with, "I'm sure you can. Can't you?"

Neil finally said rather hesitantly, "Help you how?"

Looking down at her blouse, she gasped. Looking at her lap blew she blew out a big breath and said, "Oh my goodness. I've never ever felt like this but I'm pretty sure I need a man. I need him quickly and I need him to do what nature built me for him to do to me. Again and again. Can't you three help? Surely you can."

"If you can wait just a bit longer I think we can." answered Bob.

Then he looked at me, leaned over and whispered, "Go get Doc."

I didn't need told twice. I don't know how they stalled her off till I got back but thank goodness Doc didn't dawdle.

By the time he and I got back Miss Green was looking a little wild eyed but she fastened on to Doc with no further glances at us.

When he got onto the porch she said, "Oh you dear, dear man. Thank you for coming." Without a word Doc took her hand and winking at us walked her into the house.

By the time we got our gear together we could clearly hear the rapidly increasing rhythmic banging from the open second story window accompanied by escalating female squeals and screams.

This instantly made it nearly impossible to walk comfortably upright. Thank goodness for the need to lean a bit to push and pull our equipment down the street.

"I guess that stuff works doesn't it?" I opined. "You think?" they both said sarcastically.

"We're going to have to go back over to Doc's in about an hour and a half, two hours tops you know?" observed Bob.

We both agreed it was only fair, I mean we liked the guy and though he'd saved us with nary a question some sort of explanation was likely in order.

Doc was setting on his porch when we came back over. With another wink he waved us to come on up and as we sat he asked, "What did you boys do?"

We told him. He only went goggle eyed briefly before shaking his head.

"Interesting way to attempt to solve the problem. In this case though it probably was just what she needed and I know it was good for me boys. Don't be surprised if you have to be part of my wedding party real soon. She and I have been dancing around the idea quietly for the last year at least but this pushed her nicely right over the edge. You can draw for who gets to be best man," he told us.

After a chorus of "Really?" and thanks all around Neil looked at Doc.

"Uh Doc, how's she doing? I mean where did you leave her?"

Doc gave him a curious look but said, "I got her showered real well and she went right to sleep when I dropped her on the bed. I imagine she's still sleeping. Why do you ask?"

"Well Doc, Bob here dosed pretty much all the clothes she might put on when she wakes up and well, you see..." and he trailed off.

Doc's eyebrows had risen while Bob explained and he replied, "I see. I see indeed. Perhaps I'd better get back over there then just in case. Thanks again boys and you be careful with that stuff you hear?"

Wednesday looked like it could get more interesting than perhaps we'd planned but we figured this stuff of ours most definitely ought to put those two girls far enough over the line they might come to see the light.

We should have paid a bit more attention to what had happened to Doc but really, I mean, who knew what other light they might see?

So it was that Wednesday morning after settling accounts with their mom before she went to work I slipped off to the restroom while Neil and Bob kept the girls busy by letting themselves be tormented.

The flaunting, flirting and teasing had gotten rapidly and progressively worse every time we were the only ones present.

Their poor, sweet, mother, how she had managed at all this last year was beyond me.

A glance into the washroom as I went down the hall to their rooms showed a huge load waiting to be done. This explained why there was so little in their rooms to dose.

It took almost no time to hit all the underwear, blouses, shorts and so on. We got to work when I returned.

The girls, as they'd done the last two weeks after breakfast, started shedding night clothes as they walked slowly past the big glass patio doors on the way to their rooms.

They turned to smirk over their shoulders and wiggled their butts at us as, just now naked, as they turned down the hallway.

I guess it was supposed to be seductive or some such but I just found it embarrassing and annoying at this point.

We were well into our work with the yard and the pool when they came back. We really didn't pay that much attention to their sprawling in the lawn chairs.

About fifteen minutes later they got up. I suppose it was something a bit off in their posture that made us all notice and stop to look. They weren't looking at us or even at one another. They had apparently just risen and having gotten to their feet were looking down at themselves.

They each had a big very obviously damp patch making a large dark spot all over the center of their very short Levi shorts. As we all looked where they were looking we noticed as did they that the same wetness had started run down the inside of each thigh for some inches.

Instead of looking up at us they tilted their heads a bit more as they raised their hands to touch what their eyes were next fixed on.

Their breasts were very simply straining against the skimpy halter tops. The lower edge of those tops was some two or three inches from their bodies and the tips poked a good inch through the stretchy fabric as if it were not even there.

As their fingers touched those amazing tips we heard them both inhale sharply. When they raised their heads their gazes locked briefly on Bob and Neil in a most curious and intense way.

Then without a word, shaking their heads they walked somewhat stiffly to the patio doors. We gave each other a discreet thumbs up and went back to work.

Well we started to anyway. Just as Bob and Neil reached for the pull cords on their mowers we heard a strange noise from the patio. It was the doors rattling against their frames.