Somewhere on the rooftops of the stretchiest city in the world...

The words on the post-it note were burned into Max’s mind every minute of the last 2 days.

“If you’re going to keep staring, you can at least practice too, ya big dork.”

It wasn’t just from anyone either. Max somehow had one of the city’s elastic heroines as an across the street neighbor, and he somehow had a view of her penthouse patio. She was surprised he noticed her at first, and it was a few days before she came outside stretching again. They figured out talking since then, passing notes like classmates. The chats about TV and movies were fine, but earlier this week was something else.

He still had a bruise. I didn’t think my jaw was hanging open! She didn’t have to hit me that hard!

It was getting warmer outside, so she was on the roof more often. She did basic stretching most nights, he figured she was just staying loose. It wasn’t until this week that he saw her reeeeeeeeeeeally stretching. Sure she could slap a post it on his window, but this week she twisted herself into knots, stretched her exposed midriff across the entire pool, and more. He caught the end of the routine, and when she caught him looking, she gave Max (an honestly deserved) punch to the shoulder.

He rubbed it again just thinking about it. I never thought about how much strength she could have at a distance.

She slapped a post it on his head instead of the window, then stretched her legs long to “sneak” back inside in one step. She did stretch her head back to give him a wink. When Max gave a sheepish wave, she stuck her tongue out three feet, signaling at least some playfulness.

But that was in the past now. Max was ready to play nicer today, and by that he meant embarrass himself. He wore a loose fitting gym outfit, and the dorkiest sweatband he could find, and he put himself in front of the big window with a view after writing his usual greeting.

“Been there...long?”

He turned to wave hello or see if there was any reaction or sign she was still mad...

...And she wasn’t outside yet.

Max let out a nervous sigh. “Well, at least I’m not making a fool of myself yet. I wonder where she is? Maybe I’ll catch her on the news later, whoever she is…”

He made a sandwich and turned on the TV, checking a few channels. “Huh...nothing.”

He stopped on an old cartoon while he finished, occasionally looking across the way. “She’s usually out by now. Huh...” He sighed and looked at his dorky gym outfit, “I guess I should get started. Are there any cheesy workout videos I can stream?”

* * *

“Finally home again!”

She landed on the roof, letting her body flatten against the patio tiles. It was easier to vanish from sight that way, falling from a height and letting most people think they were seeing things when the blur vanished. “Ugh... that took longer than I thought. It will be a while before anyone hears about stopping that heist. Now, I better get changed before that funny guy across the street looks over expecting…”

Her eyes looked up from her flat patio tile shape at the window. She saw the sign, meaning he was home. But she also saw…

“Is he trying to do thai chi?”

She saw Max stretching as well as a normal human could. He held his poses, and nervously stole glances out the window, looking everywhere on her patio but at her.

He doesn’t see me...okay, gotta slide inside.

The second he turned away, she darted across the tiles as a black and purple blur of spandex. She all but flowed across the tiles, moving faster than anything solid should, then casually slipped under the sliding door into her penthouse.

A minute later, she walked out wearing a dark purple cropped tank top and short black shorts, showing off her beautiful thighs, hugging her breasts, and revealing a lot more skin than she usually did. Okay...let’s see how long until he notices.

She brought the all important post-its with her, then leaned into the same side stretch Max was working on. Mostly leaning to one side and stretching with her arms...well, normal stretching anyway.

I wonder what this is like for him. I feel like I’m practicing holding still and barely moving. Maybe I can let myself get a little longer to work up a sweat...

* * *

Max could feel himself starting to sweat. Not from nerves, but the exercises. “Wow...who’d have thunk it took this much effort to streeee--whoa!”

She was finally back. She was holding the same pose he was a moment ago, only...longer. Her arms and legs were probably 5 feet long, which was probably nothing for her, but…

“Damn she looks good.”

He stared for a full 5 seconds before she looked over and gave a nonchalant wave. She swooped her elongated arms down to her pen to scribble a note, then sprung it across the sky to his window.

THUNK

[Well don’t just stand there. Lets see you greet to the sun.]

Max looked back to her. She was already on a mat, legs behind her and chest prominently stretching up towards the sky. Although...she was also angling her head towards him, giving him a look and motioning for him to get on with it.

Max scrambled to get into a position where she could see him. His feet stood on the couch and arms pushed close to the window, but still kinda in the right position. It still managed to make his dorky muscles flex, showing off as best as he could, and his forced grin it made her smile.

THUNK

[Not bad champ! How about this?]

He looked back from her note to see her stretching longer. Her shoulders lifted higher from the ground, stretching her arms a little before they picked up to elongate with her. Her shirt clung to her breasts, rippling in the wind as her torso grew towards the sky. She reached up towards the sky until she was about 20 feet long. Max felt his mouth hang open then she looped back on herself, quickly spinning herself into two and three loops of smooth skin shining in the evening sun.

She gave an exaggerated wink fro the top of her latest loop, stretching her arms through her elastic bands, squeezing herself and giving her hips a few tantalizing taps.

Max blinked. He could feel his heart beating faster. He was almost lost until she crossed her arms and gave a mock glare, puffing a lock of hair out of her eyes.

He finally recovered his wits, and fumbled around with his easel’s whiteboard marker, writing down, “That’s beauti-” he crossed it out “wonderful! How far can you stretch?”

She gave an exaggerated, enlarged thumbs up and a wink. Then she put her hands on the ground, closed her eyes to focus, and has legs and butt snapped back into her, her body flowing through the loops to form back into her natural shape.

Max rubbed his eyes and shook his head. “Whoa...holy shit that’s…”

She wasn’t done. She stood up, but without truly using her legs. They sort of flowed and shaped themselves into standing, letting her elasticity do the work. She flexed her arms and stretched them wide, letting little loops run through them as if shaking out a bed sheet.

Only then did she reach up to the sky.

She arched her back and looked up. She reached almost straight up, lifting herself onto her tippy toes like a normal person would. She held the pose for a moment, then elongated herself. She stretched taller, smiling at the soft rubber creak coming from her tummy. Her legs grew too, until she was double her normal height. The 12 foot tall woman reached out with her arms, letting her body stretch a little wider as much as taller, so as she grew to 20 feet and 30 feet, she got to 5 and 10 feet wide for stability.

Which made Max breath harder. “How does she?…”

He wrote on the board, “You look like a huge blanket. How tall can you get?”

She smiled, and took a deep breath. Max thought it was one anyway, since her body was getting thinner but she did move up and down. She stretched another two feet taller, almost with a look of “Watch this” on her face…

And then a huge gust of wind passed through.

The smug look on her face vanished when the wind hit her like a sail. She billowed back in what looked like slow motion, feet stubbornly clinging to the floor while she looked for anything to grab on to. It did not help that as she stretched back, her legs and arms were drawn into her new wind-sail shape, leaving her almost waddling while grabbing with short stubby arms.

Inevitably she was blown back, flung through the air like a giant cloth. Fortunately, she was blown into a tall lamp post, one of the floodlights surrounding the patio. The wind forcefully wrapped her around it, leaving her as a long flesh colored ribbon with purple and black stripes decorating the steel pole.

Man blinked. “Oh sh-...I hope she’s okay. That’s better than falling off but…” He looked around, not sure what to do , then grabbed the whiteboard marker for lack of other options.

“Uh...Are you okay?”

He looked across at her, not knowing what to expect. After many long seconds, an arm grew out the side of the ribbon, signaling a thumbs up.

“Oh thank goodness she’s okay. But how is she…”

As he said the words, she slowly slid to the ground. Loops of her rubbery body relaxed and fell to the ground, piling up like coils of rope. There was a pause once she gathered on the ground, then she spun around the pole.

It took Max a moment to notice, but she was unwrapping herself from the pole like tape going from one reel to the next, unwinding from the pole and building up like a spring next to it. Ten seconds later, he was staring at a wide, featureless, neighbor-colored slinky standing three feet tall.

She tipped over towards the post it notes, hundreds of coils of herself spilling over only to spring along and “step” like a slinky all over again. It took 5 tumbles to get there, then she sprouted arms to write. She somehow had no trouble stretching to slap the note on Max’s window in her current form.

[Hey, this was fun, but I think I should...bounce. <3 ]

Max felt his heart rate jump, feeling butterflies. He waved, then watched as she bounced end over end towards her door.

Max scratched his head. “I hope she’s not stuck like that?”

As if on cue, she flattened herself out in a large purple square, and slipped under the door.

Max laughed. “Note to self...check the weather forecast next time.”