It's Halloween, so to celebrate, here's a short and sweet story for you.

Jenny volunteers to help decorate the Balloon Factory for Halloween.

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Becoming A Pumpkin
By: Soda-Cola

It’s Halloween, and the Balloon Club is getting ready to celebrate. Members of the Balloon Club loved to party, and holidays made for great excuses to do so. Any reason to get together and enjoy themselves was always a good reason in their book. Some would volunteer to help decorate the Balloon Factory for whatever they were celebrating.

One person who was always willing to volunteer was Jenny. The yellow-skinned axolotl was a nearly endless load of energy, despite her small stature, and would often use that energy to help others. As she walked up to the Balloon Factory, she spotted Jazz—a goth frilled-lizard—and ran right to her. “Hey Jazz!” Jenny yelled as she got closer. “I’m not too late am I?”

“Nope. You’re right on time,” Jazz replied. “The party’s about to start in half-an-hour, so we’re close to finishing up.”

The Balloon Factory was adorned with all the typical Halloween decorations you’d see. Cutout bats, plastic skeletons, tissue-paper ghosts, and whatnot. But what really stood out were the Jack-O-Lanterns. Instead of using normal pumpkins, people would volunteer to become giant orange balls by drinking a special concoction that turned them into giant juice filled berries, and had different Jack faces painted on their bellies. While “real pumpkin juice” isn’t a thing, inflating with orange juice gets the job done just as well.

There were seven giant Jack-O-Lanterns, with six lining the pathway to the building, and one on the right-hand side of the door. Jenny couldn’t help but look in awe at the giant Jack-O-People. Each one was around six feet in diameter—the average size of a berry—and each of them had a goofy grin on their face, greatly enjoying the experience. Jenny’s eyes were wide with excitement, she just couldn’t wait to join them.

As soon as Jazz brought out the berry concoction, Jenny almost immediately snatched it out of her hands and proceeded to drink the whole thing. Jazz was surprised at how eager Jenny was. “Wow,” Jazz said. “You really couldn’t wait to get started, could you?”

“I’m sorry,” Jenny said as she finished the drink. “But you know I love to blimp up as much as anyone here.”

It wasn’t long until her yellow skin started to darken into an orange color. As soon as she was completely orange, her belly began to grumble before distending outwards as it started to fill with juice.

“Let’s get you in place before you get too big to move,” Jazz said.

Jenny then walked over to her spot, jiggling her belly and sloshing the juice inside. The concoctions this year seemed to be rather potent, as by the time Jenny got to the left hand side of the door, her belly had swelled up to beachball size. Her juice filled belly made sitting down fairly awkward, but she managed to plop herself in place.

As Jenny’s belly reached yoga ball size, the juice began to fill the rest of her body. Her hips and waist began to widen, her limbs becoming thicker, and her back started to push out. Jenny rubbed as much of her belly as she could before her arms lose their flexibility. The bigger she got, the rounder she became. By the time Jenny swelled to be as tall as Jazz, her limbs had become too thick to bend properly anymore, and were steadily being absorbed by her growing circumference.

In just a few more minutes, Jenny had swelled up to the size of the rest of the berry pumpkins. She was now almost completely spherical, aside from her head, hands and feet which rested in divots that used to be her limbs and neck, and her tail being hidden under her berry butt. Yet despite her new immobility, she had the biggest grin on her face, absolutely loving how big and full she felt.

“Heh. I’ll never get tired watching people get so happy when they inflate,” said Jazz.

“MMmmmmm~ You should join in more often,” Jenny said in a lovestruck tone.

“Maybe later,” Jazz replied. “But right now, we gotta get you ready for the party.” Jazz snapped her fingers, and two helpers—a lemur and a gecko— ran over with ladders and paint cans.

After they set up the ladders, the helpers first pulled up Jenny’s stretched out shirt to reveal her giant bulbous belly and began to paint. Jenny couldn’t help but giggle non-stop as the paint brushes tickled her, causing her rounded form to jiggle a bit. “Hey!” the gecko yelled. “Do you mind? You’re messing up the paint strokes!”

“Hee hee! I-I’m sorry! Heh heh!” Jenny said through her giggling. “I’m-I’m just, so TICklish! Ha ha ha!”

“Don’t worry Jenny!” Jazz yelled. “It’ll be over soon!”

After a few minutes, the helpers finally finished painting Jenny’s belly, much to her relief. She was painted with a goofy Jack-O-Lantern face like she requested, and while she couldn’t see it, she knew it looked hilarious. At least she can look at the pictures her friends will take of her later.

“Lookn’ good there Jen,” Jazz said. “But aren’t you gonna get bored sitting out here instead of partying with everyone else?”

“Don’t worry about me,” Jenny replied. “I’m already having a blast. And when I’m ready, I’ll ask to be juiced so I can join the party.”

“Alright then. Just give a holler when you’re tired of being a pumpkin,” Jazz said before walking off to finish preparations.

As Jenny sat, being the giant Jack-O-Lantern that she is, she watched the many members of the Balloon Club walk up to the building, and admired all of their fantastic costumes. Lots of people complimented on Jenny’s size Jack-O-Lantern face. Her closest friends stuck around to chat with her and take pictures. With so many people looking up and admiring her, and the wonderful feeling of being so big and full, Jenny absolutely loved becoming a pumpkin.