I thought I could pass my lunch hour quietly on a bench on the downtown outdoor mall. I watched a female clown street performer making balloon animals and handing them out to children and adults. Watching the balloons swell up and round out from the gas tanks and then being twisted into animals under her deft hands. I smiled in sympathy, I knew very well what it was like to be inflated. I was in a good shape right now, my figure only a little enhanced by my powers. I'd been developing the habit of staying a little inflated, partially to maintain a certain degree of invulnerability and super strength, but mostly out of vanity.
Still smiling, now more at myself, I checked my watch for my remaining time left on lunch, and frowned when I saw the hands still in the same place they were when I left the office. No, I didn't have more lunchtime available, my watch battery had died. Lucky for me there was a jeweler across the square. I could get it replaced and get back to the office in no time.
I crossed the street, then the square, into the jeweler's shop. It was almost empty, just myself and the sales girl. I guess there wasn't much of a lunch rush at jewelers. I handed over my stopped watch, and explained my needs.
A moment later with a felt pad, under the watch and a tiny tool in her hand, she had the back open and was replacing the battery. She had just snapped the cover back in place when the door chimed with a new customer.
"Be with you in just a..."
I looked behind me to see what had caused the sales girl to pause. The lady clown street performer had just entered the shop, with her bouquet of balloons bobbing above her head.
She has short, swept, green hair and the white face makeup with a balloon and tether over each eye, looking as if the balloons were floating up from her dark red mouth. Her outfit was motley green and purple tights with a cute little purple jacket.
"...moment," the sales girl finished. Then she buffed my watch, handed it back to me and moved towards the register to ring me up.
The clown and her balloons walked right up to the counter near where we were standing, plucked two balloons out of her bouquet and, holding one in each hand, squeezed them until they popped, one right in my face, the other in the shop girl's face. I inadvertently got a lung full of whatever the balloon was filled with.
Naturally, my clothes began to get tighter.
Looking at the shop girl, from the bewildered expression on her face and her hands pressing to her middle in her dark blouse and skirt, I was pretty sure we were in a similar state.
I felt my tummy bulge, tightening the waistband of my skirt. My hands found my belly growing in my clothes. The shop girl was pressing her hands against her bulging waistline as she inflated. I admit I was doing the same. I wasn't really used to being blown up by someone else. Like mirror images the shop girl and I bloated with gas, our waists thickened in front and to the sides. Our hips widened and filled out growing to meet the new swells in our waists as we fattened up with gas.
"W...what's happening to us...I'm getting so fat!" The shop girl's voice had taken on a noticeably higher pitch.
I was getting just as fat. It was really our bellies that were affected, my blimped up belly was poking out over the straining waistband of my skirt and pushing out against my blouse, causing it to ride up in my new belly and gap at the buttons from the pressure inside me. I had already grown big enough to be awkward. Whit our skirts tightening around us, we both reached behind ourselves to unzip our skirts and hopefully gain a few inches of slack. With the sides of our torsos rounded out so much it was basically impossible for us to reach the constraining zippers.
I turned clumsily, presenting my bottom and my skirt's zipper to the shop girl, "Do mine!" My voice had become even more high-pitched than hers.
I felt her hand tug at the zipper and it release, sliding off my gas-filled hips. I took no time to relish the freedom of my bare legs before I performed the same service for the shop girl, opening her straining zipper and letting her pumped up hips push the skirt down her nyloned legs. In moments we both looked like half-undressed female beach balls. I had my costume on under my street clothes, but with my blouse still on it appeared as if my belly was bulging in my panties, just like the shop girl, full and bloated with gas.
The suddenness of my expansion, and the full roundness I had attained took me a little by surprise. I wasn't even thinking about my voice, and I was about ready to turn the tables on the clown lady when I got one more surprise...I began to float.
Across the counter, the shop girl was being lifted slowly into the air, her feet dangling beneath her, by the buoyancy of her own inflated belly.
"Ohhh," I moaned, squeakliy, cradling my overinflated belly as my ballooned body rose helplessly in the air.
The clown lady smiled, "Excellent," surprisingly, in her shapely frame, her voice sounded just as helium pitched as ours. She reached forward and snagged the blouse of the floating shop girl and pulled her easily across the counter, patting her ballooned belly as if appraising her fullness.
"My," the clown said, "You have become quite the blimp..."
"Rachel," the shop girl supplied.
"...Rachel. You can call me Squeaky. Tell me Rach, how do you feel right now?"
"Uhh...fat. Bloated, gassy. I feel like a blimp."
"Rach, you are a blimp. Do you like being this fat Rach?" Squeaky patted her bloated sides.
"No."
"Of course not, your boyfriend probably won't like your new ballooned figure either huh?"
"No."
"I can make you slim again, but I want you to do something for me."
"What?"
Squeaky towed the inflated girl around the counter as if she were a balloon, which of course she was. "I want you to open the safe, so I can steal a few things."
"No way!" Rachael sqeaked defiantly.
"Rach, here's how it works, you either open the safe, I rob you, and I deflate you. Or I blow you up so big and fat you'll be a ball with head hands and feet. I'll roll your super inflated body against the safe...oh did I mention you'll be pumped full of hydrogen? I'll roll you against the safe and blow it, and you. I know your vault is insured, is your figure?" Rachael nodded and was pulled down into reach of the vault by Squeaky.
With them distracted by the vault, I checked my clearance, found myself floating within arms reach of the ceiling. I pushed down a little, so I dropped towards the ground, and snagged my purse off the counter. Floating back up, I immediately found my costume mask. I wasn't much good as a heroine in my overly buoyant condition, but if I could summon help to ballast me, I might be able to eventually do something other than float here.
I unfolded my mask, put it on, and turned on the radio, "Bubbles," I hissed, "Come in Bubbles, I'm in trouble."
A long few moments before her voice came into my ear, "What's up ATG, whats with your voice?"
"Code Goodyear," Meaning I was forcibly inflated, and floating, as opposed to code Michelin which was forcibly inflated without floating.
"Roger, out."
"Right, that should do," Squeaky said, standing up heavily from the vault She'd been unloading the contents into a padded pocket in the waist of her costume. This allowed her hands freedom, but she had stuffed her outfit with so much loot that the padded pocket bulged roundly in front of her. Her belly wasn't near my size, but she was not only looking much fatter, the weight of the precious stones and metals must have been considerable, judging from the heft of her new stomach and the heavy careful way she was walking she had gained a lot of extra weight.
Squeaky put her hand on her own round belly, "Whew, I feel stuffed," she laughed, mocking our inflated bodies, "I seem to have gained some extra weight...who knew carrots would be so fattening?"
Rachel and I both groaned at the pun.
"You won't get away with this Squeaky," I said.
Squeaky laughed in her high-pitched voice, "Sorry blimpy, but judging from the shape of your figure and the shape of my figure," she patted her loot-filled paunch, "I'm already getting away with it."
"You're too heavy to escape, you'll never make it."
Squeaky started to reply then looked at my face closely. I was still wearing my mask! She grabbed my floating body and pushed my blouse up over my distended stomach, revealing not normal underwear, but the straining white spandex of my costume.
"Oh my God, is this for real? I rob a place where Airtankgirl happens to be shopping! Oh this is too rich! Think you're going to stop me hero?"
I shook my head, holding my inflated belly, "I'm not in any shape to stop you. Some other time." My squeaky voice didn't help my delivery any.
"Mmm hmm, I wonder if I shouldn't just blow you up right now for good measure. Its not often one has a genuine super heroine helpless. Nah, I think it will be more fun with you around. Besides, compared to you, I look skinny! Well for the moment at least."
Squeaky the clown undid the buttons of her jacket, then pulled one more balloon in front of her own face and popped it, inhaling the gas. Over her bulging midriff, her breasts swelled up like balloons, filling up the top of her costume, pushing aside the lapels of her short jacket. Her breasts continued to inflate, straining the seams of her costume, the curves of her chest growing larger and fuller, until she couldn't reach her arms around the bulging spandex swell of her bust. Her feet rose from the floor as her costume creaked to contain her. I could tell though that while we were floating helplessly, she was hovering in control.
"Wait! What about us?" Rachel squeaked.
The clown laughed, "You'll deflate eventually, but for the moment, get used to being fat!" The inflated lady clown took up her bouquet, hefted her bulging stomach full of loot, opened the door and flew out.
"Swell," I sighed squeakily.
A short time later Bubbles burst in the jewelry shop door, in mask and costume, looking for a fight.
"Relax, she got away." I squeaked.
Bubbles smiled a little at my voice. She reached up to me, pulling my buoyant body down to earth. I unbuttoned my blouse and took it off, exposing my costume, while Bubbled affixed a few dive weights to the back of my utility belt. I was still light on me feet, but I could walk. Bubbles also tugged Rachel to the ground and handed her a couple of dive weights to ballast her.
"Bubbles, can you get my street clothes and purse," I pointed to where they were piled on the floor, "I'm a little too full to bend."
"I'll say," my sidekick and best friend said, retrieving my secret identity, "You've really gotten big."
Make that ex-best friend.
"Let's get you out of here, the cops and press were right on my tail." Bubbles tossed a business card on the counter, "That's our number, if you need any help or have any questions about being inflated."
My rounded out body brushed the edges of the door frame of the shop, and I was instantly surrounded by flashing cameras and microphones.
"There she is!"
"Wow, look at the size of her!"
"Airtankgirl, did you battle another supervillan?"
"Look over here...great!"
I held up my hands, "Sorry guys, there was a fight, I lost. But we plan on pursuing this criminal to the best of our ability."
"Bubbles," one reporter shouted, "I notice you aren't nearly as pumped up as Airtankgirl, why is that?"
"I showed up after the action. Airtankgirl had already borne the brunt of the attack, now if you'll excuse us, we need to let some of the air out of her, and get after this villain."
One advantage of my new size is it was very easy to move the newsies out of the way with my belly.
Once comfortably back in our secret base, I settled my expanded bulk onto a sofa and allowed Bubbles to debrief me about the robbery and our new villianess, Squeaky.
"Well she sounds like a hoot."
"Watch out for her, whatever the gas is that she uses, its potent," I patted my bulging belly, "And it apparently has no reaction to my powers."
"What?"
"Look at me, I'm all belly. I've been trying to pull some of it into my chest or bottom, and it's not working. Nor am I possessed of any more super strength or invulnerability than I did from the little air I already had in me."
"If it isn't reacting to your powers, I wonder if you can kiss it out?"
"No telling yet. Oh! I need to call work and let them know I won't be back in today."
"What's your excuse?"
"Same as always: I have a bad gas attack."
"You know, now that you're rich, you could quit work."
"I want the experience for my resume. Though, if I don't deflate soon, It'll make going to work impossible. The news picked us up right away. Everyone will know how big Airtankgirl got, and if the traditionally sleek and sexy Amanda Migliore shows up at work blown up like a balloon, my secret identity is through."
"Well," Bubbles said, sitting down next to me and resting a hand on my bloated belly, "If you don't deflate soon, and judging from what Squeaky said, I doubt you will, you have an even bigger problem," When I looked blankly at her, she added, "Dinner. Your parents."
My heart nearly stopped, "Oh no! That's tonight! What am I going to do? I can't let them see me like this!"
"Well you can't cancel either. You've cancelled like four times. If you bail again, they'll disown you."
"But I'm a blimp!"
Bubbles laughed, "Believe me hon, I know. We'll think of something."
"We?"
"Like I'm going to miss one of your Mom's dinners? Your Mom's a good cook."
I looked at her knowingly.
Bubbles held up her hands, "Hang on there hero, you know I'm willing to bloat up as much as the next girl, but I have a date after dinner, and I'd like to show up in good shape."
"I wonder if Angie or Brooke has any room to spare in their figures?"
"I don't know, I think they've both been seeing some new guys, they may not be up to expanding just yet."
"Apparently I need to get a boyfriend so I can use that excuse too." I groused squeakily.
"Its not from lack of candidates, there's Nick-"
"Hey who are you seeing tonight?" I asked.
Lynn blushed in spite of herself, "Remember that hunky steward-"
"Sven? You're seeing Sven tonight! Perfect, you know the first thing he's going to wonder when he sees you is where all the rest of you is. If any boyfriend is inflation-friendly, its Sven."
"Hmmm," Lynn looked down at her spandex covered midsection. She slapped her palms against her flat belly, "Heck, what are friends for? Lets see if it works."
One kiss later, we knew it did. The black tights of her costume bulged in the middle as she bloated with half of the gas in me. As her costume creaked from the pressure building inside her, she squished her hands over her ballooning belly.
"Oh 'Manda, I...oh," she staggered as her center of gravity changed with her expanding middle, "I think I better sit down while I finish bloating up." She plumped herself down on the couch, opening her legs enough to make room for her swelling belly.
"Thanks, Lynn, you're a real pal. Not every girl would volunteer to blimp up like that for a friend." I was feeling better already, my costume was still tight, but I could reach around my waist now, I was only barely buoyant even without the weights, and my voice was closer to a normal timbre.
"Wow, I'm all belly," Bubbles marveled at her new shape.
"Yeah and you're only half the size I was."
"Wow, you must have felt stuffed. I feel really bloated right now."
"Actually I still feel really bloated, it must be part of the effect of Squeaky's gas, we don't acclimate to it."
"Well," Bubbles held out her hand for me to haul her up from the couch, she having grown too big to stand on her own. I helped her up where we compared our bulging costumes, "Ok, I took that one for you, now what's our cover story to explain our shape?"
"Ah hah, I have a cunning plan..."
Lynn and I waddled up the walk to my parent's house. I was in tan stretch slacks and a black top, while Lynn was in an other pair of tan stretch slacks, but with a pink fuzzy sweater over a buttoned shirt. Most of the clothes were courtesy of our cache of Victoria Secrets loot clothing.
"Thanks for driving," I said.
"Well I had to, your belly was too big for you to steer your car. By the way I want to go on record as saying that I think this is fraught with peril."
"Duly noted. Here goes," I knocked on the door, and opened it, sticking my head in, "Hello?"
I heard my Mom's voice from the kitchen, "Manda honey is that you, come in you silly girl, this is still your house even if you have a dorm room."
Luckily I was positive that the hubbub over mine and Lynn's bellies would divert any arguments over me having moved out of the dorm. Steeling myself I stepped inside the house, Lynn close behind me.
"God's Holy Trousers!"
That would be my Dad.
"Brenda, get out here!" He called back to the kitchen, from which my Mom shot out like a missile. Once she got a look at her daughter she locked on.
Alerted by the ruckus, my younger brother peeked in and started laughing immediately.
"'Manda," My Mom started, "Look at you! You're huge!"
"Mrs. Migliore, its not what you think-" Lynn tried.
"Jesus and all the Saints, they're both pregnant!"
I had had enough. "We. Are. Not. Pregnant!" I bellowed. In the brief lull I hastily explained, "We're in a Sociology lab where we have to wear a balloon inflated in our clothes to, uh, understand the chore of pregnancy," I tapped Lynn's belly with a hollow BUUUM, "See, they are just balloons."
My parents sagged in relief, "Oh thank heavens, well, get out of those things, you look ridiculous anyway all blown up like that. Dinner will be ready in a jiff."
"We can't. That's the whole point. They're one use only, if we take them off they'll deflate, and then we flunk."
Mom shrugged, "Oh well if its for class, that's ok then. But seriously though, you girls are so big! I don't think I was that size with any of you."
"Well this isn't an exact science," Lynn said.
"Make yourself comfortable, I need to start plating things up. 'Manda would you set the table for me?"
"Sure Mom," I was stopped on my way to the dining room by my little brother.
"Hey Amanda, you look swell," he smirked. Little brothers are all alike.
"Uh huh, like I haven't heard that before."
"Hi Mike," Lynn said from behind me as I moved past my brother.
Please understand a few things. I love my family, even if they can be a bit of a handfull. I even love Mike, despite himself. I'm the oldest of three: me, age twenty, Monica age eighteen, and Mike at sixteen. It wasn't easy growing up in this family because, while I don't really go on about it, my entire family is, well, really good-looking in face and figure. Dad had all the distinguished good looks that came with age, Mom had been a Miss USA contestant of our state when she was my age, and still looked it.
If you'll recall from my first tale, I was a very late bloomer. Despite this, they all still loved me regardless of my appearance. Well, when you're the ugly duckling in a flock, that sort of devotion means a lot to you.
Mike eyed Lynn up and down, "Hi Lynn, wanna play some PS?"
Another thing to mention, is that my little brother is a typical sixteen year-old and both Lynn and myself were positive he had a crush on my roomate. Though I had to admit I was a little surprised to see it manifested today, with Lynn's extra girth.
"If it'll get me out of setting the table, you bet! Not so fast though," she called out to him as he raced to the living room, "I'm a little slower right now." She held her swollen belly, waddling after him.
I went into the dining room where a pile of silverware and flatware sat on the table. I picked up the plates and waddles around the table setting the places, then repeated it with the silverware. It was only when I had to place the butter dish, condiments and light the candles that I had problems. My stomach was so big that I couldn't reach the interior of the table. I tried turning sideways, when my Dad stepped in and took the things from me and placed them in the center of the table.
I realized, he'd watched me the whole time, "I thought you could use a hand in your, ah, condition."
Wow, he was just as embarrassed at me being fat as I was at being fat in front of them, "Thanks Dad. What I could really use is a girdle I think."
The lame joke broke the mood, and he smiled and hugged me around my round inflated belly, "You're still my little girl, ok well, so you aren't so little right now."
I smiled up at him while patting my bulging sides, "Does this mean you're going to tease me about my figure all night?"
He considered, "Good chance of it."
When we finished that chore, I found Lynn and Mike playing Katamari something or another. Lynn was sunk back into the sofa, her game controller resting on her expanded waistline.
She looked up over her stomach as I came in, "Hey, Mike was just telling me how cool his classmates find our local superheroine."
"Huh?"
"Airtankgirl, you know, Airtankgirl."
"Oh yeah, I think I saw something on her on the news. She looked a little bloated."
Mike leapt to the defense, "Dude that's her power! She's supposed to be that big!"
"Yeah," Lynn shot me a look of mocking reproach, "Don't you know anything. Apparently the hefty heroine has wholly captivated a large part of the 11th grade. There's a fan club, how about that?"
"I think I need to sit down." I dropped onto the sofa next to my roomate who was far too gleeful at my expense, and spread my hands on my inflated belly, "I don't feel well."
"Must be gas," Lynn smiled at me.
Dad called us in for dinner, Mike was on his feet in an instant, being perpetually hungry. Lynn and I were a little less mobile. In fact, we were both entirely unable to stand up. We struggled under our full bloated bellies for a moment before Lynn snapped her fingers at Mike.
"A hand here please?"
My brother took her hand, and with a grunt, hauled her upright. At any other time, I am certain he would have enjoyed mocking my being too fat to stand up on my own, but Lynn's presence and her similar condition to mine made him a little more human. The two of them hauled my fattened body upright and Lynn and myself waddled into dinner.
Sitting in the chairs wasn't nearly as much as a committment as a sofa, but Lynn and I swiftly discovered that our round, inflated bellies kept us quite a distance from the table itself. So far, that w e had to try to lean forward with our relatively uninflated torsos to get close to the table.
Exchanging a sheepish glance, we realized that while this pumped up, we weren't especially bendable. Our bloated bodies kept us at almost arm's length from the table, which meant even farther than that from the actual food.
Dad looked at us with pity, "Would you girls like some sort of bib?" he asked, seeing our awkwardness at the table.
"It oughta be a good way for her to loose some of that weight, if she can't eat, she won't get any fatter." Mike chimed in.
I was about to tear his arms off, when Lynn just looked at him with big eyes and her hands on her round belly as if to conceal it, then she let her lower lip quiver.
My brother is such a jellyfish, he was immediately trying to explain that while I was fat and bloated, Lynn was just as attractive as ever.
Mom stood up, waving her husband back down, "Let me see what I can come up with. Jake, get rid of the soup and carve the roast will you dear." She left the table, walking upstairs into the bedrooms, rather than in the kitchen, where I thought a bib might be.
"Where's Monica?" I asked my Dad about my sister.
"She's at a friends house working on her science fair project, she's been in a bit of a snit lately. She coloured her hair the other day without permission, and its been a little..." Dad looked up as he was serving, when Mom came back into the room.
One of the things that everyone who ever met Brenda agrees on is that she is the most gracious person in the world. There is nothing she wouldn't do to make a guest feel at ease.
My Mom stood there with three towels in one hand, the other hand was on the large, fat round belly she had somehow managed to gain in the minutes she was gone. My Mom...MY Mom, was fat.
"...fat." Dad finished weakly.
"Close your mouth Jake, and not one single peep out of you mister," this last was directed at my brother. She handed out a towel to Lynn and I, while keeping the third for herself as she waddled clumsily over to her chair. She sat rather gracelessly, her big stomach plumping up as she sat.
"Brenda?" My Dad gasped.
"Yes?" She responded archly, resting her hands on her large plush stomach, "Oh breathe, Jake, its just a few bedroom pillows stuffed into my stirrup pants." She patted her bulging midriff, "I have to admit, I'm impressed at you girls going through with this class project. I've only been stuffed up for a few minutes and I already feel awkward and I know I'm not that big..."
"Yes you are," my Dad said softly.
Mom pretended not to hear it, "Its ok girls, as loud as both my darling husband and my son can be, they are also big weenies who won't dare mention how fat either of you, let alone how big I suddenly find myself."
"I love you Mom."
She tried to reach forward to pat my hand, but her new swollen figure prevented that, "I know. Pass the carrots."
Dinner was wonderful. The guys didn't utter a peep, Mom was charming in her own stuffed way, and the food was typically fantastic. A half hour later, we poor college girls were leaning back in our chairs, groaning over our doubly-stuffed bellies. Not only were we bloated with gas, but in the presence of good home cooking, Lynn and I both sorta lost control, gorging ourselves.
Lynn rubbed her full round stomach, "Ooo Mrs M, that was fabu, but I may never walk again."
"No wonder they're so fat," Mike muttered to himself.
"Thank you Jacquline, if there was ever a chance we girls had to pack it in, this is it. Dessert?"
I clutched my overstuffed belly, "God no Mom, I'll burst."
"Suit yourself," she said calmly digging into the tort.
Lynn, not wanting to seem rude, helped herself to a slice that was only barely smaller than the one Mom took. While they filled up any empty space left in them, I looked down at my bulging middle, feeling the gassy hollowness of my belly until I realized they were speaking to me.
"Huh?"
My mom smiled, "I asked you what you had learned being this big."
"Uh, its better to be skinny?"
Eventually Mike drifted back to his PS, Dad disappeared upstairs, and Mom, Lynn and myself were waddling to the front door. Not only were we stuffed with food, but Mom had packed up all the leftovers in tupperware for us to live off at school.
We hugged awkwardly, both our bulging stomachs, mine filled with gas and hers with pillows, flattened against each other. She hugged Lynn too, with similar awkwardness. Lynn stopped me just in time from kissing my Mom goodbye. That would have been horrible.
"You girls be careful going home."
"We'll be ok," Lynn patted her full belly, "We have our own airbags."
Mom patted her own bulging waist, "I have to admit I'll be glad to get rid of this, though I don't know how skinny I'll be under it all, I'm stuffed," She said with a grin.
We both waddled off to Lynn's MPV , awkwardly climbed into the seats, which were set as far back as possible. We looked at each other, and we both fumbled with the buttons to our pants, undoing the waist to let our stuffed and bloated bellies bulge out of our tight pants. We both gasped in relief.
"Let's get back to our place and into our costumes."
Lynn looked at me, "Are you expecting trouble?"
"No, its just that I figure our costumes will be the only clothes that fit us well in the shape we're in."
Lynn burped, "I see your point." Upon reaching our secret hideout, which Lynn insisted on referring to as 'the Fatcave', we immediately shed our too-tight street clothes in exchange for our also tight, but manageable spandex costumes.
I rubbed the shiny white dome of my spandex-clad belly, while Bubbles patted her bulging waistline in her black spandex tights while she puttered around the lab.
"I want to run a few more tests on us to see if I can get any kind of data on how long we'll be blown up like this."
I looked at my teammate, "Your costume?"
Lynn had changed her costume slightly. she had replaced the one-piece with a two piece, like a sports bra and briefs. The lower waistband of the briefs emphasized how fat her inflated belly was as she bulged over them.
She looked down at herself, "I like it."
"You're barely in it."
"Oh speaking of barely dressed, I need to get moving, I still have a date tonight." She looked down at her discarded street clothes, and I could tell she wasn't liking the thought of stuffing herself back into them. Instead, she plucked a large raincoat from a peg on the wall and belted it around her rotund figure.
"Have fun, tell Sven I said hi."
"Uh, maybe next time he's in town, I could see if he has a friend?"
"No thanks, despite my current size, I don't need pity dates."
"No...but one date might be nice."
"Scram." Long after Lynn closed the door behind her, I sat thinking, until I made a decision and dialed a number from my mask radio from memory. I sat, drumming my fingers on my inflated belly until I got an answer.
"Hello?"
"Hi Nick...it's Amanda."
The kitchen door to my house opened.
"Monica, I set some leftovers in the oven for you baby," my Mom called down from upstairs, "You just missed your sister,"
Monica walked over to the living room window, facing the front of the house. She tugged the knit cap off her head and brushed her hand through her short, swept, green hair.
"It's ok Mom, I'll catch her later."