"Hey you!"
Usually people who didn't know my name and were calling for me approached me from behind. This one, who was bold enough to go "hey you" to a complete stranger, shouted at me from the front. She was about eighteen and... well, she was a tomboy, complete with short hair and baseball cap. Aside from that, she was wearing sandals and a crop top and shorts in that same familiar, super-stretchy, spandex-like material. They looked brand new.
I blinked. "Yes?"
She stopped in front of me. "Help me out. You're some big expert, right?"
I was about to ask what she meant and why she thought I knew anything about it when I realized that, with the way she was dressed, she probably only meant one thing. That and the emphasis on "big." Or maybe I was reading too far into that.
"Help me inflate." It wasn't a request so much as an order.
"Okay? Should I find you a hose, or-"
"No, I know how to do it, I just need..." Her expression faltered a bit. "...help."
"You want me to teach you?" I wasn't quite sure what she was getting at, honestly.
"No, I -know- how, I just-" She huffed and rolled her eyes before grabbing me by the wrist and leading me off. "Just come on."
*****
Our journey ended beneath a high, shady overhang in the outskirts of town, facing a field away from prying eyes. She lead me to a point a few steps from the wall and let go of my hand, which I took as an unspoken instruction to stand there as she continued on for another few yards before stopping, turning, and looking at me like she was expecting me to say something. When I didn't, she asked in an accusing tone, "so you just inhale and keep inhaling?"
"Usually you need to focus on the part of your body that you want to inflate and sort of..." I gestured, trying to think of how to phrase it. "...direct the air into it."
"Oh." It sounded like she hadn't thought of that. "Well, that's fine. If something goes wrong I can just ask you." The way she said "ask" made me wonder if she didn't mean "blame." She looked lost in thought for a second before nodding to herself, and she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing to take it.
She spread her arms and pushed out her chest; she must have done something right, because the signs of her growth were immediate. Not in her breasts or belly, but in her hands. In an instant they went from normal to puffy to fat to rapidly growing caricatures, the curves of her palm growing more indistinct until they simply bulged out and became completely round. Her fingers began swelling like sausages, then growing broader as they took on a conical shape, jutting out of the spheres of her hands. In mere moments there were two balloons on the ends of her arms nearly as tall as she was. If this was her first time, she was doing an excellent job. Kind of.
The tomboy stopped breathing in and let out a sigh, opening her eyes and looking down. Her expression fell, and her head turned from one hand to the other. "What..." Her fingers wobbled back and forth a few inches. "What even."
"That's actually a really good start," I said, trying to encourage her. "If you have that much mobility in your-"
"No!" she snapped. "Just... let me try again."
She took a moment to focus before inhaling again. Nothing appeared to change at first, but then there were two quiet "pops," and I looked down to see that her swollen feet had broken through the straps on her sandals. They doubled, then tripled in size, the toes full and puffy. Unlike her hands they sort of kept their shape, being vaguely triangular with distinct curves at the heels and balls of her feet. They pressed against each other as they filled with air, pushing her legs apart and lifting her up higher and higher. By the time she stopped she was almost three feet taller, with feet big enough to use cars as sandals and big toes the size of exercise balls. She was also quite limber, considering how wide her stance was.
Her toes wiggled and she let out a huff, rolling her eyes. "Great. Terrific."
"I don't know what the big problem is," I said. "You're doing really well."
"Look, just... one more chance." The index finger of one of her hands slowly waved to and fro. "Give me one more chance."
I wasn't really about to say "no." To be honest I wasn't really sure why I was there anymore. Aside from needing that one little bit of advice she was fine. "Okay."
The tomboy leaned back and took a deep, open-mouthed breath, and all at once she changed: Her lips fattened and pursed into an "o" shape, her cheeks bulged comically, her nose grew bulbous, and all over her head simply became spherical. Despite her change she continued to suck down air through plump lips as a deep, hollow hissing came from her. She swelled at a rapid pace, eyes darting to and fro, and for a moment I worried that she might not be able to handle what was happening. Luckily her lips pinched shut with a low squeak, and she blew out the excess air a second later. Still, her face looked like an overfilled parade balloon, and her head was about ten feet around, taking up over half of her newfound height.
I wasn't thinking it at the time, but looking back on how swollen and misproportioned she was, it was actually kind of funny.
She blinked her wide eyes as I backed up to get in her line of sight. "I didn't get bigger anywhere else," she asked, "did I?" Her voice had a hollow, kind of echo-y sound to it.
"No. Why, what did you want to fill up?"
"My boobs."
"Just that?"
"Yes."
"There's more to life than just blowing up your breasts."
Even with her head being a mass of air-filled curves she was still able to give me a derisive look. "Easy for you to say." She looked around. "How do I deflate?"
"You wanted to inflate without knowing how to deflate?"
The toes on one foot wobbled a bit. I got the impression that she was trying to stomp her foot in annoyance. "Just tell me!"
I sighed. "Okay, don't get angry. It's just like inflating: You focus on the air inside of you, then push it out."
She grunted and opened her lips, letting out a series of little puffs but nothing else. Suddenly a torrent of air rushed from her lips, and her eyes went wide as she left the ground and flew backwards over the field, hands and feet rapidly shrinking.
"Wait!" I shouted, running after her. "You're supposed deflate your head -first!-"