“Oh, God, Jim, I'm going to explode. Can you get out of us now?” Gena rubbed her bloated stomach in discomfort.

Caroline smiled, patting hers. “I think the idea of having a man in there–”

Lexi cut her off. “Don't go there, Caroline. I don't want to hear it.”

“Jim, I mean it. Get out. You want to be throw up?” Gena warned.

Suddenly, Gena and Caroline's stomachs literally deflated, and Jim stood very happily before them. “That was the most amazing experience, being eaten by more than one person! It was interesting, seeing myself being digested by all of you, honestly! Who knew every person's digestive system is slightly different?”

“Ew, Jim! Cut it out!” Lexi turned away.

“Jim, you're blue goo. Why?” asked Caroline.

“Why not? I'm a blue goo-man!”

Lexi eyed him, silly wobbling form and all. Something had been nagging at her. “Who was that boy that delivered you as a cake, and how were you able to trust him carrying you around?”

Jim winked. “That was Mr. Wintergreen, transformed with his new 'Ginger Boy' potion.”

Caroline's mind was humming. She could feel the potion pushing her to change. She needed to be food. She desperately wanted to experience it. And she also wanted to get the celebration going.

“My turn to be food!” she announced.

“What are you going to be?” groaned Lexi.

“This!” Her hands melded to her sides, and her gooey form grew glassy as she melted down into a shapely bottle of champagne. “Drink me now!” she demanded. “Do it!”

“Awesome!” cried Jim. He grabbed up the bottle and began to drink from it directly.

“Oh, man,” murmured Lexi with a frown.

Jim wiped off his mouth. “She's good! Sweet, and she's all tingly going down your throat! Try her, Gena!” he handed Caroline off to his wife, who began to chug down the bubbly.

“How am I?” queried the giggly bottle.

“I still feel you bubbling in my stomach! That must be fun! And you taste amazing!”

“I'm the best champagne you could ever have! And I'll keep making more of me so you don't run out. I want you all to get drunk on me!”

Gena glanced at Jim, wondering at how smart of an idea this was. But Jim seemed to find it completely acceptable, even grabbing the bottle-girl back and sending more of her down his throat. Lexi merely watched on in horror. Finally, when both Jim and Gena were tipsy, they set the bottle in front of Lexi and demanded her to drink.

“Please,” begged Caroline. “I'll pay you! I need you to! Come on, for my birthday? Look how happy Gena and Jim are from my effects.”

Lexi sighed. “Make your face go away and I'll do it. Then that's it.”

But when Lexi began to drink her friend, she found the experience so invigorating that she partook in a bit too much, and was soon as tipsy as her other friends. “Oh Caroline, who would think I'd get drunk on my friend! I wish you could taste you!”

“So turn into a bottle like me,” said the bottle. It became human-shaped but retained the glassy gooeyness that was rather artistic-looking.

Lexi turned away. “No one's putting me inside them.”

“That could be taken in so many ways,” Jim contributed.

“Come on, Lexi. It's harmless. Be food.”

“I'll be food, but you can't eat me. No way. If you try, I'll be come a huge monster and-”

“Eat us?”

“Shut up, Caroline,” Lexi spat.

Caroline went off into the kitchen and came back with a real bottle of champagne she had bought for the party. She needed a bit of a buzz herself.

As Caroline drank, Jim and Gena were busy with their own antics. Partly to entertain Caroline, Gena decided she would become soda. Jim happily became a bottle, while Gena's ooze-form grew dark and fizzy, and suddenly the whole of her was sucked into Jim.

“Woo!” her voice echoed from inside him, and he allowed a cap to form over them, sealing her in. Muffled words came from inside him.

“What's she saying?” Lexi asked.

The bottle smiled. “She wants you to shake me so she'll explode out when you open my cap.”

Lexi coughed. “Well, that sounds interesting.” She picked Jim up and shook him hard.

“Keep going!” he cried.

She shook harder, and she could swear she could feel Gena's pressure building up inside of him, aching to come out...

“Now!”

She had hardly touched Jim's cap when Gena exploded forth, crying out in triumph and bathing both her and Caroline. Caroline glanced at the soda running off her body. “Hey, Gena! How's it going?” she queried, taking another gulp of champagne.

“Not bad!” cried the puddle of soda that was forming at Caroline's feet. “Not bad at all!”

“Well that was fun!” said Jim from behind them. He was back to blue goo, and soon the soda gathered together into Gena. Only she remained dark and bubbly.

“I'm soda-goo,” she chuckled, wobbling a bit. Apparently, though Caroline was out of their systems, her effect had not quite worn off.

Suddenly Caroline jumped up from her chair. “Now it's time for the party games to begin!” She bent down on all fours, growing brown and furry. Feet and hands were hooves, and her ears had elongated into droopy, fuzzy ones. “I'm a donkey!” she brayed.

“Where's your tail?” Gena asked, noticing the very obvious lack of one.

“That's the point!” she cackled, indicating a nearby box. “We're playing pin the tail on the Caroline!”

“The Caroline-donkey?”

“Yup!”

Jim fished out a fake tail from the box and approached her. “How will it stick to you?”

“Magic!” the donkey yelped. “Now get on that blindfold next to the box and get going!”

Caroline enjoyed the process of the game much more than the end result. Every time a blindfolded player groped at her to find the appropriate spot for a tail, she was more than appreciative.

After, a gooey Caroline pulled over a bucket of water. Shrinking, she dove towards it and became an apple mid-air. The fruit splashed into the bucket and bounced back up, bobbing happily on the surface.

“I thought dunking for apples was a Halloween thing,” uttered Gena.

“This is dunking for Carolines!” yelled the apple, its small voice echoing in the bucket. “Try to sink your teeth into me!”

After several weak tries, Jim emerged, the shiny fruit clamped in his jaw. “You win!” it cried.

“What's my prize?” asked Jim, eyebrow raised. He bit into the fruit a little further, making it squeal. He was about to take a complete bite when he noticed his wife frowning at him from across the room.

Carefully, he removed the apple and placed it on the floor. “What's next, Caroline?”

The apple began to spread across the floor into a white mat. Bright colored spots appeared on it, and Caroline's face appeared in a blue spot at the top. “I'm a Twister mat! You guys get to play Twister on me! Go!”

“Well, that shouldn't be hard as goo,” pointed out Lexi. “We need a spinner, you know.”

“I'll yet out the directions,” Caroline decided. “Right foot on blue!”

Lexi was quite right. Playing Twister as goo-people was hardly challenging, although the twisted mass of the three made a rather interesting sculpture at the end.

“Now the fun begins,” proclaimed Caroline. “Meet me outside in one minute,” and she raced out the door.

Gena watched the door slam behind her. “Begins? How much did she drink?”

“Not much,” Jim said. “Just a bit to get the buzz that she gave us, I'd say.”

“I still feel it, honestly,” giggled Lexi.

“You may need it. Let's see what her crazy brain thought up now,” spat Gena. Jim glanced at her. Was there a hint of jealousy there? He had never known his wife to be petty or mean, but it seemed like she was annoyed with her friend.

Shrugging this off, Jim led the girls outside to see a minibus parked at the stoop. It winked at them.

“Caroline! You're a bus!”

“Hop in! I want to be big, huge things for my birthday, and I can't do it here, so I'm taking you on a trip!”

As they entered the too-cozy-for-school bus, Jim sat down in the driver's seat.

“I can drive myself, Jim!” the bus protested.

“Every bus has its driver,” he said airily, glancing back at Gena to see her reaction. As he suspected, she looked rather peeved. Settling into Caroline's leather seat (which moaned happily), he secretly was pleased at Gena's extra attention, even though it was in the form of jealousy. He had no romantic interest in Caroline whatsoever, and he figured that Gena would know that. He was just fascinated with the fantastical transformations she thought of. She was even more adventurous than his own wife, and that was saying a lot.

“I really like being big,” the bus narrated its ride as they sped through the town. “The transformation alone is like...explosive. You feel yourself getting bigger, and you're hollowing out, and you're hardening into metal and glass, and you're developing a motor and–”

“We get it, Caroline,” Gena muttered, staring out the window into the night.

“Where are we going?” Lexi piped up a bit too animatedly. “Where are we, for that matter?”

Caroline had brought them into the middle of nowhere, and they found themselves on an open field that seemed to stretch for miles. “We're going here. Everyone out!”

They had hardly dismounted from their bus when it began to grow and creak. “What next, Caroline?” Jim asked with hardly-concealed anticipation.

The bus was growing larger, wider, and taller. It changed from orange to a brick-color, and indeed, it seemed to becoming brick. “What are you–” Jim gaped up at the growing structure and emitted an awed obscenity. “You're turning yourself into a building. My God...what will you think of next?”

Gena muttered something unintelligible, but Jim was too intent on the sight before him that he didn't respond. Caroline's face appeared in the brick, but her eyes were scrunched shut in pleasure. “Almost done changing.. almost done...YES! Ten stories high! I'm a freaking skyscraper!”

“Hardly.”

Jim stroked the brick surface. “You know, I still am amazed by what this potion does. Who would have thought it could turn a person into an honest-to-God building?”

“Guys, come inside me! Take a tour!”

Jim ran into Caroline's front door, Lexi following, and Gena lagging behind. “Nice!” Jim was exclaiming as he examined Caroline's insides. “Is it as good as being a cottage?”

“Better!” Caroline's voice rang eerily through her interior. “Although I didn't give myself furniture or anything like that. Just being a brick building is fun enough.”

“Gena, we gotta try this,” Jim called back to her.

An arm extended from the wall and grabbed him. “Come on in and try it now!”

Before Gena could protest, Jim had simply been absorbed into the wall. The building shuddered alarmingly around them, then it steadied. “Caroline, you feel...amazing!” came Jim's voice from somewhere above them. “This is beyond description! Gena, come in!” An arm drew toward her, but she sidled away.

“What's next, guys? We don't have all night,” Lexi inserted, noting the awkwardness of the situation.

Apparently Jim sensed this as well because he emerged from the wall, looking rattled. “Wow...” he shook his head. “Mindblowing...just...”

Suddenly the building melted away around them, and Caroline stood before Jim, her hands on her hips, eyes flashing merrily. “You turned back into a person, not goo. You lose!”

Jim gaped at himself. “Oops. Sorry.”

“That's fine,” Caroline tottered a little. Whether it was from the rush of her rapid transformation or perhaps the alcohol was anyone's guess. “You have to turn into what I say.”

Lexi and Gena looked worried. Jim had a titillated expression on his face. “Do your worst, Caroline. I'm game.”

Caroline stood before him a long time. Then she whispered something into his ear. Her voice raised slightly, allowing her friends to pick up, “And I get to use you too.”

At a loss for words, Jim merely gawked at her.

“What?” Lexi asked. “What do you have to be?”

“I...”

“What did you say, Caroline?” Gena demanded.

Caroline's wicked smile was unnerving. Jim finally uttered, “Caroline, I'm married. How can you ask your friend's husband to...be a...toy...for you to...use?”

Fury took over Gena's calm demeanor. “Really, Caroline! How dare you? You want to use my husband as a sex toy? You crazy bitch! That finally goes over the line!” For a moment, it seemed that she would lunge at the girl, but she managed to control herself.

“Damn it, you guys are such...wusses! Become something daring for once!” Caroline grew silent, her face red.

Jim looked at the ground. “I can't do that to Gena. Pick something else.”

Everyone stood there awkwardly. Jim kicked at a pebble, and Caroline pulled at some non-existent fuzz on her shirt. Gena's gaze of hatred remained fixated on Caroline. “I'm going home,” she said quietly. She was about to transform when Lexi grabbed her.

“Wait, Gena. Please. Caroline didn't mean anything nasty by it.”

“My husband using her as a toy? That's damned nasty.”

“Gena, I'm not thinking,” Caroline exclaimed. “I mean,...oh, I don't know, I was just trying to think of the worst thing, and–”

“And you did!”

Caroline stared at her feet. “I'll think of something else.”

“Yes, good idea, Caroline,” said Lexi. “Meanwhile, Gena, come and merge with me. Let's all make up and be friends.” Gena became part of Lexi's gooey form, which began to redden and lose its human shape. Caroline and Jim watched with interest as the two girls became a floating pair of lips which puckered up and kissed them both at the same time.

“Eww!” Caroline spat, laughing. “What exactly are you?” she wiped reddish slime from most of her upper body.

“We're lipstick lips!” cried Lexi. “Mwah!!”

“You guys are nuts,” Jim murmured, walking off as he wiped the slime from his once-more gooey form.

To make everyone happy, Caroline had Jim turn himself into a female. He was not amused. But Gena was. “Serves him right,” she muttered under her breath.

“Okay, guys. Out of the way. Next change.”

Caroline lay down on the grass and spread out her arms. They suddenly grew rigid, and she was elongating from head to toe. She took on a silvery sheen, and the others kept having to step further and further back due to how large she was growing.

“Caroline, what–”

“I'm turning into a jet! I always wanted to, but never had the room...HOLY HELL I'M BIG!!” she spouted from what was now her nosecone.

Woman-Jim chuckled his new female laugh, which they all found slightly disarming. “Look at that, she's got propellers, and landing gear, and–” he snapped his jaw shut with a single look from his wife.

“Get in guys! We're off to the other side of the world, courtesy of me!”

Logic finally took over. Jim stepped daintily in front of the shaking plane. “Caroline, listen to me. You can't fly in that form.”

“Little girl Jimmie, why not? By the way, I have a pretty dress for you–”

“Caroline, this is dangerous. If anything picks you up, an uncharted, unreported plane...”

“It's night. Who would see me?”

“Caroline, really? There's radar, and...”

The plane frowned. “I know you're right. I know, I just...”

“Try something else that flies...oh, I got it. A hot air balloon! Do it!”

The plane was already changing – happily shrinking down to the ground and forming a basket. Attached to the basket was a swiftly expanding balloon...with Caroline's ecstatic face on it. When she was fully inflated, she let out a yowl of blissful glee. “This is better than being a jet. Get in me now!”

The three clambered in and Caroline rose proudly into the air. “I fly nicely, huh?” she murmured above them. “Even better than I would as a plane?”

“Are you fishing for compliments now?”

“Yes,” she said sheepishly. All four grew hushed as Caroline floated them lazily over the landscape. Dawn was approaching, and the sky had a pinkish tinge, making the land below look almost enchanted.

Jim inhaled deeply. “Can you believe we're doing this?” he murmured.

“Can you believe Caroline is a balloon?”

“That's what I meant. Years ago I never would have thought transformation of a human was possible, and then Gena showed me her work, and... remember you couldn't control it yet, and you turned into a pie, Gena?” He sidled up to his wife, placing his hand around her. The movement made Caroline titter, but she was largely ignored.

“I remember,” Gena uttered, staring out over the horizon. Water was in view now, and Caroline brought them down to rest on a large beach.

“It's pretty here. Nice place to end an awesome birthday/going-away party. Because this was also for you, Gena and Jim.” The balloon slowly deflated into human/goo form, and Caroline walked over to them. “I'm sorry things got a bit crazy there,” she uttered. “But you know I love you all and I didn't mean to hurt you guys. I'm really thankful you spent this time with me, and we're really going to miss you when you move, Gena and Jim.”

The four gooey friends found themselves embracing and getting lost in the big mass of ooze they had become. “We can visit whenever we want. Jim can be a jet like you–”

Caroline interjected, “No jets.”

“Birds, um... I don't know...raptors...”

The friends pulled apart, laughing. “So it's never really good-bye,” Lexi pointed out. “I'm fine with that. We can still do our transformation weekends when we want.”

“Yup.”

“On that note...” Caroline stepped up. “Now my last transformation is a fun, relaxing one for all of us to do. Ice cream on the beach.”

Jim raised an eyebrow. “Ice cream on the beach?”

“Observe.”

Caroline's legs fused together, and her feet merged and grew into a small pedestal. As her bottom half turned a shiny metal, her hands fused to her hips as she began to shrink. “And here comes the fun part!”

“You're turning yourself into an ice cream sundae!” Lexi cried, clasping her hands together. “That looks fun!”

Caroline smiled as her very top half rounded out and became several scoops of ice cream. “Oops, almost forgot my toppings!” Hot fudge sauce careened down her side, and a puff of whipped cream appeared, topped by a cherry. “Now I'm perfect!”

Jim eyed her, his mouth watering, but the sundae chided him, “You next, Jim. Become a sundae.”

Jim did not hesitate in the least. In much the same fashion, he shrank down into a sundae, only making sure he had double the amount of ice cream and toppings that Caroline had. “I'm impressed, Jim. Feel nice?”

“Mm...” moaned the new sundae. “Better than being Jimmie was.”

“You're going to fall over with all that goop,” Gena pointed out.

“Gena and Lexi, go!”

Lexi had already formed into a sundae-woman. She purposely changed her top half of herself into ice cream first. “Oh, this is weird,” she giggled, as her bottom half solidified into a glass sundae cup.

Gena transformed slowly, savoring her changes to the fullest. She ended up as a petite glass of lemon and lime sorbets.

“Ooh, aren't we fancy?” quipped the Caroline-sundae.

The sorbets shuddered in delight.

The four ice cream novelties sat on the sand, enjoying their new forms while watching the sun come up. The sand warmed them from below, and, as the waves lapped at the shore, the sun began to melt them. Each was in their own private heaven, slowly melting into sweet pools.

“Ah, this is the life,” moaned Lexi. “This was the best change all night.”

“Oh, I don't know. You should try to become a jet,” Caroline murmured.

“Or a building,” added Jim.

“Tomorrow. Right now I'm just a very contented ice cream novelty. Let me enjoy.”

And, of course, they did.