Jen sat up in bed and sighed. She felt.... bloated. It was the closest way to describe how she felt, but it didn't quite capture it. Her stomach felt heavy, not unlike she had drank too much, but it was empty.
She started to cough. Wet, mucusy coughs. She was sick. She had seen reports in the news late last week of cases of a newly-discovered virus, Human Carpotrophy Virus, or HCV. Sufferers would expand into giant, immobile fruit-people, not too unlike a character from some book she read in elementary school. They wouldn't die, but Jen couldn't imagine wanting to live like that. She was sure she couldn't have it—the closest recorded case was three timezones away, and she hadn't recently traveled...
She let out another hard, wet cough. Her torso... jiggled. No, sloshed. Weird, she thought. I'm sure it's nothing.
As the week went by, her cough worsened. Her friends and family were starting to take concern. To add to their concern, the girl was clearly putting on weight, too. She'd developed a little bit of a gut, very uncharacteristic of the athletic senior's body.
---
Her friend her belly. It jiggled a bit like a water balloon.
"STOP IT!" Jen hissed as the bus went over a bump. Her belly sloshed with the shaking of the bus.
"It's so soft, though!" her friend Sarah giggled. "You need to lay off the burgers, haha."
Jen looked away, embarrassed. She'd been eating less lately, not more. Anything she ate just seemed to give her a bit of a stomach ache. She had been drinking way more than usual, however.
"You sure you aren't sick? I saw a PSA about that carpotrophy virus. Could you imagine turning into a giant fruit LOL??"
"Yeah...." Jen in fact could. Her piss had been bright blue for almost a week, and, after googling her symptoms, she was almost certain she had it. The bloating, the cough, the weight gain, her unending thirst.... the signs were obvious. The blueberry-scented piss was just the icing on the cake.
She let out another cough, and looked down at her tissue. Blue. Fuck, she thought.
"Whoa, dude, why's that blue? You don't have it, do you?"
"Wh-what? No, I'm fine!"
Sarah didn't believe her.
"You know... I was reading about it. After the swelling begins, and the cough worsens, their skin just.... turns blue, fucking weird, right?"
Jen had purposely not read anything. The possibility of turning into a giant fruit scared her. She was captain of the cheer team, what would she do if that was taken from her?
"And then they... swell up? Imagine not being able to move, Jen, it sounds horrible!"
"Haha, yeah, well, good thing I don't have it!" Jen laughed nervously. "Oh, hey would you look at that! We're already at school! Bye Sarah!"
Jen rushed down the aisle of the bus as it pulled up to the curb. She carried her expanding belly as fast as she could to the bathroom, preparing for the largest panic attack she'd had in her life. She couldn't be turning into a fruit, she couldn't! Her life would be ruined!
--
Another week passed. Jen pulled herself onto the doctor's examination chair with a grunt. Her belly was genuinely large now, and her parents insisted she go to the doctor. This kind of water retention was not normal, they said, especially for someone athletic like her.
She absentmindedly jiggled it in her hands as she waited for the doctor to come in. It was heavy, and felt like a fleshy water balloon. A hint of blue spread out from her belly button, but it was hardly noticeable.
Her doctor knocked, and came in, wearing a respirator and gloves. Not a good sign, she thought.
"Hi, Jennifer. I am Dr. Miriam Kerguelen. I have good news, and bad news..."
Jen nodded, looking down.
"So, the bad news. Your blood tested positive for HCV. Human carpotrophy virus. I'm sure you've heard of it. At this time, we do not have a treatment or cure, only pallative options to help our patients live their new lives to their fullest."
Jen nodded again, a tear running down her face.
"I'm sure this is a lot to take in. Luckily, your case is progressing quite slowly, so it should give you plenty of time to adj- are you alright?"
Dr. Kerguelen's demeanor switched from doctor, to mother. The poor girl was sobbing. She stepped over, and began to rub Jen's back to calm her down. She was not taking the news well, and Dr. Kerguelen did not blame her.
"I think you should take some time off school, Jennifer. This is clearly putting a lot of strain on you, mentally. You need to relax."
Jen nodded again, and sniffled. Her tears had streaked her face with blue.
"My life is over! I can't be the captain of the cheer squad if I'm some giant fruit freak!"
"Yes, Jennifer, it's a lot to take in... I'm sorry, I wish I could help, but all I can suggest is that you take some time to yourself. It's going to be difficult, but you have an excellent support network. I'm sure you'll be able to adjust just fine."
Jen was largely inconsolable.
--
About a month had passed since any of her friends had seen Jen at school. She lay in bed, her laptop sitting on her massive blue belly. Her teachers had been recording the lessons and sending them to her via email, so she hadn't quite dropped out. She had to come in soon to prepare for graduation, and she was dreading it.
The last time she weighed herself prior to becoming infected, she weighed 130 lbs. Now she weighed almost 300. She dragged herself out of bed. Her belly pulled down on her as it sloshed. Her ass cheeks also had both similarly grown. There was no denying that she had carpotrophy now. Her huge gut pushed her t-shirt up, and her ass threatened any pants she owned. But she was determined to attend graduation, blueberry or not. She just needed her growth to plateau for a bit. The last thing she wanted for was it to speed up...