Chapter 5 - the fair

"Another pretzel for the Fraulein?"

"Ja, bitte!" Frida chirped, sliding another silver thaler across the counter. "And this time, when I say extra butter, I mean it! Sophie really likes it."

"Whatever 'ya say." The man nodded. He slathered the carb-packed snack with what easily amounted to hundreds of calories of melted butter.

"Anything else?" He said, letting the creamy yellow dressing soak into the bread.

"How about some mustard? Spicy, of course. I don't think she's tried it yet."

The apron-clad man behind the counter glanced to the side to spy on the girl sitting on a nearby bench, eagerly licking the buttery remnants of her second soft pretzel off her fingers. "Never tried mustard?" He chortled, looking down again as he diligently prepared her third. "She must be from another world."

Frida blushed as she, too, stole a quick peek of her friend. By now, she was eagerly rushing over to the stand so as to eat her next treat as soon as possible. "Well, she certainly does have an otherworldly appetite."

"I'll say. Wherever your friend is from, she's quite the peckish one, ain't she?" The man nodded, absentmindedly pouring on another coat of butter.

By now, Sophie was leaning over the counter, hunger in her eyes as she stared at the morsel. Had the poor pretzel been able to see the look on her face, it surely would have spent its final moments either begging for its life or praying to its god.

The stand worker smeared on a modest amount of mustard before handing over the steaming, twisted confection into Sophie's grabby hands. As soon as the greasy treat was in her grasp, the girl began to devour it. "Ooh!" She gasped, tearing off another piece to feed herself, "Spicy!"

"Danke!" Frida smiled at the man. "She really likes your food."

"Mein Gott..." the man laughed, "If she keeps eating it like that, she'll have a lot more meat on her bones in no time."

As the girls walked away from the stand, Sophie hesitated before taking another bite.

"What's wrong?" Frida frowned. "Full already? Where's that big appetite of yours? You've only had a couple caramel apples, two meat pies, and a doughnut."

"Two doughnuts." Sophie corrected, "And, not including this one, three pretzels."

"Oh yeah..." Frida giggled, stealing a glance at her friend's overfed stomach. "Well, if you want to go..."

Sophie took another big bite. "N-No! I like it here! It's just...should I really be eating this much? Mia still thinks I'm a pig on the inside. I don't want to look like one on the outside, too."

"You're worried about getting fat?" Frida giggled under her breath. Then, feeling a louder, snortier laugh coming on, she quickly muffled her mouth.

"Well, didn't you hear what that guy said?"

"THAT'S what's bothering you? Oh, Sophie! He was just kidding! Eat!" said Frida, leaning in to bite a chunk of pretzel off for herself. "Besides, you barely even exist right now. You can't worry about there being too much of you when there's not enough already!"

"Yeah, you're right. I'm being silly." Sophie burped, spraying pretzel-crumbs on the ground in front of her. Before continuing, she shoved the rest of the pretzel into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed. "I'd be a lot prettier if I was a little bit fuller."

"Plus, you're so skinny, you could gain a hundred pounds and still look like a beanpole."

"Beanpole? Come on, I'm not that skinny!" Sophie giggled, wiping away a small bit of mustard that had dribbled out the corner of her mouth. "But, y-yeah, I don't think I could ever get fat. It's tough to even imagine."

At that, Frida looked away to hide her flushed cheeks. **Maybe for YOU it is...** she thought to herself.

The very thought sent a fluttery rush through Frida's body. It was well-earned, considering the mental gymnastics it took to even picture the girl in any other shape than her normal, skeletal self.

But Frida wasn't the type to back down from a challenge. If she focused hard, she could do it, but not all at once. The thought was so absurd that Frida had to ease into it, starting with a mental image of Sophie how she was, and imagining her slowly thickening.

Before long, her ribcage would be buried underneath a thick, flabby layer of lard. Her bony wrists would soften along with her hips and shoulders until the girl, for all intents and purposes, looked normal and healthy.

The girl's imagination, however, was far more adventurous than that. Her theoretical Sophie, much like her real-world counterpart, kept eating, eating, and eating.

As she filled herself with fatty meat and flaky, fried dough, her pudgy tummy would eventually make her forget the girl's ribcage was ever visible at all. Her butt and hips would expand like a biscuit in the oven until they finally burst out of Frida's hand-me-down panties.

**Oh, goodness...** Frida thought, blushing even harder at the mental image.

How embarrassed the greedy glutton would be when she would have to ask Frida to buy her new undergarments that could tame her growing figure. How embarrassed she would be when, inevitably, she'd ask Frida the same question, somehow more mortified than she was the last time.

This morning, Frida's guilt had stemmed from Sophie's incessant claim that the events of last night really had been a fluke. That she really wasn't a greedy hog, and that she was simply a starving girl desperate to fill her aching stomach.

But, just as she had suspected, Sophie had proven her own claims wrong. Each fattening fair treat she crammed into her once-again bulging stomach had proven, without a doubt, that Sophie really was nothing more than a fat, greedy hog who simply had never had the opportunity to grow to her potential.

"Um, Frida?" Sophie said, looking quizzically at the girl standing next to her. She couldn't help but feel odd at the look Frida was giving her, like a predator ready to pounce on its prey.

"Sorry about that! I guess I zoned out a little. But you're right. You could never get like that!" Frida nodded. "Anyway! You've still got room in that little tummy, right?"

Licking her fingers again, Sophie popped them out of her mouth to answer. "Yeah!" she replied, pointing to a stand a few feet away. "I don't know what those are, but, u-um, could I have one, please? I mean, since you’re asking and everything...”

"How about three? One for me, and an extra one for you for being so polite. And maybe a little something else, too"

"Deal!"