I Should've Brung Cupcakes
"Be seeing you, Len~!" Cherry said as she waved goodbye to her inflatable girlfriend. "Bye, Cherry~!" Len happily waved back. She gently shut the door behind her and stepped out into the open world, after having visited her girlfriend's place for the majority of the day, she was ready to take a nice, brisk walk around town.
Cherry was always the sweet type of person. Being a toon girl, she had a rather pleasant aura around her, most of her negativity coming from her being a little sarcastic at times. She never really had many quarrels with anyone and simply loved having fun as any good-natured person would. But as she kept walking, she pondered something.
"...Man, it'd be fun to join a club."
As she walked, that thought kept echoing through her head. I mean, yeah, it would be fun to join some kind of club, but she didn't know what kind of club she wanted to join. As she passed by Salvato High School, she looked at it and thought of school clubs. She wasn't enrolled in any education program like a high school, so she had no business bursting in and joining a club. But when she thought of school clubs, her mind wandered off to a game she particularly enjoyed that featured a school club; Doki Doki Literature Club. It was a very... interesting game, to say the least, and she thought about literature clubs in general. She liked literature. If she had the chance to join such a club, she would. As she kept looking at the empty-looking high school, she stopped. She just noticed something. Someone walking in. That someone had a very peculiar look to them, even though Cherry only saw their hair, which was a brown color and looked quite long, and shined in the sunlight. She recognized that hair. She reconsidered an idea she was having for a moment. "I mean, wouldn't it be rude to just barge into a school in the middle of summer? Oooh, but I really wanna know if... Ah, screw it, I should go in." She said, slowly walking up to the recently-shut front doors. Before she went in, though, she quickly looked behind herself... Okay, good, nobody was following her. In she goes.
She took some light steps inside. She didn't see anyone in the main lobby of the school so far, which was a tad concerning. While the place did indeed look admittedly rather nice, the bright tan walls being simple, yet perfect, and the bright light of the sun shining through the windows complemented everything. "...Hello?" She called out into the halls of the school. And no answer. Not even much of an echo. "There, uh, anyone in here?" Still nothing. Oh well, despite the lack of an answer, she was more focused on actually looking for that familiar figure from earlier; if her hunch was correct, well... she'd probably be pretty excited. So she jogged a little through the halls, looking for where that familiar person would be. It wasn't until that Cherry had reached the third-year wing of the school that she heard something else, outside of the usual empty school ambience. She skidded to a halt, and took a better listen. Footsteps. But no, these weren't the kind of footsteps you heard every day. Rather, they sounded more like the squeaks of rubber slippers. And who, besides herself, would be wearing slippers made of rubber? Why, that kind of person wouldn't be technically wearing anything at all. It'd be a part of them. Cherry, having quickly connected the dots, was now even more determined to find this person. And before she could get back to finding them, she heard a door shut in that same exact wing of the school. Cherry, glad she had an idea of where the person was going to be staying, quickly ran into the hallway, and peered through the window of each and every door, revealing behind each one a classroom. Which made sense, of course. And as Cherry peered through the 8th one, she saw it. Inside was the one she was looking for.
There was a schoolgirl in a gray blazer, a navy blue skirt, black thigh high socks, and white slippers. She had tall light brown hair and a big long white bow, and emerald-colored eyes. Bingo, this was exactly the person Cherry saw stepping into the schoolhouse. And another part that confirmed her suspicions was the mitten-y hands that the schoolgirl had, and a nice shiny look all over her as if she was some sort of inflatable toy; which she was. Right now, the schoolgirl was sitting at a desk, writing something in a journal. Cherry smiled brightly. She had a pretty good idea of what the girl wanted, so she decided to take a step inside the classroom to catch her attention, opening the door. With a squeak, the schoolgirl's head turned to look at Cherry, and she was rather shocked. "Oh! Uh, hello." She let out. The girl didn't seem UNsociable, but it was clear that she didn't expect this. Cherry responded with "Hey!" and walked up to her. "If I had to assume, your name would be Monika." The schoolgirl now looked a little more shocked... but somehow, not as shocked as one might expect. "Oh, yes, my name is Monika!" She confirmed with a smile now on her shiny face. "My name's Cherry. You look like the kinda girl to run a school club." Cherry affirmed. Monika, despite her getting double whammied by correct assumptions, still kept a smile on her face. "Why, yes, I do! In fact, I run the literature club here. I'm... the only member, but if you want to join, I'd be glad to let you in!" She said. "That'd be perfect! Is there some kind of initiation method or something?" Cherry gladly responded, absolutely not hinting at anything she was expecting whatsoever. Monika kept that smile on her face as she stood up from the desk chair. "Well, you're going to have to get into uniform. You can't be coming into this school without the proper school uniform, of course! Hehe." Cherry looked down at herself, remembering that she was wearing her usual blazer. "Oooh, right." But this just made her all the more excited. "Give me a moment," Monika said, and she zoned out for a moment...
Cherry's usual blazer began to form together and button itself up, becoming a more professional-looking one, reminiscent of Monika's own blazer. Cherry looked down at her clothes after she felt this change, and got a little giddy. Her blazer became a gray color, also like Monika's, with a white collar. Her white undershirt became a brown sweater vest, with a red ribbon forming neatly on top. Her shorts formed into a navy blue skirt, and her white thigh highs shrunk down into knee-high socks, her shoes changing into a white color with light blue tips at the end. Her normally long, pink hair, shortened out and went into a lighter, coral color, her heart hairpin basically cutting itself in half to make two red ribbons that tied little ponytails on the side of her hair. And the sunglasses that were lying on top of her head also shrunk down into a tiny little red hairclip in the front. And to top it all off, Cherry shrunk a little, making her look much more like a young student, her eyes going from blue to bright pink as her facial features got a tiny bit sharper. And while that was all good and cool, there was one feature that was missing with her new appearance; her extra squeakiness! While she was already still quite cartoonish in this form, she wasn't an inflatable like Monika. Thankfully, that was quickly remedied with the air nozzle that appeared on her chest — something that Cher- er, Natsuki noticed earlier on Monika — that popped out and began inflating air right all into her, and all in one big swoop, too. All of her insides were replaced with fresh air, leaving her skin, clothes, and every single other part of her melting into one big nice rubbery form, complete with mitten hands that left only an opposable thumb, just like the club president. And thus, with the air nozzle closing up, Natsuki was ready for the literature club!
"Oh, you look perfect!" Monika said with a great wide smile. Natsuki had enjoyed the entire process she was just put through, and smiled right back, her painted-on face shining brightly. "Hehe, yeah!" She said, already feeling like she was meshing perfectly into the role of Natsuki. "Thanks, Monika! Being in the club seems kinda fun now." Monika knew that Natsuki was going to be great for the club. "Now, it's just the two of us right now, we still aren't a club yet." Natsuki knew that well. "Ohhhhh, right, that." She crossed her arms, glancing to the side a little. "You got any ideas on how to get some new members in?" Monika placed her hand on her rubbery chin with a squeak. She looked out the window. "...Maybe I could put up some flyers! And actually set a proper time for club hours, too. I haven't gotten around to that yet." Natsuki looked over at the clock on the wall; it was 3 PM sharp. "It's like, what, 3 o'clock? I dunno, maybe starting now we could sit in here for three hours." She suggested. "Smart idea, Natsuki!" Monika gladly affirmed. "In fact, considering that you're our very first member, you should be vice president." Natsuki's eyes widened. "What? Me? Is this a joke?" She responded, looking rather awkward about such a task. "Uhh, no, no thank you, Monika." Monika looked rather disappointed. "Oh, I see..." She said. "...Well, I should get started on those flyers. I'll be in the computer lab, stay right here." Monika then left Natsuki alone, squeakily and swiftly stepping out of the door. Natsuki, a bit miffed that she was suddenly left alone like that, slumped with a little sqrk into one of the desk chairs, huffing. She looked at what was on the desk, there was a pencil and a piece of paper. She then got an idea. She grabbed the pencil with her rubbery mitt and a gleam in her eye, and quickly got to writing.
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Splashing In
I was always scared of the high dive as a kid.
My classmates made fun of me for it.
"You're a coward, Natsuki!"
"Scared of a little water?"
I hated every second of it.
I didn't wanna look like a little baby to my classmates, though.
So despite everything, I went onto the high dive.
And I jumped into the pool.
And I made a big, big splash!
I loved every second of it.
Turns out the high dive was actually really cool.
I knew what I was expecting.
But it turns out it wasn't as bad as I thought it was.
And now I feel a lot better!
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She put down the pencil and smiled at the poem she just wrote. Natsuki wasn't the greatest at writing poems, but she was happy that she wrote one for a change.
Despite everything that had gone on, Natsuki didn't feel any regret about going to join this club in the slightest.