It has been awhile since I've written anything, but thanks to  BlackSheepTFs offering me a great prompt, I felt that spark and put words to digital paper! This is a young girl becoming a monkey at her brand new job at a mall's smoothie stand!


“So uhm… how long have you been working here?” Valorie tried, and failed, to make small talk with the bored-looking teenager as he fished a banana out for her, “I mean, I’ve been by here a bunch of times and have never seen this stand before…”
The teenager’s apathic gaze was withering, fueled by the kind of disinterest that only a high-school student could muster. He mumbled a price at her, then took her offered payment and pushed the fruit toward her. She clearly wasn’t going to get any answers from him, and she had the distinct impression that she had been dismissed from his reality.
Valorie thanked the teenager regardless, and walked away with her purchase: one delicious-looking banana, from some producer she had never heard of. She peeled it open and took a big bite out of it. A sigh of relief escaped her as her mouth was flooded with tasty fruit flavor and juices.
She took another bite almost immediately, musing to herself as she crossed the food court. The raven haired girl couldn’t be that much older than that rude teen, right? She shouldn’t have felt so disconnected from the youth of today, as it were. She was here for her first-ever job, part of the… the… mall crew…! She was proud of herself for nabbing a job, anyway! Granted, yes, it was just at a smoothie stand here in her local mall, but a job was a job as her parents always liked to say to her.
It had been a rough year since school had ended, her quest for employment foiled again and again. It had definitely been an act of desperation when she shotgunned resumes at the various stores that made up the mall; getting that call back had felt like a sign of better times. So here she was: young, willing to earn and… dressed in a slightly-oversized polo shirt with a silly palm tree logo on it.
She used her free hand to brush her black hair back into behaving, tucking her hair back under her beanie strategically for maximum cuteness. At least it wasn’t as much of a battle as what her ginger-haired coworker had to endure, that’s for sure. A smirk crossed her face as she thought about her new coworker’s orange messy mane, before lifting that banana to her lips to take another bite out of it. She was a little surprised to find herself already at the end of her fruity prize, though she didn’t dwell on it as she drew closer to her new job.
Speaking of her coworker, Valorie could spy her leaning against the inside counter; presumably playing on her phone or something. Val furrowed her brow as she tried to remember what her manager had told her about her cohort: he had called her “B.S.”. What a strange name, she thought as she approached the booth. She put on what she hoped was a winning grin, “Heya! I’m Valorie, I’ll be helping you cover the lunch rush!”
The other girl looked up from her phone and affixed the newbie with an appraising gaze. She looked Valerie up and down, from that black hair to her trendy sneakers for what felt like an uncomfortable amount of time. It was enough to make the new girl squirm in place until the ginger haired clerk burst out into a wide, friendly smile, “Yo! Nice to meet you, newbie; I’m B.S. Welcome to the Smoothie Shack team.”
A laugh escaped her as she cast her gaze around the small booth, “Which is just you, me, and Ron, who is never here.” Ron was the manager’s name, Valorie recalled; he did seem like a… hands-off kind of boss.
“G-great, it’s nice to be here…! Uhm…” The new girl’s smile slowly faded over the next few minutes as she finished off her banana; and began to scratch at an itch under her shirt. B.S. was fixated on her phone and that left Val time to look around the quiet food court, the shoppers few and far between. She could spot the workers of the other restaurant chains casually relaxing behind their respective counters, most of them lost in their phones.
The slowness of the job started to become overwhelming, and Valorie shifted from foot to foot as she stood beside her distracted coworker. The awkward silence was finally broken when B.S. stood up straight and clapped her hands together matter-of-factly. Val couldn’t help but jump in place as she spun to face her comrade-in-food-service, “Okay, newbie, I’m going to take my lunch break!”
“Uhm… but it’s the lunch rush…” Valorie immediately felt dumb as the words left her lips, and she withered under her coworker’s raised eyebrow. Thankfully, the smile under that eyebrow was friendly enough.
“You’re right, but look around; it’s not even spring yet, nobody wants a smoothie in the middle of the week. Besides, my wife’s lunch finally coincides with mine and I can’t let that chance go, now can I?” B.S. reached out and patted Valorie’s shoulder in an assuring manner, “You’ve got this.”
She started out of the booth, but paused on the other side of the counter, “Oh yeah, where’d you get that banana?”
Val blinked at her, caught off-guard by the question, “Oh! There’s a fruit stand on the far side of the food court… it’s kind of by itself?” Huh. She hadn’t thought about that at the time. That was kind of strange, wasn’t it? Ah well, that itching under her shirt had gotten worse and wasn’t letting her dwell on it.
“Fruit stand…?” B.S. pondered for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders, “Must be new! I’ll go check it out with my better half. Be back in a little bit, newbie!” And with that, she trotted off, leaving the new girl by herself.
Valorie looked around for a moment and sighed, “Well, she’s not wrong… it’s pretty dead in here. How hard can this be anyway? Teenagers do this all summer!” Fist met hand as she psyched herself up, getting her best customer service attitude on! “I’ve got this!”
And then immediately, she began scratching at her shirt again. Gosh, she really was itching up a storm. Perhaps it was the polo shirt; who knew where it had been before it was given to her. She tried her best to ignore it as she performed some basic station checks and preparations.
As she did those basic checks, she noticed her fingers had started to itch. No matter how much she rubbed them together, that itching only seemed to get worse. Val squinted down at her hands with a confused look on her face, able to notice little coarse hairs along the tops of her fingers. That was definitely weird to look at, so she dug out the nitrile gloves and tugged them over her fingers. It didn’t do much to help the itching, but at least she could hide them for now and deal with them later.
“Hey, are you open?” A male voice behind her made her jerk upright and spin around, her mind immediately distracted from the odd state of her fingers. She found herself staring at a man in his mid-thirties, casually stood in front of the counter. Valorie remembered that she was, in fact, a worker here and quickly stepped up to engage him.
“Y-yes, sorry! I was just doing some hourly… prep stuff. Yes. What would you like?” That was the trick; make up a plausible excuse and hit them with the buttery customer voice. She waited patiently while he peered at a menu emblazoned on the front side of the counter.
“I’ll just have a large vanilla smoothie. Can’t beat a classic.”
“Yessir! I’ll have that right out for you!” She grinned from ear to ear and turned back around to the machines. Luckily, vanilla was one of the easiest flavors for her to do; it was already loaded and ready to go! Yay for basic flavors! She fumbled a bit with the nozzle and lever, her fingers feeling swollen and puffy inside of those gloves. Val didn’t dwell on it, determined to make her first smoothie ever a great one, despite how easy it was to make!
Valorie turned around with her best customer service smile on her face and sat the fresh smoothie on the counter with a flourish, "Here you go! One large vanilla is three ninety-nine! Is that all for you or...?"
She trailed off as she realized that the man was staring at her head with an odd smirk on his face. The look made her feel somewhat uncomfortable, and she had to fight the urge to start squirming, "Uhm...?"
The man shook his head and handed her a five, laughing as he did so, "Oh, sorry. Here; keep the change! Nice ears, by the way." He snatched up the smoothie and walked away from the booth, his chuckles still audible.
"E-ears...?" Valorie blinked in confusion, a hand reaching up to touch at her head. To her surprise, her hand encountered ear much sooner than it should! Both hands flew up to the sides of her head, and she found herself gripping two large, saucer-like ears sticking out of her black hair!
"E-eek?!" She leaned over in alarm, looking at her reflection in the shiny steel of the freezer door: it was still her face, but now with adorably large, adorably round ears sticking out of the sides of her head! "W-what the...?"
A cough from the other side of the counter caught her attention and she quickly tugged her beanie down, trying to fit it over her ears. Judging by the expression of the new customer, she had been mostly unsuccessful, "U-uhm hey~! What can I get for y-you...?"
Val was very keenly aware that the young woman’s stare was fixed on those big, silly ears sticking out from her hair. She stood completely still, her best service smile affixed to her face; it took all of her willpower not to break down and grab at those ears again. That itching under her shirt continued to intensify, and only served to make this experience worse.
It felt like forever before the customer finally ordered something, two medium strawberry smoothies, and the poor smoothie girl felt intense gratitude as she spun around and ducked out of sight as best as she could. Which wasn’t much, the stand itself wasn’t terribly big; the best she could do was scoot closer to the preparation counter and the smoothie machines atop it. She could still feel that stare on the back of her head.
The very alarmed girl set the smoothie machine to work, filled it with strawberry flavor and found herself with a little down time as it hummed and churned. She glanced around nervously, relieved to see that the woman had turned away and was currently engaged in a conversation on her phone. A trembling hand went up to one of her enlarged ears, and she started to rub it guiltily. What in the world was going on?
A tightness at her hands caught her attention, causing her to pause mid-rub and look down at the hand resting on the counter. Her fingers had definitely swollen larger, and were straining the blue nitrile glove tight across them. It was uncomfortable, and as she reached down to try and adjust the glove, it burst apart! Valorie squeaked in surprise at the sudden glove failure, then found her gaze locked onto her now-exposed hand.
Her fingers were definitely larger, but it was the dark, coarse skin that covered them which held her attention. Gone were her pale-skinned, dainty fingers, replaced by these… these… she couldn’t think of what to call them! Her panic increased, especially when she turned her hand over and found thick brown hair covering the back of it.
Another squeak escaped her as she felt the other glove lose the fight and burst apart as well, and she found herself sporting two strange, large hands. She held them up in disbelief, looking them over with a pouting expression. That brown hair… it looked so thick and soft. She had to poke it, and as she brushed a thick finger across it, she came to a revelation: it wasn’t hair. It was fur.
The beep from the smoothie maker was the only thing that snapped her out of the panic that threatened to roll over her like a tidal wave. Valorie quickly shook her head and reached for the larger gloves stored under the counter. She tried not to think about the dust coating the box, showing how little they were used, as she struggled to tug them over her big fingers.
She had to settle with some fur poking out of the bottoms of each glove, and set herself to preparing the strawberry smoothies. It wasn’t easy: her hands trembled as she tried to focus, and those big digits took some adjusting to get used to. Finally, she managed to get the order together, and with only a little spillage! That was something she could be proud of as she turned to place the smoothies on the counter.
“T-there you go, that will be uh… five ninety-seven…” Boy, it was hard for her to keep professional and chipper, especially with how weird the rest of her body was starting to feel. Every little itch and pop caught her attention, and she had to control herself not to examine each and every one. The smoothie girl blushed as she realized that the customer had glanced down at her swollen hands, and she quickly tugged them back and hid them under the counter.
“T-thank you for s-stopping by! Enjoy your smoo-ook!” Her eyes went wide at the involuntary noise that had just escaped her lips. The woman perked an eyebrow as she took her desserts and walked away, presumably to tell others about the weird girl at the smoothie stand. Valorie didn’t have time to dwell on it, as the feeling of a large, oncoming sneeze began to build.
It built and built and she whirled away from the counter to let it out, managing to catch the sneeze in her furry upper arm! Oh, thank goodness for that soft… fur?! There was more of it, this patch coming from under her polo’s sleeve. Another sneeze built within her, and another, and another, the poor girl wracked by a fit of sneezes.
When they finally subsided, her face felt distinctly weird: puffy and… bulgy? It was hard for her to describe, but she could see more of her nose at the bottom of her vision. She reached down and fumbled her big fingers into the tight pocket of her jeans, grunting as she fished out her cellphone. With a sigh, she tore off one of her gloves and pressed a big thumb against the home button.
Valorie held it there for a few moments as nothing happened, and she frowned at that big hand she sported. It took her another moment to realize what was going on: her thumbprint scanner couldn’t read her changed thumb! Oh gosh, forget trying to look at herself, now how was she going to call for help? A pained groan escaped her as the weight of her strange predicament began to set in.
“Hey?” Her head whipped around at the sound of the male voice and she found herself face-to-face with what appeared to be a pair of young brothers. One was a teenager, probably close to that jerk kid at the fruit stand, while the other was much younger.
They both stared at her in confusion as she forlornly crept back up to the counter, “Hey… what can get for yo-ook!- today?” Another of those noises escaped her, and she tried her best to remain brave and not think about why it felt hard to speak clearly.
“Yeah, uh… my li’l bro here wanted a large peanut butter smoothie?” The older brother still looked confused, but the younger one had broken out into an absolutely beaming smile.
“Monkey!” The little boy chirped at her gleefully, as he clapped his hands together. Valorie’s gaze snapped to him in an instant, causing him to clap again. M-monkey?! Wait… her ears did resemble those of a monkey’s, didn’t they?
She shook her head and forced a smile at the older brother, “Y-yo-ook!- got it! Me make smooth-eek!” Gosh, it was getting worse; she could feel her cheeks burning in embarrassment. She whirled around and nearly fell over onto the prep station, surprised by how it seemed… taller than before. She had to stretch to reach the flavorings, not to mention the blender itself.
Oh man, this was all too weird; first the ears, then her hands… and that itch! It hadn’t stopped, and was so, so obnoxious… she found herself wishing B.S. would hurry back so that she could step away and truly examine herself. Or at the very least: scratch herself, and just never stop!
The machine dinged its cute little bell noise and she finished preparing the dessert, once more turning to the counter with an attempted friendly smile. She had to lean against the counter to hand it to the little boy, grunting from the effort it took, “H-here yo-ook!- go, little dude!”
She stood up and reached out for the older brother, “It be thre-eek!- ninety-nine…” It took her a moment to realize that he was staring at her offered hand. Her own gaze dropped to it and she let out a loud “OOK!” as she realized she had never put another glove on, her big, weird hand very visible, very exposed! She could even see that her entire arm was covered in that brown fur…
“So uh… do they make you wear that stuff all of the time? I prolly couldn’t breathe with all of that on my face, haha…” God bless him, the older brother was trying to be smooth and friendly. Maybe he could sense the panic that threatened to engulf the poor changing girl.
He handed her the money and started to tug his little brother away; though as they left, the small boy turned around and waved at her, “Bye-bye, monkey!” She awkwardly waved back as he erupted in a fit of giggles that trailed off into the mall.
“F-face…?” That definitely worried Valorie, and her big, bare hand reached up to poke her cheek. Her eyes widened as she could feel that her entire face had puffed forward! “O-oh no-ook!-…!” She dropped to her knees to stare into that reflective freezer door, not even noticing that the fall wasn’t as far as it used to be.
A plaintive whine escaped her as she saw the reflection of her face: it was definitely still her face, but… but with obvious simian features! She ran her altered hand across her bulgy face, poking at that big, round nose atop of its short snout. She traced the brown fur that framed her changed face, even poked at the black fur that denoted that she had ever had a hairstyle.
Her big green eyes stared back at her from within that primate face, large, wide and full of fear and worry. Valorie’s face and head would have been cute on a monkey, but she wasn’t one! What kind of allergic reaction was this?!
Those big round ears wiggled as she realized she could hear someone walk up to the counter that she was currently knelt behind. A groan escaped her as she stood up, trying to steel herself for the stare… As soon as her coworker returned, she going to head to the hospital! Or would a veterinarian be more appropriate now?
“W-welcome to smoothe-eek!-… what get?” Gosh, she sounded so silly now; words were harder to say, so she was stuck using simple ones. The older lady she faced looked equal parts amused and confused by the sight of the changing employee.
“Ah, yes darling, I just want a large chocolate shake.” She gave poor Valorie a kindly smile, “You look so cute…! I didn’t realize they had changed the uniforms to something so intricate.”
Val huffed a bit and opened her mouth to correct the customer, which was obviously a bad move, but she was having a day, “Ook, uniform is… just shirt. No shakes, only smoothe-eek!-…” She was about to continue, but a sudden push at the base of her spine caused her to fall forward and lean against the counter.
The much taller counter, she would note dimly as she was treated to the rather intense sensation of her spine lengthening. She could feel that new growth wiggling about in the back of her pants, pushing them down as it found freedom. That growth seemed to go on forever, the poor girl left to desperately cling to the register as her new tail grew. That’s what it had to be, after all, she couldn’t fool herself to think otherwise!
The old woman was staring at her in shock and confusion, and it only added to Valorie’s embarrassment as her body betrayed her and changed her right in front of this customer. She considered asking for help, but what would she even say? Find me a doctor, I’m turning into a monkey? Yeah, right.
Finally, the sensation began to die down and she could feel her new appendage waving and curling about in the cool air. It was quite long and covered in that same brown fur that seemed to be covering all of her now. It would be cute if it wasn’t attached to her backside!
“O-ook, me sorry… start smoothe-eek!- now…” She mumbled at the very confused lady as she stood up again, finding the counter now up to her shoulders. Wait, that wasn’t right… she frowned at her surroundings as she noticed they were starting to tower around her.
As she spun in a slow circle, taking in her now larger booth, her pants suddenly dropped to the floor! They no longer fit her smaller frame, and as she let out a startled eek and tried to catch them, her shoes caught in them and sent her tumbling onto her front. Thankfully, her underwear had remained in place over her very furry crotch and waist, because she was absolutely tail up at that poor old lady.
Having had enough, the lady grumbled something about “better service back in her day” and toddled off, leaving the very concerned Valorie to try and wrestle herself out of the pile her pants and shoes had become. A few minutes of struggle left her sitting on the floor, pantsless and with her furry legs and big hand-shaped feet exposed in front of her. Her bigger lip trembled as she saw herself in the freezer door, and could see that she looked just like a little monkey in an oversized polo shirt and beanie. Aside from that black fur her hair had become, the rest of her was coated in soft brown fur; leaving her hands, feet, face and ears bare.
“What happen to me-eek!-…?” She had only a moment to dwell and stare at her reflection before she heard approaching footsteps. They didn’t stop at the counter, and instead moved right around it to the employee side. It was B.S., who clutched a fresh banana in one hand, and a half-eaten one in the other!
“Heya newbie, I’m back! I even brought you another nanner as thanks for holding down the… fort…?” Her coworker trailed off as she took in the sight of the new monkey sat on her now-too-large pants, able to recognize that beanie and those green eyes, “W-what the heck happened to you?!”
An embarrassed “ook” escaped the monkey, opening her mouth to try and explain… but she closed it again as she saw the big, round ears sticking out of her coworker’s ginger mess of hair. It seemed she would figure it out soon enough...