After wandering a bit, Jon's next stop had been an Aldi's that was only a couple of blocks away from Goodwill. The quick trip in and out of Aldi's had been fairly uneventful aside from an awkward run in with a middle aged man. While Jon had been bent over searching for a bag of mixed nuts that wasn't covered in salt the man had walked up behind him and was clearly ogling Jon's extremely juicy butt. Sensing the man's creepy gaze, Jon stood and quickly turned to face the man. "Like what you see?" Jon said in a deep voice before he reached down and grabbed his junk. "I've got some extra nuts for you!" Jon spun back around and strutted off making sure to sway his hips. The shocked man just stood there mouth agape as he questioned what just happened.
Jon's quick trip into Aldi's had netted him granola bars, beef jerky, and mixed nuts for only $15. On top of that the elderly cliental who happened to populate the early afternoon hours of the store had provided Jon a bit of reprieve from Sarah's wish. With food for tomorrow and no new traits Jon was left asking himself, "Alright, where to next?" Standing outside of Aldi's with the hydration pack on his back and a plastic bag stuffed full of clothes and food in his hand Jon began to regret not buying that duffle bag. "I guess I could go back and buy it. It was only like $6." Jon reached in his pocket and fiddled with his wad of cash. He still had more than $90 left, so another $6 wasn't going to kill his budget. "Goodwill here I come again!" Jon thought as he powerwalked back to Goodwill.
Aside from his large jiggly ass annoying him and his spindly legs beginning to tire, the walk back to Goodwill was uneventful. Heading into the store, Jon waved and smiled at the nerdy cashier who was still manning the front register. "Please be there." Jon thought as he approached the rack he had left the duffle bag on. "Yes!" Jon said under his breath as he snatched up the large duffle bag. "This will fit all of my shit." Jon slung the bag over his shoulder and headed back to the front of the store to pay. On his way back through the store Jon was distracted by a full body mirror. "Hold up..." Jon stopped and walked back to the mirror. "Wow I really am androgenous now." He thought as he studied his plump lips and porcelain skin. Jon eyes focused on the duffle bag still slung over his shoulder. "I look like I'm headed to the gym." Jon let out a little chuckle at the thought of him actually going into a gym. Once he began to develop his womanly curves as a young teen Jon's physical activity dropped to a minimum. His odd combination of skinny limbs and over developed secondary sexual characteristics had made sports and most physical activities too awkward and embarrassing for Jon to participate in.
"I really should start going to the gym though..." Jon stood there looking at how his chubby belly stuck out. "Wait..." An idea began to permeate Jon's thoughts. "What if I did go to the gym?" Jon began to think about the large posh gym he had saw earlier. "I bet there will be plenty of fit women there." Jon poked his soft belly. "I could basically remake myself..." Jon's eyes scanned his body once more. "And then the ride back to Lake Point would be so much easier." Jon grinned at his reflection in the mirror. "Fucking eh this is brilliant!" Jon turned his focus back to the women's clothes. "But I need something a bit more convincing to wear."
A few minutes later Jon was heading to the register with a stretchy tank top, a pair of loose shorts, a headband, and the duffle bag. "Hello again!" The cashier cheerfully said. Like before she began chatting Jon up as she rang up his items. This time Jon tried to focus on her near perfect teeth, but when he checked his teeth in the side mirror of a car in the parking lot he could see his teeth had not changed.
"So it seems like I can only get a single trait from a person." Jon began to head back down the sidewalk towards the gym. "I guess that's not too bad... If I lived in a small remote town, then at some point I would run out of women to take traits from... Interesting..." Jon continued on down the sidewalk that was busy with fairgoers. "So maybe I can somewhat control things without needing the stone... I could work remotely... I could become a hermit... Hmm..." Lost in his thoughts Jon continued on towards the gym, paying no attention to the passersby. At this point not allowing his eyes to linger on passersby had becoming second nature to Jon. The tricky situations now were when Jon was stuck talking or interacting with people. Not wanting to draw unneeded attention Jon resigned himself to acting as normal as possible in those types of social situations.
Now standing in the parking lot of the gym, Jon could see that one of those social situations was about to present itself. "Okay so it's just one girl running the front desk. What do I tell her?..." Jon thought as he walked over to a nearby bench and began to load up his duffle bag with all of his stuff. "I could just say I lost my pass..." Jon paused for a moment to let his idea linger in his head. "It's so stupid and simple it might work..." Jon looked over to see a young man who looked like a bodybuilder head through the front entrance of the gym. "Please let that be a sign of things to come." He thought.
