I got this idea from a post on Reddit by Ok-War-1459.

To be precise, he made a post, challenging people to come up with stories for the titles he provided. One of those was Don't Eat The Jellybeans. I was the one who came up with the story, and characters, etc. After getting his permission, i decided to write it.

In this story, Fern's parents own a candy store. When her parents have to leave for the day on an important errand, they leave Fern in charge, promising to raise her allowance. When her and her friend Eugene are unpacking a new shipment of candy, they find an unmarked, unlabeled bag of jellybeans. Curious, they both try one, and, naturally, strange things start happening...

This story is rated M, just to be safe, for scary situations, some language, and nudity, all involving kids.If ya'll are familiar with my Werewolf Skin story, you know I can go overboard with situations like that. I don't plan to in THIS story, but since is only the beginning, things might change.

Goosebumps is owned by RL Stine. I only own THIS story.

Chapter 1

All children love candy. It's a known fact. By the time the average American child is four years old, they've developed an incurable sweet tooth, and would rather eat candy for lunch and dinner than something healthy, like chicken and vegetables. By the time the kid is ten, they would probably have had several cavities, and lost several baby teeth to hard candy.

Fern Landgraf was no different. She was 12, and already had three fillings due to sugar-induced cavities. Not that she still ate it for every meal, in fact she ate relatively healthy, and was still perfectly fit. But unlike most kids who either ate candy because they were spoiled, or gluttons, or simply ate cause they were bored, for Fern, in fact for the Langraf family, candy was a way of life.

Fern's parents, Hal and Georgia Landgraf, owned the town's most popular candy store. Hal had inherited it from his father, who had opened the store only a few years out of college. After her and Hal married, Georgia had started working at the store, even when she was pregnant with Fern. After Fern was born, her parents would often bring her to work with them at the store.

When Fern had been old enough to eat by herself, her parents, who liked to test out new candy before selling it at the store, would use her as a taste tester. They would eat some themselves, of course, but usually only if Fern had liked it. By the time she was 7, Fern was spending her afternoons at the store, helping sort out candy by colors, flavors, sizes, price, and so on. By 10, she could identify almost any candy by smell with her eyes closed, or feeling the wrapper. She had what her parents called the "Landgraf gift."

Now, at 12, she had to admit, as much as she still loved candy, deep down, she kind of wanted to explore other things. She liked video games and soccer, and hoped to be either a game tester or all-star soccer player one day. Of course, she loved her parents too much to break it to them. At least yet.

And then, one day, during summer vacation, her parents dropped a bomb on her.

"We have to leave early, your mom and I.", said Hal." We have a very important meeting on the other side of town. But we don't want to close. Since it's summer, lots of kids will be out of school, and wanting candy. Your mom and I talked about it: we want you to watch the shop today."

Fern was shocked. "Me? By myself?" Her parents had never let her man the store on her own. One of them had always been around. She had helped unpack shipments, stocked shelves, even worked the register once or twice, but she had never managed the entire store on her own.

Georgia nodded. "Yes hon. It'll only be for a few hours, at the most. You know where everything is, in case anybody is looking for something specific, and you can work the register, so we know you'll manage.I'll be sure to call you if i can,to check in."

Fern started to protest, but her father cut in. "We know it's asking a lot, cause you'd probably prefer hanging out with your friends, or going to the movies, but your mom and i talked about it, and we've agreed to raise your allowance if you watch the shop the whole day."

She gasped. Her allowance? Her parents only gave her like 20 dollars every month. That was for chores both at home AND at the shop. On her birthdays, and holidays, they sometimes slipped in an extra 5 dollars. She was lucky enough last year to have saved up enough for a new game console. But now, starting her savings from scratch, she only had like 60 dollars minimum. Just how much were they willing to raise it?

As if reading her mind, her dad went on. "We're talking about 40 dollars. A month. So, your usual, plus 20 more. Think of today as a test. If we know you can be trusted to watch the store on your own, we might let you do it more often, and cut you in on more of the profits. Especially since, after today, the store might be making more money than normal. "

Fern was curious. "What do you mean, after today? What's going to happen?"

Her parents laughed. "Never mind, it's a surprise. Let's just say our important meeting is about expanding the business a bit.", her father said. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. He turned to his wife. "We really need to get going. He turned back to Fern."So, will you do it?"

She sighed. She knew she needed the money. Her game system had wiped her savings from her allowance out. She had enough for a new game, maybe a couple, but as everybody knows, once you buy one thing, you always see something else you want. What if she saw a new book or shirt from one of her favorite games or shows? To a tween, money was a way of life.

"Yes, I'll do it."

And so, barely ten minutes later, her parents had left for their meeting, and Fern was alone at the store. She sat down on the chair behind the counter and sighed. 'What a waste of a summer day', she thought. She wondered what her friends were doing on THEIR first day of summer vacation. Probably going to the movies, hanging out at the pool, or the amusement park. And here SHE was, sitting behind the counter.

She sighed again and looked around the store, then turned and looked at herself in the mirror behind the counter. For a girl raised by candy store owners, and practically raised IN the store, she didn't look it. Besides a few fillings, she was in surprisingly good shape: slim, with shoulder-length black hair with light brown streaks. Probably because her father had black hair, her mother brown. She also had her mothers dark blue eyes. A small nose. And big, pouty lips, which were perfect since she spent a lot of time pouting and complaining. Like today.

She sighed for the third time and turned to the front of the store, just as the door opened. She was fixing to welcome the customer to the store and ask if they were looking for anything in particular, when she saw who it was: her friend Eugene Fisher.

Fern and Eugene both went to the same middle school. They had been friends since they were like 5, when his parents had first moved to town. They had stopped at the store for a snack, and Fern and Eugene had met and shared a bar of candy. A few days later, Eugene's parents had enrolled him at the same elementary school as hers. Fern had brought a bar of candy, the same kind she and him had shared at the store, and they ate it at snack time. Since then, they had been best friends, always hanging out together at and after school, playing tennis in the park, playing video games at each other's house. Eugene was probably the only person who could beat her at Mario Kart.

Even though he never said it, Fern suspected Eugene might have a crush on her. And to be honest, she might actually feel the same. She wasn't sure. She had to admit, Eugene WAS cute: blonde hair, usually untidy, as if he'd just woken up, brown eyes that reminded Fern of chocolate, and a bunch of freckles. He was also slightly chubby, and wore glasses. While some of her friends thought he was a nerd, she thought he was cool. He WAS her oldest friend after all.

The problem was, even if she DID have the same feelings Eugene had for her, the fact that she'd known him since elementary school, since that day at the candy store, made him feel almost like a brother, or at least a cousin. She often tried to look past this, whenever she tried to entertain the notion he might have feelings for her, but it was just so hard. To her, Eugene was just Eugene. The boy who she'd shared a candy bar with. Who had gone to every school with her. Who she played video games with.

"Hey, Fern!! What you doing? A bunch of kids from school are meeting at the pool. They want to play volleyball. Kurt told me he's bringing a firecracker from home, he's gonna throw it in the pool after the game, it's supposed to burn even in the water!! Wanna come see?"

Fern groaned. "I can't, Eugene. I gotta watch the store today. My prents had to go to some dumb meeting on the other side of town. I have to stay here all day."

Eugene walked up to the counter and sighed. "Awww, man. Bummer."

Fern sighed. "Tell me about it. First day of summer vacation, and i have to stay here just IN CASE somebody comes. I'm pretty sure kids our age have better things to do than visit the candy store. But anyway, since you're here, do YOU want anything?"

Eugene shook his head. "Nah, I'm good. It's still early though. You got your handheld? Maybe we can play a quick game. So you don't get totally bored. "

Fern was fixing to reply when the door swung open again. A man in a delivery uniform walked in, carrying several boxes.

"Delivery for Mr Landgraf!! Is he around?", the man asked, setting down the boxes.

Fern stood up and walked around the counter to meet the man.

"He isn't here. I'm his daughter. My parents had to go somewhere. I'm watching the store today.", she said.

The man scratched his bald head. "Well, usually i can't leave a shipment unless the owner is around to sign,or at least an adult. But we've been swamped with deliveries left and right, and lots of our workers are striking, refusing to work unless they're better paid or some crap, so only me and a few others are left to make the routes. I really don't want to have to come back, so tell you what miss: I'll leave these here,and just tell your dad to call the warehouse and talk to our manager, see if he can take care of it over the phone. I'm REALLY busy, and can't wait all day, and we're trying to get rid of as many deliveries aa we can. I'll leave the number of our warehouse here", he said,writing on a piece of paper and placing it on the counter. "Promise, miss? Have your daddy call?"

Fern bristled at being called "miss", and spoken to like she was too young to understand, but nodded. The man turned and walked out the door,and Fern looked at the boxes.

She sighed. "More candy. I guess i should at least open them and see what it is. If it's small stuff I'll probably put some of it on the shelves. My parents can handle the big stuff when they get back. "

Eugene walked over and looked at the boxes too. "I'll help you open them. If we work together it'll go faster."

Fern looked at him, surprised. " You want to stay and help? I thought you were going to the pool to watch the volleyball game. "

Eugene shook his head. "Nah. I'd probably get a sunburn anyway. Makes my freckles look weird. I'll stay. I can't let you do this all by yourself. "

Fern was surprised, but glad. She smiled. "Thanks. I'm really glad you're here. Ok, let's just unstack these, and unpack the lightest first. Usually that's the smallest, easiest stuff to stack."

So they unstacked and separated the boxes, and, using her father's box cutter knife, Fern opened the smallest box. Pulling it open, they peered inside.

"Weird.", Fern said. Inside, as she suspected, were bags of candy. But the bags were transparent, and she could see candies of different shapes, sizes, and colors. There were what looked like gumballs, jawbreakers, lollipops, and gumdrops, and many different kinds of jellybeans.

But even weirder, none of the bags were marked or labeled. She picked up one of the bags of jellybeans and examined it. No. No label or brand name anywhere. Not even a bar code or list of ingredients.

Eugene scratched his head, obviously as puzzled as Fern was. "This is weird. Who bags candy without any name of a company or anything?"

Fern shrugged. "Dunno. Also i don't remember my dad ordering anything. I should have asked that delivery guy. "

Eugene took the bag from her and turned it over. "I wonder what kind these are? Maybe they're the ones with weird flavors, like from Harry Potter? Remember, they had some really weird flavors, like popcorn and sausage and brussel sprouts, and fish and..."

Fern laughed. "Yeah i remember those. My dad always tried to get them back in whenever a new Harry Potter book or movie came out. To be honest i didn't like them that much, they were kind of nasty. These look good though. Almost tempting. The colors are so pretty."

It was true: through the clear plastic, the colors sparkled with every color imaginable, like jewels caught in the sunlight. So beautiful. They looked so delicious. So tempting.

On impulse, Fern took the bag and tore it open. "Let's both try one. Just to see if they're good. My parents and I always try new candy anyway, to see if it's good. If they're good, we'll try and find out who made them and order more." She took a jellybean, a bright green one, and popped it in her mouth. She held the bag out to Eugene, and he took a red one. They both started chewing at the same time.

They were really good. Fern's tasted like a combination of apple and lime. Eugene's was a combination of cherry and watermelon. Fern made a note to try and find out who made them. She was definitely going to suggest her parents stock them in the store.

She was fixing to reach in the bag to try another, maybe one of the yellow ones, when her body began jerking uncontrollably. The bag fell from her hand, and the jellybeans spilled on the ground. She tried to stop her body, her hands, from shaking, but it was no use. Suddenly, she felt her body grow cold, as if she'd been doused in ice-cold water. 'What is going on?', she thought.

She looked at Eugene, and saw that he was shaking too. Suddenly, Fern stared in horror at her hands. Her hands... they were shrinking, and sprouting thick hair. Not only that, but the room seemed to be growing larger. No, not larger: SHE was shrinking. Again, she looked at Eugene, and saw to her horror his ears had grown longer, and his face was long and covered with fur. She closed her eyes, refusing to believe this.

"Nooooo-eeeeek!!!", Fern's scream turned into a strange, inhuman shriek. She opened her eyes. She stood on the floor of the shop. She looked down. The first thing she noticed was her clothes, lying in a heap on the floor. Her shirt, her shoes, her bra and underwear. 'Oh my god, I'm NAKED!!!', she thought.

She tried covering herself, then noticed her arms, skinnier than normal, were covered in thick brown hair, or rather, fur. Her fingers, now so tiny, were also covered in fur. She looked at her feet. Yep, also furry, and... wait, did she have a TAIL??!!!

'No, no, this CAN'T be happening!!', she thought. 'I'm going to close my eyes, and when I open them,everything will be normal. It's all a dream. You'll see.'

She closed her eyes, shut them as tight as she could. After a minute, she opened them... and cried out with another animal shriek when she saw Eugene. Or rather, the creature standing where Eugene had been standing. But where her best friend had stood moments before, standing near his shredded clothes, stood a... DONKEY?!!

Fern tried to ask "Eugene, is that YOU?!!", but all that came out was another shriek. In return, the donkey brayed, a loud, almost frightening sound. It backed up and knocked over a shelf. Candy toppled to the ground as the shelf hit the floor with a crash.

'This can't be happening, IT CAN'T!!!!', Fern thought again. 'I've got to see myself. I HAVE to see what happened to ME. If Eugene is a donkey, what am I?'

She looked up at the counter. Being so small, it was rather high over her head. But maybe, if she jumped...

Without waiting she leaped, and to her surprise reached the counter easily. She grabbed the edge with her hands-or-paws, and pulled herself up. She stood on the countertop and looked into the mirror, and had to bite her tongue to stop herself from shrieking.

Small, furry body. Brown fur, beady little eyes. Tiny hands, little paws. Long, skinny tail...

'I'm... I'm a MONKEY!!!!', she thought.

She couldn't help it. She screamed, a loud, terrifying monkey shriek. Behind her, Eugene gave out another loud donkey bleat.

'A monkey!! A MONKEY!!! And Eugene is a donkey!!! We're both ANIMALS!!!! How did this happen?!!! It MUST have been the jellybeans. It MUST have!!! We turned right after we ate them.But how? How could candy turn humans into animals?'

She sat down on the counter. She realized it was cold in the store. The air conditioner kept it cool, kept the candy from melting in the hot summer air. But without her clothes, with only a light coat of fur, it was freezing.

'Think, Fern. THINK!!! We've GOT to get help. We've GOT to find a way to become human again. But HOW?'

She looked over at Eugene. He was looking forlornly at his clothes, at his glasses, which lay on the floor. Fern wondered if he could see well without his glasses as a donkey.

She was fixing to try and find a way to comfort him, forgetting they couldn't understand each other, when she saw somebody approaching the store. She heard laughter.

'Oh no, CUSTOMERS!!!', she thought. Just what they needed right now!!

Eugene heard the approaching customers too. He backed away, turning his large donkey head around, searching for a place to hide.

Fern looked around. Where? Where could they go so nobody would see them? What about their clothes? What could they do? Any minute, whoever was outside would come in and see them. Probably call animal control.

She looked at the door again. Two people stood outside the door. She couldn't make them out: her tiny monkey eyes couldn't make out far away objects. But she heard them laughing as they stood outside. Any second, she knew they'd come in.

She turned, and saw the side hall. One door lead to the bathroom, the other to the storage room, where her dad put new shipments of candy till they unboxed them. Where SHE should have put the boxes. 'WHY did I open them? WHY did we have to eat the candy?'

She knew the bathroom probably wasn't a good hiding place. One of the customers might have to use it. But the storage room...

Could they make it? Could Fern and Eugene make it into the storage room without being spotted?

End of chapter 1

Hope ya'll enjoyed the first chapter. It might be a little slow, I AM working on other stories, including my Werewolf Skin story, and am planning another original Goosebumps story, called Invasion Of The Cooties. I also have an idea for one called Pandora's Music Box, but that's only in the planning stage.

I'm still trying to figure out how Fern and Eugene can communicate as animals. If ya'll read my Werewolf Skin story, you know werewolves communicate through thought, like they hear what the other is thinking, but I didn't want to repeat that in this story. I'm sure I'll find a way for them to understand each other. I'm just not sure yet. I'm kind of making it up as I go, lol.

Anyway, chapter 2 might take a while, cause as I said I'm juggling several stories at once. But if anybody has any suggestions or ideas, I'd be happy to hear them. I always welcome messages too.

In the meantime though, be sure to like, follow, and review. And like I said, if you have any comments, including suggestions, don't hold back. See you in chapter 2!!!