Full Body Inflation

Jordyn sat cross-legged on the glossy wooden floor, back against a tall metal cylinder, a red rubber hose cascading over her shoulder to lay dormant in her lap. She busied herself tying off a brightly-colored balloon, fingers tripping over each other in an effort to resolve the tangle of ribbon and latex. Finally, with some difficulty, she knotted it and moored it to a rack of folding chairs wheeled out into the center of the gymnasium, where it bobbed up to join a depressingly small multi-colored bundle. She leaned back and sighed loudly.

"Twenty down, two hundred billion to go."