When Henry got to school, he saw a lot more guys wearing caps for some reason. While it wasn't unusual for one or two guys to wear a hat and have the faculty not care, there were now a dozen or so students all wearing a hat of some sort. This was confirmed by Rebecca, who had a locker next to Henry's.
"Hey, why's the football team wearing hats?" she asked, while double checking her makeup in her locker's mirror. "Is there a thing going on that I missed?"
Henry merely shrugged. "Heck if I know. It's been a weird week."
Rebecca frowned at turned to face him. "It's Tuesday."
Before Henry could respond, a folded piece of paper hit him in his face. He spun around to get a glimpse of who threw it, but the crowd of students preparing for first period blocked any potential view of the culprit.
Rebecca picked the paper off of the floor. "What was that all about?"
Henry rolled his eyes and took the paper from her. "It's been a weird week."
He unfolded the paper. It read: "Meet me in the boy's room by the chem. lab. - Matt"
"Ugh."
Rebecca leaned against her locker, appraising Henry's expression. "Now what's the matter?"
Henry crumpled the paper and stuffed it into his pocket. "My week keeps getting weirder."
-----
The bathroom in question was usually empty before classes started, which, Henry guessed, was why Matt wanted to meet with him there. He could only guess it was another weird thing that Matt was obsessing about.
Henry entered the bathroom, finding it empty.
"Matt?"
One of the stall doors swung open, and Matt stepped out. He was wearing a bulky hoodie and had a hat pulled down low on his head. "Henry! What took you so long?"
Henry sighed. "Seriously, what's with all the hats?"
Matt tenderly touched the hat on his head. "Henry, do you remember when I said I thought I might be losing my hair?"
Henry frowned. "Yeah..."
Matt gripped the edges of his hat. "Well, it's gotten worse."
Henry put a hand to his face. "Ugh! Matt, seriously? You're acting-"
Matt pulled his hat off. His frontal hairline was clearly receded several inches, creating a peninsula-like shape. As his hat came off, several hairs rained down, around his face.
"...crazy." Henry looked closely at his friend's hairline, hoping it was just a trick of the light or a bad haircut. But the more he looked, the more convinced he was that Matt's hair had dramatically receded since the previous day. "What the hell happened?"
Matt shrugged, clearly baffled just as much as Henry was. "Last night I kept shedding more hair. I woke up and there was a bunch on my pillow. When I took a shower, a bunch came out. And it hasn't stopped!" He shook his hat, flinging loose hairs around the pair of them.
"But that's not all!" Matt raised the front of his shirt, revealing his round belly. Matt had always been chunky, so the belly was nothing new, it was the hair on the belly that caught Henry's attention. A generous trail of hair lead up from underhis waistband and encircled his bellybutton. Sparser hair was speckled around his belly, with a thicker trail leading up the center and covering his chest. "This wasn't here before." He rubbed a hand over the hair growth. "Something's happening to me, Henry. And I don't know what to do!"
Henry shrugged. "And what do you want me to do? Maybe it's a hormone problem. You should talk to a doctor or something."
The bell rang, signalling the students to get to class. Matt pulled his cap back on. "We'd better get to class before the teachers suspect something."
Henry shook his head. "Suspect something? What are you talking about?"
Matt made his way to the door. "Listen, we'll meet back here after school. Okay?"
Henry shrugged. "Sure."
Matt rushed out the door. Henry sighed and leaned against the sinks. His thoughts flashed to the changed figure of Justin from yesterday. Henry hadn't seen him all day. What if Matt was going to end up like Justin?
Henry turned and looked at himself closely in the mirror. He noticed stubble on his chin, upper lip, and sideburns. There even seemed to be some on his cheeks. Was it thicker than last night? He tugged on his shirt. It felt small on him for some reason.
He pushed his thoughts aside. He had to get to class. He would have to get to the bottom of this later.