Jacob tossed the garbage and rushed upstairs in record time. He jumped onto his bed, and frantically pried his suddenly-too-small size sevens off of his feet. Just as fast, he tugged off his socks and grabbed his right foot in his hands.
He pinched his toes. He poked the sides. Everything felt normal. Everything looked normal. Jacob wiggled his toes and slowly flexed his heels. Everything seemed to be working.
"What is going on?" Jacob whispered.
With slightly shaking hands, Jacob lifted his left shoe and slowly pressed it, heel-to-heel, against his right foot. His foot was longer than the shoe.
Jacob threw the shoe against the wall and shuffled backward on his bed until his back hit the headboard. His breath came in gasps, his eyes darted around his room. Suddenly nothing made sense. He'd worn those shoes earlier today, and they fit fine; if anything they were a bit too big! But everyone else he spoke to said he needed new shoes, that he was outgrowing them.
"Am I going crazy?" Jacob asked in a quiet, shaking voice.
What was he supposed to do? He remembered the shoes fitting, he remembered arguing with both of his parents about it, and with that weird sales guy at Funko's. He didn't think the memory would be so clear if he was just crazy, but what did he know? Did crazy people even know they were crazy?
He should talk to his mom. No, he shouldn't. He didn't want anyone to think he was crazy. He was supposed to start his Junior year next week! What about basketball tryouts?
Jacob blinked. What about basketball tryouts? Why did he think about that?
"It's the shoes," he muttered as he hopped off of his bed and swiped a clear space on his desk. "It has to be those shoes."
Right. The shoes. Sure...that idea also made him sound crazy, even to himself. But Jacob remembered that weird, glazed look his mother had when she looked at them. He remembered how nobody, not his mother, not the sales guy, and not any person who saw him on his way from Funko's to his house, had thought that they were too big. That wasn't him, so it couldn't be that he was crazy. Right.
"Right." Jacob nodded, and grabbed a notebook. Sure, it was meant for use in class when school started, but this was way too important. After rummaging through the clutter on the side of his desk, Jacob clicked some graphite out of a mechanical pencil and started writing down his observations.
FRIDAY -
This morning I fit in Size 7 shoes.
Dad told me to buy new shoes for sports, even though we both know I've never been interested.
I went to a shoe store named Funko's, where I was given a pair of Size 17 "Hoops" brand basketball shoes.
The sales person would not believe me when I said that the shoes were too big.
Nobody who saw me wearing them said that the shoes were too big.
Mom looked right at them while I was wearing them and didn't think that they were too big.
After dinner my feet were too big to fit in my regular shoes.
I started thinking about basketball.
Jacob set down the pencil and read through his notes. He nodded and got ready for bed. Tomorrow was Saturday, and he didn't know if Funko's was open on the weekend. Still, if it really was the shoes, his first step in figuring this out would have to be to investigate. Jacob set his alarm for the first time since May, and fell asleep. Tomorrow he would go back to Funko's.