[Beep] [Beep] [Beep] [Beep]
"Mphlgsplb"
[Beep] [Beep]
Groaning, Jacob rolled and reached out with his arm, slapping around on his end table until he finally connected with the alarm clock. Getting up early on a weekend, in Summer, was just the worst. Why did he set that alarm again?
Jacob yawned and sat up, then slowly clambered his way out of bed and into a clean-looking outfit. He quickly wadded up the shirt and boxers he'd slept in and tried a layup into the cloths hamper. The cloths fell apart halfway there and his shirt landed on his desk, right under his '93 Bulls poster.
Jacob rolled his eyes. Why did he have to end up 5'9" and a terrible shot to boot? He'd never make the team next week. Jacob quickly shook those thoughts out of his head and sat down in front of his desk to tug on a pair of socks. And he did have to tug a bit; regular socks only fit well up to about size 12, and hadn't it been a shock last week when his snug 11's just wouldn't stop pinching and he found out he'd skipped right past 12 to size 13!
He grinned a bit, flexing his toes. No way would he grow enough before tryouts, but if his feet had - apparently - decided to pop out almost a full inch longer in like, a week, there was no way he wasn't still growing. Even if he missed his shot this year, he'd have his chance as a Senior. He knew it!
Now...why did he set his alarm. He'd had a good reason...something about shoes...oh right! After his feet grew so fast his dad had bought him a pair of size 17 shoes as a gag gift. He'd had a good laugh about it, but he'd also asked for the receipt so he could exchange them for a good pair of 13s. His dad wore 11s, so he was probably just surprised that his kid was still growing. Grinning, Jacob flicked his shirt off the desk.
There was a notebook on his desk.
Jacob frowned, confused. That was one of his new notebooks for school. The rest of his stuff was all packed (crammed) into his backpack. Why was this out? Curious, Jacob opened the book.
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.
...What the hell was this? It was in Jacob's handwriting, and written in a notebook that he'd owned for all of four days. But Jacob didn't write it, and nothing on the page made any sense. Jacob hadn't worn size 7 since he was like...eleven, or something. The receipt for his gag shoes was from Funko's, but he'd never been there.
Seriously weirded out by the note that he never wrote, Jacob quickly pinched the corner of the page and tore it out of the book. On the next page, written in a style he'd never seen before, were three large letters.
I.O.U.
The world stopped. Jacob couldn't breathe. Eyes wide, he stared down at the torn sheet in his suddenly shaking hand. He...he DID write this. And he did wear size 7s. And didn't play sports. And...holy crap he was supposed to be like 3 inches shorter!
Jacob scrambled to his feet and ran to the door frame with a pencil. Hand shaking, he marked his height and checked it. Five feet nine inches. He'd grown three inches overnight, and his feet had grown two inches longer, and he...just forgot! His room was different. It still had video games stacked on his dresser, but he'd never had that basketball poster. All of his clothes fit, did they change too?
It was like his entire life was different.
Jacob rushed downstairs, stumbling a bit as he couldn't remember how to use his longer legs and feet. He hadn't been this clumsy ten minutes ago! He had to get to the bottom of this. He had to get to Funko's!
There, next to the front door, were his old pair of shoes. Somehow they'd been changed from new-looking size sevens to a pair of elevens that looked like they'd been overstuffed. There was a toe-shaped dent at the front of each shoe. Next to them were the Size 17 Hoops. Jacob stared at them sitting next to his sock-clad feet, and tried not to freak out because they didn't look quite so big anymore.