3 WEEKS LATER
Current age = 18 YEARS 4 MONTHS
"Is it my imagination or are you taller all of a sudden?"
Jeff looked across to his best friend, Bryan, who was sitting on a short brick wall outside the school gates. He raised an eyebrow at his friend's question. "What do you mean?"
"Well you were always much shorter than me, and now we're practically the same height"
"I must've had a growth spurt. I'm a growing boy after all. I wasn't going to stay five foot nine forever. Or at least, I hoped I wouldn't..." In fact, Jeff had experienced multiple growth spurts recently, shooting up to a mighty respectable six foot two. It was lucky he owned some hand-me-downs from his older brother or else he'd have nothing to wear. The same couldn't be said for his feet, however, as his dainty size 7 1/2 lengthened to a solid size 11. He reluctantly had to use his remaining birthday money on a new pair of sneakers. He was hoping there were no further growth spurts, feet or otherwise, in store for him.
His friend eyed him up and down suspiciously. "I guess... I will miss being the tall one between us. Well at least I'll always be the oldest, huh"
It's true that Bryan was a year older than him. In fact everyone in Jeff's class was older since he skipped a grade back in middle school. However, thanks to the Chronivac, Jeff was now almost a year older than Bryan was. A fact that made him feel slightly giddy inside. Working on that high, Jeff smirked and said "It's a shame that you don't look it"
Bryan frowned and playfully punched his friend on the arm. "Well not all of us can be early bloomers like you, Jeff! You're only sixteen and you already look like you could grow a beard. I thought I'd at least get chest hair before you, but you beat me to that too!"
"Psh, I've been getting them since last year, man." Jeff said, pulling down his shirt collar to reveal several dark hairs in the center of his chest. Which was a bold-faced lie. His chest was bare until last week, and now it seemed like new strands were appearing by the hour. Not that Bryan needed to know that. Jeff sat down next to his friend and asked "Why are you hung up on my bodily development all of a sudden?"
"I dunno, I guess since I'm older than you, I figured I'd reach certain milestones before you did. It's almost like it's all happening at once"
"Well that's puberty for you, it affects everyone differently. This time next year, you could look like Bigfoot for all we know!". As the two of them laughed, Jeff hoped it was enough to hide the truth that it really was happening all at once! He had no chest hair last week and now he had a small patch in the middle of his chest. He even had to start shaving as he went from only having a few hairs above his lip to being able to grow a van dyke beard within a week.
He was beginning to wonder whether aging a month every day was such a smart choice after all. It had been 3 weeks since the start of September when he increased his aging speed. 21 days meant almost 2 years of growing up. It didn't sound like a lot on paper, but it looked like he'd gone from the runt of his classmates to looking ready to start college. Up to now, nobody had mentioned anything to him. Not even his own parents seemed to notice he was wearing his brother's old clothes and shaving on the daily. He assumed it must be part of the Chronivac's magic, but how long would it be able to help him keep the illusion of adolescence? Jeff preferred not to think about it.
After a period of comfortable silence, Bryan remarked slyly "You know, I heard guys who can grow full beards as teenagers lose their hair earlier than everyone else"
"What? don't be dumb, that's not true"
"Of course it is! I bet 10 years from now, you're gonna be as bald as The Rock"
"Psh, shut up!" Jeff pushed Bryan off the wall and ran off with a laugh before Bryan could get him back. "Come on, we're gonna miss the bus home"