Mrs. Jenkin's, the history teacher, came in. Her hair was up in a bun and she looked slightly drunk, as usual and predictable.
"Students," she hiccuped, "I would like you each to clear off your desks, except for a piece paper. I will then give you a bonus assignment, worth fifty points each on your final grade." She smiled proudly. "As I mentioned at the beginning of the semester, it would behoove you to memorize the Gettysburg Address. Now is the time to test that knowledge. Take out your papers and begin."
The students did, including Kent and Peter, while Mrs. Jenkins stood there, completely oblivious to the fact that in the dust-filled reaches of the wall high high above the blackboard, she had long ago posted a copy of the document.
Peter had quick and easy penmanship, and he and Kent both wrote their names, dates and the class period on their papers, growing two inches and eight pounds each. Peter was now 6'5" a really good height for basketball, but then he started into the Gettysburg Address:
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in
a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of
that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their
lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot
dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated
it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this
nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people shall
not perish from the earth."
That was 267 words, which meant by the time they finished, Peter and Kent had both grown that many pounds and 66 and 3/4" each, or just over five and a half feet.
The muscles rippled up their bodies, over the calves and through the lengthening thighs and through their elongating torsos until at last Peter stood 11'11 and 3/4", just a hair shy of twelve full feet.
Kent meanwhile had stretched up to 11'3 and 3/4" and while they'd initially started out getting very buff, as they started to get over seven feet, a pound per quarter inch was not very much and so both Peter and Kent were extremely thin and lanky. And most of the class was staring at them.
Mrs. Jenkins at last noticed this, then noticed the students noticing, then glanced up to the dusty reaches beside Peter and Kent's heads as they stood up, marveling at their incredible freaky bodies. "I see," she said as dryly as someone that inebriated could, "that I forgot to remove the document. Peter, if you could take that down and bring it to my desk? And if all the students could take out FRESH pieces of paper, so we could do the quiz properly, from memory?"
Peter glanced to Ty, then removed the Gettysburg Address from where it hung near the top of the fifteen feet ceiling, which he could actually reach. Mrs. Jenkins paid no attention to the oddity of this, likely hallucinating something more interesting. "Thank you, Peter. Kent, since you're already up, could you collect the other papers?"
Kent did, the students staring at the human scarecrow looming over them, but Mrs. Jenkins merely smiled and took the papers from him. "Thank you, Kent. Resume your seats, boys."
Kent and Peter did their best to, and only their extreme thinness and lankiness let them fit back into the desks. But they then took out their papers and began again, writing from memory.
They were both geeks and had memorized it, so they were able to finish the assignment, growing another five and a half feet and change, with Peter approaching 18' tall by the end of it.
Luckily, the history room had a vaulted ceiling, even if that wasn't enough to accomodate their new height. Unluckily, the hall outside did not, and even if they managed to squeeze their way out the door, they'd have to crawl down the hall.