Well, it had certainly been a weird day, Lucas thought as he went to bed that night. Getting dissed at the magic shop was by far the least of it. Where had all this hair come from? Not to mention that he was shrinking. Well, not really, he tried to tell himself. He was still a growing boy, and it really wasn't possibly for someone to shrink numerous inches over the course of an afternoon. Still, though, all of his clothes felt ridiculously baggy by about 10:00 no matter what he tried to change into. They also felt unbearably hot over his new body hair on a summer's evening. He'd pretty much ignored everything and played RPG's until almost midnight before settling into some late night comedy TV. It was summer break so his parents let him stay up pretty much as late as he wanted to as long as there wasn't some major family event coming up the next morning. By the time Lucas decided to sleep, his bed felt like a king size, and he could barely see his own skin anymore under the hair. He got a really comfortable and refreshing sleep, at least; Lucas was completely still when his parents left for work and for several hours thereafter.
It was at least mid-morning, almost immediately upon waking up, that Lucas discovered his tail. Lucas hadn't thought it was possible for a person to grow a tail, but that was the only explanation for the lengthy pink snake that turned out to be made of his own flesh and bone. As soon as he realized, he sat straight up on his bed, picked it up between his legs, and held it out in front of himself with both hands. It took quite a while to process just how much of himself was tail now: he could grip its sturdy thick base and dangle its little thin tip against distant pile of sheets beyond the reach of his toes. As long as he was gentle with it, it didn't feel at all uncomfortable to have a tail, only very odd, since obviously he couldn't remember ever having one before. After no less than 20 minutes, Lucas finally accepted that he was not dreaming and that he really was feeling his own bare skin far beyond where it should have ended.
Of course, when he finally took an honest look over the rest of his body, Lucas also realized that his bare skin didn't even really start until the base of his tail now. Except for the tail, only his hands and his feet had escaped the copious layer of fur that had entirely replaced his head hair and his previously unnoticeable body hair. He ran his hands through the thick coating and started to scratch it, unaware that a number of fleas had already taken up residence within it. He fully understood that none of this was normal, but what could he possibly do? And what could have possibly caused it?
Turning his attention back to his new addition, perhaps the mere size of it should have been intimidating to Lucas, since it was longer than the rest of his body, but he was aware that he had full dominion over it all the way down. Readjusting himself onto his hands and knees, he let it stretch fully out behind him so he could try the whole thing out. He swept it back and forth against the covers, which felt unexpectedly satisfying. He could curl it up beside his body to point back up toward the front, in which case the tip would be few inches ahead of his face. He could feel his covers on his bare skin all the way to tip, unlike feeling of cloth against his fur which he felt on arms and legs and belly. He knew this wasn't normal, but he could be alone on a day like this to make sense of it.
Lucas wondered if anyone else knew what was happening to him. Maybe he should call his parents or the doctor or one of his friends. Maybe they could help him or tell him what to expect. Deep down, of course, Lucas knew that none of them would have ever experienced anything like this, and he would have to come to terms with it all on his own. He stretched and got up to try to start his day, understandably anxious about just what a strange day it could potentially be.