His dad went to the family room and sat on the couch, he gestured for Noah to take a seat. Noah sat on the couch, still in the bear outfit and looked at his dad.
“So you had a sleep over and tried to switch bodies with one of your friends and ended up with Ruben’s body, and he has yours?”
“Yes Dad…”
“The Teddy Bear costume was supposed to be a sleeping bag for the evening and since it is the only thing that would fit Ruben you had to wear it instead?”
“Yeah, if I had known that was all he had to wear I wouldn’t have switched bodies. This outfit is stupid, and crazy, I don’t know how Ruben thought it was a good idea. Also the zipper is broken?”
“Ruben told me when he left with your body this morning, I wasn’t mad at him but it looks like you are in your own predicament. What have you eaten today?”
Noah realised he was still hungry and hasn’t eaten since the party yesterday. “I’m pretty hungry, I could eat”
“Okay let’s get you out of that thing, then go get a shower”
Noah was relieved his father didn’t get more upset, he must have realized what an embarrassing day today was. Noah got up and waddled toward his father, his Dad inspected the zipper and played with the tab.
“It looks like the tab came off the track, we just need to get it back on” Noah’s dad struggled a bit and then he heard the sound of the zipper unzipping, Noah finally felt relief.
“Oh you aren’t wearing any clothes underneath the costume?” His father sounded concerned.
“No the costume would have been too hot, but I left Ruben’s clothes he had on yesterday in his bag.”
“He took the bag when he left this morning.”
Noah was now concerned, the only thing that would fit his body now is the dumb bear costume. He needed something to wear to school on Monday that wasn’t the bear.
“Hmm, let me see if I can find something. Go grab that shower.” Noah was in nothing but Ruben’s underwear now and rushed upstairs to go and grab a shower.
Once Noah was in the washroom, he looked in the mirror, he didn’t really have a good look at Ruben’s body yesterday. It was dark in the basement yesterday and he was encased in the bear all day today. He noticed there was no body hair at all and he was scrawny. He knew Ruben was in grade 4 but he could easily be mistaken for someone in grade 1 or 2. Noah frowned at what he saw, at least no one knew who he was with the costume on. He eventually jumped in the shower and got clean, spending a few extra minutes before getting out.
“Dad I’m out of the shower!” Noah called from upstairs.
His Dad called back up. “I couldn’t find any of your old clothes, we gave them all away at the beginning of the year, remember?”
Noah’s Dad was right, he wanted to look cool and got rid of all his old clothes. Noah scoured the room trying on different things to see if they would fit his new body.
He finally settled on.