Jacob's freak-out over having crazy giant hands was stopped before it really took off, as his phone started buzzing in his pocket. Dropping the hot pad, the teen fumbled for a moment and pulled out the phone. It looked a bit weird, somehow, but Jacob couldn't place why before he'd answered.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Jake!" Came the bubbly voice of his friend Terry. "You busy? I thought we could hang out a bit before we have to go back to school. Last weekend of summer, man!"
"Uh..." Jacob hesitated.
"Sure thing Terry!" His dad called out, shifting lanes and turning on the signal. "I can drop him off in ten minutes."
"Awesome!" Terry yelled in Jacob's ear.
"Did YOU want to talk to him?" Jacob asked sarcastically, turning the phone toward his dad and wiggling it back and forth.
It hit him just then; his hand was longer than the phone! Okay, freak out back on as scheduled.
"Nah, I'm good," his dad answered easily. "See you soon Terry."
"Bye!" Terry hung up with a cheerful click.
Jacob grumbled a bit, but really he DID kind of want to see his friend, and avoid any more creepy shoe weirdness. Though another finger cramp had him wincing and guessing that the weirdness was more ongoing. Less, 'his hands had grown' and more 'his hands are growing'.
And wasn't that disturbing the think about?
By the time his dad had dropped him off, Jacob was feeling a lot better. His hands and feet had stopped aching, at least. He felt a bit calmer. Sure, there was clearly some kind of voodoo demon magic at work, but there were worse things than getting a bit taller, right? Right.
Jacob barely had to knock before Terry practically tore the door open and pulled him inside. Jacob was half nervous, half resigned at this point when unexpectedly Terry's eyes shot wide and he stared Jacob up and down.
"Dude," Terry breathed, excited. "Dude are we THE SAME HEIGHT?"
Jacob froze, and slowly stepped forward to see that, indeed, his formerly taller friend was looking him directly in the eye. Which meant Jacob was a little over six feet tall! (Six feet tall and HALF AN INCH, Terry had bragged after his last physical, looking down at Jacob by half a foot.)
More importantly...
"You noticed?" Jacob asked, feeling hope for the first time all day.
"Well duh!" Terry beamed, running his hand over to the top of Jacob's head. "This is awesome! I must have hit a growth spurt or something!"
Jacob stilled.
"Wat."
"Well you had been a good bit taller than me, right?" Terry asked, oblivious to how he was crushing Jacob's soul as he wandered toward the living room. "I guess I can't call you 'Stretch' anymore."
Jacob hurried to bend down and pry off his shoes, which... were starting to fit alarmingly better. Slipping his foot out removed an alarmingly larger amount of foot, and his socks had visible tears in them. Maybe it was good, Jacob thought dazedly, that his dad had grabbed the extra large socks after all. He was just too much for the regular size to hold. As of like ten minutes ago. Apparently.
But the shoes were still too BIG. Just how much foot was a size seventeen anyway?!
Jacob shook his head to clear his thoughts and headed into the living room. Sitting down, he casually reached for a soda can Terry had left out for him and accidentally knocked it onto the floor.
"Oh jeeze, still clumsy?" Terry teased. "You'll never get on the basketball team if you keep bumping into stuff, you klutz."
Jacob stilled as he saw Terry frown and lean over, grabbing his hand.
"Wait a minute," Terry muttered. He pressed their hands together, palm to palm.
"Holy shit you have big hands." Terry exclaimed, and looked over at Jacobs socks, which were currently mid-explosion.
"And your feet grew too?"
Terry folded his arms and pouted.
"So I caught up to you for what, a week or something? You were the tallest kid in our grade since we were like ten or something. How are you still growing? Unfair."
Jacob was not sure how to deal with this. Terry had been one of the tallest in their grade until middle school. Jacob had used to call TERRY 'Stretch' until some other kids started passing both of them in height. Terry had been the taller friend since forever.
Jacob thought about arguing, but... no. He didn't want to see Terry go all zombie on him too. Not his best friend.
Jacob pasted on a shaky smile, and snagged a game controller. Oh dear, the buttons didn't feel like they were in the right place at ALL. He was going to get massacred.
"Enjoy being my height while it lasts. I guess." Jacob said, and wondered which of them he was talking to.