You wake up the next morning to a loud ringing. With a sleepy groan, you reach out your hand and - gently - try to smash your alarm clock to death. When that doesn't work; you sit up, squinting, and shuffle over to the phone.
"Hello?" You mumble.
"Good morning, Mr.-"
"Oh!" You cut in, waking up a bit. "I'm not my dad. My parents are out of town. Can I take a message?"
"I see..." There was a slight pause on the line. "I'm Mrs. Fritsen, Kyle's teacher. I'm calling about the field trip our students took yesterday."
Your eyes shoot open; it's suddenly all coming back to you. Your little brother's suddenly ravenous appetite; how he seemed to have almost grown out of his clothes in just one afternoon...
"Um, yes?" You clear your throat; hopefully your voice will stop shaking like that. "Is something wrong?"
"Actually I'm calling in part to ask you." The woman on the line answered. "You see, it seems that a large number of the children who went on the tour showed some...odd...symptoms last night. About half of them, as far as I can tell. They all began eating like they were starving, not stopping even after finishing three times what they would normally eat. Their parents were frantic."
"I'll bet." You say honestly; you were still freaked out by tiny little Kyle practically eating his own weight in lasagna last night. "Did anything else happen?"
"Well they were sick, of course." Came the surprised answer over the phone. "A child can't hold that much food. But the sudden appetite was troubling. I've contacted the research facility, and they've asked that all children showing odd symptoms be taken to them for a checkup."
Now that was scary. It sounded like your brother was the only kid in the class that was growing; the rest just got sick. What would the doctors make of that?
You had a sudden, terrifying vision of Kyle, crying, strapped to some lab table as a bunch of masked doctors stuck needles and probes into him. Your hand shook slightly.
"Hello? Are you there?"
"Um...yeah, I'm here." You answer, as calmly as you can.
"So does Kyle seem alright? Should I send a car to pick him up?"
"No!" You shout quickly. "Er, no. He's fine. Perfectly normal."
"Oh, that's a relief." Mrs. Fritsen said with a sigh. "Just call the school number if you notice anything at all. We've put someone on the phone constantly until we figure this out. Also, I'm sorry to say that we've canceled your brother's classes for at least a week. Is that going to be a problem, with your parents out of town?"
"I'll figure something out." You say quickly, already worried about your little brother. "At least it's the weekend right now. I've got to go."
Hanging up, you drop the phone and run down the hall to Kyle's room. Throwing open the door you quickly turn to see...
An empty bed.
Absolutely frantic, you tear downstairs, arriving panting in the kitchen. You blink.
There's Kyle. Asleep on a sort of...nest...of empty wrappers, cans, jugs, and boxes. All around the room are open, empty cupboards. Your little brother just ate everything that counted for food in the house! In one night!
Setting that thought aside, you turn your attention back to more important things.
Kyle looked fine, but any question of whether he was growing was now completely, utterly gone.
It looked like he'd changed into his pajamas before bed, because the normally loose, breathing fabric was stretched tight over his chest and stomach. The arms opened up closer to his elbow than his wrists, and the pajama pants were hugging tight to his calves. The slow rise and fall of his chest was met with a soft, tearing sound as thread by thread, the overstretched fabric of his pajama top slowly tore apart.
You did your best to gauge his size, while letting him sleep. You were going to have to keep him calm (and clothed...and fed...oh no) when he woke up. Better to get as much information as you can.
Like you, Kyle was a bit on the small side. He hadn't even passed four feet tall yet! Or at least, he hadn't before.
He wasn't a giant, at least. Not even close. And he seemed to be the same shape as before. He was just...big. He might even still pass as a normal, if overgrown, eight year old. Eyeballing how much skin he was showing below his pant legs, you guessed he'd grown less than a foot taller, putting him a bit over four and a half feet tall. Pretty tall for an eight year old, but yeah, he could pass.
Your thoughts were interrupted by a loud RIIIP! Kyle's shirt had finally given up, and split right down the middle. You watched, as his still slightly rounded stomach seemed to pop up a bit now that the shirt was gone.
Kyle stretched on the floor and let out a big yawn. Blinking his eyes, he looked up at you and said –