Joel and Daniel stared down at the open bottle of Gro-Tall ointment, noses wrinkling. Slowly, Daniel leaned in and gave the jar a sniff, before sneezing and almost dropping it.
"Careful!" Joel yelped, fumbling with the jar. "That stuff was... expensive." (And stolen, but that was not important.)
The ointment looked smooth and hard, like bar soap, and it smelled like lemons and... old socks. The two boys shared a look; Joel expectant, Daniel slightly pleading. Maybe the younger cousin didn't want to smell like cheap deodorant, but that was just too bad. Joel would NEVER let him live it down if he backed out now. (Besides, he really wanted to test this stuff out!)
"Do I... "Daniel sighed, rolled his eyes, and flopped onto the couch without finishing. Grimacing, he dipped his finger into the jar and swirled his finger inside.
Both boys' eyes widened as the hard-packed gunk sort of... foamed up with barely any touch, a thicker goopy cream quickly filling up all the empty space in the jar. Daniel yanked his hand back as though it burned. Wait, DID it burn?
"You okay?" Joel asked, and sighed when he got a quick nod.
"Yeah, but that's FREAKY." Daniel looked at the stuff distrustfully and wiped off his finger on his pants.
"Look, Joel, I know I said I would, but really do I HAVE to smear that stuff on?" The younger cousin tried one more time.
Joel rolled his eyes and snatched up the jar. Really, the kid was such a BABY sometimes. Sheesh.
"How about you lay down on the couch and I'll just... put a little on your back. Okay?" Joel offered, lightly shoving his cousin sideways on the couch to make room and dipping a finger into the jar. The stuff... tingled. Maybe it had that stuff in it that they put in cigarettes, mental or mantle or something.
"Ugh, fiiiine," Daniel flopped onto his stomach with the top of his head bumping the arm rest, idly kicking his feet on the further cushion as he shimmied his shirt up his back.
Joel flicked a glob of the Gro-Tall onto Daniel's back and snickered when his cousin yelped in surprise. Setting the jar on the coffee table, Joel carefully put his hands on the ointment and just started smearing it around on his cousin's back. His hands twitched as he almost felt something like static. The cream quickly disappeared as it was absorbed into Daniel's skin.
"That's nice," Daniel murmured, shifting a little. Joel smacked his cousin's foot after it accidentally bumped his side, and he slid closer to the edge of the couch so he wouldn't get kicked. Daniel sighed, and flipped over onto his back, shooting Joel a teasing grin.
"You know," the younger cousin drawled, "I'm surprised you wanted me to try this, since we're already the same height and all."
"What." Joel frowned, confused and slightly offended. He wasn't as tall as his friends, sure, but he wasn't SHORT, and he definitely had at least two inches on Daniel.
"What do you mean 'what'?" Daniel frowned, and propped himself up on his elbows. Joel shuffled a bit as his cousin kicked him again a little. "I know it bugs you, but it's not a big deal if I'm a little taller than you right now."
Okay, that is NOT what Daniel said. Joel opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything he got kicked AGAIN.
Wait.
"Stand up," Joel demanded, and hopped off the couch. His (little?) cousin rolled his eyes but did what Joel asked, hopping up in a crouch and then slowly straightening up, until Joel was staring, surprised, at Daniel's nose! His cousin cocked an eyebrow and looked down at him, a solid half foot taller than he'd been a few minutes ago!
"Why even make me stand up?" Daniel challenged, putting a hand on his hip. "I'm just as much taller than you as I was last time I came over, maaaybe half an inch more?" He rubbed his chin. "I guess I COULD have grown a little..."
"Daniel, I swear, when you came over you were like, this tall!" Joel brought his hand up to rest in the middle of his forehead, almost like a salute. "That ointment stuff is doing something; you must be almost five and a half..."
Joel trailed off as he SAW his cousin stretch just a little bit taller. Daniel sighed, and rolled his shoulders into a long stretch. Joel heard his cousin's joints pop, and Daniel stretched taller still!
"Don't be dumb," Daniel grinned and ruffled Joel's hair. "If I was that short when I walked in there's no WAY I'd still fit in my clothes, for starters." He was right. But while Daniel had lifted his shirt to have the Gro-Tall rubbed in, now that he'd stood back up his shirt was still billowing around his waist like normal.
Now panicking a little, Joel swiped Daniel's and out of his hair and looked around for something, anything that might prove to his cousin that something was going on. Across the room, his eyes locked on the welcome mat, where there were two pairs of shoes. One visibly larger than the other. Perfect!
"Well, how about this!" Joel yelled as he jogged to the door and snatched up the shoes. "If you weren't smaller than me how come your shoes are..."
Joel's shoes were big. Daniel trailed off as he realized that the smaller pair were HIS shoes, the same size eights that he'd kicked off when he got home with his mom earlier. Dangling from his other hand were the shoes his cousin wore, but instead of being smaller, they were size...
Joel gulped as he lifted the tongue and saw the number inside blur from a twelve to a fifteen. He could FEEL the fabric running along his fingertips as the shoes GREW in his HANDS. Slowly, like he was holding a dangerous animal, Joel set the big shoes back down and turned to see that his cousin had laid back down on the couch and was watching him with a half-amused, half- annoyed expression, while his long legs stretched across the whole couch and his - apparently size fifteen - feet dangled off the other edge.
"Look Joel," Daniel grumbled and jeez was his VOICE getting deeper?! "I know I'm big for my age but I don't like it when you tease me about it. You're being weird, and I want you to stop."
"Uhh... sure." Joel muttered as his MUCH larger cousin glared at him. "S-sorry about that Daniel, I didn't mean to tease you okay?"
"Apology accepted!" his cousin grinned and scooted up the couch so that he could tilt his head upside down and keep smiling all goofy at Joel and holy crap HIS FEET WERE STILL OVER THE OTHER SIDE. Not only that, but as Daniel bent his arms behind his head Joel SWORE his arms were thicker than they used to be, the formerly-short nerd almost looked like he had muscles!
"How about we just play video games or something, okay? No more weird jars and height jokes."