While Miss Atwell and P.I. Marcia snooped around, Chris was having a great day at school.
"Dude, there's no way. I would have noticed!"
Chris grinned up at his best friend. "Jeremy, I don't know what to tell ya, I've been growing for a while. I just.. didn't wanna jinx it, you know?"
Jeremy snorted, and ruffled at Chris's hair, only laughing louder as Chris hissed and swiped at his arm. A few kids grumbled as the two bumped into them by accident on the way to their lockers. Jeremy gave his dial a few confident spins and popped open his door, before sliding to the side to give Chris more room to get at his.
"I mean," Jeremy tapped his chin, "if you keep growing you might be like, NORMAL sized."
Chris flipped him off with his spare hand as he finished getting his locker open. There was only one class left, and then it was sweet, sweet freedom. Better, it was choir! No more studying today, just singing and goofing off a bit for half an hour and he was out of here.
Jeremy gave him another playful shove as they lined up with the baritones, but they both straightened up when the director shot them a quick glare. While they went through warm-ups, Chris felt a sudden chill. It was like an ice cold finger had run along his back. Shuddering, Chris cleared his throat, opened his mouth, and...
"AaaAhaaAhhhAaaaAAAh"
Chris clapped a hand over his mouth, cheeks burning hot. The rest of the room kept going, though Jeremy was looking at him with surprise. What was that? Voice cracking? Chris cleared his throat again, and quietly tried humming. Another shiver ran up his back as he managed a crackly warble that suddenly fell down half an octave.
"Chris?" Jeremy hissed. "What's going on? And why do you seem taller than me now?"
Chris startled, looking down at Jeremy, and suddenly he was looking down a LOT further.
Oh no. Oh no no no.
"I need to use the baAthroom." Chris warbled out, and quickly fled amid a few snickers as his voice cracked.
Halfway down the hall, Chris shivered as his sock-clad feet ripped out of his now small shoes. Damn, even those big shoes weren't enough for the size his feet are getting, but - no, focus! Get to the clock, something was wrong with the clock!
Running almost barefoot, Chris booked it out of the school building and grabbed a taxi. Forking over some cash, Chris gave directions in a voice that sound more like a college student, and tried not to panic as he shivered in the back seat and watched his clothes ripping off the seams.
It was SUCH a dumb idea to mess with some spooky magic clock, but when he'd found it at that antique shop he'd just... known it would solve all his problems. The booklet that came with had called it "The Clock of the Winding Path", which sounded metal as hell. The coolest part though was that the clock was supposed to be able to change the age of whoever winds it.
Chris didn't really WANT to be older than his friends, but he also hated being so short! He just HAD to see if there was any more height in store for him. When he'd bought the clock and wound it up at home, he was soooo happy when turning it forward only one year had made him four whole inches taller! But then his mom had caught him messing around at that height, and measured him, and now he was kind of stuck. He couldn't just shrink back to normal again after that!
Chris shivered and saw his pants weren't covering half his legs anymore, and felt his back was completely exposed right now, his shirt was falling on pieces around him. Okay, so maybe he COULD grow up a little bit more, but he hadn't planned to! Maybe the clock was broken, or maybe somebody was messing with it. And since he'd been the last one to wind it, it was HIM getting affected. He had to get home, NOW!