Suddenly, Jeff felt the growing stop.
He looked down at his body. It was still not old enough. Hell, he wasn't even through puberty yet.
"No, you stupid piece of junk," he yelled at the Chronivac, his voice cracking like a boy on the cusp of puberty. "Can't you at least malfunction properly?"
The lock clicked on his door, which swung open to reveal his older sister. She pointed the screwdriver at him. "You don't lock your door on me when I'm babysitting," she said, sternly. "I don't care if you're 12. You still have to listen to me. Got it?"
Jeff nodded. Even at his age, which apparently was 12 now, she was still pretty intimidating.
"Good," she said and lowered her screwdriver. "I'm going to ignore the swearing, as long as I don't hear more of it. Okay?"
"Sure," he said. "Um, thanks."
She relaxed a bit and gave him a little smirk. "You're welcome," she said. "Listen, I'm making nachos. Come down in a few minutes if you want some."
"Yeah, thanks," he said and forced a smile. "I will."
She smiled back and left.
He turned back to his computer to figure out what had happened to him. According to the log, the Chronivac had made him 4 years older instead of twice his previous age. "God, I really don't get how this thing works now." He reasoned that he could just tell the Chronivac to change his age to 8 again, hoping that it would age him 4 years instead of making him 4 years younger, but he couldn't be sure that it would work that way, if it even worked at all.
He looked around his room. His things looked to be almost back to normal. There were a few slightly childish things here and there, such as shelf of action figures, but overall, he felt comfortable in there. "Well, maybe 12 years old is not too bad," he said. "I would get a second shot at junior high. Knowing what I know now, I could have a bit more fun this time. Though, I'd have to go through puberty... again." He frowned, imagining the awful, awkward years to come. It was a bit much to ask anyone to go through all of that misery twice.
"Maybe I should try to fix this just one more time," he said, although he was far from sure what to do next. He moused over his age again, ready to change it.
"Jeffy!" his sister shouted from downstairs. "Nacho time!"
He smiled. "Coming!" he shouted back and stepped away from his computer. "I'll think better on a full stomach," he reasoned as he headed downstairs.
***
As he sat with his sister eating nachos and watching TV, a new Chronivac warning message popped up on his computer screen.
It read...