James got bored and started exploring the room. The chemistry stuff wasn't at all interesting - a bunch of weird checmicals and glass tubes. The TV was some sort of restricted mess that only showed nature channels, science programs, and educational garbage like that. Not a single sports program!
The closet surprised him - there were already clothes hanging in there. Nerd stuff - plain shirts and trousers, a couple of lab coats, and a light jacket and a couple of jumpers. Was he supposed t share the room with someone? He frowned and pulled one fo the lab coats off the rack. It looked awfully small. Almost like a kid's costume. Oh, right. Ages 12 to 20. This had to be for someone at the bottom end of that scale.
Curious, james tried slipping the coat on just to see how much smaller the kid was. He had to twist his arms back an struggle to get the lab coat to even start on, but then it seemed to stretch out. He felt suddenly dizzy and disoriented, and thought he was going to fall. But the odd sensations stopped and he steadied himself.
To his great surprise, the coat fit perfectly. To his even greater surprise, the rest of his clothing was falling off, now far too big. It took a minute for the truth to register, and he stumbled over to the wall mirror to stare at himself.
He did not recognize the reflection. Looking small even for 12, this skinny boy had pale skin covered with freckles, a tangle of copper-red hair, buck teeth, and big ears. His eyes were such a bright blue he'd almost swear they had lights in them. But the child was dressed only in a lab coat, making his pre-pubescent crotch visible. And he was moving the same way as James. As much as he hated to think it, as impossible as it seemed, this goofy, nerdy boy was James!
He yanked the coat off and threw it on the floor, but nothing happened. James screamed and cried and shouted for a while, but finally collapsed on the bed, exhausted. How could this happen? Einstein's theories of time travel and energy, and new data on quantum physics realted to multi-dimensional... he stopped thinking, eyes wide. How cold he know al this stuff? But the more he explored his thoughts, the more he found he was a veritable library. He was a genius! A ten year-old prodigy allowed to enter the progam early. James sat up and stared at himself, and then went back to the mirror.
This was him. He only hoped that he'd grow into his teeth and ears. But what now? Maybe he could think of a way to improve this body now. After all, he was a genius in a romm with a chemistry set.