You look around at the wide selection of shoes. You eventually select a pair of worn cowboy boots from George's pile. "Here goes nothing." You slip of your loafers and slip on the boots, which feel a little roomy. You sit and eagerly wait for the changes to begin. Sure, being your dad was fun, but what was the point in having magic socks if you didn't experiment with them? You turn to George. "Enjoying being you dad, big guy?"
George is continually stroking his beard. "It's so weird. All my life growing up I wanted one of these. And now I've got one." He pats the thinning hair atop his head. "I could do with more up here, though."
George grins at Colby, who sits stoically watching the two of you. "Bet you wish you had a beard, don't you Colby?"
Colby merely raises an eyebrow and rubs the 5 o'clock shadow on his chin. "I could do without, thanks."
You laugh. "Oh, come on, Colby. You were trying really hard to grow that awesome mustache, before. Hey, give it a few days and now you can if you wanted to."
George gives a bellowing laugh, his whole body jiggling. "Oh, yes! It would be a lot better than what you had before."
Colby doesn't react to your teasing. He only stares at you with his hard, steely gaze.
Eventually, his stare starts to get to you. "Colby, you don't have to look at me like that. I was only joking."
Colby raises an eyebrow. "You still haven't changed."
Your smile fades. "What?"
"You're still the same. Usually, by this time, the socks would have started working, but you're still the same as before."
You glance down at yourself. You still have your dad's hairy, yet muscular arms. You still have his round, hairy gut. Feeling your chin, you find that you still have his goatee and, feeling higher up, his receded hairline."
George lets out a half-hearted chuckle. "Maybe your dad wore those shoes? Or maybe nobody's worn them before."
Judging by what your dad normally wears and the worn condition of the boots, neither of those seems likely. You attempt a grin. "Yeah, sure. That might be it. I'll, uh, just try another pair." You pull off the cowboy boots, noting they feel just the same coming off as they did going on. You grab a pair of black tennis shoes and pull them on your feet, finding them fairly small. You wait another couple minutes, still nothing. Fighting a rising panic you grab your own shoes for your teenage body and pull those on. You wait a minute, then two. Then three. You're still in your dad's body with no sign of changing.
You take a deep breath trying not to panic. It's not working.
George also looks concern, the lines on his middle-aged face deepening. "Maybe you've been your dad too long? Here, let me try them."
You tug the socks off and hand them over, revealing your dad's blunt, hairy toes. George pulls them on to his large, chubby feet. He frowns.
"What's the matter?" Colby asks.
George finds his own teen shoes. "He said these socks are always supposed to fit perfectly, no matter what. They feel kind of small." He quickly stuffs his feet as far as they would go into his smaller, teen shoes. A few more minutes go by with no change. "Oh my god," George moans.
Colby helps him to remove the socks and puts them on for himself, along with his original shoes. To nobody's surprise, they don't work for them, either.
You bury your rugged face in your calloused hands. "Oh, my God. What do we do?! We're stuck as our dads!"
Colby frowns at the two of you. "Speak for yourselves."
George nervously scratches at his bushy beard. "But, why would they suddenly stop working? Can you only use them so many times in a day? Forever? There has to be something we can do! I don't want to be stuck as my dad for the rest of my... his life." George pales slightly as he realizes he may have just lost 30 years of his life.
"Guys!" Colby jumps to his feet, grabbing your attention. "Calm down. The worst thing we can do now is panic."
You throw your hands up. "Oh, that's easy for you to say. 'Don't panic!' You would probably like to be some awesome soldier guy so you can get out of the house. It's not like your family would care what happens to you, anyway!" You regret the words as you say them.
Colby glares at you, but says nothing for a moment or two. He then takes a deep breath and continues. "Alright, guys. If we want to get turned back before our families find out, then we're going to have to hurry. Here's what I think we should do..."