Nothing Fits, Anyway...

"Late! Like I said, run along, Charles, I’ll see you this afternoon." his mother wisped, while pulling off.

"School,’ Charlie thought, "For once, now that I’m here, I’m glad. Good ole’ comfortable school." Suddenly, a cold chill ran up his spine.

Charlie had always gotten along with his classmates alright, at least most of them. He tried to fit in, but mostly he just blended, forgotten.

Charlie rushed to his room, Mrs. Hines’ class. Mrs. Hines always had a friendly disposition, a born parents favorite, middle-aged woman, thick glasses. Charlie slid into his desk, his knees slamming against the underside. He let out a wallop, and tried again. No luck. "This hasn’t happened before…" Charlie thought, and it was becoming a common thought, "I’m too tall to fit in the desk." He glanced downward, and saw his feet dangling above the floor. "It must be the chair." He assumed. "Mrs. Hines, I need a new chair, a lower one." Charlie called out.

"Well, here you are, my dear," she replied, scooting him a new, lower chair.

Charlie tried again, to fit into the desk. Bump, his knees once more hitting the bottom of the metal frame. "Forget it,’ Charlie mused, "I just can’t win today."

Mrs. Hines began the class as always. She called roll, Charlie forgot to raise his hand. "That is very unlike you Charles, please pay attention." was all that was said.

"Get out your notebooks, class, last night’s homework, multiplication." Mrs. Hines went to the chalk board and scrawled out a problem. 2 x 12. "Can anyone answer this?" she glanced out to the room. Charlie, as if involuntarily, raised his hand, and before even being called on, blurted out "Africa," to his own and everyone’s amazement. Mrs. Hines looked at him, her smile fading, and said, "Is that some kind of a joke, Charles?"

"Sorry, ma’am…" was his only, embarrassed reply. She looked away…

Charlie saw his reflection looking back at him from the window. Now his right shirtsleeve was longer that the left, and his left pantleg seemed to grow with every instant. He violently shook his head, as if trying to escape a bad dream. He now noticed that the bangs of his hair were thicker and blonder than ever before. Charlie choked back a scream, he wanted to shriek so badly, but did not dare. He sat there, now almost motionless, as Mrs. Hines shouted, "Charles! Charles! Are you coming up to the board or not?"

Like a trance, Charlie walked up to the front of the class, he could hear their snickers and giggles. From another world, Mrs. Hines said, "Now, Charles, please answer this problem, no jokes this time…" 10 x 3.

"This is easy." Charlie thought, recovering a bit, "I do this, sit down and it’s over with." He began to write, but then it all went wrong. First off, his three was gigantic, covering half the board, and his zero was barely visible to the naked eye. The entire class erupted into laughter, loud and cackling laughter. Mrs. Hines screamed, "Charles!" and stopped. She watched as he hit the floor, finally observing his appearance, everything out of place. His sobs were wild and uncontrollable. "Nothing fits, today!" exclaimed Charlie, in his state, "Well, nothing fits, anyway…"

Mrs. Hines could not convince him to stop crying. Scared and frightened, she ran and got the school nurse. She said to her, "Something is wrong with Charlie…"

Charlie’s mother rushed to the school as soon as she got the call. "Charlie had to go see the nurse, oh my god, Charlie had to go see the nurse…" was her sole, repeated thought.