A total stranger's willingness to spontaneously swap pants saved the day and the grade for a University of Illinois student.
Jake Wolf, 19, is a chemistry major at the university. He hopes to one day go to med school, which means his grades are everything. So, getting to class on time is really important.
However, on Tuesday, he had a snafu. It was a nice day, with temperatures soaring into the 70s, so Wolf was excited to wear shorts for the first time this season. That's a problem though, because his chemistry lab requires students to wear long pants.
"I show up to my lab, it’s 7:58, two minutes before my lab starts and I realize I'm in shorts, which is not good," he told BuzzFeed News.
The cutoff for clocking in to the lab was 8:10 a.m., which meant Wolf had 12 minutes to change. Unfortunately for him, home is a 15-minute walk away.
"I panicked. I was like, how am I going to do this? If you miss a lab you’re basically guaranteed to drop a letter grade," he said.
In "desperation mode" he started running back to his dorm but realized there was no way he was going to make it. That's when he spotted Sam Brown.
"I’m by the business school and I see this one guy about to walk into the school and he’s wearing sweatpants," said Wolf. "I said, 'Dude, I need your pants.'"
Brown was actually listening to music when he heard Wolf come up behind him yelling "Hey!"
"I was like, 'You need to trust me. We need to go to the bathroom and change. I really need your help on this one,'" said Wolf.
"At the time I was just kind of shocked," said Brown. "And he explained again how he needed this because it would affect his grade. Then I felt like I should probably help this guy out."
Brown said it was all kind of out of character for him, as an introvert. But Wolf seemed panicked, and it all happened so fast that he just went along with it.
They quickly ducked into a bathroom to change and Wolf just had enough time to get Brown's phone number before sprinting back to his lab. He didn't even get Brown's name and just put him in his phone as "Pants."
"I realized afterwards, it all kind of happened blur, that oh my gosh I kind of just gave my pants to somebody," said Brown.
Amazingly, Wolf managed to clock in to class at 8:09 a.m.
After class, he texted Brown to thank him.
He also relayed the story to his friend Chris Royer by text, who shared the whole saga on Twitter.
My buddy forgot to wear pants to lab and
It started with just a few retweets, but soon Wolf saw thousands of people liking and sharing the tweet.
"Every time I expected it to stop, it picked up more traction," said Wolf.
After their respective classes were over, Brown and Wolf met up again in the same bathroom to swap bottoms. Wolf even tucked $20 into the sweatpants pocket as a thank-you.
"I know if a stranger came up to me and asked me to switch pants, I’d say no. I can’t believe he did that for me," said Wolf.
Meanwhile, Brown is being called a hero.
S/o @downtownsambrow you’re a campus hero
"When I agreed to give him my pants, this is not what I expected to happen," said Brown.
Even Wolf's mom is proud.
This was my son @Jake_Wolf53 asking a complete stranger for his pants..#proudparent https://t.co/PGTB9hxfpf
As lucky as Wolf was, he also has a plan should this ever happen again.
"In hindsight, I should’ve just gone to the bookstore across the street. They sell pants," said Wolf.