Harold Landon and the Magic School Bus

by Naxus - The Writing Group

When a young boy named Harold Landon faces a big assignment on the human body, the legendary Ms. Frizzle meets him and asks him if she could take him on a field trip. Little does Harold know, the field trip in question would turn out to be no ordinary field trip, as Harold, the Friz, and Carlos (joining on the ride) would soon take a fantastic voyage to see the world inside out!

This is a completed story that we had done on Skype. I love telling stories. I was discussing with my team partner on Skype about the Magic School Bus, a show which we (and probably a lot of you out there) had watched when we were a kid and loved. I decided to have the plot of the story to be a Fantastic Voyage Plot (term from TV Tropes), as there were several of those plots in episodes of the series. For the story of the RP, I made up an original character named Harold Landon, who is a young boy who is curious about how things in the universe work and partakes in adventure.

Constructive criticism is welcome.

ENJOY READING! :D

DISCLAIMER: Me and my friend do NOT own the Magic School Bus nor its characters. The original character of Harold Landon is made by us, but we don't own the official characters. They belong to Scholastic and the series' creator. We are just fans of the series.

Harold Landon and the Magic School Bus - A Magic School Bus fanfiction story
by the writers' team of Nerapeak
Edited by Thomas Wilson (A.K.A. Ranehiku)

The school day has finally ended. Students were going out of the front door to get home and enjoy the weekend. Harold Landon was walking down the hall of the school last after the rest of the students went, but he was looking bummed out of his mind. He was a neat-looking boy with a regular build, and fine short brown hair, and hazel eyes. He was wearing an average set of clothes; a light gray long-sleeved shirt, with blue sweatpants. He had dim brown shoes with decent room for his toes, of which his toes didn't have a stinking smell on them. He also had a pencil on the top of his left ear to make him look to have a casual-like attitude. He heaved a heavy sigh as he walked down the stairs. He had a green notebook in his right hand. Harold then said, "Just when I'm ready for the weekend, something stops my happiness..." He then went to sit on a bench by a classroom door and decided to look up at the fan spinning on the ceiling. He then sighed again and laid back and looked up at the floor. It was overcast outside. "What am I gonna do now..." the boy said, "...with this new obstacle in my way?"

On the other hand, or perhaps more accurately foot, Wanda didn't care much about how overcast the skies looked. Rather, she was just interested in the fact that they hadn't called off practice just yet. Dressed in her somewhat flat silver uniform for the time being, she was quickly running off with a grin to the field and before she actually ran straight for the soccer ball and kicked it straight forwards. She almost seemed oblivious to the weather pattern that was forming around them. She really hadn't gotten to know Harold all that well yet. She didn't mean to ignore him, of course, but she didn't know him well enough to greet him on the way out. Meanwhile, a familiar face was coming to approach Harold as she herself had noticed that something almost had seemed to be wrong. "Mister Landon, I don't believe that you've gotten any work done on your paper just yet. Is that the case? If you were having problems, then I can think of a certain resource you might not have tried researching yet. If the library hasn't really helped you out yet, I could always call a field trip." Mrs. Frizzle was smirking a bit in her trademark fashion as she was hoping that Harold would have been game for the idea.

Harold was looking up at the ceiling again thinking about the thing that he had to do. "I know that this was needful...I know that I could enjoy my weekend, working on my new inventions, making up new ideas, being awesome in my weekend off from school...but now something...something is standing in my way..." He then closed his eyes and thoight about the obstacle in his mind, when he heard a female voice call his name beside him. Harold then opened his eyes and looked in the woman's direction. "Uh...hello there..." he said with a nervous smile. He then thought, "Well, maybe, at least, there's someone who could help me with this obstacle."

Wanda seemed uninterested in what else was going on. Indeed, Miss Frizzle had been able to mature her ideas largely based around the fact that Wanda was, indeed, so oblivious to her and Harold. It often seemed like whenever Miss Frizzle had an idea, she punctuated it with her particular choice in that day's fashion. For the record, the fact that her dress was imprinted with what appeared to be abstract representations of microorganisms and her earrings almost looked like they were white blood cells probably suggested what she had in mind. Of course, her hair was worn in the same beehive that it always was. "Oh? Really? I had a certain idea that I thought could help you out, but did you already have something in mind? I always like when one of my students actually thinks for them-self!"

Harold blinked and chuckled a little, as this teacher seemed to care to help him out on this big obstacle that he had obtained. He looked down at her dress and its scientific microorganism print and up at her white blood cell-shaped earrings, and those things made him wonder that this woman must have dressed up for some festive occasion. A warm smile than appeared on his face as he heard from the woman that she was willing to hear what the obstacle he had would be. So, Harold tells her, "Well, the essay is about the human body."

While her eyes were occasionally still on Wanda, Miss Frizzle really didn't seem to be suspicious for the time being. If Harold hadn't known to much about about her just yet, he might not have been thinking too much about what she had in mind just yet. Looking back, she smiled and nodded. "Well, of course. You are trying to do something to raise your grade in science class before your report card comes out next week. Am I right? Maybe you'd like to join us on the field trip later today. I think it might serve to teach you a little something about anatomy..."

"Well, I'm interested." Harold said with excitement. As he looked up at the woman's face, the boy had a small thought in his head that she looked a little familiar. He soon remembered back to a moment in school about five weeks back. He was walking out of his geography teacher Mr. Pranley's classroom with the rest of the class, and he was feeling proud of finishing up his work about North Africa within 30 minutes and receiving some freetime afterward for the remainder of that class. As he walked with the kids down the hall to the next class in social studies, he suddenly noticed a woman pass by him; she was having her hair in a beehive style, and was wearing a dress with a water drop print, and she had the same face...ahah! That was probably the same teacher he had seen before! Also, he remembered some stories from other kids about "The Friz", an eccentric and happy-go-lucky teacher who takes her classes on "extraordinary field trips" to "unbelievable places". From those memories, Harold decided to ask her a question. "Um...say, are you...The Friz?"

"I guess some people call me that, but I do have to say that I prefer my real name!" She punctuated her comments with a laugh that seemed somewhat out of place. To be honest, she had remembered that moment coming out of Mr. Pranley's class as well. However, her ideas were a bit different that day. Of course, while she was taking a tour of the plumbing that day, she did so want to help Harold with his project on North Africa. After all, Miss Frizzle had wanted to visit Egypt and look at the pyramids again, but alas that wasn't an opportunity at the moment. "I actually thought that you were going to be transferred into one of my classes, but I guess I was wrong. That doesn't mean that I can't help you out though. Would you like to come along for the ride?"

Harold looked back up into Ms. Frizzle's eyes and said, "Sure, I would like to come for the ride!" His thoughts then shifted to the girl who was playing in soccer practice out on the soccer field, of whom had passed him by without giving a glance at him on her way out. "Say..." Harold said in wonder, "There was some girl that passed me by when I was sulking with my notebook in my hand. Perhaps we could discuss this matter with that girl outside, and, just wondering, are there any kids left in your classroom who can join in with us and the girl?"

Ms. Frizzle smirked, "Oh, you're talking about Wanda then? Don't worry about her, she has a vital part to play in today's little trip. As for others, well, I figured that Carlos was free so I mentioned it to him this morning. I hope you don't have a fear of reptiles either. I always have a certain friend who joined us?" Of course, despite her words, Wanda didn't exactly quite realize what was going on nor did she realize that she was going to be explored from the inside out either.

"I never had a fear of reptiles," stated Harold, "Reptiles are nice creatures. I've been to a zoo where I saw komodo dragons. They were fascinating." Harold strtched out his arms upward and his legs down outward to relax on the bench. "Now, is it okay for us to go to where Carlos currently is so we could all talk about the essay?"

"That's fine. If he took my directions, he should actually be on the bus right now. Its not too far, and if you take notes along the way your essay is practically going to write itself." She stood up again and offered him her hand to help her up. Naturally, she wasn't fully divulging what was going to happen and she knew he had no idea.

Harold felt such a sense of happiness and excitement within himself that he could struggle to contain it. Slowly, he took the Friz's hand, and slowly, he got up from the bench and stood proudly in front of her. He was anticipating heading inside the bus where the boy named Carlos is so they, as a group of few, can talk about how the essay would go. "Now, lead me to the bus." Harold said.

"Certainly." Once she had broken the hand hold as they were up, Ms. Frizzle walked back towards the bus which probably appeared to him like no other school bus that anyone else ever had. This was especially true since it apparently had a face like a human being and showed off what looked like an expression. Only one individual plus a lizard was visible from the parking lot, which suggested that Ms. Frizzle drove it herself.

Ranehiku: Harold stood there and looked at the bus in the parking lot. He was quite surprised, as not only did he expect a school bus to enter the school by itself, but also that it actually had a face on the front, and it can express emotions. He was blown away. "Whoa...this bus is...pretty extraordinary,' Harold thought, "Is this some unusual act of magic or something?" Looking at a boy and a lizard on his shoulder in the area, Harold presumed that the boy must be Carlos. He walks over to him and the lizard to greet him. "Hello there, my name is Harold. Harold Landon."

Carlos had a certain way of dressing that involved a yello shirt beneath a blue windbreaker and red pants. It seemed that he seldom violated this constant pattern, as weird as that might have been. Of course, it was Liz that was the main attraction and seemed to almost dance when greeted. Ms. Frizzle went to take a seat as though she were going to drive it. Carlos blinked as the door shut, however, "There's no one else coming along?" "Oh, call it...a command performance." Ms. Frizzle laughed as she put the keys in the ignition.

Harold soon followed the teacher and the boy into the bus. He looked around at the bus' interior, noticing the many buttons and strange switches on the dashboard. He wondered what functions those buttons and switches could lead to when they get pressed or flipped. As the Friz sat down in the driver's seat and closed the doors, Harold presumed that this must be a private field trip of some kind. As he still got his notebook in his hand, he checked to see if there are any pencils in either of the sidepockets of his pants, of which he found one readily sharpened on the left pocket. Harold then asked Ms. Frizzle, 'Um...does the girl have a soccer match coming up soon? Oh, and can you tell me the girl's name?"

Ms. Frizzle smirked, "You are particularly interested in Wanda, aren't you?" Carlos laughed as he looked back and adjusted the draw strings on his hood, "What, do you have a little case of puppy love?" Ms. Frizzle shook her head, "Now now, that's enough. Anyway, though, Harold, you're about to learn a bit more about her shall we say as well as about the human body. Just make sure that you're buckled in tightly. I'd hate to see anything happen." Ms. Frizzle finally reached down to press a button, and the result would have been rather unexpected to say the least. Weirdly, Carlos didn't seem all that surprised that the walls almost appeared to be closing in on them - it was as if he had done this before. Was the world around them outside...growing by proprotion? It certainly appeared like it. The bus almost felt like it was transforming, and that would probably have made most people quite queazy.

Harold checked to the sides of the seat upon Ms. Frizzle's request, and found a seatbelt that he can strap himself tight in, so he clicked it in. Then, he peeked outside the window and noticed that the world outside the bus was changing - to be precise, it seemed like the world was...growing bigger! During this, Harold never felt queasy at his stomach, just a little uneasy in terms of focus. So, the world was quite giant, making the boy feel like as if he and the others must now be the size of ants, and hoped that no vehicle would come and smush them flat. As Harold looked at the boy sitting across from him in the next seat on the other side, he looked indifferent, striking as rather odd. He then optted to describe the essay to the Friz. "Now, the essay on the human body is divided into four sections: the muscular system, the digestive system, the respiratory system, and the circulatory system. I have to write in good detail about those systems, and so I bet this field trip can help me." arold laid back. "Now, Friz, can you answer my question if the girl has a soccer game coming up and then can you take me to see her so I can know what it's like to see her as a giant..." and then Harold turned to Carlos, "And I don't mean in the manner of 'puppy love'."

Few buses actually had regular seatbelts in every chair, so that probably should have been enough to suggest that this may not have been the most normal ride of his life. The world certainly did seem like it was growing faster and faster despite the fact that in reality, they were getting smaller! Carlos smirked as he looked out the window, "Hey, this is a pretty sweet view!" Once again, it actually seemed that he was simply warm to this idea as though it wasn't weird to travel around while shrinking. Miss Frizzle, meanwhile, smiled, "Certainly. She does, which is why she's...actually she was warming up before but I think that her game should be starting any moment now. Were you curious to see what a soccer player looks like from this vantage point?" She radically spun the steering wheel and made the bus veer to one side before finally spinning right in front of the girl. Wanda looked completely giant at this point. Her black hair was visible as though they were individual strands of yarn. Speaking of individual strands, that silvery soccer uniform she wore was visible in such a way that one could actually look at each individual stitch. Wanda looked strong and, to be perfectly honest, a little bit scary in turn as well. Miss Frizzle smirked, "Well? What do you think?" Carlos sighed, "I still think it's love."

Harold scoffed slowly at Carlos before peeking out the window to see the girl from a small point of view. She was indeed like a giant in his view, with up-close detail of her skin, hair, and eyes as well as her soccer uniorm visible to his eyes. Harold was amazed. Seeing her as a giant brought to him the thought that this kind of situation was how Jack had experienced in Jack and the Beanstalk, a fairy tale that he had heard of as a little boy in kindergarten. Still looking at the girl, he said out to Ms. Frizzle, "It's pretty dang amazing." Suddenly, at the very bottom of his view of sight, Harold noticed some movement. He looked further down and saw the girl's right foot moving back, meaning that the girl was getting ready to kick the soccer ball. At that moment, the boy wondered how a soccer kick could sound like at a small size.

Wanda was, of course, unable to see them as anything more than perhaps a very small insect and therefore she paid them no heed. That gave them a very long opportunity to admire what was before them. Her musculature, even if it were young and underdeveloped, was hereby clearly visible and Wanda was becoming an impressive athlete despite her young age. Ms. Frizzle smiled for the time being and turned around before the vehicle was indeed shaken by the shock wave that was caused by the soccer ball striking against her powerful foot. In a few moments they would be tumbling forwards and made it down into her mouth and her throat. To Wanda, this would have felt as though, perhaps, she would have experienced a bug going down her throat, but she really didn't show any reaction. That was for the best as they were soon rocketing toward her uvula.

"Whoa...!" Harold held on to the back of an empty seat before him as the bus was shaken by the heavy sound of the kick's impact. He then held on tighter as the bus went inside the girl's mouth. As he gazed ahead in the front window of a bulb of flesh coming up in front of them, he called out to the driver, "Ms. Friz, can you land on the bottom of...wherever we are?"

Miss Frizzle was smiling as she almost wordlessly landed down on the back of Wanda's tongue before they ever crashed straight into that bulb of skin and muscle tissue. "Certainly. You've reached the back of the tongue. You are here!" She pulled down a map from the ceiling that seemed to point to where they were. The red flesh of Wanda's mouth was moist and pure - there weren't any lesions or anything like that spoiling the view. It was almost like a cave where the walls could move around in and white stalactites and stalagmites jutted out from the ground. Of course, those were in reality her teeth which glistened with the saliva that moved about in the oral cavity. "Did you want to spend some admired your -girlfriend's- view?" It was, of course, Carlos gently teasing him.

Upon Ms. Frizzle's announcement of whereabouts where they were, Harold blinked and thought, "On the back of the tongue..." and then, it soon dawned on him that they had travelled to an unusual place, and peeked out the window to see the red flesh and the white teeth and saliva.. "We must be...in a mouth..." He then remembered the sight of the giant girl and thought, "We're inside the girl's mouth!" Harold's amazement was then broken by Carlos' sly line. "Please stop it." he said to him. "Is it okay for us to go outside and check out the place?" he asked the Friz.

Carlos sighed, but he soon nodded. He wasn't going to keep pestering Harold since he was actually asked pretty nicely. Miss. Frizzle blinked and seemed to give some thought to the request but she eventually acquiesced, "Well, I don't see what's so wrong with it if you really wanted to explore. You'll need some special costumes though." She pressed a button and environment suits designed to keep them from being digested by the saliva came down from the ceiling. There were enough for the whole class, but there were only a few people there.

Harold saw the Friz press a button on the dashboard and saw a bunch of environment suits come down from the ceiling. "This bus actually has suits," he said, "I guess since the mouth is a messy place to be, I can wear one of these suits so that I couldn't get the spit and gunk and whatever on me." The boy got up from his seat and took the blue suit and puts it on. "Hey, Friz, are you coming as well?"

Ms. Frizzle eventually got her own on and opened up the door with a smile, "Certainly! I have to be your tour guide, now don't I? Was there anything in particular that you wanted to see in here?" She failed to mention that she had other suits for other parts of the digestive tract just in case he wanted an extra tour. Of course, once they were out the place really would have looked like some sort of cavern. Since Wanda was running around the tongue beneath them moved like it was an earthquake. Her teeth periodically split as her mouth opened to take deep breaths. As they did strings of salvia grew and collapsed between them while wind gusts battered their infentesiminally small bodies.

"WHOA!" Harold was trying to maintain his balance on the tongue as it moved around. He noticed the strings of saliva come down form the roof of the mouth while the girl's inhalings of air were like wind gusts to him. After some several seconds, the boy finally managed to get his balance back on track. "Well, that was some wild environental activity." Now focusing on the Friz's question, Harold went to list the parts of the mouth he wanted to check out, in order. "So, about the mouth, I want to check out the tongue, under the tongue, the teeth, the tonsils, and the uvula."

"Environmental? We're in the mouth where both air and food enter into the human body, so of course the environment here can be a bit...intense." Miss Frizzle certainly seemed like she was enjoying this entirely too much. "Where did you want to go first? If you are having problems standing perhaps I can invite you over to the teeth where we can get a detailed look at them." Carlos, on the other hand, was seemingly rather used to this as weird as that was.

Harold looked around. "Well, I could check out the tongue first." He helf-knelt down and reared forward to check out the tongue, squeezing the suface a little bit and looking closely to see that it looks like.

"The tongue is a muscle and is right below us. Why don't you take a look? You can hold onto me..." Well, Miss Frizzle stopped since he seemed to get ahead of himself. The tongue was just as moist as anything else, though it was, of course, a pulsating muscle just like she had said. The appendage was covered with nooks and crannies that represented the various taste buds and it almost seemed to have a mind of its own. That would have been pretty clearly illustrated by the way that it almost moved around hypnotically beneath them. Naturally, it was a pinkish-red color that almost matched the rest of the interior of this orifice.

"I see...the tongue seems to be...pulsating and moving around, and it also seems to have a mind of its own." Harold then noticed the numerous bumps. "Those bumps, are those...taste buds?"

As Miss Frizzle turned down for a moment, she gently nodded and exhaled, "Yes, that is right. Each of these bumps are one of her taste buds." She took a few moments to reach down, "I wouldn't poke them too much if I were you or she might try to spit us out." That being said, she did give him a few moments to admire the aforementioned nooks and crannies of those fleshy outgrowths. They almost appeared like red stone at this size.

Harold kept looking at the buds for a few moments, wondering how those can detect taste. "Ms. Frizzle, how can the taste buds detect tastes of food and drinks?"

"Well, there is a chemical reaction that occurs when certain things touch the taste receptors on the surface of them." She then laughed, "I wouldn't want you to be tasted though - you would be quite sour."

Harold laughed a little at that line. "You can be funny thee." After he was done checking out the tongue, he was now wondeing about what lies under the tongue. He was awae that it could get slimy and slick down there. "Now, Friz, I want to check under the tongue."

"Are you sure about that?" Miss Frizzle looked back and Carlos didn't exactly seem to be any less enthused. He was trying to raise the side of her tongue. "Alright, well, we take a more detailed look at it if you two want to, but we'll have to tread really carefully..." Nothing explained how there was so much light in here. "If you'd join me?"

Harold took note of the light in the girl's mouth, and he found out that it as coming from the bus' headlights, helping them reveal what was otherwise obscured in the dark. "All right." He was taking the Friz's words of caution to heart.

Eventually Ms. Frizzle was able to help them climb to at least some degree underneath the tongue's folds. It probably felt almost like going down a particularly slippery and slimey slide. Once they were inside of the cavity there, Miss Frizzle smiled and looked around. The area was even more dank, but the underside of the tongue was attached to the bottom of the mouth with a huge slip of skin. It occassionally moved around and almost looked like it were breathing. Of course, if Harold were to look closer, it was really being moved by countless tiny blood vessels. Meanwhile, Carlos was standing back. He was afraid of going through a membrane and getting caught.

Harold looked down after getting in the area and saw a pool of saliva down under them. "Just a lot of spit down there..." he said. He started to think of comparing this kind of situation to hanging over a big swimming pool, but he wouldn't because it could be quite odd. The boy looked at the web of flesh that was connecting the bottom of the tongue to the floor of the mouth. "What's that web of flesh called?" asking the Friz.

"You might end up going for a swim if you keep trying to go any further. That web of flesh, though...its called the sub-lingual frenulum, though less medically-inclined people might call it the tongue web." Miss Frizzle laughed for a moment and took a step back. It seemed like Carlos was still hugging the back of the tooth behind him. After all, he didn't seem to keen on swimming in something that could actually digest certain fibers. Miss Frizzle looked back, "Did you want to take some pictures or should we move on to the next place?"

Harold looked back at the Friz and chuckled. "Do we have cameras with us? Just wondering." He was wondering to take pictures.

Carlos laughed, "Could a camera even take this kind of pressure?" Miss Frizzle smiled, "I have something on the bus that might work..."

"I see. What is it that we have on the bus that can take pictures?" Harold asked the Friz some more.

Miss Frizzle paused for a moment and thought before speaking and reaching back out to the front of the tooth, "There is a camera mounted in the bus." Carlos smirked, "No one would ever believe us if we showed them off." Miss Frizzle nodded, "Precisely why we can take those photos. Anyone want to join me for rock climbing?" Soon enough she was actually scaling the face of the tooth. It was slick, but there was something gritty to it. Considering that it was made from a calcium mineral, the tooth actually did feel like a stone. In fact, as they were climbing it it almost had the consistency of marble. Of course, that was assuming that Harold would have joined them. Had he not, he would have been able to admire the almost monolithic object towering up straight in front of them and glistening in the low light environment.

Harold looked back at the two and smiled, "Of course. I had done some rock-climbing before when I was a little younger, I was a little scared when I began, but I got braver over that course.' Harold chuckled cheerfully. "And since you're climbing up that tooth, I guess I want to check out the teeth then."

The teeth themselves appeared to be increasingly stone like. After all, they were indeed made of minerals. Once they had approached the crest of the tooth they might have seemed to be in a giant bowl of sorts with slick glassy white surfaces. Indeed, it seemed appropriate when Carlos smirked and cried out, "This would be awesome for some extreme skateboarding!"

Harold looked at Carlos and back at the surface of the tooth and said, "Hmm. You quite got the point; it does look slick enough for a skateboard to cruise around on it." He soon squatted down and and rubbed against the surface and gently knocked it a few times.

While teeth weren't exactly hollow, it certainly made a noise like one. It was certainly quite slick to the touch and it actually felt both sharp and hollow. Since most people never really felt human teeth, it would have almost had an otherworldly hardness to him - almost as though it were made of diamond. With that, Wanda's teeth started to grate. It was obivous that she didn't like being tampered with! Miss Frizzle turned back, "That's enough of that now class, we had best get down before we get chewed up."

Harold blinked and quickly looked up at the girl's upper teeth getting ready to come down upon him. "Uh-oh...!" He quickly runs off the tooth and gets back over to the tongue. He looked back at the teeth clamping together. "Whew...I could've gotten crushed up there..." He then turns to the Friz's direction and said, "Now, I want to check the tonsils."

"While we can see the tonsils from here, I think we need to get back on the bus before get a good look at them." Miss Frizzle walked back towards the bus before being followed by Carlos and ostensibly Harold in turn as well. In a few moments, should they not have done anything to break the usual process, they would have automatically had their outfits removed and would have been making their way back to their seats. A flash went off a couple of times, suggesting that a photo had been taken as she brought up before. Soon enough the tiny bus was hovering and they were soon able to get a view of giant, white appendages that almost looked like weird growths. "These are the tonsils...and the adenoids." While many people had them removed, Wanda's were actually still intact and have grown quite large. They seemed still however, rather than pulsating like so many other things.

Harold looked ahead of the tonsils and adenoids that stand on either side of the girl's throat. "So, what's their purpose and how do they feel like?"

"They serve a defensive purpose - they glands that are part of the body's immune system. Feel though?" Miss Frizzle thought to herself for a moment, "If I let you feel them, you might be eaten by a white blood cell dispatched from one.'

"Oh..." Harold meant about what the Friz said. He remembered a fact he learned when he was in first grade. White blood cells detect germs and foreign bodies in the bloodstream to protect the body, and probably he himself is a foreign body, so he might get devoured. "Well, can you tell me how they feel like?"

"You mean if you were to touch them?" Miss Frizzle stuck her finger to her chin, "You know, I never really thought about it, but you did reach down and squeeze her tongue, right? You had given that a nice big touch, right? I assume that they would be soft like that...or almost like lips in a way!"

"All right." Harold grabbed his notebook beside him as he wrote down the following information he learned first-hand: "Mouth," he wrote as a section title on the first line of the first sheet page. As he was on a first-hand journey in the body, he wrote down detail about the body parts he encountered and all the action that happened, especially at the teeth. "Now, for the last part in the mouth, I want to check out the uvula."

Carlos looked over, figuring that he was going to be able to remember most of the stuff here. Of course, while the other needed to take notes he considered a trip inside of a human body to be truly unforgettable. Meanwhile, Miss Frizzle nodded and redirected the bus over towards that growth, "Certainly, but you won't touch this one either - the uvula lets the body know if something is caught in the throat and triggers a gag reflex if it is. It also serves a purpose in speech." Despite the fact that they couldn't actually touch it, the fleshy bulb glistened with fluid as it hung down and if they could have grasped it, it would probably have felt rather slick and sticky. It almost looked rubbery in a way, and that was probably the case since it seemed to be hanging down with a good bit of weight to it.

Harold wrote some more information down as the Friz spoke about the uvula. "Um...I'm just wondering: since there are white blood cells inside the tonsils, is there anything inside the uvula?"

Miss Frizzle turned around, "Well, there are white blood cells flowing through blood everywhere, but the uvula isn't a defensive gland, no. It's more a piece of solid flesh. If something gets lodged in the throat, the area around the uvula causes it to shiver which makes the person vomit."

Harold wrote that down also. He had now finished the mouth portion of the journey in his essay. "Now, for the first system that I want to explore in the journey, I want to explore the digestive system. So, is it okay to wait until the girl somehow swallows so I can see what happens in the throat, as well as the sound of gulping?"

"Certainly. You'll be able to view that in just a moment." While that was the teacher speaking, Carlos apparently took the opportunity to buckle himself back in rather tightly once again. Miss Frizzle appeared to have taken a few moments to count for whatever reason. It wasn't clear why until the second that she finished. Apparently the bus had been there just long enough to finally force a swallowing reflex even though there wasn't anything else really inside of her mouth that was edible per say. The sound of a gulp was monstrous coming from inside her body and it felt once more like a whoosh of air had taken them up and threatened to send them spiraling down into her stomach. However, they were soon assailed instead by the bulging expansion of Wanda's throat as she actually followed through with the reflex of swallowing. For now it almost seemed as though they were trapped in the throat as the flap that covered her windpipe once more closed over.

Harold would notice the tongue rise up and the organic walls of the throat close in around them and a sensation that felt like that the bus was being squeezed downward to somewhere else. He was a little startled at the massive gulping sound that rang out, and looked forward at the front window to see walls of tissue squuezing and contracting all throughout. "Where are we, and where are we heading?" asked the boy.

Once more that gulping noise rattled around as their heads were immediatly turned towards the top of the bus. At least, Carlos and Miss Frizzle were instinctively looking upwards because of the fact that the bus was actually quaking, "We are now in the throat, and soon enough, like a piece of food, we will head into the stomach. I think we should be safe from digestive fluids...I think anyway."

Harold picked up his notebook and wrote down another title for a new part of the assignment: "Digestive System". As he looked at the closed windows, he was anxious to look out as he feared that those walls could break through and crush them into a small mess of metal and humanity, plus those pieces of shattered glass could harm the girl from the inside in a bad way. Harold slowly recognized the ongoing tube, but he couldn't remember the name of the tube. "Um...is this...the esophagus?"

"This is the esophagus, right." Miss Frizzle looked back with a nod to show that he was correct. The experience would have been no less disturbing however. The walls were a strange color and they seemed to move around like slimey serpents, but there were various protrusions from the back. Those were, of course, caused by the presence of the hard windpipe right behind her throat.

After what seemed like quite a while, Harold noticed that the protrusions were soon disappearing as they got further and further down the esophagus. Audially, he also noticed a slight gurgling sound from ahead, and the sounds were coming up. The boy knew what was coming up, and gulped loudly as he nervously awaited, worried that they might become dissolved into food matter.

Eventually the micronized motor vehicle actually did fall straight into the acidic soup below them with a huge splash as though someone had tossed a rock into a pond. Ripples went outward, and the gurgling only got louder and louder as there seemed to be a number of bubbles around them that were popping and fizzing around. It was just as unsettling as everything else. Miss Frizzle paused for a moment, "I don't think we'll be digested."

Harold held on to the back of the empty seat in front of him as the bus fell into the stomach and into the digestive liquid below. As he peeked out to see many bubbles appearing and popping around the bus, he was interested in them, as he loved bubbles since he was a toddler. "How would we be not digested?"

"Our bus is coated with an indegestible coating. Write this down - some things the human body cannot digest so it does its best to just pass them." As Miss Frizzle was speaking there were bubbles around them. Each pop would literally rock the vessel from side to side inside the stomach pouch.

Harold wrote what the Friz told him like she said. As he wrote it down, he remembered how the trip had been. It was pretty extraordinary for sure. He had finally believed in the stories that he overheard from classmates and other students in days before. It's now been realized in front of his eyes, and he was excited to be going on a wild trip. "Now," Harold said, "could we see what happens to food and drinks as the girl ingests them?"

"You mean you actually want to enter into the intenstines? Well, I suppose your wish should be my command." Miss Frizzle reached down for her seatbelt again and Carlos seemed to instinctively do the exact same thing. This was indeed going to be a wild ride, but they were going to have some trouble getting there it would have seemed. After all, they were being tossed around as the muscles of the stomach began to thrash on each side. It seemed they weren't going to have the easiest time with any of this after all.

Scratching his head, Harold thought up of an idea. "Well, could we wait until this girl could eat or drink something so we could follow that piece down into the intestines?"

"That's an excellent idea! I like how you are thinking independently." Miss Frizzle's earrings once more glowed as she leaned back and saw a piece of food nearby. It took a while, but it did seem like Wanda must have been having a snack during the game. She was eventually following through a large muscled hole that made a huge sucking noise as they passed through and eventually out into the tubes below. There were finger-like projections moving all around as they traveled deeper and deeper through what must have been the small intestine. To be honest, the fluid around them would have made any normal individual want to throw up around them and there was certainly a foul odor permeating the vessel that the Magic School Bus had become at this point. For that matter, that constant sound of suction was quickly becoming unbearable.

Harold grabbed on to the back of the seat to keep steady as the bus was moved side to side by the tides in the stomach acid. The sounds of the bubbles popping and fizzling with the organic groaning in the organ were soon slowly overtaken by the sound of the wet sucking of the muscular opening that was leading out. As the bus ventured into the small intestines, Harold noticed that they seemed to be in a liquid, as well as getting caught off-guard by the odor that was invading the vehicle. Covering his nose, he looked out the window and noticed many finger-like protrusions moving about on the walls. "Um...what are those...wormy things sticking out of the walls?" he asked the Friz, "And what is this stench coming from?"

"The stench is starting to waft in from the large intenstines, which is where fecal matter is produced by drying undigested waste produts. As for the worms, they are called villi - they provide additional surface area that allows the small intestines to absorb nutrients from the food particles that are traveling across the length of the small intestine." She exhaled and looked back with a smile, "Be careful because this smell is going to get much worse if you understand. Maybe I should provide a breath mask for you and Carlos?" Carlos turned back and sighed, "That might be best, yeah."

Harold was still holding his nose, along with starting to sweat as the odor got stronger and stronger the further they went in the intestine. "Yeah, you can to save us from this odor permeating this bus."

Eventually, Miss Frizzle really did press a button on the console in front of her that caused a mask to drop down for...well, there were actually more than just two because she had enough for everyone that could have ridden on the bus - even a small one for a lizard.

Tired from the stench entering his nostrils, Harold quickly got up from his seat and snatched one of them and put it on as fast as he could. The boy breathed a clean sigh of relief as the mask provided him with odorless air. "Now..." Harold reached for the notebook and wrote down more information about the small intestine, with the fluid surrounding the bus, the villi on the walls, and the odor as well. As he was done writing, he waited to enter the large intestine.

Eventually they came to a number of bends that would have actually pushed everything towards one side of the bus as though they were driving around in a race car and moving around hairpin turned. Well, in a manner of speaking, they really were. Having spun through fluid for a period of time they eventually were unceremoniously dumped out a hole after bouncing against a padded wall for a few moments. The new area was dry, but there were an equal number of huge turns it would seem. The tiny motor vehicle eventually came to rest on the flesh beneath them and the entire area would have appeared like some sort of dank polluted cave. "Welcome to the colon lady and gentlemen!"

Harold blinked. "Um...do you mean 'just' gentlemen?" he said, as he noticed that there were just two boys and no girls. He chuckled a little.

Miss Frizzle frowned for a second and sighed, "What about me?"

"Oh..." Harold looked a little awkward for a moment. "Sorry...I didn't take it account you as the lady here. Not being offensive or anything." He then looked in the windows catching the different environment. "So, are we in the large intestine?"

"Yes, do you notice how everything seems drier?" Indeed, the large intestine was almost like a rather moist desert that was covered with rippled walls that had various blood vessels running through it. They were removing the water from whatever objects were inside, and suprisingly they might have even felt a bit dry considering that the Magic School Bus was no different either.

"All right. So, what happens in the large intestine? Harold asked the Friz, "And what lies down there, further into the large intestine, and at the end?"

"You mean its not obvious?" Miss Frizzle's eyes grew wide. Carlos looked over, "Dude...like...at the other end you go number two.."

Harold didn't understand what Carlos said mentally at first. "Number two..." he thought. He was sure that he had heard this expression some time when he was in kindergarten. Eventually, he realized the meaning. "Ah...it means to go to the bathroom." Harold said with a sweatdrop on the side of his face.

Miss Frizzle blinked, "Yes, Harold. I hope you did not want to see the rest of this trip through because, well, the end of the tour is sort of in the toliet if you don't mind me saying so." She laughed, "I should have gotten a permission slip for that one."

Harold laughed a little. "That's all right. For me, I did not want to see the end of the large intestine because I'm sure that it would be quite nasty and smelly and stuff." He went back to his seat and wrote down info about the large intestine. "Now, I'm finished with the digestive system. So...how are we gonna get out?"

Miss Frizzle thought for a few moments before she finally had the mind to turn around and peer towards them with an exhalation. Carlos shrugged for a second, but Miss Frizzel was speaking, "Does anyone have a carbonated beverage? We're going to have to rock the bus around enough to make enough discomfort to where we will be burped out. After all, otherwise, there is only one way to go." Carlos stood up and blinked, "What if we blow the tires like we did that one time to give oxygen to muscles? Do you remember that?" Miss Frizzle frowned, "I wasn't with you, remember?" Eventually Carlos looked back, "Do you have any soda water, Harold?"

Harold looked around for a bottle that could contain any carbonated beverage that could work in them getting out. As he went on with his searching, he slowly was feeling nervous. He was becoming increasingly worried that if he couldn't find a beverage around, he and the others might be trapped here, inside someone's body, possibly forever, because the bus couldn't be digested. Eventually, he saw what appeared to be a purple lunch box under one of the empty seats in the back. The boy picked it up. blew the dust off of it, and opened the plastic locks on it. As he opened the box, he found a soda bottle - a Pepsi bottle - full of the dark cola beverage. Harold was relieved. "I've found one!" he called out to the Friz.

Eventually Miss Frizzle was able to gratefully take the bottle of Pepsi and walk up front, "Thank you Harold. Your preference for high-calorie drinks may have actually saved us just this once. Don't worry though, if we weren't able to get out this way, there was the...bathroom option." Carlos braced himself as he watched their teacher slide the drink into some cask in the front of the bus and soon enough the vehicle was taken up in a giant bubble as such. The motor vehicle rocked back and forth for a few moments na dit was quite clear that Wanda did not case for that sort of behavior inside of her large intenstine. Soon enough it appeared like the walls were actually closing in on them as the muscles around them contracted back and forth.

Harold was stricken a little odd by the Friz's last quip of the "bathroom opinion", yet he chuckled a little. After he observed the Friz's action of pouring the drink into a cask on the dashboard, Harold noticed that a huge bubble had consumed the bus and they were soon being taken up toward the opening into the stomach. He held on to his seat.

The walls around them seemed to be closing in, but strangely enough the bus had actually been moving in the opposite direction towards the whole that had originally kept them out of the large intestine. They were rocketing backwards passed all of the organs that they had previously gone across while making it through the digestive tract. At this point, the villi looked almost murderous and seemed to batter the motor vehicle as another belch seemed to be coming on pushing their tumbling little vessel further and further up the digestive chain in turn.

Harold was still holding on to his seat, edging up towards near the edge of it as he saw the villi close in and thrash upon the bus while they were moving in reverse back out of the digestie tract.

At this point, the bubbling acid in the stomach appeared like a green sea of slime and they were caught in yet another sickly colored puff of carbon dioxide as fluids wicked away from every direction once they were being thrown out of the stomach and again into that soft tube of the throat before it became increasingly more light. Indeed, that previous hanging ball of flesh called the uvula provided a good landmark as they started to shoot away from the throat. As they seemed to travel towards that light the bus would seem to be remarkably dry - perhaps because of the wind that was blowing around them that seemed to quickly dry them off at the impressively small size that they were currently at.

Harold still held on to his seat as the light from up in the throat was coming closer. He side-scooted back close to the window and saw the uvula at the front window fly over them as they exited the throat, and soon, out of the mouth as well. Seeing that they were out of the girl's body, for now, he went to write down info on the journey out of the digestive system. "Now, next up is the muscular system, but for this, we have to be outside of the body, and be inside of the body one time over the course of this part of the assignment."

"You want to have a look at the muscular system? Oh, tsk, tsk, Harold, I thought that you could have at least done some of your own research." Miss Frizzle was laughing, though she was soon steering the bus violently around - something huge and pink was attacking them at this point. It would slowly become clear as though nooks and crannies appeared all over their windows what it was - the thing that was attacking them was...Wanda's hand attempting to swat them like a fly!

Harold looked outside at the obstacle that was coming their way. As he made out that it was the girl's hand. He noticed what it was going to do, and a sense of fright came up in his core. "Friz, move us out of the way to someplace safe!" he cried out.

Miss Frizzle was moving the bus back and forth, trying to get out of the way as tiny specks assaulted the aforementioned motor vehicle. They seemed translucent and actually allowed the light through them, "Those are dead skin cells and they are always coming off when your body is moving around!"

Harold quickly wrote down the info down in his notebook. "Is there somewhere we could go for safety?" he asked.

Eventually they were in an area that felt rather damp and once more a foul odor had returned, but this time it was rather salty. Whatever it was that smelled up the place had sounded remarkably salty and it was rather strange in that respect. It was dark her and rolls of flesh seemed to be closing in around them. Droplets were also assaulting their windows, "She won't see us under her neck."

Harold was relieved from the fear from the swapping and mayhem that was going on, being thankful they weren't smushed. But the relief was short-lived as an odor struck his nostrils. He hastily put his mask back on. This odor was different, smelling of sweat, so it was better than the odor in the intestines, but not by much. He wrote down "Muscular System" as the title of a new section of information after the digestive system. "So," Harold said to the Friz, "The muscles that I want to check, in this order, are: the biceps, the triceps, the throat muscles, the pectoral muscles, the abdominal muscles, the quadriceps, the glutes, and a peek inside the muscles...and back outside for a little listen of the heart, which is also a muscle, right?"

"Alright, if you are sure then..." Looking back slowly, Miss Frizzle nodded and started to turn the vehicle around so that they could have a good look first at Wanda's abdominal muscles. That wasn't necessarily an easy proposition considering that they had to lower their altitude and slowly creep up her shirt in order to avoid causing any distress that would have had them swatted at again. The fabric draped over them as they got closer and closer to those moving, quaking mounds of muscle. Even though she was young, Wanda was quite athletic so it was obvious that the individual areas of her abdominal muscles were slowly starting to come into their own as a visible different mound of muscle. Miss Frizzle stood up, hoping that their levitation act would help them inside of the damp area.

Harold was sitting in his seat anticipating how the biceps could be like up close. As he saw the fabric of the shirt flowing over them, he felt a little dirty about them having to fly under her shirt to get to the biceps. As he liked the view of the abdominals as they flew over them, he didn't want to see what was coming up below them before the biceps.

Considering that she did have a black sports bra on, Harold would not have been able to see anything of note anyway. The bus was eventually flying underneath her shirt further until they got to toned masses that played out across the top of her arms. These sinewy muscles were just as toned as the rest of her, but they were rippling pieces of flesh as though they were owned by some sort of bodybuilder. Still, Wanda had fairly nice tone about them and they moved with each gesture of her body.

Harold looked out of the window and saw the muscle that the bus had landed on. He marvele at the definition of the muscle visible in the skin, and noted some bulk. It was at this point that Harold took in that this girl was truly an athlete, and mentally welcomed the thought that athletes were strong. "This is awesome..." he said. "Friz, is it all right to go out and feel the muscle as well as listening to what's going on in it?"

"Please call me Miss Frizzle or Miss F. I know everyone calls me the Friz but it is quite rude." She then blinked, "Well, I am afraid if we land we might get swatted, but I suppose I could try if you were willing to take the risk you know..." Soon enough she was starting to move the bus around so that she could actually let Harold and Carlos out onto Wanda's skin.

"Uh...sorry." Harold apologized. As the bus moved around, he said, "Well, Miss Frizzle, is there a way to make us...not being able to be felt so that the girl won't try to swat us again?"

Miss Frizzle giggled for a moment, "No, not really. We'll just have to risk it!" She soon opened the door, apparently not having any problem with letting them out despite what she had just said.

"Hmm..." Harold then went to the door and slowly, quite slowly, stepped down on the girl's skin. After a few carefully light steps, the boy, sweating nervously, gently put his hand on the skin to feel the muscle.

The skin initinally felt quite soft to the touch but it was soon obivous that it was actually quite hard underneath. After all, the toned muscle was almost like very tight yarn that was pulled in many strands back and forth.

"This must be a pretty strong muscle, since she's an athlete." Harold said. He then gently put his ear on the skin to the muscle, trying to hear if there are any sounds that are within the muscle.

"That is right. Wanda is quite an active student here." Miss Frizzle smiled as though she were proud of Harold's classmate. The muscle itself wouldn't make too much of a noise, but her pulse was quite loud at this level.

Harold didn't get much sound in his ear to pick up, but he was surprised to pick up the girl's pulse. Now knowing the girl's name from Ms. Frizzle, the boy said, "I can hear Wanda's pulse."

Miss Frizzle nodded once more, "Yes, her muscles need a constant supply of blood to replenish their stores of energy, hense you should be able to hear blood and other fluids moving through there like water and lymph."

Harold slowly got up and walked back into the bus. "What's lymph?" he asked, having never head that word before.

"The lymphatic system is a series of parallel vessels next to the circulatory system that carry off waste products and toxic fluids to prevent your organs from getting poisioned. When you are infected, your lymph nodes swell up to fight the infection." Miss Frizzle turned back towards him for the time being.

"All right." Harold went back to his seat and wrote down info on the bicep muscle, as well as "special info" on the lymphatic system. "So," Harold talked to Ms. Frizzle, "The next muscle is the tricep muscle."

Miss Frizzle looked back and blinked, "I would not sit there if I were you - we had best get back in the bus before, you know, she thinks that we are insects and tries to scratch us away!"

"Oh..." Harold said. He thought about the fact that there can be sensitive areas on everyone's body that they would react if they felt something on them, so he thought that Wanda's forearm must be a visible part of her body to see anything in her view. Keeping that thought in mind, Harold opted instead to ask the teacher what she knew about the triceps. "So, Ms. Frizzle, since Wanda can see us on the forearm and we'd be in danger once again, can you tell me about how the triceps are like?"

Miss Frizzle frowned, "Was there anywhere else that you wanted to go first? I think that I could spare the lecture until we're big again...or you could always touch my own if it isn't too disturbing for you." She soon leaned back in the seat as she instructed the bus to again hover so that they could avoid the seemingly giant fingers coming for them.

Harold blinked. He then decided to spare the teacher some trouble as he decided to feel his own tricep muscle. The muscle was a little soft, but it was still fairly firm to the touch. "I've felt my own tricep." he said. He wrote down the info on the tricep. "Ms. Frizzle, are there any muscles on the list where there is a risk that Wanda could see us?"

"I actually thought you wanted to see her heart, but I am still trying to think of a way to get in there." Miss Frizzle paused, "I suppose we could actually pass through her ear drum and end up going down the spinal chord if you wanted to see all of that as well..."

"Hmm...well, I want to see the heart when I get to the circulatory system." Harold stated. "Could Wanda see us at the throat muscles?"

"You mean if we were to try to rest on her throat again? She couldn't see us, but I figure that she'd be tickled badly."

Harold wondered about the situation of Wanda's throat. "How can we get a good look at her muscles at work?" He then had an idea. 'Well, how about that we could see her throat muscles in action as she drinks something?"

"If you want, you know, we could go through say a pore if you don't mind slipping down to an even smaller size." Miss Frizzle looked back to Carlos who almost looked like he'd done this before.

Harold thought about it. "All right. It's quite interesting what this bus can do." he said with a smile. "So, by entering a pore, we would go into Wanda's throat muscles?"

"We could do that, but you know the ride would be a bit...bumpy let's say." Miss Frizzle giggled in her usual sense.

"I'm ready for us to be even smaller." Harold was loving this trip so far. He looked back down at his pencil and notebook and over to Carlos and to Ms. Frizzle. "Now, hit it, Ms. Frizzle!"

She manipulated a few controls and soon enough they were actually once more going through the process of shrinking in the same manner that they had before. Going through the pore might have actually resembled something in a science fiction movie as though they were a ship and they were docking into some sort of dark bay. Indeed only the lights of the bus illuminated that hole as they sunk ever more quickly into the sweaty surroundings. That odor would again permiate the bus, smelling just it did when they were looking at her abdominal muscles before.

Harold puts the mask back on before his nose was assaulted this time, knowing that the smell would come from the sweat as soon as they entered the pore. "So, Ms. Frizzle, form here, how are we gonna get to her throat muscles?"

"We're going to have to go through the blood stream. Would you like to see a map?" Miss Frizzle tilted her head as she pulled down a screen from the ceiling of the bus to illustrate the path they needed to take.

Harold got up from his seat and looked at the map. It looked to have the image of the girl with her internal systems visible and labeled. "We can go through the jugular and go off into a vein on her throat and arrive in the muscle."

"Alright, that sounds like a good idea." Soon enough, Miss Frizzle was again leaning back into her seat as they penetrated the muscle and finally started to move into a world of spinning fluids so that they could actually make it into the jugular area, "We'll be in a throat muscle in a few moments. For now have a look at the jugular. This is a very dangerous area for a human being - if something became lodged in here one could die easily." Carlos was staring out the window, admiring what were now truly giant red blood cells moving down the stream as though they were inflatable rafts of some kind in a red river.

Harold peeked out the window. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Those red blood cells were now huge, and their circular forms were now visible, with their center appearing fine. "This is awesome..." he said. He wrote down info on the red blood cells in the blood, once more as special info. He was now awaiting to get to the throat muscles.

Looking back for a moment, Miss Frizzle pushed the bus ever forwards before they came to long strings that almost looked like they belonged in the sounding board of a piano. Indeed, they were making a rhythmic guitar-like noise as they beat back and forth. These were muscles and tendons - the organs that provided movement and locomotion to the human body.

Harold got up from his seat and slowly walked ahead to the front window. "Are these strings the muscles?" he asked, wondering.

Miss Frizzle nodded, "Yes Harold, those are her muscles." Carlos smirked and looked over, "She must work out a ton."

Harold smiled at Carlos, and then turned back to his view up ahead at the muscles. "I've never thought that muscles up close could look like musical strings for a guitar or something." Harold expected how the throat muscles would be like if they are flexed.

As Wanda grunted due to the force of the game, the vocal muscles seemed to contract and wobble like they were giant rubber bands that floated back and forth while being suspended from a pivot point. If Harold had ever made one of those rubberband with a facial tissue box musical instruments when he was very young, this would certainly have resembled it. Looking back for the time being, Miss Frizzle smile and rose her brow before being shaken - at this point the intense soundwaves could actually shake their bus.

"Whoa...!" Harold felt the bus shake from the loudness of Wanda's voice as she grunted. "Are those her vocal cords?"

"Yes, they are quite powerful aren't they?" Carlos looked back, though it was Miss Frizzel that spoke next. "Are you getting all this in your notes, Harold?"

"Yeah." Harold quickly went back and wrote down info on the muscles and the vocal cords. "How are the throat muscles like when she swallows?"

Under Miss Frizzle's direction, the bus was able to float around and eventually come to rest on a part of the walls of her throat. However, the entire area was soon contracting and it appeared as though each aspect of the muscles that controlled the interior of her neck were moving back and forth. The red blood cells that they had previously seen again got close as a flood of water was kicked down the back of her throat. Soon enough the bus was knocked loose and Miss Frizzle had to grasp the controls, doing what she could to keep them from faltering down into the stomach.

Harold grabbed on to the side of his seat as he watched Ms. Frizzle latch onto the controls on the dashboard as he noticed the bus going down the esophagus once again. "Could you save us?" Harold thought.

Miss Frizzle once more maintained altitude, though, and soon enough they were once more floating upwards instead of falling down and getting swallowed. She was glad too. After all, had she not been able to do that they would have had to use that terrifying option from before to get out.

Harold was relieved. "Ms. Frizzle is a hero," he thought, "This is quite an amazing field trip." He soon climbed back up in his seat and wrote up about the awesome heroic stunt that Ms. Frizzle did. "So, in those different muscles in the human body, do we see the same thing in them?"

Miss Frizzle thought to herself for a moment, "Yes, actually you would probably see that sort of thing in every example of muscle tissue, including the heart even. You probably have enough material there for a lifetime in medicine, but was there another system you had wanted to see?"

"There are two systems left in my assignment." Harold stated. "There's the respiratory system that I want to check out, and then there's the circulatory system." He then wrote down the title of the next section, "Respiratory System". "So, let's wait for Wanda to breathe us in."

Miss Frizzle frowned, "The circulatory system? With the exception of the heart...haven't you sort of seen it? Please don't tell me that you haven't been writitng about all the blood vessels that we've seen so far. As for the respiratory system..." She pointed the controls upwards so that they were once more in the top of the throat. There was a valve that controlled the breath passage, so they couldn't just float right down it. Another gust of wind, however, soon sent their little capsule spiraling instead down her wind pipe which was quite rigid and almost felt like being shot down some sort of a plastic hose.

"I haven't seen the heart yet." Harold look up at the ceiling in wonder about how the heart could be like. He hoped that the sounds there wouldn't be quite deafening. Then he heard a whooshing sound from outside and saw the walls change from solid to rigid. He know that they were now going down the trachea, so he could expect to have a "windy" venture in his trip.

"Well, its another muscle, but if you really want to see it we can be absorbed as an oxygen molecule once we get into the lungs." Miss Frizzle looked around. They were apparently somewhere that there was a great deal of fiber - white threads grew in every single direction in a never-ending crystaline matrix. It was perhaps a little unsettling to look around here all things considered. After all, few people spent much time in a place that looked like it was made out of fiberglass insulation.

Harold looked out of the window to see they they were now in a place where there were shiny walls of flesh slowly pulsating in and out. There were small wiggly protrusions waving about around the bus. Also, he could feel a decent wind blow around from one direction to the other, and vice versa. He realized that they were now in the lungs. "So, Ms. Frizzle, what do the lungs do, and would Wanda demonstrate?"

"Wanda should be demonstrating their use in just a few moments. A muscle called the diaphragm is able to draw air into the lungs, and from there all of these protrusions diffuse oxygen into the blood stream. Excess gasses are removed in the process, like carbon dioxide." As Miss Frizzle spoke her piece, Carlos looked back and watched as the various fibers inside of the lungs seemed to be oxygenating blood and filling previously dull-colored blood with a substance that made it quite red. That was, of course, because the present hemoglobin was quickly attracting oxygen molecules from air Wanda was huffing in. "There you go; a demonstration."

"Ha ha ha," Harold warmly chuckled. He liked it that as Ms. Frizzle would talk about the function that the part of the body they were currently in does, it seemed like that part of the body would demonstrate for them, like Wanda herself must be demonstrating, intentionally or unintentionally, as she was focused on the soccer game at hand. The boy stretched his arms up happily as he was enjoying a ride like this. He was sure he was gonna ace this assignment once it's all completed. "Now, what are those wiggly protrusions on the walls called?"

"Those are alveolar structures and cilia - structures that aid the lungs in the absorption of oxygen and help it to go into the blood. Of course, they also remove waste products like carbon dioxide and such from the blood stream as well." Miss Frizzle leaned forwards as it almost seemed like they were going through a giant car wash and each of those objects were some sort of a scrubber. Indeed, they were soon getting pushed along as though they were dirty. "They also ensure that no mucus becomes unnecessarily trapped in the lungs. That can actually become a pretty serious problem in some patients, especially younger ones."

Harold nodded as he listened to Ms. Frizzle's explanation of the alveoli and cilia. He wrote the new information down and rested his back in his seat. He looked out thewindow to check out the cilia once more. He was mesmerized by the waving motions of the cilia as the air was breathed into the bag-like organs while they collect oxygen. Then, Harold audibly noticed a distant thumping noise from somewhere else. "Ms. Friz...what's that thumping?"

"That's the heart. You can clearly hear the heart from here considering that it's a big muscle that pulls blood throughout all of these organs. Tell me, did we already get a look?" Regardless of whether or not they had seen it, it might have been rather disturbing to think that Ms. Frizzle was not actually sure of what stops they had made on their trip.

Harold stood up out of his seat. "To refresh you on the stops we made, we have stopped at the throat for the muscles, then stopped in the stomach, then in the intestines, and now in the lungs." He sat back down.

Ms. Frizzle shrugged for a moment and smiled once he settled back into her seat, "Did you want me to fire the engines then? We could go see the heart if you'd like to see the heart muscle or something like that."

"Of course, because I'm finished with the respiratory system, and I'm now getting ready to explore the circulatory system, with includes the heart." Harold writes down the information on the respiratory system. "So, where would we enter the bloodstream to go on route to the heart?"

As she started to pull a lever, she once more pulled down the screen that showed the magic school bus flashing in the lungs area, "Do you remember the interchange between the lungs and the blood stream? We're simply going to have to shrink again and get so small that we could pass into the blood vessels and head to the heart."

Harold smiled. In his mind, he was wondering about how everything could look like if they became even smaller than they had ever been during the trip inside Wanda.

The craft became smaller and smaller until they could even see the iron molecules in the blood from outside the window. Looking back, Miss Frizzle sighed for a second and seemed to be entertained herself. She could barely control the vehicle as they were passed into a red sea of blood. It would probably be rather unsettling - few people ever sailed around in the blood stream after all. Looking back towards the windshield for the time being they continued to jerk around as though they were a cork in the ocean bobbing back and forth. Large inner-tube looking items started to sail passed them. Those were red blood cells from this vantage point.

Harold looked in the window. "Whoa..." He maintained his standing in the bus as he felt the moderate shaking around in the currents of Wanda's bloodstream. "I knew that those red blood cells would look like inner-tubes."

Wanda was still playing just as hard as she ever had, and she gave the game everything she had got. It was how she always was. Wanda's dedication was quite famous. That was naturally causing her heart to work quite overtime. As it continued to pump loudly that thumping noise would have still been heard outside of the regular cardiac area. They hadn't approached the muscle itself yet but everything around had been pumping as hard as humanly possible. It would have almost been disturbing. As she struck the ball strongly with her foot, the circulatory system would have seemingly gone through some sort of shock.

Harold noticed the thumping noise growing louder and louder, and seeing the blood cells racing past them, stopping, and then racing again in a direct rhythm. "Um...we must be getting closer to the heart.

Wanda's heartbeat was rather rythmic at this point. It had a large banging accompanied with a soft dying out of that aforementioned pattern. As strange as it was, this same sound started to pick up again but it was far more regular now. It seemed that the pattern of her heartbeat tended to change depending on how she was moving in the outside world. Eventually they passed through a large fleshy flap that moved back and forth on the top of the heart muscle and they were inside of the giant cavities that made up most of the inside.

Harold looked back that the opening that had those fleshy flaps closing in and out. "What are those opening flaps called, Ms. Frizzle?"

"We just passed through the bicuspid valves if that's what you meant. Some people have heart conditions and have to have them replaced."

Harold wrote it down in his notebook. He then closed his ears with his hands to block himself from the extremely loud pounding of Wanda's heart. "Ms. Frizzle," he shouted to her so she could hear him, "Could you somehow close out the sound? It's quite loud in here."

"No no, I don't think that I could really drown out the noise too much but...hmm..." Well, she had tried to speak but Miss Frizzle hadn't really gotten anywhere with that. It was simply too loud at this point. That being said, the view around them was gorgeous. Effervescent bubbles of fluid puffed around them - or at least they seemed like bubbles at first. In reality, there wasn't anything like that in the blood and what they were viewing was actually the effect of the extreme pressures that were present in the internal cavities of the heart. With a blink, Miss Frizzle turned around once more and smiled, "Well? What do you think? Does it live up to expectations?"

Still closing his ears with his hands, Harold shouted, "Yeah, it does live up to expectations." He was wonering how the heartbeat was caused.

"See, as these muscles push and contract they cause a pair of forces that bring blood to and from the heart. It sounds like a bit of a Lub-Dub doesn't it?" Miss Frizzle grinned as she looked out the window and witnessed the almost spasming force of the heart muscle now moving around behind them in turn.

Harold looked around outside in the window at all the activity going on in the heart. "Wanda," Harold asked in his mind like if he's asking Wanda telepathically, "if you could, could you hold your breath and push your heart to the limit, both fast and then slow?"

Well, Wanda was only coincidentally following what she was told to do but that didn't mean it wasn't going to happen anyway. Her heart started to really pump for a moment and the bus was thrown left and right as they were bandied about by the excessive forces of the heart valves that were forcing the heart to it's otherwise healthy limits. Soon enough, though, it slowed down and as she exhaled there was an extremely powerful push before they just seemed to mellow out. Carlos smirked, "Wait a second Harold, how did you do that? You have to have some kind of like...psycho powers or something..." He made some weird motion of his head that suggested that he actually thought that Harold had some controlling force over Wanda.

After the environmental turmoil that happened, Harold looked over to Carlos. "Well, I was just thinking that Wanda could do that. It's not like I'm psychic or something..." He was scratching his head. "Ms. Frizzle, what's Wanda's current heart rate?"

Carlos blinked for a second, "No, you...dude...you have some sort of power. Spooky..." Miss Frizzle looked back with a roll of her eyes, "Well, it's dropped back down to a resting rate. You felt that big force before, right? That was an explusion of blood before it started to gradually slow back down."

"Yeah...I sure did." Harold brushed off his shirt and took his notebook. He wrote down the new information. He then mentally counted the beats for a minute. "Hmm...seems to be 82 beats per minute."

Miss Frizzle smiled and nodded, "That's about right. It's still a bit elevated because she was running around a moment ago. It would be a bit lower, say, if she were sleeping, but good job with the counting for sure.

"Now," Harold proudly said, "It looks like I'm almost done with the assignment." Harold looks up in thought about what comes next. "Well, Ms. Frizzle, how are we gonna exit?"

With a blink, Miss Frizzle paused to think for a moment or two. It seemed that she was going over everything in her head about each system of the body that they had visited. "I assume you'd rather not see things that...well...you wanted to exit a nice way, right? How does out the ear canal sound to you? Then again we might end up on a cotton swab." She frowned, "Cotton swabbing ears isn't that great of an idea actually. You can just compound the wax. Hmm, we could also exit through the nose if that did not offend you." Carlos looked up and winced with one shut eye, "I don't think that sounds fun at all."

Harold thought for a minute. He was still holding his ears shut from the loud pounding heartbeat that the cardiac organ was making. In his thinking, he was wondering of a suitable way out. With the ways provided by Ms. Frizzle, he knew that they were both unsanitary, but he decided that he would choose the lesser of two evils - in terms of grossness. "I would choose the ear."

Miss Frizzle pulled a few levers again and nodded. Soon enough they were once more moving up through a blood vessel, "This the vena cava - the main vein going into the heart. Just a bit of a cavet - we're technically going the wrong way on a one way street so please buckle your seatbelts." Carlos winced for a moment, "We don't have seat..." He was soon quiet as they were suddenly forced into the back of their seats by the momentum of the bus and pushed along a particularly bumpy ride in their circulatory vein.

Harold noticed the seatbelt by him and strapped it on as quick as he can while the bus rushed upwards. "I'm finally almost done with this assignment..." he thought happily, "Now, I just have to write the info about the way out."

Eventually they had passed through a number of blood vessels by going straight through the membranes in the wall of those aforementioned circulatory passages. They acted like a small molecule that passed between any number of vessels before it became increasingly clear that they were somewhere inside of the head. From there they started to move about and finally left the circulatory system. They were inside what looked to be a long cave dripping with wax and dust - a good deal of dirt had started to work up in Wanda's ear as a result of the game.

Harold peeked out and saw the tunnel, along with the dripping of some slimy solution that he safely assumed to be earwax, and then saw the dust particles catching on to the wax. "So we are in the ear."

"Yes, are you ready to actually leave?" Miss Frizzle smiled, "I have to imagine of course that you are never going to tell Wanda that we were inside of her, eh?" Carlos looked back, "She's probably kick me in the pants!'

Harold chuckled. He then said, "I'm ready to leave to complete my journey..." He then smiled brightly, "...and I will never tell Wanda about this ordeal."

Miss Frizzle nodded and pulled up the visor. They didn't really need to see a map since they were about to leave. They fluttered for a moment at the precipice of the edge of her ear canal just before Wanda kicked the ball again with force and they were thrown straight out of the aforementioned aural appendage. At this size the debris on them seemed quite large but in a few moments the bus was thrust into the parking lot. As it grew to regular size whatever little specs of dirt that were on it no longer seemed like a real issue. Miss Frizzle smiled and stood up, "Well, what did you think of the trip?" Carlos smirked, "It rocked! When do we get to go into someone else's body?"

Harold held on to the sent in front of him as they were thrown out of Wanda's ear. He then noticed that everything was becoming smaller around them, realizing that they were growing back to normal size. Harold smiled again and followed Ms. Frizzle and the boy out of the bus. "This trip was awesome."

Miss Frizzle looked back and nodded once again, "In that case, are you going to have enough information to finish your project? I imagine that you would seeing as how we visited each one of those different organ systems that you were concerned with."

Harold grinned, and wrote down info on the exit out of the body. "I sure got a lot of info on those systems." He then showed Ms. Frizzle the massive amount of information he had in his notebook: the muscular system, the digestive system, the respiratory system, and the circulatory system, as well as extra info and and the exit. "What do you think?" he asked proudly.

"Well I guess that answers my question. Did you want to join us next time? We're going to have another field trip next week, but i haven't planned where we're going just yet." She tilted her head and smiled back to Carlos. He'd been struggling with a project on how radios work for science class and she told him they were going to visit the -inside- of one to demonstrate. That would probably be their next field trip but no one was saying just yet.

Harold blinked. "I guess I could go with you on the next trip." He then held out his hand for Ms. Frizzle to shake. "I'm looking forward to it."

Miss Frizzle shook his hand, "Harold? I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Harold felt a deep sense of happiness and excitement within himself. "Well, it could be." He then looked back toward the school.

Miss Frizzle turned the other way and nodded, "You probably don't want to hear this after that trip, but it's time to get back to class Harold. It hasn't been as long as you think it has."

Harold stood still for a few seconds. "That was neat." He chuckled and winked at Ms. Frizzle. He then slowly walked back to the school, with his notebook, full of great information, in hand. "Hee hee hee...I'm gonna ace this test!" He thought with a huge grin on his face on his way.

Wanda finally ran up towards him and grinned, looking rather dirty, "Hey Harold, where were you all this time? You missed all the fun! Didn't you get to see any of the game?" Miss Frizzle giggled a bit as she over heard that. Wanda would never have known, but Harold had a front row seat to the real action.

Harold's eyes widened a little as Wanda met him. When she asked him where he had been, he said, "Um...I had an assignment that I had to do, and I went to go to some friends to help me out on it." He kept in mind not to tell her, as well as knowing that he never wrote down the girl's name anywhere in the thing.

Wanda rolled her eyes, "You know you don't have to keep your eyes in a book all the time Harold. No one expects you too. You need to get out a little more." As she said that the bell finally rang and it seemed like they had to go back inside.

Harold noticed the bell ringing. "Uh-oh...time to go back in!" He walked a little briskly to the building. He kept on to his notebook as he went his way.

Wanda looked back and smirked, "What, trying to get out of talking to me now? I have to shower, so I'll be a little late back to class but I should see you in a few. Talk to you then?" She tilted her headly cutely while Carlos rolled his eyes. Miss Frizzle was looking at him so he didn't really make a comment. That being said she wa laughing again herself at the irony of the fact that Harold wasn't going to be able to share that story of a great adventure with anyone. Then again, that shouldn't matter too much - he had a new one coming his way in just a few weeks.

THE END