For my friend Neko Kuroban, who requested a Halloween-themed MSB fic.
Valerie Frizzle knows that her students think she's odd. Perhaps that's why she's enjoyed this Halloween so much: she's gotten to be as campy as she likes. Granted, she thinks, I don't really hold myself back the rest of the year, either. But tonight she's been especially outrageous.
She's not a cruel woman, but she must admit a certain perverse pleasure in making her students squirm – knowing, of course, that they'll overcome their fears, whether it's sooner or later. So she tried to scare each of them as much as she could: with Liz's help, she hid Dorothy Ann's books, and she convinced Arnold that the class was about to take another field trip into his body. By now, though, Arnold is more resignedly annoyed by her field trips than he is upset, so her little plan didn't have the effect she had hoped for.
The crowning jewel, she knows, was when she genuinely frightened Ralphie. She couldn't help but remember his fear of vampires, so she decided to wear a black dress, with a black shawl that she pulled over her shoulders like a cape. So when she appeared behind him and spoke loudly in an affected Eastern European accent, she could practically see the blood drain from his face.
Even as she chuckles at the memory, she realizes that she has been rather unkind to her students. She knows that in the end, facing their fears will help them find the strength she sees in them, but even so, she must admit that she's taken to rather cruel means. She shakes her head, promising to make it up to them tomorrow. She does have a very special field trip planned, after all...