The students ran out the classroom, Ms. Frizzle chasing them down. Arnold was the only straggler, but he still found himself climbing those familiar metallic stairs, sitting in that familiar leather chair, hearing that familiar voice from the front and buckling in that familiar seatbelt. "Class, it's so great to be with you again! I've got to be honest…you were my favorite class!" She admitted. The class, utterly shocked at her confession, muttered a silent thank you to her, but she didn't need to hear it. Being with them was enough thank you.
"Bus, do your stuff!" She ordered yanking down the lever at the front of the center aisle. The bus began shake before turning into a whirlwind and shrinking simultaneously. The tornado disappeared, and the bus was nowhere to be found…unless you had a microscope. The class had shrunk down to atomic size again, smaller than when they had to wash Molly's car. "Ms. Frizzle, where are we going?" Arnold cautiously asked. "Ah…curious as always." She reminisced. You'll see." She answered in a sing-song voice. The bus took off from the ground, nearly avoiding the atoms that were in its path. The students held on to the chairs as to not go flying every time Ms. Frizzle would make a sharp turn. The nearly invisible bus flew back into the school, just as the bell rang. Students began piling out of classrooms, some running, some walking, others talking, but Ms. Frizzle found a lonesome student on their own, reading a book. "Ah, perfect." She said to herself. She pressed a button, and two rockets appeared from hidden compartments in the bus' side.
She hit a button right next to it, and the bus lurched forward, launching itself straight to the person reading the book. Narrowly avoiding the passing students, the bus reached the girl and headed for her arm. Doing different maneuvers to avoid the arm hairs, Ms. Frizzle dove into one of the girl's pores. "What was that giant hole, Ms. Frizzle?" Tim asked. "That was a pore, Tim! It serves as a 'house' for arm hairs, and lets out the body's natural oils! We may learn about it later, but right now, we're almost at our destination!" The bus magically dove into the bloodstream and headed straight for a cell. "MS. FRIZZLE! MS. FRIZZLE! LOOK OUT!" The class shouted.
The bus kept going straight for it. The class prepared for impact. Ms. Frizzle got a glimmer in her eye, and a mischievous grin etched on her face. Her earrings began to glow and the bus flew into the cell and was suspended in the spot. "Well, look at that! We're here!" She announced. The class opened their eyes, moving their bodies from the cannonball shape they were previously in. All around them was a clear liquid, and different things sitting in it. "Whoa…" Wanda said, standing up. "Where are we?" Keesha asked in awe. "Wait a minute…weren't we just headed straight for a cell? How did we get here?" Phoebe questioned.
Ralph gasped. "Are we…inside a cell?!"
-|o|=|=|o|-
The class were in panic. "Why can't we move?!" Arnold shouted. "How are we in here?!" Carlos worriedly asked. "WE WERE GOING TO CRASH!" D.A. noted. "Class, we're inside a magic bus that can basically do anything, and you're questioning that?" Ms. Frizzle asked. "She's not wrong. So, we're in a cell. What do we do now?" Wanda asked. "We get out there and EXPLORE!" Ms. Frizzle exclaimed, now in a diver's suit that looked just like her dress. She yanked down on a tug on the roof of the bus. "Put these on, class."
After following her directions, Ms. Frizzle pressed a button and the doors of the bus opened, but the hole where you're supposed to enter and exit was filled with a green glow. "What's that for, Ms. Frizzle?" Keesha asked. "Well, Keesha, that goop out there is called cytoplasm, and it's just like hand sanitizer. You know those tiny balls in the sanitizer?" She asked. The students before her nodded. "Well, the stuff within it is suspended in the liquid. It's just like that with the cytoplasm. It holds everything together. That's why the bus couldn't move, Arnold." Arnold nodded. "The light makes it so you can move in the cytoplasm. How can you explore without being able to move?" She asked. "I guess that makes sense." Carlos said. "But be warned, class, this suspension-blocker lasts for so long: twenty minutes. So, make sure you get back in the bus before your time is up. Now, let's go!" Ms. Frizzle explained before diving into the cytoplasm.
"Come on you weasly wimps!" Wanda shouted before doing a cannon ball. She froggy swam over to Ms. Frizzle. "This is amazing! I learned this swim from Bella!"Wanda demonstrated her skills again. One by one, all the students were floating around the cytoplasm except for Arnold. "Uh-uh. I stay here. There is no way I am getting stuck in some random girl's cell." Ralph swam over to him. "Come on, Arn. We've got twenty minutes! Just get in here!" He ordered, dragging Arnold into the cytoplasm by the ankle. "NO!" Arnold shrieked. He fell in and began to sink to the bottom. "I can move…I CAN MOVE!" He happily cried swimming in a loop-de-loop. Tim was sketching the sight in front of him when he asked, "Ms. Frizzle, I'm confused. What are those things out there?" He asked. "Ah, excellent question, Tim. Those are organelles." She answered. "Organelles? As in organs?" Phoebe asked swimming up to her. "Dynamic deduction!" Ms. Frizzle exclaimed. "According to my research, each organelle has a job to do in the cell." She explained. "Right you are, D.A."Ms. Frizzle praised. "Everyone follow me!" Ms. Frizzle sang out.
The students followed her towards the center. "Class, does anyone know what this is?" She asked. No one said anything. "Well, maybe I can tell you. This is the nucleus. It's the center of the cell. It contains deoxyribonucleic acid." She explained. "Huh?" Arnold asked. "DNA." D.A. explained. "Anyone want to take a peek?" Ms. Frizzle asked. The class eagerly nodded. Ms. Frizzle pressed the button on the right side of her mask. The class followed their example, and could now X-Ray the organelles. They looked into the nucleus, seeing tons of info bunched into a curving spiral that looked like a ladder.
"Class, the DNA is a spiral, and each different bar contains a different piece of information. That bar could be a disease or it could be a part of your muscle." Keesha pondered this. "So each cell has DNA in it?" She asked. Ms. Frizzle nodded. "Mhm." She agreed. "So does every cell in our body have DNA that creates a different part of our body?" "Exactly, Keesha, but we'll get back to that soon enough."
"HEY! Check this out!" Wanda called, looking at a tiny ball floating in the cell. "Class, those are ribosomes. They not only float around in the cell, but they stick to the rough endoplasmic reticulum." Ms. Frizzle explained, pointing to the rough endoplasmic reticulum. "Wait, why is it called the rough endoplasmic reticulum?" Phoebe asked. "Look at that! It looks just like the rough endoplasmic reticulum, except it doesn't have any ribosomes on it!" Tim called out. "According to my research, that's the smooth endoplasmic reticulum!" D.A. noted. "Wait, why do the ribosomes stick to one endoplasmic reticulum instead of both? What does the rough ER have that the smooth ER doesn't have?"
"Purposes." Ms. Frizzle said swimming over. "What?" The class asked in unison. "The endoplasmic reticulums serve different purposes. The rough ER makes proteins and the ribosomes do the same thing. They turn ribonucleic acid into proteins, and the ribonucleic acid is what transports DNA. It is very important to the body just as the DNA is." The class understood. "Then what does the smooth endoplasmic reticulum do?" Arnold asked.
"Well, Arnold, it happens to be involved with the making and metabolism of fats." Suddenly, the bus honked twice, indicating it was time for them to come back. They only had five minutes left. "Come along everyone, it's time to get to the plants!" Carlos snickered. "Well, we better move quickly, before we get planted in here forever!"
"CARLOS!" The class groaned swimming. Ralph looked to his left, something catching his eye. "What's that?" He asked stopping. "Churros!" He shouted, swimming over. "Ms. Frizzle, did you stop in here earlier to drop off snacks?" He asked reaching for one. "Don't touch that, Ralph! Those aren't churros, they're centrioles!"
"So…..a fancier name for churros?" Ralph joked. "No, Ralph, they actually aid with cell division." D.A. explained. "In other words, they help split cells in two? Like when we were trying to figure out why Arnold turned orange?"Carlos asked, looking for confirmation. "Exactly." Ms. Frizzle nodded, glad they were interested. Phoebe leaned back onto something while the rest kept talking and then shouted as she fell into the folds of it. "HELP!" She shouted.
Keesha gripped her left leg while D.A. took her right and they yanked hard. He shoes came off. Then, they pulled her out by her ankles. "Ah, Phoebe, I see you've located the mitochondrion." Ms. Frizzle gleefully said. "Is that what I was in?" She asked. "Exactly. The mitochondria break down nutrients in the cell and use them to make energy. They are referred to as the 'powerhouse of the cell.'" Arnold pondered this. "I've heard that saying, but which one is it Ms. Frizzle? The mitochondrion or the mitochondria?"
"Both are correct, Arnold!" D.A. said. "Mitochondria for multiple, mitochondrion for one." She told him. "Now, class. There's one last thing I want to show you." Ms. Frizzle swam over to what looked like a Wi-Fi symbol. The bus rolled its eyes at the fact that they only had two minutes left. "Class, this is a Golgi complex. It takes different molecules and make them into different things. They are then sent to the-anyone?" She asked.
"Vesicles?" Tim asked. "Correct! They also make these-lysosomes!" Ms. Frizzle said pushing one over. "How did you know that?" Ralph asked. "I don't know. I've heard that word and cell in the same sentence, so…I put two and two together."
"At my old school, one of my classmates knew all about the cell and she told me that the lysosomes digest other organelles!" Phoebe said. "Correct Phoebe, except, they digest worn out organelles. The ones that don't work anymore." She explained. "Wow, there are so many parts to a cell! It's like they're their own person!" Carlos exclaimed excitedly. "Precisely." Ms. Frizzle said. Suddenly, the bus began honking madly, growing extremely worried. And then, nearly everyone began to glow green, and then couldn't move. "Oh, dear. It appears we've run out of time and have been suspended in the cytoplasm." Ms. Frizzle said, seeming not worried. "Wait…WE'RE STUCK?!" Wada screamed. Ms. Frizzle tried to nod, but couldn't. "Mhm." She said. "Looks like we'll be here for a while." She said
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The group tried to move but were having no avail. "Looks like we're in a sticky situation!" Carlos joked. "CARLOS!" The class groaned. "WHAT DO WE DO?!" Wanda shrieked. "I don't know, but I think it's best if I get out of here while I can!" Arnold began to swim away from the group and toward the bus. "ARNOLD!?" Wanda cried. "ARNOLD GET US OUT OF HERE!" She screamed. The bus honked, alerting Arnold he had one minute left. Arnold swam even faster and just barely grazed the glowing light. He made it in just in time and landed in the bus. "Oh, wow."He said, bringing his hand to his head, groaning. "ARNOLD, I'M GETTING A CRAMP! HURRY UP!" Wanda yelled. Arnold looked at the dashboard in confusion. "Er…." He pressed a button. The bus tried to wiggle, but couldn't so in a flash of light, the bus' metal began to retract into a slicker body, turning into a tail fin. The front curve sharper and grew teeth. The interior grew sharper and seemed angrier.
The bus had turned into a shark. "ARNOLD, UNLESS THAT SHARK CAN HELP US, I SUGGEST YOU DO SOMETHING!" Arnold got defensive and pressed the button he had seen Ms. Frizzle press earlier, but then pulled the lever to see what would happen. The bus was surrounded in a green glow and began to swim over to the students. "Jeez, Wanda, are you on your period? Chill out." He asked, opening the bus door. He pulled her in first, and when she was back to normal, she slapped him and sat in the back, buckling herself in.
Arnold went around the cell collecting his classmates and saved Ms. Frizzle for last. "Excellent work, Arnold." She praised. But then she leaned in and whispered in his ear, "But you should really apologize. That type of comment can aggravate a woman very quickly." She explained. Standing up, she asked, "Bus, how much time do we have left?" A clock popped out of a compartment, revealing that they had ten minutes left. "Well, class, I think we have time to visit another cell!" Ms. Frizzle announced. "What?" The class asked in unison. "We're still in one, why do we need to go to another one?" D.A. said. "We know what it's like in a cell." Carlos added, sneaking his hand towards hers.
"Well, we've seen an animal cell, but you haven't seen a plant cell! Seatbelts, everyone!" She said, taking the front seat. Clicks came from all directions, as Ms. Frizzle pressed a button. The bus began spinning and returned to normal. It bounced out of the cell and stopped to turn around. "Class, the final thing I have to tell you about an animal cell is that it has a cell membrane that protects the cell and it regulates what goes in and out. Now, to the plant!" She announced. The bus flew out of the bloodstream, and through a pore in the leg. "Whoa! We've been in the bloodstream for so long we made it to the leg!" Ralph told them, shocked. "Actually, we've been in the leg more than 800 times."Ms. Frizzle told them.
"What?!" They asked. "Mhm, the cell can go around the entire body in twenty seconds. We just happened to leave her body at the time." Ms. Frizzle turned the bus into an average housefly and flew out the window. "Here we go!" Ms. Frizzle said, diving for the grass. The housefly bus began to whirl until it dug into the soil. It turned into an all terrain jeep and drove over the boulders of soul and through the waters from the rain of the night before.
It shrunk even more and went up through the roots up the stem. Ms. Frizzle was in a rush. She shrunk the bus even more and they flew into a leaf. "Whoa!" The class cried out. "It looks just like the animal cell!" Carlos said going straight through the glow and into the plant cell. "Hey, are those the chloroplasts?" He asked. Ms. Frizzle nodded as Keesha was the last one to join the group in the cytoplasm. "So are chloroplasts a part of plant cells?" She asked. "Exactly! Plant cells are nearly the same as animal cells, except they have chloroplasts, a cell wall and—"
"WHOA!" Tim cried as he fell into a squishy blob. "What is this, Ms. Frizzle?" Tim asked as he sunk into it. "Ah, Tim, I see you have found the large central vacuole!" The class faced her, confused. "What's the large central vacuole?" Phoebe asked. "You see, class, when we got suspended, I didn't have the chance to tell you about the vacuole. There are plenty of them, and they collect water and nutrients, but in the plant, there is one giant one! It holds mostly water, since uses water for making food."
The class was amazed and asked her to continue. "I wish we continue this field trip, but I have to get you to your next period. Tomorrow, we'll see the bacterial cells. But, I hope you enjoy my brother's class. Come along everyone!" The students begrudgingly headed back to the bus and piled on. Ms. Frizzle started the bus and turned it into a housefly again. She flew into the school and it turned into a whirlwind. Ms. Frizzle punched in each students' next period and dropped off the students and their stuff outside their classroom. Then and flew into Ms. Frizzle's classroom, still as a tornado and dropped both her and Liz in the room before spinning out the open window and stopped as its original form as if it had never left.
"Well, this will be a different year, but I'll love it! Won't you, Liz?"
All around the world, phones were ringing.
"Is this the Magic School Bus?"
The producer answered. "Yes, this is the producer speaking. How's it going?" He asked. "Horribly, Carlos barely made jokes!" The kid on the other end answered. "Well, yes, but Carlos has grown a bit, but he still has a love for it. Anything else?"
"Yeah, I have to tell you forgot some different things." The kid told him. "Oh yeah? Go ahead and tell me." He said. "Well, for example, if a cell has too much water in it, it can expand and explode, but if it has too little it can shrivel up and die!" The kid said. "True, true, but the body and cell knows what to do, and tries its hardest to regulate the cell." The producer explained.
"Yes but you also forgot to explain tissue." The kid said. "Ah, yes, living tissue. Do you know what that is?" The producer asked. "Well…no...I was hoping you could explain it?" The kid asked. "Of course, cells bond together, don't they? And when they do, that's when they turn into living tissue. The tissue then bonds together and creates an organ like the stomach." He told the child. "Oh, now I get it! Thanks for the explanation, Mr. Producer." He said. "Anytime, kid, anytime." He responded pressing the End Call button. Then he stepped into a jelly filled ball and shouted, "I'M IN THE CYTOPLASM!" Liz, that was watching the whole thing in secret laughed at him. He then noticed Liz and grew embarrassed and shouted at her to stop laughing.