Chapter 2

Everything was silent as the sun continued to rise above the Wheel of Fortune studio. The bus (or circular object, as it would now be considered) remained flat on the ground, windows and doors squeezed between the top and bottom of the circle.

Arnold was the first to awaken, having already gotten his fair share of sleep. Sitting up, he noticed that everyone else had passed out as well. He wiped the drool off his mouth and, slowly, stood up. He looked around in confusion.

"…M-Ms. Frizzle…?" Arnold muttered in fear. What had happened? Were his classmates…dead?!

Arnold ever so carefully began to approach the front of the bus. Ralphie lay motionless on the floor, his legs sticking out into the aisle. Liz's blood still lay pooled in the center of the bus. Arnold gulped and made his way to Ms. Frizzle.

"M-Ms. Fri—"He began. Tight fingers suddenly closed around his throat, and Arnold began to gasp in fear.

"WWEEEE'REEE HEERRREEEEAAAHHAAWWWHH!" Ms. Frizzle cried in excitement as she stood up, hands grasped around Arnold's puny neck.

"…wuh…Ms. Frizzle…?" Phoebe whispered as she sat up from her former unconsciousness. "…wha-what?! Let Arnold g—" The wind was suddenly knocked out of her as Ms. Frizzle kicked Phoebe in the stomach. She lurched back, holding the impact area, when suddenly, her mouth involuntarily opened, and out came a pool of vomit.

"ALLRIIGHHTT, CLLASSS! EEHHHLLEEETTT'SSSS GOOOOO!" Ms. Frizzle yelled, finally releasing Arnold, who was turning purple.

The students eventually began to stir and sit up, many wondering what exactly had happened beforehand. Why did they all randomly pass out?

"Ms. Frizzle, where are we?" Dorothy asked as she stared out the window.

"NEVER SAY NEVER, YOUNG MAN!" Ms. Frizzle warned Dorothy. Dorothy was confused. She had always been her favorite student, and now she was being lectured by her.

"M-Ms. Frizzle?" Carlos asked. "Are we supposed to be here?" He was suddenly interrupted by having maracas thrown into his arms.

"ALRIGHT, REHEARSAL TIME! ONE, TWO—" Ms. Frizzle began.

"Ms. Frizzle, what song are we playing?" Arnold asked. Ms. Frizzle slowly approached Arnold, as if he were an unfriendly dog.

"…Arnold, dear?" began Ms. Frizzle, speaking in a regular tone for the first time in the day. "Do you know why you came to this school?"

"T-to learn?" Arnold said meekly. Ms. Frizzle cackled in an unusual tone.

"No, dear." Ms. Frizzle replied. "You are here to go on all of my wacky misadventures in this bus. And do you know what happens to little boys and girls who…REFUSE to go on this amazing trips with me and the rest of their classmates?!"

"…we…get…deten—" Arnold began. Ms. Frizzle grabbed a white glove from her pocket and smacked Arnold across the face. Arnold tripped and fell back into Phoebe's vomit.

"PLAY." She said sternly. "ONE, TWO—"

Before the group could begin, the circle-bus they were in began to shake. Indents began to form across the floor and ceiling.

"Ms. Frizzle, what's happening?!" Dorothy cried. The bus was suddenly lifted off the ground, as kids and instruments began to topple over. Ms. Frizzle looked out the front window to see a giant eye.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF SATAN IS THIS?!" Ms. Frizzle exclaimed.

"WELL, THERE'S MY WHEEL!" a booming voice said. The students looked around in terror.

"Wanda, is that you?" Phoebe cried. Ms. Frizzle slapped her quickly.

"Shush, you impudent child." Ms. Frizzle laughed. "Uhm, who is this that I am speaking to?"

"DID I HEAR SOMEONE?" The voice said to apparently no one. The bus moved closer to the eye. "WHO…WHAT…?"

"Mr. Trebek?" Another voice said farther off. "What's going on, who are you talking to?"

"Trebek?" Dorothy said, surprised. "We're at the studio for Wheel of Fortu—" Before she could finish, the circle tilted downward, and Dorothy flew down the aisle. The rest of the children, and Ms. Frizzle, grabbed onto a seat before they could fall.

Dorothy slid down the aisle, screaming in terror. She then slid up the dashboard, and crashed through the window, falling to the pavement.

"HMM, A BUG GOT IN HERE." Alex Trebek stated to the woman who had arrived shortly before. A distant crunch was heard as Dorothy's screams were silenced. "THAT WAS A LOUD CRUSH. AND THAT'S A LOT OF BLOOD FOR A BUG." Alex began to smear the blood across the pavement.

"No! NO!" Kids began to cry. Tears rolled down their faces. First Wanda, and now Dorothy. This is the most the school had lost since Lewis from 1986 at the infamous butterfly museum.

"ALRIGHT, KIDS! EEHHLLEETT—" Before Ms. Frizzle could finish, the wheel began to swing back and forth, sending kids flying to the front and back of the bus-circle.

"Why are we here?!" Phoebe sobbed. "Ms. Frizzle, press the buttons to get us back to—" Phoebe's head was suddenly slammed out the window by Ms. Frizzle.

"NO FARTING FETISHES IN MY SCHOOL, FOOLISH GIRL!" Ms. Frizzle screamed. Eventually, the swinging stopped, although many kids were already injured, and the circle was finally set down, and then forced through a circle, sending a large circular object straight through the center of the bus. Ms. Frizzle and Arnold on one side, Phoebe and Carlos on the other.

"Ms. Frizzle, help us!" Phoebe cried.

"You might say we're having a jer—"Before Carlos could finish his hilariously inappropriate joke, he was slammed against the window as the wheel began to spin.

"AGGAAHHAAAUUGHHH!" Carlos squealed as his head was scratched open by the shards of glass. Phoebe managed to grab Carlos and pull him to the center of their area as the wheel began to stop.

Outside the wheel, the group could hear talking and cheering. They were on Wheel of Fortune. Just not in the way any of them had expected them to be.

"ALRIGHT, KIDS, LET'S PLAY! ONE, TWO—" Ms. Frizzle began.

"Ms. Frizzle, we can't play. Our instruments are—" Before Arnold could finish, Ms. Frizzle forced a tuba mouthpiece into his mouth, which was severely damaged.

"WELCOME EVERYONE TO WHEEL…OF…FORTUNE!" a voice cried out.

Back at the school, a teacher walked into Ms. Frizzle's room.

"Ms. Frizzle, we've noticed there's some blood near your bus's parking space in the parking lot, is everything—" The teacher began.

The teacher found a pile of desks and instruments laying in a pool of blood.

But nothing was there to have caused the blood.

No Liz.

No Dorothy.

And no Wanda.