Chapter 12 Swirly Time

Roy's stomach growled, the sound low and deep. He noticed that there were a lot of people in the class staring at him. Some even shushed him, wearing disapproving and often borderline wicked stares on their faces. He laughed nervously.

"Ha ha," he said. "Guess I need to get some food in me ASAP!"

"ROY!" The teacher, a very stout Toad named Mrs. Spot, shouted. "NO TALKING DURING STUDY HALL!"

Roy did a double take. "Okay." He chuckled and murmured under his breath "wow, scream much lady?"

"MR. KOOPA!" Mrs. Spot screeched. The sound was so loud that it actually caused Roy's ears to ring. "MY DESK! NOW!"

So, with a groan and a bunch of judgy eyes pointed his way, Roy got up and made his way over to the desk. He couldn't help but feel like his skin was crawling. Seriously, what kind of people stare at the Prince of the Koopas this angrily?

When he finally did get to the desk, he looked into Mrs. Spot's red face. Her breathing was noticeably heavy, like the air was being pumped into her nostrils. Her beady black eyes burned with hatred. The skin crawling feeling that Roy experienced grew worse.

"Uh…hey," he said. This had no effect on the teacher's breathing, so he swallowed a lump and tried again. "You look nice today. Did you do something different with your mushroom cap?"

"Yes," Mrs. Spot said. "I got it professionally polished today. BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Her glare got more concentrated, boring into Roy's soul like he had some treasure buried beneath his skin. "YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST WALTZ INTO MY CLASS AND BE AS DISRUPTIVE AS YOU PLEASE?"

Roy looked over both of his shoulders, expecting to see someone come to his side to rescue him. Oddly enough, none of the Toads or humans got up. Weird.

"Uh, to be absolutely fair, it wasn't me who disrupted the class. If we're being as specific as possible, it was my tummy." He chuckled as he placed his hand to his rumbling stomach. "That bad boy isn't the best at playing the quiet game, unfortunately."

Mrs. Spot's glare went from angry to hateful. "Detention."

Roy did a double take. "Wait, what?"

"You heard me; detention." Mrs. Spot reached into her desk and pulled out a pad of pink slips. She picked up a pen, dramatically causing the point to pop out with a very loud click. "I would write all the reasons why I want to give you detention, but I would run out of space on the slip. So, I'll just write.." she wrote down the reason…"disrupting class with very loud digestive issues."

Roy's jaw dropped. "What? That's so unfair!" He patted his tummy once again. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with my digestive system!"

With a cross look, Mrs. Spot wrote down another sentence. "And being disrespectful towards the teacher." She pulled the pink slip off and handed it to Roy. "Bring this to the detention hall or you get expelled."

Roy's heart stopped beating. Expelled? No! That was more than unfair; that was doubly unfair! That was on the level of losing a Mario Kart game at the last possible moment because you got hit by a blue shell right at the finish line! If Roy had hair, he would definitely be pulling it out, cause this was just ridiculous!

"TAKE YOUR STUPID SLIP OR YOU GET DETENTION TOMORROW!"

With that unsavory, awful jolt back down to reality, Roy took his slip. He was just about to go back to his desk when the bell rang. Even though it was louder than Mrs. Spot's voice, it brought comfort to Roy because it told him he could leave the classroom and go to lunch.

…

"She was a total nightmare!" Roy told Celia as they sat in the cafeteria. "I mean, what kind of teacher gives a student detention for having a rumbling stomach?"

Celia sighed, gloom overtaking her expression. "It's probably because you're a koopa."

Realization hit Roy right in the face. "Ohhhh…." He chuckled. "That actually makes sense." He picked up his slice of pizza. "I guess I should have figured that out." He bit into his piece, immediately showing his regret toward that decision by making a face.

"Yeah," Celia said as Roy pulled a strand of hair from the pizza out of his mouth. "Toads are nightmares in general. Even their voices are creepy."

Roy chuckled. "What? You mean you don't like having your eardrums blown up by screechy shrill screaming?"

Celia snickered. "Nah. It's not exactly up there on my list of favorite things."

Roy chuckled. "Me neither." He bit down on the other end of the pizza and yelped when he felt how hard the crust was. "Neither is this pizza; yeesh!" He put the thing back down on the tray. "I think I broke my tooth!"

"Drink some milk," Celia said. "It might help."

Roy nodded and picked up the little blue milk carton. The second the milk touched his lips, he spit it out. "It's sour!"

Celia made a face. "Oh man, that sucks." She looked down at her own tray, at the gray green beans and sloppy mashed potatoes (at least, she assumed they were mashed potatoes). "Yikes. I thought the school was serving us lunch, not poison."

Roy scrubbed his tongue with his fingernails, trying to get rid of the remnants of the sour flavor. Feeling bad for him, Celia handed over her water bottle. "Here."

Roy looked down at the water bottle cautiously. "Uh…I don't know."

"It's okay. I mean, since when is it possible to screw up drinking water."

"That's…that's true." He picked up the bottle and gulped it down. "Oh yeah, that's the stuff." He smiled. "It's like school cafeteria food except…edible."

This got a laugh out of Celia. Once Roy finished drinking, he set the water bottle to the side and cleared his throat.

"So. I told you about my awful day. How was your awful day?"

Celia straightened her posture. "Actually, it wasn't that bad."

"Really?" Roy asked with a blink.

"Yeah I'm the only person in the class."

Roy snorted. "Wow. Some lucky duck you are." He patted the top of his potatoes with the back of his spoon. "At least you can't get any detention slips for disrupting the class."

"Yeah, seriously." She folded her hands in her lap. "Also… Ms. Tish is a koopa."

Roy blinked a second time. "A Koopa? Cool!" He grinned. "Koopas are cool. I should know."

Celia laughed again before speaking. "I just find it weird. I mean, I wasn't expecting a koopa to be teaching in a Mushroom Kingdom school."

Roy nodded his head. "Yeah. That is weird." He picked at his dead as a doorknob green beans. "Does she live in the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"I…I think she does, actually." Celia put her elbow on the table and leaned against her arm. "It's so weird. I mean, I live in the Mushroom Kingdom, and I can barely survive each day." She looked down at the table. "Why would Ms. Tish go out of her way to live in the one place no Koopa is welcome?"

Roy nodded. Yeah, this was weird. He tried to think of other Koopas who lived in the Mushroom Kingdom, but his mind came up blank. The only other Koopa who he knew who lived here was Singe.

"I don't know," he said out loud. He was about to speak up again when a tall, burly human showed up at the table.

"Yo, Koopa," he said.

Roy blinked. "Are you talking to me?"

The human rolled his eyes. "No, I'm talking to the table. Of course I'm talking to you, genius!" He leaned in closer. His breath reeked, and it reeked badly. "I was in the class that your poor, dysfunctional tummy disrupted."

Roy's face lit up. "Oh yeah, you were! You were sitting in the back and firing spitballs at me!" He turned toward Celia. "This kid would be really good at archery; he made a direct hit every time!"

The human's face grew darker. "Well, since you enjoyed getting hit in the head so much, how would you like getting a swirly?"

Roy blinked. "A…a swirly? His face lit up like Neo Bowser City at night. He jumped to his feet. "I always wanted to get a swirly! Of course I'd like it!"

The human made a weird face. He stared at Roy with a dropped jaw for a minute or two before speaking again. "Man, you're weird." He grabbed hold of Roy's wrist. "Come on. Let me show you the swirly chamber."

"Lead the way!" As the boy led him away, he flashed Celia a giggly smile. "This is a dream come true!" he squealed.

"Roy, I don't think you should…" Before she could finish her sentence, they had already left the cafeteria. She sat back down and prayed that Roy wouldn't get too wet.