Chapter 9 Icky, Loud, and Boisterous

Wendy stood in front of the classroom, staring at the children. They were all about five years old, maybe four. They were smiling at her, displaying their teeth. Wendy tried to return the smile, but something about them looked a little off. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that none of them were blinking. Perhaps it was because their teeth looked a little too sharp. Whatever the reason, Wendy's heart was pounding against her chest like a battering ram. She swallowed a pretty nasty lump in her throat.

"Good morning everyone!" she said. The kids remained unmoving, causing Wendy to chuckle nervously. "Today, we will be doing show and tell! Does anyone want to go first?"

One of the kids stood up and raised her hand.

"I would like to go first, Miss Wendy," she said with an echoing, monotone voice.

"Great! Why don't you come up and show the class what you have brought!"

The little koopa walked up to the front of the classroom. She pulled a water bottle out of her hammerspace and smiled at the class.

"This is my favorite water bottle," she said with the same monotone inflection. "It holds the best water in the Koopa Kingdom." She hugged the bottle to her chest and stroked it like a cat. "Would anyone like to try it?"

Everyone of the kids raised their hands, their faces still as smiley as before. The girl grinned a wicked grin, her eyes seemed to turn red.

"Wise choice."

Before Wendy could stop her, the girl splashed all the kids in the room with water. Wendy turned toward the girl with a glare.

"That was not nice!" She snatched the water bottle out of her hands. "You need to go sit in the naughty..."

A screechy sound fell upon Wendy's ears. She turned around and gasped in fright. Except for the girl, each of the kids in the room had turned into gremlins. Wendy watched as they tore at the coats in the cubbies, urinated on the tables, and ate up the disinfectant wipes that were on the teacher's desk. They all did it with the same smile on their faces as before.

"Hey!" Wendy said to the kids, trying to mask her fear. "Stop that right this instant!"

The gremlins did not stop. They just continued on with their romp. Wendy ducked as one of them picked up one of the tables and flung it at the wall.

"I said stop!" Wendy yelled. Miraculously, all of them halted with their activities. They stared at Wendy, causing her blood to freeze over. Then, one of them pointed at her with a giddy grin.

"Food!"

The gremlins excitedly charged at Wendy. They clung to her legs, crawled up her chest. Wendy tried to bat them away, but they were persistent. They knocked her to the ground like she was nothing more than a domino. Wendy screamed as she was devoured.

...

Wendy gasped and sat up in bed. Her breathing and heart rates were faster than light. Her arms tingled with a cold sensation. This sensation traveled from her arms, down to her legs, and across her chest. She could still feel the gremlins crawling on her. She could still feel them nibbling on her skin.

How in the world would she be able to survive this punishment? Wendy shook her head at that question, for she already knew the answer. There was no way, absolutely no way. With this thought in mind, Wendy pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her head in her lap. She could feel the warmth of tears start to cover her face.

"Don't cry yet! You haven't even gotten to the classroom!"

Wendy lifted her head. Kamek was standing in the doorway, looking sadistically pleased. She groaned.

"Don't tell me it's time."

"Yep! It's time to hit the road, darling!" He chuckled as he stepped out of the doorway. Wendy could still hear him chuckling even as she went to put her face on.

This was going to be unbearable.

...

Wendy whimpered as she sat at the teacher's desk. She was staring at the clock. Class officially started at about 8:00, and it was 7:55 now. Each second that the clock ate away physically hurt her. Her face was practically locked in a wince that not even Morton and Larry could get rid of.

"Hey," Morton said. He approached and patted her on the shoulder. "Wendy, you're going to do just fine; there's no reason to worry."

Wendy just continued to whimper. Her heart felt like it would burst open.

"I...I can't," she wheezed. "I can't do this."

Morton cast her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry so much. Remember what I said yesterday; think of this as a way to grow into a strong, confident woman."

Wendy took a deep breath. Those words, even now, did bring her some form of comfort. She let them swirl around in her mind. She let them wash over her, cleanse her soul of any built up gunk.

I can do this. I can do this.

Right at that moment, the school bell rang, signaling the start of the school day. The door opened, and a bunch of little kids came straight through the door. They each went to their cubbies and started to put their coats away. Wendy swallowed a lump just as they all took a seat. She made her way to the front of the classroom.

"Good...morning class," she said, trying to resist the urge to vomit. The class looked at her in confusion.

"Where's Miss Maisy?" a little boy asked.

"Uh, Miss Maisy is doing something this week. I'm going to be filling in for her," Wendy said. She looked to Larry and Morton, who each gave her a thumbs up.

"So you're the new Miss Maisy?" asked a little girl.

"Well, yeah! I suppose you could say I am."

"You're bald!" Another little boy said.

"Yeah, what happened to your hair?" asked a redhead girl. Wendy chuckled, if for no other reason than to mask her insecurities.

"Okay, that's enough questions for right now! Why don't you all gather around the rug for circle time?"

The kids chattered like chipmunks as they made their way toward the rug. Wendy took in a breath as she made her way toward the chair in front of the rug.

"Alright," she said. "so, what do we do during circle time?"

The kids exchanged looks with each other before one particularly small child spoke up.

"Miss Maisy likes to sing with us. She likes to sing The Weather Song and the Days of the Week song."

Wendy felt a pit form in her stomach. Singing? No! Sure, she wasn't the worst singer in the world, but she knew she couldn't do it with how her nerves were acting up.

"Um, okay. How does the Days of the Week song usually go?"

The little kids smiled in a way that was not too dissimilar to how they smiled in the dream. Wendy could feel her skin crawl as they each started to sing.

"Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday..."

Oh dear word. They sounded horrible! They sounded like a symphony of nails on a chalk board! Their voices were droning on and on as if they were doing a cult chant! Wendy tried to sing along, but her stomach felt as if it was going to explode. She put her hand to her mouth just as her cheeks puffed out.

"Excuse me," she said to the kids. With that, she rushed into the bathroom. She leaned over the toilet, emptying out the contents of her stomach. Every time she felt like she was finally done, another batch of vomit rose back up and forced her to lean back down. She hacked away for what felt like a good ten minutes. When she finally finished, she stared into the little mirror.

"You can do this Wendy," she said to herself. "You have to do this. I know you can."

With that, she went back out into the classroom. She was surprised to see that the kids were not sitting around the circle anymore. Instead, they were sitting around the tables, eating their snacks. Wendy glanced over at Larry and Morton.

"Why are...?"

"We completed circle time by ourselves," said Larry. "After that, we let just let them have snack time."

Wendy nodded and took a seat at the teacher's desk.

"Thank you," she said. Morton leaned down next to her.

"Wendy, it's going to be okay. Just relax."

Wendy nodded. Relax. That's all that she needed to do. These kids weren't out to get her, nor were they going to turn into gremlins. She took in a nice, big gulp of air.

"Okay," she said. She smiled. Now that she didn't feel the urge to vomit anymore, she actually felt pretty good. "You know what? This..."

Suddenly, a kid sitting on one side of the room threw their apple at a kid on the other side of the room. The kid who had been hit turned toward the perpetrator with heat in their eyes.

"Hey!" He threw his crackers at him, causing the other kids to squeal in delight.

"Food fight!"

With that, the classroom descended into anarchy. Celery sticks shot through the air like missiles, applesauce was flung all over the floor. Wendy stood up in horror.

"Stop!" she cried. The kids just continued on with the food fight, barely even aware of her existence. Larry and Morton went over to them.

"That's enough, kids!" Larry said.

"Yeah," said Morton. "You need..."

Before either of the Koopalings could say anymore, each got hit in the eyes with applesauce. They screamed in panic and made their way toward the bathroom to clean up. Wendy, meanwhile, just stood stock still.

"Guys, please!" she said.

The kids still did not stop. This caused Wendy to sink back down into her chair, defeat starting to take control of her.

She couldn't do this. She just couldn't.