For Lunch

It had been a month. Arnold still had no confidence. I wanted to test the full capabilities of the new upgrades to the BUS's shielding. What better unit to cover than the human digestive system?

The day began as I finally found my inflatable model of the human digestive system. In the back of the closet of course. And stuck on Lords knows what. Liz tried to help by working the other end free but just ended up with that end stuck in her mouth, her body helplessly tangled in the mess. I really needed to work on clearing that out.

"Ah, good morning class!" I cheerfully greeted Arnold, Wanda, DA, Tim and Ralphie as I left the closet and passed through them on my way to the skeleton, still tugging on the stuck inflatable digestive system. "One digestive system coming up…. yeow!" I yanked as hard as I could and it finally pulled free.

Liz popped out of the closet, the other end of the system flying out of her mouth and into the skeleton's mouth. He swallowed it without complaint and it inflated up to size.

"Now that's more like it!" I said, as the skeleton belched.

"Was that in the lesson plan?" I heard DA ask Wanda.

"As I always say, 'no guts, no digestion'!" I began to set up for the day as Wanda and Arnold continued to talk about breaking the gum chewing record and getting tickets to something called 'Action Mountain'. Apparently though, Arnold had accidentally swallowed the gum, so now they were stuck.

"I'm sorry Wanda," Arnold pleaded. I paused as I heard this, the jar of olives in one hand, the book of records in the other. "I told you breaking records made me nervous, I told you I've never won anything in my life!"

I smiled. Perfect. "Never say never Arnold!" I advised him. I set the jar of olives on the windowsill and winked at Lizalria. Today's lesson would depend on her. She was going to keep Arnold busy while the rest of us explored.

"I told you you should have picked someone else!" Arnold was telling Wanda. I placed the All-School Record Book on my desk and made my way over to the children.

"Hey Arnold, it's okay." Wanda assured him gently. "I mean it's only a ride."

She took down the Action Mountain poster she had hung up over my diagram of the human digestive system. "Well, that's the end of that…" She said, looking at it forlornly.

"Actually Wanda," I said. "It's only the beginning."

"Of what?" She asked.

I grinned. "Our next field trip!"

"Field trip!" Wanda cried excitedly.

"Field trip…" Arnold moaned.

Oh don't worry Arnold, you're going to like this one.

"Ms. Frizzle, I'd really love to go on a field trip," Arnold told me as we made our way out to the BUS. "but I've got this weird feeling. I mean… I already ruined Wanda's day, what if I ruin everybody elses'?"

Oh Arnold, I don't think you'll ever be capable of that. And today I was going to prove it. I turned back to him as we reached the open doors of the BUS.

"Well Arnold, I do need a volunteer to stay behind…" I told him.

"Stay behind?" He asked, sounding stunned.

Wanda and some of the others rushed past him, eager to see the adventure I had planned this time. "Come on! Let's go!" They shouted as they piled onto the BUS.

"Me! Pick me!" Arnold cried over them, waving his hand in the air enthusiastically.

I smiled. "Well thank you Arnold!" How kind of him.

"Alright! Wait a minute…" He said, suddenly suspicious. "This is too good to be true… what's the catch?" I just smiled brightly at him.

"Meet your substitute teacher." I told him. Liz jumped onto my shoulder wearing a mini-Frizzle wig.

"Liz? Well, could be worse." Arnold said as Liz jumped onto his head.

I climbed into the driver's seat and waved. "See you very soon, Arnold."

With a snap, I closed the BUS doors.

As Arnold walked back towards the school doors, I adjusted the settings, making sure we were ready for our trip. "Our timing should be just about right…" I muttered to myself as I turned the BUS slightly and took aim just over Arnold's left shoulder. He was facing away from us, absorbed in his usual mid-morning snack. I put my hand on the chameleon-circuit lever. Just a few more seconds…

"I don't get it," DA said, pulling me out of my focused state. "I thought we were supposed to answer the question about what happens to the food we eat?"

"Yeah," Tim agreed. "Where are we going?"

I looked back at them and smiled reassuringly. "Not far class, not far at all. Here we go!"

I pulled the lever and we began to shrink. Well, technically it wasn't shrinking, the BUS was just transporting itself to fill a different space, one that was smaller than it was normally. And naturally with all of us inside the BUS, we had to fit into that dimension too so we appeared smaller. But it was simpler to explain by just saying 'we shrank'. That was all I'd ever say if they ever asked.

As we stopped spinning, the BUS let out a cheerful beep and took off into the air. At that precise moment, the bag in Arnold's hand burst open, sending orange puffballs flying into the air. My students cried out and clung to the seats as the BUS shook and rocked in the sudden hailstorm. We flew right into Arnold's palm, along with a handful of the cheezie wheezies. Next second, we were among his teeth. It had all happened so quickly, my students had missed the transition.

"Where are we?" Keesha asked, looking around. Arnold's jaws were making quick work of the cheezie-wheezies. I drove steadily along his tongue, avoiding bits of food as best I could. Not that the BUS couldn't handle it, more that I didn't want to scare my students any more than necessary. I was quite certain that human teeth were not strong enough to crack open the BUS.

"Check out the pink pavement!" Ralphie shouted, noticing Arnold's tongue.

"The walls are dripping!" DA exclaimed as saliva dripped over us. Before I could even think about reaching for the lever, the BUS started the windshield-wipers. Good old BUS.

"You know what Ms. Frizzle," Phoebe piped up as soggy, orange balls hit the windows, "at my old school, we turned back in this kind of weather."

"What are those humungo white things?" Keesha asked as Arnold's teeth continued to grind up the cheezie-wheezies.

"Whoa!" Ralphie exclaimed as we narrowly avoided hitting them. "If you ask me, they're humungo bus-crushers!"

"Actually Ralphie," I said. "they're more like humungo food-crushers!" Well now, I had to set him straight didn't I? Couldn't let them all think I was going to get us killed.

After a moment of stunned silence, DA slowly spoke up. "Wait a minute…" She said as I continued driving down Arnold's tongue. "if that's food…"

"We're either on the weirdest cutting board in the world…" Carlos offered.

"Or in somebody's mouth!" DA realized.

There was a chorus behind me expressing their disgust at this information.

"Bingo!" I said, undeterred. Sometimes learning was messy. I pressed a button and the BUS's monitor descended through the ceiling. "But not just anybody's mouth!" The map on the monitor flickered to life and zoomed in on the mouth area. "Look familiar?" I asked them.

"ARNOLD?"

Since we were inside the BUS, sounds from the outside did not penetrate. However, even though I was to be exploring his digestive tract, I was not leaving Arnold unsupervised. Honestly, what kind of Teacher does that? Liz had a small microphone attached to her left horn so that I could always check up on Arnold if the need arose. I had also given Liz specific instructions for how to keep Arnold occupied.

Arnold's voice drifted quietly into the receiver in my ear as I tested it: "Boy it's kind of empty in here… I wonder where they went…" It faded away after that, probably because Liz was moving away from him to start her work. I turned the volume down. He had no idea where we were. Time to focus on driving again.

A moment later, a large olive bounced into his mouth. It sent the BUS rolling further back along his tongue. Then he seized it in his teeth and squashed it to bits.

"So the first thing that happens to the food when it gets digested…" DA observed as bits of olive hit the window, "Is the teeth cut and grind it into smaller pieces."

"At my old school," Phoebe said again, "we were never allowed to be digested."

Wow this school really must have been restrictive. Glad I got her out of there.

"Never say never, Phoebe!" I advised her. Words I hoped she'd take to heart for the rest of her life.

We began to slide the rest of the way down Arnold's tongue, headed for the back of the mouth.

"But according to my research… after chewing comes swallowing!" DA said.

I grinned. "I call it, Action-Arnold." I clicked the monitor remote to change the aspect. It now showed detail of Arnold's mouth and the tiny blipping indicator that was us. We were perched precariously at the very back of his throat. "The wildest, scariest, best scream-your-lungs-out ride in the world! Yahoo!"

My students screamed as Arnold swallowed.

"Class, welcome to the esophagus." I said as we were pushed downward by the esophagus muscles.

"The asparagus?" Carlos asked.

"No Carlos, the esophagus." DA explained, pointing at the monitor. "It's where your food goes after you swallow."

I turned the BUS engine off and leaned back in my seat with a sigh. This trip would be easy on the flight stabilizers for sure.

"Ms. Frizzle," Phoebe said, sounding bewildered. "Wh… what are you doing?"

"Time to let Arnold's digestive system do the driving." I told her.

"Cool!" Wanda said. She dashed to the back of the BUS to look out the window. "It's like we're driving through a tunnel but the tunnel's driving us!"

"Hey Arnold!" Carlos called as he joined her at the window. "How 'bout a push?"

Keesha looked like she was thinking hard. "I wonder if this is how it feels to get squeezed out of a tube of toothpaste…" She said.

"Yeah but I get the feeling we're not going to end up on Arnold's toothbrush." Tim said. He had his sketch pad out and was scribbling away.

"Right you are Tim!" I said. "The esophagus connects the mouth to the…? Anyone?"

Ralphie was looking a little green. "I don't know how much more of this I can stomach…" He moaned.

"Excellent Ralphie!" I exclaimed. Looks like someone had done their homework. "The stomach is the next step in digestion." I clicked the monitor again to zoom in on us. "And it's a real… doozie!"

At that moment, we exited the esophagus and free-fell towards Arnold's stomach. As my students cried out in excitement and fear behind me, I quickly turned the engine on and reset our exterior.

"In just a few moments, we'll be landing in Arnold's stomach." I informed everyone as we sprouted a parachute and floats. "Thank you for flying Digestion Airways."

We drifted downward and landed with a splash.

"Now that's what I call a belly-flop." Carlos joked, making everyone laugh.

Sprouting a sail, we drifted around for awhile, checking out what was happening. It wasn't until we spotted a 'rock' and the walls started moving that I decided it was probably time to move on. No need to spend all day in here when there was so much more to see.

"Hard to port class!" I yelled, spinning the steering wheel sharply.

Everyone gasped as we narrowly avoided what was not a rock, but merely the gum Arnold had swallowed earlier.

"Whew… that was close…" Carlos said as the gum slid past us, leaving us unharmed.

"Is it just me," Ralphie asked, watching the bits of food get broken up and dissolved outside. "or do you get the feeling there's more out there than just food and water?"

"Whatever it is, it's eating the BUS!" Carlos shouted. I could hear the BUS informing me telepathically that the acid outside was indeed slipping through our shields a bit.

"Nothing to worry about, just a little stomach acid." I told my students.

"STOMACH ACID?!" They all sounded concerned, like this was something that could actually hurt us. Although it was fascinating. Human stomach acid was corrosive enough to at least scratch the BUS through the shields. Better not let that information get off of Earth.

Wanda however, seemed very impressed. "Man, when it comes to digestion, Arnold doesn't mess around!"

I grinned. "You haven't seen anything yet." I told her.

At the very back of the BUS, Ralphie was hunched over in the seat, the constant rocking making him nauseous again. "You mean there's more?" He moaned.

I made a noise of affirmation.

"All right Arnold!" Wanda cheered, jumping up in excitement.

I checked up on Arnold through the microphone. He was attempting another record, this time, how many pens he could stuff into his pocket protector. Good, at least Liz was keeping him busy.

"What's that?" Wanda exclaimed, pointing at an enormous pink thing opposite us that was opening and closing.

"Poor Arnold," Keesha lamented. "Looks like he's got a hole in his stomach!"

"Not a hole, Keesha," I corrected her. "A valve." I grinned at her. "The doorway to his small intestine!"

"Yeah well, it just swallowed the gum!" Wanda observed, watching the blue mass vanish.

"Hey, why hasn't the gum been digested?" DA asked.

"A few things are too tough to be broken up and dissolved." I replied.

Phoebe turned away from the window. "Like… school buses… right?" She asked hesitantly.

I turned the wheel, sending us lurching towards the valve. "There's only one way to find out!" Time Lord technology vs. human evolution, I loved it. With a flourish, I reset the chameleon circuit. We spun around several times before becoming a submarine. With a splash, we were rapidly carried out of the stomach and into the small intestine.

Wow, Arnold certainly did have fast metabolism. Good thing I picked him or this would have been a full day field trip. We shot through his small intestine, passing miles of villi.

My students all crowded around the windows, staring in awe out at the landscape around us. "Where are we?" Keesha asked.

"It looks like scuba world!" Tim commented.

"Welcome to the small intestine!" I narrated, "the next step in digestion." The monitor tracked our progress showing us about halfway through Arnold's system. Hmmm, we still had plenty of time…perhaps this would be a great opportunity for an immersive experience…

Oh if only I'd thought to bring…

With a quiet beep, the BUS opened a compartment next to my seat. Inside, was my acid-proof, water-proof, immersive scuba gear. Perfect for navigating a human digestive system.

Frantically, I began searching for buttons. If I knew myself…future me had some planning to do.

"I don't get it." Ralphie said, as I set the BUS to autopilot and began to pull on my scuba suit. "The food's been dissolved, digested, whatever, what else is left to do?"

I pulled my helmet on and secured it tight. "As I always say Ralphie," I replied, starling him, "digested is not delivered!"

My students all stared at me in my gear with expressions of confusion.

"Anyone for a dip?" I asked.

Carlos, Keesha and Wanda's eyes all flickered to the windows then back to me, as if what I was suggesting were completely insane.

But only Phoebe had the inclination to speak. "Go swimming in Arnold's digestive juice?" Phoebe asked, pointing out the window. "Not me, no way!"

"How was I supposed to know she'd have digestive-juice scuba gear?"

I smiled as I overhead Phoebe's comment to Wanda. Just as I'd suspected, future me had left behind seven suits identical to my own, each helpfully labeled with my student's favorite colors. I was hardly going to let my students miss out on this opportunity.

"Isn't this the coolest?" Wanda cheered. I smiled and swam off to inspect our surroundings. Not bad. And the suits were holding up pretty well. The BUS was certainly doing better now that we were out of the acid pit that was Arnold's stomach.

"Hey, look at this!" Carlos called, pointing to one of the villi. "The dissolved food is disappearing into these…rubber cactus-type things."

"They're called villi." I helpfully supplied, swimming over to where most of my students were gathered.

"Cool!" Ralphie said "They're soaking up the food like a sponge!"

"But where did it go?" Tim asked. He was still working on his sketches, probably drawing a map of where we'd been.

"I can answer that!" Dorothy Anne supplied, swimming over to join us. "According to my research, the villi transport the nutrients into the bloodstream, which carries them all over the body!" She glanced at me. "Isn't that right Ms. Frizzle?"

I nodded. "Very good Dorothy Anne! The villi soak up the dissolved nutrients. That's why there are so many here in the small intestine! Then the bloodstream picks those up and carries the energy all over the body so that we can move and grow."

"I get it!" Ralphie said excitedly, "the bloodstream is like a pizza delivery service! Only it delivers energy!"

"Speaking of energy," Carlos commented, looking around. "Where's Wanda?"

I suddenly realized I only had six students listening to me. One was missing. Oh dear. It seems Wanda had gone off on her own…I knew I should have assigned partners…

A shout drew our attention to something further down the intestine. My mouth fell open in shock. Wanda was being rapidly carried away from us, riding along the top of the ball of gum.

"WANDA!"

We searched the entire small intestine, swimming through the liquid and calling Wanda's name. But she was nowhere to be found.

I was starting to worry. Maybe in the future I should put tracking devices on all my students to make sure nothing like this happened again. Or make them work with partners…

Finally, after several anxious moments searching, we caught sight of her. She was still riding haphazardly atop the ball of gum. We had not sooner caught sight of her, then she vanished into another valve.

"Ah, she went into the large intestine!" I called, catching up with my students. We were way ahead of schedule, we weren't suppose to reach the large intestine until lunchtime!

"The large intestine?" Tim asked. "You mean there's more?"

Before I could answer him, the walls around us shook and the liquid began to gush past us, buffeting us hard. "What's that?" Tim asked, pointing at a large cloud of darker liquid headed our way.

"Just Arnold's leftovers." I replied, bracing myself.

The BUS came into view, riding the new torrent of waste material. It shot right past us and headed straight into the valve. The rest of us were dragged along by the rush of fluids, tumbling head over heels into the next part of the digestive system.

We all shot out of the valve and into the large intestine. While my students slid into a heap on the rapidly drying floor, I raced ahead to tend to my BUS. It was ruffled, certainly (and more than a little miffed) but my tough old BUS could handle anything.

We changed shape again, seeing as the submarine would be useless in a place like this. My BUS gave me an all-terrain, roofless vehicle with a rather large megaphone on top. Interesting choice.

It had barely finished forming when Carlos raced over and grabbed the microphone.

"this should work!" He raised it to his mouth and called: "Wanda, if you can hear this, give a shout!"

From far away, we heard the unmistakable sound of Wanda's cries.

"Let's go!" Carlos shouted to the others, who were making their way towards the BUS. They all jumped in and I hastily set off down the large intestine.

We rushed through the tubes, going far faster than any Earth vehicle ever could. I pushed the BUS hard, worried about Wanda. How had she gotten so far away so quickly?

"The further we go, the drier it gets…" Keesha observed, watching the walls as we went.

"It looks like the walls are sucking up all the water." Tim agreed.

I swerved sharply to avoid a falling chunk of waste.

"That's the large intestine for you," I told my students, "it removes the water from the leftovers."

"So we have to find Wanda before she gets dried into a raisin!" Carlos proclaimed.

"A raisin…" Ralphie speculated, "Cool!"

He was immediately reprimanded by Dorothy Anna and Keesha and fumbled to correct his statement. "ummm, not cool at all! Terrible actually!"

I spotted something up ahead, something familiar. I slammed on the breaks, skidding along the large intestine and pitching my students forward at the sudden shift in momentum. We ground to a halt a few inches from where Wanda precariously balanced. On top of the wad of gum.

Oh dear…

"Wanda!" My students all shouted, "Don't!"

But it was too late. With a scream, Wanda plummeted downwards, a long, thin piece of the gum clinging stubbornly to her foot. My some miracle of physics and time, the force and elasticity of the gum was enough to slow her momentum and sling her back up the way she came. Wanda shot over our heads, still yelling, still stuck on the gum. If she kept going like this she was in for some nasty whiplash…

Carlos was already moving, tracking Wanda's flight with his eyes. When she reached her lowest point above us, he jumped up, closing his hands around her wrists.

"Gotcha!" Carlos yanked hard, pulling Wanda out of orbit and down on top of him.

"Alright Carlos!" Phoebe congratulated him as the others swarmed around and Wanda collected herself, "you saved her!"

Wanda looked around at all of us incredulously. "Saved me?" She stood up. "I was having a blast! Arnold's digestive system is the wildest, scariest, scream-your-lungs-out ride in the world!"

I knew she'd love it. "And it's not over yet." I added, joining my students.

"We've done the mouth," Ralphie listed, "the esophagus, the stomach, the small intestine, the large intestine, what could be next? The extra large intestine?"

"No!" I chuckled. "We just have to join the rest of the waste products, and finish the trip." I gestured at the large intestine around us, which was hard at work sucking up water.

There was a collective, disgusted: "WHAT?" from my students.

"Wait a minute," Dorothy Anne said, pawing through one of her ubiquitous books. "According to my research…the waste products go…"

"uh uh!" Ralphie said, shaking his head firmly.

"No way!" Keesha agreed.

"At my old school," Phoebe said, "we were never allowed to end up in the toilet!"

All right, so I hadn't planned the end of this trip very well. But things had gotten away from me. Arnold's digestive system had sent us whirling right to the end, I'd barely had time for my lesson plans. I hadn't figured out exactly how we'd get out, I had just assumed we'd just teleport the BUS outside once we were done. But perhaps it was best not to let my students know the full capabilities of the BUS. Well, not yet anyway.

"Anybody have a better idea?" I asked.

"We could go back to the mouth and ride it again!" Wanda immediately suggested.

"WANDA!" Everyone moaned.

I puzzled this over. Not a bad idea, I'd never considered going back…

Well, why not?

"She's right," Tim spoke up, examining the map he'd been making. "We could go back the way we came. I've been keeping track, and the digestive system is just one long tube divided into parts…"

Tim narrated his observations to the group, planning out a plausible route that would take us back through the small intestine, stomach, esophagus and then out mouth.

"It wont be easy…" He commented.

"You're right Tim." I spoke up, making them all turn around to look at me. "Digestion pushes everything down! We'll have to fight our way back." I smirked and folded my arms. "We might never make it."

"Never say never Ms. Frizzle!" Phoebe countered. Everyone laughed, finding humor in our situation, as difficult as it was. Perhaps I'd made the wrong assumption about how they would react to this. After all, they'd panicked terribly when we'd been lost in space. Maybe they were just getting used to these adventures.

"Alright class," I called, getting their attention at once. "Off we go!"

Our journey back was just as tough as I had expected. Driving back up the large intestine was quick, if a little slippery. Squeezing through the valve the wrong way did present an issue but extra dimensions do come in handy for small spaces. Back in our submarine form, we assisted the BUS with the journey by pedaling stationary bikes. The last thing I needed after this trip was to refuel again.

"Full speed ahead!" I called to my students as we shot through the small intestine, pedaling hard and going against the current.

"This is insane!" Ralphie declared from the back of the BUS.

"Consider the alternative!" Phoebe reminded him.

"You know," Ralphie said, "biking is my favorite sport."

A few minutes later, we were approaching the stomach valve.

"Now!" I cried, pedaling harder while pressing a button on the dashboard. With a burst of speed from the BUS and my students, we shot through the tight space and back into the stomach.

"So much for the easy part…" I said, wiping my brow as we rose to the surface of the stomach.

"The easy part?" My students exclaimed.

Tim unfurled his map again. "Yeah," he pointed at the esophagus. "remember all the muscle power that pushed us down the esophagus?"

My students all groaned.

Keesha checked her watch "And it's almost noon!" She cried, "if Arnold eats lunch, there's gonna be tons of food raining down on us!"

I stepped off my bike. "Well class," I began, addressing them all casually. "What should we do?"

They all stared at me silently, blinking in confusion. Perhaps I shouldn't have let them know that I had no more idea of how to get us out of this situation than they did.

By this time, Arnold's stomach was contracting and growling loudly. It was nearly lunchtime. And we were still floating around in it. I was beginning to wonder if it would be worth just jumping back outside without bothering to complete the tour. Even with the shields on full, I was worried about that acid. I'd need new enhancements, or maybe even a new exterior remodeling to get rid of the tiny acid stains from this trip. All things not easily found on this Level 5 planet. But I was curious to see how my students would handle this situation. It certainly wouldn't be our last tight spot.

"Ms. Frizzle?"

My musing interrupted, I turned to face the interrupter. "Yes, Wanda?"

She was positively brimming with excitement. "Can you bring back the megaphone that we used back in the large intestine? And make it stronger?"

I raised an eyebrow at her, intrigued. "Stronger?"

She nodded. "So that Arnold can hear it. I'm going to convince him to drink my seltzer so that we can make a gas bubble and float out of here!"

I was astounded but I tried not to show it. They had thought of something I had not. Another way out the same way we got in…

With a few pushes and adjustments, I brought up the speakers again, amplifying them as Wanda had requested.

"Here you go Wanda," I told her as I handed her the microphone. "All set."

Unfortunately, the microphone worked both ways now, which meant that we could now all hear Arnold and Lizalria's private conversation. Arnold's voice filled the BUS.

"I know!" He was saying. "I could eat Ralphie's lunch and think up a good excuse on a full stomach!"

"But I had a malloblaster today!" Ralphie hissed as DA shushed him. "He'd better not…!"

"Arnold…" Wanda said into the microphone, the sound echoing.

While Wanda spoke to Arnold through his stomach to carry out her part of the plan, I was busy making all the proper preparations so that it would work. I had to decrease power to the shield to make sure our levitation would work correctly but I was willing to put a few more stains on the BUS to get us out of here at this point.

As the seltzer rained down on us, Wanda gathered everyone to the center of the BUS.

"Now, let's rock the BUS back and forth to create a giant gas bubble!"

They all started rocking, tipping the BUS this way and that. I watched as bubbles began to form, then grow, then gather around us. Finally, we had our very own transparent bubble to surround us. But it wouldn't be enough to lift us. I flipped on the flight stabilizers and twisted the levitation leakage. We began to rise.

"It's working! It's working!" My students cheered.

The gas bubbled carried us up out of the stomach and back into the esophagus. With a few minor enhancements from the BUS, the bubble stayed intact right up until we reached the top of the tube. Then with a mighty belch, Arnold expelled us. We shot straight out the window, due in no part to the excellent proximity sensors on the BUS I was sure.

My students cheered as we spun quickly, returning to normal size. Everyone filed out, glad to be back outside. We made our way back to the classroom, my students talking excitedly.

Just outside the classroom, I nearly tripped over a tray piled high with a very substantial lunch. Hmmm…seems I'd planned behind that our field trip would last until exactly lunch time. I scooped up the tray and we entered the classroom.

Arnold was standing by himself, looking at his watch.

"…I'll never even get to eat lunch!" He was saying.

"Did someone say lunch?" I asked, startling both him and Liz. We all entered the room, me placing the tray before a clearly very hungry Arnold.

He tucked right in, ignoring or not noticing the fact that everyone else in the class was watching him with fascination.

My work here was done, at least for now. I left my students alone to set up the next lesson plan.

After a few minutes, Wanda approached Arnold's desk, clearing her throat slightly to get his attention.

"Congratulations, Arnold." She said, hefting a trophy shaped like a sandwich that she had just made.

"Huh?" Arnold asked, confused.

I watched out of the corner of my eye from the blackboard.

"You just broke the record for being the best field trip ever!" Wanda told him, placing the award in front of him.

"Wh…what?"Arnold asked, still completely lost, his lunch abandoned.

Wanda stared dreamily at the diagram of the digestive system on the board. "And giving me the ride of my dreams!"

Arnold looked around. "You mean, I was the field trip?" Everyone nodded.

"Yup." Wanda said.

Arnold stood up. "But… where exactly did you go…?" His stomach let out a loud gurgle. Everyone looked down at it.

"You went… inside?!" He asked, sounding horrified.

All the other students giggled.

Arnold turned towards me and raised one hand. "Ms. Frizzle," he said, his other hand over his heart. "No matter what, I'll never miss another field trip. Never, ever, ever, EVER!"

Well not exactly the change I'd had in mind but good nevertheless. I smiled at him.

"Wonderful Arnold!" I returned to my current task of writing the names of the geologic periods of the Mesozoic on the board. On the back of my new dress was an impressive-looking T-rex.

Arnold gulped. "Starting, right after the next one…" He muttered. We all laughed again as he blushed. Oh Arnold. I can see I have my work cut out for me with you…but your future will be worth it.