Inside Ralphie

It was broadcast day. However, despite the excitement all my students had expressed over this day for the past week, now that the day had come, moral was low and panic reigned.

Why? Ralphie was nowhere to be found.

"We can't do it without him!" Wanda cried.

"And we go on in an hour!" Carlos observed.

"Where is he?" Keesha, Tim and DA all asked, desperately watching the window in case he happened to come running in late.

A phone began ringing from somewhere inside the closet.

I raced towards the noise. "I'll get it!" I sang.

I pulled open the door, surprised that nothing fell out. The inside of this closet was still an unlordly mess. Well, that is what happens when seven rooms are compressed into one, all of them stuffed with objects I had accumulated to help me survive and blend in this year. The BUS was still getting itself settled into this new space, trying to figure out where everything could fit. All the same, I should probably tidy it up in the near future, to help my poor BUS out. Who knows what I'll find tucked away in here?

As the ringing continued, I pulled a shoe out of the way. Hmmm, only one…I'd have to find the other soon, these might be useful in the near future… Tossing that aside, I noticed something green and scaly sticking out from under a French horn and a rubber tube. Moving them aside, I discovered a very dazed and confused Lizalria curled up on the ringing phone.

"I was wondering where you got to…" I crooned to Liz, gently scooping her up in one hand while answering the phone with the other.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Ms. Frizzle?"

I remembered this voice. "Yes, Dr. Tennelli!" I greeted her. Ralphie's mother seemed somewhat surprised I had recognized her from her voice alone. I'd need to work on that, humans were very suspicious of my uncanny memory and substantially better hearing it seemed.

"Uhh…well, I'm calling because, as I'm sure you've noticed…Raphie isn't at school today."

I listened carefully, occasionally making a sound of understanding or affirmation.

"I'm afraid he may have caught strep throat from one of my patients last week."

"Oh? He's sick?" I replied, "Oh poor Ralphie…"

There was a slight tingling sensation on my back, as if someone had just tickled me with a strong gust of wind.

"Why aren't I surprised?" I heard Arnold mutter to himself.

I was pretty sure some of my dresses had an odd habit of changing unexpectedly, making them appear to be moving. It seems there was some kind of flaw in my perception filter, I'd have to look into that.

"I've put him on bed rest." Dr. Tennelli was saying.

"Of course, he must stay in bed!" I replied.

Ralphie's mother made a noise of affirmation. "Hopefully he'll be back in school tomorrow. Thanks Ms. Frizzle."

"Yes Dr. Tennelli, thank you for calling! Bye-bye!" I hung up.

"Is Ralphie staying home from school today, Ms. Frizzle?" Arnold asked. Most of my class was lined up behind me, clamoring to hear any news I had.

"Yes, I'm afraid so Arnold." I replied, closing the closet door and walking away.

This news was particularly troubling to Wanda. "What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?" She lamented, grabbing Arnold desperately by his collar and shaking him.

I couldn't have Ralphie missing broadcast day. After all, I was getting a wonderful idea about just what we could cover for our report.

"Why, we're taking school to him, of course!" I announced, drawing the entire classes' attention. Wasn't that obvious? I opened the classroom door. "To the BUS!"

"Are we doing broadcast day from Ralphie's bedroom?" DA asked as we drove out of the school parking lot and turned towards Ralphie's house.

I nodded. "What better place to take chances, make mistakes…?"

"And it sure is messy!" I heard Carlos whisper in the back.

"Ms. Frizzle," Arnold asked timidly. "Are you sure this isn't a field trip?"

I smiled conspiratorially at him. "What do you think, Arnold?" I pressed a button on the control panel, briefly activating my resident nano-genes. They sprung to action, wiping away every trace of disease on the BUS and giving each of my students a small boost in their immune system. The BUS changed itself into a sterile doctor's vehicle with a pop.

Arnold slumped down in his seat. "I think Ralphie shouldn't have stayed home today…" He moaned.

The drive to Ralphie's house was short and uneventful, mostly consisting of my students speculating what we would cover. We pulled up outside his house and spilled out of the BUS onto his front lawn. The BUS honked loudly and after a few seconds, Ralphie poked his head out of an upstairs window.

"Hi! We're here!" Everyone shouted.

Ralphie rubbed his eyes, looking confused.

"HALLO!" I called. "Ralphie! We're here!"

He vanished from the window.

"Come along class!" I called to my students, "to Ralphie's room!" Carlos and Keesha took the lead, racing through the small house and up the stairs to a room with a large red 'R' on the door.

"Hi Ralphie!" Carlos called as he opened the door. "How're ya doing?"

"Uhhhhh…" Ralphie articulated, glancing around in confusion as we all entered his bedroom.

"gee," Keesha said, slowly approaching his bedside, "you look terrible." I had to agree. Based on my limited knowledge of human anatomy, he definitely looked pale and tired.

DA pushed past her, all business as she laid out her make-up bag. "Don't worry, I'll have you camera-ready in no time!" She applied powder heavily to his face, making him cough.

"Is it just me?" He asked as the rest of us began setting up our broadcast equipment. "Or is my entire class standing in my room?"

"Aren't you glad to see us?" Carlos asked, checking the focus on camera 1.

I supported a floodlight as Wanda tightened the joints. "We came to do broadcast day!" Wanda told Ralphie.

He smiled. "Really? What a great idea!"

I chuckled. "Now and then I do have them Ralphie." I said, connecting the power and pouring bright light into our reporting space.

"Speaking of great ideas," Keesha began turning to him. "what's yours?"

Ralphie paled even more than he already was. "Mine?" He croaked. "You mean for broadcast day?" His speech dissolved into hacking coughs and he collapsed back on his pillows.

"Oh you better take it easy Ralphie," I cautioned him, walking over and placing a gentle hand on his burning forehead. "Your body is telling you to slooowwwww dowwwnnnnn!"

"But Ms. Frizzle, I cant! We have a show to do!" He protested, sitting up again. "What does my body know anyway?"

I smiled at him. "Oh it knows a lot about the detection, and rejection, of infection, Ralphie!" I pointed at his shirt, which was covered with poorly-rendered planets and star cruisers. The perception filter wobbled slightly and the figures on his shirt began moving: some of the smaller ships attacking the larger cruiser with lasers. I'd really need to adjust that stupid filter if I didn't want it to go crazy.

"Inside you, at this moment, there is action, excitement, adventure!" I declared, now addressing my entire class, including Arnold, who had somehow managed to get himself tangled in a cable.

"Exactly what we need for our show!" Carlos told Dorothy Anne.

"So, what's your idea, Ralphie?" she urged him.

Ralphie faltered again. "ahhh…wellll…." It didn't take long for him to start coughing again. He let out a moan and fell back against the pillows. "what's going on with my body anyway?"

I knew he'd get there eventually. "ahh! That's an excellent question Ralphie!" I declared. I spun on my heel. "Class!" I called, "everyone back to the BUS!"

I marched determinedly out of the room as my students gasped in confusion.

"Ms. Frizzle, we just got here!" Phoebe pointed out.

"Mmmhhh." I acknowledged, herding her and the others out of the room so that Ralphie and Lizalria were left alone. "Single file, please!"

"Wait!" Ralphie called after us. But I didn't reply. We'd be back soon enough.

My class filed diligently back outside and took their seats, still looking very confused.

I snapped the BUS doors shut and set about making adjustments to the interior. Mainly, setting up a connection to the equipment we'd left in Ralphie's bedroom. "Broadcast day" wasn't so much live television as what I planned to pass off as a very well-made class film about illness. But it was a learning experience for them and I wanted it to feel more important than it was.

And it was a monumental day for Tim. I couldn't let this day slip by without putting his first camera in his hands.

"Ms. Frizzle," DA finally asked after several seconds of my mad adjustments to the cockpit controls. "What are we doing?"

I reset the shrinkerscope and seated myself in the pilot's chair. "We're getting the inside story!" I declared, pulling the chameleon circuit.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" Arnold asked quietly.

We spun around rapidly several times and then lifted off into the air on a small rotational propeller. Now about the size of a moth, we easily drifted right through Ralphie's open window.

"Wait a minute!" He called, confused. "What's going on?"

I pulled out a megaphone and put the BUS into hover mode.

"Ahh, it was your idea, Ralphie!" I reminded him over the thumping of our propeller. "We're here to get the inside story!"

"Inside story?" He asked. "Inside what? What about broadcast day?"

"Think Ralphie!" I urged him. "Where is all the action right now?"

He still seemed lost. "The action?"

Liz jumped up on his shoulder and held his nose, pulling his head back so his mouth hung open.

"Liz, what are you doing?" He asked, than the light bulb went off. "Hang on a second…"

Liz let go of his nose and smiled at him.

"The action is all inside me!" Ralphie declared. "What a great idea! Broadcast day could be about what's going on inside me!"

I grinned. "Excellent Ralphie," I knew he'd get there eventually. I took a deep breath and yelled into the megaphone: "RRRRRRRRROOOOOLLLLLL TAPE!"

Everyone on board the BUS scrambled to their stations: DA to research, Keesha to inter-BUS reporting, Phoebe, Tim and Carlos to mobile cameras. I watched in the rearview mirror as Tim picked up a camera and placed it on his shoulder, carefully adjusting the eyepiece and white-balance and looking around in wonder as the camera changed its presentation of the world. So far so good.

Several minutes later, we were all set to begin our 'broadcast'.

Ralphie led us in via Liz-cam, describing the scene of our reporting as "a natural disaster of major proportions." He then passed it to Keesha who asked the question I hoped my students would soon find an answer to "what's making Ralphie sick?"

"And to do that," Ralphie finished, "they'll go straight to the trouble zone." He rubbed his throat. "My sore throat."

"Seatbelts everyone!" I called. I was really enjoying getting to say that all the time. I leaned my head out of the BUS window again and addressed our patient through the megaphone. "Ralphie…say ahhh!"

He opened his mouth wide and I hit the shrinkerscope. We shrunk down to fly-size and zoomed right towards the pink target of the roof of Ralphie's mouth. He gulped us down as we reached the back of his throat.

I was careful to avoid the esophagus this time. My students had already seen the digestive system, and we were on a mission!

"The FNN news team is nearing the disaster area." Keesha told our BUS cam as we tipped down the back of Ralphie's throat into his trachea. "In a moment, we will have live footage."

We approached the opening to Ralphie's throat, an enormous pink and red flap of skin that rasped with incoming and outgoing air.

"SEE ANYTHING YET?" Ralphie asked. The act of him speaking made the walls around us shake. My students cried out in surprise and alarm as they were battered around.

It only took me a few seconds to stabilize the BUS against the assault.

"Get a shot of those vocal chords class!" I commanded. Tim hovered over my shoulder, pointing his camera steadily at the moving walls in front of us. My instinct had been right, he was a natural.

"Look how red and swollen his throat is!" He commented.

"No wonder it hurts!" Phoebe agreed, covering her ears against the rasping of Ralphie's breath.

"The question is," Ralphie commented, "why is it red and swollen? And why does it..?" He broke out into a violent fit of coughing. So violent it threw off the stabilizers.

Oh dear.

We bounced around Ralphie's trachea as continuous buffets of wind forced us back…back…

I frantically tried to engage the stabilizers, the gravity-reorienters, anything! But we were caught.

With a hack, we were forcefully expelled out of Ralphie's mouth and flew across the room uncontrollably.

The gravity sensors kicked in about half a second after we exited Ralphie's mouth. But I could do nothing about the velocity. The stabilizers weren't responding. Oh dear, I certainly hope I wont need to replace them…that gets expensive.

Thankfully, Lizalria reacted quickly enough to stop our momentum. The baseball glove she held out cushioned our fall and the BUS's mechanisms prevented any bodily harm. I upped the safety standards just to be sure.

Liz carried us back to Ralphie as he looked around in confusion for us. She held out the glove to him. Very carefully, he picked us up and placed us on his finger.

"Ralphie!" Wanda chastised him, sticking her head out the BUS window and glaring. "Did you have to cough?"

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, covering up another cough. "I couldn't help it…"

"At this rate we'll never get the inside story of what's making Ralphie sick!" Wanda bemoaned pulling her head back inside. "We've got to find another way in!"

I nodded in agreement. "It's not as easy for us, or germs to get inside the body as you might think."

"Yeah," Ralphie spoke up again. "Skin pretty much covers it." He scratched absentmindedly at a healing strip on his right leg. "How are you going to get the inside story if you cant get inside?"

I was silent, letting my students think. Suddenly Ralphie brightened with realization. "Wait a second…I've got it!" He gently lowered us to rest on his leg, right next to the healing cut.

"Look at this! Is it just me, or does this say: this way in?" He peeled the healing strip back to reveal a small but open wound in his skin.

"It's a short cut!" Carlos joked. "Get it? Short cut?"

"Carlos! Yuck!" The girls replied.

"Excellent observation Carlos!" I congratulated him. He'd hit the nail on the head with that one. "Seatbelts everyone!" I cried and reset the shrinkerscope, sealing all the windows with the same motion. We shrank down to one-one thousandth our original size and splashed down into the pool of slightly congealed blood.

"Wow!" Ralphie exclaimed. Then he turned to the camera: "You saw it first on FNN news! Hey you guys!" He called to us. "The whole world wants to know: now that you've found a way in, how are you gonna get to my throat?"

Wanda recognized that issue too. "Ralphie's right!" She exclaimed. "We're all the way down at the knee!"

The scan of Ralphie's system was nearly complete. My smart old BUS had begun it the moment we touched down in his blood. I adjusted the screens, giving the BUS a telepathic command to translate the scan into graphics rather than Gallifreyian. "Let's see if I can put you in the picture…" Ralphie's form slowly came into focus on the screen. "As I always say: for every trip, there's a road map!" I pressed another button and the scan obediently switched to its visual of Ralphie's circulatory system.

Keesha recognized it instantly. "That's Ralphie's blood stream!"

"Could we travel through his blood stream to get to his throat?" DA asked, her voice bursting with curiosity.

I smiled, glad that someone was on board with my original plan. "Absolutely Dorothy Anne! We'll take the trans-Ralphie highway system! And here we go!" I pulled a few levers and we were off.

The BUS sank slowly through the first few millimeters of blood due to the healing that was already going on. But once we were deep in the blood vessel, the viscosity fell sharply and the BUS's propellers were easily able to move us forwards. We passed through the blood stream, surrounded by massive red walls that kept Ralphie alive and moving and breathing. Marvelous. The human system appeared to be only a simpler, earlier evolutionary system to the binary-vascular system of the Time Lords. This would be easier than I thought!

Ralphie continued his report from his bed, the microphone he was wearing — along with the one attached to Liz's horn — providing me with updates to what he was up to. Just like with Arnold, I had to keep an eye on the student we were examining, didn't I? "This is Ralphie for FNN news," he was saying. "My entire class has just dived deep into my cut! And it doesn't even hurt!"

I turned him down slightly to focus on driving and on the rest of my students. We had reached one of the walls of Ralphie's artery and were now faced with dozens upon dozens of tiny little tubes to choose from.

"What are those?" Tim asked, squinting out the window at them as blood rushed by us.

I braked and stood up to better explain to the class. "Those are tiny, tiny blood vessels. They're all part of the blood stream." Now came the fun part. "Eenie, meenie, minee, mo!" I cried, choosing one of the tiny tubes at random and pulling the lever for the shrinkerscope. We shrunk again, this time to barely the size of a single cell. With this advantage, we drove right into the blood vessel and set off through Ralphie's body.

I hummed some random Earth song I'd studied as we drifted through Ralphie's blood. I confess I didn't remember all the words but the tune was enough.

"Head north, Ms. Frizzle!" Carlos informed me, watching our progress on the scan. We shot out of the blood vessel and into another artery. I hung a sharp left, shouting "yee-ha!" as my students stumbled around and cried out.

"Tim," I called as we straightened out again. "Are you getting this shot?"

He started, the camera having been forgotten in the excitement of the past few minutes. Quickly he picked it up again, turned it on and strode confidently to the front of the BUS. Placing the camera on his shoulder, he angled a perfect shot out the front windows of the BUS, capturing the blood cells streaming by around us. I nearly cried.

The images from Tim's camera were being instantly sent to Ralphie's TV and being recorded by the BUS. It would be helpful later for sure.

"Is that my blood?" Ralphie asked through the headset. With a mental command, I transferred that feed to the main BUS speakers so that my students could hear him as well. "But, I thought blood was red? That stuff is clear!"

"That's right Ralphie!" I replied, speeding up a bit. We were almost at his chest, not too long before we hit the throat now. "The liquid part of the blood is clear."

"So what are those red things? Are they what make blood look red?"

"Scintillating surmise, Ralphie!" I commended him. The BUS had changed the visual feed on our screen to one from the camera Liz was operating in his room. Ralphie peered at us, amazed at what we were showing him.

"According to my research…" Came a voice from behind me. I turned and smiled at Dorothy Anne, already buried in her book on human anatomy from the school library. "They're called red blood cells. And the white ones, are white blood cells!" She finished proudly.

"But what are those jaggedy things?" Ralphie asked.

"Those are platelets." I replied.

"They help the body heal scrapes and cuts." Keesha spoke up, DA pouting as her research was stated for her.

"But we still don't know what's making me feel sick!" Ralphie exclaimed, disappearing off the camera feed. "And boy do I feel sick!"

A new, distant voice sounded through the headset. "RALPHIE! I'M HOME!"

I cut the connection instantly, muting it to my students but keeping it in my ears. I knew that voice.

Ralphie's mother was back. Oh dear. I'd have to be very careful about how the rest of this went. Thankfully, if she ever saw this again, she'd think it was just a well-made educational film. We'd just need to be careful about how we proceeded.

I kept half an ear to the conversation as I continued my drive through Ralphie's blood. It seemed Ralphie had successfully hidden the broadcast equipment from his mother and was trying his best to get her to leave the room. But she noticed the feed on the television set and sat down on Ralphie's bed to watch our 'broadcast'. Well, time to get creative about this.

"We're here!" I called to my students as we approached Ralphie's throat tissue.

"We are?" Phoebe asked, peering out the window in confusion. Carlos joined her.

"We're in Ralphie's throat?" He asked.

"There are a lot more white blood cells here!" DA observed.

Wanda pressed her nose against the BUS window, watching the cells squeeze through the throat tissue. "Where are they going?" She asked.

"Looks like they're after something." Tim observed, peeking out from behind his camera.

"Follow the white blood cells!" Ralphie shouted in my ear. I mentally adjusted the output volume. Maybe I should give some of my other students headsets so that they could listen to Ralphie.

"Tantalizing theory, Tim!" I commended my camera man for his observation. Raising my voice slightly, I addressed everyone else. "Hold now class, we're following the white blood cells!" Giving them all half a second to sit back down, I spun the wheel hard and drove right at the wall of the blood vessel. The BUS wriggled and twisted and may have used an additional dimension or two but managed to squeeze through the tight, overlapping walls and into Ralphie's throat tissue proper.

"Now that we're inside Ralphie's throat tissue," I addressed my class, bending over a box of supplies, "Time for some on the spot reporting! Up close, and personal." I picked out two of the specially designed wetsuits my students had used last field trip to great success as well as a liquid-proof camera and microphone. "Keesha, Carlos, Camera 1." I decided. I handed Keesha the gear and returned to rummaging through the box for another set. I already had another pair in mind…now where had I put that new suit?

"Phoebe and…" I glanced up, seeing the second of my new pair pointedly avoiding eye contact with me. That didn't stop me though. "…Arnold! You take Camera 2!" I instructed them, dumping the gear into Arnold's arms.

"I'm the one who should have stayed home today." Arnold moaned as he hefted the pile of gear.

The others I assigned to their predetermined jobs, with a few changes to cover the new absences. Wanda was lead anchor in the news studio (aka, the BUS), and DA was back at the breaking news research station. That only left Tim.

"Now Tim, I have a special job in mind for you…" I said to him. He brightened immediately and stood up to follow me. I led him over to the BUS's elaborate control panel space where all the live camera feeds were being beamed and the output was being sent to Ralphie's television and the BUS's memory. "You're going to be in charge of everything." I told him, gesturing for him to take a seat in front of the enormous display. He looked like he was about to protest but I plopped a headset on him and set about telling him which buttons did what. Tim looked a little overwhelmed but he listened attentively and seemed to be following my instructions.

Ralphie and his mother were talking again but I tuned them out in favor of getting this project underway.

In the few minutes it had taken me to get Tim settled, the others were prepared to begin. My camera crews had suited up and were preparing to disembark. I unscrewed the BUS's floor hatch and sent them on their way, advising them to 'stay together!'. DA pulled on another headset and Wanda seated herself at the main desk. With a silent command from Tim, we began our broadcast in full.

"…And now," Wanda began confidently. "over to Keesha and Carlos, live from the throat!"

"Ralphie…" I heard Dr. Tennelli say in my ear. "That little girl looks just like your friend Wanda!" Well, this could very easily fall apart. Perhaps it would be worth adding a perception filter after all…and I definitely couldn't make any appearances on camera now. Not until she left.

Tim expertly shifted the camera feeds so that Camera 1 came through loud and clear. "Carlos here," Carlos began, talking at the camera Keesha was holding. "We're out here in the throat tissues trying to find out what's going on and…" He paused, then pointed at something to his left. "Hey! What's that?" He swam off, leaving Keesha to hurriedly catch up to him.

Carlos stopped alongside a lovely gathering of several Streptococcus pyogenes, hungrily devouring the throat tissue around them. "Look at that folks!" Carlos cried, barely dodging a pyogenes as it fell upon a cell below him. It rested for a moment, then the cell it was resting on popped. "Have we got us some action here!" Carlos continued as Keesha captured the shot. "Those yellow-green balls are destroying that wall!"

"What are those green things?" Ralphie asked. Oh, if only I could answer him! Thankfully, his mother was there to provide him with a satisfactory answer.

"Those are bacterial cells! They're actually not unlike the bacteria that are making you sick!"

Ralphie sounded horrified. "THAT'S bacteria and it's making me sick?" I caught DA's attention. "Looks like we've got our first breaking news segment!" I told her, relying Ralphie's conversation to her headset. DA quickly typed up a report and ran it to Wanda.

Tim switched cameras as Wanda took DA's report. "This just in folks!" She read. "That's bacteria, and it's making Ralphie sick."

A quick pan over to the research station, where DA was flipping through an enormous encyclopedia. "And according to my research, bacteria are germs." She tore a printed report from the BUS's analyzer and skimmed it hastily. "Once inside our bodies, they can make us sick. Ralphie has a bacterial infection!" She declared.

"This is it!" Ralphie called through the headset. "The inside story! Bacteria invade throat!"

"Is it just me…" I heard Dr. Tennelli begin "or did they say 'Ralphie'?"

"No, no" Ralphie replied. "It says here this show's about a guy named… 'Alphie'" His voice came through quieter now. "Ixnay on my amnay!"

Oh I was going to try Ralphie, but there's only so much I can do.

As evidenced by Carlos' continuing report since he hadn't heard the warning: "The bacteria from Ralphie's throat infection are everywhere! And they're destroying his throat cells!"

Keesha panned over the devastation with a steady hand. Interesting, perhaps she had a future in the movies as well…

"Look!" Carlos called, "here come some white blood cells!" They raced by him so quickly he was forced to spin out of the way. "Wow!"

The white blood cells descended upon the infection, doing exactly what I had anticipated they would do.

"It's throwing stuff at the bacteria!" Carlos observed, swimming closer for a tighter shot. Keesha followed him like a shadow, never wavering in her camera work. They followed a white blood cell as it moved among the infection. When it came upon a bacteria strain covered in antibodies, it snatched it up, absorbing it completely and obliterating it.

Carlos seemed equal parts shocked and amazed. "That…that was incredible! That white blood cell just ate those bacteria!" He swam closer to a thicker part of the infection, trying to get a good look at all the action as more white blood cells spat out antibodies and devoured the marked bacteria. I shifted the BUS a little closer. Didn't want him wandering too far off.

"That huge battle is going on inside me?" Ralphie asked. He coughed violently then hastily added. "I mean…inside A…Alphie?" He coughed again, more violently this time. Oh dear, he was getting worse. We shouldn't keep him up much longer. He needed rest.

Carlos found he may have wandered a little too far into the action for his report. "This battle is raging!" He cried, dodging a white blood cell as it raced past him. "Who's going to win?" Even Keesha seemed to be having trouble keeping up as the camera jostled violently, almost out of her grip.

"No wonder I'm sick…" Ralphie moaned tiredly.

It seemed that Arnold and Phoebe were finally in position to give us some action. As naturally timid as he was, Arnold had steered clear of the action Carlos was covering and had instead crept off to a different area of the throat where the white blood cells had not yet begun their assault.

"Arnold here." He began, Phoebe focusing her camera on him. "On location with the infection." He turned to a small coupling of bacterial cells. "I'm going to try to get an exclusive interview with these two bacteria…" The cells before him stretched, warped, than spat out identical daughter cells. They now totaled four.

Arnold tried to keep up, but quickly realized that the infection was multiplying too fast for us. "Hey guys!" He shouted, waving panicked at Phoebe's camera. "They're multiplying! Help!"

"Bad news guys!" Carlos and Keesha reported in. "The bacteria from the infection are multiplying faster than the white blood cells can gobble them up!"

"We're losing!" Keesha exclaimed. "Let's get out of here!"

My students beat a hasty retreat, swimming back towards the BUS as fast as they could. I was at the control panel, hastily preparing for their unscheduled re-entry. Carlos and Keesha were first, with Phoebe and a positively terrified Arnold not far behind. Wanda and DA helped each of them up through the floor hatch. Chaos reigned for a few minutes as the camera crews stripped off their wetsuits and everyone chattered endlessly, Wanda practically shouting: "whatdowedo? Whatdowedo?"

I was about to remind everyone that we were still "on air" and the story was going on without us when Tim unexpectedly spoke up.

"Guys!" He called, effectively silencing everyone. "The story!"

While everyone else was panicking, Tim had switched back to the dashboard camera and was diligently single-handedly running the whole broadcast. I was impressed.

"Come along class!" I called to everyone. "We've got a story to finish!"

The rest of them scrambled to get back into their places or get out of the way. In the confusion (and because Wanda was still having a little trouble calming down), DA ended up in the anchor seat.

I fiddled with my set of controls as she prepared herself to give an update. I frowned slightly. We had lost the feed to Ralphie's TV. I flipped a few switches, trying to reestablish the connection but it was blocked from the other end. His mother must have turned off the TV. Maybe Ralphie had fallen asleep and she'd finally left? Well, I wouldn't know until Liz got the connection back up and running again…

Like clockwork, the signal crackled, then sprang back into full connection just as DA began her report. Ralphie could see us again. I mentally check the feed in his headset, trying to scope out if Dr. Tennelli was still in the room. I didn't hear anything from his microphone or Liz's. We were alone again. Good.

"Over to me, Dorothy Anne." DA was saying from the newsdesk. "Right now the white blood cells are losing!"

"Certainly looks that way, Dorothy Anne." I commented, glancing out the window behind her. Red blood cells were bursting almost constantly now, the BUS rocking slightly as the onslaught continued.

I was going to have to replace the stabilizers wasn't I?

"They need help!" DA continued, turning back to the camera. "They need back-up support!" She threw herself forward, practically touching the screen to shout her report to our patient. "Ralphie! Did you hear me? Where's our back-up support!?"

"B…back-up support…?" He asked wearily, sounding half-asleep. "Wh…where do I get that?"

I checked my time-piece and saw that, assuming my calculations were correct, the moment was just about upon us. "Not to worry Ralphie," I consoled him. "it's already on its way. Cue the medicine!"

Even as I was speaking, a gush of purple liquid ran through the walls of his bloodstream and into his throat tissue. It washed over and around the BUS, bathing us in the scent of Earth grape shoe polish.

"Is that the medicine mom gave me earlier?" Ralphie asked.

"It sure is Ralphie."

"Look what it's doing!" Keesha called, pointing out the window.

The medicine engulfed the infection, bathing the Streptococcusin its embalming fluid. Several bacterial cells burst or split in half, shuddering in revulsion as the healing concoction did its work.

"it's destroying more bacteria!" Keesha observed as Tim turned a camera to capture the action. "The medicine is giving the white blood cells another chance!"

"And they're throwing out even more of those stick things!" Carlos added as a wave of antibodies and white blood cells passed us. The cells descended upon the weakened bacteria, making quick work of the desolated infection. A swarm of antibodies clouded the BUS.

"Oh those 'stick things' are antibodies!" I clarified for my class, realized I'd never explained what those were. "The white blood cells use them to mark the bacteria!"

The swarm was getting thicker, and a few — well, actually more than a few — were beginning to stick to the exterior.

"I hope this doesn't mean what I think it means…" Arnold said anxiously.

Interesting, it appeared a few of the antibodies had found pseudo-docking ports along the BUS exterior and were sending out a signal to the white blood cells that we were not supposed to be here.

"Oh no!"Arnold cried as a white blood cell swam up to us and then tried to fit itself around us. "Ralphie's antibodies have marked the BUS as bacteria!"

"But we're not bacteria…" Phoebe said as more white blood cells surrounded us and the BUS began to rock from their attack. "We're Ralphie's friends!"

I watched in fascination as the cells began to cover the BUS windows and gnaw on the instruments. "But his white blood cells are doing such a good job," I remarked. "They now recognize us as enemies too!"

"Enemies?" Arnold asked, stepping into the aisle so he could stand in front of me. "But we know what white blood cells do to enemies!"

"That's right Arnold," I told him cheerfully. "They'll try to destroy us!" The key word being try. I wasn't worried. This BUS had survived far worse than some angry cells.

"DESTROY US?" Everyone shouted. Several of them exchanged terrified expression.

I was thrilled. Yet another unexpected discovery. First the stomach acid, now this? "Ah, the wonder…of the human body…" It truly was a feat of evolution.

Arnold was not as excited by the prospect of this discovery as I was.

"RALPHIE!" he shouted, several of his classmates echoing him. "DO SOMETHING!" He ran to the camera and shouted it again, right into the feed.

But it was no use, Ralphie was fast asleep.

As unconcerned as I was about the whole thing, (did anyone honestly think those cells would make a scratch on a BUS like this?) I decided it would probably be best if Arnold didn't pass out.

"Don't worry class," I told them, shooing them back into their seats. "If they want to destroy us," I smirked. "Ralphie's white blood cells will have to catch us first."

I slammed the BUS into reverse, peeling off the cells trying to munch on us, then gunned it. We shot off through Ralphie's throat, pursued by several of his more aggressive cells.

A ringing sound came from the microphone feed in my ear as I dodged and wove through a field of bacteria and white blood cells. Lizalria was trying hard to wake Ralphie up. Now really Liz, let him get some sleep. He needs it.

"We've gotta get out of Ralphie's throat!" Keesha shouted as more cells joined the first three in hunting us.

"Good thinking Keesha!" I spun the wheel. "When the spot is tight, hang a right!" We slammed into Ralphie's throat tissue wall, once again squeezing between the cells. Five or six extra dimensions later, we wriggled our way into Ralphie's throat from the inside.

I kept moving, not wanting to run into any rouge cells. We travelled up, finally coming to a rest deep in his nasal pharyngeal passages.

"Where are we?" Keesha asked, looking around.

"Are we safe from those white blood cells?" Arnold asked, poking his head over the seat.

I ignored them all for the moment, pulling the BUS up short before the walls closed in around us. It was getting quite tight up here. And I didn't want to risk the stabilizers coming completely undone if I used the shrinkerscope again. Maybe it would be faster if Ralphie could just…

"Tim." I called, inadvertently getting everyone's attention. I may have spoken a bit loudly on account of Lizalria smashing some kind of gong into the feed of the headset Ralphie was wearing. "Could you get camera 4 rolling again please?" I asked Tim, wincing slightly as my ears stopped ringing and Ralphie began to shout through the headset in confusion. Tim dashed over to the control panel and flipped a switch, shooting me a confused look but saying nothing.

I smiled as the camera flickered on. "Ms. Frizzle here with an update on the Ralphie story," I began, mentally turning on one of the screens behind me with a scan of Ralphie's sinuses. "To escape the white blood cells, we've left Ralphie's throat and are now heading up his nasal pharyngeal passages." I indicated the glowing icon on the screen that was our current position.

"The what?" Keesha asked, from where she was operating sound.

DA flipped through her human anatomy text furiously. "According to my research that means…" She paused, looking up at me. "His NOSE?"

"WE'RE UP RALPHIE'S NOSE?!" Wanda shrieked.

My students all made noises of disgust, staring out of the windows with morbid fascination. But I was a little more interested in getting out.

"Of course there's no telling how long we'll have to stay here." I continued to the camera. "Or how long we can stay here…" Then I waited patiently. It was only a matter of time before Ralphie got the hint. And I was pretty sure Liz had already figured it out.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, fine black grains of pepper floated past us.

"Buckle up class!" I called about two seconds before we were violently expelled from Ralphie's nose. We soared across his bed, my students laughing in excitement and landed in a pile of socks. I adjusted the shrinkerscope settings as we landed. "Second floor boy's socks, going up!" We expanded back to a visible size and my students eagerly piled out of the BUS, hugging Liz and high-fiving.

Clutching their broadcast equipment, my students trekked up Ralphie's bed to finish the newscast, Keesha and Carlos climbing up onto his chest for a better shot. Ralphie watched us, lying prone and looking far worse than when we'd first arrived. I panicked briefly, wondering if I'd need to set a few nano-genes on him to ensure that he survived this sickness. But I quickly realized I was fretting too much. If the events of today were any indication, his body was going to keep him healthy for a long time.

"So Ralphie," Keesha asked him, "what do you have to say about today's amazing adventure?"

I climbed up next to him, listening in as my students recapped what they had learned from this broadcast and how Ralphie's body had been working to make him better this whole time. When Ralphie rolled to his side and closed his eyes, I knew it was time to go.

"Come along class…" I whispered as Ralphie yawned and mumbled to himself. We made our way silently back to the BUS, leaving Ralphie in peace at last.

Just as I was about to climb into the BUS, Ralphie murmured something in a dozy voice. "So that's the inside story, isn't it Ms. Frizzle?"

I paused, turning back. "That's the inside story Ralphie." I smiled. "Pretty amazing, don't you think?"

But he didn't answer, he was already fast asleep. I silently signaled Liz to keep an eye on him. She saluted me and hid under his covers. As sure as I was about Ralphie surviving this malady, I couldn't be too careful. His future was apparently too important for me to ignore or let fade.

I watched him through the window as my class settled in. He was out cold, probably already lost in a dream. My little dreamer…

The thought came and suddenly his future blazed out in front of me, like a beacon in the darkness of my time-sense. I shuddered from the force of it, nearly blacking out. Ralphie the dreamer…I'd need to reflect on what this meant when I was alone. But it seems my path for him was finally clear.

I blinked rapidly to clear my mind and focus on the present again. Wanda and Carlos were still settling into their seats. My fit had only lasted a few seconds. No one had noticed.

"We may have won the battle class," I told them, "but he's still fighting the war."

I closed the BUS doors and we took off to head back to school.

"Hey guys, how's this for a concept?" Wanda asked as we flew out of Ralphie's open window. "Inside Ralphie: the series!"

She went on to list several possible maladies that Ralphie could come down with, all so that we could further explore. But I was only half listening, preoccupied with my thoughts.

She sure is interested in sicknesses… I thought to myself. And she was very enthusiastic about anatomy when we explored the digestive system…Another light blazed across my time-sense, Wanda's this time, disorienting me entirely. Rather than Ralphie's light which had merely shone a little brighter, Wanda's expanded like a supernova. With a future that encompassed so much…including another future of one of my student's…the two lights intertwined deeply, practically becoming one bright bonfire of a future…

"Ms. Frizzle?" Phoebe called, seeming concerned. "Are you alright?"

I realized the BUS was bucking a little. My current episode had knocked me so far out of the present that we were tumbling around like a leaf.

I smiled at them all and righted the BUS instantly. "Perfectly fine Phoebe, just a little unexpected turbulence."

They all believed me, they always did, and they returned to plotting out whatever concept Wanda had been pitching them.

But the whole way back to school, I was careful to avoid thinking too much about any possible new revelations about their futures. We didn't need to fall out of the sky. But I went over what I did know based on what I had already done.

Tim needed to pick up a camera (done), Arnold needed confidence (working on it), Carlos needed direction (but which way?), DA needed research (on what, I had no idea), Phoebe needed… (well, I was still working on her), Keesha needed connections (whatever that meant), Ralphie needed dreams (I suppose that meant imagination) and Wanda needed…someone. One of them.

I glanced in the rear-view mirror, watching my students laugh and talk amongst themselves. My eyes slid to Wanda who was talking animatedly to Arnold and Keesha.

One of her fellow classmates was going to play a huge part in her future. But which one? She was already close to Arnold, so perhaps him? Or maybe Phoebe? The two of them could be good friends, given the proper chance.

But my time-sense offered no easy answer and I was too concerned about another blackout to ponder it too much further.

As it had in the past, time would tell me exactly what my students needed.

Or I would fail and return home to face execution.