The Magic School Bus: A Fish Tail? Merpeople aaaaarrrreeee Real?

by Ag211

8th grader Phoebe and her friends Keesha, Arnond, Wanda, Tim, Ralphie, Carlos and DA find their day at the beach begins to turn fishy when something and someone familiar emerges out of the ocean. They soon find that their beloved old teacher Ms Frizzle is missing and Liz needs their help to find her. Soon the old class are each given a fish tail to slip on instead of scuba gear.

4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

Swimming with Tails

"Ha ha ha ha! Very funny! Liz now give us some scuba masks!" cries Carlos while Liz was pressing the button again and again. "Maybe the Bus malfunctioned again?" says DA, i kinda smiled towards the tails. I stepped up and grabbed a red one. Each tail was in our signature colours covered in what looked like scales "Phoebe what are you doing?" asked Tim.

"They may not be scuba masks, wet suits and flippers but its a kind of flipper! C'mon let's try it!" i suggested happily as i look down the whole in the base of the tail. This was spooky the bus may be malfunctioning but wasn't listening to our chatter about mermaids and merman "Maybe the bus wants us to be come merpeople" i say with a giggle.

"Phoebe, seriously? If we slip those on how are we going to breath underwater?" asks DA, "We let's find out!" i answer back to her. Suddenly Liz presses another button and a large trap door opens in the floor revealing a pool to the ocean "I knew this was going to be a field trip!" cries Arnold, "Oh Arn, think of this as an adventure!" says Ralphie.

Everyone grabs a tail, each of them felt like real fish tails. They didn't feel fake to us, there was no way they were made from fabric or wet suit material. We all sit on the edges of the pool and slipped the tails on over our legs over our swim suits "Perfect fit!" says Wanda.

"Well!" says Carlos, "Let's go and look for Ms Frizzle!" i cry without thinking as i slip off the pools edge while holding my breath. Suddenly i feel something strange like almost a bolt of lighting go through my body as i touch the water "What was that?" i said in my head in concern. I had my eyes closed.

I feel myself sink down, the tail was heavy and i needed air. So i use my arms to help me swim to the surface or back up to the Bus Submarine to get air but something was urging me to breath. Like i could hear the ocean speak to me once again, it sounded like Ms Frizzle's voice.

"Ms Frizzle?" i cry as i open my eyes but Ms Frizzle was no where to be seen "I must be hearing things, hang on? Am i breathing and speaking underwater?". I had totally forgot that i was underwater and that i was human and...humans cannot breath underwater but instead of panicking i felt calm.

I look around at my surroundings and then down at myself. I looked like a real mermaid! Yes i still was wearing my bikini top along with the tail that Liz had provided. I was breathing naturally like i was on land without an aid of a oxygen tank "I'm, i'm, like a real mermaid, we all are like real mer..." i shout realising that i was the only one present.

Everyone else hadn't jumped off the Bus Submarine yet "Ok, let's get this tail working!" i say to myself as i attempted to swim up towards the Bus Submarine. It wasn't hard i soon got the hang of it. I soon make my reappearance in the pool my popping my head out of its surface greeting everyone.

"Phoebe!" everyone cried "Thank goodness your ok!", i giggled "All of you get in now, something amazing will happen!" i cry to them with a smile before ducking under again. I swim under and stop to watch Keesha, Wanda, DA, Tim, Ralphie, Carlos and Arnold get in the water.

One by one each of them get in and sink down like i did. I couldn't help see them all twitch like i did as i entered like they all felt the lightening bolt feeling in their bodies. They all had their eyes closed and were holding their breaths.

I giggle and swim up to them to talk to them, telling them to open their eyes and take a breath. They all slowly opened their eyes and all waved their arms struggling to swim like i did at first. I then calmly tell him again to not be scared to take a breath before their faces turned blue.

"WHAT?" says Arnold at first, "Yay! Well done Arnold!" i say as i congratulated him for listening to me. "Wow! Hey guys, Phoebe's right we can breath underwater!" Arnold shouts to everyone. Arnold and i grabbed who we can before they all sank down any further.

First Wanda, took a breath, then Tim, then Keesha and DA, then Ralphie, then lastly Carlos. "This is so COOL!" shouts Wanda, "We can swim and breath underwater!" Tim says. Everyone begins to swim using their new tails, Arnold and i also joined them in joy.

DA swims beside me "We've become mermaids!" she whispers to me as Carlos swims on my other side "Surely not real mermaids!" Carlos yells in wonder "Carlos, you and the boys have become merman!" i laugh at the shirtless boy, "Well hopefully this is just temporary and its just the Bus's malfunctioning" Carlos says in an annoyed voice.

No one else seemed annoyed and seemed thrilled at the thought that we have become merpeople tempory, hopefully!. "These's tails are like giant slippers!" cried Keesha, "Guess we will just have to keep swimming to get use to them!" says Ralphie "We should start looking for Ms Frizzle!". Ralphie was right we did need to start looking for Ms Frizzle and stop getting distracted.

"Ralphie's right, we need to find her!" cries DA "Even if that does mean with...tails!", we soon find that we are all in some sort of spotlight. We all look up to find, the Bus Submarine and Liz still inside. She waved to us and we all waved back "I think she is going to stay in the Bus Submarine and follow us!" i say "Or we follow it!" says Carlos.

Just then the Bus Submarine does something funny it starts to twil again creating almost like a whirlpool in its presence. We all try to swim away but we all get caught in it. We go around and around until it begins to die down "I think i am going to be sick!" says Ralphie, "Don't you mean sea sick?" cries Carlos. Carlos was up to his old joking tricks "CARLOS!" we all shouted at him.

"What in the whirlpool was that?" cries Arnold "A whirlpool!" answers Wanda frustratingly. I look around and soon find that the eight of us are alone "Ahhh guys where has the Bus Submarine gone?" i ask everyone. Everyone looks around too and indeed the Bus Submarine and Liz have disappeared.

We were now all alone in the ocean stuck in this state. "Oh bad, oh bad, oh bad, bad, bad! How long do you think we've got like, like this? Do you think we'll drown?" asks Keesha worriedly, i look towards her worriedly too. I then say to her while picking up my courage "I don't know, i just don't know but we need to find Ms Frizzle, Liz and the bus Merpeople or not!". Everyone agreed, time was upon us and we had to use it wisley.