Jim had been lying on Emily’s ankle, fast asleep, for a good while as the two of them were recovering from their exhaustion of the task of wrapping up the girl’s ankle.  They’d both worn themselves out during that trial and needed to rest to regain their strength.  Emily’s ankle wouldn’t be very usable right after it had been patched up anyways.  He was in a deep, dreamless sleep, until his body started to feel a tremor from below him. 

His eyes bolted open as a jolt of pain shot up through his leg when a tremor has made it twitch.  He sprung up to a sitting position, reaching down for his injured leg and shook his head as he realized that he’d been sleeping.  Yawning for a moment, Jim’s vision was soon focusing for him, revealing that he was sitting on Emily’s foot, just below his ankle.  However, he was more distracted by an enormous object that was now lying next to the foot he was currently sitting on, accompanied by a cloud of dust.

As Jim coughed from the dust that was falling down towards him, he struggled to see what had caused it.  As he looked more intently, he finally realized that the enormous object in question was no object at all.  It was a tall person.  Blinking a few times, he could see the person’s face directly next to the shoe, and as they picked themselves up, he immediately recognized them.  “FRAN!” he yelled, called up to his friend.

Fran was a little out-of-it when she was slowly picking herself up, recuperating from her fall.  As she raised her head from the dirt, her eyes stung a little from the dirty cloud she’d created.  After wiping on her eyes, she thought she heard something.  She raised her head, finding the voice curiously familiar.  “Huh?  Who’s there?”

As she looked around, the voice continued calling her name, until she finally looked down, and to the side.  Waving his arms at her was none other than Jim, smiling up towards her and calling her name.  Her jaw immediately dropped when she saw him, alive.  The fact that he was right there, in front of her, filled her with a feeling of joy.  Her irresponsibility of losing him didn’t end up killing him.  She smiled down at him, and her eyes began to tear up.

“Jimmy!  You’re okay!” she exclaimed.  As she looked down at him, her eyes began to focus on everything in the area, and her smile began to sink and turn into a frown.  Jim was safe, right there in front of her.  He was, however, sitting on top of some girl’s ankle.  Her eyes quickly judged the person in question and upon seeing her head, realized it was the same Crimson-haired cheerleader who’d kidnapped him earlier that day, sending her into a state of paranoia.

She quickly looked back at Jim with a frown on her face.  Her mind had filled up with strange images.  She thought to herself, about this whole situation of him being there, on this girl’s ankle.  They swirled around in her head, just begging to come out.  As she felt tension and nervousness at the situation, she began to let the thoughts come out, in the form of questions for Jim.

“Jimmy…what are you doing on that girl’s ankle?!”

Jim was immediately frozen in place at Fran’s sudden change in tone.  He’d been so happy to see her.  She was a familiar face and would likely be able to help both him and Emily get the proper help they needed.  While Emily would likely be fine with the patching they’d put on her, Jim would not.  He had a broken leg and no amount of ribbon would be able to fix it.  However, hearing Fran’s change in tone, from sweet to very forward and direct made Jim feel nervous.  He felt like he was about to be interrogated.

“W-what do you mean, Fran?”

Fran then got on her knees, towering above him.  Putting her hand on her hip, she raised her eyebrow at his rebuttal question.  Starting to feel agitated at the sight of her little Jimmy on this cheerleader’s ankle, she asked the question again, a little bit louder.  “What…are you doing on her ankle?!”

Jim had started to understand the reality of the situation.  Fran had seemed so happy when he was at her feet, servicing them for her, but now she had seen him sitting on Emily’s ankle.  It was likely getting her a little upset.  Trying to form his words the best he could, he tried to begin explaining what had happened to the two of them and how he’d come to being on her ankle.

“Y-you see, Fran…I was…helping her with a problem in her ankle, and I-”

Jim had been immediately cut off by Fran, the agitation slowly raising higher and higher, her face starting to get red from the situation.  “Help her?!  She kidnapped you, and ran off with you!  Why would you help her?! ”

Jim, realizing he was only making things worse with her, decided that explaining all of this to Fran at present was a bad idea.  She was obviously flustered at the sight of him on Emily’s ankle and explaining that he was helping her with an injury would only make Fran more upset with him.  Not seeing any other choice, he lowered himself to his knees and made a slight bow towards Fran, aiming for an apology, but before he could get one out, Fran’s enormous black-painted fingers had reached down and snatched him up into the air.

He felt a fierce wind as he was quickly raised into the air, being held tightly by Fran’s fingers.  The pressure sent a jolt of pain through his leg, but he tried to keep as quiet as he could, knowing that Fran was upset with him and he didn’t want her to get any more upset.  Once he’d reached eye level, the wind stopped and he opened his eyes to see Fran’s face before him, her pupils quivering, producing small tears.

He looked into her eyes and felt something from them.  Seeing those big, saddened eyes brought a sad look to his face as well.  His lips quivered as she looked at him and began to speak down to him.  “How could you, Jim?!  How could you spend time with that kidnapping cheerleader and not try to come back to me?!  I…I love you….”

Jim opened his mouth to speak, trying to say he was sorry, but before he could say anything, she snapped at him, telling him that he didn’t want to hear any excuses from him.  She stared at him, her tight grip causing a lot of tension on his body.  Looking up at the sky for a moment, she started to look angry and called down to him again.  “I won’t lose you, Jim.  I’ll make you love me, if I have to.  It’s getting late, though.  The school day is almost over, and you’re coming home with me, whether you want to or not.”

Jim’s body felt a cold chill as he heard Fran’s words.  Looking up at the sky himself, he did realize it was getting late.  The sun was starting to set, meaning that the school day would be ending in the next few hours.  He looked back at Fran, who still had an upset look in her eyes.  His body shivered with a cold fear, afraid of what she’d said to him, afraid of what Ruby would think were he to not come home that night.

Before he could say anything to Fran to try to get her to stop, she forced her hand down, sending a rush of wind and blood soaring up to his head.  The feeling was so forceful, that he could almost feel his organs being thrown around inside his body.  His head spun like an umbrella and he immediately started hacking up more puke, leading it straight to the ground. 

Without having time to react after his sick phase, he felt himself moving again.  He moved further down, with her other hand coming with him.  It reached down for the top of her boots, which from this angle, looked one size too big for the girl.  Pulling the hole in the to between boot and leg open, she moved her fingers and began dangling him above the opening.

High above him, Fran looked down, and called down to him.  “I’m sorry, Jimmy.  I love you, but you must be taught a lesson.  My boots are a little big for me, so you’ll be fine in there.  Spend some time riding with my legs and feet while you think about what you’ve done.” 

Jim then felt his support leaving him as he was pushed down inside Fran’s tall, smelly boot.  The smell he remembered from before surrounded him as everything was shrouded in darkness.  He tried to scream upward, but he couldn’t.  As he landed, he felt a good amount of space between the enormous leg behind him and the boot in front of him.  Fran was right.  There was plenty of extra space in here.  Whether the ride would be pleasant or not, he would be likely be okay in here.

As Fran lowered Jim into her boot, Emily had started to wake up, hearing the end of their conversation.  Reaching her hand out, trying to get to Fran, she called out Jim’s name.  Fran then looked at her, glaring.  She then dropped Jim into her boot and walked away, towards the school’s main gates…