Jasmine headed to her room as she passed her parents.  She was teeming with excitement as she made it to her bedroom door.  She was about to close the door when her mom stopped her.

“Honey don’t forget we need to go shopping for your new school clothes.”

“I won’t mom.  Can I just have 10 minutes to get changed and unpack?”

“Of course honey.  I’ll make you a snack before we leave.”  Jasmine thanked her mom and closed her door to give herself some privacy.  She wanted to explore her new found discovery.  Gently Jasmine dug her hand into her pocket searching for her talking buggies.  She felt the head of one of them and proceeded to scoop both of them out of her pocket and place them on her dresser so jasmine would able to get a better view of them.  The female one had strawberry blonde hair that flowed down to her shoulders tied back into a pony tail.  Jasmine was slightly jealous of her figure as she seemed to be the perfect figure she wanted to grow up into.  It was hard to tell how tall exactly they were, roughly the same size as any other buggy, somewhere between an inch or two. 

The male buggy looked to be sleeping.  He had short curly blonde hair.  Jasmine was surprised that he wasn’t bigger considering that when she stepped on him he was still alive.  Instead he seemed kind of … weak; he wasn’t skinny but not muscular.  There wasn’t much to him, if he was regular size he would be just another person in the crowed.  Yet there was something about him that made her take a second look at him.  When she was inspecting both of them she noticed that something was wrong with him.

“What’s wrong with him?”  Jasmine asked curious of what the female buggy was trying to do to the male one.

Jasmine was delighted to get a response from the female.  “He has a broken arm.  Quick do you have any cloth I can use?”

“You mean, like small clothes?  Sorry, I never had to take care of any buggies before.  My name is Jasmine, what’s your name?”

“If I don’t tend his wound he might die.  What to do, what to do,” The buggy said pacing back and forth.  Jasmine kept watching fascinated by the fact that the buggy could speak sentences.  Yet she was slightly upset that she was ignoring her.  Whoever trained them must have practice a lot with her.  Then the buggy stopped moving and her face started to blush.  “My shirt…”

Sam didn’t know what to do, she only had one choice.  Blushing hard she quickly took her shirt off and revealing what was underneath it, just a white lacy bra.  She quickly wrapped Nick’s injury up tight so he it looked like he had a pink cast on.  Sam knew a little about first aid and how to wrap up a broken arm.  When she was done she turned around to see that Jasmine was looking at her with wonder and curiosity.  Feeling exposed even to the child she tried to cover her C-sized breast up as best she could.

“Jasmine can you please get me something to cover myself?” 

Jasmine let out a surprising gasp, “You remembered my name?!  Do you have a name little buggy?”

Still feeling a bit exposed Sam couldn’t help but blush even more, “It’s Samantha.  Now can you please get me something to cover myself up with… Please?”

“Oh, yeah of course,” Jasmine said as she went over to a corner in her room that had a doll house.  She picked up a doll and removed a yellow shirt.  “I don’t know what you’re so embraced about.  I haven’t seen that many buggies that look as good as you do.  In fact I wish I looked like you,” Jasmine said as she handed the clothing to Sam.

“Well, you’re still growing.  I’m sure you’ll turn into a lovely lady when you grow up,” Sam said as she grabbed the shirt and reliazed the size was too large for her size.  She put the yellow shirt and had it hanging down to her knees.  She felt like a kid again wearing one of her dad’s shirts as a night gown.  Well an extremely large shirt was better than no shirt at all.

“Really, you think so?”

Before Sam could answer the child there was a knock on the door.

“Jazzy, we should get going.”

Jasmine gave Sam an excited smile.  “Oh this is going to be fun.  We can all go shopping together.”  She started to reach for the both of them before Sam stop her. 

“Stop!  You can’t move him.  He has an injury.  You could make it worse.  Why don’t you leave without us?”

Jasmine gave her a sour look, “Awww, but I wanted to spend time with my buggies.”

Sam shook her head no.  “You can’t move him, and I won’t leave him by himself.  Why don’t you leave with your parents and when you get back you can spend time with us?”

Jasmine gave her an uncertain look.  “I don’t know… Some of my friends told me that buggies always try to run away.  How do I know you won’t run away when I leave?”  Sam didn’t know what to say but after a few seconds Jasmine gave her a smile, “But I trust you.  I’ll see you when I get back ok?”  With that Jasmine opened her door and then closed the half way before leaving.

Sam could hear fading voices; Jasmine and her mother were walking away from her room.  Sam sat down next Nick and held his head in her lap.  The reality of everything was settling in as she looked around the room.  She was in a typical little girl’s room.  There were dolls scattered around in one corner where she retrieved the shirt for Sam.  The entire room was covered in pink.  The carpet, shades, walls, even the bed was a bright pink.  Sam was going to say that Jasmine loved the color pink.  As Sam inspected the room she sized herself up to be roughly an inch or two high.  Sam went over the event that transpired today to find any answers but only came up with more questions: Why was she small?  Where was she?  Are her parents and friends worried?  Why is this little girl keeping them like pets or toys? 

Time passed by and Sam started to yawn.  It had been about an hour or so since Jasmine left and Nick hadn’t even stirred yet.  Sam prayed that Nick would wake up soon.  Just so she wouldn’t feel so alone right now.  Letting out another yawn Sam felt her eyes starting to close.  Sam shook her head trying to stay awake.  Unfortunately it was useless.  Sam knew she was going to fall asleep soon so she got up and looked for something to use as a pillow.  Spotting a white sock with blue strips, Sam grabbed it and pulled it over to where she was at.  Carefully Sam pulled Nick into the sock and slipped into it the sock like a giant sleeping bag. 

Lying next to Nick she felt comfort just knowing that he was there.  Hopefully he would wake up so they could talk.  She had a lot of question he needed to answer.  Then sleep slowly crept up on her and she fell into a slumber.  As soon as Sam fell asleep there was a soft creaking noise, as something entered the room…

Jasmine got back home slightly later than she wanted too.  She didn’t mind shopping for more school clothes.  The school she went to was a private school for children up from 1st grade to high school.  It had a strict dress code that required students to wear matching clothing and she needed a couple more skirts.  It wasn’t too bad; she got to get ice cream afterward.  Heading to her room she heard her mother call her, “Honey, don’t disappear too long.  We’re about to have dinner.”

“I’m not mom, just putting my clothes away,” Jasmine said as she entered her room and shut the door.  Quickly putting away her new skirts she then headed toward her dresser to talk with her new found buggies. 

“Hope you didn’t miss me too much-” Jasmine gasped as she noticed the buggies were gone!  She quickly went up to her dresser and looked closer.  There was no sign of the Sam or the other buggy.  Jasmine looked everywhere but all she found on her dresser was some clothes that her mom put there this morning and some hair pieces.  Jasmine felt wounded that Sam would leave her even though she said she would spend time with her.  Feeling hurt swell up in her she headed down stairs to go eat with her family. 

“Jazzy what’s wrong?” Her dad asked as he noticed she looked gloomy. 

“Nothing,” She mumbled as she went to go take her seat at the table. 

“It’s not nothing, so tell me what’s the matter.”

Sighing she started to explain, “I thought I left something in my room but now I can’t find it.”

“You misplaced something?  Well don’t worry it will eventually show up again.”

“I doubt it.  I thought I left it on my dresser but now I can’t find it anymore.”

Jasmine’s mother started to set the table and said, “Well honey, I’m sure it didn’t get up and walk away.”

Before Jasmine could comment her dad snapped his fingers, “Oh right, Muffin went into your room today.  Maybe she hid it.  After dinner we can-” Jasmine shot out of her chair and ran into the living room where her cat Muffin usually slept.  She felt dread spread through her as she prayed that Muffin didn’t attack the buggies, but that was the reason her parents bought the cat.  They wanted to keep all rodents out of the house which included buggies.  Jasmine never saw Muffin eat a buggy but that didn’t mean she hasn’t.  Sometimes Jasmine would notice little traces of red on Muffin’s fur but that was usually it.

Jasmine’s parents got up and followed Jasmine out into the family room to look for Muffin.  Jasmine didn’t find Muffin in her usual spot, which was on the couch’s arm rest.  Jasmine looked around the family room until she heard her dad say, “Found her.”

Jasmine turned toward her dad who was looking behind the couch.  Jasmine started to head over there when her mom said, “Oh look dear, Muffin found some buggies.  Good for her.”  Jasmine feared the worse as she headed over to where her parents are at.  She looked behind the couch and gasped.  There was her cat Muffin and in her mouth she had a buggy’s feet sticking out still kicking.  Before Jasmine could tell Muffin to spit it out she flicked her head back and swallowed the buggy whole.  Jasmine could hear the muffled high pitch squeal of a female buggy start to fade as it headed to its final destination.  Muffin licked her lips and then her paws.  Stretching she stood up and meowed before walking away swaying its tail.

“Well, that was entertaining.  Now it’s time for us to have our meal,” Her mother said as she left too.

“Come on sweetie,” Jasmine’s dad said as he headed to the table.  Jasmine didn’t move as she couldn’t believe what just happened.  “Jasmine, the sooner we eat the sooner we can find what you lost.”

“It doesn’t matter… Muffin ate them.”

Her dad stopped when he heard that, “You mean you brought buggies into the house?”

“But dad they were special they could-” Jasmine protested.

“Jasmine!  You know how much your mother and I hate buggies.”

“But dad!”

“No buts young lady,” Jasmine’s mother said.  “You go to your room without dinner tonight to think about what you did.”

“But mom,” Jasmine tried to protest but both her parents pointed her to her room.  Jasmine hung her head as she walked away and went to her room.

When she was gone her mother said to her father, “Do you think that was too harsh?”

“No, she knows the rules, but if it makes you feel better when can bring her some food to her later tonight.”

Jasmine closed her door as she sat on her bed.  She couldn’t believe she forgot about her cat Muffin and it cost her two special buggies.  Pulling her knees up to her chest as she felt hunger hit her.  The ice cream wasn’t going to hold her over all night.  With nothing to do she went to play with her dolls until she got tired.  About an hour later her parents came in and apologized if they were too strict with her.   They gave her some food and tucked her into bed and kissed her good night.  Tomorrow was Friday, the last day of the week for school.  Her science teacher told them she had a special surprise for them tomorrow.  Forgetting about the two buggies that she lost she drifted off to sleep…

Sam rolled over and bumped into something.  Opening her eyes she saw Nick still sleeping next to her.  Blushing at how close he was to her she savored the moment as she looked upon his sleeping face.  He looked so peaceful lost in his dreams.  With the hood of his hoodie down she got a perfect view of his face.  She couldn’t help but look upon his face and recall all the good times they shared together.  Why did they drift apart, she thought.

Looking out the opening of the sock she noticed that sun was raising, signaling that it was the next day.  Sam knew she should probably get up and see if she can get some answers from Jasmine, but she felt too comfortable in the sock with Nick.  Shrugging, Sam decided to spend a little more time in this peaceful heaven. 

A few moments later there was a loud banging noise, like something was slammed shut.  “Mom!  Did you wash my socks?  Never mind I found them!” 

Sam felt her whole world shift as the sock was picked up and sent her tumbling down to the bottom of the sock.  Sam tried to speak but all that came out was a dry yelp as she looked up to see a giant foot about to entire the entrance of the sock.  She was about to be squished by the foot of a little child.

Jasmine woke up a few minutes before her alarm went off.  With a good night’s sleep she completely forgot about the other day and the two buggies.  She quickly turned off her alarm and headed to the kitchen where her mom made her blueberry pancakes.  Sitting down she started to devour the delicious meal.  It didn’t help that she didn’t have much of a dinner last night but her mother made it up with a couple of batches of pancakes.  By the time Jasmine was done she was stuffed beyond belief.  Finished with her meal she went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and hair.  After she was done cleaning herself up she went to her room to get dressed.  Jasmine put on one of the skirts that her mother bought for her the other day.  Next was her dress shirt and last but not least her socks.  Normally she would wear any socks, but today she wanted to wear her lucky blue striped socks.   

She couldn’t find them in her sock drawer in her dresser.  Jasmine asked her mother where they were when she spotted one of the socks.  Quickly, so she wouldn’t be late, she grabbed one sock that was by itself and saw the other one next to her pile of clean clothes.  Slipping her right foot in one of the socks she quickly put her left foot in the other sock.  She pulled the socks all the way up and proceeded to walk over to her shoes.  She was about to step down with her left foot when something tickled her foot.  Curious as what it could be she pulled her sock off and shook it to see what was bothering her foot.  To her total surprise she noticed two buggies fall out and land in her hand.

Sam felt the wall of flesh rush over her and fill up all the empty space that used to be her sleeping bag.  Was this how she would die, squished inside of a sock?  Frightful for her life she panicked and started to squirm away from the sol of the foot.  She didn’t move much as she began to panic.  Trying again she tried to call out only to be muffled by the underfoot of Jasmine.  Then she felt a light breeze through the fabric as she felt the foot speed toward the ground where she would meet her end.  Out of pure instinct she tried to crawl away from her doom, but it didn’t matter because there was nowhere to go.  Sure as she would be killed it all stopped.  Next thing she knew the foot was retracted from the sock.  Then her world flipped upside down forcing her to tumble out of the sock with Nick.  They both landed in the hand of Jasmine. 

Looking up she saw the shocked face of Jasmine.  “Sam, but I thought Muffin ate you?  Oh, I’m so glad you’re alright.  What were you doing in my sock?”

Sam looked over to see that Nick was fine.  Never in her life did Sam think that she would be afraid of a little girl, but Jasmine nearly killed her twice with her feet in less than 24 hours.  Sam has never been that close to death in her life until recently meeting Jasmine.  She had to find a way to get away from this death trap waiting to be sprung again.  The next chance she gets she will find a way to get Nick and herself away from Jasmine. 

“It was more comfortable then sleeping on the hard wood.”

Jasmine nodded her head in agreement, “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to sleep on wood either.”

Before Jasmine could say anything else there was a knock on the door, “We need to hurry honey or we will be late.”

“Ok mom!”  Jasmine said as she gave Sam a scowl, “What to do with you two.  I can’t leave you two here or Muffin might get you, but I can’t take you with me…”  She quickly shrugged, “I’ll just have to be very careful.”

Before Sam could protest Jasmine picked both of them up and put them in her front pocket on her dress shirt.  There weren’t any pockets anywhere else and they were just small enough that if they didn’t stand up they wouldn’t be seen by anyone.

Sam heard a door open and felt a moving sensation as Jasmine left her room.  “Jasmine what are you doing?”  Sam asked concern for Nick’s broken arm.

“Shhhh,” Jasmine said in a whisper so only Sam could hear her.  “I can’t leave you here or Muffin might find you.  She likes to eat buggies and I don’t want to lose you again.”  Sam wasn’t claustrophobic but when Jasmine patted the pocket she was in she couldn’t help but feel trapped.  It was like being in the sock all over again.  It only last for a few seconds but the material wrapped around her cutting her off from the rest of the world.  She tried breathing but she couldn’t get any air in her lungs for the split second.  Then the pressure disappeared allowing Sam to get a fresh breath of air.  “Don’t worry I’ll make sure you two will be safe.  Now please be quiet so I don’t get in trouble like yesterday.  I had to go without dinner because my parents found out about you two.”

Sam thought she heard some anger in Jasmine’s voice.  Did she blame her and Nick for not getting dinner and might try to take it out on them?  That just made it one more reason why she needs to find a way out of this situation.  Easy said than done; she was trapped a pocket of a giant child thousands of feet above the ground heading to school a school filled with more giant children.  It was going to be a long day…

Nick groaned as he rubbed his sore head; it felt like it was on fire.  Opening his eyes he was in a white room made of some weird material.  The room was funneled downward toward him with a gap at the top where light could shine in.  In the distance he heard a monotone voice droning on and on about something that he couldn’t really make out.  “Weird room,” Nick muttered as he put his hand on the side of the room only to realize that the room was made of a cotton material.  That’s when it dawned on him where he was, he was in a shirt pocket and the voice was someone talking.

The events of the other day came back to him.  Quickly he looked around and noticed that Sam was on the other side of the pocket sitting with her back to the corner and with her head tilted slightly asleep.  The peaceful look on her face relived Nick to let him know she was fine and by the looks of it having a nice dream. 

Nick began to stretch his arm only to realize that his arm had a little pink makeshift cast made out of a shirt.  Nick took the cast off and looked at his arm.  His arm was completely healed like nothing ever happened.  Flexing his arm Nick noticed that the shirt he was holding belonged to Sam.  Quickly blushing he looked at Sam and held back a laugh.  She looked adorable in a shirt that was way too large for her.  It was a nice thing that she did for him even though he didn’t need the cast; he healed from much worse injuries before.  She may have not known that he could heal but it was a nice thing to give up your only shirt for someone in need. 

Looking around he realized that they weren’t moving meaning that they must be sitting somewhere.  Listening carefully he could hear some words from the monotone voice.  It was a women’s voice and it sounded like it was reading a story.  Ah, we must be in a classroom, Nick thought to himself.  Not wanting to disrupt their giant friend who was taking care of them for now, Nick was going to meditate and get some answers for his questions he had. 

Crossing his legs and closing his eyes he let his powers drift out and find answers…

Sam was woken up by the sound of a bell.  To her complete surprise she saw Nick sitting in front of her with his eyes closed in a meditating looking state

“Nick?”

Nick slowly opened his eyes and gave her a smile, “Well look who’s finally up.”

“Me?”  Sam said offended.  Sam raised her voice, “I’m not the one who was-”

“Shhh,” Jasmine whispered cutting Sam off.

Nick raised his now healed arm, “Thanks for taking care of me.”

Sam gasped at what she saw.  Nick’s arm was completely healed, “How…”

Nick gave her a grin, “I’m a fast healer.”  Sam came over to check his arm.  Sure enough there was no sign that he was ever injured except for the blood stains on his hoodie and the small punctured hole in the sleeve where his bone snapped out.  Nick handed her shirt back, “Sorry that it got dirty.” 

Sam shook her head no, “I don’t care if it got bloodied.  I’m just glad your fine.  How…” she said pointing at his arm.

Nick let out a sigh, “Well I guess that is a good place to start.  I’m not like you.”  He gestured to her, “I can do things that normal people can’t, for example heal really quickly.”

“I saw you fly and … I don’t even know what to call that orb thingy that you did,” Sam said with a frown on her face.  “What exactly…”

“Well,” Nick said taking a deep breath.  “That man you saw, his name was Ralph and we kind of had a disagreement.”

“So you killed him?”  Sam said shocked.

“No!  I mean I didn’t kill him he killed himself.  I didn’t even want to fight but he forced my hand.  The point being he was self-destructive, literally he was going to blew himself up with half the world just to take me out with him.  The only thing I could do was try and prevent that from happening, so I tried to absorb the blast with a new technical I was trying to perfect.  I created a black hole.”

Sam waved her hands around to stop Nick.  “Ok slow down.  What do you mean self-destructed and black hole?  What are you talking about?”

Nick took a deep breath and let out a sigh, “Well-” he was cut off by Sam’s stomach growling. He looked at her as she gave him a sheepish look.

“Sorry.  I haven’t eating anything.”

“Actually, this is a good way for me to explain.  What would you like to eat?”  Nick asked.

“What- I don’t know,” Sam said confused.

“What are you hungry for?”  Nick asked again.

“I- I don’t know… Cereal, ok?”

Nick gave her a grin, “Cocoa Puff sound fine?”

“Yeah, sure.  I don’t know what this has to do-” before she could finish Nick held out hand and a bowl of Cocoa Puffs appeared in his hand along with a spoon.  Sam just gapped at him, “How…”

Nick laughed.  “Here,” he said handing the bowl to her to eat.  She looked at it as if it might grow wings and fly away.  Nick laughed again and picked up a puff and ate it, “See you can eat it.”  Sam hesitated for a moment but then picked up the spoon and tried some.  Sure enough it was a bowl of Cocoa Puffs.

“How did you do this,” She said with a mouth full of Cocoa Puffs.

“You know anything about inner energy, chi, chakra, or anything similar?”

“I do yoga, but what does that have to do with this,” Sam asked as she ate another spoonful of Cocoa Puffs.

“Well, yoga helps you release built up energy in the body.  What I do is similar.  There are many names for it but it’s all the same.  What I do is release the energy in me in the form of strength, speed, or for instances Cocoa Puffs.”

“So does that mean I can do this too?”  Sam said with an interested look on her face.

Nick shook his head no.  “Many people can use their energy to help lift objects; like in times of crisis some people can move immoveable objects, but they won’t be able to fly.  Not many people have that much energy in them.  I’m one of few who have extreme amounts of energy; Ralph was another.”

“Well that explains a little.  So you use your ‘energy’ to do inhuman things.” 

“Yeah,” Nick said with a hint of shame.

“Cool.”

“What,” Nick said confused.

“I said cool, I mean scary but cool.  Well since you made that black hole thingy just make another one and get us out of here.”

“… easier said than done.  You see, this was a mistake.”

“What do you mean,” Sam said confused.  She was afraid of what Nick was going to say next.

“Well… the black hole was supposed to absorb the energy output of the explosion, which it did.  Only problem is that when it absorb the energy that it created a portal which brought us here.  Now for me to make another one I would have to: first make another black hole, which is easier said than done; two generate another massive amount of energy like the explosion that Ralph was making; and finally I really don’t know where it could send us which means I need to find a way to send us back home safely and to the right one.”

“What do you mean the right one,” Sam asked as this nightmare just got better and better.

“Well you know about different dimensions?”  Sam nodded her head, “That’s where we are.  We are in an alternate dimension, one where everything is gigantic.  If I were to skip the third step I could send us to a dimension that has no oxygen or somewhere worse.”

“What’s worse than no oxygen?!”  Sam yelled at him.

Jasmine gave another loud whispered, “SHHHHH.”

“What’s worse than no oxygen?!”  Sam said in an anger whisper.  “Nick I don’t want to be here!  I almost died twice and I really, really don’t want to be around,” She pointed up out of the pocket.  “I have a bad feeling about this place Nick.  Anywhere is better than here… No oxygen sounds better.”

“Samantha,” Nick said using her full name, which he never did when they were kids unless it was very important.  “I have seen things that would terrify you for the rest of your life.  There are things humans aren’t meant to see.  So when I say there are things worse than here then I really do mean it.  Now I swear on my life I will make sure you will not get hurt.  Just give me some time to build up my strength and to get out of here the right way.”

Sam took a deep breath.  “Fine Nick,” she set the empty bowl down which disappeared. 

“Thank you.”

“So how long?”

Nick rubbed his chin as he thought, “Hmmmm, maybe 2-3 days at the most.  The less energy I use the more I save up.”

“Alright.  I can stand 2-3 days of this place.”  There was silence except for the droning sound of the teacher teaching the classroom.  “Are you going to eat something?”

Nick shook his head no, “It’s pointless.”  Sam gave Nick a confused look which he elaborated on, “Since it’s my energy that I’ll be using to make food whatever I eat I would just be gain the same amount of strength that I just used.”  Sam still gave him an even greater scrawl as she didn’t understand.  Laughing, “Ok, think about it like this; if I spend X amount of energy to make some food, then when I eat it I just gain X amount back.  Really it would be pointless.”

“So you don’t eat at all?”

Nick took a deep breath, “I eat food, I just don’t eat food that I make.”

“Oh…?” Sam said leaving it at that still not really getting it.  The whole ‘inner energy’ thing didn’t really make sense to her.  She just wanted to go home and forget about all this.  It wasn’t long until the bell rang again signaling the end of another class.  Sam heard the teacher say not to forget about their homework over the weekend.  The teacher left the classroom and then another teacher came in.  Sam heard the teacher talk.  The teacher was a female teacher and sounded extremely excited.

“Ok class, are you ready for the surprise I told you about yesterday.” 

The entire class shouted, “Yeah!”

“Today I have something special to show you.”  There was some rummaging and then there was a lot of gasping and sounds of excitement.

Nick started to stand up to look over the pocket opening.  Sam grabbed his pants and pulled him back down.  “What are you doing?”

“What?  I’m curious.  Don’t you want to see what they are learning?”

“Not really…”

“Oh come on Sam.  It’s not every day you go to another world and get to learn something about their culture.”  He held out his hand, “Come on, it’ll be fine.”

Hesitant Sam took his hand and felt his gent but firm strength pulled her up to peek over the top of the pocket to see what they were going to learn about today… 

Jasmine’s math teacher passed out the test from the other day.  Jasmine couldn’t help but feel anxious about her test score.  When the teacher came by her seat and set her paper face down she took a deep breath.  Slowly she exhaled as she flipped the paper and looked at her score… 100%!  Jasmine let out a relived sigh as she looked over the paper really quick.  Satisfied she looked over to her right across the room to Annabel and raised her paper up so she could see.  Annabel gave her a half smile and raised her to show her getting a 70%.  Jasmine mouthed sorry to her but Annabel shrugged showing that she really didn’t care what she got.

“Ok students, those who got a low grade can do these make up problems to raise your grade.”  The teacher pointed to the board which a couple of numbers for problems and the pages that they could be found on.  The bell rang right after the teacher said this and wished the students a good weekend. 

As Jasmine’s teacher left the classroom her Science teacher came in.  She was a young adult in her late 20’s.  This was her 2nd year of teaching at this school and was probably her first school she taught at.  Even thought she was a new teacher she knew how to encourage her students to learn and was always extremely nice to the students.  She was one of Jasmine’s favorite teachers.

“Ok class, are you ready for the surprise I told you about yesterday.” 

The entire class shouted, “Yeah!”

“Today I have something special to show you.”  Mrs. Thompson (or Mrs. T, as she like to be called) said.  She pulled out a jar that held 5 buggies in it.  The moment Mrs. T put the jar on the teacher’s desk the entire class started to pay more attention, students started to sit up and lean in closer to get a better look.  Mrs. T then started pull something else out from behind the desk.  What was set on the desk was a glass aquarium that held a lizard in it.  The aquarium was rather large but was the right size for the lizard.  The lizard was about 1-2 feet long and had green scales covering its body.  It sat on top of a rock near the middle of the glass container.  

“Today we will learn about survival of the fittest.  Now class this little guys name is Francis.”  Mrs. started to unscrew the top of the jar that held the buggies and took the top off of the aquarium.  “Now we learned that some animals are called predators and others are prey.  So I thought I would show you examples.  Now can anyone tell me which of these species is the predator and which is the prey?”

“Oh, Oh, I know Mrs. T!”  Annabel shouted waving her hand.

“Yes Annabel?”

“The buggies are the prey and the Francis is the predator,” Annabel said grinning.

“That’s correct.  Now who wants to see how Francis eats?”  The entire class started to shout yes and a couple of the students got out their seats to get a better look.  “Ok calm down everyone.  Can everyone see?  Ok then,” Mrs. T proceeded to pick up the buggies carefully one at a time and place them on the other side of the aquarium from the lizard. 

Jasmine watched with amazement as she saw Francis slowly open its eyes and lock on to one of the buggies.  “This is my favorite part,” Mrs. T said quietly for the class to hear.  The lizard slowly crawled off the rock and proceeded toward the buggies near the other side of the aquarium.  Four of the buggies ran in opposite directions but one stayed where it was at not moving. 

“Why is he just standing there,” One of the students asked.

“That’s a defense mechanism.  It’s trying to not move so the Predator, Francis, won’t go after it.”

The lizard got closer and closer until it was just inches away from the buggy.  The buggy was shaking as it looked at the lizard that started right back with its yellow eyes.  The lizard cocked its head sideways and snapped up the buggy before it could even make a sound.  Some of the student’s laughed, “Stupid buggy.”  The lizard gulped down the buggy in one swallow and quickly turned around to go after its other prey.  It spotted one trying to run to the other side of the aquarium.  The lizard quickly dashed after it and opened its mouth and scooped up the buggy in its mouth and swallowed it whole. 

The class was getting enthusiastic, as the lizard quickly searched around for the other 3 buggies in the glass prison.  It darted out its tongue and turned its head around and saw one of the buggies lying down in the sand.  “Look at the buggy trying to blend in with its surroundings.  Some animals have camouflage to help blend in with the surrounds to confuse its predator.  Unfortunately buggies don’t have this ability.”  No sooner did Mrs. T say this did the lizard dart across the sandy floor and snatch up the buggy and started to chew it up and swallow it. 

With only 2 buggies left they were on the other side of the aquarium trying to climb out.  The walls were too slick for them to climb out and they kept sliding down the walls.  The buggies started cry out in a squeaking noise.  The lizard proceeded to walk toward them not wasting its energy on easy prey.  The buggies continued to squeak and cry as the lizard loomed closer.  Just as the lizard was about to pounce a giant hand came in and picked one of them up.  Once the hand was gone the lizard pounced and quickly devoured the buggy that was left in the aquarium.

The buggy was saved by Mrs. T.  “See class, the weaker animal become food for the strong.  That is the law of nature.  Buggies are nothing but a food source for the bigger creature.”  As she said this she proceeded to dangle the last buggy over her head.  She opened her mouth but held onto the buggy as all eyes were on her.  The entire class was silent as the listen to the noise the buggy was making.  It was squeaking and wiggling in the giantess grip but unable to do anything about it.  Moments went by and just as the class thought that Mrs. T wouldn’t do it, she let go of the buggy and let it fall through the air and straight into her mouth.  She quickly closed her mouth and swished the buggy around in her mouth as she gave the class a big grin.  Some students made sounds of disgust as they watched Mrs. T but most were grinning back at the teacher as they looked at her with admiration.  Mrs. T tilted her head back and swallowed showing the class a small bulge sliding down her throat and disappeared past her chest.  Patting her stomach she let out a sigh of content, “Delicious.  See nothing but food for the bigger animal.  That is how nature works.”

Sam had to keep her mouth covered in fear of shouting something out.  She watched the entire scene in horror as everyone seemed to enjoy it, everyone except for the tiny people that is.  She looked over to Nick who seemed upset.  When the teacher swallowed the tiny person was when Sam couldn’t stand it anymore and broke down.  She fell back down into the pocket and pulled her knees up and started to weep silently.  Nick took one last look around and saw something that horrified him more than the scene he just witnessed. 

Taking a deep breath he too returned to the pocket.  Nick went to Sam’s side and pulled her into an embrace which stop her from crying.  “Shhh, it’s ok.  I promised you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”

“Nick… I-I-I I don’t understand why did they do that?  How could they?”

“… What do you think of when you step on an ant?”

Sam looked confused, “What?  I don’t understand?”

“You don’t think of anything do you?  If you kill a bug you don’t stop and think about it you just carry on with what you are doing.  It’s the same with them.  These tiny people they call buggies because, well let’s face it that’s what they are to them.  They are just bugs to these people.”

Sam looked at Nick with horror in her eyes, “So… are we just bugs to them too?”

Nick nodded.  Sam shook her head no.  “But we aren’t bugs!  We’re people too!”

Sam buried her head into her hands as she realized there was no point in arguing with Nick about this.  He wasn’t the one who would want to kill them.  After a short while stopped crying and looked at Nick, “We just have to survive for a little while longer.  Just a couple of days right?”

“…”

“Nick?”

“Well… there might be a problem.”

“What do you mean,” Sam asked dreading what was coming next.

“… How long was I out?”               

Sam shook her head not knowing the answer, “I don’t know… almost a day.  Why?”

“I just saw a clock, its 12 right now.  I have been out for way too long.  I should have been out for a couple of hours not almost an entire day.”

 “I don’t understand, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying something isn’t right.  My powers aren’t returning like they should.  That means my strength won’t return as fast as I thought it would.”

Sam paled, “You mean…”

Nick nodded, “Yeah, it won’t take a couple of days before we can leave, it might be a couple of weeks… maybe even a month or two…”