Ben awoke hours later on one of the beds in the nurses office. He couldn't see a clock so there was no telling how long he'd been out. Nurse Hadel came around and sat next to him when she saw he was awake.

"How you feeling honey?" she asked.

Ben rubbed at his bleary eyes. "I feel fine." Until a pang of hunger resonated though his stomach. "Except I feel like I haven't eaten all day."

She nodded. "I'm not surprised, you slept through lunch after all."

"What?"

Nurse Hadel got up and walked out of sight to her desk. "Mm hm. It's about a quarter to two, day's almost over."

"Oh man, wow." he said as he rubbed at his temples. "What the hell happened?"

Nurse Hadel came back from her desk holding a salad in a small plastic container, a bag of chips, some milk, and a fork and napkin. She must have stopped by the cafeteria while he was out. "You tell me," she said handing him the food. "The whole school is buzzing with rummors. One kid, came in here earlier, tried to tell me that you pulled a combat knife out of your school bag and stabbed Amy in the neck."

Suddenly it all came back to him. The fake apology, the kiss, being swallow, Johnny and Mark screaming, the pen, stabbing Amy, washing the saliva off, and passing out. Looking down, sure enough, Ben found he was still wearing his gym clothes. "It's a long story," he explained.

Nurse Hadel pulled a chair up close to his bed. "I've got time."

He told her the whole story as he ate. She listened patiently and said nothing the whole time. When he had finished both his story and his meal she gave him a questioning look. "So what are you going to do now?" she asked.

"Now?" He hadn't had time to consider what he would do now. "Now I guess . . . I guess I want to keep as much distance between the two of us as possible. Hopefully she'll want to do the same."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't you think you should report her?"

"Hah! Yeah, right," he scoffed. "The school wouldn't do shit against her. It would only make things worse."

"Not the school. They're dissmissing the whole acount as a bunch of ridiculous rummors meant to be a senior class prank," she explained. "I meant the police."

Ben froze, considering it. Could he? He thought over it for the longest time before he shook his head. "Her parents have the entire state government on their side. That would only bring more trouble down on me."

Ever since Amy started to "develop" the state began financing all of their projects centered around her. Even the federal government had a hand in financing things like clothes, a mini house for her, this school, and food (the discovery of genetically cultivating giant fruits and vegetables eventually lead to the end of world hunger). After that was taken care of, responsibility of Amy was left in the hands of the state. Her parents had to pay three times as much in taxes but they were loaded to begin with. Her father did something for Apple or something like that.

Nurse Hadel shook her head and sighed. "Suit yourself, which reminds me . . ."

Once more she walked out of sight, only to come back a moment later with a plastic bag. "When we called your mom she wanted to pick you up. Only you were so exhausted we didn't want to wake you. So instead she dropped off a pair of clothes for you."

Sure enough, inside the bag there was a black dress shirt, a white shirt with the words 'Why So Serious?' printed on it, and jeans. Nurse Hadel walked back to her desk while Ben got dressed. "You know if I was sleeping for so long why didn't you take me to the hospital?" he called out to her.

"You were snoring," she replied. "I have kids of my own, I know when their sleeping and when they're comatose."

He stepped out of the room he was in just as soon as he was finished. "Yeah. I guess I didn't get any sleep last night."

Just then the bell rung, dismissing the students from school. Ben turned back to the nurse. "Thank you Mrs. Hadel, for everything."

Nurse Hadel didn't look up from her desk but she smiled and waved a dismissive hand. She didn't lift her eyes until after he left the room, they were filled with worry.

He had just enough time to run to his locker, grab books from the most likely subjects to have assigned homework today, and run to the bus. Johnny and Mark were there already talking, they wold give him whatever homework assignments he missed for the day. When they saw him the relief was evident on their faces.

"How you holding up Ben?" Mark asked.

He flashed them a confident grin, that was more for their sake. "I'm still holding up, thanks to you guys."

"We didn't do much," Johnny replied a little sullenly.

"You're the ones who gave me the idea of stabbing her tongue. Not to mention you carried me to the showers and the nurses office," he shrugged. "As far as I can figure you guys are the reason I'm here right now."

Mark looked around nervously. "You really think she would have swallowed you?" he asked, being careful to keep his voice low.

Ben shook his head. "Figure of speech, sorry if I scared you. . . . What happened to Amy?"

"She ran into the bathroom and stayed there all day. We haven't heard anything about her," Johnny explain.

Ben exhalled with relief. "Then I guess I can relax for the rest of the day."

The buses all started up and were pulling out one by one. When it was finally time for them to pull out their bus made it ten feet before it stopped suddenly. So suddenly everyone hit the seat in front of them. Ben just looked up at the ceiling. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

A giant pair of fingers grasped the sides of the bus and hoisted it high into the air where Amy's face could be seen outside the windows. Everyone inside, from freshman to senior was panicking. The only ones who were calm were Ben, Johnny, Mark, and the bus driver.

Amy addressed the bus driver. "Sorry to bother you all. It's just that you have a few passengers inside that I'll be taking off your hands."

Everyone on board went both pale white and dead silent. Ben looked around at all of the scared faces, a few nineth graders had even broken into tears. Realizing there was only one way out of this he stood up, Mark and Johnny stood up with him. Ben shook his head but they only remaind standing.

"She said 'passengers' plural, she wants all of us Ben. And we're coming whether you want us to or not," Johnny asserted.

Mark nodded. "We're not leaving you again."

Ben only nodded once at his friends. The three of them had grown up together, they were the only friends they had in the entire school. Now that bond was going to be put to the ultimate test. The bus driver looked questioningly at the three of them. When they nodded he opened the door and they stepped out onto Amy's waiting hand. Once they were all standing in her palm the door closed and Amy placed the bus down. Then she turned her attention to the tiny guests in her palm, they stood only as tall as her cupped fingers. Had she straightened her fingers they would have looked even tinier. The thought made her smile.

"We are going to have sooo much fun together."