"Today, in the front of the school, there will be a memorial service held from 3:30 to 5 PM to remember those we have lost over the last year." A voice rang out over the schools PA system.

Naomi sighed heavily. She had been through a lot after a class she was supposed to be in disappeared without a trace. She was questioned extensively by detectives who discovered she was supposed to be in the group but no formal charges were ever filed after security footage proved she arrived to class late and waited a bit before leaving.

This however, was not enough to stop rumors. Stupid as they may have been, the circumstances were too strange and coincidental for the teeming masses to accept. Naomi knew there were rumors about her, and she hated them for it.

She pushed her glasses up on her nose, nervous as the students around her began whispering after the announcement made.

"Class gift exchanges will be held in the gymnasium. Students are to report only with their respective classes and are to leave once it is done. We hope you all have a nice day." The voice concluded as it jarred Naomi back into her own surroundings.

The class around her snickered and joked as Naomi slowly gathered her things together. She knew her next class would be the next in line to the gym, but first there was lunch, and she had just lost her appetite.

Sighing, she headed towards the gym. Maybe she could spend some time in the pool, that always eased her nerves.

---

Naomi was late.

Again.

She cursed as she waddled down the hallway, holding her shoes in one hand. It was a good thing that the pools were just another section of the gym, so she wouldn't have to go very far to reach her destination.

The large clock she had been referencing at the pools was broken. Unfortunately, she wasn't the most observant person around, and failed to realize until the 4th time she checked it that the time had not changed once from 1:10.

She reached the large double doors leading to the main section of the gym and rushed through them, stopping to catch her breath after she did so.

The gym was empty.

Naomi's heart skipped a beat. Was she so late that her class had already come and gone?

Looking around frantically, she found the clock she had been looking for. It showed the time as 2:00 pm. She was half an hour late, but this definitely was the time she was supposed to be in the gym.

She approached the oversized Christmas tree surrounded by presents in the middle of the gym slowly. There was no way her class could have been hiding from her anywhere, this section of the gym was a largely featureless square.

From a much lower perspective, things were quite different though. Mr. Planko and his class had come to exchange gifts as part of some bizarre school tradition he himself didn't understand, when there was a bright flash of light and they found themselves surrounded by large wrapped boxes.

While he and the class worked on trying to figure out the cause of their sudden reduction in size, they saw a classmate, the perpetually late Naomi Parker.

She walked into the gym, her clothes sopping wet and her feet bare, before stopping for a moment. She seemed confused at what she was looking at, and Mr. Planko called his class over, telling them they had been noticed and Naomi would be their solution.

Naomi bit her thumb as she looked at the presents, not sure what she should do. Should she grab the present labeled as hers and just leave, assuming her class had already come by? Or maybe she should turn and go back to class, hoping there'd be a clue along the way?

The holiday excitement grew in Naomi's chest and as much as she wanted to minimize the amount of time she was late to class, she knew she wanted her present first and foremost.

With a small squeal of excitement, she dropped her shoes and ran, full force to the tree.

Shrunken Mr. Planko and the rest of his class quickly realized something was wrong when Naomi began to run towards them. The floor shook with her every step and Mr. Planko was the first to realize something very bad was about to happen.

The scream of shock rose from the entire group at once but it was snuffed out as quickly as it began as Naomi's right foot pounded onto the entire group at once, flattening them instantly. The crunching and popping of flesh and bone were muffled by her wet sole and as her foot twisted slightly, smearing the little people beyond recognition.

Naomi never even felt them, so focused was she on her goal.

She dug through the pile of presents strewn about before finding the one with her name on it. Inside was a pair of white flip flops that she tried on to ensure they fit before slipping them back off and carrying them in her free hand.

The dull red stain her foot had left on the clean white flip flop wasn't even noticed.

Sitting on the ground, she figured she'd take this time to put her tennis shoes back on, since she couldn't wear her flip flops because of the weather right now anyway. Once they were tied, she exited the gym and began the long trek back to her class, happy she had stopped to get her gift first.