Irina Jackson hated school, and woke up Monday through Friday with a sense of misery and hopelessness. But she wasn’t a student. She’d gotten laid off from her job a few weeks ago, and in a desperate bid to keep herself afloat as her savings ran out, she’d accepted a last-minute job as a teacher for a summer school. She didn’t have any formal educational training, but she had a Bachelor’s degree in biology, which made her technically qualified in at least one area, even if she’d never been a teacher. And the school district was so desperate for people to run the summer program, that they accepted her with almost no hesitation. But she’d never wanted to be a teacher; she’d had such a bad time at school when she was younger, and had been glad to finally be done when she graduated. But now she was forced to come back, or become broke and have no way to buy groceries or pay rent. So now she was in charge of a dozen school flunkies. And the only thing she had in common with any of them was how much she hated the fact that she had to be there.

     But she had some dignity, and was still relatively professional, so she put in a modest amount of effort into teaching the kids. At least she knew her science, which is most of what she had to teach them. And today’s lesson was the human digestive system. It was Friday, July 2nd, so Independence Day was right around the corner, and they only had a couple hours of class left. Everyone, including Irina, was itching to go home, but the one thing that had kept them interested throughout the day was the shrinking machine Irina had borrowed from the physics department. In an effort to boost interactivity, she’d shrunken down any students who were interested, and allowed them to get a peek into her mouth.

     Several of the students had been too nervous to shrink down, and a few had parents who were unwilling to sign the permission slip, but six of them were eager to check out a tongue, gums, and teeth up close. None of them had really been that interested in the course, obviously, but school was the only avenue that any of these kids would get to use a shrinking machine; checking out the inside of a mouth was at least more interesting to do in person than just watching videos and Powerpoint presentations.

     So after she’d given them all an ample amount of time to check her out, she rung a bell (since she couldn’t talk), indicating that it was time for everyone to get out. Four of the students took their leave, trudging off to the edge of her tongue and hopping off onto the table while the classmates who had been to nervous to shrunk all watched them with interest. But two of the students had been wandering near the back of her tongue, looking into the cavernous hole of her throat with curious fear. She could feel their little bodies still standing on her, and saw that they hadn’t come out, so she promptly rung the bell several more times. A loud sound suddenly burst from the abyss, causing Irina’s mouth to slightly vibrate as the two students leaned back in surprise, as their teacher made several vocal cues to let the students know their time was up.

     One of the boys, Brian, turned to leave, but noticed the other boy was still looking around curiously. “Kevin, c’mon, you’re gonna get us all in trouble again.” 

     Kevin turned around and rolled his eyes, “God Brian, you’re the biggest teacher’s pet,” he said, stepping away from the edge of her throat and heading towards the entrance to Irina’s mouth.

     Brian got flustered at his classmate’s insult, and froze up, narrowing his eyes as he tried to think of a comeback. “Yeah, w-well… you, you’re… why don’t you—“

     “Why don’t you shut the fuck up?” Kevin groaned, reaching out and shoving Brian as he passed the stuttering kid. But the shove was more forceful than Brian had expected, and he stumbled backwards, his legs tripping over themselves. His adrenaline spiked as he fell backwards, and it only took a second for him to fall into the giant chasm of his teacher’s throat, disappearing into the dark as he watched the light fly up away from him.

     Kevin turned, realizing that Brian had disappeared, and whipped his head back around to look outside of the teacher’s mouth to make sure nobody had been watching him. He quickly ran out towards the exit, just as Irina coughed as she felt something fall into her throat. Her cough caused her jaw to shake, catching Kevin off guard as he flailed forward, tumbling out of her mouth and onto the table. Between the sensation of something getting lodged in her throat, and the realization that she couldn’t feel the two sets of feet anymore, she started panicking and tilted her head downwards. She saw that Kevin had escaped, but knew that there was still one other person who was unaccounted for, and she immediately reached her fingers into her mouth to feel around, hoping her worst fear was wrong. Kevin felt disgusted as a glob of saliva splattered onto his back, covering him in his teacher’s saliva as she groped around inside her mouth, not paying any attention to the drool that was leaking out as she tried to wiggle her fingers into her throat and grab the tiny boy. She coughed several more times, hoping that they might dislodge the student somehow and send him flying back out, but she wasn’t having any such luck. In fact she could actually feel him continue to sink deeper into her, as he was just small enough to be able to slide down her gullet without her needing to swallow.

     A classroom full of stunned students sat quietly, watching with shocked faces as Irina collapsed onto her chair, sighing and rubbing her forehead as she tried to stay calm. Brian wasn’t a goner; if falling into her stomach was all it would take to kill a shrunken person, she obviously would never have hosted the experiment with her class. But it was still important that she contact her boss as soon as possible since she’d done all she could. She’d definitely have to head to the hospital to get Brian removed, but she’d rather get confirmation that it could be done on the school district’s dime first. I thought this was supposed to be an easy gig, she thought with disdain, mad at her her past self for accepting the job even though she’d needed it. Now my job prospects when summer’s over are probably gonna be even worse if word of this gets out. “What did you…” she started to ask, staring at Kevin’s shrunken body with a frustrated look on her face, before her head fell into her hands and she sighed again. It’s my own fault for ever trusting these kids. “What were you guys doing in there?” Irina asked exasperatedly. “I could feel you guys, both of you. I fucking told you guys that you had to come out as soon as I rang the bell.” Some of the students shifted uncomfortably at hearing their teacher cuss, clearly angry. Kevin responded, but he was too small for anyone to hear him, causing Irina to just roll her eyes. “Beth, can you help everyone grow back again?” she asked of one of the students who hadn’t shrunk. The girl nodded her head anxiously and let the five students climb onto her hand before taking them to the device to grow back again. “I’ve gotta call Mr. Wright about this. Everyone else can just go home early today, you too Beth after you’re done helping them. But Kevin, Isa, Mabel, Mark, and Kim: I’ve gotta talk to you guys after you get sized back up. As for everyone else, have a happy Fourth of July,” she added sarcastically, pulling out her phone to call the superintendent.