Saved by the bell

I have my books, my red, green, and blue pens. I have my notebook, my very first school book. I already want to draw all over it, but my sister says the teacher will be mad. She said schoolteachers aren’t like the ones in kindergarten. They don’t like colors on homework. My dad is drinking his coffee, reading his newspaper. Mama is in the kitchen, making breakfast that smells warm and sweet. My brother is still asleep, snoring softly, and I am ready for my big day.

I sit beside Papa. I look at his newspaper. The words look too small, but one page catches my eye. There is a cartoon. I love cartoons. I lean closer. Wait... is it moving? I blink twice. The trees are swaying, the man is running, the clouds are floating. The cartoon is alive. My mouth opens wide. The drawing’s frame looks like a tiny window. I touch it with my finger, and suddenly everything spins.

I land on a chair. A wooden chair. I blink again. Rows and rows of desks surround me. So many kids. The air smells like chalk and dust. Sunlight slides through tall windows, making bright squares on the floor. There’s noise, laughter, whispering, the sound of pencils rolling.

A little boy next to me is crying, wiping his nose with his sleeve. He misses his mom. I tap the seat beside me. “You can sit here if you want,” I whisper. He nods and climbs up.

Then the door slams. Everyone jumps. A tall shadow stands in the doorway. The teacher. She walks in slowly, her shoes tapping sharp on the floor. Her face is serious, her eyes behind round glasses look strict and scary. She does not smile. Not even a little.

She claps her hands once. “Open your books!” Everyone obeys fast. Pages flip. The room becomes quiet. I open mine too. So many letters, so many drawings. Some even look like they want to come out of the page.

Behind me, I hear giggling. Then more giggling. Then laughing. I turn around. The kids in the back are laughing hard. Even the boy beside me is laughing now. I don’t understand.

Then I look down.

No pants.

My face burns. My heart jumps. I want to hide. I pull my book to cover myself, but it’s too small. The laughter gets louder. The walls seem closer. Everyone is pointing. Fingers everywhere. The voices are echoing. “No pants! No pants!” I want to cry. I want to disappear.

The teacher’s face changes. Her eyes grow darker. She steps closer. Her shadow falls over me. My desk begins to shake. The walls move like waves. The ground turns into paper. The whole classroom starts folding and twisting. I can’t breathe. I shut my eyes tight.

Then I hear a voice. Soft, from somewhere near my book.

“Psst, over here.”

I open my eyes. My book is wide open. The picture inside is moving again. A monkey wearing a red vest waves at me from the page. Beside him, a green dragon with shiny scales smiles.

The monkey says, “Hey kid! You look like you need help. Come with us!”

I don’t even think. I reach for his hand. The monkey hand reaches out and  pulls me inside. The classroom disappears.

I tumble and fall and land on soft ground that smells like fresh paper. I open my eyes. Everything around me is drawn. The trees are made of pencil lines. The sky looks painted with blue crayon. The grass is like watercolor, moving softly under my feet. The world hums quietly, like it’s alive.

The monkey jumps down from a tree. “Hi! I’m Ziz,” he says, tail curling like a spring. “And this is Az,” he adds, pointing to the green dragon, who bows his long neck.

Az’s scales shine like glass bottles in the sun. “Welcome to our story, little human,” he says in a deep, happy voice. “You’re lucky. Not everyone gets to visit our world.”

“Where am I?” I ask.

“You’re in a book!” says Ziz, swinging upside down from a tree branch. “The book you opened. You fell right in.”

Az grins. “And also, you forgot your pants.”

Ziz bursts out laughing. I blush again. “Stop it!” I say, crossing my arms.

Az smiles kindly. “Don’t worry. We’ll help you hide. But you should know... the Giant is coming.”

“The Giant?” I whisper.

BOOM. The ground shakes. BOOM. Leaves fall from the crayon trees. The sky flickers white.

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Ziz looks up, his eyes wide. “Too late! Run!”

I start running. Ziz swings from branch to branch above me. Az spreads his wings and flies low beside us. Behind, the world trembles. Crayon trees bend. Paper mountains wrinkle.

When I look back, I see something huge. The teacher. But she’s enormous, her head almost touching the sky. Her glasses shine like suns. Each step she takes shakes the ground. The sound of her voice is thunder.

“Samuel! Sit. Down.”

I scream and keep running.

We pass through rivers made of blue ink, past houses drawn in pencil. The sky above us is the color of erasers. The teacher’s hand crashes down, ripping a mountain in half.

Ziz grabs my hand. “Come on! The story’s end is near!”

We run faster. The world ahead fades into white space. Only words remain. Big black letters float in the air, huge as rocks.

“This is the end of our page,” Az says, landing beside me. “We can’t go further. But you can.”

“How?” I ask, staring at the swirling letters.

“Jump,” says Ziz. “Jump across the letters. Flip the page. We’ll meet you on the other side.”

I look at the sea of letters stretching into nothing. It looks scary. Empty white all around. I take a deep breath. “Okay.”

I jump. From one letter to another. “T” is easy to stand on. “J” is hard. I slip and climb out. I look down and see nothing but white. Endless. I drop one of my pens. It falls forever until it disappears with a tiny crack. I swallow hard.

The ground shakes again. The Giant’s footsteps are near.

I jump again. One more letter. Another. Something grabs at my leg. I can’t see what it is. Invisible hands pulling me backward. I push hard. My arms ache. The air feels thick. I see the edge of the page ahead. I stretch out my hand. “Almost!”

The Giant’s voice roars behind me. “Samuel!”

I jump. Grab the edge. Pull. The page feels heavy, almost alive. I use all my strength. It flips slowly, and a gust of wind blows through everything.

I fall through the air. Ziz and Az are below, smiling at me. I’m laughing too, feeling the wind in my face. But as I fall, I see their smiles change. They look worried now.

Something moves behind me. A giant hand.

It grabs me.

The teacher’s hand.

She lifts me up, back through the page, back into the classroom. She puts me in my seat. My heart is pounding.

Everyone is quiet. The laughter is gone. The teacher stares down at me, eyes sharp and scary. She opens her mouth to speak.

But the bell rings.

Riiiiiing.

The end of class.

The teacher blinks. The sound fills the room. I look at her, trying not to smile.

Saved by the bell.

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