Ms. Frizz was an old woman who wore many sweaters, she had white, frizzy hair, and was a great math teacher, with greater students. They were all strangely smart. They would come in with a 100 IQ and go up to 160 within the first month. Since Ms. Frizz was seemingly a great teacher, not one parent complained about their kid being put in her classroom. In fact, parents were lining up at the administration office to transition their kid to that class. But Ms. Frizz kept a dark secret hidden behind the classroom’s dry, cracked walls. And no one knew all this until the day Timmy went into her class.

Timmy had a twin named Tommy, and Tommy was in Ms. Frizz’s class. The reason why they were split up was because Tommy had more potential, as his parents said, so he went to the ‘smarter classroom’ which Timmy thought was unfair, but he knew it would happen because Tommy was the favorite. But the twins decided to pull a prank one day and swap classes. As soon as Timmy walked into the classroom, he knew something was wrong. He watched as all the students stared blankly at Ms. Frizz.

“Hello class! We will start class by watching this math video!” 

“Yes, Ms. Frizz,” said all the students in unison. 

Timmy looked on as she projected a spinning black and white spiral that seemed never ending. He didn’t want to know what would happen if he looked at the spiral so he quickly looked for a way out. While Ms. Frizz was busy rolling back the projector into the ceiling, Timmy ran out of the classroom. What else could he do? He couldn’t just go back to class! When his mom came to pick them up, Timmy told her everything! But she didn’t believe him! Timmy didn’t know what to say or what to do. Then a light bulb went off, quite literally because Timmy’s mom was changing the dining room light bulbs after Timmy’s dad fell off of a chair while bringing his plate to eat. Dad blamed it on the bad lighting, but Timmy blamed it on how big he was. But he figured out how to give proof! He would bring a tape recorder! As Timmy came into school the next day, he was stopped in the hallway,

“Tim, what do you think you’re doing walking into my classroom?” 

“Tommy, remember we were supposed to switch classrooms?” 

“Yeah, but that was yesterday. And I can’t possibly stay in that mind numbing classroom of yours for another day!” 

“You can hold in there especially if I tell Eliza you were a bedwetter until you were 8!” 

“Ugh, fine!!!”

It was safe to say that Timmy felt quite accomplished with himself! He slowly crept into the classroom, uncomfortably holding the tape recorder under his sweater. 

“Tommy! You were acting quite strange by running out of the room yesterday. Can you go get me something from the ‘closet’… ” 

“Uhm, sure,” said Timmy without knowing what danger awaited him. All the students watched as he walked in slowly. 

“Uhm, Ms. Frizz, there is nothing in the — ”

The students watched in excitement as Timmy fell down a trapdoor and into a strange room. 

“Oops,” said Ms. Frizz while holding her hand over her mouth.

“Help me!!” Timmy pulled his phone out of his pocket and immediately took pictures of the room and the trap door. He called his mom to come pick him up, and as the good mother she was, she picked him up. Or so she thought. 

“Mom hurry!! Come pick me up!” typed Timmy as fast as he could. 

“Honey, I don’t know what you mean, you are already in the car,” said Timmy’s mom over text. 

Timmy felt his heart rise up and into his throat. She didn’t take Timmy, she took another boy home. He started panicking as it felt like the walls around him kept getting smaller. Just when he was about to pass out, a new, pristine, white projector unfolded out of the ceiling. It was a completely different color from the room, which needed a new paint job and a heavy duty scrubbing of the walls to get all the muck and grime off. Then the projector started playing a tape. 

“Hello, Tommy, I hate to put you down here since you were always my favorite student, but lately I feel like you need some one-on-one time. And that’s okay because you will be here in confinement while you get help on your ‘studies.’ And the kid I sent your mom home with was just a robot. And I know she is a doctor so she will be busy and won’t care to drive all the way back to school to pick ‘you’ up. She still thinks she has the right kid,” said the recorded tape of Ms. Frizz’s voice.

Timmy wasn’t going to accept this. He was going to escape right out of here. Well, as soon as he found a way he would. He looked up at the projector screen and wondered, 

“If I can climb this, then I should be able to get underneath the trap door and get out.” He quickly rushed over and climbed on top of the projector. He tried his best to balance his feet on the skinny projector screen, he stood up and couldn’t reach the trapdoor. 

“Darn these short legs!” 

He looked around to see if there was something he could use to reach and punch the trapdoor so he could escape. There! He saw that there was a pointer finger that teachers use to point at things but it would come in handy in this situation. He thrusted the finger up and swiftly broke the door! He used all the courage and upper body strength he had to climb up through the door. He made it out! He ran out of the classroom and out the school door. He then realized he would have to walk four miles to walk home since he didn’t have enough money for the bus fare. Once he made it home, he dragged his legs to the front door and used his keys to walk in, he then saw Tommy and the robot sitting at the table eating. He couldn’t tell who was the robot! They both looked the same! Timmy then announced his presence and said,

“Guys, I have something to show you!” He walked up to his mom and said, “I’m the real Timmy! Ms. Frizz just trapped me in a room so that she could hypnotize me, too!!”

“Timmy!? If you’re Timmy, then who are the people here at the dining table!?” Timmy’s mom, Alicia, shrieked and dropped a teacup. Alicia then ran up the stairs muttering to herself.  

“Maid! Come clean this up! And you! Have you lost your mind?! Ms. Frizz would never do that.” 

“Why can’t you be like your brother and be calm and collected!” said his dad. 

“I have the pictures! Why can’t you just believe me! My whole life, you have loved Tommy more than me, and you didn’t even care enough to put us in the same class!” 

“Son, I’m sorry you feel that, I know I may have shown more love to your brother but now we have to stop the robot,” said Timmy’s dad, Eric, gripping his shoulders. 

“B-But how can we?” said Timmy.

“It’s simple, we just touch their arms and we see if we can feel a heartbeat!” As soon as his father said that, they immediately ran over to the table and touched their wrists to feel a heartbeat. In a heartbeat, Tim’s dad had pinned the robot onto the floor!

“Call the police, Tim!!” bellowed his father. Tim dialed the police and when the police showed up, they handcuffed the robot (even though they could have just turned it off). Timmy then showed the police the pictures and the recording of everything Ms. Frizz had done. The police later found out where she lived, and that same night, they broke into her home with a warrant for her arrest, but there was no trace of Ms. Frizz. 

“Thomas, Timothy, me and your father have decided that we should move to Florida because I don’t want to bring another robot child home and I’m also now afraid of the school,” said their mother fanning herself.

Timmy and Tommy looked at each other and in unison they said, “Thank goodness!”

Two weeks later, Timmy and Tommy went to their first day of a new school. As they both took their seats (they were in the same class now), both of their hearts dropped, as they saw an old woman wearing many sweaters with white, frizzy hair. 

“Hello, class! My name is Ms. Frizz and I will be your math teacher this year!”