The soft pads on the small boy’s fingertips made little noise as he lazily drummed them on his desk, oblivious to the lesson his teacher had before him. Chemistry, he felt, was too difficult, and the teacher was a dick. Football coaches, tch. Why do something difficult for someone you don’t like when you can do something fun for yourself? In his mind he took out a green sheet of paper, the giant butcher paper kind, and began a tapestry.

The teacher droned on. The boy’s eyes slipped half closed, trancelike.

He drew a line, a clear curve of white in a simple “S” shaped, sideways and slightly stretched so to make the curve of a snake’s back. He drew a slightly different “S,” running along the former so it left enough room for the body. Suddenly there was a small mouse next to it, a combination of circles. It was fleeing the snake, its obvious tormentor. He stepped back from it and smiled, inspiration lighting up in his eyes, and his hand flew across his mind.

The teacher droned on. The boy’s eyes flickered shut.

The snake was a huge, vicious animal, tormenting the mouse, which was not one hundredth of its size. The mouse tried to flee, but the snake blocked its path, demanding that the mouse sit back down. He dodged to the left, dodged to the right, but still the snake blocked his path. The snake was angry, and the mouse terrified, suddenly urinating. The snake screamed in laughter and grinned a carnivore grin, bearing down on the mouse. The mouse stumbled and fell back over its wet shoes. The snake leaned over and offered a hand attached to a massive body and a maniacal grin.

The teacher did not drone on; the teacher whispered.

Suddenly the boy’s eyes burst open. He was in the center of the hallway in the center of the school. His pants were wet, very wet, with a trail that led to his shoes. There was his teacher, the coach, leaning down to him, a look of bemused shock on his face. Surrounding the two of them was a giant circle of his classmates, all with the same look of bemused shock. The boy looked around and realized where he was and what he was doing. He peed some more, frozen amidst a warm lake.