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When John opened his eyes, he was lying in the middle of the classroom. He sat up, and he looked around to orient himself. He was still in his classroom. The lights weren't on, but rays of sunlight were beaming in through the windows. The sky outside was gray, so the classroom looked slightly dim. He wondered how long he had been out cold; his body was sore from lying on the ground. He stood, and his legs felt a little weak. Whoa, he thought. Suddenly he realized he was still alone, and that whatever had panicked him hadn't come to get him. Well, that was a horrible experience, he thought. What could have made that crazy sound though? He felt very curious. If he wasn't dead, it must not be so bad. Maybe something just fell. He left the empty classroom and wandered down the hall. He found himself standing in front of the principal's office. The door was closed, but he figured it must not be locked since the front school doors weren't. He turned the knob, and found his hunch to be correct.
He peeped inside, and saw what he expected. An empty secretary's desk. "Hello?," he said aloud. "Anybody in here?" When nobody answered, he let himself in. This was the first time he had ever come to the principal's office of his own accord. Usually his teacher sent him here because he had a terrible habit of daydreaming in class. If his teacher could see his racy daydreams about her, she may not let him come back to the classroom ever again.

BANG!

The loud sound made John jump out of his musings, and his heart began its thundering again. Breathe, he thought. It's that sound that got you last time. It's nothing.
This time the sound was louder than it had been the last time he heard it. That meant that he had to be nearer to it than before. With his legs feeling like water, he headed toward the Principal's office. He slowly put a hand on the doorknob.
Whatever's in here must be what's making that bang, John thought. I have to get to the bottom of this. I have to find out where everybody went if I can.
Taking a deep breath, John opened the door. And inside the principal's office, he saw the entire staff of his school, shrunken in size, struggling to push another large textbook off of his desk.

John didn't say a thing. He just stood there, staring.
And so did the little people.
Until finally, Ricky, the janitor, said, "Well, are you gonna stand there gawping, or are you going to do something about all this?"
Dumbfounded, John rubbed his eyes. He blinked a few eyes. Then he stared again.
"Oh, for the love of....!" Ricky's voice sounded exactly like the people in the movies where got shrunk.
"How....what," John began to say. "What's happened? Why are you all in here like this?"
"Well, how should we know? We all found ourselves like this just as we arrived at the school this morning! Around six o' clock, that's when it was! We've been trying to shove that textbook off the desk all morning, so maybe somebody would hear it and come help. And look who came to our rescue! A scrawny kid who can't even talk right!" Ricky said all that, with a bit of colorful language added for emphasis.
"That will be quite enough!," the principal ordered. "Our teamwork helped us. John is a daydreamer! I'm sure his active imagination will help us get through this!"
John wasn't sure his imagination was good for THIS sort of thing. He wasn't sure anybody's was. It just didn't make sense! And why was everybody acting like HE was supposed to know what to do? There wasn't anybody in the world who knew how to deal with a case of mystery shrinking!
"Okay, smart guy," Ricky snerled. "What are you going to do?"
John's eyes popped out. "Why is everybody picking on ME? I just came in here because I wanted to see what was going on! I couldn't find anybody, I fainted, and then I wake up and find YOU! I don't know what to do! I'm freaking out!!" John realized he'd been yelling, but he didn't care. It felt good; he hadn't said much in a while.
"Listen, John. You're hysterical. I suggest you take some deep breaths. I know this situation is...unexpected. But we won't get out of this if we go into a panicked frenzy. Do you understand?," John's principal sounded so sensible that it was almost funny.
"Do I understand? NO! YOU don't understand anything either! Quit pretending everything's normal! Are you crazy? Where's my mom and dad? Where's all the kids that go here? Did the same thing happen to them? Is somebody messing with my head? Is this some crazy joke?" John was on a roll.
"Shhh....hush now, John. Sit still. Take a few breaths. And think."
"You ARE crazy! And you're freaking me out even more! I'm not going to put up with this! I'm leaving!"
And with that, he did. John left his teacher, principal, the janitor, and the rest of the tiny school staff shrunken and stranded on the Principal's desk.