Kora Leek sat at her table, looking at one of the most recent “essays” one of her students had written in her Capacity Science class. This student, Zaru in particular, had always been trouble for her, even in a class as big as hers. Like fellow professor, Triss Everstead, her classes had high attendance due to the bluejay’s tendencies to use demonstrationsin her classes on a regular basis. Despite this high number of students, though, Zaru had always managed to be a nuisance to her.
Today, as Kora was looking at the terrible paper written by the wickerbeast, though, she got an idea; an idea that seemed too good to actually work, yet realistic enough to prove otherwise. With a smirk on her face she closed her laptop and packed her things as she began heading home until her next class on Tuesday, which happened to have Zaru in it.
Kora stood at a decent height, with nicely groomed light blue feathers on most of her body, including her tail. Her chest, stomach, and the front of her neck, though, were covered in feathers of a snow white color. Her beak and the lower halves of her legs were a dark gray color, and she had eyes that were the color of sapphires. As soon as she got home, she immediately began making plans for her revenge on Zaru’s continuous annoyances.
The next week was only three weeks away from finals for the students, and Kora always liked to review the semester’s topics with her classes during those three weeks. The bird made sure to get to her classroom much earlier than normal, and saw that there was a package for her at her worktable. Over the weekend, Kora had called Triss, who had taught Zaru only one year before. Now, with Kora having to deal with Zaru, the fellow professor was more than happy to donate some of her class supplies to the bird in order to get revenge on the anger-inducing student.
Inside the package was a tank of helium, which was exactly what the bird had asked Triss for. Her plan would involve fully depleting the tank, and she made a special request for it to be completely full upon delivery. Kora moved it to a back corner of the room, where it wouldn’t be noticed until she mentioned it, and waited for the day to start…
Her first class came in, and five minutes into the class she saw Zaru burst through the doors to the room with a haughty grin. He let out a loud laugh as he head for his seat, messing with the nearby students and distracting almost every student from the lesson that had been taking place. Zaru was a wickerbeast who stood at about 7’2” in height. He was covered mostly in light gray fur, although his neck, chest, and some of his back had thick, yellow fur on it. He had yellow claws on his hands, and his feet were a similar shade of the color. His muscular, digitigrade legs had something that looked like a white skull on his outer thighs, and it was most certainly a feature the strong wickerbeast took pride in.
Kora cleared her throat just as Zaru got to his seat, continuing the lesson for a bit longer until she got to a good stopping point. Moving towards the helium tank, she smiled as she spoke. “Now, we need to be reviewing for the final in a few weeks. You all have your packets, but I feel like a demonstration would help quite a bit… Some of you may know Professor Everstead, and she was kind enough to donate some supplies in order to help you all review. Any volunteers?”
A multitude of eager students put up their hands, but Kora knew her target wasn’t going to volunteer that easily. To add a little more bait to her trap, she continued. “Oh, and anyone who helps in a demonstration from here until the final will be exempt from taking the test overall.”
When she had picked up the tank and turned around, she saw Zaru had lazily put his hand in the air with a bored expression. When the bluejay said his name, though, he perked up instantly as he began laughing to himself. He got up from his desk and shoved past multiple students, making sure to exaggerate his pushing just to mess with the others that much more.
When both he and Kora were at the teacher’s table, Zaru was still grinning. “Well, let’s get this over with. I can get outta here and get on with my life when this is done.”
Kora chuckled to herself and handed Zaru one end of a hose, its other end being attached to her tank. “Now, we haven’t done a demonstration before with Zaru, but if you remember, our second unit involved wickerbeasts. This tank has helium in it, so make your guesses now as to how big he’ll get.”
Zaru put the hose in his mouth and Kora secured it with a strap around his snout; something that was normal for these situations. A hissing sound filled the room as the tank started pushing helium down Zaru’s throat and into the wickerbeast’s belly. It immediately started to round out into a dome as room was made to hold in the gas, and Zaru rubbed his belly with a smile as he felt the oddly satisfying sensation of his skin stretching in every direction.
As his stomach filled, Kora put down the tank and leaned against her table, looking around at all the students intently watching Zaru’s expansion. Barely any of them were writing anything, their attention being fully fixed on the growing wickerbeast.
Pretty soon, Zaru’s belly was the size of a yoga ball, and his chest had joined his stomach in its inflation. Even his sides and back were growing outward as he was forced to widen his stance, the helium looking for any place it could find to fill him up more and more. His arms and legs even started to round out, making progress towards becoming small hills on the giant ball that Zaru’s body was becoming.
At this point, Zaru’s feet began to lift off the ground as the helium picked him up, causing him to float as his arms and legs stuck out, too rigid to move because they were so full of helium. His hands, feet, and even his head began to be sucked down into his spherical body as he rose higher and higher, and his hide started to creak and groan softly while he continued to inflate.
Zaru was, at this point, fighting off a daze from the pressure within him.He had cheeks that were puffed out to comical proportions that would’ve securely clamped his snout shut if the strap on his snout hadn’t been doing it for him. His skin was tingling all over in a pleasing way from being so taut and stretched in every direction. Just before he succumbed to the pressure, though, the hissing from the tank stopped, and he felt Kora pulling at the hose to pull the wickerbeast down.
“Now, Zaru, I understand you were under the impression that this was a demonstration. However, you’ve been rather… troublesome… to the classes lately. So I’ve decided that you should spend some extra time here. Besides, your grades aren’t the best, so you can consider it… extra tutoring!”
Kora took the hose and strap from Zaru and let go of him, causing him to float upwards until he hit the ceiling of the classroom. He bounced against it for a moment before he stopped at just the right angle to be looking down at the class while Kora moved the now-empty tank to a better spot. He grumbled to himself in anger, hating himself for how he had fallen for that trap. Kora resumed the day’s reviewing, and Zaru now began to wonder how long she’d leave him up there, granted she didn’t forget about him in the first place…