"Those fish balls outside our school never fail to satisfy my taste buds!" My best friend Christian spoke as he sat beside me on the last row of chairs in this cobwebbed filed classroom. He placed his black backpack on a vacant armchair on his left and combed his dark hair with his sun kissed hands. "I sure want to buy one after this class."

"Oh yes they were!" I nodded with a smile on my face. "Let me join you later."

"Sure, bro," Christian assured. "As long as you give some to me for free."

"You social loafing asshole," I hardly slapped his arm with my pale hand. "Buy what you can pay! You have a baon."

"I was just joking," Christian chuckled as he slowly rubbed the arm I hit. "Jeez!"

Then with a sigh, I said, "Anyways, that will be our plan before we listen again to some boring tea—"

Bang!

Our conversation was interrupted when this termite infested door slammed and revealed this lady that was just as tall as the elves. She silently went inside the room as she carried a textbook that was just as big as her trunk.

Bang!

The dust on top of this wooden table revealed itself as she let the book slam. It was as if a bomb just exploded right in front of our eyes.

Defying the silent atmosphere, Christian looked at me and whispered, "Look whose projecting her anger towards us because she clearly had another conflict with another facul--"

"Oh shut up!" I whispered. "You are going to get us into trouble."

With her chin raised up high, she tidied her light blue blouse and black pants. Then, she looked at us with her huge eyeglasses that magnified her eyes into like that of a toad. As if waiting for a cue, she raised her right eyebrow as we all stood up and greeted, "Good morning, Miss Esperanza."

"Good morning, class," she spoke with a high rough voice as she looked at us sternly. "Sit down."

Trying our best not to drag the chairs, we obeyed her command as she sat on a wooden chair and turned the pages of the book she brought. Then, there was complete silence. No one even dared to whisper. Because Miss Esperanza's tolerance to "slight disturbances" against her class usually lead to a revelation of her demonic disciplinary measures. Examples of which are the use of shame to a student until he or she cried or a traumatic trip to the principal's office. (Unless you were lucky enough to actually whisper so softly that it always failed to get onto her ears. Ask my friend Christian. He was an expert to that.) Finally, she broke her silence when she graciously stood up with her chin raised, breathed heavily and spoke, "Okay class. Let us begin the discussion for today."

Usually, most of my time with her were sort of a boring routine. I would go inside the classroom, listen to her discussion, do some activities, answer some quizzes and it always ended up with me back onto the hallway where I met my other friends. There was nothing special. Everything seemed so flat. There was nothing special to remember in her discussions. However, everything changed when that disastrous day marked my memory of her class completely. I tried to erase it from mind, but I always failed...

It all started when Miss Esperanza continued with the words, "Now class, we are going to discuss about the Digestive System. With this matter, we shall focus on where our food travels until it ends into a feces."

At the moment she spoke those words, my stomach suddenly grumbled and created a soft roar. It was as if it wanted to have a participation with the subject matter. I thought that it was nothing to worry about. I thought that it was just a cause of my hunger. But I was terribly wrong. A few seconds later, my butt started to whistle as it excreted this steaming fart that in the end made my anus close immediately when I realized that it included—

"Shit!" I whispered.

"What were you saying, Zayn," Miss Esperanza looked at me sternly.

Completely bothered by the sudden attention I brought myself into, I tried to sit properly and looked straight at Miss Esperanza's eyes.

"I said 'fit', ma'am," I lied with a crooked smile on my face as the pain in my anus started to decrease. "The subject matter is really timely for this morning and I am really interested to hear about it."

For ten seconds, she fixed her eyes on me, as if she could look right into my soul just to find any clues of a lie. But thank God! My acting skills really paid off as she gave up and looked towards my other classmates.

"Okay... Let's proceed." Miss Esperanza continued. "Does anyone have an idea on the parts of the Digestive system?"

In an instant, almost everyone raised their hands. In my case, I did not even dare to raise mine, because both of them were busy in trying to push my stomach to hopefully lessen the grumbling of my stomach.

She looked from left to right with her chin up. Then suddenly, she pointed at the girl right in front of me with the words, "Oh Miss Pabibo! The most active student in my class. Oh please do the honors."

"As expected," Christian whispered as he rolled his eyes. "Miss Pabibo is called for the thousandth time. Favoritism in this class is so not obvious."

"Will you shut up, dude?" I whispered rudely. "You might get us into trouble!"

As I said those words, the grumbling of my stomach started to subside. Thankfully I had another chance to rest and listen properly to the class.

Ignoring Christian's rant, Miss Pabibo gracefully and proudly stood up and spoke. "First, the food is chewed in the mouth with the help of the teeth. Then it goes into the esophagus, then into the stomach, then into the small intestine, then into the large intestine, the into rectum and lastly, into the anus."

"Excellent, Miss Pabibo! Excellent indeed... You may now take your seat," Miss Esperanza smiled and clapped her hands as Miss Pabibo followed her command. Then she looked back at us and continued with the words, "Class, the digestive system is really important in our daily lives. This is how we intake the nutrients we need and get rid of any toxicities in our bodies. And—"

Just right on cue with the word, "toxicity", another wave of steaming hot fart excreted its way out of my butt. And based from what I had just experienced, hot farts likely included liquid-like feces.

No... No... No! I said to myself as I immediately tried to close my anus again. To make things more effective, I sat with a better sitting posture. Exactly as what I had expected, seconds later, the war between the anal gates and the shit began in full force. I could feel the urge of the crap push my anus to its limits, as if it demanded to be free from my system and be in the mercy and comfort of my underwear. Beads of sweat started to run onto my face. All the hairs on my arms raised as it made me feel an unwelcomed coldness. I tried to listen Miss Esperanza's lecture with my eyes focused on her face. But the pain in my butt was just too overwhelming that all the words she spoke sounded gibberish to me.

Fuck! When will this pain stop? I asked myself.

To be honest, I was not a "die hard" religious person. But the situation was just too overwhelming that I was left no choice but to pray, Lord, please let me have the strength and courage to fight this shit. I don't want to cause a scandal in this rugged classroom. If there will be a chance that I give up and my classmates smell my crap... No! Oh hell no! Lord, give me that damn strength!

Miraculously, it worked. The liquid crap started to give up, but my stomach continued to ache. Nevertheless, it was enough for me to focus again back on Miss Esperanza's discussion. I did not know how much I had missed, but at that moment, she gave an insight on the fish ball vendors outside our school. Quite intrigued, I leaned forward as she warned, "Class, be careful on where you buy your street foods. A group of Philippine Science High School students conducted a random experiment with the fish balls sold outside the school. And according to them it was positive with bacteria such as Bacillus cereus."

"Bacillus cereus?" I widened my eyes.

"Yes, Mr. Zayn," Miss Esperanza answered confidently. "The street foods outside our campus are positive with Bacillus cereus."

"Now that is serious... Get it?" Christian whispered with a chuckle.

Ignoring what he said and my eyes focused on Miss Esperanza, I asked her again with the words, "Umm... When had they conducted the experiment?"

"Yesterday," Miss Esperanza answered. "I got this idea from a daughter of one of my faculty members earlier this morning and it is quite alarming... Quite alarming indeed."

In an instant, my eyes widened as a thought started to ripple itself inside my head... It was a sunny afternoon when Christian and I stood in front of a fish ball stall that was placed just outside our campus. There I savored every bite of those small circular shaped delights and sometimes dipped them on a cylindrical container that was filled with a sweet sauce. Then, I looked at Christian with a smile on my face as I said, "I want to go back here again and again. It is so delicious! Thanks for letting me know of this stall. I usually don't eat these kinds of things, because my mother said not to. But for you bro, I am giving it a try."

"Oh it is my pleasure," Christian giggled. "You must really try to enjoy these kinds of stuff and not only being inside your family's mansion where you only do and eat some rich things. You need to try these simple foods too."

"I guess you are right," I nodded.

Then, my heart pounded as I realized that it all happened yesterday... The same date in which the Philippine Science students conducted the experiment...

"So class," Miss Esperanza spoke loudly as it brought me back to the face of reality. "I discourage you all in buying these street foods from now on. There is no assurance of safety from these foods. In relation to our topic now, it might cause danger to our digestive system with probable effects of diarrhea, so might as well avoid it."

As she said those words, another wave of hot fart started to come out of my butt. Then within seconds, this menacing feces started to push its way again against my anus. This time, it was worse than before. It was so worse that I was forced to close my eyes and crouch, with my hands placed on my stomach.

Hoping for another miracle, I prayed, Lord, let me have the strength to fight this impending doom... Bless the action that I am going to make."

Then, with the thought of letting it go as soon as possible and avoiding a probable scandal inside the classroom, I raised my left hand and said, "Ma'am, can I be excused for a moment? I need to go to the bathroom."

With a blank face, she replied, "Okay. Carry on."

Thankful for that affirmation, slowly I walked towards the door and headed straight towards the hallway. As I looked further into the hallway, there I saw in the end was a door. Then in an instant, my day started to brighten up when I had seen the word "CR" written on its upper part with a red paint. I felt this great energy of joy start to overwhelm my body as the pain in my stomach started to stop again.

"Oh thank God!" I smiled as walked towards it, with full concentration to let the crap in for a few more minutes. However, as I got nearer, my world started to gloom as I realized that there was another sign posted outside of it. Written on a short bond paper was a sign that stated, "For faculty members only."

"No!" I shouted. I tried to turn the doorknob, with the hope that it was open. But fuck! I was wrong as I realized that it was shut and the keys were probably left to the faculty members of this damn school.

Suddenly, the pain in my stomach started to reveal itself again with its level of intensity so high that I was forced to pray a litany of all the saints I knew for their help and intercession. With the thought of moving forward before it was too late, I looked on my right and there it revealed to me another hallway. At the end of this said hallway, there were two open doors. Oh such a joy it was to see that it had the sign "CR" posted on top of them. On the left was for the boys, while on the right was for the girls. At that moment, my hopes finally got back to its former glory. It was as if a choir of angel sang as I rapidly walked towards this restroom. There was a smile on my face as I thought, At last. I can finally be relieved. Come on... We're almost there. Let us bid this pain goodbye.

As I went inside the restroom, I halted as looked at a metallic door of a single cubicle. Then, with a nod on my face, I opened it. Then in an instant, the atmosphere started to go from something heavenly to something of a hell-like. The choirs of angels that I once thought of started to disappear as I saw the toilet filled with large chunks of crap. Calmly, they all floated on this yellowish liquid. To make things worse was that there were hundreds upon hundreds of maggots crawling in and out of the feces. It was as if these maggots made it as their own shelter to cater their necessities in life, and in the making was essential to actually build a horrifying community. By the looks of it, these droppings had already been there for a while and not even a single faculty personnel had given the time to even just clean it all up.

And that was not all. The stench was so horrifying that it smelled like a sewage system left with no maintenance for like thousands of years. The smell of the poop and urine mixed together, creating this horrifying stench of doom.

Left with no other restrooms to pick and with an unbearable pain in my stomach, I was forced to suffer the torture. I unbuttoned my pants and pulled it down with my underwear as I slowly sat on the toilet seat. Then with a loud whistle of a fart, I let it all out. I disregarded the possibility of urine bouncing onto the surface of my butt. I disregarded the fact that at any moment, some maggots might actually crawl onto the surface of the toilet seat and have a happy adventure onto my ass. I just concentrated with the satisfaction of letting all that shit out of my system and with the thought that sooner or later, it will all pass.

Minutes later, all the crap were all out. I was finally relieved from the pain, with the sweat that poured all over my face as the proof of the challenge I endured. However, the suffering did not end there as I realized that there were no tissues, pail or even a tabo available in the said restroom. The lavatory and the faucet were just too far to reach. So I was left no choice but to use my handkerchief as a tissue. I grabbed it inside the left pocket of my pants and rapidly wiped it onto my butt. It felt so rough and disgusting but I tried not to think about it as much as possible. As I put the handkerchief onto my front to fold it, I realized that it was left with not only a brownish figure. There were three maggots crushed onto the handkerchief.

Just calm down, Zayn... Calm down, I breathed heavily as I used the other side of the handkerchief to wipe the remaining dirt on my butt. With an urge to get out of that place, I threw the handkerchief on the side of the cubicle and lifted both my pants and underwear. I unbuttoned my pants and headed straight towards the lavatory to wash my hands. As I turned the faucet, I was glad to realize that there was an availability of water. The only problem was that the flow was just too weak. With a great urge of proper hygiene, I was left no choice but to make the best out of it as I washed my hands.

Then there I was, out of that horrifying restroom. The pain in my stomach was long gone... But an uncomfortable sensation continued to linger... As I continued to walk towards my classroom, I felt a rough sensation as both my butt rubbed against each other. Was there a remaining bit of crap or a flattened maggot on my butt? I did not want to know.