"So, should we add this blue stuff or... well... that other stuff first?" Jess asked in that annoying voice of hers. Samantha groaned inwardly and patiently tipped the phial of dry ice into the bowl sitting upon her desk. It immediately frothed up and began to spew fumes of yellowish gas - exactly what their teacher told them it was supposed to do at this stage of the experiment.

"Good job, girls!" Mr. Hansom told them as he walked by. "That's going ve-e-ery nicely."

"Wow Sammy, you're sooo smart!!" Jess said perkily. Samantha couldn't hide her groan this time, but managed to pass it off as a slight cough. Luckily, Jess didn't notice - she was too busy admiring their concoction, which she had done absolutely nothing to help with.

About fifteen minutes later, their class was finished. Mr. Hansom offered praise, students sighed exasperatedly, and nothing was unusual to their typical schedule. Then, as everybody was grabbing their things to leave the class, Mr. Hansom picked up the trays holding their creations and dumped them outside his window, right onto a flower bed where a small puddle of water had gathered.

That was weird, Sammy thought. But it didn't matter. The bell had just rung and she headed out the door for her seventh hour class, study hall. Jess followed her, and they reached the room just before the bell rang again.

Samantha sat down in her chair and opened her book. She ignored the rest of the class for a peaceful thirty minutes before Jess decided to plop down right next to her.

"Hey, best friend," she whispered, scooting her chair closer to Sammy's.

Ugh, Samantha thought. "I'm not your best friend! We're just science partners."

Jess put a hand over her heart in mock injury. "Aww, Samantha, I thought you liked me."

Samantha was about to correct her when suddenly a scream rang out through the air. Sammy whipped her head around to the slightly open row of windows. A horrifying sight awaited her -

Platypuses.

Platypuses with mad, rolling eyes.

Platypuses slobbering all over the once-immaculate windows.

Platypuses clawing at the windows...!

"Everybody run!" Sammy shouted, but her classmates were frozen in terror. She couldn't blame them - the platypuses were the stuff of nightmares. "Come on!" But she knew it was hopeless. All she could do was watch in horror as the first platypus slowly broke through the window. Samantha came to her senses and grabbed Jess's hand. She may have been a bit of a perky beesting, but she was the closest one to Samantha, and Sammy knew she wouldn't be able to make it through here unless she had some help.

"Come on!" she screamed, snapping her fingers in front of the girl's face, trying to break her out of her reverie. Shouts were echoing throughout the pod, and Samantha could only guess the platypuses were invading the other classrooms too. Jess finally looked over at Samantha. Her eyes were wide, and her lips were parted ever so slightly. She looked so confused and scared in that moment that Sammy resolved then and there to help her survive this - whatever it was. She was about to say something to Jessica, when a resounding CRASH came from the windows and brought Samantha's attention back to the more pressing issue at hand. She gazed in horror as the platypuses fully destroyed the row of windows and began to pour in.

The pair began to manoeuvre through the desks in the direction of the door, but stopped when a platypus suddenly jumped on a girl's face - Abby was her name. It lifted its bill up high, opening it to reveal razor-sharp triangular teeth, then snapped it down over her head. Several other platypuses joined it in eating her, until she was completely gone.

Their classmates screamed as one and ran towards the door. Sammy and Jess reached it first, and the platypuses began to pick off the stragglers in the back of their group. Some people were stupid enough to run back for their phones, and were promptly eaten. A few lucky souls managed to get a good Snapchat picture in before being viciously murdered by the psychopathic platypuses, who then ruined their amazing photo by adding #platypus to the caption.

Meanwhile, Samantha was out of the door and running for her life, Jess close behind her. More platypuses were streaming out of the other classrooms, but Samantha and Jess were ahead of them all. They dashed down the main hallway, hoping to escape the platypuses and their killer teeth.

They were almost to the third pod when suddenly a platypus fell out of the sky and landed right in front of them. Jess screamed in terror and started to run back the way they had come. The platypus chased after her and latched its teeth onto (into?) her leg. This time her scream was from pain. Samantha launched herself at the platypus and stuck her No. 2 pencil into its eyeball. It made a strange screeching noise that sounded vaguely like a llama having a seizure and let go. Sammy let go of her pencil - as it was now covered in blood and gore - and rushed to help Jess.

Her leg was really gross and smelly (was it infected?!) so Samantha focused on helping her stand, not on looking at it. The two sort of limp-hobbled down the hall until they reached the entrance to the pod. They went for Mr. Hansom's room, as it was closest and appeared to be platypus-free.

Samantha hoisted Jess into a chair and propped her leg upon the table. Then she began to look around for medical supplies, even though she didn't know how to use them. As she reached into a cupboard, a small squeak came from within. Sammy jumped back in surprise.

A small hand poked out of the cabinet. Samantha nearly screamed, but then she recognised the bracelet on its wrist.

"Nellie!" she said quietly. "What are you doing?"

"Hiding from the platypuses, what else would I be doing you dimwit," she retorted. Yep, definitely her. "Don't tell me you didn't see them?"

"Considering they ate most of my class and tore up Jess's leg, I guess I could say I have," Samantha replied with just the tiniest bit of sarcasm.

"Jess?" Nellie said, somehow even softer than before. "Don't you hate her?"

"I used to." Sammy paused. "But she doesn't deserve to die by platypus. No one does."

"Ah. Right." Nellie was quiet for a moment. "Hey, would you like me to look at her leg? I'm kind of curious as to what you meant by 'torn up'."

"Sure." Samantha stretched her hand out to her friend, who was still in the cupboard for whatever reason. Nellie groaned slightly as she extricated herself from the small, dark cupboard. Once she was out, Sammy reached down to close the door when a slight shuffling noise made her jump back again. She was just about to look inside again when the head of her friend's new boyfriend, Nelson, suddenly appeared.

Pushing aside her initial thoughts, she struggled to reel in her imagination long enough to say, "Nelson! You too?" She had never really liked Nelson, because she had no tolerance for stupid people. As Nelson was a nimrod on the stupid scale she felt justified in disliking him.

"Guuuuuuhhhhhhhhh," Nelson mumbled, "get me out!"

Sure enough, he was completely stuck in the cupboard. How he managed to do that, nobody will ever know. Once he got out (read: once Samantha ungracefully yanked him out), Samantha led the two over to Jess so Nellie could inspect her leg. Then she pulled Nelson aside and asked him in a stern voice, "What were you doing in there with my friend?"

"We - uh - well - p - p - platypuses - eat - die - h - hiding -" Nelson answered in typical fashion.

"Well then." She spoke very clearly. "Let's hope that doesn't happen again. Okay?"

"O - okay fine," he stuttered. The two walked back over to Jess's table. She was grimacing slightly as Nellie bandaged her leg up, but it was looking much better, and Jess didn't look pale anymore, so Samantha assumed she was improving. She didn't know much about medical stuff.

"All done!" Nellie announced proudly. "Now we should probably - " All of a sudden she went quiet, as if she was listening for something. Nelson looked as if he was about to ask something really stupid, but Sammy put a finger to her lips. Don't talk.

Suddenly Nellie pointed to the cupboards and hissed, "Everybody down!" The small group dropped to the floor and began to crawl stealthily towards Nellie and Nelson's cupboard. They reached the cupboards, and Nellie and Nelson took their original cupboard (Samantha gave Nelson a pointed glare before he got in) and Samantha and Jess took the one directly to its right. Sammy waited for Jess to haul herself in before crawling in herself and quietly shutting the doors. She left it open the tiniest of cracks so as to keep watch for the platypuses.

They waited for about five minutes, scarcely breathing as they waited for their semi-aquatic attackers to appear. Their fear was nearly tangible. Samantha's legs had just begun to feel tired when she heard it.

CRRRREEEEAAAKK.

She froze. Behind her, Jess's breathing slowed and became less audible. She began to braid Samantha's hair and Sammy knew she was terrified.

But then Sammy saw them, and completely forgot about Jess. It was the platypuses!

It was the first time she'd gotten a look at them, meaning when she wasn't running for her life. They were small, rectangular, and a bright bright blue. They had comically orange bills and tails. Those razor sharp teeth protruded from their bills, and their eyes were a menacing red. With a start, Samantha realised what they looked like. They were the evil doppelgängers of Perry the Platypus!

Sammy drew in a sharp breath and silently closed the door. She listened with all her might as the sound of the platypuses' padding feet filled the silence. She assumed they were searching the room for victims.

Her heart nearly stopped as they halted at the cupboard right next to theirs.

The door crreeeaaaked open.

Terrified screams filled the air, followed by cartoonish chomping noises.

Then silence.

Samantha turned to Jess in horror. Jess's mouth was open and tears streamed silently down her face.

Sammy turned her head back around as their cupboard suddenly became a whole lot brighter. She was certain what that meant, but she wasn't about to show her fear.  

Samantha barely had a second before a set of freshly stained teeth come right for her face. She knew this was the end.

*END OF SEASON ONE*

(NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!1!!!!!!!1!!!!1!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!)