The two came across Hannah in the corner of the aquatic section of the exhibit. She's been turned into a Panda pooltoy, calling towards a small play area. "Lucas! Come out! We need to get back to the class!"
"Hannah, what's going on?" Hazel ran up to their classmate while Maya checked out the play area. There were a bunch of interactive exhibits to teach different things about sea life, like a simulated shoreline and light-up chart of habitat layers in the deep. A reef themed slide and tunnels sat in the center of the area, which Maya approached as Hannah continued talking.
"He started freaking out! Said something about people changing and ran away from me."
Maya could hear quiet crying from one of the tunnels. Getting down to look, she saw a pair of translucent blue rabbit legs wedged into a bend in the tunnel. "Lucas, are you okay?" The legs squirmed and kicked fruitlessly.
"Maya?" The rabbit boy sniffled, muffled by the rest of his body from this direction. Maya went around to the other side, where she could see Lucas' face. His ears are folded over, the tips being easily reachable from the entrance. He has a black spot over one eye, and buckteeth that stick out slightly from his mouth. He was crying, cartoony rivers of printed tears streaming down his cheeks. "Hannah got bumped into and turned into a pool toy and then I started changing so I ran in here and now I'm stuck!" The words spill from his mouth, ending the sentence in another round of sobs.
"Don't worry, I believe you. I remember too. Let us help you get out of there." Maya called Hazel and Hannah over. "Okay, we're going to try to pull you out. Ready? Pull!" Grabbing Lucas by his ears, the three other kids pull as hard as they can. Squeaking is added to the crying as he rubs against the walls of the tube. Inch by inch they tug their friend free.
Sshwump! With one last heave Lucas pops free of the tunnel. The change in forces sends Maya, Hazel, and Hannah tumbling as Lucas gets launched across the room, bouncing off the depth chart and to the ground.
Hazel laughs a little as everyone gets to their feet. "How'd you even get in there without letting off some air? You're way too big for these human tunnels." Of course, only Lucas and Maya knew the real reason was that he wasn't too big when he entered.
Lucas' new rabbit body was a bit taller than Hazel if you measured to their heads, but with his ears he was taller than even Maya. Translucent blue with black patches, his hips and thighs were indeed bigger than the tunnel, and probably really powerful for jumping like a real bunny.
Maya deflects the question for Lucas. "Let's get back to the class, we have to leave soon." As they make their way back, Maya whispers to Lucas. "Sit next to me on the bus, we can talk more."
A few minutes later, the class of pooltoys file onto the school bus to head back home. The two kids who remember being human that morning spent the ride comforting and getting to know each other. "Here's my home number, if you want to have playdates." Lucas has calmed down a lot, writing down his address and his mom's phone on a scrap of schoolwork.
The bus rolled to a stop in front of the elementary school, and the bell to end the school day rang as the pooltoys walked through the hallway. The transformation spread like wildfire as doors opened and kids interacted with each other in the hall. The scuffing of sneakers was quickly replaced by the squeaks of a rainbow of pooltoys moving about and bumping against each other. Maya gathered her things, noticing that her extra rain coat has disappeared from her cubby.
At the entrance to the school, she says goodbye to Hazel and Lucas before heading to where her mom usually picks her up, dreading the fact her family will change when she talks to them.