By: vormon
"I'll stay," you somewhat reluctantly decide. It seems like a gross violation of basic survival instinct to consent, but you definitely don't know enough to survive the school by yourself. You can't vore, you're not confident that you could escape any but the most novice gut, and this program was recommended specifically to you. If Shelby didn't know what she was doing, they wouldn't have let her be a mentor. Probably. Anyhow, she loves your decision.
"Oh, I knew you'd say yes!" she says ecstatically, "We're going to have so much fun!"
She even hugs you, or rather her large belly, but the added pressure is more than you can handle and you quickly convince her to stop, which she does solicitously. Informing you that she needs to start getting ready for class, she gets out of bed taking special care to avoid unnecessarily jostling you. It's a considerate gesture, if almost meaningless considering how marginal the discomfort of motion is relative to the discomfort of being trapped in a tight, gooey sac that could turn on you at any moment.
Realizing that your ability to perceive the outside world is severely circumscribed, Shelby helpfully keeps up a commentary of what she's doing so that you can at least have some sense of what's going on around you. Now she's getting dressed, now she's rethinking her outfit because it now has to accommodate you, now she's wondering which top looks cuter and which one do you prefer? You've never seen either, but luckily the question seems to be rhetorical, and Shelby manages to get ready for her class without your input.
You recall that when you first met her she was naked and ask why she's now so concerned about clothes. She laughs somewhat condescendingly before apologizing for forgetting that you're new. Apparently, it has something to do with the intimacy of the mentor/mentee relationship, although you're not quite sure. It's become harder to hear what she's saying since she got up; she must have been taking special care to be audible while on the bed. Anyhow, she launches into a story about some girl named Tracy who was so convinced that her mentor was going to eat her that she stole various digestive elixirs from the nurse and science labs. The next day when the mentor allowed herself to be swallowed to help Tracy practice, Tracy drank the potions. The combination was so potent (as rumor has it) that Tracy's unfortunate mentor spent but fifty-seven seconds in her pupil's body; just one minute to make the journey from head to tail. Of course, without protection Tracy herself was eaten the very next day. And the moral of the story is that mentors should greet their students naked. You're not sure how the moral follows exactly, but you don't have much of a chance to ask for clarification because no sooner has Shelby finished than she's warning you that she's about to enter her class and not to cause any mischief.
The class is horribly boring. You can rarely even hear the teacher, and the snippets that you do catch mean nothing whatsoever to you. Something hard and wooden is jabbing you painfully in your back as well, and being in Shelby's belly as you are you are at perfect level to hear the scratching of her pencil on paper.
If the environmental hazards of the classroom were insufficient, Shelby's stomach seems to be growing restless as well. You presume that it normally has breakfast to work over at this time, and is unhappy with the break in routine. It's impressive that Shelby's held you this long entirely undigested, but the temperature is starting to rise and liquid is pooling over the lower parts of your body. The space also seems to be diminishing, and with it the breathable air.
You should probably take a break from this, although Shelby might not thank you for interrupting her in the middle of class. You could thrash about and yell that you need to get out, hopefully pressuring her to release you, or you could just mildly poke her every now and then to remind her that you're here and hopefully forestall digestion. The pitfall of the first is that she might be annoyed at your disruption and refuse to do anything, but the pitfall of the second is that she doesn't notice or take appropriate action.