So they borrow a shrinking ray from the embassy. Shrinking rays are tricky machines, and this one turns out to be more than the boys can handle. Instead of cutting a mean kid down to size, they end up making Tim and their teacher Ms. Weintraub no bigger than a pair of pencils!
If word gets out of this misuse of alien technology, it could ruin Pleskit's mission. But how can you hide the fact that you've shrunk your teacher?