Years of the Bus

2- A Take-Off

“Remember to keep gas in the tank,” Chris reminded me because on his trip, they ran out of gas and had to walk for about five miles to a gas station and then lug the gas to the bus five miles back.

“And remember to save your money,” Ian added because he ran out of money a week early on his trip and they had to feed on left overs for that whole week and I think they even stole food from a gas station at one point.

“Never drive after midnight,” Garret piped because on his trip, they had a scare with one of the guys who was driving who had almost fell asleep at the wheel, not to mention the fact that it’s insanely dark and I hate driving in the dark.

“But the most important thing,” Austin interjected. “Is to have fun. Because you will never be able to do this again.”

“No matter how much you want to,” Ian finished their little put together speech.

“Guys,” I laughed. “We’ll figure it out.”

“We’re just trying to help,” Austin justified with a shrug. It was Sunday morning, right before everyone else was supposed to meet us at my house to set off. There were a lot of people there at my house to celebrate our take off. Mainly people from the school- basically our whole high school was in my backyard, including the class that I just graduated with yesterday. Not only were present students there, but previous bus-riders were also in attendance to pass on the legend. All of my brothers keep in touch with most, if not all, of the people that they shared the bus with, so almost all of them were there too, so it was a very big gathering, which my mother was more than happy to accommodate.

“I know,” I sighed.

“Are you the most excited person ever?” Baker shrieked, coming into the back yard, grinning hysterically at me. “No, of course you’re not, because I’m the most excited person ever. Of course, you can be the second most excited person ever.”

“Baker,” Garret greeted my enthusiastic best friend. “You’re as weird as ever.”

“Austin, you’re as attractive as ever,” She shot back confidently, looking over at Austin, who looked incredibly confused.

“I, um, I wasn’t the one who said that,” He said awkwardly. “But thanks, I guess.”

I rolled my eyes at my brazen best friend. “Okay Baker, you can stop being creepy now, I see Rosa coming.”

Baker brightened up even more when I mentioned Rosa and then started looking around for her until she saw our friend bouncing towards us. “Rosa!” Baker cheered. “Rosa, are you the most excited person ever?”

“How do you stand this?” Chris wondered incredulously.

I laughed and shrugged. “It’s a chore. A reminder, though, that you used to put up with her just fine.”

“Maybe old age has stolen your sense of humor,” Baker shot back at Chris with an innocent smile.

“You can cram it, Gertrude,” Chris fires back teasingly, using Baker’s first name, which is like, completely off limits to Baker that she got so mad whenever somebody used it.

She flipped him off subtly so that her mother, who was talking to my mother just a little farther away from us, didn’t see it.

“Is everybody here?” Rosa wondered as she approached us, nearly bouncing with excitement just like everybody was.

“Nope, but Gory’s in the garage getting in one last whatever it is that they do before the road trip.” I informed them.

“Ew, you’re letting them have sex on your car?” Rosa wondered with a disgusted look on her face.