Years of the Bus

14- A Surprise

“Why are we stopping?”

“Yeah, why are we stopping?”

Everybody looked around for answers, but nobody could figure out why we were pulling off of the interstate at five p.m. when we’d all agreed that we’d use that day to drive a full 24 hours only stopping to change drivers.

When nobody could give a reason as to why we were stopping, we looked up to the driver, who was Kenton, to see why he pulled off.

“Kenton, what’s up?” I wondered, walking up the aisle so that I was sitting as close to him as I could in the front row of seats right behind him.

“We have to do something,” He informed me vaguely.

“Do you mind sharing?” I asked him slowly as if he’d lost his mind.

He turned a little bit and grinned at me. “It’s a surprise.”

I looked out the window as he parked in front of a rest stop that was right outside of a small town that was just inside the border of California. About an hour prior, we crossed the border between Oregon and California, so that was pretty cool. The plan was to drive straight to Los Angeles, which would take a while, but with twelve people, we could do it almost nonstop if we alternated sleeping schedules, which is what we were doing because we were determined to get to LA before our halfway mark, which was in four days from then.

“Okay, everyone,” I announced to everyone on the bus except for Turner because he was asleep since he had the next driving shift. “I have an unfortunate announcement. Kenton has lost his mind and-“ I’m interrupted when Kenton tackles me from behind into the nearest seat. I fell into a fit of giggles as we wrestled in the booth for a moment before I surrendered by giving him a short kiss and then standing up again.

“We are stopping,” Kenton said loudly, standing up behind me. “Because we have something to do.”

“What are we doing?” I asked him.

“Rosa knows,” He informed me, pointing over to Rosa. “And so does Logan.”

“What do they know?” I questioned.

“We know,” Rosa piped with a small laugh as she stood up and lightly grabbed my arm. She pulled me into the back of the bus and hid us from everyone with the curtain.

“What do you know?” I repeated suspiciously.

“Don’t ask,” She chirped, handing me a black dress. “Just get dressed. Kenton will explain, just get dressed and don’t ask.”

“Um, okay,” I laughed, quickly taking off my t-shirt and sweats to exchange them with the sleeveless black dress that was kind of short but it was also pretty fancy.

“And put your shoes on while I do your hair,” She commanded.

“Yes, ma’am,” I teased, taking the shoes that she was giving me. They were black stiletto sandals that I recognized as Grace’s. She was the only one who would bring high heels on a trip like this anyway. As I fixed the buckle on the strappy shoes, Rosa tied my hair in a ponytail on my head.

It took about seven minutes total to get me dressed in the oddly fancy outfit and when Rosa decided that I looked ready, I was pushed back into the public area of the bus where everyone apparently knew what was going on now, because Baker and Erin were grinning excitedly at me and everyone else just looked like they knew something that I didn’t.

“Do I get to know what’s going on now?” I giggled, looking up at Kenton who was now wearing a dressy shirt as opposed to the t-shirt he was wearing previously, and he had on nice shoes too.