Footsteps pounded in my ears as the herd thundered up the steps. Shoulders shoved, hands gliding past the railing. I looked down at my dirty red converse as they made their way to the top of the steps. I looked up at the sea of heads bobbing up and down as they pushed and shoved their way to the buses. My eyes landed on the yellow school bus, parked several feet away from where I was standing. I separated from the crowd and ran over to the open doors. I threw my legs on top of the giant silver steps and looked up to see that the driver was different. I leaned out and checked the bus number. Still bus number eight as usual. I eyed the driver, he seemed old, wispy white hair stuck out under his black beanie and he had sunglasses covering his eyes. 

He was wearing only black but I couldn’t see what he was wearing exactly before he shouted, “Move along, missy.” His voice was low and deep. I jumped as I obeyed him and squeezed through the seats. I looked up and found that there were only a few kids on the bus. One was in the front seat directly behind the driver, his ankles were crossed and his frizzy brown hair was all I could see of his head. He clutched a book in between his legs. He looked up at me and for a moment I could see his big brown eyes before they snapped back to the book. I continued to shuffle to the back of the bus. 

“Hurry up.” The driver called. I quickly shuffled to the back seat and flung myself onto the seat on my right. I glanced over at the person sitting in the seat across from me. The girl has short frizzy blonde hair and army print boots with black shoelaces tied in a messy knot. She wore a black cardigan sweater that covered all of her hands except for a fragment of her fingers that were fidgeting with her ripped leggings. Her boots were pressed on the back of the seat in front of her while she hugged her knees to her chest. The girl tilted her head but did not say anything, just stared down at her leggings and ignored me. I peeked up over the seat, my fingers grasped the leather. I saw that two girls were two seats away from me. I could only see that one had dark brown hair and a rainbow cat ear headband and the other had light brown hair. They were whispering with each other but were so quiet I couldn’t hear a word that came out of their mouths. There was only one other person on the bus other than the whispering girls, cardigan girl, and frizzy hair boy and she was sitting in the twenty-first seat all alone. She had light brown hair, almost like a caramel color, tied back in a ponytail. She wore a baggy sage green sweatshirt and jean shorts. Her tan legs were stretched out on the seat, her phone was in her hands, and she was leaning back against her backpack that was parallel to the window. She looked weirdly familiar, as if I had seen her in the hallways. But that was it, the bus wasn’t buzzing with conversation, no one was crushed up against the window, practically no one spoke. It was empty and dull. I gazed past cardigan girl’s legs and out the window at people who were waiting for their bus and talking, smiling, hanging out with their friends while I was here stuck with a few strangers. But something weird was going on, kids were walking up to our bus but then the bus driver would say something and they would turn away. Why was this bus only reserved for us? Plus I had never seen any of these kids on this bus. I drew my eyes away from the window and onto the girl in the black cardigan.  

“Hi, is this your normal bus?” I asked the girl. She stopped fidgeting and looked at me. I could finally see her face clearly, she had greyish green eyes and a few freckles scattered around her round face. 

“No, the assistant principal said that I will be going on this bus today.” She said. Her expression didn’t change when she talked to me. I expected her to go back to messing around with the loose strings of her leggings but she just stared at me. I looked around the bus and then looked back at her, she was still looking at me as if waiting for me to say something. 

“My name is Haley.” I said while smiling. 

“Cynthia.” She replied casually. I nodded and looked at the ground. 

“Isn’t it weird that there is such a small amount of people on this bus?” I asked. Cynthia shrugged.

“It’s obvious that the school only wants a few people going to the place that the bus driver is taking us.” She said. The girl with the sage green sweatshirt leaned out to look at Cynthia.

“The bus driver drives us home, they are paid to do that.” She sneered. At once it clicked. This was Bri Anderson, the girl who supposedly thought she was better than everyone. The girl everyone somehow knew.  

“Well I have a feeling something dark is going on.” Cynthia said mysteriously. Suddenly she perked up.

“Did anyone else hear that?” She asked, her eyes were wide.

“No, because you’re insane.” Bri snapped at Cynthia. Cynthia relaxed as if Bri had not just insulted her and sat back against the seat. 

Just then a series of footsteps pounded on the steps. The assistant principal popped up and ducked into the bus. He mumbled something to the two boys behind him. They popped up and scooted down the aisle. One had black hair that was swooped over to one side. He was tall, his skin was the color of chocolate and he had a goofy grin on his face. I had seen him around the school, his name was EJ, and just like Bri, everyone knew him. He slid into the seat in front of Bri.

“Hey.” He said with a smirk. Bri took one look at him and narrowed her eyes. 

The second boy had messy brown hair and thick, black, rectangular glasses. He wore a navy blue sweatshirt and grey pants, he paused before sliding into an empty seat a few seats away from me. Then the assistant principal shuffled down the aisle to the two whispering girls.

“Olivia come with me.” The assistant principal said as he motioned for one of the girls to follow him.

The girls glanced at each other and then back at the assistant principal, “Sir I am going over to her house tonight.” The girl with the light brown hair said. 

The assistant principal frowned, “No your not, come with me.” The girl glanced helplessly at her friend and then stood up and followed the assistant principal out. Then they were gone.

Suddenly the bus jolted to life and the doors had clasped shut. 

“Wait why are we moving? There should be more people on this bus!” Bri shouted at the bus driver but he kept going. 

“Can you not hear me old man!” Bri yelled.

“I can hear you just fine you little brat.” The bus driver yelled back as we drove out of the parking lot. The bus driver picked up a radio and mumbled something into it. There were no buses in front of us and the buses behind us were still. The radio crackled to life again as words stumbled out of it. Before the person on the other side of the radio could finish the bus driver interrupted loudly.

“It would be stupid to stick to the stinkin’ plan for god’s sake. I’ll run ‘em out.” Then the bus driver pulled the radio out of the system and threw it on the floor. 

“That’ll shut ya up.” The bus driver shouted angrily. Then he looked up and made a sharp turn. 

Everyone screamed. I tumbled down to the aisle as Cynthia slammed against the window. Bri grabbed the back of her seat and pulled herself towards it. The girl with dark brown hair stood up and wobbled over to the seat in front of me. 

“This is crazy!” She exclaimed, but weirdly delighted. I fumbled back onto my seat, “Yep.” I replied. 

“I’m Leah!” The girl said while smiling. 

“I’m Haley.” I said back. 

Suddenly the expression on Leah’s face changed drastically. Her eyes went cold as she stared behind me. 

“Is it just me or is that white van chasing us.” She said as she continued to stare out the back window.

I glanced at Cynthia who was looking between me and Leah, then turned my head around. Leah was right, there was a white van right on our heels.