The buses roared to life one after another as the doors hissed shut.
Students flooded in with backpacks, duffel bags, and far too much energy for eight in the morning.
Nina was already seated in the middle and on her left, sat Mira Han.
West was seated on her right, beside the window.
Mira glanced at him, unimpressed.
"You came late," she said flatly.
"Fashionably," West replied.
Nina smiled faintly, but her mind was elsewhere as the bus began to move.
Soon the lot faded behind them.
---
Inside the Bus, the atmosphere had transformed almost immediately.
What had begun as orderly seating devolved into laughter, shouting, and music within ten minutes.
One of the guys in the back named Darius, pulled out a massive portable MP3 speaker.
"ROAD TRIP MODE!" he yelled.
Music blasted through the bus.
The teacher supervising their bus, Mr. Lowell, turned in his seat.
"Lower it!"
Darius lowered it... for about thirty seconds... and then the volume crept back up.
