The Wheels on the Bus go Clunk Clunk Clunk.(Slight NSFW)

Most public schools have a school bus system. Buses go out before and after school to transport kids to either the school or their home. This is very helpful, especially for families who don't have the time or means to transport their kids to and from school. However, I personally came to hate school buses over time, due to a few years of bad experience.

I used to enjoy the bus rides in elementary school, I got to know my bus driver really well, and she often gave us snacks to eat. My bus only had around 8 kids in it, so everyone was friendly with each other. The bus rides home were always quick and fun. For some dumb reason I also thought that riding the yellow bus made me "cool". 

My impression of the yellow bus changed dramatically when I entered middle school. I present to you, bus 156. All of my friends who lived in Champaign now got to ride the MTD bus, which I thought was vastly superior to the yellow bus. I, on the other hand, had to ride bus 156. A singular regular sized yellow bus that had to cover for the entire town of Savoy. So it was already crowded and people were forced to do the dreaded 3 to a seat. To make it worse, not only did the bus cover all of Savoy for all 3 middle schools (Franklin, Jefferson, and Edison), but it also transported the high schoolers who lived in savoy as well. Imagine a hot day with over 70 people jammed in a bus, with ages varying from 10 to 18. Now also factor in the backpacks and lunchboxes, as well as the instruments people would bring to school for Band and Orchestra. Yeah, its not pretty. 

1 week after I started riding the bus, I approached my parents and begged to get out. Finding a seat on the bus everyday was a challenge in itself, and having a trumpet didn't make it any easier. Being the youngest grade on the bus wasn't fun, as all the seats would sort of have a priority for the older students. After bribing the 8th graders for a seat, I would sit down and brace myself for the inevitable bumps in the road. As the bus sped over bumps, everyone would bounce up, sometimes up to a feet or so. With the amount of objects in the bus, I am pretty sure it should be considered a safety hazard.

My parents offered me a deal, I would only ride in the afternoons. Since the high schools and middle schools got out at different times, only the morning bus contained both high schoolers and middle schoolers. I agreed, but it wasn't that much better.

In fact, there was a particularly terrifying/embarrassing incident on the afternoon bus that I just happened to remember while I was writing this blog. I have been trying to forget about it for the past 5 years so it really sucks that I just remembered it, but here it goes.

When I was in 6th grade, all the seats were taken except for 1 near the 8th graders at the back of the bus. I walked back and asked for a seat, an 8th grader allowed me to sit there, but at a cost to, well, my eyes. 

NFSW warning - sorta

A few minutes into the bus ride, for some stupid reason, the 8th grader tried to show me porn. He had an app downloaded on his phone and he kept asking me to watch with him. Naturally I was absolutely terrified. I just turned my head and stared out the window, praying that he would stop. Fortunately his stop was rather early, so I was free after 10 min or so. Still, I was pretty traumatized about the incident. 

After I got home, I just sort of walked to my room and went to sleep. My parents suspected that something was wrong, but they never figured it out as I never told them what had happened. I am perfectly fine now though, so don't worry about me.

Time to forget the incident again....