Inter school bus stops, day two

[sheizus]

Gerald leaned on the fence, thinking his pathetic, nondescript thoughts. People walked past, in front of him, and he kicked himself at every one that he didn't have the confidence to introduce himself to.
The play ran the same every day without fail. The people walked on by, and Gerald was paralysed. A girl from another bus smiled at him as she went past, and he wondered if she laughed at him or smiled to him when he looked back.
And Gerald knew by heart how the routine finished: His bus arrived, and it was a quick and painless "Exit stage left".
The ultimate anticlimax.

[Chris Wesley]

Chris was a bit surprised by the last comment. Nora didn't seem like the kind of person who would be interested in cars, but he decided he should probably enlighten her since he asked.

"It's just an Audi S6, a black sports model. Nothing too great on the outside, but I've modified the engine so it's great for racing. Clarke's car is more for show, but he likes to think it's a better racer than it actually is."

He felt that the conversation was declining slightly. He was dead certain that Nora didn't reall care about cars, he needed to find something that she would talk about.

"What do you usually do after school? do you play any sports?"

He hoped to find a common link in hobbies or something, to turn the conversation around.

[arcticgal]

" Actually," Nora said, " I play a bit of music. The alto-sax."

She underrated her involvment in music, and tried not to tell too many people; there was a prevailing image of "band geek" around, and American Pie hadn't done much to help it. It was a funny thing; even people who hadn't seen the movie knew all about the band geeks. Nora herself hadn't seen it, and she knew all about the band geeks. At least the alto-sax was a cool instrument, though.

" I used to play soccer, at my old school, but I wasn't much good at it. I could never see the
point. This year it was so much harder to get into a good team, and I really didn't feel like it. It would have been easy to get into one of the lower teams, but they are made up of 3rd formers who don't know how to play, and pretty much expect to lose. I hate losing. I would rather not play than lose. How about you?"

[Chris Wesley]

"True. I used to play the Tenor Sax, but it got boring. I'm not the kind of person who plays music, i write some lyrics every now and then, but otherwise i just listen to it."

Chris felt that he'd finally found something to talk about, albeit a bit late.

"As for playing sport just to win, that's kind of stupid, isn't it? Although in a team game, if your team sucks it does get boring. I do Karate, it's pretty fun. I prefer it to team games, you don't have to worry about anyone else working with you when you play."

[arcticgal]

" I do like team games. I've never actually tried sports where you dont have a team. I don't know if I could keep motivated enough; when you are in a team, you need to keep getting better, or else you let everyone else down."

She stopped for a minute.

" I guess thats why I don't like being in a bad team. When I am in, I'm in, and I expect everyone else to be equally so."


She smiled, but glanced at her watch. The bus should be arriving any minute.

[Chris Wesley]

Chris saw Nora glance at her watch, and instinctively did the same. The bus would be arriving any minute. He felt that he should be going home too.

"Well, it was good to see you again, I should really get going though."

As if on cue, the bus appeared from around the corner.

"Hey, if you're not doing anything tomorrow night, would you like to see a movie? Theres a few good ones on at the moment."

Tomorrow night was Friday, a good day for the movies.

"I could pick you up, and drop you at home afterwards if you needed a lift, it's no problem really."

The bus pulled up as Chris waited for her reply.

[arcticgal]

The bus pulled up. If she didn't hurry, she woudl have to stand up for most of the way home.

" Um. Do you think you could ring me tonight? I probably can come, but it depends on a few things. My number is 431 1686."

She smiled. " Seeya."

And got on the bus.

And realised just how weird the situation was. Well, weird for her. She figured that out there in the normal world people would think that this kind of behavior was normal.

She was too slow for a seat, it turned out. She would have to stand on the way home.

Sometimes life sucks.