Yeah Daniela piped up Me too Take your seats everyone Just give us five minutes while we figure this out Mr Dwyer replied Sha’relle finally sat down Mr Dwyer swung around the front handrail and met the bus driver outside He continued his beard-scratching and cap adjusting as he spoke with the driver and pointed under the hood The driver waved his arms and wiped sweat off his brow That dude sweats a lot Tyler thought to himself A wind picked up and blew Mr Dwyer’s baseball cap right off his head and he ran after it Whenever he got close to the cap it lifted off the ground and traveled another five feet away José and Kevin pointed from their seats and laughed It did look like a comedy skit but it was weird to see their coach so out of it He was usually a pretty calm thought-out guy it was one of the reasons Mr Dwyer was one of Tyler’s favorite teachers Mr Dwyer crouched down and finally caught his hat 5
Smoke continued rolling out from under the hood of the bus that couldn’t be good The wind blew the smoke sideways Tyler watched as the bus driver stepped away from the hood and slammed it closed The driver tore off his own hat and threw it on the ground in a fit Almost immediately his eyes looked over to the bus By the way the man’s gaze drifted along a number of the windows Tyler figured he wasn’t the only student who’d seen the driver do that Several people were now leaning against the windows to see what was happening outside The driver sheepishly glanced around and picked up his hat Yep we’re stalled Sha’relle said Not just stalled Kevin corrected This bus has broken down Tyler looked down the road in both directions They were in the middle of the desert alone on the side of the road with no towns in sight Aw man said L J I wanted to be home to watch the Sun Devils ASU is in the playoffs Mr Dwyer climbed back onto the bus A 6
moment later the bus driver clambered up the steps and whispered something to Mr Dwyer again All right everyone listen up Mr Dwyer said The bus has broken down Groans Told you Kevin said to anyone who would listen I know I’m not happy about it either Mr Dwyer said The bus driver is calling for a replacement Just sit tight until it arrives Shouldn’t be long The bus driver picked up the two-way radio hand piece which crackled with static Hello Hello He looked up for a second to see if anyone was watching Pretty much everyone was watching What would Dad do Tyler wondered His dad was horrible with cars He would probably call Triple-A Tyler checked his phone again still no bars Tyler looked out the window That’s just great he thought Let’s make this horrible ride home even longer A clump of tumbleweed rolled 7
by much faster than ones he had seen earlier Beyond the tumbleweed clouds formed as if nighttime was approaching but it was only mid-afternoon The surrounding sky grew darker Tyler studied the clouds again They looked like a haze of gathering dust 8
