Sleepovers, Solos, and Sheet Music by Michelle Schusterman

Author:Michelle Schusterman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

It turned out “broken engine” also meant “no air conditioning or movies.” The mechanic called for a tow truck, but it was two towns over, so they said we’d have to wait at least an hour. Mr. Dante tried to get a local school bus to take us someplace to hang out, but since it was almost three o’clock, all the district’s buses were taking kids home from school. And we couldn’t even go outside because Mr. Dante and the chaperones said there wasn’t enough room between the fence and the road for us to stand safely. Natasha and I pressed our faces to the window, but highway, fences, and farmland extended out in both directions as far as we could see.

Forty-two kids, five chaperones, and one band director stuck in a bus with no air conditioning in eighty-something-degree weather. Things got real gross, real fast.

“Trevor, I swear to Zeus,” Gabby yelled, pinching her nose and making her voice all nasally. “If you don’t put your shoes back on, I am literally going to sue you.”

Trevor snorted without looking up from his video game. He was leaning against his window in the seat in front of Gabby, his bare feet dangling in the aisle. “Sue me for what?”

“For—for polluting the air,” Gabby announced. “I’m choking to death over here.”

For a few seconds, Trevor didn’t respond. Then, slowly, his foot appeared over the top of his seat. Gabby glanced up a second too late, shrieking at the sight of his toes inches away from her nose. Natasha and I laughed as she scrambled out of her chair and hurried to the back of the bus.

“It is getting pretty ripe in here,” Natasha said, fanning her face with her music folder. I nodded in agreement. My hair was a humidity nightmare—half sweaty and plastered to my forehead and neck, half frizzed out in all directions. But everyone looked so grungy, I didn’t feel too self-conscious.

Aaron still somehow managed to look good, of course. (Not that I was staring or anything.) He’d spent most of the last hour talking to Liam and Gabe across the aisle, even though he was still sitting next to Natasha. It was kind of weird. They weren’t ignoring each other exactly—they still joked around a little and smiled at each other and stuff—but really, what’s the point of sitting with your boyfriend or girlfriend if you’re going to spend more time talking to everybody else?

Maybe that was partly my fault for coming to sit in front of Natasha. But apparently she’d spent most of the ride before we broke down trading fashion magazines back and forth with Victoria, who sat two rows behind her. I flipped through one for a few minutes, but it was from last fall and looking at all the winter furs and boots made me feel ten times hotter. Leaning against the window, I fanned the back of my neck with the magazine and squinted down the highway at something yellow on the horizon.

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