School Bus

Chapter 3: John

John opened his backpack. He went over to his toy chest and filled his bag with various toys he could find. A toy gun, firecrackers, smoke bomb, glue e.t.c. He lost count and stuffed them all in. He smiled,a lovely day to die hard. He felt like a soldier in the  movies who gathered his weapon for a final showdown against the enemy. He took a potrait photograph off his wooden lamp shelve. He smiled at the funny faces. All three of them had their tongue sticking out at the camera. A photograph they took after crashing Julian's sister's sixteenth birthday party with joy. At the corner of the photograph was Julian's sister with her face buried in her hands crying.  It was a memorable day for the youngsters. They were inseparable and trouble bound them together. All three of them approach twelve years of age and none of them thought it wise to grow up.

 After being expelled from their favourite school, they vowed never to attend another. Hence, they planned to get expelled on the first day of resumption at their new school. The bet was who would get expelled first before setting foot in school. John laughed ''hehehe, may the best prankster win''.

He took his backpack and silently made his way to his elder brother's room. He carefully opened the door to see his brother snoring away his life on the bed. He went on his knees and crawled on the smelly blue rug to avoid getting caught. He crawled to his brother's science project on his table. John had seen his brother feed the red ants he wanted to use for  science class. He had sternly warned John to stay away from it. ''It's sting could make you scratch your ass till death and wish for hell'' He had said to scare John, But instead, he had given smiling John his trump card to win the bet.  

He got to the table. The transparent glass box, held the red ants burrowing within an artificial earth soil cased within the box. John gently opened the lid of the box. He wore a thick glove and picked some ants into the jar he had prepared. Satisfied, he closed the box, trying not to stir the ants, nor his brother in his sleep. He was about to leave the room when he stopped at his footsteps. He looked at his snoring brother. An idea popped in. He opened his jar, took out an ant and placed it on his brother's bed. wakey wakey, he thought to himself, muffling the giggle with his hand.

Out of the room, he slipped the jar into his  bag. He raced to the sitting room when he heard the school bus honked. His dad watched the morning news in the sitting room. John slowed down and tiptoed his way out of the parlour, trying not to alert his Father. He knew his dad was still angry with the embarrassment John caused him the previous day in church.

The door banged behind John, causing his father to rear his head.

''John!, get back here, i'm not done with you yet'', he angrily shouted.

John hurried to the opened school bus. He walked over to the back seat of the bus as it moved out off his street. He found a free seat, sat down, whipped out his smartphone and texted the others,'' Ready?''. He got two replies instantly, ''Born Ready!''. He smiled. They all rode in different school bus and the fun was about to begin.