Bus Emergency

Summary - Tumblr prompt: "Mel somehow gets locked onto a school bus and Erika comes to the rescue (with some light teasing of course)".


This was one story to tell the kids: the time Mommy managed to get herself locked in a school bus.

A school bus.

Even Melanie had to stop and laugh at that one. She laughed long and hard because who got locked inside a school bus of all places? Melanie Crowe, that's who. In fact she could already see that as her superlative in the senior year book: Most Likely to Be Locked in the Strangest Places. She'd wear that badge with pride, that's for sure. Her next trick? Getting locked in an Apple Store.

She wandered up and down the empty bus aisles, stepping over wadded up paper balls, forgotten sticky notes, saran wrap, and a plethora of forgotten school supplies to check that the door was indeed locked. It rattled beneath her unrestrained efforts to shift the door stick. Yep, it was indeed locked.

"Fudge cups!" she hissed, the two words of innocence taking on the harsh tone of a curse as she crossed her arms. She just had to fall asleep on the way to school. She just had to blow her truck's engine in the "street race" against Stiles and his jeep. She just had to go to Scott's pack hangout session last night. They never ended early, this was all his fault!

She dug into her pockets and withdrew her phone, swiping her thumb across the screen to access her texts. She sent a quick one to Erica (SOS! NEED RESCUING FROM EVIL SCHOOL BUS! 😧😧😧🚌🚌🚌) and then flopped down on a seat, clasping her hands together.

"Okay, it's eight-thirty now. They must have noticed I'm not in class so someone will come and get me. And if not…I shall start my life as a bus hobo," she spoke aloud, her voice bouncing off the metal interior of the vehicle. "I have…a candy bar. Realistically, that should last me…thirty seconds. Okay, so I have to figure out how to hunt for food." She pursed her lips and looked around the school bus. "Not much of a selection, so I guess that's out of the question too. Well, I have clothes so that's good. And I have a seat to sleep on, so that's good too. I got a bed. I also have music. And I'm sure there are flares on here to use as a weapon. Okay, Mel, how long could you survive in here?" She tapped her finger against her chin, her eyebrows furrowed, and her eyes squeezed shut as she thought. "Hmm…until the end of the school day probably," she finally decided, relaxing her facial muscles. "If I'm lucky. Damn, Mel, if you weren't a siren you'd really suck at survival."

"I'll say," Erica commented. Melanie jumped up from her seat, ran across the aisle, and smashed her face against the window to see Erica peering up at her from the ground. Her arms were crossed over her leather jacket, courtesy of Derek Hale, and her eyebrows were furrowed though an amused smile sat on her lips. "How'd you manage to get yourself locked in the school bus?"

"It's me, Eri, something like this really shouldn't come as a surprise to you," Melanie replied, her smashed mouth sliding against the glass and muffling her words.

"Why didn't you use the emergency exits, Melliebean?"

Melanie removed her face from the glass and stared at her friend through the fogged up window. The words slowly trickled in through her brain and the tilt to her head mimicked the slow moving process. "…Emergency what?"

Erica slapped her face with her palm and sighed. "Those big red things on the windows and doors? The ones that read pull handle and push to open. The one written right in front of your face."

Melanie was so close to the window that she had to cross her eyes to read the words written on the window. In all caps. In bright red. "Huh," she mumbled, "how did I miss that?"

"Because you're Melanie Crowe," Erica replied, as if that explained things. "Hold on." Melanie watched as Erica's blond hair bounced as she made her way to the front of the bus. She grabbed onto the closed door and began to pull on it. The metal groaned and grunted beneath her hand. Finally the door popped loose and scrunched against the frame like an accordion. "I thought Prince Charming was supposed to rescue the princess from a castle, not a school bus," she commented as she stepped up the stairs. For a brief second her eyes flashed beta gold before they returned to their normal brown.

Grinning, Melanie grabbed her abandoned backpack off her seat and met Erica at the front. Pausing, she stood on tiptoes and placed a kiss on her girlfriend's lips. "Well, I couldn't make your rescue attempts easy, could I?"