Return of the Magic School Bus by RogueDragon
Act 1: The Other School Bus
Chapter Two: Too late to Stay Home
At first, Arnold thought it was only his imagination that he heard his name over the announcement system.
"Hey, Arnold, didn't they just call your name to go out front?" Arnold's girlfriend Tiffany nudged him with her elbow.
"Did they?" Arnold asked nervously glancing at his cousin who was busy with the student government meeting. His boredom and growling stomach signifying a missed lunch made him a little too anxious to flee the room.
Tiffany giggled softly, "don't worry, she can't make you stay."
"Doesn't mean she won't try," he responded with a grateful smile, getting out of his chair in a way to cause the least amount of disturbance possible. Unfortunately, he'd have to pass Janet on his way to the door.
"Where are you going?" Janet hissed at her cousin as he tried to sneak out.
"The front office called for me to come," Arnold insisted.
"I told you this meeting is important!" Janet failed to whisper, "If you're going to be student body president next year, you need to be involved now!"
"I highly doubt refusing directions from the school's administrators would be very beneficial to that goal," he retorted.
Harry, the student body president laughed, "He got you there, Janet. Hurry up and get out of here, Arnold, before they come to track you down!"
Glad to be given an order he wanted to comply with, Arnold fled the room before Janet could make him stay.
Arnold stopped by his locker on his way to grab his lunch before reaching the main front doors to the building.
The area around the front doors typically had students eating their lunches, even on slightly gloomy days such as it was. Today, however, lunch-eaters were mostly clustered farther off on the sidelines of the practicing sports teams down on the field.
The people near the doorway, however, were three girls he hadn't really talked to since they started high school. Keesha, Phoebe, and D.A. waited together a few feet away from the curb of the sidewalk. Like him, they seemed to have no idea what they were waiting on. Keesha seemed to be the only one who noticed his arrival. Dorothy Ann was examining her environment as if searching for clues while Phoebe seemed to be intently studying the headlights of a nearby school bus. Keesha acknowledge him with a raised eyebrow that seemed to either invite him to start a conversation with her, or challenged him to.
With nothing to say, Arnold would have continued standing awkwardly except the doors behind him opened with a burst of airflow.
"Hey guys!" Carlos greeted enthusiastically, throwing an arm around Arnold's shoulder. "Long time, no see, huh! Arnold, how you doing buddy? Isn't this great? An impromptu reunion just like old times!"
"You think this has anything to do with Miss Fizzle's class?" Dorothy Ann voiced with concern.
"It's probably just a coincidence that the five of us happen to have been in the same class several years ago," Keesha commented, as the girls joined the boys near the doors.
"Freshmen year, I met up with several kids from my first elementary school," Phoebe offered, "our first grade teacher had been diagnosed with cancer and so we organized a fundraiser."
"Yes, that was still planned and intentional!" Carlos pointed out as he stopped leaning on Arnold and laid his other elbow on Phoebe's shoulder, "and I love how you said that in your 'at my old school' voice!" Phoebe blushed.
"Ralphie and Wanda weren't paged," Keesha observed.
"Yeah, but the baseball team is facing off against the softball team during today's lunch," Carlos noted, walking towards the curb to get a better view of the field. "All we need now is give Standerton High School a call and find some way to get Tim over here!"
"Oh, Tim's at Standerton High?" Dorothy Ann asked, "Hadn't heard from him since middle school."
"Yeah, I've kept in touch," Carlos responded, "he was here a couple months ago for a joint Art Honors Society meeting, too bad you missed him."
Arnold subconsciously stepped backward as if to try and hide in the shadows of high noon, wishing fleetingly to be back in the student government meeting. He had seen Tim in the hall after school that day and said a quick "hey" before heading off to his own meetings. "Hey" was about as much as he has said to any of these guys in the last few years.
"What the-" Carlos started, watching as three figures approach from the field, "No way!" As the tall teen took off in the direction of the approaching trio, the others, as if inspired by his sudden enthusiasm, followed.
Arnold jogged softly to catch up, recognizing who the new folks were. "Today would have been a good day to stay home." He muttered, knowing in his gut that it was going to be one of those days. Except this felt potentially life changing. Like he needed more stress in his life!
Tim Vanderwaals happy greeted the on comers but seemed anxious. Carlos was still hanging on Tim after giving his old friend a tackle-hug and had thrown his other arm around Wanda, who, like Ralphie, had accompanied Tim from the field, still in uniform.
"Hey, the gang's all here!" Ralphie laughed.
"Tim, what's going on?" Wanda asked with concern, subconsciously and ever so slightly turning her back to Arnold. The red-head also noticed that she pointedly avoided eye contact with him. Then again, she's been avoiding him for years.
With Tim now the center of attention, he took a deep breath, "I've come to ask for your help," He explained, "I've already got permission from your school for you all to have the rest of the day off."
"What?" the others asked.
"In interest of inter-school cooperation or something, so no one will ask questions."
"Tim, quit avoiding the question and tell us what's wrong!" Keesha cut in.
Tim sighed and with another breath said, "Miss Frizzle has been kidnapped."
Questions poured from the others as Tim checked to make sure no outsider was in earshot. With a hand gesture the others quieted and he added, "So has the bus."