Four curious things happened that day.
The first was that Shawn was at the bus stop before Gus got there. That was strange because Gus was always the first one there (some days, Shawn barely made it before the big yellow bus rolled to a stop and opened its doors).
The second was that he was sitting on the sidewalk, chin in his hands. Gus couldn't remember ever seeing his friend look so dejected, especially not this early in the morning (tired, yes, but not glum).
The third wasn't so much a thing as it was a feeling. The minute Shawn had seen Gus's sneakers and looked up to meet his eyes, there had been a look to them that told Gus something was definitely going on. It was enough to make Gus's breath catch in his throat as he surveyed his friend (and he would have sat beside Shawn, but there was no telling what would transfer from the pavement, and no way was he showing up at school with stained dress pants).
"What's wrong?" he asked, almost afraid of what the answer would be.
Shawn wrinkled his nose. "Gus, my dad set my alarm clock for an hour earlier than normal! Without telling me!"
"What?" Gus blinked.
"And then I tried to go back to sleep, but I only dozed off, and then Dad said since I was up, I needed to get ready and head out here." Shawn sighed. "He said something about yesterday being the last time he was driving me to school because I missed the bus."
Gus let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "That's it?" he asked, finally breathing normally again.
"What do you mean that's it? Isn't that enough?" Shawn still looked extremely displeased.
Shaking his head, Gus shifted his backpack. Leave it to Shawn to nearly give him a heart attack over another of Henry Spencer's lessons.
Oh, and the fourth curious thing? Was that Gus wasn't actually surprised at all. He supposed this meant he'd been around the Spencers too long.