"Man, I still don't see what some technology zoo is supposed to teach me." Spinner leaned on Paige for a bit, who stared over to Jimmy at the table across from them.
The entire gang were on a tour bus, heading back from the first zoo to have technology based around it the way that one did. Snake, Ms. Kwan, and Ms. Hatzilakos were at the front of the bus, near the bus driver, just conversation about, talking about the zoo.
In the seat behind them were Toby and Kendra were chit chatting, mainly about some animé they'd been reminded off at the zoo. To the two seat towards the left of the bus, JT and Liberty, with JT cracking jokes making Liberty laugh nonstop. Behind those two, were Chris and Emma, talking about DJing and Chris trying to get Emma to talk a little bit about wild life. To the opposite side was Terri and Hazel, talking about Rick. Behind them, all kissed up and laughing was Marco and Dyland, Ashley and Craig doing the same thing in the opposite two seats. Behind the gay couple, was Manny, all by herself staring out of the window, thinking. And Paige was sitting at the table that happened to be in the back. She was on one side by herself, while Jimmy and Spinner were opposite her at the other side of the table. Sean was another loner, sitting behind Ashley. Ellie was very far into the back of the bus, actually at the very end, past the people sitting at the table. She, too, was by herself, but that's the way she wanted it. There were a bunch of other students, but they were new faces, mainly in Kendra's grade.
"Alright, listen up guys." Snake stood up and grabbed the microphone and spoke into it, his voice booming throughout the entire bus. "We're running a little low on gas right now, so we're going to stop by a gas station and let you all out to get some snacks if you need to. Just remember to be quick about it." The bald man smiled and was the first one to get off of the bus; Ms. Kwan and Hatzilakos sat there, eating some sandwiches they had prepared earlier, talking and enjoying themselves.
All of the students, all 30 of them, rushed off of the bus and into the gas station, money flinging out before they had reached the door.
"Hey, El. What's up?" Ashley had chirped in beside her, the two walking into with the crowd. "You got any money?"
"Hey. Nothing really.. " Ellie stepped into the place and immediately set forth towards the drinks area. "I probably have about 10 bucks left. A soda and maybe some candy is all I'm getting." She smiled, crossed her arms, and looked over to her friend.
Ashley picked up a candy bar on the way there and had been examining it while they were walking. "Yea, that's about all I have either. Maybe we should go mooch off someone else." She smiled again and stopped by the glass doors, looking over all of the soda selections.
"Do you know how broke people are these days?" The young goth opened the door blocking the sodas and pulled out a Dr. Pepper and looking over to Ashley. "Hey, did you really learn anything from that zoo? It was.. interesting."
"Are you serious? That place was dullsville. I did all I had to do and Craig and I spent the rest of the day together." She smiled, continuing their walk around the store, peeking over the candy.
"Lucky you." They headed towards the counter and waited in line. "So.. You and Craig. Have you all.. done anything yet?"
"No.. not yet. And, I'm not going to get pressured like I did with Jimmy. I'm going to wait until the moment feels completely right. Hey.. do you think I should go buy some .. some.. condoms, just in case? I may have a couple at my - "
"Ash.. " Ellie touched her friend's shoulder. " It'll be fine. If you don't feel your time is near, then don't buy them. It could be a waste of money right now." She smiled and put her hands back to her side. Something about what she said made her spine tingle for a bit. For some reason it didn't make her feel better when she stared out into the parking lot through the glass doors. There she saw a man pull a cigarette from his pocket, and also a box of matches. He put the cancer stick into his mouth and opened the box of cigarettes, spilling the contents all over the ground. She couldn't see where they all went, but she was actually kinda glad the man couldn't smoke - he could have blew up the place if the match exploded from the gasoline.
"El, c'mon. We're up next." Ashley poked her friend in the arm, who awoke from her daze and stepped up to the counter.
"Just put it all together. It'll be quicker." Ashley looked over to her friend and nodded and mouthed 'Thanks!' Ellie simply winked and took out the money she had in her pocket.
"That'll be.. Six dollars and sixty-six cents.. Wait, that can't be right..Shouldn't be that much for only three things." The man re-did the calculations on the cash register once more and came up with, once more, $6.66. "Hold on.. let me call the manager."
Wow, Ellie thought. 666.. What a coincidence. She shrugged off the mysteriousness to the price and waited for the man behind the desk to return. Shortly, him and the manager returned and sorted out the price and the two headed off towards the bus.
"Everyone, hurry! Back onto the bus! We don't have much time to waste. Let's hurry!" Snake was rushing everyone back onto the bus. Ashley and Ellie were the last ones, due to the fact that they were held up.
"Sorry we're late. The man had to call the manager to check some prices." Ashley chipped in and hopped onto the bus right after Snake. Ellie had noticed something strange. The matches were still on the ground from where the man had dropped them. And they seemed to fall into some sort of order, like they were spelling out something.
"E.... n....d. End?" Ellie raised an eyebrow.
"Ellie! Come on!" Ms. Kwan had finally spoke for one of the first times in the entire trip. Ellie looked over to the teacher.
"Sorry, Ms. Kwan. Got a little distracted." She hopped onto the bus and headed into the back where her seat was.
Ellie sat down and got herself comfortable and pulled out her radio, setting the ear phones on her ears and flipping through the preset radio stations. Most of them were static, due to the fact that they were in a slightly different area. She had stopped when she heard the weirdest mixture of voices come from the changing radio.
"'And in news today, a bus blows up in .... with .... Degrassi Community School students ... There is no.... survivors.'" Ellie was shocked at how the words had pieced themselves together, forming a perfect little sentence that scared the shit out of her. Suddenly, the bus shook and the bus driver's voice boomed over the intercom.
"Sorry about that kids, just a little bit of trouble. No biggie." Ellie was relieved, easily spooked by the sudden shaking of the bus. The woman placed her radio on some channel that played decent music and stared out of the window just as the bus came to a red traffic light. Her eyes scanned over the area, taking notice to the billboards and the people in their cars, and the signs to the stores that were up. In particular, one place stood out, a fashion place.
"Paige would love the.. " El read over the sign that was displayed in the window.. " badger coat and the fish hawk feathers for her hair." She saw Paige peek above her seat and stare back towards her, but Ellie didn't care at the moment.
She leaned all the way back into her seat and flipped onto another radio station a few seconds after the bus pulled away from the intersection and were heading back to school. On the radio was some song she was certain she heard before. El knew the name of it a second later: 'Blow Up' by Devo. The young woman mouthed the words to herself for a moment before she stopped and stared down to her musical device once more. The words scared her, like what she said at the gas station, and the man dropping the matches, and the way the matches spelled out a word.
Something didn't feel right. It didn't feel right. Especially after the fact that the dream she had had last night was remembered. The badger and the fish hawk. They had told her to beware.. and now all of a sudden, strange things were happening.
And suddenly, she knew why those two animals told her to beware.
