She was already the last kid to board the bus; she didn't need Logan making her any later. Unfortunately for her, the only two open seats she could see from the top of the stairs weren't very welcoming. One was deep in a gaggle of fangirls, and the other in the far back with a group of people she didn't even know the name of. Then she saw it.
Another open seat... this one a window seat next to Scott, as apparently no one had wanted to sit directly next to a teacher if they could help it. Katie breathed a quiet sigh of relief. She tried to arrange herself to make it look as if she didn't really want to sit next to a teacher but rather, she had to sit next to him because she had no other choice. That failed miserably as she walked with a slight bounce in her step as she approached the seat.
Katie cleared her throat to get Scott, who was staring in another direction entirely, would be forced to acknowledge her. "Um, could I sit there? I mean, is that seat taken? I like window seats... and this is the only one open."
Scott looked up at her, surprised to realize that she was addressing him. Oh, this was quite the choice. On the good side, he'd get to spend some-odd hours sitting next to her, close in an entirely legitimate way... but on the other side, he'd be spending some-odd hours much closer to her than usual. He had a tenuous enough grip on his self-control without inviting more temptation... but it would be quite the excuse to carry on conversations/bask in her presence. Despite this seemingly giant question, he answered her fairly quickly. "Of course you can Katie," He replied, standing up so as not to make her climb awkwardly over his lap (though he did almost consider that...).
Katie smiled gratefully then took her place in the window seat, peering outward at the other buses which were now revving their engines to show that everyone had taken their places. She could see Logan backing away from the very last bus and giving the bus driver a thumbs up, teeth flashing in semi-feral grin, in the dim semi- sunrise glow. Katie scowled. If Nicole was worse off from when she left, she would see to it to electrocute Logan so bad that he'd be static-y for the next three months of his life. The bus' engine roared into life and a few students began talking a little bit more excitedly, discussing what they wanted to do once they got to Salem.
"So, have you been to Salem before?" Katie remarked nonchalantly to Scott, trying to keep from blushing madly and/or giggling like an idiot now that he was only a seat divider away... and would be for the next three-four hours. She fiddled with the strap of the plaid messenger bag she'd grabbed for the bus ride; it was equipped with all the standard trip-survival equipment. Notebooks, pencils, CD player (though she didn't need batteries!), CDs, and chocolate.
Scott turned to Katie, resting his head on the hand closest to her and gave her a brief smile. He seemed to consider her question before he mused, "Well, no. Not really. I've passed through once or twice on a mission. But that was during the day, when no one looks twice at a man in sunglasses." his lips twitched ever so slightly upward with a sort of sarcastic amusement.
Katie couldn't help but smile. She laughed softly. "Well, it's Salem. They wouldn't look at you twice if you wore glasses at night either. There are a lot of very... eccentric people that live in Salem."
He chuckled, and the sound sent small shivers up and down Katie's spine. Mmm... "I think I'm glad we're going now, and not around Halloween... Salem must get rather interesting around then."
Katie nodded, smiling because he was. "Yeah... I've gone in October before, and it's a pretty fun place with everyone all dressed up. Me and Nicole and some other friends took a ghost tour once there... it was the best thing ever."
Scotts' eyebrows disappeared into the hair that fell into his eyes. "Ooh, see any ghosts?" he jested, chuckling slightly.
Katie blushed. Scott was so much more like a normal guy around her more than he was with others. It made her feel... special. She nodded. "Yes, well... not really. I mean, we couldn't see them... but when we took pictures there were all of these bright little orbs all over the place. It was creepy. One of our friends, Hillary, felt extremely weird when we stood in the exact same spot in front of a haunted jail, where a ghost was said to have rocked this woman's stroller during a past ghost tour when she wasn't touching it... Nicole said that she thought Hillary was being felt up by one of the inmates."
He laughed at that, though there was something awkward about it, as though even if he did act mostly like a normal guy, he wasn't at all comfortable with talking about something sex-related. "Well, you're going to have the option of going on a ghost tour as part of the trip... I'm planning to go, but I hope nothing like that happens." He tried to pass it off as casual, but this was simply a very awkward situation.
"At any rate," Scott yawned, "It should be fun. Plan on buying any souvenirs?" he ruffled his hair subconsciously, making it stick up in a few places but it wasn't at all unflattering.
Katie smiled, looking away momentarily to observe the road as they finally began pulling away from the school. She glanced up at one of the windows of the school where she knew Nicole was probably staring out of, her hand pressed to the glass as if beckoning for the buses to come back and get her the hell out of there. That was something that she would do...
"Katie..?"
Katie jumped. "Oh! Sorry, went off into my own little world for a minute there..." she mumbled, turning to face Scott again. She cleared her throat. "Uhm... yeah, I think I might get Nicole something to help her repel evil demons. She seems to attract them."
He laughed at that, getting her meaning. "That might be a good idea."
"Are you planning to buy anything?" Katie asked him next, as though genuinely interested, not just returning the favor. She fiddled with a lock of hair as she did so, unconsciously (and more than a little nervously - how would they think of enough to say, if they were going to be so very polite, to fill four hours? would they just sit there, in silence, awkward?), unaware that she was fluttering her eyelashes more than usual. Oh, it would be easier if she could be really sure of what he was looking at... she had some idea, having known him for some time, but the sunglasses still hid his eyes...
Scott shrugged, "I might. But I don't know any good shops that I could look in. Perhaps you could show me around-?" he suggested, offering a small, embarrassed smile.
Katie froze. Show him around? Well, she sort of knew her way around Salem. She'd been there once or twice, but that didn't mean that she knew Salem like the back of her hand... "Uhm... well, we could go together, but I'm not guaranteeing that we won't get lost."
He shrugged, still looking vaguely embarrassed, as though saying that he didn't mind being lost with her at all. "You still know your way around better than I do."
Katie nodded. She felt rather terrified at the idea of getting Scott lost, as that would make her look horribly stupid, but now she had a good excuse to hang out with him, instead of just trailing along after him like some sort of pathetic, lonely puppy. "I just hope you can read maps... I can't, not to save my life."
Scott snorted. "Well, saving people is what I do." he declared jokingly, flashing a grin in her direction. "Whether they want to be saved or not." he chuckled.
Katie grinned openly, "Well, you might just have to bodily drag me from the wax seal sections of the stores... oh, and you'll have to probably put me on short leash around the shiny, sparkly jewelry and things." she giggled, blushing and looking away when Scott smirked.
Their conversation, having exhausted itself of neutral, normal, safe for teacher-student sorts of topics, gently petered out. Katie, leaning against the window, soon fell asleep, lulled by the gentle conversation (no one was very awake) and the motion of the bus.
Scott occupied himself, looking around, holding one or two brief conversations with other students, but mostly he thought. One of the 'advantages' of his seat was that it was very easy to appear like he was simply looking out the window, when in fact he was surveying his student. With the sunglasses mirroring the scenery (such that it was), no one could tell if in fact he wasn't looking out the window at all.
Scott sighed, guilt tying his stomach into unpleasant knots as he surveyed his sleeping pupil. Katie's face was pressed up against the window, her breath fogging up the glass periodically as she breathed out, then in, and out again. Scott couldn't help but feel slightly amused. She was very cute when she slept in an uncomfortable position, but her neck might cramp up if she slept like that for too long...
As gently as he could, Scott slipped a hand between Katie's face and the window, his hand now cupping the side of her face gently. He took a moment to enjoy the warmth of her breath on his skin before guiding her head backward slightly to rest, facing him, on the cushioned head rest of her seat. All through this Katie slept on, unaware of her sudden shift of position. Though she did smile faintly before sighing, her face returning to that dreamy peaceful bliss that one attained while in sleep.
Glancing about him self-consciously, Scott tried not to look overly guilty. What he'd done was slightly overstepping his boundaries as teacher, but really was something that someone who cared about her well-being would do. Or so he thought, disregarding the moment he'd paused, enjoying the feel of her face in his hand and her breath upon his skin. No one seemed to have noticed the action at all, no one paying him any attention. And that was definitely a good thing... he found the guilty knots in his stomach tightening as he surveyed her sleeping form again, silky hair spread about her. It was definitely too public a place... wasn't it?
Yes, it was, but that didn't stop him from stroking the side of her face with regrettable relish. Her skin was very warm, his fingers felt freezing compared to the warmth of her cheek. Then again, that which is forbidden is therefore all the more desirable. Scott sighed, letting his hand drop after briefly twirling a strand of her hair around one of his fingers. He tentatively glanced around. Not a hair out of place, not one person had bothered to look up at him.
They all continued talking, listening to mp3 players, CD players, doodling, and writing notes. He noticed that not one person was reading a book. He laughed. God forbid that someone read a book on a field trip... Though he was fairly certain that Katie and Nicole would've been the only ones to read books of their own free wills. Never mind writing their own.