A senior, he rarely rode the bus, but it happened every so often. Unfortunately, it meant there was no buffer seat between the terrible trio and the rest of the bus. Everyone else’s gaze skittered away from hers as she walked down the aisle, her heart rising in her throat. She kept her eyes on the seat in front of Kevin, who always sat in front of Lawrence. With a choice of Kevin or Ryan, Kevin was definitely nicer. He was a little bit more of a follower, which meant he wouldn’t immediately feel the need to start anything with the person sitting in front of him just for kicks. And, hopefully, being across the aisle and one seat up from Ryan would be enough of a buffer.

Even though he’d never done anything to her, she really kind of hated Mike in that moment. Couldn’t he have sat in front of Ryan’s usual seat? Did he have to sit in the very back?

Taller than anyone else on the bus, Mike had long, lean swimmer’s muscles which looked good on him. He didn’t play football like the other back-seat jerks; he was on the swim team when he wasn’t the lead in the school show. Ryan had tried to make fun of him for the theater thing once and only once. Mike had stared at him, brown eyes completely focused, strands of long, brown hair brushing against his high cheekbones, until Ryan had cringed and turned away.

It wasn’t like Mike was intimidating at first glance, but he was just so focused, so intense, and had the kind of self-confidence Ryan and the others only pretended to. Eleanor wished she could even pretend.

Sliding into her seat, Eleanor let out a quiet sigh of relief. Ryan had barely glanced at her, and Lawrence and Kevin had ignored her completely. She pulled out the book she was reading for English class - Ender’s Game - and went to her bookmark. Maybe she could just read the whole way home and they’d ignore her.

That hope lasted until about two minutes after the bus started moving when Ryan snatched the book out of her hands.

“Hey, bookworm, whatcha reading?” he asked, not bothering to even look at the title as he held the book away from her.

Eleanor half stood, one knee on the bus seat. “A book for class. Give it back, please.”

“Aw, she said please. That’s cute,” Ryan said, making a face at Kevin and Lawrence, who both laughed like the jerks they were. He tossed the book back to Lawrence, and Eleanor lurched forward trying to catch it, but didn’t even manage to graze it with her fingertips. “Oops, too slow, Sandler.”