The next day Smalls was determined to convince his parents that school wasn’t necessary but his parents would not hear of it so it was settled. Smalls was waiting for the bus with the rest of his siblings.

 Rosy was worrying about her hair and how it was going to get tangled by the breeze. Smalls however had his nose in another book and hardly realized the bus had arrived till the bus driver called out to him. When Smalls was on the bus he sat in the very back and Emma squeezed by him. 

The back seat was big enough for three and Emma invited Heather over to sit by her. Smalls scooted over to make room for Heather to be by the other window.”Hello Smalls was it? Smalls looked up from his book to see Heather looking at him with a warm smile that made him feel hot.

“Y…Yes.

Heather was strikingly beautiful and she was always smiling and putting others before herself from what Smalls had heard from Emma but Emma had only known her for a day and Smalls couldn’t be sure. 

Soon Smalls gave up on reading because everyone on the bus seemed to be yelling. Smalls started to listen to the girls conversation when the sound of a gunshot sounded. Smalls shot up out of his seat and he saw the bus driver on the ground. His foot was on the gas pedal and the bus was going everywhere. Winslow, who was close to the front, grabbed the steering wheel.

Chaos filled the bus and everyone was panicking. Smalls stepped in front of Emma and Heather and started heading up to the front of the bus. Winslow pressed the break but everyone was still screaming and a little girl was crying. 

Who had fired the gunshot? Smalls was about to tell Winslow to open the doors of the bus but then another gunshot filled the air. Picket who was near the front.”We need to run and hide! 

Smalls knew it was true. “Why not drive away,”Winslow called back. “We're too big of a target and we can escape through the woods. 

The road ran along a thick woods that led to the school but it was five minutes up the road and Smalls didn’t think they could run from someone out in the open so the best bet was going in the woods. “Everyone, we need to run and hide in the woods now!