kids on board were totally cowed. Except for the engine noise and Naomi’s shouted directions, there was utter silence. We had to be the best-behaved busload of kids in the history of C Average Middle School. I would have enjoyed the sight of so many people who had terrorized me being terrorized themselves, except that I was twice as scared as they were.
By the time we pulled into the entrance of Metro East Medical Center, we looked like a scene from Thelma and Louise , with half the police department strung out in back of us in pursuit, sirens blaring. I could see nurses and paramedics diving out of the way as the big bus rocketed up the drive to Emergency. Cap stomped on the brakes, and we squealed to a halt behind a parked ambulance. A whole lot of cruisers surrounded us on all sides.
The hospital guys were angry at first, but as soon as they caught a glimpse of Mr. Rodrigo, they were all business. The fallen driver was rushed into the building on a stretcher.
No sooner had the automatic doors swallowed him up than the first officer stomped up the stairs of the bus.
“You’re in a lot of trouble, kid!”
The police made Cap lie facedown in the aisle while they cuffed his hands behind his back. It was like something out of an episode of Cops. They were treating him like a criminal—which I guess a school bus hijacker technically was.
We watched in awe as they hauled him roughly to his feet and marched him out to a squad car.
Naomi was the first to speak up. “Cap didn’t do anything wrong! He was just trying to save Mr. Rodrigo!”
The stunned passengers came alive at last. It started off as a rumbling of discontent, bubbling over into a chorus of outrage on Cap’s behalf.
“Quit pushing the guy around!”
“He’s a hero!”
“He didn’t hit anything!”
The arresting officer wasn’t buying it. “Qui-et!!” he bellowed. “Now, listen—I’m sending a patrolman in to drive this bus back to school. I don’t want to hear a peep out of any of you in the meantime.”
A door slammed as Cap was locked in the back of a cruiser. It was a terrible moment—and doubly terrible for me. Because I wasn’t proud of what was going on in my head just then.
Cap had just been arrested at gunpoint; Mr. Rodrigo was in danger of his life. And what was I thinking about? That if Cap went to jail, I would be back in business as the number-one punching bag at C Average Middle School.
I was a worm, but at least I had the strength of character to be ashamed of it.
12
NAME: CAPRICORN ANDERSON
I don’t think I ever would have learned to understand regular school if it hadn’t been for Trigonometry and Tears.
It was Sophie’s favorite show. I watched it with her every day after school when I didn’t have something else to do, like being under arrest.
There was no TV at Garland, and it wasn’t just because our generator barely had enough power to run the lights and refrigerator. Rain said television was a vast wasteland that lowered our standards until we couldn’t tell the difference between bad and good. I would never disagree with Rain, but I thought T & T was fantastic. When I watched it, everything around me seemed to disappear, and the whole world was happening on that little screen. Those people were so real , with true-to-life problems and big decisions that had to be made. I kept wishing that the characters had someone like Rain to turn to in times of trouble, but they didn’t. They had their parents, who were even more messed up and confused than the kids were. It was a perfect symbol for life outside Garland—huge, complicated, and full of hidden traps and pitfalls. Plus, every now and then, the program stops and the TV tells you about all the great things you can buy, like a miracle cream that makes it scientifically impossible to get a pimple.
If it hadn’t been for the show, I would have been really bewildered by the huge fuss everybody was making over driving one little school bus less
By the time we pulled into the entrance of Metro East Medical Center, we looked like a scene from Thelma and Louise , with half the police department strung out in back of us in pursuit, sirens blaring. I could see nurses and paramedics diving out of the way as the big bus rocketed up the drive to Emergency. Cap stomped on the brakes, and we squealed to a halt behind a parked ambulance. A whole lot of cruisers surrounded us on all sides.
The hospital guys were angry at first, but as soon as they caught a glimpse of Mr. Rodrigo, they were all business. The fallen driver was rushed into the building on a stretcher.
No sooner had the automatic doors swallowed him up than the first officer stomped up the stairs of the bus.
“You’re in a lot of trouble, kid!”
The police made Cap lie facedown in the aisle while they cuffed his hands behind his back. It was like something out of an episode of Cops. They were treating him like a criminal—which I guess a school bus hijacker technically was.
We watched in awe as they hauled him roughly to his feet and marched him out to a squad car.
Naomi was the first to speak up. “Cap didn’t do anything wrong! He was just trying to save Mr. Rodrigo!”
The stunned passengers came alive at last. It started off as a rumbling of discontent, bubbling over into a chorus of outrage on Cap’s behalf.
“Quit pushing the guy around!”
“He’s a hero!”
“He didn’t hit anything!”
The arresting officer wasn’t buying it. “Qui-et!!” he bellowed. “Now, listen—I’m sending a patrolman in to drive this bus back to school. I don’t want to hear a peep out of any of you in the meantime.”
A door slammed as Cap was locked in the back of a cruiser. It was a terrible moment—and doubly terrible for me. Because I wasn’t proud of what was going on in my head just then.
Cap had just been arrested at gunpoint; Mr. Rodrigo was in danger of his life. And what was I thinking about? That if Cap went to jail, I would be back in business as the number-one punching bag at C Average Middle School.
I was a worm, but at least I had the strength of character to be ashamed of it.
12
NAME: CAPRICORN ANDERSON
I don’t think I ever would have learned to understand regular school if it hadn’t been for Trigonometry and Tears.
It was Sophie’s favorite show. I watched it with her every day after school when I didn’t have something else to do, like being under arrest.
There was no TV at Garland, and it wasn’t just because our generator barely had enough power to run the lights and refrigerator. Rain said television was a vast wasteland that lowered our standards until we couldn’t tell the difference between bad and good. I would never disagree with Rain, but I thought T & T was fantastic. When I watched it, everything around me seemed to disappear, and the whole world was happening on that little screen. Those people were so real , with true-to-life problems and big decisions that had to be made. I kept wishing that the characters had someone like Rain to turn to in times of trouble, but they didn’t. They had their parents, who were even more messed up and confused than the kids were. It was a perfect symbol for life outside Garland—huge, complicated, and full of hidden traps and pitfalls. Plus, every now and then, the program stops and the TV tells you about all the great things you can buy, like a miracle cream that makes it scientifically impossible to get a pimple.
If it hadn’t been for the show, I would have been really bewildered by the huge fuss everybody was making over driving one little school bus less
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