"I'm sooo excited!" Amanda exclaimed for the hundredth time. Most of her friends groaned.
"Amanda, we get it. You're excited. Please stop repeating it."Emma, her best friend who was sitting next to her on the bus seat replied. Alyssa and Rachael in the seat ahead of them turned around and nodded their heads at them. Amanda stuck out her tongue at them.
"Oh come on Emma." Said Abbi, Amanda's younger sister by exactly 1.5 years (Abbi's birthday was literally Amanda's half-birthday and vice-versa. It was creepy cool.) She was sitting in the seat behind Emma and Amanda. "You know you are secretly as excited as she is. Just like me!"
"YES!" Amanda exclaimed as she turned around and pet Abbi on the head. Abbi then closed her eyes in pleasure. "This is a good person! Everyone observe!" Emma rolled her eyes at both of us as Alyssa smiled and Rachael let out a loud giggle. Suddenly their friend shealyn (who was sitting next to Abbi) looked up from her Ipod.
"What?" she asked. Amanda rolled her eyes at her. Shealyn constantly had her nose in a book- or pressed up against either her Ipod or a computer. You could get her out of it, though, if you mentioned a fandom she is a part of. She would rant for hours about fandoms if you got her started and she had no reason to stop. (Seriously, NEVER mention harry potter in front of her unless you want to have an in-depth conversation on the series for all time). Still, even shealyns' anti-socialness amongst the social outcast friends couldn't ruin her mood. Today was the day of the whole-school field trip. They were visiting the state capital (Lansing). It was a day different from regular school that was basically a free day. Her four best friends in her grade (they were seniors) got to sit near her on the bus ride there. As if it couldn't get better, it included all the grades- meaning her other best friend/actual sister in a sophmore got to come as well.
"We were talking about Amanda and Abbi's in containable excitement." Rachael said with a playful eye roll in my direction. I gave her a friendly whack to the head in return and Alyssa laughed. Shealyn, realizing that it wasn't about harry potter, directed her attention back to her Ipod. After a brief awkward silence, I sighed.
"sooo…." I said in an attempt to break the silence. "Let's all stare at Alyssa." I then followed my own orders and stared with wide eyes at my friend. Emma stared at her over the top of her glasses- giving her a mysterious look. Rachael stared at her as well. I was sure that Abbi behind me was staring as well, as would shealyn because shealyn loves randomness as much as any of us (that's a lot for you readers). Alyssa backed away from Rachael into the window behind her. She started laughing as we knew she would. She tried to look away from us, but she just kept laughing. After a few moments we all burst into laughter too at the sight of her. It was just one of those moments where everything in life was perfect.
And then the bus exploded.
The truck in front of us had abruptly stopped. In an attempt to avoid crashing, the bus driver swerved to the left and crashed into a tree. Great job, driver. The bus engine had a liquid spill or something and the engine had begun to catch fire. Everyone scrambled out the back- with the bus driver right ahead of them. The six of us started after them, but with all of them it took us a minute to begin after them. About halfway down the bus their eyes were blinded by a bright light. Amanda was sure that this was what death was like. As if from far away she heard a huge explosion. And then everything went black.
The friends awoke at the same time to find themselves lying on their backs on hard stone. Amanda and her friends sat up and began to look around. They saw that many different men were staring at them. Amanda, who had by far the most knowledge on lord of the rings, instantly recognized that they were in the council of Elrond. They all gazed silently (and semi-sleepily) at their surroundings.
"Well we're screwed." Emma bluntly stated.
Readers: thank you for reading this! Please review and tell me what you think so that I know people actually want me to continue this! Thanks!