A Ride To Hell

Rio waves his family goodbye as he sees bus 206 pull up. He had decided on green camp shorts, a blue shirt with a single white and green stripe. Instead of a normal backpack, he settled for a simple brown satchel. Aquí vamos. Rio sighed as he began to step on the banana colored vehicle. As he gets on, he is then slapped with the sound of children's chatter. From the freshman who just want to find out about the school, to the seniors who just want to get this year over with. Among those seniors he saw, he saw his best friend Kate Yearn, a black girl sitting in the back.

He knew Kate for years. Ever since he moved to America in 5th grade, she has always showed him around. On top of her purple-dip dyed hair, she wore a teal colored hat with a white puff. Along with that she wore a purple shirt with snowflakes along the top and stripes along the bottom. She had dark gray shorts with knee high socks. Ending with her signature dark blue converse with a light blue highlighter drawn on them.

Rio smiled. He was glad that he at least knew someone on this bus. He made his way over to sit beside his best friend.

"Hey," Kate looked up from her phone only to smile at the sight of a familiar face. "Mind if I sit beside you?" Kate nodded as she got up to let him inside.

"Thank god," since she sat in the back she rested her backpack in the middle of the aisle. Her backpack carried pins of all her interest. Different bands. Some of her favorite baseball teams. On the side of it was her signature baseball bat. When she plays against the other schools. This bat caused her more than enough wins for her college degree. "I thought we were just picking up freshmen on this ride."

"Yeah, last year, mom used to take us to school."

"Ehh, it's fine," Kate waved her hand dismissively. "I'm saving up for a car anyways. So I'll be able to take us both to school." Rio gives a slight giggle as takes his phone. Most of the time he would listen to some lo-fi tunes or maybe even some rain as he stared out the window, but this summer has been different. He opened his phone to Weary Wonders. The podcast has become really popular over the summer due to it covering a peculiar person; The Crow. Rio smiles to himself as he puts on his earbuds for another episode.

"Well, Well, Well," The main guy of the podcast began to speak. "The Crow strikes again, murdering 3 people this time."

"Really?" The second man began to entertain the conversation. "Man they were really in a rush before school started." The podcast were about two white man that shared their own theories about murders. The man was named John. He was in his early thirties with two kids and a wife. The other was Mike, he on the other hand was in his twenties and in the dating stage. Ever since the two men became popular, Rio never missed an episode.

"Did you hear the news?"

"No. What did they say?"

"The news said due to the timing of these murders. People believe that it's a kid doing all this stuff bro." The two men began to argue their reasons why they believed the statements were true. Is it possible? Rio began to process the sentence in depth. Is it possible that The Crow is a student? Just as he thought he could fully go over his thoughts, he was quickly interrupted by Kate.

"Hey, what are you listening to," Before the boy could answer, Kate had grabbed the phone out of his hand. "Weary Wonders? I thought everyone outgrew this over the summer." She smiled as she raised an eyebrow. Rio could feel the embarrassment rising to his face. He quickly grabbed his phone back in response.

"Well, not everyone is boring, besides; lately they've been talking about The Crow."

"Oh that guy," Kate gave a slight giggle as she handed his phone back. Rio in any circumstance would be too scared to make any reference to his interest, but the bus was so full of noise and laughter, their conversation didn't dent it. "He's probably just some wannabe Batman or somethin'." Rio laughed in response.

"Who said it was a guy? Nothing about them was specifically disclosed."

"Because I know! Duh." Kate crossed her arms as she spoke. Her rings make a scringy sound that he didn't like. The way silver would run against each other was always a pet peeve of his. "No woman cereal killer in history has ever been that obvious about murder. That's common sense!"

"Well, now they're saying it could be a student." Rio slightly turned his phone so the other could see the words appearing on the screen.

"Well," Kate smiled as she slightly shoved him. "I guess that means no romance with the boys this year. Okay?" Rio laughed at her joke. Rio came out to her when they just started middle school. Unlike Kate, who was openly out to everyone, he kept his life close.

"Pshh. like that was gonna happen anyways." Rio wanted to continue the conversation but was then distracted by the sight of the school. Rio looked at how the Canary paint was slowly chipping off the hedge, It just showed how old this school really was. The bus shook as it made its way past the rock that sat outside the school's front yard. It was vandalized from the other schools due to the fact that they had lost another game. It wore words like 'Die' and 'Never Again' along with other words and symbols that wouldn't be named. Rio sighed. This is my last year here, just one more year. And I'll be out. He watched as the bus driver would look through everyone's seat to see if they left any trash after they had left.

Rio and Kate hopped off the bus talking about what they did over the summer. Kate has two brothers, but they were both a lot older than her. Over the summer she went to see Zach at his penthouse. He was a 42 year old politician that lived in Utah, which was quite far considering that they lived in North Carolina. She then spoke about how she then made her way over to Kaleb, he wasn't as successful as Zach, but he was trying. Rio smiled. Most of his summer consisted of sleeping, watching stuff on youtube and trying to look for a job. Their conversation seemed to slowly fade as they made their way to the cafeteria.