The Wheels On The Bus

"Where are we going first?" Shelby asked.

It was a Saturday morning, and the girls were planning a trip downtown.

"I need to get a new pair of black school shoes! Mine tore." Magenta bit her lip to stop herself from mentioning Blue.

They made a pact to work together and Saturday was the day that they would finally get to enact their plans.

"Yay! I wanted to look at Spadey's new limited edition heels too! Then we can go to the food court after!" Shelby cheered.

They changed into comfortable and casual clothing and then headed down to the bus stop. The bus was supposed to take them to the mall with Spadey's, the shoe shop. They had to take a single-decker bus from near Oakstone Academy's campus. Magenta checked the bus number and told Shelby it was 7B.

As they took their seats, Shelby locked eyes with Jasper, and Magenta saw Blue getting on the bus next to Jasper. Shelby tried to get off the bus but the driver impatiently closed the door and left the station. Blue slid into the seat next to Magenta as soon as Shelby got up. When Shelby came to sit down and saw Jasper still there, she sat next to him with a scowl on her face.

When Shelby's face was obscured from view, she shared a knowing glance with Jasper. Magenta shot a quick wink at Blue, who winked back.

This was perfect. Magenta and Blue hadn't planned on the seating, but for the bus ride. The seating turned out to be perfect, and they wouldn't change a thing. Blue offered an earphone to Magenta.

She inspected it and said, "You didn't poison this, did you?"

Blue scoffed and shook his head. They smiled and Magenta put the earphone into her ears. The catchy tune of the latest Dustin Tumbler song came on. It was a certified bop, and Magenta found herself asking about Blue's music taste.

"I didn't know you liked Dustin Tumbler too!" Magenta said.

"Eh, well there's a lot you didn't know about me," Blue teased.

"Hmm that's true," Magenta mused.

She brought out her notepad from her bag and scribbled down a note to Blue so Shelby and Jasper wouldn't hear them.

"Are you ready to start the tour?"

Blue nodded.

Magenta's friend from the UK, Urma, had a father who owned multiple bus companies in the US. She helped Magenta book a romantic bus tour. This bus was the very same bus. All the people who boarded the bus were in pairs and couples. The only downside was the super impatient bus driver.

Blue gave Magenta an air high five so they wouldn't make any noise.

Just then, Shelby said, "Stop the bus!"

The bus driver swerved to a stop. It was just after the stop sign near the bus stop, so the sudden brake didn't harm anyone, but some people said their necks hurt.

"Who's making a ruckus!" The bus driver shouted.

Everyone mumbled, "what happened?"

"We feel sick!" Shelby wailed.

"My head hurts bad," Jasper said.

"I want to throw up," Shelby complained.

Magenta and Blue got up to help their friends.

"Oh, let's go to get you some rest and see the doctor then?" Magenta asked in concern.

"No, you should still go get your shoes," Shelby said.

"Huh, no. We can help you guys go to the infirmary!" Magenta said.

"Well hurry up and get off my bus!" The driver ushered them to get off, and again closed the door in a hurry.

As the quartet walked to find a place to rest, Shelby and Jasper turned to each other in their silent pact.

This was it. All their hard work was for these moments to happen, and they were about to make their dreams a reality. They were going to give Blue and Magenta a chance to have a date.

Without another word they held hands and sprinted off.

"What!" Magenta and Blue's shock made them stop in their tracks before they ran after their best friends. Somehow, Jasper and Shelby's headstart made them disappear faster than lightning.

Blue and Magenta couldn't find their best friends at all. They walked into all the shops they could see but still couldn't find either Jasper or Shelby. They weren't close enough to the mall so they had to just take random shots and find whatever shops they could see. There was a tailor's shop, some restaurants, a salon, and a dollar store.

They went to the dollar store to get some water on the way.

"Tricky tricksters!" Magenta kicked a leaf on the side of the pavement.

"Yeah, crazy. They tricked us, but why?" Blue pondered.

"I guess they wanted us to have a one-on-one? But I thought they broke up? This is so confusing," Magenta said.

No student from Oakstone had a phone in town, as phones weren't allowed for the students unless it was an emergency. They only were given a certain amount of pocket money and a whole lot of trust. If they ever got lost they had to use the money they had, or pray they'd get rescued.

"I guess we can get a taxi back up to campus?" Blue suggested.

"Yeah, sure. They might have gone back to campus." Magenta agreed.

"Let's get lunch first though. It's almost twelve-thirty pm. We have the new induction into the Student Council Executive team at four pm." Blue said.

Magenta and Blue both applied to get into the student council before the beginning of the term and they got into the roles they wanted. But the induction was supposed to be that day too, they didn't know if they would make it back on time.

Around them were lines of shops, and as they walked to find a taxi, they passed by an ice cream truck. The sign decoration was very cutesy and whimsical. There were pretty drawings of ice cream and colorful depictions of people hugging across the white and pink van.

Today's special: Strawberry Mines (strawberry flavor with chocolate rocks filled with a gooey center)

Vanilla Buddy

Mint Paradise

Lemon Twist

Buy one get one free!

"Ohmigod! Ice cream! It's BOGO!" Magenta exclaimed.

Blue already walked to the van to order without asking Magenta anything.

Blue said to the ice cream man, "One lemon twist and one strawberry mine."

The ice cream man said, "Ah how sveet! Congrats, young love."

He didn't let Blue pay so Blue put some tips in the tip jar next to the menu sign.

Blue handed the lemon twist to Magenta and she watched him before licking her ice cream.

"You remember," Magenta mumbled.

"Yeah, your favorite is lemon. Everyone knows," Blue smiled.

Magenta nodded thoughtfully, but she kept in her heart the difference between knowing and remembering something at opportune times. Blue was good with memory, he knew how to recall memories at the right times, while Magenta was a bit forgetful and clusmy.

As they finished their ice cream, they strolled to find a random restaurant. They stopped before a quaint sushi restaurant, with animated drawn cats as the mascots of the restaurant.

"Sushi!" Magenta's eyes lit up like neon dollar signs.

"Let's do it!" Blue was enthusiastic too about sushi.

"Irasshaimase! Welcome! How many customers, oh it's two young lovers!" The waitress said, gushing at them.

It was the second time they'd been called young lovers. Blue and Magenta shared a glance. As if to say, "Should you say we're not or should I?"

But the waitress wouldn't listen to whatever they said, taking them all as excuses.

"I was young once too, I know we need to hide when we are teens," She said.

She sat them down at the revolving table of sushi.

The different types of sushi going around made Magenta's mouth water. They ordered some cold pressed juice and then they started getting into their meal.

"Fave sushi?" Magenta asked, cleaning her hands with the sanitizer.

"It's gotta be salmon roe," Blue said.

"Mine is the shrimp beancurd!" Magenta said.

"Oh, I don't like the beancurd," Blue said.

"All the more for me," Magenta said.

Blue helped her with adding water to her cup and opening the paper for her chopsticks set.

It was the happiest moment for Magenta to be able to eat sushi after a while of not having it. She didn't even mind being around Blue at the moment. They had a prank war for a long time, and she enjoyed 'disliking' Blue, but only to a certain extent.

Blue was a gentleman. He was strong, smart, skilled, funny, and fun. Magenta wondered why she hadn't seen these things before. And a small part of her wondered if she was beginning to see these things now. She grabbed her cup to drink water and kept wondering, whether it was time now to lay down her arms-

Blue put wasabi in her water.

Her nose flared in the spice and she spat out the water, spraying water on the plate. Magenta's face grew red at the spiciness, and Blue laughed, snorting with glee.

Oh yes, this was why she didn't see these things. Because he always distracted her with his pranks. Magenta coughed, and immediately, Blue's laughter subsided. He gave her his cup of water, and rubbed her back gently.

"Sorry, was it too much?" He asked.

"Will you give me more if I say no?" Magenta smiled through burning water.

"Old habits die hard, my friend," Blue shrugged.

"We're friends now?" Magenta said.

They gave each other a fake glare and then smiled.

Perhaps friendship was not always something chosen, but rather something growing like flowers needing to be watered. Pranks could be done to friends as much as they could be done to frenemies. Perhaps it was finally time to put behind the past that had kept them from getting to know each other.

Magenta said, "Fine. You can be my friend. For now."

Blue said, "Oh, honored, guvna!"

"We should probably eat quick, the meeting is soon!" Magenta pointed to the clock behind them.

Blue agreed and they scarfed down as much sushi as possible.

When they were done, Blue offered to pay but Magenta said they should split. They got into a taxi, and sped towards the campus.

But on the way their taxi got stuck in a bit of traffic so they were probably going to be late.

Blue said to Magenta, "Woops I guess we're going to be late."