Return of the Magic School Bus Chapter 1

Return of the Magic School Bus
Act 1: The Other School Bus
Chapter 1:  Suspect Coincidences


Mr. Shu had been grading midterm papers in the morning before classes started when a honk outside his window disturbed his concentration. Most of his fellow teachers had not even arrived, let alone any students; so it was unlikely to be someone simply causing a ruckus. Coming to the window where his class pet ferret had also come to glance out in curiosity, he saw the only vehicle in the near part of the parking lot was the history department's school bus, which, for some reason, had its hazard lights flashing.

Climbing onto Shu's shoulders, Mr. Funk, the dark brown ferret, accompanied the World History Teacher down the stairs to investigate. The near-dawn air was slightly cold and damp somehow adding a mystical, yet foreboding feeling. The normally fearless ferret wrapped around Shu's neck and chittered nervously.

"Take it easy, Funkmeister!" Shu laughed, but his confidence wavered. Climbing aboard the empty bus, he sat down in the driver's seat and turned off the flashing hazard lights. The only thing remaining lit up was a light on the dashboard controls. Flipping the switch, a simple beeping of a radio signal sounded.

Shu knew this was the mystery solved: this signal was what they were meant to find; but it spoke of a much bigger problem. Only one person could possibly have sent it; and the signal was definitely an S.O.S.!

- - - !o≡ll≡o! - - -

Dorothy Ann rarely thought about Miss. Frizzle these days. High School was more than enough to keep her every thought occupied, but after the third reminder of those adventures so long ago, her gut was telling her something was up.

The first reminder had been in the morning. At breakfast, Dorothy Ann's mother had mentioned that Amanda Jane, her youngest sister, would be staying another night on her aviary field trip.

"Interesting," mused Mrs. Sorensen, "Miss. Frizzle never had a field trip longer than a night or two with you girls."

"Yeah, how much can you learn about birds in three full days?"Dorothy Ann's middle school-aged sister Evan commented. "Then again, my class never got around to 'where bird babies come from'; but D.A. did!" Evan continued with a sneaky grin, "That’s when she brought her cock home!"

"Eva Lynn!" their mother chastised.

"Fine, he was only a chick at the time," Evan conceded to which their mother gave a nod of approval before heading to a different room as the daughters glanced outside to where Arnold Junior, the ridiculously old rooster, stood at his usual perch in the back yard.

When she was sure her mom was out of earshot, Evan leaned to her older sister and whispered. "What sort of trouble do you think they got into? They only time we ever over-nighted in her class was when the bus got stuck in a glacier, what about you?"

D.A. had to pause to mentally reopen that chapter of her life she guarded with such care before she commented, "only a couple of times. There was the sound museum, but we had a concert there. The only time it was unexpected was when we got caught in a downpour in the desert."

"Well, unless A. J. sabotaged their field trip, what can go wrong?" Evan concluded, "I'm sure they're fine."

After that conversation, Miss Frizzle didn't come to mind until a few hours later when her history teacher announced at the end of class that they would need a partner for their next project.

"Come on! We're great partners and you know it!" Carlos Ramon insisted, dodging other students as he tried to keep up in the crowded hallway, "it would be like the good old days!"

"The days when I did all the work?" D.A. countered as she stopped by her locker.

"You and I both know that you wanted to do all the work on those projects!" Carlos insisted, "Besides, we wouldn't have won that science fair in middle school without me as our smooth-talking presenter!"

"Your smooth talking isn't working now, Carlos!" D.A. snapped, trying to give him a cold shoulder as she piled up her text books for her next three classes.

"Dorothy Ann," he started in his smoothest tone, "you know I'm smart, but I also balance you out! My creativity and randomness with your logic to keep us grounded, together we're unbeatable!" With that declaration he leaned in and whispered, "We complete each other."

Denying that she could possibly have a blush growing, she closed her locker with a slam and worked her way towards class declaring, "Try it on some other girl, Ramon!"

"Come on, Sorensen!" he whined again, "Take a chance! Make a mistake! Get messy!" D.A. hesitated, wondering how one gets messy for a history project, but kept walking, finally getting some distance between them.

"Besides, I've got a great idea!" He concluded, knowing he had her attention. "We should try our hand at making authentic Baghdad Batteries! My uncle's got a kiln and everything!"

"Carlos!" Dorothy Ann cried, exasperated, "why didn't you say that first?!"

"Because I knew you'd love it!" he grinned cheekily, "And us agreeing on something outright would probably destabilize the universe or something!" He continued in that irritatingly suave confidence, "plus, just as it was back then, banter, my beautiful genius, is what we do best!" he concluded as if he would bow, but the hallway was too crowded and he disappeared.

Dorothy Ann cursed mentally, "Now I'm definitely not going to be able to concentrate in Pre-Calc!"

At lunchtime, D. A. had sat down alone, wanting to get some extra studying in. Her plans weren't unpleasantly interrupted when she was joined by a couple of old friends she hadn't talked to in years.

"Is it okay if we sit here?"

Glancing up, she the kind faces of Phoebe Terese and Keesha Franklin. "Hi! Sure, no problem!" she responded, moving her text books out of the way.

"Still hitting the books as hard as ever?" Keesha grinned, opening her sack lunch. D.A. couldn't resist the dread that comment had brought up, fearing the direction the conversation would go. Keesha, however, had nothing but praise. "You put the rest of us to shame! I really don't know how you manage to balance it all! Most others like you have gone anti-social, but you are cooler than ever! My friend in the band says he wishes they had gotten you as drum major a couple years earlier!"

D.A. was amazed how Keesha made it seem like no time at all had passed since they used to hang out together.  "I think that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," Dorothy Ann responded with a soft chuckle.

"Oh come on, girl!" Keesha teased, "why you even still in our grade? I would have thought you'd have graduated by now."

"I guess I haven't had any desire to move on so quickly," Dorothy Ann responded, putting the rest of her textbooks away so she could focus on her old friends better.

"I know what you mean," Phoebe commented, "I'm not sure I'm looking forward to leaping into the real world. Everyone else is in such a hurry to grow up, but I'm just going to miss some of those benefits that childhood allowed us."

There was a nod of agreement among the girls, but they steered clear of any talk of olden days and chatted about their current extra-curricular activities instead.

A gut feeling had been tugging at Dorothy Ann all morning. Something big was coming, something she felt needed facing head-on. Therefore, she somehow wasn't surprised when she heard the announcement over the loud speaker.

"Would the following students please come meet at the front of the school: Phoebe Terese, Carlos Ramon, Dorothy Ann Sorensen, Arnold Perlstein, and Keesha Franklin; please come to the front of the building."

"What the--" Keesha started, "that's a suspicious group of names."

"What do you think is going on?" Phoebe asked.

Dorothy Ann didn't say anything. Something big was going on and she needed answers!