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Learning to live





Chapter Nine

AJ quickly sat up. "You're right! You wake up the lovebirds and your brother. I'll wake up D and Kev."

They both scrambled out of their beanbags to wake up their assigned people. AJ started shaking Howie, who woke up, but was severely disorientated. He then moved onto Kevin. Kevin was a lot harder to wake up 'cause he was a deep sleeper. "Hey, Train! You gotta get up, man!" he said as he shook Kevin. Eventually, Kevin did wake up. He was giving AJ the evil eye as he tried to wake up all the way. AJ quickly explained the situation to them. Something about Howie caught AJ's attention. "Yo, D, you've got ink on the end of your nose."

Howie gave AJ a suspicious look as he rubbed the end of his nose clean. AJ just pointed at Brian.

Meanwhile, Nick had picked his brother up and dumped him on Brian and Stephanie as his method of waking the three of them up. Brian and Aaron woke up and immediately started yelling at Nick. "Stop yelling, you two," he ordered, "cause we have bigger problems than how I woke you up."

"What's goin' on?" Stephanie mumbled sleepily as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"The bus has almost stopped guys" Nick informed them.

Brian's eyes opened wide. "Gas stop?" he asked.

"I don't know. But something's going on."

Nick, Brian, Aaron and Stephanie moved over to where AJ, Howie, and Kevin sat talking quietly.

"Guys, we've come to a decision" Kevin announced as the group settled on the floor. "If that guy comes in far enough, we're gonna jump him, gun or no gun" Kevin pronounced. Everyone shared a look.

"Isn't that kinda dangerous?" Stephanie asked. No one answered her. The bus had finally stopped moving. Kevin and Nick got up, resigned to their duty. As the biggest two out of the eight, they knew they were the ones who could best overpower the gunman.

"Y'all, come on. We gotta spread out so he doesn't notice they're not visible right away" Brian told the others. AJ and Howie got up and moved into beanbags. Brian squeezed Stephanie's hand before moving. Stephanie moved into the beanbag behind her back and pulled Aaron into her lap.

"Don't watch Nick" she warned Aaron.

"Okay" he whispered and looked at the floor.

They didn't have long to wait. The door soon came swinging in. The gunman shoved Mac into the room and stood in the doorway, illuminated by the light. He didn't come in.Mac took a seat. The gunman waved his gun in the room and warned "Anything funny goes on, I'll shoot, ya hear?" Kevin and Nick slid down the wall until they sat on the ground. "We've got a little problem" he announced.