Zann wasn’t looking forward at the time, so she never saw exactly what caused the accident on the overpass.
She was sitting next to Gary Peet, who was rattling on about the party he would throw after the game with Central Friday night, but out of the corner of her eye, she was watching Charlie Peters pretend not to flirt with Kim Yang in the back of the bus. He was in the aisle next to Kim and her boyfriend, imitating Mr. Lopresti’s slump-shouldered shuffle. He glanced up at Zann for a moment, as if this show was more for her benefit than Kim’s.
And then the bus’s brakes locked up with this godawful loud squeal, and she was thrown sideways into Gary.
Everyone was screaming as something slammed into them from the front, shoving the bus backwards. Zann hit the seat in front of her, then fell to the floor. She pulled herself up and looked back to see if Charlie was okay, idiot Charlie who’d been clowning in the aisle (see, this was why you needed seat belts on the school bus). She felt a moment’s relief when she saw him pull himself up off the floor, but through the glass behind him, she saw a gaping hole in the guard rail, the metal on either side of the gap twisted up into weird curlicues that reminded her of beckoning arms.
The bus rolled back through the gap. There was a drop and a thump as the rear tires rolled off the edge of the pavement, prompting fresh screams among the students. Metal screeched as the bus kept sliding, then Zann’s stomach rolled as she felt the front of the bus lift off the ground. Charlie toppled back and slammed into the emergency door, which popped open, and then he was gone and the bus was still tipping.
