BSC090 - Welcome to the BSC, Abby - Martin, Ann M.

    Chapter 1.

    The people in Stoneybrook name their cars. Or at least, some of them do. Such as a neighbor of mine. Residing in her driveway are two cars with names - the Junk Bucket and the Pink Clinker.

    I do not need to describe these cars. The names tell their stories. In fact, that they even have names tells a story in itself.

    But when in Rome do as the Romans do. And when in Stoneybrook, do as the Stoney-brookians do, right?

    "I dub this . . . this . . . means of transportation the Wheeze Wagon," I said as the Stoneybrook Middle School bus wheezed, heaved, coughed, and groaned to a stop. It gave a final lurch just as I stood up, and I almost fell into the people sitting in the seats across from me. I saved myself just in time.

    Kristy Thomas, who rides the bus with me and gets off at the same stop, started to grin.

    (Okay, okay, Kristy is the neighbor I was talking about, although she's not the owner of the cars with names, just related to the owners.) "I think this thing sounds like it has a cold. Or the flu." "Or asthma and major allergies," I added as the bus coughed a few times. We made a quick exit and the bus made a slow turn around the corner and out of sight.

    Not surprisingly, Kristy didn't say anything. Kristy is a bossy beast, but she is polite. Just like all the rest of the Stoneybrookians. Which means she is not going to comment on asthma and allergies, since I am saddled with both. Life makes me sneeze.

    Good thing it makes me laugh, too.

    "I'm going to name that thing that just departed, that the Stoneybrook school system calls a bus," I continued. "Seriously. I'm calling it the Wheeze Wagon." That brought the grin back to Kristy's face. "So I heard," she said.

    I was on a roll. "This bus gets to the garage and it says to the other buses, T've got such a headache. I'm allergic to the roads, and what do they make me do all day? Roads, roads, roads. I wanted to be a boat, but does anybody listen to me?' " Kristy started laughing then and we went our separate ways. She went to a nice big house full of a million people, animals, and even a ghost.