Sunday, February 13, 2011

Queen Teen's Knight of the Bus

Queen Teen has a new champion, a young man who rides the bus with her every morning and afternoon. I'll call him J. On one particular morning, this young man came to her rescue and has continued to be her protector every single morning as they ride the bus to school.

The school bus is crowded now. Thanks to budget cuts and increased student enrollment, the "little buses" are packed two per seat. These buses were built in the early 1980's when kids were decidedly... smaller. Nowadays, only one kid per seat can sit comfortably, two per seat has one kid scrunched against the window and the other hanging off the edge. Of course, none of the kids want to give up the coveted, smashed against the glass, window seat, and by the time Queen Teen gets on the bus there are only aisle seats left. Like the trooper she is, she sat on the edge of the chair two mornings in a row, clinging to the seat back in front of her for dear life, terrified for the 15 minutes she sits on that bus.

Enter her Knight in Shining Armor.

On this morning, Queen Teen climbed onto the bus and stared at the aisle seat, then announced, "I don't like sitting there. I'm scared." There was a pause as the bus driver and I looked at each other, then the bus driver said, "J. Would you mind letting Queen Teen sit next to you by the window?"

J's smile was as big as if we'd told him he gets to drive the bus. He jumped up from his seat and waved at Queen Teen. She walked to him and then squeezed past him onto the seat. I buckled her in and J sat beside her, still grinning.

"Thank you, J," I said.

He kept grinning.

"He likes her," one of the girls on the bus said, and then giggled.

"Yes, I know. They're friends," I said.

"No, he liiiiiikes,  likes her." She giggled again and another girl joined her.

I looked at J. He kept on grinning at me. "That's nice," I said.

And now, every morning, as soon as Queen Teen enters the bus, J jumps up from his seat and gives her the window side. He rides the rest of the route with half of his butt hanging off the seat and his feet planted firmly to keep from falling off, a smile on his face the whole time. Queen Teen is as oblivious as any Royal Princess should be. Of course he offered her his seat, she's a princess!

Now that the girls on the bus have pointed it out, it's pretty obvious that J likes Queen Teen. I wonder how long it will take for Queen Teen to notice, too. I guess as far as potential romances go, this is a sweet beginning.

(but he'd better keep his hands to himself or else!)

2 comments:

Mother of Chaos said...

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!

And yeah. Hands off the princess, bub.

(But still: Awwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!)

Sarcastic Bastard said...

What a sweet story. It's nice to know there are still some nice young men around.

Love,

SB