(The stories are short. The school bus wasn't.)
One day, on the first day of school one year (I'm gonna guess second grade), I got on the bus in the afternoon. Most seats already had one person in them. I had to sit with someone. I knew that there was someone I couldn't sit next to: this one girl was someone who was teased even more than I was. She had some sort of mean nickname that I don't remember. I knew I would immediately get teased too for sitting next to her. Unfortunately, since I'm somewhat face blind, I had no idea which girl it was, or if she was even on the bus yet. I took a deep breath and picked a random seat next to a girl. For the next couple of minutes no one said anything to me, as I preferred it. Then, someone screamed out, "Hey, Josh is sitting next to [nickname] girl!" Everyone started laughing or remarking on this fact. Red-faced, I immediately got up and sat next to someone else instead for the rest of the ride.
Another time, possibly later that same year, I sneezed on the bus. This was really an epic sneeze. Mucus was all over my seat (which wasn't occupied by anyone else). Everyone was understandably grossed out. However, they went a bit overboard and refused to sit in that particular seat for the entire rest of the year. Months later, I would often get on the bus as it was relatively full, with some kids sitting two to a seat. Always, exactly one seat was unoccupied. Far from being insulted, I was happy to have a seat to myself each time. And it was one of my favorite seats, too: second from the front on the left.
