"What do you mean spiders have eight legs?" Nikolas exclaimed loudly, hands flying up in disbelief and nearly smacking me in the face. I let out a sleepy complaint and he smiled down apologetically at me, curling a strand of bleached blonde hair around his fingertips, laughter rumbling and vibrating my head from where it rested on the planes of his stomach.
" 'What do you mean spiders have eight legs?' Of course they have eight legs!" Mya mocked, from her seat two rows ahead, body craned in what had to be an uncomfortable angle but it didn't seem to bother her too much.
I grinned as my fellow band members dissolved into senseless bickering, curling up in a little ball on the seat and burying my head in Nick's stomach with a quiet snicker.
"This, you guys, is your senior section leader! Passed all of his classes without knowing spiders have eight legs." Olivia rolled her eyes, leaning against the back of the seat to blink down at us with an amused smirk.
"How was I to know that one insect would be different then the rest of them?" Nick said, mouth curving into an exaggerated pout, several people laughing at his expression. I watched, silently, from my perch by his side, amused to no end but not going to defend him. He dug his grave, now he gets to lie in it.
"Spiders aren't insects, they're arachnids." Gabe said from the row next to us, looking all too delighted to have a hand in Nick's imminent downfall.
"Bro, aren't you, like, in AP Biology right now?" I finally piped up, grinning innocently at his betrayed face and poking him lightly in the side.
Mya passed over her phone, Wikipedia pulled up on the glowing white screen.
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all orders of organisms. Wikipedia
Nick opened his mouth for what was sure to be such a witty retort (note the sarcasm there) before a blood-curdling scream split through the air from somewhere in the front of the bus. The bus itself swerved off the paved road and smashed front first into a giant pine tree, metal crunching together with screams of terror from the band kids. I caught a glimpse of a hunch-backed figure standing in the middle of the road, shambling closer to the bus with slow, shuffling steps.
Several people scrambled out of their seats in a flurry of discarded uniform jackets, hats, and instruments.
"What's going on?" A voice said from somewhere below us and I looked down to see one of our sophomore trumpets on the floor, practically shoved under the seats and blinking tiredly up at us.
"You were down there the whole time?!" She nodded, yawning and wriggling out from beneath the seats. I sighed, moving my legs in order to give her room to squirm out and stand on wobbly legs, bones and joints cracking with each movement.
"It's probably some prank from the locals." Nikolas said dismissively, joining us in standing, stuck in the very back of the bus without a way out due to all the confused and excited kids trying to get out at the same time.
"Are you sure...?" Brady questioned, voice wavering as he glanced over at us from two rows ahead, gaze flitting between the person in the road and the group in the back.
"Hey, my phone just fucking died. What the hell?" Somebody screeched from the very front of the bus, tossing their hands up in annoyance and smacking the front of the bus with an open palm, as if that would make any difference to their phone. They were too far up for me to see who it was properly and I simply assumed it was one of the woodwinds. They were always in the front of the bus.
"Alright, everybody out. We have a potentially armed hostile and y'all's parents will kill me if I don't get you guys back home tonight." Mrs. Williams said from the bus driver's seat, calm despite the fact she had just crashed us into a tree. Brady arched a neat eyebrow at Nick who simply shrugged and smiled sheepishly.
"Locals my ass. Fuckin' moron." Brady mocked, smacking Nick's shoulder before following the flow of traffic off the bus. McKenna, now done stretching with her unholy amount of popping joints, followed him with a soft chuckle. Nick lightly pushed me off of him so that he could get up and Gabe held out a hand in order to pull me off fully. I accepted, glaring playfully at the culprit as I dusted off my uniform and slung my jacket over my shoulder in case it was cold outside, following the rest of my section.
The air was heavy, thick and humid, pressing down on our shoulders with an aching familiarity. It was also disgustingly warm, just on the edge of being too warm. The person in the street had shuffled their way closer to the bus -now two buses as the other bus had noticed the commotion and settled down next to the crashed one, kids drifting off to gather with us in confusion- and was still steadily making its way towards us.
"Stay back." One of the instructors warned, too swallowed by the swelling crowd of kids for me to see which one it was. Probably Mr. Feinburg, if I had to take a guess. The trumpet section pressed to the back of the group, gathering beneath a massive oak tree and blinking at the commotion, joined by a few friends from other sections.
"Do you guys know what's going on?" Lily said. She'd been on the other bus and wasn't looking afraid at all, just really confused. Her light blonde hair drifted in front of her eyes and she pushed it back absentmindedly as she waited for an answer. Me and Nikolas shrugged. Brady, Gabe, and Olivia said various forms of the word 'no' and McKenna remained silent. Wait- I glanced over for the sophomore trumpet, the baby of our section, and she was nowhere near us.
"Where's McKenna?" Gabe said, echoing my thoughts. He was taller than I was though, and could look over my head to scan the crowd.
"Oh fuck, she's so far to the front." He sounded worried and I used Nick's shoulder as a brace to make myself taller. The brunette trumpet was in the very front, talking animatedly to Mrs. Williams, her expression nearly impossible to make out at this distance.
"Shit. Somebody wanna go grab her?" Brady asked, Nick nodded before pushing his way through the crowd to go grab her. I watched him carefully, gaze darting between McKenna and Nick. He was about halfway through the crowd when the hostile person got within range of Mrs. Williams and McKenna, stopping abruptly about four feet in front of them. I couldn't see facial features, just shadows and the white of their eyes. Which...I shouldn't be able to see from here? I double-took and realized, no, it wasn't the white of their eyes, it was their eyes. Soft shade of gray and glowing with an inhuman light.505Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCnDbkeNOfn
"Mrs. Wil-" I started.
It lunged.
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