I go to get off the bus and she stops me. “Wait! What’s your name?” she says as she puts the bus in park and then takes a phone from the cup holder. “I’m going to give you a thumbs up.”
“Bus drivers can give kudos?” I ask, bewildered.
She nods. “Oh yes. We’ve been secretly giving kudos for a couple weeks now.”
“They haven’t told us that,” I say after I give her my name. “I wish I had been riding the school bus more often.”
She chuckles. “Wow. You’re in second place!” She turns her phone to me and sure enough, there’s a large silver medal right under my name. Only the freshman girl is ahead of me now.
I bounce on my toes and she gives me a high five. I shift my backpack on my shoulder and decide to take my chances asking her a question. I don’t want to sound greedy, but I really want to win this thing. “Since bus drivers can give kudos… is there anything I could do for all the bus drivers? Maybe help out your day a little?”
She considers it for a moment. “We love donuts.”
“Donuts. I could do donuts,” I say with a nod.
“We love donuts before school.”
“I could do that,” I say.
She grins. “We also arrive at the bus barn at four in the morning.”
My eyes widen, but I swallow down any hesitation I may have and nod once. “I’ll be there.”
* * *
“You are without a doubt the best friend in the world.”
Jules looks over at me and rolls her eyes before turning her attention back to the road ahead. It’s so early it’s still dark outside, and yet she’s driving me to the bus barn.
“I’m serious,” I say. “You’re doing all this work for me just to help me win. You could be selfish and only do things to help yourself win.”
“Eh, I don’t want to win,” Jules says. “My rank is down in the two hundreds. But you actually have a chance, and I am so here for it.”
“I’ll drive you everywhere after I win that car,” I say. Three boxes of donuts sit in my lap, warming my legs and filling the car up with the smell of warm sugar and dough. Jules was totally on board with my plan last night when I told her about waking up early to bring donuts to the bus drivers.
The bus barn is what they call the fenced in parking lot where all the school busses park after school. It’s not even a real barn, just a parking lot and a small building. Jules says she wants to stay in her car so she doesn’t get any kudos and take points away from me. She seriously is the best friend ever.
I slip inside the small room and find the kitchen. A few bus drivers hang out by the coffee maker, but most of them aren’t here yet since we’re a little early. I set the donut boxes on the table and leave my note next to it.
Donated by Abby Pena. Thank you for all you do!
Once I’m back in Jules’ car, I let out a yawn. “That feels like a bribe.”
“That’s because it is a bribe,” Jules says with a yawn that matches mine. When she sees the fear on my face she pats my arm. “Don’t worry. It’s a nice bribe.”
I’m feeling both nervous and excited as we drive back home to get another two hours of sleep before we have to go to school. I keep thinking that maybe the donut idea was a bad idea. What if all the bus drivers see through my bribe and give me a demerit for it? I would have wasted the little money I have on donuts and lost my spot as number three. I got to be in second place yesterday, but only for a few hours.
My anxiety is through the roof, but luckily I’m also tired. I fall back asleep and then wake to my usual morning alarm. Welp… it’s now or never I think as I sit up and look at my phone. I need to check.
Was the donut idea a good idea or…
I open my profile. A silver medal appears under my name.
It was a good idea.
It was such a good idea.
Because now I am in second place. Only Annabel Jefferson is ahead of me, but I’m closing in on her by a margin of only thirty points. I will be in first place soon. I will win this thing.
Oh how I wish I could see the look on Mark Caputo’s face when he finds out.
Eight
MARK
Third place. A digital bronze medal shines underneath my name on the Un-bully app the next morning. I’m pretty sure I’m awake, but this almost feels like a dream. I did work hard for these points, but it almost feels too easy… all I did was compliment people.
From the second I got home from volunteering at the animal shelter yesterday until I went to bed, I was on social media. I started by following back every person who goes to my school and also followed me. Then I followed some people I recognized from school but had never followed before. My score jumped up a bit. Then I got serious. I started commenting on every post in my feed, saying nice things and making genuine comments. I didn’t just copy/paste the same lame reply to everyone. Nope, I tried hard to be friendly and caring.
I thought about just commenting on the girls, but that’s sexist so I left comments for everyone, including my teachers. Some of my teachers maintain Instagram pages where they try in vain to get people to care about their lessons or about learning something extra that’s not on the syllabus. No one really cares about that stuff. But last night I did.
I ended up falling asleep last night with my phone on some band geek’s YouTube channel after I
