Chapter 11
Mrs. Jackson had a lot to talk about with his mother, when they got to his home. They had talked all morning and now they were talking some more. He had wanted to tell his father about the bridge, but he wasn't home yet. So he had to sit and listen to Mrs. Jackson and his mother. When they started talking about lunch money, he remembered how very hungry he was, and went to get something to eat. They were still talking about money when he finished eating. They agreed on a price and Mrs. Jackson got one of the small silver coins with some of her 'new' coins, and he could use some of those 'new' coins to buy milk and fruit at lunch time. And he could bring his own lunch. He was glad of that, because he didn't like the humans' food. Then they talked about the school bus. He wasn't very sure that he was going to like being on the school bus. Mrs. Jackson had explained the 'Rules for Riding the School Bus', which was the name on a piece of paper she gave to his mother. There were so many things he couldn't do on the bus. One of the rules was 'No whistling'. When he asked her what whistling was, she puckered up her mouth and made a strange sound. 'No bird noises', Baartock decided.
"Just behave like you did in my car today," she said, "and you won't have any problem. You'll like Mr. Barnes."
Very early next morning, Baartock was standing by the side of the road when the yellow school bus drove up. He was holding his pencil box and a bag with his lunch. Mrs. Jackson had shown him a place that she thought would be a safe spot to stand and wait for the bus. It wasn't right by the driveway to the 'old Howard house', but it wasn't right by the stream bed and the path he used to come down to the road, either.
The bus made a screeching noise as it came to a stop right in front of him.
"OK. Come on up. Thought I'd you'd be closer to the house," Mr. Barnes said in a loud voice, when he opened the bus door. Then he shouted, "OK. New customer today. Which seat can I sell him. I think this one," he said, pointing at a seat for just one person right in the front of the bus. There was one very big boy sitting in the seat. "Gabe, you've been pretty good this week. Find yourself a new seat."
"Aw, Mr. Barnes, do I have to?"
"Go on now. Find a seat, before we're late getting to school." Gabe gathered up his books and moved back to the middle of the bus and sat next to another big boy, and Baartock sat on the empty front seat. He looked around for the seat belt, as he started driving down the road.
"What's the matter? Got ants in your pants?" Mr. Barnes asked, when he saw Baartock squirming.