Chapter 1 - Again
Jason Cole ripped Sophia Reed’s backpack from her lap and hurled it down the school bus aisle before she could even react.
The worn canvas bag struck the rubber floor, slid beneath two seats, and stopped near the front wheel well.
Then Jason dropped into Sophia’s seat.
His varsity jacket spread across the backrest as if he had reserved it.
“Seat taken.”
Sophia, sixteen, caught herself on the seat in front before falling.
Students laughed.
Jason looked her up and down.
“Go sit where people like you usually end up.”
Sophia’s face burned.
“What does that even mean?”
Jason leaned back.
“Don’t look confused.”
His gaze moved over her gray sweatshirt, faded jeans, and the backpack she had carried since eighth grade.
“You wear thrift-store clothes and still expect first-class treatment?”
Someone snickered.
Sophia heard a phone camera activate.
She hated that sound.
Jason stretched one expensive sneaker into the aisle and kicked her backpack farther toward the front.
“Go fetch it.”
More laughter.
“At least you’re finally useful for something.”
Sophia clenched her jaw.
She wanted to disappear.
Instead she stood there, surrounded by students who found someone else’s humiliation safer than silence.
Jason did not notice the small security camera above the aisle.
He also didn’t notice how bus driver Denise Harris’s expression had changed in the mirror.
Ms. Harris kept both hands steady on the wheel.
She had driven Route 47 for eleven years. She knew which students slept against windows, which ones always forgot lunch, and which ones became louder when adults could not safely turn around.
Jason had received three verbal warnings from her that semester.
This morning she did something different.
She pressed a small button beside the dashboard.
The system marked the previous two minutes of footage for permanent review.
“Jason.”
He looked toward the front.
“What?”
Ms. Harris did not raise her voice.
“You just gave them exactly what they were waiting for.”
The laughter stopped.
Jason sat forward.
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“The people who asked me not to interfere with the investigation until the camera caught you doing it again.”
Sophia slowly looked toward the front.
Again?
Jason’s confidence cracked.
“Doing what again?”
Ms. Harris watched the road.
“You’ll find out when we get to school.”
Jason glanced at the ceiling camera.
Then at Sophia’s backpack.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Sophia moved forward and picked up the bag herself.
One zipper had split.
A spiral notebook had fallen out.
She pushed it back inside.
Jason said nothing as she passed him.
The bus turned onto the road leading toward Westbrook High School.
Nobody laughed now.
When the bus entered campus, Sophia saw two adults waiting beside the curb.
Assistant Principal Elena Brooks.
And Principal Martin Hayes.
Jason saw them too.
“What is this?”
Ms. Harris pulled into the designated lane.
“Stay seated until I open the door.”
“Why are they waiting here?”
No answer.
The bus stopped.
Principal Hayes climbed aboard.
He looked directly at Jason.
“Jason Cole. Bring your belongings and come with me.”
Jason stood.
“For what?”
Assistant Principal Brooks entered behind him.
“We’ll discuss that in the office.”
Jason looked around.
“So anybody can make something up now?”
Ms. Harris spoke from the driver’s seat.
“Nobody needed to make anything up.”
Jason’s face tightened.
Principal Hayes pointed toward the camera.
“We have footage.”
Jason looked at Sophia.
Something angry flashed across his face.
She immediately understood.
He believed she had reported him.
“I didn’t—”
Principal Hayes interrupted.
“Do not address Sophia.”
That silenced him.
Jason grabbed his bag.
As he stepped off the bus, Sophia heard him mutter, “This is ridiculous.”
Ms. Brooks followed him.
Principal Hayes remained.
“Sophia?”
Her stomach dropped.
“Yes?”
“I’d like you to come to the office too. Ms. Harris has already sent the video.”
Sophia looked at the other students.
Thirty faces.
Several phones.
“Do I have to?”
“No.”
The answer surprised her.
“But we would like your account.”
Sophia picked up her broken backpack.
“Okay.”
As she stepped off, a boy near the back whispered, “Jason’s screwed.”
Another answered, “About time.”
Sophia stopped.
She turned.
“About time?”
Nobody answered.
Then a sophomore named Ben Morales looked away too quickly.
Sophia knew him only vaguely.
He rode the bus three mornings a week.
“Ben?”
He swallowed.
“What?”
“What did he mean?”
Ben’s face changed.
Principal Hayes glanced toward him.
Sophia saw something pass between them.
Recognition.
She tightened her grip on her backpack.
“What happened before?”
Principal Hayes answered carefully.
“There have been previous complaints.”
“How many?”
“We’ll discuss this privately.”
Sophia felt anger replace embarrassment.
“You knew?”
“Not about today.”
“But you knew he was doing things like this.”
Hayes exhaled.
“We knew students had reported concerns.”
Sophia looked back at the bus.
Jason’s empty seat.
Ms. Harris’s marked camera.
Ben refusing to meet her eyes.
“What concerns?”
Ben finally spoke.
“He did it to me too.”
The bus went silent.
Sophia stared.
“What?”
Ben looked down.
“Not the same thing.”
“What did he do?”
Principal Hayes stepped closer.
“Ben, you do not have to discuss your complaint publicly.”
Ben nodded.
But before Sophia turned away, he whispered:
“He told everyone I had to pay a ‘seat tax’ if I wanted to sit near the back.”
Sophia froze.
Jason’s words returned.
First-class treatment.
Principal Hayes guided her toward the school entrance.
“This morning’s footage matters because it may establish a pattern.”
Sophia looked at him.
“A pattern you were already waiting for.”
“Yes.”
The answer was honest.
It did not make her feel better.
Because minutes earlier Sophia had believed Jason had chosen her randomly.
Now she knew something worse.
Students had complained before.
May you like
And whatever had happened to them had not been enough to stop him.
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