Serena sighed as she locked up the classroom behind her. The PhD student had just finished teaching her second biology lab of the day, on top of her own three courses and time in the lab to work on her research. She glanced at her watch, confirming that there was still just enough time to catch the 8pm bus home. It was a mixed bag--missing it would mean waiting another half hour, but that bus was always packed with students heading home from evening labs. Still, Serena was too exhausted to think of hanging out on campus any longer than necessary. She'd just have to weather the crowd of undergrads for the 20-minute bus ride home.
Even hurrying to the nearest campus bus stop, Serena had to half-jog most of the last block, as she saw her bus pull up and the waiting students begin piling on. On rare occasions the driver would turn riders away if the bus was over-full, but as most were student workers who didn't really care about little details like fire codes, that was a rarity. Still, Serena wasn't looking to miss her chance to squeeze on board.
She managed to sidle her way through the last few students waiting to get on board and slipped into a space near the back door of the bus, against the partial wall that backed the rows of seats in front. Well, to call it a "space" would be generous, Serena thought ruefully. To her left, a group of girls, freshmen or maybe sophomores, chatted with unreasonable energy (given the late hour) about their plans for the upcoming weekend. To her right stood a couple of students who'd just barely squeezed on, stuck standing so close to the back door that they had to push back against Serena's side every time the bus stopped and the rear doors accordioned open. Serena hadn't looked to register the owners of the press of bodies behind her, but based on the snippets of conversation she couldn't help but overhear, she guessed frat boys. Just great. Serena held a special distaste for the university's particularly immature frat boys, some of whom lived in overflow rental houses in her neighborhood, always holding obnoxiously loud and messy parties on their front lawns and getting into stupid shenanigans. While she may have been less than a decade older than most undergraduates, she really couldn't remember ever having been that much of a jackass.
As the bus reached each stop, the interior lights would briefly brighten as the doors opened to let passengers off--everyone was headed home at this time of evening--but for the most part it was dim inside the bus, the overhead lights off and the greatest illumination coming from the blueish glow of cell phones pressed close to some students' faces despite the cramped conditions.
Serena tried to mentally shake her day and begin to shift into relaxation mode. Once she got home, she'd still have some assignments to grade tonight, but at least she could open a bottle of wine while doing so. Despite the crowds pressing in on all sides, Serena allowed herself to relax a bit--after all, it's not like she could fall over, or anything--as she closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the partition in front of her. She could almost drift off like this...
The bus halted at a stop with a bit of a jolt, the overhead lights flickering on as the doors open to allow a few chattering students to spill out the front door. Serena lifted her head abruptly at the same time, uncertain if the stop had awoken her, or what she thought she'd just felt--or had she actually dozed off and dreamed...?
