Bus Driver Brice: The Extraordinary Adventures of Brice Johnson, #1

By A.L. Conner

Brice Johnson is just an ordinary person. She spends way too much time on the internet, spoils her pets rotten, and hates washing the dishes. One of the few things odd about her is she loves her job as a bus driver.

 

Brice comes from a long line of superheroes. Everyone she interacts with on a daily basis has some type of superpower. Brice herself is what they call a baron in the world of superheroes—meaning she's someone who should have special powers but doesn't. In other words, just an ordinary person with an ordinary bus driving job for the International High School for Gifted Students.

 

Brice has lived twenty-seven years perfectly content with her unexciting life—her greatest challenge has been to find a girlfriend who doesn't dump her. Like Bilbo Baggins, she views adventures as nasty, uncomfortable things that makes you late for dinner. An urgent middle-of-the-night call from Noel, an old friend with the ability to create ice from thin air, flips her contented life upside down as she reluctantly agrees to embark on an adventure to save the International High School from a nefarious group of supervillains.

 

Little does Brice know that once you start adventuring, life has a way of flinging adventures at you from every angle. As she meets each adventure head on, she discovers being a baron can be your own special hero.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bedazzled Ink Publishing
• Release date: Nov 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201969882

Book preview

To Christina, Miles, Cait, Rosa, Christoffer, and Threequartersluid for all helping in editing or developing the Brice series over the years.

You all left your mark.

And to my beautiful wife Noelle.

I never dreamed I would have a ‘Noel’ of my own.

Prelude

BRICE JOHNSON WAS just an ordinary person. She spent way too much time on the internet, spoiled her pets rotten, and hated washing the dishes. She had a dishwasher, but she still considered it her least favorite chore. There were only a few things that were odd about Brice. One oddity was there was no explanation for her name. Neither her mother nor her father could recall why they had named her Brice. Another oddity was her job; she was a bus driver.

Being a female bus driver wasn’t odd. It wasn’t even uncommon. Brice was proud the occupation was forty-six percent female. This was a statistic she’d read as she spent too much time online.

Brice wasn’t just any bus driver, and the oddity was her employer. She was a high school bus driver employed at International High School for Gifted Students.

International High was where students with supernatural abilities attended school to obtain a well-rounded education while mentoring and providing experiences to prepare students for life. Or at least, that’s what the school’s mission statement was.

Students were taught a set of common core academics that were agreed upon by every country’s department or ministry of education. There was a strict physical education program where students would alternate yoga, hand-to-hand combat, jogging, weightlifting, and many other studies. Students took electives such as flying, spying, and the wait-list for the demolition class was filled two semesters out.

Graduates who were deemed suitable, and who were willing, received jobs from different government agencies (all of whom acted under a special branch of the United Nations) to serve and protect. Those who were deemed unsuitable for superhero status and those who did not pass the mandatory superhero testing were offered jobs as sidekicks or were paid to attend colleges to aid the superhero community. They went on to a variety of careers.

Brice had gone through four years of training before she was allowed to become a bus driver for International High. It had taken her two months to get her CDL Class B license; however, that was just the start. She also had to learn how to fly a jet and pilot a submarine. Those two modes of transportation had taken the rest of her four years of training to master. There was also the matter of learning to drive inconspicuously in other countries.

International High never stayed in one place for too long. This was a safety precaution to protect the school and its students from being discovered by anyone who would want to harm them. Sometimes it would be up in the air, underwater, or sitting out in some field in the middle of Kansas. Only bus drivers and teachers were given access to the current location of the school. Parents had to be escorted in by bus drivers on Parent-Teacher Conference nights and for school sporting events.

Bus drivers were able to obtain the location at any time while they were inside of their bus. However, to get inside of their bus, they had to put in a fifteen-digit pass code and go through a series of DNA scans. The whole process took about seven minutes.

There were nine bus drivers for International High. Brice had the North American route. She used to have a stop in Greenland, but the boy had graduated last year. Most of her stops were in the United States, with the exception of six kids she picked up in Canada, one in Puerto Rico, and five in Mexico. Her bus could hold forty kids, but she had only thirty-eight riders.

Brice had been driving solo for two years. After the four years of training, she’d gone through a year of mentorship until the old bus driver retired.

Brice hadn’t planned on being a bus driver when she graduated high school. She had floundered for a few years before making up her mind, taking the advice of her father who knew a few bus drivers would be retiring around the time Brice would finish her training. She’d applied to become a bus driver at International High with her parents and a few of her parents’ friends as her references.

Not just any civilian could become a bus driver for the greatest school in the entire world. Only those who had the highest recommendations and most connected references would even be considered. It helped if the candidate had attended International High, or had some sort of superpower. Brice had never attended International High, nor did she have any powers. She was one hundred percent ordinary. This made her one hundred percent not ordinary in her family.

Her mother was the superhero Majesta, whose gift was super strength. Her father was Morphous, who could shape shift into anybody or anything. Even though they could be weird and her mother refused to listen at times, Brice knew she had good parents that loved her despite being abnormal for their family.

Brice was gay but even that wasn’t unique for her family. She had confessed to her parents when she was seventeen she only liked women. Her parents couldn’t have been more accepting. Brice had felt so relieved, but unfortunately for her, her parents couldn’t leave well enough alone. They both confessed to be pansexuals which Brice had long suspected. Her father regrettably added, Yes, your mother and I enjoy a healthy, monogamous sex life because of my shape-shifting abilities. Although it would be okay if you weren’t monogamous, Brice. Everyone has their preferences.

Brice had left the room, gagging at the mental images of her parents’ sex life. She didn’t even want to think about what her father shifted into at night for her mother. Her parents were sometimes a little too honest with their kids.

All of Brice’s grandparents had superpowers, and Brice’s younger brother was a flyer like their mother’s mother. He was a senior at International High, though he didn’t ride the bus. He rode to school with their father, who was a teacher at the school.

Brice was the first person in their family tree to be a baron in over a century. Baron was the name for those who should have superpowers but were barren. Brice figured she had to be the queen of barons since she came from such a long, continuous line of superheroes on both sides. Most barons had only one superhero parent, or a parent who was a sidekick. Though her family never mentioned it, she knew she had caused them great disappointment.

When Brice was much older, she would look back on her first twenty-seven years of life as a calm and unadventurous time. Her trials and training to become a bus driver for International High was just a precursor, hardly worth noting when she recounted her tales. Her life had no excitement until her twenty-seventh year and she honestly hadn’t sought them out.

She related to an early Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit. Adventures were nasty, uncomfortable things that would make you late for dinner. She’d never seen what others saw in them. And like Bilbo Baggins, Brice reluctantly agreed to go on an adventure one day and never stopped adventuring the rest of her life.

Chapter 1

BRICE’S FIRST ADVENTURE started on a Wednesday in September. The actual adventure happened on Thursday, but it started on Wednesday.

Brice began her Wednesday as she normally would. She woke up at four in the morning to her phone’s alarm. She turned it off and snoozed until the alarm clock across her bedroom started ringing at 4:08 a.m. She got up and took her puppy, Monty, out while her kitten, Python, curled up in the warm spot she’d left in the bed. Monty rejoined Python on the bed while Brice showered. She brushed her teeth while in the shower to save time. This wasn’t a Wednesday specific event; she brushed her teeth in the shower most mornings.

Her coffee finished brewing on its automatic timer about the same time she finished putting on her black bus driver uniform with its blue accents. She especially liked the school’s logo across the left side. It was a heater shield with the Latin phrase Hoc ego tuebor around it. It translated into This I will protect. The emblem was also on her bus, and she took those words about protecting her passengers to heart.

She put out food for Monty and Python before leaving. She had splurged to get computerized feeders so they wouldn’t steal each other’s food while she was gone.

Brice had found the pair outside of a town near her home a month prior and hadn’t been able to turn them away. She’d tried to search for their owners, but nobody had claimed them. The first couple of weeks she had them, she took them with her to work. They were so weak and hungry she had to nurse them every hour. Her riders didn’t seem to mind. One girl could communicate with animals, and she told Brice they were very happy to be with her. Brice had asked her to let them know not to chew or scratch up the furniture, and to go potty in the designated areas in exchange for free rule over the house. The animals agreed.

Brice filled up her thermos with coffee and walked out to her bus. By now Brice figured she could probably enter her pass code and go through the scans in her sleep but only if she learned to sleep with her eyes open, since one of the scans was a retinal scan. She read the updated coordinates of the school as she started her bus up. She had to go straight to the school, which was now hovering near Hawaii, to pick up what she called her night bunch.

There was a night and morning crowd for all bus drivers since the school had two different school times for the Eastern and Western Hemisphere. All students had a choice of what time they wanted to go to school. Most of Brice’s kids went during Western Hemisphere time, which ran from nine a.m. to five p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). There were also a few kids on her route who chose to go to school during Eastern Hemisphere time which was from ten p.m. to six p.m. EST. Brice’s house was on a remote mountain in Tennessee, so she went by EST.

Her work schedule remained the same except when it was her turn to escort parents to and from the school. It rotated every month, and she was scheduled for October.

Brice got to the school with enough time to fill up her bus’s tank with a secret fuel formula at the gas station located on school property. She nodded at Felipe, who pulled up just as she was finishing. Felipe had the South and Central America route.

Hola, Brice, he said. How are you?

I’m doing well. Y tú?

Good. My wife is going to have her baby any day now.

I can’t wait until you’re gone on paternity leave. You won’t be hogging all the air space.

You’ll miss me, Felipe quipped, removing the nozzle from the pump.

Brice laughed and got back inside her bus. She drove to the front of school just in time to hear the bell ring. She had five kids who went to class during Eastern Hemisphere time, and she waited until all five kids were on the bus, four boys and one girl. She assumed they were night owls. She dropped the first boy off in Hawaii, the next boy in Toronto, and the last two boys (twins) off in Las Vegas. The girl she dropped off in a remote marsh in Alabama.

Brice knew very little about the girl. Her name was Greer Watson. Brice was hesitant to refer to her as a girl as she was nineteen and a senior. Greer had the disadvantage of being born late in the school’s age acceptance range which made her older than the rest of her class; she’d also taken a year off between her sophomore and junior year. Brice was surprised she continued school being older than the rest, but there had been older graduates in the history of International High.

Brice knew Greer’s power was in telekinetics, but she also had a touch of premonition. Greer hadn’t told her any of this. Truthfully, the stubborn senior hadn’t said more than a handful of words to Brice since they met on Greer’s first day as a junior despite Brice’s attempts at friendly conversation. Brice knew about her powers because she read all of her riders’ files.

Like always, when Brice dropped off Greer, her younger brother, John, was waiting for her. John went to International High even though he was only ten years old. He had just started last year. The school stated they wanted him to attend until he was fifteen. He was a very gifted child in academics, and his powers were starting to show. He showed great promise in premonition, and he had faster than normal reflexes.

Brice often worried about Greer and John’s home life. Their files stated they lived with their mother, but Brice had never seen her. Their father, Garrison Watson, was deceased. He had died only a few years prior. She put two and two together to realize the gap year Greer had taken coincided with her father’s death.

It could go two ways with picking up John for school. John would talk with Greer for a few minutes. Then he would either board the bus early or go back in the house where Brice would pick him up two hours later.

Brice liked John, and didn’t mind when he boarded early. He was a nice kid who thought being a bus driver was the coolest. He and his sister shared similar dark brown hair and bright brown eyes. John was cute as a button, and she suspected he would remain cute all his life.

Brice acknowledged that Greer was attractive but only in a clinical way. Greer was nineteen and a student at the school. Brice was a twenty-seven-year-old lesbian and bus driver for the school, and warning bells went off in her head about focusing too much on Greer’s beauty.

There were only a few times Brice had ignored the warning bells to admire Greer, and that was when Greer smiled. It was like the world brightened and took a brief pause. Brice had reviewed Greer’s file to make sure she didn’t have a superpower attached to her smile, but there was no mention of it.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t something Brice had to worry about. Greer only smiled at her brother, and even that didn’t occur often in front of her.

After talking to Greer and receiving a hug, John got on the bus. He gave Brice a large grin as he climbed on board, and Greer gave Brice a glare that said to take care of her brother. Brice saluted her and put the bus in drive. She waited until John was buckled up behind her before she took off into the air. They had an hour before they had to start picking up other students so she asked, What should we have for breakfast, John?

She knew John had probably already had breakfast, but he was a growing boy. She recalled living with her own brother and knew that growing boys were always hungry.

Can we have Texas flapjacks please? John pleaded.

Flapjacks it is, Brice announced. She made sure the invisibility shield was up on her bus before she took off across Alabama. Nobody wanted another tabloid incident like the one that had happened in Europe. She aimed the bus toward Texas and let the autopilot do the flying for her as she chatted with John.

She waited for a busy highway to clear before landing the bus. Flipping a few switches, her bus instantly looked like any other school bus driving down the highway. Ten minutes later, they were at her favorite breakfast house. The waitress knew her and John’s order by heart and often commented on what a cute son she had. Brice never corrected her, as it never wounded her pride to be accused of having a ten-year old son.

After eating, they quickly picked up the kids in Mexico and rounded up her US children. When the last two kids boarded from Canada, she checked the coordinates of the school, which was now sailing in the Atlantic Ocean.

Brice landed with ease on the school’s runway and drove around to the front of the school. She straightened her cap after turning off the bus. As the kids unloaded, she followed them down the stairs. She pretended to be checking the outside of the bus, but really, she was waiting on her.

Her was Ms. Inferno, or Lesedi as Brice was allowed to call her. She was a few years older than Brice and drop-dead gorgeous. Her skin was a flawless, ebony skin tone and her eyes were hazel, like Brice’s, though Brice thought her eyes were more striking than her own. Lesedi spoke with an accent, having been born and raised in South Africa. She often wore skirts and sleeveless tops that showed off her arms and legs. Brice found it hard to look Lesedi in the eye as her own gaze was captivated by the muscles in Lesedi’s arms, and though Brice hated to see her go, she loved to watch her leave.

Brice knew Lesedi’s power dealt with fire from small talk around the school. Brice was also certain of her power because Brice’s heart had melted the very first time she saw her.

She didn’t know if Lesedi was gay but she was hopeful. There were a few times she could have sworn Lesedi was flirting with her, but she wasn’t sure. She timed her arrival at the school at the same time Lesedi arrived in her own vehicle. She spared a glance into one of the windows of her bus to straighten her collar. Lesedi had said she liked Brice in uniform.

She won’t be here this morning.

Brice swung around to look down at John, who hadn’t gone inside yet. What?

Ms. Inferno won’t be here this morning, John repeated. He didn’t attempt to give a reason as to why he knew this or why Ms. Inferno was absent. Brice didn’t ask for a reason. She merely sighed and brushed imaginary lint from his shoulder.

Time to go inside, John. I’ll be here to pick you up later.

Brice never stopped being surprised when he hugged her. His hugs were random, but very heartfelt.

As Brice watched John run inside, she noticed out of the corner of her eye her brother walking past without even sparing her a glance. Michael had no time for her since he’d started International High. He didn’t want any of his friends to know his sister was a baron. He barely spoke to her when she went home to visit.

Brice got into her bus and flew home. She tried not to mope at how sorry her life felt at times. She wanted to believe she had left all the drama of being a baron back in her teenage years, but she knew she had unsolved issues. She knew what the therapist would say if she went back:

Not everyone can be gifted, Brice. It’s human to be normal, and normal to be human. And often those who are not gifted will find that they are extraordinary in other ways.

Brice hadn’t discovered what those other ways were yet. She would never be as strong as her mother or fly like her brother. The only way Brice stayed fit was running for forty minutes a day, and not because she wanted to; Monty simply couldn’t comprehend that going for a walk meant walking.

Brice was a complete mixture of her parents. She wasn’t tall like her father or short like her mother, she was medium height. Her mother had black hair and Brice had always assumed her father was a natural blonde. Her hair was mousy brown that she kept just long enough to tie back. Her mother had brown eyes and her father had blue-green eyes and thus hers were hazel. The only mixture of her parents she didn’t possess was their powers. If it weren’t for the fact that her father, her brother, and Brice shared AB negative blood, she would have assumed she was adopted or swapped at birth.

When Brice got home, she found Python jumping on Monty’s head. She picked up the white kitten and soothed the black puppy’s head. Now none of that, young man. Your brother isn’t your personal plaything.

Brice was sure the scolding did no good. Python was always jumping or lying on Monty. Sometimes when she called them to eat, Monty would walk in with Python riding on his back. Monty was Python’s but he didn’t seem to have a problem with that.

After changing out of her uniform, Brice played with her pets for an hour, fixed lunches for all of them, and sat down in front of her computer to eat her sandwich. She checked her mail first. There was a blistering email from her mother asking why she hadn’t visited lately. Next was an email from the school saying she had to bring her bus in for a checkup on the twentieth. Brice then went to the Academy of the Bards, The Athenaeum, and AO3 to see what new stories had been posted. She was in the middle of reading a new story when Python rubbed against her leg. That was his way of saying it was naptime.

Brice took a quick nap with her pets before putting her uniform back on. She flew her bus back to the Atlantic to pick up her kids. At five o’clock, children started pouring out of the school and her bus slowly filled. John sat behind her, as always, and told her about his day. She listened to him talk about trigonometry which she vaguely remembered from her own schooling.

SOH CAH TOA, she mimicked to show she was listening.

John laughed.

She made her route, saving John for last since his stop was the closest to her house. Greer was waiting for him on their front porch. Brice thought their two-story house could do with a fresh coat of paint, but she supposed not everyone had enough time on their hands to paint their house yearly as she did. While her weekdays were extremely busy, she had every weekend and all of June through September off.

She watched in her mirror as John unbuckled his