Somebody on This Bus Is Going to Be Famous

by J. B. Cheaney

  As for Shelly, Bender, Miranda, Kaitlynn, Spencer, Matthew, Jay, Igor, and Alice—they have plenty of time for becoming who they are.

  That doesn’t happen by accident.

  It’ll take a lot of thought and experience, of charging down the wrong path and backing up again, of screwing up and then doing what they can to get unscrewed. Mainly it’ll take years of bouncing off each other and their families and the important people in their future, because that’s how you find your limits. And your potential.

  But they’ll get there. Oh, they’re going all kinds of places! This world has its bumps and falls, and nasty surprises too. But it’s not boring, unless you stop looking.

  Everybody on this bus got picked up and shaken pretty hard on their way to school one May morning. It changed their lives—it changed them, but now they’re on the road again and closer to becoming who they really are. The good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise (excuse the expression), they’ll get there.

  And so will you.

  Don’t Miss the Bonus Chapter…

  Next August

  The gazebo needs a paint job and the loose railing still needs to be fixed, but it’s ready. The kids are ready, too. Some of them have been through a long, difficult summer, and for others, the three months went by like a bullet train and sparkled like a firecracker. But one unchangeable fact of life seems to be that you’re always ready for a change. Seven miles away, school buses are lining up outside the barn to turn on to the highway, and doors are opening all around the loop at Hidden Acres. The first person to reach the gazebo is…

  Are you wondering what comes next for Shelly, Bender, Miranda, Kaitlynn, Spencer, Matthew, Jay, Igor, and Alice? Visit books.sourcebooks.com/somebody-on-this-bus OR www.jbcheaney.com/SOTB-epi for an EXCLUSIVE additional chapter and educator materials to go with it!

  But first: you know these kids pretty well by now. What do YOU think happens?

  Acknowledgments

  I’ve never ridden a school bus in my life—except once, as an adult. In my early drafts, I imagined them as having a front entrance and a rear exit, like a city bus, but then someone mentioned that school buses only have one door.

  Oh.

  So I stopped along my rural highway about two miles out of town at the house where I’d sometimes been stalled by school buses going in and out. There I talked to Russell Martin, part-owner and all-operator of the buses that prowl our local R-I school district. He answered all my questions and allowed me to walk around and take pictures, so I know exactly what Mrs. B’s bus looks like, inside and out. And he hasn’t heard from me since, until now. Thanks, Russell!

  This manuscript took its own sweet time finding a home, during which I tried it out on my long-suffering critique-mates, Vicki Grove and Leslie Wyatt (both outstanding authors in their own right). Our critique sessions always included food—as they should!—for which Vicki was mostly responsible, while Leslie slogged through an entire early draft and pointed out some major weaknesses I’d missed. They were both on hand when I decided to put the ending at the beginning, and both gave the idea a thumbs-up. “Like The Bridge of San Luis Rey!” remarked Vicki and promptly handed over her own copy of Thornton Wilder’s classic. She mentions a book and it (almost) magically appears! Thank you both, sweet friends.

  Dr. Julie Bryant at Southwest Baptist University was the first to read the revised copy. I had emailed it to her in three parts, and somehow she didn’t get the last one. After reading parts one and two, she frantically tracked me down (I was on vacation) and begged for part three, now. Such unfeigned enthusiasm at that point was a shot in the arm for me.

  After I signed with Erin Buterbaugh at MacGregor Literary Agency, she had a publisher on the hook within four months. And speaking of publishers, Aubrey Poole at Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky generously shared her encouragement and enthusiasm while whipping this manuscript into shape. I’ve been surprised and delighted by the whole team at Sourcebooks, who know how to get behind a book. High fives all around!

  Thanks most of all to God, from whom all blessings flow.

  About the Author

  J.B. Cheaney was born sometime in the last century in Dallas, Texas. She did not want to be a writer—all the years she was growing up, her ambitions belonged to the theater. But since a life onstage didn’t pan out, building a stage in her head, where she gets to play all the parts, has been a pretty good substitute. She’s the author of two theater-related novels (The Playmaker and The True Prince), as well as My Friend the Enemy and The Middle of Somewhere. She resides in the Ozarks of Missouri with her husband and no dogs or cats.