the day the bus broke

This morning the bus broke down not 15 feet after i had boarded it.
The students were excited about this, asking me and the art technician who rides the bus with me whether they'd miss their first class or not, what was wrong with the bus, and whether they were going to die or not. The bus driver turned around and answered that of course the students would die, but that it probably would have nothing to do with the bus breaking down and would probably be a good bit in the future.
When I was a junior higher, I wander if I saw my teachers the way the students see the art technician and I: all-knowing and instantly on top of every situation. I must admit, I know very little about cars, or 20 year old buses for that matter. However, that seemingly obvious fact is a little less obvious to students.
The bus broke down and a cluster of 15 students looked to a 22 year old art teacher in training and a 21 year old art technician as the solution to their questions.
Luckily the bus driver was on top of things, though he had an admittedly strange approach as you can gather from the above quote. He phoned a back-up bus and sat with us as we waited.

As it turns out, we strolled in right on time for school to start.

Its nice knowing that if the bus broke down every day, i'd still make it to school on time.