The Purple Rocket Podcast presents Life. Ephes, Episode 16, the Bulli Bus.

The Bullibuss.

Well, you coming or not?

Asked the bus driver, waiting patiently with her hand on the door lever.

Brayden stood anxiously at the bottom of the steps, trying to figure out a way to hide the flowery pink backpack under his shirt.

His blue backpack had broken that morning, and his parents made him take one of his sister's old ones until they could get to the store and buy a new one.

Braden didn't dare let the other kids see his girly bag.

So after a couple hard shoves he crammed it into the front of his shirt.

Realizing what he was trying to do, Mrs. Kay, the bus driver, smiled and waved him up the steps.

When Braden got to her, she leaned over and whispered to him.

Try walking down the aisle hunched over like you're not feeling well, she suggested.

Bet no one will notice.

Braden smiled at her and nodded. He loved Mrs. Kaye. Everyone did. She was the best bus driver to ever captain a driving Twinkie. He'd take her advice

if she told him to cluck like a chicken. Hunching over, he groaned and wattle towards

the back of the bus. But on his way there his foot caught the leg of a seat and he tripped, making the girly backpack and his shirt come flying out. And of course, who should it fall next to, but none other than Gavin Schneider?

The meanest kid in school.

Everything about Gavin was intimidating.

For starters, he looked like a 30-year-old prison escapee,

with a buzzed haircut that had lightning bolts cut into the sides above the ears.

He was tall, strong, and was three hair short of a full unibrow, a bushy line of fur that only enhanced his vicious scowls.

And to top it all off, his face constantly looked like he just sniffed rotten eggs.

Holding that expression, Gavin looked down at the pink flowery bag at his feet and then up at

...