Sam?”“Yeah.”“I was on the school bus that day. Remember?”“Vaguely,” he said, and laughed. “My fifteen minutes of fame.”“You were the bravest, coolest person I’d ever known. Everyone thought so. You were the hero of the whole school. And then, I don’t know. It was like you kind of just…faded.”He resented that a little. He hadn’t faded. Had he? “Well, most days the bus driver doesn’t have a heart attack,” Sam said.Astrid laughed. “You’re one of those people, I think. You go along in your life just sort of living. And then something goes wrong and there you are. You step up and do what you have to do. Like today, the fire.”“Yeah, well, to tell you the truth, I kind of prefer the other part. The part where I just live my life.”Astrid nodded like she understood, but then she said, “That’s not going to happen this time.
~ Michael Grant
