Sitting in one place for about ten hours were hard on Allan and Derek. The tingling feeling of numbness settled in Allan’s buttocks from the long, restless sleep. Before, there was a short break of 15 minutes, stopping at the border of four connecting states, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The driver had taken a slight detour, a short arc in Kansas before reaching the panhandle of Oklahoma. Keeping high school students in one place took discipline of the teacher and the parents chaperoning this particular bus. Allan could barely sleep last night, tossing and turning in the cramped up space that was his chair on the bus. For two hours, he was sleeping upside down, his legs folded over the head of the chair, until Della told him to wake up and choose another position. Allan felt the tension of weariness from the trip, insanity setting upon him from lack of entertainment. Derek, to a mystery, slept peacefully the entire night and is still sleeping.

How does he do it? Asked Allan to himself, gazing on his friend as he slept.

Allan changed position, trying to find a way to fall asleep again. Sleep was the only way to make this boring trip bearable. Allan leaned against the tinted glass of the bus, finding some tired, relaxing thoughts to fall asleep. Then, visions of Karen began to dance in his mind. His fantasies of her with him came alive in his mind. He could smell the sweet fumes of her perfume, feeling it tickle his nose. He leaned to her, gathering her slim body in his arms and gently held her. This was heaven to him. He could feel time fly by in front of him. The trip did not matter anymore, just Karen and Allan together at last…

A jerk from the real world awoke him from his slumber, his heaven. Della kicked the back of the seat violently, desperately trying to wake Allan up.

"Nerd! Get thy foot out of mine face!" She wailed with passion. She love to order Allan with some style of words from Old English and style of speech you would only find in Shakespeare. She continued to blurt out her demands for removing Allan’s old sneakers from her sight. Soon, she roared at the teacher.

"What’s going on?" asked Mr. Loves as he filed down the aisle.

"Mr. Loves," began Della. "Tell Allan to get his feet out of my face."

Allan’s eyes opened, the light of the real world piercing his eyes. Soon, the face of an angry Mr. Loves stared viciously down upon him. Allan sat up, curious to what was happening. He did not know what he had done.

"Allan, your feet need to stay in their proper place," began Mr. Loves in a stern voice. "On the ground!"

"I’m sorry, Mr. Loves," said Allan pathetically. "It won’t happen again."

"See that it doesn’t," grunted Mr. Loves.

The teacher backed away, returning to his chair on the bus. Allan felt unnerving, shaken form the violent return to reality. He wished that somehow he would be able to leave the world of reality forever—to live his dream with Karen, without any disturbances from others. He knew that was a once in a lifetime chance that he would even get to touch Karen or have a descent conversation with her—and no Della or Eddie to interfere with it. That was all that he had ever wanted. He knew that his dream would never come true, he was a nerd. He was not a nerd as in brainy, but he was a nerd as in not like the rest of his class. Allan was an outcast. He like different things, like reading books of fantasy make. Stories that always end in a happy ending and the villain always gets what he deserves. Stories with creatures you would not find in this world of reality. Fantasy creatures of fable and lore, such as elves, sorcerers, witches, gnomes, and especially dragons. The dragons were his favorite, yet he never admits to it. These creatures were great and powerful, flying on wings of velvet leather, having scales hard as iron so that no blade or head of arrow and spear would penetrate them. Dragons had claws sharp as knives and used them deadly as swords. They had teeth that could grip like cleats on a golfer’s shoe and jaws powerful enough to bite a human in half. The dragons Allan had read about had superior intelligence to that of ordinary man, and life spans so long that they seemed like immortals. The dragons of his books knew the Art of the Craft, magical spells that surpasses an experienced wizard’s book.

Allan grinned as he imagined these creatures of lore coming to live before him outside the bus window. He watched as these fantasy creatures flew over the grassy plains, casting their great shadows over the land. Allan leaned back in his chair, his visions continuing to fascinate him. Soon, he slipped off to slumber.

Derek walked slowly around the rest stop. The long hours of riding and sleeping had given him a super charge of energy. Restless and bored, he quickly glanced around his surroundings. Then, he looked down at the shiny, black tar of the parking lot. Allan leaned against a light poll, sighing at the sight of Karen. She was with Eddie and his ‘buddies’, pretending that she was not a part of their lives. The more she stayed with the football player, the more she wished that she was somewhere else. She hated men who were full of more themselves than anything else. Allan had the feeling by the way Karen wanted to push away from him. He wanted to rescue her from the husky guy’s clutches.

I hate the way he treats her, thought Allan.

Then, Eddie cast a menacing glance towards Allan. Allan felt spears pierce his honor with the unchanging, threatening eyes of Eddie the Shark. He sank back from view of the husky quarterback and his friends. Allan’s face twisted into a pitiful scowl as he hid behind the bus. Derek came to meet him.

"Give up on Karen, Allan," he said. "Eddie will feast on your intestines if you keep looking at her like that."

"He treats her like an object," said Allan. "I could be better for her than Eddie."

"You could also be six feet under."

"Jesus," Allan swore. "I want to hold her and tell her that I love her and I want her to love me."

"Keep dreaming about it," said Derek. "You will never see the reality of it. She will always be Eddie’s girl."

"I don’t want Karen to be Eddie’s girl," cried Allan. "I want her to be my girl!"

"Then, keep wanting," said Derek. He turned to board the bus as Allan sighed. Allan looked back over at Karen and found that she had disappeared. Blinking, he boarded the bus, knowing that this was going to be a rough trip.

Allan found his seat; Derek was already asleep in his seat. Sitting down, Allan heard Della and Karen’s voices behind him—giggling. He wandered what they were giggling about; feeling like it was he. Allan shook his head, his thoughts returning to the seats in front of him. Alan wanted this long drive to the site to be over. Soon, it will be. He wanted off the bus and back at home. Then, with a heavy sigh, Allan fell back into his fantasy world. Karen was there; they were holding hands and running down a long, sandy beach. Allan swore that he could feel the salty waves of the ocean crash against his legs as they ran. She was beautiful to him. Every curve was perfect. Allan turned to her, smiling boldly at his love.

Derek heard Allan beginning to snore. The noise disturbed him.

A few more hours like this and I’ll go nuts, thought Derek. He leaned over the edge of his chair’s arm. The aisle was empty. He looked out a window and saw the sun going down just as a sign flashed before his eyes. He knew that he was in New Mexico. The long days of being on the road were at an end. By morning the buses would be at the hotel and then at the site. He saw the bright shining light of an A+ flashing before his eyes. Derek could taste the glory of that grade as he leaned back in his seat. Night was here; soon it will be morning. Derek closed his eyes and returned to his dreams of that magnificent A+.

Allan surveyed the landscape. It was a desolate wasteland of rock formations and dried up plants. He felt he was looking at the end of a Great War, surviving the long struggle of fighting the enemy and winning gruesome battles. The rocks were stained with colors that he had never seen. Nature gave out such colors on the rocks as deep purple, faded gold and orange, and bright tan with a hint of iridescent red. These colors striped the towering, natural pillars like the horizontal lines on a skater’s shirt. He had seen pictures of such rock formations before, but to see them with his own eyes was a greater experience. Allan lifted his nose, smelling the dry air pass him gently. Then, her shadow covered him. Allan looked and saw Karen standing next to Eddie.

"Hi, Karen," said Allan.

She turned to him and smiled. Allan’s heart filled with joy before the form of Eddie Shark smashed it.

"You wish to say something to my girl, geek?" he asked in a stern voice.

Allan began to shake as he tried to find some words. Then, he said in a startled voice: "I only wished to make conversation."

"She don’t want to make conversation with your kind," growled Eddie. "If you want to survive this trip, Allan, I would suggest you stay away from Karen and don’t even think about talking to her."

"Eddie," crooned Karen. "Baby, he just said ‘hi’ to me. What is wrong with a simple greeting?"

"He’s a nerd," said Eddie. "Do you want to be a nerd like him?"

Karen shook her head with dismay. Eddie took her hastily by the arm and led her away from Allan’s sight.

"Someday, Karen," whispered Allan. "I just don’t know when."

Derek walked over to him, cradling a rock that he was interested in. Allan slumped down on a rock formation, staring at the two figures that were Karen and Eddie. Derek hefted the rock into his face and into his thoughts.

"Look at this particular specimen," said Derek with glee and excitement. "This place is full of interesting stuff."

"Derek, it’s a rock," said Allan. "An ugly rock!"

"To you, maybe," said Derek as he threw the rock down on the rock formation Allan was leaning against. It cracked and split open, revealing a spectrum of crystal inside it. Allan looked down at the rock with curiosity. Then, Derek said as he picked the pretty rock up: "It’s a geode."

"A what?" asked Allan.

"A geode," repeated Derek. "A volcanic rock. Volcanoes created these things. Each geode is different depending on the type of mineral it has in it and how fast it cooled. Quite a little something to look at, isn’t it?"

"Derek, this geode is my key to Karen," Allan cried as he took the rock from Derek.

"Allan, no!" cried Derek. "Eddie will kill you!"

Allan ran up behind Karen and tapped her shoulder. She turned around and faced him. Eddie looked smugly down at Allan. Allan lifted the geode for Karen to see.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It’s a geode," said Allan. "I found it."

"It’s beautiful, Allan," said Karen.

"It’s yours, if you want it," he said, handing her the geode. Karen took it and looked into it with fascination.

"Thanks, Allan," she said.

Eddie turned and hoisted Allan up by his shirt. Allan looked into to the football player’s cold, dark, menacing eyes. He felt his life being sucked out of him and into those eyes.

"I thought I told you to stay away from her," Eddie grunted.

"You did," said Allan. "I just thought that I could—give her a parting gift."

"Next time, I’ll part your body," he said as he dropped Allan to the dusty, rust colored ground.

"Class, come with me," said Mr. Loves. "We have a schedule to keep."

The class began to file in, following the teacher down to the place where they will start to dig for archeological artifacts. Mr. Loves sighed as Allan dusted himself off and hurried to catch up to the class. Derek was still out finding geodes.