They will live happily ever after
By ALLISON KELEHER — adkeleher@ucdavis.edu
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away called Davis, California, two bright and shiny red buses were born. Little bus squeaks filled the air as they took their first breaths. On this day, in adjacent bus hospital rooms, two new buses joined the fleet of Unitrans bus lines. They were later known as the A and the Z.
But don’t let me get ahead of myself. It would be a long time before these buses would mature into the bus lines that they are today. In the meantime, these baby buses grew up together, since their moms were best friends. This meant frequent play dates and shared birthday parties throughout the years. They saw each other through all of life’s struggles: from playground drama to puberty to their first loves in high school. Needless to say, the A and the Z have always been best friends.
It wasn’t long before these little buses grew up into young adult buses and were off in search of higher education. Following in their parents’ footsteps, they both decided to attend UC Davis as legacy Unitrans lines. They were welcomed with open windshield wipers to start their roles as the A and the Z bus lines.
When they were first-years, the A and the Z spent a lot of their time together. However, as they both found their niches on campus, the two buses drifted apart. The A invested herself in political activism and worked hard toward her political science degree. On the other hand, the Z was across campus studying to become an electrical engineer. Despite the distance, they were determined to maintain their lifelong friendship. Every week on Fridays, they met at the Silo and ate at the Crepe Bistro together. They would share details about their weeks and occasionally reminisce about their childhoods.
One Friday, the Z was getting ready to go to the Silo, when his roommate suddenly began a conversation with the Z. After a polite amount of time, the Z told his roommate that he needed to go see the A.
“Oh, that’s right now? Yeah man, go see your girl.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” the Z corrected him.
“Really? Oh, my bad,” his roommate replied.
This really short and uneventful conversation wormed its way into the Z’s brain and plagued his mind as he went to meet with the A. He wondered how many buses thought that he was with the A and what made them think that. He tried to shake these thoughts as he met up with the A. It was a very uninteresting conversation about their respective professors and their experiences driving people around Davis.
At least it was until the A looked up from her crepe in excitement.
“I forgot to tell you! I’m going to Washington D.C. during spring quarter for an internship!”
This was very exciting for the A, because she had always dreamt of a career in politics, so this would set her up for success. The Z congratulated her, and they finished off their crepes talking about the internship. This conversation relieved the Z because he felt that some space would be good to clear up any rumors about them being together.
Many months later, the A was off to Washington D.C., and the Z was ready to spend his spring quarter without her. The quarter started out swimmingly, as the Z dedicated the majority of his time to his senior design project for engineering. However, as he worked on it, he soon realized that he missed updating the A on his project. In the quarter prior, the A would always ask a bunch of questions about his project, because she always thought it was so cool that he was interested in engineering.
One day, the Z couldn’t help it — he called the A on his phone to try to have a conversation with her. She was happy to talk as always, but she quickly got pulled away from the phone by her friends she had met during her internship. This left the Z to come to the harsh realization that he was sad she was gone.
The Z threw himself into his work, working as many hours as Unitrans would let him. Something about carting around smelly students made him feel important. However, after every route, he would return to the Silo and look over at the Crepe Bistro and think of her.
After many weeks of enduring this pain, the Z was a wreck. He would only go to work and class, and then go sit in the bus garage and be sad. Then, one day, his phone started buzzing — it was the A. He waited a moment so as to not seem too eager, and then he picked up the phone. She started the conversation by apologizing for their last phone call and filled in the Z on her exciting internship. They ended up chatting for hours and by the time they hung up, the Z was an even brighter shade of red than anyone thought possible.
After that, the A and the Z began finding reasons to call and update each other about their daily lives. After a while, it became clear to both of them that they missed each other greatly (although neither of them would admit it to themselves).
It wasn’t until the A was set to return to Davis that the Z was filled with anxiety about how to greet the A. Things felt different for him, so he was afraid to speak with the bus that he grew up with. However, he didn’t need to worry, because everything fell into place when she returned. The Z picked up the A from the airport and gave her a great, big hug with his windshield wipers. They both turned a brighter shade of Unitrans red, returning to Davis together.
They spent the majority of their time together upon their return, and it wasn’t long before they admitted their feelings for each other. It was a match destined to happen, so it wasn’t a surprise that they lived happily ever after.
Written by: Allison Keleher — adkeleher@ucdavis.edu
Disclaimer: (This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)
