“ALL RIGHT EVERYONE,” said Lisa, standing at the front of the charter bus, holding a clipboard in her hand. The bus started to pull out of the parking lot in front of Leopold Hall, bouncing as it drove, Lisa lightly swaying along with it. Every seat was occupied in the oversized bus, although the mood inside was much quieter than one might expect from such a large group. It was five in the morning, after all. I felt like I might slowly pass out and return to sleep, though I wanted to give Lisa as much attention as I possibly could. My eyes hung half open as I watched her.

“So it’s about three and a half hours to Stratford, Ontario,” Lisa said as the other students on the bus half-listened. Mostly the bus was made up of the freshmen ALOHA class, though there were some sophomores aboard as well. I think Lisa might have been the only junior I recognized. “We should arrive around nine and we’ll check into the hotel. You can drop your bags off and we’ll distribute tickets to the shows you chose. First shows are at noon and one, second shows around three and four. Check your tickets.”

Lisa looked around the bus to see if there were any questions for her, brow raised, just making sure people were listening. She looked tired herself and I knew she had stayed up late the previous night. I knew because I was there in her room with her.

“Okay,” she said, going on. “We’re going out for pizza at seven, then back to the hotel for the night. We’ll be returning home tomorrow at eight in the morning. Are there any questions?”

Nobody spoke up. I looked over at Anna Sacco who looked awake and chipper, watching on as Lisa took the lead. I could tell that Sacco really liked Lisa, probably viewing her like a protege. Next to Sacco was her wife, who I was unfamiliar with, but they struck me as two older, happy ladies who had it together.

“Back to sleep,” said Lisa, raising her clipboard and rolling her eyes. With a few unsteady steps down the aisle, Lisa plopped down into the seat next to me and sighed, sticking her clipboard into the seat back in front of her.

“Yay,” I said in calm faux-excitement. She looked over to me and widened her eyes.

“Dude,” she said. “I am so tired.”

“I’m sorry,” I hummed indolently, reaching over to her and threading my fingers into hers, giving her hand a squeeze. I laid my head back on the seat and slowly let my eyes begin to close.

“Let’s keep this kinda secret,” she whispered, carefully pulling her hand from mine. Lean