Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume13 Chapter3 3 (section)

=== <noinclude>OK, Let's Do It.</noinclude>Part 3. ===

Luckily, the bus arrived just as she got to the bus stop.

When she got inside, it smelled like summer. The smell of acrid chemicals. She knew it well. The same smell as the school pool.

The source of it was immediately apparent.

There was a group of elementary school girls with dripping wet hair occupying the back two rows of the bus.

Most of them were dozing.

Some of the girls were leaning their heads against the windows, barely moving a muscle.

Their butts were scooched forwards, like they'd slid down the seat.

Unaware that their legs were sprawled, unable to pick up the plastic bags that had slipped from their hands.

They all seemed exhausted from swimming.

Yumi looked fondly at them, thinking that that would have been her a few years ago.

But there was one among them. A young girl that was awake and looking out the window. It was plain to see that she was on her way back from the pool, and she was seated with the other girls so she was obviously part of that group, but there was something about her that looked different. 

The scenery flowing past the bus didn't seem to be reflected in her eyes. It didn't feel as though she was watching it because she was interested. It seemed more like she was doing it out of some sense of duty.

Nor was it that she was too tired to sleep. As proof of that, her eyelids would close from time to time and she'd rub them to keep herself awake.

The bus announcer called out the name of the next stop. Then that girl quickly stood up and started rousing her friends, one by one.

(Ah, so that's it.)

Yumi finally understood. They weren't going to the end of the line, they had to get off midway through. And so, afraid of missing their stop, this girl alone had desperately battled against exhaustion.

The girl pressed the buzzer and her group safely got off at their intended stop. Had the many sleeping girls realized this one girl's achievement?

As she watched them through the window, the girls happily walked down the footpath. Yumi could no longer tell which one it was that had remained awake.

At some point, Yumi had stopped noticing the smell of the pool.

But when a young boy got on at the next stop, he said, "Ah, it smells like the pool," to his father beside him.