Chapter Two, Part One
Paige stepped off the bus, she was wearing a tight fitting pair of jeans and green T-shirt, her brown hair hung loose around her head.
Ever since her experience two months prior Paige hadn’t be able to stop thinking about it.
She had a spare first period so she decided to head straight to the student council room. Paige was the chairman of operations on the student council and had been for two years, in addition to organizing school assemblies and trips she helped to decide where to use the money raised at various school fundraisers.
“Hey Paige, ms. Williams dropped off the info for the trip next month”
Paige was helping ms. Williams organize a trip to a treetop trekking camp next month, it was mostly pretty standard stuff. She helped book things with the bus company and booking hotels for the students at the other end. She also was in charge of chasing down students for permission slips. One notable exception this time was that one students was in a wheelchair, so special arrangements would have to be made for that. ms. williams had asked her to look into what needed to be done to accommodate them.
Paige sat down and opened her laptop, she had sent an email to the bus company the day before. Paige clicked on their reply to open it.
Hello Paige,Thank you for contacting us, any of our buses are able to accommodate a wheelchair on board, any seat can be removed to allow for extra room, however our organization does not carry wheelchair restraints, they are the jurisdiction of the school board. I can however point you to the company that sells them, please see link below.
http://ezonpro.com/Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any other questions.-Rhonda
Paige clicked on the link following it to the site. She quickly located a wheelchair restraint system. and took down the relevant order information. She also printed out the instructions for installation.
Skimming through them one line jumped out at her and she caught her breath briefly.
“Seats directly behind the wheelchair must be left empty or fitted with passenger restraints” A quick google search revealed that this was due to compromise of the compartmentalization that normally protected passengers in crash.
“by doing some quick math in her head Paige realised that if she could sign up six more people there would be no empty seats on the bus, and because the same logic applied the passenger restraints as wheelchair ones that requirement would apply to all seats behind the wheelchair. The only problem with that logic would be if the wheelchair were placed at the very back of the bus. Intrigued Paige returned to the site to look into these “passenger restraints” The company sold them all right, they looked like sort of a vest, there were several different versions of them but they were all made of a seat belt like material and consisted of two straps over the shoulders one around the waist, one around the chest and some had a pair that went between the wearer's legs. Comparing them Paige found that one model had the straps between the legs right up the the medium size, that would fit nearly everyone who would be on the trip. She composed an email to the company and fired it off. It would be expensive to buy that manny so she would have to justify it somehow. She send another email to the bus company inquiring about the cost of a second bus to use as ammo.
Paige spent the next week ensuring they would have a full bus, she managed to not only get the six extra passengers but also get five on a waiting list incase anyone bailed. Then she went to Ms. Williams to propose the two solutions. To make this work Paige had had to add a line of text to the email from the bus company, it was nerve racking to say the least, the line she had added had specified that a wheelchair could not be put on the bus any further back that the back wheel well for safety reasons. This would leave five seats behind it that had to be filled, a total of ten students.
Paige brought the email from the bus company and quotes for ten harnesses to Ms. Williams. When Ms williams asked about leaving a seat empty Paige explained the full bus and wait list, then showed her the quote for the second bus. It was well know that board policy prohibits students from traveling independently from the bus. Paige stood nervously as Ms Williams went over it all, praying she didn't question what Paige had told her.
“ok then I suppose there is not really an alternative, at least we will have them for the future.”
Paige felt a wave of relief flood over her, followed closely by anticipation.
That same day Paige put in the order for the Wheelchair restraint and the ten harnesses. She ordered all the harnesses in size medium, which were for up to 160lbs. There would have been enough people to who would fit in large vests for that to work as well but several factors influenced this move. Firstly the medium vests were a bit cheaper, which would look good on her and could be used as an excuse if needed, secondly the large vests didn't have straps between the legs and lastly Paige herself was sized for a medium vest, and she had every intention of being in one.
The next task Paige set to was seating plan, not something the school normally did but she could justify it based on the wheelchair and the weight requirements of the harnesses for the bus, she placed the wheelchair over the back right wheel as per her fictitious requirements. She did her best to place friends with each other to minimize complaints and she placed herself in the very back on the bus on the right side, behind the wheelchair. The majority of the people seated behind the chair were girls but some guys were small enough as well. She put the student council members who were on the trip all on that side as well her justification being that they wouldn't make a fuss about it.
several weeks went by and the trip slowly got closer, finally one day a large package arrived from EZ-On in florida, Paige was the one to open it. Inside was the wheelchair restraint system along with ten harness vests and ten school bus vest mounts. No one was around the office in that period and Paige decided to risk it. Quickly returning to the box she cut open one of the bags containing a vest and held it up. It was heavier than she had expected. The straps hung around in a big mess. It took Paige a moment to get it shaken out and turned around the right way the zipper closed in the back so it went on like a backwards vest, once she had it she slid her arms through, suddenly the door swung open. Paige's head snapped around to see Ms. Williams walking in.
‘Ow good they came in? I was starting to worry”
Paige caught herself
“Ya me as well, “ she glanced at her own arms held out in front of her half way through the vest.
“I was just going to try it out and make sure we know how it works”
“That's a great idea”
Ms Williams walked over and Paige handed her the vest relieved that Ms.Williams had not suspected anything.
The teacher inspected it for a few moments and picked up the instructions looking them over.
“seems simple enough grab one of the seat mounts and let's go try it. There is a bus sitting in the parking lot now.”
Paige realised what was happening and could hardly believe it, she picked up a seat mount and followed Ms Williams out the door and down the hall toward the parking lot.
The bus was empty as they boarded it. Ms williams stopped at the first seat and placed the harness on the seat. She then took the seat mount from Paige it took about five minutes to figure out how the mount worked and get it secured to the seat properly. It wrapped around the seat back and had four clips for the four Drings on the vest. Ms. Williams picked up the vest and turned to Paige.
“ok then stick your arms through here I think”
Paige complied walking forward and sliding her arms through the holes in the vest. Ms. Williams went behind her and zipped up the back securing the vest around her chest, she then took up the slack on the shoulder straps by pulling the loose end through a metal tension buckle on each shoulder, and after looking at the instructions slid the excess shoulder strap through two plastic buckles further up the shoulder (“to keep busy fingers from loosening the vest” is what the instructions read)
Finally Ms. Williams reached between Paige’s legs and pulled through the two crotch straps, she snapped them into two buckles one on each side of the zipper closer. To Paige’s surprise Ms. Williams pulled each of these tight as well. The vest hugged Paige tightly, the strap around her chest did not restrict her breathing but she did feel it grow tighter around her each time she inhaled. the straps between her legs kept the vest in position with the lower horizontal belt tight to her waist. Despite how easily Ms. Williams had adjusted the shoulder straps the additional plastic clip seemed to prevent them from loosening at all, despite Paige rolling her shoulders and twisting slightly to experiment with the limits of the vest.
“Ok then” Ms. Williams put down the second set of instructions she had been busy reading as Paige squirmed in the vest. “Lets try this out with the seat mount.” Paige looked at the seat with its straps tightly around the seat back and waiting hooks. Ms. Williams was already moving back to allow Paige to move onto the seat.
Paige walked over and sat herself down on the seat, Ms. Williams appeared at her side. “ok then slide right back for me” Paige complied sliding back so the small of her back was tight against the seat back. Ms. Williams clipped the the two hooks onto the Drings on PAige’s waist belt preventing her from slouching or sliding forward, then Ms.Williams reached up and clipped two similar hooks onto the Drings on Paige’s shoulders. Finally after glancing at the instruction one last time Ms. Williams went around behind the seat and pulled the strap there tightening up the straps hooked onto the vest and pulling the girl in it tightly into the seat back. Paige also noticed that this had pulled upwards on the vest more than backwards and she was actually being pulled away from the seat she was sitting on slightly, the vest taking some of her weight.
“How’s that?” Ms. Williams inquired
Paige could hardly breath
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