After saying goodbye to mittens, I left my house, making my way towards the bus stop.
Day after day, the bus ride would be the exact same. It always started off with students filling into the rows, one person per two seats. This would then devolve into an awkward "can I sit next to you?" questioning session, and ultimately, most of the seats would be filled up. Yet, after all this time, no one ever seemed to sit next to someone 'regularly'. No one would purposely sit next to someone if there were empty rows left, despite the fact that it was guaranteed that most of the seats would fill up.
It was like there was an unspoken rule, 'sit in an empty row unless every row was occupied.' I could imagine someone being looked down upon for doing so, especially if they weren't already good friends with the person. It was like forcibly pushing into someone else's space.