Excerpt from Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A. S. King, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"So today was your last day?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Why aren't you out eating at McDonald's or at the diner or something to celebrate? Like—the normal things seniors do?"

My yearbook club had invited me to the diner. But I wanted to come home on the bus one last time. (I took a picture of the interior of the bus after everyone but me and a kid named Jeff got off. I called it: Empty Bus.)

"Nah. I'm just glad it's over," I said.

"Why? You've been ignoring all those college letters, right? Why be happy something is over when there's nothing to go to next?"

I looked at her and frowned. "I don't know."

"Oh."

"I'll figure it out."

"You will."

I clicked forward on my camera setting and showed her Empty Bus.

"What's that?" she asked.

"It's the empty bus. It's, like, the last empty thing that has to do with school or something. Or it's some sort of proof that I don't have to do that anymore. I don't know. But today was the day I had to take it."

"My mom says I'll graduate over the summer sometime, maybe," she said. "They send me a real diploma and everything."

I said, "That's nice." But I was pretty sure she was lying.

Excerpted from Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A. S King. Copyright © 2014 by A. S King. Excerpted by permission of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.