Welcoming Our Students on 158M

***Welcoming Our Students on 158M*** is a comedy podcast series created by Maraya Adams that takes place outside of the bus loading zone at Northgate High School on the special needs school bus, 158M. Every episode of the podcast lasts for about 2-25 mins. The series' first episode was released on August 9, 2017 and premiered until January 5, 2018. The series had to come to an end after episode 76, the final episode, was recorded due to the creator and recorder of this series having lack of time as there wasn't enough time for her to record an episode before leaving the school for the day.

## **Synopsis**

About every episode starts out with Maraya, the protagonist, saying, "So, we're waiting on our other students yet again." or a variant phrase that is similar to that phrase. If there is a special guest joining their bus like Ms. Bernice, the substitute bus monitor of 158M, she would say after the introductory phrase, "and we have \_\_\_\_\_ with us today." While she, the deuteragonist, and the tritagonist are waiting for the other students, whose names are Cody, Clayton, Jonathan, Dylan (in the earlier episodes), and Sydney, Maraya would talk to the bus driver, Ms. Carolyn, about what she did for her school day at Northgate for that day. Sometimes, she and Ms. Carolyn would talk about other topics beside that like an old singer or band, or something that's going on in the news currently. Usually, when Ms. Carolyn changes the topic, the bus monitor, Ms. Brenda, would join in the conversation as well, which would sometimes make the main character feel left out. In about every recording, Maraya would also tell a funny story about what didn't happen in reality and play a funny joke or two just to make Ms. Carolyn laugh, such as the "closet joke" or a "going to an expensive place joke", such as going to the Caribbean or Florida. As soon as a student gets on, she welcomes them by using the bus's special name, which started out as "The Rock and Roll Bus" in the first six episodes, then "The Magic Rock and Roll School Bus" in episodes 7-70, and then went back to using the ordinary name that she used in most of her tenth grade year in episodes 71-76, which is just called "Bus 158M". Before leaving the school, Ms. Carolyn would take attendance with the help of Ms. Brenda sometimes and also mostly with the help of Maraya, who's the leader of the crew. Once they are leaving the school, Maraya ends off about every recording by saying, "Okay, Ms. Carolyn, let's go rock and roll." or some other variant phrase that's similar and then says, "Let's go." after that and then the episode ends.

## **Characters**

### **Main**

* **Maraya** - The leader of the crew and the protagonist in the series who records all the podcast episodes for the series. She was a junior at Northgate and was 16 in episodes 1-68 and then 17 in episodes 69-76. She is also known to be a "bus monitor trainee" as well as she does help Ms. Carolyn do most of the things, such as taking attendance and greeting the other students. She has a loud voice as she does speaks the loudest out of everyone that rides the bus.
* **Ms. Carolyn** - The bus driver for 158M who is the deuteragonist in the series. She was 74 years old during the whole podcast series that Maraya recorded. She was originally known to be the founder for The 158M Crew in 2002 when she was upgraded from bus 125M to 158M. Ms. Carolyn also loves singing as she is mostly heard singing songs she knows in the episodes that Maraya records. She is known to speak in a slight Southern accent (Connor thinks that she actually speaks in a complete Southern accent) and pronounces a few words that the British would pronounce their way, like *record* and *schedule*. She is more of an easygoing person than her best friend, Maraya, who is outgoing.
* **Ms. Brenda** - The bus monitor for 158M who is usually the tritagonist in the series. She was 61 at the time where the whole podcast series was recorded. On the episodes where Ms. Brenda wasn't here, Ms. Bernice would take over as the substitute bus monitor and tritagonist. In episodes 50 and 52 of the series and episode 77 in the series "Lots of Fun on 158M", there was no tritagonist at all. Ms. Brenda is usually a serious person as she likes everything to be fair.

### **Secondary Characters**

* **Clayton** - A student with Down syndrome that rides the bus 158M with Ms. Carolyn and Ms. Brenda. During the podcast series, he was a senior at Northgate who was 18 in episodes 1-31 and then turned 19 in episode 32 and became that new age as of his birthday episode being aired on his birthday. When on the bus, he hangs out with Cody and Jonathan in the back of the bus and also hangs out with the leader whenever there is no monitor on the bus.
* **Cody** - A student with cerebral palsy who uses a big, blue walker and also rides the bus 158M with the others. He was 19 during the whole podcast series and the whole sequel one as well. He was a senior at Northgate like Clayton and Jonathan and is also the same age as them. Cody is actually the oldest student on the bus and is the only one who is physically handicapped because all the other students have some sort of disability that doesn't affect their legs.
* **Jonathan** - A student with level 2 autism who is the same age as Cody and Clayton. Like Cody, he was also 19 during the series and attended as a senior at Northgate. Most of the sentences he speak include the words, "Hey" and the person's name altogether. Another sentence he might say in the recordings also include "[Person's name], come here, please." He often does echolalia due to his lack of communication.
* **Dylan** - Another student with level 2 autism who is best friends with Jonathan. He only appeared in the first few episodes of the series as a 15-year-old sophomore at Northgate because he moved somewhere else in Georgia. He also does a little echolalia like Jonathan, but not as much as him because he is able to speak more sentences than Jonathan. He is the same age as Novalee, a temporary member on the bus.
* **Sydney -** One of the newest students of the crew who rides 158M with the others. She has level 3 autism and is the only student on the bus to be nonverbal. In the series, she was 14 years old and attended Northgate as a freshman. When having nothing to do, she rapidly rolls her shoulders while making a whining noise that somewhat sounds like crying, which is one of her most common stims. Another stim she does is grunting, which she does when trying to buckle her seat belt. She also does it before getting on the bus in most episodes. She was first heard doing her most common stim in episode 11 because she got flustered when Ms. Carolyn was trying to help her buckle up instead of Ms. Brenda. Sydney is the youngest student on the bus.

### **Temporary Members**

These characters are known as *temporary members* because they don't ride the bus very much due to them having to ride a different bus in the afternoon or always having to do an extracurricular activity.

* **Connor** - A student with Asperger syndrome who usually rides 158M in the mornings and 31-L in the afternoon. He has only made a few appearances in the series, along with Novalee. During the whole podcast series, he was 16 and was also a junior, like the leader, Maraya, but only 3 months and 4 days younger than her. Connor only rides 158M in the afternoons where his regular afternoon driver, Ms. Lisa, is out. He is one of the only students who doesn't participate in a special ed class at Northgate.
* **John** - A student with level 1 autism who is usually a car rider because of ROTC. He was a 17-year-old senior at Northgate during some of the series but then turned 18, which would've happened in episode 56. John only appears riding the bus in a few episodes as a temporary member. Like Connor, he also doesn't participate in a special ed class.
* **Novalee** - Another student with Asperger syndrome who usually rides 158M in the mornings because of having to ride 31-L in the afternoon. During the whole series she's appeared in, she was a 15-year-old sophomore like Dylan. She is also Maraya's best friend that goes to Northgate. Despite the series' first episode being released on her 15th birthday, she didn't make her first appearance until episode 10.
* **Ms. Bernice** - The substitute bus monitor of 158M. Whenever Ms. Brenda isn't here, she would take her place. At the time where the podcast was recorded, she was 81. She has appeared in the most episodes out of the other three. Her first appearance was in episode 13.

## **Episodes**

Main article: List of Welcoming Our Students on 158M episodes

## **Trivia**

* Every member of the crew, except Connor and John, are in three separate special ed classes. Maraya and Novalee are in Ms. Sherrit's class, Clayton, Cody, Jonathan, and Dylan were in Ms. Martin's class, and Sydney is in Ms. Pierce's class.
* Clayton is the only member who has had a birthday episode.
* On Wednesdays, Sydney doesn't ride the bus in the morning because of therapy and Jonathan doesn't ride it in the afternoon because his stepdad, Mr. Scott, picks him up to take his little sister to dance class. This was first fully mentioned in episode 54.
* Clayton and Sydney have appeared in about every episode of the series, except one. Clayton was absent in episode 28 and Sydney's absence was in episode 71.
* Sydney (and sometimes Cody) are the students who have trouble buckling themselves up on the bus.

## **References**

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhvQ3xGJp6lmZP-ch\_pQBnvlmUxnbySBk