The driver who waited

Text 1: The 47, by Joanna Prescott

An original short story extract.

The 47 was already pulling away from the kerb when I saw her: a girl in a green blazer, sprinting past the newsagent with her school bag thumping against her back. One of her shoes was coming off. The driver, a broad man with a grey beard, glanced in his mirror and stopped the bus with a hiss. A man near the front tutted and tapped his watch. ‘She’s got her exam at nine,’ the driver said, not turning round. ‘She told me yesterday she couldn’t be late.’ The doors folded open and the girl climbed on, red-faced and gasping, holding her pass up like a trophy. ‘Thank you, Ray,’ she managed. He waved her down the aisle. ‘Sit down before you fall down,’ he said, and pulled out into the traffic.

Explain why the driver stops the bus for the girl.