The Story Behind the Red Dragon
Every year, hundreds of prospective Exonians take part in Experience Exeter. They listen to students circumvent questions regarding sleep and homework, watch host Guide Tabitha in her classes (where peers and teachers alike marvel at how much she’d “understood” of that night’s reading) and grab a bite in one of two dining halls, which is totally the food that Exeter offers its students one hundred percent of the time. Most of the newly admitted students are herded off campus by the time their tour guides’ eyelids begin to flutter and heads begin to droop during G-format.
While some of the students will return home excited for Harkness and all the fun they will have the coming year (oh my sweet summer child), a select few board a very special bus to their next destination: Andover, Massachusetts.
These buses, lovingly nicknamed “red dragons” by Exonians, are provided by none other than Exeter itself. Not to be confused with the buses that shuttle kids to and from games, whose floors are littered with crumbs and the tears of uppers, these special “red dragons” were built for the sole purpose of shuttling kids to and from Andover.
According to an anonymous trustee, these buses are vastly different than the “red dragons” most Exonians know. “A lot of pesky alums have asked me where their money goes. It’s really annoying because I’ll get all these phone calls while I’m out picking ties with my buddies. Like chill? I’m busy. Anyway, I’ll say that almost all of your money goes to these buses. I’ve never been on one myself, but I’ve heard great things.”
Though Principal Tom Hassan ’15 and his administration have yet to reveal what happens on the bus, rumors have been circulating around Exeter. Some say our very own Marky Mark dreamt about his first prototype of social media giant Facebook on one of these buses. Others say Dan Brown wrote his first draft of the Davinci Code in the second to last backseat on the right side of a red dragon. Urban legend has it that the bus seats are covered in unicorn hair, plucked by Dean Cosgrove himself.
Believe what you want to believe. Red dragons: are they mere buses or infinite sources of inspiration where the parts of mythological beasts can be found?