Susan catches the bus town at ten-thirty a.m. she sits on the back seat. she looks at The man in front's and thinks how his fat wrinkled neck is like a large carrot Sticking out from the of his shirt. she adds up the numbers on her bus ticket to See if they make twenty-one, but don't. maybe she shouldn't bother going to school at All, then. her friends will be in the yard with their folded on their chests, Shielding their breasts to try and make them look bigger, whilst the boys will be too Playing football to notice. the bus is waiting on the high street when it begins To torrentially and it sounds like someone has emptied about a million packets of Dried peas on top of the of the bus. 'what if it just keeps raining,' she to herself, 'and it was just like being in an aquarium except it was all the Shoppers and office-workers that were floating passed the window of fish? ' She's still about this when the bus goes passed caroline lee's house where there Was a party last week. there were some german exchange students there who were Mature; they all ended up jumping out of the bedroom window. one of them to get her To kiss him on the stairs, so she kicked him. she was sick because she drunk too cider. caroline was drunk as well; she was pretending she was married to a tall boy In glasses, and she had to wear a polo-neck for three days afterwards to up the Love-bite on her neck. by now the bus is going the market. outside is a man who Spends all day forcing felt-tip pens into people's hands and then to make them pay For them. she used to work in the pet shop, but she got sacked for talking to boys She was supposed to be working. she wasn't too bothered though, she the smell of the anyway. 'maybe this bus won't stop,' she thinks, 'and I'll stay on It until I'm old enough to go into pubs on my own. or it drive me to a town where People with black hair drink special brew and I can lots of money by charging fat old Men five a time to look up my skirt. oh, they'll be queuing up to take me out to Dinner...' I suppose you think just a silly girl with stupid ideas, but i Remember her in those days. they talk about with a fire within and all that stuff, Well, she had that alright. just that no-one dared to jump into her fire; they would Have consumed. instead, they put her in a corner and let her heat up the room, their hands and backsides in front of her, and then slagging her off around town. No-one ever really got inside susan, and, and, she ended up getting off the bus at The terminus and then home.