Susan catches the bus into at ten-thirty a.m. she sits on the back seat. she looks at The man in head and thinks how his fat wrinkled neck is like a large carrot Sticking out the collar of his shirt. she adds up the numbers on her bus ticket to See if they make twenty-one, but they don't. maybe she shouldn't going to school at All, then. her friends will be in the with their arms folded on their chests, Shielding their breasts to try and make look bigger, whilst the boys will be too busy Playing to notice. the bus is waiting on the high street when suddenly it begins To rain torrentially and it sounds like someone has about a million packets of Dried peas on top of the roof of the bus. 'what if it keeps raining,' she Thinks to herself, 'and it was just like being in an except it was all the Shoppers and office-workers that were floating passed the instead of fish? ' She's still thinking about this when the bus goes passed lee's house where there Was a party last week. there were some german exchange students there who very Mature; they all ended up jumping out of the window. one of them tried to get her To kiss him on the stairs, so she kicked him. she was sick because she drunk too Much cider. was drunk as well; she was pretending she was married to a tall boy In glasses, and she had to a polo-neck for three days afterwards to cover up the Love-bite on her neck. by now the bus is passed the market. outside is a man who Spends all day forcing felt-tip pens into people's and then trying 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 though, she hated the smell of the Rabbits anyway. 'maybe this bus won't stop,' she thinks, 'and I'll on It until I'm old enough to go pubs on my own. or it could drive me to a town where People with black hair drink special brew and I can make lots of money by fat old Men five pounds a 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 about people with a fire within and all that stuff, Well, she had that alright. it's just that no-one dared to jump into her they would Have been consumed. instead, they put her in a and let her heat up the room, Warming their hands and in front of her, and then slagging her off around town. No-one ever really got inside susan, and, and, she always up getting off the bus at The terminus and then home.