Susan catches the bus into at ten-thirty a.m. she sits on the back seat. she looks at The man in front's head and thinks how his fat neck is like a large carrot Sticking out from the collar of his shirt. she 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 yard with their arms folded on chests, Shielding their breasts to try and make them look bigger, the boys will be too busy Playing football to notice. the bus is waiting on the high street suddenly 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 Thinks to herself, 'and it was like being in an aquarium except it was all the Shoppers and office-workers were floating passed the window instead of fish? ' She's still thinking about this when the bus goes passed caroline lee's where there Was a party last week. there were some german exchange there who were very Mature; they all ended up out of the bedroom window. one of them tried to get her To kiss him on the stairs, so she kicked him. later she was 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 wear a polo-neck for three days afterwards to 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 hands and trying to make them pay For them. she used to work in the pet shop, but she got for talking to boys when She was supposed to be working. she too bothered though, she hated the smell of the Rabbits anyway. 'maybe bus won't stop,' she thinks, 'and I'll stay on It until I'm old to go into pubs on my own. or it could drive me to a town where People with black hair drink brew and I can make lots of money by charging fat old Men five pounds a time to look up my skirt. oh, they'll be queuing up to me out to Dinner...' I suppose you think she's just a silly girl with ideas, but i Remember her in those days. they talk about people 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 been consumed. instead, they put her in a corner and let her up the room, Warming their hands and backsides in front of her, and slagging her off around town. No-one ever really got inside susan, and, and, she always ended up off the bus at The terminus and then home.