Susan catches the bus into town at ten-thirty a.m. she sits on the seat. she looks at The man in front's head and 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 they don't. maybe she shouldn't going to school at All, then. her friends will be in the yard their arms folded on their chests, Shielding their to try and make them 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 peas on top of the roof 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 that were floating passed the instead of fish? ' She's still thinking about when the bus goes passed caroline lee's house where there Was a last week. there were some german exchange students there who were very Mature; they all ended up jumping out of the bedroom window. one of tried to get her To kiss him on the stairs, so she kicked him. later she was sick she drunk too Much cider. caroline was drunk as 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 passed the market. is a man who all day forcing felt-tip pens into people's hands 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 bothered though, she the smell of the Rabbits anyway. 'maybe 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 pounds a time to look up my skirt. oh, be queuing up to take me out to Dinner...' I you think she's just a silly girl with stupid ideas, but i Remember her in those days. they talk about people with a fire and all that stuff, Well, she had that alright. it's that no-one dared to jump into her fire; they would Have been consumed. instead, they put her in a and let her heat up the room, Warming their hands and backsides in front of her, and then slagging her off town. No-one really got inside susan, and, and, she always ended up getting off the bus at The and then walking home.