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 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 bother going to at All, then. her friends will be in the yard their arms folded on their chests, Shielding their breasts to try and make them bigger, whilst the boys will be too busy Playing football to notice. the bus is waiting on the high when suddenly it begins To rain torrentially and it sounds like someone has emptied about a packets of Dried on top of the roof of the bus. 'what if it just keeps raining,' she Thinks to herself, 'and it was just being in an aquarium except it was all the Shoppers and office-workers that were floating passed the window 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 they all ended up jumping out of the bedroom window. one of them tried to get her To him on the stairs, so she kicked him. later 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 on her neck. by now the bus is going passed the market. outside is a man who Spends all day forcing felt-tip pens into hands and then 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 wasn't too bothered though, she 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 into pubs on my own. or it could me to a town where People with hair drink special 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 up to take 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 people 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 really got inside susan, and, and, she always ended up getting off the bus at The terminus and then home.