Susan catches the bus into town at ten-thirty a.m. she sits on the 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 collar of his shirt. she up the numbers on her bus ticket to See if they make twenty-one, but they don't. she shouldn't bother 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 emptied about a million of Dried peas on top of the roof of the bus. if it just keeps raining,' she Thinks to herself, 'and it was just like being in an aquarium it was all the Shoppers and that were floating passed the window instead of fish? ' She's still thinking about this when the bus passed caroline lee's house where there Was a party last week. there some german exchange students 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 sick she drunk too Much cider. caroline was 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 passed the market. 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 stay on It until I'm old enough to go into pubs on my own. or it could me to a town where People with black hair drink special brew and I can make 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 she's just a silly girl with stupid ideas, but i her in those days. they talk about 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 been consumed. instead, they put her in a corner and let her heat up the room, Warming their and backsides in front of her, and then slagging her off around town. No-one ever got inside susan, and, and, she always ended up getting off the bus at The terminus and then home.