7:56 AM

FUCK. THAT. HURT.

"You young people have no respect. None whatsoever," the old woman barks, getting in my face and breathing her disgusting breath all over me. The way it smells makes me wonder why she's not dead yet.

I answer her in silence, suppressing the urge to swear loudly. Honestly, the sly bitch throttles my shins with her cane as I stand up to give her my seat and she's got the nerve to say that I'm disrespectful?

I sit back down and ignore her with the aid of the grungiest music I have on my iPod. Being a trip-hop/"I listen to music to calm lower my dangerously high blood pressure" sort of person, I can't help but utter "What the fuck?" when I find Rammstein of all things. This is one of those rare moments when I believe in God.

My fanatical atheism is restored as I realise that my expletive is misconstrued and I am suddenly being prodded in the shoulder. Next thing I know I'm being subjected to a walk of shame down the aisle to be told off by the bus driver, who writes down the name of my school and informs me of further consequences.

I start back towards my seat, but the crowd blocks my way, so I stand and turn my music up as loud as it'll go, mouthing along and nodding my head in time.

I am then poked in the back by, to my chagrin, my mother's beatnik hippie friend, Lena, and am thus obligated to remove my headphones and turn the volume down. She's disappointed in me because, like most people, I do not believe in a "proletariat revolution" or any of that Communist bullshit. To a very certain extent, we share the same beliefs and thus tried to recruit me into the Socialist Party when I expressed my interest in a political career. I told her to piss off and got grounded for a week.

She has dreadlocks that'd probably be blonde if she bathed regularly, or had any personal hygiene for that matter. Some of her teeth are brown.

"Having respect for your elders is important, you know. What kind of person refuses an old woman a seat? Just because you teenagers think you rule the world does not make it so, because you teens don't know everything. It really does make me fear for this world's future. Are you listening to me…?"

I put my headphones back on and thousand-yard stare out the window, oblivious to her amounting anger and the pole spearing my heart.

Please, dear readers, opine away.