-1

"Hey is this seat taken?" I swung round to the aisle. I was sat by the window, on my own, on the school bus. It was the first day back after the holidays. I was now a year eight. The other kids were still avoiding me though. Well, the 'popular' ones. Not the interesting ones.

This girl counted thoroughly under the 'interesting' label. She was around my age I guess but she could have been older. She had long blonde-brown hair that hung to her shoulders in a mix of dreads, plaits and braids. (what wasn't in a combination of these was just hanging loose) She had bright green eyes neatly outlined with black. She wore a long flowy deep purple skirt which looked home made. A green scarf made a belt. She wore little golden sandals, with red nails and a flower toe ring on her left big toe. She had a silver anklet round her left ankle. She wore a yellow tank top type thing that I think was tie-died. She had a battered purple shoulder bag that also looked homemade. She wore a stone on a piece of string round her neck. She had rather a sharp face I guess but it was very friendly. To me, she looked like a remnant of Woodstock. To her, I probably looked like a silly little school boy. I mean, she can't be my age. She's not in uniform. She must be going to a college or something.

"Excuse me, did you hear me? You seem a little tad bit in the clouds!"

"What?" I snapped back to her, smiling at me. I pulled my bag off the seat and nodded to it. "Help yourself." She sat down, put her bag on her lap and pulled out a walkman. Bang go my chances of small talk. She put the earphones in and stared at the roof of the bus. While she wasn't looking I snuck a look at the CD she was listening too. Reggae love songs. Interesting.

Her bag beeped suddenly. She almost dropped it and the entire bus turned round on us in interest. The girl swore, dropped her walkman and started rooting round in her bag.

"Where did I put that phone?" She asked herself, sticking her arm in the bag. "Here hold these." She shoved a mixture of tampons, make up, jewellery and hair brushes into my hands. The other kids started pointing and laughing at me and I could feel myself going red. The girl however had extracted her phone and started talking into it. The other kids stopped laughing. She had the very latest model.

"Yo Paul!" She trilled into it. "No no, I'm on the bus. Yes I'm safe. Yes I'm with someone. I'm with--" She put a hand over the mouth piece of the phone. "What's your name?" She mouthed.

"Dougie." I answered, my hands still full of crap from the bottom of her bag.

"-Dougie. No you don't know him. I met him. He's my bus buddy. Like the buddy system? Oh I'll be fine. Yes I know it's a lot different from Skeggy here…duh. Anyways I gotta go. Why? Cos I look like a freak yelling my head off to myself! See ya. Love ya!! Mwah mwah!" She kissed into the phone and slammed it shut.

"Thank gawd! I thought he'd never go!" She laughed and then saw my hands full of her stuff and laughed again.

"Oh thanks pet. Put it back in my bag." She held her bag out. I dropped everything into it and wiped my hands down my trousers.

"Who was that?" Boyfriend probably.

"My brother Paul." Ooo. Brother. She could be single.

"He's all nervy cos I'm starting a new school today. I moved here from Skegness in the holidays. "

"My school?"

"Hang on…" She peered at the name on the badge on my blazer. She clapped her hands.

"Yeah that's the one! I'll know someone there at least!" She laughed and clapped again.

"I'm in 8D so you might not see a lot of me." Yeah, you'll probably be in like 11B or something…

"8D?" Her eyes went really wide and she looked really shocked.

"Yes…"

"That's the one I'm in!! Wow this is so cool!" She flapped her hands, making herself look like an overlarge bird. I smiled, outside and inside. Yes!

"Hang on a minute…" She dove at her bag again and pulled out a book. She flipped a few pages, wrote something then turned to me again.

"What's your birthday?"

"What?"

"What's your birthday? Whenever I meet anyone I always write their birthday down. That way I can send them good thoughts and good wishes."

O-Kay.

"30th November."

"NO WAY!!" She did her bird impression again. It looked like she was sat on something hot.

"Yes way."

"That's my birthday! This is like fate! Right…" She showed me the book. "Look what I wrote- Dougie my bus buddy. " She smiled. "This is like, gonna be the best place I've ever lived ever!"

"If you've been here all summer why haven't I seen you anywhere?"

"Oh I fixing my room…it was full of damp and stuff. So I had it fixed how I wanted it but then I went into Victorian tragedy phase…" She curled a dread around a finger casually. "I think I read Rebecca, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights like twenty billion times a piece! I got to the stage that I wanted to go to the park, find a big tree and bang my head against said tree shouting 'Heathcliff'!"

"Why not? People do stranger things."

"But I didn't know anyone so it'd look strange me going down by my own…." She put a plait in her mouth and poked me gently on the shoulder. "But I know you now so I'm alright…"

"What Dougie the bus buddy who shares the same birthday with you that you met once?"

"Well we don't have to meet just this once. Can't we hang out at school?"

"No one likes me that much at school. You won't want to hang around with me."

"Why don't they? I think you're lovely and we've only been chatting for five minutes."

"I dunno. They just don't get me or something."

"Oh. I can understand that. My mate Carrie told me everyone called me Loopy Lou at my old school but I didn't care. At least I have the courage to stand out from the rest of them." I smiled at this. She did stand out, in her bright clothes and she was just bubbly I guess.

A kit kat hit her head.

She gave a little screech of indignation and picked it up. A wolf whistle came from one end of the bus. She swung round the kit kat in her hand, her mouth a little O.

"What was that for?"

"We give all Sexy Bunnies treats!" One boy called. They all laughed. I rolled my eyes. Boys in our year classed girls as either SB or SC- sexy bunnies or sad cows. The girl went a little pink then rolled her eyes too. She broke it in half and offered me some.

"Hey! It's for you not grunger!" she stuck her tongue out at them.

"It's my kit kat now losers. You snooze you loose!" She sat back giggling. I laughed too, quietly.

"They're rather pathetic aren't they?" She giggled again. "Still I might enjoy getting chocolate every morning for the rest of my school life."

I smiled and looked out the window. I got off the bus normally to walk to school with Chelsea. But today I didn't really wanna.

"Oh you going?"

"What?"

"It's just you're looking out the window like you're going somewhere. And leaving me on my own." She pouted a little. I thought about breaking my routine, the one I'd had since ever. I thought about seeing Chelsea. I thought about this exotic new kid wanting to spend time with me, social outcast.

"Fine. I'll stay. But just this once. You are the new kid after all. It'd be cruel."

"Dougie my bus buddy I have the feeling that this is going to be the start of an excellent friendship."

"Why?"

"I'm part physic."

"Oh."

"For example, I know the next thing you're gonna say is what's your name."

"Okay you got me. What's your name?" I grinned.

"Jayni. Jayni Parkin."