Jo was just a normal 14 year old girl. She had a few close friends and mainly kept to herself, even though she was very expressive. She dyed her hair very often, and it wasn't even natural colours. One month it would be bright purple and the next it would be dark red. She also had strange eyes, they were a mix of the colours bright, piercing blue, dark grey, and dull green, with strange, almost metalic, flecks of gold-amber. This particular month, August, she had dyed her hair amber, to blend with the Autumn colours. "You won't have any hair left," her mum kept saying.
One, normal day, she set off to the bus stop to get the bus to school. As she was waiting, a red bus, the paint chipped and dulled with age, drove up the hill. She knew better han to flag it down as it wasn't the paint job the rest of them had. She stood back a second before realizing there was no point, the bus wasn't in service. It had an ominous atmosphere around it, the windows were so grimy that the driver was a mere shadow in the front seat. As it drove, it made a clicky noise indicating that it needed a new engine, and two of the tyres were flat. Jo stared at it as it drove slowly past her and then, hearing the noise of another bus behind her, turned round. It was the bus she usually got to get to school, so she flagged it down. Her two friends, Geo (short for Georgia) and Charlie (short for Charlotte) were already on the bus, sitting right at the back. "Hey," said Geo. "Hi," she replied "Hi Charlie." Charlie grunted. " 'Sup with her?" asked Jo grimly. "Dunno," shrugged Geo, "been like this since I met her at the corner." The corner was were Geo and Charlie met to get the bus where they would meet Jo.
It was a fairly quiet bus journey after that apart from Jo making extremely weak attempts at small talk. When they got off the bus there was an unpleasant surprise waiting for them. Cara Rethings and her 'little' group of "minions," as Geo called them, were standing at the bus stop in a huge crowd with Sam, Adam, and the rest of the 'popular' boys. "Hey, look everyone, Jo Smith has a new hair colour! What're you trying to look like now? A traffic light?" shouted Sam, and all the girls cackled like the witches they were. "If you're trying to fit in, you're going the wrong way with it! We don't want weirdos hanging out with us!" shouted Cara. Usually Jo would do her best to ignore them, but with all of them circling her it was difficult. She sanpped. Soon her bag was down, and bad language, fists, and feet were flying. After about 5 minutes, Geo and Charlie had decided that enough was enough. They both grabbed an arm each and dragged her away from the group of jeering bystanders and the injured ones that were involved in the fight. "Calm down, calm down," Geo whispered in her ear. Sam Court, who had escaped with little more than a scratch, as a result of putting up a descent fight, shouted something that sounded a lot like, "watch out eveyrone, the rejects are lethal!" and then he burst into a fit of laughter. At this point, Jo was livid, she tried to escape from her friends' clutches, but they were, and always had been, much stronger than her. "I hate you! I'll get you for this! Just you wait!" Jo was screaming furious, abusive words at him. Meanwhile, Cara and her band of idiots were rolling on the floor complaining that they had broken a nail or ripped their tights or something else that was equally pathetic. The boys were nursing bloody knuckles or faces, mainly noses and lips, and spitting curse words at Jo, Geo and Charlie. " What the hell do you think you're playing at!?" shouted a voice that had an expression as if it couldn't tell whether it was angry, worried, or shocked. Mr. Haynes, the headmaster, was marching down the footpath coming from the car park, obviously just arriving and seeing the comotion. "Sorry, sir," muttered Jo, sheepishly. "Never mind sorry, I'll have time for that after you give me an explanation as to why there are several girls rolling on the floor, a bunch of boys looking like they've just come from world war two, and why you have two of your friends holding you back, why you look absolutley furious, and why on earth you have a bloody lip and nose!" "Sir, I think it's best if Charlie and I give you an explanation while Jo went to clean up," Geo said loudly. "Yes, well, ok, very well then, Miss Green," panted Mr. Haynes, the blotchy, red patches on his face disappearing as his anger ebbed away. "Why don't you lot go and get cleaned up," he gestured towards the boys who had recieved the worst of Jo's temper tantrum, "and you, Miss Smith, can go and calm down in my office, I will deal with you later," his tone seemed final.
