Fat Chance

Bus To Hell

School is fucking hell. And no, I'm not trying to be funny or sarcastic. I truly mean it. School. Is. FUCKING. Hell. And when you mix being forced into a tiny room with people you hate for hours on end and waking up at the crack of dawn, you get an entirely new shit show. Waking up on Monday mornings usually suck, but this particular Monday, things sucked even more than usual.

First of all, I woke up WAYY too fucking late. My phone died while I was sleeping so my alarm didn't go off. So guess who only had about 10 minutes to get ready, eat breakfast and walk the two blocks to the bus stop before the bus came? Lucky me. Secondly, I hadn't showered since last night and I already looked and smelled like a dirty fat whore who didn't shower between fucks. But since I barely had time to cram a PopTart down my throat, the only thing I could do was pull my dirty hair back into a short ponytail, spray myself like crazy with body spray, and hope for the best. I pulled on the first clean cloths I could find and sprinted upstairs and out the door to catch my bus.

Normally, the kids that went to my school rode the short bus, which meant that they got picked up right in front of their houses. But since I didn't have any physical disabilities preventing me from walking to the bus stop (the obesity not counted), I was forced to ride the regular bus. Before 8th grade, I had never rode the bus before. I had always gotten a ride with my friend Cyndi, one of the Plastics that lived just down the road from me. Her Dad was nice enough to drive her, her siblings, and me to school everyday. But ever since I started going to the Charter school, Cyndi no longer asked her Dad to pick me up for school.

So here I was, walking two blocks to get on a bus that I hated. All of the kids that knew me from Middle School thought they were better than me because they went to a normal school and I went to a school for the less intellectual. There was also the issue of my weight, but those kind of jokes pretty much ended when I sat on Mikey Gordon's digital camera after he had said that I was so fat, even my shadow cast a shadow. Now, nobody really messed with me much. Except for Danny.

Danny Rice is one of the most popular guys at my old school. He thinks that the world is in the palm of his hand, including me. He's been calling me names ever since I can remember. Even before I was fat, he called me horse face and stupid, just because I wouldn't go out with him. Yes. you heard that correctly. At one point in time, Guys were asking ME out. ME! I can hardly believe it either, even though I was there.

Ever since I rejected him, Danny has been out to destroy me. He spread rumors about me to every corner of the school, which shattered my reputation before I even knew I had one. He was the reason why I didn't ride the bus up until last year. Because it's one thing to have someone bully you at school. You can always move to a different seat or go into your other class, but on the bus, you can't get away. Since I switched to a new school, he hasn't been able to bully me as much as he used to, but he still can harass me on the bus, which is worse than being bullied at school. And Danny knows that.

So of course I wasn't very enthusiastic to ride the bus come Monday morning, but hey, you do what you have to do. I knew there was no other possible way I could get a ride to school, and if I skipped, that would put me even farther behind than I already am.

As I approached my bus stop, I saw that the bus (thankfully) hadn't come yet. Four kids that I barely knew the names of stood waiting by the stop sign on the edge of the curb, waiting. It wasn't a long wait for me, since I was already so late. The bus pulled up pretty much immediately after I arrived.

Boarding the bus, I swang my fat, wrinkly body into the first seat I saw that wasn't already occupied. I put my earbuds in and turned my music volume all the way up. Just as the bus pulled away from the curb, I felt someone sit down in the little space that was left next time. I turn around, and guess who was sitting there?

Danny turned towards me and yanked the left earbud out of my ear. "Hey Bitch," he yelled in my ear. 'Just ignore him' I told myself. I was already in hot water with the bus driver over the whole Mikey Gordon situation. Getting into a fight wouldn't be the best thing for me to do right now.

As I started to put my earbud back in, Danny slapped it out of my hand and yanked out the other earbud. "You really must be retarded. Didn't you fucking hear me? I said 'Hey, Bitch' and you didn't even fucking answer me. Rude bitch." I could hear his friends in the back of the bus, yelling his name and laughing.

I turned to look at him. If you knew nothing about him, Danny looked to be a pretty attractive dude. He had short, curly brown hair that was almost always covered by a snapback, even though school rules prohibited it. He had sharp, ice blue eyes that, upon seeing for the first time, might take your breath away. For most of middle and elementary school, Danny had been one of the shortest and skinniest kids in the entire class. But now, He stood at a staggering 6 foot 1 and had gained a good twenty pounds, almost all of the weight being muscle.

"Leave me alone, Danny," I mumbled. He started laughing, like what I had said was the funniest joke in the world. "What's the matter, Quinnie? Can't take a little JOKE?" As he yelled that last word, he pushed me up against the cold bus window, unplugged my earbuds from my iPhone and threw them towards the back of the bus.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, my fingers curling into fists. This. Fucking. Bitch. "Go get them and bring them back to me RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!!" More laughing from Danny. "Really? You think I'm just going to sit here and do what you say? Here's a hard one- why don't you MAKE me give you your headphones back? Hmmmm? Ever think of that? Of course not, because you're all bark and no bite. I'm not scared of you, Blondie."

He gave me his world famous smirk and as soon as the bus had stopped to let the next group of kids on, Danny got up to move. "See ya, Fatass."

For the rest of the bus ride, I stared out the window, bored. I could easily buy another pair of earbuds; the pair Danny had thrown cost five dollars. But the real issue was that I had let these kids bully me for so many years without doing anything; I had let them treat me like a piece of shit on the bottom of their shoes. And for so many years I thought there was nothing I could do, that it would all eventually end all on its own. But now I know it will never stop unless I make it stop. I have to get the respect I deserve back. And I won't get it back without a fight.

But as much as I fantasized about beating the shit out of Danny and his friends, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Not because I didn't think I had a decent chance of winning, but because I knew that it wouldn't be worth it. I only ever saw Danny and them on the bus, so that means that the fight would most likely have to happen on the bus, and I am NOT about to get written up again over something so unnecessary.

I would go out, buy two new pairs of earbuds (an extra pair for backup), and keep being the big gigantic pussy that I always had been and always will be, even if it meant being occasionally bullied on the bus. Soon, I would have my license (I already had my permit) and I wouldn't have to fuck with the bus anymore. I had been saving for a car since I was in 6th grade and I had almost reached 5,000 dollars. By the time next year rolled around, I should have a enough to get a decent used car.

Just as I had convinced myself that I would forget about this whole incident, somebody from the back of the bus through a football at the back of my head. I whipped my whole body around to see if I could catch sight of who had done it. But whoever had thrown the football was not making himself known. I stood up in my seat and looked towards the back again, but before I could see much of anything, the bus driver ( over the FUCKING speakers) said, "Quinn, sit down now! Do you WANT another yellow slip?" Frustrated, I sat back down and faced forward. The rest of the ride was super loud and annoying without my headphones. Needless to say, I nearly screamed in joy when I saw my school coming into view.