• She stood at the bus stop, blankly staring at the signs that told which road(s) they would stop at. the only problem was- she wasn't familiar with this part of town! People walked by her, looking her up and down; which she wasn't suprised at. She DID stand out of course, with a hula hoop over one shoulder, carried back pack with so much "stuff"- it looked like it could bust at the seams, she was also unsuprisingly dirty at this point. If it wasn't obvious she was a runaway, she certainly looked homeless. She walked into the bus station and made her way up to a man working at the desk.
    "Hey, wheres your bathroom?".
    The man glanced up to her and gave her the eye.
    "come with me" he said, taking a key out of his pocket.
    She knew right then why he had a key. Homeless people probably come in and use up all the paper towels practicly taking a bath in the sink... which is actually part of what she planned to do.
    "whelp, looks like I came into the wrong place" she thought to herself. She got a bit anxious at this point, hoping for the life of her she wouldnt get in trouble for cleaning herself off. Then, they'd catch her for sure... or would they? the worst they could do was kick her out.... but then she wouldn't be able to take the bus. All she could do was hope she wouldnt get caught. But such is life as a drifter, taking risks, and moving forward. She started to not care as the man unlocked the bathroom. So what? getting kicked out of a bus station was the LEAST of any "risks" she had to worry about. After all-she'd just freight hoppped two trains and hitch hiked all the way to the station. As soon as she got into the bathroom, she pulled out one of the three body wash containers she had in the bottom of her bookbag and took as many paper towels as she could. she slathered the soap onto one arm,,, and then the next, watering down the weak paper towels and scrubbing herself the best she could- she then washed off her legs, and lastly her face. She then proceeded to take out her tooth brush and paste, cleaning and scrubbling the inside of her mouth, before finally using the toilet and walked out as nonchalantly as she could. It was obvious she was much cleaner. The man, yet again watching her like a hawk asked her to close the door behind her; It automatically locks. she pulled the door shut and picked up a map off a table, looking for the streets the buses took west- however far she could afford. "Lake hill road" was the only one she could take, it was the only one that went west, about five miles, stopping in between several times to let people on and off. the news channel was on the T.V, when she saw the worst shock of her whole two days running. An Amber alert had been issued for her. A big picture of her face and a description of what she was last seen wearing was all over the T.V. "********!" she said quietly to herself. A big wave of shock came over her body. the kind that knocks the breath out of you when you recieve horrible news. Her eyes darted around the station, it felt like gravity suddenly got stronger; like it was sucking in the ground and her with it. She had to think fast. It didn't seem like hardly anyone was paying attention to the T.V, and if they were... they sure werent concentraiting on it enough to have any idea she was standing right behind them. Right now it was fight or flight... there was no one to fight (not yet anyway), so, she flew. She boarded the bus going towards "lake hill road". She made her way to the back of the bus, and at the second stop, a few boys around the ages of 20-24 got on and made their way to the back and sat right across from her. They were your average white douche bags, the wanna be "gangsters" dressed in saggy pants and wife beater shirts topped off with a ghetto looking hat. They giggled to each other,. and it was obvious they were talking about her. The oldest looking boy turned to her and said "Ey ginger you pretty, carpet match the drapes?" She rolled her eyes, and because she was a sarcastic b***h, replyed with "yeah, as a matter of fact; it does... And I assume your d**k is the same length as your nose?" "OHHHH SHEEIT!" all the boys said laughing. The one sitting behind the other two piped up and said "pretty and a little fire cracker!" Then it hit her. Her hair... it made her stand out. She needed to make herself look as different and unrecognizable as possible....she planned to get off at what ever stop had a near by drug store- she needed to dye her hair. It was the LEAST she could do to make herself look different. She knew that any drug mart had cheap hair dye. She needed a color completely different than the obvious already dyed red hair she had. ... "Ey girl, you gonna hula hoop for us?" She didn't pay attention to them, she was more worried about whether or not there even WAS a store she could get cheap hair color at on the way to "lake hill road." she didn't want to waste her money taking a bus to a road that was only, at this point four miles straight down. She got off at the next stop, paid the driver and decided to walk, even though her feet were screaming with each step she took. She looked over her shoulder to make sure those stupid boys didnt follow her, it wouldnt suprise her, it seemed they didn't have anything better to do. They didn't. She kept walking, craining her neck looking down every street to see if there was a place to pick up some hair color... no luck yet.