Angel looked out of the bus window, drawing hearts and stars in the condensation that had built up due to the miserable cold weather, her head in the clouds as usual, if only for the short bus journey back home from school. It was the only chance she got to break from reality and escape her miserable life.

As usual, she was sat on her own on the bus. Everyone thought she was strange, a loner, a wierd, and kept away from her.

As the houses and trees flew past the windows, she caught sight of her reflection and the window and caught the sadness in her eyes. Her dark hair was hanging, limp, over her face like it always was - she hated styling it and was lucky enough for it to just stay straight somehow. Her skin was super white, almost ghost like and her eyes were so dark it they often looked almost black. If she didn't know better, she would have thought she was a vampire just like the ones in her favourite books and films.

Yes, her life was lonely, but she had grown to like the solitude and honestly was afraid to let anyone in.....not that people hadn't tried. One boy in particular from her class, Joshua, often paid too much attention to her. She had quite often turned him away but he was persistent, often bringing her favourite food, saving her favourite seat in class, buying her pens and notebooks in her favourite colour - all of which she refused as kindly as she could - but she often thought he was weirder than she was. It almost seemed like he knew more about Angel than she actually did and sometimes it scared her...The bus jolted over a pot hole, snapping her out of her thought path quite abruptly. She realised she wasn't too far from home now;

The journey home meant silence, silence from school work, from the bullies, from the classes she was struggling to keep up with, silence from the lunch hall, the corridors and most of all, silence from home....

Her stop came at the corner of Brown Street and Alma Avenue where she would then have to begin the most hated walk of her entire day back home.

She had often thought of leaving home, running away, never going back there, but where would she go? With no friends, no family that she knew of, no money and no job she was trapped and couldn't escape. She was forced to live this miserable existence day after day..... But she had a plan and it wouldn't be long now!