I hated taking the bus home. If I were able to, I would walk home. I live two and a half miles from school. In fact I can see the school from my front lawn, if I look in between the neighbors houses across the street. It may look like a little dot, in a way, but it's still not far.

If I were able to walk to and from school, I wouldn't have to deal with the kids teasing me on the bus. The worst thing is, the bus driver doesn't even do anything about it. He just shakes his head and keeps driving.

I am sitting in my seat, hearing the kids whispering. I wish they would just talk normally and not about me.

It feels like always, right on cue, everyday Mark Plantz would walk up and sit down next to me. Today, he started squishing me in my seat.

“Ow!” I yell. “Stop it! That hurts!” I start to cry.

“Oh, look at the dickless wonder. He's crying.” Mark laughed, which made everyone else laugh as well.

I hate it when he calls me that. I have been called lots of names, but being called dickless wonder, is the most humiliating thing anyone ever calls me. I continue crying. Not because he called me names, but because he kept pushing harder. I was starting to run out of breath.

I look outside, trying to get my mind off the pain. I pray that someone or something could help me at this moment. I almost start to pass out, when I hear a crash which made me, Mark and I'm guessing the entire bus jump. That stopped Mark from squishing me and now everyone was screaming.

The crash came from the front of the bus. There was glass all over the place. On the floor A seagull was laying dead. It crashed through the front window of the bus. He must have been flying pretty fast to be able to break through that type of window.

I could see the bus driver had pulled over to the side of the road and was talking on the CB Radio. I couldn't hear anything, because everyone was talking at once. A few minutes later, The bus driver got up from his seat and looked up at us.

“I'm sorry boys and girls,” he said over the mic from the radio. “But because of this accident, the bus will not be able to bring you home. We are working on getting another bus at this time.” He started walking toward the back. He was away from the mic and started yelling. “Because of all the glass, I want all of you to start heading through the back door and wait on the side of the bus near the curb. I do not want anyone playing around out there. Highway 212 is unsafe for pedestrians.”

He takes out flare and a cone. He then opens the back door jumps out and sets up the flares and cones on the road. Everyone starts heading out of the bus one by one. When I got off, Mark and another boy named Bradley, tripped me and I fell on my face and started crying. Everyone started laughing, including the bus driver.

On my hands and knees, I looked up at the group watching them laugh. Tears were falling from my face. My hands and chin were scraped up. I looked away from everyone and noticed my house was just down the road. I got up and started running. I didn't care if the bus driver was yelling my name, I was not going to deal with them anymore.

When I got up to my house, I noticed that dad's car was still in the driveway in the same place he had it this morning. He didn't even leave for work. I could see smoke in the backyard. Was he grilling? This was new. He hasn't grilled since mom was living with us. I ran to the back of the house and saw in horror, dad had my girl clothes and was burning them on the grill.

“NOOOOOO!” I screamed. I ran over and started hitting him. Dad took out his belt and started beating me with it.

“I will not have a fagot living in my house!” He yelled, while beating me.

I don't know what got into me, but at that point, I had enough energy in me and so much anger, that I pushed him as hard as I could far across the lawn where he just lied there. I stood there looking at him. I was scared. I didn't know what I did. I think I killed him.

I looked at the grill and saw my clothes on it. Not all of my clothes were on the grill. It looked like only two or three were. The rest were still on the ground. I must have gotten here just in time. If I stayed near the bus, I wouldn't have any clothes.

I looked at my dad on the ground. I was very mad at him. I walk over and scooped up my clothes from off the ground and noticed my dress was not with the collection. It looked like just a bunch of my dresser clothes. My dress must still be in the closet. I ran up to my room to look for it.

To my shock, my room was torn apart. He must have been looking for more girl things. This was not a good sign. I broke open my closet and started panicking. I didn't see it anywhere. It was not hanging up the way I put this morning. I pushed the clothes aside and breathed a sigh of relief. I found my dress. He did not see it. It fell on the floor. I sighed again. I took my dress and the rest of my clothes and stuffed it all in my backpack. He was not going to find them now.

I sat down on my bed and cried. I can't believe he would look through my things. I continued to cry, but then got up quickly. In the air, I can smell smoke. It smelt like wood burning. I looked out the window and saw that dad was not lying on the ground. His car was gone. On the corner of the building I could see flames. He set the house on fire! He was trying to burn me alive!

I grabbed my backpack and ran downstairs. The smoke was in the air. I was coughing a lot. I ran to the door and tried to open it. But I couldn't. He had locked it from the outside. I could see a padlock was locking the door shut. I tried to run to the backdoor, but the fire was already in the kitchen. I screamed.

Choking on smoke, I had to get some air.

I ran back upstairs and went to my room. I tried to open my window, but it wouldn't budge. It was nailed shut. Dad had nailed it shut! I was coughing so hard. I look behind me and can see flames coming from the staircase. I couldn't go down the stairs. I ran and shut my door.

The air was unbreathable. I was suffocating I had to break the window, but how? I looked around my room. On the floor, I saw my lamp. I grabbed it and started hitting the window breaking the glass. I stepped outside and didn't have much time to think, I had to jump.

Screaming, I made it to the ground, where I landed on my backpack. I was very lucky I didn't break my leg or arm. Very lucky I got out of the room when I did, the roof to my room collapsed in. The whole house was engulfed in flames.

I watched it burn, but started panicking and began to run. I didn't want to be near the house. I didn't want to be there seeing the house I grew up in get burned to the ground. I kept on running. I didn't look back.

After awhile, I stopped running and sat down on the curb. I could hear sirens in the background. I knew they were heading to my house. I started crying again. I wiped my tears and looked at the smoke in the sky. It was really dark. I can't believe dad would burn the house down. And with me in it.

A man, walking his dog went by me. He didn't even ask if I was okay. He was to interested in the fire. This just shows how much people care for others. I got up and start walking. I had to keep my mind off the house. I look up in the sky. It was still light out. I had plenty of daylight left in the day, before it got dark. I wasn't sure where I was going to go tonight. I had no home.

My stomach growled. I haven't eaten anything since dinner last night and even then, that wasn't enough. I had to find some food. I walked down the streets until I found a park. I wish I went to parks. Dad never brought me to parks. He always had me do work around the house. I was never allowed to leave. If I did, then it was the belt or the whip. The park I found had two baseball fields and a play area. There were lots of people there. This complicated things.

I felt a little embarrassed looking for food in the trash. People were staring at me. Because of that, I had to leave the park. I couldn't handle people watching me look for food.

I walk down the road and start looking through garbage in alleys. Dogs kept barking, which made people look out their windows. I will never be able to find food. I wonder how the homeless find food? I 've seen homeless in Brookings many times, but they seem to be well fed.

I walked down the road to a nearby diner and checked the trash there. A lady, which I believe was a waitress came out of the building with a bag and saw me.

I froze.

We both stared at each other for a little while and then I started running.

I run until I'm out of sight of the diner and start walking down the road. My stomach was still hurting from no food. I suddenly hear the sound of police sirens. I start walking faster. The sirens were getting closer, I begin to run. I see lights behind me. My run drops to a jog and then to a walk. I stopped and waited. I knew that they were after me and I couldn't do anything about it. If they wanted me, I would just end the chase here.

The police car suddenly sped past me. They were in a high speed chase with a car, which scared me when they were speeding by. They weren't after me after all. I walk over to a nearby pond and look at my reflection. I'm shaking.

After about a minute of breathing, I continue walking down the road. A moment later, a car pulls up next to me. The passenger window rolls down. To my surprise, the lady from the diner was in the car.

“Hi there,” She smiled “I believe you need some help.”