Dear Mellow Teen,

I saw you on the bus last Tuesday while I was on my way to school. You sat down on the bench seat across from me. I knew you were probably supposed to be at school already, since it was past 9am already. You dropped a backpack on the seat next to you and you start pulling out your materials.

A small baggie full of... dried leaves. A bunch of papers for rolling. A lighter.

You didn't even look up at me, or make eye contact with anyone else for the matter, as you started rolling up the first joint.

A small fold, a little tuck of the 'leaves' into place, roll roll roll and then with a swift lick, you 'seal' up the long edge and fold in the ends. And then repeat until you had five done. Then you tucked everything away and pulled out your phone to make arrangements to 'meet-up' and you told the person you were with to 'bring the cash' for what you had.

I have nothing against entrepreneurship. I really don't. However, I think there is a time and a place for everything. And the time and place to prepare your merchandise should probably not be on public transit (where there are security cameras and microphones - if the signs on board of the bus are anything to go by). And the transit cops are actual police officers with actual handcuffs and guns and whatnot. So... Probably not the best of ideas. At all.

I can think of a million things I'd rather do on public transit before rolling up joints and making arrangements to sell them. Such as... taking a nap, listening to music, texting people on my phone, reading notes for a upcoming test (let's face it - I always have an upcoming test!), twiddling my thumbs... All of which would come before being caught via audio visual equipment dealing drugs on the phone. It's really not worth your future (in getting real job) to be doing such things (on public transit and otherwise).

Sincerely,
Girl was listening to music (and texting people)

Dear Misinformed,

This morning was my first day back at school. The buses and train cars were overly crowded, as always, but I sucked it up and got on and got back into the swing of things and managed to always get seats (go me). However, I did have an issue getting onto my first bus.

I got onto the bus with no problem after flashing my bus pass, but then halfway to the train station, the bus drivers switched and you asked to see everyone's proof that they had paid the fare. Okay, that's no biggie because I have a bus pass. I show it to you and you took it from me, flipped it over to see that there's a magnetic strip on the back and then you frowned.

You thought it was a fake because you hadn't seen the new bus pass yet for my school. So you called me on it, wanting to know why it was purple. Because, according to you, it was supposed to be pink (the colour of the summer term). I tried to explain that it was the one that I got in the mail (true) and as far as I knew, it was the correct colour as it also listed what the expiry date was (April 2009). So as far as I knew, it was the correct one.

I argued with you for like 3 minutes, telling you that it was an actual pass before I finally just got up, walked right past you and put it into the fare checker at the front of the bus by the driver's seat. I put it in, the machine beeped to say that it was fine and spat it back out. I pulled out my bus pass and sat back down with this oh-so-smug look on my face.

You didn't look pleased, but at least you didn't try to throw me off the bus. And for that, I thank you.

But if I ever see you again and if you ever question my bus pass again, I will call you on harassment since (if you do it again) it would count as harassment.

Sincerely,
Girl with the Purple Bus Pass