I remember the first time I rode the goddamned bus. I had to go across town so I could go to school at Holy Angels because my mama figured nobody ever got a good education at a public school, and she wouldn't have us in there after grade school. It was fun at first, riding the bus to school, like we were allowed to have some fucking control over our lives. We could go anywhere, and it was our choice to go to school each day.

One time this other retarded girl got on the bus. She was kind of fat, and I had to drop the bus so she could step up the first step. I don't mind helping out like that. But even though she was kind of retarded, she wasn't ugly. You know, her head was kind of funny shaped and she didn't really look directly at me, but I noticed she looked at Chuckie when she walked by. And he looked like he might have known her. I tried to get him to ask her out but he wouldn't. He said she wouldn't go out with him. And I said you never know. "Every dog has his day," I said, "It might happen."

I got my first pair of headphones when I was 12. My Papi said that he thought I deserved to have my own headphones if I was going to ride the bus to school next year. I had to go across town because if I was going to get into City Honors I had to go to the best school in the city to prepare. And if that meant riding the bus for an hour each way, then that was OK with my Papi.