Ever take the wrong bus to a whole different area? We were stuck with no money for another ticket, no phone because it was dead, and only two 13 year olds, scared out of their minds in Frankford Philly Bus Station.

My friend Katy and I planned on going to the mall on a Friday night to hang out with some friends. We didn’t have a ride as both our parents were at work and none of our friends or family were able to take us.  We were so stuck and confused on what to do because we really wanted to go.  Soon I came up with the idea of taking the bus.  We weren’t really excited about that idea, but it was a ride there. Katy talked to her mom and I talked to mine, and they were both okay with us taking the bus.  We had our moms check out the bus route and we even checked it over ourselves.  Soon we were all ready and walked to the bus stop; it wasn’t too far from my house.

We got to the bus stop at 5:15 pm. The bus was supposed to come at 5:25.  Soon it felt like we had been waiting for a while.  We looked at the clock.  It was 5:35, and the bus had not come yet.  We started getting worried that it wasn’t going to come.  We waited a little while longer, and we both started to feel like it wasn’t a good idea to take the bus.  We still waited though because at the time we were young and didn’t care.  Later is better than never, right? Twenty-five minutes later the bus finally came. We were excited. We got on the bus, but that bus ride continued to not go as planned.

After some time, it felt like we had been on the bus for even longer than we were supposed to.  Something didn’t feel right.  We soon realized we weren’t even close to the mall and started getting scared.  It was getting so much later.  Katy kept asking me if I was sure we got on the right bus, and I kept saying yes because even my mom checked.  But deep down, I knew we were on the wrong bus.  I just didn’t want to say anything.  Soon, the last three people get off the bus and it is only me and Katy on the bus, besides the driver of course.  He kept looking at us confused because we hadn’t gotten off.

An hour and a half later, we should have gotten to the mall but were still on the bus.  We finally park up and we have no idea where we are.  There are a lot of people and a lot of buses.  We go to get off the bus, and we told the bus driver that we accidentally took the wrong bus and don’t have extra money on us.  He gave us both a free ticket!  We were so thankful.  We couldn’t call anyone because our phones were dead and we didn’t want to ask a stranger for their phone.  So by now it’s around 8:00 pm, and the bus home didn’t come until 8:45.  We had no idea where to go or where we were.  A couple minutes later this woman started screaming, threatening us and everyone else that was there.  Katy and I were so scared we stood next to a little girl and her dad to make it seem like he was our parent so the woman thought we weren’t alone.  Then, I saw my aunt’s friend walk by and it was such good timing because I had just figured out that the dad we stood by was blind and I felt bad because he didn’t even know we were there.  Well, my aunt’s friend, Amber, took us to McDonald's right down the street and helped us because we were so close to just crying and freaking out.  We had no idea where we were, what was going on, how to get home, or when we were going home.  The next bus finally came and that was the longest, scariest bus ride I have ever been on.  Don’t get me wrong, we were just relieved to be going home but we were filled with worry.  Ever since then I haven’t taken the bus and don’t plan on it for a while, unless I know for a fact that it’s the right one. I got home to tell my mom and she didn’t believe me.  She thought I made up the whole story.  Still to this day she thinks I was joking around.  I will never forget that because I really thought I was going to be stuck at Frankford forever.