Joyce adjusted her headphones and turned up the volume. The coach had turned onto the motorway and the noise of the engine and tyres had increased. She bobbed her head along to the steady beat of the familiar pop music. She loved that she had a window seat and could watch the landscape drift by, there were some landmarks she had seen many times, but she enjoyed spotting new details like the strange things people had in the back gardens, sheep munching grass on the side of a hill or little footpaths cutting across fields. She was beginning to get used to this journey, the one from her parents' home back to the city she had been living in for a year. Her emotions at this time on a Sunday evening heading back to the city were always mixed, a little bit of sadness having said goodbye to her mum, dad and younger sister, happiness having had a fun weekend catching up with a couple of old friends, excitement about heading back to the vibrant life of the city and nervousness at the anticipation of returning to what could sometimes feel like a place people could get lost in.

Her family still lived in the town in north Devon where she had grown up in. It was a place she knew like the back of her hand, and where she was well known. For the first 18 years of her life it was pretty much her whole world and she spent many days cycling round the town with her friends, finding secret little corners and spending time hanging out in her favourite spots.

Today Joyce had said goodbye to her mum and dad at home and been driven to the bus station by her younger sister, Ruby. It was the first time this had happened as her sister had only recently passed her driving test and they were both laughing about her bumpy gear changes, wobbly steering and hard breaking. They had spent most of the weekend together and had gone shopping, getting a new football game for Ruby's PlayStation, looking indecisively at clothes and finally buying a new summer dress Joyce could wear at work, and eating lovely big ice creams - Joyce had had Oreo and mint choc chip and Ruby went for Jaffa cake and forest fruits flavoured scoops!

She reached into her bag and pulled out the tin foil wrapped sandwiches her mum had made. They would probably be cheese and pickle, but she hoped for the special treat of egg mayonnaise her mum sometimes made. As soon as she turned back the first corner of the tin foil she knew she had been treated to her favourite sandwich, and there under the first one was the usual note from her dad. He often added little notes wishing her well for her coming week or reminding her of a silly moment during the weekend, this week it said "Stinky sarnies ! They will upset the other passengers on the bus, Stinky Stinker !! Love Daddy" – her father hated egg mayonnaise almost as much as she loved them. She laughed to herself.

She thought about the week ahead. She knew she had to tidy her room in the house she shared with 4 other people, and would probably have to go food shopping with her friend, but quickly her thoughts turned to her work. She worked for a great company, certainly a great big company and one whose name was known by everyone, but she was new and was the youngest in the department she worked in. She had studied chemistry at university and had loads of ideas about her new job, how she could progress and different things they could try to be more innovative, but didn't have the confidence at the moment to talk with her colleagues about these ideas or know who to approach to find out what to do next.

She was looking forward to seeing her two best friends, Gabriel and Jacob. One had stayed in the city with her after they finished university and the other was her school friend who had got fed up of living in a small town and wanted to find adventure in the city. She loved that her two best friends were boys (really they were men, but she always thought of them as boys). She was so close to her sister she likes the change spending time with boys.

Joyce was excited about the city and her time there, she loved being able to go to many different places to listen to new music, finding fun cafes with her friends, going to museums and galleries on her own. It was such a contrast to the town she had grown up in and loved exploring it. Joyce finished her sandwiches, settled down into her coach seat and enjoyed the rest of the journey.