The 11:00 pick-up from Wellesley is small, with only two men and three women on the bus--all of whom immediately fall asleep.

At the Harvard stop, sounds of the 9 p.m. bus crowd return. When bus driver Lamons opens the door, a group of giggling and chattering students get on.

They all crowd in; no one has to stand up yet. Once again, there is a strong smell of the mixing perfumes and hairsprays. These women do not seem to be coming from a party, instead they are talking about their nights in Boston. "Oh, I did the usual, dinner and a movie," one says.

At the MIT stops, the bus gets really crammed--again. A few people mutter sardine comments, and a some women in heels massage their feet.

The bus is five minutes early. During the wait some drunken frat men begin shoving one other. One average looking pseudo-combatant tells another "Watch yourself, man."

A few women peer out to see what is going on, but no one seems too interested in the scuffle.

Instead, people chat among themselves about their night.

"What were you doing young lady?" one woman asks another. "I went to Nu Delta, but we left shortly after we got there..." The rest is lost under the buzz of the women.

"All the way back please," calls the bus driver. "Down, down, down, down! Move back, move back!" There are nearly 40 women jammed in the aisles.

By midnight, self-absorbed women tell each other of the night's events, too tired to analyze and deconstruct their behavior. One woman is falling asleep to her walkman.

A brown-haired woman stares into the eyes of her boyfriend, who returns the gaze. They talk sweetly, not pretentiously, about how perfect they are for one another.

He looks like he is carrying an overnight bag; she wears a diamond ring on her left ring finger. They talk about names for their children. The bus driver take a sharp corner. "Better hold on tight, dear," he tells her.

The bus stops at Wellesley at 12:30 a.m., and everyone clears out. Most of the men who get off have bags with them that probably contain a change of clothing. Big drops of rain pelt the exiting passengers. Women sprint off as soon as they get out of the bus.

The bus driver, Lamons, has a 20 minute break between routes. He says he's been driving this bus for five years for Crystal Transport, a company he says he helped found. He drives the Wellesley Senate bus Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, and says "I'd rather do this than B.C."

"The students are very nice, how else can you put it?" Lamons says. But the men who ride the bus are not quite as well-behaved, he says. "You get one or two that are bothersome when they get to drinking, but not the girls."