My film came out so wrong! what could have happened?help!?

Just because the camera automatically rewound the film at the end doesn't mean the film was loaded properly. Many cameras will automatically rewind at a certain frame number. You may also had the camera at the wrong ISO setting so the film was very underexposed - nothing worthwhile to print. Did the lab give you back the negatives? One way to tell if the lab screwed up is to check out the negatives. If the negatives are completely blank - I mean even the frame numbers and "Kodak" or "Fuji" labels are missing, then the lab didn't develop the film properly. Those labels on the negatives are actually exposures in themselves that get developed when they go through the film processor/developer. After working in a photolab for 10 years through high school, college, and grad school, the vast majority of blank negatives were due to camera user error. Developing of negatives is so automated that it's relatively hard to screw that part up. The printing of the pictures is where most errors occur. It's time to go digital.

I'm guessing that the lab at Target is a C41 lab. That is they only process film marked C41. There are two sorts of black and white films. One is a film that can be processed in a C41 lab. The other film has to be processed in different chemicals. If you process pure black and white film in a C41 lab, it comes out blank. It's possible that this is what happened to your film.

When you say, "had absolutely nothing on it" does that mean the film was not exposed at all or exposed to black? What do the negatives look like? Black or transparent? If they're transparent, the film wasn't exposed at all. The film might not have been loaded properly or there could be a problem with camera. You're sure the lens cap was off? Ha ha ha! If the negatives are dark, the film was over exposed. Look carefully. Are there ANY images visible at all? If so, you may have exposed the film incorrectly - perhaps from setting the ISO different from what the film was intended. Doing this doesn't immediately result in ruined film - you simply have to tell a good photo lab (not a department store lab - a REAL camera store lab) what you did and they can adjust the processing. (It's too late for the film you have, however.) If the film is utterly black with no images visible, it's likely the film was exposed to light before getting processed. Could be a problem with your camera or could have been a bad film canister that let in light to spoil the film. -- http://www.lenslenders.com

It sounds like the film did not go through. Just because the number of exposures show an increase or decrease does not show the film is going through the camera. If the 35mm camera has a rewind knob, watching it turn when you advance the film. If no rewind knob then watch the indicator light as the film advances; it should stop at the first frame (some Canon's advance the film all the way to the end and then roll the film back into the cassette). If the advance motor does not stop, then the film has not loaded properly.