Chapter 1:

Alex walked through the front door as quietly as she could, hoping Claire wouldn't see her and ask her about the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. As she ran down the hallway to the downstairs bathroom, she made sure not to trip on the shoes that Haley and Luke had carelessly thrown everywhere.

Once she was in the safety of the bathroom, she closed and locked the door as quietly as possible. Alex looked at herself in the mirror, examining herself and all of the flaws that Hillary and the rest of her clique had pointed out that day; her round face, her boring and flat hair, and her uneven ears.

After a few minutes, she reached under the sink and fished around before finding her prized possession- a pocket knife. As she rolled up her sleeves, she couldn't help but cringe at the scars and fresh scabs that covered her arm.

She ran her finger over one that she had made just the day before, when Hillary had tormented her for her long, skinny fingers. Alex placed the blade of the knife on her wrist and took a deep breath before applying pressure and moving it the width of her arm.

Alex winced at the pain, but when the blood began steadily flowing out of the wound, she began to feel relief. After she repeated the process a few more times, she held her arm over the sink and watched the blood poor out and go down the drain. Just when she felt that if she watched the blood drip any longer she would become sick, Alex whipped the knife and put it back in the cabinet under the sink.

"Alex? Are you home yet?" Claire yelled.

"Yup, Mom," replied Alex, "I just had to go to the bathroom."

"Alright sweetie. You take your time and I'll make you a snack."

"Thanks, mom."

Now that Claire knew she was home, Alex knew that she had very limited time before she would begin to wonder why she was in the bathroom so long. Her blood had now ran off of her arm and started to make a puddle on the tile floor.

Quickly, she began to gather toilet paper to wipe up the mess on the floor and her arm.

"Alex?" she heard Claire say after a few minutes. "Are you feeling alright? You've been in there for a while."

She answered, "Yup, I just think I ate some bad tuna fish at lunch, that's all. I'll be out in a minute."

"Ok, but I can take you to the doctor if you need me to."

"No, I don't think that that is really necessary." Alex looked down at her arm and sighed; one of her biggest fears was having the doctor find the scars and cuts and ask questions that Alex didn't want to answer.

"Well, your snack is on the counter. I'm going to go and finish folding the laundry."

"Ok."

When the blood was off of the floor and the bleeding had almost stopped, Alex buried the blood-stained toilet paper in the garbage can and went into the kitchen to get her snack.

She stood at the counter and took out her phone. While she was eating her cheese and crackers and apples, she typed in her log she kept of everything Hillary had teased her about and on what date the tormenting occurred. This was her "Things I Need To Fix" list.

Haley walked up the stairs from the basement and Alex looked up from her phone.

"Hey," Haley said.

"Hi," said Alex.

"Woah!" Haley looked at Alex's hand and the pool of blood that was beginning to form on the kitchen floor. "What's that from?"

Alex put her phone face down on the counter and looked down. She felt her stomach drop, afraid that Haley would find out her big secret and then tell her mom, getting her in big trouble. "Uh, it's um, well, you know," she stammered, "I guess that it is from the paper cut I got when I was taking my book out of my backpack."

"Nerd," Haley whispers as she walked upstairs. A few seconds later, Alex heard a door close, and she assumed that it was Haley's bedroom door. Alex sighed with relief.

She put her phone down on the counter as she finished the rest of her snack. As she put her plate in the sink, she heard her phone go off. Alex walked over to it and saw that it was from Hillary. Someone must had found out Alex's number and given it to Hillary because Alex would never give Hillary her number; that was just asking for trouble.

Alex opened it and read it.

"Hey, loser," it said, "I know your big secret. I don't care if blood comes out of your arm until you run out and die. In fact, you should just kill yourself now. No one would care anyway and no one would miss you. So go ahead and do it. I dare you."

There was nothing Alex would do but stare at the text message and try to understand it. There was only one thing she could do. She had to do what Hillary wanted.

"I'm sorry for being such a disappointment I'm sorry for being such a waste of time and money. I was not worth it. I'm sorry I let it go on for this long. I really should have done this sooner, so I'm sorry for that too," Alex wrote. "Goodbye."

Alex put the note under her parents' pillow so they would only find it when they went to bed, and when it would be too late; she would already be gone.

Once she got back into her room and closed the door, she picked up the pain killers that she planned to overdose on.

To her surprise, there was still over half of a bottle left, just enough to accomplish her mission.

She poured out all of the pills into her hand and put them in her mouth. As quickly as she could, Alex drank water and swallowed every last pill.

Then, she lay down on her bed, hoping to fall asleep and never wake up.