Mike's POV

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

My alarm clock went off with horrendous volume. I covered one ear with one hand as I used the other to reach for the snooze button. After a minute, I finally find the circle button on the alarm clock. I pressed it and it was once again, quite in the room. I removed my other hand from my ear and sat up in bed. My eyes started to open and I looked at the time. 7:45! I was going to be late for my first day of school! I quickly got out of bed, sliding around on the carpeted floor to get to my clothes drawer. I opened it up and got my usual outfit; A light teal shirt with dark blue jeans and black high-tops. I rushed into the bathroom, slammed the door and took a brisk shower.

I put on my clothes as quickly as I could and looked in the mirror. My hair seemed to have its own hair style so it always would bounce back into what it normally looked like, pointing strait up like daggers. I quickly ran down the hallway to the stairs, going two at a time.

Once I reached the bottom of the stairs, I saw a ghost town of a kitchen and an untouched living area. "Guess Mom's coming back tomorrow morning." I said to myself. I went to the counter I took a slice of bread. I ran over to the fridge, before opening it, seeing a picture of when I was 4. The good old days where my family still actually cared for me and my dad wasn't in jail. Yep, the good old days. I finally opened the fridge, taking the last sliver of butter and putting it on his bread. Then, I ran back to my bedroom and gathered my things for school as quickly as I could. School started at 8:30 but the bus came at 8:00. I looked once again at the alarm clock. 7:55! I had to go now! I rushed back downstairs, grabbed the house key, ran out the door, locked it and made a break for the bus stop, finishing the last of my bread.

I got there with a minute to spare looking at the other people that I had the pleasure of sharing the street with. Brick, who was two houses down from mine, was ok and pretty nice although he was very jumpy. Amy and Sammy who were 1 house to the left of mine. Amy was such a little diva and dare I say brat who pretended to be nice. Sammy was actually nice but was quite shy but she was still one of my friends (Once I was able to get her from Amy). Sammy and I have been friends ever since Kindergarten. She had dropped her sugar cookie and I gave her mine. Ever since, we were friends. Amy that day was very peeved that I didn't give the cookie to her because in that grade, she had a crush on me. Lindsey and Beth, 3 and 4 houses down. The glam girls who get on everyone's nerves. Even mine. Once my parents when I was younger had a barbeque for the whole street and Lindsey and Beth had secretly used me as their dress up doll. After 5 minutes, Svetlana came out and had "Girl Time" with them. I hated them ever since but I have never told them that. I try to be as polite as I can. Finally, Cameron and Zoey who lived on either side of me. We have been best friends since birth because our parents were friends with each other. I didn't see Cameron or Zoey at the bus stop though. That was kinda strange.

Once the bus finally came, I hopped on last, going into the farthest seat from anyone. I put down my backpack and took out my phone and started playing Five Nights at Freddy's 4 which I had gotten to the 5th night trying to complete it. I moved closer to the window, trying so hard not to get Chica, my least favorite, to jump scare me. Then I felt the seat moved and saw out of the corner of my eye, a person in a green beanie and an orange vest. "Hi Shawn." I said not looking up from the game. "How did you know it was me?" Shawn asked. "Your vest. Plus, you smell like the mud from your zombie training course in your backyard." I replied smiling. "Hey, mud is good protection against zombies!" Shawn replied. Jasmine and Sammy sat in the seat next to us. They started chatting while Shawn and I played Five Nights at Freddy's 4, trying to see the last mini game to solve all mysteries. The bus then came to its final stop, our new school, Becker High. We got up from our seats, Amy pulling Sammy off the bus before we could do anything. I swear that Amy winked at me before she left the bus.

After getting off the bus, Shawn and I talked about our classes, the often zombie comment coming up every now and then. I then bumped into someone. "Oh Sorry…" I started before I noticed who I was talking to. It was Scott with his group of friends trailing behind him. "Oh, no need for apologies, Multiple Mike." Scott said smirking. I tried to walk around him but then I could feel him taking off my shirt. I gasped and switched places with Vito in my subconscious.

I found that Vito was in the card room, watching on the picture frame "TV" that personalities could see through the eyes of the body. I looked up to see Shawn and Jasmine tugging one arm and Scott and Duncan pulling the other. It had no sound so we couldn't hear Vito's yells of anger. I walked over to the table to see Svetlana, Manitoba and Chester playing a game of Go-Fish. "Go vwith the fishing!" Svet said. Mani sighed but didn't want to rain on her happy parade. I think that he had a crush on her. "Well, see that your first day of school is starting off great." A sarcastic voice said from a dark prison cell on the right of the room. I walked over frowning. "Like your day is any better." I retorted. I could hear footsteps coming from the darkest corner of the room. A face then appeared at the bars, my spiky hair draped across his left eye. He smirked at me. "Haven't visited me in a while Mike." Mal said still smirking. "I stopped visiting once you got me into Juvie." I replied coldly. I turned my back to Mal as I looked at the picture frame again. I saw that with one last tug, Shawn and Jasmine had gotten Vito and were now trying to put my shirt back on. "Watch your back Mike. I will return to power soon enough." Mal said before I switched places with Vito blinking to see Scott, Duncan and Alejandro walking away from us laughing.

"When will they stop doing that? It can't be that funny all the time." I muttered. "What did you say Mike?" Jasmine asked. I then realized that Jasmine and Shawn were there, looking worried. "Oh, it was nothing. Let's get inside before anything else happens." I replied cheerfully quickly getting up. The looked skeptical but followed. Freshman year was stressful enough with the added schoolwork and older kid, not to mention couples and romance but with Scott and his entourage plus Amy obsession, work years of my life! I walked in to school, looking for the rest of my friends when Cameron walked up to us, completely soaked. "Missed bus?" Shawn asked. "That's part of it. I was running to the bus with 5 minutes to spare and got assaulted by Duncan with water balloons so I had to get my mom to drive me to school." Cameron replied. "At least you made it before the bell rung." I said trying to look on the bright side. "Yeah. Being late on the first day would be horrible!" Cameron said. "I would miss some of the lesson!" I snickered along with Shawn. "How are you able to do that Mike?" Jasmine asked. I stopped snickering. "Do what?" I replied. "Always stay positive!" They all said. I nervously chuckled. I looked around for an excuse so I wouldn't be forced into answering a question that comes up almost every time I'm with them. Then I looked past the group and my mood changed, seeing my excuse walking right towards us. "Hey Zo!" I said. Everyone turned around to see Zoey walking to our little group. "Hey Mike. I decided to walk today. Got to school early." Zoey replied. "Why? It was raining last night so it was pretty foggy." Cam said. "Oh, no reason." Zoey said. I looked at her and the way her expressions were. "She came here because of Justin. Again." I said trying to mask my annoyance. Zoey started to blush. "How did you know that?" Zoey asked clearly embarrassed. "A: You are really expressive and B: We have all seen your bedroom." I replied. I remember in 7th grade once she had posters of Justin all over her room. She still had a couple. Every girl in our grade (Maybe even grades older or younger) had a crush on Justin. I think Owen had one as well… It got me so upset because I really liked (Loved) Zoey. She was nice, happy, cheerful and so much more. I bet Justin wouldn't pay one eye to her because she's not one of the "beautiful" girls in our grade such as Heather, Ann Maria, Courtney or Amy. We had a Halloween Costume Dance on the 31th of October and I plan to ask Zoey but first I have to get her attention… "Mike, you ok?" Shawn asked. "Are you a zombie?" I saw that I was daydreaming. "No. Just peachy." I replied just as the bell rung. "See you in class." I rushed to my locker and took out the stuff I needed and rushed to 1st period Gym along with Amy, Sammy, Cam, Zoey, Scott, Alejandro and Duncan. Oh Boy.

I went to the boy's gym locker and entered. We had to bring our own lock and gym clothes. I changed and walked in without getting in a fight. Weird. I walked into gym to see Zoey basically drooling over Justin (who wasn't wearing a shirt). We had to sit on the bleachers and wait for our teacher, as we call him, Chef because he is also the cafeteria "lunch lady". I sat next to Zoey and Amy sat next to me. Just a normal day for me. I try to empress Zoey and show that I'm not just her best friend and Amy is crushing on me. Not like I tell anyone this since no one wants to hear "Mr. Positive" speak about his problems. I used to be at the top of the popular scale with my friends, then Scott transferred in 1st grade. Amy tried to get my attention my pulling me to face her. That worked. I was facing her and she starts talking about being the power couple of high school. I listened, trying not to be the bad guy of the situation and I got no notice from Zoey. Just great. Then everyone heard the door bang open. All conversations stopped. We all looked to see a buff man walk in wearing an apron and chef hat. A new addition to his attire was a blow horn on a rope strapped around his neck. He was totally psycho. "Alright you little maggots! We are going to do some boot camp to whip your bodies into shape!" Chef screamed. "I have set up a course for you on the field! NOW GO GO GO!" "Yes Chef." Everyone said running outside.

We ran all the way to the field, seeing a course with monkey bars over a pool filled with snapping turtles, a small maze, rope swing over a pool of boiling water, a ladder leading up to a bunch of buildings to do parkour and to finish it off, a jump into a pit of mud. This would both be painful and dirty. It would be in teams of five trying to get each other across the finish line. I got Zoey, Cam, Amy and Justin. Oh, I so wanted to punch Justin but all I did was smile and say "Glad to be on a team with you." Cheerfully. Ever since the end of middle school, it's hard not to be nice to people. Sorta like a reflex. "Mike, you're daydreaming again." Cam said. "Oh, sorry." I said. We all went to the starting line. "I bet you will ace this with the help of Svetlana." Zoey said optimistically, finally looking away from Justin. I smiled sweetly at her and like an idiot, said "Yeah." I am never getting her to go on a date with me. She smiled back and I looked ahead. I kinda didn't want Svetlana to come out because maybe I would get to hold Zoey's hand. I then felt a voice in my head. "I have escaped Mike. Say goodbye to your personas." Mal said. My eyes widened as I approached the starting line. I re-focused and looked at the course. Maybe this means no cards. "Alright maggots. THREE, TWO, ONE…" Chef yelled before he sounded the blow horn.

We rushed out as I saw Justin reach and hold Zoey's hand. She squealed in excitement. I felt a part of my heart die as I saw blush. I felt my hand be held as well. It was Amy, squealing herself. I smiled at her which made her blush. I could feel the stares from other people, including Sammy. We reached to monkey bars and started climbing. Turtle jumped out as they bit our legs which hurt allot. Once we made it passed and got Cam out of the water, we raced onto the maze, having partners, Cam going with Amy and I. "I thought this was alone time for us." Amy protested. "Fine, I'll go to the Pizza Palace with you after school." I said trying to sound happy. She clapped excitedly. Cam gave me a look like Wow, You are so lucky. "Yeah right." I thought. We met with Justin and Zoey and Zoey's skin matched her hair. "If he kissed her…" I thought. We went the rope and I went first, swinging the rope back to the other side so Cam could try. I had to catch him at the end. Then Amy pretended to jump to early and had to catch her as well. Then Justin went and landed perfectly and Zoey went wobbling a little. We then ran to the ladder and started ascending. We did a bunch of crazy jumps and at the end, we all decided to jump at the same time. I held Amy and Zoey's hand. Score for me! "One…" I yelled. "Two…" Cam yelled. "Three!" Zoey yelled finally. We all jumped and landed into the thick substance. The worst part is was that we didn't have showers in school. We had a hose. We jumped up from the dirty goo and were covered head to toe. This was gonna be hard to get out of hair.

I looked over to Cameron and Zoey. They looked like mud monsters. I must have looked the same because we all started laughing. Amy was already heading back to Sammy, quite upset that she got her outfit ruined. Somehow, Justin didn't have a speck of mud on him even though I saw him jump in. In a way, he was kinda like Dawn but more annoying. After we all got out of the pool of mud, we watched other people try it. I would get a couple of stares as normal but they were different. They might have thought that Amy and I had become a couple. That wasn't going to happen as long as Zoey was around. Then the voice came again while I was watching Zoey cheer as Sammy got through the maze first. "Little Red will never go out with you. I don't even understand why she made friends with a loser like you." Mal said. This time instead of a head ache, it felt like I had had my heart literally broken. It was too early in the year for this. It was the first day and he was already having trouble with Mal. As much as I despised Mal, I felt like he was telling the truth. It made me cringe at the thought of Mal being… right. No one that I could see noticed, so I moved my attention to Sammy about to jump from the pretend building but then Scott held her hand, making her blush, trip and then fall into the mud pit bellow. For a few seconds she didn't come up until Scott jumped in after her and pulled her out, putting the angry Sammy over his shoulders. "Put me down." She screamed. Scott just smirked and walked back to the group.

He the dropped her into my arms like a baby. "Take your friend. Even though she's hot I don't think she likes me." Scott said. If there wasn't mud on her face, I bet she would be trying so hard not to blush and smile. I have done this once before, once we were ten and we played the wedding game. I wanted Zoey but we had a random system. I put her down gently. She smiled back but then was dragged away by an angry Amy. By that time, we were running back to the gym locker rooms, changing and using the hose to get some of the mud out of our hair.

In the boy's locker room, I was just leaving as someone caught me by the arm. "Where do you think you're going, Multiple Mike. We haven't bullied you in an hour!" Duncan said. I sighed and turned around. Duncan tightened his grip on my wrist, then through me against the locker. I winced in pain trying not to make a big scene. "Pleasure doing business with you." Duncan said as he smirked and walked to the door. I held onto my wrist to see no immediate bruising. At least it wasn't broken. I walked out of the room and met up with my friends, trying to cover up my wrist.

Until lunch, everything was pretty fine. All the teachers were all really nice probably because I was being who people normally saw. Being nice is fine but sometimes I want to be angry or rude. I met up with Cam talking about the homework. If you wanted to pass a test, you study with Cam. If you want to get an A on homework, you talk with Cam. Once he got an A ++! We walked into the lunch room, grabbing a tray and getting our organic, free range, slop on a stick. Yay us. To be honest, I think that Chef couldn't get it of one of the skewers and got an idea. I carried my tray out the door of the lunch cafeteria and to the outside picnic area. All of my friends and I would sit in the table under the huge willow. No matter how cold or hot it was outside, we would sit there. It had beautiful flowers blooming at its roots in the spring and summer and moved gracefully in the harsh winds in the fall. In the winter, it would have small icicles on where the leave used to be, making it seem like a glass chandelier upside down. Right now, it just flowed in the gentle, warm breeze in a calming sense. All the cool kids would sit inside with air conditioning and heating but everyone would was a "loser" would sit outside but still enjoy it. I sat down at a sit right next to Zoe. You would think by how I act around Zoe, it would be obvious that I like her but my friends can be oblivious that way. Cam sat across from me. Our friends came along with Brick and Sammy. "Hi Sammy." I said. "Nice food we've got today." "Totally. I bet the Chef thought he was being creative once he put his slop on the stick!" Sammy said snickering. We all started laughing. "Hey, Mike. I have to ask you, are you really into Amy?" Cam asked. Sammy looked away, knowing my answer. This is the couple of things that I told her and not the rest of my friends. This, I am adopted and that I have a crush on Zoey. "Yeah. She's pretty cool. Once you get to know her." I said though my teeth. Sometimes I can be really bad at lying. Jasmine frowned. "Just be careful. She's one of the poplars." Jasmine said. I nodded and decided to try the slop on a stick. It tasted like hot peppers and oatmeal. An improvement and it taste like when I try to make something spicy. I am horrible at cooking.

After I was done with my slop and put away my tray and ran into Heather, the "Queen Bee" of our grade. I got slop on her shirt and mine as well. As much as I wanted to just walk away like nothing happened, My reflex helped by making me sound like a wimp and say "I'm so sorry. It was a mistake!" She smirked evilly and said " It's fine. Multiple Mike was probably talking to one of his weird friends inside his head again." I frowned and walked away. The popular girls were different than the popular boy. They used words most of the time instead of getting physical. I went back to the table and wiped off the slop. "Did you have a run in with a cook zombie?" Shawn asked. "No, just ran into Heather though she is as bad as zombie, maybe even worse." I replied. "Well, Sammy, can I talk to you after school?" "Sure, if I can get Amy away from me." Sammy replied, trying not to sound curious. "We should get to our lockers." Zoey said trying to make everyone fell included. Everyone nodded and we all left heading to our next classes.

I met up with Sammy outside her house where she said she was going to the store for more tea bags for Amy's friends, Heather, Ann-Maria, Courtney and Senior Blainley. She snuck out and we ran to my backyard and up a ladder to a tree house we used to play in with the rest of our friends in 3rd grade. It had small chairs and a table. It had flashlights and old cameras all over the place along with dolls and action figures. We both sat in a chair in the old, mossy (But very sturdy) tree house. "What's up. We only come up here when we don't want to be seen." Sammy said. She put on a playful smirk and before I answer, she says "Come to confess your un-dying love for Amy?" I chuckled and said "Yeah right. This is important though. I think Mal is on the loose. It's been like, 4 years since this has happened and he's talking to me." I pause to hear Mal's voice again. Don't you get it? Amy 2 isn't going to keep your secret about me. Actually, maybe if that is the case, you could kill her and make her forget all about it. It would be so easy. Just take the Swiss Army Knife your pocket and stab her when she's not suspecting. Do it. You know you want to. I held my head and groaned in pain; I couldn't let Mal have control over me. I couldn't kill Sammy. It would be killing an innocent person. "Mike? Was it Mal again? What did he say?" Sammy asked. I looked up. "To kill you." I said sounding a little like Mal. Sammy's eyes widened as I heard Mal's laughter haunt my thoughts. We both decided to climb down and get in my house to do homework. We sat down at the kitchen counter and got a cookie or two and opened up our notebooks. Before we started, Sammy said "This will be an interesting school year." "Yes it will." I replied and we started on Math.