Rain by S Club 7

"You know I love it when it rains cause I feel you're here again I love it when it rains see the rain is like your tears and though your far away you're here the rain will bring you near I love it when it rains"

The lyrics ran through her mind as she stood letting the rain fall on her. She imagined all the people she had lost in the last month with her again.

Sonny was in the living room looking out the window watching her new sister. Usually Sonny was good at understanding people but this girl standing in her yard was different. Sonny had met Alex a few times before and they had been best friends since. They had a lot in common and they were both 15 but Alex was a lot different now. Before Alex had been an outgoing troublemaker, but now she was quiet, shy, and withdrawn. Although she had become more trusting and talkative but she was still not the same person Sonny had once known. Sonny knew there was something wrong with Alex but she had been told not to ask her questions about what had happened. All Sonny had been told was that her mom was adopting Alex and she was coming to live with them permanently. One way or another she was determined to find out what to Alex and why she was here. It had been a week since Alex came to live with them and Sonny's curiosity had kept growing.

Alex heard the phone ring inside breaking her of her trance and went in to answer it. "Hello" she couldn't believe who was on the other end. Marshall from Condor Studios was calling her to tell her she had been chosen to be the newest member of the So Random cast. They had seen her videos on the internet she made with her friends when she still had them. Since she now lived with Sonny who was also part of the cast they decided it would be a great idea to add her Hearing this made her so happy that she forgot all the pain she was feeling. "Thank you so much" she told him and hung up the phone. "I'm going to be on So Random!" she yelled excitedly as she ran through the house trying to find Connie her new mom. Connie was her mom's best friend and she loved her and Sonny they made her feel like she still had a normal life and family. "I'm gonna be on So Random with Sonny" she repeated when she finally found her. Connie was happy when she saw how happy Alex was. This was the happiest Alex had been since everything had started. "Really? I'm so proud of you! But are you sure your ready?" Connie asked knowing everything Alex had been through and how depressed she had been since. Alex calmed down after being asked this remembering again. "I want to do this" she said seriously."I don't want to keep feeling this way; maybe doing something new will help me to move on. You can't move on if you're stuck in the past." Connie smiled at Alex she trusted her if Alex thought this would be good for her and that she could do it then she would back her up. "You'll do great on the show, when do you start going with Sonny?" Connie asked. "Tomorrow they start the new episode and they want me to be in it" Alex said back to being excited.

The three of them celebrated Alex getting on the show that night. After dinner Alex decided to go to bed it had been a long day for her. She got ready and then laid down on the bed a few tears running down her face as she remembered the past month. She knew that Connie would support and trust her to do whatever she felt like she could do. But honestly Alex wasn't so sure about herself. How was she going to be like her old self, like who she was in those videos that was the reason she had gotten on the show. She couldn't just forget what happened or pretend that it didn't happen. It was still so vivid in her memory.

Sonny had decided that she would go to bed as well; maybe this would be her chance to ask Alex what had happened. As she entered their room she could hear Alex crying she got ready for bed and then went over and laid down next to her. Sonny knew she had been told not to ask Alex questions. But Sonny being Sonny this little order was not going to stop her."Are you ok" she asked. "Not really, it keeps feeling like this is a dream and when I wake up everything will be how it used to be. Alex answered. Sonny trying to think of the right way to ask her what had happened and why she was now living with them now asked. "So… why are you staying here now? I mean… I love having you here and as a sister and finally having someone to prank Chad with. But no one told me what happened or why you're living with us now." Alex was silent for a minute apparently a little too long for Sonny because she started to talk again."I'm sorry I didn't mean to ask you something you don't feel comfortable talking about; you don't have to tell me if you don't want to its ok. I …" Sonny was going to continue her apology but Alex cut her off. "No it's ok … I want you to know its just hard talking about it."It started last month my mom and dad were asked to check out this new murder mystery mansion."

A Month Ago

Justin who was 17, Alex, and Max who was 12 just got home from school. "Kids we need to talk to you for a minute" Their mom Theresa said. "What did Alex do now?" Justin asked making fun of his sister again. Alex shot him an annoyed look "I never get in to trouble" she said back. "Yes you do, you just always figure out how to get away with it" Justin shot back at her. "If I'm the one who got in trouble then I'll just blame Alex" Max said involving himself into the argument. "Hay I didn't do anything, but if you think your blaming me for anything I'm gonna do something to you." Alex snapped at her younger brother. "No one is in trouble" their mom said ending the argument. "Told you" Alex said giving her brothers a satisfied look that she had won the argument that she was actually not in trouble this time. "We've been asked to try out this mystery mansion and the three of you are going with us" their dad continued telling them. "Great what kind of mansion is it?" Max asked being completely out of the conversation as usual. Ignoring her younger brother Alex continued "Do we really have to go it sounds like something dorks would do." "It sounds like fun" Justin said adding his comment. "My point" Alex retorted tapping her older brother in the head. "Enough we're going tonight now go get ready" their mom ordered. The three of them listened for once but continued picking on each other the entire way to their room. It took an hour to get to the house, it was big, old, and looked as if no one had lived there for years."Great we get to stay in the creepy house" Alex commented. "What is little too cool to care afraid of a house?"Justin teased her. "No I just don't want to be here that's all" she replied defensively unwilling to let anyone know she was scared.

"Come in I'll show you to your rooms then it will be time for dinner and you'll get to meet the other guests" the butler told them. Everyone came down to the dining room and they were all served their dinner and drinks. Not long after three people were dead one stabbed the other two apparently poisoned by their food or drink. "And so the mystery begins" their host announced. All of this seemed a little to real to Alex given she liked horror movies but she did not care to be involved in any of it. She was too afraid to eat or drink what she had been served so she decided to go to bed. "I'm going to bed" she told her parents. "Why are you scared" Justin teased her. "No I'm just tired" she shot back. Alex went up the stairs on the way to her room when she heard a noise from a room near hers. "Hello" she said as she entered the room cautiously "Is anyone in here" looking down she saw two people covered in blood from gun shots. "Um … is this supposed to be part of the mystery?" She saw a shadow move toward her; she backed up into the corner of the wall. "Ww..who's there, i..is tt..this supposed to be part o..of the m..Mystery?"she stuttered "Come here" the voice from the shadowed person. "Um I have to go" Alex said and started running for the door. The person in the shadows jumped to the door and slammed it shut before she could get out. "Come here I promise I won't hurt you" he told her. "I don't want to, please let me go" she began to cry. "I can't let you go you know too much. Listen you make this easy and I won't torment you too much" he told her. As she started to move toward her she ran into the darkness so that he couldn't see her anymore. She ran into a desk and then hid under it. "You know running away will only make things worse for you and those close to you." Seeing that this wasn't working and that she wasn't going to come out he added. "Fine you may be able to hid for now but I will find you" he threatened her as he left the room. Alex began to cry to herself as she stayed hidden under the desk to afraid to come out. After awhile she heard people out in the hall and then ran out of the room and to her own. She went to bed and tried to go to sleep to afraid to come out of her room to tell anyone what happened. Early in the morning she finally got to sleep in her dream she could hear the voice still threatening her. She woke up shaking violently and crying from how afraid she was. she hid in her closet and looked the door so she would feel safe. She finally fell asleep again only to be woken up by people talking out in the hall. She cautiously got out of the closet and looked out into the hallway. "She's the one that came out of the room." Someone yelled to the police when they caught a glimpse of Alex in the doorway. Alex saw her mom and ran to her "What's going on she asked. "Were you in that room last night?" a police officer asked Alex coming over to her. "Yes" Alex answered in a small voice worried that the guy from last night would still be around watching her. "Did you know there were two murders in there last night?" "Yea" she said backing into her mom for comfort. "I heard a noise and went in and saw them. I don't know who did it all I heard was his voice and saw the shadow of him" she answered quickly. "Are you sure that's all you saw or that you didn't do it" the officer asked her. Alex began to cry a little and back more into her mother. "That is enough my daughter would not do that, and you do not need to be scaring her" her mom defended her. "Everyone is to go home if they live close enough or stay in a hotel nearby until this is solved" the police announced to everyone. When the police finally got done questioning Alex and they finally got home it was late at night. "Are we supposed to solve this murder to" Max asked. "No we just solve the fake ones" Justin explained. "O ok I gonna start working on solving them" Max said as he took off. "We don't need to solve them now" Justin started telling him "O forget it" he finished after he realized that Max had already gone and was no longer listening to him. "Finally were home and I can go to bed" Alex whispered to herself. She had the same dream that night and ended up sleeping in her closet like the previous night.

She had only the weekend to get over what had happened which in her opinion wasn't long enough. She came down stairs to eat breakfast before going to school. She was still very tired due to her lack of sleep the past few nights. She just stared at her food not even feeling hungry enough to even want it. "Are you alright?" her mom asked her. "Yea I'm just not that hungry" Alex replied. "Are you sure you haven't eaten much in the last few days" her mom asked worried about her daughter. "I'm alright" Alex said giving her mom a weak smile. "Alright" her mom said as she hugged Alex not really believing her Justin, Max, and Alex were then on their way to school. Alex was still scared of being anywhere that she didn't feel completely safe which in her opinion was only her room. She had not been able to convince anyone that she was in any danger. She was not in school long before she started having a bad feeling about being there. It was like a little voice in the back of her head telling her to run as fast and as far as she could from there. She got up and started to leave "what's wrong" the teacher asked her. "I have to leave now" Alex answered quickly and started to leave more quickly. "Sit down Miss Russo" the teacher snapped at her grabbing her arm to stop her from leaving. "I have to leave, I can't stay here" she said getting free and running from the school only stopping when she was a few blocks away."I can't go home they'll just be mad at me and make me go back to school." She said to herself "I'll just go to the park and stay there till schools out. At least there I can be by myself and think things through. After school would have been out she started to head to her families sub shop. When she got there she slowly entered thinking she would be in trouble. She saw her mother coming towards here. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to skip this time but I couldn't stay…" she was cut off by her mom hugging her crying. "Thank God your alive they said you left. There was a bombing at school." Alex completely broke realizing that she would never see her brothers or friends again. She knew that the guy from the mystery mansion was responsible for it and that it had been meant for her. They closed the sub shop and went up to their apartment.

It was late at night Alex couldn't sleep thinking about her brothers and friends. She got up and went downstairs it was to quiet for her she was used to tormenting her brothers and having them do it back. There was a knock at the door she went and hid behind the kitchen counter. The door was forced open he entered the living room and caught a glimpse of her behind the counter. "Come here Alex" hearing his voice she knew he was the guy from the mystery mansion. "Leave me alone" she yelled as she started to run up the stairs to warn her parents. "Help" she yelled almost completely up the stairs he grabbed her and yanked her down the stairs. She got up from the base of the stairs quickly and ran down the hall and hid in her older brother's room. Her parents hearing all the noise got up and went down stairs to see what was wrong. "You might as well give up, you know I'm going to kill you your just prolonging your death" he yelled at her. After a minuet she heard her parent's screams she cringed and started crying knowing what had happened. Then she heard sirens and police outside the apartment. "Your family is gone you have no one give up" he yelled at her. She got up to run outside when she was almost to the door he grabbed her and dragged her back to the living room. He slammed her into the wall as she started crying hard."Shut up" he yelled at her. "Just kill me that's what you want to do" she cried "You think after all this chasing and woke you made me do that I'm just going to let you have a quick death?"he laughed at her. He started coming closer to her but a vase that had been disturbed during the struggles fell and broke distracting him. When he turned around to see what the noise was Alex ran and got out the door. The police went in and she expected them to come out with him but they didn't. "He must have run out the front door he's gone" they said. They moved her out of state to a foster home. They treated her like she was a servant. She finally got to secretly call Connie and told her what had happened and was continuing to happen and to help her. It took them another week to decide to give Connie custody of her.

Present

"That's why I was sent here you and your mom are the only ones I have left." Alex told Sonny by now both of them were crying. "But you're on the show he'll know where you're at" Sonny said getting worried about Alex. "We have guards around here and a lot of them at the studio he can't hurt me. Plus if he does come after me maybe they'll catch him." Alex assured her. "Ok, we should probably get some sleep before we do the show tomorrow. Especially since it almost is tomorrow" Sonny said making both of them laugh. "Good night" Sonny said closing her eyes. "good night" Alex replied cuddling up against Sonny feeling completely protected for the first time in the past month.

Both girls woke up excited to be working together. Alex was even more excited than she had been the previous night when she was told she was on the show. She was going to get to meet the others and finally reach her dreams of acting. She was sad that she had gotten here through her family and friends dyeing but she also knew that she had gotten here with their help. Without her family encouraging her to follow her dreams and the videos that she did with her friends she wouldn't have gotten on So Random. They would always be in her heart and memories.

Sonny and Alex went to the studio to rehearse the sketch. "Ok this is Tawni, Zora, Nico, and Grady. This is Alex" Sonny introduced everyone. "Hi" everyone said greeting each other except for Tawni. She had not been happy when they had brought Sonny onto the show and now they were bringing another girl on. Tawni soon gave up though and accepted Alex knowing that like Sonny she would not be leaving. "Ok kids' lunch break" Marshall told them after they had been rehearsing for awhile. Alex decided to go over to the table that had food for the cast while the others talked. Suddenly she got the same feeling that she had gotten at school that day. She ran back to Sonny and the others and hid behind Sonny. "Are you ok" Nico asked her since Sonny had told them what had happened earlier so that they particularly Tawni would be especially nice to her. "Um there's no way he could get in here right?" Alex asked becoming unsure of her surroundings again. "Alex he doesn't even know where you are" Sonny told her. "Alex did you really think you could get away" a voice said from behind them. "That's him, he's the one that killed them" Alex said shaking. The others jumped in front of her to protect their new friend. Except for Tawni "emotionally I'm with them but physically I'm staying over here. I have fans… they…well..I have fans" she said explaining. "Shut up, either you get out of the way and let me kill her or I'll kill all of you" he commanded them. "Ok technically your end up killing all of us anyways so it doesn't really matter. But if you don't leave us alone I'm gonna let you have it. Zora said lunging toward him as the others grabbed her to hold her back.

Chad walking by hoping to find Sonny to tease her once again saw them and the guy holding a gun on them. Thinking to himself "What are they doing their chuckle city they don't do serious acting? Who's the new girl that looks like Sonny? Why does that guy have a gun? They're really in trouble aren't they?" He finally figured out that "chuckle city" as he called them were in trouble and tried to quickly figure out how to help them. Using his cell phone "hay we need security to chu… I mean the So Random set there's someone here threatening them." He hung up and tried to figure out what else to do they needed help now. He saw a pile of log like things that were to be used in one of So Random's sketches. He went over and released the logs letting them fall into the killer tripping him. The gun then flew out of his hand as the security guards showed up and arrested him. As the guards were taking him away Sonny hugged Alex his torment on her was finally over. "Good thing they caught you I was just about to let you have it" Zora yelled at him. "What no gracious you saved my life thanks" Chad teased Sonny. "Thank you for saving us and my new sister" Sonny laughed as she pulled Alex to her. "This is Alex my new sister, Alex this is Chad the three named doofus who thinks he's cool and the greatest actor of our generation I told you about." She teased making Alex laugh at her. "I am the greatest actor of our generation what are you talking about" Chad told her, truly believing what he was saying. Everyone started laughing at this. They all agreed that after rehearsals were over that they would go and celebrate Alex getting on the show. But most of all that she would now be safe because the guy who wanted to kill her was now in jail.