High School Nightmare

Alex Maurine Morty is a 14 year old girl who is starting high school for the first time. She was born and raised in New York, on the east coast. She has a little brother, who goes by the name of Michael Adam Morty. As for her parents, they are divorced. Her mom lives in Dundalk, Ontario, Canada and her dad lives in New York City, New York, United States of America. Alex's mom has full custody of Alex and Michael, but her dad has parental visiting rights.

Alex is currently unpacking her suitcases and boxes, when she and her brother moved in with their mom. Their dad got caught selling drugs to people and doing them as well. Alex sighs when she stubbles onto a box full of her personal belongings that she doesn't want her mom or brother to find. Inside the box, is a photo album of her and her friends back in New York and her, her dad and Mike or Mickey as Alex calls him.

"Ally!" Alex turns around and runs to her bedroom door to see Mike crying.

"What's wrong Mickey?" Alex pulls Mike into her room gently and hugs him, after closing the door.

"We have school tomorrow and we just got here. I'm scared of getting bullied again. Back in New York we were in school together and here, I will be going to a different school than you" Mike hugs Alex tightly and Alex sighs.

"You know that you can always call me or you can tell me here at home if you get bullied. Then I can just skip school and go to yours" Mike nods sadly and sighs.

"What school are you going to and which one am I going to?" Alex smiles.

"You will be going to École Macphail Memorial Elementary School. And I will be going to Grey Highlands Secondary School. Besides our schools are beside each other, so I can just walk over" Mike smiles and starts to jump up and down.

"Did you know you are THE best older sister ever?"

"No... Maybe… Sometimes? I don't know… Jonas Brothers" Mike rolls his eyes knowing that Alex is now being a goof.

"You're random" Mike states.

"Why thank you kind sir" Alex mocks and curtsies, she then loses her footing and falls to the floor. Mike starts to laugh as Alex slowly gets to her feet, "I'm ok. I'm fine. Thank you for asking"

"You're welcome!" Mike pokes Alex a few times then runs from her room. Alex rolls her eyes and sighs.

"At least he's feeling better." Alex rubs her forehead that she hit off the floor, "Next time I will remember to catch myself" Alex smiles to herself and goes back to unpacking.

That afternoon, Alex decides to take a walk, to look around town. She notices that she lives next to the Dundalk Pool. Alex sighs and slips her headphones of her iPod into her ears and turns it on. She quickly flips to her favourite song at the moment, Can't Back Down. Alex grins and starts to sing and dance along to it after putting it on repeat. As she dances, sings and walks around town, she doesn't notice a girl walking toward her. The 2 girls bump into each other and fall to the ground.

"I'm sorry" the unknown girl apologises. Alex takes out her headphones and gets up

"Watch where you're going!" Alex shouts and glares.

"What about you do the same!" the other girl freaks. Alex rolls her eyes clenching her fist.

"Just shut your mouth and stay out of my way" Alex shoves her way passed and starts to walk away. The unknown girl gives an angry sigh and walks away as well.

"Must be a drama queen", the girl mumbles. What she doesn't know, is Alex heard her speak and runs at her. Alex jumps onto her back and pulls her down.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Alex shouts getting ready to punch her.

"Get off my sister!" a guy runs over and throws Alex off, "are you OK Steph?"

"Yea, I'm ok" 'Steph' answers, glaring at Alex. Alex glares back. If glares can kill, 'Steph' would be dead. The guy nods and helps Steph to her feet as Alex does the same. Alex slowly backs away and is about run, but the guy pulls her back.

"I'm going to beat the crap out of you, for hurting my little 17 year old sister", the guy sneers. He punches Alex in the face. Alex holds her cheek and narrows her eyes. She clenches her fist and punches him back, twice as hard, knocking him onto his back.

"ALEX!" Alex hears Mike yell and his footsteps. She hears another set of footsteps coming at her, "Alex stop!" Alex looks down to see that she is now straddling the guy and beating the crap out of him. 'How did that happen?' Alex asks in her mind.

Alex looks to her right, to see her iPod lying on the ground, away from the fighting area. 'Thank gosh. I would be really upset if it was broken'. Alex gets off the guy and walks to her iPod smiling. She looks behind her to see Mike and her mom standing there nervously.

"Are you ok?" their mother asks.

"Yup. Just peachy. Can we go home and watch Sucker Punch? The fight reminds me of the movie" Alex explains when they give her questioning looks. Mike nods eagerly and grins.

"Can we watch The Last Song and Beastly after?" Mike asks happily.

"Sure, and I think it was a bad idea to turn you into my Ken doll", Alex jokes.

On the walk back to the house, Alex and Mike are silent, which is rare.

"Alex, why did you do to get into a fight?" their mom asks.

"It's not my fault. The girl is a bit… freaking female dog, in an insulting way. As for the guy, he punched me first, and I fought back. It's called SELF DEFENCE!" Alex storms up the walk way and slams the door after she gets in. Mike sighs and shakes his head.

"Mom, one thing you need to know about Alex. She gets into fights a lot, protecting the family, and she NEVER starts fights. She only starts fights when people insult me, but other then that, she won't", the mother, Karin, sighs.

"Fine. But she's grounded Mike. Oh, and she will not be allowed to leave this house, except for school tomorrow." Mike nods and rolls his eyes

"Whatever mom. Besides, right now, we rather be with dad." With that, Mike storms into the home, leaving a shocked Karin.

In Alex's room, she has a razor in her hand. She already locked her door and Mike knows, not to bug her when she's in a bad mood and her music is loud. The song that is playing at the moment is Bring Me to Life by Evanescence. Alex knows the song that's one right after will be; I Hope You Find It by Miley Cyrus. Alex smiles to herself, she beat the crap out of a guy who is older than 17. She slowly places the razor against her left wrist. She gently slides it across and feels a pain shoot through her body. She looks at her wrist to see a small cut, she grins and puts more pressure on the razor and slides it across again. She sighs in relief when she feels the cut getting deeper. Alex removes the razor and starts to, cut in a different place, right below the first one. Alex has been cutting herself since she was 10 years old. No one knows, yet and she plans to keep it that way. Another thing no one knows is that Alex is suicidal. Alex is also Goth, but everyone already knows that one. Alex only wears black, and rarely white. Alex always wears long sleeves and always keeps an eye out for thin tops with long sleeves or sweaters that are really light, for the summer and spring. The only thing that is heard in Alex's room, besides the music, will be Alex's short breaths. The pain is now becoming too unbearable for Alex so she drops the razor and runs into the bathroom that is attached up to her bedroom. Alex turns on the water and slips her bleeding wrist under the cold water. As the water gets rid of the blood, Alex grabs a band aid with her right hand. Once she gets the band aids, ready she dries off the water and uses rubbing alcohol to clean them. Once the burning decreases, Alex covers the band aids with her sleeves to hide them from everyone. Alex sighs with pleasure when the burning stops. She returns to her room in time to hear a knock on her door. She turns off her music, walks to her door and makes sure the razor is hidden. She opens her door and receives a slap in her face from Karin.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Alex growls.

"Nothing is wrong with me. It's you who has a problem" Karin staggers over to her and Alex backs away quickly. "I want you to become my slave." Alex shakes her head and quickly opens the window. She jumps out of the window and as she falls, she closes her eyes. When she opens her eyes she sees that she landed on a trampoline. She smiles to herself and looks up to see Karin looking down at her. Alex just jumped from a three story house. Alex doesn't understand why Karin has such a big house. Alex takes a deep breath, gets to her feet and walks to the front door, to search for Mike. As she opens the door, she hears someone falling down the stairs. Alex looks up and sees Mike falling.

"MICKEY!" Alex screams and runs to him. She gets on her knees and holds him, and he smiles at her.

"I love you Ally" Mike whispers weakly.

"I love you too." Mike closes his eyes as blood comes from his head, eyes, nose, ears and mouth. Alex checks his pulse to find nothing. Alex starts to sob as Mike stops breathing she knows that Mike has died. Alex holds Mike tighter in the hope that he might be ok, but after 30 minutes, she knows he won't. "I love you Mickey. I won't forget you. You are my rock and always will be." Alex slowly gets to her feet and calls 9-1-1.

The next day, Alex is wearing completely black, no other colour on her. She is wearing a black sweater with a hood, black t-shirt, black pants, black converse and black socks. Alex sighs as she walks into the school to get her timetable and to talk with the principal. Alex walks into the office, to see the principal waiting for her.

"Ah, you must be Alex Morty. I'm Mrs. Daniel." Alex nods and looks down. Alex hasn't spoken since last night and if you are close to Alex, you would notice that when Alex is happy, her eyes will be light brown. If she's in a good mood, they will be normal brown colour. If she's passed mad, they will be a VERY dark brown. "Ok, let's get you into my office and let's talk about your classes." Alex nods once again and follows her to her office. Once in the office, Alex sits down as Mrs. Daniel closes the door, "Now, what classes do you want to take?" Alex shrugged her shoulders and continues to look down, "Miss Morty, you have to tell me" Alex points to a piece of paper. Mrs. Daniel looks and grabs it. She also grabs a pen and hands both of them to her. Alex quickly writes down the 4 classes that she would love to take since its February. She hands the paper to the principal and closes her eyes. The principal looks at the sheet. What it is says is Spanish, English, Math and Business. Mrs. Daniel looks at Alex to see her asleep. 'Must have had a bad night'. Little did Mrs. Daniel know she is not far from the truth.

As the day went on, Alex ended up skipping 2 classes, because she couldn't handle going to Mike's favourite classes, Math and English. As Alex sat on her bus, she held back her tears. Her heart aches from Mike's death. She really wants to live with her dad, Jerry. Jerry has always protected her even when he sells drugs or drinks liquor. Jerry would do anything he could to protect her and Mike, even when they would think he wouldn't. The reason why, Mike and Alex want to live with Jerry, is because Jerry knew that Karin is abusive. He never told Alex or Mike. Jerry never wanted his kids to live with Karin, but now that he's in jail… they have no choice.

Jerry is sitting in his jail cell, thinking about Alex and Mike. 'What if they are hurt? What if they don't want to be there? What if one of them is dead? Will I be able to save them? Will I be able to get them out of there?' As Jerry thinks of all of this, he gets a bad feeling. It feels like a knife went into his heart and getting twisted. 'Alex, please be ok.' Jerry takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. He has to think of a way to get out and save his kids.

Alex is crying her eyes out, in the corner of her room. She is curled into a ball, and trying to breathe and to relax, but she can't. She wants to be with her dad and with Mike, in New York. She wants to go back in time and change everything. Alex looks down to see her skateboard under her bed. Alex gets to her feet and walks to her bed and reaches under for her skateboard. She grabs her board and stares at it. Before Mike died Alex was teaching Mike how to skateboard. He loved it. Alex takes in a shaky breath and walks to her door. As she walks out, she sees Karin lying on the floor passed out. School isn't over just yet. Alex walks outside, wipes her eyes and places her board on the ground. Alex places one foot on the board and slowly pushes off. She starts to skate around Dundalk. She stops at the graveyard where Mike will be buried. Alex went home at lunch time, by hitch hiking with a nice man driving from Flesherton to Dundalk. It turns out, that the man has a daughter in the same grade, goes to the same school and same age as Alex. Alex walks over to the Dundalk graveyard, and sits down on a bench and bursts into tears.

"Ally, please don't cry. You know I hate it when you cry. Please, you will be ok. You saved me. I'm alright. I'm not dead. I'm in your heart and if you come to the hospital right now, they will just tell you, I'm ok and in a coma. Please, come to me. I love you Ally" Mike's voice tells her. Alex gasps.

"Mickey?" Alex whispers.

"I love you Ally. Please come to the hospital"

"I will Mickey" Alex got to her feet and climbed onto her skateboard once again. Now she has to find a way to get to the Markdale hospital. Alex skateboards to her home, runs up the steps to the backyard and starts to climb a tree to get to her bedroom window. She swings through her open window and grabs her health card and her wallet that has $45 in it. She quickly makes her way down the tree once more, jumps off it, lands on the trampoline, and runs to where her skateboard was only a few minutes ago.

"Where do you think you're going? What are you doing home?" a voice behind her asks. Alex turns around, just in time to fall to the ground holding her bleeding cheek.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Alex screams, climbing to her feet.

"Where are you going?" Karin growls.

"To the hospital! Now give me my board!" Alex dives for her board, but Karin lifts her knee and her knee collides with Alex's eye. Karin punches Alex in the nose and the only thing heard, is a loud crack and Alex is screaming. She falls to the ground and groans in pain. Her body tells her to close her eyes, but Alex fights to keep them open. Alex sees Karin walk over to her and kneels down next to her.

"Now, are you going to go to the hospital?" Alex sighs, but hears the ambulance coming toward the house.

"Of course I will" Alex closes her eyes, allowing her body to win.

As the week goes by, Alex has been too weak to move, blink, or talk. Karin has been placed in jail and it turns out that Mike is alive and well. For the last 4 days, Mike has been allowed to come into Alex's room. Alex smiles when Mike comes into her room each and every day, since she has awakened.

"Ally?" Mike whispers when he opens the door.

"Yes, Mickey?" Alex whispers back as Mike walks in the rest of the way. He gently sits on the edge of her bed.

"I'm scared. What if mom comes back?" Alex sighs.

"She will not come out. If she does, she will have to go through me before she can get to you" Mike nods and hugs his older sister gently.

"I love you sis. You are the best thing that has happened. You are the one I kept fighting for and you helped me pull through" Alex smiles.

"Same here. I fought to get to you. I will fight to get to you every day. You are the best thing that has happened in this screwed up world, we call life" Mike laughs and this causes Alex to laugh.

"What happened to your wrist?" Alex looks down to see all her cuts showing.

"Uhm... I... well, you see..." Alex looks down and starts to fight the tears in her eyes.

"Ally, you can tell me everything and anything. I will not judge like many people. You know that."

"I know. It's just that... well, I cut Mickey. I'm emo, I'm goth and I'm suicidal. It's hard to stop. I've been emo since I was 10. I've been goth since I was 12, and as for suicidal, it's been a year. I was 13 when I discovered I had suicidal thoughts."

"But why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to worry. I didn't want you to know, because than you will have too much on your plate. I have a lot, but that's because I'm your older sister."

"But if you have too much, you might commit suicide!" tears starts to fall from Mike's eyes, so Alex pulls her little brother to her and hugs him tightly

"I will be fine. I have you to keep fighting for. You are my rock Mike, and if anything happened to you... I don't know what I will do"

"Same on this side too sis"

"I know. I love you"

"I love you too"

A week flew by, since Alex discovered Mike had slipped into a coma following his fall. Another week flew by, since Mike discovered his sister's secrets, which she kept from the world. It has been a week since Karin got taken to jail. Today is OFFICALY Mike's and Alex's first day of school. It's now February 10th 2011. Its four days before Valentine's Day and Mike and Alex has been living in Dundalk, Ontario, Canada for three weeks now. Alex and Mike are living in Karin's home, but with a police officer staying with them. The two kids don't know if it's allowed, but they are just happy that they don't have to be separated. Right at this moment, Mike and Alex are sitting together, talking about the first things that come into their minds.

"I love the song, Can't Back Down by Demi Lovato" Alex smiles as Mike hugs her. Today, Alex decides to wear, blue jeans, with her purple converse and black t-shirt, along with a black and purple sweater. Mike is wearing jeans, red and white Nikes and a blue, white and red t-shirt with a checker sweater.

"We can't back down. There's too much at stake. This is serious. Don't walk away. We can't pretend. It's not happening. In our own backyard..." Alex starts to laugh at Mike's singing and random dancing in their seat. Alex and Mike see people staring at them, but they just laugh it off and start all over again.

As Alex gets off the bus and walks into the school, after hugging her brother and kissing his cheek, she walks to her locker, to see an adult standing there.

"Uhm... hi?" Alex questions.

"Hi, my name is Mrs. Flower and I am your Spanish teacher." Mrs. Flower explains, "Are you Alex Morty?"

"Yes."

"It's nice to meet you. I am sorry I haven't been in class on your first day."

"That's fine. I was there for at least 10 minutes, and then I left. I was having family problems and I couldn't stand being in class."

"Where have you been for the last week?"

"I have been in the hospital."

"What happened?"

"I rather not say. I'm sorry. I have trust issues."

"That's understandable. If you are not in the mood to do work, just tell me and I will help you out a bit and if you have something going on at home, you could just tell me and I will do my best to help, ok?"

"Ok. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Mrs. Flower smiles and Alex smiles back weakly, "There's something bugging you, isn't there?"

"Yes. I'm just worried about something."

"Ok, remember, I am here to help you."

"Ok." Alex sighs in relief as Mrs. Flower walks away. It is true, Alex does have trust issues, but she hides her emotions like crazy and she will only talk to her little brother Mike. As a girl with brown hair and red and blue streaks walks by, Alex crashes into her.

"I'm so sorry" the unknown girl apologises as Alex takes a deep breath in. The girl looks up at Alex to see that Alex has purple streaks in her hair and Alex's hair is close to black. Alex's eyes are close to black, and the girl noticed, "Are you ok? Why are your eyes close to black?" the girl asks as she picks up her fallen books.

"None for your business." Alex snaps. The girl rolls her eyes knowing Alex won't open up.

"My name is Nikki Rocker. I'm 14 and my parents are divorced and I live with my dad in Dundalk." Nikki tells her. Nikki already knows a lot about Alex. How she knows, is because he dad is a paramedic and had Alex's case.

"I'm Alex. I'm 14 and that's all you need to know." Alex slams her locker shut and starts to walk toward the cafeteria. Nikki smiles and starts to follow her. As Nikki follows Alex into the cafeteria, she sees Alex sitting by herself, as a group of 10th, 11th and 12th graders stands around her, taking her things. Nikki storms over and pushes a few away.

"What's going on?" Nikki snaps, causing Alex to look up with fear in her eyes. Nikki looks at Alex and places her hand on Alex's back gently.

"Oh nothing freak." A 12th grader answers, cause Nikki to round on him. Nikki glares and the guy slowly backs away. Nikki smirks as the guy left, which causes the others to leave as well.

"I guess he was the leader." Nikki states to herself. She looks back at Alex to see her whimpering to herself, "Are you ok?" Nikki whispers and takes a seat next to her.

"It's my first day back and I get bullied. On my first day I got bullied too. I can't stand it anymore." Alex gets to her feet, grabs her bag and runs out of the room. Nikki runs after her to see Alex running out of the school. Nikki sighs and closes her eyes, thinking whether or not to follow. Nikki takes a deep breath, and runs after her. As Nikki followed, she noticed that Alex is running toward Macphail. As the 2 of them runs onto the property, Nikki sees Alex running for a little boy, who is crying. Alex pulls the kid into a hug and sits on the ground with him in her lap. Nikki stops running and slowly approaches them.

"Hey…" Nikki whispers, taking a seat beside them, "Who's this?"

"My little brother. He's 11." Alex whispers back hugging Mike closer to her, "Do you want to go home Mickey?" Mike nods into Alex's neck and Alex slowly gets to her feet, "Ok, let's go. We will just have to stop off at my school, so I can tell me Spanish teacher." Mike nods and the 3 of them starts to walk back to the high school.

Once the 3 of them arrives into the school, Mike holds Alex's hand tightly and will not let go.

"Where do you live?" Nikki asks Alex and Mike.

"Dundalk." Alex answers bluntly

"Cool. If you need a ride, I could call my dad." Nikki offers

"Cool." Mike answers before Alex could get a word in. Nikki shows the new comers to Mrs. Flower's office and knocks on the door. As that is going on, Alex is drying Mike's tears and kisses his forehead.

"You will be ok. We both will." Alex whispers to him as he hides himself in Alex's arms.

"You're the best." Mike whispers just loud enough for Alex to hear.

"You're the best too." Alex pulls out her iPod and hands it to him, "listen to some music when I talk to her, ok?"

"Ok" Mike nods and turns the iPod on and starts to listen to the music. Just then, the door opens.

"Oh, hi Alex. Hi Nikki. What may I do for you?" Mrs. Flower asks. Alex takes a deep breath.

"I need to go home. My little brother is having a rough time and so am I." Alex explains.

"Are you sure? Maybe I could get your little brother to stay here…"

"He needs to be with me and I doubt that you would like to have a little 11 year old in the classroom."

"I actually don't mind. Come on." Mrs. Flower leads the way into her office, and Alex, Nikki and Mike follows.

Another week has gone by and for Alex; the bullying is getting worse and worse. To top it off, the school will not stop it. With the school not stopping it, Alex is getting sick and tired of it all, so she skips the classes that her bullies are in. Alex has been cutting more and more, and that has caused her to get rushed to the hospital. Alex really wants to stop cutting and being suicidal, that she has decided to finally get help. That is where Alex is at the moment, she is walking to the health nurse office in the school. She looks at the sign, to see it reads Health Nurse is in the school today. Alex takes a deep breath and knocks on the door.

The door opens to reveal a lady with reddish-orange hair and blue eyes.

"Are you Alex Morty?" the lady asks and Alex nods, "Come on in." the lady smiles and Alex slowly walks in. Alex sighs and takes a seat in the chair for other teenagers to talk about bullying, sexual intercourse and all that disgusting stuff, and even more than that. The lady takes a seat opposite of her after closing the door, "My name is Tess and I am the health nurse here at GHSS. I am aware that you said something, about wanting to stop. May I ask what it is that you want to stop?" Alex takes another deep breath and lifts her sleeve to show more than 50 cuts on her forearm.

"I want to stop cutting." Tess gasps when she sees the cuts and pulls out a rubbing alcohol swab.

"May I clean them?" Tess asks gently as Alex nods

"Yes please." Tess starts to gently clean the cuts and place a bandage around her arm to keep people from seeing them and at the same time, to keep them from re-opening.

"Are you ok?" Tess asks when she sees Alex jump and hears her whimper.

"Yes, I am fine." Alex answers quietly.

"What is making you wan tot stop now? And when did you start?"

"I started when I was 10 and it doesn't help me anymore. Besides, I know I am putting myself in danger if I continue. I am all my brother has left. Can you please help me? I beg you." Alex's brown eyes fill with tears and Tess nods.

"I will help you, in every way I can Alex. What I will do is send you to the Mental Health team in Markdale, and they will help you. But every Tuesday I am here, I will like you to come and see me. Ok?"

"Ok." Tess smiles at Alex, knowing Alex has done something that I impossible for many adults and teenagers. She wants to turn her life around, and for the better. She wants to make a change.

Written by,

Toni Yeats