So often, the monster under the bed isn't scary. When you turn on the light or open the closet door, the monster turns out to be a chair at a weird angle, or the sweater you put on the end of your bed. The real monsters are, instead, the people you're supposed to trust. It could be a sister or a brother, a classmate, or even a parent. Alec wasn't afraid of monsters. When he watched horror films, he would laugh at the stupidity of the characters. He knew what took me a long time to understand.
The real monsters are people.
I'm going to destroy this. This fucking thing is never going to be right, and it's my fault because I can't fucking write it. ojihophhh;dgdkgjjhirst9r t;jkrtmk'dm.f That would be my head introducing itself to the keyboard. Okay. Deep breath. I can do this. I've written this story before. So let's start. Who was Alec? Why does he matter? See, the key to writing a good story is engaging with your audience and giving them a reason to want to read your story. So. Who was he?
Alec was the kid no one paid attention to. He was always in the shadows or the periphery, and he preferred it that way. At least at school, the was some separation from the parts of his life that he didn't want to think about, the parts that everyone wanted to pretend didn't exist. He wasn't well-liked. Or rather, no one knew him well enough to form a real opinion of him. The best anyone could really tell, he was a quiet kid in the back of a classroom, rarely stepping forward. But he had a secret. One that he kept so close that even the people who saw him every day didn't know. They didn't know that The family image he so carefully crafted masked a set of parents that were more often than not strung out on drugs, and when they weren't, they were looking for drugs or bringing dealers and fellow addicts into the home. Looking at Alec, no one would know he wasn't normal. But as someone once told me, it's very easy to misjudge someone based solely on what you see.
It was a Saturday, a couple weeks before summer break, and the sophomore class was running a recycling drive. Everyone was expected to participate, if not by bringing in recyclables, then by helping to sort them before the class took them to the recycling plant. Alec sat back, letting his more eager classmates do the sorting. He didn't see why he should participate, seeing as he didn't have the permission slip signed to go to the plant. Besides, the whole participation thing… He wasn't very into it. So he watched as Megan took charge, ordering people around. He could see her in some kind of CEO position when she was older. Naturally, she had a very high opinion of herself, and everyone else just didn't live up to her expectations. She was part of the reason school was such a misery for him, because she was a part of a group of kids who Alec had known forever, but who seemed to hate him, for some reason he never understood. He never fit in with them, but it wasn't like he did anything to them. On good days, there was only a few comments in the hallway. On bad days… Well, it was still better than being at home.
Everyone filed out to the busses to go to the recycling plant, leaving him alone in the classroom, with just the substitute teacher, Mr. Collins, at the desk at the front of the classroom. Alec was supposed to treat this day like an extended study hall, unfortunately mandatory, but altogether boring and unnecessary, in his opinion. He didn't get why it mattered so much that he was here. It wasn't like he was going to do anything anyway. He didn't have any homework to finish, and Mr. Collins didn't seem to have anything prepared.
Just when Alec was getting ready to ask for the bathroom pass, the door opened. A tall, clearly athletic kid came in, and handed Mr. Collins a note. Alec watched the kid with the kind of focus he didn't realize he had in him. The kid surveyed the classroom, and almost immediately caught Alec looking at him. Mr. Collins signed the paper and put it in a folder on the desk, and the kid came over and sat down in the desk next to Alec.
"Hi. I'm Jace." He offered a hand to shake Alec's.
"I'm Alec. Nice to meet you. Are you new?" Of course he was new. He wouldn't be sitting in that seat, trying to make friends if he wasn't.
"Yeah. Just moved here from Georgia. They said something about a trip today, but I didn't get the slip signed in time, so they said just come to class for a study hall." Jace shrugged, but Alec wondered if there was more to the story. Not that it was any of his business. He'd just always been able to tell if someone was avoiding something. But he wasn't going to call this new kid out on whatever he didn't want to talk about. Still, he knew that this budding friendship would only last until class starts Monday morning.
"So what brought you to Clearwater?"
"My mom wanted a change of scenery," Jace said. He had a cynical edge to his voice, and Alec wondered what that meant. He decided it didn't matter. "So tell me about this place. What's the school like?" Alec was surprised, sort of. Changing the subject? That works.
"I don't know. The school sucks. I mean, I guess it's cool with the new building and whatever, but it's really just… like a big mask over the real problems."
"What do you mean?"
"People are really… fake, I guess. It's like everyone wants to be something they're not, and there's a formula that they've all figured out that… Some of us haven't."
"They're all faking it," Jace said. The confidence in his tone struck Alec as peculiar. As if Jace had a lot of experience.
"Do you? Fake it?"
"All the time. Hey, watch this." Jace raised his hand. "Uh, Mr. Collins?" The teacher looked up from whatever he was reading on his screen. "I'm new here. Would it be alright if Alec here gave me a tour of the school. It would really help me out a lot for Monday."
"Oh, yeah, sure. Here, take this hall pass, just in case." Mr. Collins held out the pass, and Jace shouldered his bag. Alec took a minute to formulate his thoughts. That was easy. He followed Jace out the door, and down the hall. He had to jog to catch up.
"So what do you want to see first?" Alec asked.
"The beach," Jace said, heading toward the door.
"What? We can't-"
"Come on, like you were doing anything worthwhile in there," Jace said. Alec had to admit, he was right.
"Fine, but let's go this way. Shortcut," Alec lead the way down a side hallway to a stairwell. They took the stairs, and then a door that led out to a side parking lot. It was completely empty. Alec led the way to one of the main streets that led to the beach. They walked in silence for a while, until they reached the beach, with the pier stretching out over the water.
"Damn, you see this every day?"
"Yeah, when I can. Let me show you the best places." Alec headed down the beach a ways, to where some big rocks formed tide pools, and on to a natural cave concealed among the rocks.
"How did you find this? It's great."
"All the kids know about it. It's dangerous, though. This is low tide. When it's high tide, this whole thing is under water. Don't get caught out here when the tide comes up."