Roxie glanced out her window, staring at the setting sun in the sky. She sighed as she put out her cigarette in the ash tray on her bed-stand, and then stood up. She felt like doing something- anything- to get out the pent up frustration inside. She was restless, and decided to go take a run, which she rarely did. Roxie was never much of a participator in sports, but she was actually a good athlete. At her old school, the few times she had shown up to gym class, she had made the mistake of being a good runner. So her stupid coach had weaseled her into being on the track team, but she had eventually gotten thrown off because she had kept tripping people in the races.

Roxie slipped on her tennis shoes, left her room, and headed downstairs. When she got to the living room, she stopped. Her parents, plus two of their loser "friends" were sitting on the couch, completely doped up. Roxie spotted a few needles, and realized her parents had just taken a reasonably high amount of heroin. Roxie sighed.

"Hey, Roxie!" one of her step-fathers friends, Max, called, waving like an idiot. "You….what are you doing, sweet thing?" Roxie grimaced and shuddered, completely repulsed. Sure, Max was one of Georges more attractive friends, and was actually quite handsome, but he could creep Roxie out. But he was actually ok when he wasn't hammered or high.

Roxie was about to retort with a snappy comeback, but the doorbell rang. Roxie snapped her mouth shut and hurried to the door. She pulled it open and found Spinner Mason standing on her doorstep. Then, she immediately did what her first instinct was- she slammed the door in his face.

A minute later she heard a small knock, and she groaned.

"Hey! Who's that?" George yelled. Roxie sighed and slowly opened the door, just the tiniest bit.

"Um…hi," Spinner said, with a confused wave. Roxie looked behind her, and then back at Spinner.

"What?" she snapped. She heard loud, obnoxious laughing behind her, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Spinner tried to peer over her to see what was going on, but Roxie blocked his view.

"Is Angel here?" he asked, scratching his head.

"No. She's dead. Bye," Roxie quickly replied, and then tried to shut the door. Spinner stuck out his foot and stopped it

"Seriously. I wanted to talk to her."

"Spinner, go home," she hissed, frustrated. What was the big fucking deal with her sister? This always happened- even the nicest boys managed to be manipulated by her shrew of a sister. "We have been over this. You have a girlfriend, and my sister is the Devil reincarnated. It is not going to work. Plus, you need to stop doing this whole stalker thing. It's weird and disturbing."

"Do you not like me or something?" Spinner asked with a confused look. Roxie rolled her eyes, irritated with how obviously slow this boy was. She had a feeling this was going to take awhile. She opened her mouth to explain again, but suddenly Spinner's eyes lit up. Roxie glanced behind her and saw Angel coming down the stairs, wearing her leather jacket and obviously preparing to leave. Angel spotted Spinner, and coyly strolled over.

"Hey, Spinner," Angel said provocatively, bumping Roxie out of the way with her hip. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to know if you wanted to go to The Dot," he asked, smiling. Roxie watched the exchange with obvious disgust and considered just slamming the door on Spinner again and lugging her sister back upstairs.

"Well…I did kind of have plans," Angel said, casually glancing at her nails and sounding bored. "But…ok. You can treat me to a burger. With everything." Angel glanced at Roxie triumphantly, stepped onto the front porch, grabbed Spinner's hand and pulled his down the walk way.

Roxie watched them go, scratching her head, wondering how that had gone so completely not according to plan. She gritted her teeth together, feeling like somehow Angel had just beaten her. She slammed her fist into her other open palm, cursing and glaring at the empty street. After a minute, she realized she was glaring at nothing, since they were gone, so she turned and slammed the door behind her.

"Hey, Roxie!" Max yelled. "Come over and take some of this! It's so….so….yeah."

Roxie stared at the bumbling idiot, shook her head, and then shrugged. Oh, what the hell, she thought, walking over.

     Ashley sat in her bedroom that evening, sitting in front of her electric piano. She sighed and played the notes she had written down, but her song sounded like crap. She sighed in frustration and slammed down on the keyboard for about the tenth time. She had to face it- she sucked. Any talent she may have possessed was obviously gone.

"Hey. Your mom wanted to know if you're ok. There's a lot of….pounding," Ashley suddenly heard from behind her, and she whirled around. Toby was standing in her doorway, watching her. Ashley sighed and shook her head.

"I'm fine. It's just some creative frustration. Ever heard of knocking?" she snapped, turning back to her piano.

"Sorry," Toby grumbled as he made a face. He turned and closed the door behind him.

Ashley sighed and fell onto her bed on her back, and she stared at the ceiling. Everything was so messed up. Craig has cheated on her, which hurt more than he could ever know. Ashley had been so in love with him, and he had turned around and stabbed her in the back, which was beyond humiliating. On top of that, Ashley's dad had moved in with his boyfriend, and they were planning on getting "married." This had caused Ashley's mom to decide that he was never going to see Ashley again. Then, Ashley had gotten fired from her music internship, because she had stopped working hard and missed too many days, which was a pretty lame excuse to her.

Ashley ran a hand over her face, wondering how everything had gone so wrong. She had suddenly just jumped into this crazy depression, and she couldn't get out of it. It was suffocating and smothering her.

Suddenly, Ashley sat up and reached over to her bed-stand, and pulled open its small drawer. She reached in and drew out a sharp scalpel, which she had been hiding in there for weeks. She held it up and stared at it, watching as the light of her overhead lamp reflected of its shiny surface. She swallowed hard.

She hated herself for this, but she couldn't stop. She thought back to the beginning of summer, when Ellie had confidentially told her about her own cutting problem. Ashley had been horrified and amazed that her best friend could do that to herself, but suddenly Ashley found herself wondering what it was like. What it felt like. Why anyone would do that. Then, one night, after another confrontation with Craig, she had cut herself for the first time. And then…she just hadn't been able to stop.

Ashley laid the cool surface of the scalpel to her arm, ready to slice into the skin. Suddenly she heard a knock at the door, and the scalpel tumbled out of her hand and to the ground.

"Hey. You want some cookies? Your mom just made them," Toby asked from the doorway. Ashley groaned.

"Toby! God!" she cried. Toby frowned.

"What?" he asked. "I just knocked."

"Just get out!"

A minute later, after Toby had left, Ashley reached down and picked up the scalpel from the carpet. She stared at it briefly, and then pressed it against her arm as she squeezed her eyes shut….

      Emma opened her locker and glanced in the small mirror that she had hung on the door. She wrinkled her nose, realizing that this first week of school had made her so pale and sickly looking. She made a quick mental note to either get more sleep or spend more time outside.

Emma tossed a notebook in her locker, when suddenly Sean came up, and he leaned against the locker next to hers. She smiled immediately, amazed that they had been able to become friends so easily again.

"That computer pop quiz was killer," Sean grumbled, but he was smiling slightly. "I couldn't believe Mr. Simpson sprang that on us in the second week of school."

Emma smiled wider and shrugged. "I know. He didn't even mention it to me at home at all."

"Oh, I see how it is. You get all his top-secret info, right?" Sean teased. "I'm surprised, Emma."

Emma laughed and nudged him playfully in the arm. "No way! Ok….so he might drop hints sometimes, but what can you expect?" Sean just shrugged.

"Look….there's this party on Friday," Sean said after a minute, pushing himself off the locker. He glanced at the floor, and then back up at Emma. "You should go. We can hang out….maybe."

Emma nodded and tried not to squeal with utter delight. Emma reminded herself that she was trying to change, and stop being such a huge loser nark. She had to play it cool. Emma tried to keep a neutral face, shrugged, and nodded slowly again.

"Yeah. I'll probably go, if I don't have anything better to do," she said vaguely, glancing down the hall, trying to look as disinterested as possible. Of course, she had nothing better to do, but she couldn't let him know that. Sean nodded. Just then, they both spotted Gina strutting up to them, looking furious. She stepped directly in front of Emma and smiled at her boyfriend.

"Sean. Walk me to chemistry?" Gina said. She intentionally pulled her elbow back as she lifted a hand to her hair, jabbing Emma sharply in the gut. Emma winced, but didn't react. Gina ran her hand through her hair and glanced over her shoulder briefly. "Let's go." She grabbed Sean's hand and lugged him down the hall. Emma watched them go, wondering if Sean had been that whipped in their relationship. She shook her head and closed her locker, not really caring about Gina. After all, Sean had just invited her to a party, which had serious possibilities. Emma bit her lip and turned to head to English, a plan forming in her mind.