Chapter 4

Stephen Lambert was the name of the therapist that Alvin had while going to Sanburg Junior High School. He was a nice fellow who helped Alvin get through the problems he had at school and at home, and even gave him someone to talk to and vent about his bed wetting without Alvin having to worry about it ending up on the front page of the newspaper.

Alvin came home one day after school to discover that Dave had found his stash of diapers. Alvin had purposely hidden them behind the sofa bed since it was in his room and he figured that the chances of Dave moving it would be very small. He put what was left (any more and there would have been a bulge underneath the bed) under his mattress or behind the sofa bed. He stopped suddenly as he entered the house, noticing Dave standing there, holding his pack of diapers. He swallowed hard.

"I am not going to raise another fucking baby," Dave snapped angrily before throwing the pack of diapers in the trash and storming off.

Alvin blinked. He didn't understand it. What Dave had said didn't make any sense. How did him wearing a diaper mean that Dave would be raising him as a baby? Alvin didn't know. One thing he did know, though, was that he didn't have money for Dave to be throwing out his supplies. Once Dave went to bed, he got the diapers back out and from then on stored them in his bedroom, underneath his bed. He was just glad that Dave hadn't punished him for it.

The next day, Dave acted as if he couldn't remember the incident at all, being that he didn't say anything about it. At the very least the whole incident was forgotten and Alvin went off to school.

As Alvin got off the bus once he got to school, the same boy who had been bothering him ever since he'd gotten on the bus. The boy was attempting to take his disk that had all of Alvin's stories on it. The kid eventually got the floppy disk. Bending it, he managed to break it in half. Needless to say, this pissed Alvin off something fierce. He was even more pissed off when nothing was done about the incident when he reported it to the principal, using the same excuse: "If I didn't see it, it didn't happen." Alvin was left with no other choice than to go to class.

However, he encountered what another problem there. Once again, the rewards system was put into play. The teacher, instead of giving him M&Ms, gave him paperclips and tape. He stood up and the two of them got into an argument over it until Alvin walked out of the room and went outside. He walked around the track for several minutes, trying his best to cool down. The track was rarely used, so it was perfect for him to go to when he needed to cool off.

After going to lunch (he didn't eat anything), he decided to go sit in the grass. The teacher he'd argued with earlier in the day had taken it upon herself to take the students from the regular classrooms and take them out to where Alvin was so that they could mock him and tell him how bad, how immature, he was being and how he was disturbing everyone. How he was doing that by simply sitting in the grass, he didn't know. Luckily, the mocking and teasing only went on for twenty minutes before the students went back to their studies and Dave was contacted to pick Alvin up. Meanwhile, Alvin was left scratching his head, wondering why the hell they didn't just do that in the first place.

After the incident the other day, Alvin was transferred to North Park High School. Sadly, this meant that they had to move yet again. Still remaining in Baldwin Park, they moved to the Villa Capri Apartments. The best thing about this was the fact that Alvin could read his bike to and from school.

For once in his life, Alvin was treated like a regular kid at the school. He wasn't forced to go to special education classes, but rather was given the opportunity to be a regular kid an go to regular classes with regular kids his own age. Because of this, he found himself living a somewhat happier life while at school. At home, however, things still weren't great.

In fact, the only issue he had while at North Park High School was him not following directions, and he had missed a period of class before that. She kept him after class and began scolding him for not doing what he was supposed to do. After lashing at him for a good while, she finally sent him off to lunch. Sadly, by the time he got lunch all of the lunches had been passed out, so he had no choice but to go home and fix himself something to eat.

It was a twenty-minute ride to and from school by bike. Therefore, Alvin wouldn't be able to get to school within forty or so minutes without getting in trouble, and he would more than likely have to explain everything to the principal. Once he did that, he was sure that the matter would be settled. Regardless, he rode home to fix himself something to eat. It had to be something quick, that could be fixed within fix minutes. Nothing like Ramen Noodles or anything like that since doing something like it would take too long. He decided to go ahead and fix himself a sandwich. He was unaware that Dave was home until he felt someone touch his shoulder, startling him in the process. He glanced up at his father, a puzzled expression quickly came over his face when he noticed a blond-haired, blue-eyed skinny tanned white girl that Dave was clinging to, the girl doing the same with him. He blinked upon seeing her, the knife covered in peanut butter still clasped in his hand.

"This is going to be your new mom," Dave told him. "Say hello to Brandi."

Alvin blinked yet again, unsure of how to react to this news. "I'm sorry. What?"

"Well, nothing's official yet," Dave replied, "but we'll see what happens."

Alvin shook his head and went back to making his sandwich while Dave showed Brandi around the apartment. He grabbed a bag of Funyuns, putting a few on his plate and stuffing the bag in his backpack. It wasn't until he started to leave for school that he remembered what Dave had told him, that Brandi was going to be his new mother! He hadn't really thought about it at first. It had merely gone over his head. Not only that, but Dave had gone off with her before he'd even had a chance to say anything on the matter. He shook his head and continued towards school, thinking that it would be a welcome distraction from what was going on at home.

The bedroom was where Alvin went to when he got home from school. Music was one of the ways he relaxed and calmed down whenever he was in one of his moods. He lied on his bed, listening to the radio while he thought about what was currently going in his life. He apparently had the music up too loud because Brandi stormed in the room and began jerking at the cord. She pulled on the cord too hard and it hitting her in the eye. "Ow! My eye!" She grabbed the radio and stormed out of the room while Alvin, upset that she had taken his radio, decided to go outside. As he passed her, he overheard her talking to Dave on the phone, angering him further by asserting that he had hit her .

It was only when he got outside that he thought back to the incident in the bedroom and began laughing hysterically about it. He struggled to catch his breath afterward as he rolled around on the ground, his breath coming out in short, quick bursts. His chest hurt. He looked up momentarily to see Theodore walking up to him The chubby chipmunk tilted his head at him, giving him a quizzical look. He lifted a hand and said, "I'm fine, Theo." The chubby chipmunk nodded his head and went back to throwing football with Simon.

Alvin stood up and watched the pair as they tossed the football back and forth, Simon coaching Theodore on the proper technique to catch the ball and throw it. He was surprised that Simon knew so much about sports, particularly football. Maybe it was due to the fact that Simon read all the time and not due to any actual experience with the sport. Then again, Simon was the most athletic out of all of them, whereas Alvin and Theodore weren't.

"Alvin!"

He turned his head to see Brandi walking toward him, holding the phone out to him. He took this as a sign that Dave wanted to speak to him. He took the phone from her (rather roughly, in fact) and put the phone to his ear. "What?"

"Do you want me to come home?" Dave asked.

While Alvin knew that this was a threat at the time, he didn't particularly care. "Sure," he replied, nodding his head. "Go ahead and bring your ass home. I don't give a shit." He tossed Brandi the phone. She fumbled with it for a few minutes before it slipped through her hands and fell with a clatter to the ground, the back cover of it popping off. He shook his head in annoyance before walking down the hallway towards the elevator. He rode it down to the lobby and sat down in an empty chair, crossing his legs and arms, waiting for his father to come home. After only twenty minutes of waiting, he saw Dave's car pull into the parking lot. As Dave walked in, he stood up and approached his father. "For starters–"

"Shut up," Dave snapped, pushing Alvin back onto the chair. "Why did you hit her?"

"I didn't hit her! She hurt herself by jerking on the cord to the radio–"

"Ah, you're full of shit!" He slapped Alvin across the face. "If you ever hit her again, I'll kill you! I don't care if they send me to jail! I will gladly go to jail for Brandi! Now," he grabbed Alvin by the shirt and pushed him towards the stairs, "get your ass upstairs!" He followed Alvin upstairs to the apartment. Once they were inside the apartment, he grabbed Alvin by the scruff of his neck, squeezing rather tightly, and pulled him towards Brandi, pushing him towards her. "Apologize."

"Apologize?" Alvin turned back to Dave. "What the fuck for?"

Dave smacked him in the back of the head. "Apologize, now! Tell her you're sorry for hitting her!"

"No!"

Dave glared. "All right, then." He once again grabbed Alvin by the scruff of the neck and dragged him down the hall towards his bedroom, shoving him in. "You can stay in your room all night." He slammed the door and locked it.

Alvin sighed and sat down on his bed, thinking about what just happened. He shook his head while thinking about Dave. To hell with him! He no longer thought of Dave as a father. As far as he was concerned, as long as Dave was willing to kill him over a woman who didn't love him as he loved her, then he had no respect for Dave whatsoever. He had lost all respect for his "father." Granted, they hadn't had much of a relationship anyway, but still . . .

He jumped when he heard the apartment door slam shut. Given that he couldn't get out of his room, he had no choice but to look out his window. He saw Dave getting in his car and driving off. He grinned. It was good that Dave was leaving. It would give him some time to himself. It would be peaceful and quiet with just him and his brothers there. He heard the doorknob to the bedroom being fiddled with and soon, Simon and Theodore entered the room. He stood up and plainly asked them, "Where's Brandi?"

Simon shrugged and pointed a thumb over his shoulder out towards the hall. "She's in Dave's room stealing all of his money."

"She's doing what?" Theodore asked.

Alvin groaned. "Calm down. Who cares anyway?"

"So you're just going to let her get away with it?" Theodore asked.

"Let her. If it gets her out of our lives, who cares?"

Theodore groaned as he saw Brandi heading towards the apartment door. "Alvin! Stop her!"

Alvin did nothing of the sort. He watched her get in her car and leave through the window. He sighed in content. "Good. She's gone."

"You dickhead," Simon yelled. "You could have at least stopped her from taking Dave's money."

"Oh, please," Alvin retorted. "You could have easily done something yourself."

Simon brow furrowed and he glared before turning on his heel and storming out the door, Theodore following close behind. Alvin got up and closed the door. He lied down in his bed to take a nap.

A few hours later, Alvin was woken up by the apartment door slamming shut. He sat up and heard talking on the other side of the door. Apparently Dave was home due to the fact that he asked where Brandi was. Simon and Theodore told him that she was gone and that she had taken most, if not all, of his money. He heard the door beside him slam, the door to Dave's bedroom. He sighed and opened the door and walked out to the hallway, seeing Simon and Theodore heading for him. He took a couple of steps backward, allowing them to approach the door to Dave's bedroom.

Simon timidly knocked on the door and asked, "Dave, are you all right?" He put his ear to the door to hear Dave's response properly.

"Go away," Dave cried. "Leave me alone!"

Both brothers glanced at each before Simon glanced at Alvin, who merely just shrugged his shoulders, alerting both Simon and Theodore that he hadn't a clue what was wrong with Dave or what he was doing on the other side of the door.

Simon sighed and attempted to open the door, only to find that Dave had locked it. "Dave, unlock the door."

"Go to hell," Dave yelled.

Simon groaned and cursed under his breath before looking at Alvin. "Go get me a knife." He watched Alvin walk down the hall towards the kitchen before turning to Dave's door yet again and attempting to get the door open, to no avail. He grabbed the knife from Alvin as soon as he was back from the kitchen and began using it to pick the lock. He sighed in relief when he heard a faint click and he turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. He shoved Alvin and Theodore out of the way when he saw Dave about ready to stab himself, apparently wanting to commit suicide. He dashed in the room and closed the door to prevent Alvin and Theodore from seeing anything, then began attempting to get the knife away from Dave, and not get stabbed himself in the process.

Meanwhile, out in the hall, Alvin and Theodore listened intently to what was going on in the bedroom. Alvin wasn't even sure why he cared. As far as he was concerned, he and Dave were just living under the same roof until Alvin could find a place of his own. From what he could hear, it sounded as if Simon was succeeding in getting Dave to calm down, and had even succeeded in getting the knife away from him. Whether or not Dave would hurt Simon, he didn't know and he wasn't sure of what to expect once the whole thing was all over. He was hoping that it would just be like when Dave had found his diapers. Hopefully, the whole incident would be forgotten and never brought up again.

Both Alvin and Theodore ended up falling as the door was opened. They quickly got to their feet.

"You two go on to bed," Simon suggested. "I'll stay with Dave."

"All night?" Theodore asked.

Simon nodded his head. "All night."

Alvin shrugged. "Okay." He tugged on Theodore's arm, leading his little brother to their bedroom.

As the two of them were getting changed into their pajamas (Alvin getting changed into a diaper for his bed wetting), Theodore asked him, "Alvin, do you think Dave will be all right?"

Alvin actually hadn't given much thought at all towards whether or not Dave was all right. He wasn't concerned about Dave at all. He shook his head at Theodore's question and responded, "It's Dave I'm worried about."

Theodore nodded in agreement, but held the position that he was still worried about Dave. If Dave died, who would take care of them?

Alvin couldn't help but sputter his lips at this. Given that they needed a babysitter whenever Dave wasn't home, there were ones constantly coming and going. None of them ever stayed for too long. Of course Alvin was constantly blamed for this both by his brothers and Dave. All three parties claimed that due to Alvin's antics and hare-brained schemes and his idiocy, no babysitter wanted anything to do with them. Alvin held the position that these allegations were complete bullshit, seeing as how he did nothing but read and stay in his room working on homework. While wearing diapers and acting like a baby was one of the ways he escaped the constant turmoil that was his life, he'd found that books could achieve the same effect on him. Besides, he wasn't about to go around crawling around in his room wearing nothing but a t-shirt and a diaper and sucking on a pacifier, especially with anyone else but himself there.

And when they didn't have a babysitter, Alvin and Simon were left to play the part of mother and father to Theodore due to the fact that Dave was always working. So when a babysitter was found who took the job of looking after them, it was nice for them to get a break from playing the role of parents. Granted, when Dave was out of the house or at work, things were quiet, so needless to say, neither brother was complaining about having to babysat by anyone, or left to themselves if they weren't being babysat. But when Dave was out of the house, everything fell on Alvin and Simon's shoulders. With Dave not around, they were left to do the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and anything else that a parent was supposed to do. Not only that, but they had to help Theodore with his homework (Simon doing the same for Alvin) and make sure that he got off to school okay.

But, taking Theodore to school turned out to be a good thing, in that Alvin found out that Theodore was being picked on at school. Realizing that he had to do something about the situation since no one else would (Simon and Dave were too busy with their own lives to even notice either Alvin or Theodore), Alvin called the high school using his phone.

"Hello?" a voice on the other line asked.

"Yes, this is Dave Seville," Alvin replied, speaking a deep, gruff voice. "I'm afraid young Alvin won't be able to make it to school today. Yes, poor fellow has got the flu real bad, somewhat fiercely, I fear. You'll be sure to excuse him from school, won't you? Great! No, no, I'm sure he'll be fine within a couple of days. Little fella should be back to school in no time. Yes. No, thank you." Once the deed was said and done, he walked in the school and walked in the front office. "Excuse me."

The woman behind the counter looked up at him, setting her book aside. "What?"

"I need to speak to Miss Lisa Hood about something very important."

"If you want to speak to the principal, you have to make an appointment."

"Fine. When her earliest convenience?"

The woman lifted a sheet from a clipboard and nodded her head. "She should be here within five minutes if you care to wait."

"Then I'll wait." He walked across the room to an abandoned bench and sat down, making himself comfortable. Once the principal arrived, he followed her to her office and sat down in front of her desk.

"What can I do you for?" she asked, sitting down in front of him behind her desk.

"My little brother is being bullied," Alvin said simply. "I want to find out who it is and get it settled."

Lisa smiled. "You're very noble for wanting to protect your little brother."

"I'd like to sit in the back of his classes and observe him, if that's okay with you."

"Of course. You'll need a visitors pass, however. I'm sure you don't want your brother finding out about this, do you?"

"No."

"I thought as much, but I'm afraid there's no way to avoid him spotting you. You'll just have to do your best, I suppose."

Alvin nodded. "Right." He took the visitors pass that was given to him, thanked her, and got a copy of Theodore's schedule from the main office. He examined the schedule briefly before heading to Theodore's next class. As soon as the two of them were in the same hallway, Theodore spotted him.

"Alvin, what are you doing here?" he asked.

Alvin shrugged. "Just visiting. I hope you don't mind me following you around all day."

"Does Dave know you're here?"

Alvin sputtered his lips. "Of course not. I called in sick from school."

Theodore sighed. "I guess it would be all right. Just don't do anything to embarrass me, please." He walked down the hallway towards his first class

Alvin followed without missing beat, practically at Theodore's heels as he walked. Naturally, people stared at the two as they walked together down the hall. Alvin tried his best to ignore them, which was somewhat difficult to do given that so many eyes were on them. He was grateful when they reached the classroom. While Theodore sat down in his seat, Alvin went to the back of the room, standing by the window. He assumed Hood had already explained the situation to all of Theodore's teachers. Just to be sure, he glanced at Ms. Osting, Theodore's history teacher. She smiled at him and gave him a nod, reassuring him that she was fully aware of the reasons behind him being her class.

A short white brown-haired boy by the name of Max Froedge entered the class and sat by Theodore. While nothing was confirmed, Alvin suspected that the boy might have been bothering Theodore. He studied Theodore's body language, how he acted towards Max. He noticed that Theodore stiffened considerably and tried his best to ignore Max as he began copying the questions from the board and answering them.

Max leaned toward Theodore and attempted to make conversation with the chubby chipmunk. Due to the fact that Theodore was shy, he would only respond with, "Does not compute," whenever Max or anyone else tried communicating with him. Alvin noticed that whenever Theodore said this, not only would Max burst out laughing, but many other students would as well, making fun of Theodore, making him out to be some kind of chipmunk-computer hybrid. Alvin guessed that the way responded to Max's attempts to be friends with him was his way of coping with being shy.

Alvin went to Miss Osting and got the names of the boys who were laughing and picking on them and she gladly told him their names. It seemed that she and the other teachers were fed up with this behavior from the boys, but anytime they requested that Theodore report the boys' behavior to the principal, the chubby chipmunk would respond that he was fine, that their behavior didn't bother him. Alvin knew that this was bullshit due to the fact that Theodore's body language changed almost automatically whenever the boys would pick on him.

Leaving the room, Alvin reported back to Miss Hood and gave her the list of boys that were picking on his brother, as well as Max Froedge. She happily took the list and asked Miss Osting to ask the boys to report her office to be dealt with. The problem still lied in the fact that Theodore wouldn't report the abuse to her. Alvin managed to resolve this by telling her that if the teachers noticed the boys picking on Theodore any further that they were to report the boys themselves to her personally. She congratulated him on being very intelligent and allowed him to leave her office so he could get back to his life.

The whole time the incident was going on, Alvin couldn't help but think that he shouldn't have had to take care of the situation. Dave should have taken care of the situation, not him! Still, if it got him out of school, it was worth it.

Given that he had called in sick, there was no sense in going to school. He decided to go ahead and go back home. Luckily for him, he had an apartment key. Ever since the robbery, he and his brothers had been insistent that they have keys. They wore the keys as necklaces in order to keep track of them. He unlocked the apartment door and walked in, closing and locking the door, stopping momentarily to observe the apartment. He didn't bother with the television in the living room given that there was nothing to watch. He decided instead that he would go to his room and spend however many hours he had alone in there.

He only had the diapers and nothing else. Being that he was finally alone, he decided he might as well try to relax and forget about Theodore's troubles at school, knowing that he would be all right from now on with the teachers watching out for him. For the time being, however, he was only concerned with relaxing, if only for a couple of hours. Lying down on his bed, he ripped open, smiling widely as the diapers fell on top of him, their softness caressing his face, leaving him to sigh in content as he buried his face in them and took a whiff. Oh, how he loved the smell of a fresh, clean diaper! He sighed once again and went about diapering himself, though truthfully he would have liked it had someone else been doing it for him. He put on a few diapers, the thickness making him happy. As far as he was concerned, the thicker the diaper, the better. Not only was wearing more than one diaper extremely comfortable, but it helped prevent leakage. He'd found this out when he'd gotten fed up with having to wash the sheets every time the diaper leaked. Plus, the extra padding felt really good against his rump, a feeling that he loved so much.

Sighing in content, patting his thick, padded butt, he put one hand behind his head while beginning to suck on his thumb, a smile coming over his face. He rolled over onto his side, his diapers rustling along with him. His smile grew bigger, if possible. He adored the sound of his diapers rustling as he moved. He finally decided to go ahead and try crawling on his hands and knees for a change. Getting out of bed, he began crawling around the room, the thickness of his diapers rubbing between his legs. Meanwhile, their rustling as he moved filled his ears. He sat down on his padded rear and began sucking his thumb once again, feeling perfectly content.

During this activity, he began to imagine himself living with another family, a loving family that would come to his aid if he should need anything. He pictured them being right outside the bedroom door. Mother was busily cooking dinner while father was watching television or reading the newspaper, sipping his coffee. Either one of them would walk in the nursery whenever he cried, pick him up and cradle him in their arms, rocking him back and forth while their sweet talk calmed him down. Then, they would walk him down the hall and hand him over to the other parent while they fixed his bottle or got him something to eat. Otherwise they would play with him or change his diaper while he happily sucked his thumb.

When he opened his eyes, he found that he was once again alone, his fantasies diminished. Sighing once again, he noticed that he was low on diapers. He shrugged his shoulders, figuring that he might as well go ahead and get some right now since he had a little bit of time on his hands. Standing up, he waddled to the apartment door. With him wearing so many diapers at once, it was pretty obvious that he was diapered, due to the very thick bulge at his front and back. He decided to go ahead and take a couple of them off to make the fact that he was diapered less noticeable and then went out the apartment door, grabbing some money off the kitchen table on his way out.

As he was getting his diapers, he wondered over to the pacifier and baby bottles section of the store. He couldn't help himself. He just had to have one of each! He first made sure that he had enough money before choosing what bottle and pacifier he wanted.

Back at home, he quickly found that lying in bed with a diaper on and with the pacifier in his mouth was extremely relaxing. It helped him get away from the stresses of life and helped him forget about the hell he went through both at home and at school, the hell his father and the staff and the bullies at school put him through on a daily basis. During these times he would drift off to his imaginary world, to his imaginary loving family, where he would role play as their baby and be at peace, but only for a little while.

However, the beatings from Dave were getting severe. Alvin, having finally reached his breaking point, decided to make a nightstick in wood shop class and the next time Dave dared to rear back his hand to hit him, he would pull it out and hit Dave first. He wanted Dave to feel the pain and the fear of being hit again that Dave inflicted upon him. The man deserved it, after all. Once he had the nightstick done, he stowed it away in his backpack and took it home with him. Besides, the school surely wouldn't allow him to keep at school for fear that he would use as a weapon. He had no intention of doing so. He was happy while at North Park High School, where he was treated like a normal person for once and not someone who was retarded.

That was just what Alvin did during Dave's next attack. As Dave approached him, Alvin raised the nightstick towards Dave's face.

Dave blinked at this, then stared down at Alvin. "You going to hit me?"

Alvin said nothing in response.

Dave smiled. "Well, come on, do it, big man! Let's see if you've got a pair and can actually hit your old man!"

Alvin reared back the nightstick over his head, his grip on the side handle tightening.

"Come on," Dave bellowed. "Hit me, you goddamn pussy!"

Alvin shook his head. No, he wasn't that type of person. Realizing this and realizing that Dave would just turn the whole thing against him anyway.

Dave nodded. "Yeah, that's what I thought," he muttered. He snatched nightstick out of Alvin's hand and retreated to his bedroom.

"What on Earth were you thinking, Alvin?" Theodore inquired.

Alvin glared at him. "Shut up, Theodore! I was thinking of teaching that motherfucker a lesson for once in his life!"

"Alvin," Simon scolded hotly, shocked.

"Hmph!" Alvin turned his head and spit on the floor before walking forward to his bedroom, stopping momentarily at Dave's bedroom, having overheard Dave talking to someone.

"Yes, officer, he hit me with a nightstick," Dave said. There was a pause "I don't know where he got one, officer. He must have made it at school or something. Regardless, I want you to come and get him right away. He's a real problem child, officer. I can't control him. Maybe some time in jail would do him some good. What do you think?" There was another pause. "Thank you, officer."

Alvin shook his head and retreated to his bedroom to wait to be arrested for supposedly assaulting his father. He should have known better. He should have known that Dave would turn the incident against him, regardless of whether he actually hit him or not. He sighed and lied down on his bed, raising his head up as Simon and Theodore walked in.

Simon sighed as he stared down at his brother, arms folded. "You'll go to jail, you know, for even thinking about hitting Dave." He smirked. "Serves you right, you asshole. How dare you even think of doing such a thing to your own father."

Alvin sat up and glared at his younger brother. "Oh, please. You can't tell me you wouldn't have done the same. It's called self-defense, Simon."

"No, it's called being a dumb ass, Alvin," Simon retorted, his fists shaking. "You should know better than any three of us that he would have used that nightstick against you."

Alvin slid out of bed and stood up, having to stand up on his toes in order to make sure that they were eye level. "Fuck you, Simon." He purposely bumped shoulders with his younger brother as he walked off, stopping halfway down the hallway when he heard the doorbell ring. Wow, that was fast!

Dave stepped out of his bedroom and walked towards the apartment door to let in the policemen. After an exchange of greetings, Dave once again explained the situation to them and pointed at Alvin, requesting that they arrest him.

The policemen approached Alvin, causing him to take a couple of steps back. Neither one of them seemed ready to arrest him just yet, at least not until they had his side of the story. One of them pointed to the sofa bed and Alvin nodded, sitting down while they stood in front of him.

While Alvin was busy explaining the situation to the policemen, Simon was busy trying to talk Dave out of pressing charges against Alvin.

"Please, don't do this," Simon pleaded. "He's only twelve."

"That motherfucker needs to learn not to defy me," Dave snapped. "How dare he even think of threatening me!" He kicked over at the dresser.

Simon nodded in agreement. "Yes, he was being an idiot, but that doesn't mean he has to go to jail for being a dumb ass."

Dave shook his head. "No. It'll do him some good, teach him to know his place. I hope he gets raped while he's in there. That will teach him not to cross me."

Simon cringed visibly at this statement, but nonetheless tried to talk Dave out of doing anything irrational. "If you send him to jail, you'll only end up looking like the bad guy. He'll turn it around to make it look like you hit him and he was defending himself. I'm telling you, arresting him will only bring trouble on yourself."

Dave tapped his chin in thought. "Maybe you're right."

"Of course I'm right. I'm always right."

Dave snorted. "You're smart, but you're not as smart as me."

"Maybe so."

"We should go ahead and get out there before your idiot brother causes any more trouble."

"Good idea."

Walking in the living room, Alvin was still talking to the policemen.

"Are you going to press charges?" one of them asked Alvin.

Alvin shook his head. "No."

The policeman raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"My mistake," Dave said. "Besides, me and my son can talk it out."

"So you do not wish for your son to be arrested?"

"No."

"Very well. So, the situation is under control then?"

"It looks that way."

"Great. Then, we'll be on our way."

Unfortunately for Alvin and his brothers, the beatings continued and nothing was done about them.

One issue that kept coming up while living with Dave was the issue of food. With him being so busy with work, Dave rarely had time to shop and being the oldest automatically meant that it was up to Alvin to take care of this responsibility as well. However, whenever he would go to Dave and ask for money so he could go grocery shopping, Dave would burst out in anger, yelling, "What, do you think I'm made of money?!" He would usually throw down a twenty dollar bill. To Alvin, this was interesting. He found many creative ways to feed four people on only twenty dollars. Sadly, he and his brothers, when Dave wasn't around, ended up eating a good quantity of shoestring fries since the store down the street had them on sale where Alvin could get three bags for only a buck. True, it wasn't exactly healthy, but at the very least it kept them full until their next meal.

One afternoon after another meal of shoestring fries, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore decided to go outside and ride their bikes around the apartment complex. They met a couple of other bikers who were jumping off a ramp set up against a trash can and doing various tricks. The bikers dared each of them to try to do a couple of tricks off the ramp. While Simon and Theodore declined, Alvin accepted the challenge, unable to resist. Of course being the more cautious one, Simon attempted to talk Alvin out of it, but his words fell on deaf ears as Alvin biked away from him.

He biked at least twenty feet away from the ramp. When he was ready, he began pedaling as fast as he could, drawing closer and closer to the ramp with the faster he went. He inhaled sharply, preparing himself to take off from the ramp, getting a good amount of height in the air, enabling him to perform a couple of tricks before landing. However, that never happened.

Alvin wasn't entirely sure how it happened, but he suddenly found himself being flung forward over the handlebars of his bike and landing hard on his feet, becoming a crumbled mess on the pavement of the parking lot. Before he could even register what had happened, he blacked out. The last thing he saw was Simon and Theodore hovering over him, worried glances on their faces, while the laughter and taunting of the bikers filled his ears until he could hear nothing but silence, his world full of nothing but blackness.