Somebody to Love Me

by Smitty91

Alvin struggles to cope with child abuse while attempting to find a loving parent. Rated T for subject matter. This story is set in an alternate universe.

5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

What was funny about the whole bicycle accident was that the pain was so minimal that Alvin barely felt anything. He merely thought he had sprained his ankle. When he tried to stand up and take as step, the bones in his ankles rubbed together. This he felt and he immediately sat back down. Now he was convinced that something was wrong.

"Do you boys need any help?"

Alvin, Simon, and Theodore all three turned to see that a woman had stopped and was now staring at the three of them, mostly at Alvin.

"I think there might be something wrong with my foot," Alvin told her.

The woman nodded and took out her phone, dialing 911, just to be sure that everything was all right with him. The ambulance arrived on the scene fairly shortly and hoisted Alvin into the back once they'd put him on a stretcher. Before leaving, Alvin instructed Simon to call Dave and let him know what was going on. His younger brother gave him a nod, telling him that he would.

The call that Simon made to Dave was, Alvin felt, quite strange, to say the least. Simon, for whatever reason, told Dave that Alvin had been hit by a car and had been picked up by an ambulance. He went on to say that he thought that the ambulance was merely going to take Alvin home and he couldn't understand why Alvin wasn't home yet.

Meanwhile at the hospital, Alvin was taken into surgery once it was discovered that his ankle was broken. He was put to sleep and they went to work on his ankle. They put three screws on the inside of his foot and a plate with ten screws on the outside of his foot. Several hours after the surgery was declared a success, he woke up.

Throughout the next two days in which he was at the hospital, he was not given any pain medication.

"Don't give him any pain medication," Dave told them. "I don't want him getting addicted to the stuff."

The nurse nodded her head. "Yes, sir."

Dave gave her a nod of gratitude and walked out of the hospital entrance.

"So, what's the story?" Simon asked as Dave walked past them.

"Alvin isn't to be put on any pain medication," Dave told him simply.

"What?!"

"I don't want him getting addicted to it."

"Oh, is that so?" Without warning, Simon charged into the hospital, marching up to the front desk and slamming his fist down. "You listen to me! You put my brother on pain medication right now or I will have you reported to the police for improper care of one of your patients. I'll see to it that you're fired, damn you!"

"Okay, okay, calm down, kid," the nurse said. "Your father told us–"

"To hell with what my father told you! I'm telling you that you'd better put my brother on pain medication now or I'll see to it that you never work in this hospital ever again! You hear me?!"

The nurse sighed and turned to a doctor a couple of feet away from her. "Dr. Rosenthal?" As she said this, the man looked up from his clipboard. "Please see to it that Alvin is put on pain medication from on out until his release."

The doctor nodded and walked off, clipboard tucked under his arm.

The nurse turned back to Simon. "Satisfied?"

Simon nodded and approval and walked back out to his father and brother.

"If he gets addicted to that stuff, I'm going to kick your ass," Dave hissed in Simon's ear.

Simon ignored him as he approached the family car and got in the passenger seat.

Naturally while at the hospital, Alvin managed to have a few accidents. These were glossed over by the faculty and staff of the hospital, suspecting that it was merely due to the pain medication that he was having wetting accidents. What made this worse was the fact that he didn't have any of his diapers with him, so there was no way for him to prevent the sheets from getting wet and having one of the nurses wash them for him. It was really quite embarrassing for him and he couldn't stop from apologizing for making them wash his sheets so many times. They reassured him that it was nothing, that they were used to it. He still couldn't help but feel bad, though. If he could, he would have told them that it was due to him being nocturnally incontinent, about how the root cause of the problem was not from the pain medication, but from his bed wetting issues. He was afraid, however, that he if he told them they would end up telling his father and that was the last thing he wanted as of right now.

Soon thereafter, Alvin was taught how to use crutches. It wasn't too bad. He found that he could easily walk on just one leg, hiking the other up to prevent any further damage to either the bone or the tissue or what have you. He imagined that he must have looked quite silly due to the fact that he was walking around with one leg hiked up in the leg, looking like a dog that was about to take a piss on the nearest fire hydrant. Of course his walking suffered quite a bit, no matter how easy walking with the crutches was. He wobbled from side to side whenever he walked. This faded away as he became more used to using the crutches and using them became like second nature to him.

While at home, Simon and Theodore did their best to do whatever they could to make Alvin more comfortable, so that he wouldn't have to walk as much. They got him stuff whenever he requested it. He merely didn't sit on his rump all day and take Simon and Theodore's service for granted. He did get up and walk about every now and then. He still had to go to school, of course. The only one who wasn't helping him at all was Dave. Whenever he would ask for Dave to get him something, Dave would flat-out refuse, suggesting instead that Alvin get up off his ass and get it himself, stating that walking on his foot would help it heal better. It seemed that Alvin wasn't the only peeved by Dave's refusal to help him. It seemed both Simon and Theodore were quite pissed at how stubborn Dave was being. Whenever Dave would refuse to help him in any way, Simon or Theodore would do what it was Alvin wanted for him.

School was another issue for Alvin. Oftentimes when walking down the halls, various people would trip him, causing his crutches to fly out of his hands and causing severe pain to shoot through his injured foot. Simon and Theodore would help him up and support him while they went and got his crutches. He was just thankful that it was almost summer and he wouldn't have to get up and go anywhere.

At home, Alvin began using a rolling chair as a wheelchair. This made getting around a lot easier and he could stand on his good leg to get things. While getting a can of soda from the fridge one morning, he noticed the calendar on the side and noticed that tomorrow was the day he was supposed to go in and get his ankle and cast checked. It'd been over four weeks since he'd had the blasted cast put on. Dave was supposed to take him. He hoped Dave wouldn't forget.

The next morning, Alvin didn't wake up until ten thirty in the morning. By this time Dave had already gone to work. Simon and Theodore were in the living room watching cartoons while eating bowls of cereal. He walked in the kitchen and grabbed a couple of honey buns from the cabinet and joined them. While unwrapping one of them, he asked Simon, "Do you when Dave will be back?"

Simon shook his head as he ate a spoonful of cereal. "Sorry, Alvin."

Alvin grumbled in anger. He was supposed to take me to the doctor today!"

"What time?" Simon wiped his mouth on his sleeve, clearing his throat afterward before eating another spoonful of cereal.

Alvin shook his head. "No, don't worry about it. You don't have to take me."

"I'm not asking."

Alvin sighed. "I have to be there around one thirty."

"Okay. So after lunch, we'll go there."

"It'd probably be better if we just grab a bite to eat on the way there, Simon. You know how slow you and I eat compared to Theodore." He chuckled and ruffled the fur on his little brother's head.

Simon nodded. "True."

The three chipmunks arrived at the hospital a little after one, all three deciding that it was best to arrive early rather than late. Alvin told the receptionist that he had an appointment with Dr. Duvall and waited along with his brothers in the waiting room to be called down to the doctor's office. While Theodore looked through the books and Simon flipped through a magazine, Alvin was too busy looking around the room. He found a television in one corner of the room and began watching.

"In recent news," the anchorwoman stated, "Pam Smith and Sandra Carter were tried and charged today with pedophilia. Police found on their computer a website dedicated to babies, as well as several pictures showing various babies. During the warrant search of their home, police found a room decorated to look like a nursery. . . ."

Alvin let out a sigh. Nothing but the news was on. Bor-ring! He went back to looking around the room, only for his head to turn swiftly to the right upon hearing his name called. He tapped Simon's knee and motioned that it was time for them to get up and report to Dr. Duvall's room. The three of them followed a nurse to the room and were told that the doctor would be in the room shortly. The three merely stood in silence while they waited for the doctor to walk in. Only after a couple of minutes, Alvin was having his ankle examined.

"You should have had this cast taken off two months ago," Dr. Duvall stated. He gently moved Alvin's foot to the left, noticing quickly that Alvin winced in pain, even due to the slightest movement. "Have you been walking on it?"

"My father suggested it," Alvin groaned.

Dr. Duvall sighed and shook his head. "You shouldn't have been walking on it at all. Because you've been walking on it, your foot has healed incorrectly. Look," he pointed to Alvin's foot, "it's pointing two inches to the left." He stood up and sighed, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his white coat. "You said you've been suffering from back pain. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"There's why. Your damaged foot is throwing out your body alignment." He knelt down yet again and gently grasped the foot. "Let's see if I can't get it realigned properly."

"No! I don't want to be in a cast for any longer than I have to be. Besides, I can't deal with the pain any longer. And look at this." He grabbed his bloated belly and lifted it and let it go, the contents within it sloshing audibly as it bounced a couple of times before settling. "I've gone from 190 pounds to 240 in only two months from not being able to ride my bike."

"Yes, I noticed the rapid weight gain when I weighed you." He nodded his head. "Very well. Would you care to try surgery? Just like last time, you will be sedated and you'll sleep through the whole procedure."

Alvin nodded. "That will work."

Alvin let out a tired yawn as he walked in the living room. Simon and Theodore were in the kitchen eating breakfast. He was sure that they could get themselves to school. After all, unlike him, Simon had a built-in GPS system in his brain, so there was a fat chance of them getting lost. Walking over to the couch, he noticed Dave sleeping, a bottle of Black Velvet in one hand and a can of Pepsi in the other. Resting on the coffee top was a glass with the two beverages mixed in it. He smiled, recalling the many times he and Simon would mix their drinks together (Mr. Fizz and orange soda) and drink the concoction. Clearly, Dave had been drinking–again–and there was no way he was well enough to drive. While he didn't love his father, he still didn't want Dave to get hurt. But why did he feel the need to protect Dave from hurting himself if he didn't care for the man? Alvin didn't understand it, but decided not question it for the time being. Instead, he decided that the only way to keep Dave from driving while drunk was to take his car keys. At the time, Alvin had possession of a box that he kept locked. He found Dave's car keys on the coffee table and locked them in the box he kept stashed in his closet before heading off to school.

Alvin's day at school started out well enough. It wasn't until ten thirty that he was called down to the office. He was surprised to see Dave standing there when he arrived. Without warning, Dave grabbed him and dragged him outside to the school entrance. Slamming Alvin against the wall, he held out his hand and said, "Give them to me."

Alvin struggled against the tight grasp that Dave had on his throat. "What?"

"My car keys. Give me my fucking car keys."

"I don't have them."

"Bullshit! Simon and Theodore wouldn't dare touch them. You're the only asshole that would! Now, give them to me, now!"

"I told you I don't have them."

"You're lying!"

"They're in the box on the shelf of my closet. Here–here's the key." He feebly reached into his pocket and dropped the key into Dave's hand. He hoped that Dave would just leave it at that, but instead he was slapped in the cheek.

"Why the fuck did you do that, you stupid ass! I need to get to work! What the hell's the matter with you!" He finally let go of Alvin and allowed him to go back to class.

In his mind, however, Alvin knew he'd done the right. Though, he hadn't done it out of concern for Dave's safety; he'd done it out of concern for the person he was more likely to hit while driving drunk. He never should have given Dave the key to his box, but he knew that if he didn't, he would just continue to be throttled by Dave, who wouldn't leave him alone until he handed over his car keys.

The rest of the day went by without incident. Alvin was left to himself when he got home. Simon was off at an extra-curricular activity and Theodore was over at the Millers helping Eleanor with a recipe. He had the afternoon to himself, so he decided that he would go ahead and have some fun for the time being. As far as he was concerned, his brothers and Dave wouldn't be home for a good long while, at least not until later on that evening.

Going into the kitchen, he noticed that the trash can was quite full. Tying up the bag once he'd removed it, he took it out to the dumpster. He stopped when he reached the dumpster and noticed that there was a car seat next to it. After he'd gotten rid of the trash, he grabbed the car seat and took it in the apartment. He managed to get it clean well enough to where it wouldn't give off any foul odor and to where he could play with it without any fear of getting dirty from his pretend play while in it. Once he had the car seat cleaned off, he put on a diaper and strapped himself in. Closing his eyes, he began to imagine himself in the back seat of the car that his imaginary family drove. They were on a trip, a fun trip at that.

Eventually, he climbed out of the car seat and began crawling around the room, his diaper rustling as he moved his legs, enjoying the thickness between his legs, his thighs rubbing against his diaper. He found one of Theodore's teddy bears lying on his bed and began cuddling with it, stroking his diaper with his heels, enjoying the soft touch. He buried his face in its warm, fuzzy fur and hugged it tightly. He tugged at the bow tied around the bear's neck until it came loose and fell to the side. He put an arm around the bear's neck, sighing happily as he continued to cuddle with the stuffed bear, allowing his head to fall onto his pillow. He chuckled to himself, enjoying how soft Theodore's pillow was. He figured that he should sleep in Theodore's bed more often. It was certainly more comfortable than his, for whatever reason that may be. It didn't matter at the moment. The only thing that mattered was the fact that he was safe and happy, for the time being. When his brothers and Dave got home, his happy mood would be swayed to that of depression. He figured that it was best to absorb his happiness, take in the moment and relish it for as long as he could. After all, his brothers and Dave would be home in only a few hours. Why not enjoy his few hours of bliss while he could?

He opened his eyes a while later to see that the light was turned on. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. Apparently, he had fallen asleep while cuddling with Theodore's stuffed bear. Looking out the window, he noticed that it was nighttime; hence, why the bedroom light was on. He watched as Simon approached his bed and reached underneath it. He sprang off Theodore's and marched over to Simon. "What are you doing?"

Simon simply ignored him and pulled out the package of diapers underneath Alvin's bed before leaving the room, heading down the hallway towards the living room. He heard footsteps behind him and knew that Alvin was following him. Alvin seemed to be following him a little too quickly because the next thing Simon knew, he was falling to the floor and the package of diapers flew out of his hands. Raising his hands, he watched as a collection of diapers fell out of the package and onto the floor. He glanced over his shoulder at Alvin, who merely glared at him.

"What's this?"

Both of them looked up to see Dave inspecting the items on the floor and looking at the both of them for an explanation.

"They're, uh . . . well, they're mine," Alvin stated nervously, getting to his feet.

"What, do you have a diaper fetish or something?" Dave asked.

Alvin nodded. 'Yeah, that's it."

Dave cocked an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Y–Yeah."

Dave shrugged. "Okay."

Alvin blinked and cocked his head to the side, giving his father a befuddled look. "Wait. You're perfectly fine with this?"

"As long as you're not hurting anyone or anything, it's fine with me."

"Wait. What?" Simon asked, getting to his feet as well as he dusted himself off and adjusted his glasses.

"You heard me," Dave replied.

Alvin shrugged, collected the diapers, and returned them to his room. He wasn't exactly sure why Simon had wanted to expose his love for diapers to Dave. Maybe Simon had done it in the hopes that he would be punished for his bed wetting like Theodore was. He remembered that summer of 1990, during which Theodore was threatened to be diapered, forced to sleep in a tub, threatened to wear plastic pants.

Still, the whole thing was funny to Alvin. Dave had no problem with him having a diaper fetish, but yet his grandparents gave Theodore hell for his bed wetting issue. It just didn't make any sense to Alvin. At this point he didn't care. He was just glad that he wasn't getting beaten for his fetish, like Simon had apparently hoped for. He turned as he heard footsteps coming down the hall and watched as Simon turned towards the closet. "What are you doing now?"

"I'm getting ready for bed," Simon replied irritably, removing his pajama shirt from its hanger. "What's it look like? Wait a minute. What the . . ." He bent down and picked something up, turning to face Alvin so that his older brother could see what it was. It was the car seat that Alvin had found earlier that day. "Alvin, what is this?"

"It's a car seat. What's it look like?"

"Where did you find it?"

"The trash."

"Ugh!" The bespectacled chipmunk instantly dropped the object and began wiping his hand on his clothes. "Take it back! You have no business having it!"

"But, Simon–"

"Now, Alvin! Go!"

Alvin sighed and picked up the car seat. Raising up the blinds and opening the window, he tossed it outside before heading to the apartment door. He made sure that Dave was distracted (he was busy watching television) before heading out to the apartment parking lot. He found the car seat lying lopsided on the sidewalk. Picking it up yet again, he carried it back to the dumpster and threw it in, finally turning to go back in the apartment. He supposed that his adventures with his imaginary family were now over and done with.

"Did you see this morning's paper?" Simon asked Alvin. He set the newspaper on the table next to Alvin's bowl of cereal. "Our idiot father made the news."

"What?" Alvin set aside his bowl of cereal and glanced down at the newspaper article that had Dave's picture on it. Squinting due to the tiny print, he began reading the article that detailed how Dave had had a seizure while driving an El Monte city bus and had nearly crashed into a McDonald's. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the impact this incident had had on Dave's work had been great. Alvin now realized why Dave had been fired yesterday. He'd made the announcement when he got home far earlier than usual. Alvin just hoped that this wouldn't impact his life at school (or Simon or Theodore's, for that matter) in any way, shape, or form.

Alvin's hopes were quickly dashed as he and his brothers arrived at school the following Monday. The newspaper article regarding Dave was merely used against them as teasing, allowing those who had read it to pick on them. The news article was spread all over school and even the teachers had begun to question whether or not Alvin and his brothers were safe while at home living with Dave. True, Alvin wanted nothing more than to get as far away from Dave as possible, to hurry up with school and find his own place instead of having to live with the man he hated. Many people, not knowing about the seizure, simply assumed that Dave had been drinking while on the job, which wouldn't have surprised Alvin, to be perfectly honest, and that he'd been driving under the influence, which had caused him to nearly drive through a McDonald's.

Due to Dave no longer working, the family was going through some financial crisis. It was getting harder and harder for Dave to make money and once again, Alvin found himself having to take charge of things and take care of Simon and Theodore. At the very most, he only had twenty dollars to live off for a week. He managed to come up with more creative means to do this than before, and thankfully the three of them didn't have to live off fries for as long as before due to Alvin getting creative with the money Dave gave him on a weekly basis. Still, the financial crisis finally took its tool on the family when Dave came home from trying to find work and announced that the landlord was kicking them out of the apartment due to him not paying the rent on time. Because of this, he announced that they were going to live with their godfather Kenny until he could make enough money and find them a suitable place to live.

Due to the fact that Kenny was picking them up the following morning, they had to pack their stuff as soon as they could. They didn't pack much. They merely packed the bare essentials: clothes, school supplies, and, in Alvin's case, diapers. Theodore packed his stuffed bunny and his stuffed teddy bear, making Alvin smile as he spotted the two stuffed animals nestled on top of Theodore's clothes.

It was after breakfast that Kenny came and picked the boys up. Simon and Theodore said farewell to their father. As for Alvin, he didn't so much as glance back at Dave as he walked out of the apartment and to Kenny's car. As far as he was concerned, he was grateful that he would be living with Kenny. He sat in the backseat beside Theodore while Simon sat in the passenger seat.

North Hollywood, California was where Kenny lived. For whatever reason, Kenny had more than one bedroom in his house, so each of them got their own room, which was a nice change of pace in lieu of having to share one room all the time. It tended to get quite crowded when that happened.

Dubnoff Center was where Alvin would be going. His brothers were going to a different school, being in the same grade. Therefore, they weren't ready for Dubnoff Center just yet. The abuse from the students and staff at the school resumed like in the previous schools that Alvin had gone to. The school itself was mostly for kids with learning disabilities. Others had been sent there from having been expelled from their previous school due to crimes that ranged from fighting, stealing, and skipping class.

One of Alvin's classes was spent on the computer. It was an English class, so naturally, they spent a good deal of the class period on the computer editing, revising, rewriting, and jotting down notes in notepads to improve their stories and nonfiction pieces, writing down any ideas that came to them. Being that there weren't enough computers, some students had to borrow laptops from the supply closet out in the hall. Due to the great number of students that were in the classroom, there weren't that many computers and laptops to give to every student, forcing some of them to bring their own laptops to school to work on their stories, which turned out to be just as well since many of them were more comfortable with saving their writings on their own computers instead of the school's. One boy who had forgotten his laptop at home approached Alvin and requested that he be let on the computer.

"Hold on," Alvin mumbled. "Wait your turn." He ignored the boy as he went back to working on his nonfiction piece, letting out a groan as he deleted various errors here and there. There were errors all over the place! The title of the piece should have been called "The Little Red Squiggly Line" because that's basically all he could see; nothing but little red squiggly lines underneath his misspelled words and errors in punctuation and grammar. He was never any good at writing.

He stopped suddenly when he felt something wet hit his neck. He slowly turned to see a string of saliva trailing from the boy's mouth and the boy smiling deviously at him. "Did you just spit on me?"

"So what if I did?" the boy asked. "What are you going to do about it, tubby?" He poked Alvin in his bloated belly. "Are you going to fight me?"

That was a question that Alvin got quite frequently at the school. For some odd reason, the students kept on requesting that he fight them. That wasn't Alvin's style. He never fought unless for self-defense. He believed that the attitude of fighting someone just because he was pissed off was no way to live. He'd always lived under the rule, "Don't fight unless you have to."

Alvin glared at the boy, but realized that the only way to make the boy leave him alone was to give the boy his wish. He could save the file as a draft in an email and then continue on with it at Kenny's house. The only rule that Kenny had about the computer was that they only use it for schoolwork and nothing else. Once he'd saved the file on an email, he slid the chair out from underneath the desk and allowed the boy on the computer while he continued the entry in his notebook from where he'd left off in the document. This way he wouldn't have to go through the anguish of trying to remember what it was he'd wanted to write down before the boy had interrupted him.

The bell rang and Alvin grabbed his things to head to his next class. As he was scooping up his textbooks, the same boy who had bothered him about the computer swiped them and a chase ensued. It ended with Alvin's books being tossed in the trash and Alvin cursing under his breath as he dug them out.

Alvin was also suffering from problems with his math teacher. Math was never one of his best subjects, so he would often rely on Simon to help him understand the material. When Simon wasn't around to help him, however, he would rely on the math teacher to help him. Whenever he asked her to help him, she would instead reply, "Shut up and just do your work." Because she wouldn't teach him the material, he relied on himself to understand the material when Simon wasn't there. Instead of eating, he would spend his lunch period reading and doing the exercise problems at the end of each section of a chapter and go back and reread entire pages until he understood the material. The only downside to this was that he received a "F" in the class due to his teacher refusing to take his completed work, believing him to have cheated and bribed someone else to do it for him, given that his work was correct and previously, all of his work had been done wrong. He didn't care. All that mattered to him was that he understood the material and that he'd done a good job of interpreting and teaching himself the lessons that were made so unbearably difficult by his math teacher.

Near the end of the school year, a whaling trip was held. Not long after arriving at school, Alvin and his classmates boarded a bus and were taken to the beach. Following their teachers, they boarded a ship and went out. There was a fair breeze blowing that picked up speed as the boat went sailing out towards the deep ends of the ocean. After going a good long ways, a collection of whales began appearing. Holding onto the railing, Alvin began to gaze out at the beautiful, glistening sea, the sunlight reflecting off its surface, creating a stunningly beautiful picture that he could easily find on a card. There were several whales, but none of them dared to get close to the ship. He counted at least ten whales. There have been even more than not.

He was suddenly picked up of the ground and held over the railing. He looked on both sides of him to see two boys holding onto his legs.

"Ready for a swim?" one of the boys asked.

There was no way for him to kick. His best bet was to use his fists for nothing more than self-defense. He wished he'd started kicking as soon as he'd felt a touch on his legs. Clearly, they were trying to throw him overboard. He knew that if he were to go overboard he would be crushed by the whales that weighed more than twenty tons. He punched both boys in the gnads. They instantly dropped him. He nearly went overboard. He grabbed onto the railing and pulled himself up, hopping over onto the other side. He walked away from them, leaving them writhing on the floor of the ship, grabbing at their private parts.

He managed to find a staff member and told them about the incident. The only response he got was, "If I didn't see it, it didn't happen. There's nothing I can do." He stormed off in a huff to another part of the ship that was, thankfully, away from the two boys who had attempted to throw him overboard. Sadly, he wasn't far away enough for them not to find him. Once they'd found him, they attempted to throw him overboard once more and he repeated the procedure of fighting them off, reporting the issue to a staff member, then walking off angrily to another part of the ship. This process was repeated yet again before he finally went inside the ship for the remainder of the ship. At the very least he got to see a few whales. That was at least one good thing about the trip.

After summer, Alvin was put in a classroom due to his issues in his math class last year. He had no particular problems regarding schoolwork when it came to this room. The only problem he had in this classroom was that one of his classmates was constantly making sexual comments towards him. One of the things that the kid asked Alvin to do was suck his cock, among other things. This got to the point where Alvin dreaded going to the class, knowing that he would have to put up with the kid's sexual comments. He had tried moving seats, but the kid was quite persistent; Alvin had to give him that. What he couldn't do through verbal means, he did through writing. Oftentimes a student would pass Alvin a note. After unfolding it, he would read a sexual comment that the kid had written to him. He would quickly crumble it up and throw it in the trash before the teacher found it. The last thing he wanted was the teacher reading out

Alvin was grateful when the bell finally rang. Unfortunately for him, he had math as his last class of the day. When he walked out to the hall, the kid socked him in the stomach and ran off. He cursed under his breath and gave chase. He knew by now that to report the incident to the staff would only end with him storming off in anger. Their chase eventually led them to the gym.

The two faced each other, hands balled into fists, glowering at the other. He picked up a small metal bench just as the kid was doing so. He had the intention of throwing his bench just as the kid threw his to cancel it out so that he wouldn't get hurt. He had no intention of actually hurting the kid. He was startled when the kid suddenly flung his bench at him. Luckily, the kid missed. Realizing that his purpose for picking up the bench in the first place had been thwarted, he put his bench down.

"What are you doing in here throwing benches?!"

Alvin looked up to see a staff member approaching him, glaring. "I'm sorry?"

"You were planning on throwing that one too, weren't you?" the staff member said.

Alvin blinked. "What?"

"Let's go, kid. You're in big trouble now."

"What?" He turned his head to see the kid he'd been fighting against being dragged out of the room.

"Stay here. I'll be back."

Alvin, oddly enough, stayed exactly where he was and waited. A few minutes later, his bus driver, Bobby, and Marshall, a part-time staff member that worked on the time-out team, walked in the room. In Marshall's hands was a straightjacket. Seeing this, Alvin ran away from them. As he ran down a hall, he learned that the kid he'd been fighting with had been transported home. He sat down at one of the lunch tables to calm down. There was no way he was going to sit in a smelly room for hours on end.

He shook his head at the incident that had occurred between him and the kid. This wasn't the first time that the two of them had gotten into it. There had been several instances where the two of them had gotten into fistfights. However, the staff continued to use the policy of, "If I didn't see it, it didn't happen." They weren't looking out for his safety. His safety was only ensured if the staff members were actively watching him, and that was a rarity in schools like this.

Having calmed down somewhat, he didn't run away when he spotted a staff member approaching him. The staff member sat down across from him, folding his hands and calmly staring at him. "Your father is on the phone. She wants to talk to you."

"Well," Alvin replied, "you can go ahead and hang up the phone, because I have nothing to say to him."

The staff member nodded and continued. "Would you like to talk about what happened between you and that kid? You should have walked away, you know."

"I should have."

For a while the two of them talked about the incident, but not exactly what happened. Actually, the staff member belittled Alvin for losing his temper and attempting to hurt the kid in the first place. The conversation was concluded with the staff member telling him that the psych ward team was on their way. He took Alvin by the hand and led him to a classroom where there was an aid waiting for him.

Alvin and the aid spent three hours talking, actually talking about the incident and what really occurred. After three hours of talking, there was a knock at the classroom door and the psych ward team walked in. Instantly, he began panicking. He knew that the school had already informed them on their side of the story, about what they only thought what happened. He was grateful that they'd at least taken the time to ask his side of the account of what happened, although deep down he knew it wouldn't change a thing. He would still be taken away, regardless of what he said. Nonetheless, he calmly explained to the psych ward what had happened. They wrote everything he said down in their notepads before stepping out of the room. Alvin sat nervously and awaited his fate to be announced.

After only ten minutes of waiting, a team from the American Medical Response arrived with a bed with five restrains (two for the ankles, two for the wrists, and one for the waist). Along with the American Medical Response team, the psych team walked in, along with the therapist of the kid who had attacked Alvin.

"Listen very carefully," one of the psych team members, a woman, stated. "If you refuse to cooperate and do as we say, we will call the police. You will be arrested and taken to Van Nuys Psychiatric Hospital by the police. Do you understand?"

Alvin nodded his head. Given those choices, he realized he had no choice. He would have to allow them to put him in the restraints or otherwise be treated like a everyday criminal by the police. He lied down on the bed and allowed to be put into restraints. During this time, he learned from the kid's therapist that the kid's name was Sean. She was standing next to him while he was being put in restraints. She leaned down to his level and said, "You're being such a good boy for letting them put the restraints on you." He gave her a death glare. How dare she act like she was praiisng some small child for following directions from Mommy! He just wanted her to shut up! She wasn't helping the situation; if anything, she was only making it worse, thereby making him more upset about the whole ordeal in the process.

It was seven thirty by the time they arrived at the hospital. By this time it was dark. Once he was wheeled insdie, the trestraints on his wrists were taken off, yet the restrains on his ankles and waist were left on. He sat with his arms folded, waiitng in the lobby to be checked in. During this time, a group of kids walked in the hospital from their short recess. As most of them passed by, they took the time to glance at Alvin, checking out "the new kid," so to speak.

He thought that he would be grateful when he got checked in, but as soon as he was checked in, he was taken to the time-out room and a strip search was issued. Once a Polaroid photo of him had been taken, the staff at the hospital requested that he remove all of his clothes, including his boxers. Understandably, he was more than a little reluctant to go through with this. From his previous experiences at this hospital, he knew that if he didn't cooperate, he would be put in restraints and confined to the room. He was asked to raise his arms and spread his legs so that it could be determined if he was hdiing anything under his arms or in between his legs. Nothing was found.

At long last, the strip search was over and done with and, after putting his clothes back on, he went to the nurse's station and told to sit in a chair across from the nurse. He was asked a series of questions. He didn't ansswer them. He was still pissed about what had happened at school. He began to explain himself yet again, telling her that he didn't need to be at the psych ward. He wasn't the one who had attacked Sean. It was the other way around. When he realized that she wasn't listening to him, merely filling out the paperwork instead, he stopped talking and signed in the places that she instructed him to. Once that was done with, she showed him to his room.

His room was the second door down from the dining room, across from the boys' day room. It had three beds in it and a bathroom accessed by both rooms. However, he wasn't free to use it anytime he wanted. The bathroom was locked. He had to ask permission to use the bathroom. There was just a sink and a toilet. The lid was tied down so he couldn't open the tank, he assumed so he couldn't take the lid off and take anything out of the tank or try to drown himself in the tank or something. The room window looked out to the street. He could look out, but no one could look in. They had the window, but then they had an outer, much thicker, window pane on the outside that was tinted. He could see the bus stop from where he was and he spent much of the visitors time by the window looking for someone in his family to step off the bus, but no one did.

Once he was familiar with his room, he was told that he had to report group therapy He was in no mood to go to therapy. He just wanted to be left alone. After all, he still had to process all that had happened over the past five hours. When the nurse came back in the room a few minutes later and told him that it was time to go to group therapy, he refused, telling her that he just wanted to be left alone. Two minutes later, two men walked in the room and grabbed him, dragging him to one of the solitary rooms. Shoving him in, they locked the door.

After forty-five minutes of being left in the solitary room, he was allowed to go back to his room. He hadn't been in his room for even ten minutes when the two men who had locked him in the solitary room came rushing in his room. He stood up on reflex. One of the men grabbed him, spun him around, and twisted his arm behind his back. He cried out in pain and attempted to kick the man who had him in an arm lock in the shin. The man seemed to have anticipated his attack because he cancelled out Alvin's sweeping foot with his own, bringing Alvin down onto the bed. The other staff member went about untying the shoelaces on Alvin's shoes. Once they were done, he fell to the floor.

For the next two days, he couldn't move his arm due to the severe pain that was coursing through it. He was grateful that he was only held at the hospital for only a week before Dubnoff Center allowed him to go back. When he returned, he was told to not make up stories or lie to get other kids in trouble. Inwardly, he laughed about this. It seemed he was always the one who was lying or making up stories. To them, he never told the truth and was only looking to get other kids in trouble.

Sean wasn't punished for harassing Alvin. Because of this, the boy wouldn't stop, even after having a meeting. They were told not to talk to each other and to stay as far away from each other as possible. This was all fine for Alvin. After all, it was what he'd wanted to happen all along. Still, Sean persisted and continued to make sexual comments towards Alvin, constantly asking the chipmunk to lick his privates. This time, however, Alvin handled the situation much more maturely. Instead of outright doing something that was more than likely to get him in trouble, thanks to the policy of "If I didn't see it, it didn't happen," he decided to go outside to cool down. He found himself doing this quite often, practically every day, due to the fact that Sean grated on his nerves so badly. Of course Sean was never punished for his harassment because the staff never heard the sexual comments he made towards Alvin, so they believed that Alvin was merely acting out. Whenever they would approach him to put him in the solitary room, he would run from them. Their excuse for wanting to put him in the solitary room was because they were fed up with him not staying in the classroom.

After two hours of chasing Alvin around, instead of letting him cool off and go back to class like he naturally would have, they eventually sent him home. When he got home, he noticed that Dave, Simon, and Theodore were in the family car. Dave motioned for him to get in and he did so without question. In the backseat he noticed that there was a bag with his clothes and other belongings in it. He had a feeling that he knew where they were going; he hoped that his instincts were wrong.

When they stopped for gas, Alvin attempted to get out to get something to drink, but Dave told him and Simon and Theodore to stay in the car. Once they had filled up on gas, they drove to Covina and soon arrived at Charter Oak Hospital.

"Go in and tell the nurse that you're suicidal," Dave told Alvin.

Alvin, on the other hand, wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. He remembered what had happened the last time he'd done that. Nonetheless, Dave led him into the hospital and he was called in by the nurse and he explained what was going on. He only told her that he was having some trouble with some bullies at school and that was it.

"Are you suicidal?" she asked him.

He answered, "No."

She nodded and called in Dave. "He says he's not suicidal."

"But he is," Dave insisted.

"He says he's not and if he's not, then we can't admit him."

"Then perhaps he should be put in a group home."

"Please sit out in the lobby while I make some calls."

Dave nodded and led Alvin out to the lobby. "Don't worry," he coaxed. "You'll like being in a group home. It'll be good for you."

After a few minutes of waiting, the nurse came out and reported that Alvin didn't meet the requirements to be put in a group home. In response to this, Dave began acting as if he was crying.

"If the situation is that bad," the nurse said, "maybe you should look into child services."

Dave nodded and thanked the nurse for her help before taking Alvin back out to the family car and driving over a few cities until they arrived at the Department for Child and Family Services. Walking in with Alvin, Dave sat down with a social worker and began explaining how Alvin beat him and his other two sons, that the three of them feared for their lives.

To Alvin, the complete opposite was happening. He was the one who was getting beaten. He was the one who was afraid of his father. He was the one who feared for his life. He had never hit Dave, not once. Brothers being brothers, of course he and Simon got into fights. It was never anything serious; no broken bones or anything of that extreme. It was mostly just yelling at each other back and forth. When he tried to disprove Dave's accusations, telling the social worker that Dave was lying, she merely told him, "Just sit there and be quiet." It was quite clear that no matter what he said, the social worker wouldn't listen to him. He had no choice but to take the social worker's demand and obey it.

"Okay, we'll take him," the social worker stated. "Because he's a threat, we can't put him in a group home, but we can put him in a juvenile detention center. He'll be held there until he's twenty-one, at which time he'll be released. This will cost you six hundred dollars a month in child support in order for us to take care of him."

Dave shook his head. "I'm sorry. I don't have that much money. I wouldn't be able to provide enough money for you to take care of him."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"I guess I have no choice but to take him home with me."

"Well, okay. If you have any problems out of him, just give me a call." She turned to Alvin. "If you do cause any problems, I will have the police go to your house, arrest you, and they will take you to the juvenile detention center. Do we have an understanding?"

Alvin nodded. "Yes."

The social worker turned back to Dave. "Good! Well, it looks like your situation is taken care of. Let me give you my number." She grabbed a notepad and a pen and scribbled down her phone number before ripping off the sheet and handing it to Dave. "Remember, if there are any problems, just give me a call."

Dave nodded as he stood up, folding up the piece of paper and placing it in his pocket. "Thank you." He turned to Alvin. "Let's go."

Alvin spent much of his time from then on simply either sleeping or going to school. On other days he would grab his bike and ride up to Griffin Park and stay there, reporting back home five minutes before his bedtime. When he got home, he would shower and go to bed after eating whatever Simon had prepared for dinner.

At school, Alvin was too fearful of what would happen if he reported the bullies to the principal. More than likely they would weasel their way out of the situation and he would then be arrested for being a problem child. He had no choice but to take the beatings that he received from the bullies on a daily basis.

He reported the abuse to Dave, who only accused him of lying so he wouldn't have to go to school. Alvin went on to say that he was fed up with all the pain and hurt that he'd endured up until now and wanted it to stop. He felt like dying. When he told Dave this, his father looked him in the eyes and said, "The steak knives are in the kitchen. Go for it." Hurt and upset by such a comment, Alvin ran outside, grabbed his bike, and took off until he arrived at the local Metolink commuter train station.

He loved trains. He knew that a train could go up to a good sixty-five miles an hour and therefore, death would be instantaneous. Getting off his bike, he stepped onto the train tracks and crossed his arms, waiting patiently for the train to strike him. In the distance he could see a bright light that crept closer and closer to him. He supposed that the conductor could have seen him because he heard the blaring of the horn twice. He refused to move. He closed his eyes and prepared for the angel of death to take him away, away from all the pain and hurt that the world offered him. In just a few seconds he would be at a better place and time.