Everyday, Alex lived in fear of thinking that she would catch a glimpse of Michael and his friends out in the hallways waiting for her to come into view but whenever she was with Monica, it was the only time she didn't think about him or his threats. She felt so safe around her, invincible, like no one or anything could harm her. For the first time in a long while, she was actually happy to be going to this school, alongside Monica that is. She probably would have felt silly to say something like that aloud but it was true. She liked hanging out with Monica because instead of just "I" or "me", it was now "us" and "our".

She was filled with so much joy that she thought she was going to burst from the wonderful sensation. It was strange how she felt this way because they had just met not that long ago. She figured she had became so comfortable with her so quickly was because of the awkward silences between them was filled with uncanny jokes and nervous laughter. It proved to Alex that she wasn't the only one anxious about their growing friendship and it made her feel that she was no longer alone in this school.

When they walked out of the doors of the school, Monica's broad white limousine eased to a stop in front of the water fountain, patiently waiting for her arrival.

"Nice limo," Alex complimented courteously. Monica responded with a smile.

"Thanks. I can ask my chauffeur to drop you off at your home if you want." Alex quickly shook her head at the kind offer.

She knew that it was a bad idea. She also knew that if she skipped out on paying Michael, he would be beyond pissed and she couldn't risk putting herself through more torment by taking a once in a lifetime chance to ride in a limo(Me: But hey. I don't mind). It was too risky, too selfish, too careless of a decision. Besides, it was rude as well.

"No thanks," came the uncertain reply, "I'll just walk home. It's not that far of a walk."

"Aw, come on!" Monica whined, "My mom is in there and I can't stand talking to her! She's always judging me and criticizing my motives! I need somebody to talk to in there."

Staring at the pout on Monica's lips was a painful sight for Alex to watch and she knew that she would regret ever denying her offer and causing Monica to suffer just because she afraid of her own selfish desires. She practically met the girl barely six hours ago and she already had developed a soft spot for her.

Sighing in defeat, Alex feigned a smile and nodded in agreement with her offer.

"Fine but just this once." Monica squealed in delight and hurriedly ushered her towards the side door where the limo driver graciously held the door out for them.

The first item that caught Alex's eye as she stepped into the vehicle was the emerald ring that donned Monica's mother ring finger and the matching emerald necklace clasped around her slender neck, giving her a regal visage to grace her delicate features.

"Hello, darling. How was school?" the woman asked her before taking a long, silent sip from her glass of wine.

"It was wonderful, mother," Monica responded quietly as she rummaged through her school bag to retrieve her iPod.

Once she got a grip of her iPod, she offered Alex an earbud that she had timidly accepted and placed into her ear and several moments later, pop music played lightly into her left ear.

"Who's your friend?" the woman asked scowling slightly at Alex's commoner attire.

"This is Alex Avery. She's the one who helped me last week with that boy." Her mother nodded as she narrowed her gaze at Alex's black eye.

"Oh. The commoner," she snarled.

Commoner?

"Mother, please," Monica pleaded and she flashed Alex an apologetic smile. Alex merely shrugged her shoulders.

"I do apologize, darling. Alex, is it?" Alex nodded slowly at her, "I assume that's short for Alexandra?"

"Well actually, on special occasions, people call me Alexandra and sometimes Alexis but since birth, my name has always been Alex," she replied.

"What would you call a special occasion? A game of football? A cookout?" Monica already knew where her mother was headed but Alex seemed oblivious and unfazed by her questions.

"Yeah. Family reunions too."

"Speaking of family, what are your parents's occupation?" Alex winced but the twitch went unnoticed, "I'm sure it's something that fits their statuses."

Statuses?

Alex was so fazed by her insult that she had completely forgotten the question that had just been asked and instead of replying, she only stared at her with a slight perplexed look in her eyes. She had never felt so disrespected in her life by someone who was a complete stranger to her. She was offended and saying that she was shocked would have been an understatement. She was downright flabbergasted.

"Where do your parents work, Alex?" Monica asked courteously rephrasing her mother's question. Alex's features softened once she met Monica's apologetic gaze.

"Well, both of my parents are dead so I live with my aunt and my uncle. My aunt is a receptionist and my uncle is a car engineer."

"Your aunt spends all day answering phones whilst your uncle wastes his time fondling with cars? What a pity that must be." Alex scowled as Monica shot her mother a glare.

"Mother!" she scolded.

Alex fumed inside. No one had the right to judge her family's life even if it were true and she wasn't going to sit there and let her mother continue her cruel rant.

"Mrs. Stephens," she began as calmly and as courteously as she possibly could but as she continued, the firm anger in her voice was clear, "I never asked for your input. My family's occupations are none of your concern or your business nor are you in the rightful place to judge them. Just because they aren't the king or queen or heir of whatever foreign country on this planet, it doesn't mean that they don't have any money in their pockets. They make enough money so that there is food on the table and clothes on my back and if you don't like that, then I advise you to keep that to yourself."

Sighing inwardly, Alex shifted her gaze outside her window and watched the slew of students stroll out of the school building.

The woman reminded her so much of Michael, the she made fun of her family because of their lack of money. It enraged her to the core to how cruel and heartless humanity could be. She began to wonder why there were more Mrs. Stephens and Michaels than there were Monicas and Aunt Beckys.

"Why, I never-?!"

"She's right, mother," Monica suddenly said and Alex's ears strained to listen to her quiet, stammering voice, "It's not right for you to judge people unless you have walked a day in their shoes. Her caretakers could be just as wealthy as us if they wanted to be." Alex couldn't avoid the urge to quirk her lips up into a smile.

At that moment, she truly did have a friend.

After that remark, the vehicle fell silent until her mother abruptly began to bark orders at the chauffeur who hadn't began driving yet.

The way there was silent and once the driver eased to a stop in front of Alex's apartment, she wasted no time unbuckling her seat belt and making her way up the paved path that led up to the apartment building. She was slightly surprised to hear a set of light footfalls hastily jogging after her.

"I'm really sorry about my mom, Alex," Monica said as she followed Alex inside the lobby of her apartment, "She can be a real babbler sometimes." Alex only fanned her apology off.

"It's okay. To be honest, I should be used to it already." Monica feigned a smile.

"Well, I'll make sure she never does it again. It was really rude of her to say that."

"Monica, I'm fine." Monica only stared uncertainly and Alex flashed her a reassuring smile, "Really."

Monica sighed heavily, nodded, then bided her farewell before she walked out of Alex's sight.

She's very caring. Alex thought with a faint smile.

As soon as Alex stepped over the golden threshold of her apartment, her aunt came rushing up to her in a hasty manner, looking as if she had just ran a sprint.

"Alex!" she exclaimed as if it was a surprise to see her so suddenly, "I'm so glad that your here. I need you to go to the grocery store and get me a bag of oranges. The boys'll be home soon and oranges are their favorite snack. I'd go but I forgot something back at the office."

"Sure." Aunt Becky handed her the money and sent her on her way without a word of gratitude or a farewell to follow her out.

At the supermarket, it was less crowded than Alex had expected since most people were still at work during the week and because of that, it only took her a short amount of time to purchase the oranges.

She swung the plastic bag back and forth along with the rhythm of her slow strides, resembling a child who had just came from the local candy shop. She had been prancing for about two blocks when she noticed four kids jogging across the street to continue their jog on the sidewalk she was currently on. As they drew closer, one by one, she vaguely recognized each face but one face that stood out more than the rest, the one she had recognized instantly was the one that was leading them, the one that horrified her the most.

The very last person she would ever want to see was coming her way.

She wanted to scream out in agony but her voice had died in her throat from the sight of him. She felt her stomach sink inside of her and she could hear her heart pounding brutally against her chest. Her brain was so numb that she couldn't even think properly and even if she had, it still wouldn't have been able to communicate with her motionless body that wouldn't budge from it's frozen stance.

She wanted nothing more but to drop the bag of oranges and sprint home.

"Well, well, well. Look at what we have here." Michael and his friends cackled as they stepped closer to Alex.

Alex attempted to strode past them but Michael stepped directly in front of her, blocking her path to freedom.

"And where do you think your going?" he jabbed an index finger into her collarbone, "You still owe me."

Glaring back at him, Alex shoved a hand into her pocket and extracted a five dollar bill and presented it to him.

"I left the rest at home," she began more calmer than she had expected, "and if you give me a chance to go home and get it, maybe I can..." Her lips idly trailed off as she anxiously watched Michael rummage in the pocket of his jacket.

Terror claimed her features once he retrieved a pocketknife. He smirked with content as he pleasurably watched her eyes bulge out of her skull and he grew all the more amused once he saw her quiver at the way his fingertips delicately glided over the gleaming metal.

Oh no! He's going to kill me! He's really going to kill me! I just made a friend and now I'm going to get taken away from her! I never thought that he would go this far!

Alex wondered how Monica would react to the news once she heard that her new friend had died in vain on the streets with a knife to her heart. Aunt Becky came to mind and she wondered how she would take it, what her reaction would be, how she would feel knowing that she was the reason for Alex going out so suddenly. She then thought about Kirk, how he would be able to protect himself from Ross's harm. Uncle Joe though, never came to mind.

"Gurl," Michael snarled as he stepped closer to her and as if to protect herself, she held the bag of oranges in front of her pounding chest, "I've done lost all of my patience with you."

She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and cringed with her all as she braced herself to have the knife rip through her body.

What shocked her though was that she didn't hear the sound of flesh being torn apart but instead heard a loud, drawn out ripping sound and when she glanced down at her body expecting to see her stomach pouring out blood, she saw that the bag carrying the oranges had been slashed open and the oranges began to tumble clumsily out of the damaged bag and went rolling in all directions.

To her surprise, Michael caught Alex off guard by shoving her onto the cold pavement where she landed on her tailbone with a loud thud, eliciting a roll of laughter from the boys towering above her. She remained silent to their cruelty and sat there on the ground, reaching out for the oranges that were close beside her and as she extended her hand out to the one in front of her, a giant shoe stomped on it, causing the juice to squirt and for the orange to transform into an orange mush, no longer looking edible.

When Alex came to realization of their intentions, she struggled to gather the rolling fruit before the boys were able to get to it but she was outnumbered. In an instant, it became a game for them(a cruel game at that), stepping on the oranges before Alex could get to them and Alex found herself losing miserably.

They laughed loudly as they did it, some even teasing Alex on how pathetic she looked hurriedly reaching and sharply withdrawing her hand from their stomping shoes. The frantic struggle finally ended when Michael shoved Alex down onto her back and from her point of view, he resembled a giant the way he towered so menacingly above her.

"Now listen up, bitch cuz I ain't gonna repeat myself." Alex held back the hot tears welling in her eyes, "I don't care whether your on welfare or if you live in a foster home or if you ain't even got a house. If I don't get my daily ten, I'm gonna put you in a body cast. If you pay me, then maybe we'll decide to be a little nicer to you. You got that?"

Alex nodded shakily and Michael smirked triumphantly. Before he left, he crushed the two remaining oranges that Alex had managed to save and made his leave, his laughter echoing in the air.

She had never felt so worse about herself in her entire life. She had always been picked on in a minor teasing manner but never had she sank so low into letting someone convince her into paying them to leave her alone. She wondered what Aunt Becky or Monica would say if they ever found out about this.

When Alex returned home, she hurriedly wiped away the cold tears on her face once she noticed Kirk and Ross rushing towards her with Aunt Becky gracefully towing behind them, her usual pleasant smile playing on her lips.

"Where are the oranges?" Kirk elatedly asked her with a glint of hope and enthusiasm in his eyes.

Alex's heart sank, "I don't have them..."

"What? Why not?" Aunt Becky inquired.

"Yeah. Why not, Lex?" Kirk questioned.

Alex took a brief to ponder for a convincing lie, "I didn't have enough money..." she finally murmured.

"Are you that broke that you can't even afford any oranges? Ross asked and Alex shot him a cold glare.

Something within her snapped.

"Look you spoiled brat," she snarled and Aunt Becky gasped in shock at her sudden change of mood, "you should be happy that I was actually considering buying you oranges. I didn't have to, you know? I could have just refused o buy them but no. I actually cared about you two getting a snack. You should be grateful. There are tons of kids outside of this room that don't even get the opportunity to ask for oranges! You can't even imagine how many of them would be grateful to even receive an orange, considering that most of them don't even eat anything! If you weren't raised so poorly then maybe you would have realized that sooner! How about you actually try to stop thinking about yourself for once and take some consideration into those around you?!"

"Alexis-?!"

Alex stormed past the trio and slammed her bedroom door behind her so that she was able to block out Ross's puzzled cries, Aunt Becky's concerned murmurs, and Kirk's naive questions.

She didn't know why she had snapped on him so suddenly. Usually, it would have taken a lot more than that to make her snap but today, everything just seemed off as if everyone wanted to make her have a bad day. Monica's mother with the insults, Michael and his friends with their cruel tactics, and Ross with his selfish retaliations. It was all getting to her head and she felt as if she were about to explode with rage at the next person who dared to tick her off. She then realized that she had seemed to have sprinkled a bit of her rage on Ross.

I should probably go apologize to him later... She thought glumly.

At that moment, Michael's smirking face came to mind and she cringed at the image. She wanted to puke right then and there but the frown on her face showed otherwise. Ever since he had first harmed Monica with those words, she had hated him with a deep burning passion. She supposed though that if she had never stood up to him or defended Monica, she wouldn't have met her. On the other hand, if she hadn't stuck up for Monica or confronted Michael, she wouldn't have been his main victim and Monica would have been in this predicament, crying herself to sleep out of agony and constant worry and fear.

She figured that it was for the best and thought that maybe, just maybe, she would someday thank Michael for bringing her and Monica together as friends.

That night, even after feeling good for standing up for Monica, Alex had a horrifying nightmare. She was on that same exact street, cornered by Michael and his friends. They were laughing the entire time and each time she heard their laughter, she felt as if the gates of hell were opening and releasing it's menacing demons. They were stomping and crushing round objects that did everything in their will to roll away from their pounding feet but were demolished in the end. But the thing that scared Alex the most though, was that the round objects weren't oranges but instead, they were multiple tiny human heads and on each one, they had the same face plastered on the front; Alex's face.