Rock Bottom

School

When Alec woke it took him a whole thirty seconds to realize he wasn't in his own bed. Had he slept over at Maia's place? Blinking in the low morning light Alec took in the water stains on the ceiling, and suddenly it all came flooding back to him. His own bed wasn't his any more; it belonged to strangers in official looking uniforms like everything else he'd ever called his own.

This bed was far too uncomfortable for a lie in, so Alec got up. Collecting some clothes out of the garbage bag on the floor, Alec went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. It was a strange feeling knowing in the last few minutes he'd used everything he owned.

Abandoning his sleeping - or possibly pretending to sleep - parents, Alec left the motel and started his walk to school. It took him a moment to get his bearings, what with this motel being nowhere near where his old home had been, but with the help of a few landmarks Alec figured out where to go. The whole thing made him miss his cell phone even more for the sake of it's GPS.

Even without getting more than a little lost, Alec was still late for his first class. He ducked into the back row hoping his teacher wouldn't notice. To his surprise it looked like he'd succeed, until the end of the class when his teacher singled him out.

"Alexander," Mr. Carstairs said gently as people were leaving. "Please stay behind."

It only took about a minute for the classroom to empty, but to Alec it felt like forever. On top of everything else, was he about to get in trouble for being late?

"Some troubling news has reached me," Mr Carstairs began. "Am I wrong in thinking that your parents house was repossessed yesterday?"

"No, you wouldn't be wrong about that," Alec replied, strangely relieved that at least life wasn't adding to his problems by giving him detention.

"I know you are graduating next week, and high school is basically over for you," Mr. Carstairs continued. "But as I've been your Science teacher for the last five years, I do want to help in any way I can."

"Thanks," Alec replied, genuinely grateful. "I'll remember that."

"If you need a place to stay for a little while, or anything, all you have to do is ask and my wife will make up the spare bedroom for you," Mr. Carstairs smiled.

"Mrs. Grey you mean?" Alec inquired.

"Yes," Mr. Carstairs smiled. "But I'm sure if you were sleeping on her couch she'd let you call her Tessa."

"I thought you said you had a spare bedroom?" Alec asked, though he supposed a nice couch would be more comfortable than the motel mattress he could still feel the springs from.

"Metaphorical couch," Mr. Carstairs corrected. He looked up at the clock on the wall behind Alec's head then added, "Shouldn't you be getting to your next class."

"Oh, right," Alec said almost jumping as he ran off towards his locker.

It was strangely wonderful to open it and find that all his school stuff was still there. He'd never been so happy to see his binder, calculator, and textbooks before in his life. This meant he had a pen to his name!

"You are alive!" Alec turned to see his best friend standing there looking very annoyed at him. "Why didn't you answer any of my texts?"

"My phone was confiscated," Alec replied.

"Oh, come on," Maia scoffed. "We are too old for our parents to still be confiscating our phones."

Taking a deep breath Alec turned to explain. "My parents didn't take my phone. In fact, they got their phones taken as well. Their house was repossessed yesterday along with everything in it," Alec said evenly. "I slept in a motel last night."