Alibi

Chapter 1

Every thing is blurry, and I could barely think until I sat down. I was taken to a small dark room with a table, two chairs, and a mirror on one of the long walls that was obviously a one way mirror, and I was being spied on. I had watched plenty of crime shows, and it seemed to be pretty similar. There are no windows, and the door is undoubtedly locked. Was I going to be interrogated like on NCIS? I am not a criminal. They had it all wrong, I am not a bad person. I thought about how they took my picture, and fingerprints. I was going to have a record, just like a criminal. Just like an adult. I am only 15, I can't go to prison, I have a math test tomorrow. I wasn't completely sure why I was here, but I couldn't say that. They think I am a hardened rough around the edges kind of kid who robs gas stations and spray-paints graffiti on light posts in the neighborhood, only worse, they actually believed I could do these things and more. What they believed I did was worse than any rebellious teenage prank, and I couldn't have even thought that I or anyone I knew could be capable of it. I sat there in silence. I wasn't silent because I was refusing to confess, I was silent because I was scared. I was scared of what they do to people like me. I was scared that no one would ever look at me the same, and that no one would believe that I am innocent. Why should they? I couldn't explain why I looked so guilty, and it looked so bad, I began to believe it. Did I do this? I had to stop myself, I knew this wasn't true, and I knew I was going to make it out of this. I must have looked distressed, because just then, I heard a door open just outside the room. It must have bee from the other side of the mirror. They were watching me, and now they thought they could get it out of me. The had seen me struggle with myself on the inside, and they thought I was ready to come clean. The door opened, and the room flooded with light from the hallway. The light blinded me at first, but as my eyes adjusted, I could make out the figure of a tall women, entering the room and shutting the door. she sat down in the other chair, across the table, and just looked at me. I straightened up, thinking that in her very first impression of me, she might very well be deciding if I am guilty or innocent. She opened her mouth slightly, about to begin asking a long list of questions. She looked ready for anything, and I prepared myself aswell. "I am going to ask you a lot of questions, ok?" I shrugged. She knew I had to, and she knew that I knew too. She turned around to face a small machine that looked like a CD player, and pressed a button to begin recording our conversation. " What is your name?" she said with a small smile as if the recorder could see it and know that she was being nice. I leaned toward the mic and said in a voice that  wasn't loud, but wasn't gentle either, almost opposite of her, "You know my name, you've been looking at my file for the last 15 minutes." A look crossed her face as she realised that I didn't want this to be easy. " You are smart, I do know your name, but the recording wanted to know too." she said as if speaking to a child. I rolled my eyes and said with a smirk, " then why doesnt the recording ask me?" She sat back and tought for a minute. " I can turn it off for a minute, and we can introduce ourselves, and become friends before we start with the hard questions?" I could see she was trying, but I didn't want her to. I wanted to go home. I had no reason to be here because I am innocent. I thought of something to say quick, and blurted out " Aw but then the recoding won't get to be our friend if you turn it off! And that isn't very nice!" I realised how rude I was being. A look of remorse must have come over my face, because the disapointed look on hers changed to a thoughtful look. I am sure she was wondering what she was going to do with a brat like me. She was very nice, and didn't deserve this. She turn the recording off and started toward the door. I quickly exclaimed, "That was an awful thing to say. I shouldn't have snapped at you." She stopped. the pause seemed to last forever. It was ended, when her kind voice softly said " I am Alice. I do not want this to be hard. If you will help me, just a little, I can figure out whether of not you did what they say you did, or not." she started to walk again. Her hand was firmly on the handle for an extra moment when I said with tears coming to my eyes, " Thank you Alice."  Alice left the room, and I thought long and hard about what I was going to do. I am not guilty, and I wanted to prove it. She returned with a pencil and paper. she set it on the table but did not sit down. She looked at me and said, " I want you to right down everything that happened. Take your time and think hard. You need to either tell us that you did do it, or prove to us that you didn't. It is not enough to say you weren't there. You need to right down where you were, who you were with, and exactly what happend, or we can not  believe that you are innocent, even if we really want to. I will be back in a little while to check on you." She left the room, and locked the door. Alice was right. No one had any reason to believe me. I needed an alibi!