Chapter 1
November 2, 1975,
Hey, my name is Alice Lea Case, and I'm in a psychiatric hospital. People usually ask what happened and why I’m here. Well, let me tell you. It was September 18, 1972. It was my first time going to a public school. I had always been home-schooled, and I was so excited to attend a public school for the first time. I was entering middle school, starting my 7th-grade year. I couldn't wait to go. I have an older half-brother named José. We share the same mom but have different dads. His dad and our mom divorced years ago, and now my mom and dad are together, I think. I'm not sure if they divorced because of what happened.
My brother told me that middle school would be hard, but I told him I'd seen TV shows, and it didn't seem that hard. When my mom dropped me off at school, she told me that if I had any problems, just call her, and she'd pick me up.
As I walked up to the school, I started to feel scared. I felt like everyone was staring at me, so I quickly ran to the office to talk to the principal. When I got there, Mr. Smith, the principal, told me that he had someone for me to meet. Then, a girl came in. He explained that she was going to show me around because we had the same classes. After she walked me to class and we sat down, the teacher walked in. She announced to the whole class that they had a new student. She had me stand up and introduce myself by sharing two fun facts about me so that my classmates could get to know me better. I stood up and said, “My name is Alice Case, my favorite color is red, and I was home-schooled from kindergarten until now.”
After that class, a girl walked up to me and asked if it was true that I hadn't gone to a public school at all until now. I told her yes, and she asked why. I didn’t know why my parents just didn’t want to send me to school. She said I was lucky and asked if I would like to be friends. She introduced herself as Jojo and mentioned that it was her first time at this school too; she had moved from another school. After school, she asked if I would like to hang out with her at the park. So, I called my mom and asked. She said no and asked where I was. I told her I was waiting in front of the school, but I didn’t listen to her and told Jojo that my mom said I could go. That's when everything went downhill.
