-POV: John-

        I woke up to the screaming of my alarm clock. I groaned, forcing myself to get up.  Not opening my eyes, I felt the top of my alarm clock, and began to hit the top of the clock until I hit something.  I succeeded, sort of. Instead of turning it off, I just managed to change the constant beeping to an ear splitting screech. "Gah!" I shouted as I began to pound the top of the clock, praying I would hit the button to turn it off.  Instead, I only managed to turn it up.  "Ok, ok, ok! I'm up!" I shouted, opening my eyes and hitting the off button.  "Stupid machine." I muttered.  I sat up, yawned, and rubbed my eyes.  I got out of bed, and walked over to the pile of clean clothes in the corner of my room.  I put all clean clothes in the hamper to be washed, but clean clothes are put into a large pile in the corner of my room for easy access, instead of wasting time by putting them in my drawers.    I selected a blue tee shirt, and a pair of American Eagle jeans.  I pulled off my pajamas, and pulled on the new clothes.  I turned, and looked at myself in the mirror.  I had absolutely no sense of fashion or style, but today, I didn't look half bad.  I pulled on my watch, and put on my glasses.  I kept my haircut short, so when I woke up in the morning, I didn't need to style or touch it.  The bruises from my beating were almost gone, except for the one on my stomach, which was now black.  I knew that today was friday, which meant tomorrow was no school, but it also meant that I was going to get another beating from Jack.  I walked downstairs, threw my Pjs in the hamper, and grabbed myself a bowl of cereal. 

        My mom smiled at me, "Morning, sweetie. How did you sleep?"

         I smiled, "Fine."  I ate my cereal calmly, knowing that I couldn't open my gifts until I finished breakfast and everyone was awake.  Once I finished, I placed my dishes in the sink, washed and dried them, and put them in the cabinet. I brushed my teeth, and I heard my sister come down the stairs.  She tore open her packet of oatmeal, and poured hot water onto it.  Yech.  How she eats that stuff, I will never know.  I sat down onto the couch, and turned on the TV.  "Good morning everybody, and happy January 31st, its gonna be a little chilly, so make sure you..." I changed the channel, not caring about the weather.  I flipped through our channels, bored.  We didn't have cable, so our TV options were extremely limited.  I flipped to PBS, and saw nothing worth mentioning on, so I simply turned theTV off.  I turned, and saw my Mom and Dad placing brghtly colored boxes on the counter.  I smiled a I eyed the boxes, trying to deduce the contents.  Finally, my mom gestured for me to come over.  My mom was a stickler for the rules, so she was one of the few people in the world who took the ESRB rating seriously.  I had gotten my first T rated game for my 12th birthday, and that was a surprise.  The point is, I was finally old enough to play T games in her eyes.  My mom pulled out her video camera, and recorded as I tore open the first video game  A grin spread across my face as I found myself staring at the face of the legendary hero of Hyrule, Link, on the game Twilight Princess. I had always been a huge Zelda fan, but I had never owned any of the games.  "Wow." was all I could say.  I tore open the next gift, and the all powerful presence of Dialga stared at me from his Pokemon Diamond case. Unfortunately, it was time to go to school, so I couldn't open my other gifts until after school, so I sadly put the rest of the gifts away, thanked my parents, and gave my Dad a hug before he left for work.  My mother, my sister, and I all piled into the car.  On the ride to school, I thought about how exited I was about my gifts.  However, once the school came into view, I mentally steeled myself for what was coming... Jack.

As I walked into school, I glanced around.  Jack never came to school early, but I always checked, just in case.  I knew that I would be safe during the school day, since I was in all honor's classes, and Jac barely passed his classes.  As the day started, I heard he principal announce the birthdays over the PA, as he always did.  Once my name came up, everyone in my class congratulated me, but I just groaned, because any chance Jack would forget it was my birthday was now over.  After class, I entered the hall, and leaning agains the wall, was none other than Jack, with a smirk on his face.  He stared at me, with his evil grin, and I gulped.  The same thing happened second period, and third, and fourth. This continued until 7th period, when Jack disappeared.