Go Ask Alice Chapters 251-260 Summary

Chapter 251: July 22

It turns out the court has ordered Alice to spend some time in a "youth center"—which is a euphemism for an insane asylum.
When her case was taken before a juvenile judge, Marcie and Jan testified against her, saying that she'd been trying for weeks to sell them drugs at school.
It doesn't help that she has a drug bust on her record.
Alice also learns more about what happened the night she was drugged: Mrs. Larson's neighbor and her gardener heard her screaming and ran over.
They figured she had gone insane, so they locked her in a small closet (that explains the coffin hallucinations). By the time the cops got there, she
had incurred a concussion and a fractured skull from trying to bash her way out.
Her parents are already desperately trying to reverse the court order.
Alice is really frightened.

Alice's parole officer takes her to the state mental hospital (no wait—the "youth center") and gets her all checked in. It is dingy, smelly, and altogether a terrifying place to be locked in against your will.

Being institutionalized is the pits.
There are about sixty kids there who seem pretty normal to look at, except for the kid who is bouncing his head and muttering and the girl who is seemingly catatonic under the pinball machine.
A bell rings and Alice is left with these two unfortunate kids. She is told if she wants to go to school with everyone else she has to see Dr. Miller and promise to live by all their rules—except Dr. Miller isn't in that morning. Gee, great.
At lunch the food is nasty, but more importantly, Alice is kind of surprised by how normal the other kids seem.
Alice gets to meet with the doc in the afternoon, and he gives her the spiel about how no one can help her until she wants to help herself. Alice wants to scream that she didn't even take the drugs knowingly, but that wouldn't help her case much because who would believe her?
At 2:30PM, the other kids come back from school and one group gets to play ball and the other has to stick around for group therapy. Turns out Group One (they are really creative with the names) are the kids who are obeying all the rules and therefore get privileges. Group Two are the kids who couldn't give a poop, so they are restricted to close observation.
At 4:30PM it's time to be locked back in the wards. Alice is grouped with six girls and five boys—at least she isn't alone.

The little girl in the room next to Alice is only thirteen but she shows some major spunk.
Her name is Babbie and she's been there for a long time. However, it seems almost justified—she's got some major issues. At the age of eleven some horrible old dude she met at the movie theater got her hooked on drugs, and a year later she was already a "BP," or baby prostitute. She robbed another guy to run off to L.A., where a madam in a high-class brothel quickly discovered her. She stayed with this madam, who had four other "nieces" (i.e., BPs), too, all of whom she kept high on drugs and sold to the highest bidder. After a few weeks of that, Babbie ran away to San Francisco where she was raped and beaten; then she ended up in the institution. Wow.
Alice can't believe she is categorized the same way as Babbie. She was never that bad, right?
She can't sleep because of the awful noises at night from the other patients. She hopes it's still just a part of her bummer trip.

Alice tries to pray and feels like it isn't working, like her words are meaningless.
She feels like death is her only escape.

Alice is finally allowed the privilege of going to school, which makes her future seem a little less bleak.
She and Babbie continue to bond, but Alice feels like she's just sleepwalking through the whole ordeal.
Alice is irritated by the constant aura of cigarette smoke and the jangling of the nurses' keys that remind her how very locked up she is.

Alice is jealous that Babbie ditched her to watch TV and bum cigarettes, and then she's mad at herself for being jealous of something like that.

After school, Alice has her first group therapy. After hearing some testimonies and seeing how group therapy works, she is actually hopeful that her time here could be productive.
Carter, the group president, has a little chat with her and she finds out that she's not the only one scared out of her wits at being institutionalized.
Alice learns that in a few weeks the Group One kids (the good ones, remember?) are going on a field trip to go spelunking. With that, she's got herself a new goal: Get into Group One in time to go on that field trip.

Alice's parents come to visit; her dad has been working on getting Jan to retract her statement.
She is grateful for group therapy, and feels like she's really getting something out of it. Whoa.