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"It was real quick," he said quietly, adding that "it hurt."
Within minutes, though, the Wharton Elementary School kindergartner was laughing and talking about going home to play.
Alex was one of the lucky ones.
Hundreds of other people who stood in line Monday in hopes of getting one of 250 H1N1 vaccines offered by the School District of Lancaster were turned away.
VIDEO: H1N1 vaccinations given at Carter and MacRae Elementary School
The free shots were given on a first-come, first-served basis to children attending public or private schools in Lancaster city or township.
Gail Keller, health services facilitator for SDL, said nine district nurses were able to administer nearly 250 shots Monday afternoon.
The remainder of the 500 vaccines received by SDL will be given from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Fulton Elementary School.
Keller could not confirm a report that numbered tickets were handed out to the next 250 people in line, guaranteeing them a vaccine on Wednesday.
"I heard that, but I was inside the entire time, so I'm not 100 percent sure if and how that occurred," she said.
Keller said she was "very surprised" at the number of people who arrived to receive the vaccine Monday, noting that past immunization clinics offered by SDL saw poor turnouts.
She attributed the large turnout Monday not only to the scarceness of the vaccine, but to the attention the media have given to H1N1, commonly known as swine flu.
Keller said she has already ordered an additional 1,000 doses of the vaccine.
"Whether we get them or not I don't know," she said. "I can't even say when we might know for sure or when they might arrive. All we can do is wait and see how it plays out."
Carter and MacRae principal Ollie Jones said parents and their children began lining up outside the school shortly after noon. By 3:30, when nurses began administering the vaccine, about 1,000 people were standing in a line that snaked around the school's playground and wrapped around a portion of the block.
Many parents said they took advantage of the district offering because they were not able to obtain the vaccine from their family doctor.
"I wasn't going to come, but I didn't want to regret it if I didn't," Peggy Mast-Ziegler said as she stood in line with her 7-year-old triplets Sophie, Emma and Jack.
Melonia Bond brought her 8-year-old son, Donnell, to the clinic Monday because they have been on a waiting list for about a month with their family doctor, she said.
"They said they don't foresee getting it any time soon, so when I read about this, I figured we better take advantage of it," Bond said. "Washing your hands and using sanitizer, which we've been doing in our house, is the first defense. But is it enough? It's scary, and I don't want to take any chances."
While Keller said she felt things ran smoothly Monday and praised district officials who helped out inside the school, some parents said they wished there would have been a greater SDL presence outside.
"We have no idea what's going on," said one woman who asked not to be identified. "We keep hearing that they ran out, but nobody is telling us anything. We want to know if we're standing out here for nothing."
Some parents reportedly called the police because officials weren't monitoring while groups of people cut in line.
In preparation for the next clinic on Wednesday, Keller said she would advise parents against taking their children out of school — which some did Monday — and lining up early. She suggested parents arrive shortly before 3:30.
To receive an H1N1 vaccine, children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian, who must sign a consent form before a child can get a shot.
