When people look at me, they automatically assume I’m dark and weird. Why can’t they see the truth? I’m just a girl, trying to find my place in the world.

I thought back to Meg’s advice about Hemingway sentences—simple declarative statements that showed the truth and distilled the meaning. My first attempt at that had been cynical and messed up. I gave it a go...

I reached for his other hand, which he quickly accepted and I pulled him up into a hug. I didn’t know what the other kids in the room were thinking or saying or doing. And...

In matters of affection, the rules of engagement at Empire High were detailed yet unambiguous, an extension of procedures established in junior high, a set of guidelines that couldn’t have been clearer if they’d been...

Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.

High School. Society’s bright idea to put all their aggressive, naive youth into one environment to torment and emotionally scar each other for life.

Around eighth grade Margot started getting really sensitive about her weight, even though she wasn’t remotely fat—just a little round-faced. So Margot did what any normal fourteen-year-old girl would do. She started puking on purpose,...

The piercing fanfare of the brass against the brutal boom and rattle of the drums surged through the air. At the head of the Ferris band marched the drum majorette. A crimson and white shako...

The Colonel ran ahead of me, gleeful at his ejection, and I jogged after him, trailing in his wake. I wanted to be one of those people who have streaks to maintain, who scorch the...

I recognized Meg’s swirly handwriting and crooked my index finger into the side of the envelope to rip it open. There was no letter. Just a picture. A picture of Meg holding a picture of...

I was a soccer cheerleader. It doesn’t get nerdier than that. I was fired from the soccer cheerleading squad after one year, which I believe to this day is unprecedented. You have to understand, no...

They’ll try to make you forget who you are or try to make you ashamed. But you mustn’t forget and you mustn’t be ashamed.

The sudden, painful flare of envy caught me by surprise. I was a loner, my last few years in school. I could have done with a friend like that.

Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you’ve got any guts. Some of...

On a nightstand in a teenager’s room, a glass vase filled with violets leans precariously against a wall. The only thing saving the vase from a thousand-piece death on the hardwood floor is the groove...

He smiles. It’s a blinding, white-toothed smile. A push-me-over-the-edge-of-the-love-cliff smile. And before I can say a word in protest, he’s got my hand and is dragging me through the carnival.Note to self: Do not stare directly at his...

I’d felt this before, when my granddad was in the hospital before he died. We all camped out in the waiting room, eating our meals together, most of us sleeping in the chairs every night....

Guys don’t understand great art. They don’t care that sometimes the camera has power beyond the photographer to record emotion that only the heart can see. They’re threatened when the camera jumps ahead of me....

I think it would shock most people if they really knew what we have each survived by the time we graduate high school.

Just a few more years and then we’ll join the circus.

Stuck in high school for the rest of my natural life. Talk about hell.

Eugene’s got a fake ID, and he actually gets away with using it because he looks like he’s thirty-six, thanks to his devotion to tasseled shoes and his ridiculous carpet of chest hair.

I still have wagon splinters stuck to my ass, from when my high school coach made me ride the bench.

Honestly, I’d rather be anywhere else. Even home, where my dad begins almost every conversation with, “You should lose the black clothes and wear something with color.” Puh-lease. Like I want to look like every...

This is the time and these are the people and I’d give my right arm to be a light, a comfort, to them. I know you would, too. In whatever form it takes. Use these...

I am a guy,” I say.”And I hate boys,” she says.”But a guy’s different,” I say.”Maybe a little,” she says.

A lot of people have it in for me. It’s practically a school sport.

Um, hello, have you seen the movie Carrie?

You can wait as long as you like, pretty one, it won’t make any difference. He will never see you as anything more than some victim he has to protect. Why he thinks it his...

See, the thing is, I had a little misunderstanding with Trent Gibson in Pre-Calculus earlier. I dropped my textbook on his face—accidentally, while we were discussing some…equations—and he thought I was trying to brain him....

Imagine 4 years.Four years, two suicides, one death, one rape, two pregnancies (one abortion), three overdoses, countless drunken antics, pantsings, spilled food, theft, fights, broken limbs, turf wars–every day, a turf war–six months until graduation...

Don’t be special.” That’s what I would say to my younger self if I could pinpoint the moment when I went astray. But there was no one moment. I was always astray

Things are crazy here, and I’m questioning everything.

Jenna walked in between desks and plonked herself down behind hers, noticing AGAIN that the teacher hadn’t graced the class with his zitty presence. She thought Mr. Kennan needed to get fired, which said a...

Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive.

Being kind is one of the hardest thing to be in high school because you’re so terrified of being cut down yourself that you’re always on your guard. But don’t be like that. Be kind...

There are a million rules for being a girl. There are a million things you have to do to get through each day. High school has things that can trip you up, ruin you, people...

It’s just high school, man. Those guys are just high school guys, and in ten years they’re going to be working for people like me. I know that. I just have to make it through...

In third period Math, we were forced to sit in alphabetical order. Which put me right behind Logan, who was throwing all those passes to Aiden in the scrimmage. He took off his navy blazer...

He’s hurting and it’s not just the Quinn thing. It’s being away from you and wondering if you’re hurting, too. Or if you’re having too much fun to hurt. What he really needed was to...

In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew

The same boys who got detention in elementary school for beating the crap out of people are now rewarded for it. They call it football.

We all say and do things we regret, but it’s never to late to change, apologize and become a better person

As long as we don’t get turned into something that looks more like high school, more like everybody else and less like us, I’ll be okay.

My love life couldn’t be more nonexistent if Julius was all all-girls’ boarding school with a moat full of alligators around it.

This whole, crazy fucking business can be reduced to one little word, one word explains it all. I’m going to give you the benefit of my experience and share that word with you, buck. It’s...

Brookfield High School. How may I direct your call? No, sir, this is not a waste- disposal unit, I’m afraid you have the wrong number.

I needed out. The Jeep wasn’t fast enough. I shut it down, grabbed the keys and started running like a bear was at my heels. I couldn’t even see Henry anymore through my tears so...

Most people felt lost after high school. Sometimes I felt like I’d never really been found in the first place.

I touched his hand, carefully. Not too intimate, but not some half-assed there-there pat, either. Would he understand? Usually the thought process for a seventeen-year-old boy went girl touching me>omg>boner.