There’s always a bit of suspense about the particular way in which a given school year will get off to a bad start.

No. No, you can’t.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. In fact, high school is where we are first introduced to the basic existential question of life: How is it possible to exist in a...

This is followed by laughter because we’re in high school, which means we’re predictable and almost everything is funny, especially if it’s someone else’s public humiliation.

They had become a fixed star in the shifting firmament of the high school’s relationships, the acknowledged Romeo and Juliet. And she knew with sudden hatefulness that there was one couple like them in every...

Why can’t we repeat 8th grace five times and call that a high school education?

I know what you’re thinking. ‘How the hell does this broke ass piece of trailer trash know words like caveat,’ right? Well guess what? I’ve read every single book on the New York Times list...

Throw in the intensity of emotions that come with that bittersweet summer sandwiched between high school graduation and the rest of your life…

On time for us was thirty minutes before actually started, because the half hour before the first bell was the highlight of our social calendars: standing outside the side door that led into the band...

Kavanagh has a smart mouth.

When my pals in high school were starting to drink, it always looked unappealing to me. I would be at a big party and see one of the popular girls or football players completely wasted...

Look, this is helping me out quite a bit, but could you just get to the punishment part? We’re at the end of World War Two in history, and I can’t wait to find out...

We were supposed to be an English literature class, but Miss Nesbitt used literature to teach real life. She said she didn’t have time to teach us like a regular English teacher–we were too far...

I’d violated the primary rule of junior and senior high– don’t get people talking about you too much. This was wearing the brightest shirt on the playground. This was Mom giving you a kiss in...

In high school I got voted most likely to get voted for something. Even though I was the only one who voted, it still felt terrific being nominated.

He doesn’t want to step out of the present, this present. Because once he does, there will be college applications and college acceptances (just one will do) and the last of everything (last class, last...

Her problem is with pretty,” Tennyson said. “She thinks I’ll need all these dresses in college. Like I would ever in a billion years pledge a sorority. I’ll pack a few of these to be...

She’s fulfilled her obligation, assuaged her conscience by finding me in the hallway and giving me the chance to freak out, and I’ve played my role too, by remaining calm, pretending to be okay, and...

I pull my lower lip all the way in between my teeth. If I try hard enough, maybe I can gobble my whole self this way…. I didn’t try hard enough to swallow myself.

Aw, c’mon. She purred, her breath warm in my ear.”You know you wanna…”God, she was slurring. She smelled like beer.I’d never been to turned on in my life.This has gotta be some kinda rape.I thought...

I always knew the teachers were out to get me.

We are in a boy recession,” Eugene repeats. “There’s been a sudden, drastic decrease in the male population at this school. And I’m gonna take advantage of it.

In high school, I was convinced I had super powers. Well, just one really. I was sure I had the gift of invisibility. But nobody saw how super I was, because nobody saw me.

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.