If She Told Her Friends Earlier

 Author’s Note: This is an “alternate scene” for the book Speak by Laura Halse Anderson. In the book Mel decided to just watch her friends ignore her instead of trying to tell them what actually happened. In this piece my purpose is to show what would’ve happened if she tried to go tell her friends what happened. This book is written in (the main character) Mel’s point of view and so will my piece.

          It’s the first day of school; and I already know I am going to be ignored. I am expecting this. It’s all because that stupid party. I know I had a reason to call the police but I know they won’t believe me. When I sit down on the bus I see Nicole. What should I do? Should I tell her what happened, or will she just ignore me? I decide to go up and say hi. Just as I predicted, she ignores me. I try to speak again, but she signals for me to leave. I decide it would be in my best interest to walk away. Afterschool on the bus ride home after a horrible day of being ignored I decide to try again. I walk up to her again, but before I can mutter a single word she signals for me to walk away again. I decide instead of walking away this time I am going to just spill all my words out.  At that party over the summer I didn’t mean to ruin an…

“I don’t care what you say I know that you called the police and that ruined my party”, Nicole said blatantly.

I wanted to hurt her at this point! I didn’t call the police at that party for no reason!! Andy Evans it was him.

“What are you talking about?” Said Nicole confusedly.

He raped me. I was too scared to tell anyone but I can’t take the heat from everyone picking on me.

“What would make me believe that?” Stated Nicole

Nicole, we used to be best friends. Why wouldn’t you trust me?

“I don’t know, it just seems like that is a crazy thing that could happen.”  Murmured Nicole

Well it happened. It seems like she feels bad for me. I just walked away. I didn’t say anything else. I go to bed feeling so confused. Not knowing what to expect the next day.

I wake up feeling refreshed. As I’m walking in to the kitchen I see my parents.  There fighting…… again. I am going to just ignore it today. I walk on the bus, and Nicole sits by me? She must feel bad for me. We arrive at school and everyone is talking to me. How many people know? I think I could get used to this.

Later On

It’s almost the end of the year and I think I had a great freshman year. I am keeping my grades up! All my friends took my side and like me and my parents stopped fighting. I’m glad I made the choice to tell my friends what happened at the party.

Your Past Affects Your Future

Authors Note: This is a prediction essay on the book Speak by Laura Halse Anderson. The purpose is to show what I predict will happen later in the book.

Speak by Laura Halse Anderson is a book about a girl that used to have a lot of friends in middle school but then during a party over the summer she called the police. First year of high school is hard enough but now with no friends it is even harder. I predict that she will eventually find a group of friends that like her and will accept her even after what she did. I also predict that something happened at the party and that is why she called the police. There are many reasons to support these predictions.
           Supporting the first prediction, I feel that she will find a group of friends because she has one friend now that moved from Ohio and she doesn't know what happened over the summer. This girl is very involved and does a ton of school activities. Also she is starting to get people to like her so maybe she will get them to like the main character too.

           This is a scene showing what would happen if my prediction came true: Heather seems to have been meeting a lot of new people. I think this is a mistake. I don’t think she should be doing this. They are probably going to hate her. She’s walking towards me, what should I do? I think she’s going to tell me to talk to her so called “friends”.

“Hey, Melinda!” Heather said excitedly. “I met some new people! Their names from left to right are John, Sarah, Sidney, Jack, Carter, Lillie and Gabe. I wouldn’t want you to get them mixed up. Do you want to go talk to them?”

………………

“No? Are you sure?” Heather stated.

Well I guess we can go talk to them.

“Great!” Heather shouted.

Hi guys…. (I don’t want to be here). They look like a nice group of people, they kind of look like nerds. Oh well, at least Heathers making friends.  I probably won’t make any this year because of what I did over the summer. I can’t believe people could hold such strong grudges against me. It was one party, won’t there be more?  What am I supposed to do, or say or think around her “new friends”? Maybe some of them might talk to me. I don’t recognize any of them so maybe they weren’t at the party.

“Hi, Melinda is it?” Carter muttered

I reply with a simple and nervous “uh uh”, I felt like a nervous wreck, I didn’t know what to say. All these eyes were peering on me and no one else. 

“Sidney why don’t you show Melinda your talent?” Murmured Sarah

Talent? What talent?

“If you don’t understand something Sidney can figure it out for you and help you with it.” Uttered Gabe.

Oh really? Well I am really struggling in some subjects, could you please please please tutor me or at least help me?

“I guess I could.” Muttered Sidney

These people are becoming my friends. I hang out with them more and since that everything has been working really well. I’m finishing everything and I’m doing well on tests. Sidney is the best. I can’t believe I left other people control my life before.

There are a lot of supporting details on that prediction as well as my second prediction. I think someone raped her at the party because it doesn't seem like she would've called the police for no reason. Also there is this guy that she calls a bunch of different names. At the begging she calls him IT, then she calls him by his real name Andy.  She also calls him names like Andybeast. She says this sentence after IT comes by her and tries to talk to her, "IT found me again. I thought I could ignore IT."(pg.86) I think she calls him these names and says these things because he is the guy that raped her.
          This girl had many friends but because of one mistake no one likes her anymore. My predictions (she will eventually find a group of friends that understand and like her for who she is and she will tell the reader or a friend what really happened at the party, which I believe she got raped but just never told anyone) have many supporting details and many reasons why they may come true. What had happened in the past has very much affected her future.