Reward

     After Melinda's in-school suspension is over, she decides to not skip school anymore. She even gets her grades back up. Her parents don't know what to think. Her counsilor says that her parents should reward her for not skipping and doing good in class. Melinda's parents decide that new clothes is a good reward. So the next day, Melinda and her mom go to the mall and shop for clothes. Melinda ends up getting clothes that are more for warmer weather than colder. She doesn't even think about buying warm  clothes. So, the next day after school, Melinda is at the bus stop waiting to be picked up. And while she's waiting, snow is falling rapidly. She barely has enough clothing to keep her warm. Then out of nowhere, Mr. Freeman (art teacher) asks if she needs a ride and she says yes. So, Mr. Freeman gives her a ride downtown where he drops her off at her mom's work.

Discipline

     After all the times Melinda has skipped school so far, it has finally caught up with her. The teachers and principal have caught on to Melinda's absences. Now, Melinda is sitting in a room with her parents, the principal, and her guidance councilor. Her parents and the principal go back and forth on why she could possibly be getting back grades and skipping while Melinda has all the answers right inside her head. But she won't budge; she sits mute the whole session. This frustrates her parents more than anything. The guidance councilor asks if something is wrong between their marriage but they shake their head before he can even get the question off. Everyone besides Melinda is so clueless on why she is acting how she is. Since Melinda decides to not participate, they get nowhere on what the issue could be. They decide to punish her by giving her an in-school suspension. They hope this will rattle the truth out of her, though I'm not sure it will.

Betrayal

 
     As Melinda and Heather sit down for lunch, Melinda starts to notice that they've grown apart. They don't seem to be very good friends anymore. Then out of the blue,  Heather starts to talk. She tells Melinda how she's noticed that both of them are very different from each other. She then tells Melinda that they were never even friends. Melinda is astonished. Heather starts to push the conversation. She explains how Melinda is the most depressed person she's ever met and she tell her that she needs help. Melinda cannot believe what she's hearing. She begins to fight back; stating that at the beginning of the year, she was the only one to talk to Heather and try to make friends with her. But now Heather is blowing her off? Melinda is starting to wonder if they really weren't ever friends. After all is said and done, Heather gets up and walks over to the Martha's table. It is official; Heather and Melinda are no longer friends. But the real question is, were they ever?

Skipping

    Melinda wakes up for school and already realizes she's late. This is the second day in a row she's done this. Since she already missed the bus she decides not to rush on breakfast and takes her time eating. Melinda expects her mom to drive her to school but her mom gives her a straightforward no. Her reason why is because she is already late for work. Its snowing outside and the school is a good distance from her house, and Melinda has to walk there. She walks a good distance in a good amount of time. She actually might not be late if she keeps going at this pace. But she doesn't. Instead, when Melinda has gotten all the way to the town bakery, she decides to load up on a couple doughnuts. When she exits the bakery, Melinda spots IT in the parking lot. It's Andy Evans eating a jelly doughnut.  She freezes and hopes he won't see her, but of course, he does. And when he does, Melinda bolts, leaving footprints in the snow. After she assumes that she's run far enough she stops to catch her breath. And then she thinks, why go to school? For the rest of her day, Melinda wanders around the mall. No one seems to care that she's there though. When the day is over, Melinda decides that it's probably best to go to school for the rest of the week, and that's what she does.

"IT"

   Melinda is hanging up a poster for Heather when a boy walks by her. She refers to him as "IT" and it doesn't seem like she likes him. In fact, it seems like she strongly dislikes him. She explains how when she smells him it wants to make her throw up. Though I'm still clueless on what happened between the boy and Melinda. I'm guessing it has to do with the party that took place over the summer. After that it skips to where Melinda is at home being lectured by her mom. Melinda's teacher called her mom about her report card. Her mom yells at her but she zones her out and thinks about other things. She's tired of dealing with her parents. They ground Melinda and even take cable away from her. She has to go straight home from school unless her mother tells her otherwise. When she goes to school the next day she notices that Heather has fallen behind in the Marthas group. All of the other people match besides her. The next thing I know, Heather is up and running into the bathrooms. Melinda decides to stay at her lunch table. Then "IT" walks in and she gives us his name. The boy is Andy Evans; a rich, popular kid. All of the girls adore him, besides Melinda. Though no one knows why, and neither do I.

Thirteen Reason Why; A Book Recommendation

   I would recommend this book for anyone who seems to be interested in the book "Speak." This is because both of these books deal with depression and the thought of suicide. Though, Thirteen Reasons Why is more about suicide than "Speak" is. This book is about a girl who committed suicide and no one in the school knows why. Though she leaves tapes; specifically thirteen of them. Each tape is for a different person. Once the person listens to their tape, they're supposed to pass it on to the next person in line and not tell anyone anything. The main character is a boy that goes to the school the girl went to. He finds out he's part of the tapes when he gets them at his door. The boy's life changes forever after he listens to all of the tapes. To learn more and to see the summary of the book "Thirteen Reasons Why", please click on the link below.

http://www.thirteenreasonswhy.com/book.php

Reading Skills in Speak

   In the book so far, not much has happended. Melinda is starting the third trimester and she is still hasn't tried to interact with anyone. All day she just keeps to herself. The one thing that keeps popping up is a guy in her high school. A lot of the time she refers to him as "IT". I can tell that she strongly dislikes him for some reason. But why? That is the main question I have. Another question I have is why doesn't she talk to her parents or the counsler about it? That would probably help her and make her feel better. I'm predicting that soon, we'll find out why she hates him and that it has something to do with the party. And I also predict that the rest of the school will found out what happened and they will feel bad for Melinda. A text to world connection I have is that thousands of teenagers today are depressed for a reason but no one even knows because they keep to themselves. I think if you notice someone is down, you should help them get back up. A text to text connection I have is between Speak and Thirteen Reasons Why. Thirteen Reasons Why is about a girl who commited suicide and a boy finds her tapes she made before she died and he finds out why she did it. Both of these books talk and describe depression in teenagers. If it seems like you would like the book Speak, you would probably like Thirteen Reasons Why also.

Analyzation of Melinda

"I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep? I draw little window cracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting. It looks like I arm-wrestled a rosebush."

"IT found me again. I thought I could ignore IT... I can smell him over the noise of the metal shop and I drop my poster and the masking tape and I want to throw up and I can smell him and I run and he remembers and he knows. He whispers in my ear."
   

     In the story, the text is describing how depressed Melinda is. She keeps talking about just wanting to give up on everything and disappear. I haven't really seen her happy yet during the story. She keeps quiet and doesn't try to interact with anyone. I feel like her depressing is affecting her grades because for the second trimester, most of her grades are a C. I can tell she is depressed because in this quote, it shows her talking about hurting herself and she does not seem happy. In the other quote, she refers to a person but calls them "IT". It is a boy that goes to her high school and she seems to have a strong hate for him. I infer that the reason she is depressed is because this boy did something to her but no one knows. I also infer that this boy was probably present at the party during the summer.