Summary: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

The sto­ry revolves around a juve­nile girl, Melin­da Sor­di­no, who grap­ples with the dis­tress­ing con­se­quences of a sex­u­al vio­la­tion she expe­ri­enced at a sum­mer­time gath­er­ing. Upon com­menc­ing high school, she encoun­ters exclu­sion from her pre­vi­ous com­pan­ions and becomes the sub­ject of harass­ment. A fresh friend­ship forms with Heather, a new arrival yearn­ing for pop­u­lar­i­ty, yet her for­mer close pal, Rachel, remains obliv­i­ous to the ordeals Melin­da under­went at the event. Through­out the aca­d­e­m­ic year, Melin­da tra­vers­es her cours­es, par­tic­u­lar­ly con­cen­trat­ing on an art assign­ment about a tree, while also man­ag­ing sen­ti­ments for her lab­o­ra­to­ry asso­ciate, David Petrakis. Despite her chal­lenges, she main­tains silence regard­ing her assault, with the offend­er, mere­ly iden­ti­fied as “IT,” plagu­ing her mind. Melin­da’s cop­ing mech­a­nisms involve miss­ing class­es, uti­liz­ing pil­fered belat­ed per­mits, and seclud­ing her­self in an emp­ty cus­to­di­an’s clos­et she con­verts into a refuge. Dur­ing a home­com­ing cel­e­bra­tion, she once more becomes a tar­get for inform­ing the author­i­ties on the night of the gath­er­ing. She com­mu­ni­cates with her guardians through writ­ten mes­sages on the fridge and hides her look­ing glass in her wardrobe, refus­ing to con­front her reflection.

Amid her aca­d­e­m­ic decline, her par­ents rep­ri­mand her for her inad­e­quate grades, but she remains mum about the real root of her tribu­la­tions. In the end seg­ment, Melin­da dis­cov­ers solace in art under the tute­lage of Mr. Free­man, and her cre­ations demon­strate poten­tial. How­ev­er, she grap­ples with soli­tude and trep­i­da­tion, chiefly upon dis­cov­er­ing Rachel is cur­rent­ly roman­ti­cal­ly involved with her assaulter. Feel­ing oblig­at­ed to safe­guard Rachel, she alerts her about “IT” in an anony­mous note. When she even­tu­al­ly admits to being vio­lat­ed, Rachel rebuffs her, accus­ing her of envy. An uplift­ing moment arrives as she stum­bles upon oth­er females adding deroga­to­ry epi­thets beneath her assaulter’s name in a restroom stall list of “guys to evade.” Her odyssey cul­mi­nates when “IT” assaults her once more in her sanc­tu­ary cup­board. In this instance, she resists, shout­ing “No!” and men­ac­ing him with frag­ment­ed mir­ror glass, ulti­mate­ly reclaim­ing her voice. The aca­d­e­m­ic year con­cludes with Melin­da emerg­ing stronger and rather akin to a hero­ine, com­plet­ing her art­work and attain­ing an A+.

First Marking Period Part 1

Dur­ing her maid­en day at Mer­ry­weath­er High, Melin­da appre­hen­sive­ly antic­i­pates the bus, dread­ing encoun­ters with her for­mer com­rades. Upon arrival at school, she finds her­self soli­tary as her peers assem­ble into cir­cles. She notes the school’s emblem being redec­o­rat­ed as the Blue Dev­ils, advo­cat­ing an “absti­nence mes­sage.” The ninth-grade pupils con­vene in the audi­to­ri­um. Melin­da, now an “Out­cast,” no longer inte­grates with her for­mer clique, the “Plain Janes,” which has sun­dered into var­i­ous fac­tions. She yearns to con­fide in Rachel, her for­mer bosom friend, regard­ing the events of the sum­mer. Nev­er­the­less, Rachel ici­ly artic­u­lates, “I detest you,” leav­ing Melin­da gnaw­ing at her lip until it bleeds. Melin­da encoun­ters Heather, a recent pupil, as the assem­bly com­mences. After the assem­bly, Melin­da strug­gles to locate her biol­o­gy class, result­ing in her first demerit.

Melin­da play­ful­ly labels her Eng­lish instruc­tor “Hair­woman” and grap­ples with com­pre­hend­ing the jour­nal con­cept in class. Con­cur­rent­ly, her social stud­ies men­tor, Mr. Neck, who had ear­li­er observed Melin­da’s des­o­late state, allo­cates her a front-row seat and admon­ish­es her to behave. Melin­da sub­se­quent­ly retrieves her lun­cheon but spills the con­tents fol­low­ing an encounter with a senior dubbed “Bas­ket­ball Pole,” lead­ing to the cafe­te­ria assem­bly laugh­ing. Has­ten­ing away, she col­lides with Mr. Neck once more, who issues her a sup­ple­men­tary demer­it, prog­nos­ti­cat­ing her future unruli­ness. In art class, Melin­da yearns to recon­nect with her for­mer con­fi­dant Ivy as Mr. Free­man chal­lenges the class to unearth their essence. He tasks them with trans­form­ing the object inscribed on a paper they select into artwork—Melinda draws a “tree.” Ini­ti­at­ing an alter­nate choice, Mr. Free­man obstructs her, affirm­ing, “You have elect­ed your des­tiny, you can­not alter that.” Dur­ing Span­ish class, the edu­ca­tor declares she will eschew Eng­lish through­out the year. The pupils scram­ble to com­pre­hend her, resort­ing to Span­ish-Eng­lish lex­i­cons for aid.

First Marking Period Part 2

Melin­da has suc­cess­ful­ly nav­i­gat­ed two weeks of school with­out a melt­down, despite her pre­vi­ous acquain­tances ostra­ciz­ing her and her fre­quent delib­er­ate jostling in the hall­ways. Her fam­i­ly com­mu­ni­cates spar­ing­ly, opt­ing to leave mem­os for each oth­er on the ice­box. Her moth­er is pre­oc­cu­pied with dilem­mas at her gar­ments store employ­ment. Melin­da covert­ly indulges in piz­za for sup­per but ensures to oblit­er­ate any indi­ca­tions before her pater­nal arrival. She evades her father and retreats to her endur­ing­ly pink boudoir, a space she’s occu­pied since the fifth grade. Instead of tack­ling her assign­ments, she seeks refuge beneath her sheets and even­tu­al­ly con­ceals her mir­ror, stash­ing it with­in her wardrobe. At school, Melin­da fre­quent­ly seeks refuge in the restroom, where she wit­ness­es a tense con­fronta­tion between the prin­ci­pal and a trans­gress­ing stu­dent. In her gym ses­sion, she encoun­ters Heather and Nicole; the lat­ter gar­ners favor with the gym instruc­tors due to her adept soc­cer prowess and ami­able demeanor, mak­ing it ardu­ous for Melin­da to resent her. Rachel, Melin­da’s antecedent bosom bud­dy trans­formed into Rachelle, graces the lava­to­ry as well, hob­nob­bing with for­eign scholars.

Melin­da yearns to con­front Rachel regard­ing her mal­treat­ment, yet instead, they exchange super­fi­cial dia­logue. Fol­low­ing the meet­ing, Melin­da com­pre­hends the neces­si­ty for a com­pan­ion, even if super­fi­cial. Heather endeav­ors to per­suade Melin­da to join a soci­ety, though Melin­da deems it futile. She’s com­menc­ing to dis­cern Heather as vex­ing, liken­ing her to an overea­ger canine. When probed about her aims, Melin­da sole­ly craves to return home and seize a slum­ber. Fol­low­ing a lapse dur­ing her study hall due to sup­ple­men­tary tasks, Melin­da arrived tardy the sub­se­quent day with the study hall locale altered. She inad­ver­tent­ly stum­bles upon an idle cus­to­di­an’s cubi­cle while aim­ing to dodge a tutor seek­ing her belat­ed course­work. Elect­ing to trans­mute it into her exclu­sive retreat, she snatch­es a block of belat­ed per­mis­sion slips for future employ­ment. Amid the Home­com­ing Ral­ly, Melin­da is coerced to occu­py the ninth-grade sec­tor with Heather. She’s iden­ti­fied and tor­ment­ed for con­tact­ing the author­i­ties regard­ing a fes­tiv­i­ty, result­ing in cer­tain schol­ars’ appre­hen­sion. She remains mum, inca­pable of impart­ing her ren­di­tion of events. She observes the cheer­lead­ers, deduc­ing they exist dichoto­mous lives: engag­ing with foot­ballers on week­ends while exhibit­ing a facade of “chaste god­dess­es” dur­ing week­days. The ral­ly con­cludes with Melin­da being “inad­ver­tent­ly” jolt­ed down numer­ous bleach­er rows.

First Marking Period Part 3

Melin­da grap­ples with craft­ing a com­pelling depic­tion of light­ning-struck trees in her art class. She per­ceives her sketch­es as lack­ing emo­tion and fears her instruc­tor, Mr. Free­man, will con­cur. Melin­da spends Colum­bus Day at Heather’s domi­cile, where Heather vent­ed her griev­ances on Melin­da fol­low­ing an inad­ver­tent nail pol­ish spill. Despite this episode, Heather reas­sures Melin­da about locat­ing their niche with­in an ami­ca­ble friend cir­cle. Melin­da’s wan­ing scholas­tic per­for­mance prompts a pro­found dia­logue with her parental fig­ures. Over­whelmed, Melin­da retreats to her cham­ber, find­ing com­fort in melodies to muf­fle her par­ents’ dis­putes. Melin­da encoun­ters dif­fi­cul­ty engag­ing with her biol­o­gy lessons and empathizes with her instruc­tor, Ms. Keen, who grap­ples with their lack of inter­est. She briefly admires her lab­o­ra­to­ry asso­ciate, David Petrakis, yet he remains indif­fer­ent to her. Cor­re­spond­ing­ly, dur­ing alge­bra class, Melin­da finds her­self inca­pable of resolv­ing an issue, lead­ing to an embar­rass­ing moment before her class­mates. Melin­da spends Hal­loween seclud­ed in her cham­ber, rem­i­nisc­ing about past fes­tiv­i­ties with com­pan­ions, indulging in read­ing, and absorb­ing the sounds of her par­ents’ dis­agree­ments. A dis­cus­sion ensues in the edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion regard­ing the pos­si­ble shift of the emblem from Dev­ils to Tigers. Melin­da faces ridicule in her Span­ish class due to the sig­nif­i­cance of her moniker. She fan­ta­sizes about extrater­res­tri­al crea­tures poten­tial­ly trans­fer­ring her to an alter­na­tive realm to scru­ti­nize her respons­es. Heather joins a benev­o­lent fac­tion dubbed the “Marthas.” Melin­da aids Heather with duty but is labeled as “unset­tling” by the group. Dis­tressed, she with­draws to the lava­to­ry. Melin­da is haunt­ed by the con­stant exis­tence of “IT,” a liv­ing dread she can­not evade. Melin­da’s aca­d­e­m­ic report card mir­rors her chal­lenges, pre­dom­i­nant­ly con­sist­ing of C’s and B’s, one D, and a soli­tary A in Art.

Second Marking Period Part 1

The insti­tu­tion strug­gles to agree on a sym­bol. Pos­si­bil­i­ties such as The Bees, Ice­bergs, Hill­top­pers, and Wom­bats are delib­er­at­ed. Melin­da’s guardians com­pel her to linger post-school hours for aca­d­e­m­ic tasks, but she uti­lizes this time in her con­cealed enclo­sure with­in a clos­et. She fre­quent­ly reflects on a dis­tress­ing occur­rence, rec­og­niz­ing the per­ma­nent imprint it left on her psy­che. Melin­da opts for dili­gence rather than feign­ing igno­rance in her Span­ish class to elude deten­tion. Occu­pa­tion­al assess­ments pro­pose Melin­da con­tem­plate pro­fes­sions in fire­fight­ing, forestry, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, or mor­tu­ary sci­ence. Heather’s out­comes sug­gest a lean­ing towards nurs­ing. Mr. Neck insti­gates a class­room debate with xeno­pho­bic remarks regard­ing immigration.

David Petrakis defends con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, denounces the lec­ture as prej­u­diced and intol­er­ant, and exits the room upon rep­ri­mand, leav­ing a sub­stan­tial impact on Melin­da. Despite typ­i­cal­ly savor­ing piz­za on Thanks­giv­ing, Melin­da’s moth­er endeav­ors and fails to roast a turkey. They revert to piz­za once more after her father’s soup effort results in fail­ure. Melin­da trans­ports turkey rem­nants to the art ses­sion, craft­ing an expres­sive cre­ation with a Bar­bie fig­ure. Mr. Free­man and Ivy appraise her mas­ter­piece. A les­son on fruits in biol­o­gy incites Melin­da’s rec­ol­lec­tions of apple orchards dur­ing her youth. She is cap­ti­vat­ed to wit­ness an apple sapling sprout­ing from a seed. David Petrakis remains stead­fast against Mr. Neck by intro­duc­ing a tape recorder and sub­se­quent­ly a video cam­era to the class­room, gar­ner­ing Melin­da’s admiration.

Dur­ing the Win­ter Assem­bly, Heather presents Melin­da with bell ear­rings. In response, Melin­da opts to present Heather with a token of friend­ship in the form of a neck­lace. Melin­da embell­ish­es a solo Christ­mas tree while rem­i­nisc­ing about her belief in San­ta Claus. Her par­ents bestow her with art sup­plies, prompt­ing con­tem­pla­tion of divulging her hid­den trau­ma, yet the dis­tress­ing mem­o­ries sti­fle her. This seg­ment accen­tu­ates the para­dox of democ­ra­cy with­in school dynam­ics and per­son­al artic­u­la­tion. Melin­da’s dis­mis­sive stance towards the emblem selec­tion process con­trasts with the con­se­quen­tial dia­logue on free­dom of speech insti­gat­ed by Mr. Neck. David Petrakis stands in oppo­si­tion to Mr. Neck, embody­ing the val­or req­ui­site to chal­lenge inequity. His silent demon­stra­tion with a tape recorder epit­o­mizes reclaim­ing one’s voice, reflect­ing Melin­da’s inter­nal strife. Melin­da’s incli­na­tion to unveil her trau­ma is per­cep­ti­ble through­out these chap­ters. Her artis­tic piece fea­tur­ing a mut­ed Bar­bie cor­re­sponds with her incli­na­tion to speak out but her inca­pac­i­ty to do so. The dis­cov­ery of a sprout­ing seed in a dis­sect­ed apple sym­bol­izes her desire to devel­op resilience con­ducive to vocal­iz­ing her emo­tions. Her par­ents’ Christ­mas present of art sup­plies indi­cates com­pre­hen­sion and thought­ful­ness, incit­ing Melin­da to con­tem­plate dis­clos­ing her secre­tive ordeal. Nonethe­less, the anguish from her his­to­ry repress­es her impulse to divulge.

Second Marking Period Part 2

Through­out the remain­ing dura­tion of the win­ter break, Melin­da is com­pelled to labor for her par­ents at their respec­tive estab­lish­ments, pro­vok­ing her exas­per­a­tion. She eager­ly antic­i­pates the recom­mence­ment of the aca­d­e­m­ic term. Dur­ing a phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion ses­sion, Melin­da show­cas­es remark­able apti­tude in bas­ket­ball, gar­ner­ing acco­lades from her peers and coach. She opts against join­ing the team due to her sub­par scholas­tic per­for­mance. The men­tors devise a scheme for her to tutor a fel­low peer, Bren­dan, who had pre­vi­ous­ly taunt­ed her, in exchange for an ele­vat­ed mark in phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion. Instead, Melin­da choos­es to be absent. Melin­da remains dis­sat­is­fied with her arbo­re­al sculp­ture in the art class.

Con­cur­rent­ly, her art men­tor, Mr. Free­man, fab­ri­cates a protest artistry against the edu­ca­tion­al board­’s deci­sion to cur­tail fund­ing for arts edu­ca­tion. Heather, a com­rade of Melin­da, solic­its Melin­da’s aid in fab­ri­cat­ing posters for a food col­lec­tion dri­ve, striv­ing to gain accep­tance into the elite fac­tion of the school, the Marthas. Melin­da assents but dis­cov­ers her­self drift­ing off dur­ing Heather’s dis­course. Dur­ing biol­o­gy lessons, Melin­da faints amid a frog dis­sec­tion ses­sion. She dreads that the physi­cian tend­ing to her might expose the secret she has har­bored. Heather com­mences a new voca­tion as a fash­ion mod­el and requests Melin­da’s pres­ence at a pho­to­shoot. Melin­da expe­ri­ences dis­com­fort as the pho­tog­ra­ph­er per­sis­tent­ly prompts Heather to exem­pli­fy “seduc­tive­ness.” In alge­bra, Melin­da grap­ples with main­tain­ing focus as Mr. Stet­man endeav­ors to demon­strate the prag­mat­ic rel­e­vance of the sub­ject. In the Eng­lish class, the con­tin­u­ous influx of demand­ing essay tasks over­whelms her, prompt­ing Melin­da to deduce that “Words are stren­u­ous labor.” Melin­da spent a fort­night craft­ing Heather’s posters.

Dur­ing their dis­tri­b­u­tion, Melin­da encoun­ters her assailant, whom she dubs ‘IT,’ induc­ing a nau­se­at­ing reac­tion with­in her. Melin­da’s par­ents dis­pute her over her defi­cient grades dur­ing sup­per. She retreats to her quar­ters where she engages in self-inflict­ed harm, and her moth­er dis­miss­es her dis­tress the next morn­ing. Dur­ing lunch, an acquain­tance cri­tiques Heather’s posters, and Heather fails to advo­cate for Melin­da. Upon sight of ‘IT,’ now linked with the name Andy Evans, she rush­es to the lava­to­ry to retch. Mr. Free­man under­goes rep­ri­mand for his teach­ing method­olo­gies and reacts by demol­ish­ing his art­work. Melin­da sus­tains an injury while com­menc­ing a fresh artis­tic under­tak­ing. Melin­da’s aca­d­e­m­ic tran­script show­cas­es chiefly aver­age and sub-par grades, except an ‘A’ in Art.

Third Marking Period Part 1

The edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion’s admin­is­tra­tion alters the mas­cot from a Wom­bat to the Hor­nets. Melin­da over­sleeps, miss­es the trans­porta­tion ser­vice, and treks to school amidst the win­try cli­mate, halt­ing to pro­cure pas­tries. As she exits the bak­ery, she chances upon IT and expe­ri­ences a pan­ic, wish­ing she had abscond­ed ear­li­er. Inca­pable of man­ag­ing school atten­dance, Melin­da elects to skip the remain­der of the day and heads to the shop­ping com­plex. She aim­less­ly ambu­lates, observes avian crea­tures, and yearns for the sim­pler days of her fifth-grade year, desir­ing to unbur­den her con­cealed truth. Dur­ing the Eng­lish class, the cur­ricu­lum delves into The Scar­let Let­ter and its uti­liza­tion of sym­bol­ism, which Melin­da finds some­what gratifying.

The instruc­tor dis­ci­plines Rachelle for denounc­ing the sym­bol­ic inquiry with a 500-word essay, caus­ing Melin­da to con­tem­plate voic­ing her view­point. In the art class, Melin­da grap­ples with her arbo­re­al project. Heather abrupt­ly ter­mi­nates her cama­raderie with Melin­da dur­ing lunch, assert­ing that they nev­er gen­uine­ly shared mutu­al inter­ests and that Melin­da is the most des­o­late indi­vid­ual she has ever encoun­tered. This stuns and wounds Melin­da deeply. In her exas­per­a­tion, Melin­da opts to skip her Span­ish class. On Valen­tine’s Day, Melin­da dis­cov­ers a mes­sage in her lock­er but hes­i­tates to open it, fear­ing mock­ery. She day­dreams about her lab part­ner, David, leav­ing the mes­sage. Upon final­ly unveil­ing it, she finds a grat­i­tude note from Heather along with the friend­ship neck­lace she had gift­ed, shat­ter­ing her heart. Melin­da ends up at the Lady of Mer­cy Hos­pi­tal after doz­ing off on the bus. She real­izes that her issues aren’t as evi­dent as the patients’ afflic­tions. Lat­er, she’s con­front­ed about her plum­met­ing grades and recur­rent absences. Her par­ents express exas­per­a­tion and accuse her of seek­ing atten­tion. Her guid­ance coun­selor hints at poten­tial domes­tic prob­lems, which the par­ents vehe­ment­ly refute. Melin­da finds her­self in in-school sus­pen­sion under Mr. Neck­’s super­vi­sion. Every­thing appears rou­tine until IT enters the room and takes a seat beside her, pro­vok­ing anx­i­ety and dread.

Third Marking Period Part 2

Melin­da’s artis­tic block is acknowl­edged by Mr. Free­man, who intro­duces her to Picas­so’s cre­ations. Ini­tial­ly sur­prised by Picas­so’s fix­a­tion on nudi­ty, she becomes entranced by his bril­liance and the impact of his cubism. Revi­tal­ized, she resumes draw­ing, earn­ing Mr. Free­man’s approval. Melin­da begins ful­fill­ing her oblig­a­tions by attend­ing class­es and fin­ish­ing assign­ments. As a reward, she receives a solo shop­ping excur­sion, as her moth­er is pre­oc­cu­pied with accom­pa­ny­ing her. While en route, she gets caught in a bliz­zard, but Mr. Free­man offers her a ride. They con­verse about art, and he encour­ages her to con­vey her emo­tions through her art­work. He reas­sures her that he is will­ing to lis­ten if she needs to talk. When try­ing on jeans, Melin­da scru­ti­nizes her reflec­tion in the dress­ing room mir­ror, pon­der­ing if it gen­uine­ly reflects her. She stud­ies her chapped lips and pon­ders what it would be like to start anew. In biol­o­gy class, they con­clude their unit on plants. Melin­da is cap­ti­vat­ed by the endurance process of seeds and admires their tenac­i­ty. With­out friends to rely on, Melin­da dines alone dur­ing lunch to avoid draw­ing atten­tion to her­self in the cafe­te­ria. She attempts to brush off poten­tial ridicule from fel­low stu­dents. Hail­ing from Syra­cuse, eight inch­es of snow don’t shut down the school. In Eng­lish class, they delve into sym­bols in Hawthorne’s lit­er­a­ture. Melin­da savors the tran­quil­i­ty of the snow after the storm. Melin­da dis­cov­ers some solace in her wardrobe, only to be enticed out by the cheers from a school bas­ket­ball game. Amidst the cel­e­bra­tion, Melin­da expe­ri­ences a rare sense of cama­raderie. How­ev­er, she turns down an invi­ta­tion from David Petrakis, expos­ing her inner con­flict between desir­ing a con­ven­tion­al teenager’s life and dread­ing the world. Melin­da final­ly dis­clos­es the trau­mat­ic encounter she has been sup­press­ing. Dur­ing a sum­mer gath­er­ing, she was assault­ed by a senior stu­dent. In a state of shock, she anony­mous­ly con­tacts the author­i­ties but departs the gath­er­ing before they inter­vene, retreat­ing to her vacant home. Melin­da’s report card is pre­dom­i­nant­ly dis­mal, with most­ly D’s and F’s, save for a sin­gle A in Art.

Fourth Marking Period Part 1

Numer­ous par­ents aren’t fans of the school’s hor­net mas­cot due to a sug­ges­tive cheer. Nev­er­the­less, the stu­dent coun­cil con­tin­ues to endorse the mas­cot. Spring blos­soms with col­lege accep­tance let­ters for the seniors. Melin­da most­ly attends her class­es and observes Andy “Beast” engag­ing with Rachel/Rachelle at the Inter­na­tion­al Club. Dur­ing spring break, Melin­da runs into Ivy at the mall. Ivy has been craft­ing clown faces for her art class and encour­ages Melin­da to give draw­ing a shot, despite Melin­da’s uncer­tain­ty about her artis­tic skills. The biol­o­gy class com­mences study­ing genet­ics, exclud­ing top­ics on sex­u­al reproduction.

Melin­da finds her mind wan­der­ing, envi­sion­ing her bio­log­i­cal par­ents as roy­al fig­ures, and sketch­es a wil­low tree. Melin­da learns of Rachel/Rachelle’s rela­tion­ship with Andy Beast, stir­ring con­cern due to her his­to­ry with Andy. She wit­ness­es an uneasy kiss between them. Per­turbed by Rachel’s involve­ment with Andy, Melin­da con­tem­plates inform­ing Rachel’s inter­na­tion­al friends about rumors con­cern­ing Andy’s pre­vi­ous aggres­sive behav­ior toward a younger stu­dent. Dis­con­tent­ed with her tree design, Melin­da dis­cards it. Her art teacher, Mr. Free­man, offers insight into the beau­ty of imper­fec­tion, encour­ag­ing her to embody the tree in her work. David Petrakis secures the right to freely express him­self in Mr. Neck­’s class, result­ing in stricter grad­ing. Melin­da sub­mits a well-researched report on suf­fragettes, only to be instruct­ed to present it oral­ly. Fear­ing the oral pre­sen­ta­tion, Melin­da draws inspi­ra­tion from suf­fragettes to stage a silent protest, refus­ing to deliv­er speech­es. Her actions led to a sus­pen­sion and a D grade, yet she remains unapolo­getic. David and Melin­da delib­er­ate on the after­math of her protest. Their con­ver­sa­tion takes a light-heart­ed turn, hint­ing at a poten­tial friend­ship, with David sug­gest­ing he might reach out dur­ing the summer.

Fourth Marking Period Part 2

Melin­da focus­es on her tree illus­tra­tions, with Mr. Free­man pro­vid­ing encour­age­ment. When he steps out for a meet­ing, Andy, aka IT, appears unex­pect­ed­ly. He dis­rupts her art­work as he perch­es on the table, inquir­ing about Rachelle Bru­in. Before depart­ing, he tears up her draw­ing and departs with Rachel. Melin­da assumes Rachel caught sight of the note but choos­es to dis­re­gard it. Ivy, accom­pa­ny­ing Rachel, seems to sense Andy’s per­ilous demeanor, cau­tion­ing Melin­da that he is “trou­ble with a cap­i­tal ‘T’.” Elect­ing to take a “men­tal health day,” Melin­da stays home. Her moth­er, tak­en aback by her daughter’s sud­den open­ness, inad­ver­tent­ly makes a snide remark but prompt­ly apol­o­gizes. Bat­tling a fever, Melin­da tunes into talk shows and con­tem­plates if she is the vic­tim of assault. She envi­sions her nar­ra­tive being fea­tured on these shows while also yearn­ing to erase all rec­ol­lec­tion of the inci­dent. With spring’s advent, Melin­da feels revi­tal­ized and ded­i­cates her time to gar­den­ing. Her father com­mends her efforts and offers assis­tance in enhanc­ing the yard as well. Though she declines his offer to accom­pa­ny him to the store, she requests him to pro­cure some flower seeds. Dur­ing a ten­nis match in gym class, Melin­da rel­ish­es the com­pe­ti­tion as she near­ly bests Nicole, a for­mer com­rade. With the year­book’s arrival, Melin­da deems the sign­ing tra­di­tion point­less and opts out of pur­chas­ing one. Hair­woman, her instruc­tor, now flaunts a buzz cut, piquing Melin­da’s curios­i­ty about the cat­a­lyst for such a sig­nif­i­cant alter­ation. An inad­ver­tent stain by Ivy lands Melin­da in the restroom where she spots var­i­ous notes on the stall walls. Amidst their con­ver­sa­tion about Andy, Ivy unveils his infa­mous rep­u­ta­tion. Melin­da con­tributes by adding his name to a list on the stall wall insin­u­at­ing “Guys to Stay Away From.” Melin­da sar­don­ical­ly dubs the Senior Prom as the cul­mi­na­tion of mat­ing sea­son. Heather, des­per­ate for Melinda’s aid with prom dec­o­ra­tions, tries to mend their friend­ship. Although embar­rassed by the dis­or­der­ly state of her room, Melin­da staunch­ly declines to assist Heather.

Fourth Marking Period Part 3

Melin­da feels embold­ened and res­olute in dis­clos­ing the truth about Andy to Rachel. In a library exchange uti­liz­ing notes, she reveals that she phoned the author­i­ties due to being assault­ed at the gath­er­ing. Rachel reacts unfa­vor­ably to the dis­clo­sure, accus­ing Melin­da of jeal­ousy and bizarre behav­ior before storm­ing off. Feel­ing adrift, Melin­da is approached by Ivy, who presents her with a cau­tion­ary mes­sage dis­cov­ered in the school bath­room con­cern­ing Andy. Melin­da sens­es a val­i­da­tion and release upon see­ing the warn­ings. Melin­da feels unset­tled by the trim­ming of a tree near her win­dow, but her father assures her it will flour­ish. She revis­its the spot where she was attacked and decides to nur­ture her silent side, depict­ed as a seed. Melin­da spends time out­doors, toil­ing in the yard, before drift­ing off to sleep. Upon awak­en­ing, she cycles around her neigh­bor­hood, expe­ri­enc­ing a sense of lib­er­a­tion and exhil­a­ra­tion. Melin­da hears of Rachel part­ing ways with Andy at the prom due to his aggres­sive con­duct. This leaves Andy in a rage. Melin­da has resolved to cease hid­ing in her clos­et refuge. But as she packs to depart, she is ambushed by Andy. A strug­gle ensues, with Melin­da defy­ing Andy and man­ag­ing to star­tle him off with a shard of glass. Her cry is heard by the girl’s lacrosse team, who rush to her aid. Melin­da lingers in the art room, striv­ing to refine her tree sketch. She is approached by Amber, a senior cheer­leader, who offers sup­port. Melin­da expe­ri­ences a surge of pop­u­lar­i­ty despite her trau­mat­ic encounter. She acknowl­edges her past and vows to grow stronger. She final­ly unveils her art­work to Mr. Free­man, who awards her an A+ and lends a sym­pa­thet­ic ear to her tribulation.