Speak

by Laurie Halse Anderson

They call me Me-no-linda for the rest of the period. This is how terrorists get started, this kind of harmless fun. I

How could she know this? I don’t know what I’m doing in the next five minutes and she has the next ten years figured out. I’ll worry about making it out of ninth grade alive. Then I’ll think about a career path.

It is easier to floss with barbed wire than admit you like someone in middle school.