Even so, I was proud of myself for taking action at all. I didn't hide or run away or pretend the ugliness didn't happen. I stood up and said something that was true. I said it out loud, and by doing so, I was standing up for lots of people, not just me.

Also, as an author, character has always been what I'm most interested in - much more so than plot or setting, although those are good things too.

I was just teasing," I say. "I myself don't like to eat plain butter, but hey, it's a free world.

Curse false-hand-holding boys!

They're not chicks. They're ducks.

Being an author of banned books is cool, I've decided.

So as a seventh grader, no, you weren't friends with people you didn't like. But sometimes you also weren't friends with people you did like, which was complicated, and which didn't make any sense if you tried to explain it. Sometimes things just changed. That's where the sadness came in.