Do they choose to be so dense? Were they born that way? I have no friends. I have nothing. I say nothing. I am nothing.

I can’t tell anymore when I’m asleep and when I’m awake, or which is worse.

Having a friend made everything else suck less.

I needed to hear the world but didn't want the world to know I was listening.

She looks like a china doll, observed Grandfather as we departed. I will break just as easily, I muttered.

Dead girl walking” the boys say in the halls. “Tell us your secrets” the girls whisper, one toilet to another. "I am that girl. I am the spaces between my thighs, daylight shinning through. I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

It's Nathaniel Hawthorne Month in English. Poor Nathaniel. Does he know what they've done to him? We're reading The Scarlet Letter one sentence at a time, tearing it up and chewing on its bones. It's all about SYMBOLISM, says Hairwoman. Every word chosen by Nathaniel, every comma, every paragraph break -- these were all done on purpose. To get a decent grade in her class, we have to figure out what he was really trying to say. Why couldn't he just say what he meant? Would they pin scarlet letters on his chest? B for blunt, S for straightforward?