Melinda is now in a new school a 9th grader at Merryweather High she thought that everything was goin to be good in highschool she thought she would have all of her bestfriends eveything changed that summer after she anttend a party at which two bad things happen to her she gets drunk and she is rapped by a Senior named Andy Evans she tells no on of her rape "I am OUTCAST," she thinks on the first day of school as she walks down the hall facing the nasty taunts and sideways sneers with a stony veneer. She weaves through the hyena-like crowd at lunchtime and is greeted with a slap of mashed potatoes in her chest while looking for a seat. Fleeing the scene, Melinda gets in trouble with the hardened track coach and history teacher, Mr. Neck. Her voice dries up in her throat. even her best friends turn against her for ruining their good time it was a tought first day without any bright moments until art class when Melinda finally feels a glimmer of hope The art teacher, Mr. Freedman, explains the year's assignment --- each student will be given one object that she will have to learn about during the school year. By the end of the year, the goal is to transform the object into something that evokes emotion, something that speaks. Melinda's object is a tree. The question is, by the end of the year, will she be able to get her tree to speak if she still cannot?With no desire to speak about her pain to her friends, family, teachers or even herself, Melinda goes through the motions of living. She breathes, eats, sleeps and observes. Securing an abandoned janitor's room at school as her safe haven, Melinda hangs up pictures, reads books, and hides away from life, and especially IT, the dangerous jock who roams the halls and torments her. IT is the nightmare of her existence, the reason her mouth, body, and mind are scarred and rendered mute.While reading SPEAK, you spend most of your time harbored in Melinda's mind, a place often filled with pain, and sometimes biting humor. Her reality consists of an ex-bestfriend who mouths the words, "I hate you," on the first day of school --- where her harried parents don't seem to notice that her lips are scabby and raw from biting down on them. Her one and only "friend," new girl Heather, uses her for lack of any other friends. She goes through the motions, and her life is as white and blank as the snow that covers her Syracuse home. However, despite the damage that has occurred, you feel as if Melinda is just waiting, biding her time, until she feels safe enough to emerge from her hardened protective shell. But as the novel progresses, you begin to wonder, will it be too late?
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