Speak #2

Half way through the book, we are still trying to figure out what exactly happened during that summer night at the party.

One morning, Melinda wakes up late for school and misses the bus. Her makes her walk to school and she decides to stop by a local bakery but sees IT or Andy Evans and she freezes hoping he didn't see her but he does. He comes over to her and offers her some of his donut but she runs ways and skips school. During lunch at school one day, Heather tells Melinda that she doesn't want to be her friend anymore because she has a bad reputation. Valentine's Day comes by and Melinda remembers how in Elementary school everyone gave cards to each other.  For Valentine's Day, Heather gives Melinda a message that thanks for being a good friend and this makes Melinda cry.

Melinda and her parents meet with the Principal and her guidance counselor in order to try to figure out why Melinda is having a hard time at school. All four adults try to get Melinda to talk and come up with different reasons for her quietness. Melinda's Mom thinks it is because she wants attention. Her dad thinks it's the school's fault. The guidance counselor suggests Melinda is quiet because of her parents' marriage problems. At the end of the meeting, Melinda remains silent despite all of the adults, and sees them as fools for not understanding why her life is a mess.

Because Melinda ditches school, she is sent to suspension and as she is sitting down, Andy Evans comes in and sits near her and starts blowing in her ear. She is very scared but can't do anything about it. Because she doesn't miss a week of school her counselor suggests to her parents that she gets a reward so she goes shopping with her mom. After school as she waits for the bus, Mr.Freeman, the art teacher, offers her a ride and they talk. Mr. Freeman is the only adult that Melinda is comfortable around and talks to more.

Finally in Chapter 19, more than half way through the book, as Melinda can't sleep, she says the story of what happened that summer night at the party. She went with Rachel and Rachel's brother to a senior party outside of town. At the barn where the party was at there was music and beer and Melinda drank and then a senior started dancing with her but then he kissed her and started to rape her. She tried to scream but he covered her mouth. It was also really dark so no one noticed what was happening. She then found a phone inside the barn and called the police but when they answered she couldn't say anything and so they came to the party and ended it, which made all of her friends, especially Rachel who invited her, really mad at her and didn't let her explain what actually happened and why she called the police.

The book continues with Melinda not being able to speak up and towards the end Andy Evans tries to rape her again on the last day of school  in her Janitor's closet but this time Melinda defends herself and throws things at him, the noise made the girls in the lacrosse team that were passing by knock on the closet and when Melinda opened one of them ran for help. After that, everyone respected Melinda for standing up for herself and being brave. She regained her reputation and now even Rachel wanted to talk to her. Melinda was now happy that everything was over and decided to tell Mr.Freeman on that day her whole story.