Welcome back best friend: The concluding results

     I feel like when I'm with Melinda, I have to take some sort of tool (which I don't know the name of...) to pry open her mouth! It's not easy to get her to talk, yet I don't force her like the principal. I felt like when I was helping her, I was slowly being drug into her head and the shadow tried to capture me, but I escaped. I wanted to give up during the process, but I knew I couldn't. I knew that there was hope for Melinda and I needed to be there for her through it all.
      I tried talking to her, her parents even. I attempted (attempt is the key word here my dears) to set her up with the online hotline and "type" to someone her problems. Melinda says that those people don't know her and that if she said anything to anyone It'd be to someone who knew her. I asked her if she would talk to me. I got a glimpse of the whole situation. Just a peak of what Melinda is suffering from. Heather just blew her off. Just because Melinda is in pain and is depressed doesn't mean you should abandon and leave her. No! You stay with them and help them through it! Melinda might not listen to me but I give her advice on the hook and she bites onto it.



     These days, you see Melinda-wait for it...drum roll please!- smiling! No more tears, no more pain. She showed that beast who Melinda Sordino is and that she was not a person you can just wipe your muddy boots onto. She laughs too! Oh gosh how great it is to hear that laugh! She comes to school everyday and does her work. She isn't even a "plain jane" anymore, nor is she a "Martha" or "Goth." Melinda is a strong, beautiful, smart, happy, smiley, popular, cheery, girl is my best friend.  She won't let anyone hurt her in any form or fashion. I dare you to find a clan to place her in! She can't be placed in any of them. She is her own unique kind. Melinda Sordino ladies and gentlemen is brand new and not the same girl with the tear rolling down her cheek. Looks like my work here is done. Now just to be...best friends.

Picture in yearbook
Sophomore year
Class Picnic

Guppy defeats the shark

     Rumor has it that Rachel and Andy fought at prom. He did this...and she did that. The fact is, is that they "broke up" and Rachel noticed how much of a pig IT is. This girl named Nicole in my math class is on the lacrosse team. She happened to swing the door open on Andy and Melinda. Melinda had a sliver of glass in her hand at Andy's neck while he, instead of the helpless guppy, was up against the wall. It must have taken a lot of strength to not slice through the beast's prickly neck. Which, don't get me wrong, I'm glad she didn't because she'd be more shut up than ever.
     I talked to Melinda, and she talked back. I asked her about it, I didn't pry her jaw open so she'd talk. She started talking like she finally couldn't hold in any more. She told me all about it, and I believed every word. She finally stood up for herself and spoke. She didn't let that fiend touch her like before. She wasn't about to be covered up in another thick layer of depression. He was not about to rape her again. She let Andy Evans know he didn't know what she wanted. She let him know that this was the last time he tried to hurt her again. She screamed out. She said no.  

A whisper emerges.

     Went to the bathroom today. Close the door and surprise! Someone wrote on the bathroom wall "Guys to stay away from" and underneath that, the name of IT appears: Andy Evans. Several wordy and um...colorful language is written underneath IT's name. The first part that was written to start the whole "stall conversation" was composed by a quite familiar handwriting. Melinda wrote it! She burst! Even though it was anonymous of who wrote it to the other girls, she spoke on her beliefs. She can go back and see she is not alone with her situation. She is not the only guppy in sea with the shark.   

Vocalize Melinda!

      I want to hear her speak! I don't care if its a murmur, a whisper, a mutter...I don't care if she blabs my ears off! I want to talk to her. Have a conversation with her to help. She has to stand up for herself to get out of high school alive. She has a voice, and a strong one too. She needs to let the world know of her existence!  I hope she knows I am here to help her and that I truly care.

Melinda...are you in there?

    I miss Melinda. I miss her happiness. I miss her laugh. I miss her confidence. I miss my friend. I miss the fun we had when we would spend time together. I miss our friendship. I miss her smile. I miss her.

     All I see is a thick blanket of depression and sorrow over her face. She is trapped is regret and and unhappiness.


Where is THIS Mel?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Phase 1

     Another day, same Melinda. I really want to go shopping sometime. My jeans are starting to look painted on me and my sleeves are shrunken up to my elbows. Hmmm, guess I ate to much ice cream over the summer and started growing some!! I kind of want to ask Melinda to go, cheer her up some. I'd love to spend some quality time with her outside of the halls and eat in the food court without teachers yelling at us to "sit down young lady" or "put that foot back on the ground!" 
       I think soon, very, very soon, I'll address this plan to her mother. If she doesn't have "the time" or "the patience", you know those excuses, I myself will take her to a crisis center or set her up online to do the online hotline thing. She needs to talk about this to someone. She has become a mute with her feelings. She mentions this art teacher named Mr.Freeman, I don't know him, I don't have art. If she can open up and talk to him even! Something needs to take action, and FAST! I don't want her to damage her insides and outs any more. I will pray for her to find her voice and to gain her old self once again.

Help is on the way!

     Today was an OK day. Lunch was quiet. Mel skipped out i guess in the bathroom. I just sat with some other "plain janes" and munched on my cheez-its and left over pizza from last night.  
     I want to help her. I need to help her. I don't want to watch her happiness, her education, her life crumble to pieces. She needs to gain her voice back. She needs to gain her happiness back. She needs to gain her confidence back. I want to show her there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that there is hope.
      Her mother and father want their Melinda back, but they seem to have no patience. If it comes to it, I myself will take her somewhere for counselling at a rape crisis center. If it is something that will embarrass her or makes her uncomfortable to vocally tell someone about, she could participate in a online hotline. It would be safe and anonymous and she could directly talk to someone at a sexually abused crisis center. She needs to now that there are people, like me, that truly care to heal the wounds of her past.

All is the same but Melinda

     Back to school! Which also mean back to blogs. High school...pretty crazy!! The school is pretty much the same ole' thing. Same foul cafeteria food, same paint chipped walls, same clicks, you know the jocks and "the Marthas." All of these are the same, except for my friend.
     I have noticed a dramatic change in my friend, Melinda Sordino. Our peers now just give her a scowl as she walks down the hall. She use to be a sweet, cheery, and happy girl. That person now only exists in the past. Now, Melinda has a sense of depression and she is very melancholy. Her face is vacant of a smile. Her grades used to be wonderful, but now they are slipping through her fingers. It was only a couple of times Melinda would miss school, but only if she was sick or had family needs. Since school started back, she skips school it seems every other day. The reasons are nothing to do with an illness or family issues. She'll go to the mall or walk on the cold, barren streets of town. What has happened?????