Guided Response - Speak

I started reading the novel “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson. So far I am half way through the second marking period, as they call it. Melinda is the main character in my book. She has lost all of her friends from something that she did at a party this last summer. Everyone hates her, until a new girl named Heather, who is from Ohio, befriends her at school. In school you have to belong to a group, and now Melinda doesn’t belong to any of those groups, she is a loner. Heather wants to belong to a group so bad she tries to get Melinda to join one with her. Everyone at school is very mean to Melinda because of what she did. They call her names, they cuss at her, and they even kick her down the bleachers. I can’t imagine what she did to get everyone to hate her so on I go to finish reading to try to find out why.