 Thank you, Bollitt. I chose this book. I found this book when I was in high school, and it very much was a long while back then. It really is a book for kids who like to read books, and it's a book for kids who don't really know if what they're being told is the right thing. It's a very important book to me, and a very beautiful story. Dear friend, I am writing to you because she said that you listen and understand, and you didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. Please don't try to figure out who she is, because then you might try to figure out who I am, and I really don't want you to do that. I will call people by different names or generic names because I don't want you to find me. I didn't close the return address for the same reason. I mean nothing bad by this, honest. I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesn't try to sleep with people even if they could have. I need to know that these people exist. I think you of all people would understand because I think you of all people are alive and appreciate what that means. At least I hope you do because other people look to you for strength and friendship, and it's that simple. At least that's what I've heard. So this is my life, and I want you to know that I am both happy and sad, and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be. I try to think of my family as a reason for me being this way, especially after my friend Michael stopped coming to school one day last spring, and we heard Mr. Ron's voice on the loudspeaker. Boys and girls, I regret to inform you that one of our students has passed on. We will hold a memorial service for Michael Dobson during assembly this Friday. I don't know how news travels around school and why it is very often right. Maybe it was in the lunchroom. It's hard to remember, but Dave with the awkward glasses told us that Michael killed himself. His mom, they bridged with one of Michael's neighbors, and they heard the gunshot. I don't really remember much of what happened after that except that my older brother came to Mr. Ron's office in my middle school and told me to stop crying. Then he put my arm around my shoulder and told me to get out of my system before dad came home. When we went to eat french fries at McDonald's and he taught me how to play pinball, he even made a joke that because of me he got to skip an afternoon of school and asked me if I wanted to help him work on his chimera. I guess I was pretty messy because he never let me work on his chimera before. At the guidance counselor sessions they asked a few of us who actually liked Michael to say a few words. I think they were afraid that some of us would try to kill ourselves or something because they looked very tense and one of them kept touching his beard. Bridget who was crazy said that sometimes she thought about suicide when commercials came on during TV. She was sincere and this puzzled the guidance counselor. Carl who was nice to everyone and said that he felt very sad but would never kill himself because it is a sin. Then one guidance counselor went through the whole group and finally came to me. What do you think Charlie? What was so strange about this was the fact that I had never met this man even though he was a specialist and he knew my name even though I was wearing a name tag like they do in Opener House. Well, I think that Michael was a nice guy and I don't understand why he did it and as much as I feel sad I think that not knowing is what really bothers me. I just re-read that and it doesn't sound like how I talk, especially in my office because I was crying. I never did stop crying.