The bullying never ends.

One night at Josie's house, Courtney had to sleepover because her parents were out of town. She went through Josie's e-mail while Josie was taking a shower and saw one from Peter Houghton. Peter was telling Josie that he liked her a lot in the e-mail. Courtney thought this was hilarious so she told Drew Girard to spam the e-mail to the whole student body and he did and everyone found out about Peter's secret. Josie never knew about the e-mail until she got to school and her friends were teasing her about it.

A few days later, Courtney told Peter that Josie likes him too. Peter believes her and at lunch that day, he gets up the courage to visit her lunch table ask her to sit with him at lunch. Josie is embarrassed when her comes over and next thing you know, Matt is behind Peter and pulls his pants down...along with his boxers. Everyone in the cafeteria is laughing at Peter as he quickly pulls up his pants and runs to the bathroom. He got really mad and yelled to himself "I hate you all".

Matt and Josie are still going out and one day, Josie realizes she hasn't gotten her period in a while. She takes plenty of pregnancy tests and they all come back positive. Josie starts to freak out realizing she is pregnant and so she fakes sick to skip school one day. She reads online about herbs and remedies or ways to self-abort your baby. She tries a few different ways and a little bit later, she has a miscarriage and it is like the happiest day of Josie's life.

Patrick and Alex start to become closer when he spots her at a Chinese restaurant one night. They end up eating together and then day’s later one thing leads to another and the two are now dating. I think Josie felt a little awkward because Patrick is a detective on her case, but she seems happy if her mom is happy with him.

"Hide-N-Shriek!"

Patrick went to speak with Joan McCabe, Ed McCabe's sister. He was the only teacher who was killed during the shooting and Patrick wanted to find out more about Ed. Peter had had Mr. McCabe for math in tenth grade and nobody remembers Peter having a bad relationship with the teacher. When Joan and Patrick were talking, Joan mentions that maybe Philip remembers something. It turns out that Philip was Ed's partner and that no one knew at school that Ed was gay. Then Patrick thinks back to one of the first people shot, Natalie Zlenko, and remembered her being lesbian and in the GLAAD club at school thinking that Peter could possibly be a homophobic.

The principle and staff members of Sterling High School knew that the kids would have to finish out their high school year somewhere so now the kids who have chosen to come back are at an old elementary school that wasn't being used before.

Later at Jordan's house (Peter's defense attorney), he is trying to figure out a way to make Peter seem not guilty. When his wife and him are talking, she brings up something about Battered woman syndrome, which flicks a light bulb on in Jordan's head. He considers an argument that Peter could of had post-traumatic stress disorder, which could be named, bullied victim syndrome. Jordan reasons that Peter just wanted all the bullying to stop and that Peter is pretty much a kid so he didn't know what he was doing. He may not of fully processed the consequences of his actions.

At Patrick's house one night, he sits at home and begins playing a computer game called "Hide-N-Shriek" that Peter created. Patrick is playing as a nerdy boy and the point of the game is to try and kill the jocks, bullies, and popular kids and when you hit them you receive a certain amount of points. As Patrick weaves his way through the hallways of the school he recognizes the floor plan, it was Sterling High School. It seems that Peter created his idea for the school shooting from this.

Peter has a new friend

“Every day in Sterling, there was a different funeral”. That’s very sad to think about.
Matt Royston had his memorial service and almost all of Sterling seemed to be there. Josie and her mother were sitting in the back when all of a sudden, something took over Josie and she walked up to Matt's coffin and started crying saying "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Over the next few days, Patrick makes a visit to the Cormier house to interview Josie and see what she remembers from the shooting. Josie was in the locker room when Peter shot Matt and that's where Patrick found the three. He thought she might have more insight on what happened in the locker room that day but the problem is that she says she doesn't remember anything, not even waking up that morning and that it's like "a blank spot her head skips over". I have a feeling she actually does remember what happened and that she is either afraid to tell the truth or thinking about it is like reliving the awful memories.

In the book, Picoult goes back to Peter's sixth grade days and writes about the middle school years. She wrote that Peter was forced to play soccer by his mom and in the soccer locker room Matt Royston and Drew Girard teased Peter about his physique. Then, Peter met another boy on the soccer team named Derek who was also being benched every game. The two became the benchwarmers and were from then on friends. I was happy to read this because I think that Derek and Josie were Peter's only friends.

*I forgot to mention that the Houghton’s had another son named Joey, but he was hit by a drunk driver and died in a car accident. Lacy and Lewis were devastated, but from what I've read Peter was a little sad, but not that upset. The reason why Peter didn't seem to care is because Joey was a "golden boy" as Peter called him. He was a straight-A student and an all-star athlete. I got the feeling that Lacy and Lewis wanted Peter to be just like Joey and so they forced Peter into doing sports like soccer that he didn't enjoy. Peter's parents thought that he liked Joey a lot, but that's not true. Also, Joey would pick on Peter as well and say some real mean things. Peter's parents loved Joey and Peter thought they wished he would of died in that accident instead of Joey. It turns out that Lewis had actually said that to Lacy after the shooting. He said that none of this would have happened if Peter had died in the car accident.

Released from the hospital

Josie is still recovering in the hospital after the shooting although I didn’t understand exactly why they kept her there if she hadn’t been shot. But as Josie said in the book, they wanted to make sure her head was okay after she’d fainted and hit it, and that she didn’t commit suicide or have any sudden panic attacks. The nurses thought that Josie couldn’t hear what they were saying but she can. Unfortunately, she knows that her boyfriend Matt is dead and her math teacher Ed McCabe, along with eight others. Anytime Josie would think of Matt, she realized she’d never see him again.

The next morning, Josie was released from the hospital. As she was walking out, she saw the name Haley Weaver, a senior she knew at her school. She told Josie that her boyfriend Brady stepped in front of a bullet for her and that Peter killed their friends Courtney Ignatio and Maddie Shaw too.

While this is happening, detective Patrick Ducharme visits the crime scene lab on the shooting and a woman tells him that Peter Houghton had four guns (A, B, C, D). He never used guns C and D, but gun A had his fingerprints (which is the gun that Patrick found Peter holding in the locker room). Gun B had a partial print, but you couldn’t tell whose print it was. I wonder who was using gun B? It couldn’t have been Peter because as Patrick points out, it doesn’t make sense to use one gun the whole time and then suddenly switch. Two bullets were shot at Matt Royston. One was by gun A and they found the bullet in his body, but gun B must of went through clean. Could someone else have been in the locker room? Would Matt shoot himself? Did Peter shoot twice, but with another gun the second time so he could cover it up?

The Day After

I’m in the “The Day After” chapter of Nineteen Minutes. In this chapter, this is what happened the day after the shooting at Sterling High School and it talks about the police searching through the Houghton’s house and about Peter in jail and getting his lawyer named Jordan McAffe.

When the police searched through the house, they brought out various items from Peter’s room like his computer. Then, a policeman asks Mr. Houghton (Lewis) to come inside with them for a moment. He takes Lewis to the basement and asks if any of his guns are missing, although it killed Lewis to admit this, it turned out that two of his five guns were missing from his locked gun case…
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I think because Alex has always been so involved with her job and wanting to be a top judge (even before Josie was born) that Alex doesn’t have as strong of a relationship with Josie. At first, Alex didn’t seem to care much about her baby and she wanted to give it up for adoption right after she had it. Then, I think she changed her ways of thinking and realized that being a mother was more important at the moment and later on, than having a successful job.

Something else I forgot to mention in one of my first blogs about this book is that Josie seems to be a part of the “popular” crowd and I don’t think Peter is. Josie mentions though that the girls she is friends with may not really be loyal friends and that they’re all “carbon copies” of each other. She also explains waking up many mornings and not wanting to put on a “cover” or put on a mask acting like someone she’s not. She didn’t want to have to pretend she was a popular girl or be known as “Matt Royston’s girlfriend”.

I am also positive that Lacy and Alex are no longer friends because that one time when Alex found Josie with a gun in her hand in Peter’s basement back when the two were in kindergarten. I think after that, Alex decided it was best to keep Josie away from Peter.

Found with a gun!?

I’m in the “12 Years before” chapter of Nineteen Minutes and this chapter talks about the friendships Josie and Peter and then Alex and Lacy have made, but the feud the mothers get into.

In this chapter, I learned that Peter and Josie are in kindergarten and that Peter has been getting picked on lately. He got new glasses and was given the name “Four Eyes”. His parents also bought him a new lunchbox, but boys on his and Josie’s bus stole the lunchbox and threw it out the window. Peter had to get a new one, but then that lunchbox was thrown out the window too. His parents said if it happened again he’d be punished. It happened for the third time, so he was grounded which in a way isn’t fair because Peter couldn’t do much about the bullying.

Earlier on though, Lacy and Alex were chatting at Lacy’s house because Alex was coming to pick up Josie. They couldn’t find the kids but then heard them in the basement playing. But they weren’t playing. Josie had Peter’s fathers rifle in her hands and Peter was showing her what to do. Alex was appalled to see this and immediately said goodbye to Peter and Lacy. I don’t know if this incident is still the reason for Lacy and Alex’s lack of communication, but I will find out soon.

I do think that the two mothers finding Peter and Josie with a gun could be foreshadowing because Peter was the shooter at the high school. This makes me wonder though, where does this leave Josie? Could she in fact, be a shooter too?


*In response to the end of my last blog, I think Peter and Josie’s mom are still in a bit of a fight because of the gun incident back when Josie and Peter were in kindergarten.

Letter to the author

Dear Jodi Picoult,

I’m currently reading your book Nineteen Minutes and I like it very much. So far, I’ve grasped that the plot is about a school shooting at Sterling High School and the mystery of what actually happened. At first I asked myself why you’d chose to write about a topic like this but then I read that your own children have struggled with making friends and so you considered this topic. I also wondered if you were making any connection or basing the book off of the Columbine or Virginia Tech shootings? In the first chapter, there were lots of great descriptions of what Peter Haughton was doing and I wanted to know if you did a lot of research on school shootings? Did you interview past victims to get the emotions or thoughts they were feeling? Or did you research the actions of the shooters in incidents like Columbine? Lastly, while reading I’ve read two letters or notes that a character has written and I wanted to know who was the speaker? I think it may be Josie because she says she doesn’t like her life, but then again Peter was the shooter who was possibly getting “revenge”. I find your book a breathtaking story so far and am curious to see what the outcome of this tragic incident is.

Sincerely,
Emily

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*Random question: In the end of chapter one, Patrick finds Josie unconscious but not wounded in the locker room with Peter and Matt (who is now dead). I was curious to know why Josie wasn’t shot. Is it because Peter’s mom and Josie’s mom are/were friends? I’ve read that Josie and Peter were friends in kindergarten, are they still friends now?

Nineteen Minutes

For my second quarter outside reading project, I’m reading the book Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. I’ve read the first chapter (to pg.25) and already, a LOT has happened.
The story takes place in New Hampshire in a small town called Sterling. Josie Cormier and her mother, Alex, reside in the town. Alex is a judge and Josie is a junior in high school.

On what was thought to be a normal day turned into a tragedy and nobody in the town was prepared for something like this to happen. Throughout the morning in school, Picoult describes a few different students and what they were up to that day before the school shooting happened. Someone (it could be one person or more) first set off a bomb, and then a boy (again, there may have been more than one kid) went through the school shooting kids. I’m guessing the shooter was somehow getting revenge because on the first page a character says, “In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.”

Picoult describes the crime scene well and I can almost picture myself walking through the hallways of Sterling High School, seeing all the bodies sprawled about and blood that’s sprayed the walls. I noticed while Picoult was describing some of the characters days, she talked about these two boys who wished they could get out of gym class. It was kind of ironic how they said maybe an earthquake, monsoon, or terrorist attack would get them out of class...which is what happened. Another thing I noticed is that these 2 boys were talking about this in the gym and that’s where detective/policeman Patrick handcuffed the shooter in the gym locker room, which is also where Patrick found those same two boys dead (but in the gym).

Zephyrus

Just recently, I picked up a copy of Zephyrus, our schools newspaper. I think they print one every month to distribute to the high scholars. In this issue (the 2nd one out so far) the newspaper was mainly about politics, which is explanatory because the elections are coming up. I thought the writers did a good job with the layout of the paper. They displayed all the political candidates, which was nice to look at because I didn’t know much information about all of them. The newspaper also had large printouts taking up two pages for separate points on McCain and Obama.
Some of the stories in the paper were the Purple Grounds survey, the sophomores learning more about the candidates and whom teenagers care about, and a student opinion section. I thought this was the most interesting.
On the last page of Zephyrus, staff writers Robbie Latta and Teddy Hoffman both took stabs at John McCain and Barack Obama in “Liberal liars VS Conservative con-men”. This was the best part seeing the criticism both took part in. Robbie Latta is for John McCain and I have to admit, he has some good points. He talks about how Obama has no experience and for the days he’s been in the Senate, he’s done nothing productive. Latta also humored me when speaks of Obama saying, “It is as if he’s trying to say “I’m with you,” but he is attempting to be king. And what kind of presidential candidate gives speeches on mountain tops? Does he suggest we address him as “Your majesty?”
Latta also believes there’s no reason to be talking about Sarah Palin when Joe Biden asked a “wheel-chair bound Missouri state senator to stand up”. Latta also notes that Biden needs “a pair of bifocals and a history lesson”. Yikes.
Then, Teddy Hoffman comes right back in his own story against McCain and how Obama is the right president. He says he wants a smart, experienced president and that McCain is not an example of that. Hoffman doesn’t believe women should just vote for Palin because she’s female. He also refers to Palin as a “conservative Barbie”. Ouch! Hoffman points out that Biden “DESTROYED” Palin in the Vice President debates and that Palin says “Maverick” too much. Overall, I thought both writers had good points on the political candidate they were for that could make some people think twice.

No Harm Done and A Happy Ending

I have finished Breaking Dawn and completed the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Strange as it is, Bella is a very “controlled” vampire. Usually, the newborns are supposed to be crazy, malicious, dangerous, and crave too much blood, but Bella is different. She can keep a hold of her emotions and I think her special gift may be that she is controlled. Another gift she discovered is that she cannot form a shield to save people. If she concentrates hard on something, then her mind can make an invincible bubble and she can slowly move it out to protect others. Making that bubble with her mind is very hard to do though. It can be exhausting.

About three weeks after Renesme was born, the Volturi find out about her. The problem is that they think she is an immortal baby, but that is not the case. Renesme is warm blooded too and she has a heartbeat. Another problem is that because the Volturi think the Cullens have created this evil immortal child, they should be sentenced to death. The Cullens need to convince the Volturi that Renesme is half human so they’ll need to gather witnesses.

Over the next month, the Cullen family did some extensive searches for lots of other vampire clans and to explain Renesme’s creation story.

When the Volturi came, the Cullens had gathered about 28 vampires who all were on the Cullens side. I thought they were going to have an intense fight, but nope. For the most part, things went smoothly and the Volturi were convinced that Renesme was indeed half human, half vampire. The book had a happy ending.

I wish that Meyer had continued the Twilight Series because I thought it was very interesting. The topic of the books (with the vampire plot) was all new to me. I didn’t think I would like them, but I did.

Bella is a vampire!

I'm still reading Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer from the Twilight series.

As I had questioned before if Bella would be willing to give up her own life for her baby, it’s true. She did. But, Bella didn’t die! She delivered the baby, but that came with a lot of pain. Bella accidentally bent over and ripped the placenta, which caused the Cullens to perform early labor on her. Alice Cullen had to slice her stomach all the way open because the baby was so large. Edward and Bella named the girl Renesme for half of the names Renee (Bella’s mom) and Esme (Edward’s mom). The baby is half vampire and half human. She seems to crave all types of blood and Renesme also has warm skin, but it’s the color of a vampire’s. I wonder if the baby will be thirsty for regular humans like Charlie, will that put him in danger of ever getting close to her? And I wonder what would happen if she bit Jacob.

I also predicted that Bella would be on the verge of death, but then Edward would transform her into a vampire so she’d stay alive. He did, and the amount of pain and torture Bella expressed from the venom inside her body was unimaginable. “The pain was bewildering…Reality was red, and it felt like I was being sawed in half, hit by a bus, punched by a prize fighter, trampled by bulls, and submerged in acid, all at the same time.” (pg.369). Just hearing those words makes you shiver and cringe. I can’t even imagine having someone bite me and to be conscious for the venom going through your blood.

After going through all this, Bella is a vampire. The problem is that now SHE is more powerful than Edward so she will have to be careful. I thought it was funny how she arm-wrestled with Emmett and beat him! He was so mad about that.

Now that Bella is a vampire, I wonder if she’ll be rabid or if she’ll stay under control. I guess I’ll just have to keep reading to find out…

Bella is pregnant?!?

Currently, I'm still reading Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer from the Twilight series. When I first heard about this series, I thought it was boring with the whole vampire plot. Now after a friend forced me to read it (yes, forced me), I’m hooked…

Bella married Edward and is officially a Cullen, but she hasn’t made the transformation to become a vampire yet. Her and Edward go on their honeymoon. Trouble starts when Bella starts craving certain foods and throwing up, my prediction was right, she was pregnant. It did not seem to be normal though, because within a few days, Bella already had a lump forming on her stomach. By the way Meyer described Edward’s reaction to the lump and her symptoms, I could tell that her pregnancy meant something VERY bad. “His facial expression didn’t change. It was like I hadn’t spoken…a vampire who was still frozen on the floor with no sign of ever moving again.” (pg.124-125).

Bella and Edward went home immediately and within the next weeks, this “thing” or “monster” (as I would prefer to call it) was destroying her. Bella is becoming extremely weak, her belly is practically a mountain, and her body is rejecting any type of nutrition or food intake.

After all this torture, Bella still won’t take out the baby because she wants to keep it, not kill it. I think she needs to soon, because if not, what if it kills her. Would she be willing to give up her own life for the “monster”?

I hope Bella doesn’t die and I doubt that would happen because the main character rarely dies in a book. I’m curious to know what this baby is, if you could even call it a baby. I wonder why it’s so powerful too. I’m guessing it’s because the baby is a mix of human and vampire genes.

I’m predicting that Bella will deliver the baby, and be on the verge of death, but then Edward will turn Bella into a vampire by biting her so she doesn’t die.

Breaking Dawn

I have finished Eclipse (the third book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer) and am on pg.17 of the next book, Breaking Dawn.

In the end of Eclipse, it turned out the murderous vampire was indeed a clan lead by Victoria. She was still out to kill Bella and produced this clan of young ones for help. They weren’t adult vampires though; they were young children and infants. It amazed me how such young kids (even some toddlers) could have the physical strength to take out some of the La Push werewolves and the Cullens combined. That was their only strength though, the vampires may have had physical strength, but mentally they would always lose control, which caused many of them to die.

The vampires come towards Forks as Alice had predicted. It came down to an intense battle of Riley (part of the clan) and Victoria against Edward, Seth (werewolf), and Bella (who couldn’t contribute much). I knew that Edward and Seth would kill Victoria and Riley and they did effortlessly. Then, the Volturi stepped in to discuss the violent brawl. I thought it was an odd encounter.

In all of this chaos, Bella discovers she loves both Edward and Jacob and she has a hard time deciding whom to chose. She chose Edward because she can’t live without him and they’re already engaged. Bella will soon be transformed into a vampire too, but will she back out on that?

I almost wonder if Meyer will come up with some outrageous twist where Bella chooses Jacob instead of Edward or maybe Jacob will die OR Edward will almost kill Bella. At this point, it seems like anything’s possible.

Eclipse

I am still reading the book Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer of the Twilight series and I have read up to pg.332.

I will summarize for you what I’ve read so far…
Jacob tells Bella he loves her and it’s a shock to her. She doesn’t love Jacob back though, she loves Edward. Jacob still doesn’t want to accept that. Bella also learns that Jacob cannot age either, as well as Edward. The feeling that Jacob will be stuck at 16 and Edward at 18 makes Bella feel very old.

Later on someone mysterious invades Bella’s bedroom while she is gone at the Cullen’s house and takes clothes or random objects that have her scent on them. Bella and the Cullens believe that the recent murders in Seattle have to do with this and that those murders are also linked as vampires being the killers. Rosalie and Jasper Cullen both tell Bella more about their beginnings and what they came from. Jasper’s is very frightening. He says that a vampire clan he may of known from the South could be the vampire or vampire group murdering many in Seattle.

I wonder if Jasper may somehow be involved in the murders and that there could be some unexpected twist. That he was the one who went into Bella’s bedroom…I also think Jasper knows the people in this disastrous vampire clan or he is friend’s with one of them. Or maybe the Cullen family is rivals/enemies with this clan? And I wonder if this clan will invade Forks?

Eclipse

Right now, I'm reading the book Eclipse and have read up to pg.105. It's the third book of the newly popular Twilight series by author Stephenie Meyer.
In the beginning of Eclipse, Bella Swan already has to decide between one of her best friends, Jacob Black, who just happens to be a werewolf or the love of her life, Edward Cullen. She can't be friends with both of them because the vampires (Cullen’s) and the werewolves (Jacob and his friends) are enemies. Edward won't let Bella visit Jacob in La Push either. At the same time this is going on, mysterious killings are happening in Seattle that everyone is worried about. Bella seems to be living life okay, she is graduating soon, but thinking about that worries her because it means she’s steps closer to becoming a vampire.
One weekend, her and Edward go to Florida to visit Renee, Bella’s mother. Edward brought her to Florida because the evil vampire, Victoria, is back for Bella. He doesn’t want to worry her so he hides it from her, but then Jacob visits Bella one day at school and spills the beans. Bella becomes very worried, but the Cullen’s assure her she’ll be safe.

While reading, I noticed a certain quote said by Bella’s mother (while in Florida) that had me thinking.

“There’s something…strange about the way you two are together… The way he watches you—it’s so…protective. Like he’s about to throw himself in front of a bullet to save you or something” –Renee Dwyer

I wonder if Renee will get more suspicious of Edward and find out he’s a vampire. Or will Bella explain the vampire story to Renee and tell her Victoria’s out to kill her? I think that sooner or later, either Renee or Bella’s father, Charlie will find out…

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