Strong

Chapter One

Hi. I'm Merit Wolff. Most people just call me "May". I'm 14 years old, and I'm a bit of a nerd. Both drama, and class nerd...if that phrase makes sense. But I get bullied a lot. I've been stuffed into my locker, tripped in the hallways while carrying lots of things, tripped while getting on and off the bus, and every other type of physical bullying you can imagine. There's also emotional bullying, but you can kind of assume what that's like. Today is just a normal day for me. I style my hair the same way, I do the same makeup, and I have the same breakfast. As soon as I get to school, my guidance counselor, Ms. Collins calls me into her office. She hands me an envelope that's pretty thick.

     "Hello, May, Iowa State Sent me this and mentioned you. If you're interested, you can register to take the ACT's. If you get a certain score or higher, you get to go to Iowa State for three weeks straight this summer and take college course! You even get to choose the course!"

     I'm just speechless. This is such an amazing opportunity! "I-I would LOVE to! What kind of classes are there?"

     "There is math, equine, law, chemistry, business, thea-"

     "THEATER!? I AM SO TAKING THE ACT'S!"

     "I knew you would like that, May." She chuckles. Ms. Collins is SO nice. A lot of people say she's strict, but it's all about how you act. With me being a nerd, I'm a good kid. I get good grades, I set good examples, all of it. Then, there's THOSE kids. You know who I'm talking about. The populars. See, something I learned in just middle school, is there's a whole new set of popular kids. The Populars. There's popular kids, who are just students that know a lot of people. Then, there's the populars. They are the athletes. The football players and cheerleaders, mostly.

     I missed all of first hour because of the college thing, so my friends are freaking out because I have perfect attendance. They bombard me with questions. "Guys. I was just out of first hour because there was a HUGE opportunity. I could go to college for three weeks and take a theater class! I'm actually thinking about going. I just have to get a good score on the ACT's!" One of the jocks hears that and shoves me into a locker, while calling me a nerd. I'm tired of the bullies. I just wanna escape. Thatr's why I do theater. I can escape to the stage. The makeup. The costumes. My friends. I can be myself.