#dramatic duo

BLEEGH PT.1

BLEEGH PT.2

sneeky peek

The Heart Of A Middle Schooler

Actress: Narrator/Future Middle Schooler Actor: Middle Schooler & Counselor * On The Bus *

Narrator: There I am, Middle School me. So fragile, you may as well stick a “Fragile” sticker on me. Everyone used to tell me how sweet and caring I was to EVERYONE around me. Yet, the funny thing is, no one ever returned that feeling EXCEPT my family, well… kinda. They had good intentions but they weren't the best at showing it. I find it fascinating how I could have been around so many people at one time, yet still feel so alone.

Possible Intro *

Actress: Hi, Im _ and I play the future Middle Schooler

Actor: And I'm __ and I play the Middle Schooler and the counselor

Actress: The Heart Of A Middle Schooler

Actor: By Haley Marstein and Travis Strecker.

Narrator: I wasn't the “Coolest “ Person in school, quite the opposite really. I wasn't an outcast. To be an outcast, people would have to know you exist. I didn't stand out among the crowd and didn't talk much until I was with my friends. My friends couldn't quiet me down no matter how hard they tried. Looking back on it, I realize how hard they really tried…

*Actor Stomps foot on the ground *

Narrator: People started making fun of me because I had put on a few pounds. After a while of bullying from others I started wearing a coat or a heavy sweatshirt everyday to school. I did this because I realized if I wore a coat or a baggy sweatshirt that it would hide my size. People started making fun of me because I wore a coat to school everyday, but I just shrugged it off as nothing because “at least I'm not being bullied about my weight.” I had to take the lesser of two evils in this scenario. The bullying had gotten so bad that I would go home and cry about it every night. No matter how I acted nothing would change, I finally reached out to the counselor in desperation.

Middle Schooler: I have been getting bullied quite a lot the past few months. And whenever I go home, those thoughts just sit on my shoulders. No matter how hard I try I can't seem to escape this loop. I am sinking further and deeper into something dark and terrifying.

Narrator: As I was sitting in the Counselor's Office I felt my body tense up, I felt my heart beat accelerate at a concerning rate. “What was this feeling? Was it normal? Was my heart rate supposed to be this fast, No… This isn't normal.” I needed someone to pull me out of my spiral, I was sinking at an exponential rate. And all I heard was:

Counselor: What could YOU have done to possibly provoke them to do such a thing?

Narrator: What could I have done to provoke THEM to HARASS ME! Somehow I didn't scream, I calmly replied;

Middle Schooler: I… I don't know…

Narrator: As tears are streaming down my face, the counselor who apparently can't pick up on social cues says this;

Counselor: Well, Maybe you should have thought about that before you came in here… Now that THIS is cleared up. Is there something else you needed from me?

Narrator: I reply with tears draining from my eyes, so much that I couldn't even reply properly;

Middle Schooler: N-No…

Narrator: I got up and left. Give her the “counselor of the year” award. Anyway, after feeling like an unwanted doll, who just got thrown in the trash compactor. She kicked me out of her office with tears pouring down my face. I had to walk down the hallway looking like I just finished smoking the devils lettuce. That's when a few kids got sent to the hallway, kids I knew, and all they did was stare at me as I did what I liked to call “the walk of shame.” I know what you're thinking, yes, this “Walk of Shame” happened so regularly that I named it. Despite having my trust in an adult shatter, I kept going back to her. I know, I wasn't the brightest bulb in the shed. To add salt to the wound, everytime I told her anything she would immediately call my parents after I kept telling her;

Middle Schooler: The only way I am gonna talk to you is if you PROMISE not to tell ANYONE ANYTHING you hear today.

Narrator: and she would always say;

Counselor: I promise I won't tell anyone anything unless it deeply concerns me.

Narrator: Which of course I would always believe her because, I mean she's an adult, they wouldn't lie to me? Right? But then she would call my parents and I would go back to the walk of shame. After school I would go home and get “talked” to about how these feelings aren't normal and that I shouldn't have these problems because I'm quote on quote “too young.” After being “talked to '', I would go to my room and panic, because if these feelings aren't good and normal, was I crazy? Turns out, I wasn't crazy! These feelings are normal, but at the time how was I supposed to know that? After a few hours of thinking I was clinically insane and worrying about how and when my parents are going to ship me to a mental hospital, I would break and begin sobbing even harder than I thought was humanly possible. That's when I started to write, write so many letters about so many different topics, They would read:

Middle Schooler: Dear Mother and Father, I am sorry, but I apparently have not been succeeding at the task at hand. I have decided for you that I will no longer cause you such melancholy. I understand that these feelings that I feel wont and never will be normal. I am sorry for not knowing how to harness my despair. With deepest remorse, Travis.

Narrator: I did write like that, I swear.

Future middle schooler: Meanwhile Travis Was Going Through All Of That…

Narrator 2: That is me. I look so frail. My life has not been… easy. I used to come home from school and bury myself in my homework hoping my efforts would one day impress my parents enough for them to look at me the same way the day they would look at my sister.

Future Middle school: Mom? Dad? Look, I got a B- on my spelling test. Aren’t you proud?

Narrator 2: They were never proud. Never. I would never impress them at parent teacher conferences. They would get disappointed by my B average grades but they would ask my sister's teachers and ask them ‘Is she going to be a doctor?’

Future Middle school: I can be doctor

Narrator 2: I confess my sins to you in hopes you would understand but I feel you don’t entirely understand. I would cry myself to sleep after trying to make my parents proud, bearing the weight of being there and being let down, their mistake. I would try so hard to make them proud I ended up teaching myself how to cook so that they would not have to work and deal with my siblings when they finished their hard day of work. However it was never good enough even after I would burn myself by accident to make them meals and yet they were never proud.

Future Middle schooler: Aren’t you proud?

Narrator 2: On top of it all I would go to school afraid that if I step wrong or breathe funny my friends would leave. No matter what I would do I would fear they would leave and eventually they did. Then I was alone. I wish I could take back whatever it was that made them leave but it didn’t matter they weren’t coming back. I disappointed them too. I still cry knowing they never wanted me ever. I was just a MISTAKE.

Future Middle Schooler: Aren’t you proud?

Emily: “I thought it was funny.”

Finally drew my fan apprentice Cecilia! She enjoys teasing Julian but has a low tolerance for cute gestures as she gets embarrassed... She’s more down to earth than Julian, but enjoys being dramatic with him nonetheless!