1. Conclusion
1.1. In the end, everybody knew what really happened in the party. Melinda's old friends who ignored her and bullied her once apologized to her. In one day, she becomes popular between her friends. Later, she hands in the tree drawing to her art teacher, with a picture of sapling, which represents new growth.
1.1.1. Through this story, Melinda showed her growth to speak up for herself and face her challenge. Now, she is confident with speaking with her friends, and expressing her emotions to other people. She made a sufficient improvement comparing to the beginning of the story,
1.1.2. "My tree is definitely breathing; little shallow breaths like it just shot up through the ground this morning. This one is not perfectly symmetrical. The bark is rough. I try to make it look as if initials had been carved in it a long time ago. One of the lower branches is sick. If this tree really lives someplace, that branch better drop soon, so it doesn’t kill the whole thing. Roots knob out of the ground and the crown reaches for the sun, tall and healthy. The new growth is the best part." ("Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson")
1.1.3. Through the story, I was able to empathize with Melinda, and I think I was able to be deep enough since I had a similar experience at the past. I was able to grow my empathizing skills, and learned that being confidence is the most important part to speak up.
2. Making new friends
2.1. A quiet boy speaks to Melinda and they become friends. She also starts getting together with her old friend Ivy, who helps her with her situations, Melinda becomes a little bit more "normal". Later, she writes a note to Rachael that Andy is the one who raped her, but Rachael doesn't believe her.
2.1.1. This is the starting point of Melinda's improvement to speak up and get rid of the 'outsider' title.
2.1.2. At this point, Melinda was able to show her emotion more than before, and started to speak out about her unfair frame.
2.1.3. At this point, I was able to still empathize with Melinda's feelings.
3. Overcome
3.1. Andy traps Melinda in a coat closet and tries to rape her again. Melinda remembers the party she got raped by Andy. She didn't want to repeat the same mistake. She finally says "no" and breaks the mirror to hold the glass to defend herself. Her friend Nicole finds them in the closet. The truth was told to everybody. Melinda gains confidence back and every misunderstandings about her solves.
3.1.1. This is the turning point of Melinda, finally being able to speak up for herself, and facing her challenge. In the end, she was able to overcome and achieve victory among her greatest enemy; herself being timid.
3.1.2. As she improved and is not anymore hiding herself, I also learned many morals. For example, this point reminded me that whenever there are something wrong and when I need help, I need to talk to somebody who I can trust to, and when I face that particular challenge, I have to be able to overcome it.
4. The start of the year
4.1. Because of what happened over the summer, Melinda Sordino begins high school as an outcast. Her former friends despise her, her enemies despise her, and even strangers despise her.
4.1.1. The novel begins its story from the start of the high school year. From other people's sight, she could intuits that her school life won't be easy.
4.1.2. Even though it is not her fault, she gets all the blames and resentment from her friends because of what she did in the party during the summer holiday.
5. Being an Outsider
5.1. Melinda's first friend leaves her to go hang out with the "perfect" kids. In the process, she embarrasses herself by having her lunch 'accidently' spilled on her during lunch time.
5.1.1. At this point, I realized that Melinda tries not to express her emotion to anybody, even to her parents. She thinks that she does not need any friends, but I think she do needs them, a true friend who could heal her broken heart from bullying.
5.1.2. I myself knew that I was growing my empathizing skills. During reading, I was able to empathize how Melinda felt when she was bullied.
6. The cause of everything
6.1. Melinda attends a party during the summer before her freshman year of high school. Melinda and her friends get drunk. Later, an older boy named Andy takes Melinda into the surrounding woods and rapes her. Because of Andy's crime, she calls the cop. When the cops arrived, they sees a group of teenagers drunk by drinking alcohol, and this causes a huge problem.
6.1.1. This is the first major event happened according to the timeline in the novel. This is the main cause why Melinda became an outsider.