These People Already Hate Me

Question:

I am an avid reader of your books and finished Alice in Charge a few weeks ago. I read it in about three days, and absolutely loved it. I have asked you for advice in the past and it has always been very helpful, so here i go again: I will be starting 9th grade in a week, and I am so nervous, my stomach is curling in. I am going to be a Freshman, which is the bottom of the pack, and that just sucks. Not only that but a few of the upper classmen hate me for a mistake I made (involving telling a sophmore my undieing love for him, just to find out he had a very serious girlfriend. She told everyone I was trying to break them up and she still glares at me whenever I walk past her, and others call me names like slut and such.) I don’t know what to do, I don’t want to start highschool being hated but these people already hate me without a doubt. I want to enjoy highschool but i have a feeling it is going to be a nightmare.

Phyllis replied:

That’s a rough way to begin high school, I know. Like many other mistakes, you can’t undo it, and probably at this point an apology wouldn’t help. About all you can do is make new friends–which you will–who don’t know anything about your mistake. Avoid the girlfriend who “hates” you, definitely avoid her boyfriend, and if people ask you about the “slut” slur, should it follow you into high school, just tell them you made a mistake of acting boy-crazy to the wrong guy, and you aren’t about to do it again. If you clean up your act and don’t repeat it, the memory of it will fade. High school’s a big place…

Posted on: August 23, 2010