Sara: When I was 9 I was called pretty

Bella: When I was 9 I was called dumb

Maggie: When I was 9 I was called fat

Veronica: When I was 9 I was called hopeless

All: For the the first time

Bella: I would hear people call me this for the rest of my life

Maggie: But they would never know how much power their words have.

Sara: In 8th grade I was considered popular and had lots of friends

Bella: In 7th grade the school would tell me I couldn’t read.

Maggie: In 5th grade I started to hate the way my body looked

Veronica: In 1st grade I went to my first foster home

All: When I was 15

Sara: I was called a w***e

Bella: I was told I would never graduate high school

Maggie: I would start to secretly buy diet supplements online

Veronica: I started to sneak out and drink beers with “friends”

Sara: All the boys

Bella: Teachers

Maggie: Girls

Veronica: Social Workers

All: would stare and laugh

Veronica: Friends never stayed.
Sara: They would come and go in waves

Maggie: But sometimes you just had to

Bella: eat lunch alone.

Bella, Veronica, Sara: Those of us that actually ate. ( Bella Veronica and Sara all poke at Maggie)

Maggie: It was easier not to. Stop it. When I was younger I thought that gaining weight was some sort of game I wanted to shop where the big kids shopped. Now I know I was too big. I still am. Stop it. It’s not funny. I hate this! Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear? Do you feel my pain? Stop It! Stop it! Stop It!

Sara: Friends… what does that world mean?

Bella: Someone who cares?

All: No

Maggie: Someone who laughs with you?

All: No

Veronica: (picks up a dictionary) a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations.

All: No

Maggie: Try and read this! (picking up the dictionary showing it to Bella)

Bella: Stop it.

Sara: Go on try to read it! It's easy.

Bella: Stop it.

Veronica: How do you spell house?

Bella: (beat)  H - O - W - S - S

(All except Bella laugh)

Bella: I never knew why I couldn’t read. I just never did. I was very good at talk I could talk for hours but when it came to putting those thoughts down on paper it never worked out right. Did you know I’ve never read Harry Potter. I just watched the movies and hoped there wasn’t to big of a difference. Here let me read you my favorite book (picks up a children's book) 

Maggie: Will I ever get a boyfriend?

Veronica: Will I ever get a boyfriend?

Bella: Will I ever get a boyfriend?

Sara: I don’t want one!

( all the other girls stand and catcall at Sara)

Sara: Would you stop staring. Could you look past my the neckline of my dress. Could you make eye contact with me.  stop staring. Please stop staring.   STOP STARING! I was 13 when boys would ask to feel me up. I would tell them no and beg them to stop but they never did. The girls in my grade would give me dirty looks in the hall and the boys would bet how long they would go before I would cry.

Bella: I never smoke

Maggie: I never drink

Sara: I’ve never ditched class

Maggie: I’ve never lied

Bella: I’ve never cheated

Sara: I never steal

Veronica: I have.

( the other girls spread out and push veronica back and forth)

Veronica: My mother hated having me. She would hit me and yell at me and that when CPS put me in my first foster home. I didn’t understand why I had to be taken away so I would yell at my foster parents then they would send me away this continued over and over again. I moved from state to state hoping someone would look past my anger and love me. Actually love me. But no one did. Don't send me away.  Don’t send me away. People would invite me to come smoke with them or go get drunk. I liked the high, the feeling of being numb but it never lasts and that was one more reason to not keep me.

All: but no one cared enough to ask.