The Misfits

Another thing I think about names is that they DO hurt. They hurt because we believe them. We think they are telling us something true about ourselves, something other people can see even if we don't. —Bobby Goodspeed

Sticks and stones may break our bones, but names will break our spirit.

This business of really knowing people, deep down, including your own self, it is not something you can learn in school or from a book. It takes your whole being to do it—your eyes and your ears, your brain and your heart. Maybe your heart most of all.

Sometimes kids just act impulsively, but it's because we have strong feelings, not because we're trying to make trouble.

The way I look at it, love does not necessarily make for a happy ending any more than winning does. What makes for a happy ending is what Addie said all along: freedom. The freedom to be who you are without anybody calling you names. —Bobby Goodspeed

The future is a trickster rabbit, full of surprises. Only the past is predictable.

Dear Skeezie, Today I ran after a boy as he was trying to get away. I tackled him and we both landed in the mud. Do you think I appeared desperate?-Joe Bunch

When you're living through it, though, especially when you are twelve and you think the whole world is changing until you realize it isn't the world, it's you, no piece seems little. It's all so big you think it can kill you. But it doesn't. Which is why the story goes on.

When you're living through them, events are nothing more than stuff that happens. You're not thinking about significance. Significance only comes when you look back at your life.

The point is that being a minority isn't only about the color of your skin or your religion. it's about not fitting in, being on the outside.

Sometimes kids just act impulsively, but it's because we have strong feelings, not because we're trying to make trouble. —Bobby Goodspeed

Sometimes I wish I were a character in a book and there was a writer out there giving me things to say.

I am about to stop being a get-along kind of guy and turn into somebody who makes a difference.

So does being cool mean you get to go around calling other people names?

It doesn't matter how many times I've been called a name, it still hurts - and it still always comes as such a surprise that I never know how to respond. Or maybe I do, but I'm afraid.

Joe: Oo, Brittany "Aren't I Fabulous?" Hobson? Addie: She's not that bad. Joe: Brittany "All the Boys Like Me, I'm so Popular I Could Die" Hobson. Addie: Joe!

They're really into it, laughing and teasing each other, and I am looking at Pam and thinking once again how she is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen and that if we were back in the olden times she might have been made into a goddess because she is so beautiful. Sometimes I cannot stop my mind. It's scary.

Kids who get called the worst names oftentimes find each other. That's how it was with us. Skeezie, Tookis and Addie Carle and Joe Bunch and me. We call ourselves the Gang of Five, but there are only four of us. We do it to keep people on their toes. Make 'em wonder. Or maybe we do it because we figure that there's one more kid out there who's going to need a gang to be part of. A misfit,like us.

Kids who get called the worst names oftentimes find each other. That's how it was with us. Skeezie Tookis and Addie Carle and Joe Bunch and me. We call ourselves the Gang of Five, but there are only four of us. We do it to keep people on their toes. Make 'em wonder. Or maybe we do it because we figure that there's one more kid out there who's going to need a gang to be part of. A misfit,like us.

Anyway, I do not want you thinking that I or Addie or Joe or Skeezie feel sorry for ourselves. We do not. Other people may call us names or think we're weird or whatever, but that does not mean we believe them. We may be misfits, but we're okay. Leastwise, in our own eyes we are, and that's all that matters.

Because when you get down to it, thinking of somebody as 100% human seriously gets in the way of hating them.

Oh," I say. I have run out of dialogue. Sometimes I wish I were a character in a book and there as a writer out there giving me things to say. This is one of those times. I just stand there, feeling stupid.