Not the room they show the social worker. “What is going on in here?” she asked, and after he explained it to her, I got locked in my room. “Don’t touch me!” And I slapped his creepy hands away. “I’m only trying to help you unwind,” he said in his snaky voice. Bender started massaging my shoulders, I told him, “Stop it!” I’d rather DIE than go through that again. They’ll say I’m just looking for trouble. Social services won’t believe me if I complain. Fisk used to get when his wife wasn’t around. When they moved me in with the Benders, the social worker told me that they were “very kind and very patient people.” What a laugh.

Oh, that’s right-she already has two parents. “Miss Leone, do you need some help?” “Miss Leone, do you want me to pass those out?” “Oh, Miss Leone, you look so pretty today!” Adopt her, why don’t you? I didn’t tell you because I knew you wouldn’t believe me. Normally, I would have told her to eat dirt and die, but today I just couldn’t take it. Told me I had a face only my mother could love. You want to know why I was crying at recess? That cat Camille is why. More than I have tears to cry, I miss her.

I’d been scamming food, she’d been shooting up. You want a cinquain poem about a most embarrassing moment that actually happened to me? Okay, here you go: Like I can even remember ever being in a real restaurant. “Put your most embarrassing experience in the form of a cinquain poem.” What did you expect me to do? Write the truth? I knew you’d read them out loud and you did! How do you spell idiot? I spell it L-E-O-N-E.ĭid you like my little poem about spilling my milk in a restaurant? Stupid, I know, so give me an F, see if I care. Leone, but face it: You don’t know squat. You think writing will get me out of here? You think words will make me forget about the past? Get real, Ms. Well, I’m trying it, see? And is it making me feel better? NO! Giving me this journal was a totally lame thing to do. You think you know what I’m going through, you think you know how I can “cope,” but you’re just like everybody else: clueless. I’m trapped in here, trying to sleep under this sorry excuse for a blanket, and I’ve just got to tell you-you don’t know squat.

Runaway book wendelin van draanen