"Well, this is lame," said Matthew as he set the diary on the table. He, Sophia, Tabitha, and Allison had been reading Jed's diary for the last 15 minutes. So far, everything they had learned about him shattered everything they knew about him; as if the Jed Hamilton in the book wasn't anything like the Jed Hamilton they had heard about. "I expected something like "I hate the world" or "my life sucks" or "everyone is against me" or "my mother should have aborted me". Not this stupid "happy-go-lucky all-is-right-in-the-world" crap," he continued. "Like what is this crap I'm reading?"

"Are you insane, dude?" said Sophia. "Why are you making up these crappy lines? No sane person thinks like that?"

"Where did you get that from?" said Allison. "Surely you haven't been reading The Bully Diaries, haven't you?"

"What's the Bully Diaries?" said Sophia.

"Well, the Bully Diaries is about a group of kids accused of being bullies when a gay kid traps them in an empty classroom and blocks all access to the room," said Allison. "That kid also makes sure that no one is looking for the bullies. But when the school janitor notices a pile of papers outside the classroom where the bullies are, that's when it all falls apart, not just for the bullied student and his bullies, but for the rest of the school."

"I've been meaning to read that book," said Tabitha. To Matthew, she said, "Have you read the Bully Diaries?"

"Nope," said Matthew. "Why would I want to read that pile of crap for? I'm not that desperate."

"I hate to disappoint you, Matt, but I have read the book," said Sophia, "and while I wish I could feel sorry for the victims and hate the bullies, I wish the victims would learn to stand up for themselves instead of killing themselves or going on a shooting rampage and killing innocent people because someone decided to make them their punching bag."

"Indeed," said Allison as she thought about the many people she had bullied during her years at Coldcreek High School. "Like do you even read, Matthew?"

"Uh yes, I do read," said Matthew.

"Yeah right," said Tabitha. "How many books have you read?"

"Let's start with you," said Matthew. "How many young adult books have you read this past year?"

"You know, Matt," Allison said before he could go into a rant, "I'm starting to believe that Jed wasn't the bully victim we thought he was. In fact, you know that Joanna will kill you for suggesting that."

"I've noticed," said Matthew. "Plus, we already saw what she's capable of when she zapped that Brandon Blake for bothering you a few weeks ago. If she could zap a high school boy, then who's to say she can't zap anyone who bad mouths Jed?"

"She can," said Tabitha. "Or were you there when she fried that other boy's brains out a few months ago?"

"OK guys, let's get back to the topic," said Sophia as she saw Allison cringing from that memory. "Now we all know that the Jed we know was not unlike the Jed everyone else thinks we should know."

"Until he started exposing everyone he knew for the hypocrites they were," said Allison. "Like when his parents tried to make him get along with his sister, his dad rejected his brother. And when people in the school called that one girl crazy (which I don't like) Jed became her friend. He was friends with that Milton Holt when people considered him a socially retarded loser. Now what does this tell you about Jed?"

"Not much," said Sophia.

"You're right, Sophia," said Allison. "We don't know the truth about Jed. Not yet."

"Then we better keep reading," said Tabitha. "I'm sure the answers to our questions are in this book."

"But what if the world doesn't want to know the truth about Jed?" said Sophia. "What do we do then?"

"Oh, we'll make them hear the truth all right," said Tabitha.

"And if the world doesn't want to hear the truth about Jed Hamilton, we're going to force them to accept the truth, regardless of what they think," said Allison. "And if they don't like it, too bad for them."

"After all, we owe it to his family to tell them the truth," said Matthew. "So should we continue?"

"We must," said Sophia as they opened the book once again...