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1-Page Summary of Peak

Overall Summary

Melinda Sordino starts her freshman year at Merryweather High School feeling depressed and alone. Students bully and isolate her throughout the day, especially Rachel, who was previously a good friend of hers. Heather is the only person who talks to Melinda regularly, but she’s annoying and focused on social advancement rather than friendship. In response to this situation, Melinda mocks everything about Merryweather High School in an effort to cope with what’s going on around her. However, when she gets into art class with Mr. Freeman during the first week of school, he tells his students that they will each spend their year working on one project; he asks them to choose their own projects as well as present it in front of the whole class by the end of September. This gives Melinda something positive to focus on for once: She chooses a tree as her subject matter because it represents life and growth even though people tend not to pay attention or even acknowledge its existence most times unless they need firewood or shade from its branches.

Melinda describes the home she grew up in. Her parents had a workaholic relationship, and her father was never around. She hated her bedroom; it was decorated when she was in fifth grade. She hid mirrors because she didn’t like the way that she looked, especially her raw lips from biting them all the time.

Melinda has a bad experience with Rachel, hangs out with Heather and works on her tree. She also uses an old janitor’s closet as a hideout. Although she was once “happy” and “driven,” she now feels depressed. This depression worsens when students torment her at a pep rally because they recognize her as the one who called the cops at Kyle Rodgers’ party.

Heather and Melinda have a fight, and Heather is upset with her friend for being so unsupportive. However, she apologizes to Melinda soon after. Meanwhile, Melinda’s parents are angry about her bad grades and apathy towards schoolwork. They scold their daughter but end up arguing with each other instead of helping Melinda out. In biology class, Melinda meets David Petrakis, who is doing well in the class despite his poor attendance record. She continues to pay no attention in school and spends Halloween alone because she has lost all of her friends over time.

Melinda joins a group of girls who are dedicated to community service. She helps her new friends with their activities, but they make fun of her lips and call her names. Melinda goes into the bathroom where she cries because of what happened. Even worse, she sees IT in the hallway—a boy who makes her very nervous.

Melinda cleans her closet, and covers its mirror with a poster of Maya Angelou. She starts to talk less because it’s harder for her to speak up. However, she is grateful that she can hide inside the closet because it allows her to keep some emotions hidden from others. Her class discusses freedom of speech after Mr. Neck (the teacher) goes on a racist rant in class. David Petrakis begins protesting for his own freedom of speech rights when he stands up and says something about how they should be able to talk openly without fear that someone will get offended by what they say or do not say.

On Thanksgiving, Melinda’s mother tried to cook a turkey but forgot to defrost it. Her father also failed at cooking the bird and they ended up eating pizza instead. The next day, Melinda sculpted a sculpture out of the turkey’s bones using her artistic skills that she had learned from an early age. She managed to impress both her former friend Ivy as well as Mr. Freeman who was impressed by her work in art class (which reminded him of his own experience in an apple orchard). David continued protesting about the war with Iraq and its consequences for their generation while Melinda felt nostalgic for her childhood memories which made her feel more connected with herself than ever before. On Christmas Eve, Melinda received some charcoals and drawing paper from Santa Claus which touched both her parents because they noticed how much she enjoyed doing art recently despite never showing any interest in it earlier on during school times or family occasions like Easter or Halloween. However, when asked if she wanted to pursue this passion further after finishing high school, she said no because it would be too risky since people might find out about what happened between them years ago involving one of their neighbours’ children named Hannah who died under mysterious circumstances back then…