Perks of Being a Wallflower | Page 3

I don't think that there is a favorite kid in our family. There are three of us and I am the youngest. My
brother is the oldest. He is a very good football player and likes his car. My sister is very pretty and
mean to boys and she is in the middle. I get straight A's now like my sister and that is why they leave me
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alone.
My mom cries a lot during TV programs. My dad works a lot and is an honest man. My Aunt Helen
used to say that my dad was going to be too proud to have a midlife crisis. It took me until around now
to understand what she meant by that because he just turned forty and nothing has changed.
My Aunt Helen was my favorite person in the whole world. She was my mom's sister. She got
straight A's when she was a teenager and she used to give me books to read. My father said that the
books were a little too old for me, but I liked them so he just shrugged and let me read.
My Aunt Helen lived with the family for the last few years of her life because something very bad
happened to her. Nobody would tell me what happened then even though I always wanted to know.
When I was around seven, I stopped asking about it because I kept asking like kids always do and my
Aunt Helen started crying very hard.
That's when my dad slapped me, saying, "You're hurting your aunt Helen's feelings!" I didn't want to
do that, so I stopped. Aunt Helen told my father not to hit me in front of her ever again and my father
said this was his house and he would do what he wanted and my mom was quiet and so were my brother
and sister.
I don't remember much more than that because I started crying really hard and after a while my dad
had my mom take me to my room. It wasn't until much later that my mom had a few glasses of white
wine and told me what happened to her sister. Some people really do have it a lot worse than I do. They
really do.
I should probably go to sleep now. It's very late. I don't know why I wrote a lot of this down for you
to read. The reason I wrote this letter is because I start high school tomorrow and I am really afraid of
going.
Love always,
Charlie
September 7, 1991 Dear friend,
I do not like high school. The cafeteria is called the "Nutrition Center," which is strange. There is this
one girl in my advanced english class named Susan. In middle school, Susan was very fun to be around.
She liked movies, and her brother Frank made her tapes of this great music that she shared with us. But
over the summer she had her braces taken off, and she got a little taller and prettier and grew breasts.
Now, she acts a lot dumber in the hallways, especially when boys are around. And I think it's sad
because Susan doesn't look as happy. To tell you the truth, she doesn't like to admit she's in the
advanced english class, and she doesn't like to say "hi" to me in the hall anymore.
When Susan was at the guidance counselor meeting about Michael, she said that Michael once told
her that she was the prettiest girl in the whole world, braces and all. Then, he asked her to "go with him,"
which was a big deal at any school. They call it "going out" in high school. And they kissed and talked
about movies, and she missed him terribly because he was her best friend.
It's funny, too, because boys and girls normally weren't best friends around my school. But Michael
and Susan were. Kind of like my Aunt Helen and me. I'm sorry. "My Aunt Helen and I." That's one thing
I learned this week. That and more consistent punctuation.
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I keep quiet most of the time, and only one kid named Sean really seemed to notice me. He waited
for me after gym class and said really immature things like how he was going to give me a "swirlie," which
is where someone sticks your head in the toilet and flushes to make your hair swirl around. He seemed
pretty unhappy as well, and I told him so. Then, he got mad and started