Perks of Being a Wallflower | Page 6

They held hands and acted like everything was happy. And
this boy said something about how the football team hasn't been the same since my brother graduated,
and my dad thanked him. And when the boy left, my dad said that this boy was becoming a fine young
man who could carry himself. And my mom was quiet. And my sister looked at me to make sure I
wouldn't say anything. And that was that.
"Yes. He is." That's all my sister could say. And I could see this boy at home doing his homework and
thinking about my sister naked. And I could see them holding hands at football games that they do not
watch. And I could see this boy throwing up in the bushes at a party house. And I could see my sister
putting up with it.
And I felt very bad for both of them.
Love always,
Charlie
September 18, 1991 Dear friend,
I never told you that I am in shop class, did I? Well, I am in shop class, and it is my favorite class next
to Bill's advanced english class. I wrote the essay for To Kill a Mockingbird last night, and I handed it in
to Bill this morning. We are supposed to talk about it tomorrow during lunch period.
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The point, though, is that there is a guy in shop class named "Nothing." I'm not kidding. His name is
"Nothing." And he is hilarious. "Nothing" got his name when kids used to tease him in middle school. I
think he's a senior now. The kids started calling him Patty when his real name is Patrick. And "Nothing"
told these kids, "Listen, you either call me Patrick, or you call me nothing."
So, the kids started calling him "Nothing." And the name just stuck. He was a new kid in the school
district at the time because his dad married a new woman in this area. I think I will stop putting quotation
marks around Nothing's name because it is annoying and disrupting my flow. I hope you do not find this
difficult to follow. I will make sure to differentiate if something comes up.
So, in shop class Nothing started to do a very funny impersonation of our teacher, Mr. Callahan. He
even painted in the muttonchop sideburns with a grease pencil. Hilarious. When Mr. Callahan found
Nothing doing this near the belt sander, he actually laughed because Nothing wasn't doing the
impersonation mean or anything. It was just that funny. I wish you could have been there because it was
the hardest I've laughed since my brother left. My brother used to tell Polish jokes, which I know is
wrong, but I just blocked out the Polish part and listened to the jokes. Hilarious.
Oh, incidentally, my sister asked for her "Autumn Leaves" mix tape back. She listens to it all the time
now.
Love always,
Charlie
September 29, 1991 Dear friend,
There is a lot to tell you about the last two weeks. A lot of it is good, but a lot of it is bad. Again, I
don't know why this always happens.
First of all, Bill gave me a C on my To Kill a Mockingbird essay because he said that I run my
sentences together. I am trying now to practice not to do that. He also said that I should use the
vocabulary words that I learn in class like "corpulent" and "jaundice." I would use them here, but I really
don't think they are appropriate in this format.
To tell you the truth, I don't know where they are appropriate to use. I'm not saying that you shouldn't
know them. You should absolutely. But I just have never heard anyone use the words "corpulent" and
"jaundice" ever in my life. That includes teachers. So, what's the point of using words nobody else knows
or can say comfortably? I just don't understand that.
I feel the same way about some movie stars who are terrible to watch. Some of these people must
have a million dollars at least, and yet, they keep doing these movies. They blow up bad guys. They yell
at their detectives. They do interviews for magazines. Every time I see this one particular movie star on a
magazine, I can't help but feel terribly sorry for her because nobody respects her at all, and yet they keep
interviewing her. And the interviews all say the same thing.
They start with what food they