(Meghan, 15, Illinois)

Growing up in a little town called Manistee, Michigan, I always felt 
neglected.  My father had taken off with one of his secretary's at 
work and left my mother pregnant with me and my older sister Ireland.
I was born on a cool night on April 24, 1985.  My mother had named me
Adel Quinn Brooks.  She said that my name represented a strong young
woman, unlike herself.  

Growing up, my mother thought that she had been making the right choices 
raising us, she had thought wrong.  When I entered seventh grade, I
 had fallen in with the wrong kind of kids. Those kids that every 
mother feared her children of hanging out with. Those kids who ran
 around and were called "hoodlums".  We all dressed in black, dark
 eyeliner, chains, and big baggy cloths.  My mother was disgusted the
 first time I came home with my "new" friend.  From that time on, I 
failed at everything I did.  My grades went from straight A's to F's.
I started drinking and smoking.  I never came home.  I was uncontrolable
as my mother would describe.  My sister Ireland never really had an
opinion on my terrible acts.  She just preferred to sit in her room.
She was the perfect little girl for the both of us.  And I took the 
role of the wild teen.  My father never played a role during my 
adolescence, which never bothered me.  I was better off alone.  During
the two years in middle school, I was suspended 17 times, and in fights
15 times.  Nothing ever phased me.  I didn't need anyone to tell me what
to do, I was a teenager and knew EVERYTHING.

Walking up to the front doors of my new high school.  I thought to 
myself I don't need to f**king be here.  I won't do this.  I'll be just
the way I want to be.  I got to my locker and went to class.  This 
school seemed different, no one dressed the way I did, except my
friends.  The upper-classman yelled "white trash" or "slut" in the 
hallway.  They also stared; It made me feel small and unimportant.

In the middle of first semester, after fifth period, I passed a boy
who always appeared attracted to me.  He didn't dress the way I did,
and he didn't seem to act the way I did.  He held his head up in the
hallways, unlike me.  He dressed very sophisticated, and looked important.
From the first time I saw him I promised myself that I was going to
steal his heart.  Tyler Andrews was his name.  I changed what I wore
little by little.  I first started wearing normal pants, then lighter
makeup, then started to wear my hair normal colors, not pink or purple.
I thought it I started hanging out with a different click at school that
would help, too.

I sat next to a girl named Sarah in Algebra.  She seemed decent, clean-cut,
intelligent.  I knew I had to make friends with her.  She was a little
distant, considering the way I acted and looked when I first came to 
school.  After a few weeks of talking in class, she invited me to come
home with her and study for finals for class.  This was it, I knew I'd
be able to hang out with good clean kids.

My mother was alarmed with all that I had been doing.  She didn't know
what happened.  I had made her a happy mother.  My grades even came up
to B's.  I was also proud of myself.  My mother had tried to force me
to tell her what had made me change myself.  I couldn't tell her, though.
It was against my personality.  I was always in charge of myself, and 
I still was.  I just didn't want to be looked at differently, in a bad
way.

I had never had a boyfriend.  I wanted only one man, Tyler.  We walked
with each other every day after fifth period.  Everyday he would come
and walk me to my next class.  The first time I talked to him in person,
my stomach was in a knot.  I liked the way he looked, smelled and 
talked.  He had asked me for my phone number one day when he came to 
my locker after school.  I gave it to him willingly.  I waited at home
until 8 p.m. when the phone rang.  I answered it and said, "Hello?" in
a low voice.  That night we talked for two hours about completely 
nothing, yet we were both content.  He asked me to a movie that night.
Excitingly, I answered yes.

He picked me up at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night.  We were going to see
a movie.  But before we went to dinner.  The entire time I was nervous.
He was an older boy, a junior in high school on a date with a freshman.
He had driven his own car.  When we went to the movie, he held my hand
so gently, I felt as though nothing could break the moment.  On the 
way home he rubbed my leg gently and it felt good.  Pulling into the
driveway, all the lights were off in my house.  I knew mom and Ireland
were sleeping.  He walked me to the door and kissed me softly on the 
lips.  I had never felt so special.  He had made me feel like a princess
the entire night.  He told me he would like to see me again.  I told
him maybe, only if he kissed me again.  We stood outside my front door
kissing and talking for an hour and a half.  When he left, I walked
inside to my mother sitting on the couch giggling.

From that day on, I was the happiest person ever.  I was walking on 
cloud nine.  Good clean-cut friends, good grades, and respect for
myself.  Most of all, I had stolen Tyler's heart and made him love me.