Jeannine Garsee is the author of three contemporary YA novels: THE UNQUIET (2011) SAY THE WORD (2009) and BEFORE, AFTER, AND SOMEBODY IN BETWEEN (2007)(Bloomsbury USA Children's Books.) Her essay "Fearless" appears in the Harper Collins anthology DEAR BULLY: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories, edited by Megan Kelly Hall and Carrie Jones.
“I’m talking to you in bed at one in the morning. How mad can I be?”I picture him there, in what, flannel pajamas? Underwear? Nothing at all?”
“3. The séance was for real and everyone knows it. But they won’t discuss it becauseA. they don’t trust me,B. they don’t like me, orC. they’re playing it down because they’re plotting to get me alone after school, duct tape my mouth, and throw me over the fence so Annaliese can rip out my throat with her ghostly teeth. Okay. Now that’s paranoid.”
“I can’t believe he’s making you wait till January for an appointment.”“I could threaten to bomb the school. That’d get me in quicker.”
“Psychosis can happen out of the blue, to anyone, and no one knows why. Not even the best doctors on the planet.And that’s why Mom is always so afraid. If we don’t know what made me sick in the first place, how can anyone guarantee I won’t flip out again?”
“Can Aa-a-ana-liese come out and play?”
“Accept what you can’t change, and change what you can. It’s easier than you think.”
“This is exactly who I was meant to be.”