“Butterfly.What a beautiful wordWhat a delicate creature.Delicate like the cruel words that flow right out of your mouths and the food that flies right out of your hands…Does it make you feel better?Does it make you feel good ?Does picking on a girl make you more of a man?Well, I’m standing up for myselfLike I should have done beforeI’m not putting up with your Butterfly anymore."(Kiersten slides the sack off her wrist and opens it, pulling out a handful of hand-made butterflies. She takes the microphone out of the stand and begins walking down the stairs as she continues speaking.)“I’d like to extend to others what others have extended to me.”(She walks up to Mrs. Brill first and holds out a butterfly)“Butterfly you, Mrs. Brill.”(Mrs. Brill smiles at her and takes the butterfly out of her hands. Lake laughs out loud and I have to nudge her to get her to be quiet. Kiersten walks around the room, passing out butterflies to several of the students, including the three from the lunchroom.)“Butterfly you, Mark.Butterfly you, Brendan.Butterfly you, Colby.”(When she finishes passing out the butterflies, she walks back onto the stage and places the microphone back into the stand.)“I have one thing to say to youAnd I’m not referring to the bulliesOr the ones they pursue.I’m referring to those of you that just stand byThe ones who don’t take up for those of us that cryThose of you who just…turn a blind eye.After all it’s not you it’s happening toYou aren’t the one being bulliedAnd you aren’t the one being rudeIt isn’t your hand that’s throwing the foodBut…it is your mouth not speaking upIt is your feet not taking a standIt is your arm not lending a handIt is your heartNot giving a damn.So take up for yourselfTake up for your friendsI challenge you to be someoneWho doesn’t give in.Don’t give in.Don’t let them win.”

“Sorry,” Kiersten says to Lake and I. “Mom says the FCC is responsible for inventing cusswords just for media shock value. She says if everyone would just use them enough, they wouldn’t be considered cusswords anymore and no one would ever be offended by them” This kid is hard to keep up with!“Your mother encourages you to cuss?” Gavin says.Kiersten nods. “I don’t see it that way. It’s more like she’s encouraging us to undermine a system flawed through overuse of words that are made out to be harmful, when in fact they’re just letters, mixed together like every other word. That’s all they are, mixed up letters. Like, take the word “butterfly” for example. What if someone decided one day that butterfly is a cussword? People would eventually start using butterfly as an insult, and to emphasize things in a negative way. The actual WORD doesn’t mean anything. It’s the negative association people give these words that make them cusswords. So if we all just decided to keep saying butterfly all the time, eventually people would stop caring. The shock value would subside…and it would just become another word again. Same with every other so-called bad word. If we would all just start saying them all the time, They wouldn’t be bad anymore. That’s what my mom says anyway.” “Kiersten?” Eddie says. “Will you be my new best friend?”Lake grabs a french fry off her plate and throws it at Eddie, hitting her in the face with it. “That’s Bullshit,” Lake says.“Oh, go BUTTERFLY yourself,” Eddie says. She returns a fry in Lakes direction.”

“How does one become a butterfly?" she asked."You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”

“How does one become a butterfly? They have to want to learn to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”

“In order to fly you have to create space in the open air so that your wings can really spread out. It’s like a parachute. They only work from a high altitude. To fly you have to begin taking risks. If you don’t want to, maybe the best thing is just to give up, and keep walking forever.”

“Once you let people know anything about what you think, that's it, you're dead. Then they'll be jumping about in your mind, taking things out, holding them up to the light and killing them, yes, killing them, because thoughts are supposed to stay and grow in quiet, dark places, like butterflies in cocoons.”