13-year-old Kianna walked over to Desmond who was sitting on some bleachers in the gym. Kianna slowly walked up, feeling pain from what her father did to her the night before. She sat down next to Desmond and leaned against him. Desmond looked over to her and gave her a soft smile as he put his arm around her. Kianna looked at Desmond, staring at a new cut that went down his cheek. She brought her hand up and rubbed it gently. Desmond leaned into her touch as he looked into her eyes.

"We won't have to deal with this anymore. Soon," Kianna said as she continued to rub the cut. Desmond smiled at her.

"I know, shortie, I know. I am ready for all this to stop," Desmond replied as his deep sparkling eyes suddenly went dull. He slouched over, going limp as a corpse. Blood had started to soak his shirt and leak out the corner of his mouth. Suddenly, he sat straight up and smiled blankly at Kianna as he put his hand on her cheek while staring into her eyes with his dull, empty eyes. Kianna stared back frozen in her spot

"You should join me. We will be together again. No one cares about you. Let's rest together, Kianna," Desmond said with a smile as he moved a strand of her hair behind her ear. Kianna's body relaxed as she looked at him softly. She reached up to touch his cheek, but then she was suddenly nudged back.

"Watch where you are going", a white guy said annoyed as he walked past Kianna. Kianna looked at the guy walk and noticed a certain Latina trailing behind her. She was clearly distracted by the way she looked down and seemed to be mumbling lightly. It was pretty easy to tell it was Eva.

  Kianna faced forward as she noticed Eva starting to compose herself. Kianna just continued to make her way down the sidewalk. She knew something was up and thought about it for a bit. It probably had something to do with the shooting. Kianna noticed an alleyway and casually made her way into it. She leaned against the wall and waited for Eva to make her move. When Kianna made her turn into the alley, Eva knew this was the time to strike. She pulled out her pocket knife and rushed in. She stood in shock for a second as she saw Kianna looking at her calmly as if she was expecting it. Eva quickly pinned Kianna against the wall and put the pocket knife to her neck. Eva stared into Kianna's dull eyes.

"Listen to me carefully, you will lie in court and say that black kid shot the Asian kid. You got that! Otherwise, I am going to kill you. I am going to slit your throat," Eva threatened pressing the knife into Kianna's throat enough that it started to bleed slightly. Kianna looked at Eva blankly. Her eyes were now dark as she smiled.

"Too bad. I am going to tell the truth. Just kill me right here. At least I would die trying to do something good for once in my life," Kianna said with a smile as she grabbed Eva's hand and pushed the knife further into her throat. Eva looked at her, shocked.

"Do it. Kill me. In fact, how about you get your gang to burn down my house with me and my father in it", Kianna said as her dark eyes poured into Eva's as they widened in fear. Kianna walked towards Eva as she continued to push the knife into her throat more and more. Eva backed up in fear with every step Kianna took towards her until they hit the wall at the other side of the alleyway.

"Just do it. You have nothing to lose. Don't you want to protect your pack? Then do it!" Kianna said, moving her face closer to Eva's as blood trailed down her neck. Eva shook lightly in fear as she stared into Kianna's dark eyes. She was staring into the eyes of a dark beast, there was nothing human about the enjoyment that seemed to swirl in Kianna's eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" Eva cried out as she looked between Kianna's eyes. Kianna chuckled in a deep voice before smiling widely like a Cheshire cat.

"Because I have nothing to lose. Everyone wants me dead, including my parents. You are just another name on that endless list, so why not give everyone what they want," Kianna said with a smile as tears collected in her dark eyes. Eva stopped shaking and her face softened as she saw the pain in the beast's dark eyes. Seeing the look of pity in Eva's eyes, caused a flame to erupt inside Kianna. The emotions in her eyes were quickly replaced with rage.

"You call yourself a gang member? You aren't even willing to kill someone to protect it. You are nothing but a weak shit!" Kianna growled before pulling away and tossing Eva's knife to the ground. Eva looked at Kianna in fear, but the guilt was still written all over her face. Kianna pressed her sleeve against her throat to stop the bleeding as she walked out of the alleyway.

  Eva stood there as she tried to process what had just happened. She was shaking lightly as she bent down and grabbed her pocket knife. Eva took an unsteady breath as she tried to compose herself. She looked around before walking away into the shadows of the alley.

  Later that day, Mrs. Gruwell sat at her desk, thinking about what happened. She imagined their fear of others who can hurt and kill them, without anything protecting them. It was like the Jews in the holocaust. Realizing this she pulled a drawer in her desk and pulled out the diary of Anne Frank. She smiled and quickly got up to head to the English department. When she got in, she saw the head of the department and vice-principal, Ms. Campbell. She walked over to her and showed Ms. Campbell the diary of Anne Frank.

"I want my class to read this. We were discussing the Holocaust," Mrs. Gruwell said with a smile. Ms. Campbell frowned and looked back at the clipboard she had in her hands.

"No, they won't be able to read that," Ms. Campbell responded.

"We can try. The books are just sitting here."

"Look at their reading scores. And if I give your kids these books, I'll never see them again. If I do, they'll be damaged," Ms. Campbell said looking over to Mrs. Gruwell. Mrs. Gruweel walked closer to her and saw a stack of Romeo and Juliet books.

"What about these? Romeo and Juliet. That's a great gang story."

"No, not the books. This is what we give them," Ms. Campbell said showing Mrs. Gruwell a condensed Romeo and Juliet book with a tear on it. Mrs. Gruwell was dumbfounded as she stared at the book. "It is Romeo and Juliet, but it's condensed. But even these, look how they treat them. See how torn up they are? They draw on them"

"Ms. Campbell. They know they get these because no one thinks they're smart enough for real books," Mrs. Gruwell stressed to try and get Ms. Campbell to understand.

"Well, I don't have the budget to buy new books every semester when these kids don't return them," Ms. Campbell said not really caring about what the kids thought. Mrs. Gruwell looked at her in disbelief.

"So, what do I do? Buy their books myself?"

"Well, that's up to you, but you'd be wasting your money," Ms. Campbell said dismissively as she continued to check inventory. Mrs. Gruwell's face hardened since she felt fed up with Ms. Campbell.

"Is there someone else I can speak to about this?" Mrs. Gruwell asked. Ms. Campbell lowered her clipboard and looked at Mrs. Gruwell sternly.

"Excuse me?" Ms. Campbell said with a hard look on her face as she stared at Mrs. Gruwell, clearly annoyed that she was challenging her authority. Mrs. Gruwell shook her head and gave a polite smile to try to calm things down.

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand. Does the Long Beach Board of Ed agree that these books should just sit here and not be used at all?" Mrs. Gruwell said. Ms. Campbell gave her an annoyed smile.

"Let me explain. It's called site-based instruction. It means that I and the principal each have the authority to make these kinds of decisions without having to go to the Board, who have bigger problems to solve. Do you understand how it works now?" Ms. Campbell said with a stern look at the end.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to overstep your authority. I would never do that. I just... I don't know how to make them interested in reading with these." Mrs. Gruwell said feeling stuck.

"You can't make someone want an education. The best you can do is try to get them to obey, to learn discipline. That would be a tremendous accomplishment for them," Ms. Campbell concluded before walking away as Mrs. Gruwell stood there frustrated.

  Mrs. Gruwell made her way to the teacher's lounge to look for Mr. Gelford, the other English teacher in this school. When she saw him eating at one of the tables, she sat down to talk to him.

"Since you know Margaret better than I do, if I could just get some backup from you. I really think that the stories like The Diary of Anne Frank and...That they'd be so great for them, and she doesn't seem to understand that they could relate to these stories considering all that they face." Mrs. Gruwell said with a smile thinking that Mr. Gelford would help her out.

"Oh, of course. It's a universal story. I mean, Anne Frank, Rodney King, they're almost interchangeable." Mr. Gelford said with a fake smile. Mrs. Gruwell's face dropped

"Are you making fun of me?" Mrs. Gruwell said not believing what was happening.

"Yeah. God, listen to what you're saying. How dare you compare them to Anne Frank? They don't hide. They drive around in the open with automatic weapons. I'm the one living in fear. I can't walk out my door at night." Mr. Gelford said with a light chuckle.

"And you blame these kids?"

"This was an A-list school before they came here. And look what they turned it into. I mean, does it make sense that kids who want an education should suffer because their high school gets turned into a reform school? Because kids who don't want to be here, and shouldn't be here, are forced to be here by the geniuses running the school district? Integration's a lie. Yeah, we teachers, we can't say that or we lose our jobs for being racist. So, please, stop your cheerleading, Erin. You're ridiculous." Mr. Gelford said clearly pissed. The whole lounge watched them. The few people of color glared at Mr. Gelford

"You don't know the first thing about these kids."

"And you're not qualified to make judgments about the teachers who have to survive this place." Mr. Gelford said sternly. Fed up once again, Mrs. Gruwell got up and stormed out of the teacher's lounge with everyone's eyes on her.