Journal Entry: Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas

Dear Reader,

Misha and Ryen are pen pals who have never met in person, despite living 30 minutes away from each other. Another thing about Misha, he’s in a band. This band is holding an event on the night that this story begins, a party to fund their upcoming tour. Before Misha goes to this party, he talks his sister, Annie, the perfect student and athlete with a bright future ahead of her. He makes a promise to bring her some snacks.

At the party everyone is trying to complete dares to post online. Misha runs into none other than Ryen, they manage to talk for a few minutes and complete a dare. During their talk however, tragedy strikes.

Three months go by without a single letter from Misha, and Ryen has no idea why. Ryen also has no idea that she actually met Misha the other night at the party, he conveniently didn’t mention his name. Ryen continues to write to Misha despite his lack of response. Things at school are going pretty well for Ryen right now, she’s a cheerleader, coaches swim at night for kids, and is popular. She has the fear of all her fellow classmates.

A new kid starts attending the school, and his name is Masen Laurent. Within seconds of coming across Ryen and her friends at school, Masen decides he doesn’t like her very much. So, he makes it his mission to get under her skin. Only we know the truth, Misha is Masen. He starts attending Ryen’s new school under a false name under some secret mission and when he finds out Ryen isn’t the kindhearted person she is in her letters, his opinion of her changes. What is Misha’s secret mission? To retrieve something of his sister’s, Annie’s, who died the night of the party. There is also someone who has been sneaking into the school and vandalizing the walls, painting on messages for people.

“Masen” talks to Ryen and accuses her of stealing something of his when her and her friends went playing in an abandoned theme park. Ryen swears she didn’t take it, it must of been a friend of hers, and promised she’d get it for him.

The next day in class, Ryen disrupts and backtalks the teacher. Masen calls her out and embarrasses her in front of the whole class, sending her into an asthma attack. This is where we find out that Ryen was bullied back in elementary school, and she had no friends. She also has(and always had) a bad relationship with her older sister.

So what if she gave up on making quality friends for the fear and respect of others, she’s a cheerleader and popular now so everything is all good.

After a prank, “Masen” is demanding someone clean paint off his car and he chooses Ryen. While Ryen and “Masen” are together, things start to get complicated and some lines begin to blur. Ryen is obviously attracted to him, but he’s keeping her at a distance.

-Grace Sofia