Jared Baker, a 14 year-old boy living in Los Angeles, CA, is getting ready for another excruciating day in high school. As he rolls out of his freshly washed seats to get out of bed, he immediately runs to the bathroom to take a shower.
Showering is the most relaxing part of Jared’s day; 3 times per day. He enjoys the satisfying feeling of scrubbing the germs off of his body. Once he gets out of the shower, he washes his hands thoroughly with plenty of soap and water.
ared suffers from severe OCD in which it takes over his life and influences the way he acts around people. He tends to feel very separated from others, especially the horrible students at his high school. After eating breakfast, Jared grabs his 3 bottles of hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray, bottle of bleach, as well as his face mask. After placing all these cleaning products in his oversized backpack, he runs outside to meet Johnny, his friend in which he carpools with to go to school.
Jared sits outside patiently for Johnny to come and fiddles with his face mask to pass time. As Johnny pulls into Jared’s driveway 10 minutes late, he rolls down the window and yells, “Hurry up, freak!”. Jared hates it when he gets called a freak. He wants to fit in so badly with his other classmates, but they keep tormenting him everyday.
On the way to school, Johnny continues to tease Jared. Johnny says, “Why are you such a freak, man? Why can’t you just be a normal kid instead of this crazy germaphobe?” Jared just keeps to himself holding back his tears because he does not want to get made fun of for crying again in front of Johnny. He has taken enough of his hurtful comments and constant tormenting. Jared daydreams about killing Johnny, and wonders if life would be much better without him. His so called “friend” has done nothing but make him feel worse about himself as well as his condition.
As they pull into the school parking lot, Jared can see people pointing and laughing at him through the window of the car. He does not understand how people could be so rude and disrespectful just because someone looks different. Johnny then tells Jared, “Get out of my car freak, I don’t want to be seen with you”. Jared then grabs his large backpack and squirts hand sanitizer on and leaves his car to go to first period.
He is once again late to his first period class, and as he walks in, he could see everyone staring at him and laughing as he enters the room. The teacher, Mrs. Smoll, says, “Can you stop being so focused on germs, and actually come to class on time for once?” Jared puts his head down and walks to the back of the class to the empty desk as everyone laughs at the teacher’s remark.
The following periods go by very slowly, and lunch and snack are spent in the library wiping down the tables and eating a perfectly cut ham and cheese sandwich. Jared is dreading going to first period because everyone in that class is especially rude to him. He could not get the thoughts of killing Johnny out of his head and it was driving him crazy.
Once the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch, Jared walks to his 5th period class feeling unwanted and alone. As he walks in, he could see everyone turning in their chairs and laughing at him. He then goes to his usual seat in the back of the class, so no one will notice him. He hates it when people stare at him, but other people don’t seem to mind. As he sits in the back minding his own business and trying to get the thoughts of murdering Johnny out of his head, he gets hit with a piece of chewed up gum.
He almost freaks out because people know how much he hates germs. Then a minute later, another boy in the middle of class throws a snot-filled tissue at him. Jared can’t take it any longer because the teacher sees, but won’t do anything about it. Jared then gets out of his seat in the back and yells, “I’m tired of being treated poorly and you people should give me respect even if I look different or act different from you guys. Do you know how it feels to be constantly put down every single day and feeling like an outcast to everyone at school?” The whole class goes dead silent.
The following day, people approach Jared at school and apologize for what they have been doing to him all these years. Teachers begin to be nicer and some people even offer to sit with him at lunch. Jared begins to be much happier to not feel as alone as he used to be. He does not regret speaking his mind and letting everyone understand what he felt every single day of his life.
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