The Nerd Project

Prologue

What happens when you take five nerds and five popular kids and have them switch roles for a month? You get lots of drama, sadness, pain, love, laughs, and a whole lot of soul searching. One thing is for sure none of these ten kids will ever look at the other the same way again.

Will they become friends after all of this, or just go back to the way things were? One teacher came up with the nerd project to overcome bullying and for others to see how it felt to be like the other. She thought that if they walked in each other's shoes then maybe they could really understand each other and see not everything is how they expected.

To many times we judge others based on what we see. Mrs. Ross is hoping with this project they will take the time to get to know one another and see they had it all wrong. Will the lesson be learned? Can they let everything else go, and trust the person they are paired with?

Will they even stick around to complete it? Will this put an end to bullying in their small school? Can one person truly make a difference? Or will the nerd project be an epic fail?

She believed in these kids, but do they believe enough in themselves? All it takes is one success story for this project to make it. For Mrs. Ross anything less than changing all their lives would mean she failed. She only hopes she can gain their trust enough to show them she is doing this for them.

One thing we do know is you can't ever know a person unless you walk a mile in their shoes.

Chapter 1: Who, what, why

Lily's story

Lily was cheer captain, prom queen, and the most popular girl in school. Everyone loved her, but no one really knows her. She lives every day with a secret that no one knows.

See Lily is a single teen mom. Her baby's father was killed over in Iraq. He was only eighteen years old. He never got to meet his baby daughter. Every day is a struggle for her.

She lives in a one-bedroom apartment that she can barely afford because her family disowned her the second, she told them she was pregnant. Now with her being a part of the nerd project her secrets about to be told.

Will she still be popular once everyone knows the truth about her? Is this project even worth it? She knows she needs help, and maybe this is the way she can get it. She cry's everyday wishing she had someone she could talk to so when she heard Mrs. Ross was doing this project, she volunteered for it.

Now she was starting to have second thoughts. She knew she couldn't do it on her own anymore, but she didn't want to lose her daughter. She just wanted one person to tell her it would be okay. One person to talk to about the things that have happened in her life. Maybe she would be pared up with someone that she could trust and talk to.

Drea's Story

Drea was your run of the mill bad girl. No one ever cared about her, so she didn't care about anyone else. She was used to fighting to get what she wanted. On the streets where she lived you had to fight or be killed.

All she heard growing up was gun shots. There were constant drive byes. She lost her baby sister to a bullet that was meant for her drug dealing daddy. I guess you could call her a statistic.

She grew up dirt poor in an abusive house. Ran away when she was thirteen and met up with a man that was no good for her. He beat her just like her daddy did. She got away from him only to find another loser, and now she has a year-old son out of the deal.

The only time she can relax, and not live-in fear is school so when she heard about the nerd project from Mrs. Ross, she thought hell what's she got to loose. She guarantees no spoiled rich kid would be able to handle the life she leads.

This may be fun to watch them fall. Maybe they could learn a thing or two about the kind of life she has had to live. She would have it so easy living the life of a spoiled rich kid for a month. Yea this assignment would be a piece of cake for a girl like Drea.

Chapter 2: Secrets and lies

Frankie's story

Frankie is Goth he loves to dress it and sometimes wear eyeliner and lipstick. He gets bullied in school for it, but it only feeds his pain. See what you don't know about Frankie is he wasn't always like this.

He started to dress like this when his mom first got sick with cancer to hide the pain. He watches as his mother gets sicker and sicker. She can't even bathe or feed herself anymore. He has to help her with everything.

He loves his mom, and it hurts him to see her like this. He doesn't know what he will do when she dies, but from what the doctor's say it's only a matter of time. He started to cut himself just to ease the pain. He felt that was the only thing in his life he had control of.

Now the one teacher he held the most respect for wanted him to be a part of some sort of project. He couldn't tell her no even though he knew it was a bad idea. I mean who would want to switch places with him in the first place? He was only a freak that no one cared about.

Now whoever had to live his life would just use it as another excuse to make his life a living hell. He had to find a way to get out of this and fast. He didn't have time to do it anyway not with everything that was going on with his mom, and he wasn't about to trust some stranger with his mother.

He knows that with his mom's insurance they could afford a live-in nurse, but he felt he owed it to his mother to take care of her. After all she had done so much for him. His mother was his hero, and now she was fighting just to stay alive. He felt this world was just so cold and cruel.

Jesse's story

Jesse is your all-American jock. He loves to party and pick on the unpopular kids. He thinks all women want him and does what he wants. He is one of Frankie's biggest tormentors.

He has to act macho and tuff so no one will find out his deep dark secret. See what you don't know about Jesse is that he is gay. No one not even his family knows about it. He hates all the lies and feels that if anyone found out they just wouldn't understand.

The reason he picks on Frankie is because he wishes he was more like him. To him Frankie isn't ashamed to be himself, and it pisses him off. So, he does the only thing he can he bullies him. He knows what he's doing is wrong, but he just can't stop.

He picks on others because he hates himself. Now he is stuck in this project. He can't let his secret be known because it would ruin his life. He had to find a way to keep his secret while doing this stupid project.