In the article “Haunted Hysteria,” Julia S. describes her experience during Halloween behind the scenes at a haunted house.  This tale is comical, yet makes you sympathize with the girl.  Urgent for making friends at her new school, Julia saw that every girl had in their own cliques and partners.  Julia mentioned, “All I wanted to do was make friends.”  She offered to volunteer at a haunted house as attempt to gain friendship with Sarah, a classmate.  Julia believed that Sarah and herself could become friends, and she could, “have someone to walk with in the hallways, work with as partners in class, and do things with after school.”

However, her plan was flawed, and she remarked, “all of a sudden, I felt an impact on my lip and the skin on the inside of my mouth tore on my braces.”  Julia was a victim to a punch in the mouth by an overprotective boyfriend.  In Julia Szydlowski’s story of her struggle to make friends, I relized what goes into making friends.  The lesson that I took away, even though it has been said a plethora of times,  was to just be yourself and others will see how exceptional you are.