There is a silent epidemic that has been sweeping the hallways of every high school in the nation for many years. This disease spreads from one person to the next. The symptoms of this disease are lying, betrayal, keeping secrets, a loss of friends, and becoming exposed. The end result is death! Death of your reputation, death of friendships or relationships in general, and death of self-esteem. I bet you’re wondering, “What is this disease that is killing the self-esteem of our teenage community?” Gossip!


Gossip is spread by word of mouth and can be very deadly to the person who it is about or the person who is spreading it. Most of the time, people hear gossip and they pass it a long to their friends. There are two kinds of gossipers, spreaders, and receivers. The receivers are innocent good people. The ones who gain gossip by having a friend or someone spread the gossip to them. The difference between the receiver and the spreader is that the receiver can keep a secret. They try their best to keep themselves and the people around them from getting involved in the problem itself.

Now the spreaders are a different story. These people have no remorse and don’t care about anyone’s feelings. All they want is a good conversation with some entertainment. Surprisingly they think other people’s faults and problems are amusing. These are the people you must look out for. How ever it is not easy to identify them. Spreaders are among, your friends, associates; sometimes they are people you don’t know.

So far I have identified for you the spreaders and the receivers. Who’s the person in between? The person in between is actually the victim. The victim is whom the gossip is about. This person could be guilty or innocent, but it does not matter to the spreader. Over 50 percent of gossip is not true any ways. The reason for the spreader to spread information can be anything. They may not like the victim, the victim may have been involved in a conflict or are being falsely accused, some do everything that the gossip is about, but somewhere down the long line, information has been twisted. See even if the gossip starts off as the truth, by the time the situation escalates it will be flipped, twisted and the complete opposite of what actually happened. Either way the victim is being exposed beyond his or her control.




Now this story that I am going to tell is about a girl named Jamie and the love of her life Michael. Jamie was a sweet, talented. Michael was the school jock with a lot of secrets. It’s a sad yet moving story. It all started at a party where everything went wrong.

Jamie and Michael’s eyes were in sync with each other’s. To her, it was love at first sight. To him well let’s just say he didn’t quite know what to think, but he knew what he felt was something he never felt before. They were both going in different directions but some how they bumped into each other and the chemistry started just like that. They started dancing and it felt a lightning bolt was holding them together. The bass on the stereo was so loud you could feel the music vibrating off your eardrums, but Michael and Jamie could even hear the music. They were to into each other. To them it felt like the music was going to the beat of their heartbeats. The friction of their bodies touching one another, laughing and giggling, and their arms waving back in the air was an adrenalin rush for the two of them. No it wasn’t any of that sexual dancing it was pretty clean fun. See Jamie wasn’t that type of girl. She was very nice, smart, and dancing is her passion. Michael wasn’t used to this. He was used to those girls who were loud and would do anything for attention but this wasn’t like that. He was actually having fun.


“You are a great dancer” whispered Michael. It was a slow dance; Jamie and he were slow dancing. They felt so comfortable in each other’s arms, rocking side to side, and her head on his chest. Anyone who would have seen them would have thought they’ve known each other since the recess. I mean instant chemistry. You could see the fireworks.


The music was bumping and heads were rocking; it was the party of the year. There was nothing but junior and seniors. Jamie was a sophomore but her “best friend” Tamara had connections. Although Jamie isn’t a party girl she decided to live a little. Plus she knew it would be a chance to meet new people. She got out one of her best outfits and she was look nice. Black Uggs, new jeans, and a cute red jacket. She was in the groove and was having no regrets.


Michael came to the party with one intention own his mind to get some numbers. What he didn’t know was he would leave with something much greater, but with that would come a lot of problems. He reached for her hand during the dance and led her through the crowd. The both fell in to the wall, not a hard fall but a gentle one, the type of fall where you barely knew that you were falling. Michael and Jamie were not just falling against the wall they were falling for each other. It was so surreal. Then it happened, Michael’s head came towards hers. She knew what he wanted she just didn’t know if she was about to give it to him. “What am I about to do?” Jamie thought to herself. Even with all the thoughts she gave in. She couldn’t resist. There lips touched, and it felt like Michael’s heart floated out of his chest. Their fingers locked, and still they stood against the wall and started to talk. They talked about everything in ten minutes, or so it seemed. Nothing but giggles came from the little corner that they were in. Michael couldn’t stop smiling from ear to ear whenever he looked at her. A slight nudge on her shoulder and with the nod of his head, Michael led Jamie up the stairs. This is when it happened. Jamie knew this was a mistake. Why did they have to leave downstairs? Why couldn’t they just dance a little more? Legs trembling, lips quivering. Jamie was so nervous you could see it on her face.

Whispering, that’s all she heard as she walked up the steps and this is the sound she would hear forever.


It’s been weeks since the party and Jamie hasn’t been feeling herself. Beep! Beep! There goes her alarm it’s time for school and Jamie slowly rolls out of bed. Her clothes all over her blue carpet, bedroom floor, plates with old food on them, and for some reason there is a funny scent in the room. The scent was a mixture of old potato chips and dirty laundry. Her mom had been begging her to clean up for days. As she walked into the bathroom, she looked into the mirror and could not see the same girl that she saw three weeks ago. A tear rolled down her face and she started to prepare herself for school by washing her face and brushing her teeth. With a slight hesitation before opening the door, she turned and looked back as her mom was calling from the kitchen, “Jamie, is everything okay? You just haven’t been yourself lately and it’s scaring me.” “I’m fine mom,” said Jamie with an unconvincing smile. “Okay well at least come eat breakfast”. “No I’m not hungry”. Jamie’s mom let out a sigh, and before she knew it the door was shutting behind Jamie.

School had been horrible ever since the party. Everything was good between Jamie and Michael, but for some reason there were strange rumors flying around the school. “Have you heard that Jamie and Michael did the “do” at that party?” “I heard she is really nasty.” These are the things they were saying, the spreaders. Everywhere Jamie turned someone had something to say. Surprisingly enough one of the main spreaders was her used to be “best friend” Tamara. Jamie couldn’t understand why Tamara would do something like that.

The truth was that Tamara was secretly jealous of Jamie. It’s been this way ever since they first met. Her envy was really set over the edge at the party when she saw the connection between Michael and Jamie. One of the many things Jamie and Michael didn’t notice when they were dancing was the color of Tamara’s eyes when she looked at them. They were red with fire blazing. It made her skin crawl to see them together. She knew that she couldn’t let that last for long and she would do anything to destroy their relationship.


Michael walked to his locker and as it opened a letter fell out. “Jamie is telling everyone your secret.” Little wrinkles on Michael’s head started to appear as he rubbed his forehead with his hand and looked up at his friend DJ. DJ was a skinny kid, who always wore these bighead phones around his neck, and baggy clothes that he could hardly walk in. “Hey man, have you been hearing things about me and Jamie?” Michael asked his friend DJ. “Man all I know is something happened at my party that you did not tell me” explained DJ. “Man nothing happened we just chilled the whole time” said Michael with a violent response. “Look man I wasn’t trying to make you angry. All I’m saying is you need to talk to your girl. That’s all I’m saying.”


All Jamie could hear out her ear were footsteps. She turned around and she saw Michael. He was wearing a nice red and black shirt, with blue jeans with a wallet chain connected to his side pocket. As a matter of fact he looked really nice all except for his walk. There was a certain way he walked, with confidence and pride, sometimes with a little bounce whenever he saw Jamie, but not today. She could tell he was in a bad mood it was written all over his face. He was angry. It was a side of Michael she had never seen before. His eyebrows were raised and his eyes were slightly squinted. She’d seen him mad before but it wasn’t like this. Bang! Michael slammed the letter he found in his locker on Jamie’s locker. Jamie read it and all of a sudden she felt herself trying to fight back the tears. She thought “It’s over, it’s really over.” Leaning against the locker Michael put his head down. “I can’t do this anymore” said Michael wishing he wasn’t saying it, then he walked away. He was walking slow as if he wanted to turn around and wake back everything he just said, but it was too late.

Jamie’s heart felt like it dropped out of her chest and was no longer apart of her body. As he left Jamie whispered “I can’t do this anymore either”. Jamie walked to the bathroom and looked at the prescription pills she had stolen from her mom in her pink bag. She was crying hysterically and she reached for a pencil and paper. She started to write. After she was finished she decided it was time. She prayed to God because in her heart she knew what she was doing was a sin. Yet, she was convinced that the pressures of the world were too much for her, and she knew in a few minutes she would be in a place where there would be no problems. “Jamie!” screamed Tamara as she bust into the bathroom stall. Her face started to leak. “What have I done!” This is what she said over and over again.


That Saturday the church was packed, packed with people and tears. “Jamie was a good kid, I don’t know what would lead her to do this” sobbed Jamie’s dance coach, a Caucasian woman in her late thirties. The thing is Michael, Tamara, even Jamie’s mom new what lead to Jamie’s death. Jamie’s problems were she fell in love with a boy and she lost him to lies, she lost her best friend to jealousy, and her and her mom were losing something greater, their faith. Jamie and her mom have been having problems economically because of her mom’s lost of a job. There home was going into foreclosure. See , Jamie had problems beyond the boys and the friends, it seemed like everywhere she went there was a new problem.
In Jamie’s suicide letter she wrote about how if she left it would be better for her mom. This way her mom would have one less person to provide for and she could try her hardest to get out of her situation with out anyone standing in the way. She also asked Tamara to forgive her for all the hate she had balled up towards her, and she wished things could have bee different between them. To Michael she promised that one day they would meet again and forever they would dance, and that his secret would remain with her forever. Yes, everyone had secrets including Michael the only one that came to the light was the secret about Jamie that was made up.


Michael was right all they did was chilled. See Michael’s secret was that he was a virgin. Everyone thought that Michael scored more than baskets but it wasn’t true. They were all lies. Michael left every girl he talked to before it got to serious, although Michael would never tell anyone his secret until now. Michael told everyone his secret after Jamie died and when he told them the story he also told them what a beautiful person Jamie was inside and out. When Jamie died it felt like apart of him he never knew was there came alive. He became a different and better person because of her.

There wasn’t a happy ending for everyone. Tamara has to live with the guilt of what she thinks she did to Jamie. She has to think about what a horrible friend she was and now she is in the mist of the gossip. Everyone hates her now and all she can hear are the whispers.

The moral of this story is that gossip should not be spread. It might be kept as a thought inside our minds. We should never let it loose because it is dangerous and the end result is death. In Jamie’s story, it was death physically. Stop the gossip.