The Therapy Project

Understand

Text
"Feelings! Let's talk about it! Feelings is an interesting topic, feelings impact on how you do things, how you react, and how you feel about people." Mrs. Debbie is the guidance teacher, and today is the day she goes around in classes and talk about "teenage issues". These "issues" include: sex,drugs,drinking, criminal thoughts, illegal actions, teenage pregnancy, suicidal thoughts, and feelings.
"Let's say you were a irresponsible teenager and decided to have sex, but without closing the blinds! And the person you hate the most walks by and sees it, and decides to get back at you takes a picture of and, shows it to the whole school! You know what emotion you feel? Anger. Anger can do things to the person it can make them do unrational things to ease the anger. You may hurt them physically to ease it, you may spread a damaging lie that could ruin their life, or you may even kill them" she began walking around the classroom examining all the students, even making eye contact with some of the students. The room got a little tense. What was she suggesting, is she saying that any of them could commit such crimes. Seven would. Seven would commit such acts.

Richard Toizer( AKA Trashmouth)
Richie would kill someone if he really wanted too. Richie has no empathy, at all. After dealing with six-teen years of non-stop abuse and neglect from his parents, Richie has lost every ounce of respect, care,and empathy for any other human being that's not himself. People don't get what's he's been through, they don't understand the fear Richie feels when he goes home. Not knowing if he's gonna get wine bottle thrown at his head or no food on the table for him. Not knowing if he's gonna get the crap beat out of him while being called drunken slurs, or if he's sleeping in a abandoned house or car for the night. All Richie wants is for people get it, to understand it. Richie doesn't care if he has to get physical to get his point across, all he wants is to make them understand.

Eddie Kaspark( AKA The Crybaby)
Eddie Kaspark, poor poor Eddie Kaspark. Eddie didn't have a normal life growing up. His like was perfectly fine, until his dad died when we was five. After his dad died his "mom" got a little...weird. His mom was stuck in a trance, scared that any second Eddie could get up and leave her just like his father, so she did was any "reasonable" person would do, she convinced him he had fake illnesses. That was her plan if he thought he was sick, he would never leave her. So for years and years equaling up to 15 years, was feeding him gazebos. Now convinced all his life that he had some kind of illness, he is now weak and vulnerable, even after finding out it was all fake. After finding out it was all a baloney, he still takes the meds everyday, he still believes he's sick even though he knows he's not, and he hates his "mom" for that. He has had fantasies about killing her, he even tried to at some point. Some people would call him "extra" or "dramatic" but all he wants is for people to understand.

Beverly Marsh( AKA The Bicycle)
Beverly Marsh is a fighter not a lover, don't mistake these things. Ever since Beverly's mom died, her dad changed. He became oddly close to her and not in a father- daughter way. He would caress her face and whisper sweet nothings in her ear, at least that's what it started at. Next thing you know he has his hand in her panties. That's not a place a father should have his hands at. And what's even worse is that she couldn't even escape it at school! The boys were a nightmare! Groping and humping her any chance they got! The girls weren't any better, they often made fun of her and called her the "Town's Bicycle" saying "she'll give it to anybody if you asked nicely~". When in reality Beverly's a virgin. She never had sex in her life even while living with her pedophile father. Beverly's mad, angry, furious, these lies, these people are ruining her life. She's almost at her breaking point, If someone even looked at her with their pervy eyes she'll knock them out, sending them straight to a coma. Maybe if people got what she's been through. Maybe if people understood what she has to deal with everyday they'll stop. All she wants is for people to understand.

Stanley Uris( AKA The Jew)
Stanley Uris grew up in a very religious and strict household. Any wrong doings a normal teenager may do just for the pure fun of it, Stanley could not. Wanna sneak out the house to go to a party? Sure! You may get grounded for a week or two, but Stanley a year. Wanna skip class? You bet! You may get grounded by getting your phone taken for a week, but Stan five months. But what can expect he is the son of a rabbi. Being the son of a rabbi ain't all rainbows and sunshines, the people around you won't wanna be friends with you thinking you're a religious prick, talking about God 24/7. Being the son of a rabbi also met his parents have very high expectations for him. Hoping he'll become successful, and become a doctor and a rabbi, and marry a cute Jewish girl. But their expectations began falling down, when he was 14. He told his parents he was gay. At first his mother and father were accepting saying "he'll forever be their son" but then as the days ticker how they felt changed. A week after he told them they started to ignore him, only giving him dry and simple responses. The week after that they started talking to him again, but they started telling him he was "confused" and was "too young" to know. After that they constantly kept putting him on arranged dates with nice pretty Jewish girls. No matter what he did his parents kept on and on about fixing him. They even sent him to a conversion camp in the summer of freshman year to fix him. After that Stanley lost it, push the wrong button and he's repeatedly punching you in the face, cursing at you, wishing the worst upon you, even death. Stanley thinks if someone went through what he did, went to that camp they would stop and leave him alone. He just wants someone to understand. He'd do anything for someone to understand.

Bill Denbrough( AKA B-b-b-billy)
Bill Denbrough suffered a lot. At the ripe age of three Bill got hit by a car, permanently giving him a speech impediment. When Bill got his newly found stutter that's when the bullying begun. Every kid from their grade and up even some of the kids younger would make fun of him for it and started calling him "B-b-b-billy" The endless bullying never stopped Bill is 16 now and people still make fun of him for it. You may think that's the only bad thing that has happened to him, but no when Bill was 12 his little brother Georgie got kidnapped by a man named "Pennywise" Georgie was later found dead a month after his kidnapping. Pennywise was later put on trial and executed by lethal poisoning. You may think after all this mess happing to Georgie would make the bullies lay off a bit, but no they found this event another way to pick on poor Billy. You may think "Who is sick enough to make fun of somebody's dead brother!?" But this is Derry. People don't care here. Bill wishes they did, he wished the people in Derry had some type of empathy. No not wished he longed for them to have some type of empathy. The only way for them to care is if they've been through it. He wished the people here were different. He wished their were more understanding people in Derry. Sooner or later Bill is gonna get sick and tired of knocking some kids teeth out for even snickering at him, but hey, this is Derry you never know what someone's intentions are. This wouldn't have to be if people could understand. Why won't people understand.

Mike Hanlon( AKA The Blackie)
Being a black man in Derry is not easy. And sadly Mike Hanlon has to experience it. Everywhere he goes people are calling him slurs. Heck! He can't even go out to the store to get groceries without Bowers trying swing at him. Racism is a common thing in Derry, they think "If your not white, then what in the world are you doing here!?" The people in Derry see black people as disgusting and dirty even criminals. For what!? Just exciting!? At first Mike just led it happen. He took the racism, he took the punches, shoves, and kicking he got. But know at age 16 Mike will not hesitate to swing at you if he even hears you say the N word. It doesn't even have to be directly at him! Mike learned how to stand up for him. After all of them years Mike knows to not take crap anymore, and that he doesn't deserve to be treated like trash for the color of his skin. Their were some people in Derry who didn't give a care in the world of your white, black, grey, or blue, they only cared for what in the heart. Mike wants people to understand that. He wants people to understand that how they treat other races is not okay. Yeah he may have done some...unforgivable things to make people understand. But it wouldn't have happened if they just understand. It's not that hard to understand.

Ben Hanscom( AKA Fat Boy)
Being a fat kid in Derry is a "little" difficult. Being a bit on the big side in Derry is awful. Having people not wanting to be friends with you cause you were big. People always assuming fat stereotypes on you is not a good feeling. Yeah Ben may be in the big side but he's actually a vegetarian. Ben has never actually got the chance to experience a relationship unlike the rest. People would always turn him down the second he even glanced at them cause he was a bit big. Ben's a really good guy, he's sweet and kind he even writes poetry! But so what? What does that mean? He's fat so none of that matters right? He's moved schools eight separate times, and every time the same thing "Hey fat boy!" Ben was never skinny and became fat, he was a chubby baby, a chubby kid, and now a chubby teenager. He wishes people got that. He wished people knew that. He wished people understood that. Since Ben's older now he's learned to stick up for himself, say "Hey fat boy!" Straightaway kicked in the crouch with no regret. Sometimes if you say something really bad he'll get really physically and even break your arm. He just wished people would understand so he wouldn't have to do this.

"Man, teenagers sure are interesting beings, aren't they?" She said making direct eye contact with the seven, that said "see me after class." She propped herself off the desk and started at the whole class with a smile. "Well that concludes are lessons, if you're not my selected few you may roam the halls and get ready for your next class" one by one the students got up and left the classroom with one closing the door. She then leaned herself against the desk, staring at the selected seven still in their seats. "You know why I chose y'all right?" It was a question but it was more a statement. "This whole lesson was about you" she paused for a quick second "Y'all have the ability, y'all have the mind set to do those things, and the school noticed." The atmosphere in the room got tense, you could hear every mentally ill kids breathing pace. "The school asked me to do something about, not wanting any harm to come to the school. So I decided to hold a group therapy session to talk about these things, to not act on these things. It'll help you and everybody else this can make you understand and find a new better way. So what you say?" She looked around the group of teens once more. "You really don't have a choice" The teens looked at each other, not knowing a single thing about each other. "You ready?"