Yaqui Delgado

The end of this book is really making me conflicted. On one hand, Piddy is free from Yaqui and now, perhaps, she will be able to move on and heal. She does not have to deal any more with the stress that had been placed on her from Yaquis bullying. She can get back to doing what she wants without the weight of that on her back.

But at the same time, it feels almost as if she is running away. If, every time you have an issue you decide to just give up and leave the situation- you might never develop the skills needed to actually deal with those issues. If this happens again at her old school... what can she do? Run away again? Would she be able to deal with it in any other way. Perhaps, but there is no real evidence of it.

This was a pretty big deal- not minimizing that. I mean, Yaqui literally assaulted Piddy. Things got almost as bad as they could possibly get. It would have been no small effort for Piddy to probably feel comfortable- strong enough- to stand up for herself after having being victimized in such a way. She is only human and I understand the desire to just... escape. To have this just go away- be a problem no longer. I, in that way, cannot blame her.

But- what does that say to Yaqui? That she can get away with the things that she is doing- that there are no real negative consequences for her actions- that actually, maybe if she IS mean enough she actually might be able to get what she wants from that. Yaqui is free to continue doing what she is doing- to go along on the path that she was on before- hurting, bullying, without any interruption/intervention. She is free to hurt someone else. To even escalate these actions further.

The question I guess is- is Piddy, by doing nothing, in any way responsible for this... freedom that Yaqui has to continue the way that she has? Its, I think, kind of a hard question. I think- really no. That Piddys need for self preservation, while not... helpful in the case of Yaqui and her future actions- really, at the end of the day no one is responsible for Yaqui but Yaqui. It is almost unfair to Piddy to say otherwise. But really, the question kind of remains, if Piddy had stood up- what might that have meant for Yaqui and her future?