At the time, she wondered how and why anyone would remain speechless for so long.

She knows that she is responsible. As Chelsea continues to cement the fragmented pieces of her memory, she recalls a National Geographic article about a monk who has been silent for sixty years, which previously caught her interest. She also knows how the events of the previous night came to be. After all, there is one secret Chelsea needs to keep: the lie she told her parents in order to attend the party. Then Kristen informs her that Noah is in the hospital, that he was beaten, that he is in a coma.Ĭhelsea assures Kristen that she will say nothing. When Chelsea awakes on New Year’s Day draped around a toilet bowl, she knows something must’ve gone wrong. Scenes of the last night’s party slowly come together: drinking, talking to her mother, drinking, blackmailing someone with her latest piece of gossip, drinking and feeling sick, finding Noah-a nice guy she barely knew-with his boyfriend, telling everyone what she saw, Kristen’s drunken boyfriend following Noah out of the house claiming he was going to “talk” to the fags, drinking, telling Brendon how much she adores him. When Chelsea arrives at the party with the latest piece of gossip (complete with pictures), she suspects-if all goes according to plan-that she and Brendon, her ultimate crush, will be a couple by midnight. After all, gossip is how she became best friends with Kristen, one of the most popular girls in school who is about to attend the best New Year’s Eve party ever.

Talking about everyone and everything is her specialty-the key to her social status. “Keeping secrets isn’t my specialty,” declares 16-year-old Chelsea Knot.

Speechless by hannah harrington