Constructing  
Sylvia:  
The  
Diary of A Girl  
Who Wasn’t  
the Only Selfish One 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Meredith Muirhead Period 9 
Book: R
​ econstructing Amelia​ by Kimberly McCreight 
Foreword-A Year After 
My name is Sylvia Golde. I started this diary because my mom thought 
it would keep my mind more organized and allow myself to think new 
thoughts. Apparently, all I thought about about were guys and clothes.  
Then, my best friend, Amelia Baron, started acting really strange. 
She was texting with this supposedly gay kid Ben, from the Princeton 
summer program she’d applied to. (She’d never met him in person). Granted, 
I never really paid enough attention to know when she truly was distant 
because she always seemed a little lost in thought. And I’ve always been 
the more talkative one. Almost immediately after school started, I 
started dating the new kid from England, Ian Greene. I was so wrapped 
up in my relationship with him to notice that Amelia was wrapped up in 
worse. She was selfish. But so was I. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
September 5th 
What a summer. This new kid, Ian Greene, is totally my next focus. 
He’s a transfer from England. How cute is that? For the first day of 
school, I’m wearing this dark purple sleeveless sweater and skinny jeans. 
Yeah, I’ll be sweating buckets, but in the name of fashion. Sophomore year 
is going to be amazing. And if I keep choosing Amelia’s clothes for her, 
she’ll definitely have a boy or two by the end of this year. She’s so 
beautiful. I don’t know why she never even looks at a male. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
September 24th 
OMG!!! Ian Greene came over yesterday afternoon, and….okay, here 
goes….WE KISSED!!! I told Amelia but she seemed kind of disinterested. 
Then again, she only really tunes in when a guy screws me over and she has 
to come over and dry my tears. But somehow, I think things will end well 
with Ian. He’s twice as sexy as any other guy I’ve ever been with, and he 
seems, well, not soulless. AAAAAHHHHHHHH I saw him today and he said hi 
to me, but he was cool, and I hope I didn’t seem desperate or anything. 
He doesn’t like that in a girl, I can tell. I think this is going somewhere 
great. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
September 28th 
Amelia is on Planet Weird. I think there’s something she isn’t telling 
me. She keeps texting with that Ben kid, and there’s definitely something 
fishy about him. She walked out in the middle of our conversation at the 
pizza place today, which she never does, talking about “emergency field 
hockey practice” or something. Oh, well. If I asked her, she’d go into some 
long athletic explanation that I wouldn’t understand. 
Anyway, IAN GREENE. I think he’s officially my boyfriend 
because we’ve hooked up more than once, and he told me he never hooks up 
with any girl more than once. But he never said anything or called me his 
girlfriend, so I’m not sure. Do I text him? Do I call him? Or do I let him 
say the first thing? I don’t know. But he likes me as much as I like him, 
that I know.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
October 6th 
I’m getting concerned about Amelia. She’s so distant, always running 
off…...I think she’s in love with someone. But I don’t know who. It had 
better not be that Ben kid. But what other guy does she talk to? Carter 
Rose, maybe. He’s been sniffing around Amelia for the past month, but I 
never see them together. Hmmm.  
Her Facebook posts are also raising my eyebrows. She’s either posting 
her depressing Virginia Woolf quotes, or saying stuff like she’s afraid of 
getting caught. Caught doing what? Being a total goody-goody? Getting an 
89 on a test? Not playing her best in a field hockey game? I don’t know.  
But Ian and I are really a thing now. I don’t ever remember feeling 
this way about any guy, and I’ve liked a lot of guys. Ian...he’s something 
different. Someone special. And it’s pretty clear he feels the same about 
me.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
October 13th 
That stupid ​gRaCeFULLY​ blog is messing with my head. According to the 
stupid thing, Ian’s eyes are wandering. I texted Amelia but her being the 
sweet girl she is, she assured me that 100% of the posts are lies. She 
better be right. Note to self: be on lookout for any signs from Ian. Even 
though I don’t want to have to do that. 
 
 
 
 
 
October 14th 
I haven’t heard from Ian all day, the asshole. What if ​gRaCeFULLY​ is 
right? Now that I think of it, he’s been MIA a lot lately. Is there even 
such thing as an actual art agent? I think he might be cheating on me. I 
hate this. And Amelia’s not helping. Her distant attitude is driving me nuts, 
and who does she think she is to give relationship advice? She’s never even 
been with a guy.  
I missed my appointment with Dr. Lipton today. But who cares? I’m 
literally fine. I was always fine. My mom’s been nasty lately, but between 
her and the therapists and Dr. Lipton and Amelia, I can’t get a break. 
They’re constantly up my butt.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
October 19th 
It has to be one of those Maggies. One of those selfish bitches with 
their hazing and their secret societies. And Amelia keeps posting those 
depressing quotes. And they think I need help. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
October 20th 
Amelia apparently is gay. She told me today in the library that she’s 
been with someone for two weeks, but I don’t know if I believe her. And 
I saw Ian with that hoe Susan Dolan. She seriously needs to get a life. 
Whatever, do I really care what Ian does anymore?  
 
 
 
 
October 23rd 
Amelia is in some deep water. Like, I never thought this would happen 
to her of all people. Me, maybe. Or Dylan, or Zadie, or any of those other 
Maggie girls. But never Amelia. I knew her life was going south the minute 
she started sneaking off suspiciously and talking to Ben, and the minute 
she told me she got tapped by the Maggies, I saw trouble. And the whole 
lesbian thing, too. Poor girl.  
Basically, Amelia got tapped by the Maggies. And she gave in. 
They made her do all this hazing stuff, including pranks on teachers, and 
porno-type photo sessions. The only reason she gave in is because she had a 
crush on Dylan Crosby, the most beautiful and popular girl in all of Grace 
Hall, and the two of them got together...kind of. Then Zadie, that 
psychopath who’s best friends with Dylan, caught the two of them naked 
on Amelia’s couch and videoed them. Now Dylan won’t talk to her. And 
Amelia is heartbroken and her future is at risk.  
I’m mad that she joined a club and had this whole secret life 
behind my back. But I’m her best friend. And I’m on her side. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Afterword-October 24th 
Well, Amelia’s apology email to Dylan got leaked. And it’s worse because 
she added in all this sappy love stuff that I didn’t give the okay on. Now 
the whole school is treating her like the butt of every joke. Then one of 
the Maggies swapped her English paper with a plagiarized one, and she got 
suspended for plagiarism. So I took her on a tour throughout the school, 
walking and talking with her. Then I saw her Maggies porn photo when we 
were standing on the roof together. 
And Ian was in the mirror, the photographer. 
I wasn’t thinking. I got so mad. She tried to defend herself. She 
stepped back too far. 
Being best friends with “Miss Perfect” wasn’t always easy. True, 
sometimes I was painfully jealous of her. And it killed me that I was 
that way. Amelia was so g ​ ood​- doing volunteer work, model honors student, 
so kind to everyone despite the fact that she was good at everything. But 
underneath that, I never knew there could be a girl so misled that she 
betrayed her best friend, her mother, and everything she believed. All 
because of her being “in love” for the first time.  
Just because she had become so different and just as selfish as I 
was definitely didn’t make it right for me to hurt her-let alone kill her. I 
didn’t mean to kill her. I was mad because she was posing in her lingerie 
for a photo that my boyfriend was taking, but I wasn’t mad enough to 
murder her. I’ve never been that cold-blooded. But it’s too late now. I 
murdered my best friend. And nothing will ever be the same.