Call Me Crazy

“I’m looking out from inside the chaos. It must be a one-way mirror because no one can see back inside where I am. The looks on their faces, the judgment in their eyes, tells me all I need to know. The most frustrating part about the whole messed up situation is that even though I’m the one that they stare at in shock, I am just as shocked as they are. I know no more than they do of why I lose control. What they don’t know is that I am more scared of myself than they could ever be.” ~ Tally Baker

After a devastating turn of events Tally Baker, 17, is admitted to Mercy Psychiatric Facility where she is diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. She has come to a place where she honestly believes that her life is over. Her mind tells her that she will never smile or laugh again, that she will never be normal again. It is in this unlikely place that she meets two people, different in every way, yet both critical to helping her realize that she has so much more living to do.

Candy, a cantankerous sixty year old patient, hell bent on driving everyone as crazy as she is, shows Tally regardless of the diagnosis the ability to go on and live her life to the fullest is her choice and hers alone. In the midst of her escapades with Candy, a new patient is admitted to Mercy and coming to visit her daily is her son, Trey Swift. At first glance it is obvious to Tally that he is Native American, incredibly handsome and unbelievably caring. But what she learns through her second glance, and many thereafter is there is much more to Trey than he ever lets on. It is on these daily visits that he and Tally build a friendship far deeper than either of them truly realize. With Trey, Tally feels for the first time since she has been admitted that she is being seen as a person and not a disease. Trey begins to make it clear that he wants more than friendship; she knows that she can never give him more. How can she when she won’t even give him the truth? She never tells Trey that she is a patient at Mercy, and she doesn’t ever plan to. Her plans go up in flames when she finds out Trey is a new student at her school, the school where her brokenness was found out in the floor of the girl’s bathroom and a blade in her hand.