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her body and ends up in the hospital in restraints. Joyce, tired of being blamed for her daughter's condition, decides it would be better for her to simply leave. Dawn, feeling abandoned by the only person she has left, finally confronts Joyce and tells her she always makes every situation about her own well-being, and yells at her to leave. When Dr. Parella comes to visit her in the hospital afterwards, Dawn breaks down into tears, admitting that her mother's departure didn't feel as bad as she thought it would. Dr. Parella points out that if Dawn is crying, she's not cutting.
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younger sister was hit by a car while in her care. When Dawn is moved, Joyce ruins the moment by declaring that she will never again be blamed for a similar loss. When Dawn is mocked the next day in school for cutting herself, she discovers that Joyce has deliberately told a parent of one of Dawn's classmates about her cutting, in the mistaken notion that peer pressure will force her to stop. She then threatens to have Dawn institutionalized if she can't stop.
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Triggered by the news that her friend
Lorraine has been brutally beaten by her mother's boyfriend, and by Joyce's refusal to listen to her and take her to the hospital where she is in a coma, Dawn sneaks out to Craig's loft, where his bandmates have sex with her; the next morning she brutally slashes
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Chosen to design the winter carnival theme, Dawn is mocked for her theme choices. The popular girls victimize and act maliciously towards her, pressuring her to create a "perfect" event. After a series of humiliations in front of an oblivious Joyce and unable to express extreme emotions outwardly,
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After being released, Dawn goes to visit
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Realizing there is no alternative for Dawn, her parents agree to allow her to begin counselling with Dr. Parella, who addresses her inability to express emotional pain through verbal channels. Joyce, despairing that Dawn will cut too deep one day, shares with her that when she was a child, her
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incident will be on Dawn's record when she applies to college. Joyce further humiliates Dawn by forcing her to unwrap her bandage in front of her father and brother, demanding that she explain what motivates her.
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their fleeting popularity while they can, but their own time is just beginning.
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