Trees, trees everywhere!

I see trees as symbolism all through the book. 

• Melinda is a weeping rose bud, she once was a beautiful budding, young woman similar to the flowering tree in spring but being a 14-year-old victim of rape her beauty is not showing through as a high school freshmen.  I choose a weeping rosebud because her family is dysfunctional and because of the dysfunction she has no one to talk to about her attack. 
• Ivy from art class is a Kousa dogwood, beautiful blooms in the spring, purple to scarlet leaves in the fall.  A bushy tree that makes Melinda want to smile and write about "IT" on the bathroom stall. 
• Mr Freeman is a ficus tree or bush depending on the mood.  He gets mad with an attitude and uses "...words teachers don't normally use."  I had a ficus that would drop its leaves when ever I would water it too much, too little or move it from it's favorite window.
• David Petrakis is a stellar, noble pinn oak with lots of acorns, the acorns are useful for craft projects and to feed rabbits and squirrels.
• IT or Andy Beast.  I can't decide if he is a deadwood tree, they have very few leaves, grow in strange shapes and are not very pretty.  Or is he more like a mulberry tree? Mulberries are considered junk trees by arborists, they grow everywhere, become invasive on the prairie and choke out the indigenous trees in a couple of years. The berries are the most irritating, they don't taste good unless soaked in sugar, stain all articles of clothing and when the birds eat them the poop stains everything it spatters on; swing sets, cars, clothes on the clothes line.
• Mr Neck the athletic teacher tripping on steroids.  Defiantly a corn plant. They have thick stocks and can be temperamental and not grow for years but not die either it just sits there waiting.