Cath Crowley

“No guts, no glory. - Bert”

“I know what irony is.''Okay, Alanis.”

“... I ask, 'Do you think Dylan's telling the truth?'Daisy checks her face in a little mirror, then hands it to Jazz. 'You want me to find out?''Let's not ruin it by calling them liars.''...I won't ruin it. I've got this special way of getting the truth out of Dylan.''How?' I ask.'I kick him in the balls.''That's pretty special.”

“I come out of the bathroom and the first thing I see is Ed. Okay, it was a long shot, but I was half hoping he would cease to exist while we were gone.”

“Ed looks at me like he wishes I'd disappear and if I had the choice I'd grant that wish; I'd turn into smoke and blow away. I want to sit on the other side of the table from him so he doesn't think I'm interested, but there's no room on the other side so I sit as far away from him as I can and try to have an out-of-body experience. This couldn't get more awkward if we all tried."How about we get some air?" Leo asks Jazz, and they walk outside. Daisy follows them and Dylan follows her. Okay, it could get more awkward if we all tried.”

“Kiss me, I think. Go on, kiss me. At least grab my arse.”

“It's harder to make someone laugh than it is to make them cry.”

“I like that about art, that what you see is sometimes more about who you are than what's on the wall.”

“When wanting collides with getting, that's the moment of truth. I want to collide.”

“If you treat glass right, it doesn't crack. If you know the properties, you can make things; the color of dusk and night and love. But you can't control people like that and I really, really wish you could. I want the world to be glass.”

“Most times I look at Shadow and Poet's work, I see something different from what the words are telling me. I like that about art, that what you see is sometimes more about who you are than what's on the wall. I look at this painting and think about how everyone has some secret inside, something sleeping like that yellow bird.”

“I don't believe him for a second, but I'm not telling Daisy that Dylan lied because I know what it's like to want a girl that much. To get dragged in the dirt behind her hoping you won't lose your grip.”

“I read somewhere that spiders can spin silk strong enough to hold the weight of a thousand trucks. I tried to imagine those lines of silver, thinner than air, stronger than steel. Sometimes I think that a hundred webs, invisible gossamers, connect Gracie and me. They coat our bodies, tie our limbs together, link our hearts. They can stretch across cities, countries – even anger. Unbreakable. I felt them that first time I watched her play soccer.She needed to win so badly. I watched a new Gracie crack out of her cocoon that day. Grey, moth-like, she seemed covered in a dust that let her take to the air. Fly. They’re beautiful things, moths, with their dark patterned wings hooking on wind to push them forward. You have to be careful with them, though. Brush them just lightly, and they can’t fly anymore.”

“Humor without sadness is just pie in the face”

“Where's the fire, Lucy Dervish?'In me. Under my skin.”

“Well, all girls called Beth are arse grabbers.”

“Real is better, The truth is better. Painful but better.”

“I can't tell Beth about me being Shadow. She'd get uptight about me doing something she thinks is dangerous."That's not why you won't tell her. You won't tell her because what's on that wall is what's going on in there." He tapped my head.”

“You're funny, which you can't be if you're not smart. Dad says it's harder to make someone laugh than it is to make them smile.”

“Mum says be careful of boys who never take anything seriously. Dad says a boy needs a good sense of humor to get through his love life. Jazz says my dad must need a sense of humor to get through his love life if he's living in the shed”

“Nothing about art is a waste of time. "It's the time wasting that gets you somewhere.”

“dreaming's the only way to get anywhere.”

“You know, Leo's brother's hooking me up with a car when I get my license. I'm making you get in while it's moving.”

“She points at two big steps on the back of her bike. "You have training... somethings? What are they?""Feet platforms. My dad made them for my cousin to use. Step on.""But I don't have a cool helmet with a lightning bolt.""Your head is hard enough.""Funny." I steady myself without touching her."To the train yard," she says and pushes on the pedals. We don't move."Anytime," I tell her. 'You know. While we're still young and beautiful."She pushes hard again. "You weight a ton.""You need me to drive?""I need momentum, that's all. Get off.""You're very charming, but you must hear that all the time.""Get off," she says. "I'll ride, and you run after me and jump on the bike.""Do many guys ask you out twice?""Only the ones with balls.”

“Did you know that we're made up of the same matter as stars? We are nuclear energy exploding.”

“I've almost seen him. And Poet," she says, and I want tot say, You have seen him and you didn't want him.”

“Gorilla, a guy who got his name because he's hairy and because his arms are so long his knuckles scrape the floor. He's grinning and moving closer and she's blocked in on all sides by a mass of bodies. I look at her and him. I look at the window. I think back to our date. She can always break his nose if he gets too friendly. I jump through, land on the grass, and turn around. Who am I kidding? I want to see it if she breaks his nose.”

“What sort of party is this?" Lucy asks, staring at a group of guys who look like they walked off the set of Prison Break."The fun kind," Leo says. "Go have some. We'll find you after I talk to my brother.""The fun kind?" Lucy shouts to Jazz. "I'm pretty sure I saw that guy over there on 'Crime Stoppers' last week." She's right. She did.”

“I hear people talking about the feeling they get when they pain stuff in illegal places. Leo says he gets this fast-moving fear swinging through him, running from his heart to everyplace under his skin. I pain to get the thoughts in me out. I paint so it gets quiet under my skin.”

“You're chattier than you were two years ago. I'm not sure I like it.”

“You're weird," she said, falling asleep. "But that's okay. It makes me seem normal.”

“Serial killer aren't creative.""Watch a little Dexter and get back to me on that.”

“We've basically just met, so I'll say this gently. Are you completely crazy?”

“She went out with Jacob for five dates, and then they broke up. She came over that night with a tub of ice cream and a bag of Hershey's KISSES. "Comfort food?" I said."If I needed comfort food I'd have brought two tubs of ice cream. I'm nor upset, Luce. This is what I always eat on a Friday night.”

“Jazz tells Lucy to relax and tries to kick her under the table. I know this because she kicks me instead. "Aim more to the left," I tell her, and she has another go. "Farther left," I say, and enjoy watching her hit the target a couple of times.”

“You've been looking like this for months." Leo does something strange with his face."I don't look like that.""Yeah. You do.""I'll look like that if Daisy dumps me, and she'll dump me if she thinks I lied," Dylan says."You threw eggs at her head. Odds are she's dumping you anyway." I turn to Leo. "We decided. We said that we weren't telling anyone. We said it was art for art's sake. We said the more people knew, the more chance the cop's pick us up. We said it was you and me, no crew.""Are you sure I didn't say it was to score girls?”

“Emma Forest?" Jazz asks. "His ex is the girl with the big...?""That's the one," Daisy tells her.Jazz looks at her chest. I pat her shoulder. "Guys care about personality too.""Girls like me started that rumor.”

“I've got this special way of getting the truth out of Dylan.""How?" i ask."I kick him in the balls.""That's pretty special,”

“I'm up for a Shadow hunt." She tries to let us out, but the lock's stuck. "That's weird.""Is this like an omen?" Daisy asks.Jazz unzips her boot and takes it off so she can slam it at the lock. "It's not an omen." Slam. "Tonight." Slam. "Is going to be great." Slam. "I've got a feeling." Slam. She puts her book back on and looks at us. "Okay, we'll have to climb out of here."She stands on the toilet seat and from there to the toilet-roll holder and then heaves herself over the wall. "Impresive," I say, and then we hear her slam to the ground."Less impressive," Daisy says."It doesn't mean anything," Jazz calls. "Trust me. I'm a psychic.”

“I'm psychic," she said, and looked at me looking nervously at the lock. "Psychic. Not pshycho. I'm Jazz Parker.”

“I can't believe you're still mad at me," Ed says."You grabbed my arse.""You broke my nose.""You broke his nose?" Jazz asks. "You grabbed her arse?""It was two years ago-""Two years, four months, and eight days," I tell him."-and I was fifteen, and I slipped and she broke my nose.""Wait a minute. How do you slip onto someone's arse?"Jazz asks."I meant slipped up. I slipped up and she broke my nose.""You're lucky that's all I broke," I say."You're lucky I didn't call the police."Leo, Dylan, and Daisy slid into the booth. "Did you guys know that Lucy broke Ed's nose? Jazz asks.Ed closes his eyes silently and bangs his head on the wall.”

“Kiss someone, then," I say. "Not anyone.”

“I stopped doubting her predication after she told me I'd be allergic to guava juice, which was something I'd never tried. I drank a liter of it in name of scientific research. Dad called me Big Face for two week.”

“he wasn't who I thought he'd be. Mum stroked my hair and said, "Sometimes they aren't. Sometimes they make you vomit."This did not comfort me.”

“So I did, and after that day she took the world off my chest, lifted it so I could breathe.”

“This did not comfort me.”

“I'm eclectic,' she said to the HDs once and I could see them trying to work out where she plugged in.”

“Kept dreaming of this spot she had on her neck, this tiny country. I wanted to visit, to paint a picture of what I found there, a wall with a road map of her skin.”

“His mouth dips into that freckle on my neck. Thank you, sun. Thank you, thank you, sun.”

“...the definition of crazy is doing something close to the same thing twice and expecting a different end.”