“He called her a MILF, which must be offensive because Miss Castle called him a thug and sent hit out of the room. Gabe, what is a MILF?”- Bethany”

“I like literature," I said. "We started watching the film version of Romeo and Juliet today."I didn't tell them this, but the love story fascinated me. The way the lovers fell so deeply and irrevocably in love after their first meeting sparked a burning curiosity in me about what human love might feel like."How are you finding that?" Ivy asked."It's very powerful, but the teacher got really mad when one of the boys said something about Lady Capulet.""What did he say?""He called her a MILF, which must be offensive because Miss Castle called him a thug and sent him out of the room. Gabe, what is a MILF?"Ivy smothered her smile behind a napkin while Gabriel did something I'd never seen before. He blushed and shifted uncomfortably in his chair."Some acronym for a teenage obscnity, I imagine," he mumbled."Yes, but do you know what it means?"He paused, trying to find the right words."It's a term used by adolescent males to describe a woman who is both attractive and a mother." He cleared his throat and got up quickly to refill the water jug."I'm sure it must stand for something," I pressed."It does," Gabriel said. "Ivy, can you remeber what it is?""I believe it stands for 'mother I'd like to...befriend'," said my sister."Is that all?" I exclaimed. "What a fuss over nothing. I really think Miss Castle needs to chill.”

“Gabriel: Bethany lacks understanding about the ways of the world. She still has much to learn and that makes her vulnerable."Beth: "Do you have to make me sound like a full-time babysitting project?"Xavier: "I happen to be an experienced babysitter. I can show you my resume if you'd like.”

“It's here somewhere," I assured him."Please tell me you haven't lost it already.""We did fall out of the sky, you know," I said indignantly. "It's easy for things to go missing.”

“Molly: So how do you think of Bryce Hamilton crowd so far? Boys hot enough for you?Bethany: I wouldn't say hot. Most of them seem to have a normal body temperature.”

“There was nothing else to do but call upon the Creator,praying, begging, pleading, bargaining—anything to makehim protect Xavier. I couldn’t have him ripped away fromme like that. I could survive emotional turmoil; I couldsurvive the most intense physical torture. I could surviveArmageddon and holy fire raining down upon the earth, but Icould not survive without him.”

“How can you possibly know how much I miss you?" he said. "Have you got some sort of built-in miss-o-meter that can give us a reading?" "I'm a girl; of course I have a built-in miss-o-meter.”