“You know what happens when you give a kid a calculator instead of teaching him math?""I think you need my help." I cross my arms. "You know what happens when you give a kid a calculator instead of teaching him math?"He tilts his head, his eyes fetchingly bright."Sure he can do math that way," I continue, "but then if you take the calculator from him, suddenly he can't do any math at all, because he'slearned to rely on the calculator. Your power lets you look at people and see exactly what it takes to make them tick. Or crumble. But withoutyour power, you don't get people.”

“That's when I caught my first glimpse of Blaine Crabtree. He was sandwiched in between two guys that were laughing at who knows what. At first I didn't notice anything but a big mop of bleached blonde hair, then he looked up from his pack of cloves and I was locked into the bluest eyes that I had ever seen. His expression didn't change, he didn't smile and didn't blink. It seemed like I was lost in his eyes, like he was using them to do the most calculated math problem, and that math problem was me.”

“Not only can I teach you math, I can teach you math in bed, Jordan. You know, I'll add the bed, you subtract the clothes, you divide the legs, and I'll multiply”

“What the hell did magic wands have to do with helping girls learn math and science? He'd been good at both. He could have helped them with math and science. Weren't these girls supposed to be building skills? Screw magic wands. He'd have handed out some fucking calculators.”

“You do his homework?""Just the math. It's a miracle he can count to ten.""I can count to one." Gabriel gave him the finger.Chris sighed.”

“I cross my arms. "It was a two minute conversation." "I don't think a smaller time frame makes it less unwise." He furrows his eyebrows and touches the corner of my bruised eye with his fingertips. My head jerks back, but he doesn't take his hand away. Instead he sighs. "You know, if you could just learn to attack first, you might do better." "Attack first?" I say. "How will that help?" "You're fast. If you can get a few good hits in before they know what's going on, you could win." He shrugs, and his hand falls.”