“I look over at Ed. He's staring out the window giving Leo the thumbs-down. I wait till he's looking at me, then I give him two fingers up. He gives me two fingers back. I give him the middle finger. He gives it back to me. I don't know any more signs, so I make up one. Three fingers. Take that, mister. He sticks up four. I call your four and raise you five. He skips straight to ten and does something with his thumb that disturbs me. I bounce my hands on my lap. Ed bounces his lap right back.”

“Ed gives him a dirty look. Leo grins. Dylan twitches. It feels like something's going on, I think loudly, and I know that Jazz hears my thought because she gives me her serious look and blows a chewing-gum bubble in my direction.”

“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.”

“He looks so stupid that it cancels out mystupid so I give in and ride and he runsand gets on the bike after only two tries.”

“His plastic hand is up and he's waggling his fingers, I pretend I don't see. I'm not going to give him my fingers, I need them for me.”

“I look up after the last chord and smile. I tell Antony Barellan to shove it up his arse, and I see Dad clapping his hands off. I give him a little wave to show him that it's okay to be happy. I give him a little smile to show him what it looks like.”

“Every time he looked at me I felt like I'd touched my tongue to the tip of a battery. In art class I'd watch him lean back and listen and I was nothing but zing and tingle. After a while, the tingle turned to electricity, and when he asked me out my whole body amped to a level where technically I should have been dead. I had nothing in common with a sheddy like him, but a girl doesn't think straight when she's that close to electrocution.”