“I explained that I'd been homeschooled but that didn't help. She must have been picturing cavemenlike supervillians in capes grunting and showing me how to rub two sticks together to make the pretty fire stuff.”

“When I asked my parents how the baby got inside Ma, they both laughed, and then Daddy told me they had made it with their bodies. I pictured them fully clothed, rubbing furiously against each other, like two sticks making fire.”

“I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.”

“She's in tenth grade,' he said. 'I hear she's been homeschooled till now.'Maybe that explains it,' I said.”

“So, I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.”

“It just wasn't fair. God made some people naturally skinny and some people naturally fat. I'd never know how my life would have been different if I'd been one of the ones He made skinny. I didn't know how He chose. This one will be blonde, with long thin legs and great skin. This one will be short and fat with legs that rub together when she walks. I just knew I wasn't one of the lucky ones.”