“The odds of surviving are not good for serfs, or clerics, since they tended the sick, but miraculously I survive. Mr. Erikson rewards me with a laminated badge that reads, I SURVIVED THE BLACK PLAGUE. Mom will be so proud.”

“Have a care, Sir Tucker, lest you find yourself in the stockades."He scoffs and looks at Mr. Erikson. "She can't do that, can she? She's not the ruler of this class. Brady is."..."You could strip him of his title," suggests Brady, apparently not minding at all that I have usurped his throne. "Make him a serf.""Yeah," says Christian. "Make him a serf. Being a serf blows."As a serf, poor Christian has already been killed several times in our class. Aside from dying of the Black Plague on the first day, he's starved to death, had his hands cut off for stealing a loaf of bread, and been run down by his master's horse just for kicks. He's like Christian the fifth now.”

“When I was a kid my mom used to tell me that if i have sex before i was married, my... junk would turn black and fall off.”

“As a serf, poor Christian has already been killed several times in our class. Aside from dying of the Black Plague on the first day, he’s starved to death, had his hands cut off for stealing a loaf of bread, and been run down by his master’s horse just for kicks. He’s like Christian the fifth now.”

“Bug spray.” Mosquitoes never bother me, but apparently they eat Tucker alive if he forgets bug spray. So I wear it for solidarity. “All the kids wearit,” I explain to Mom. “They say the mosquito is the Wyoming state bird.”

“I can’t believe you’re old enough to have your purpose,” Mom says with a sigh. “Makes me feel old.”“You are old.”

“I can't leave you," he says hoarsely."I can't leave you either," I say, shaking my head. "I can't.""Then don't," he says, and grabs me behind the neck and kisses me again, and the world is tilting, and everything goes black.”