“I'm in position." Charlie's voice, coming through my earpiece."Wish I could say the same. All the blood's rushing to my head.""Thrope stuff?" Charlie sounds a little worried."No, I'm upside down.""Why?""I thought it would make me look all cool and ninja-y.""No one's supposed to be bale to see you.""Ah. I knew there was a flaw in my plan. Also, i slipped.""In fact, the whole point of being a ninja is not to be seen.""Fortunately I have this nifty safety harness, which is why I'm dangling instead of plummeting. Thanks for asking.”

“You let me be who I am. So many people ask me why I need to take pictures all the time. Why I'm staring at something they can't see. It's like I have to apologize for having eyes. But you've never rushed me. I'm at my best around you. You're my nova. You light me up.”

“I wish I knew how to change my patterns--all of them. But it's like the blood in my finger. I screw up and there it is, just the stuff I'm made of, making a mess again.”

“He was dead before. He knew it, didn't you see it in his eyes? My jacket." "Your jacket?" I say, with enough force that my shaky voice makes Corr start. "How about 'my jacket, please.' " Sean Kendrick looks at me, perplexed, and I can see he hasn't a clue of why I'm upset with him. Why I'm upset at all. I can't stop shaking, as if I've taken all of Corr's trembling and made it my own. "That's what I said," he says after a pause. "No, it's not." "What did I say?" "You said my jacket." Sean looks a little bewildered now. "That's what I said I said.”

“I wish I knew why she never told me any of this. Maybe she thought I wouldn't be able to handle it, that I was too sheltered or too innocent or something. If she had told me why she cut herself all the time, or that it was the pills that made her act so spaced out, or that she was even on pills, or even saw doctors, or any of it, I would have done my best to help her. I'm not saying I'm a superhero. I'm not saying I would have just swooped down and saved her. I'm just saying the only reason everything was a waste was that she made it a waste. That whole time, back when I was just a normal kid in high school, living out my normal life, I really thought everything mattered.”

“The other ninja righted himself and moved beside her. "Any last words?" he asked.I rolled my eyes. Why did people always ask you that before they killed you? It wasn't like you were going to say something that would make them change their minds."Yes," I answered. The first tendril of power pushed though my wound and wisped the hair around my head. If I was going down, at least I would take them down with me. "Why did the chicken cross the road."She hesitated and glanced at the guy. Her eyes were scrunched in a way that I knew she was frowning under her mask. The other ninja looked at her and shrugged.I licked my dry lips. "To escape the onslaught of exploding ki headed his way.”