“Marcus: Cherry?Jillian: My ten-year-old niece.Marcus: She's named after a piece of fruit?Jillian nodded. Jillian: So is her twin sister, Apple.Marcus: You're kidding me.Jillian: Unfortunately, I'm serious. Their father is fond of fruit pies and thought it would be cute. Marcus: And their mother didn't protest?Jillian: She thinks Steven's cute, so she gives him whatever he wants.”

“Yes, men are pigs. Except your brother, of course. He's actually a decent human being. Almost a woman.-Jillian's mother”

“She's a skank. He's a player. He's cute but almost OD'd last year, so he's a bad bet. She's a two-faced, lying, cheating witch. That's right, Trina, I'm talking to you," she shouted. "By the way," she added just for me, "Trina cusses, which means cussing is trashy, which means my golden rule is to never cuss. I have class. Unlike Trina, the skank of Birmingham." The last part was, of course, shouted.”

“One step, two...three...Soon she was in front of Aeron, smiling at her success. "What was that?" he asked. "Walking." "Took you so long, I'm officially fifty years older." She raised her chin, pride undiminished. "Well, I didn't fall.”

“cute," she announced. "and oh,baby doll,you do give off a powerful vide,don't you? makes me want to touch you." with your teeth,id bet.i say to myself”

“I think my heart is defective," Jillian says. I have to force myself to smile Jan looks at me. I get the joke, but for some reason it just isn't funny right now."I can fix that," Jeremy says, taking Jillian's headband from her. He pulls out the battery and looks at the wires that run from it. He twists one of them a little with his fingers and reinserts the battery."You are so nerdy," Jillian says. I look over at her. It's not what she said, but how she said it. It almost sounded like a compliment. "Yay," Jillian says, when he flips the switch and both hearts stay lit. Jillian takes the headband from him and slips it on. She wobbles her head making them clack together. "Jeremy," she says, grinning at him. "You fixed my broken heart.”

“As teenagers, Marcus had been the muscle and Jake the brains. Marcus had beat up the kids who'd made fun of skinny Jake; Jake had convinced teachers not to punish him.Since then, Marcus had grown a brain (kind of) and Jake had developed muscles. But habits die hard.”