“My life would nevercontain a convenient, pain-saving planwhen it could stretch a problem out intoan endless agony of uncertainty andtorture.”

“I looked around. As flock leader, everyone was expecting me to make a decision. Jeb's presence here would bring uncertainty, chaos, probably danger.It would perk up my day.”

“Frustration was my constant companion. I wanted to scream. "What the he-eck are we supposed to do now? I asked Fang.He looked at me, and I could tell he was mulling over the problem. He held out a small waxed-paper bag.Peanut?”

“Save your world. Love it. Protect it, and respect it and don't let haters represent it. Don't leave the saving to anyone else, ever, because, exhibit A - why, hello there - it's way too much for one person. And if you want to skip out on the responsibility train, my whole life - and death - will have been in vain.It's yours. It's all yours for taking!You're not going to waste it now, are you?”

“But if I could do anything?Maybe you would want to be able to save the world, the Voice said. Did you ever think of that?No. I frowned. Leave that to the grown-ups.But grown-ups are the ones destroying the world, the Voice said. Think about it.”

“I dropped my voice and stared into her eyes. I could tell she was trying hard not to look away. I was so furious I could have cheerfully ripped her head off. "But you're going to find out, Mom,' I said very softly."And it's gonna give you nightmares for the rest of your wasted life."Oh, my God, I was so badass. It was all I could do to not give a MWA HA HA!”

“I hoped I wasn't actually dead. That would make finding our parents and saving the world really hard.”