“There could be no snakes in Quintana Roo's garden.Only later did I see that I had been raising her as a doll.”

“There could be no snake in Quntana Roo's garden.Only later did I see that I had been raising her as a doll.”

“How could I have ever been ashamed of loving Dante Quintana?”

“Roo: What’s your definition of popularity?Hutch: I used to think people were popular because they were good-looking, or nice, or funny, or good at sports. Roo: Aren’t they?Hutch: I’d think, if I could just be those things, I’d – you know – have more friends than I do. But in seventh grade, when Jackson and those guys stopped hanging out with me, I tried as hard as I could to get them to like me again. But then . . . (shaking his head as if to clear it) I don’t really wanna talk about it. Roo: What happened? Hutch: They just did some ugly stuff to me is all. And really, it was for the best. Roo: Why?Hutch: Because I was cured. I realized the popular people weren’t nice or funny or great-looking. They just had power, and they actually got the power by teasing people or humiliating them – so people bonded to them out of fear. Roo: Oh. Hutch: I didn’t want to be a person who could act like that. I didn’t want to ever speak to any person who could act like that. Roo: OhHutch: So then I wasn’t trying to be popular anymore. Roo: Weren’t you lonely?Hutch: I didn’t say it was fun. (He bites his thumbnail, bonsai dirt and all.) I said it was for the best.”

“I wish I could tell you that I leapt to my feet anyway, snake be dammed. Or that I wrestled the snake and then fought my opponent. But I saw the icy cold disdain in the snake's eyes and did the only prudent thing I could - I froze in my place. After a long few moments, the grew bored and slithered away, as had my opponent. Yet I felt that I had won, for I lived to fight another day.”

“It seemed as if I could see things in her that others couldn't see, qualities which not even she was aware of. It was as I I could already see in her the woman she would later become.”