“I groaned,holding my stomach. "Easton Heights never covered this.Cue dramatic voice-over: 'On the next all-new episode: Halloween gone dangerously wrong. Carys consumes lethal amounts of sugar. Will she live to see Homecoming? And,more terrifying,Will anyone ask her now that she's gained three pounds?'"Arianna frowned as she pinned my wig into place. "No one made you eat an entire bag of Tootsie Rolls.”

“I scooted over, patting the bed next to me. "No such luck. And now you get to watch forty straight hours of Easton Heights with me!" He turned on the first disk, shaking his head, then got onto the bed next to me. "Small price to pay for getting to hold your hand." I wasn't cold anymore.”

“Oh,you. The usual. With you gone and Easton Heights in reruns, my life is a black hole of boredom and despair.""So basically you've been doing homework.""Like I said,black hole.”

“I don’t want to be like her, like Vivian. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Am I going to hurt people?”“No one can make you do that, child. You are caught between two worlds, much like my own Lend. You will want the fire, you will want to be filled. It is your nature. I hope you do not fall, but she is much stronger than you are.”She smiled at me, reaching out as though she would wipe away my tears. “Cling to what is good in your life. Be good to my son.”

“You're scaring me," Jack's voice finally cut through, and I opened my eyes, barely able to see him. "okay, good, yes, breathe. Breathing helps one stay alive,I've found.What on earth is so bad about a stupid school saying no?""My life"-I gasped-"is over.It's over. Everything."He frowned dubiously. "Who would want to go to a place called Georgetown, anyhow? Ridiculous. Now,I could understand your devastation if it had a distinguished name like, say, Jacktown, but as it is,you're overreacting. Why do you want to go to more school? I went once for a few hours and nearly lost my mind.”

“Yeah,bumpers are for preschoolers or two teenagers who couldn't stop throwing gutter balls if their lives depended on it.Which, fortunately, they don't.Because we'd be screwed."I grabbed my glittery hot pink ball (which I was seriously considering buying) and imitated the perfect form a Mohawked guy next to us was using. Instead of shooting straight down the lane and knocking over all the pins, my ball inexplicably went flying backward toward Lend."Okay,now we're getting dangerous." Lend brought my ball back and, wrapping himself around me,we threw it together. After pinballing off the bumpers on both sides,it knocked down a whole three pins.I jumped up and down, screaming. "That's like, practically a strike,right?""Good enough for me!”

“He winked at her. She giggled. And I threw up a little in my mouth”