“All four of us were young and undaunted and our smiles were so strong that it made me smile even then on the couch, with a kind of loss.”

“But even though she was wise beyond her years, she was still young, and so was I, and all of our words were drowned out by the noise of our beating hearts, screaming at us that we were, after all, creatures of flesh and blood.”

“Inside all of us, she reflected, were smiling bones. She would do her best to remember from now on that even on the hardest days there was always a smile underneath her skin.”

“After awhile, all the men wanted his opinion, and all the girls were in love with him. He made certain of it. Because he knew the best way to get what he wanted was to break down what made us strongest. And our friendships were what made us strong. He changed all that.”

“Beneath their wary smiles, the people were warm and friendly. They had known sorrow and loss, but their spirit survived.”

“We were all so young that there were no lines on our faces to read between.”