“There's something dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls.”

“Did she look at us that first week and see past the glossed hair and the shiny legs, our glittered brow bones and girl bravado? See past all that to everything beneath, all our miseries, the way we all hated ourselves but much more everyone else? Could she see past all of that to something else, something quivering and real, something poised to be transformed, turned out, made? See that she could make us, stick her hands in our glitter-gritted insides and build us into magnificent teen gladiators?”

“There wasn't much to know. Now there's less.”

“You have to decide who you are, little girl, she told me once. Once you know that, everyone else will too.”

“Running so hard, her breath stippled with pain to go faster, hit the grass harder, move forward faster, like she could break through something in front of her, something no one else saw.”

“She said I'd better not make her unhappy because I oughta know that she's never unhappy alone.”

“When you have nothing inside you, you feel everything more, and feel you can control it all.”