“Zen cuts straight through the Quidditch match in progress and almost gets taken down by a Beater hurling a Nerf quaffle right at his machopartes.”

“Then a lightning bolt shot straight through my skivvies. Sha-ZAM!”

“Zen: 'I kinda went about it all wrong last night, didn't I?Melody: 'Kinda? It was a total fustercluck.'”

“Hornergy' is Zen's term for the indomitable athletic edge powered by sexual restraint. The basketball, baseball and football teams haven't had a winning season in years. The table-tennis team, however, is undefeated.”

“I'm sitting in the bleachers, watching longingly as all the boys and umbumped girls in my Personal Health and Fitness class play Muggle Quidditch. I don't even like the game very much, I think it's silly, but I so miss physical activity that I'd be thrilled if I could run around the gymnasium with a broom between my legs, chasing after the human snitch wearing a gold pinny.”

“Oh, yeah,' she said. 'He likes your brain, J.D., but he ain't attracted to you, which is a cryin' shame, if you don't mind me sayin' so.'No. How could I mind the truth? It was a cryin' shame, and my tears almost dripped right into my stuffing.”

“I need to be more in the moment, like when I was wet and wild in the waves. Being in the moment—right now!—equals freedom. It can't be scrutinized, analyzed, rhapsodized, mythologized. Itcan't be desecrated, debated, prognosticated. Right now can only be lived. Isn't this the same message Itried to get across to the kiddies in the lecture that got me fired? Isn't this the same advice Gladdie gave me right before she died?Why is it that the most fundamental life lesson—LIVE!—is the one I continually forget to put into practice?”