“But, what if? Hadn’t we wondered as little girls if we were the only ones with the ability? Were we the only freaks? Were we the abnormal among the normal looking for the abnormal to become the normal? I raced back to my room.”
“Finn.” “Victor.” “Awkward.” I looked at both their faces but neither seemed to really notice I was there. The second pissing for distance contest began. You were going to ask him!”
“There was no reason not to be blunt. “Are you dating Maddison Lockehart?” “Are you?” “What?” He said it so quickly I didn’t catch it. I had said “no” without thinking, but hadn’t really heard what he had said. He had asked me if I was dating Maddison. That was ridiculous. “I’m serious, Victor.” “So am I. And I see you are talking to me again.” I sensed amusement in his voice but saw no sign. “Victor-” “Are you dating Maddison, Piper?” “No, I’m not.” I replied gritting my teeth. “Neither am I,” he replied.”
“He…He’s beautiful.” “I already called dibs,” I informed her and banged my hands twice on the table, demanding she adhere to the dibs rule. She snapped her attention back to me. “No, you didn’t! You never said dibs.” “DIBS!” I practically shouted at her. Her shoulders shrugged in defeat.”
“Maybe he thinks wild translates into easy, Ryder said.Or maybe he likes wild, I responded.Maybe, but I bet he thinks you’re easy.You’re killing my moment, Ryder. OK, be happy he thinks you’re easy.”
“Whatever problems we had back then don’t exist anymore. It’s why we have this second chance, and we can’t throw it away. Besides, you were the one who said we’re not exactly the same as we were back then. If we’re not the same, then things can turn out differently.”
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does." They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”