“Dan was heading for the blue car in the driveway. He tossed Amy the car keys. "Don't drive like you! Make it fast!”

“Dan's skin was beginning to lose color. "Oh, har-har. A library, right? Just to make me crazy. 'Cause there's no reason we would go to a library. Right? I mean, we don't need to research Peoria, do we?"Amy began heading for the building. "Not Peoria. Something else.""Not funny, Amy!" Dan called as she pushed open the heavy brass doors. "Amy...Amy?”

“Let's scope the place out," he suggested, heading around the side of the building, "and be careful in the bushes.""Why?" Amy asked."This is South Africa, dude," Dan replied. "Where cobras come from. And not the hot ones, like Ian.”

“When the guy turned around, Amy began stuttering. Silently. It was a feat only Amy could manage, and only Dan could notice.And it only happened in front of boys who looked like this one. He had brown hair and caramel-colored eyes, like Dan's friend Nick Santos, whomade all the sixth-grade girls turn into blithering idiots when he looked their way--in fact, would even say Watch, lean make them turn into blitheringidiots, and then he'd do it. Only older."He. Is. Hot," Nellie said under her breath."You too?" Dan hissed.”

“It's a token for the arcade games at Laser Sport Time!" Dan hissed."Uncle Alistair doesn't think so," Amy murmured. "He's a numismatist.""He takes his clothes off in public?" Dan said.”

“Hey, Amy, did you ever want to, like, get on the conveyor belt and see what happened? Like,'Hey don't mind me, I'm just hanging with cargo'?”

“"Whoaaaaa–AARRRGGGGGGGHHHH...shove two fingers down my throat and pull out my heart...to prove that you love meeee...!" Clutching her iPod, Nellie emerged from the hatch ad lurched towards them, like creature put together from spare parts–a motion that Dan and Amy recognized as dancing. Pulling out her earbuds, she raised her face to the sky and let the rain pelt her for a few seconds. "Whoo-hoo, that is better than a facial!" she cried, running to join Dan and Amy under the overhang."Stick around," Dan said, "for a lava treatment.”