“I lifted the lid and found a piece of bread and some water—and a rat that quickly darted off the tray. Talk about adding insult to injury.”

“Hey Mason, wipe the drool off your face. If you're going to think about me naked, do it on your own time." [...]"This is my time, Hathaway. I'm leading today's session." "Oh yeah?" I retorted. "Huh. Well, I guess this is a good time to think about me naked, then." "It's always a good a time to think about you naked," added someone nearby, breaking the tension further.”

“I wasn't fooled. He was avoiding looking at me. "There's nothing to talk about.""I knew you'd say that. Actually, it was a toss-up between that and 'I don't know what you're talking about.'"Dimitri sighed.”

“I went first. The card I drew was "Watergate." "Oh, come on," I said. "This is ridiculous.""Don't whine," said Carter, his grin annoyingly smug. "We all take a random chance here."They started the timer. I drew some remedial waves that immediately got a "Water!" from Cody. That was promising. Then, I drew what I hoped looked like a wall with a door in it. Apparently, I did too good a job."Wall," said Hugh."Door," said Cody.I added some vertical lines to the door to emphasize the gate aspect. After a moment's thought, I drew a plus sign between the water and wall to show their connection."Aqueduct," said Cody."A bridge over troubled water," guessed Hugh."Oh my God," I groaned.Unsurprisingly, my time ran out before my teammates could figure it out, though not before they guessed "Hoover Dam" and "Hans Brinker." With a groan, I flounced onto the couch. The other team then got a shot at it."Watergate," said Carter right away.Hugh turned on me, face incredulous. "Why didn't you just draw a gate?”

“Can you ever get off for good behavior?" he joked.I gave him what I hoped was a seductive smile as I found my seat. "Sure," I called over my shoulder. "If I was ever good.”

“I left the clinic in a daze that had nothing to do with my head injury. Clear up in a week or so? How could Dr. Olendzki speak so lightly about this? I was going to look like a mutant for Christmas and most of the ski trip. I had a black eye. A freaking black eye.And my mother had given it to me.”

“My mind... It's who I am. I think I'd rather suffer any other injury in the world than have my mind tampered with.”