“They aren't monsters!"Her mother whispered, "Yes, they are.”

“She did know that she liked the way happiness flooded back into his face, eyes on hers suddenly, warm and private, as if he was about to lean over to her and whisper the best secret ever.”

“He doesn't have to talk nonsense in a whisper in your ear," Jared said. "As opposed to talking nonsense in a whisper in my brain?" Kami asked.”

“He was always part of her thoughts, and now that he was real, he was inescapably part of her life, but it was as she had told her mother: saying he was part of her or that they were more than friends sounded like love, but it seemed like loss as well. All the words she knew to describe what he was to her were from love stories and love songs, but those were not words anyone truly meant.”

“She clenched her fist in his T-shirt, put her other arm around those too-broad, too-real shoulders. When he tried to pull away, she held on tight. Kami felt the surrender in his mind a moment before he laid his face in the curve of her neck. The whole world was so real it hurt.Kami whispered into Jared's hair, "I'm always on your side.”

“Get down,' he whispered.  'I’m way ahead of you,' Jamie said from the floor.”

“Peter,” Ashley asked softly, “Do you know what that was?”“Of course,” Peter said, much affronted. “A thimble.”“No,” said Ashley, staring, “That was a kiss.”“Didn’t it strike you as a little different from other thimbles you’ve had in the past?”Peter looked shifty. “Well, yes.”“Ha!”“It was my first thimble with tongue.” Peter told her with dignity.”