“They were a couple in a way that didn't exclude anyone but seemed superior to every other relationship in the room.”

“Up until that moment, I'd been at the earliest stage of love, when you feel it will turn you into the person you want to be. Now, his gentle voice and sage advice took me to a later stage: I felt I...”

“There are things that two people say in the middle of the night That don't make sense to a third at breakfast.”

“I'd already figured out that not understanding my failings was another one of my failings.”

“Grades are still important, buy they are not the most important things. As clichd as it is, the things you learn outside class is more important than the textbooks you blindly memorize in time for ...”

“As you work to become a better student, remember that learning is far more important than the numbers on your transcript. I know it can be hard sometimes to remember what you're in school for. In s...”

“What's the matter?" asked the teacher, seeing her bewildered fact."Whywhy," said Elizabeth Ann, "I don't know what I am at all. If I'm second-grade arithmetic and seventh-grade reading and third-gr...”

“We tilt our heads back and open wide. The snow drifts into our zombie mouths crawling with grease and curses and tobacco flakes and cavities and boyfriend/girlfriend juice, the stain of lies. For o...”

“The teachers complain that the students today are all lazy, ignorant, and stupid. But the truth is that you're smarter than they are. You're not even old enough to drive and you already know that n...”

“I told her about school and how I sat on a wall there and felt stories and words move through me ...”