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bfcc184
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Killing people is easier than it should be." Dad put on his beret. "Staying alive is harder." --
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killing
veterans
war
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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6e43c7f
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My first class is biology. I can't find it and get my first demerit for wandering the hall. It is 8:50 in the morning. Only 699 days and 7 class periods until graduation.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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5634800
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I won the wintergirl trip over the border into dangerland.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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0a99fa8
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There is no safer. There's not even safe, never has been.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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839a834
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Having a friend made everything else suck less.
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friendship
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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ce164a8
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Adrenaline kicks you in when you're starving. That's what nobody understands. Except for being hungry and cold, most of the time I feel like I can do anything. It gives me superhuman powers of smell and hearing. I can see what people are thinking, stay two steps ahead of them. I do enough homework to stay off the radar. Every night I climb thousands of steps into the sky to make me so exhausted that when I fall into bed, I don't notice Cass..
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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f7c4764
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They tied me back together, but they didn't use double knots. My insides are draining out of the fault lines in my skin, I can feel it, but every time I check the bandages, they're dry.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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31bc06a
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Brain: You don't want this. Hormones: Dude, this is EXACTLY what I want. B: No, not like this--she's wasted. H: What's your point? B: She won't remember this, and if she does, she'll be angry. H: Do you see where her hand is? God, that feels good. Can't you feel that? B: She's drunk. You can't do this. It's wrong H: I want to do this. B: Really? You want to go to school and say you scored with Bethany Milbury when she was so drunk she barel..
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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b93be36
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I can see us, living in the woods, her wearing that A, me with a S maybe, S for silent, S for stupid, for scared. S for silly. For shame.
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teenagers
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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4f022b7
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Note: 'family' does NOT only mean a biological unit composed of people who share genetic markers or legal bonds, headed by a heterosexual-mated pair. Family is much, much more than that.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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9187a38
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wats yr typ? people who can spell
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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88afc9e
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And then a new screen, one I had never seen before, never even heard of popped up. It gave me a choice. I could become the new Lord of Darkness myself, or I could take a gamble and be reincarnated. I chose wisely.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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89222dc
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Make it bend -- trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch -- perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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85a0790
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I flip ahead in the textbook. There's an interesting chapter about acid rain. Nothing about sex. We aren't scheduled to learn about that until eleventh grade.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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63a0a5b
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I pushed my ragged mouth against the mirror. A thousand crushed bleeding lips pushed back at me...
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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1c4a5de
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I open a paperclip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this. A whimper, a peep? I draw little window cracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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d2c8639
|
When you're alive, people can hurt you. It's easier to crawl into a bone cage or a snowdrift of confusion. It's easier to lock everybody out. But it's a lie.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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e35f95c
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I swallowed the fear. It's always there- fear- and if you don't stay on top of it, you'll drown. I swallowed again and stood tall, shoulders broad, arms loose. I was balanced, ready to move. My body said, "Yeah, you're bigger and stronger, but if you touch this, I will hurt you."
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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7553747
|
The dead do walk and haunt and crawl into your bed at night. Ghosts sneak into your head when you're not looking. Stars line up and volcanoes birth out bits of glass that foretell the future. Poison berries make girls stronger, but sometimes kill them. If you howl at the moon and swear on your blood, anything you desire will be yours. Be careful what you wish for. There's always a catch.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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2cedf0d
|
The world is crazy. You need a license to drive a car and go fishing. You don't need a license to start a family. Two people have sex and BAM! Perfectly innocent kid is born whose life will be screwed up by her parents forever.
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family
laurie-halse-anderson
love
the-impossible-knife-of-memory
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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80d81c3
|
I scared myself, because once you've thought long and hard enough about doing something that is colossally stupid, you feel like you've actually done it, and then you're never quite sure what your limits are.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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17b304f
|
My head is killing me, my throat is killing me, my stomach bubbles with toxic waste. I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid if this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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dae2d17
|
I am spinning the silk threads of my story, weaving the fabric of my world. The tiny elf dancer became a wooden doll whose strings were jerked by people not paying attention. I spun out of control. Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest. I wanted to swallow the bitter seeds of forgetfulness. Cassie did, too. We leaned on each other, lost in the dark and wandering in endless circles. She got too tired an went to sleep. Someh..
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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79c3b7b
|
Do you know how much women loathe it when guys think every show of negative emotion is tied to our menstrual cycle, like we're sheep or something?
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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b107fa8
|
i was raped, too sexually assaulted in seventh grade, tenth grade. the summer after graduation, at a party i was 16 i was 14 i was 5 and he did it for three years i loved him i didn't even know him he was my best friend's brother, my grandfather, father, mommy's boyfriend, my date, my cousin, my coach i met him for the first time that night and- 4 guys took turns, and- i'm a boy and this happened to me, and- ...i got pregnant i gave up my d..
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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647fac2
|
Grandma frowned and yelled something in Russian. She could have been saying, 'Open up, your best friend is here.' On the other hand, it could have been, 'America is a great country because of canned ravioli.
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humor
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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29e95a1
|
I look at my homely sketch. It doesn't need anything. Even through the river in my eyes I can see that. It isn't perfect and that makes it just right.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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fe91fb8
|
Can the plural possessive express the feelings in your heart? If you don't learn art now, you will never learn to breathe!
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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a18ee20
|
Melancholy held me hostage, and the bees built a hive of sadness in my soul.
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melancholy
sadness
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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c1428ab
|
Can't escape pain, kiddo. Battle through it and you get stronger.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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bd17aeb
|
I kissed him until everything that hurt inside me melted into a pool of black water so deep I couldn't touch the bottom. As long as I was touching him, I wouldn't drown.
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kissing
pain
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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56d26b7
|
I am thawing.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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5a38374
|
This is not our fight', the old man said. 'British or American, that is not the choice. You must choose your own side, find your road through the valley of darkness that will lead you to the river Jordan. . . Look hard for your river Jordan, my child. You'll find it.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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aea913d
|
I am Outcast." "The kids behind me laugh so loud I know they're laughing about me. I can't help myself. I turn around. It's Rachel, surrounded by a bunch of kids wearing clothes that most definitely did not come from the EastSide Mall. Rachel Bruin, my ex-best friend. She stares at something above my left ear. Words climb up my throat. This was the girl who suffered through Brownies with me, who taught me how to swim, who understood about m..
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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5628be7
|
I keep thinking that if I could just unzip my skin, step out of this body, then I would see who I really am." She nods her head slowly. ,,What do you think you'd look like?" "Smaller, for a start."
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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a27be2d
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The parents are making threatening noises, turning dinner into performance art, with dad doing his Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation and mom playing Glenn Close in one of her psycho roles. I am the Victim. Mom: [creepy smile] "Thought you could put one over us, did you, Melinda? Big high school students now, don't need to show your homework to your parents, don't need to show any failing test grades?" Dad: [bangs table, silverware jumps] "Cut..
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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351e275
|
I stand in the center aisle of the auditorium, a wounded zebra in a National Geographic special, looking for someone, anyone to sit next to. A predator approaches: gray jock buzz cut, whistle around a neck thicker than his head. Probably a social studies teacher, hired to coach a blood sport.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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d8ebc12
|
My good sense bitch slapped my estrogen and told her to get a grip.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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6a19713
|
be aggressive, BE-BE Aggressive! B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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cf0f5b1
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I understood what triggered her earthquakes, most of them.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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eefd142
|
They're on their way to the foreign-language wing. That's no surprise. The foreign kids are always here, like they need to breathe air scented with their native language a couple times a day or they'll choke to death on too much American.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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8604e61
|
Everyone is born a freak," notes Hayley. "Every newborn baby, wet and hungry and screaming, is a fresh-hatched freak who wants to have a good time and make the world a better place. . . . Most teenagers wind up in high school. And high school is where the zombification process becomes deadly."
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high-school
zombies
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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3fd7aa5
|
Leaning against my father, the sadness finally broke open inside me, hollowing out my heart and leaving me bleeding. My feet felt rooted in the dirt. There were more than two bodies buried here. Pieces of me that I didn't even know were under the ground. Pieces of dad, too.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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cef7e12
|
I want to eat like a normal person eats, but I need to see my bones or I will hate myself even more and I might cut out my heart or take every pill that was ever made.
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health-problems
struggle
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Laurie Halse Anderson |