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873f82d
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We were secret sisters with a plan for world domination, potential bubbling around us like champagne.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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1ce8f99
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Why do you have such a crappy attitude about math?" "I don't. I have a crappy attitude about everything."
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math
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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34cc252
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You promise not to maim me?" "I promise to give fair warning before I maim you."
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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210770d
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He says a million things without saying a word. I make a note to study David Pertrakis.I have never heard a more eloquent silence.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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c711e6e
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And that's the problem. 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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lie
eating-disorders
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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8cc9b90
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I am spinning the silk threads of my story, weaving the fabric of my world.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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0b7c524
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There was a loud shuffling above. A line of redcoats took their position at the edge of the ravine and aimed down at the rebels. "Present!" the British officer screamed to his men. "Present!" yelled the American officer. His men brought the butts of their muskets up to their shoulders and sighted down the long barrels, ready to shoot and kill. I pressed my face into the earth, unable to plan a course of escape. My mind would not be maste..
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war
love
revolutionary-war
fight
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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2c1b2df
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I open up a paper clip 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 windowcracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting. It looks like I arm-wrestled a rosebush.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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27fc2b1
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The sentences build a fence around her, a Times Roman 10-point barricade, to keep the thorny voices in her head from getting too close.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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f036bb0
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Are you a man-whore?" I asked as the loudest group of them teetered away on their high heels. (High heels? Really? At seven thirty in the morning? Shouldn't you actually have breasts before you start wearing heels?)" --
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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d296abe
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I can't let me hear this, but it's too late. The facts sneak in and stab me.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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7fa84dc
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It had become easier to lie about most things because it didn't hurt as much when he ignored me.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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a758e68
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The fat, pumpkin-colored moon rose, turning bloodstains into shadows. All of the colors of shirts and jackets and uniforms paled to the same shade of gray.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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d3d585c
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Shame, turned inside out, is rage.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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af150f8
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In the spring of fifth grade, the boob fairy arrived with her wand and smacked Cassie wicked hard.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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89ad3bc
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Maybe your son didn't get that job because he's not good enough. Or he's lazy. Or the other guy was better than him, no matter what his skin color. I think the white people who have been here for two hundred years are the ones pulling down the country. They don't know how to work -- they've had it too easy
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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400d4f1
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weareheretogetagoodfoundation sowecangotocollegeliveuptoourpotentialgetagoodjoblivehap pilyeverafterandgotoDisneyWorld,
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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5c57a98
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TEN MORE LIES THEY TELL YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL 1. You will use algebra in your adult lives. 2. Driving to school is a privilege that can be taken away. 3. Students must stay on campus during lunch. 4. The new text books will arrive any day now. 5. Colleges care more about you than your SAT scores. 6. We are enforcing the dress code. 7. We will figure out how to turn off the heat soon. 8. Our bus drivers are highly trained professionals...
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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cfa3a9f
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I have gotten one question repeatedly from young men. These are guys who liked the book, but they are honestly confused. They ask me why Melinda was so upset about being raped.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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c11b5f3
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Me: "All right, but you said we had to put emotion into our art. I don't know what that means. I don't know what I'm supposed to feel."
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emotion
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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f5b238b
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Mother is the rock, I am the ocean. I have to pout and roll my eyes for hours until she finally wears down and crumbles into a thousand grains of beach sand. It takes a lot of energy. I don't think I have it in me.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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e4707a3
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Odysseus had twenty years to shed his battle skin. My grandfather left the battle field in France and rode home in a ship that crawled across the ocean slowly so he could catch his breath. I get on a plane in hell and get off, hours later, at home. I try to ignore death, but she's got her arm around my waist waiting to poison everything I touch.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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d11f994
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Picasso." He whispers like a priest. "Picasso. Who saw the truth. Who painted the truth, moulded it, ripped from the earth with two angry hands."
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picasso
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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7eb19f8
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Slush is frozen over. People say that winter lasts forever, but it's because they obsess over the thermometer. North in the mountains, the maple syrup is trickling. Brave geese punch through the thin ice left on the lake. Underground, pale seeds roll over in their sleep. Starting to get restless. Starting to dream green.
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winter
north
seeds
growth
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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3412a8c
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I drift into the armpits of strangers, tasting their manic salt, and sleep to forget everything.
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sleep
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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d9cf7cf
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If I ever form my own clan, we'll be the Anti-Cheerleaders. We will not sit in the bleachers. We will wander underneath them and commit mild acts of mayhem.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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8c5a016
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If you howl at the moon and swear on your own 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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0b515fa
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We are studying American history for the ninth time in nine years.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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878158a
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Don't forget how to be gentle," she warned. "Don't let the hardness of the world steal the softness of your heart."
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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5c679de
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Gloaming," Dad said. "What?" "That word I couldn't remember. Gloaming. That short, murky time between half-light and dark."
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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ab6e740
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Gracie's father was an engineer, her mother an accountant. I couldn't picture either one of them yelling or throwing things or having affairs. I could see my dad doing stuff like that. Trish sure did. But Dad carried a war in his skull, and Trish was a drunk. Gracie's parents didn't have anything like that to deal with, but their daughter was falling apart on the bathroom floor.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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b5ee192
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The tears dissolve the last block of ice in my throat. I feel the frozen stillness melt down through the inside of me, dripping shards of ice that vanish in a puddle of sunlight on the stained floor. Words float up Me: "Let me tell you about it."
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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d89c6e9
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If an entire nation could seek its freedom, why not a girl?
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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5887d0e
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God did not intend for Irish kids to play in the sun, according to my mother.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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81c1878
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A group of little creatures is coming up the walk. A pirate, a dinosaur, two fairies, and a bride. Why is it that you never see a kid dressed as a groom on Halloween?
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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d371e1f
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What if a king made bad laws; laws so unnatural that a country broke them by declaring its freedom?" He threw his arms in the air. "Now you are spouting nonsense. Two slaves running away from their rightful master is not the same as America wanting to be free of England. Not the same at all." "How is it then that the British offer freedom to escaped slaves, but the Patriots don't?"
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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82ab545
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His Excellency today appealed to the Officers of this Army to consider themselves as a band of brothers cemented by the justice of a common cause. -General Orders of George Washington, Valley Forge
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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36c92a9
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The night sky stretched on forever above me, the stars flung like glass beads and pearls on a black velvet cloak.
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stars
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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91fb403
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You look like yourself. Nobody else. Trust me, that's a good thing.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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9f2d517
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Our inhumane neighbors, instead of sympathizing with us tauntingly proclaim the healthfulness if their won cities...
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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0fc63c0
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A merda de um cara e o adubo de outro.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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8064b3a
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That feeling in your stomach when you hear him whispering off-key, down the hall. That way your heart trips and then hammers against your ribs when he sees you and he grins like a little kid at the top of a steep, shiny-hot slide. Call it hormones, an early-stage bacterial zombie infection, or a very pleasant dream I was experiencing; I didn't care. I liked That.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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5648d8b
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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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7ae633b
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We'd itch the vermin feasting on our flesh and share the day's many rumors: The King had declared peace. No, the King was sending German and Russian mercenaries to destroy us. A ball of fire as big as a man's head fell from heaven to Hatboro - a good omen. But there'd been an earthquake near York just as a cat gave birth to puppies, which meant the worst.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |