“When jumping is the sole option, you jump, and try to make it work.”
“The only thing that would make her jealous would be if I led a parade riding a unicorn while ballerinas sang love songs.”
“Then I'm going?" Kendra asked.
The adults in the room exchanged tacit glances before nodding.
Then we only have one more problem left to discuss," Seth said.
Everyone turned to him.
How do I get invited”
“Do not threaten the supreme gigantic overlords. We do as we please.”
“I'll not have my grandson subjected to the humiliation of his reading becoming public. We have to cope with this disgrace discreetly -- Grandma Ruth”
“Are you missing the library again?" Seth asked, startling her as he walked into the room.
Kendra turned to face her brother. "You caught me," she congratulated him. "I'm reading."
"I bet the librarians back home are panicking. Summer vacation, and no Kendra Sorenson to keep them in business. Have they been sending you letters?"
"Might not hurt you to pick up a book, just as an experiment."
Whatever. I looked up the definition for 'nerd' in the dictionary. Know what it said?"
"I bet you'll tell me."
" 'If you're reading this, you are one.' "
You're a riot." Kendra turned back to the journal, flipping to a random page.
Seth took a seat on his bed across from her. "Kendra, seriously, I can sort of see reading a cool book for fun, but dusty old journals? Really? Has anybody told you there are magical creatures out there?" He pointed out the window.
"Has anybody told you some of those creatures can eat you?" Kendra responded. "I'm not reading these just for fun. They have good info."
"like what? Patton and Lena smooching?"
Kendra rolled her eyes. "I'm not telling. You'll end up in a tar pit."
"There's a tar pit?" he said, perking up. "Where?”
“Wasn't that awesome?" Seth asked.
Warren cocked his head, his expression mildly embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Kendra--it was pretty cool."
"All boys belong in insane asylums," Kendra said.”
“She pictured herself running from a hoard of ravenous zombies on a hot day eventually collapsing from heatstroke and getting devoured. Then she imagined Hal giving a rousing eulogy at her funeral explaining how Kendra's death was a beautiful sacrifice allowing the noble zombies to live on delighting future generations by mindlessly trying to eat them. With her luck it could totally happen.”
“Seth put his ear against the door. "I can't hear anything."
"There are probably ten of them patiently waiting on the far side, ready to pounce."
Brownies are shrimps. All I'd need are some heavy boots, a pair of shin guards, and a weed whacker."
The image made Kendra giggle.”
“I guess Smart Seth is glad, he said reluctantly. But be careful. Idiot Seth is the guy to watch out for.”
“Might not hurt you to pick up a book, just as an experiment."
Whatever. I looked up the definition for 'nerd' in the dictionary. Know what it said?"
"I bet you'll tell me."
" 'If you're reading this, you are one.' "
You're a riot.”
“A gunshot rang out, blasting a hole in the door. A crossbow quarrel zinged through the hole and stuck quivering into the opposite wall. Seth heard the rocking horse clattering down the staircase, the twang of bowstrings, and the overlapping beat of several other projectiles thudding against the door.
"That was awesome," Seth told Kendra.
"You're psychotic," Kendra replied.”
“Most people worth knowing enjoy reading.”
“In his writings, Patton was shameless about his ambition to woo Lena to be his bride. He detailed the gradual progress he made, playing music for her on his violin, writing her poems, beguiling her with stories, engaging her in conversation. It was clear that he obsessed over her. He knew what he wanted and never relented until she was his.”
“After all, as long as you know, why make when you can take?”
“Hooves clomping over the whitewashed planks, Doren sprinted along the boardwalk after Rondus, a portly satyr with butterscotch fur and horns that curved away from each other. Puffing hard, Rondus cut through a gazebo and started down the stairs to the field. Only a few steps behind, Doren went airborne and slammed into the heavyset satyr. Together they pitched violently forward into the grass, staining their skin green.”
“When your only option is to jump, you jump and try to make it work.”
“Your courage in the grove surprised me. Surprise is a reaction I had all but forgotten. I have seen enough that I alway know what to expect. I assess the odds of various outcomes, and me predictions are never thwarted. before you were finished confronting the revenant, the potion failed. I saw the artificial bravado leave you. Your demise was certain. Yet, despite my certainty, you removed the nail. Had you been full-grown, a seasoned hero of legendary renown, well-trained, armed with charms and talismans, I would have been deeply impressed. But for a mere boy to preform such a feat? I was truly surprised.”
“In order to be good, you must recognize the difference between right and wrong and strive to choose the right. To be truly evil you must do the contrary. Being good or evil is a choice.”
“She shall be my queen, and I her most ardent admirer and protector. A new standard of love shall be established for the ages. Time will clarify my devotion! On this I would gladly stake my very soul!”
“you sometimes act as if you think growing up means the rules don’t apply anymore. On the contrary—a big part of growing up is learning self-control. You work on that, and then we can talk about expanding your privileges.”
“Each human being has significant potential for light and darkness,” Grandpa continued. “Over a lifetime, we get a lot of practice leaning toward one or the other. Having made different choices, a renowned hero could have been a wretched villain.”
“If a starving bear ate my family, even though he may have had no wicked intentions, even though he was just being a bear, his nature has made him a menace,”
“The bear would have to be stopped,” Grandma agreed. “Stan is just making the distinction that you wouldn’t blame the bear the same way you would blame a responsible person.”
“All boys belong in insane asylums,” Kendra said.”
“One of the team members perished, and a second was badly injured.” “Sounds like an ideal situation for involving a fourteen-year-old girl,”
“After a great loss, after a difficult victory, after suffering extreme trauma, she wished she could have some time to hibernate. Not two days. Two years. Some serious time to pull herself together. Why did life always have to roll relentlessly forward? Why was every victory or defeat followed by new works and new problems?”
“If you burst a chokepod, and the gas doesn’t get me, your grandfather will. Come on.”
“You can't stand clutter, and you have an obsession with orderliness. The furniture in here is centered exactly on the walls; the files on your desk are arranged in precise corners. If I had to guess, I would say you are probably a control freak, and that is usually symptomatic of a man who feels powerless to control his own life, so he tries to control every facet of his surroundings.”
“To lead a life so wholly happy, so wholly unexamined that she could be dying, could be betrayed, could be besieged on all sides and never even know it.”
“Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one."
... It is when two such persons discover one another, when, whether with immense difficulties and semi-articulate fumblings or with what would seem to us amazing and elliptical speed, they share their vision - it is then that Friendship is born. And instantly they stand together in an immense solitude.”
“One more thing. She wears Patchouli. Every tart in Montmartre wears it. Place Pigalle reeks of it. If she wants to carry out her pose as an aristocrat, she ought to refine her tastes.”
“A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.”
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