Цитаты из книг — Эйприл Дэниелс

Her voice is soft and kind. "Danny, do you feel safe at home?" No. There it is. I don`t feel safe at home. I open my mouth to say something, and as I do I realize that like my mother, I can`t give it its name. Not out loud. Not even to Valkyria. Because if I admit it, if I call it what it is, then I can`t hide from it…

My throat clenches up, and that`s the warning signal to tilt my head slightly back, disguise it by pretendeing to be really interested in the top row, and breathe shallowly until I`m sure the threat of tears has passed. Making sure you don`t cry is just a skill like anything else, and I`ve had a lot practice. Thanks, Dad,…

Maybe it`s not fair to say my feelings are stronger now, but they have more resolution. Before I was living in muddy pastels, and now things are all lit up in neon. I like it. Even when it hurts. I like it a lot.

"Where are we going?" "The mall. You need some new clothes." With a start, I realize she`s bribing me, and worse, this isn`t the first time. It`s a ritual with us. But now something in me has changed, made it seem wrong all of a sudden. I open my mouth to say something, and then stop. The sunlight catches her cheek, and…

Fifteen years trapped. Seven of those, aware of my prison and screaming inside. The shelter of boyhood ended, and they called me a young man. For no reason at all, they looked at the things that felt right to me, and they took them. Even down to the way I carry my books and cross my legs. They took it. They took…

"But... I do have superpowers," I say. "And I kinda want to help people." "And that`s normal! It totally is, and good for you! But did you see how Carapace was still wearing his armor? He lives here. This is his home. But he`s still walking around ready to slug it out with a platoon of tanks. The whole whitecape thing…

Part of me wants to laugh, and another part wants to cry, and a third part wants to scream. They butt up against each other and form a kind of tripod of misery, a stable equilibrium of horror and despair.

Mom takes me to the discount shoe store downtown, one of those places with the neon-orange carpet and the salespeople who are a little too friendly to feel safe around. The door gives an electric chime as we enter the shop, which summons them like sharks to bloody water. "Hi there! Is there anything I can help you with…

The dirty little secret about growing up as a boy is if you`re not any good at it, they will torture you daily until you have the good graces to kill yourself. The posturing and the dominance games are almost inescapable. It`s hard to walk from one end of school to the other without getting shoulder-checked in the halls.…

David gets up and leaves, but as he goes, he says things to me that make me understand we will never be friends again. Not because I wouldn`t forgive him; because he will always be too proud to let himself be forgiven.

"This is fu--" Doc Impossible stops short, glances at me, and continues. "Nonsense, and you know it." Absurdly, I want to remind her I go to high school. We cuss in high school.