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Because I didn’t want to be kicked around, that’s why.
I still had enough sense at age seven and a half to know that Juli Baker was dangerous. Unavoidably dangerous, as it turns out.
Shelly’s nice and she’s friendly and she’s got a lot of hair. What’s not to like?
That maniac started leaning forward and sniffing my hair.
The first day I met Bryce Loski, I flipped. Honestly, one look at him and I became a lunatic. It’s his eyes. Something in his eyes. They’re blue, and framed in the blackness of his lashes, they’re dazzling. Absolutely breathtaking.
I almost got my first kiss that day. I’m sure of it.
Shelly Stalls is a ninny. A whiny, gossipy, backstabbing ninny who says one thing to one person and the opposite to another.
If there was an Olympic contest for talking, Shelly Stalls would sweep the event. Well, she’d at least win the gold and silver— one medal for each side of her mouth.
That pushy little princess had no business hanging on to him like that!
Stupid as it was, she loved that tree,
and cutting it down would be like cutting out her heart.
But still, I felt bad. About her tree, about how she hurried off to eat by herself in the library
at lunch, about how her eyes were red around the edges. I wanted to tell her, Man, I’m sorry about your sycamore tree, but the words never seemed to come out.
I even caught myself looking for her.
After all, the last thing I needed was for Juli Baker to think I missed her.
as I worked my way down, I could see Bryce circling the tree, watching me to make sure I was okay.
Why didn’t I have someone real to talk to? Why didn’t I have a
best friend like everyone else seemed to? Sure, there were kids I knew at school, but none of them were close friends.
My beautiful, majestic sycamore tree.
Skyler and Juli’s brothers formed a band, which they named Mystery Pisser.
“What kind of parents would allow their children to be in a band named Mystery Pisser? It’s vile. It’s disgusting!”
“Maybe they got it de-yodeled. You know — like they de-bark dogs?”
“A de-yodeled rooster,”
“Yeah. You got roosters, you got chickens, and then there’s hens. What’s a hen?” “It’s one of those,” he says, pointing into the Bakers’ backyard. “Then what’s a chicken?” He looks at me like I’m crazy. “What are you talking about?” “Chickens! What’s a chicken?”
Love is something to be afraid of, but this, this is embarrassing.
Was I really afraid of hurting her feelings? Or was I afraid of her?
I stumbled home, embarrassed and confused, my heart completely cracked open.
“One’s character is set at an early age, son. The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life.”
the next time you’re faced with a
choice, do the right thing. It hurts everyone less in the long run.”
Chet? I thought. Chet? What was she doing, calling my grandfather by his first name?
“I’m sorry for what I did.”
“The tree’s gone, but she’s still got the spark it gave her.
“Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss….” He turned to me. “But every once in a while you find someone who’s iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.”
“a radiant beacon, shedding light on the need to curtail continued overdevelopment of our once quaint and tranquil community.”
“To be held above the earth and brushed by the wind,” she said, “it’s like your heart has been kissed by beauty.”
Juli Baker’s smart, but this was something way beyond straight A’s.
I’d spent so many years avoiding Juli Baker that I’d never really looked at her, and now all of a sudden I couldn’t stop.
“Because you remind me of my wife.”
“Renée would’ve sat up in that tree with you. She would’ve sat there all night.”
“There’s nothing like a head-strong woman to make you happy to be alive.”
“Get beyond his eyes and his smile and the sheen of his hair—look at what’s really there.”
It felt like blowing a dandelion into the wind and watching all the little seeds float off, up and away.
Maybe there were things I saw as ugly that other people thought were beautiful.
She seemed to be looking at everything but me. And I felt like an idiot, standing there in my geeky button-down shirt with pinched cheeks and nothing to say. And I got so nervous about having nothing to say that my heart started going wacko on me, hammering like it does right before a race or a game or something.
even though I was pretending to follow along with what they were saying, what I was really doing was trying not to stare at Juli.
“Juli, I’m sorry. I’ve never been so sorry about anything in my whole life. You’re right, I was a jerk, and I’m sorry.”
My mother dropped me off at school on Friday with my stupid oversized picnic basket, and since all basket boys have to dress up, I was choking in a tie and feeling completely dweeblike in slacks and dress shoes.
How can you listen with a noose around your neck, pinched toes, and a room full of idiots thinking it’s open season on basket boys?
I wanted to boost her, right off the stage.
