Girls Like Us Quotes

“Sometimes I don't know what to do with this much happy.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“The ones that were nice were ones that was paid. Like Ms. Evans and Ms. D., and, well, even Mr. Hallis and the other foster folks got paid.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“Quincy, we’re . . . heart orphans. Never had nobody that loved us. That makes us different. It ain’t because you a mix-up race. It ain’t because I had a child that got took away. Why should policemans care what happen if nobody ever cared?”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“It’s hard knowing that real people can make mistakes just like girls like us.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“That cold, hard feeling I always had inside me felt like it be slipping a bit sideways. Biddy is plumb scared to come out in the world, and she was coming here to protect me from Robert.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“I got all the candy and cookies in the house and pinned them inside my coat. So nobody could trick me again.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“I scrub myself hard in the shower, wishing that mean part of me could wash away under hot water. But I know it be deeper down.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“Jen made a face. “Quincy, not like that. Did he ‘touch’ you?” I get it. “No, not like that.” I don’t know why I didn’t say he push himself against me. I know Jen had seen that.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“Seems to me, other peoples in this world got as much trouble learning as I do.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“And I got to live with this fool. I must’ve done something bad awful that I got to bear this cross. Leastwise, if I live with her, I finally be the smartest person in the house.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“Ms. Evans said that me and Quincy are the only Speddies graduating this year. I feel extra special about graduating. Like I done something good. We got in an adult program. We’ll live in a little house. Maybe we will even end up being friends together. And a counselor will check us. That makes me feel all safe and good. We even got jobs! I’m gonna clean house and do for an old lady. Our house is on top of her garage. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“She said she knew something was wrong when I was a year old. I hadn’t turned over by myself. A visiting nurse took me to a hospital. Doctor said I had moderate retardation. Two big words, but I know them. I thought they was my last name. “This is Biddy,” Granny would say. “She’s moderate retardation.” The doctor said that not enough oxygen got to my brain when I was being borned. And that’s why I’m slow. And that means I couldn’t give it to my baby. That’s why Granny could give her away. If she been a stupid child, I maybe could have kept her.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“I got took away from my mama, and the doctor say that I got brain damage from that brick. I don’t know. My mama was a crack ho, so I wasn’t gonna be too smart no how. People think when you in Special Ed that you s’posed to be sitting ’round drooling so they can pick you right out the crowd. That just shows they be dumber than they think we are. There’s folks in Special Ed get driver’s licenses. They go to school, hand you change at the store, take your order at the drive-through, and sack your groceries. We talk just like other folk. We — well, not me, but most — look just like other folk. We understand stuff. We just learn it slow. And most of what we understand is that people what ain’t Speddies think we too stupid to get out our own way. And that makes me mad.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“The one thing all us Speddies can tell you is what kind of retard we are. Ms. Evans get wadded in a knot if anybody say retarded. We be “differently abled.” We be “mentally challenged,” she say. I got challenged when my mama’s boyfriend hit my head with a brick.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“Granny shouldn’t call me Retard. I know that. It ain’t nice. It hurts my feelings. I know it’s a wrong thing to hurt somebody’s feelings. I know that I ain’t White Trash. Trash is something you throw away. You don’t throw nobody away. That’s wrong. Even if my mama done it to me.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“I can’t write or read. A little bit, but not good enough to matter. There’s a lots of stuff I don’t know. If I could write, I could make a long list. List might reach all the way through Texas to someplace like Chicago. I don’t know where Chicago is. That’s another thing for the list.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us

“Leastwise, if I live with her, I finally be the smartest person in the house.”
― Gail Giles, Girls Like Us