It is war now, and armies need symbols.

Maybe next time, but probably not.

You don't reach points in life at which everything is sorted out for us. I believe in endings that should suggest our stories always continue.

For the first time in a long time, I actually look at her. I've always thought Lena was pretty, but now it occurs to me that at some point - last summer? last year? - she became beautiful.

It's like high school holds two different worlds, revolving around each other an never touching; the haves and the have-nots. I guess it's a good thing. High school is supposed to prepare you for the real world, after all.

Here's something else you might as well learn now: If you want something, if you take it for your own, you'll always be taking it from someone else. That's a rule too. And something must die so that others can live.

It's amazing how close I have been, all this time, to my old life. And yet the distance that divides me from it is vast.