The head nerd of the Cadets is my partner and when it's over he asks me for my number. I'm very flattered and he looks a bit crestfallen when I say no. "It's because they don't have coverage out here," Griggs tells him. "No," I say, looking up at Griggs. "It's actually because my heart belongs to someone else." And if I could bottle the look on his face, I'd keep it by my bedside for the rest of my life.
Melina MarchettaAnd then you came along and you spoke to me and nobody had looked me in the eye for years. (...) But I remember you that day and you looked at peace with yourself and it made me reconsider everything I had planned to do. Because I thought to myself, you can't do this to her, not after the Hermit thing." "Do what to me? I don't think leaving me on that platform would have changed my life, Griggs," I lie. "You being on that platform changed mine.
Melina MarchettaIยดd read fantasy if they had simple names like Jane and Bob from Wagga," I say. "Why does it have to be Tehrana and Bihaad from the World of Sceehina?" Jimmy looks at my mother and rolls his eyes. "No wonder they call her bimbo behind her back." And my mum laughs. And because of that, Mark Viduka, the soccer player, stops being my brothers hero, and Luca and Pinocchio run after Jimmy like heยดs their idol.
Melina MarchettaAs I walk back to the school on my own, I realise I'm crying. So I go back to the stories I've read about the five and I try to make sense of their lives because in making sense of theirs, I may understand mine.
Melina MarchettaIf sheโs out here and not locked up in the barracks, Iโll know,โ he said. He took a deep breath and whistled. โYou share a whistle?โ Trevanion said in disbelief. โDo you have a problem with that?โ Finnikin asked. โI have a few whistles,โ Lucian murmured. โVery confusing sometimes.โ โWhistles are meant for combat,โ Trevanion said. โNot wooing women. Women do not understand whistles.
Melina Marchetta