I trailed off and he didn't push me to finish. I was finding that I liked that.

So this had been all I wanted, a boy who understood how I felt. Now, though, I sometimes wished for more.

In midair, dangling lost above the world.

There was something so heavy about the burden of history, of the past. I wasn't sure I had it in me to keep looking back.

This thought was interrupted, suddenly, by a crash from the front entrance. We all looked over just in time to see Adam bending back from the glass, rubbing his arm. "Pull open," Maggie called out. As Leah rolled her eyes, she said, "He never remembers. It's so weird.

She smiled, pulling the photo a little closer, and I wondered if I should ask her, too, the question for my project, get her definition. But as she ran a finger slowly across the faces, identifying each one, it occurred to me that maybe this was her answer. All those names, strung together like beads on a chain. Coming together, splitting apart, but still and always, a family. (page 289) ~Ruby

Forgiveness is hard. Acceptance is doable.