1. You live in one place. The next day you live somewhere else. It isn't complicated.
--You Deserve Nothing, Aleksander Maksik
2. Today was the Anniversary: May fourteenth.
--Behind The Attic Wall, Sylvia Cassedy
3. I'd forgotten what it was like to be that alone.
For the ten days of winter break, I drove. I made my way past the crumbiling houses in my neighborhood, the mansions a few miles away, out toward the hills and then back again through stretches of cold flat land. Up and down the Schuylkill River and up and down the Delaware, I cranked the radio and sang loud.
--Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls, Lynn Weingarten
4. "Christmas is usually my favorite time, but I think I just want it to be over with this year," said Meg, sighing a gigantic sigh and adjusting the colorful striped skirt she was holding on her lap. It had never fit the way it should, so she was attempting to turn it into a throw pillow cover. The project wasn't going well.
--Littler Women: A Modern Retelling, Laura Schaefer
(Bonus points for you if you remember the first line from the original novel! It's[click to reveal]"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.)
5. "You'll get acquainted, don't worry," Mom told me just after I found out that I'd be staying with my grandparents at Bluff Farm for six months or half a lifetime -- whichever came first.
--Moon and Me, Hadley Irwin
6. Mo tosses a stick of gum into my lap.
"No, thanks."
"You need it," he says.
I put it in my mouth. It tastes like dust and mint and aspartame.
--The Vow, Jessica Martinez
7. We lie on our backs on the trampoline, drawn in to the center by each other's weight. The universe stretches wide above us, framed by a ring of mountains. My cousin and me at its center. Twin stars, as our moms always say.
--The Other Side of Lost, Jessi Kirby
8. "Where are you going, Philippa?" Mrs. Jackson asked sharply as Flip turned away from the group of tourists standing about in the cold hall of the chateau of Chillon.
"I'm going for a walk," Flip said.
Her father put his hand on her shoulder. "I'd rather you stayed with us, Flip."
She looked up at him, her eyes bright with pleading. "Please, father!" she whispered. Then she turned and ran out of the chateau, away from the dark, prisoning stones and out into the sunlight that was as bright and sudden as bugles. (I know this one's super long, but I really wanted to capture the beautiful figurative language in the last sentence)
--And Both Were Young, Madeleine L'Engle
9. I went out after supper to drape myself over the corral fence and enjoy the twilight with Pauncho. In the morning there would be time enough only for chores before I left to drive down the mountains into my past.
--Where Have All The Tigers Gone?, Lynn Hall
10. The lights go out.
--The Guest List, Lucy Foley
Which one is your favorite? I've gotta go with #7, personally, though I acknowledge that #10 had a great opener
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