How we cite our quotes:
Quote #1
"Honey, I've watched a lot of 90210. The parents weren't even on the show once Brandon and Brenda went to college. This is your time—you're supposed to be going to frat parties and getting back together with Dylan." (6.11)
Just in case you happened to be wondering if television is an accurate representation of real life, Wren actually is going to frat parties, and actively screwing up her first year in college.
Quote #2
Cath felt different. Tuned in. Boy—even though none of these guys seemed like boys—crazy. And for once, Wren was the last person she wanted to talk to about it. (8.62)
All of a sudden, Cath's gone a bit boy crazy. They're everywhere she turns, which has probably done been true, but all of a sudden she can't take her eyes off of them. She's turning into one lusty little lady.
Quote #3
"Nobody had to tell me. You've got Simon Snow stuff everywhere. You're worse than my ten-year-old cousin." (11.257)
Levi's statement is proof that sometimes boys tease girls as a way of saying "I like you."
Quote #4
"Not anymore. You're sophisticated young women. Nobody wants to watch you unwrap gift cards." (14.35)
Even though Wren can't wait to be a (drunk) adult, she's bummed that her grandma wants to spend Christmas with her Aunt Lynn's kids, protesting that she and Cath are kids too. It's like she has one foot in both worlds, childhood and adulthood. So it goes your freshman year of college, though.
Quote #5
Their dad still hadn't taken down their swing set. She wished he would; it was a death trap now, and the neighbor kids liked to sneak into the yard and play on it. (14.64)
When Cath goes home after being away at college, she's ready for the swing set to come down, but not so much the Simon Snow posters and Sanrio mobile. Growing up doesn't happen all at once.
Quote #6
"Months are different in college," Levi said, "especially freshman year. Too much happens. Every freshman month equals six regular months—they're like dog months." (15.141)
If every freshman month is six actual months, and one year of college is nine months long, an eighteen-year-old freshman is twenty-two by the end of the year. In that case, Wren will be of legal drinking age by spring break. Yee-haw.
Quote #7
"I'm the Cool One," she told herself. "Somebody give me some tequila because I'll totally drink it. And there's no way you're going to find me later having a panic attack in your parents' bathroom. Who wants to French-kiss?" (16.116)
If we didn't want to hang out with Cath before this statement, we totally do now. She doesn't even have to French-kiss us.
Quote #8
She couldn't believe she was doing this. Boy. Party. Strangers. Beer. Strangers. Party. Boy. Eye contact. (16.161)
This is for sure one of the scariest things about your freshman year in college, especially if you have to change out of your Simon Snow tee-shirt.
Quote #9
Wren shoved off the counter, shaking her head. "Oh, you hate everything. You hate change. If I didn't drag you along behind me, you'd never get anywhere." (20.61)
In the meantime, we'd like Wren to know that Cath's writing the most popular Simon Snow stories on the internet and making her Fiction-Writing professor and her roommate's ex-boyfriend fall in love with her. So yeah, have fun with your tequila, Wren.
Quote #10
It looked like a kid's room now that she was imagining it through his eyes. It was big, a half story, with a slanted roof, deep-pink carpet, and two matching, cream-colored canopy beds. (27.76)
Sometimes your older boyfriend's eyes are like a microscope magnifying your Hello Kitty dream-catcher mobile. It may be embarrassing, but it's the kind of perspective that serves as a bridge between kid and adult.