How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He rumpled his red hair and adjusted his glasses in an anxious sort of way, and he took a couple of steps back to the kitchen. He let them see the limp: He used that, the same way he used everything. (1.122)
Alan tends to come across as the kind, calm, compassionate Ryves brother—a bit of a contrast to Nick's fiery temperament—but looky here: Alan may not be exactly what he appears to be. He uses the limp. He knows the effect it has on others in making him seem weaker, like less of a threat, easier to approach; perhaps even to be pitied or underestimated. And he uses it. It's a small bit of deception, sure, but it's deception nonetheless.
Quote #2
Nick was tired of this…. and he didn't need these people witnessing what a mess his life was. He hated it that they were from his school: that Jamie had seen him trying to read, and now they were getting an illicit peek into his weird world. (2.64)
Ah yes, the whole worlds collide theory. It's like when your parents try to hang out with you and your friends, or when your significant other comes to watch you play pick-up basketball. It can be weird—and uncomfortable—to combine separate spheres of our lives, and that's what's happening for Nick here. Kaboom—worlds colliding.
Quote #3
Mae's glare intensified, and Nick smiled, feeling pleased and vicious at once. These people shouldn't have come here. School and home should not overlap. Nick was meant to be normal at school, and this was his place, his brother, his home, even his mad mother rocking upstairs. (2.77)
We all have pockets of our lives that we want to keep to ourselves, or at least keep separate from one another. For Nick, it's school and home. School isn't fun for him, and he has trouble reading and he hangs out with the tough crowd to avoid being pegged as a loner. At home, he can be himself—at least until Mae and Jamie show up expecting him to be the Nick Ryves they know from school. But from Nick's point of view, that Nick Ryves isn't Nick at all—that Nick Ryves is a cover story, a deception. Can you say identity crisis?