How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I wasn't supposed to be looking, not for me. It wasn't my birthday, is what I thought. There's no reason I should have been out here like this, in the yard, on a limb. You were Ed Slaterton, for God's sake, I said to myself, you weren't even invited. What was wrong with me? What was I doing? (4.45)
Min barely recognizes herself when she finds herself flirting with Ed. What on earth is going on?
Quote #2
"He's not going to call me. He's Ed Slaterton."
"I know who he is, Min. But you—what are you—?"
"I don't know." (4.106-4.108)
We all know who Ed Slaterton is: He's co-captain of the basketball team. But who's Min? Al asks this question of his best friend, and even Min doesn't know.
Quote #3
"If it's her," you repeated. "But how can you be sure?"
"There's no way we can be sure," I said. "Not now. But, you know, I had a feeling in there." (6.14-6.15)
On Min's first date with Ed, she mistakes an elderly theater patron for the film star Lottie Carson. This botched identity will cause Min much distress at the end of the book.
Quote #4
"If you were with me after the game, it would be more like girlfriend."
"Girlfriend," I said. It was like trying on shoes. (8.53-8.54)
For Min, dating Ed is like trying on a new identity. What kind of shoes does a girlfriend wear?
Quote #5
"You know, I hope you don't mind, and no offense, but you don't look like a sidelines girl."
"No?"
"You're more—" chop chop she searched for the chop chop word. Behind her was a rack of knives. If she said arty—
"—interesting." (13.24-13.27)
Min's interesting—all the other characters keep telling us so—but as we later find out, she doesn't think of herself as interesting at all. Joan's all over how interesting our main girl is, though.
Quote #6
In the bathroom mirror there was even a smudge of dirt on my neck, and I wiped it off in a hurried flush, the cheap paper towel so rough against my skin that I looked for a scrape in my reflection and then, meeting my own eyes, stood for a sec and tried to figure, like all girls in all mirrors everywhere, the difference between lover and slut. (19.1)
Why do you think the "lover-or-slut" dilemma applies to "all girls in all mirrors everywhere"? Why do women everywhere struggle with this question of identity?
Quote #7
I was tired of it, I never liked it, but of course I was going, just like you were going to the All-City Halloween Bash, the Ball and the Bash, and everybody chooses sides. (25.22)
The Ball and the Bash are rival Halloween parties. The Bash is for Ed's friend group—the popular kids, the mean girls, and the jocks—while the Bash is for the goths and the drama nerds, with whom Min seems to feel an affinity.
Quote #9
"Look, Min, I know you don't believe me, but this is hard. For me, too. It's awful, it's weird, it's like I was two people and one of them was, yes, Min, really—really really happy with you. I did love you, I do. But then at night Annette would knock on my window and it was just like something else, like a secret I didn't even know about—" (40.71)
Ed tries to explain himself. When he cheated on Min, it was like he was another guy. Do you buy that?
Quote #10
And the truth is that I'm not, Ed, is what I wanted to tell you. I'm not different. I'm not arty like everyone says who doesn't know me, I don't paint, I can't draw, I play no instrument, I can't sing. (40.93)
Min reveals her deepest darkest secret: She does not find herself interesting. Shmoop doesn't think it's a matter of interestingness, though. Instead, Min is clearly insecure.