Quotes from Anna DeStefano

Especially if what you can't change on your own got you dumped from one home after another.

You're working wonders for her self-esteem.

Being alone is a choice. It's how we protect ourselves, and it's how we give up when it feels too hard to keep fighting to belong. But

Keep your hands to yourself, keep out of other people's personal space, and keep your temper under control, no matter what happens.

I'm not some tragic heroine," Mallory said, "in a story about how everything works out beautifully in the end, and all you have to do to make your dreams come true is love hard enough. You do have to believe, and you do have to love, and you have to hope and keep hoping or you'll lose your mind and give up. But none of that makes the worst of what's happening to you go away. It just helps you keep going and doing the best you can, no matter how bad it gets.

Being alone is a choice. It's how we protect ourselves, and it's how we give up when it feels too hard to keep fighting to belong.

And girls are just mean—a lot meaner than boys. Especially when I'm somewhere new, and everyone knows I don't have any parents and don't belong. Boys will rag on you, but they mostly come around when they see you're cool. But some girls…they just want everyone but them to feel bad.