… I missed the periods of intense academic concentration which helped to relax me during term time. I liked to sit in the library to write essays, allowing my sense of time and personal identity to dissolve as the light dimmed outside the windows.
When I went to get my feedback, the notes in the margins always said things like ‘well argued’ and sometimes ‘brilliant. Whenever I got a ‘brilliant’ I took a little photograph of it on my phone and sent it to Bobbi. She would send back: congrats, your ego is staggering.
… when bad things happened to me I made myself feel better by thinking about how smart I was. When I couldn’t make friends as a child, I fantasised that I was smarter than all my teachers, smarter than any other student who had been in the school before, a genius hidden among normal people.
Oh, that’s nice. I like getting compliments where I don’t have to make eye contact with the person.
me too :)
Thanks, I said.
And you can take a compliment, that’s good, he said. A lot of people will try to run themselves down, you’ve got the right attitude.
I’m trying to go from the former to the latter.
Through the window I could see the breeze rearranging the foliage and two children appearing and disappearing from behind a tree, one of them carrying a plastic lightsaber.
Perhaps my favourite phrase of the book: ‘the breeze rearranging the foliage’ :)
We could give you a fringe, said Bobbi.
No, people mix us up too much already.
It’s offensive to me how offensive that is to you.
I once kissed an ex at a party, he said. Weeks of drama. Ruined my focus.