How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Throughout the game with the Cubs, they worked. Sorting, cleaning, stacking, drying, saving, discarding, boxing. Throughout Shirley wished she had never heard of Nonnie. She longed for her old drawer bed. The emperor could keep his. (8.38)
Shirley's not the only one in the family who's got a stubborn head on her shoulders—her father drags her into cleaning out the furnace room with the goal of renovating the treasures he's found there. Shirley wants nothing more than to go anywhere else, but her dad keeps with it until he gets what he set out to get.
Quote #8
But done was done. She had to finish what she had started. Just a few steps to the fuse box. She must. She would. She had to. (8.59)
When the lights go out in her building, Shirley takes it upon herself, the house's handy-girl, to fix the problem. She gets in over her head when it's really dark in the furnace room, but, Shirley being Shirley, she won't give up and goes into the scary darkness to the fuse box anyway. Thankfully, Father saves the day.
Quote #9
"I swear unto dea…" Shirley hesitated. Grandmother had always forbidden the saying of the word. "Say it and the gods will be tempted to make it so." But how could she refuse now? Her best friend was waiting. Perhaps, she prayed, the gods only spoke Chinese, never studied English, would not recognize temptation in another language. "… death, that this will be our secret no matter what." (9.54)
Swearing to death is a big no-no according to Shirley's grandma. But her grandmother isn't here, and Shirley has finally gotten what she's worked so hard for—a best friend. She's not about to sacrifice that relationship for one that she didn't have to work for, one that isn't active in her daily life, so she pushes past her fears and swears.