How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
If anyone needs Social Interaction it's those girls from last year. […] I'm supposed to stand there like a big dumb b**** and pretend I don't hear them speak my name? I'm supposed to walk by like it's all right for them to laugh at me? […] Well, they opened their mouths and I responded. Corrected them. Simple as that. But when the dust cleared, no one saw three against one. They just saw the one still standing and three down. (6.18)
In this instance, Dominique uses language that excuses herself and paints herself as right and others as wrong: "responded" and "corrected." Clearly, she's describing a fight between her and three girls whom she perceived as making fun of her, but since we know that Dominique is an unreliable narrator, we might hesitate before accepting only her side of the story as truth.
Quote #5
It's not my fault Spanish is overcrowded and Senora Roberts didn't want one more face to look at. It's not my fault I didn't fix my schedule when I got it in the mail. By the time I opened it, the deadline for changes had passed and there was nothing I could do. (11.13)
One of these things is clearly not Leticia's fault, but the second one is pretty clearly her fault. Why might she not want to take responsibility for her role in taking French class? What does Leticia have to admit to herself if she does take responsibility?
Quote #6
"If my grade average goes down, it's your fault, Miss Olenback."
She says, "Your average won't go down, Leticia. Not if you work." (14.21-22)
Leticia continually tries to pass off responsibility for her life on other people; it's how she sees the world—she's always the victim, and other people need to fix it for her. But when she tries to pass the problem to Miss Olenback, the school secretary passes it right back to Leticia. We get a hint of the real world in how teachers respond to Leticia's super entitled behavior.