Samantha

“School is no better. Since the day I “played’ fastball, when I step up to the chain-link fence each morning, my shoulders hunch up, my mouth dries, and my head goes blank. A big cloud just swallows up everything about me. It’s like the schoolyard is a big miasma – one of those make-believe poison clouds that scientists once thought killed you until they figured it was actually microbes in water and microwaves and other stuff that really gets you. Yeah, DJ’s a mind erasing miasma, and it’s eating my brain. I forget everything about velocity. I can’t remember the reasons we were in World War I. Each period, I stare at the clock, thinking about getting from one class to the next without meeting Yaqui, like that’s the real test. Sitting in class is just what I do in between.”
― Meg Medina, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

“I grip my charm tighter. All I can think about is Yaqui Delgado’s eyes, about what kind of cloak she wears, what kind of dagger she’ll run through me.”
― Meg Medina, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

“How can you say bad things about someone you don’t know?” I shout. “How can you hate a stranger? Why do you have to pick on people?” she’s not better than Yaqui. It’s like everywhere there’s a bully in my face.”
― Meg Medina, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

“Estas hecha una mujer.” She shakes her head sadily. A lot of the salon women tell me this: “You’ve become a woman.” None of them ever sounds too happy about it.”
― Meg Medina, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass