Everyone is trying to impress everyone else, trying to make themselves out to be smarter or more confident than they actually are.

Everyone is trying to impress everyone else. to make themselves out to be smarter or more confident than they actually are.

Do I have permission to take control of you first? Just your bodies, not your minds."
"I've been waiting for you to admit you wanted my body.

He leaned forward to inspect her closer. "Is that all hair?"

... Sudden, overwhelming panic clawed up Cress's throat. With a squeak, she ducked out of view of the camera and scrambled beneath the desk. Her back struck the wall with a thud that rattled her teeth. She crouched there, skin burning hot and pulse thundering as she took in the room before her— the room that he was now seeing too, with the rumpled bedcovers and the mustached man on all the screens telling her to grab her imaginary partner and swing them around.

"Wha—where'd she go?" Thorne's voice came to her through the screen.

"Honestly, Thorne." A girl. Linh Cinder? "Do you ever think before you speak?"

"What? What did I say?"

" 'Is that all hair?' "

"Did you see it? It was like a cross between a magpie nest and ball of yarn after it's been mauled by a cheetah."

A beat. Then, "A cheetah?"

"It was the first big cat that came to mind.

Hello?" A girl again. "I know you can hear me. I'm sorry my friend is such a wing nut. You can just ignore him."

"That's usually what we do," said the other feminine voice.

Tapping a finger against the flesh of her elbow, she deadpanned, “Jacin Clay, there is an assassin under my bed.