This is How It Always Is _ 9/16 - 9/23

     In this part of the book, Claude, now turned Poppy, has been on the receiving end of hatred in her community. Her parents, worried about the family's safety, decide to move them somewhere more accepting, so they move away from Wisconsin to Washington in the hopes that Claude can start over as Poppy. Right away, Poppy makes friends with the neighbors' little daughter, nobody even knows about her past. Poppy, though, it still worried that her new life will far apart like her last one.

     "Which do you prefer? Should we tell Aggie? She's such a good friend, baby. You could tell her, and then she'd know, and everything would be fine. You could decide to tell other friends too, or if you told Aggie not to tell anyone else, you know she wouldn't."
     "What about Nicky?" Barely a whisper.
     "Nicky?"
     "Remember how Nicky used to be my best friend, and then he found out about me, and he was so grossed out he tried to shoot Daddy?"
     "Oh, sweetheart, no. Nicky was your friend. He was little, but he loved you in his way. It was his father who didn't understand. Nicky didn't try to shoot Daddy. Nicky's daddy didn't even try to shoot Daddy."
     "But after he found out, he didn't want to be my friend anymore."

      Back in Wisconsin, when Poppy's secret came out, her old friends and family, who had used to accept her, refused to communicate with her any longer. Rosie and Penn moved her away to somewhere more accepting, but Poppy still wonders if she should tell her new friends or not. She's worried that if she does, they won't accept her and that they'll reject her like her old friends did. This only one of the many problems Poppy faces throughout her story, and it won't be the last. This quote stuck out because even though Poppy is only in first grade, she still understands what could possibly happen if she let out her secret again.

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