From The Desk Of Zoe Washington Quotes
"I only owned one picture of him, which Grandma had given me, since Mom would never approve. It was one of Mom’s pictures that Grandma had saved from when Mom and Marcus were high school sweethearts. I’d hidden the picture between the pages of one of my journals. In it, Marcus was at a Boston Celtics game, wearing a team sweatshirt and a huge smile. My smile looked like his, which was weird. Someone I never met had the exact same smile as me."
"Even though I only saw his face for a second, I knew what that look meant: (a) he didn’t want to be there either, and (b) he was still confused about why I was mad at him. Well, I wasn’t about to tell him. He should be able to figure it out for himself."
"When are you going to tell me what happened?"
"You know, as a brand-new twelve-year-old, you’re old enough to understand how rude it’ll be if you don’t come out and thank him for the gift in person."
"I wanted to win the competition, and it’s on TV, so yeah."
"They’re shriveled-up grapes. Like mini grape corpses. Disgusting."
"I never saw many Black pastry chefs on the shows I watched, or in the cookbook section of the library, but I was still determined to be one when I grew up."
"It's like I’d been tensing my whole body for all of my twelve years, and now I could finally relax."
"You know, there are multiple sides to everyone. People aren’t so black-and-white. Sometimes good people do bad things, and bad people do good things."
"It’s like my brain short-circuited and I forgot who I was talking to, that I was still mad at Trevor. I was so caught up in how excited I was to have found information that showed Marcus could be telling the truth."
"It was like when you drew something in pencil and then tried to erase it—the pencil lines would mostly go away, but sometimes the indent would still be there, so you could still sort of see what had been erased."
"Maybe the pencil marks couldn’t be erased, but at some point, you could decide to turn to a new page."
"I needed to know if Marcus was telling me the truth. If he was, I could keep writing to him and keep getting to know him."
"I’d find Marcus’s alibi witness—and the truth."
"What I really wanted to do was bang on the fondant over and over with the rolling pin until all my anger at Mom came out of me."
"But most of me was determined to prove them wrong."
"She’d have to apologize, and the Innocence Project would get Marcus out of prison."
"I really do think Marcus is a good person. I don’t see how he was capable of killing someone."
"If Marcus really didn’t do it, then it means somebody else did. That person should be in prison, not Marcus."
"But that doesn’t mean it’s enough to make change."
"I couldn’t believe the number was that high."
"I decided to make up a totally new cupcake recipe, so maybe Ariana will sell it at her shop."
"I’ll always get it done. Most of the time, I get a better grade on it than I expected."
"Grandma had said the same thing about her gut. Except she believed Marcus."
"If you’re really innocent, maybe they could get you out of prison."
"It’s not about Marcus. It’s also about justice for Lucy."
"But he was long enough for me to make sure that he isn’t trying to hurt you in any way."
"How do you know? Do you really think he could kill someone?"
"I’m listening to the Boyz II Men song right now. Wow—their voices are so good."
"She didn’t deserve Marcus’s macaroni and cheese."
"I had no idea where Susan Thomas lived, but I figured I could track her down online."
"Susan Thomas, wherever you are, I’m going to find you."
"It's not good that we've been lying to them for this long."
"I promise I’ll forget about the alibi witness, okay? But please let me keep writing to Marcus."
"We have to come clean to your parents at some point soon."
"All of the lying was wrong, I knew that. But maybe it was okay to do something wrong if you were doing it for the right reason."
"But if Marcus is innocent, he doesn’t have all the time in the world."
"The case is closed. You’re, what, Marcus’s relative or something?"
"I can’t eat. I’m really scared all of a sudden."
"I don’t want Marcus to be guilty. I don’t want him to be a murderer."
"Today was a fail. It turned out there was no good reason for me to lie to my family."
"The truth was right there waiting for me, but it still felt so impossibly far away."
"If you really cared about me, you’d help me!"
"It was easier to believe that, to justify him being in prison—away from us."
"No matter what happens, I want you to know that I’m really glad I’m getting to know you."
"I couldn’t wait to tell Maya all about Marcus and the Harvard adventure, but that could wait until lunch, when we had more time."
"I'm the one who's grateful. Zoe’s an amazing kid."
"This is the best version of the happy birthday song, hands down. It’s got flavor."