Fallen Chapter 4 Quotes

Fallen Chapter 4 Quotes

How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote 4

The delicate gates were all that divided the cemetery from the parking lot. Pretty remarkable for a school with so much barbed wire everywhere else. Luce ran her hand along the gates, racing the ornate floral pattern with her fingers. The gates must have dated back to the Civil War days Arriane was talking about, back when the cemetery was used the bury fallen soldiers. When the school attached to it was not a home for wayward psychos. When the whole place was a lot less overgrown and shadowy. (4.8)

Here's a moment of quiet, when Luce is waiting for her cemetery detention to begin. During this moment, Luce seems to experience a tiny bit of the historical, Gothic beauty of the campus, even if it only comes at the beginning of the morning, just as the sun rises. The fact that the school even has a cemetery on its campus makes it pretty unique, and that cemetery will play a larger role later.

Quote 5

Ahhh, Tuesday. Waffle day. For as long as Luce could remember, summer Tuesdays meant fresh coffee, brimming bowls of raspberries and whipped cream, and an unending stack of crispy golden brown waffles. Even this summer, when her parents were acting scared of her, waffle day was one thing she could count on.

[…]

Luce sniffled, slowly coming to her senses, then sniffed again with more gusto. No, there was no buttermilk batter, nothing but the vinegary smell of peeling paint. (4.1-2)

The fact that Luce's parents still kept the routine of waffle day—even though their family was in the midst of turmoil and they thought their daughter was a murderer—shows how loving and supportive they are with her. It also indicates how into routine her parents are: we get a hint at that Luce's upbringing has been pretty straight-laced. There's a big discrepancy between her welcoming and waffle-infused life at home and the vinegary horror of Sword & Cross.

"Detention buddies does not equal real life buddies."

Arriane looked back at Luce, who could feel her face falling, despite her bet efforts to appear unfazed.

"Look, Luce, I didn't mean…" she trailed off. "Okay, aside from the fact that you made me waste a good twenty minutes of my morning, I have no problem with you. In fact, I think you're sort of interesting. Kinda fresh. That said, I don't know what you were expecting in terms of mushy-gushy friendship here at Sword & Cross. But let me be the first to tell you, it just ain't that easy. People are here because they've got baggage. I'm talking curbside-check-in, pay-the-fine-cause-it's-over-fifty-pounds kind of baggage. Get it?" (4.59-61)

Here Arriane lays it all on the line for Luce, telling her straight out that Sword & Cross is not Dover Prep: making friends will not be as easy as swapping phone numbers and sitting together at lunch. People here are here for real reasons, not just supernatural reasons, and Luce has to understand that just as she doesn't necessarily want to open up to anyone, the other students might not want to open up to her. Communication is a two-way street, and all that. Except here is sometimes a no-way street.