9 Sometimes I thought Kira didn't know Holly like I knew her.
Some days I saw her looking at her daughter like she couldn't believe they were related. But it wasn't Holly's fault that she had always known she could walk into a store and ask for expensive sneakers and get them. And Holly was really generous. Even when we were little, she made sure I had whatever she had from candy to new comic books to time with Kira. She made her mom buy two of things and always had one waiting for me. I don't want to have this alone, she would say. That's not even a little bit fun.
10 Wish I had such nice kicks, rich girl, Amari whispered loud enough for everyone to hear. He was not going to drop it.
11 Delete you Amari, Holly blurted out. Why are you even in my ear?
12. You two just love to argue, I said. My uncle says that sometimes two people come into the world having the same fight they left the world having.
13 Holly looked at me. What does that even mean?
14 I pointed to her and Amari. You two. Maybe in another life you guys were having this fight. My uncle says people just keep getting reincarnated into each other's lives until they figure it out.
15 Tiago laughed. You guys been fighting since the days of dinosaurs
16 I don't know. No offense, Amari, Holly said, but you better not be getting all up in my next life. I don't even like you in this one.
17 What's not to like about Amari? Ashton said. There's Not Really anything not to like about him
18 Yeah, Tiago said. He's Not Really. I mean he's not really a bad guy. Not Really.
19 The boys laughed. Even Esteban, who was sitting in the window seat watching the sleet come down. He had draped his Yankees jacket over his shoulders like a cape.
20 Amari smiled. I shouldn't have ever told y'all about that name, he said.
21 But Amari wasn't really laughing with his friends. He was studying Holly. It dawned on me then, clear and loud as a siren, that it mattered to Amari what Holly thought about him Her words had stung. And just like our tilting earth, Amari was off balance, hurt by her words.
22 I touched Holly's arm. Couldn't she see it? The way Amari's face had dropped?
23 You don't really not like him, right, Holly?I tried to get her to look at me, to see me pleading with her.
24 She shrugged. The room got eerily quiet. Before I could say anything else, Holly said, Nobody chooses where they get born or who they get born to. Maybe my parents are rich, but that doesn't mean I am I mean, I am now, I guess, but ... Holly looked up at Amari. It's not my fault.
25 I don't think Ms. Laverne wanted us to not like each other in this room Tiago said. I think she wanted us to get closer. Not more far away from each other.
26 Holly picked up her knitting needles. She knitted slowly now, like her mind was someplace else. Her feet were still tucked beneath her chair. If anybody in this room wanted these sneakers, I'd give them to you
Re-read paragraph 24. What is Woodson arguing about a person's identity? Think of what Holly says and what she is forced to go through in this novel.