Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie: Take Me!–Fear, Gum, Candy

by Jordan Sonnenblick
When his little brother is diagnosed with leukemia, Steven's normal teenage life is thrown into chaos.

Here are the links to our lists for the novel: Dangerous Pie–No More Vacation; Take Me!–Fear, Gum, Candy; Good News, Bad News–Epilogue
40 words 1114 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. perception
    knowledge gained by awareness through the senses
    Then I’d miss, because with my thick glasses, I basically have no depth perception at all.
  2. vast
    unusually great in size or amount or extent or scope
    I mean, I was lying there in ratty sweatpants, amid a vast sea of soggy tissues.
  3. prodigy
    an unusually gifted or intelligent person
    Now, of course, I knew it had to be Annette — she was the only unbelievable keyboard prodigy in the building, and I knew that she had this independent-study piano period.
  4. serene
    not agitated
    There was this truly pretty girl sitting at the piano, with this amazing posture and her hair falling long around her face in a quite non- Annette-ish way and a serene look I had never noticed on her face before.
  5. mischievous
    naughtily or annoyingly playful
    She had kind of a mischievous, flirty grin on her face.
  6. appropriate
    suitable for a particular person, place, or situation
    Then everybody stands around awkwardly while the visitor tries to find appropriate things to say to my parents.
  7. horrendous
    causing fear or dread or terror
    The other half are solemn, no matter what, which is equally horrendous.
  8. tremendous
    extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact
    A tremendous effort by kind, old Mrs. Jacobs from the accounts payable department She brings an apple pie — but wait a minute.
  9. mandatory
    required by rule
    OK, that’s another mandatory deduction — why don’t we call this a six, overall?
  10. vigorously
    in an energetic manner
    But she clears her throat repeatedly, a clear sign of discomfort. On the other hand, she DID pat your head pretty vigorously.
  11. fragile
    vulnerably delicate
    I ruffled Jeffrey’s hair, told him to be good and not to play too much WWF Wrestling Live with his fragile mother, took a deep breath, and walked away into my big night.
  12. profusely
    in very large amounts or quantities; extremely
    Your eyes scan the room for threats — either flying projectiles aimed at your head or girls aimed at mortifying you by getting you out on the floor — and you sweat profusely while standing still.
  13. plunge
    a steep and rapid fall
    I stood around for a while more, listening to my friends’ moronic commentary about how Annette wanted to jump on me and make me her band-geek love slave, until my night took the final plunge into horror.
  14. squeamish
    easily disturbed or disgusted by unpleasant things
    I am pretty squeamish about shots and blood and stuff, but what was I going to do?
  15. neutral
    having no personal preference
    He gave me a tiny nod that was almost businesslike — totally neutral, like he wasn’t really seeing me.
  16. distinct
    easy to perceive; especially clearly outlined
    I got out cereal and milk, and it was so quiet between us that I was getting grossed out by the distinct sounds of our food-chewing processes.
  17. rudiments
    a statement of fundamental facts or principles
    I played through all of the basic rudiments and then did all of my lesson pages for the week.
  18. flourish
    a showy gesture
    And with a flourish, I pulled his favorite Rescue Heroes action figure out of his bag.
  19. merciless
    lacking pity, compassion, or forgiveness
    By the time the bus pulled up at my stop, I was convinced that as soon as I got on, all eyes would immediately swing to the front, pinning me in the merciless glare of massed teenage inquisition.
  20. inquisition
    a severe interrogation
    By the time the bus pulled up at my stop, I was convinced that as soon as I got on, all eyes would immediately swing to the front, pinning me in the merciless glare of massed teenage inquisition.
  21. burrow
    move through by or as by digging
    She came over to me and completely ignored the fact that I was trying to burrow my way through the bottom of my seat and into the luggage compartment.
  22. eligible
    qualified for or allowed or worthy of being chosen
    Your teachers asked me to be here today, because if things don’t improve, you might not be eligible to practice or perform with the All-City group.
  23. drastic
    forceful and extreme and rigorous
    Steven, nobody wants to punish you, but we need to get to the bottom of this drastic change in your attitude and habits, and we need a commitment from you to do your work.
  24. adjourn
    close at the end of a session
    Everyone agreed to that, and the meeting was adjourned just as the period ended.
  25. grimace
    a contorted facial expression
    Instead it was the same kind of semi-pitying, semi-trying-to-be-cheerful grimace that all of our home visitors had pasted onto their faces just as they rang our doorbell.
  26. oblivious
    lacking conscious awareness of
    I seriously think I could have sat in the middle of the kitchen floor rubbing two sticks together over a pile of dynamite blocks and gasoline cans, and my parents would have been oblivious, as long as I was keeping myself occupied.
  27. indefinitely
    to an unknown extent
    I thought I could carry on indefinitely with my schemes and deceptions.
  28. deception
    the act of misleading
    I thought I could carry on indefinitely with my schemes and deceptions.
  29. rhetorical
    relating to using language effectively
    Miss Palma did commend me on my “rhetorical flair,” though.
  30. primitive
    belonging to an early stage of technical development
    Now, I love my grampa as much as I love anybody — and my grandma is all right, too, when she’s not dusting around me every five minutes or nagging me about my posture — but their house is, to put it mildly, primitive.
  31. comatose
    in a state of deep and usually prolonged unconsciousness
    How long can that same normal boy talk with his grandfather without running out of meaningful things to say? The answer to that is four days, if the boy is essentially comatose for the first three of them.
  32. involuntary
    not subject to the control of the will
    Speaking of pot roast, I had spent the three months before this involuntary visit subsisting only by a combination of my wits and the microwave.
  33. thoroughly
    in an exhaustive manner
    In case my friends’ grammar and punctuation weren’t upsetting enough, the fact that nobody thought there might be a problem with me was enough to blacken my mood pretty thoroughly.
  34. deranged
    driven insane
    OK, I’ll give you a hint. She wears very tight shirts, and you drool over her like a deranged monkey boy.
  35. transfusion
    the introduction of blood or plasma into a vein or artery
    Jeffrey’s counts were really low, so low that the doctors gave him two transfusions: one of whole blood and one of platelets.This turned the two-day trip into a four-day trip.
  36. vengeful
    disposed to take action in return for a perceived wrong
    When my eyes re-adjusted, I was looking straight into the vengeful glare of an enraged accountant.
  37. crucial
    of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis
    I knew things were at a crucial point right now: What I said next would likely determine whether I’d be grounded until marriage or just lectured for a while and then ignored again.
  38. tranquil
    not agitated
    The rest of the weekend was pretty tranquil for a change.
  39. furtively
    in a secretive manner
    I mean, an outside observer would notice that there was a puffy, bald kid there and that the grown-ups kept pausing to look furtively at him, but the mood was lighter than it had been since the diagnosis, anyway.
  40. alleviate
    provide physical relief, as from pain
    Some helpful soul down there also told her that “experiencing” Jeffrey’s treatment “firsthand” by visiting the hospital might “alleviate” my “anxiety”.
Created on Wed Aug 17 11:33:10 EDT 2016 (updated Mon Sep 24 13:57:12 EDT 2018)

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