Picture Us in the Light: Prologue–Chapter 2

by Kelly Loy Gilbert
High school senior Danny Cheng is grappling with his identity as an artist, the death of a classmate, and a painful crush on his best friend. When he finds evidence that his parents are hiding a painful secret, his determination to uncover the truth will change his life forever.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Prologue–Chapter 2, Chapters 3–6, Chapters 7–12, Chapters 13–20, Chapters 21–28
40 words 442 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. quantum
    the smallest discrete quantity of some physical property
    The experiment was about quantum entanglement, which my dad explained to me once this way: if atoms interact with one another, then even after they separate they’ll keep behaving as though they’re still connected.
  2. flush
    sudden reddening of the face
    For the people shown photographs of their loved ones, there’d be some kind of flush—a definite physiological reaction.
  3. sporadic
    recurring in scattered or unpredictable instances
    For the acquaintances, it was more sporadic.
  4. ratchet
    move by degrees in one direction only
    My heart swells, shoving my lungs against my rib cage and ratcheting my pulse so high I’m dizzy.
  5. render
    show in, or as in, a picture
    From a distance, if you hold them at arm’s length or tack them up on a wall, they look like fairly standard realistic renderings, but up close the forms dissolve and you see that what you thought was wavy hair or an earlobe is really a tangle of small vignettes that make up the person’s life—a crumpled sheet of homework, say, a discarded candy wrapper, a plate of cupcakes that spell out PROM?
  6. vignette
    a small illustrative sketch
    From a distance, if you hold them at arm’s length or tack them up on a wall, they look like fairly standard realistic renderings, but up close the forms dissolve and you see that what you thought was wavy hair or an earlobe is really a tangle of small vignettes that make up the person’s life—a crumpled sheet of homework, say, a discarded candy wrapper, a plate of cupcakes that spell out PROM?
  7. sap
    deplete
    Maybe you think if you can take something you’re bothered by and make it your own somehow you sap it of its power.
  8. leer
    look suggestively or obliquely
    Now he leers at me from several places on my wall, which I’ve been drawing on with Sharpies since we moved in, and whispers all the uglier things inside my head.
  9. fluke
    a stroke of luck
    I just need to start producing again—prove getting in wasn’t a fluke.
  10. squander
    spend thoughtlessly; throw away
    Prove I deserve my future, at the very least. Not everyone gets one; I know that. It isn’t something you can squander.
  11. telltale
    disclosing unintentionally
    On top of his car there was a telltale white paper sack, and he pointed to it.
  12. effervescent
    marked by high spirits or excitement
    I want them to be that way—that sparkling, that effervescent—all the time.
  13. fatalistic
    accepting that everything that happens is inevitable
    “That’s so fatalistic, Ba.” I get up and follow him out to the living room. “You want me to cook something for dinner instead? I think there’s pork chops in the freezer.”
  14. traipse
    walk or tramp about
    My dad keeps glancing at the clock, and I can feel him getting restless as it traipses toward six-fifteen.
  15. titan
    a person of exceptional importance and reputation
    It’s also its own world—land of overachieving kids of tech titans, of badminton clubs and test-prep empires and restaurants jockeying for Yelp reviews and volunteer corps run by freshmen who both care about the world but also care about establishing a long-term commitment to a cause they can point to on their college apps.
  16. jockey
    compete or struggle for an advantage or a position
    It’s also its own world—land of overachieving kids of tech titans, of badminton clubs and test-prep empires and restaurants jockeying for Yelp reviews and volunteer corps run by freshmen who both care about the world but also care about establishing a long-term commitment to a cause they can point to on their college apps.
  17. laden
    filled with a great quantity
    They always come back weekend mornings laden with cardboard flats of frozen chicken breasts and dumplings and greens.
  18. sheer
    complete and without restriction
    They aren’t anyone from UT or either of the labs at San José State that my dad worked with, and the sheer volume of it all, the obsessive detail, is staggering.
  19. brusque
    rudely abrupt or blunt in speech or manner
    Afterward she felt bad about it, I think—she was brusque in that way she gets when you make too much of a fuss over her, and she told me not to tell my dad any of it.
  20. extraneous
    not essential
    They’re good—confident pen strokes, not a single extraneous one.
  21. deprecate
    cause to seem or feel unimportant; belittle
    He grins in that self-deprecating way of his, his eyes crinkling up. It is, I’ll admit, one of the more charming habits he has. “For your information, I’d be probably going hog wild studying for the SAT IIs. So hold up on your smugness there.”
  22. smug
    marked by excessive complacency or self-satisfaction
    He grins in that self-deprecating way of his, his eyes crinkling up. It is, I’ll admit, one of the more charming habits he has. “For your information, I’d be probably going hog wild studying for the SAT IIs. So hold up on your smugness there.”
  23. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    Regina looks put together as always, in bright lipstick, tight dark pants, a billowy white top, and a dark floppy hat that makes her look vaguely 1920s-ish.
  24. parable
    a short moral story
    “It’s a parable of rampant apathy. Why is there only one guy out there rescuing millions of suffocating starfish? It’s a story about how horrible things happen because ninety-nine point nine percent of people can’t be bothered.”
  25. rampant
    occurring or increasing in an unrestrained way
    “It’s a parable of rampant apathy. Why is there only one guy out there rescuing millions of suffocating starfish? It’s a story about how horrible things happen because ninety-nine point nine percent of people can’t be bothered.”
  26. apathy
    an absence of emotion or enthusiasm
    “It’s a parable of rampant apathy. Why is there only one guy out there rescuing millions of suffocating starfish? It’s a story about how horrible things happen because ninety-nine point nine percent of people can’t be bothered.”
  27. concede
    admit or acknowledge, often reluctantly
    I will concede that in a way it felt weirdly inevitable, a mash-up of ambition and popularity and attractiveness, a test-tube match, all roads leading to each other.
  28. ensconce
    fix firmly
    All that time last year when they were ensconced together—what all happened between them?
  29. fallout
    radioactive particles that settle after a nuclear explosion
    When he imagines disasters happening, cancer or nuclear fallout or the Big One we’re supposed to get in California, at night when it’s quiet and he feels all the weight of his own life pressing in on him, she’s the lurch in his stomach and the hand he gropes around for in the dark?
  30. tentative
    hesitant or lacking confidence; unsettled in mind or opinion
    She trails off. We both know what she means, though; there’s not a single person in our grade who doesn’t recognize that tentative pause, the guilt you always feel plunging everyone around you back into the same dark territory.
  31. arresting
    commanding attention
    “I wish my parents would’ve moved here instead,” Regina says as Google Maps steers us through a back alley, the word DEFIANCE tagged across the wall in a bright, arresting blue.
  32. corollary
    an inference following from the proof of another proposition
    Its corollary is the two hundred percent rule, which is that if you’re wearing pj’s/haven’t showered, your odds double.
  33. ardent
    characterized by strong enthusiasm
    Regina slips into what I think of as her Editor Mode—circling the crowds with a smile for everyone and this certain, ardent way of listening to people, even just in throwaway conversation, that makes you feel like she’s incredibly glad you’re there.
  34. insular
    narrowly restricted in outlook or scope
    They’re all close friends, insular in a way that feels familiar to me.
  35. confer
    have a meeting in order to talk something over
    The three of them squint at the screen and duck their heads together, conferring in the way you do when you don’t want anyone else to hear what you’re saying.
  36. recess
    an enclosure that is set back or indented
    The contrast between the physical people and the shaky, flimsy images stirs something in me—lifts from the private recesses of my heart and gives shape to what it feels like to walk with ghosts.
  37. innate
    inborn or existing naturally
    She laughs. There’s a warmth and a generosity pulsing from her, which seems about right; I don’t believe you can put anything meaningful into the world without having a kind of innate generosity, something of yourself to give.
  38. fathom
    come to understand
    And I can’t fathom facing the world the rest of my life if it doesn’t.
  39. sullen
    showing a brooding ill humor
    I know she thinks Are you okay? is one of the most annoying things you can ask people, that it means you think they’re being sullen or overdramatic.
  40. subdued
    quieted and brought under control
    She seems subdued as she says goodbye.
Created on Thu Jan 23 16:10:34 EST 2020 (updated Fri Jan 24 11:54:37 EST 2020)

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