Callum McGregor Quotes

Sephy Hadley and Callum McGregor are two young people in love. But Sephy is a Cross, the daughter of a government minister, and Callum is a Nought. In their world, Crosses and Noughts cannot be friends. Must they become enemies? Or is there hope for them - and for their unhappy country?

“My head snapped up at the sound of my mother’s voice. Mother came hurtling down the steps, her expression dour and fierce - as always. She’d obviously not had as many glasses of wine today as she normally did, otherwise wouldn’t be in such a bad mood. I turned back where Callum had been, but he was already out of sight -which was just as well. Mother grabbed my arm with bony fingers that bit like pincers.”

“My sister looks like me- the same brown hair, eyes the same shade of gray... She is aways with the fairies, as my grandma used to say. She wasn’t always that way. Three years ago something happened that changed her. An accident. And just like that the sister I knew was gone. Now she doesn’t go out, doesn’t talk much, doesn’t think much as far as I can tell. She just is.”

“Callum was the one person in the world I could tell anything and everything to without having to think twice about it. So why did I now feel so...out of step? Like he was leaving me behind? He suddenly seemed so much older, not just in years but in the things he knew and had experienced. His eyes were a lot older than fifteen.”

“Sephy Hadley and Callum McGregor are two young people in love. But Sephy is a Cross, the daughter of a government minister, and Callum is a Nought. In their world, Crosses and Noughts cannot be friends. Must they become enemies? Or is there hope for them - and for their unhappy country?”

“Every time I came back from Sephy’s, I flinched at the sight of the shack that was meant to be my home. Why couldn’t my family live in a house like Sephy’s! Why didn’t any naught I knew of live in a house like Sephy’s? Looking at our rundown hovel, I could feel the usual burning, churning sensation begin to rise up inside me. My stomach tightened, my eyes began to narrow... So I forced myself to look away.”

“Callum is a Naught, a second class citizen in a society run by the ruling Crosses. Sephy is a Cross, and daughter of the man stated to become primer minister. In their world, white Naughts and black Crosses simple don’t mix -and certainly don’t fall in love.”