"Mad Dad"

Charlie's little sister, Billie, uses the term "Mad Dad" to describe the state that their father goes into in which he stands and stares into space at nothing (51). Charlie uses the term with his sister in solidarity, although he is older and should know better. Neither of them knows how to cope with their father's depression, and it should not be up to a pre-teen and a teenager to know how to deal with their parents' failing marriage. Even after Billie and his mother move away, Charlie and Billie sometimes use the term when gauging their father's mental state.

Benvolio

Charlie is surprised that Alina and Ivor got to know him so well in such a short amount of time that they perfectly cast him as Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet. He calls Benvolio, "...a sidekick, a conformist, and observer; characters confided in him but...