I should be there, too.
-- Narrator (chapter 2)

Importance: At the start of the novel, Maisie is having a hard time communicating with her dance friends. Although Eva tries to keep Maisie updated on her dance practices, auditions, and goals to include Maisie, Maisie cannot help but feel jealous. In this moment, she feels hurt talking to Eva because she knows that she cannot participate in the dance world for an indefinite amount of time. This moment reveals the ways in which Maisie has come to define her life by dance. She is struggling in the present, because she has lost the community and safe space associated with ballet.

This means so much to me.
-- Maisie (chapter 7)

Importance: Ever since tearing her ACL and getting surgery, Maisie has been unable to return to the dance studio. In spite of the break from ballet she has been forced to take, Maisie does not want to give up on...