Made You Up: Chapters 12–16

by Francesca Zappia
Alex suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and delusions. As she navigates her senior year of high school, she struggles to maintain her grasp on reality.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Prologue–Chapter 6, Chapters 7–11, Chapters 12–16, Chapters 17–24, Chapters 25–34, Chapters 35–47, Chapter 48–Epilogue
30 words 2 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. deity
    a supernatural being worshipped as controlling the world
    McCoy had his own brand of crazy: he continually reminded everyone of “Scoreboard Day,” when we were all supposed to bring in an offering of flowers or lightbulbs for the scoreboard, as if it was a wrathful Mayan deity that would kill us if we disobeyed.
  2. penchant
    a strong liking or preference
    Mr. Gunthrie, the most in-your-face teacher in the school (because of the yelling, see), was nicknamed “The General” because of his penchant for going on war-related rants and wielding his treasured golden fountain pen as a weapon.
  3. render
    cause to become
    He’d done two tours in Vietnam, and he had a long family history of war-related deaths, which rendered me almost incapable of not calling him Lieutenant Dan.
  4. crusty
    blunt and ill-tempered
    Everyone—and when I say everyone, I mean absolutely, positively everyone, from the librarians to the students to the staff to the oldest, crustiest janitor—was piss-down-their-legs scared of Miles Richter.
  5. seethe
    be in an agitated emotional state
    I turned back to the Bunsen burner and listened to him seethe.
  6. lull
    a pause during which things are calm
    Game nights in the concession stand hit occasional lulls, so Theo and I entertained ourselves making plastic cup pyramids and talking about English class.
  7. crony
    a close friend or associate
    Celia’s two cronies, Britney and Stacey, might as well have been joined at the hip.
  8. impale
    kill by piercing with a spear or sharp pole
    One second she’d been trying to seduce Miles, the next she glared at me like I should be impaled on a pike, and finally she settled on a sort of confused surprise.
  9. welt
    a raised mark on the skin
    Days later, he still had a wonderful array of bright red welts on the back of his right hand.
  10. ecstatic
    feeling great rapture or delight
    I’d be paranoid as hell while I was there, but my mother was so ecstatic about the idea that I knew there was no way I could back out.
  11. deface
    mar or spoil the appearance of
    “Anyway, everyone only goes to these parties to deface the fake scoreboard and get stories about crazy stuff. Celia’s parties make better stories than Celia does.”
  12. whittle
    cut small bits or pare shavings from
    He’d cut off a chunk of the Aztec emperors and whittled them down until there was only one remaining.
  13. fanatical
    marked by excessive enthusiasm for a cause or idea
    There was a fanatical gleam in his eye, another smile playing on his lips.
  14. fray
    wear away by rubbing
    A ratty pair of ginger cat-shaped house slippers curled up underneath a fraying sweatshirt. The slippers purred when my foot brushed against them.
  15. immaculate
    completely neat and clean
    All the houses here were huge and immaculate and eggshell white, but it didn’t take long to figure out which one was Celia’s.
  16. roil
    be agitated
    A bad feeling roiled in my stomach.
  17. subdued
    softened in tone
    There was something weird, subdued, about his voice.
  18. rampant
    occurring or increasing in an unrestrained way
    “It’s too crowded.” I didn’t know what he was playing at—if anything—or if he was going to snap back to regular old Miles. “And too noisy. Mob mentality is running rampant in there.”
  19. conspicuous
    obvious to the eye or mind
    Even with them making out right there and the bowling ball being so conspicuous, I still wanted to take a picture of it all.
  20. devoid
    completely wanting or lacking
    The question was so sudden, and his voice was so bland and devoid of emotion, that I wondered if he even wanted an answer.
  21. artful
    marked by skill or cunning in achieving a desired end
    And his hair, let’s not even get started on his hair, because he had hair that looked like he’d walked right out of the shower every morning and artfully styled it to dry in the most amazingly messy way.
  22. pungent
    strong and sharp to the sense of taste or smell
    And also by the flicker of light behind Celia, the pungent smell of burning hair, and someone yelling, “YOU’RE ON FIRE!”
  23. rove
    move about aimlessly or without any destination
    She seethed, eyes roving through the crowd, until she zeroed in on me.
  24. contort
    twist and press out of shape
    Celia grabbed at the burnt tips of her hair, her face contorting in rage.
  25. retribution
    a justly deserved penalty
    You torch someone’s hair and let her blame me? Because apparently I’m jealous? What kind of retribution is that?
  26. flounder
    have difficulties; behave awkwardly
    I glared at him as he floundered, but I floundered, too; I couldn’t think of what to do next.
  27. amble
    walk leisurely
    He ambled toward me with his clothes in tatters, like he’d gotten mauled by a bear.
  28. maul
    injure badly
    He ambled toward me with his clothes in tatters, like he’d gotten mauled by a bear.
  29. lope
    run easily
    I tried to walk past him, but he loped backward, keeping his eyes on mine.
  30. convulse
    contract involuntarily, as in a spasm
    My stomach convulsed.
Created on Tue Aug 28 11:35:06 EDT 2018 (updated Tue Sep 11 13:01:32 EDT 2018)

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