When You Were Everything: List 1

by Ashley Woodfolk
Cleo tries to build new friendships while she mourns her relationship with her former best friend.

This list covers "Now: What's Past Is Prologue" to "Then: The Stacks, Part I."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
30 words 288 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. nostalgic
    unhappy about being away and longing for familiar things
    But the snowy morning is making me nostalgic for something I can’t name; for a place or a moment that doesn’t really exist.
  2. hijab
    a headscarf worn by Muslim women
    A little kid hands me my glasses, scuffed but unbroken, and a woman wearing a hijab, hipster glasses, and bright red lipstick digs through her backpack and offers me a Band-Aid without taking out her own earbuds.
  3. garbled
    lacking orderly continuity
    But then a garbled announcement that no one understands peals through the station.
  4. peal
    sound loudly and sonorously
    But then a garbled announcement that no one understands peals through the station.
  5. inevitably
    in such a manner as could not be otherwise
    But inevitably, that leads to noticing my utter aloneness, and to thinking of every ugly thing I’ve done that has led to this moment.
  6. intrigue
    cause to be interested or curious
    He makes his Librarian Face—an expression of both confusion and intrigue. He makes this face when he’s cautiously interested in or fascinated by a book, an idea, or a person.
  7. malleable
    capable of being shaped or bent
    As we roll and pat and press the snow into new shapes, I pray that my memories are just as malleable as the snow in my hands.
  8. aesthetics
    the branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and taste
    She’d cared deeply about aesthetics for as long as I’d known her, and she’s been wearing at least a little makeup since the first time her older sister showed her how to use a mascara wand when we were still in middle school.
  9. inexplicable
    incapable of being explained or accounted for
    She pulled out her phone, dialed a number, and handed it over. I had no idea who was on the other end of the line, because I was pretty sure there wouldn't be parents at this party, but Layla was inexplicably brilliant sometimes.
  10. mottled
    having spots or patches of color
    Her eyes were the green of hard pears, her cheeks the mottled pink of soft peaches.
  11. faze
    disturb the composure of
    She seemed completely unfazed by Layla’s stutter, which made me love her for a second.
  12. begrudge
    allow unwillingly or reluctantly
    I stood there for a second until Layla said, “You-y-you mind scooting over for C-Cleo?” They did, a bit begrudgingly, and I squeezed in.
  13. clique
    an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose
    They were the five you wanted to impress if you were going to successfully infiltrate the theater kids clique, and they were the queens of the Shirley Chisholm Charter Girls Chorus.
  14. poised
    in full control of your faculties
    Sage was poised and measured in everything she said, maybe seeming more so as she sat next to the twins, who bounced and squealed and tossed their hair when they talked about anything.
  15. contralto
    the lowest female singing voice
    Valeria was a contralto (didn’t know what that was either), and had the prettiest voice, according to them all.
  16. ominously
    in a manner suggesting something bad will happen
    “You’re welcome,” said a voice that was, without a doubt, baritone—maybe even bass (the one vocal range I did know). It made me think of thunder, and all the Shakespeare plays that start, ominously, with storms.
  17. presumably
    by reasonable assumption
    The neck of his black T-shirt was stretched out, so I could see how golden the skin of his chest was from playing soccer, presumably shirtless, since June.
  18. demise
    the time when something ends
    “I saved Shorty’s—I mean Cleo's—phone from near-certain demise.”
  19. rivet
    hold someone's attention
    Mason crossed his arms like he’d seen this a million times, but the rest of us were riveted.
  20. dissolution
    the termination or disintegration of a relationship
    “But I can, though,” I say, before turning back to his laptop, where I’m reading articles about friendship dissolution and typing out my list and watching videos about how to get over a breakup.
  21. perpetually
    without interruption
    I reach up and straighten my glasses because they’re perpetually crooked.
  22. scaffold
    a temporary arrangement erected around a building
    Scaffolding and tree branches are dripping all over pedestrians and parked cars, and a few people even have umbrellas open like it’s raining.
  23. render
    show in, or as in, a picture
    Zora Neale Hurston rendered in the same pose as the Mona Lisa is over the table next to mine, and James Baldwin is in a gilded frame right beside her lounging like Venus of Urbino, but in a suit and tie.
  24. gilded
    made from or covered with gold
    Zora Neale Hurston rendered in the same pose as the Mona Lisa is over the table next to mine, and James Baldwin is in a gilded frame right beside her lounging like Venus of Urbino, but in a suit and tie.
  25. giddy
    exultantly proud and joyful; in high spirits
    I’m all giddy for about five seconds, but when she starts walking in the same direction as me, I realize she’s escorting me to school and I pause on the sidewalk, poised to negotiate.
  26. gerund
    a noun formed from a verb
    She sounds just a touch more proper whenever she’s on a business call—her gerunds regaining their g’s and her Brooklyn accent ceasing to exist.
  27. flourish
    a showy gesture
    I tossed a handful of the braids over my shoulder with a flourish.
  28. ogle
    stare or look at, especially with amorous intentions
    “Who are you texting?” I asked her, because she normally would have been giving me crap by now about the way I was ogling the new boy.
  29. induce
    cause to arise
    "Stacks?" Layla asked after we’d gone through about a hundred of Ms. Novak’s photos and I was in a full-on London- induced trance.
  30. rendition
    a performance of a musical composition or a dramatic role
    She retied her Chuck Taylors and pulled out my earbud just as Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition of “Over the Rainbow” started to play.
Created on Mon May 31 14:21:03 EDT 2021 (updated Tue Jun 01 11:07:17 EDT 2021)

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