Words and phrases

but my mother also used to get angry at the fact that I grew out of my school uniforms too fast, so to save money she started buying my clothes three sizes too big. 

grow out of   这里是第二个意思

1. Develop or come into existence from. 

例句This article grew out of a few scribbled notes.

Their mutual trust grew out of long acquaintance.

2. Also, outgrow. Become too large or mature for

例句 The baby's grown out of all her dresses.

He will outgrow these picture books in a few months.

The only thing I had going for me was the fact that I was tall, but even there I was gangly and awkward-looking.

同gangling

1 : tall, thin, and awkward 例如  a gangly teenager

2 : long and thin  例如  gangly legs

相近的词： gawky，lanky, rangy ，tall ， angular, awkward, lanky, rangy, rawboned, spindly

The popular guys had staked their claim.

stake (out) a/your claim

 to say or show that you believe you should have something or that you deserve something

例句   They staked their claim to the land.

I was like a Peeping Tom, but for friendship.

peeping Tom偷窥狂  

延伸几个人名的短语:

Tom,Dick and Harry张三,李四,王五Common, undistinguished people; any manner of person, indiscriminately. (Usually in the form "every Tom, Dick, and Harry.")

Tom and Jerry:吃喝玩乐的人Rob Peter to pay Paul:拆东墙补西墙Joe Public:观众

Joe Bloggs【英】普通人,老百姓John Bull英国或英国人uncle Sam美国政府或美国人

Jack Frost霜,严寒Gordian knot难题

Everyone lives in a plush, fancy maximum-security prison.

豪华舒适的；长毛绒Things that are plush are luxurious and a little over the top. 

例如plush apartment豪华公寓

联想相近的词：sumptuous ；high-class ；luxury ；rich ；deluxe ；posh 

thoughts

She’d hit me with so much information at once, first that Zaheera was gone, then that she had left for America, and then that she’d liked me all along. It was like I’d been hit by three successive waves of heartbreak, each one bigger than the last.

好可惜！Trevor第一次和并没有互相喜欢的Maylene被起哄在一起之后第二天就被抛弃了。这次他吸取了教训，决定和真心喜欢的Zaheera要慢慢地从好朋友开始长久发展，结果却永远地错过了！在心爱的人离开之后才知道她也是喜欢他的！在Zaheera的闺蜜口中得知了三个重击的事实之后，只留下遗憾和后悔了。

想起初恋的时候，都是一张纯白的纸，不知道如何投其所好，仅凭着一颗单纯炽热的心，试探着摸索着对方的喜怒哀乐。只知道笨拙地使出浑身解数吸引对方注意，尝试着各种方法。

萧伯纳说，“初恋就是一点点笨拙外加许许多多好奇”。Trevor就是在笨拙地试探中要到她的电话时，心花怒放，激动万分！后来又是小心翼翼地打电话，煲电话粥，第一次就聊了一个小时。她竟然还告诉他，她并不喜欢她那时被朋友起哄牵线在一起的男朋友，这么直白的暗示。然而那时的Trevor犹豫不决，小心翼翼。Zaheera羞涩腼腆，耐心等待。结果，就错过了。也许留在回忆中的遗憾才是最美的，那些打电话，讲笑话的回忆小细节是未来无法忘怀的吧！

summary

When Trevor was young, he was so high-energy that his mother had to take him to the park so she could run him to death to burn off the energy. At that time, he was also too smart to be tricked, so their life turned into a courtroom drama with two lawyers constantly debating over loopholes and technicalities. Whenever Trevor thought a rule wasn’t logical, he just could not help 'exploiting loopholes', which resulted in many problems. For major infractions, his mother went with the ass-whooping. When he was 7 years old, his mother got a new boyfriend, Abel. The worst thing of all, he burned down Abel's house by accident. They were completely dumbfounded, so there was no punishment for him that day. Plus they had insurance, so that was the end of it. But Abel and his mom got into a huge fight. Abel had to live with them from then on. Fortunately, he inherited another trait from his mother: her ability to forget the pain in life. He never let the memory of something painful prevent him from trying something new.

After Trevor and his mother moved to Eden Park, they raised two cats before, but these cats were cruelly killed. Then they had two dogs named Panther and Fufi. Panther was his mother's dog and Fufi was his.  Fufi was kinds of dumb, but Trevor loved Fufi very much. One day,  Fufi went to another boy's house, and she was locked inside boy's house. Trevor's mother and the boy's mother had quarrels about the ownership of Fufi. Although Fufi was back home after Trevor's mother paid, Fufi made Trevor's sad. Years later Fufi died when a burglar was trying to break into their house. Then he knew Fufi was deaf from a vet and Fufi didn’t cheat on him with another boy. That experience shaped what he’ve felt about relationships for the rest of his life: You do not own the thing that you love.

Trevor called his father Robert but not dad ,avoiding being overheard and caught under apartheid. Trevor used to spend Sunday afternoons, his birthdays and Christmas with his dad, but When he was thirteen his dad moved to Cape Town, and they lost touch. When he turned twenty-four, his mom made him track down his father. Ultimately, he reconnected him with the help of Swiss embassy. Knowing that his father had a scrapbook of him, He was deeply moved. They spent a weekend together, and he found his father is still secretive.

In Eden Park, he encountered two types of colored people under apartheid. Some colored people hated him because of his blackness. Other colored people hated him because of his whiteness. He barely had no friends, so when a cute girl smiled at him, he didn't realize that she and a boy were trying to steal his bike. Luckily, his elder cousin, Mlungisi took it back. Things like that happened a lot. He was bullied all the time. The incident at the mulberry tree was probably the worst of them. Some boys threw berries at him and made fun of him. He told his mother, and she taught him to look on the bright side. However, Trevor was too angry and sad at that time. He told his mother’s boyfriend Abel about it. Then Abel whipped the kid so soundly that Trevor felt guilty to the crying boy finally. He realized this kid was also taught under apartheid and possibly the kid was also bullied before. The kid's father came to them, but Abel scared him off.

When the first Valentine's Day at H.A jack was around the corner, some kids egged on Trevor to ask Maylene. Maylene accepted him and they kissed once, but Trevor actually had no crush on her. Even so, he prepared flowers, a teddy bear and a card for Maylene. On the Valentine's Day, Trevor waited for Maylene to show up, only to be matter-of-factly told that she had chosen a hansome white boy . 

Trevor started eighth grade at Sandringham High School, he didn't fit in any group so that he could do many things he want himself. Besides, he become the tuck shop guy and made a fortune. Owing to his humor, he learned that even though he didn’t belong to one group, he could be a part of any group. He said,"I was everywhere with everybody, and at the same time I was all by myself.“

After suffering his Valentine’s Day heartbreak at the hands of Maylene and the charming Lorenzo, he learned a valuable lesson. So he didn’t ask girls out and didn’t even try. Then he met Zaheera who belonged to popular kids. Outwardly, he had carefully cultivated his status as the funny, nonthreatening guy, but secretly he had the hugest crush on Zaheera. But he decided to play the long game. After that, they become good friends, but they never told each other their secret love. After the mid-year school holidays, Zaheera wasn’t at school. Asking Zaheera's best friend Johanna, he knew she’ve moved to America with his family and she was super sad because she had such a huge crush on you. Besides, She was always waiting for him to ask her out. They just missed each other.