Higher Ground

Peter: Hi, Amanda, nice to meet you. Amanda: Don't cry if I don't feel the same. Peter: Don't worry, I won't.

Shelby (to Daisy): You think if you tell everybody about whacking daddy with a seven-iron they'll leave you alone. You have your hiding place, I've got mine.

Sophie (about Shelby): If she's out here and her stepfather dies, then how's she gonna feel? Peter: Relieved, probably. Sophie: What? Peter, not Shelby. There's nothing about abuse by her stepfather in her records. Peter: It's not in her records. It's in her eyes. It's been in her eyes since the first day she got here.

Daisy (about Amanda): You know, back at my high school there was a girl just like her. She made friends with everyone, asked lots of questions, carried a badge...

Katherine: Come on, come on! We gotta make miles. Ezra: You need to make miles. We're just your sherpas.

Peter: What were you into? Amanda: Anything I could get my hands on. Peter: Like what? Acid, glass, speed, jo-jo, danx, what? Amanda: All of 'em. (a couple minutes later) Sophie: Jo-jo? Danx? What are those? Peter: I don't know. I made 'em up.

Peter: It's easy to sensationalize our failures. I just, I wish maybe you could learn a way to dignify our small successes.

Shelby: I had sex with men for money. Do you know what that makes me? Daisy: A survivor.

Juliette: So what'd you do? Drugs, running away... Amanda: None of your business. What about you? Juliette: Cutter and binge-purge queen. Sold out pills to half the girls in my class. Messed myself up on laxatives and ended up in the hospital. Twice. What? Amanda: I don't know, you just don't look the type. Juliette: What do you want to see the scars?

Shelby (about her stepfather): I don't care. I hope he dies. I've prayed for it my whole life.

Daisy: It's poison, you know. All of it. It eats you up inside. You know what's going to happen to you if you don't spit out that poison.

Shelby: You want to hear a really amazing one? When I was 15 I started running away, it was tough just staying alive. My best friend Patty, I watched her OD right in front of me. Ezra: Come on, Shel. Tell the real story. Shelby: When things got hard, really bad, I started, um...well, I started turning tricks. It was easy money when I needed it. Just walk down the street, smile, and the men would… That's when my mother found me and brought me here. I'm going to bed. Scott: Shelby? What was that? Shelby: Just having fun. Playing the 'Mess with Amanda' game. Scott: That story you told, its nothing to joke about. Shelby: Yeah, well, you handle it your way, and I'll handle it mine.

Amanda: This school is deadly and dangerous. Daisy: Dangerous? When my mom came and picked me up from school, and every day she'd be drunk. On the ride home I'd have to close my eyes because I couldn't watch. The world is dangerous. Horizon is the safest place I've ever been.