I’m a One — a half-superpowered freak.
-- Merrin (Chapter One paragraph 3)

Importance: As Merrin is practicing her power of floating, she thinks to herself how her one power makes her a freak in both the Normal and Super worlds.

But my body whispers to me. It tells me I can fly, if only I’m brave enough, strong enough, determined enough.
-- Merrin (Chapter One paragraph 15)

Importance: Even though Merrin has not yet developed her second superpower, she keeps thinking that if she practices enough and works herself hard enough, the power will eventually develop.

The lecture doesn’t include video footage of the internment camps’ shoddy housing or the mothers clutching their crying babies while they waited for the food trucks. It doesn’t show the Supers waiting in long lines to see doctors they didn’t trust or the makeshift schoolrooms full of dirty-looking kids in clothes that didn’t fit quite right.
-- Narrator (Chapter One paragraph 72)

Importance: Merrin is surprised by the way...