Finally, I decided that the proper strategy was to stare back. Boys do not have a monopoly on the Staring Business, after all. So I looked him over and soon it was a staring contest. After a while the boy smiled, and then finally his blue eyes glanced away. When he looked back at me, I flicked my eyebrows up to say, I win. He shrugged

Summary

This quote speaks to the idea of challenging societal norms and expectations. The narrator, determined to assert their own presence and power, decides to engage in a staring contest with a boy who initially starts staring at them. By refusing to back down and staring back confidently, the narrator breaks free from the notion that boys have exclusive rights to activities such as staring. The final actions of exchanging gestures and the boy's subsequent shrug might suggest a small victory in defying established gender norms and reclaiming personal agency.

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