"Oh. Good. That seems better." Greg sat back against the thin little tree behind him, and thin as it was it hardly even budged at his weight. Which was why he liked that one more than other ones around there. Stronger roots or something.
He looked back at her with a crooked smile on his face. "They still do that some places here. Used to work with this bloke, Shankar, from India somewhere, and his family was trying to get him married to some girl they picked when he was like ten or something. I thought that was so weird. But I don't get none of that stuff, marriage or...whatever, the rest of it."
He felt his face heat right back up again, and shrugged his shoulders. "I mean...it's just what everybody says. You know, dumb Goyle. It's not like I'm some big thinker, even if I'm not as bad as they used to joke about. I mean I can read and write and all that, I'm not that bad. But some people are meant to be smart and use their heads, and some aren't, and that's how things are."