Noughts and Crosses

Noughts and Crosses

by

Malorie Blackman

One of the protagonists, the novel follows privileged Cross Sephy from age 13 to 17. She’s been best friends with nought Callum her whole life and believes that it’s going to be great when Callum starts at her prestigious school. However, as school starts, Sephy starts to grow up and let go of some of her idealism. She has a strong sense of justice, so it enrages her that Crosses at school mistreat noughts. And Sephy doesn’t believe she’s racist, so she occasionally says or does things—such as accusing her classmates of acting like “blankers” or sitting with the noughts at lunch—that offend and humiliate Callum. Though Sephy tries to empathize with Callum, this is hard for her. And more often, she finds herself resenting Callum for making her feel bad just for being a Cross, which damages their friendship (and their mutual crush, which simmers just below the surface for much of the novel). To deal with her confusion and her belief that neither Mother nor Mr. Hadley care about her, Sephy develops a drinking habit. Sephy struggles to comprehend when Callum’s Dad is convicted and sentenced to hang, supposedly for setting off a bomb at a local mall. In the aftermath (and after Dad dies in prison), Sephy and Callum struggle even more to connect—but Sephy finally convinces Mother and Mr. Hadley to allow her to attend boarding school. Sephy sends Callum a letter asking him to run away with her instead, but he doesn’t see it in time. They don’t speak for the two and a half years Sephy is at school. Sephy finds purpose at Chivers and joins a pro-integration group, but everything falls apart when she gets home and agrees to meet Callum. He and his Liberation Militia cell kidnap her for ransom. Callum and Sephy have sex during her imprisonment, and five weeks after she escapes, Sephy discovers she’s pregnant. Though her parents pressure her into getting an abortion (and Mr. Hadley tries to coerce Sephy by offering to pull strings so Callum is only imprisoned, rather than executed), Sephy refuses. She attends Callum’s hanging and gives birth to a daughter months later.

Sephy Hadley Quotes in Noughts and Crosses

The Noughts and Crosses quotes below are all either spoken by Sephy Hadley or refer to Sephy Hadley. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racism, Division, and Tragedy Theme Icon
).
Prologue Quotes

“Honestly, Mrs. Hadley,” said Meggie McGregor, wiping her eyes. “That sense of humor of yours will be the death of me yet!”

Jasmine Hadley allowed herself a rare giggle. “The things I tell you, Meggie. It’s lucky we’re such good friends!”

Meggie’s smile wavered only slightly. She looked out across the vast lawn at Callum and Sephy. Her son and her employer’s daughter. They were good friends playing together. Real good friends. No barriers. No boundaries. Not yet anyway.

Related Characters: Mrs. Hadley/Mother (speaker), Meggie McGregor/Mum (speaker), Callum McGregor, Sephy Hadley
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 1  Quotes

Us noughts and you Crosses.” I shook my head. “It makes it sound like…like you’re in one place and I’m in another, with a huge, great wall between us.”

Callum looked out across the sea. “Maybe we are in different places…”

“No, we aren’t. Not if we don’t want to be, we aren’t.” I willed Callum to look at me.

“I wish it was that simple.”

“It is.”

“Maybe from where you’re sitting.”

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Spot on the Beach
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“STOP IT! YOU’RE ALL BEHAVING LIKE ANIMALS!” I shouted so hard my throat immediately began to hurt. “WORSE THAN ANIMALS—LIKE BLANKERS!”

The sound of the crowd slowly died away. “Just look at you,” I continued. “Stop it.” I glanced down at Callum. He was staring at me, the strangest expression on his face.

Callum, don’t look at me like that. I didn’t mean you. I’d never mean you. It was just for the others, to get them to stop, to get them to help. I didn’t mean you…

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor, Mr. Corsa, Shania
Page Number: 57
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

Why couldn’t he understand that I hadn’t been talking about him? It was just a word. A word Dad had used. But it was a word that had hurt my best friend. A word that was now hurting me so very, very much.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor, Mr. Kamal Hadley
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“That Band-Aid’s a bit noticeable.”

“They don’t sell pink Band-Aids. Only dark brown ones.” Shania shrugged.

My eyes widened at that. I’d never really thought about it before, but she was right. I’d never seen any pink Band-Aids. Band-Aids were the color of us Crosses, not the noughts.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Shania (speaker), Callum McGregor
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

“I’ll find out who did this and when I do—they’ll be really, really sorry.” And the look in my sister’s eyes told me that she was serious. Deadly serious. For the first time since the three pigs had started laying into me, I felt almost good. Minnie had never been on my side like this before. It was almost—but not quite—worth it if it meant Minnie and I would grow closer…

“No one touches a Hadley. No one,” Minnie stormed. “If they think they can get to you with no comeback, then it won’t be long before someone tries it on with me. I won’t have that.”

My tentative bubble of well-being was well and truly burst.

Related Characters: Minerva “Minnie” Hadley (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Joanne, Lola, Dionne
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

“What’re you talking about? She’s got friends dripping out of cupboards,” I scoffed.

“Not close ones. Not real friends that she can tell anything and everything to.”

“She’s probably driven them all away with her funny moods, […] If I didn’t have to live in the same house as her I wouldn’t put up with her either.”

“She’s lonely,” said Minnie.

“Why doesn’t she just go out and make some new friends then?” I asked.

Minnie smiled, one of her superior smiles that instantly ruffled my feathers. “You’re very young, Sephy.”

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Minerva “Minnie” Hadley (speaker), Mrs. Hadley/Mother, Mr. Kamal Hadley
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 55 Quotes

“Sephy, don’t follow your mother, okay? She’s headed for a mental home—or a coffin. Is that really what you want?”

That made me start and no mistake. Was that really where Mother was going? I didn’t want her to die like that. I didn’t want to die like that. I regarded Callum, seeing myself as he must see me. A silly, pathetic child who thought that drinking was a way to grow older faster.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Mrs. Hadley/Mother
Related Symbols: The Spot on the Beach
Page Number: 242
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 65 Quotes

“Who’re you trying to convince? Me or yourself?”

And then I did the last thing either of us expected. I burst into tears. My sister put her arm around me then, allowing my head to rest on her shoulder—which just made me feel worse.

“Minerva, I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got to, before I explode.”

“Don’t worry. I’m working on it with Dad.”

“Yeah, for yourself. But what about me?”

“No, I’m working on Dad for both of us,” said Minnie.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Minerva “Minnie” Hadley (speaker), Mrs. Hadley/Mother, Mr. Kamal Hadley
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 69 Quotes

Mr. Pingule, the prosecutor, smiled at me encouragingly, which helped a little. A very little. I hadn’t expected to be quite so nervous. […]

“Take your time, Miss Hadley,” the judge said, smiling.

I smiled back at him gratefully. Maybe I could do this. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Shaun Pingule (speaker), Callum McGregor, Ryan McGregor/Dad
Page Number: 289
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 71 Quotes

According to the reporters on the telly, Kelani was making sure that the trial was as fair as possible—and putting the judge’s back up in the process. Good for her!

Ryan McGregor just had to be found not guilty. It was only right and proper.

It was only just.

It was only justice.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Ryan McGregor/Dad, Kelani Adams
Page Number: 305
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 77 Quotes

“You stupid girl. Who d’you think paid for their lawyer and all their legal fees?” Mother took hold of my shoulders and shook me. “I prayed and paid and did everything I could to make sure that Ryan wouldn’t hang. What more could I have done? You tell me.”

Related Characters: Mrs. Hadley/Mother (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Meggie McGregor/Mum, Ryan McGregor/Dad, Kelani Adams
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 80 Quotes

When I’d come into her room, I’d been burning up with the desire to smash her and everything else around her. Sephy was a Cross I could actually hurt. And yet here she was, asleep and still holding on to my arms like I was a life raft or something. There’s not an inch of space between her body and mine. I could move my hands and…And. Anything I liked. Caress or strangle. Kill or cure. Her or me. Me or her.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Ryan McGregor/Dad
Page Number: 339
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 89 Quotes

I used to comfort myself with the belief that it was only certain individuals and their peculiar notions that spoiled things for the rest of us. But how many individuals does it take before it’s not the individuals who are prejudiced but society itself? And it wasn’t even that most Crosses were prejudiced against noughts. I still didn’t believe that. But everyone seemed to be too afraid to stand up in public and say, “This is wrong.” And by everyone, I meant me included.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor, Mr. Kamal Hadley, Ryan McGregor/Dad, Shaun Pingule
Page Number: 367
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 94 Quotes

And we’d succeeded. We had Sephy. No! Not Sephy…Just a Cross girl—who deserved everything she got, who’d get us everything we needed. I paused outside the cell door. I could do this. I had to do this.

Be what you have to be, Callum, not what you are…

I repeated that phrase over and over in my head, the way I used to do when I first joined the LM. The way I had to whenever there was something…distasteful that needed to be done.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley
Page Number: 391
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 96 Quotes

The cut was deep—for both of us. Deeper than I’d intended. A scratch would’ve been deeper than I intended. She went to put her finger back in her mouth but I grabbed her hand again. She struggled, trying to pull her hand away. Maybe she thought I was going to cut her again. I put her finger in my mouth.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley
Page Number: 402
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 101 Quotes

Ashamed of myself for having asked, I tried to turn my head away, but Callum’s restraining hand on my cheek stopped me. He carried on rubbing my stomach. We watched each other in a silence that surrounded us like a bubble of barbed wire.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor
Page Number: 418
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 113 Quotes

“No, he just raped you and made you pregnant instead,” Dad said bitterly.

“Kamal, please—,” Mother began.

“Callum didn’t rape me. He didn’t.”

“But you’re pregnant, so he must’ve.” Mother frowned.

“I’m pregnant because we made love to each other,” I shouted angrily.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Mrs. Hadley/Mother (speaker), Mr. Kamal Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor
Page Number: 462
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 116 Quotes

Once I’d been found guilty nothing on earth could’ve made the judges overturn the verdict. The reason is simple. I’m a nought who dared to fall in love with a Cross. And worse still, I actually made love with her. And worse than that, she’s pregnant with my child and doesn’t care who knows it.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Ryan McGregor/Dad
Page Number: 480
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Noughts and Crosses LitChart as a printable PDF.
Noughts and Crosses PDF

Sephy Hadley Quotes in Noughts and Crosses

The Noughts and Crosses quotes below are all either spoken by Sephy Hadley or refer to Sephy Hadley. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racism, Division, and Tragedy Theme Icon
).
Prologue Quotes

“Honestly, Mrs. Hadley,” said Meggie McGregor, wiping her eyes. “That sense of humor of yours will be the death of me yet!”

Jasmine Hadley allowed herself a rare giggle. “The things I tell you, Meggie. It’s lucky we’re such good friends!”

Meggie’s smile wavered only slightly. She looked out across the vast lawn at Callum and Sephy. Her son and her employer’s daughter. They were good friends playing together. Real good friends. No barriers. No boundaries. Not yet anyway.

Related Characters: Mrs. Hadley/Mother (speaker), Meggie McGregor/Mum (speaker), Callum McGregor, Sephy Hadley
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 1  Quotes

Us noughts and you Crosses.” I shook my head. “It makes it sound like…like you’re in one place and I’m in another, with a huge, great wall between us.”

Callum looked out across the sea. “Maybe we are in different places…”

“No, we aren’t. Not if we don’t want to be, we aren’t.” I willed Callum to look at me.

“I wish it was that simple.”

“It is.”

“Maybe from where you’re sitting.”

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Spot on the Beach
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“STOP IT! YOU’RE ALL BEHAVING LIKE ANIMALS!” I shouted so hard my throat immediately began to hurt. “WORSE THAN ANIMALS—LIKE BLANKERS!”

The sound of the crowd slowly died away. “Just look at you,” I continued. “Stop it.” I glanced down at Callum. He was staring at me, the strangest expression on his face.

Callum, don’t look at me like that. I didn’t mean you. I’d never mean you. It was just for the others, to get them to stop, to get them to help. I didn’t mean you…

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor, Mr. Corsa, Shania
Page Number: 57
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

Why couldn’t he understand that I hadn’t been talking about him? It was just a word. A word Dad had used. But it was a word that had hurt my best friend. A word that was now hurting me so very, very much.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor, Mr. Kamal Hadley
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“That Band-Aid’s a bit noticeable.”

“They don’t sell pink Band-Aids. Only dark brown ones.” Shania shrugged.

My eyes widened at that. I’d never really thought about it before, but she was right. I’d never seen any pink Band-Aids. Band-Aids were the color of us Crosses, not the noughts.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Shania (speaker), Callum McGregor
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

“I’ll find out who did this and when I do—they’ll be really, really sorry.” And the look in my sister’s eyes told me that she was serious. Deadly serious. For the first time since the three pigs had started laying into me, I felt almost good. Minnie had never been on my side like this before. It was almost—but not quite—worth it if it meant Minnie and I would grow closer…

“No one touches a Hadley. No one,” Minnie stormed. “If they think they can get to you with no comeback, then it won’t be long before someone tries it on with me. I won’t have that.”

My tentative bubble of well-being was well and truly burst.

Related Characters: Minerva “Minnie” Hadley (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Joanne, Lola, Dionne
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

“What’re you talking about? She’s got friends dripping out of cupboards,” I scoffed.

“Not close ones. Not real friends that she can tell anything and everything to.”

“She’s probably driven them all away with her funny moods, […] If I didn’t have to live in the same house as her I wouldn’t put up with her either.”

“She’s lonely,” said Minnie.

“Why doesn’t she just go out and make some new friends then?” I asked.

Minnie smiled, one of her superior smiles that instantly ruffled my feathers. “You’re very young, Sephy.”

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Minerva “Minnie” Hadley (speaker), Mrs. Hadley/Mother, Mr. Kamal Hadley
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 55 Quotes

“Sephy, don’t follow your mother, okay? She’s headed for a mental home—or a coffin. Is that really what you want?”

That made me start and no mistake. Was that really where Mother was going? I didn’t want her to die like that. I didn’t want to die like that. I regarded Callum, seeing myself as he must see me. A silly, pathetic child who thought that drinking was a way to grow older faster.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Mrs. Hadley/Mother
Related Symbols: The Spot on the Beach
Page Number: 242
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 65 Quotes

“Who’re you trying to convince? Me or yourself?”

And then I did the last thing either of us expected. I burst into tears. My sister put her arm around me then, allowing my head to rest on her shoulder—which just made me feel worse.

“Minerva, I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got to, before I explode.”

“Don’t worry. I’m working on it with Dad.”

“Yeah, for yourself. But what about me?”

“No, I’m working on Dad for both of us,” said Minnie.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Minerva “Minnie” Hadley (speaker), Mrs. Hadley/Mother, Mr. Kamal Hadley
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 69 Quotes

Mr. Pingule, the prosecutor, smiled at me encouragingly, which helped a little. A very little. I hadn’t expected to be quite so nervous. […]

“Take your time, Miss Hadley,” the judge said, smiling.

I smiled back at him gratefully. Maybe I could do this. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Shaun Pingule (speaker), Callum McGregor, Ryan McGregor/Dad
Page Number: 289
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 71 Quotes

According to the reporters on the telly, Kelani was making sure that the trial was as fair as possible—and putting the judge’s back up in the process. Good for her!

Ryan McGregor just had to be found not guilty. It was only right and proper.

It was only just.

It was only justice.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Ryan McGregor/Dad, Kelani Adams
Page Number: 305
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 77 Quotes

“You stupid girl. Who d’you think paid for their lawyer and all their legal fees?” Mother took hold of my shoulders and shook me. “I prayed and paid and did everything I could to make sure that Ryan wouldn’t hang. What more could I have done? You tell me.”

Related Characters: Mrs. Hadley/Mother (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Meggie McGregor/Mum, Ryan McGregor/Dad, Kelani Adams
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 80 Quotes

When I’d come into her room, I’d been burning up with the desire to smash her and everything else around her. Sephy was a Cross I could actually hurt. And yet here she was, asleep and still holding on to my arms like I was a life raft or something. There’s not an inch of space between her body and mine. I could move my hands and…And. Anything I liked. Caress or strangle. Kill or cure. Her or me. Me or her.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Ryan McGregor/Dad
Page Number: 339
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 89 Quotes

I used to comfort myself with the belief that it was only certain individuals and their peculiar notions that spoiled things for the rest of us. But how many individuals does it take before it’s not the individuals who are prejudiced but society itself? And it wasn’t even that most Crosses were prejudiced against noughts. I still didn’t believe that. But everyone seemed to be too afraid to stand up in public and say, “This is wrong.” And by everyone, I meant me included.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor, Mr. Kamal Hadley, Ryan McGregor/Dad, Shaun Pingule
Page Number: 367
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 94 Quotes

And we’d succeeded. We had Sephy. No! Not Sephy…Just a Cross girl—who deserved everything she got, who’d get us everything we needed. I paused outside the cell door. I could do this. I had to do this.

Be what you have to be, Callum, not what you are…

I repeated that phrase over and over in my head, the way I used to do when I first joined the LM. The way I had to whenever there was something…distasteful that needed to be done.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley
Page Number: 391
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 96 Quotes

The cut was deep—for both of us. Deeper than I’d intended. A scratch would’ve been deeper than I intended. She went to put her finger back in her mouth but I grabbed her hand again. She struggled, trying to pull her hand away. Maybe she thought I was going to cut her again. I put her finger in my mouth.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley
Page Number: 402
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 101 Quotes

Ashamed of myself for having asked, I tried to turn my head away, but Callum’s restraining hand on my cheek stopped me. He carried on rubbing my stomach. We watched each other in a silence that surrounded us like a bubble of barbed wire.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor
Page Number: 418
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 113 Quotes

“No, he just raped you and made you pregnant instead,” Dad said bitterly.

“Kamal, please—,” Mother began.

“Callum didn’t rape me. He didn’t.”

“But you’re pregnant, so he must’ve.” Mother frowned.

“I’m pregnant because we made love to each other,” I shouted angrily.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Mrs. Hadley/Mother (speaker), Mr. Kamal Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor
Page Number: 462
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 116 Quotes

Once I’d been found guilty nothing on earth could’ve made the judges overturn the verdict. The reason is simple. I’m a nought who dared to fall in love with a Cross. And worse still, I actually made love with her. And worse than that, she’s pregnant with my child and doesn’t care who knows it.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Ryan McGregor/Dad
Page Number: 480
Explanation and Analysis: