Noughts & Crosses focuses on the friendship between privileged Cross (Black person) Sephy and the nought (white person) Callum, whose family lives in poverty. The novel begins when the two are still young teenagers, and Sephy and Callum have been best friends since Sephy was born (Callum’s mother, Meggie, was Sephy’s nanny and brought young Callum to work with her). As children, Sephy and Callum can have a genuine, fulfilling friendship precisely because neither of them understands that, due to their different skin colors, they’re not supposed to be friends. But as they get older, their friendship crumbles when Callum starts attending Sephy’s school as one of the first noughts to integrate the country’s school system, and Sephy fails to support Callum or even understand the racist abuse he experiences at school and in public. The novel also briefly touches on the supposed friendship between Mrs. Hadley and Meggie. While Mrs. Hadley, the more privileged of the pair, insists that she’s legitimately Meggie’s friend, Meggie later maintains that the women were never friends—the power differential between them made genuine trust and support impossible. Through characters’ different perceptions of their relationships, the novel suggests that enjoying spending time with someone doesn’t make a true friendship. Even between two people who enjoy each other’s company, outside forces (like racism or class differences) can prevent people from genuinely understanding each other.
Friendship ThemeTracker
Friendship Quotes in Noughts and Crosses
“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.
“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…
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.
“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.”
“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.
“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.”
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.
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.