"'She's gonna go' -- I made my voice high like a girl's -- 'Oooo, there's that Crash Coogan scoring another touchdown. I do believe I'm falling in love with that boy. He's so good and handsome.'"
When Crash realizes early on that he's lonely, he sets out to impress people, namely his peers. He joins the football team in order to show off and prove himself in a physical challenge. Like a medieval knight he enjoys the sport for the sake of the affections of the girls. He's trying to prove himself a worthy object of admiration.
"'I wanted to ask you if you would like to come to dinner at my house.' The only word I could think of was 'Why?' 'Because you're my first friend in Pennsylvania."
When he first meets Penn, Crash is not receptive to his interests. He thinks Penn is too strange to be cool and doesn't want to associate with him, but Penn is just looking for a friend. Penn tries to be friendly in all the right ways, but Crash knows that he's choosing to be obstinate.
"Mostly it's checking everybody out. Seeing what they look like after summer. Almost everybody looks different, changes at least a little bit. And not just different, but different better."
Since Crash is so afraid of change, he has to frame situations carefully in his mind. He looks around at all the changes his classmates have experienced over the summer and chooses to celebrate them as better. Although Crash can't manage this type of mastery in aspects of his life, he does well in accepting change at school.
"'You're really acting weird.'
I felt my neck getting warm. 'What do you mean by that?'
'I don't know. You're just acting different. Like when I said let's trick Webb, you told me you weren't interested.'"
Mike checks out when Crash becomes emotionally unavailable during and after his grandpa's stroke. It's not that Mike intends to be heartless; he just doesn't have the EQ to support Crash. For his part, Crash clings to his friendship with Mike because he still wants the approval. Even when Mike is being hurtful and insensitive, Crash still tries to gain his approval.
