wolfgoddess77

Chapter Nine

Okay, the cafeteria was cool--oops, I mean "dining hall," as the silver plaque outside the entrance proclaimed.

I guess ‘cafeteria’ is too plebian a word for the vampires, huh?

It was nothing at all like SIHS's freezing cold monstrous cafeteria where the acoustics were so bad that even though I sat right next to Kayla I couldn't hear what she was babbling at me half the time.

You act like you actually listened to anything she said, regardless of how loud your surroundings were. I’ve sporked the previous chapters; I know better! You barely heard a word she said unless she was personally offending you with her behavior!

Also, don’t think I missed you shitting on Kayla. Even when she’s not here, you’re still a bitch to her.

This room was warm and friendly.

How? I don’t think small gas lamps typically give off that much heat.

The walls were made of the same weird mixture of jutting bricks and black rock as the exterior of the building and the room was filled with heavy wooden picnic tables that had matching benches with padded seats and backs.

How does that even work? How do you attach backs to picnic tables? For that matter, picnic tables seem kind of tacky for a place that’s supposed to be this sophisticated. I was imagining those kinds of tables you see at wedding receptions or fancy restaurants; the circular ones with the white tablecloths. Or…I guess these would probably be black tablecloths, huh?

Each table sat about six kids and radiated out from a large, unoccupied table situated at the center of the room that was practically overflowing with fruit and cheese and meat, and a crystal goblet that was filled with something that looked suspiciously like red wine. (Huh? Wine at school? What?)

Sure, why not? Heath brought beer to school in the…second chapter, I think. Why can’t we have a little wine, too? Besides, Zoey, wouldn’t you prefer wine over blood? ~~Even though blood would have been more appropriate, in my opinion.~~

The ceiling was low and the rear wall was made up of windows with a glass door in the center. Heavy burgundy velvet drapes were pulled open so that I could see outside to a beautiful little courtyard with stone benches, winding paths, and ornamental bushes and flowers. In the middle of the courtyard was a marble fountain with water spouting from the top of something that looked an awful lot like a pineapple.

…random. Why a pineapple of all things? It doesn’t fit in with anything. Which, honestly, just backs up my belief that everything in the House of Night is just extremely ugly.

It was very pretty,

Bullshit.

especially lit up by the moonlight and the occasional antique gaslight.

Most of the tables were already filled with eating, talking kids who glanced up with obvious curiosity when Stevie Rae and I entered the room. I took a deep breath and held my head high. Might as well give them a clear view of the Mark they all seemed so obsessed with.

Speshul Snowflake: 58

Remember when I said that I believed the entire campus had been made aware of Zoey’s descent unto their unworthy masses? Yeah, this isn’t helping to disprove that belief.

Also, that’s pretty arrogant of you to assume that everyone is going to be obsessed with you. ~~Let’s just ignore the fact that they are actually all obsessed with her. I’m making a point about Zoey’s extreme self-centeredness.~~

Stevie Rae led me to the side of the room that had the typical cafeteria servers handing out food from behind buffet-style glass thingies.

"What's the table in the middle of the room for?" I asked as we walked.

"It's the symbolic offering to the Goddess Nyx. There's always a place set at that table for her.

That doesn’t seem like ‘a place’ set for her than it is the whole damn table. And there’s nothing symbolic about it. That’s real food and drink being offered. If it was empty plates and empty glasses, that would be symbolic.

It seems kinda weird at first, but pretty soon it won't seem so weird and it'll feel right to you."

Actually, it didn't seem that weird to me.

Of course it doesn’t. You’ve been marked for less than twenty-four hours and you’re already the best vampire who ever vampired. Nothing about this place or their ways is going to seem weird to you.

In a way, it made sense. The Goddess was so alive here. Her Mark was everywhere. Her statue stood proudly in front of her Temple. I was also starting to notice all over the school little pictures and figurines that represented her. Her High Priestess was my mentor

Speshul Snowflake: 59

Yeah, yeah, rub it in. We know how much you’re secretly loving all of this preferential treatment.

and, I had to admit to myself, I already felt connected to Nyx.

Oh, you’re connected to her, all right. With little invisible puppet strings.

With an effort, I stopped myself from touching the Mark on my forehead.

And thus drawing even more attention to it, and by extension, you.

Instead I grabbed a tray and moved behind Stevie Rae in line.

"Don't worry," she whispered to me. "The food's real good. They don't make you drink blood or eat raw meat or anything like that."

Again, what makes you think Zoey was even concerned about that? I can understand the blood drinking fear, but I don’t think vampires are typically known for eating raw meat. In her attempts to comfort Zoey, Stevie Rae just looks like a moron.

Relieved, I unclenched my jaws. Most of the kids were already eating, so the line was short, and as Stevie Rae and I got up to the food I felt my mouth start to water. Spaghetti! I sniffed deeply: with garlic!

"That whole vampyres can't stand garlic thing is total bullshit--pardon my French," Stevie Rae was saying under her breath to me as we loaded up our plates.

Heavens above, Stevie Rae swore! You go wash your mouth out with soap right this second, young lady!

"Okay, what about that whole vampyres have to drink blood thing?" I whispered back.

You already know this is true, Zoey. You’ve experienced the bloodlust.

"Not," she said softly.

"Not?"

"Not bullshit."

Great. Wonderful. Fantastic. Just exactly what I wanted to hear--not.

Thank you, Captain Obvious, for clarifying. If you hadn’t, I would have thought you were actually thrilled about this little detail of vampirism.

Trying not to think about blood and whatnot

‘Blood and whatnot’. *bursts out laughing* Did you really just write that, PCK? Oh, you two are a riot sometimes.

I got a glass of tea with Stevie Rae, and then followed her to a table where two other kids were already talking animatedly while they ate. Of course the conversation totally stopped when I joined them,

Speshul Snowflake: 60

which didn't seem to faze Stevie Rae at all. As I slid into the booth opposite her she made introductions in her Okie twang.

Booth? What booth? It’s a picnic table.

"Hey, y'all. Meet my new roommate, Zoey Redbird. Zoey, this is Erin Bates," she pointed to the ridiculously pretty blonde sitting on my side of the table. (Well, hell--how many pretty blondes could one school have? Isn't there some kind of limit?)

No, ~~Meyer~~, there isn’t a limit. And you’ve met a grand total of…what, three? Aphrodite, Stevie Rae (who you didn’t describe as pretty, I noticed), and now this girl. Three blondes out of a total of how many other students?

Still in her matter-of-fact Okie voice, she went on, making little air quotes for emphasis. "Erin is 'the pretty one.'

You putting those in air quotes just makes me think you’re being sarcastic and mocking her. Which I’m honestly okay with, since I hate Erin.

She's also funny and smart and has more shoes than anyone I've ever known."

Erin pulled her blue eyes away from staring at my Mark long enough to say a quick "Hi."

Speshul Snowflake: 61

"And this is the token guy in our group, Damien Maslin. But he's gay, so I don't really think he counts as a guy."

*stares* I…wow.

Do you have any idea how many people you just seriously insulted, PCK? You hear that, gay guys? You might as well be girls. And what about gay girls? Are they basically just guys? Because that’s what you’re implying, I hope you realize. Seriously, how have you two not been assassinated yet? Your writing is just downright offensive. Hell, I’m offended, and I’m not even gay (or a guy)!

Instead of getting pissed at Stevie Rae, Damien looked serene and unruffled. "Actually, since I'm gay I think I should count for two guys instead of just one. I mean, in me you get the male point of view and you don't have to worry about me wanting to touch your boobies."

How does that even work? I’m not following your logic here, dude. Also, not all guys are horndogs who just want to touch a girl’s breasts.

He had a smooth face that was totally zit free, and dark brown hair and eyes that reminded me of a baby deer.

Better than comparing him to a puppy, I guess…

Actually, he was cute. Not in the overly girly way so many teenage guys are when they decide to come out and tell everyone what everyone already knew (well, everyone except their typically clueless and/or in-denial parents).

PCK, is it your goal to personally insult every single person on this planet? Because you’re off to a good start. ‘Gay’ does not mean ‘overly girly’. Being gay does not make you feminine, despite what you two idiots seem to think. Also despite what you might think, gay people do not always make it clear that they’re gay.

You Judgemental Bastards: 43

Damien wasn't a swishy girly-guy; he was just a cute kid with a likable smile. He was also noticeably trying not to stare at my Mark, which I appreciated.

Speshul Snowflake: 62

You say that you appreciate it, but the fact that he’s not staring really just pisses you right the hell off, doesn’t it?

"Well, maybe you're right. I hadn't really thought about it like that," Stevie Rae said through a big bite of garlic bread.

"Just ignore her, Zoey. The rest of us are almost normal," Damien said.

No, you’re not. Absolutely none of you are anything even resembling normal.

"And we're desperately glad you finally got here. Stevie Ray's been driving everyone crazy wondering what you'd be like, when you'd get here--"

Speshul Snowflake: 63

Normally, I would probably give this a pass, because someone who was excited to be getting a roommate would probably be talking about said roommate, but since it’s Zoey, and because the whole school has been buzzing about her arrival, I’m not feeling particularly lenient.

"If you'd be one of those freaky kids who smell bad and think being a vampyre means seeing who can be the biggest loser," Erin interrupted.

You Judgemental Bastards: 44

I hate you all so much. So goddamn much.

"Or wondering if you'd be one of them," Damien said, cutting his eyes at a table to our left.

I followed his gaze and felt a zap of nerves when I recognized who he was talking about. "You mean Aphrodite?"

"Yeah," Damien said. "And her stuck-up flock of sycophants."

Wow, if that’s not one of the most oblivious ‘pot calling the kettle black’ moments I’ve ever seen…

You Judgemental Bastards: 45

Huh? I blinked at him.

I thought Zoey was supposed to be smart. I don’t believe ‘sycophant’ is exactly an SAT-level word.

Stevie Rae sighed. "You'll get used to Damien's vocabulary obsession. Thankfully, this isn't a new word so some of us actually know what he's talking about without having to beg him for a translation. Again. Sycophant--a servile flatterer," she twanged proudly like she was giving an answer in English class.

A perfect descriptor of everyone at this little table, incidentally. All of you are already being assimilated and becoming Zoey’s servile flatterers as we speak.

"Whatever. They make me want to retch," Erin said without looking up from her spaghetti.

What a coincidence. That’s how I feel about all of you.

"They?" I asked.

"The Dark Daughters," Stevie Rae said, and I noticed she automatically lowered her voice.

You’re kind of a coward, aren’t you, Stevie Rae? You can’t even reference Aphrodite without having to whisper.

"Think of them like a sorority," Damien said.

"Of hags from hell," Erin said.

"Hey, y'all, I don't think we should prejudice Zoey against them. She might get along okay with them."

"Fuck that. They're hags from hell," Erin said.

But when Zoey takes over the Dark Daughters, well, then it’s just the Best Thing Ever. Don’t look at me like that; it’s not a spoiler. Of course Zoey is going to take over and dethrone Aphrodite. She’s never allowed to have nice things because she’s the bad guy, and is only good for being the punching bag of the main characters.

"Watch that mouth, Er Bear. You have to eat out of it," Damien said a little primly.

Oh, please. That is extremely tame language for teenagers these days. I’m starting to think PCK is just as much anti-swearing as they are anti-alcohol and anti-drugs.

Incredibly relieved that none of them liked Aphrodite,

You know, Zoey, just because you don’t like someone doesn’t mean no one else can, either. Oh, who am I kidding? If Zoey declared that she didn’t care for oxygen, you can bet her little posse would immediately start trying to learn how to survive without it. Her word is law, and no one is allowed to have an opinion other than hers.

I was just getting ready to ask for more of an explanation when a girl rushed up and, with a big huff, slid herself and her tray into the booth beside Stevie Rae.

IT IS A PICNIC TABLE. PICNIC TABLES DO NOT HAVE BOOTHS.

She was the color of cappuccino (the kind you get from real coffee shops and not the nasty, too-sweet stuff you get from Quick Trip)

Name Drop: 34

Why is it that different kinds of coffee are always used to describe the skin of people of color? And I’m not just talking about this series, either. I see it everywhere.

and all curvy with pouty lips and high cheekbones that made her look like an African princess. She also had some seriously good hair. It was thick and fell in dark, glossy waves around her shoulders. Her eyes were so black they looked like they didn't have any pupils.

"Okay, please! Just please. Did nobody," she stared pointedly at Erin, "think to bother to wake me the hell up and tell me that we were going to dinner?"

Hang on a second, I just thought of something. What time is it? I know it’s nighttime, but is it early evening? Close to dawn? Near midnight? I ask because I want to know how they classify their meals. If this is the first meal of the evening, shouldn’t it be breakfast, not dinner? Or do they eat in reverse order? Rather than breakfast, lunch, then dinner, it’s dinner, lunch, then breakfast? I highly doubt this is their third meal of the day (night?), unless it’s close to dawn. Which doesn’t really make all that much sense, if this girl was just now waking up.

Unless you’re trying to say that they’re still on a diurnal schedule, in which case, with night classes, when do they find time to sleep? Do newly-marked vampires still take daytime classes? Zoey’s not going to be too happy about that; her poor, delicate skin and eyes are going to explode.

"I do believe I'm your roommate, not your mamma," Erin said lazily.

But you are a complete bitch. Would it have killed you to show a little common courtesy and wake up your roommate so she wouldn’t get left behind?

Why are all of these people so despicable? I hate them all.

"Do not make me cut that Jessica Simpson look-alike blond hair of yours off in the middle of the night," the African princess said.

Name Drop: 35

"Actually, the consuetudinary

*rolls eyes* No one talks like this. It doesn’t make you look smart, it makes you look pretentious. Shut your face.

way to phrase that would be 'Do not make me cut that Jessica Simpson look-alike blond hair of yours off in the middle of the day.' Technically day is night for us and so night would be day. Time is reversed here."

The black girl narrowed her eyes at him. "Damien, you are getting on my damn last nerve what that vocab shit."

You and me both.

"Shaunee," Stevie Rae broke in hastily. "My roommate finally got here. This is Zoey Redbird. Zoey, this is Erin's roommate, Shaunee Cole."

“Stop talking about yourself and start worshiping her, dammit!”

"Hi," I said through a mouthful of spaghetti when Shaunee turned from glaring at Erin to me.

"So, Zoey, what's up with your Mark being colored in? You're still a fledgling, aren't you?"

Speshul Snowflake: 64

Everyone at the table was shocked silent by Shaunee's question. She looked around. "What? Do not pretend that every last one of you isn't wondering the same thing."

Speshul Snowflake: 65

"We might be, but we also might be polite enough not to ask," Stevie Rae said firmly.

Speshul Snowflake: 66

"Oh, please. Whatever." She shrugged off Stevie Rae's protest. "This is too important for that. Everyone wants to know about her Mark.

Speshul Snowflake: 67

There's no time to play games when good gossip is involved." Shaunee turned back to me. "So, what's up with the weird Mark?"

Speshul Snowflake: 68

Since when is being polite the same thing as playing games?

I’m also noticing a trend here. The ‘good guys’ (i.e., Zoey’s little gang of admirers) are too polite to stare at her mark and ask what’s up with it. Everyone else are rude and gossipy assholes.

Might as well face this now. I took a quick drink of tea to clear my throat. All four of them were staring at me, waiting impatiently for my answer.

Speshul Snowflake: 69

It’s so important that they’re all but literally waiting on the edges of their seats for an answer.

"Well, I'm still a fledgling. I don't think I'm any different than the rest of you." Then I blurted something that I'd been considering while everyone else had been talking.

Because even when other people are trying to have conversations, all Zoey thinks about is Zoey. You wanna try telling me that she’s relieved when the topic moves away from her again, PCK? Because I ain’t buyin’ it.

I mean, I knew that I was going to have to answer this question eventually.

Speshul Snowflake: 70

I'm not stupid

Yes, you are.

-- confused, maybe, but not stupid

Yes, you are.

--and my gut told me I needed to say something besides the real story about my out-of-body experience with Nyx.

Hint, hint, honeybun. It’s not your gut. It’s Nyx pulling those puppet strings again. You don’t get to brag about how smart you are and how good your intuition is when someone has their hand up your ass controlling what you think and do.

"I don't actually know for sure why my Mark is filled in.

Because you’re a big honkin’ Mary Sue. How have you not figured that out yet?

It wasn't that way when the Tracker first Marked me. But later that day I had an accident.

Caused by your own stupidity, might I add.

I fell and hit my head. When I woke up the Mark was like it is now. I've been thinking about it, and all I can come up with is that it must have happened as some kind of reaction to my accident. I was unconscious and I lost a lot of blood. Maybe that did something to speed up the darkening- in process. That's my guess, anyway."

THAT MAKES NO SENSE. The more a mark is filled in, the more mature a vampire is. You being a moron and tripping over a random tree root has absolutely nothing to do with how fast you mature. Now, you could possibly argue that the more mature a vampire is, the faster their wounds heal, and thus the process was kicked into overdrive as a last-ditch effort to save Zoey’s life and keep her from bleeding to death, but if this was the case, how come we’ve never heard of it happening before? How come we never hear of it happening again? I’m sure Zoey couldn’t be the only one who had a life-threatening wound (except how it wasn’t; it was a simple bump on the head!) while she was in the process of becoming a vampire, so why didn’t their bodies do the same thing to save them? What about that poor girl with the broken leg that Neferet abandoned so she could personally give Zoey a tour of the school? Has her mark filled in more? My guess is no.

"Huh," Shaunee huffed. "I was hoping it'd be somethin' more interesting. Something good and gossipy."

"Sorry...," I muttered.

"Careful, Twin," Erin said to Shaunee,

Oh, god, it starts…

jerking her head at the Dark Daughters. "You're starting to sound like you should sit over at that table."

Because I guess they all like to gossip? Except how the entire school is supposed to be whispering about Zoey and her mark, which kind of undermines your attempted insult, doesn’t it?

Shaunee's face twisted. "I wouldn't be caught undead with those bitches."

Ironic how ‘those bitches’ are more likable than all of you, despite the fact that they’re supposed to be the villains!

"You're confusing the crap outta Zoey," Stevie Rae said.

Damien gave a long-suffering sigh. "I'll explain, proving once again how valuable I am to this group, penis or no penis."

Because you can only be valuable to someone if you don’t have a penis, I guess?

"I really wish you wouldn't use the P-word," Stevie Rae said. "Especially when I'm trying to eat."

Oh, grow up. How old are you, again? Penis. Penis, penis, penis, PENIS. It’s not a bad word, it’s a body part.

"I like it," Erin chimed in. "If everyone called things what they are we'd all be a lot less confused. For instance, you know when I have to go to the bathroom I state the obvious--I have urine that needs to come out of my urethra. Simple. Easy. Clear."

You…you do? What kind of a freak are you? Just say ‘I have to go to the bathroom’ like a normal person.

"Disgusting. Gross. Crude," Stevie Rae said.

"I'm with you, Twin," Shaunee said. "I mean, if we talked plainly about things like urination and menstruation and such, life would be much simpler."

STOP THAT. Even actual twins don’t call each other that! It’s like when Mary Sue OCs try to give other characters cute nicknames, except how they’re not cute at all. They’re just irritating.

"Okay. Enough with the menstruation talk while we're eating spaghetti."

I guess talking about it while they’re eating any other type of food would be acceptable, though. Seriously, I don’t get the connection between spaghetti and periods.

Damien held up a hand like he could physically stop the conversation.

‘Like’ he could physically stop the conversation. Okay. PCK, are you aware that someone holding up their hand like that often does physically stop a conversation? Holding up one’s hand is often a universal sign for ‘STOP’.

"I may be gay, but there's only so much even I can handle."

What does being gay have to do with anything? Non-gay guys can’t talk frankly about these kinds of things? Hate to break it to you, but they can. It’s about personal preference, not sexual orientation. Moron.

He leaned toward me and launched into his explanation. "First, Shaunee and Erin call each other Twin because

they’re extremely annoying and clearly begging for someone to slowly dismember them with a chainsaw while they’re still alive and feed the pieces of their bodies to hungry bears.

even though they are clearly not related--Erin being an extremely white girl from Tulsa, and Shaunee being of Jamaican descent and a lovely mocha color from Connecticut--"

STOP USING TYPES OF COFFEE TO DESCRIBE SOMEONE’S SKIN COLOR.

Also, the latter half of that sentence makes absolutely no sense. What’s from Connecticut? The lovely mocha color? Also, also, people can have vastly different skin colors and still be related, genius. I guess you must have skipped biology that day.

"Thank you for appreciating my blackness," Shaunee said.

"Don't mention it," Damien said, and then continued smoothly with his explanation. "Even though they aren't related by blood they are freakishly alike."

"It's like they were separated at birth or something," Stevie Rae said.

You know, even actual twins don’t necessarily have to be alike. They can have different interests, different friend groups, different everything.

At the same moment Erin and Shaunee grinned at each other and shrugged. It was then that I noticed they were wearing the same outfit--dark jeans jackets with beautiful golden wings embroidered on the breast pockets, black T-shirts, and low- riding black slacks. They even had on the same earrings--huge gold hoops.

I suppose they missed the memo that dressing exactly alike is extremely tacky.

"We have the same shoe size," Erin said, sticking out her foot so we could see that she was wearing pointy-toed black leather stiletto boots.

Are you aware that there are millions of people out there who have the same shoe size? There aren’t that many different sizes in the world; chances are more than a handful have the same one you do.

"And what's a little melanin difference when a truly soul-deep love of shoes is involved?" Lifting up her foot Shaunee showed off another great pair of boots--only these were smooth black leather with sharp silver buckles across the ankles.

I DON’T CARE. Besides, individuality is for losers, right?

"Next!" Damien cut in, rolling his eyes.

Wow, for once, I actually agree with you. This entire thing is so inane; make it stop already.

"The Dark Daughters. The short version is that they're a group made up of mostly upperclassmen who say that they are in charge of school spirit and such."

"No, the short version is that they're hags from hell," Shaunee said.

Fuck you.

"That's exactly what I said, Twin," Erin laughed.

FUCK YOU. STOP CALLING EACH OTHER ‘TWIN.’ God, I hate all of you so much…

"You two aren't helping," Damien told them. "Now, where was I?"

Is your memory so bad that you forgot what you were saying after two sentences?

"School spirit and such," I prompted.

"That's right. Yeah, they're supposed to be this great, pro- school, pro-vamp organization. Also, it is assumed that their leader is being groomed to be a High Priestess, so she's supposed to be the heart, mind, and spirit of the school--as well as a future leader in vamp society, et cetera, et cetera, blah, blah. Think National Merit Scholar in charge of the Honor Society mixed with cheerleaders and band fags."

I…I’m not even sure what to say about that. Okay, yes I do. For the majority of the paragraph: I love how Damien is mocking them—specifically, Aphrodite—but when Zoey becomes the leader, well, then instead of ‘blah, blah’, she’s the best thing since the invention of the wheel. Not even sliced bread is as awesome as Zoey is. It would be useful if we actually had a reason why these people hate the Dark Daughters so much. Hell, apart from Aphrodite, we don’t even know the names of any of them, much less why we’re supposed to dislike them!

PCK, you have to give us a reason to hate someone. Just saying we’re supposed to without backing up why doesn’t work. This isn’t even a case of ‘show, don’t tell’. This is ‘here’s a group of girls. Hate them because we say so’. At least with ‘show, don’t tell’, there’s some kind of explanation behind the telling. We’re not even being told in this case!

Now, for that last sentence. STOP BEING SO GODDAMN OFFENSIVE, PCK! I don’t care when this was written; there are some things you just don’t say. These are your protagonists, or have you forgotten? Not a one of them have done a single damn thing to make me want to like them.

"Hey, isn't it disrespectful to your gayness to call them band fags?" Stevie Rae asked.

It’s just disrespectful in general! Being gay has nothing to do with it!

"I'm using the word as a term of endearment," Damien said.

Uh, no. There is absolutely nothing endearing about that word. I don’t care how you use it. I don’t care that you’re so stereotypically gay that it physically hurts me to read about you. You cannot use that word unless you’re purposefully trying to offend someone.

"And football players--don't forget there are Dark Sons, too," Erin said.

"Uh-huh, Twin.

Stop. Fucking. Doing. That. Seriously, even when people have nicknames for each other, they don’t use those nicknames every single time they speak.

It is truly a crime and a shame that such seriously hot young lads get sucked in--"

"And she does mean that literally," said Erin with a naughty grin.

…uhh…

"By hags from hell," concluded Shaunee.

"Hello! Like I would forget the boys? I just keep getting interrupted."

Yes, and it’s making me want to punch a bitch. Or several.

The three girls gave him apologetic smiles. Stevie Rae pantomimed zipping her lips shut and throwing away the key. Erin and Shaunee mouthed "dork" at her, but they stayed quiet so Damien could finish.

I noticed that they'd played with the word "sucked," making me think that the little scene I'd witnessed hadn't been too unusual.

Oh, look, Captain Obvious is back. Hello! I’m tempted to point out that no fucking shit, these are a bunch of hormonal teenagers, so you’re probably going to stumble onto some sexy times at some point, but the fact that the scene Zoey stumbled onto was sexual assault, and she’s implying that it happens all the time…that makes me more than a little uncomfortable.

"But what the Dark Daughters really are is a group of stuck-up bitches who get off on lording power over everyone else.

Hmm. Remember a few chapters ago when Zoey was enjoying lording her power over the guys in the parking lot at her school? I think there’s a phrase to be used here…something about pots and kettles… Ah, well, I’m sure it’ll come to me eventually.

They want everyone to follow them, to conform to their freaky ideas of what it means to become a vamp. Most of all, they hate humans, and if you don't feel the same they don't want shit to do with you."

Isn’t that a good thing? If you hate them so much, why would you want anything to do with them in the first place?

"Except to give you a hard time," Stevie Rae added. I could tell from her expression that she must have firsthand knowledge about the "hard time" part, and I remembered how pale and scared she'd looked when Aphrodite had shown me to our room.

Just what did they do to her to make her cower like a little rabbit when a fox has it cornered? Call her names? They really don’t seem all that threatening to me.

I made a mental note to remember to ask her later about what had happened.

"Don't let them scare you, though," Damien said. "Just watch your back around them and--"

"Hello, Zoey. Nice to see you again so soon."

*perks up* Aphrodite! Hello!

I didn't have any trouble recognizing her voice this time. I decided it was like honey--slick and too darn sweet. Everyone at the table jumped, including me.

You guys really need to be more observant of your surroundings. She’s a teenaged girl, not the boogieman. Is this extreme reaction really warranted? It’s not like she snuck up behind you and popped a balloon in your ear.

She was wearing a sweater like mine, except that over her heart was embroidered the silver silhouette of three goddess-like women,

How is a silhouette ‘goddess-like’?

one of them holding what looked like a pair of scissors. She had on a very short pleated black skirt,

Eww, what a slut! …what? You know that’s what Zoey’s thinking.

black tights that had silver sparkles in them, and knee-high black boots. Two girls were standing behind her, dressed in much the same way. One was black, with impossibly long hair (must be a really good weave),

…wow. Wooooooow. Yeah, I’m not even going to touch that one, except to say

You Judgemental Bastards: 45

and the other was yet another blonde (who, on closer inspection of her brows, was probably, I decided, as much a natural blonde as I am).

And another one.

You Judgemental Bastards: 46

"Hello, Aphrodite," I said when everyone else seemed too shocked to speak.

Are we sure these people are vampires? Because I’m starting to think they’re actually fainting goats. They sure did lock up fast when someone surprised them.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," she said insincerely.

"You're not. We were just discussing the trash that needs to be taken out tonight," Erin said with a big, fake smile.

Oooh, burn. Not.

"Well, you would certainly know about that," she said with a sneer, and then purposefully turned her back on Erin, who was curling her fists and looking as if she might leap over the table at Aphrodite.

Oh, please try it. I would love it if you were expelled, so I wouldn’t have to deal with you anymore.

"Zoey, I should have said something to you earlier, but I guess it just slipped my mind. I want to issue an invitation for you to join the Dark Daughters in our own private Full Moon Ritual tomorrow night.

PCK, please stop randomly capitalizing things. Those poor letters haven’t done a thing to you, but you insist on torturing them anyway. Leave them alone.

I know it's unusual for someone who hasn't been here long to take part in a ritual so soon,

“As you know, Bob…”

but your Mark has clearly shown that you're, well, different than the average fledgling."

Speshul Snowflake: 70

She looked down her perfect nose at Stevie Rae. "I've already mentioned it to Neferet, and she agrees that it would be good for you to join us. I'll give you the details later, when you're not so busy with...uh...trash." She gave the rest of the table her tight- lipped, sarcastic smile, flipped her long hair, and she and her entourage flitted off.

Oh, my god, Aphrodite, I love you. You really are the best thing since the invention of the wheel.