Betrayed: Chapter 5
ZeldaQueen: This chapter done near killed me, ladies and gentlemen. I swear to God
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 5
ZeldaQueen: And so we start off this chapter with Zoey…angsting about how sick she feels. That’s it. There’s no reflection on what she heard, no thinking about it, not even a “I’m not sure what I heard, but I’ll think about it tomorrow”. Granted, I could understand feeling upset after hearing a teacher drive a student to tears, but she doesn’t think about it at all. Instead, we’re told that she leaves Spanish class to go to the bathroom so many times that Stevie Rae gets worried and starts following her in there. And normally I’d think Stevie Rae was being creepily obsessive, following Zoey into the bathroom, but there actually is a reason - we’re reminded how fledglings get very sick before they spontaneously drop over dead, and Stevie Rae thinks that might be happening with Zoey. If she wasn’t suck a spineless, stereotypical bootlicker, I’d actually consider that a nice show of Stevie Rae being a good friend, making sure that Zoey wasn’t going to drop dead with no one around.
We then jump to her last class of the day, and we’re told how it’s Equestrian Studies and how that just helps Zoey calm down, because she loves taking care of Persephone the horse. Apparently she’s graduated on to cantering Persephone. After one month of taking the class. *scratches head* Um folks, I’ll admit that I’ve never taken any horse-riding classes in my life, but shouldn’t they have…I don’t know…actually started riding the horses by now?
Anyway, she leaves the stables well after class has ended and is surprised to find the teacher, Lenobia, sitting on a chair, polishing a saddle. We’re reminded of how gorgeous Lenobia is - par for the course - and then we get this
“I wasn't sure what to say. I liked Lenobia. Okay, when I started her class she had scared me; she was tough and sarcastic, but after I got to know her (and proved I understood horses were not just big dogs), I'd come to appreciate her wit and her no-nonsense attitude. Actually, next to Neferet, she was my favorite teacher, but she and I hadn't ever talked about anything except horses”
ZeldaQueen: Good thing we were told all of that, because the only time I seem to recall Zoey interacting with her at all, beyond her first class. I certainly don’t remember much of Lenobia displaying wit or Zoey coming to appreciate it.
Lenobia comments on how Zoey has found herself saddled (you see what I did thar?) with a number of big responsibilities within a short period of time and for no reason at all says that if she needs someone besides Neferet to confide in, Zoey’s welcome to come speak with her. There honestly is no reason for this at all. I don’t even think Lenobia shows up again in this entire book. Certainly Zoey never actually confides in her, even though we’ll see later that it might actually be a good idea for a few things. And of course this is built up as being oh soooo unusual, because fledgling kids never confide with or go to teachers that aren’t their mentors for help! It simply isn’t done! Isn’t Zoey so Mary Sue special to have someone who isn’t her mentor to confide in?
Zoey sets off and starts walking by that wall she kept hanging around in the last book and then…oh God dammit!
“I'd forgotten how much I loved walking out here by the school wall. Actually, I'd avoided coming out here for the past month. Ever since I'd seen-or thought I'd seen-the two ghosts”
ZeldaQueen: That’s it. That’s it! That is the FIRST TIME the ghosts have been brought up! Oh, I could almost forgive the first book doing zip to resolve the issue, but we’re five chapters in and yes folks, the ghosts are our plot here. AND THEY’RE ONLY COMING IN NOW, AND IN SUCH A CASUAL “OH, THEY’RE PROBABLY NOTHING, TEE HEE” WAY!!!
I mean…what the fuck? That’s nearly as bad as Meyer’s characters forgetting about Victoria! She clearly has seen two ghosts! She told Stevie Rae and found out that they weren’t natural! AND NOW SHE’S SAYING “OH YES, I MIGHT HAVE BEEN MISTAKEN”?!?!? WHAT??? Oh wait, she does seem fairly certain she saw something, but doesn't want to say anything because "[t]hey'd probably want to send me to the vamp equivalent of a shrink, and oh, boy, wouldn't that help me to instill confidence in the masses as the new leader of the Dark Daughters? Not hardly. Plus, the more time passed, the easier it was for me to convince myself that maybe I'd imagined some of the Elliott encounter". Wow. Oh, and she once again starts beating the "it could be normal" drum in possibly the most unpleasant way possible
"Maybe it hadn't been Elliott (or his ghost or whatever). I didn't know every single one of the fledglings here. There could be another kid here who had ugly, bushy red hair and pudgy, too white skin"
ZeldaQueen: This kid died. He died crying and young and hacking blood out of his lungs, right in front of Zoey. She watched him ask Neferet to tell his parents what happened to him. She saw how scared he was. And what does she think about when she looks back? Oh yeah, he was ugly.
I honestly don't know what is the worst part. Maybe that this complete and utter bitch is supposed to be the person that we cheer on. Or perhaps the idea that she's supposed to be a stand-in for the intended young adult audience, which implies that the Cast ladies think that sixteen-year-olds are this shallow and horrible. Or possibly it's the same thing as Meyer with Twilight - that this was written with Zoey allegedly saying and doing the things Kristin Cast thinks she would say and do in these situations, which doesn't paint a very nice picture of her at all.
Just...take a moment to think that over.
So.
We interrupt the actual plot (I seriously can‘t get over how the Cast ladies keep ignoring or forgetting about it) to have Nala show up - because yeah, that cat just adds soooo much to the scene - and go back to Zoey giving blatant exposition about how she saw Elizabeth and Elliot’s ghosts. We’re also reminded how the fledglings are expected to just get over the deaths of their friends and classmates almost immediately, which as I said before really is a good flaw for the vampire world, except that Zoey follows it up with “It still seemed wrong to me, but maybe that was because I was only a month into the Change and still more used to being human than vamp, or even fledgling”
Um, Zoey? Are you even listening to yourself? You basically just said “Yeah, I see something wrong with being expected to just ignore the fact that someone dropped dead, but that’s probably just because I’m still human”. This isn’t a difference in cultures, this is flat out sociopathy. And you aren't bothered by the fact that vampires want you to think this way? You aren't bothered by the implications of it? No? Nothing?
Oh, well, who cares about that sort of thing? There's someone at the wall now and who could it be, but Loren Blake!
Please, prepare to facepalm.
He asks Zoey what she's doing and she tells him that she's just taking a walk. She strikes up a conversation with him, "trying to sound grown", and by this point I think that Erik has completely been forgotten. She introduces Blake to Nala and Blake tells her how he was in an X-men phase when he got his own cat, so he named it Wolverine. *bored* Oh look, another Hot guy who is Into the Arts and is a Closet Geek. I'm sensing a pattern here.
He laughs and Zoey tells us that "I tried hard not to let his overwhelming hotness make me giggle hysterically like a pre-teen at a boy band concert. I was, for the moment, actually flirting with him! Remain calm. Don't say or do anything idiotic".
*as patiently as possible* If I have to listen to Zoey yammer on about anyone's "overwhelming hotness" one more time, I am going to bite the head off of something.
Also.
HE'S A TEACHER, YOU STUPID, STUPID BINT! IT'S NOT ACCEPTABLE FOR TEACHERS TO BE IN RELATIONSHIPS WITH STUDENTS! NOT TO MENTION THAT YOU ALREADY ARE DATING ERIK, AND YOU APPARENTLY DON'T CONSIDER YOURSELF FULLY BROKEN-UP WITH HEATH YET! MOTHER OF GOD!
And yes, I do know the reason Blake is coming on to her. That doesn't make it less infuriating that Zoey apparently can't see the five million reasons why her pursuing a relationship with a teacher while she's still a student is a bad idea and will certainly be frowned up if not directly resulting in disciplinary action for both of them.
Blake continues to infuriate me by going on about how he's writing haiku and he just loves hanging around at dawn to get inspiration. Oh look, doesn't that just make him soooo romantic? Zoey says that she'll leave him to that and keeps blathering to the readers about how she's such a dork, so stupid, so on and so forth. Blake grabs her wrist as she goes to leave which is creepy, but she of course is all happy because the hot guy is touching her. He tells her to stick around and provide him with inspiration. She proves that she knows the definition of a haiku and he gets all happy, while Zoey implies that him being impressed is the only perk to having paid attention to her previous English classes. That's right girls, the only reason you should pay attention in class and learn stuff is so that you can get hot guys to like you.
At this point, Blake indicates to Zoey's shoulders and says "Nyx has Marked you there", which frankly sounds rather dirty. He asks if she wouldn't mind showing him those tattoos of hers. We get this
"Logic was telling me that he was only asking to see my tattoos because of how freakishly different they are, and that he was in no way coming on to me. To him I must seem nothing more than a child-a kid-a fledgling with weird Marks and unusual powers. That's what logic was telling me. But his eyes, his voice, the way his hand was still caressing my shoulder- those things were telling me something completely different"
ZeldaQueen: *rubs eyes* Let us examine the bits that make that up.
She keeps insisting that having beautiful tattoos on her shoulders and the ability to control the elements means that he sees her as some sort of freakish curiosity. I realize that there are people who feel like specimens or freaks because they are beautifully or beneficially unusual but are unable to be treated like a regular person because of it. That though? All it brings to mind?
ZeldaQueen: Not to mention the "Woe, I'm such a freak show" ploy would work better if it actually happened more than twice.
Yet again, she keeps slapping us with the "I'm just a kid to him" dead herring, and continues with the clear implication that she wishes it were otherwise. While she is still a student in a relationship. I honestly can't stress that enough.
It doesn't occur to her that there's something a wee bit off with a teacher who is pawing up a student and asking to see her shoulders.
I think what disturbs me most is, like I said, she's all gung-ho from the first time they talk. I mean, she doesn't even take his classes! She's been at the House of Night for one month. How well can she know this guy? To use the Fruit's Basket example again, Kyoko didn't start mooning after Katsuyo the first time she met him!
And on Blake's end, this is really creepy. I'm serious. Like I said, I know why he's doing this. I won't spoil it completely, but there are ulterior motives. But we aren't supposed to know that. We're supposed to think that this guy has starting coming on to this student that he hardly knows at all, besides the fact that she is extremely powerful and apparently pretty hot. He starts coming on to her while her boyfriend is out of town, meeting her in secluded places, and laying on the charm and getting her heart all a-flutter.
We're supposed to think that this is all just the most romantic thing ever.
True story time. Not a direct parallel, but a few summers ago, a familiar name came up in the local newspaper. A teacher at my high school was arrested. Apparently he was caught on the internet, going after girls in their early teens. He was caught by the police when they posed as a fourteen-year-old girl he was planning to meet. He apparently started sending pervy pictures to the "fourteen-year-old" right after "she" showed an interest in him. His username was "onethickdaddy". In real life, he coached one of the girls' sports teams. Lacrosse, I believe.
So yeah. A note to the Cast ladies - a teacher coming on to a younger student quick and while she's alone isn't necessarily going to come out as romantic.
Back to the sporking. Because we weren't creeped out enough already, Zoey decides that sure, she'd love to show off her shoulder tattoos to him. There's waaaay too much description of him helping her take off her jacket and coupled with everything else, it just makes me shudder even more. Off comes her jacket and...wow. Just, wow
"Loren should be looking at my partially bare shoulder, gawking at the tattoos there that not one other fledgling or vampyre that I knew of had ever had. But he wasn't. He was still staring into my eyes. And suddenly something happened within me. I stopped feeling like a goofy, jittery, dorky teenage girl. The look in his eyes touched the woman inside me, awakening her, and as this new me stirred I found a calm confidence in myself that I had rarely known before. Slowly, I reached up and pushed the small strap of my ribbed cotton tank over my shoulder so that it joined my half-discarded jacket. Then, still meeting his eyes, I swept my long hair out of the way, lifted my chin, and turned my body slightly, giving him a clear view of the back of my shoulder, which was now completely bare except for the slim line of my black bra.
He continued to meet my gaze for several more seconds, and I could feel the cool breath of the night air and the caress of the nearly full moon on the exposed skin of my breast and shoulder and back. Very deliberately, Loren moved even closer to me, holding my upper arm while he looked at the back of my shoulder.
'It's incredible.' His voice was so low it was almost a whisper. I felt his fingertip lightly trace the labyrinthlike spiral pattern that was, except for the exotic-looking runes interspersed around the spirals, much like my facial Mark. 'I've never seen anything like this. It's as if you're an ancient priestess who has materialized in our time. How blessed we are to have you, Zoey Redbird.'
He said my name like a prayer. His voice mixed with his touch made me shiver as goose bumps lifted on my skin. 'I'm sorry. You must be cold.' Gently, but quickly, Loren pulled up my tank strap and my jacket.
'I wasn't shivering because I was cold.' I heard myself say the words, and couldn't decide if I should be proud of myself or shocked at my boldness"
ZeldaQueen: She just pretty much said he makes her feel like a woman. I... I don't...
I'm just going to comment on two things there, lest I explode.
First - So a bunch of spiraly tattoos on one's shoulders makes them look like an "ancient priestess", huh? We must be going through a second Bronze Age then, because really? There's a ton of people who walk around with really elaborate and beautiful patterns tattooed on their shoulders and backs.
Second - That bit about him saying her name like a prayer? I'd like to remind you all that that phrase was used once before, in the previous book. Zoey used it to describe when Erik recited the monologue from Othello, specifically how it sounded when Othello spoke Desdemona's name. You remember, that monologue where staring at Zoey, with the implication that the monologue was symbolik of their love. Yeah.
*shakes head* Blake recites a poem by a Japanese poet "about how his lover looked naked under the full moon" (...) and Zoey goes on about how breathless she is and we are treated to a description of how her thighs are tingling. You know, like they did when she was kissing her boyfriend.
Blake cups her face in his hands and thanks her for being his inspiration. And I'm sorry for quoting so much, but I really can't summarize these things
"I could feel myself leaning into him, and I swear his body responded. I may not be highly experienced. And, hell yes, I'm still a virgin. But I'm not an utter moron (most of the time). I know when a guy is into me. And this guy-for that moment-was definitely into me. I covered his hand with my own, and forgetting about everything, including Erik and the fact that Loren was an adult vamp and I was a fledgling, I willed him to kiss me, willed him to touch me more. We stared at each other. We were both breathing hard"
ZeldaQueen: It's totally okay for her to start an affair with her teacher, relationships and ethics be damned. She sined her ass off, you see.
But lo, he pulls back, smiles politely, and walks off. Zoey is all upset and confused and goes to talk to Stevie Rae about it. I, meanwhile, desperately need chocolate and a drink
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Onward to: Chapter 6
Back to: Chapter 4
Back to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 5
ZeldaQueen: And so we start off this chapter with Zoey…angsting about how sick she feels. That’s it. There’s no reflection on what she heard, no thinking about it, not even a “I’m not sure what I heard, but I’ll think about it tomorrow”. Granted, I could understand feeling upset after hearing a teacher drive a student to tears, but she doesn’t think about it at all. Instead, we’re told that she leaves Spanish class to go to the bathroom so many times that Stevie Rae gets worried and starts following her in there. And normally I’d think Stevie Rae was being creepily obsessive, following Zoey into the bathroom, but there actually is a reason - we’re reminded how fledglings get very sick before they spontaneously drop over dead, and Stevie Rae thinks that might be happening with Zoey. If she wasn’t suck a spineless, stereotypical bootlicker, I’d actually consider that a nice show of Stevie Rae being a good friend, making sure that Zoey wasn’t going to drop dead with no one around.
We then jump to her last class of the day, and we’re told how it’s Equestrian Studies and how that just helps Zoey calm down, because she loves taking care of Persephone the horse. Apparently she’s graduated on to cantering Persephone. After one month of taking the class. *scratches head* Um folks, I’ll admit that I’ve never taken any horse-riding classes in my life, but shouldn’t they have…I don’t know…actually started riding the horses by now?
Anyway, she leaves the stables well after class has ended and is surprised to find the teacher, Lenobia, sitting on a chair, polishing a saddle. We’re reminded of how gorgeous Lenobia is - par for the course - and then we get this
“I wasn't sure what to say. I liked Lenobia. Okay, when I started her class she had scared me; she was tough and sarcastic, but after I got to know her (and proved I understood horses were not just big dogs), I'd come to appreciate her wit and her no-nonsense attitude. Actually, next to Neferet, she was my favorite teacher, but she and I hadn't ever talked about anything except horses”
ZeldaQueen: Good thing we were told all of that, because the only time I seem to recall Zoey interacting with her at all, beyond her first class. I certainly don’t remember much of Lenobia displaying wit or Zoey coming to appreciate it.
Lenobia comments on how Zoey has found herself saddled (you see what I did thar?) with a number of big responsibilities within a short period of time and for no reason at all says that if she needs someone besides Neferet to confide in, Zoey’s welcome to come speak with her. There honestly is no reason for this at all. I don’t even think Lenobia shows up again in this entire book. Certainly Zoey never actually confides in her, even though we’ll see later that it might actually be a good idea for a few things. And of course this is built up as being oh soooo unusual, because fledgling kids never confide with or go to teachers that aren’t their mentors for help! It simply isn’t done! Isn’t Zoey so Mary Sue special to have someone who isn’t her mentor to confide in?
Zoey sets off and starts walking by that wall she kept hanging around in the last book and then…oh God dammit!
“I'd forgotten how much I loved walking out here by the school wall. Actually, I'd avoided coming out here for the past month. Ever since I'd seen-or thought I'd seen-the two ghosts”
ZeldaQueen: That’s it. That’s it! That is the FIRST TIME the ghosts have been brought up! Oh, I could almost forgive the first book doing zip to resolve the issue, but we’re five chapters in and yes folks, the ghosts are our plot here. AND THEY’RE ONLY COMING IN NOW, AND IN SUCH A CASUAL “OH, THEY’RE PROBABLY NOTHING, TEE HEE” WAY!!!
I mean…what the fuck? That’s nearly as bad as Meyer’s characters forgetting about Victoria! She clearly has seen two ghosts! She told Stevie Rae and found out that they weren’t natural! AND NOW SHE’S SAYING “OH YES, I MIGHT HAVE BEEN MISTAKEN”?!?!? WHAT??? Oh wait, she does seem fairly certain she saw something, but doesn't want to say anything because "[t]hey'd probably want to send me to the vamp equivalent of a shrink, and oh, boy, wouldn't that help me to instill confidence in the masses as the new leader of the Dark Daughters? Not hardly. Plus, the more time passed, the easier it was for me to convince myself that maybe I'd imagined some of the Elliott encounter". Wow. Oh, and she once again starts beating the "it could be normal" drum in possibly the most unpleasant way possible
"Maybe it hadn't been Elliott (or his ghost or whatever). I didn't know every single one of the fledglings here. There could be another kid here who had ugly, bushy red hair and pudgy, too white skin"
ZeldaQueen: This kid died. He died crying and young and hacking blood out of his lungs, right in front of Zoey. She watched him ask Neferet to tell his parents what happened to him. She saw how scared he was. And what does she think about when she looks back? Oh yeah, he was ugly.
I honestly don't know what is the worst part. Maybe that this complete and utter bitch is supposed to be the person that we cheer on. Or perhaps the idea that she's supposed to be a stand-in for the intended young adult audience, which implies that the Cast ladies think that sixteen-year-olds are this shallow and horrible. Or possibly it's the same thing as Meyer with Twilight - that this was written with Zoey allegedly saying and doing the things Kristin Cast thinks she would say and do in these situations, which doesn't paint a very nice picture of her at all.
Just...take a moment to think that over.
So.
We interrupt the actual plot (I seriously can‘t get over how the Cast ladies keep ignoring or forgetting about it) to have Nala show up - because yeah, that cat just adds soooo much to the scene - and go back to Zoey giving blatant exposition about how she saw Elizabeth and Elliot’s ghosts. We’re also reminded how the fledglings are expected to just get over the deaths of their friends and classmates almost immediately, which as I said before really is a good flaw for the vampire world, except that Zoey follows it up with “It still seemed wrong to me, but maybe that was because I was only a month into the Change and still more used to being human than vamp, or even fledgling”
Um, Zoey? Are you even listening to yourself? You basically just said “Yeah, I see something wrong with being expected to just ignore the fact that someone dropped dead, but that’s probably just because I’m still human”. This isn’t a difference in cultures, this is flat out sociopathy. And you aren't bothered by the fact that vampires want you to think this way? You aren't bothered by the implications of it? No? Nothing?
Oh, well, who cares about that sort of thing? There's someone at the wall now and who could it be, but Loren Blake!
Please, prepare to facepalm.
He asks Zoey what she's doing and she tells him that she's just taking a walk. She strikes up a conversation with him, "trying to sound grown", and by this point I think that Erik has completely been forgotten. She introduces Blake to Nala and Blake tells her how he was in an X-men phase when he got his own cat, so he named it Wolverine. *bored* Oh look, another Hot guy who is Into the Arts and is a Closet Geek. I'm sensing a pattern here.
He laughs and Zoey tells us that "I tried hard not to let his overwhelming hotness make me giggle hysterically like a pre-teen at a boy band concert. I was, for the moment, actually flirting with him! Remain calm. Don't say or do anything idiotic".
*as patiently as possible* If I have to listen to Zoey yammer on about anyone's "overwhelming hotness" one more time, I am going to bite the head off of something.
Also.
HE'S A TEACHER, YOU STUPID, STUPID BINT! IT'S NOT ACCEPTABLE FOR TEACHERS TO BE IN RELATIONSHIPS WITH STUDENTS! NOT TO MENTION THAT YOU ALREADY ARE DATING ERIK, AND YOU APPARENTLY DON'T CONSIDER YOURSELF FULLY BROKEN-UP WITH HEATH YET! MOTHER OF GOD!
And yes, I do know the reason Blake is coming on to her. That doesn't make it less infuriating that Zoey apparently can't see the five million reasons why her pursuing a relationship with a teacher while she's still a student is a bad idea and will certainly be frowned up if not directly resulting in disciplinary action for both of them.
Blake continues to infuriate me by going on about how he's writing haiku and he just loves hanging around at dawn to get inspiration. Oh look, doesn't that just make him soooo romantic? Zoey says that she'll leave him to that and keeps blathering to the readers about how she's such a dork, so stupid, so on and so forth. Blake grabs her wrist as she goes to leave which is creepy, but she of course is all happy because the hot guy is touching her. He tells her to stick around and provide him with inspiration. She proves that she knows the definition of a haiku and he gets all happy, while Zoey implies that him being impressed is the only perk to having paid attention to her previous English classes. That's right girls, the only reason you should pay attention in class and learn stuff is so that you can get hot guys to like you.
At this point, Blake indicates to Zoey's shoulders and says "Nyx has Marked you there", which frankly sounds rather dirty. He asks if she wouldn't mind showing him those tattoos of hers. We get this
"Logic was telling me that he was only asking to see my tattoos because of how freakishly different they are, and that he was in no way coming on to me. To him I must seem nothing more than a child-a kid-a fledgling with weird Marks and unusual powers. That's what logic was telling me. But his eyes, his voice, the way his hand was still caressing my shoulder- those things were telling me something completely different"
ZeldaQueen: *rubs eyes* Let us examine the bits that make that up.
She keeps insisting that having beautiful tattoos on her shoulders and the ability to control the elements means that he sees her as some sort of freakish curiosity. I realize that there are people who feel like specimens or freaks because they are beautifully or beneficially unusual but are unable to be treated like a regular person because of it. That though? All it brings to mind?
Click to viewZeldaQueen: Not to mention the "Woe, I'm such a freak show" ploy would work better if it actually happened more than twice.
Yet again, she keeps slapping us with the "I'm just a kid to him" dead herring, and continues with the clear implication that she wishes it were otherwise. While she is still a student in a relationship. I honestly can't stress that enough.
It doesn't occur to her that there's something a wee bit off with a teacher who is pawing up a student and asking to see her shoulders.
I think what disturbs me most is, like I said, she's all gung-ho from the first time they talk. I mean, she doesn't even take his classes! She's been at the House of Night for one month. How well can she know this guy? To use the Fruit's Basket example again, Kyoko didn't start mooning after Katsuyo the first time she met him!
And on Blake's end, this is really creepy. I'm serious. Like I said, I know why he's doing this. I won't spoil it completely, but there are ulterior motives. But we aren't supposed to know that. We're supposed to think that this guy has starting coming on to this student that he hardly knows at all, besides the fact that she is extremely powerful and apparently pretty hot. He starts coming on to her while her boyfriend is out of town, meeting her in secluded places, and laying on the charm and getting her heart all a-flutter.
We're supposed to think that this is all just the most romantic thing ever.
True story time. Not a direct parallel, but a few summers ago, a familiar name came up in the local newspaper. A teacher at my high school was arrested. Apparently he was caught on the internet, going after girls in their early teens. He was caught by the police when they posed as a fourteen-year-old girl he was planning to meet. He apparently started sending pervy pictures to the "fourteen-year-old" right after "she" showed an interest in him. His username was "onethickdaddy". In real life, he coached one of the girls' sports teams. Lacrosse, I believe.
So yeah. A note to the Cast ladies - a teacher coming on to a younger student quick and while she's alone isn't necessarily going to come out as romantic.
Back to the sporking. Because we weren't creeped out enough already, Zoey decides that sure, she'd love to show off her shoulder tattoos to him. There's waaaay too much description of him helping her take off her jacket and coupled with everything else, it just makes me shudder even more. Off comes her jacket and...wow. Just, wow
"Loren should be looking at my partially bare shoulder, gawking at the tattoos there that not one other fledgling or vampyre that I knew of had ever had. But he wasn't. He was still staring into my eyes. And suddenly something happened within me. I stopped feeling like a goofy, jittery, dorky teenage girl. The look in his eyes touched the woman inside me, awakening her, and as this new me stirred I found a calm confidence in myself that I had rarely known before. Slowly, I reached up and pushed the small strap of my ribbed cotton tank over my shoulder so that it joined my half-discarded jacket. Then, still meeting his eyes, I swept my long hair out of the way, lifted my chin, and turned my body slightly, giving him a clear view of the back of my shoulder, which was now completely bare except for the slim line of my black bra.
He continued to meet my gaze for several more seconds, and I could feel the cool breath of the night air and the caress of the nearly full moon on the exposed skin of my breast and shoulder and back. Very deliberately, Loren moved even closer to me, holding my upper arm while he looked at the back of my shoulder.
'It's incredible.' His voice was so low it was almost a whisper. I felt his fingertip lightly trace the labyrinthlike spiral pattern that was, except for the exotic-looking runes interspersed around the spirals, much like my facial Mark. 'I've never seen anything like this. It's as if you're an ancient priestess who has materialized in our time. How blessed we are to have you, Zoey Redbird.'
He said my name like a prayer. His voice mixed with his touch made me shiver as goose bumps lifted on my skin. 'I'm sorry. You must be cold.' Gently, but quickly, Loren pulled up my tank strap and my jacket.
'I wasn't shivering because I was cold.' I heard myself say the words, and couldn't decide if I should be proud of myself or shocked at my boldness"
ZeldaQueen: She just pretty much said he makes her feel like a woman. I... I don't...
I'm just going to comment on two things there, lest I explode.
First - So a bunch of spiraly tattoos on one's shoulders makes them look like an "ancient priestess", huh? We must be going through a second Bronze Age then, because really? There's a ton of people who walk around with really elaborate and beautiful patterns tattooed on their shoulders and backs.
Second - That bit about him saying her name like a prayer? I'd like to remind you all that that phrase was used once before, in the previous book. Zoey used it to describe when Erik recited the monologue from Othello, specifically how it sounded when Othello spoke Desdemona's name. You remember, that monologue where staring at Zoey, with the implication that the monologue was symbolik of their love. Yeah.
*shakes head* Blake recites a poem by a Japanese poet "about how his lover looked naked under the full moon" (...) and Zoey goes on about how breathless she is and we are treated to a description of how her thighs are tingling. You know, like they did when she was kissing her boyfriend.
Blake cups her face in his hands and thanks her for being his inspiration. And I'm sorry for quoting so much, but I really can't summarize these things
"I could feel myself leaning into him, and I swear his body responded. I may not be highly experienced. And, hell yes, I'm still a virgin. But I'm not an utter moron (most of the time). I know when a guy is into me. And this guy-for that moment-was definitely into me. I covered his hand with my own, and forgetting about everything, including Erik and the fact that Loren was an adult vamp and I was a fledgling, I willed him to kiss me, willed him to touch me more. We stared at each other. We were both breathing hard"
ZeldaQueen: It's totally okay for her to start an affair with her teacher, relationships and ethics be damned. She sined her ass off, you see.
But lo, he pulls back, smiles politely, and walks off. Zoey is all upset and confused and goes to talk to Stevie Rae about it. I, meanwhile, desperately need chocolate and a drink
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Onward to: Chapter 6
Back to: Chapter 4
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