Hush, Hush: Chapter 1
ZeldaQueen: Well, this story wastes no time in being infuriating, so let's waste no time in sporking it!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 1
We jump to Coldwater, Maine, in present times. We also jump into a first-person narration, provided by one Nora Gray. She will be our Idiot Female Protagonist for this novel.
The chapter starts on an…interesting note, as she enters her biology class and sees, attached to the blackboard, a naked Barbie doll with her arm linked to a naked Ken doll. We’re told that there are artificial leaves on a “few choice places”, which makes no sense seeing as Barbie and Ken are quite anatomically impaired. Also on the board is the sentence “WELCOME TO HUMAN REPRODUCTION (SEX)” and I am thanking each and every one of my lucky stars that this isn’t happening in Hogwarts Exposed.
A girl named Vee Sky comments that this is why the school has banned camera phones, because pictures of that would be sufficient to get biology axed. You know, maybe it was just my school, but I always thought that Sex Ed was taught as a subunit of Health class, with biology dealing with cellular reproduction and stuff like that.
Anyway, Vee is Nora’s Annoying Best Friend, and her one character trait is quickly established - she wants hot boys and she specifically wants them for sex. Fitzpatrick makes absolutely no effort to be subtle about this. Vee goes from her comment about the camera pictures (which, if left alone, I could see being a snarky joke a high schooler would make) to talking about how they could be using this hour to get “one-on-one tutoring from cute upperclass guys”. Nora reminds Vee that she was looking forward to the sex unit all semester and Vee replies “This class isn‘t going to teach me anything I don‘t already know”. Nora, for some reason, comments “Vee? As virgin?” and Vee makes it clear that she is embarrassed that she has not yet lost her virginity. I sense that I’ll be very annoyed with Vee for most of the novel.
The class is being taught by a dude named Coach McConaugh, who starts off the lesson with “It may not have occurred to you kids that sex is more than a fifteen-minute trip to the backseat of a car. It‘s science”. Oy. He then asks the class what science is, and there’s a chorus of answers like “Boring” and “The only class I‘m failing”. Alright, points for actually knowing how teenagers talk in that regard. The teacher asks Nora what it is, and she replies “The study something”. How specific. Upon further prompting, she says that it’s knowledge gained through experimentation and observation, before mentally moaning about how she sounds like the audio book for their text. *rubs head* Why is it that when a character in these sorts of books shows the slightest bit of intelligence, they instantly bash it for making them sound overly smart? Do these Suethors really think that all teenagers think that sounding intelligent is undesirable?
There’s more talk about the definition of science, before the teacher brings up how Nora and Vee always sit together and thus must know about each other. We get a brief, gratuitous info dump about how they look - apparently Vee is a “green-eyed, minky blond, and a few pounds over curvy” while Nora is a “smoky-eyed brunette with volumes of curly hair that holds its own against even the best flatiron” and has really long legs - and Nora gets a Bad Feeling About This. Said feeling is on the mark, as the teacher promptly says that the two have been together for so long that it’s high time they sit with other people. So yeah, new seating chart time!
Vee points out that it’s April and school’s almost over, so why the flip is he pulling this now? The teacher pretty much says “‘Cuz I can”. I’m dead serious. And yeah, if I had to up and lug my many heavy textbooks and whatnot around the classroom just because the teacher got a bug up his butt to get two girls to split up, I’d be annoyed as well. Why not just swap them around with one other pair?
Instead, everyone gets up and plays musical chairs. And what do you know, Nora is sitting next to the mysterious transfer student who never volunteers in class, is dark and moody, and is unnamed. Well gee, I do so wonder where this all is going?
Nora smiles at the guy and introduces herself and he smiles back but says nothing. Nora is freaked out because “a feeling of gloomy darkness seemed to slide like a shadow over me”. She quickly turns away from this guy, figuring that he is trouble. Normally I’d applaud her for a bit of sense, but we all know that it’s only a matter of chapters before she’s swooning into his arms, so really this insistence of how scary and dangerous he is makes it all even squickier.
The teacher says that their assignment for the rest of class is to…erm investigate their partner, apparently divining things about them through observation. Nora doesn’t get anything, besides the fact that he smells like cigars. Apparently this is supposed to show how bad he is, because the smell is “richer and fouler” than cigarettes. Me, all I’m getting is picturing her doing a lab with Groucho Marx. That would probably make for a more interesting story as well. Instead, she notices that the guy is writing a ton of stuff about her, even though she can’t see how he figured anything out. All she can see is that he’s writing how she speaks English. Erm, how does that relate to biology? Ah well, who needs that when we can establish how this guy’s an asshole? First he folds the paper so Nora can’t read, then ignores her when she asks what he’s writing about her. Yes, one could argue that he’s just observing and doesn’t think they’re supposed to talk for the project, but then he goes and crumples up her unused paper and throws it in the garbage can, and I really am getting pissed with this guy.
Nora gets out a new sheet of paper and asks for his name. He says to call him Patch, and then says that he means it when he says to call him and winks. Really? Patch? That’s the best bad-boy motorcyclist gangster name Fitzpatrick could come up with? No wonder this kid doesn’t associate with anyone! Any high schooler worth their salt would find a million jokes to make at a name like that.
Nora, however, stays focused and asks him what he does in his spare time. HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO BIOLOGY? Gah! He says that he doesn’t have free time. Instead of a follow-up question like “Why not?” or “What do you do that keeps you so busy?”, Nora reminds him that they’re probably being graded on this and asks him to do her a favor. The implication is, of course, to actually help her out here, but he asks “What kind of favor”, in a way that Nora picks up on as innuendo. What a charming fellow.
So yeah, he finally relents and says he takes pictures. When Nora goes to write this down, he snaps that he wasn’t done and goes on about how he also has “quite a collection” going for a columnist for the school paper, and how she has to choose between Stanford, Yale, and “…what‘s that big one with the H?” Of course, said columnist is Nora, and she is agape at how he knows all of this.
Nora. Dearest. I realize it can be surprising, but use common sense. He’s probably spying on you!!! Oh, but he then says that she won’t go to any of them, before grabbing her chair and pulling her closer to him. She outright admits that she wants to pull away at this, but doesn’t want to show fear and dear God, go to the teacher and ask him to change your seat! This dude is creepy and downright inappropriate!!!
But no, she just has to hear more. Patch tells her that she’d “thrive” at all three of the schools, but wouldn’t want to go because it’d be a “cliché of an achievement”. He then says that passing judgment is her third-biggest weakness. Nora is, of course, pissed at all of this and asks him to tell her what her second biggest-weakness is, if he’s so smart. Oh, and instead of being pissed about what a condescending asshat Patch is, she seems more angry that he seems to know so much about her. Really. Anyway, Patch says that her second-biggest weakness is that she doesn’t know how to trust, or rather she trusts all the wrong people. She then asks what her first-biggest weakness is, and he says that she keeps her life on a short leash, afraid of what she can’t control. I swear to all things holy, if this is supposed to foreshadow how she’s such a silly loser for not wanting to loosen up and be with the bad boy and how it’s fun to be with psychos, my laptop is going out of the window.
At this point, Nora tells us that she wants to go to the teacher and ask for a new seating arrangement, but is afraid of Patch thinking he is intimidating her. I realize that people do feel this way, especially when threatened, but it really just makes Nora seem stupid. And then, Patch asks her if she sleeps naked. I’m dead serious.
Nora. Go to the teacher, now. Or better yet, go to the principle. Or heck, see a guidance councilor! There's got to be someone you can talk to in private about this! But no, Nora just tells Patch that if she did sleep naked, she certainly wouldn't tell him. He then asks if she has ever had therapy, and I'm serious, not even one chapter in and he has inspired a level of hatred that outstrips that which I feel for Edward Cullen and post-Eclipse Jacob Black combined.
Apparently Nora does see the school shrink, not by her own choice, but she doesn't like to talk about it so she lies and says that she doesn't. Given how this guy is implied to know all about her, if we figure that he really already knew about her therapy and how she felt about it, that just makes him even worse.
Patch then asks if Nora has ever done anything illegal, and she says no, figuring that breaking the speed limit every so often wouldn't count "Not with him". She asks why he won't ask her normal questions, like her taste in music. He says that he doesn't want to ask what he can guess, and says that she likes Baroque music and somehow divines that because she likes control, she plays the cello. Of course this is correct, but Nora freaks out and lies again, saying that she doesn't.
Patch notices something on her wrist. She insists that it's a birthmark, but he sees it's a scar. He figures that she slit her wrist and asks if she's suicidal. We get the charming description "His eyes connected with mine, and I could feel him laughing". He then asks if her parents are married or divorced. She says that she lives with her mother, clearly getting uncomfortable. Patch continues to be an asshole and asks what happened to her father. Nora says that he passed away and when Patch won't stop pestering her, finally says that her father was murdered a year ago. She finally tells Patch to back off because he's seriously treading into personal territory. We're told how his eyes soften and he comments on how hard it must have been "like he meant it". Too little too late, Fitzpatrick. Having him have one moment of kindness doesn't exactly cover up an entire class of harassment and scaring her.
The bell rings and Nora panics because she didn't get much of anything on Patch. When she tells him this, he writes his phone number on her hand. Considering his comments before about how she should call him, that's just...gah. Of course her courage fails when she tries to tell him how much of a jerkass he was, and all she can come up with is that she's busy that night. He replies that so is he, before giving a smile and running off
"I stood nailed to the spot, digesting what had just happened. Did he eat up all the time questioning me on purpose? So I'd fail? Did he think one flashy grin would redeem him? Yes, I thought. Yes, he did.
'I won't call!' I called after him. 'Not-ever!'"
ZeldaQueen: Apparently the Suethor thinks it would redeem him as well. Nora, you silly, childish girl, you're going to hook up with the hot gangster who scares and harasses you and you're going to like it!
God, now I feel filthy.
Vee shows up at this point, complaining about how her new partner who told her all about her lice treatments that morning. Nora points out Patch in the hallway and Vee comments that apparently this is his third time going through his senior year. Nora tells about how he knew all of those things about her and freaked her out, before telling Vee that she's going to the teacher for a new partner. Good going on her part! Tell how the kid was making very inappropriate comments to her and was frightening her, nip this in the bud...
"At the end of the day, I was the one who took a slap in the face. Coach shot down my plea to rethink the seating chart. It appeared I was stuck with Patch"
ZeldaQueen: *mouth hangs open* I...he...she...they...
WHAT?
Did she not tell the teacher about the harassment? How he scared her? I...this is...
I'm tired. We've only finished chapter one and I am through.
Good freaking riddance
Onward to: Chapter 2
Back to: Prologue
Return to to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 1
We jump to Coldwater, Maine, in present times. We also jump into a first-person narration, provided by one Nora Gray. She will be our Idiot Female Protagonist for this novel.
The chapter starts on an…interesting note, as she enters her biology class and sees, attached to the blackboard, a naked Barbie doll with her arm linked to a naked Ken doll. We’re told that there are artificial leaves on a “few choice places”, which makes no sense seeing as Barbie and Ken are quite anatomically impaired. Also on the board is the sentence “WELCOME TO HUMAN REPRODUCTION (SEX)” and I am thanking each and every one of my lucky stars that this isn’t happening in Hogwarts Exposed.
A girl named Vee Sky comments that this is why the school has banned camera phones, because pictures of that would be sufficient to get biology axed. You know, maybe it was just my school, but I always thought that Sex Ed was taught as a subunit of Health class, with biology dealing with cellular reproduction and stuff like that.
Anyway, Vee is Nora’s Annoying Best Friend, and her one character trait is quickly established - she wants hot boys and she specifically wants them for sex. Fitzpatrick makes absolutely no effort to be subtle about this. Vee goes from her comment about the camera pictures (which, if left alone, I could see being a snarky joke a high schooler would make) to talking about how they could be using this hour to get “one-on-one tutoring from cute upperclass guys”. Nora reminds Vee that she was looking forward to the sex unit all semester and Vee replies “This class isn‘t going to teach me anything I don‘t already know”. Nora, for some reason, comments “Vee? As virgin?” and Vee makes it clear that she is embarrassed that she has not yet lost her virginity. I sense that I’ll be very annoyed with Vee for most of the novel.
The class is being taught by a dude named Coach McConaugh, who starts off the lesson with “It may not have occurred to you kids that sex is more than a fifteen-minute trip to the backseat of a car. It‘s science”. Oy. He then asks the class what science is, and there’s a chorus of answers like “Boring” and “The only class I‘m failing”. Alright, points for actually knowing how teenagers talk in that regard. The teacher asks Nora what it is, and she replies “The study something”. How specific. Upon further prompting, she says that it’s knowledge gained through experimentation and observation, before mentally moaning about how she sounds like the audio book for their text. *rubs head* Why is it that when a character in these sorts of books shows the slightest bit of intelligence, they instantly bash it for making them sound overly smart? Do these Suethors really think that all teenagers think that sounding intelligent is undesirable?
There’s more talk about the definition of science, before the teacher brings up how Nora and Vee always sit together and thus must know about each other. We get a brief, gratuitous info dump about how they look - apparently Vee is a “green-eyed, minky blond, and a few pounds over curvy” while Nora is a “smoky-eyed brunette with volumes of curly hair that holds its own against even the best flatiron” and has really long legs - and Nora gets a Bad Feeling About This. Said feeling is on the mark, as the teacher promptly says that the two have been together for so long that it’s high time they sit with other people. So yeah, new seating chart time!
Vee points out that it’s April and school’s almost over, so why the flip is he pulling this now? The teacher pretty much says “‘Cuz I can”. I’m dead serious. And yeah, if I had to up and lug my many heavy textbooks and whatnot around the classroom just because the teacher got a bug up his butt to get two girls to split up, I’d be annoyed as well. Why not just swap them around with one other pair?
Instead, everyone gets up and plays musical chairs. And what do you know, Nora is sitting next to the mysterious transfer student who never volunteers in class, is dark and moody, and is unnamed. Well gee, I do so wonder where this all is going?
Nora smiles at the guy and introduces herself and he smiles back but says nothing. Nora is freaked out because “a feeling of gloomy darkness seemed to slide like a shadow over me”. She quickly turns away from this guy, figuring that he is trouble. Normally I’d applaud her for a bit of sense, but we all know that it’s only a matter of chapters before she’s swooning into his arms, so really this insistence of how scary and dangerous he is makes it all even squickier.
The teacher says that their assignment for the rest of class is to…erm investigate their partner, apparently divining things about them through observation. Nora doesn’t get anything, besides the fact that he smells like cigars. Apparently this is supposed to show how bad he is, because the smell is “richer and fouler” than cigarettes. Me, all I’m getting is picturing her doing a lab with Groucho Marx. That would probably make for a more interesting story as well. Instead, she notices that the guy is writing a ton of stuff about her, even though she can’t see how he figured anything out. All she can see is that he’s writing how she speaks English. Erm, how does that relate to biology? Ah well, who needs that when we can establish how this guy’s an asshole? First he folds the paper so Nora can’t read, then ignores her when she asks what he’s writing about her. Yes, one could argue that he’s just observing and doesn’t think they’re supposed to talk for the project, but then he goes and crumples up her unused paper and throws it in the garbage can, and I really am getting pissed with this guy.
Nora gets out a new sheet of paper and asks for his name. He says to call him Patch, and then says that he means it when he says to call him and winks. Really? Patch? That’s the best bad-boy motorcyclist gangster name Fitzpatrick could come up with? No wonder this kid doesn’t associate with anyone! Any high schooler worth their salt would find a million jokes to make at a name like that.
Nora, however, stays focused and asks him what he does in his spare time. HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO BIOLOGY? Gah! He says that he doesn’t have free time. Instead of a follow-up question like “Why not?” or “What do you do that keeps you so busy?”, Nora reminds him that they’re probably being graded on this and asks him to do her a favor. The implication is, of course, to actually help her out here, but he asks “What kind of favor”, in a way that Nora picks up on as innuendo. What a charming fellow.
So yeah, he finally relents and says he takes pictures. When Nora goes to write this down, he snaps that he wasn’t done and goes on about how he also has “quite a collection” going for a columnist for the school paper, and how she has to choose between Stanford, Yale, and “…what‘s that big one with the H?” Of course, said columnist is Nora, and she is agape at how he knows all of this.
Nora. Dearest. I realize it can be surprising, but use common sense. He’s probably spying on you!!! Oh, but he then says that she won’t go to any of them, before grabbing her chair and pulling her closer to him. She outright admits that she wants to pull away at this, but doesn’t want to show fear and dear God, go to the teacher and ask him to change your seat! This dude is creepy and downright inappropriate!!!
But no, she just has to hear more. Patch tells her that she’d “thrive” at all three of the schools, but wouldn’t want to go because it’d be a “cliché of an achievement”. He then says that passing judgment is her third-biggest weakness. Nora is, of course, pissed at all of this and asks him to tell her what her second biggest-weakness is, if he’s so smart. Oh, and instead of being pissed about what a condescending asshat Patch is, she seems more angry that he seems to know so much about her. Really. Anyway, Patch says that her second-biggest weakness is that she doesn’t know how to trust, or rather she trusts all the wrong people. She then asks what her first-biggest weakness is, and he says that she keeps her life on a short leash, afraid of what she can’t control. I swear to all things holy, if this is supposed to foreshadow how she’s such a silly loser for not wanting to loosen up and be with the bad boy and how it’s fun to be with psychos, my laptop is going out of the window.
At this point, Nora tells us that she wants to go to the teacher and ask for a new seating arrangement, but is afraid of Patch thinking he is intimidating her. I realize that people do feel this way, especially when threatened, but it really just makes Nora seem stupid. And then, Patch asks her if she sleeps naked. I’m dead serious.
Nora. Go to the teacher, now. Or better yet, go to the principle. Or heck, see a guidance councilor! There's got to be someone you can talk to in private about this! But no, Nora just tells Patch that if she did sleep naked, she certainly wouldn't tell him. He then asks if she has ever had therapy, and I'm serious, not even one chapter in and he has inspired a level of hatred that outstrips that which I feel for Edward Cullen and post-Eclipse Jacob Black combined.
Apparently Nora does see the school shrink, not by her own choice, but she doesn't like to talk about it so she lies and says that she doesn't. Given how this guy is implied to know all about her, if we figure that he really already knew about her therapy and how she felt about it, that just makes him even worse.
Patch then asks if Nora has ever done anything illegal, and she says no, figuring that breaking the speed limit every so often wouldn't count "Not with him". She asks why he won't ask her normal questions, like her taste in music. He says that he doesn't want to ask what he can guess, and says that she likes Baroque music and somehow divines that because she likes control, she plays the cello. Of course this is correct, but Nora freaks out and lies again, saying that she doesn't.
Patch notices something on her wrist. She insists that it's a birthmark, but he sees it's a scar. He figures that she slit her wrist and asks if she's suicidal. We get the charming description "His eyes connected with mine, and I could feel him laughing". He then asks if her parents are married or divorced. She says that she lives with her mother, clearly getting uncomfortable. Patch continues to be an asshole and asks what happened to her father. Nora says that he passed away and when Patch won't stop pestering her, finally says that her father was murdered a year ago. She finally tells Patch to back off because he's seriously treading into personal territory. We're told how his eyes soften and he comments on how hard it must have been "like he meant it". Too little too late, Fitzpatrick. Having him have one moment of kindness doesn't exactly cover up an entire class of harassment and scaring her.
The bell rings and Nora panics because she didn't get much of anything on Patch. When she tells him this, he writes his phone number on her hand. Considering his comments before about how she should call him, that's just...gah. Of course her courage fails when she tries to tell him how much of a jerkass he was, and all she can come up with is that she's busy that night. He replies that so is he, before giving a smile and running off
"I stood nailed to the spot, digesting what had just happened. Did he eat up all the time questioning me on purpose? So I'd fail? Did he think one flashy grin would redeem him? Yes, I thought. Yes, he did.
'I won't call!' I called after him. 'Not-ever!'"
ZeldaQueen: Apparently the Suethor thinks it would redeem him as well. Nora, you silly, childish girl, you're going to hook up with the hot gangster who scares and harasses you and you're going to like it!
God, now I feel filthy.
Vee shows up at this point, complaining about how her new partner who told her all about her lice treatments that morning. Nora points out Patch in the hallway and Vee comments that apparently this is his third time going through his senior year. Nora tells about how he knew all of those things about her and freaked her out, before telling Vee that she's going to the teacher for a new partner. Good going on her part! Tell how the kid was making very inappropriate comments to her and was frightening her, nip this in the bud...
"At the end of the day, I was the one who took a slap in the face. Coach shot down my plea to rethink the seating chart. It appeared I was stuck with Patch"
ZeldaQueen: *mouth hangs open* I...he...she...they...
WHAT?
Did she not tell the teacher about the harassment? How he scared her? I...this is...
I'm tired. We've only finished chapter one and I am through.
Good freaking riddance
Onward to: Chapter 2
Back to: Prologue
Return to to: Table of Contents