Hush, Hush: Chapter 4
ZeldaQueen: In which Vee is annoying and nothing interesting happens
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 4
ZeldaQueen: When we last left off, Patch terrified the fuck out of us all and Nora was attacked by some dude in a ski mask as she was driving him. She cuts back to Coldwater and calls Vee. As soon as Vee picks up, Nora starts babbling about something hitting the car. She finally blurts out “He came out of nowhere” and “He jumped in front of the car!” Nora is clearly scared out of her mind and incoherent, so Vee promptly comes to the conclusion that she hit a deer and instantly starts to worry about whether or not her car is in good condition. Alright, she asks once if Nora is alright, but doesn’t really pay the thought much mind. Instead, we get a lot of her asking if there are deer innards sprayed on the windshield which I suspect is supposed to be amusing but it really isn’t. We also are told that Nora seriously considers lying and just saying that it was a deer, before mentally smacking herself into sticking to the truth. No, she doesn’t actually tell Vee what happened. Instead of answering, Nora asks if she can spend the night with Vee. Vee says it’s cool, so Nora speeds on over. Along the way she has to go by where she had the accident, but no one is there. Of course.
When Nora gets there, Vee goes to examine the damage. Nora is amazed because she knows that the passenger’s door was nearly ripped off and the windshield was all smashed up, but now there is only a small crack on the windshield. Everything else is perfectly fine.
While Vee squeals over the lack of damage to her car, Nora suddenly realizes that the ski mask man who attacked her had eyes like Patch. I’m honestly not surprised, by this point. She suddenly realizes that she can’t remember very much else about the dude, which I’m sure would be chilling if we had actually been given any details the first time around. Heck, given that she briefly saw him during a massive storm and spent all of that encounter being scared out of her mind, I’m surprised she doesn’t have a good idea of what he looked like.
Jump to the next morning, as the girls head off for school. As they stop for breakfast, Vee points out a dude in a green sweater who is apparently checking out Nora. Vee isn’t interested in “Mr. Green Sweater” as he doesn’t appear bad-boy enough for her tastes, but is interested in his friend. Said friend apparently falls under “bad-boy” for her because of his widow’s peak, deep-set eyes, and a tall, lanky build. That sounds like a guy I knew in high school. I can assure you all, said guy was about the farthest thing from a bad boy that you can get. Still, this dude is clearly Important because he gets a purple prose-y description
“I took in his fine-boned, handsome face. Blond hair hung at his shoulders. Eyes the color of chrome. Unshaven. Impeccably dressed in a tailored jacket over his green sweater and dark designer jeans”
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, I have to agree with Nora. That doesn’t exactly sound like Vee’s description of “Dracula‘s spawn”.
Vee gets pissy because Nora’s not gushing over hot guys dammit, which clearly means that something’s wrong with her. She guesses that it has to do with the car accident and basically tells Nora to get over it and stop being traumatized that she hit an animal, chuh! Nora, meanwhile, is so quiet because she’s still forgetting things about the accident and now isn’t so certain she didn’t actually hit a deer.
At this point, Mr. Green Sweater gets up and Vee makes several comments on how hot his body is. Much to their surprise, Mr. Green Sweater comes over and says “Hello”. Vee instantly starts laying on the…erm charm and gives the guy both her first name and Nora’s full name, even though Nora in no way indicated that she was okay with that. That’s great Vee, why don’t you give him Nora’s home address as well? You can also warn him that her bedroom window sticks, so he’ll know to bring oil when he crawls in…I’m so, so sorry. This book just really puts me in that mind state, you know?
Mr. Green Sweater gains an actual name when he introduces himself as Elliot Saunders. Vee’s “bad boy” is only introduced as “Jules”. I guess he only gets one name, like Madonna. He also only gets on descriptive trait, which is that he’s tall.
Elliot offers to get them something to eat. Nora says that she’s good to go and Vee immediately says that Nora wants a vanilla-cream doughnut and that she’ll have one as well. Um, why was that necessary? Did Vee think it would cramp her style to be the only one asking for food? Why can’t she get it in her head that Nora’s not interested?
Nora, for her part, is rather rude and asks Vee, right in front of those two guys, if this means that she’s giving up on her diet after all. Vee defends her decision by saying that vanilla beans are technically fruits.
Jules, meanwhile, is pinching the bridge of his nose and sitting with his eyes closed and generally giving “I don’t want to be here” vibes, akin to how Edward acts whenever he’s in the school cafeteria. Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, gives a horrible example of telling instead of showing.
“As Elliot walked to the front counter, I let my eyes trail after him. He was definitely in high school, but I hadn't seen him at CHS before. I would remember. He had a charming, outgoing personality that didn't fade into the background. If I wasn't feeling so shaken, I might have actually taken an interest. In friendship, maybe more”
ZeldaQueen: I mean, it’s not like we can be shown he has a charming, outgoing personality. I guess we have to be told, seeing as we haven’t seen any hint of him having one.
Vee, meanwhile, dips her finger in her hot milk and licks the drops off, which I suspect is her trying to be sexy. She chats Jules up, basically outright asking him if he’s rich. He moves away from her, like any sane person would.
Elliot returns by this point and casually mentions that he has just transferred to Nora and Vee’s school and that today is his first day there. Vee nearly wets herself with excitement and makes a very obvious suggestion for him to ask herself or Nora to the spring dance.
Nora decides to leave at this point, although she blames it on Jules’ irritable mood and not that Vee’s being really freaking annoying. She says that they have to go, because they have a bio test to study for. Vee is either really stupid or unconcerned with Nora’s feelings because she says no, there’s no bio test. Nora then says that it’s actually an English test and drags Vee out of there, knowing that everyone present knew she lied.
And then we skip the rest of the school day and jump ahead to biology. Fitzpatrick’s taking lessons from Meyer, it seems. Vee notes that Nora doesn’t look so good and hasn’t been eating and then Patch shows up. *flatly* Fantastic. I was missing him. Apparently Vee was sitting next to Nora before class started, because Patch is pleasantly dickish and passive-aggressive to get her to move so he can camp next to Nora and probably try to fondle her a bit. Patch tells Nora that she's "Looking good as always". If anyone else had used that line, I'd think it was cute flirting. After all of the inappropriate comments out of this fucker's mouth though, I want to mace him.
Patch proceeds to be a bad boy and put his feet up on the desk. Nora takes the opportunity to note that he's just as tall as Jules, and if I didn't know that was lame foreshadowing, I'd think that Fitzpatrick had a thing for tall guys. Also, Nora automatically thanks Patch for his...erm compliment, before angsting about how she doesn't want to encourage him. Given how the two have been interacting, that's just messed up. She also tells us that she doesn't want him to think she wants his compliments "Because I didn't ... for the most part". Jesus.
Patch interrupts this all to tell her that he also thinks she smells nice. Again, that could be sweet coming from someone who isn't a stalking harasser. From this guy?
ZeldaQueen: Oh yeah.
Instead of just ignoring Patch (which she said not two sentences ago was what she wanted him to do to her), she tells him that she just showered. This leads to Patch making a predictable observation about how he knows that she was naked when she showered. The fact that he has an obsession with finding out what things she does naked combined with the fact that he's almost certainly stalking her reeeeeeally makes me wish she'd go to the police on this guy.
Class starts by this point, and the teacher gives them practice quizzes, to prepare them for a real quiz on Friday. Since we were never told about this upcoming quiz, any significance it has if any, or even what day of the week it currently is, I honestly don't care. I also find it hilarious that Nora vaguely describes diligently answering every question because DUDE, THEY'VE LEARNED SQUAT THUS FAR! I'm serious! They just started a new unit and their lessons have consisted of that question and answer project (no relation to biology) and that stupid "sexual traits in a mate) lesson, which had virtually no actually facts in it at all!
Because he's an annoying dick, Patch leans over to hold a whispered conversation with Nora while they take the quiz. For some reason, the teacher fails to notice this. Patch asks her if she had a rough night, as she looks tired, and for the third time, I must comment that what could pass as an innocent or even caring question just comes across as flat-out mocking, especially with the implication that Patch was the guy who attacked the car.
Nora, for no reason at all, starts talking to him about how she saw him at the library. He just laughs when she asks him if he followed her there, and she decides to finish the quiz. When she's done, she glances back at him and sees him staring at her, watching every move she makes and every breath she takes. Instead of being freaked out by that, she's instead shocked by how attractive his smile at her is. She's so shocked, in fact, that she drops her pencil and Patch picks it up for her. What a gentleman! That totally makes up for all of the harassment and stalking! And there's also the cliched bit where she gets all tingly and happy when she takes the pencil back and her hand brushes his. Because we're supposed to think this is sweet.
She asks him one more time if he followed her to the library, and he asks her if she's alright as she looks on edge. We're told by Nora how Patch's concern is a show and there's a taunting look in his eyes, which just makes this better and better, doesn't it? She keeps sticking to the question, and he asks her why he'd want to follow her. Maybe because he's a creeper who knows that she's insecure and alone and thus has very few means to keep him away from her?
The teacher says that they’re going to start the lesson, and Vee guesses that it’s on sex. Given that they’re in the Sex Ed unit, erm duh. Nora, meanwhile, considers the very good possibility that Patch is stalking her and goes cold at the thought. You know, this realistic reaction just makes it even worse, because eventually Fitzpatrick will shut off that sensible part of Nora’s brain so she’ll give in to that stupid, unexplained attraction.
After class, Nora stops Patch and tells him to go with her to convince the teacher to switch seats. He asks her why he’d do that and she says that she knows that he hates sitting next to her just as much as she hates sitting next to him. Funny, he never gave me that impression. It’s pretty obvious that he loves sitting next to her. She’s very easy for him to terrorize. And just to prove that point, he repeats how she’s exactly what he looks for in a potential mate (“vulnerable” is brought up again, in case we forgot) and says that she’s grown on him and thus he won’t do it. Yeah, this doesn’t make the guy seem sweet or sexy. This makes him look like a predator who is pleased that the girl he’s stalking is in his power and can’t escape without his cooperation.
The way Nora reacts, I suspect that Fitzpatrick was trying to blur the line and suggest that Patch is being sincere when he goes on about how fond he is, sitting next to Nora. It honestly doesn’t work because, like I said, it’s not hard to convince us that he likes sitting next to her. The impossible part is spinning it to not look utterly terrifying.
Vee butts in at this point, asking if she’s interrupting something. Because Fitzpatrick still insists on drawing parallels to this being sweet flirting. Nora lies and says that she was just asking Patch what the assignment was, and Vee says that Nora could see the assignment written on the blackboard. Patch is a douche and laughs at Nora and Nora goes through the “Oh, whatever could he be thinking?” routine. Because yeah, that’s the sort of guy who you want to know the thought process of.
The chapter ends with Vee telling Nora that she saw the teacher’s class roster and found out that Patch’s last name is Cipriano. Huh. So apparently he’s an Italian fallen angel. Very symbolic, especially when you consider that Cipriano de Valera was the name of the guy who was the editor of the first major Spanish translation of the Bible. (Also, more chillingly when you consider Patch’s treatment of Nora, Cipriano was also the surname of a Portuguese woman who was murdered in 2004.
Anyway, Nora asks Vee why knowing Patch’s last name is so exciting, and Vee says that they can use that to snoop around the nurse’s office and see if there’s any records of Patch being on medication. I guess she’s just nosy, because there’s no reason for her to want to do that (not to mention that it makes her even creepier, if she sees Patch humiliating Nora, suspects the kid’s on some sort of meds, and still thinks Nora should date him. I’m not saying people on medication are all dangerous, but unfortunate implications and all). Ah well, whatever gets the plot going, right?
Onward to: Chapter 5
Back to: Chapter 3
Return to to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 4
ZeldaQueen: When we last left off, Patch terrified the fuck out of us all and Nora was attacked by some dude in a ski mask as she was driving him. She cuts back to Coldwater and calls Vee. As soon as Vee picks up, Nora starts babbling about something hitting the car. She finally blurts out “He came out of nowhere” and “He jumped in front of the car!” Nora is clearly scared out of her mind and incoherent, so Vee promptly comes to the conclusion that she hit a deer and instantly starts to worry about whether or not her car is in good condition. Alright, she asks once if Nora is alright, but doesn’t really pay the thought much mind. Instead, we get a lot of her asking if there are deer innards sprayed on the windshield which I suspect is supposed to be amusing but it really isn’t. We also are told that Nora seriously considers lying and just saying that it was a deer, before mentally smacking herself into sticking to the truth. No, she doesn’t actually tell Vee what happened. Instead of answering, Nora asks if she can spend the night with Vee. Vee says it’s cool, so Nora speeds on over. Along the way she has to go by where she had the accident, but no one is there. Of course.
When Nora gets there, Vee goes to examine the damage. Nora is amazed because she knows that the passenger’s door was nearly ripped off and the windshield was all smashed up, but now there is only a small crack on the windshield. Everything else is perfectly fine.
While Vee squeals over the lack of damage to her car, Nora suddenly realizes that the ski mask man who attacked her had eyes like Patch. I’m honestly not surprised, by this point. She suddenly realizes that she can’t remember very much else about the dude, which I’m sure would be chilling if we had actually been given any details the first time around. Heck, given that she briefly saw him during a massive storm and spent all of that encounter being scared out of her mind, I’m surprised she doesn’t have a good idea of what he looked like.
Jump to the next morning, as the girls head off for school. As they stop for breakfast, Vee points out a dude in a green sweater who is apparently checking out Nora. Vee isn’t interested in “Mr. Green Sweater” as he doesn’t appear bad-boy enough for her tastes, but is interested in his friend. Said friend apparently falls under “bad-boy” for her because of his widow’s peak, deep-set eyes, and a tall, lanky build. That sounds like a guy I knew in high school. I can assure you all, said guy was about the farthest thing from a bad boy that you can get. Still, this dude is clearly Important because he gets a purple prose-y description
“I took in his fine-boned, handsome face. Blond hair hung at his shoulders. Eyes the color of chrome. Unshaven. Impeccably dressed in a tailored jacket over his green sweater and dark designer jeans”
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, I have to agree with Nora. That doesn’t exactly sound like Vee’s description of “Dracula‘s spawn”.
Vee gets pissy because Nora’s not gushing over hot guys dammit, which clearly means that something’s wrong with her. She guesses that it has to do with the car accident and basically tells Nora to get over it and stop being traumatized that she hit an animal, chuh! Nora, meanwhile, is so quiet because she’s still forgetting things about the accident and now isn’t so certain she didn’t actually hit a deer.
At this point, Mr. Green Sweater gets up and Vee makes several comments on how hot his body is. Much to their surprise, Mr. Green Sweater comes over and says “Hello”. Vee instantly starts laying on the…erm charm and gives the guy both her first name and Nora’s full name, even though Nora in no way indicated that she was okay with that. That’s great Vee, why don’t you give him Nora’s home address as well? You can also warn him that her bedroom window sticks, so he’ll know to bring oil when he crawls in…I’m so, so sorry. This book just really puts me in that mind state, you know?
Mr. Green Sweater gains an actual name when he introduces himself as Elliot Saunders. Vee’s “bad boy” is only introduced as “Jules”. I guess he only gets one name, like Madonna. He also only gets on descriptive trait, which is that he’s tall.
Elliot offers to get them something to eat. Nora says that she’s good to go and Vee immediately says that Nora wants a vanilla-cream doughnut and that she’ll have one as well. Um, why was that necessary? Did Vee think it would cramp her style to be the only one asking for food? Why can’t she get it in her head that Nora’s not interested?
Nora, for her part, is rather rude and asks Vee, right in front of those two guys, if this means that she’s giving up on her diet after all. Vee defends her decision by saying that vanilla beans are technically fruits.
Jules, meanwhile, is pinching the bridge of his nose and sitting with his eyes closed and generally giving “I don’t want to be here” vibes, akin to how Edward acts whenever he’s in the school cafeteria. Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, gives a horrible example of telling instead of showing.
“As Elliot walked to the front counter, I let my eyes trail after him. He was definitely in high school, but I hadn't seen him at CHS before. I would remember. He had a charming, outgoing personality that didn't fade into the background. If I wasn't feeling so shaken, I might have actually taken an interest. In friendship, maybe more”
ZeldaQueen: I mean, it’s not like we can be shown he has a charming, outgoing personality. I guess we have to be told, seeing as we haven’t seen any hint of him having one.
Vee, meanwhile, dips her finger in her hot milk and licks the drops off, which I suspect is her trying to be sexy. She chats Jules up, basically outright asking him if he’s rich. He moves away from her, like any sane person would.
Elliot returns by this point and casually mentions that he has just transferred to Nora and Vee’s school and that today is his first day there. Vee nearly wets herself with excitement and makes a very obvious suggestion for him to ask herself or Nora to the spring dance.
Nora decides to leave at this point, although she blames it on Jules’ irritable mood and not that Vee’s being really freaking annoying. She says that they have to go, because they have a bio test to study for. Vee is either really stupid or unconcerned with Nora’s feelings because she says no, there’s no bio test. Nora then says that it’s actually an English test and drags Vee out of there, knowing that everyone present knew she lied.
And then we skip the rest of the school day and jump ahead to biology. Fitzpatrick’s taking lessons from Meyer, it seems. Vee notes that Nora doesn’t look so good and hasn’t been eating and then Patch shows up. *flatly* Fantastic. I was missing him. Apparently Vee was sitting next to Nora before class started, because Patch is pleasantly dickish and passive-aggressive to get her to move so he can camp next to Nora and probably try to fondle her a bit. Patch tells Nora that she's "Looking good as always". If anyone else had used that line, I'd think it was cute flirting. After all of the inappropriate comments out of this fucker's mouth though, I want to mace him.
Patch proceeds to be a bad boy and put his feet up on the desk. Nora takes the opportunity to note that he's just as tall as Jules, and if I didn't know that was lame foreshadowing, I'd think that Fitzpatrick had a thing for tall guys. Also, Nora automatically thanks Patch for his...erm compliment, before angsting about how she doesn't want to encourage him. Given how the two have been interacting, that's just messed up. She also tells us that she doesn't want him to think she wants his compliments "Because I didn't ... for the most part". Jesus.
Patch interrupts this all to tell her that he also thinks she smells nice. Again, that could be sweet coming from someone who isn't a stalking harasser. From this guy?
ZeldaQueen: Oh yeah.
Instead of just ignoring Patch (which she said not two sentences ago was what she wanted him to do to her), she tells him that she just showered. This leads to Patch making a predictable observation about how he knows that she was naked when she showered. The fact that he has an obsession with finding out what things she does naked combined with the fact that he's almost certainly stalking her reeeeeeally makes me wish she'd go to the police on this guy.
Class starts by this point, and the teacher gives them practice quizzes, to prepare them for a real quiz on Friday. Since we were never told about this upcoming quiz, any significance it has if any, or even what day of the week it currently is, I honestly don't care. I also find it hilarious that Nora vaguely describes diligently answering every question because DUDE, THEY'VE LEARNED SQUAT THUS FAR! I'm serious! They just started a new unit and their lessons have consisted of that question and answer project (no relation to biology) and that stupid "sexual traits in a mate) lesson, which had virtually no actually facts in it at all!
Because he's an annoying dick, Patch leans over to hold a whispered conversation with Nora while they take the quiz. For some reason, the teacher fails to notice this. Patch asks her if she had a rough night, as she looks tired, and for the third time, I must comment that what could pass as an innocent or even caring question just comes across as flat-out mocking, especially with the implication that Patch was the guy who attacked the car.
Nora, for no reason at all, starts talking to him about how she saw him at the library. He just laughs when she asks him if he followed her there, and she decides to finish the quiz. When she's done, she glances back at him and sees him staring at her, watching every move she makes and every breath she takes. Instead of being freaked out by that, she's instead shocked by how attractive his smile at her is. She's so shocked, in fact, that she drops her pencil and Patch picks it up for her. What a gentleman! That totally makes up for all of the harassment and stalking! And there's also the cliched bit where she gets all tingly and happy when she takes the pencil back and her hand brushes his. Because we're supposed to think this is sweet.
She asks him one more time if he followed her to the library, and he asks her if she's alright as she looks on edge. We're told by Nora how Patch's concern is a show and there's a taunting look in his eyes, which just makes this better and better, doesn't it? She keeps sticking to the question, and he asks her why he'd want to follow her. Maybe because he's a creeper who knows that she's insecure and alone and thus has very few means to keep him away from her?
The teacher says that they’re going to start the lesson, and Vee guesses that it’s on sex. Given that they’re in the Sex Ed unit, erm duh. Nora, meanwhile, considers the very good possibility that Patch is stalking her and goes cold at the thought. You know, this realistic reaction just makes it even worse, because eventually Fitzpatrick will shut off that sensible part of Nora’s brain so she’ll give in to that stupid, unexplained attraction.
After class, Nora stops Patch and tells him to go with her to convince the teacher to switch seats. He asks her why he’d do that and she says that she knows that he hates sitting next to her just as much as she hates sitting next to him. Funny, he never gave me that impression. It’s pretty obvious that he loves sitting next to her. She’s very easy for him to terrorize. And just to prove that point, he repeats how she’s exactly what he looks for in a potential mate (“vulnerable” is brought up again, in case we forgot) and says that she’s grown on him and thus he won’t do it. Yeah, this doesn’t make the guy seem sweet or sexy. This makes him look like a predator who is pleased that the girl he’s stalking is in his power and can’t escape without his cooperation.
The way Nora reacts, I suspect that Fitzpatrick was trying to blur the line and suggest that Patch is being sincere when he goes on about how fond he is, sitting next to Nora. It honestly doesn’t work because, like I said, it’s not hard to convince us that he likes sitting next to her. The impossible part is spinning it to not look utterly terrifying.
Vee butts in at this point, asking if she’s interrupting something. Because Fitzpatrick still insists on drawing parallels to this being sweet flirting. Nora lies and says that she was just asking Patch what the assignment was, and Vee says that Nora could see the assignment written on the blackboard. Patch is a douche and laughs at Nora and Nora goes through the “Oh, whatever could he be thinking?” routine. Because yeah, that’s the sort of guy who you want to know the thought process of.
The chapter ends with Vee telling Nora that she saw the teacher’s class roster and found out that Patch’s last name is Cipriano. Huh. So apparently he’s an Italian fallen angel. Very symbolic, especially when you consider that Cipriano de Valera was the name of the guy who was the editor of the first major Spanish translation of the Bible. (Also, more chillingly when you consider Patch’s treatment of Nora, Cipriano was also the surname of a Portuguese woman who was murdered in 2004.
Anyway, Nora asks Vee why knowing Patch’s last name is so exciting, and Vee says that they can use that to snoop around the nurse’s office and see if there’s any records of Patch being on medication. I guess she’s just nosy, because there’s no reason for her to want to do that (not to mention that it makes her even creepier, if she sees Patch humiliating Nora, suspects the kid’s on some sort of meds, and still thinks Nora should date him. I’m not saying people on medication are all dangerous, but unfortunate implications and all). Ah well, whatever gets the plot going, right?
Onward to: Chapter 5
Back to: Chapter 3
Return to to: Table of Contents