The last chapter got me thinking a bit about the vampire high school and their rules. How come they have the boys and the girls separated as they do? In our world, you could argue that the reason you see boys and girls separated is to prevent distraction. Or at least to reduce the odds that they’ll be prematurely adding to the student body.
The idea of schools segregated by sex is a bit old fashioned in the most of the world. The number of public schools that offer single sex education within the States is mind bogglingly low. The best number I was able to find said there was only fifty three total that catered to a single sex and two hundred more had single sex classes.
The reason PCK divided the dorms up into girls and boys is pretty simple. She was copying Harry Potter which was, in itself, modeling itself off of private and boarding schools. PCK will pretend otherwise, claiming that the idea was “vampire finishing school”. Considering that finishing school was only to teach women the basics of culture and social graces, were typically shorter in term than a university education and weren’t for men, that explanation doesn’t wash.
So it’s a public school run like a private school but much worse. Why do they separate the boys and girls again? Aren’t the vampires supposed to be enlightened or progressive? They trust their students with the wine and whatever snacks they want. What’s a little boning between students? Or are the Casts as secretly prude as the religious zealots they make fun of?
We rejoin Zoey who says, out loud, that she’s never believed she would have wished school wasn’t canceled. Not because she’s concerned that students, having nothing to do, might wander off campus and cause an incident. Zoey is bored and doesn’t want to have a three day because, again, she’s bored. I guess the main villain undergoing a resurrection just isn’t interesting.
Stark says she should come to bed and he’ll give her something to do. She also tells us that he smiled cute and cocky, affirming that it’s exactly that. Zoey tells us she’s not in the mood and makes a joke to dismiss his offer. Then she gives him a kiss and apologizes for sleeping badly and then describes her nightmare. Stark may be obligated to listen to Zoey’s horseshit dream but we don’t deserve that.
Realizing he’s going to have to take a longer shower, Stark tells Zoey to sit down. He starts rubbing her shoulders and telling her to stop over thinking things. Something Zoey isn’t equipped to do in the first place. Stark says that she’ll have plenty to do today with finding rooms for the undeadlings. They have to be careful to make sure they’re protected during the day, something we’re all cognizant of. I’m getting really tired of PCK reminding us the red vampires are more traditional like we forgot.
Stark say he has a favor to ask of her. Zoey tenses up at the very thought someone could ask her something. He says they should skip Beavis’ funeral. It wasn’t like they were really missing her or anything. Zoey agrees and says that Shaylin has already shown an affinity for water so Beavis’ place has been filled. She asks if he thinks Dallas would start a fight at the funeral and Stark says yes.
There’s a protracted discussion about why Beavis wanted to rejoin the circle and how she didn’t really want to. Who cares, PCK? Beavis wasn’t a beloved character the audience will mourn the loss of. Hell, she’s not even really that important to the rest of Zoey’s slaves. That Shaylin has already been given the element to replace her, tells us just how much she meant to PCK. You’d think they’d wring some drama out of having to find a water replacement for Beavis for at least a chapter.
Zoey says she’ll talk to Butthead and make sure she’s okay while saying it’s a good idea for her to lead the funeral. She also says she’ll check on Aphro because she’s probably going to be messed up by her dad’s death. Stark says Aphro was already and Zoey slaps him on the leg. She says that Aphro may be “hateful” but she’s still a friend. Yeah, Stark, only Zoey can verbally abuse the slaves as she’s their master.
Stark remembers his place and says he was only kidding. She may be a bitch but she’s their bitch. Now it’s time to go down and get breakfast. They go down and Zoey grabs a plate of spaghetti, mispronouncing it on purpose. That’s the kind of forced cutesiness that gets you cut, Zoey. She attempts more forced quirkiness by making up a spaghetti song and dancing back to the table. Later she’ll hold up a spork and “randomly” quote lines from the Big Bang Theory because she’s just so nerdy and random.
This is merely so Aurox can join in the “random” song and make Stark angry. We learn Zoey has known Heath since they were nine. A fact that makes her bitchiness towards him in the first novel even more inexplicable. PCK started him off as the boyfriend Zoey was going to grow out of. Then they decided they needed a love triangle, because it worked so well in Twilight, and dragged him back. She says it doesn’t help that he’s cute but he could be ugly and she’d still be obsessed because Aurox has Heath’s soul.
Which is a whole load of fucked up. Zoey is attracted to Aurox not for who he is inside or his own personality. It’s because he’s got the soul of someone Zoey was stuck on for reasons that make no sense. She certainly never cared about him while he was alive unless he was bound to her by blood. Damien sends Aurox over to the same table as Zoey and Stark for the sake of a distraction from the plot.
Zoey asks if the rest have seen Aphro. Stevie says no and that Aphro once said she could tell which girls were going to turn into their mothers by how much makeup they wore to breakfast. Butthead asks if more or less is good and Stevie says she doesn’t know, she usually tunes Aphro out. Funny, that’s usually how I cope with your dialogue, PCK.
We find out Damien and Aurox are boarding together because Damien refers to him as “roomie”. Aurox says he doesn’t want to be alone but he didn’t want to bunk with strangers. Stark has to remind Aurox that him and Zoey sleep in the same bed and says they were talking about bedding arrangements for everyone. They say they need to find something underground for the undeadlings.
Damien says he heard Darius talking about a place where they stored old shields and swords. There must be water tight rooms in the basement as Dragon wouldn’t allow swords to be kept in a place that would rust. There’s nothing quite as thrilling as watching characters figure out where they can setup cots and bathrooms for a bunch of other students. If the director of the new Bourne movies had the balls, they’d cut out those boring car chases, fight scenes, demonstrations of spy craft and replace it with easily resolve student council issues like what kind of crepe paper to string up at prom.
Zoey then says they can’t have the full red vampires like Stevie and Stark down there with the other undeadlings. She says that to prevent losing them in case something happens down there. But they definitely need to be guarded still. Aurox offers to camp out down there to look after them as he doesn’t really sleep anyway. Damien says he’ll go along to make sure Aurox doesn’t get lonely and to smooth things over. The other characters assure us that Damien gets along with people really well, though we’ve never seen evidence confirming this.
They get up to go have a chat with Darius about the storerooms and such. Stark stops just at the door of the cafeteria and kisses her. Zoey is outraged because she hates public displays of affection. Anything more than hand holding is off limits. She wants to yell at him but knows that’ll cause a fight. She tries to tell us that she’s not interested in Aurox but even her subconscious knows she is because he has Heath’s soul.