Marked Chapter 17

So I have a question about rights, specifically the rights of parents in PCK’s world. Contrary to the constant whining of most of her characters, I’d bet the majority of parents don’t care that their kids go to the school. They probably understand that the marking isn’t something their kids choose and that going to the “house of night” is better than watching them die. But what about those like Zoey’s mom and stepdad?

Do the parents lose legal custody of their kids as soon as they’re marked? If so, who becomes their guardian? Do the students go home during the summer or is school a year round affair for them? At what age do vampires consider them an adult? Do they obey locals laws or only those they agree with? Do the families get notified in the event of emergency? How about in death?

Do student remains get handled at the wishes of the family, the student or does the priestess have to be present? Shouldn’t all students be required to fill out a last request in the event of their untimely death? Does Nyx or the vamps consider people who failed to make the change as dishonorable or do they have the right to be buried with the same respect as a full vampire?

These are questions I probably shouldn’t be asking and during the normal course of things I wouldn’t. But because the story is so boring my mind is left to wander. PCK expects us to be invested in Zoey because she’s exploring a new and better life. The problem there is that her old life doesn’t look like it was all that bad. I can’t really compare the two situations when all I have to go on is Zoey’s word that Stepdad is a big meanie.

Rejoining Zoey right after her vomiting episode, she stumbles around stupidly. So, she stumbles around until she comes to an oak tree. A couple of brain cells that decided to stay up after Leno noticed a couple of thoughts sitting in Zoey’s In basket and decided to try and collect some overtime.

What had I done? What was happening to me?

I’m sorry, PCK, that line of thought doesn’t fit here. That says that she’s responsible and took an active role in it. But Zoey didn’t, she doesn’t do much of anything really. She’s reclining comfortably on her inner tube and letting the Plot River take her where it may. Now if Zoey had just attacked someone and either drank their blood or tried too, then she could be horrified about what she’d done. But for her to take responsibility for something that was done to her doesn’t belong. Especially as she’s spent the majority of the book blaming everyone else for everything she can think of. Then Zoey spots a cat.

Then, from somewhere in the limbs of the oak I heard a meow. Okay, it wasn’t really your normal, average, catlike meow. It was more like a grumpy, “me-eeh-uf-me-eef-uf-snort.”

Oh hell, I think we’ve just met Zoey’s cute animal friend. And let me guess, PCK, the cat will choose her like the reverse Pokemon from hell that it is. And all because Zoey helps it out of a tree. So the stupid cat—for it is stupid. Any animal that would pick Zoey has to have a developmental disorder—crawls along a branch mewing at her while she baby talks to it. Oh, and although Zoey has just seen it, she knows it’s a female cat.

Finally I got within touching range of her. We stared at each other for a long time, and I started to wonder if she knew about me. Could she tell that I’d just tasted (and liked) blood? Did I have blood puke breath? Did I look different? Had I grown fangs? (Okay, that last question was ridiculous. Adult vamps don’t have fangs, but still.)

If that last question was ridiculous then why did you ask and answer it? Oh, that’s right. Because PCK couldn’t find another way to shoehorn in that little rule change. The cat finally jumps into her arms and purrs. Zoey then says that she looks like a little lioness, so like a flea bitten female lion with dwarfism? Then she says it’s the cat from her dreams and that must mean she’s Zoey’s cat. You know I tried that same logic regarding a Porche and the police just didn’t buy it.

Zoey looks up at the sky and says it sure would be nice if the clouds would clear because Neferet said they should sit in the moonlight. And so a wind comes by and clears them away. I’ve heard of avatars bending the story to their will but that was ridiculous. She says that was convenient and starts relaxing until she smells something funny. It turns out there are vampires who sneak by the local burrito place and then plague the other students who have just discovered their super smell.

Or Zoey smells something musty but not really bad. She looks at the nearby wall and sees a girl thanks to the moonlight and her enhanced vision. She swears it’s the girl Elizabeth—cue dramatic hook—and her eyes are glowing red! The cat, who is apparently named Nala, hisses because animal sense evil. Then the cat jumps away as someone calls out to her.

Zoey looks down from the wall she’s sitting on. Yes, she climbed onto a wall to get the cat out of a tree which wasn’t very clear at the time. It turns out that Kayla and Heath are coming to visit. Well, they say they’re there to “bust” her out. Oh yes, Heath smells of alcohol but because it’s beer and not blood laced wine, Zoey gets indignant. Meanwhile Kayla just cannot stop taking about a sale on shoes she saw earlier because stereotypes are all PCK knows. So they both crawl up onto the wall with Zoey.

And that’s when Zoey notices that Kayla is smiling at Heath which means she likes him. Zoey is able to figure out that he was messing around with her at the party and tries to slyly ask how Kayla’s boyfriend is doing. She says she doesn’t know as it’s been a few days.

She still wouldn’t look at me, but she did glance at Heath, who looked clueless―but that was really his only look. So my best friend was going after my boyfriend. Now that pissed me off, and for a second I wished it wasn’t such a nice warm night. I wished it was cold and Kayla would freeze her over-developed boobies right off.

‘I’m pleased to present Zoey with the BiPolar award, represented her by a statue of a polar bear with two heads, one of them mauling a child and the other smiling broadly. Tell us, in your own words, Zoey, what it took to win this year.’ ‘Well, I was up against some pretty strong competition both real and fictional but I saw an opportunity, reached in for a reserve of extra special crazy and went for it.’ ‘Inspirational. Back to you Ted.’

Let me see if I understand the situation. Way back in chapter one, Zoey got mad at Heath for saying they were together. She even clarified that they were not and never had been dating. So how can she dare to get angry at Kayla? Because the author wants us to like Zoey’s new friends and to see how much better they are than her old ones.

Oh yes, and Zoey smells marijuana and beer on her. Heath says they needed a little reinforcement to come out there. Zoey is shocked that Heath also smokes and he says it’s not a big deal. Then Zoey tells him that the biggest losers at school smoke pot and blah blah blah. I keep expecting someone in a sweater vest to walk into the scene as things freeze and talk directly to us. ‘What should Zoey do next? What would you do? Your teacher will now stop the video so you can discuss amongst your classmates. Then start the video back up and we’ll see how Zoey handles this situation on her own.’

Kayla says that not only loser smoke. She lists a bunch of people Zoey knows, some of them football players at another school. Plus some girl they both know smokes plus she has a clit piercing. No! Smoking and body piercings? Stop, PCK, now I know you’re just trying to scare us with a cautionary tale. Nobody could do both of those things without suffering karmic justice. Oh yes, and the football players at that other school are all drug happy and on steroids which was why her old school couldn’t beat them.

Zoey wants Kayla to tell her someone “normal” who smokes and Kayla says her. Then Zoey admits she just doesn’t think it’s a good idea and I’m shocked. It’s the first time Zoey almost admits she doesn’t have a good reason but that she doesn’t agree. It’s a bit of honesty between one friend and another, the kind you’d expect from two people who are best friends.

Kayla says that Zoey doesn’t know everything and Zoey tells them to leave and never come back. They say they really did come to help her escape and Zoey says she can’t because she’s been marked. Heath says he doesn’t care and that she was always beautiful but now she looks like a goddess. Yes, after one whole day Zoey has changed dramatically. Hey Eragon, I think we’ve found you a girlfriend.

Heath leans in to kiss her, she scratches him and draws blood. As soon as the blood makes an appearance she uses her hypno vision to entrance him and tells him to let him taste it. He does the ‘Yes, I’ll do whatever you say master’ schtick you expect from old movies featuring deranged hypnotists. Zoey starts to drink his blood and Kayla intervenes. Heath says it didn’t bother him and he like it. She tells him to go before Kayla gets the police and he kisses her before telling her he won’t stay away.

Zoey now has a reason to cry as she hops off the wall. Then she wishes she had her purse because she could really use a tissue. And just like magic, someone appears and hands her a tissue because Nyx apparently granted her infinite wishes. And it turns out that the person handing her the tissue is Erik. What a cliffhanger, PCK.

So wait, if he was watching the whole thing, why did he let her start drinking Heaths blood? He had no way of knowing that she would stop when Kayla freaked out. For all he knows, Zoey would have gone crazy and decided to kill Kayla while saving Heath for later. At the very least he should have stepped in or went and gotten a real vampire. But I guess callous disregard for human life is just one more thing Zoey and him have in common.