Betrayed Chapter 6

The very first paragraph of this chapter is Zoey saying that she’s still mumbling about men and mixed messages. And just because I can never tell if I’ve taken a head injury in between recaps, I looked back. Zoey did not complain one bit about men and mixed messages or anything to that effect. Instead she was just complaining to us about being frustrated and embarrassed.

And let me remind you, Zoey. Loren is still in his twenties while you are sixteen. That means there’s a minimum four year difference between you. Now that’s not a big deal between couple who are twenty eight and twenty four where both people are and have been adults for awhile. But four years is a marked difference between an eight and twelve year old. I think her mother failed to explain why it’s creepy when the twenty three year old high school dropout picks up sixteen year old girls at the bowling alley.

Zoey says she’s going to talk it out with Stevie and figure out what it means. Well, in any sane universe it would mean an investigation done by a third party into Loren’s conduct that would most likely end with his termination and registry on a sex offender list. What it means in story is he can’t bone her yet for some reason that’ll become clear later.

Zoey finds Stevie sitting at the couch and Stevie tells her to shut up. Unfortunately it’s only because she wants her to watch a plot relevant segment of TV. That’s one convention I really hope dies out as more and more authors get comfortable with the internet. I always hate when the characters need to know something vital to the plot and just happen to hear it in passing on a radio or see it on TV.

Anywho, PCK at least has the sense to mention it’s a rebroadcast and not a live feed. The story Stevie is so engrossed in is a missing football player. Zoey says she knows him but he was one of those evil Union players she sneered at last book. Zoey has to explain how she knows him because Heath used to hang out with him.

“Well, he used to drag me to parties with him, and all the football jocks knew each other, so Chris and his cousin Jon were at a bunch of them. Rumor has it they’ve graduated from getting trashed on cheap beer to getting trashed on cheap beer while they pass around nasty joints.” I looked at Shaunee, who had been showing an unusual amount of interest in the newscast. “And before you ask, yes, he is as cute in real life as he was in his picture.”

Oh no! The dreaded marihuana again. I’m wondering if PCK watched Reefer Madness and took it completely serious. I like how that’s supposed to inform us on their character, that they drink beer and smoke. It’s not those habits that make them unlikable, it’s that they’re complete douchebags just like everyone else in this series.

Shaunee says it’s a damn shame when bad things happen to cute guys and Erin agrees. Then Stevie says she doesn’t like marihuana. And in case you’re wondering why I keep spelling it with an h as opposed to the modern j, to you I say you must watch the Refer Madness Rifftrax. Then the book turns into a PSA on how marihuana is bad and it makes you eat food for no good reason. And they say it makes cute guys less cute.

So Zoey then says that, the evils of marihuana aside, that she has a bad feeling about this disappearance. Everyone begins to panic and Erin says she really hates it when Zoey gets one of her bad feelings. You know, like the time Zoey had a bad feeling about the Ark of the Covenant and told them to look away when it was opened. Or when Zoey tried telling that rich investor, Hammond, that cloning dinosaurs was a bad idea.

Oh wait, Zoey’s only been there a month. What other bad feelings could Zoey have possibly had before now? Did she avoid the bean dip and therefore salmonella? Nothing of significance has happened since the last book. I know why PCK wrote it, it’s because she was simply mimicking other media where there’s a psychic character that everyone believes. Forgetting, that Zoey has failed to demonstrate even rudimentary intuition.

So they spend the night talking about Chris going missing. Zoey really wants to talk to Stevie about Loren but she can’t think straight enough to bring it up. My question is what the hell were all her friends doing watching the new? They don’t strike me as giving a damn about affairs outside of vampires. Was there something on there that they couldn’t read or watch online? Don’t they have homework to do? And if they were just taking a moment to relax, then why didn’t they watch something entertaining? Because otherwise Zoey wouldn’t have gotten suspicious.

Then they meet up with Damien and discuss theories as to where he went, with Erin suggesting drinking and drugs and Damien saying Chris discovered he was gay and moved to New York to model. When they get to the cafeteria, Zoey still doesn’t feel like eating. She snaps at her friends and then focuses on poking at her food with chopsticks. Then another plot point comes along the rails Zoey is stuck to.

Aphrodite comes over and puts down an earring asking if it’s Zoey’s. Zoey was so stupid, she forgot it over by Neferet’s office. Aphrodite says that she had a feeling it was and says that Zoey’s not the only one who has feelings about things. Then she walks out into the courtyard where she eats her lunch alone. Zoey feels sorry for her while all her friends, who aren’t allowed to be as “good” as the avatar, tell her to stop that.

Then Neferet shows up and says that she needs to borrow Zoey but she’ll return her. Everyone is fine with it but Zoey is, for some reason, uncomfortable and her stomach is clenching as she follows Neferet out into the courtyard. She even gets a look from Aphrodite that she think is pity and starts to wonder what could possibly be wrong.

If we’re lucky, there are security cameras hidden around the place and they’ve been watching Loren for some time. That or a passing student saw him pulling her coat down and running his hands over Zoey and decided that, maybe the school should stop a predator in his tracks. The rest of the book will be a taut legal thriller in the style of Grisham with tensions rising as Loren attempts to scare Zoey into backing out of her testimony before it goes to trial.

Or, more likely, Zoey will have a very dull discussion with Neferet which will lead to more boring talking. Then, about three quarters in, PCK will realize that the student drama is wearing thin and start putting in plot relevant stuff.