We left off during a tense scene where Zoey confronts Stevie Rae about possibly eating pizza delivery guys. Stevie Rae admits to the far more shocking crime of pizza stealing, and Zoey realizes that they need to tell the school about the red fledglings so they can legally eat pizza. Also so they can stop stealing blood from blood banks, but I find the pizza related crimes to be more intriguing.
But how can Zoey convince Stevie Rae to go public with her identity?
I didn’t know what to say. She was right, but I still felt deep in my gut that people—specifically vampyre people—needed to know she and the red fledglings existed. I sighed. “Okay, I know it’s not a one hundred percent good plan, but I honestly believe everyone needs to know about you guys.”
The Casts really hit the jackpot when they realized they didn’t have to put more effort into advancing the plot than to simply write, “Zoey’s gut tells her to do X, so she does X.”
Not only that, but it also works to convince other characters!
“Honestly, as in Nyx is giving you one of thoseyou need to do it feelings?”
“Yep,” I said.
Her sigh was much deeper and filled with more worry and stress than mine. (Jeesh, who knew that could happen?) “All right, then. I’ll be there tomorrow. I’m countin’ on you to make this all turn out okay, Zoey.”
Cast 1: Remember when we thought we had it all when we realized Zoey’s gut could be the “why” behind every decision?
Cast 2: It was the greatest moment of my life as an amazing and talented writer.
Cast 1: Exactly. But what if I told you we could also get other characters to do anything because of Zoey’s gut.
Cast 2: My god.
It’s getting late, so Zoey and Stevie Rae say goodbye, and Zoey goes to talk to Sister Mary Angela. After discussing with the Board of Church Directors (which includes members of the People of Faith), the flea market partnership with the House of Night is a go! Now that’s a chapter I’m excited to read about.
“I better get Aphrodite and go now, though. We were excused from only the first part of our classes today, and we gotta get back.”
“I believe your friends have been finished for a while now, but they have been rather—” She paused, eyes twinkling again. “—distracted.”
“Huh?” I was feeling kinda shocked. It was cool that Sister Mary Angela wasn’t freaked about fledglings and vampyres in general, but to have her be oh-so-amused by Aphrodite’s gross flirtation with Darius was totally too liberal—even for me.
Sister Mary Angela is like, “You’ll see what I mean”, so Zoey knows she clearly doesn’t mean that Darius and Aphrodite have decided to start banging in the middle of Street Cats. And yet there is still this completely ridiculous “misdirect”:
Totally confused, I walked down the short hallway to the room that held cats available for adoption. There were no nuns around, but (sure enough) Aphrodite and Darius were sitting over in the “playground for cats” corner, snuggled together like lovers with their backs turned to me. They were doing something (ugh) with their hands. Actually, it looked like they were doing a lot of something with their hands (double ugh). I cleared my throat dramatically. Instead of jumping apart guiltily as they should have, Darius glanced over his shoulder at me and grinned—Aphrodite (the ho) didn’t even turn to look to see who had just walked in on them. Jeesh, I could have been a nun or someone’s mom.
OMG WHAT A HO TOTES BANGING DARIUS AMONGST THE STREET CATS AND NUNS.
“Uh, I really hate to interrupt this cozy little scene, but we gotta go,” I said sarcastically.
With a big sigh, Aphrodite finally turned around, saying, “Fine. Let’s go. But I’m taking her with us.” And I saw what it was that she and Darius had been doing with their hands.
“It’s a cat!” I said.
BUHWUH?!??! Those Casts got me again!
Seriously, though, how on earth did petting a cat look, at any angle, like something unseemly was going on? Were they frantically petting this cat? What kind of sexual act did Zoey think was going on here?
She was also really quick to be like “Aphrodite (the ho)” even though Darius would have been involved too if something was going on between them. Some friend Zoey is.
Aphrodite, who was definitely not giving Darius a really strange handjob in the middle of Street Cats, has found a cat who adores her. CALLED IT.
Because nothing can ever be subtle in this story, Aphrodite calls the cat Maleficent, and the cat is basically mean to anyone that’s not Aphrodite. Soul catmates. She also symbolizes how good Aphrodite and Darius are together:
“I think she’s as unique and beautiful as her new mistress,” Darius said. I noticed that when he petted Maleficent, the cat narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t growl.
There you have it. It’s meant to be.
Zoey, Darius and Aphrodite say their goodbyes and head off, but first Zoey wants to stop for some fast food! Aphrodite isn’t into it until Zoey offers to pay, which makes no sense because Aphrodite has no need for Zoey to pay. Ug, come on.