After a lot of deliberation, Zoey had finally managed to convince herself that she was long overdue for a visit home. So when school let out on Tuesday afternoon she said goodbye to Aphrodite in the parking lot, and instead of making the familiar trip to Vision Girl's ritzy neighborhood, she drove her Bug back to her own house, dreading what kind of hell she might be in for when she returned.
She could tell by all the texts and calls she had been getting that her mom really wasn't happy with the fact that she was rarely at home now, but what could Zoey do? She had been pretty darn busy lately, what with the little matter of the world needing to be saved and all. It was simply easier to deal with everything when she was around her friends—the people who were actually in on the secret—instead of having to go home each day and struggle to hide practically every single thing she had been doing for the past five months. And besides, that place hadn't felt like Zoey's home in three years, the moment John came into the picture was the moment she stopped feeling like she belonged there. Even back when she and Aphrodite were worst enemies, Zoey vividly remembered that she had been more comfortable with the blonde at her house than she was with her own family, and that was saying something.
She pulled into the driveway and stayed in her car for a couple of minutes, letting the engine idle while she mentally prepared herself. The last time Zoey was here was when she and Aphrodite had been giving each other the silent treatment after Utica Square, which was only a couple of weeks ago. But because of her ordeal with the nightmare spell, it felt like a much longer time had passed. Finally she shut the car off, slung her backpack over one shoulder, and headed up the driveway to the front door, deciding to skip going in through the garage like she usually did. She was so distracted by her thoughts that it took her a couple of tries to fit her key into the lock (she briefly wondered if it was a sign that she should just give up and go running as far as she could in the opposite direction) but soon enough the door was open and Zoey stepped inside the house.
She kicked her shoes off in the entryway like she was so used to doing, but hurriedly reached down and picked them up after remembering that her mother didn't like shoes by the door—mainly because John didn't like shoes by the door. Zoey found her mom in the living room, reading on the couch. Her mother had heard the front door open but didn't bother to look up from her book to see who had come in, probably thinking it was Zoey's sister or little brother.
"...Hi mom," Zoey said quietly.
Linda turned around to look over the back of the couch and frowned when she saw Zoey standing there.
"I'm sorry, do you live here? You don't look familiar," she said coldly.
Coming from most moms, words like that would have been just a bit of lighthearted teasing, but Zoey knew that her mother wasn't the joking type anymore.
"Nice to see you too..." she muttered.
She was prepared for exactly this kind of reaction, but even though she knew it was coming it still stung. Zoey had spent the past week and a half in her own mini-hell; forced to live out her worst nightmares, dealing with what she dreamed about even after she woke up, and struggling to get her elemental affinities back under her control. And even though her mother had no clue about any of that, after the rough time Zoey had been having lately it was extremely disheartening that she couldn't even get a "Hi dear" in return.
Linda went back to her book, and Zoey grudgingly made her feet shuffle her farther into the living room.
"You kept saying you wanted to see me back at home, so...here I am," Zoey attempted a little smile and made a halfhearted "ta-da!" gesture.
"I don't see why you would even bother to show up here at all when you clearly prefer to spend all your time at your friend's house. We've never even met this girl before, yet she seems to take up half your life," Zoey's mother said stiffly. "...What's her name again? Aphrodite?"
She glanced up in time to see Zoey nod, and then Linda shook her head in disapproval.
"Aphrodite...I don't even know what sort of a name that is. I've never heard anything like it before."
"Sure you have, mom. It's the Greek goddess of love."
"Zoey, you know there's only one God," Linda said sternly. "And he provides you with all the love you'll ever need."
Zoey rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, well when he decides to show up, let me know," she mumbled under her breath, thinking of Nyx. She had only met the goddess of night once, but Nyx had shown her so much love and kindness during the one brief time they had met that Zoey felt a much stronger connection to her than she did to some nameless, faceless god she had spent most of her life hearing about.
"Hmph. Goddess of love..." Linda said in disdain, partly to herself. "Sounds a little pretentious to me. I can only imagine what people must think of her when they hear that."
"I like Aphrodite's name. It makes her unique," Zoey said defensively.
"Well if I were her, I would be changing it as soon as possible."
Zoey could handle criticism from her mother, but she wasn't going to stand there and let her criticize Aphrodite.
"There's nothing wrong with her name," Zoey said, snapping a little. "Aphrodite suits her perfectly. People are defined by more than just what their parents decided to call them, you know. She's my friend and I wouldn't change the slightest thing about her."
Linda ignored the irritation in her daughter's voice and absentmindedly waved her off, wanting to get back to her book.
"Fine, fine, I was just giving an opinion. No need to get bent out of shape about it. Why don't you go get started on your homework or something, we can talk later once I've finished reading this."
With that, Zoey turned around and stormed down the hall with a little huff, roughly closing the door behind her when she reached her bedroom.
Sure, mom, your book is totally way more important than your daughter that you apparently wanted to see so badly. And dissing Aphrodite? Of all the stupid—! She's never even met her and she thinks she can just—!
Zoey took a deep breath to calm down her ticked-off thoughts when she realized she was just having a bad but perfectly normal case of Defensive Girlfriend Syndrome. Knowing the kind of crap from various people Aphrodite spent her whole life listening to and combining that with how helpless Vision Girl had sounded during the recent phone call from her mom had made Zoey extra-sensitive to anything negative said about the blonde.
She dropped her shoes and backpack on the floor before tiredly flopping onto her bed. She reached for her stuffed fish and hugged him for comfort.
"This double life stuff is nowhere near as cool as it is in the movies, Otis," she grumbled.
Zoey wondered what it would be like if her family knew that she was on a mission to save the world from unspeakable evil. She knew Grandma Redbird was proud of her for being chosen and bravely facing whatever was ahead, but would her mother be? She liked to believe her old mom would be proud, the mom she knew before the Step-Loser showed up. But on the other hand, the mom she had now would probably find a way to blame her for letting nameless evil threaten the world in the first place.
Her curiosity got the better of her and she laid there running through scenario after scenario in her mind; what would have happened if her mom had never remarried, what her life would be like if Nyx had never intervened and sent her along on her destiny, and how happy she would be if she could just stop feeling like an outsider among her own family.
The past three years had been the roughest of Zoey's life. Her mom and siblings had become strangers to her, and the only home she had was one that she painfully didn't fit into anymore. Her mother was too preoccupied with fawning over John, and Zoey's sister and brother were perfectly content to pretend to cater to John just so he would stay off their cases and they could do whatever the hell they wanted to with their lives. Zoey was different. She wasn't going to put on a mask and pretend to accept a rat like John just so she could live her life in peace. She was darn well going to live her life the way she wanted to, but she wasn't going to sacrifice who she was to do it.
And if things weren't already bad enough before, having Neferet show up had only made things worse. Zoey really was leading a double life, and the world of magic and monsters that she had been spending the last few months getting acquainted with was only driving her even further away from her family, yet they didn't even bother to notice. She had incredible powers, she had survived encounters with vampyres, and an ancient goddess had hand-picked her to fight on the side of good because she saw the amazing potential hidden inside Zoey. The world of the supernatural was now a huge part of her, but the only other people who knew about it were her friends and her grandmother. Putting it in perspective, it was an awfully small number of people to help her carry such a big secret.
Finally realizing that she was daydreaming and her gloomy thoughts were starting to weigh heavily on her, Zoey snapped herself out of all the "what ifs" and sat up on the bed, gently placing Otis on a pillow.
Just forget about it Zoey, it is what it is. You can't change any of this, so there's no point in even thinking about it.
She decided to do something productive (and procrastinate on her homework) so she moved over to her desk and turned her computer on, grudgingly remembering within seconds how much slower her computer was compared to the one at Aphrodite's house.
Between helping Stevie Rae break whatever hold Neferet had on her and stopping the High Priestess from turning New Year's Eve into a feast for her red vampyres, Zoey had one hell of a to-do list. She really had no clue where the best place to start would be, so after a mental roll of the dice she randomly figured she might as well start with the House of Night.
Aphrodite had talked about going there for a little amateur-league investigation, but Zoey wasn't about to let her girlfriend go waltzing into a vampyre school without knowing what awaited her. The last time the Power Duo had looked into the House of Night, the farthest they got was finding out that the red vampyres were the exception, not the rule, and the blue vampyres were far from feral and monstrous.
Once her slow computer stopped acting like it was stuck on dial-up from the 90s, she opened Google and typed 'House of Night' into the search bar like she and Aphrodite had done the first time they heard about it. Being a super secret school for super secret creatures of the night, it naturally wasn't the top hit. In fact, Zoey was sure the link had moved down a few pages since the last time she searched for it. When she opened up the House of Night's website she saw that nothing had changed; there were still the pictures of various vampyre professors lining the side of the screen, along with the short paragraph detailing the House of Night's purpose as a school for fledgling vampyres and its locations all around the world.
But now Zoey had time to search the site in-depth, and upon closer inspection of the main page she began to notice things that she hadn't noticed the first time. Unlike many other school websites she had seen before, the House of Night's was definitely out of the ordinary. There were no phone numbers listed anywhere, no email addresses, no way for anyone to get in contact with the school. The little informatory blurb listed this particular House of Night location to be in Tulsa, but there was no address or street name, not even a general ballpark description of where to look. If Aphrodite hadn't have described the school to them from what she saw in one of her visions, they would never have recognized it during the last trip they took to the city.
It was all very vague, not even the pictures of the teachers had any names underneath them. Zoey supposed it made sense, though. "House of Night" wasn't exactly the most unique of terms. The average person could easily look it up thinking they were searching for something else entirely and then accidentally end up stumbling upon the school's website. From what Zoey was seeing right now, there was nothing on the main page that would convince her this was an actual place and not just some site run by a roleplay-obsessed teenager with too much time on their hands. And even if someone did become a little curious, the lack of any real information on the school meant that there was no way for anyone to find out something more pertinent. In fact, Zoey was certain that if she drove up to Tulsa and asked around about the House of Night, no one would have the slightest idea what she was talking about.
Well, the vamps do have to remain hidden from humans, after all.
She was going to check out the rest of the site, but was instantly stopped in her tracks when she saw that there wasn't a rest. With no links to any other sections, the House of Night website seemed to consist of just the one main page. Zoey frowned in confusion.
"So much for that plan," she muttered to herself.
She had to give the vamps credit, it was a good way to keep their existence hidden from the outside world. She guessed that once you were actually a fledgling or professor at the school, you were taught how to work around the little roadblock and really use the site. Since Zoey was neither, and she didn't know how to get in touch with Erik Night, the brunette admitted defeat and closed out of the browser. She was a little disappointed. Aphrodite's plan to go to the House of Night with her dad was the only plan they had, and while Zoey definitely still had her reservations, she at least wanted to be helpful and be able to give Aphrodite some sort of idea of what the school would be like. The gang had told her about how they visited the school themselves when Zoey was still locked in her nightmares, but that was different. They were led straight to Neferet's office by the High Priestess herself, not left alone to aimlessly wander an entire unknown campus by themselves.
Telling herself that she had done the best she could under the circumstances, Zoey reluctantly switched her focus over to homework until she could come up with something better to do. Too lazy to stand up, she scooted her computer chair along the floor until her backpack was within reach, before grabbing it and scooting back over to her desk. In spite of the little boost of confidence she had gained from actually understanding some of her Algebra homework yesterday, she wasn't even going to attempt to try anything math-related without Vision Girl around to help her out. Semester exams started in two days, and Zoey didn't lack for things to do, especially since she had missed a whole week of school thanks to Neferet and her dark magic.
World history was up first. The review was fill-in-the-blank with the answers practically word-for-word right in the textbook as long as she knew where to look. It was easy, so for the next fifteen minutes Zoey preoccupied herself with the classic study tactic of speed reading and manic page flipping. She was just starting to get lost in what she was doing when the bedroom door slowly swung open behind her.
"Zoey, I want to talk to you."
Zoey swiveled her chair around to see her mom standing in the doorway.
"...Talk about what?" she blurted incredulously when she saw the upset look on her mother's face. She just walked in the house half an hour ago, what could she have possibly done?
"Are you working on your homework right now?" Linda asked.
Zoey glanced from her mom back to her history book, wondering if she could get away with using it as an excuse to avoid whatever her mom had to say.
"Yeah. Actually, I have a lot of it and not a whole lot of time to do it in, so maybe we can talk later when I'm done with—"
Zoey's mom cut her off and started to talk right over her.
"For some reason, I got curious just now, and I decided to go online and check your grades."
...Oh, great. "For some reason" my ass, Zoey thought, 90% sure that her mom had texted John to let him know Zoey had come home and that he had put her up to checking in on his delinquent stepdaughter.
"Well, you know math has never really been my thing," she said with a shrug, turning back towards her computer so her mom wouldn't see her annoyed roll of the eyes.
"I'm not just talking about your math grade, Zoey! Where did all these absences come from?" Linda demanded.
Oh, maybe from being stuck inside my own mind and completely unresponsive to the outside world for a whole week.
During the time Zoey was unconscious, Zoey's grandma had made sure her parents thought she was at school and Aphrodite had made sure that the absences wouldn't count against her, but that didn't mean they still wouldn't show up on her record.
"I don't know, I guess I was just...busy," Zoey said feebly, unable to come up with a good lie right on the spot and not really caring either way. She was busted. And truth or lie, her mother would never understand.
"Busy? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Mom, I know it sounds bad, but I haven't been skipping school. Yeah, there are absences, but...my teachers know all about it, it's fine. You'll just have to trust me on this."
"Really? How can I trust you? You've been—Zoey, look at me when I'm talking to you," Linda said sternly.
Zoey sighed and turned back around in her chair.
"You were perfectly fine up until you started school here," her mom continued, sounding exasperated. "But now you've changed. You're never home, you're always out with those friends of yours that you haven't even bothered to introduce to us, and now you're skipping class? What do you think your father is going to say about this? ?"
There was once a time when Zoey had dreaded conversations exactly like this. Having her mother come down on her for her "troublesome" behavior and then threatening to bring John into it was a death sentence that was just too exhausting and stressful to deal with. But there was something different about this time. This time, her mom's scolding wasn't having any effect on her, other than making her really annoyed that she couldn't be left alone to finish her homework. It was then that Zoey realized that she really had changed.
She was no longer just an average teenager being raked over the coals by her oblivious and uncaring parents. Now she was a girl with a destiny to protect the world from evil, and sometimes things like school and homework and rules just didn't have a place in any of that, no matter how much her mom and stepdad would try to argue otherwise. Zoey knew that she was justified in missing school. She knew that she was justified in not finding time to come home more often. And as long as she herself knew the truth, she was content with not bothering to make her mom try to understand. It was a lost cause at any rate, her mom had stopped understanding anything and everything about her three years ago. Zoey wasn't going to stress herself out by letting herself get dragged into a losing battle.
"...You know what, mom? Go ahead and tell John," Zoey said firmly. "It might be nice if you would just take my side and believe in me for once, but since that isn't happening just be my guest and tell John whatever you want. Tell him I'm doing horribly in math, tell him I've been missing class, hell, tell him I've been meeting up with high school dropouts in the park each night to do drugs and worship Satan."
"Zoey Montgomery! !" Linda yelled, looking more angry than Zoey had seen her in a long time. Usually her mom remained annoyingly apathetic when scolding her, she really could never be bothered to get mad.
"Redbird, mom. My last name is Redbird. Not my dad's last name, not John's last name, but Grandma's name. Before you married John, I had a family. I had an overworked yet loving mom who was always way too busy to come to the open houses and parent-teacher conferences, but it didn't matter to me because I knew she was working hard to support all of us, and at the end of the night she always made time to give me a hug and ask about my day. I had totally annoying siblings who thrived on filling my day with embarrassment and torment, but it didn't matter to me because they were still my brother and sister. Do they even ask about me, by the way? Do they wonder why I've apparently dropped off the face of the earth, or are they so absorbed in their own lives that they've completely forgotten they have a sister? Because of you and John, I don't have that family anymore. All I have is my grandma, and my friends."
"Friends do not replace family, young lady, and John is the best thing that's ever happened to ours. I don't know where you got this ridiculous idea that he's stopped us from being a family."
Zoey stood up from her computer chair, getting far too agitated to sit still anymore.
"He's the best thing that's ever happened to you, or at least, that's what you've brainwashed yourself into thinking," Zoey said. "The past three years have been so hard on me, I can't even begin to describe it. You don't know that, because you haven't been paying attention. You have no idea how much that hurts me. You can hurt me so much without even realizing it, and that is the worst feeling in the entire world. But it's all about John now. It's been that way ever since you married him. If the spotlight is off of him for even one second he's pulling on your leash and bringing your attention back to him, which means you don't even try to give any of your attention to your own kids. And the reason I spend so much time away from this place is because I can't live my life knowing that I'm just an afterthought in this house. Oddly enough, I like to be around people who make me feel like I matter, instead of making me feel like I'm something the cat dragged in that should've just been left out in the street."
Tears started to well up in Zoey's eyes as she explained how she felt to her mother; digging up all these emotions that she had kept locked inside herself for so long was more painful than she thought it would be.
"But my life is starting to change now, it has meaning and purpose again," the brunette continued, wiping her eyes. "I have friends now who are the most amazing people I've ever known, and I've gotten closer to them in just a few months than I ever did to the friends in Oklahoma City I knew for years. They make me feel like I belong, mom. They make me laugh, they listen to me when I talk, and I don't have to fight for their attention. I'm starting to be happy with my life again, so instead of treating me like I should be punished for finding happiness, maybe you can just—"
"That's enough out of you," Linda snapped. Zoey really was having a tough time trying to remember when she last saw her mom get so aggravated. "I can't believe you can stand there and act like being you is the toughest thing in the world, you've got everything most people could ever want out of life. If you don't feel like you have a loving family, that's your fault for being blind to what's right in front of you, not ours. I don't want to hear any more drama from you right now. We'll talk about this later when your father is home."
Without another word, she turned and left, slamming the door behind her. Zoey stood there in dumbfounded silence, staring at the closed door and watching it slowly blur as the tears returned. Was her mother really that clueless? Did she really just have the nerve to accuse Zoey of being a drama queen? A few moments ago Zoey was feeling good about finally telling off her mom, about finally having the courage to let loose and speak her mind. But those emotions really were more painful than she initially thought. They were like jagged pieces of glass, heavy yet harmless when they were kept buried inside her, but capable of cutting her to pieces as she dragged them to the surface. It took a lot of strength to get out her innermost thoughts, and she thought her remarkable show of sincerity would have at least some impact on her mother, but no.
Her words were completely disregarded, and it was like her mom was only half-listening to Zoey's desperate pleas for understanding and compassion before essentially giving her a "Stop being so overdramatic" and storming out without so much as a "I'm sorry you feel that way."
Zoey didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to think. All she could do was miserably shuffle over to her bed, curl up on her side, hug Otis, and start to cry.
"Zoey, get out here. Now."
The hours had passed, and John had been home for some time now. She had heard him come through the front door around six, and within minutes she heard the sounds of her mother running up to him to tattle her little heart out about what a troubled and ungrateful girl Zoey was being. She had waited, expecting the sounds of John's footsteps to come down to her room at any minute, but they never did. So now it was very late at night, a little bit past 11:30, and Zoey was parked on her bed in the middle of working through a giant packet of a physics review when she finally heard the Step-Loser's voice outside her door.
"Actually, I'm busy doing my homework. You know, the thing you're always so insistent that I do," she called back, not even trying to dial down the sass. A good long session of crying had helped her work through the depression stage of grief and left her completely free to backtrack to anger.
"Now, Zoey," John repeated stiffly. She heard him turn around and thud down the hall to the living room, expecting her to follow shortly.
The brunette sighed heavily, deciding to just get it over with. She rolled off of her bed, stopping briefly to close the blinds over her window because she had forgotten to do it earlier. When she made her way into the living room she was surprised to see that it was just John standing there, and her mother wasn't around. Even though it was late at night and her mom was probably getting ready for bed, it was usually her job to sit around and look pretty while John puffed up his chest and acted large and in charge.
"So you've finally decided to take time out of your busy schedule to come home," John said pointedly, glaring at Zoey as she took a seat on the couch.
"I was under the impression that you didn't mind me being gone anymore."
"And what gave you that impression?"
"Contrary to what you think, I'm not an idiot," Zoey said, giving her stepfather an equally annoyed glare. "I know you hate having me around because I'm the only one who refuses to play the role of the happy stepdaughter in the little show you put on for your friends and colleagues. I figured you could care less if I wasn't here."
John was silent for a minute, but he never took his eyes off of Zoey.
"...You're a problem child, Zoey. You've always had trouble understanding that God's world doesn't revolve around you."
"I don't expect the world to revolve around me. The only thing I've ever expected was for my mom to include me in her world for at least a fraction of a second, but thanks to you, she can't do that anymore," the brunette said in irritation.
John didn't seem to be hearing a word she was saying. He just kept right on talking like he was rehearsing some long-winded speech in front of a mirror. And frankly, Zoey had had her fill of being treated like that for one day.
"It seems to me that you've only gone downhill since we moved here to Broken Arrow. At least in Oklahoma City you were a decent student who didn't disgrace her family by avoiding us at every chance she got. Now you're doing poorly in school, skipping your classes, and running around doing who knows what with that unacceptable crowd of yours. I personally didn't think you could sink any lower."
Yeah? Just wait until you find out what I've done with Aphrodite.
"Look, I get it. You're big on public appearances. That's completely stupid, but I get it. You want us to look like a model family for the neighbors and all your church friends," Zoey said. "Well I'm sorry that being myself screws up all your hard work, but I'm my own person, and I'm not going to let you or anyone else change that."
John narrowed his eyes, finally seeming to realize that Zoey was there and had actually been partaking in the conversation too.
"We'll see about that," his voice was low and cryptic. Zoey didn't like the tone of it one bit.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Your mother was right in her assessment earlier today; you were a halfway-acceptable person before you started school here. Well, if you're so eager to skip out on school and your academic responsibilities, then maybe a little change really is in order," he answered forebodingly.
"Oh for crying out loud, I wasn't skipping school! No, I wasn't in class, but I wasn't skipping! Just call the attendance office, they'll probably tell you that those absences are all excused! Talk to Grandma Redbird, she can back me up!"
John's scowl turned even nastier at the mention of Grandma Redbird.
"Anything that woman has to say is no concern of mine."
"That woman is my grandmother, you—...wait a minute, what are you talking about? What change?"
The Step-Loser's words caught up to Zoey and her eyes widened as she ran through the possibilities. Both her mom and her stepdad seemed to be so adamant that she didn't become such a troublemaker until the school year had started, and an icy chill shot through her when she realized what that meant.
"...Are you talking about taking me out of school?"
She briefly recalled the joke she had made a little while ago about John telling everyone that she wasn't around anymore because he had sent her away to some creepy private school, but now that the thought was in her head she realized that it wasn't such a stretch of the imagination to picture him doing something like that.
"You are not taking me away from there," she said firmly. "Yeah, sure, I'm not a star student and my attendance record was crap this past week, but don't you dare even think about shipping me off somewhere else."
"I will not have a juvenile delinquent telling me what to do!" John snapped. "Apparently, Broken Arrow's public school system has been far too lenient with you. You can't be allowed to run rampant doing whatever you please. There are a number of other schools in the area that would be far better suited to handling you and your difficulties. You should be happy, Zoey, seeing as you like to spend so much time away from home."
"My only friends go to that school, they're all I have!"
"You should have thought of that before you went around making an embarrassment out of yourself."
Zoey could feel the hatred rising inside of her like a flame. Going to school and seeing her friends there was one of her only escapes, and now John had the audacity to try and take that away from her. She wanted to scream at him, to stand there and let loose three years of stress and anger the way she had let loose three years of sadness and hurt on her mom, while ignoring every word John tried to say like he had been doing to her just now. But just when she had reached her boiling point, a thought drifted into her mind that made her bottled-up rage disappear without any warning, and suddenly she found herself laughing. The Step-Loser didn't see anything funny about it.
"Do you find your punishment for your failure amusing, Zoey?"
Zoey had stopped laughing, but she still wore a smile on her face as the truth that had just struck her filled her with excitement. She wasn't looking at John threatening to transfer her to another school, she was looking at John making a pathetic last-ditch effort to stay in control and hold power over Zoey's life. And now that she realized that, the whole thing was definitely amusing. When John looked at his stepdaughter, all he saw was a helpless little girl who had no choice but to do as he said or accept the consequences if she didn't. He was under the impression that he was in charge of the entire family, that out of the two of them, he was the most powerful. But he couldn't be more wrong. There was only one powerful person in that room, and she was done listening to his crap.
"Okay John, you're so convinced that I'm really such a troublesome delinquent?" Zoey rose from the couch, feeling her own personal strength and the strength of her gifts from Nyx surging throughout her. "Fine. Then I'll be a troublesome delinquent."
She had never been so happy to have her control over the elements slowly returning. Wind rushed eagerly to her side, and she let the power of the element playfully swirl around her in greeting before she sent it flying at John. Before he even had a chance to figure out what was happening he was knocked off his feet by the element and went crashing onto the floor. Zoey wanted nothing more than to pull out her phone and take numerous pictures for posterity, but she knew she'd remember this moment forever. So she silently sent out a huge thanks to air and then let it be on its way.
"Serves you right for being such a windbag," Zoey said to John, lying on the floor in a bit of a daze.
Then she turned on her heels and stormed back to her room, wasting no time. She grabbed her homework along with everything she had taken out of her backpack and shoved it all back inside the various pockets before zipping them up tight. Figuring she wouldn't be coming back home again for a while, she hurriedly looked around her room to see if there was anything else she might have wanted to bring with her, and in a split-second decision she picked up Otis off of her bed and made him nice and comfy inside her backpack as well. Then she made sure to put on her jacket and grab her car keys before she went into the living room again. John was just starting to get to his feet when Zoey crossed in front of him, and to her delight he stumbled backwards fearfully at the sight of her.
"What manner of witchcraft is this?!" he bellowed, sounding equal parts angered and freaked out.
Zoey slung her backpack over one shoulder before she opened the front door.
"I'm not the person you think I am anymore. And I'm also not some clueless teenage girl whose life is your toy for you to play with and control. This is my own personal brand of witchcraft. It's called 'Zoey Redbird is done listening to anything a pompous blowhard named John has to say'. If you decide to grow a conscience sometime within the next few minutes, tell my mom I said bye and that I'm sorry I had to leave her this way. And the next time I see you, maybe you'll consider trying to act like a decent human being now that you know I can have you sucked into a tornado and dropped in the next state with just a wave of my hand."
She was totally bluffing, she knew she wasn't that strong. She just really wanted to stay a few extra seconds to see if John would stand there and gape like an idiotic fish anyway, but she knew she had to go. So she left the house and stepped out into the chilly night air, walking down the driveway to her car without a single look back. All she felt like doing now was simply driving around aimlessly, giving herself a chance to cool down, clear her mind, and figure out whether she should be proud or freaking out over what she just did.
It was getting later and later, and the streets were emptying. Taking advantage of that fact, Zoey pulled her car over to a sidewalk and put it in park, giving herself and her Bug a moment to rest. Her driving catharsis had worked, and she was now sufficiently calmed down enough to realize the potential severity of what happened back at the house. Using her elemental powers like that was a big move, and it was just now dawning on her that her brief moment of triumph over John may very well backfire on her. Feeling a little scared, she took a deep breath and reached into her jacket pocket for her phone, finding and dialing the number she wanted. It was past midnight, but she still got an answer on the first ring.
"Hi grandma," she said in greeting, a smile coming to her lips before she even heard her grandmother's voice.
"Zoeybird, it's good to hear from you, it's only been a few days since I saw you yet I'm already missing having you around. But why aren't you asleep by now? Are you alright?" Grandma Redbird asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Good, good. I was a little worried that you might not be doing well after everything that happened to you. That nightmare spell hasn't had any other effects on you?"
Zoey didn't have the energy at the moment to go into detail about the dilemma with losing control of her affinities, so she didn't.
"No, that's all done and over with. I was a little dazed and disoriented for a couple of days after I woke up, and thinking about what happened is still really weird for me, but I'm okay. No crazy side effects. But...um...listen Grandma, I called because I either did something incredibly awesome or incredibly stupid tonight," she said nervously.
"What happened, uwetsiageya?"
Just like Zoey knew it would be, her grandmother's tone wasn't upset or judgmental, just curious and ready to listen to whatever it was Zoey had to say.
"Okay, well...I went home to pay a visit to mom, and we got into an argument over stuff. So when John came home mom told him all about it and he ended up acting like...well, himself. He kept telling me how much of a problem I was becoming and he threatened to have me sent away to some hellish boarding school, so I may have kinda...sorta...used my elemental powers against him," she said sheepishly, not sure what the reaction would be.
Grandma Redbird gasped.
"Oh Zoey, you didn't? ?" the words themselves sounded like disappointment, but it was obvious Grandma Redbird wasn't upset. She was too busy laughing.
Zoey smiled in relief as she listened to her grandmother crack up over the fact that she had given John what he had coming.
"You're not mad, grandma?"
"Mad? I'm mad I wasn't there to see it myself! Tell me what you did!"
Zoey laughed too, glad to have a friendly ear to talk to when she was so certain she was in deep trouble.
"I wanted to set fire to his feet and watch him dance around like a little monkey, but instead I just summoned air and had him blown over on the floor in a big gust of wind."
She heard Grandma Redbird start to laugh even harder.
"So then I went into my room to grab my stuff to leave, and when I came back in the living room he jumped away from me like I was going to turn him into a rat if he looked at me the wrong way," the brunette continued with a chuckle.
"That sounds fantastic, I'm so glad my little granddaughter finally taught that turd monkey a lesson."
"You don't think I messed up?" Zoey wondered. "What if he tells my mom or someone else what I did? What if this whole thing completely blows up in my face and suddenly I'm on the run from the government because they want to experiment on me?"
"Zoeybird, don't worry, that man isn't going to breathe a word of this to anyone. If the people he associates with are half as conceited as he is, they won't believe him and he knows it," grandma explained, beginning to calm down. "Can you imagine him running off to church tomorrow to tell everyone how his stepdaughter called forth a windstorm in the middle of the living room? Not likely."
Zoey felt a weight lifting off her shoulders as she realized her grandma was right. John wouldn't dare make himself look like a crazy person in front of everyone. Her secret was safe for now. But still, she found herself sighing.
"I just couldn't stand listening to him talk anymore. It took all of three minutes for him to piss me off," she said. "But after this there's no way I'll be able to go home again anytime soon...what am I saying, I haven't had a home in years.
"...Zoey, that isn't true," her grandmother said gently.
"Yes it is. I know I seem like I blame John for everything, but maybe a lot of it is mom's fault too. Life was fine and dandy until mom married him and let him take over everything," Zoey said bitterly. "She even let him move us away from Oklahoma City, and we'd lived there since I was two. Yet here comes John, saying Oklahoma City isn't good enough, and mom just lets him uproot our entire world and dictate how we should live without any argument. It's all about him now, she hasn't cared about her kids for a while, and I told her that to her face. A family like that isn't a home, it's just a place to live."
"I understand, and I agree. Your mother's selfish actions have singlehandedly taken away everything you had known for so long. But that doesn't mean you don't have a place to belong to."
Zoey frowned, feeling a little confused.
"I don't get what you mean, grandma."
"My uwetsiageya, I know how hard your mother's remarriage has been on you. I've watched you become isolated and treated like an outsider by the people you grew up with, and though you may not realize it, you've spent these past three years struggling to find a new place to be accepted," Grandma Redbird explained, her voice soft and caring. "But believe it or not, John's decision to move here may have been the best thing he's ever done for you, because you found what you were searching for right here in Broken Arrow."
Zoey listened intently to her grandmother's words, trying to figure out what she meant.
"Are you talking about you?" she asked, still confused.
"You've always had a place with me, and you always will, but no, I'm not exactly talking about myself. You could drive up here right now and come live with me forever if you wanted to, but I think what you really need right now is a little bit closer. You more than anyone should understand that sometimes family isn't always the people you're born to or the people related to you. You may not always belong with them, even if that's what you so desperately want. Sometimes people have to make the choice to leave their real families and find a new one all their own, and it may be the toughest, most painful decision they ever have to make, but in the end it's the right one," Grandma Redbird said wisely.
Zoey understood at least that much and she listened carefully as grandma continued to explain.
"What we all deserve is people who understand us, who will support us in whatever we do no matter their own personal feelings on the matter. People who see past our doubts and fears to love us unconditionally, those are the people that define family. That's the kind of life that each and every one of us deserves to have. In your case, Zoeybird, the home you have now doesn't provide you with any of that, but that doesn't mean you're alone. You have a family, but your mind is racing so much that you're just forgetting about it right now."
It took Zoey a while to think through Grandma Redbird's words, and she was quiet for a little bit. Grandma waited patiently, knowing her granddaughter would soon understand what she meant. Then, like a smack in the head, the fog cleared and everything clicked together. Zoey smiled widely, remembering.
"...Oh, duh. I get it, Grandma. You're right, I was overthinking, but I understand what you mean now."
"Good," Zoey could tell that her grandma was smiling too.
"Only now I feel stupid for forgetting in the first place," the brunette gave a little laugh.
"The things right in front of us are often the hardest to see."
"Yeah, tell me about it...thank you, grandma."
Aphrodite had been sound asleep when the doorbell rudely jolted her awake. The sound echoed throughout the whole house, and even though she was on the second floor the noise sounded like it might as well have been right in her room. With a sleepy growl, she took her sweet time turning on her lamp, getting out of bed, and making her way downstairs. She checked the windows on either side of the front door, sighing when she saw who it was but opening the door anyway.
Zoey was standing in the doorway with an apologetic smile on her face, knowing Aphrodite didn't like to be woken up.
"...Hey. I'm home."
"At almost one in the morning. For your birthday I'm getting you a key," Aphrodite responded stiffly. "Do you realize you're interrupting my beauty sleep?"
"Oh please, like you need any more of that," Zoey teased, before stepping forward without any warning and giving Aphrodite a big hug.
Vision Girl was a little caught off guard, wondering why exactly Zoey had been trudging around after midnight just for PDA.
"...Uh, Z? I'm all for hugging, but if we're gonna hug let's do it in the house where it isn't freezing cold."
Zoey let Aphrodite pull her inside and close the door behind them.
"I thought you were going to stay with your mom, what are you doing back here?" the blonde asked.
"Well, visiting my mom turned out about as well as you'd expect," Zoey said, dropping her backpack onto the floor and taking off her shoes. "Although there's a pretty funny story involved, remind me to tell you about it in the morning."
"It is morning," Aphrodite grumbled, already starting back up the stairs. "Just my luck, the first girl I ever fall for and she turns out to have no concept of time."
"I admit that sometimes I keep weird hours," Zoey followed after Vision Girl. "And hey, the next time I decide to go to my house, do me a favor and talk me out of it."
"I would've talked you out of it this time, but you were so insistent on checking up on your mom."
"Yeah, well, my mom will be fine," Zoey mumbled. "Right now I think that maybe it might be better if we were just out of each other's lives entirely."
They reached the bedroom, and Aphrodite looked over at Zoey with a sympathetic frown on her face.
"You don't really mean that, Z. She's still your mom, after all."
Zoey looked skeptical as she sat down on her side of the bed.
"Says the girl who spends every waking moment avoiding her own mom," she pointed out.
"That's different, my mother is a certified card-carrying witch," Aphrodite said simply, tucking herself back under the covers. "Your mom, on the other hand, used to be nice."
Zoey sighed.
"Exactly, that's why all of this is a hundred times suckier," she said sadly. "Nowadays, I feel like the relationship my mom and I have is like the one I have with my dad. Sure, the guy is my father and we're related by blood, but I never knew him. He left when I was two and it might as well be like he never existed."
Aphrodite listened intently as Zoey explained.
"And what's worse is that I know my mom can change. She doesn't have to be this distant and uncaring stranger, but she doesn't want to change, and nothing I say can get through to her," the brunette continued. "It's all about John now, and because he came around, I feel like I've lost everything."
Aphrodite looked up at Zoey and smiled encouragingly.
"You know what I've noticed about losing things? It just gives you a chance to find something new."
Zoey shook her head, missing Vision Girl's point entirely.
"Aphro, I'm not talking about losing a shirt and going out to buy another one. I mean that I've lost my mom, and even my brother and sister too," she said stiffly.
Aphrodite, who was nice and cozy under the covers, sat up to talk face to face with Zoey.
"Listen, I'll tell you something, alright? My life used to be perfect. I had friends, popularity, influence, and people spent all their time desperately wishing they were me," the blonde said. "When I got my visions, I lost all of that. I had to give up my friends and my status almost overnight to keep my powers a secret. I've never known what it's like to have the happy family that you're missing so much, so for me, my old life was everything."
Now it was Zoey's turn to listen with just as much rapt attention as Aphrodite had a moment ago.
"When you first met me, I acted like the universe revolved around me, but the truth is that I was just putting on a show because I thought I had nothing. I thought I was nothing," Aphrodite admitted sorrowfully. "And do you know who convinced me I was more than just nothing?"
"...I did," Zoey answered.
Aphrodite nodded.
"You saw past all my flaws and insecurities, and somehow you were the first one to realize that I was way more than what I thought I was. So you see? I lost my old life and everything I used to think was important, but in return I got to find you. And because of you I now know what it's like to be really happy, and not just the fake, superficial happy that comes with buying new shoes."
Zoey smiled, always elated to hear how much she meant to Aphrodite.
"I know we have each other, but this is still hard on me," Zoey said, her smile fading fast. "I talked to grandma before I came here, and she made me start to think that maybe my mom is a lost cause and I should just give up on her. It's been so long since I was happy around her, and all she does now is cause me nothing but grief and sadness."
"Trust me Zo, it's best to just get out of those kind of relationships as fast as you can."
"Yeah, but she's still my mom," Zoey said in exasperation. "And for the majority of my life she's been a good one. It doesn't feel right to throw away all the good things she's done for me just because we've had a few years of rough times."
Aphrodite gently put her hand on Zoey's shoulder.
"You said so yourself, Z. She won't change back into the person she was. And it's perfectly fine for you to hang on to all the good memories you have of her, but you deserve more than who she is now. It's a pretty scary thing to think about giving up on your family, the people who are supposed to love and support you."
Zoey glanced down dejectedly.
"You'd think this would be easier, seeing as they stopped doing that a while ago," she muttered.
"But that's okay, because I love you. You're my friend, my girlfriend, and the closest thing to family I've ever had. You lost the people who used to care about you, but instead you found me, a spoiled little rich girl who turned out to like you a hell of a lot. And I can't replace your real family, but if you decide that the best thing for you is to leave them behind and go your separate ways, you know I'll be here for you," Aphrodite's eyes shone with sincerity and compassion, which helped to ease Zoey's tumultuous thoughts.
She leaned over and hugged Aphrodite again, grateful that the girl always knew the right thing to say.
"I know you'll be here, I don't know how I'd get through this if you weren't. I'd probably run crying to my grandma's house and lock myself in a bedroom so I'd never have to face the outside world again."
Aphrodite hugged her back with a tight embrace that told her she was safe and loved.
"Nah, you're tougher than that," the blonde said. "You'd just face the outside world without having someone around to make sarcastic remarks in the background, that's all. You've had a rough night, so let's just go to bed. You'll feel a little better after you sleep."
Zoey nodded, wanting nothing more than to close her eyes and forget about the whole day. She stood up from the bed and made her way to the dresser, opening up drawers in a search for a pair of her pajamas. Aphrodite smiled, seeing a chance to lighten the mood.
"You know, I don't get why your mom expected you at home more often in the first place. Hasn't she noticed that practically half your stuff is gone?" the blonde asked in amusement, remembering that the house had slowly filled up with so many of Zoey's personal belongings it was like she had lived there for years.
"We just went over this, my mom hasn't noticed much."
"...Well, in the spirit of sucky family reunions, I guess I'd better start mentally preparing myself to go see my parents too," Aphrodite muttered.
"Huh?" Zoey asked in confusion after she yanked her pajama shirt over her head.
"I need to go talk to my dad about coming along with him to the House of Night," Aphrodite explained. "And I know you're not on board with me going alone, but I've made up my mind and you can't talk me out of it now."
"I wasn't going to talk you out of it," Zoey said innocently. "I just want you to be super super careful and at least consider not going alone. But do you really have to go see your dad in person? Can't you just call him or something?"
Aphrodite shook her head.
"As busy as he gets towards the end of the year, the chances of him making time to listen to me are even crappier than they usually are."
Zoey still didn't see where this was going.
"Then if he doesn't even have time to talk on the phone, how do you expect him to...oh," Zoey said quietly, realizing when Aphrodite planned on seeing her mom and dad. "That Christmas Eve party..."
Aphrodite frowned, hating the disappointed look on Zoey's face.
"Zoey, you know I don't want to go to any kind of party my parents give, let alone one on your birthday," she said gently. "But aside from me going to the House of Night, we don't have any way to fix all the problems we're dealing with right now, especially New Year's Eve. It's just one of those things that needs to be done. At least the party won't be an all-day thing. I'll still have time to spend with you."
Zoey, in her warm pjs now, climbed back onto the bed.
"Don't worry about it, it's not that big of a deal," she said reassuringly. "It's important that you go to the House of Night, we need a chance to do a little spying on Neferet without her knowing about it. In fact, it was really awesome of you to come up with that plan in the first place."
"...Then why do you look like I just told you we're out of Count Chocula?"
"What? No, it's fine, really," Zoey protested. "We need to stop the red vamps from hurting anyone on New Year's Eve, and the House of Night is our best bet to figure out how."
Aphrodite sighed.
"It sucks. I kept thinking I was going to make your birthday perfect, and now I have to waste time talking to my parents at a stupid party."
"Hey, I've already told you that my birthday doesn't need to be some big extravagant celebration. All I need for it to be perfect is you and our friends, and at the end of the day you guys are all I have, so we're good," Zoey said. "...Which reminds me, we still need to tell the gang that Neferet's grand evil scheme has changed and Kalona is the least of our worries."
"Yeah, before the Nerd Herd gets pissed at us for keeping that from them too."
Zoey laughed dryly, getting comfortable under the covers.
"Right, definitely not making them angry again," she agreed. "So we need to tell them as soon as possible. When we get to school we'll ask them all to meet up with us later."
Aphrodite reached out to turn off the lamp on her nightstand.
"Great. I love it when the dorks hang around my house all day," Vision Girl muttered sarcastically.
The blonde couldn't tell in the dark, but Zoey was grinning haughtily.
"Don't try to act all prissy. You forget that you've already admitted to me that you really do love it when we're all here."
"And you forget that you're dead if you ever tell them."
Zoey laughed and then closed her eyes, sighing in contentment when Aphrodite rolled over and snuggled against her. The minutes passed in silence as the Power Duo slowly drifted off to bed. But as soon as Zoey had entered the strange misty realm between sleep and consciousness, something jolted her awake and her eyes flew open in surprise.
"What the hell was that?" she asked, sitting up.
"...Huh? What?" Aphrodite grumbled, half-asleep.
Zoey paused for a few seconds, listening.
"...I thought I just heard something downstairs," she said quietly.
"Zoey, if you don't let me get some sleep I swear I will shove you into a locker when we go to school later."
"I'm serious, Aphrodite!"
"And you think I'm not?"
The brunette huffed in irritation and flung the covers off, getting out of bed.
"Power Freak, where are you going? ?" Aphrodite whined, just wanting some peace and quiet.
"How did you not hear that? It sounded like something moving around downstairs, I want to see what it was," Zoey answered. Then, teasingly, she added "What if it's a burglar?"
Aphrodite propped herself up on one elbow to give her girlfriend a sleepy-eyed glare.
"Zo, do you have any idea how much money my parents spent on high-tech state of the art security systems? This place is a fortress, a fly couldn't get in here without me knowing about it."
"Well if you're so sure why don't you come along with me so you can rub it in my face when I'm proven wrong?" Zoey said with a smirk, positive that she had heard something.
The blonde was about to protest the idea of getting up when she had already made herself comfortable, but then there was a faint but very distinct thudding, like something being knocked over downstairs, and this time Aphrodite heard it too.
"...Alright, fine. I'm coming."
She got out of bed and grudgingly joined the brunette at the door. But Zoey, who was just joking about burglars and wanted to see what the noise was out of curiosity and not necessity, suddenly wasn't so sure anymore. The first sound that had startled her awake was no big deal; it just as easily could have been wind or the standard creaking that all houses—even ones as stately as Aphrodite's—were partial to occasionally make. But what they had just heard definitely wasn't wind or creaking.
Vision Girl noticed Zoey's hesitation and rolled her eyes.
"Oh come on, you big baby," she opened the door and took Zoey's hand, leading her out into the hallway because it was Zoey's stupid idea to go play detective and no way was Aphrodite going to miss out on a chance to gloat.
Zoey faltered when they reached the staircase, pulling Aphrodite to a stop and suddenly wishing they had paused to turn on the lights.
"Wait, Aphro! What if something's really down there?" she whispered nervously.
"Zoey, you have the power of five elements under your control. If something's downstairs, I don't think you're the one that should be freaking out right now."
They walked down to the first floor and started looking around, glancing over at the open living room and also down the hall that led to the kitchen. Aphrodite, wanting to check and see if something really did get knocked over like it had sounded, silently left Zoey's side and headed towards one of the light switches by the front door, leaving the brunette alone in the middle of the dark foyer. Zoey took the time to tell herself to calm down and get a grip, convincing her suspicious mind that there was nothing creepy happening and that she really needed to stop jumping to conclusions just because it was the middle of the night.
Her attempts at trying to mellow out completely backfired when she felt something very large and very heavy roughly bump into her feet.
Zoey screamed and practically catapulted into the air; if the Power Duo were in a cartoon Zoey would have been through the roof and halfway to the moon by now. Vision Girl, totally unfazed by Zoey's scream, calmly flipped on the foyer lights and sighed at what she found.
"For crying out loud, Z. It's only Skylar," she said curtly.
As if on cue, a mischievous "meow!" sounded from down on the floor.
"Skylar? ?" Zoey demanded, clinging to the staircase railing in case her knees decided to give out on her. "What the hell is he doing here? ? I thought you told me he went back to Neferet!"
Aphrodite seemed to be rather unperturbed by the cat's mysterious appearance, and she merely shrugged at Zoey's question.
"You know cats, they're free range. And besides, as psychotic as Neferet is getting, I'm sure she doesn't exactly make the best company anymore."
Skylar flicked his tail at Aphrodite in a halfhearted greeting, before padding over to Zoey again and affectionately rubbing his head against her leg.
"...Geez, Skylar, you scared the shit out of me," the brunette reached down to scratch behind his ears.
"Hey, shit! Good job Zoey!" Aphrodite mockingly applauded Zoey's use of an actual curse word.
"Don't sass me when I'm busy trying to fight off a heart attack. How did he even get in here, anyway? What happened to all that 'high-tech impenetrable fortress of security' jazz?"
Aphrodite looked a little puzzled herself.
"...Beats me. It's not exactly like cats can open doors. But then again, the first time we found him he apparently walked all the way from Tulsa just to wind up on the front door step, so who knows what he's capable of," she mused.
A look of concern flashed across Zoey's face as she remembered what happened the last time Skylar mysteriously showed up at the house.
"...Wait a second, the day we first met Skylar was the day Neferet sent her spiders and freaky evil dust after us," the brunette said nervously.
"And you made him stick around because you had one of your annoying infallible feelings that Nyx wanted him here," Aphrodite added.
Zoey nodded.
"Nyx wants him to be a warning to us that Neferet is up to something," she explained. "Not anything specific, because we have your visions for that, but just as a reminder to be on guard and that she could strike at any minute."
"Oh, great," Aphrodite huffed. "Some cats bring dead mice, Skylar brings crazy vampyres."
Zoey bent down to pick up Skylar, faltering a little as she remembered just how big the cat really was.
"We should be fine, if Neferet was right outside the door Skylar would be hissing and clawing and going nuts. He's content for now, Nyx just wants him to be here just in case," the Power Freak said. "C'mon, let's go back to sleep."
"It's about time..." Aphrodite muttered under her breath.
She turned the lights off and the Blonde-Brunette Duet started up the stairs, with Skylar purring happily in Zoey's arms. When they walked into the bedroom Zoey gently set him down on the floor, and he ran off towards the chaise lounge seated near the window, hopping up and making himself comfortable like it had been his for years. Zoey and Aphrodite followed his lead, getting back into the warm bed.
"The next time you want to go chasing small animals in the dark, leave me out of it," Vision Girl grumbled. "Now either let me sleep or prepare yourself for a world of hurt when I get you alone at school."
Zoey chuckled as Aphrodite closed her eyes.
"What, are you gonna steal my lunch money and dunk my head in the toilet?"
"Damn straight."
"Eh, that's okay. I'll just take John up on his offer to send me away to a stuffy private school."
"...What? ?" Aphrodite blurted in disbelief.
Zoey laughed.
"Yeah, that's part of what I was going to tell you later. We started arguing and he told me he was going to force me into some high-end, uptight, probably annoyingly religious private school to help curb my 'delinquent behavior'."
That got Aphrodite's attention. She sat up and looked down at Zoey, seeming to forget about her precious need for sleep.
"Private school? As in you, wearing one of those oh-so-dashing private school uniforms?"
"...Aphrodite, don't even go there," Zoey said warningly, although unable to hide a smile.
"Oh no, you're the one that needs to go there."
"I am not going to sign up for some robot cult academy just so you can see me in a blazer and short skirt," Zoey protested with a laugh, imagining what kinky things must be running through Vision Girl's head right about now.
"Okay, we'll skip the pesky 'going to school' stage and just go straight to the uniform," the blonde said, sounding completely serious.
Zoey pulled Aphrodite down and kissed her.
"Tell you what," Power Freak started coyly. "You keep helping me with my homework so I don't fail the first half of junior year, and when school lets out for Christmas break you can dress me in whatever the heck you want to."
Even in the dark, Zoey could see the mischievous gleam in her girlfriend's eyes.
"Careful Z, I just might have to hold you to that promise."
Zoey could tell that she was accidentally starting to put Aphrodite in the mood for something other than sleep.
"Weren't you supposed to be tired?" she reminded her with a grin.
Aphrodite hesitated for a second, and then settled back down on her side of the bed.
"Yeah, I am tired," she agreed. "But tomorrow, Zoey, you're gonna be all mine."
Zoey rolled over and hugged Vision Girl to her like she was a comfortable teddy bear.
"Careful, I just might have to hold you to that," she teased.
"You'd better."