parents, and maybe some semi-harmless lust for Ashton Kutcher (sad to say he likes older women)--actually brought about this physical reaction in my body. Well, hell! Who knew?
"This wasn't something I caused," I finally managed to say. "This wasn't done because of me. It was done to me. Every scientist on the planet agrees with that."
"Scientists are not all-knowing. They are not men of God."
I just stared at him. He was an Elder of the People of Faith, a position he was oh, so proud of. It was one of the reasons Mom had been attracted to him, and on a strictly logical level I could understand why. Being an Elder meant that a man was successful. He had the right job. A nice house. The perfect family. He was supposed to do the right things and believe the right way. On paper he should have been a great choice for her new husband and our father. Too bad the paper wouldn't have shown the full story. And now, predictably, he was going to play the Elder card and throw God in my face. I would bet my cool new Steve Madden flats that it irritated God as much as it annoyed me.
I tried again. "We studied this in AP biology. It's a physiological reaction that takes place in some teenagers' bodies as their hormone levels rise." I paused, thinking really hard and totally proud of myself for remembering something I learned last semester. "In certain people the hormones trigger something-or-other in a...a..." I thought harder and remembered: "a Junk DNA strand, which starts the whole Change." I smiled, not really at John, but because I was thrilled by my ability to recall stuff from a unit we'd been done with for months. I knew the smile was a mistake when I saw the familiar clenching of his jaw.
"God's knowledge surpasses science, and it's blasphemous for you to say otherwise, young lady."
"I never said scientists are smarter than God!" I threw my hands up and tried to stifle a cough. "I'm just trying to explain this thing to you."
"I don't need to have anything explained to me by a sixteen-year-old."
Well, he was wearing those really bad pants and that awful shirt. Clearly he did need some things explained to him by a teenager, but I didn't think it was the right time to mention his unfortunate and obvious fashion impairment. "But John, honey, what are we going to do about her? What will the neighbors say?" Her face paled even more and she stifled a little sob. "What will people say at Meeting on Sunday?"
He narrowed his eyes when I opened my mouth to answer, and interrupted before I could speak.
"We are going to do what any good family should do. We are going to give this to God."
They were sending me to a convent? Unfortunately, I had to deal with another round of coughing, so he kept right on talking.
"We are also going to call Dr. Asher. He'll know what to do to calm this situation."
Wonderful. Fabulous. He's calling in our family shrink, the Incredibly Expressionless Man. Perfect.
"Linda, call Dr. Asher's emergency number, and then I think it would be wise to activate the prayer phone tree. Make sure the other Elders know that they are to gather here."
My mom nodded and started to get up, but the words that burst from my mouth made her flop back down on the couch.
"What! Your answer is to call a shrink who is totally clueless about teenagers and get all those uptight Elders over here? Like they would even begin to try and understand? No! Don't you get it? I have to leave. Tonight." I coughed, a really gut- wrenching sound that hurt my chest. "See! This will just get worse if I don't get around the...I hesitated. Why was it so hard to say "vampyres"? Because it sounded so foreign--so final--and, part of me admitted, so fantastic. "I have to get to the House of Night."
Mom jumped up, and for a second I thought she was actually going to save me. Then John put his arm around her shoulder possessively. She looked up at him and when she looked back at me her eyes seemed almost sorry, but her words, typically, reflected only what John would want her to say.
"Zoey, surely it wouldn't hurt anything if you spent just tonight at home?"
"Of course it wouldn't," John said to her. "I'm sure Dr. Asher will see the need for a house