of surgical precision aimed at the two strongest male characters. Within minutes, she seduced Damon and brutally murdered John Gilbert, immediately establishing her dominance.
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• L a d i e s o f t h e N i g h t , U n i t e ! •
65
Forget Caroline and Founder’s Day—the real Queen of Mystic Falls has returned and she hasn’t got the time or the patience for human emotions like love. Tragic romance must take a backseat to horror once again. At least for a little while. It is, after all, a story about vampires.
Jon Skovron lives with his two sons outside Washington, D.C. His first novel, Struts & Frets , is about music. It was recently published by Abrams Amulet. His second novel, Misfit , is about demons and other monsters. It comes out in the fal of 2011. If you like music and/or monsters, visit him at jonskovron.com.
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In Which Our Intrepid Heroines
Discuss the Merits of
the Bad Boy Versus the Reformed
Bad Boy with the Help of a
Couple of Dead Women Who Know
About Such Things.
• Alyxandra Harvey •
The Stefan vs. Damon argument is as old as the Vampire Diaries book series itself. With the advent of the TV
series, the debate has reached an entirely new level. Every Thursday night, lines are drawn, “Team” loyalties formed or reinforced, and this same argument found all over Twitter, Facebook, and fan communities. Here, Alyx Harvey serves up a lesson in what defines a heroic figure and explains why the Salvatore brothers both fit the bill—with a fun twist.
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N ight trembled on bat wings over the treetops.
“Well, that’s just awful.” Lizzie scratched it out so fero-ciously the paper pockmarked. The candle next to her elbow rattled. “It’s about vampires, of course it’s got bats and night.”
She was still sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table and scowling at the offending description when Cat burst into Lizzie’s parents’ sunroom. “I know! I know! I’m late,”
she said, sounding out of breath, as always. “I got this text from Edw—oooh, hey, is that Vampire Diaries?” She plopped onto a chair facing the television, entranced. “Damon totally takes his shirt off in this episode.”
“You’re late,” Lizzie said.
“Shh. Damon.”
“Please, Stefan’s cuter.”
Cat looked away for barely a second, one eyebrow raised in patent disbelief. “Is not.”
Lizzie pointed to the screen. “Look at that half smile.
Those eyes. You can just tell he’s deep. And he’d totally remember your birthday.” She sighed a little, then shook her head. “Okay, we have to focus.”
Cat snorted. “Dude. Shirtless. I’m focused.”
Lizzie grinned. “Not on cute guys, on our homework. Due in exactly nine hours, remember?”
She waved her hand. “Cute guys always win out.”
“Don’t make me turn it off.” Lizzie reached for the remote.
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• I n W h i c h O u r I n t r e p i d H e r o i n e s D i s c u s s t h e M e r i t s . . . •
69
Cat froze. “Put that down. When did you get so mean?”
Lizzie compromised and hit the mute button. “Okay, so the assignment is to connect a contemporary story to something we’ve read in class this year.”
“Yeah, but connect how?”
“Parallels, themes, the usual.” She nodded to a pile of books on the table. “I got some stuff out of the library last week.”
“Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Poetry of the Romantics, Themes in English Literature.” She leaned her chin on her hand morosely. “God, I’m bored already.”
“We don’t have time to be bored. Look, I did piles of research but I’m not doing the whole essay by myself. Group project, remember?”
“Are hot guys a theme?” Cat wondered. She paused, bright-ening. “Hey, The Vampire Diaries is a contemporary story.”
“That’s true.”
“So we could watch all the episodes again and technically we’d be doing homework.”
Lizzie sat up. “I’ve always wanted to write a paper about how Team Stefan is Team Darcy.”
“You want to write essays? You’re so weird.”
Lizzie ignored her. “I could claim Stefan as the descendant of the literary tradition of the Romantic hero, via Mr. Darcy.”
“I don’t even know what you just said,” Cat grumbled.
“Stop showing off.” She slumped. “I don’t want to talk about Stefan all night.” She shuffled through her notes and the