Last time on the filler, Chloe fillered the filler with the filler to filler because filler.

After wasting our time, Chloe heads back to class, where we waste more time as nothing continues to happen. Then she spends more time in class.

Then she thinks about the fact she’s seeing ghosts, again.

Maybe it would be different for someone who already believed in ghosts. I didn’t.

WHY HAS IT TAKEN NINE CHAPTERS FOR THIS TO COME UP?

Chloe first ignored the hallucinations, then kept occasionally thinking about ghosts after other people brought it up, and at no point did she make any comment on her beliefs despite the fact that seems like something that would come up early on.

I believed in God and in an afterlife the same way I believed in solar systems I’d never seen—that matter-of-fact acceptance that they existed even if I’d never thought much about the specifics.

Okay, but what does this have to

If ghosts existed, did that mean there was no heaven?

What the fuck, Chloe. How are you completely ignorant of all of pop culture? I’m not even going to mention the film major thing here, because we’re referring to cultural baselines, not specific depictions. Everyone, absolutely every fucking one, understands the idea of a ghost being here instead of the real afterlife for some reason.

Were we all doomed to walk the earth forever as shades, hoping to find someone who could see or hear us and . . . ?

Also, why are you completely ignorant of either math or history? Do you have any idea how many people “all” comes to? So we can answer this question easily: are you currently capable of seeing in a straight line several feet in front of you, without any ghosts blocking your view? Yes? Then probably there are not ghosts for absolutely everyone who ever lived wandering around. Moron.

She then wonders what the ghosts want. Uh, probably the things they explicitly say they want? Like when ghost janitor clearly and repeatedly said he wanted to talk to you.

I thought of the voice in the basement. I knew what that one wanted—a door opened. So this spirit had been wandering for years, finally finds someone who can hear him and his earth-shattering request is “Hey, could you open that door for me?”

I.

How do you even criticize something like this?

Does the author really think anyone at all reading the book is thinking that the ghost literally just wants a door open? Is this what she thinks of kids?

But one thing was certain. I needed to know more, and if the pills were stopping me from seeing and hearing the ghosts clearly, then I had to stop taking them.

But the pills aren’t. They aren’t giving you pills to stop your psychic perception of ghosts, they’re giving you ones for hallucinations. And even if you were so stupid as to think it was likely the two overlap despite one being supernatural, there’s the fact the pills are objectively not working because you’re still seeing ghosts. And no, do not even try to tell me that you saw Liz because you didn’t take your pill, that was an extra pill you had for no reason, you were still on your regular meds at that point.

Rae comes over to comfort Chloe, since she assumes Chloe’s worried about getting transferred like Liz. She reiterates that there’s nothing to worry about as long as you fake it well, and then Chloe realizes the obvious – if Rae’s so smart, why is she still here? How long do people normally stay?

She reclined on the sofa. “A couple months, I think.” “Mmonths?”
“Peter was here about that long. Tori a bit more. Derek and Simon, about three months.”

So what she just said is: people stay a couple months. As proof, there’s the fact one person got out after two months, and everyone else who’s been here longer is still here with no sign they’re getting out.

Chloe, using this chapter’s allotment of actual normal thought, reacts because she was told two weeks, not several months.

Rae just says to chill, it’s not so bad. Shut up Rae, this is actually important. Chloe was told a two week evaluation just to be sure there was nothing wrong, then once she gets here, she’s put on medication and told she has a severe mental illness.

But Chloe’s already expended her intelligence, so she just goes along with it. I mean, how can you expect a protagonist to actually show the slightest interest or curiosity in her surroundings?

Since there’s clearly nothing relevant about the stay, Rae moves on to tell us that they doped Tori up.

“She’s stuffed full of meds and totally out of it.” I must have looked alarmed because she hurried on. “Oh, that’s not normal. They don’t do that to anyone but Tori, and she wants it. She’s the pill princess. If she doesn’t get hers on time, she asks for them.

This is really depressing.

It’s unclear if Tori has an actual illness or not, but either way they’re making it worse by doing this. All that we know is that Tori is evidently dependent on them, and probably addicted.

Tori joined us for dinner—in body, at least. She spent the meal practicing for a role in the next zombie movie, expressionless, methodically moving fork to mouth, sometimes even with food on it.

Kids need to learn how to interact with others and normal coping skills. Telling them that their behavior and feelings are simply abnormal and should be fixed with drugs is a great way to mess them up for the rest of their life. Tori was understandably upset about something, and instead of helping her deal with it she’s drugged to the point she isn’t aware of anything.

The other children respond by thinking Tori’s the freak for being like this. Chloe’s definitely the worst, though, because we get to see the way she sees it all: Simon gamely tried to carry on a conversation with me and tentatively slanted questions Tori’s way, as if afraid she was just playing possum, looking for sympathy.

Yep, that’s totally how you should see her, she’s either a diva who likes to take pills to show off or pretends to be messed up to get attention.

we all fled, gratefully, to our chores—Rae and I on dinner cleanup, the guys on garbage and recycling detail.

Huh. Chloe’s been told to help with cooking at least twice so far, and now the girls are cleaning the table. I suppose it may just be a coincidence. Actually, not really, if the boys help with cooking they wouldn’t need to sneak in all the time to steal food, now would they?

Then Chloe finds a note from Simon in her room saying to meet in the laundry room to talk.

Before heading down, she listens to see if there’s any sign of the ghost. She doesn’t hear anything, and she starts wondering if there’s any way she can contact the ghosts on her end, but naturally she doesn’t actually try because she’s worried someone will overhear, so the plot continues to tread water there as well. Then when she gets into the basement, she starts to hear the ghost suddenly, then…Derek.

“Simon didn’t send anything. I knew you wouldn’t come for me. But Simon?” He glanced at his watch. “For Simon, you’re early.

What the fuck.

Simon is a normal sized kid, Derek is a tank. If Chloe wouldn’t come to a private basement meeting if she’d known if was Derek, that’s an understandable reaction, especially after he’s done nothing but loom and creep her out, and if Derek’s so damn concerned about her refusing, he could have asked his brother to pass on whatever he wanted to tell her instead. But I’m pretty sure this is just shaming her the fact his brother’s more attractive and how dare she not be just as interested in him.

You know, it’s totally possible for someone to be in this position! The important part is for them not to have alternatives. If Derek is the loner kid no one will deal with, and he really does have something he needs to tell her, then yes, you could say lying would be necessary. In that case, as in so damn many situations, instead of shaming her over it, the proper behavior would be a) fucking apologize you asshole instead of blaming her for making you lie and b) getting to the goddamn point instead of trying to menace her more. This plot is done properly in fiction, YA and otherwise, all the damn time. There are all sorts of reasons why it doesn’t work, most of which tie into the understandable fact that the loner kid no one will deal with is usually not brimming over with positive social skills to convince people he’s on their side.

Derek, instead just draws it out more. He wants to know if she looked it up. If he was actually trying to help, instead of taunting her and trying to freak her out, he’d start actually explaining, instead of, well, this:

He leaned against the wall, trying for casual, uninterested maybe. His flexing fingers betrayed his eagerness to hear my answer. To see my reaction.
“Did you look it up?” he asked again.

After a bit more of him trying to get her to dance to his amusement, Chloe decides to pretend she thought he wanted her to play an RPG with him. MMO, Chloe. Most videogame RPGs are single player.

“No?” I widened my eyes. “Then why would you send me to those sites about necromancers? Show me pictures of madmen raising armies of rotting zombies? Is that how you get your kicks, Derek? Scaring the new kids?

Oh for fuck’s sake. Seriously, she thinks that her decision to keep looking through pages, at which point she saw horror art, is some sinister bullying attempt?

Well, you’ve had your fun, and if you corner me again or lure me into the basement—”
“Lure you? I was trying to talk to you.”
“No.” I lifted my gaze to his. “You were trying to scare me. Do it again and I’ll tell the nurses.”
When I scripted the lines in my head, they’d been strong and defiant—the new girl standing up to the bully. But when I said them, I sounded like a spoiled brat threatening to tattle.

WHAT THE FUCK WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME SHE’S WRONG HERE

He grabbed for me, fingers clamping around my forearm. He yanked so hard I yelped, shoulder wrenching as I sailed off my feet. He let go and I crashed to the floor.

But it’s okay everyone! He’s sorry she made him hurt her. That’s a relief because I was really worried he wouldn’t forgive her for being such a brat and telling him to leave her alone.

He reached for me. “Chloe, I—”

But Chloe is a bitch who judges people by appearances and the fact they just threw her across the room, so instead of letting the poor boy explain she runs off because she’s prejudiced and mean.

My shoulder burned. When I rolled up my sleeve, I saw a red mark for each of his lingers.

I guess this answers the question of if Simon or Derek wins the love triangle. Also, fuck you book.

She thinks about how she should have acted differently and just run away as soon as she saw him or screamed, because she should have known better than to have such a smart mouth.

I had no proof except marks on my arm that were already fading. Even if I still had them when I showed the nurses, Derek could say I’d lured him into the basement and flipped out, and he’d had to grab my arm to restrain me.

Red marks outlining each finger are pretty visible and don’t happen just by “grabbing”. Even if they are fading, and I doubt they’re doing anything but turning into bruises, they’re still visible right now. And you still have the note proving he lured you down and not the other way around.

But that’s for tattling babies, right Chloe?

I had to handle this myself.
I should handle this myself.
I’d led the proverbial sheltered life. I’d always known that meant I lacked the life experience I’d need to be a screenwriter. Here was my chance to start getting it.

So instead, she finds Rae and says they should go steal the boys’ files tonight.

…at least she’s doing something. Or intending to do something, anyway.

Well, that was chapter thirteen. At least this book has shifted over to doing things I can hate in addition to being full of filler.

Thirteen seems like a good number to pause on, so no update tomorrow. I’ll be using that time to finish up some other stuff and preparing for next month, where I’ll be reading fanfiction. Lovely, lovely fanfiction, where things actually happen sometimes!

Or skip to the next chapter of the Summoning.