Last time on the Summoning, it was the thirteenth chapter and I decided it was time to take my well earned break to go read fanfiction, which turned out to involve a lot of better written stories and plenty of less well done ones that at least didn’t fill me with abject hate. Oh, and Tori’s being drugged into a stupor and Chloe got thrown across the room by Derek but it’s her fault for being mouthy really.

And now I’m right back to the hate. My vacation did nothing. Fuck everyone who voted for this. You knew what you were doing.

WE FOUND MRS. TALBOT setting out the evening snack. Carrot sticks and dip. Yum. Whatever complaints I had about Annette, at least I could always count on brownies at home.

Chloe, shut the hell up. Carrot sticks and dip is delicious. It’s not even low-fat like you’re been whining about endlessly. Dip is usually pretty fatty, that’s why it tastes so good on vegetables and it’s so much more filling than just the carrots. And since nothing has been said about things being low sugar (you ate cake and there’s mountains of graham crackers for the boys to steal) you don’t have the excuse you’re just missing that already.

In this, as actually almost every situation Chloe’s in, everything’s more reasonable if you remove the insanely compressed timescale we’re on.

Chloe is on her second day at this place – and a half if we count her arrival when she’s too doped up to think. Day one: wake up, ghost hand, eat breakfast, play with sharp objects, get menaced by Derek, ghost in basement, play with sharp objects more, have Tori spill about her ghost thing, become best buddies with Rae, try the door for the ghost in the basement, have Liz go poltergeist on teacher, movie night, go back to her room and see Liz go poltergeist again.

Day two: wake up, see ghost Liz, Peter’s sent home and there’s a celebration with cake, write email then decide not to send it, find out about necromancy, see Tori drugged into a zombie state for supper, meet with Simon who turns out to be Derek, get attacked, decide to steal files on both boys, whine about not getting brownies.

And we’re not even done with day two!

It takes more than two nights of no brownies before someone should be throwing a hissy fit about not getting them. She just had cake a few hours ago.

Now, maybe Chloe’s a really picky eater. But for that, she should be directly complaining about the food, not complaining about how she’s not getting something else. I hate chili. If I have to eat chili, my mental whining is not in the form of wanting hamburgers. It is not wanting chili.

Also, it has not occurred to Chloe to just fucking ask for the damn brownies. Maybe the rest of the kids like carrots and dip and that’s the reason the place serves them.

Rae brings up Tori.

She’s taking Liz’s leaving very hard. They were close. I’m sure she’ll feel better once they can talk, but until then she may feel a little down while we get her . . . medication adjusted.

Mommy Nurse confirmed as evil. Tori reacting to an event means Tori gets her meds upped until she stops.

Whatever, says Rae. Can she move in with Chloe? For, uh, Tori’s mental wellbeing. Yeah.

“I don’t want to isolate her too much but, yes, she’d probably be happier alone for now.”

“I don’t want to isolate her too much but, yes, she’d probably be happier alone for now.”

“I don’t want to isolate her too much but, yes, she’d probably be happier alone for now.”

And place confirmed as designed to drive the problem kids to suicide.

Well, I have to admit it certainly makes sense with everything else.

So Rae moves in the hopes Tori will take the hint already and properly off herself. Then she starts talking about how Chloe’s interested in Simon.

We learn Rae isn’t a poor little rich girl. She’s just regular poor.

I’m the designated charity case.

…well, I’ve yet to figure out anything about how the place works, so sure, why not it does charity cases too I don’t care. Maybe it’s to boost the numbers so the rich kids killing themselves to make mommy and daddy’s lives easier is less noticeable.

But it’s okay, she doesn’t resent Chloe because Chloe didn’t treat her any differently. Considering there’s no sign Chloe realized before now, that’s awfully generous of Rae. I think Chloe just assumed everyone was of the proper class.

Rae continues to chatter without Chloe getting a word in edgewise. Well, actually she gets exactly a word in edgewise between the paragraphs of chatter, or at least a syllable or two mostly. Then she’s quiet but Chloe has lost interest in talking, but THEN Chloe changes her mind because

I didn’t want her thinking I was the kind of girl who gets into a new place and immediately starts scoping out the guys.

She’s not that kind of girl. Because we all know what kind of girl that kind of girl is.

No, Chlore is the good kind of girl who gets thrown across a room and won’t tell adults it happened. That’s much, much better than being a boy-crazy slut.

Of course, saying she wants to find out about Derek just makes Rae assume her crush is actually on Derek. Rae is understandably a bit taken aback because Derek is an asshole stalker freak. Chloe clarifies that she’s not a slut not into Derek either.

Thank God. I know some girls go for the jerks, but that’s just nasty.

That’s a surprisingly reasonable

She flushed as she took the picture from me and reached for another. “I shouldn’t say that. It’s not his fault, the whole . . .” She faltered for a word.
“Puberty smackdown.”
A grin. “Exactly. I should feel sorry for the guy, but it’s hard when his attitude is as ugly as his face.”

Oh you meant that you’re fine with girls going for jerks but ugly jerks, that’s just wrong.

The book does, of course, treat this as bad. The appearance thing, I mean. It’s wrong not to be a jerk’s girlfriend just because he isn’t attractive.

At this point Rae recalls the jerk half of the equation and asks if Derek’s done something.

Chloe asks if he has a history of doing something. Chloe, for fuck’s sake you realize that can literally refer to anything ever?

On the upside, Rae hasn’t read the script or if she has she’s doing a good job of pretending so and points out that indeed, she has no idea if Chloe won’t say what she actually means here. On the downside, that means this conversation just drags on even further.

I considered my words. I didn’t want her to insist I talk to the nurses, so I left out the throwing-me-across-the-room part and just said he’d been following me, popping up when I was alone.

Right, god forbid anyone go to the actual adults. I mean, yes, they’re evil, but you don’t think that and I’m mostly sure the reader isn’t supposed to think that, since I’m pretty sure what I’m condemning them over is bad writing, not intentional.

Rae says that Derek must like her. Chloe denies it and Rae points out, reasonably, that this is what it sounds like based on Chloe’s deliberate editing out of anything more sinister.

I felt a flash of annoyance. Why is it that every time a girl says a guy is bothering her, it’s fluffed off with oh, he just likes you, as if that makes it okay?

a) You didn’t say he was bothering you, you said he was following you around
b) Rae did not mean “oh, you can’t be upset by that because he must just like you” because YOU DIDN’T SAY YOU WERE UPSET BY IT YOU STUPID FAILURE OF A PROTAGONIST
c) A BOY LIKING YOU AND A BOY BOTHERING YOU ARE NOT TWO MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE THINGS AUTHOR. I BET YOU WROTE THIS AND PATTED YOURSELF ON THE BACK FOR THE NEXT HOUR BECAUSE YOU WERE BEING SO FEMINIST HERE. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU SO MUCH.

Chloe does, at least, then finally fucking clarify that she means she’s freaked out by him. Okay, progre-

I want to see what his file says. Whether there’s any reason to be spooked.

Let’s pause a moment and look at what didn’t happen.

What didn’t happen is Chloe is intrigued by Derek, but, knowing she’s in a place that has dangerous kids (her very presence is proof of that), wants to double-check to be sure he’s not in there because he killed his last girlfriend and wore her skin as a suit.

What did just happen is Chloe, who’s been made uncomfortable by him from the beginning, has had him appear out of nowhere when she’s alone, and most recently was tricked into meeting with him alone in the basement at which point he grabbed her and threw her across the room, is saying she needs to check to see if there’s any reason to be uncomfortable.

Because if the file doesn’t say Derek is a crazy person, Chloe isn’t allowed to be freaked out by any of those things. See, Chloe isn’t the other “that kind of girl” either. You know, those frigid bitches who turn guys down even when they don’t have a boyfriend already. They’re just another type of bad girl, and Chloe is a good girl. She can’t not want to be around a boy unless there’s a certified reason she’s allowed to.

Any other boy? It’s perfectly okay for them to stalk you. Tricking you into meeting with them alone? Also fine. You wouldn’t want to seem stuck up by objecting, now would you? You don’t think you’re too good to hang around him, right? None of these things are wrong unless the boy’s actually crazy, because regular people are perfectly safe and you aren’t allowed to not want to be around them or not be interested in them or not do what they want you to do.

And if he isn’t perfectly it’s probably your fault anyway. If only you hadn’t been that kind of girl and provoked him.