Hush, Hush: Chapter 6
ZeldaQueen: Right. I apologize for the delay, ladies and gentlemen. I've just been really tired as of late and the thought of facing this evil thing has been quite unappealing. Still, faith and fight onward, right?
Before we begin, there are two more wonderful spitefics which everyone ought to read. The first is by gehayi, and is very informative on the laws regarding stalking and how screwed poor Nora is. The second is by winki_pop and has the principle show up and put both the Coach and Patch in their places
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1... Chapter 6
ZeldaQueen: We start out PE, with everyone on the field for baseball. Elliot is there, and starts chatting Nora up. Apparently his previous school didn't require PE, so he's down to take the class twice to get enough credits for it. He is funny and nice and respectful of Nora and naturally this means that she won't seriously consider dating him, or that his character will be horribly derailed by the book's end. Or, probably, both.
The teacher blows the whistle for them to do ten laps, and Elliot shows off how he's totally athletic. Nora also acts like it's insane that the gym teacher, Miss Sully, actually considers what they do during class to be fun. Um, ten laps and a game of baseball isn't exactly strenuous, especially considering that it's freaking PE! Do you think you'd just be allowed to sit around in a class called physical education? Also, I must ask, why do the heroines in these various novels all hate gym so much? I can never get that. You'd think after spending so many hours sitting at a desk, it'd be grand to be allowed to go outside and run around and throw things at people.
Also, Nora bitches that Miss Sully is "hard-core" for having them play outside because it's foggy and drizzling. Considering that it's first period and thus probably pretty early, I'd say no duh it's overcast. I had first period gym for an entire semester. Almost every class was chilly and quite a lot were overcast. We still played outside. Not that big a deal, my dear.
Miss Sully asks for two people to volunteer to be team captains for their baseball game, and Elliot and Marcie Millar end up being picked. You remember Marcie Millar, don't you? From that one time, several chapters back, when she made a ten-second cameo where she was slammed for wearing foundation and then stupidly insulted Vee? Well, she's back. I'm sure a lot of you were anxious about that.
Elliot gets first pick and chooses Nora. Marcie laughs at this and flashes Elliot her "toxic smile", which Nora claims inexplicably "mesmerized the opposite sex". Marcie then tells Elliot that he basically just ensured her team a win, because "There's a hundred reasons why I'm a cheerleader and Nora's not. Coordination tops the list"
Hey guys, I think Marcie's supposed to be a bitch. Kind of hard to tell, though.
Anyway, we then get this.
"'Nora and I are friends,' Elliot told Marcie calmly, almost coolly. It was an overstatement, but I wasn't about to correct him. Marcie looked like she'd had a bucket of ice water flung at her, and I was enjoying it. 'Nora and I are friends,' Elliot told Marcie calmly, almost coolly. It was an overstatement, but I wasn't about to correct him. Marcie looked like she'd had a bucket of ice water flung at her, and I was enjoying it. 'That's because you haven't met anyone better. Like me.' Marcie twisted her hair around her finger. 'Marcie Millar. You'll hear all about me soon enough.' Either her eye twitched, or she winked at him. Elliot gave no response whatsoever, and my approval rating of him shot up a few notches. A lesser guy would have dropped to his knees and begged Marcie for any attention she saw fit to toss."
ZeldaQueen: So, a few things.
First of all, see what I mean about how kind and considerate Elliot is? Why am I supposed to think Patch looks better with Nora than Elliot?
Second of all, are we to believe that Nora is just such a loser and an outcast the very idea of a person saying that he's her friend just stops the bitchy cheerleader cold? If Marcie's so evil, why would that stun her? Wouldn't she instead go to the track of "If your her friend, you must be a total loser yourself"?
Third of all, who the fuck talks like that? Did I go to a weird high school or something? Because I don't remember girls saying things like "I'm the greatest person here. You'll hear all about me later". Leastwise, I don't remember them saying it without heavy sarcasm. And there's good reason, namely that talking like that would get you your ass ridiculed!
Fourth of all, I suppose we're supposed to take from this that Marcie is obscenely popular. Why? I have heard nothing even remotely appealing about her. And no, saying she's a hot cheerleader doesn't get me to believe that she'd have guys dropping to their knees for her, at least the way Nora describes it. I know that hottness and cliques can get you so far, but that much? Actually, I also must add here that her apparent popularity is a pretty serious case of an informed quality, given that I've yet to actually see any hints of this mega-popularity she has going.
Anyway, Fitzpatrick remembers that the teacher is in fact present, so Miss Sully tells them to shut their maws and get on with picking teams. We skip past the rest of the team-picking, and jump to when Elliot's team's up to bat. Elliot puts Nora at bat first and tells her that she needs at least a base hit. Nora makes the usual jokes about paying more attention to the World Series or at least watching the World Series, or at least I'm hoping they're jokes because I'd like to think that someone at least knows enough baseball to get to first base by the time they're in high school.
Marcie is pitcher and we're told how she flips Nora off before pitching. How subtle. Apparently Marcie's pitches suck, because Nora has a dickens of a time hitting them at all. She gets to strike two, and Elliot comes up and gives her some pointers on how to hit the pitches. He also does the cliched thing where he puts his arms around her to show her how to hold the bat, but given how he hasn't been a douche, this is much less creepy than anything Patch has done.
And speaking of Patch, the dickhead shows up right about now. Nora glances at the fence around the baseball field and sees Patch, all in black with no coat, clinging to the chain links and staring at her. She hears someone calling her name in her head, and realizes that either he's talking to her mentally or she's going insane. How nice of him to mindrape his girlfriend and scare her like that. Did I mention I hate this douche?
Marcie pitches again, and Nora starts to swing. She hears the voice in her head tell her to hold back a second and she does so, which gets her to hit the ball. How sweet, Patch is helping her out! I guess a silly girl can't hit a baseball on her own. And yes, I realize that Elliot helped her out as well. There's two reasons that Patch pisses me off and Elliot doesn't though.
First of all, Elliot gave Nora pointers, which helped guide her but ultimately left her to figure things out on her own, while Patch outright told her what to do.
Second of all, Elliot didn't mindrape Nora to help her.
Anyway, Nora races for first base and opts to go on to second, even though she realizes she won't make it . She starts trying to remember how the professionals did dives into bases on ESPN, and tries to remember if one does it legsfirst or headfirst. Considering how one ought to not dive like that without knowing what one's doing, I'd say she ought to forgo the sliding and just run back to first, but then that's sensible. Instead, she makes a dive, scrapes herself up on the ground, and still is gotten out.
Nora limps back to the dugout, where Elliot helps her brush dirt off of her knee. He offers to take Nora to the nurse's office, and she insists that she's fine, all while staring where Patch was at the fence. He's gone now, and Elliot asks her if she was looking for her boyfriend. Nora insists that there's nothing going on between herself and Patch, and we're beaten over the head with how odd it is that he noticed Patch at all, since he never looked at him.
Elliot asks again, and then adds that he doesn't "want to chase after an unavailable girl". Nora does a mental double-take at that, and Elliot asks her if she and Vee would like to go with him and Jules to some place called the Delphic Seaport. Nora says yes, not because she's interested, but because "I was pretty sure that if I turned Elliot down, Vee would kill me. Besides, going out with Elliot seemed like a good way to escape my uncomfortable attraction to Patch" So nice to know that Vee's such a bitch that she would force her friend to go out with a guy she doesn't really want to go out with. And I love how Nora apparently thinks that the only way to think about something other than Patch is to go out with a guy who, again, she doesn't seem to have feelings for. There's ways of ignoring someone besides going out with someone else. And yes, I realize that Nora didn't indicate romantic intentions with going out with Elliot at all, but when you say "I'm starting to fall for this guy and I don't like it, so I'm going to distract myself by going out with this other guy", there's unfortunate implications at the very least, you know?
So we end the chapter with Nora agreeing, and I don't have a good feeling about any of this Onward to: Chapter 7
Back to: Chapter 5
Return to to: Table of Contents
Before we begin, there are two more wonderful spitefics which everyone ought to read. The first is by gehayi, and is very informative on the laws regarding stalking and how screwed poor Nora is. The second is by winki_pop and has the principle show up and put both the Coach and Patch in their places
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1... Chapter 6
ZeldaQueen: We start out PE, with everyone on the field for baseball. Elliot is there, and starts chatting Nora up. Apparently his previous school didn't require PE, so he's down to take the class twice to get enough credits for it. He is funny and nice and respectful of Nora and naturally this means that she won't seriously consider dating him, or that his character will be horribly derailed by the book's end. Or, probably, both.
The teacher blows the whistle for them to do ten laps, and Elliot shows off how he's totally athletic. Nora also acts like it's insane that the gym teacher, Miss Sully, actually considers what they do during class to be fun. Um, ten laps and a game of baseball isn't exactly strenuous, especially considering that it's freaking PE! Do you think you'd just be allowed to sit around in a class called physical education? Also, I must ask, why do the heroines in these various novels all hate gym so much? I can never get that. You'd think after spending so many hours sitting at a desk, it'd be grand to be allowed to go outside and run around and throw things at people.
Also, Nora bitches that Miss Sully is "hard-core" for having them play outside because it's foggy and drizzling. Considering that it's first period and thus probably pretty early, I'd say no duh it's overcast. I had first period gym for an entire semester. Almost every class was chilly and quite a lot were overcast. We still played outside. Not that big a deal, my dear.
Miss Sully asks for two people to volunteer to be team captains for their baseball game, and Elliot and Marcie Millar end up being picked. You remember Marcie Millar, don't you? From that one time, several chapters back, when she made a ten-second cameo where she was slammed for wearing foundation and then stupidly insulted Vee? Well, she's back. I'm sure a lot of you were anxious about that.
Elliot gets first pick and chooses Nora. Marcie laughs at this and flashes Elliot her "toxic smile", which Nora claims inexplicably "mesmerized the opposite sex". Marcie then tells Elliot that he basically just ensured her team a win, because "There's a hundred reasons why I'm a cheerleader and Nora's not. Coordination tops the list"
Hey guys, I think Marcie's supposed to be a bitch. Kind of hard to tell, though.
Anyway, we then get this.
"'Nora and I are friends,' Elliot told Marcie calmly, almost coolly. It was an overstatement, but I wasn't about to correct him. Marcie looked like she'd had a bucket of ice water flung at her, and I was enjoying it. 'Nora and I are friends,' Elliot told Marcie calmly, almost coolly. It was an overstatement, but I wasn't about to correct him. Marcie looked like she'd had a bucket of ice water flung at her, and I was enjoying it. 'That's because you haven't met anyone better. Like me.' Marcie twisted her hair around her finger. 'Marcie Millar. You'll hear all about me soon enough.' Either her eye twitched, or she winked at him. Elliot gave no response whatsoever, and my approval rating of him shot up a few notches. A lesser guy would have dropped to his knees and begged Marcie for any attention she saw fit to toss."
ZeldaQueen: So, a few things.
First of all, see what I mean about how kind and considerate Elliot is? Why am I supposed to think Patch looks better with Nora than Elliot?
Second of all, are we to believe that Nora is just such a loser and an outcast the very idea of a person saying that he's her friend just stops the bitchy cheerleader cold? If Marcie's so evil, why would that stun her? Wouldn't she instead go to the track of "If your her friend, you must be a total loser yourself"?
Third of all, who the fuck talks like that? Did I go to a weird high school or something? Because I don't remember girls saying things like "I'm the greatest person here. You'll hear all about me later". Leastwise, I don't remember them saying it without heavy sarcasm. And there's good reason, namely that talking like that would get you your ass ridiculed!
Fourth of all, I suppose we're supposed to take from this that Marcie is obscenely popular. Why? I have heard nothing even remotely appealing about her. And no, saying she's a hot cheerleader doesn't get me to believe that she'd have guys dropping to their knees for her, at least the way Nora describes it. I know that hottness and cliques can get you so far, but that much? Actually, I also must add here that her apparent popularity is a pretty serious case of an informed quality, given that I've yet to actually see any hints of this mega-popularity she has going.
Anyway, Fitzpatrick remembers that the teacher is in fact present, so Miss Sully tells them to shut their maws and get on with picking teams. We skip past the rest of the team-picking, and jump to when Elliot's team's up to bat. Elliot puts Nora at bat first and tells her that she needs at least a base hit. Nora makes the usual jokes about paying more attention to the World Series or at least watching the World Series, or at least I'm hoping they're jokes because I'd like to think that someone at least knows enough baseball to get to first base by the time they're in high school.
Marcie is pitcher and we're told how she flips Nora off before pitching. How subtle. Apparently Marcie's pitches suck, because Nora has a dickens of a time hitting them at all. She gets to strike two, and Elliot comes up and gives her some pointers on how to hit the pitches. He also does the cliched thing where he puts his arms around her to show her how to hold the bat, but given how he hasn't been a douche, this is much less creepy than anything Patch has done.
And speaking of Patch, the dickhead shows up right about now. Nora glances at the fence around the baseball field and sees Patch, all in black with no coat, clinging to the chain links and staring at her. She hears someone calling her name in her head, and realizes that either he's talking to her mentally or she's going insane. How nice of him to mindrape his girlfriend and scare her like that. Did I mention I hate this douche?
Marcie pitches again, and Nora starts to swing. She hears the voice in her head tell her to hold back a second and she does so, which gets her to hit the ball. How sweet, Patch is helping her out! I guess a silly girl can't hit a baseball on her own. And yes, I realize that Elliot helped her out as well. There's two reasons that Patch pisses me off and Elliot doesn't though.
First of all, Elliot gave Nora pointers, which helped guide her but ultimately left her to figure things out on her own, while Patch outright told her what to do.
Second of all, Elliot didn't mindrape Nora to help her.
Anyway, Nora races for first base and opts to go on to second, even though she realizes she won't make it . She starts trying to remember how the professionals did dives into bases on ESPN, and tries to remember if one does it legsfirst or headfirst. Considering how one ought to not dive like that without knowing what one's doing, I'd say she ought to forgo the sliding and just run back to first, but then that's sensible. Instead, she makes a dive, scrapes herself up on the ground, and still is gotten out.
Nora limps back to the dugout, where Elliot helps her brush dirt off of her knee. He offers to take Nora to the nurse's office, and she insists that she's fine, all while staring where Patch was at the fence. He's gone now, and Elliot asks her if she was looking for her boyfriend. Nora insists that there's nothing going on between herself and Patch, and we're beaten over the head with how odd it is that he noticed Patch at all, since he never looked at him.
Elliot asks again, and then adds that he doesn't "want to chase after an unavailable girl". Nora does a mental double-take at that, and Elliot asks her if she and Vee would like to go with him and Jules to some place called the Delphic Seaport. Nora says yes, not because she's interested, but because "I was pretty sure that if I turned Elliot down, Vee would kill me. Besides, going out with Elliot seemed like a good way to escape my uncomfortable attraction to Patch" So nice to know that Vee's such a bitch that she would force her friend to go out with a guy she doesn't really want to go out with. And I love how Nora apparently thinks that the only way to think about something other than Patch is to go out with a guy who, again, she doesn't seem to have feelings for. There's ways of ignoring someone besides going out with someone else. And yes, I realize that Nora didn't indicate romantic intentions with going out with Elliot at all, but when you say "I'm starting to fall for this guy and I don't like it, so I'm going to distract myself by going out with this other guy", there's unfortunate implications at the very least, you know?
So we end the chapter with Nora agreeing, and I don't have a good feeling about any of this Onward to: Chapter 7
Back to: Chapter 5
Return to to: Table of Contents