Blue Monday

Chapter 5 - Seven Nation Army

***ALEX***

It's been over a week since Fionna came to me in my dream. She has yet to show up again, but I'm actually starting to feel a bit sick from anticipating it every night.

When another morning dawns and I've slept totally Fionna-free, I actually breathe a sigh of relief. I think I'm entitled to one. Today, I'm expecting to have a video chat session with Juliet. First long-distance date, anyone?

Today is Thursday, so Mom's gonna be out at work most of the day and, therefore, unable to interfere with the fun just by being here. The woman means well, but she's never had to deal with either of her boys bringing dates over. Gabe's never done so (not counting the one girl he brought over freshman year, having not even fully figured himself out yet at the time) because Mom's never quite gotten over her tendency to make inappropriate jokes about gay people around us. He takes them in stride, but if she were to slip up like that in front of Kyle, for instance, I bet the ensuing awkwardness would sour their relationship beyond repair. And the only other girlfriend I've ever had died before...

Okay. Calm down. Deep breaths. Think happy thoughts.

In the meantime, I have hours upon hours to kill while I wait for Juliet to call. I try to distract myself with video games, then some reading. Fionna's old friend Kelly Jackson still keeps in touch with Gabe, and they send books to each other as part of the unofficial book-sharing program Castledown kids like to take part in. On the last day of school, Gabe had gotten Kelly to lend him a copy of Vampire Academy for me to read. I'd initially asked for Cress, but it was unavailable.

I actually sort of like the book. It makes me think of what Balthazar might have been like if it had been a school for bloodsuckers, located in Montana instead of California. And if it had been full of pouting, glamorous people with overdeveloped catty sides.

It's not instant five-star material for me, not like the first two Lunar Chronicles books were. But Gabe assures me the series gets better as it goes on. And that the author, Richelle Mead, has been known to be just as cruel and homicidal to innocent characters as many of my favorite writers - he's cited Veronica Roth and Pittacus Lore as examples. I almost don't wanna keep going, because I have a sneaking suspicion that one character who was a favorite of mine right away, because I saw a lot of myself in him, is going to be the first to die.

Then again, though, Mead is undeniably a great world-builder, one of the best I've seen since I started reading Harry Potter at age seven. I especially like the way she's set up three different classes of vampires, all with their own distinct attributes and abilities.

I get about halfway through the book, then break for lunch. While I'm eating, Gabe comes into the kitchen wearing a swimsuit and towel. "Wanna hit the pool?" he asks.

I shake my head. "I'm eating," I say with my mouth full for effect. I swallow my piece of sandwich, then add, "Doesn't that mean I'm supposed to wait an hour?"

"Well, wait an hour if you want," Gabe says, "but then come join me. You can't stay away from the water forever, or your gills might close up."

"Haha, bloody ha," I say, quoting one of Gabe's favorite lines back at him.

He smiles - that is, if one can count a slight up-turn of the corner of his mouth as a smile. "Just join me later. I don't wanna spend the whole afternoon with nothing to do but throw water balls at the orange tree."

I nod, then return to my lunch as Gabe heads outside. Like most water-elemental families who can afford it, we have our own backyard pool. Mom decided to have it installed when we were ten, because it provided a much better outlet for us twin boys who liked to fill up the master bathroom's tub and have water fights.