Part 24 (1/2)

”Oh, honey. We just heard about Erik and Drama cla.s.s,” Damien said, giving me a little sympathetic pat on my arm.

”Yeah, but we haven't heard enough about it,” Shaunee said.

”We definitely need details from the horse's mouth,” Erin said.

”And you're the horse,” Shaunee finished.

I sighed. ”We did an improv scene. He kissed me. The cla.s.s went nuts. Everyone left when the bell rang. I stayed. He ignored me. The end.”

”Oh, nuh-uh. You're not getting away with just those little details,” Erin said.

”Yeah, we got better dirt from Becca. You know, Twin, I do believe that girl has a crush on our Erik,” Shaunee said.

”Do tell, Twin? Should we claw her eyes out for Z?” Erin said. ”I haven't done a nice eye-clawing in ages.”

”You two are so ba.n.a.l,” Damien said. ”Erik and Zoey are broken up, remember?”

”Yeah, well, your vocab is a ba-pain in our ba-a.s.ses,” Erin said.

”Ba-exactly,” Shaunee said.

”Holy c.r.a.p! Would you guys stop bickering? We've got some major life stuff going on that makes my pathetic love life stuff seem even more ridiculous than it already is. Now I'm gonna get myself a brown pop and try like h.e.l.l to find some real chips in the kitchen. While I do that, get your b.u.t.ts upstairs and meet me in Aphrodite's room. We have stuff we have to figure out.”

”Stuff?” Damien said. ”What kind of stuff?”

”The same old stuff of the scary, life-shattering, world-ending variety we're so familiar with,” I said.

Damien and the Twins blinked at me for a couple of seconds; then all three muttered, ”Okay, cool. We're in.””Oh, and Damien,” I said. ”Get Jack. He's part of this, too.”

Damien looked surprised and then happy, and then a little sad. ”Z, is it okay if he brings d.u.c.h.ess? The dog won't let him out of her sight.”

”Yeah, she can come. But warn him that Aphrodite has a new cat, and the cat is a weird furry clone of Aphrodite.”

”Oh, ee back for his dog (and for me). Even though that would only add to the complexity of my life, it also somehow made me feel like maybe things weren't so scary as I'd thought they were. Then Damien shattered my illusion.

”Let me see the poem.” Typical for Mr. Studious, he went right to the point, bypa.s.sing a good portion of the drama.

Feeling utterly relieved to have another brain trying to figure it out, I stood up and handed him the poem.

”First, you know calling it a poem is really a misnomer,” Damien said.

”Grandma called it a song,” I said.

”It's not actually that, either. Or at least in my opinion it's not.”

I had some major respect for Damien's opinion, especially on anything vaguely academic, so I said, ”If it's not a poem or a song, what is it, then?”

”It's a prophecy,” he said.

”Well, s.h.i.+t! He's right,” Aphrodite said.

”Sadly, I have to agree,” Shaunee said.

”Gloom and doom to come put in confusing what-the-f.u.c.k language. Yep, definitely a prophecy,” Erin said.

”Prophecy, like in Lord of the Rings about the return of the king?” Jack said.

Damien smiled at him. ”Yes, just like that.”

Then they all looked my way. ”Feels right to me,” I said lamely.

”All right. Let's get to work deciphering it.” Damien studied the prophecy. ”Okay, so, it's written in an abab cdcd ee rhyme scheme, breaking it into three stanzas.”

”Is that important?” I asked. ”I mean, we're calling it a prophecy now instead of a poem, so do we care about that abab stuff?”

”Well, I'm not one hundred percent sure, but it is written in poetic form, so my best guess is that we should use poetic rules to decipher it.”

”Okay, sounds logical,” I said.

”Poetic stanzas are roughly synonymous to paragraphs in prose-each one being self-contained with its own subject, even though it has to fit together as a whole.”

”That's my boy!” Jack said, grinning and hugging d.u.c.h.ess.

”d.a.m.n, the kid is smart,” Shaunee said.

”Seriously a brainyack,” Erin said.

”Just watching him gives me a headache,” Aphrodite said.

”And it means we need to look at the stanzas separately at first,” I said. ”Right?”

”It can't hurt,” Damien said.

”Read it out loud,” Aphrodite said. ”It was easier to understand when Zoey read it out loud.”