Chapter 12

Even after the ride home, Nicole hadn’t responded to my text. I was actually kind of grateful Sabrina was along for the ride, given it was clear being in a car alone with her overprotective dad would have been awkward as fuck otherwise. He said very little, but it was clear that he disapproved of me, and to be blunt, it was clear he disapproved of me because I was a boy. The fact I couldn’t change that almost made it easier to handle.

After I said goodbye, I headed in. Dad was home early, looking at something at the table, while Mom was in the living room reading. Dad noticed me first.

“Hey, champ,” he said flatly, Dad’s usual tone. “How was the Spanish final?”

I grunted. “I’m still terrible at it,” I confessed. “I, uh, tried my hardest, but you might get, like, a bad note from the school or something. Just giving you the heads-up.”

“What is this, the fifties?” Dad quipped. “Are they going to send me a note telling me to spank you?” He looked back at his papers and his eyes danced. “Because I ignored the last three notes from your school telling me to.”

“Hilarious,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

“Sweetie, didn’t you study for it?” Mom asked, now involved in this conversation.

I sat down at the table and shrugged. “Not as much as I should have,” I admitted, then preemptively added, “I know, I know.”

“If ‘you know, you know,’ then maybe you should spend some more time studying for tomorrow’s final,” Dad chimed in. “What is it, English?”

“Yup,” I replied with a nod. “It’s my strongest subject though, and it’s hard to study when a lot of it is knowing how to write a good essay.”

“Is all of it that?” Mom quizzed me.

I gave her a grimace-smile as she walked into the kitchen. “No, and I will be studying for the other parts,” I replied diligently as she smiled and gave me a kiss on top of my head. “I promise.”

“As long as you promise,” Dad said with a nod, never looking up from what he was doing. “I’d say ‘no video games until you finish,’ but you only seem to play them when Nicole’s around. I can’t tell if we raised you really well or completely failed.”

I laughed at that one. “Well, my vote says you raised me well.”

Dad looked at me, then waved a hand dismissively. “Enh, you’re biased.”

I still hadn’t told them about Nicole. I wasn’t great about these things, but sooner or later they were going to ask questions. I needed to rip the band-aid off sooner than later. “Oh, and by the way, uh, don’t make a big deal out of it, but Nicole and I aren’t a thing anymore.”

Mom immediately reacted. “Oh no, my poor boy!!” she wailed, walking back over to me. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Mom, do you remember the first part of my sentence?” I joked weakly.

“We heard you, we just didn’t obey you,” Dad noted dryly.

“Well, you did,” I pointed out.

Dad looked up from his papers. “Dear God, you’re right,” he said over-emotionally, his face remaining flat. “Why aren’t I screaming and crying like I always do?”

“Timothy, stop making this about you!” Mom admonished him. “This is very sad news!”

“No no, I don’t mind,” I stepped in. “Genuinely, I don’t want to make this a big deal. I was sad for the first bit, but-”

Oops. “So this happened before today?” Mom asked, her tone only escalating.

I rubbed at my nose with my thumb and forefinger, my face scrunching up. “Uh, yeah,” I managed. “I was just feeling a lot, and I, uh ... Look, I’ll talk about it some other day, but I wanna just ... live right now, alright?”

Mom wasn’t great at letting things go (and it was nice to know I got that from somebody) but she seemed to accept that with grace. There was a lull in the conversation before Dad awkwardly asked me if I’d like anything in particular for dinner. After answering, I went up to my room, feeling like studying was actually the superior option there.

I sighed as soon as I closed my door, though when I took out my phone, I was immediately hit with a few texts from Sabrina. I smiled and began to text her back. I totally misjudged her; not only was she really cool, but she actually understood me, in ways people seemed never to do.

I glanced out my window and frowned. Nah, not people. Nicole. In ways Nicole never did. I turned back, having my phone in front of me but resolving to study in between texting Sabrina. We talked about everything: Yearbook, movies, music, favorite colors, boxing club, what we’re wearing, how good it would be to be inside her again...

Yeah, oops. Studying very quickly turned into jacking off on my bed and sending Sabrina pictures of my dick (making sure beforehand she wanted them, of course). Sabrina responded in kind, definitely lacking photographic skill but making up for it in eagerness and ... this exciting sense that she hadn’t really done stuff like this before. She definitely had boyfriends and stuff, and maybe even friends with benefits, but when I sent her the first nude, she went haywire, like she’d never even seen a cock before or something. It was really fun sending her a nude making my cock seem really big, and then seeing her text back in all caps about how badly she wanted to suck on me. It made me throb with excitement, knowing I’d be inside her again really soon.

Right as we were winding down, my phone rang, startling me so much I nearly dropped it. Nicole’s name showed up on screen, making me more ... nervous than anything. Still, I answered the phone after clearing my throat, pretending I wasn’t naked and still hard.

“Hello?”

“Hey dude! Sorry to startle ya. I just figured calling you would be easier than texting,” Nicole replied, slightly out of breath.

I didn’t know what to say to that. Why was she sounding like she had just been doing something not-safe-for-work herself...? “Um, okay? Am I in trouble or something?”

Nicole giggled into the phone. “Fuck no,” she replied. “It was just karate today, and I wanted to offer you a ride, though it’s kind of late for it now. Just ended.”

Oh. I guess that explained a lot. “You were going to offer me a ride?” I asked.

“Uh, yeah. It’s a big walk from school if you even brought your gi, and I sure don’t bring my gi to school. Anyway, offer’s open for Friday, even if there’s no school.”

My tongue ran over my teeth. I guess I hadn’t accounted for this. It was weird hearing her talk like it was inherently true I’d keep coming to karate with her or something. “Isn’t it weird given...”

“Nope,” she said flatly. “Because we agreed not to make it weird. So this is me not making it weird. I’m offering you a lift, dummy.” Her voice was gentle even as she said that. “Am I picking you up or are you finding your own ride?”

“Uh, to be honest,” I replied slowly, only making up my mind as I talked, “I might be taking a break from karate for a little bit. You know, maybe try other things, see if it’s really my speed. I might pick it back up again but I might not, you know?”

“Oh,” Nicole said simply, pausing for a long time. “Alright then.”

“I appreciate the offer though,” I added. “And maybe I’ll – I – if I decide to come back, you’ll be the first person I tell.”

“Whatever, dude,” she said casually. “It’s your life. My bad for butting in.”

“No no, I’m sorry for not telling you,” I replied. “But ... why did you text Sabrina first and not me?”

“I didn’t text her, I called,” Nicole corrected me pointlessly. I smiled to myself. I didn’t actually intentionally make that error, but now it really seemed like Sabrina and I weren’t hanging out. “I dunno. You weren’t hanging around the school, she didn’t show up for yearbook today, I figured you two were hanging out or something. Just trying to be efficient.”

“ ... It’s not more efficient to call me if you needed to ask me something?” I asked, not getting it.

“Look, I – this seems like we’re arguing, so tell you what: yeah, I should have called you. I’ll be honest, I only made the connection between her and you and then thought about driving you to karate, alright? So that was my thought process. It was dumb, but I wasn’t firing on all cylinders today. It’s been a long one. Is that good enough for ya?”

“Alright alright, I’m sorry,” I admitted. I couldn’t tell if she was lying or truthful, but I probably wouldn’t have gotten anything out of trying to figure it out. “Well, thanks again for the offer. Will it be open if I decide to start coming to karate again?”

“Ask me when it happens and find out, I guess,” Nicole offered.

“Sounds good. Talk to you later.”

“See ya next week.” Nicole hung up first.

That was odd for way too many reasons. Immediately, I went back to texting Sabrina. I definitely left her high and dry, but once I texted her why, she’d understand. My fingers flew as I explained everything, and refreshingly, she never once told me I was overthinking. She only replied with fascination. She was my kind of girl. What a recipe for disaster.

As I predicted, I did perfectly fine with my English final. The few days after that were filled with a well-deserved break, even with Sabrina and I texting each other a good six hours of the day, and another tournament with Carson and Megan, with this one being Goldeneye. These two seemed to grow up with games like this, but to me, it was a bunch of really sihtty-looking 3D models running around some dude’s first-time 3D environment project.

“And that’s the game,” Megan announced flatly.

“What?” Carson asked with a puzzled face. “The match isn’t-”

On cue, his character died and the screen showed the final scores. I didn’t even bother playing this round, even though the game could support up to four people. I hadn’t managed to get a single kill for the last three games.

Carson gave Megan a death glare. “I need Pepsi,” he grumpily said, standing up and going to the kitchen. “Adam, Megan, tell me what you want.”

“Water, please,” Megan politely said.

“Uh, yeah, I’ll take a water,” I added, checking my phone and grimacing.

Two text messages from Athena. That couldn’t be good. Megan peered over my shoulder and saw the screen, then looked back at me with a slight smile on her face. “Open ‘em,” she murmured, and I gave her a look. “It’s nothing I don’t know.”

I rolled my eyes and opened the messages, seeing both of them pop up on my screen.

Hey! long time no talk! How u been!

... hello?

Even Megan grimaced. The messages were only seventeen minutes apart. “Yeah, have fun,” she eventually said with a slight laugh. Figuring leaving it unanswered would cause more problems, I responded.

Hey! Sorry, I was hanging out with Carson and Megan. Still am, so I can’t respond immediately. I’ve been good, yourself?

Honestly, I was kinda proud of that. Communicative and diplomatic. I showed the text to Megan, who mimed a golf clap and nodded approvingly. With that, I shut off my phone as Carson returned. “Ready for next semester, Carson?” I asked.

“Enh,” he replied simply, setting our waters down in front of us before laying back in his recliner with his Dr. Pepper. Guess they were out of Pepsi. “Same shit, different classes, you know?”

“It sucks we don’t have any classes together,” Megan added.

Carson rolled his eyes and cracked his can open. “Yeah, that’s what happens when you take fuckin’ drama of all classes.” He downed a hefty gulp of his drink.

“You’re the one who convinced him to take business,” Megan argued.

“And I stand by it. Everyone should take business. I tried to tell you too-”

“I remember,” Megan replied with an annoyed chuckle. “We both have English, so that’s nice.”

“‘Nice,’” Carson replied with air-quotes. “We got fuckin’ Jefferson. Have you heard the fuckin’ horror stories that guy has?”

The two kept arguing as the phone in my pocket buzzed. For the moment, I ignored it. Listening to these two arguing was more peaceful.

It was almost weird getting to sit in the audience during an assembly, but only Nicole was needed to rep the Council. Mr. Scott was there to say a few words to welcome everyone to the new semester, and by the time a sweat began to form on his brow, I could tell he was going to call Nicole forward.

“ ... And, of course, the Student Council has been working closely with me to ensure this new semester is a memorable and productive one, so everyone put your hands together for Nicole Baker!”

Nicole went through periods where she was more and less liked by the student body, and judging by the roars, she was enjoying a surge of popularity. She bit her lower lip in happiness as she raised her hands and slowly lowered them over and over, trying to calm down the crowd.

“Thank you, thank y- alright, jeez! I get it!” she laughed as the cheering died down. “Wow. It’s safe to assume you all really enjoyed that new microwave, huh?”

Slight laughter rippled through the crowd. A school fundraiser from last semester pulled through and the Council got to buy a new microwave for the caf. The students completely worshiped the thing. If they could have made it a national heritage site, they would have.

“So, a big ‘congrats’ goes out to all of you for finishing semester number one, but that was just level one. Level two is comin’ atcha, and comin’ atcha fast,” Nicole continued, nearly gripping the podium as she looked out at the crowd. It really was inspiring just how much passion the girl had. Like, on some level I wanted to be mad at her, but on another ... She was still Nicole. It didn’t help that she was still unquestionably the hottest girl at school. The way her black hair fell to her shoulders, the playful yet powerful stare contained in her blue eyes, and this almost sounded silly, but her eyebrows. She was so emotive, like everything was the most important thing ever. When she smiled, Nicole fuckin’ smiled. no one else even came close.

I sighed. I was still in love with Nicole. I was upset about what she did, but I wasn’t going to lie to myself. Even just seeing her felt ... comfortable. I could look next to me and lock eyes with Sabrina, and even smile at her and get a meaningful smile back, but I knew nothing was coming close. It was nice that Sabrina understood that, and understood my boundaries a little better than some others, but still. Sabrina and I, even though we were starting to get along better, were fuck buddies. Nicole and I had history.

“ ... for the rest of the year,” Nicole finished her sentence as I zoned back in. She bit her lower lip in excitement. “So, what do you say? Are we just some kids, or are we Hazelwood f- High?”

The students cheered, even as Nicole made a slight nervous wince. She clearly only just stopped herself from swearing. “Alright then, let’s see what we make of ourselves this semester. Something tells me it’s gonna be the biggest one yet. Get out there, try new things, do your best ... maybe set some hearts on fire?”

I paused. Hearing Nicole say that was weird. Even after she chanted, “Ductus exemplo!” and everyone cheered and clapped, I was frozen in place. Nicole definitely set my heart on fire ... although I guess I wasn’t exactly innocent of that myself. Nicole sauntered off-stage as Mr. Scott took to the podium and announced a few things before we went to our first-period classes. I only remained there and breathed.

All of us sat in the auditorium seats murmuring until we heard the door open behind us. No one had to look back to know who it was. With power and grace, Mr. Salvador walked up the auditorium wings and sat down on the edge of the stage.

“Hello,” he greeted us with a simple tone. “Welcome to grade ten drama class. How many of you are taking drama for the first time?”

A few hands rose out of the crowd. I looked around. A good number of the students’ hands were easily recognizable, though one of them wasn’t from past drama classes.

Salvador noticed too, and stared at the anomaly, pointing to her. “You,” he said simply. “Is this not your first time taking drama here? I don’t recognize you.”

A pause rippled through the auditorium. “ ... Me?” Zelda’s voice asked.

“Yes, you,” Salvador gently yet powerfully insisted.

“I’ve taken drama class before, but not here,” she explained. “I’m an exchange student from Denmark. I took drama class there.”

“Denmark,” Savlador repeated, savoring the word. “Dejlig. I look forward to seeing what you can do in my class.”

“Oh, you speak Danish?” she asked in surprise.

“No, just a few words. That’s one of them,” Salvador answered, looking down at the clipboard he brought with him. “Anyways, for those of you who have never taken my class before, let’s go over a few ground rules. Number one, being early is on time, and being on time is late. As soon as the bell has rung, we’ve begun. Some teachers are fine with you coming in late and disrupting the flow of class, and I am not one of them. Number two, this class will be demanding on you, both physically and mentally. There are things you can do to prepare for this. The first is to dress appropriately. Loose t-shirts, et cetera. Do not come to class wearing jeans, you won’t be able to move well and you will get a bad mark.”

He paused, and looked over the crowd. He locked eyes with me for a second, before continuing. “On the mental side, do not forget that drama is a class that relies on your ability to create and sustain the scene. If you have problems with your fellow students, leave it at the door. If you’re having troubles in other classes, leave it at the door. You will push through it and if you do, you’ll make the best not only of your work but of yourself. Do I make myself clear?”

A chorus of timid “yes”s rang through the aud, although mine and a few others were confident. “Good,” Salvador replied. “Secondly, for anyone new to this class expecting us to be looking at Shakespeare plays and analyzing scripts, take your expectations and burn them. In this class, we’ll be learning how to use drama to its maximum potential, and not sitting around looking at scripts. You learn drama by doing, not by looking.” He adjusted the small glasses sitting on his face and glanced again at his clipboard. “With all that in mind, could I please have a volunteer? Someone, perhaps, who took my classes last year?”

I, as well as a few of the usual suspects from last year – I recognized Callum and Hannah – raised their hands. Salvador surveyed the hands in the crowd. He furrowed his brow. “I said someone who took my classes last year,” he said, pointing to a student. “Why did you raise your hand?”

“Um...” A male student awkwardly fumbled. “W-well, you said ‘perhaps.’”

Salvador stared at him for a bit. “Someone who took my class last year,” he reaffirmed, looking around, eventually settling on me. “Adam. On stage, please.”

I quickly got out of my seat and shuffled past some other students, and nearly jumped up on stage before hesitating, then taking off my shoes. Salvador nodded as he saw me take them off. “Ah, yes. Number three, no shoes on stage. Shoes and socks will be taken off.” This rule caused the most murmurings. He got up off stage and joined the students in the audience seats as I walked to the center of the stage. “Now, Adam, could you please tell us what drama means to you? You can take up to two minutes, but you can take as little as you want.”

I nodded, and cleared my throat. “Well-”

Salvador held his hand up and closed it, signaling for me to stop. “No speaking, please,” he instructed me.

Right. Of course. It was Salvador. Feeling my heart beating faster in front of everyone, I took a few clear breaths, and decided not to think about it too much. I just would do what came naturally to me.

I pointed to myself, then pointed past the auditorium doors with the same hand, keeping eye contact with the crowd. I lingered there for a second, then held my hands close to my chest and hunched up, like a turtle. I then pointed to myself, then to the stage, then stood in a wide stance, jutting my chest out. I took my pointing finger and made an arc to my left, then walked across the stage timidly. I walked back to center stage, and pointed in an arc to my right, and then walked confidently across the stage. I remained there, and then bowed, signaling I was done. One of two students awkwardly clapped once or twice, not knowing what to do with what I’d done.

“Good,” Salvador said, turning back to the other students. “What did Adam just say?” Of all people, Zelda raised her hand, and Salvador pointed to her. “Go ahead.”

“When Adam was in school before coming to drama class, he was shy and defensive,” Zelda began. “Once he was in drama class, he learned how to be confident.”

“So what does drama mean to him?” Salvador asked.

Zelda paused. “He learned how to be himself?” she asked.

“Don’t ask me, tell me.”

Zelda paused. “To Adam, drama is about learning how to be yourself.”

“Good, thank you,” he told her, turning back around. “You can sit down in the audience, Adam,” he told me. “Who’s next?”

I smiled as I walked back to my seat. This was definitely the Salvador I knew.

After the bell rang, Salvador gave us some announcements and then sat down on the edge of the stage, checking his clipboard. The rest of the students started gathering their things. I was already done and slumped my bag over my shoulder, and noticed Zelda. I shrugged to myself – what was the worst that could happen? – and approached her.

“You were, uh, exactly right,” I told her. “When you guessed what I was saying.”

She shrugged. “Well, you made it really clear, so, good job,” she awkwardly told me. “I guess I need to be more clear or something.”

“You did fine,” I soothed her, even though I knew she was one of three students where no one even bothered to guess what she was trying to say. “I just know what to look for with Salvador.”

She smiled cheekily. “Yeah, I kind of get a ‘teacher’s pet’ vibe from you,” she teased.

“Hey!” I protested, despite knowing it was true. Her smile only grew in response. “I mean, he is a good teacher.”

Zelda looked at me with shock. “Better than Kovacs?!” she asked with sheer surprise.

“Hey now, no one can keep our attention quite like Kovacs,” I joked back. “That was convincing, by the way. You’re going to do really well in drama if you can act like that.”

“We’ll see,” Zelda replied, putting her bag over her shoulder and starting to walk. I followed her. We exited the doors and she exhaled, then slowly turned to face me. “We should probably talk soon. I want to be your friend but I’m still mad at you.”

“Woah. Uh ... direct,” I mumbled. She just kept walking. “Zelda, I had no way of knowing you two were ... you know. How long are you going to hold this over me?”

“It just feels too weird,” she replied, the both of us reaching our lockers. “You ask me out, you keep asking for the key, you discover us, and now Megan isn’t talking to me.”

“Megan’s not talking to you because she’s scared of liking girls,” I said with a quiet tone. “That’s not my fault.”

“I didn’t say it was your fault, I just said I was mad at you,” Zelda replied.

I chuckled and threw up my arms. “Well, I’m the villain I guess,” I replied. “I want to be your friend too.”

“Do you still want to go out with me?” she asked.

“No, don’t worry, I’m over it,” I replied quickly.

She side-eyed me and actually smiled. “Adam,” she chided with a playful tone. “I’m a big girl. Don’t lie.”

I stared at her for a bit. “I thought you would have liked to hear that my intentions were honorable,” I admitted, then hastily added, “because they are. Like, yeah, okay, I’d go out with you if you asked, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you as a friend too. Can’t it be both, why can’t it be both?”

“It can be,” she admitted. “But it usually isn’t. With boys, passion is the sole desire, the one goal. Well, nice boys. With some boys, they just want one thing, and they’ll lie and cheat to get it.”

I shivered at the word ‘cheat.’ “That’s not me,” I immediately insisted.

“I believe you,” she replied. “Don’t be mad, but I’ve, um, talked to Sabrina. And Megan. I tried talking to Nicole, but she didn’t want to talk about you. The general consensus is that you’re a horndog, but...” She paused, and smiled again. “It’s never just sex. You seem to care about people as people.”

“Wait, you talked to the others?” I asked with heat in my tone. “About me? I didn’t even know you knew Sabrina.”

“You were the one who told me Megan’s a bad liar. I cornered her,” Zelda flatly replied. “She didn’t want to talk about us, but once I pivoted to talking about you, she gave it up instantly.”

“What?!”

“What, am I not using the word ‘pivoted’ correctly?”

“I dunno, probably, but I – wow...” I scratched the back of my head. Megan, I thought you were better than this. At least Nicole was polite ... or she just didn’t want to be associated with me.

“Hey, if they didn’t talk to me, I would have thought you only wanted sex from me,” Zelda clarified. “So you should be grateful.”

“Yeah, weird thing, I’m not,” I spat angrily, whipping out my phone.

Zelda just watched, and calmly added, “They only had nice things to say about you, Adam. They just didn’t lie. Are you seriously going to get angry at them for that?”

I stopped typing, and looked at her. The buzzer for the next class went off while we were staring at each other. “I’m allowed to want some privacy, aren’t I?” I asked.

“You’re allowed to want it, yeah,” she admitted, then smiled. “I’m also allowed to ask people about you.”

“And yet you’re allowed to want to be my friend and be angry at me too?” I countered.

“I wouldn’t want to be your friend if they didn’t say what they said,” she answered. “Your friends like you, Adam. Isn’t that a good thing?”

I paused. “ ... And what do you want from me?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Patience?” she admitted. “Let’s be partners in drama class and stuff, then see if we work as friends again. Besides, Mr. Salvador said to leave our problems at the door. So let’s do that.” We paused again, and she added, “I’m going to be late.”

“Okay, let’s do that,” I caved. “I’m still gonna text Megan and Sabrina about this though. Are you and Megan ... okay now?”

“About as good as you and Nicole,” Zelda gingerly replied.

It was like getting zapped by lightning. Zelda knew. I could only breathe and blink, looking at her. “Someone told you that too...?” I managed feebly.

“Nope.” Zelda flashed me a quick but empathetic smile. “I took cryptology, remember?” She took my hand in hers and held it for a second. “For the record, I’m sorry.”

I looked at her hand holding mine. I wanted to reply, but I just shook her hand from mine and walked away. I didn’t want to get on the verge of tears around her. It was only the first day of the new semester.

Health and Wellness was a bullshit class. Everyone knew it, probably even Mr. Wainright. Even though he came across as a friendly guy, the workload was a joke and the subject matter was eye-rollingly stupid. As long as you knew that exercise is good, too much chocolate is bad, and “drugs are bad, mmkay,” you passed. Just like with gym class, it was separated into an all-guy class, and every guy was probably as thrilled as I was to be there. Still, at least once the class was done, just like P.E., we’d never have to take a class like this again.

Chemistry class looked interesting, but if I found math hard this year, it was clear chemistry was going to be difficult too. Still, science was one of my best subjects last year, and plus, the teacher that made it all bearable for me, Mr. Carrozza, was back. He started the class by playing the hits: mispronouncing nearly everyone’s name during attendance, not remembering a single one of us from last year, and launching his class with a big speech about how all of our lessons were watered down and how “if this were a good proper institution, I daresay we would be experiencing chemistry from quite the different angle!”

Business class was definitely interesting. Not really because of the actual class – the class content was barebones at best. The first assignment was going to basically prove we knew how to type things on a computer. Carrozza would have had conniptions in this classroom. Plus, Mr. Keynes wasn’t what I would have called enthralling. Still, I was lucky enough to have Carson in this class, and...

“Well, what do you know,” Zelda’s voice dryly greeted me as I pulled out my textbook. “We’ll be seeing a lot of each other this semester, huh?” She didn’t wait for me to respond. “I was out of line in the hallway, wasn’t I?”

“No, I was just feeling a lot,” I admitted. “I still am. Carson’s going to want to sit next to me, just warning you.”

“Good,” she simply said, sitting down. As soon as Carson appeared in the doorway, a thousand emotions passed on his face. He clearly had made eye contact with Zelda, and now, he didn’t know what to do. After pausing for a while, he approached us.

“Hey buddy,” he said to me, then turned to Zelda. “So, you’re in business class, huh?”

“Seemed like the dyke thing to do,” Zelda replied with pure ice in her voice.