Burned

styles of books.
    Zoey’s friends were clustered around one big table that was overflowing with books, pop cans, crumpled bags of chips, and one humongous tub full of red licorice whips. Stark thought they look tired but totally wired on sugar and caffeine. As he and Aphrodite walked up, Jack was holding up a large leather book and pointing to an illustration.
    “Check it out—this is a copy of a painting of a Greek High Priestess named Calliope. It says she was also the Poet Laureate after Sappho. Doesn’t she look exactly like Cher?”
    “Wow, that’s insane. She does look just like young Cher,” Erin said.
    “Yeah, before she started wearing those white wigs. What the hell’s up with that?” Shaunee said.
    Damien gave the Twins a
look
. “There is nothing wrong with Cher. Absolutely. Nothing.”
    “Uh-oh,” Shaunee said.
    “Stepped on a gay nerve,” Erin agreed.
    “I had a Cher Barbie doll. I loved that doll,” Jack said.
    “Barbies, herd of nerd? Seriously? You’re supposed to be saving Z, remember?” Aphrodite said, shaking her head in disgust and curling up her lip at the licorice whips.
    “We’ve been at it all day. We’re just taking a little break. Thanatos and Darius went out for more food,” Damien said. “We have made some headway, but I’ll wait until they get back to report everything.” He waved at Stark, and his “hi” was echoed by the other kids.
    “Yeah, don’t be so judgmental, Aphrodite. We’ve been working hard, you’ll see.”
    “You’re talking about dolls,” Aphrodite said.
    “
Barbies
,” Jack corrected her. “And just for a second. Plus, Barbies are cool and an important part of American culture.” He nodded in emphasis and clutched the “Cher” portrait to his chest. “Especially celebrity Barbies.”
    “Celebrity Barbies would only be important if they had interesting accoutrements you could buy with them,” Aphrodite said.
    “Accoutre-whats?” Shaunee said.
    “You sound like you swallowed a French guy and are trying to spit him out,” Erin said, and the Twins giggled.
    “Left and right brain—listen up. Interesting accoutrements equals cool stuff, like unusual accessories,” Aphrodite said, picking delicately at a chip.
    “Okay, if you don’t know anything about Barbies, your mother seriously hated you,” Erin said.
    “Not that we don’t understand that,” Shaunee added.
    “ ’Cause everyone who even had one Barbie knows you can buy stuff for them,” Erin finished.
    “Yeah,
cool
stuff,” Jack agreed.
    “Not cool by my definition,” Aphrodite said with a superior smirk.
    “What’s cool by your definition?” Jack asked, making Shaunee and Erin groan.
    “Well, since you asked—I’d say it would be cool if Barbie made a Barbra Streisand doll, but you’d have to buy her fingernails and nose separately. And her fake nails would come in lots of different color choices.”
    There was a shocked silence, and then Jack, sounding awed, whispered, “That
would be
cool.”
    Aphrodite looked smug. “And how about a bald Britney Spears doll that had extras like an umbrella, a fat suit, weird wigs, and, of course, optional panties.”
    “Eww,” Jack said, and then giggled. “Yeah, and a Paris Hilton doll that had an optional brain.”
    Aphrodite raised her brow at him. “Don’t go all crazy. There are some things even Paris Hilton can’t buy.”
    Stark stood there, dumbfounded, and when they all burst into giggles, he thought his brain was going to explode.
    “What the hell is wrong with all of you?” he yelled at them. “How can you laugh and joke like this? You’re focusing on toys when Zoey is days away from dying!”
    Into the shocked silence, Thanatos’s voice sounded abnormally loud. “No, Warrior. They’re not focusing on toys. They’re focusing on
life
and being among the living.” The vampyre stepped from the doorway, where she and Darius had been silently observing the kids. Darius followed her, placing a tray filled with sandwiches and fruit in the middle of the table. He then joined Aphrodite’s side of the wooden bench. “And take it from someone who knows more than a little about death—focusing on life is what you should do if you want to keep drawing breath in this world.”
    Damien cleared his voice, calling Stark’s glare to him. Unruffled, the fledgling met his eyes, and said, “Yeah, that’s just one of the things we learned from all the studying we’ve been doing.”
    “While you