"No, I gave my word I wouldn't say anything."

"If Aphrodite was really changing from hag to nonhag, she'd go to Neferet herself," Shaunee said. "Maybe you should talk to her about that," Erin said. Stevie Rae made a rude noise. I rolled my eyes at Stevie Rae, but she didn't notice because Drew had grinned his way up to us and she was too busy blush ing to pay attention to me. "How's it look, Zoey?" he asked without taking his eyes from Stevie Rae. Like you've got a thing for my roommate, is what I wanted to say, but I thought he was kinda cute and Stevie Rae's blush clearly said she thought so, too, so I decided against mortifying her. "Looks good," I said. "Doesn't look too bad from here, either," Shaunee said, giving Drew a look up and down. "Ditto, Twin," Erin said, waggling her eyebrows at Drew. The boy didn't notice either of the Twins. Seems all he noticed was Stevie Rae. "I'm starving," he said. "Me, too," Stevie Rae said. "So, how about getting something to eat?" Drew asked her. "Okay," Stevie Rae said quickly, and then she seemed to re member we were all standing there watching her, and her face got even pinker. "Gosh, it is dinnertime. We better all go get some thing." With a nervous little gesture, she ran her fingers through her short curls and called across the room to Damien, who was thoroughly engrossed in a conversation with Jack. (From what I had overheard they were both into the same kind of books and were debating which of the Harry Potters was really the best. Clearly, they were dorkishly alike.) "Damien, we're gonna go eat. Are you and Jack hungry?" Jack and Damien exchanged a look, and then Damien called back, "Yeah, we're coming."

"Okeydokey," Stevie Rae said, still grinning at Drew. "I guess we're all hungry." Shaunee sighed, and started for the door. "Just please. The young love hormones in this room are enough to give me a headache."

"I feel like I'm stuck in a Lifetime movie. Wait for me, Twin," Erin said. "Why are the Twins so cynical about love?" I asked Damien as he and Jack crossed the room to join us. "They're not. They're just mad that the last few guys they've gone out with have bored them," Damien said. As a group, we went outside into the magic of a snowy Novem ber evening. The flakes had changed and were smaller, but they were still coming down steadily, making the House of Night look even more mysterious and castlelike than usual. "Yeah, the Twins are hard on guys. It's like they double-time them," Stevie Rae said. I noticed she was walking really close to Drew and that occasionally their arms brushed together. I heard a bunch of muttered agreement noises from the guys who had been helping us drag furniture around the rec room. And I imagined it would be intimidating for any guy (vamp or human) to try to date one of the Twins. "Do you remember when Thor asked Erin out?" said one of Drew's friends, whose name I think was Keith.

"Yeah, she called him a lemur. You know, like the moronic lemurs in that Disney movie," Stevie Rae said, laughing. "And Walter went out with Shaunee a total of two and a half dates. Then, right in the middle of Starbucks, she called him a Pentium 3 processor," Damien said. I gave him a totally clueless look. "Z, we're up to Pentium 5 processors now."

"Oh."

"Erin still calls him Slowest McSlowenstein whenever she sees him," Stevie Rae said. "Clearly it's going to take a couple of really special guys to date the Twins," I said. "I think there's someone for everyone," Jack said suddenly. We all turned to him and he blushed. Before any of the kids could snicker at him I spoke up, "I agree with Jack." But figuring out which someone is the one for you is the hard part, I added silently to myself. "Totally!" Stevie Rae said with her usual perky optimism. "Absolutely," Damien said, winking at me. I grinned back at him. "Hey!" Shaunee stepped out from behind a tree. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Your nonexistent love life!" Damien called cheerfully. "Really?" she said. "Really," Damien said. "How about you talk about how cold and wet you are in stead?" Shaunee said. Damien frowned. "Huh? I'm not." Erin popped out from around the other side of the tree, snow ball in hand. "You will be!" she yelled, throwing it and hitting Damien smack in the middle of his chest. Of course the snowball war was on. Kids squealed and ran for cover while they scooped up handfuls of new snow and took aim at Shaunee and Erin. I started to back away. "I told you snow was great!" Stevie Rae said. "Well, let's just hope for a blizzard then," Damien yelled, tak ing aim at Erin. "Lots of wind and snow. Totally the best for snowball fights!" He let fly, but Erin was too quick and jumped for cover just in time to miss being plastered right in the head. "Where are you going, Z?" Stevie Rae called from behind an ornamental shrub. I noticed Drew was right beside her, firing cover shots at Shaunee. "To the media center--have to work on the words for the rit ual tomorrow, so I'll grab something to eat back at the dorm when I get done." I kept backing away more and more quickly. "Hate to miss all the fun, but ..." and I retreated inside the clos est door, slamming it behind me just in time for it to catch the plop plop plop of three snowballs against its ancient wood.