Chapter Twenty
Penn and Ella sneak off in the wee hours of the mornings to canoodle in the secret garden. Claire, Ruby and Penn's older sister, is apparently coming home soon with her new fiance. I smell drama. Or more girlhate or something. IDK.
Ruby takes Ella to the front stairs of the house to wait for Claire to come home. Claire is studying law at Cornell and her fiance graduated harvard. Fascinating.
WHAT CLAIRE HATES MASHED POTATOES? WHAT KIND OF MADNESS IS THIS?!
(also, Ella has no idea what a hot dog is. My god).
So anyway Claire arrives and she's all regal and crap.
It was difficult to stand so close to Penn, to feel the brush of air as he moved past me to grab the suitcases and not be able to reach out and touch him.
Yikes girl, chill. I mean, I get it, it's a star-crossed teenaged lover sort of thing but man, the fact that she needs this level of self-control is kind of ridiculous. But whatevs.
Grant [C: Claire's fiance] nodded at me over the top of the car. He had a knowing smile on his face, as if he'd been able to see inside of my head and know exactly what I'd been thinking about Penn. He caught my gaze and held it before he bent back into the car and pulled out two large shopping bags.
Or... maybe he's just a creeper? This is an oddly specific observation for a girl who can't hold a conversation or understands nuance to make.
Grant calls Ella an "assistant" and winks at Ella.
I swear to all that is holy if Grant is also a creeper... I will break something
Claire isn't exactly happy that her dad got another pet. She even is like "stop talking" when her dad starts telling Grant about picking up Ella from Greenwich. Okay, that's cool. Claire's okay so far.
Claire tries to get Grant to come up with her to "lie down" (fnar-fnar) and he's like "naw". She's not happy. She just wants some sweet love, Grant! C'mon.
Ruby wants to go up with Claire.
From what I'd seen of Claire, I expected her to give Ruby an annoyed roll of the eyes and tell her she wanted to be alone, but she surprised me, placing her arm tenderly around her sister's shoulder and pulling her along up the stairs.
Um... why? She was only upset over the fact that Ella existed, she was perfectly polite and affectionate with everyone else. But then again, all nuance is lost on Ella, as always.
Congressman DoucheChill tells Ella to play the piano for Grant.
"Claire has actually mentioned that Penn's the family musician. Are you all right with the new pet stealing a bit of the thunder?" he asked.
Grant is a dickhole. According to Ella's narration, he seems to "guess" what's going on between DoucheChill and Penn, and since Ella is extremely intuitive when the plot calls for it, of course she's right. And then she's about as perceptive as a brick when the plot calls for it to keep her ignorant. Excellent writing.
Penn just kind of brushes it off, but he's kind of annoyed, and DoucheChill ignores the whole thing and starts talking to Grant about his new job.
Also Ella is apparently an expert lip reader, because Penn mouths "Play some Schubert" which she can instantly recognize. She plays the piano.
It's almost like Ella's abilities and intelligence are dictated by the plot needs!
Chapter Twenty-one
The family takes Ella with them to the opera. Currently, I am jealous (I freaking love opera, okay). I skipped ahead and apparently they went to see Orfeo ed Euridice. Why didn't we get that right up front? Surely Ella would know operas?
Anyway she's sitting between Ruby and Penn and she's freaking out over how wonderful everything is. Claire is talking Penn's ear off before the show starts, and Ella wonders if Claire is distracting him on purpose. Probably.
Ruby apparently made up a game where she gets to point out all the men with bald spots, and Ella points out all the women with cleavage. Okay, Ruby, you do you. (They're on one of the mezzanines). Ella can't concentrate on the game.
Just then the lights flickered and the audience quieted. Once more and they dimmed completely.
What, the flickering wasn't a five minute call? I call shenanigans.
Ella flips her shit over how beautiful the music is because she's never heard a symphony before, I guess? I mean, I've mentioned before how much I love music, more than almost anything, but holy crap. Wouldn't they play music for these girls? Especially considering they can't read and would need to learn lyrics by hearing them? Since they can't read the words along with the sheet music? God. This world building sucks.
Apparently they only hear "bits" of operas. Also Ella discovers THE EMOTION BEHIND THE WORDS.
Wait a minute, if they learned a bunch of operas at the kennels like she said, did they learn Italian operas? French? German? Or just English? There's no mention of singing in other languages, just that the words were "empty". If you're going to throw a character at me who has learned "plenty of operas", that character had BETTER acknowledge that she sang some in Italian or I call THE HIGHEST OF SHENANIGANS. I sang arias in Italian in college. Wagner wrote some incredibly recognizable music and his operas are in German. GOD IF YOU'RE GOING TO WRITE ABOUT MUSIC GET IT RIGHT.
I'M NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING AN EXPERT ON OPERA
Anyway, Ella gets into the play and watches as Orfeo tries to rescue Euridice from the underworld.
My fingers dug into the seat beside me and I struggled not to call out to him. Don't look back. Don't look back. But nothing I could do could stop him from turning back around to face his love.
Quick question, is this an English translated libretto? Because Ella knows exactly what's going on in the opera. And since she can't read, it's not like she's reading the translations on the screens like when I went to Ariadne auf Naxos. Asking for a friend.
Ella starts to cry and Penn is like "dude, chill" and holds her hand. Ella pulls away when she sees Claire looking at them.
After the show, Ella is overcome with emotion over the show and worry over whether or not Claire saw them holding hands. She falls asleep on the ride home.
Congressman DoucheChill wakes her up by brushing her cheek. Gross. He starts stroking her hair. He unbuckles her seat belt for her, as they're alone in the car.
The car was too quiet. His body was hot against my side, the smell of his cologne almost overpowering in the small space.
DoucheChill puts his hand to her cheek, and she is obviously freaked out.
He leaned imperceptibly closer to me and inhaled deeply, closing his eyes as he breathed me in. A small smile plucked at the corner of his lips.
Can we go back to the cheesy overwrought teenagers being in love?!?!?!?!?!1111111111s
DoucheChill finally moves his hand and gets out of the car. Ella is very afraid.
When Ella goes back to her room, Penn is waiting for her on her couch. That's a bit creepy in light of his dad being a creepy dick, but since they've been sneaking out together on the reg I can forgive it.
They're all lovey dovey.
We stumbled back toward the bed, landing on the soft mattress with a whoosh, our mouths crashing together, our hands hungry for the feel of each other's skin.
Yikes. I predict a few cracked teeth if they carry on like this.
Anyway, Ella is afraid they're going to get caught so they go to the secret garden for a 'swimming lesson'. I wonder if she and Penn have actually had sex. I dont' think so, because it's YA and if something like that DOES happen in YA it's usually mentioned. So far I think they're just kissing a lot. And stroking each other. So... maybe? I don't even know. The book isn't telling me.
The next morning Ella is awakened by DoucheChill.
"A person could stand here all day watching you sleep, but we've got places to go and people to see."
okay edward cullen
DoucheChill is taking her on an outing. He sits on the couch while he waits for he to get ready, LIKE A FREAK, but finally leaves when Ella is obviously embarrassed.
He seemed irritated when he woke me. . .He did? It would have been nice if the narration had INDICATED THAT.
DoucheChill is taking her to the beach because she's never been, and he squeezes her knee like a FREAK.
"You can't imagine all the things I'm going to show you, all the wonders you never even dreamed existed. There's so much I'm going to give you, my pet."
Herpes is not a wonder, DoucheChill.
DoucheChill grew up in Kansas. Ella has no idea what Kansas is. So we get DoucheChill's backstory, he didn't originally want to be a politician, he wanted to be a businessman, Ella asks if he got into politics to help people.
"you mean, is that why I got into politics? Yes, I guess that's a noble way to look at it."
He just wanted to make it legal to bone underage girls who are literal slaves. Call a spade a spade.
They get to the beach at sunset and Ella is in awe at the ocean. It's not overwroughtly written, so it's nice.
He stepped closer, until his mouth was right next to my ear. His words were clear, unmarred by the wind. "Next time you need a swimming lesson, why don't you come to me?"
Welp, DoucheChill seems to have caught wise. He starts playing with her hair LIKE A FREAK. He tells her to stay away from Penn.
"Don't make it any harder on the poor boy." He smiled, twirling the lock of my hair around his finger. "Or any harder on this old man."
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