Meanwhile Zoe had just walked into the house. As usual, she didn't want to speak to anyone. She stomped up the stairs, making a general racket, then locked herself in her room, turning on her stereo and blasting out some loud music. That was a sign to her family that she wanted to be left alone.
She paused when suddenly the music switched to Weird Al. Weird Al wasn't horrible, but Zoe didn't think she had any on her computer. She walked over to check it out, and caught a glimpse of something wrong as she passed her closet's mirrored door.
Instead of the lace corset and fitted black blouse that she thought she'd put on that morning, she was wearing a loose black T-shirt with a picture of a robot on it. The robot was smoking a cigar and had a speech bubble that said "Bite my shiny metal ass."
Zoe panicked. Her parents were cool with most of her gothy expressionism, but her mom would not stand for swear words. He'd kill her if he saw her wearing one on a shirt.
She opened her closet to change into something else. Something that felt more like her, and something that wouldn't get her grounded. She was so focused on this endeavor that she didn't quite realize she'd started singing along to "Christmas at Ground Zero," a song she had never heard before.
