The two girls sat there in a silent stalemate, recognizing the other person's point, but not conceding their own.
Michael Rennie was ill the day the earth stood still
but he told us where we stand
Both girls jerked their heads up. The music was loud. Karyn's thought was that someone should turn it down, but Mallory just sighed, "It looks like she took my Rocky Horror soundtrack without asking again. Let's go."
And Flash Gordon was there in silver underwear
Claude Raines was the invisible man
Mallory closed the door to her room behind her and marched down the hall to Zoe's room, Karyn following.
Then something went wrong for Faye Wray and King Kong
they got caught in a celluloid jam
Mallory knocked on the door and waited for Zoe to open it.
Then at a deadly pace, they came from outer space
And this is how the message ran
Zoe opened the door with a concerned look on her face just at the buildup to the first chorus.
"SCIENCE FICTION," Mallory belted out in synch with the CD, "DOUBLE FEATURE!"
Zoe's concerned face broke out into a grin as she followed, her voice intentionally nasal, "DOCTOR X WILL BUILD A CREATURE!"
Mallory glided past Zoe into the room, and the two finished together, dancing around each other while doing so, "SEE ANDROIDS FIGHTING BRAD AND JANET! ANN FRANCIS STARS IN FORBIDDEN PLANET, UH-UH-UH OHHH-OH!" Karyn had made her way into the room by now and was closing the door behind herself as the two sisters grabbed each others hands and sang the final line. "AT THE LATE NIGHT, DOUBLE FEATURE, PICTURE SHOW!"
At the last word, they flung themselves onto Zoe's bed, and started to sing the second verse, but suddenly the music was shut off, replaced by a frustrated Karyn saying "What the hell is wrong with you two?"
"Oh, come on," Mallory said, giggling, "it's classic!"
Karyn didn't care if it was classic or not. This wasn't Zoe's room. Zoe's room had been a giant mass of indiscriminate black. This one was organized, and more purple than black. The twin bed was tucked into the far corner against the wall now instead of sticking out into the room from the middle of the wall. Next to it was a purple vanity whose surface was covered with all kinds of cosmetics and whose mirror was smudged with makeup. In the middle of the floor, there was a throw-rug with a purple spider web pattern, and on the wall next to the door was a poster of Robert Smith.
"This whole... the whole room is wrong!" Karyn cried.
Zoe was a bit confused, "Hey, Mallory, who is this girl?"
"That's, uh," Mallory wasn't quite sure she knew the girl's name, "Karyn? She goes to our school."
"Well, she's kind of a jerk," Zoe said. "Why is she over here?"
"She, uh," Mallory looked over at Karyn, "She needs me to help her clear a few things up."
Karyn shook her head, and walked over to the two girls. She was torn between more cathartic yelling, and swallowing her frustration to try and understand a bit more of what was going on.
