Foreign Economics and National Economics Council Essay

Foreign Economics and National Economics Council - Essay Example If such legislation is passed, the manufacturing industry would be revived, unemployment would reduce, and the government would reduce expenditure on insurance for unemployment and social security. In case the bill is approved, the United States will not have contravened the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which provides that members can take any action that is intended to protect its security interests1. It is the department’s position that although these arguments hold considerable weight, the negative effects of such legislation will by far outweigh the positives. One of the anticipated negative effects is that these countries, mostly China will retaliate by imposing their own duties on the United States. For example, in 2009, the United States imposed a tire tariff on Chinese tires thus reducing the influx of these tires into the country and saving approximately 900,0002. The Chinese responded by exercising antidumping duties on American chicken parts. The antidumping duties cost the United States approximately 1 billion dollars3. Although more jobs will be created in the manufacturing industry, a same number of people, if not more, will lose their jobs in the retail industry. In addition, if the import tariff is imposed, the manufacturing industry will become crowded with everyone wanting to be a manufacturer, as a result, the quality of products will reduce and the cost of raw materials will go higher. As such, the protected products are bound to cost more if domestic production is inefficient or if the cost of buying raw materials is higher than before, meaning that the United States will not benefit from these tariffs. On a political front, the relationship between the United States and China will be strained thus derailing the effort by the former to get the latter to convince North Korea to do away with nuclear weapons. As Rosati & Scott write, since North Korea borders China, the support of

Disneys Transition into Television and its Effects on Child Actors Essay Example for Free

Disneys Transition into Television and its Effects on Child Actors Essay Disney has expanded their enterprise into many different areas, one of them being television. As Disney has explored the medium of television, they have focused the shows for the audience of children. In 1955, The Mickey Mouse Club was one of the first shows that Disney had on television. In order to appeal to younger audiences, the show had â€Å"young attractive stars performing before a live audience, clowns, magicians, cartoons, guest stars, educational elements, and music written for the show† (Pendergast). Children liked to watch the show because they were watching kids that were about the same age as them, and they could relate to the actors. The children watching the show were heavily influenced by the Mickey Mouse Club because they looked up to and saw the actors as role models (Telotte). They wanted to be like the actors, so Disney profited off this generation of children by putting out merchandise related to the show. In this way, Disney started making more and more money because of these child actors. Many people argue about the effect that watching Disney’s television shows and â€Å"their positive and negative influence on kids† (Hillstrom). However, what about the effect that Disney’s television shows have on the child actors? These children spend their childhood on the sets of television shows, â€Å"being a kid is a full-time job, with scripts to memorize, and tutoring to endure† (Corliss). They are playing the characters of normal kids, without being able to experience a normal childhood themselves, it is no wonder that many child stars get into trouble when they â€Å"start growing up and moving out† (Armstrong, Markovitz) and leave Disney, because they have not been able to experience normal life growing up as a Disney actor. Disney’s â€Å"ability to grow teen talent† year after year is what makes the Disney Channel so successful (Luscombe). While Disney’s other ventures are not making as much money as they used to, â€Å"Disney’s Teen Machine has become a finely tuned profit pump in an industry rife with unpredictability† (Luscombe). Disney seems to have figured out the formula for a great teen star, and they know when they see one. Casting agents at Disney say that â€Å"while they love high-energy kids who can deliver a line and get the humor, they avoid overtrained types† â€Å"they try to cast very real kids who have raw talent† (Armstrong). For most child stars, television is not the endgame, it is just the launchpad that they need to build themselves up until they become big stars. They also cannot just rely on their raw talent to get them though, acting is their job and they are getting paid to film the shows and star in the movies that Disney creates, so they need to not only be â€Å"cute, smart, and quick to learn lines, but also dedicated, focused, and in it for the long haul† (Armstrong). Disney Channel’s stereotypical television character is a teenage girl or boy with a strong family who sometimes gets into funny situations that they learn from in the end. The story lines differ from show to show, but the characters usually have that same background. They always have strong family values with an annoying sibling or two in order to make the show more interesting. Many of Disney’s successful shows have been known to continue for at least four seasons and sometimes more. This is because Disney is a family friendly network so they advertise â€Å"wholesome family entertainment†, and appeal to not only the children, but also their parents (Pendergast). Parents are a very large part of Disney’s enterprise, because they are the ones who are buying all of the merchandise. If they do not think that a certain show is having a positive influence on their children, they will stop letting their children watch the show which leads to less merchandise being bought. In this way, the teen actors also need to be very aware of the decisions that they make. Because they are the stars of these Disney shows, the kids that watch them on television look up to them. They instantly become role models for these children whether they want to be or not. And if they make a bad decision in their everyday lives and it gets into the media, and parents disapprove of the message it sends to their children, they stop being consumers of the actor and the show. Eventually the child and teen actors grow up, and want to leave the Disney Channel and pursue a career as an adult actor. However making the switch from Disney to Hollywood has not been achieved often. Disney has crafted a certain image for their stars, and it is hard for the actors to shake an image that has been associated with them for most of their childhood. The young actors grow out of the Disney shows and want to branch out into more serious roles, and many leave Disney and a lot of money behind to do so, for example Hilary Duff star of the hit Disney show Lizzie McGuire â€Å"famously walked away from a multi-million dollar offer† to start off on her own without Disney (Armstrong, Markovitz). Sometimes the upside for Disney is that when a star moves on, â€Å"the company no longer has to answer for every saucy leaked photo and tabloid scandal† in order to keep up their cookie cutter image (Armstrong, Markovitz). However, Disney would like to keep making money off of the stars, and they do that by â€Å"creating more opportunities so that the talent is more interested in engaging longer with the company† (Luscombe). In trying to keep their young stars, Disney has â€Å"created more opportunities for the stars within the company† (Luscombe). Disney has created many paths that they have their stars take, in wanting them to stay at Disney, they make the stars get involved in all aspects of disney. They make the stars go into no only acting in their television shows, but also getting involved in music and singing. This not only helps the stars gain more fame and fans, but makes Disney much more money than before. Instead of hiring actors and singers and dancers, Disney has shaped their stars so that they do everything with just one person. Disney has also had success in putting all three of these aspects together when they created High School Musical and The Cheetah Girls. They also take stars from their different television shows and put them in special episodes of other shows. This tactic advertises the individual actor and also a new show. Another way Disney gets their stars more involved in the company is if the stars record music and they put it in another movie, it advertises both the actor and the new movie. Disney’s advertising tactics have make their company more successful, and also their stars more famous. However because Disney has incorporated the stars into the company so much and has advertised them and their work as Disney, it is hard for them to branch out, which is exactly what Disney wants. They want to make it hard for the Actors to become disassociated with Disney. However, some stars handle branching away from Disney better than others. For example, Shia LaBeouf became very successful after Disney, starring in many great movies such as the Transformers series. Other former Disney stars handled the Disney branding badly, such as Miley Cyrus. She starred in the very lucrative Disney Channel show Hannah Montana. Where she played a very pure girl who moves for Tennessee to Malibu and has a secret life as a pop star. Miley had an even harder job at getting away from Disney that most other stars because she was not only known for the character Miley Stewart that she played on the show, but also for the character Hannah Montana which was the pop star alter ego on the show. She had two Disney characters to disassociate with and not just one. It was no secret that â€Å"Miley had been publicly testing the waters of adulthood for a few years†, she was taking dramatic and daring Vanity Fair photos and had â€Å"vaguely stripperish dance moves† at an awards show performance (Donahue). She also started to dress differently, less like the character on the show, and more of the short shorts and skin showing clothes. She was trying to change her image from Disney to more dangerous. However, the parents of the children who watched Hannah Montana were angry and made accusations that Miley was now a bad role model for their children and she lost some of her Disney fan base. â€Å"Disney makes you a star, you make them an enormous amount of money, and then you either crash and burn or you go out and stake your claim in the real world† (Donahue). In trying to branch out and get out from under the Disney stereotype, many of the former Disney stars have gotten into trouble with drugs and partying because they go to such drastic measures to change their image. They turn to drug use for the reason that it is so anti-Disney and they feel like that is the only way for people to see them not as their Disney Channel characters but as adults. But because Disney started their careers, they are indebted to them and feel like they owe it to Disney to stay with them for longer than they would want to. They also now have so much money that they could potentially get out of the business all together and be fairly well off. Disney has made a lot of money off of them and their fame, but they have also made a considerable amount off of Disney. Disney has made its young actors so famous that the kids have the world at their feet (Armstrong, Markovitz). But how much has the Disney lifestyle affected the child actors in their development and view of the world around them. They have not grown up like other normal kids did, they act for a living, and it is a full time job. They have to memorize lines and they are on set all day, they do not have time to go to school so they have tutors (Corliss). They play characters that live normal lives, and go to school, but they have not experienced these things themselves first hand. They are sheltered from the outside world while they are being shaped by Disney. They are who many normal children look up to and want to be, but sometimes they might want to just be normal. Having to represent Disney and watch everything that they do and say is a stressful job, and that stress created by Disney’s expectation of them and their fans expectation of them is enough to make anyone want to act out a bit, especially because they are teenagers. Being in the public eye and always being careful of what you do is not how children are supposed to grow up. They are supposed to be able to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, but these Disney stars do not get the opportunity to make those mistakes because everyone is watching them and if they made even a minuscule mistake, the public would criticize them to no end. They have to live up to the Disney stereotype of the perfect pure child and also try to grow up and learn. Which is why when these stars try to deviate from Disney and to branch out from them, they take the most drastic measures possible because they do not know any other way. These child actors have so many children looking up to them, and so many people watching them that they do not have any room to breath and just be kids, they grow up too fast and then people criticize them for doing things that are too adult like wearing clothes that show ample amounts of skin or going out to clubs and partying, they grew up too fast in Hollywood and in the public spotlight. Disney has made billions off of these child actors and have created many opportunities for them to build their fame and fortune (Armstrong). But is Disney taking these children, shaping them into what they want the stars to be, and then when they are too old and Disney no longer needs them are they throwing these actors out to fend for themselves when they do not really know anything different than Disney? Society expects these children who have had to grow up too quickly in the environment that they were placed in and have not had proper childhoods to be perfect and to not make any mistakes when realistically we should be encouraging them to make mistakes and learn from them. Our society has expectations that are too high for these children and are too high even for adults to meet. We need to put less pressure on these Disney child actors to be perfect and to encourage them to be kids and to have fun. The pressure that they have on them from Disney to be successful, make a lot of money, and to conform to what Disney wants them to be combined with societies expectations for them to be good role models and to always make the right decision is too much pressure for these children to handle. So they turn to drugs and alcohol so that they are no longer expected to be the perfect person. The child actors are sometimes overlooked in the argument of television, but they have also been affected.

Caroline in Jane Smileys A Thousand Acres :: Smiley Thousand Acres Essays

Caroline in A Thousand Acres It is really striking that a novel in which bodies of people and bodies of land (and, intertextually, bodies of text) are so central, creates a character that is so distinctly "unbodied": Caroline Cook. Nevertheless, it is in keeping with traditional and patriarchal interpretations of Cordelia's character in King Lear: a paragon of purity and transcendence. While her sisters' bodies are thoroughly described and, not least, imbued with meaning, Caroline is always described in terms of her business-like " 'take-me-seriously-or-I'll-sue-you' demeanor" (13), her expensive clothes and assertive actions. She is in fact described like a man, a trait first exposed when she as a child says that she's not going to be a farmwife when she grows up, but a farmer (61), then when Ginny has her moment of insight toward the end, and suddenly sees everybody clearly for what they are: "her eyes darting from one face to another, calculating, always calculating. [...] She climbs into Daddy's lap, and her gaze slithers around the room, looking to see if we have noticed how he prefers her." (306) She is still unbodied here, described in terms of eyes and mind. This is metaphorically a male domain; in Western thought, the gaze is traditionally male, categorizing external reality in order to have power over it by utilizing reason. Nor, of course, is it incidental that Caroline is the educated one, emphasizing further her belonging to the "male" realm. Whereas Rose's "man-ness" is based on a destructive rage, Caroline's is based on cold calculation, therefore she is more successful playing by the rules of the patriarchy. It must be remembered, however, that she is able to use the system because she has been shielded from its negative side. Ginny and Rose have always protected her from Larry's anger, incest, and complete suppression of their own identities. While Larry signifies so many things to the elder sisters, not least the horribly intimate -familiar- memories of incest, Caroline can say about him that he looks "as familiar as a father should look, no more, no less". In this, as Ginny replies, she is lucky. (362) Of course, saying that Caroline is like a man signals complicity with gender-stereotypes. She is a positive character in that she is assertive and self-contained, as when she criticizes Larry's idea to divide the farm.

Renaissance Art and Culture

Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual activities, as well as social and political confusion, it is perhaps best known for its artistic developments. Leonardo dad Vinci and Michelangelo were inspired by the term â€Å"Renaissance man†. Renaissance influence was felt in literature, philosophy, art, music, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual study. Renaissance scholars used the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art. The civilizations of Greece and Rome were rediscovered, inspiring an interest in Classical learning which challenged medieval beliefs and ideas.The population was becoming wealthier which led to an increase in trade and travel and the spread of new ideas. The rise in prosperity also generated an interest in education, supported the flourishing of the arts and promoted scientific discoveries and new inventions. Perhaps the most important of these was the printing press, which allow ed the distribution of information to a much wider audience than ever before, further increasing the demand for more knowledge. INFLUENCE OF RENAISSANCE Renaissance was much more than a rebirth of classical art. It was a rejection of the middle Ages, which were Just ending.During medieval times, the arts were concerned mainly with religion, with the life of the spirit, with the hereafter. Little importance was given to life on earth except as a preparation for the next world. But as the 1 5th century began, Italians were turning their attention to the world about them. People started to think more about nonstructural, or nonreligious, matters. They began placing faith in their own qualities and their own importance. This new spirit was called humanism. Discipline, unquestioning faith, obedience to authority–these medieval benefits were o longer blindly accepted.People asked questions and wanted to find their own answers. Artists were among the first affected by the new spirit of humanism. In their work they began to focus on human life on earth. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE ART The Italian Renaissance was one of the most productive periods in the history of art, with large numbers of outstanding masters to be found in many centers and in all the major fields painting, sculpture, and architecture. In Florence, in the first half of the fifteenth century, there were great innovators in all these fields, whose work raked a beginning off new era in the history of art.The idea of artistic genius became popular; Michelangelo was called â€Å"divine† because of the greatness of his creative powers. In the Renaissance, art and science were closely connected. Both the artist and the scientist strove for the mastery of the physical world, and the art of painting profited by two fields of study that may be called scientific: anatomy, which made possible a more accurate representation of the human body, and mathematical perspective. Humanistic education, based on ethi cs and the liberal arts, was pushed s a way to create experienced citizens who could actively participate in the political process.Humanists celebrated the mind, beauty, power, and enormous potential of human beings. They believed that people were able to experience God directly and should have a personal, emotional relationship to their faith. God had made the world but humans were able to share in his glory by becoming creators themselves. INFLUENCE ON PAINTING The painting in France was known as Florentine painting. The techniques favored by the Florentine were tempera and fresco. The Tempera Painting: In tempera painting a dry surface was used. A wooden panel was grounded with several coats of plaster in glue, and the work was then copied from a drawing.The colors were tempered with egg or vegetable albumin. The Fresco Painting: The fresco technique, used for the mural paintings in Florentine churches, involved painting on wet plaster. The sketch was first copied on the plaster wall in rough outline, and the part on which the painter was going to work during a given day was then covered with fresh plaster. The painter had to redraw the part that had been covered by the new plaster and add the colors. As the plaster dried, the colors came a permanent part of it. ARTISTS DURING RENAISSANCE The beginning of the great Florentine school of painting came in the middle Ages.Leonardo dad Vinci 0 Michelangelo The climax of late 1 5th-century painting came in the work of Leonardo dad Vinci (1452-1519). Leonardo studied painting in Florence, but he spent much of his life working in Milan. The last few years of his life were spent in France in the service of King Francis l. Leonardo is the perfect example of the â€Å"Renaissance man† because he was interested in and well informed about a great many subjects: literature, science, thematic, art–almost everything about man and nature. Like many artists of the time, he was a sculptor and an architect as wel l as a painter.His paintings, particularly The Last Supper, the Mona Lisa, and The Madonna of the Rocks, have made him famous. The unique way he handled light and shadow is his most unusual characteristic. Leonardo remarkable ability to grasp and express the mysteries of man and nature made him one of the greatest of all painters. He worked on the painting OF THE LAST SUPER from about 1495 to 1497. When compared to previous paintings of the same subject, its originality becomes evident. All extras have been eliminated; the distant landscape, seen through the windows, increases rather than distracts from the main subject.There are no human figures other than Jesus and his disciples. All are placed on one side of a long table; earlier artists had placed Judas across the table from the rest. To give dynamic character to a scene pictured in standing terms, Leonardo chose the moment when Jesus announced one of the disciples would betray him. This terrible declaration sends a shock wave o f feeling through the twelve. Each is clearly differentiated from the others in the attitude and sutures with which he reacts to the Master's words, and yet all form a unity. The twelve are divided into four groups of three, each group having its own distinct character.In the center is Jesus, whose posture forms a triangle, a form on which Leonardo paintings were normally based. Jesus is serene and unmoved by the effect of his words. These are the qualities of the High Renaissance style: simplicity; austere rejection of the incidental and the merely pretty; nobility and grandeur in the figures involved in actions of depth and significance. Michelangelo One of the greatest 16th-century artists was Michelangelo Bonaparte (1475-1564). In sculpture, architecture, and painting he was so outstanding that he was called divine.He became fascinated with the problems of representing the human body, and he devoted himself completely to mastering them. In 1505 Michelangelo was called by Pope Ju lius II to Rome, where he was assigned to work on a number of projects. The most important were: The Pope's tomb, The decoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican The new basilica of SST. Pewter's The Sistine ceiling, which took 4 years to paint under difficult conditions, is composed of hundreds of figures from the Old Testament. In all his representations of the human figure, whether in sculpture or in painting, Michelangelo strove to make them monuments.With the art of Michelangelo the High Renaissance came to its climax. His work, in fact, betrayed signs of a changing attitude in the art of the day. The twisted, tortured figures and the compressed space of his painting of The Last Judgment. Influence of Renaissance on Venice and Northern Italy Venice was the most important northern Italian city of the Renaissance. The Venetians lived a happy and luxurious life. Enjoying the benefits of an active trade tit the east, they imported silks, Jewels, slaves, and exoti c foods. Close connections with Eastern art and a naturally colorful location inspired the Venetian painters to use bright color.They were influenced by the new â€Å"scientific† developments in Florentine art. But their use of anatomy and perspective was combined with their love of color and pageantry. One of the most important north Italian painters was Andrea Antenna (1431-1506). Born in Pads, a city not far from Venice, Antenna introduced many Florentine characteristics into north Italian painting. He particularly admired the realism of Tangelo's sculptures, and like Donated, he studied ancient Roman art. He used perspective to create the effect of a stage on which his figures perform.The greatest of the 1 5th-century Venetian painters was Giovanni Beeline Antenna's friendship with Beeline had a direct influence on Venetian painting. Bellini's rich, mellow color and warm lighting bring out the human qualities of his serene Madonna and saints. He was one of the first Itali ans to use oil paint on canvas. Two of Giovanni Bellini's pupils became the most outstanding Venetian painters of the High Renaissance. They were Giorgio and Titian. Goriness's colorful and poetic pictures attracted a large following of artists known as Egregiousness painters.Titian began as a Egregiousness painter but developed far beyond this style. He achieved such mastery in the handling of bright, warm color that he was considered to be the equal of Michelangelo. In his late works figures and objects melt into a glow of light and color–a treatment of painting that seems very modern. Renaissance in the North Oil painting had become popular in Venice by the end of the 15th century. The Venetians learned a great deal from Flemish artists. The Flemish painter Jan van is often given the credit for developing an important oil technique.The Flemish and German styles of the early 1 5th century were completely different from the early Renaissance style of the Florentine. Instead of simple geometric arrangements of three-dimensional figures, as in Mosaic's paintings, the northern Europeans aimed at creating realistic pictures by rendering countless details–intricate floor patterns, drapery designs, and miniature landscapes. This complex style of the north did not develop from a humanistic classical art but from the Gothic tradition of mysticism and tortured realism. Flemish Painting Van Cock's Madonna painted in 1436, is an excellent example of Flemish realism.All the details of the room–the patterned carpet, the armor of Saint George, and the architecture–make this picture seem very real. There is no sign of the Italian sense of beauty here: the figures are not idealized. In the faces of the people can be seen the wrinkles and imperfections of real life. One of the best-known Flemish artists of the second half of the 1 5th century was Hugo van deer Goes. When the Florentine painters saw Hog's work, they were impressed by its lifelike qu ality. This Flemish influence can be seen in later Florentine nettings.Gradually the hard outlines of the Flemish style became softer because of Italian influences, and by the middle of the 16th century the ideas of the Renaissance had been absorbed into Flemish art. German Painting The German artist Albrecht Udder went to Italy, where he was impressed by the countryside and by the art he saw. While in Venice, he came to know and admire Giovanni Beeline. Beeline, in turn, admired Udder's work. Udder had been trained in the Gothic tradition of German art. He had learned to imitate nature accurately and painstakingly. He was a master in the use of sensitive line in drawings, woodcuts, engravings, and paintings.The End of the Renaissance During the second quarter of the 16th century, mannerism began to take hold in European art. This was the first truly international European style. Renaissance art had been typically Italian in style, but mannerism developed throughout Europe and combi ned many traditions. The art of northern painters such as Pitter Burgher the Elder and Udder can be considered part of this school. So can the work of Michelangelo and Tinderbox and many other 16th-century Italian artists. The work of the French painters of Fontainebleau and that of El Greece in Spain is also part of the mannerist style.Mannerism was both a reaction against and an outgrowth of the High Renaissance. It was typified by abnormally lengthened or distorted figures and the replacement of perspective with a flatter and less organized type of space. By the end of the 16th century the High Renaissance in Italy had given way to late mannerism and the early baroque. But the discoveries and ideals of the Renaissance remained as a permanent heritage to all artists who came afterward. The most important contribution of the Renaissance was its vision of man as beautiful, noble, and independent.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 1

THE NEWSPAPER HEADLINE GLARED AT ME FROM a little metal vending machine: SEATTLE UNDER SIEGE – DEATH TOLL RISES AGAIN. I hadn't seen this one yet. Some paperboy must have just restocked the machine. Lucky for him, he was nowhere around now. Great. Riley was going to blow a gasket. I would make sure I wasn't within reach when he saw this paper. Let him rip somebody else's arm off. I stood in the shadow behind the corner of a shabby threestory building, trying to be inconspicuous while I waited for someone to make a decision. Not wanting to meet anyone's eyes, I stared at the wal beside me instead. The ground floor of the building housed a record shop that had long since closed; the windows, lost to weather or street violence, were fil ed in with plywood. Over the top were apartments – empty, I guessed, since the normal sounds of sleeping humans were absent. I wasn't surprised – the place looked like it would col apse in a stiff wind. The buildings on the other side of the dark, narrow street were just as wrecked. The normal scene for a night out on the town. I didn't want to speak up and draw attention, but I wished somebody would decide something. I was real y thirsty, and I didn't care much whether we went right or left or over the roof. I just wanted to find some unlucky people who wouldn't even have enough time to think wrong place, wrong time. Unfortunately tonight Riley'd sent me out with two of the most useless vampires in existence. Riley never seemed to care who he sent out in hunting groups. Or particularly bugged when sending out the wrong people together meant fewer people coming home. Tonight I was stuck with Kevin and some blond kid whose name I didn't know. They both belonged to Raoul's gang, so it went without saying that they were stupid. And dangerous. But right now, mostly stupid. Instead of picking a direction for our hunt, suddenly they were in the middle of an argument over whose favorite superhero would be a better hunter. The nameless blond was demonstrating his case for Spider-Man now, skittering up the brick wal of the al ey while humming the cartoon theme song. I sighed in frustration. Were we ever going to hunt? A little flicker of movement to my left caught my eye. It was the other one Riley had sent out in this hunting group, Diego. I didn't know much about him, just that he was older than most of the others. Riley's right-hand man was the word. That didn't make me like him any more than the other morons. Diego was looking at me. He must have heard the sigh. I looked away. Keep your head down and your mouth shut – that was the way to stay alive in Riley's crowd. â€Å"Spider-Man is such a whiny loser,† Kevin cal ed up to the blond kid. â€Å"I'l show you how a real superhero hunts.† He grinned wide. His teeth flashed in the glare of a streetlight. Kevin jumped into the middle of the street just as the lights from a car swung around to il uminate the cracked pavement with a blue-white gleam. He flexed his arms back, then pul ed them slowly together like a pro wrestler showing off. The car came on, probably expecting him to get the hel out of the way like a normal person would. Like he should. â€Å"Hulk mad!† Kevin bel owed. â€Å"Hulk†¦ SMASH!† He leaped forward to meet the car before it could brake, grabbed its front bumper, and flipped it over his head so that it struck the pavement upside down with a squeal of bending metal and shattering glass. Inside, a woman started screaming. â€Å"Oh man,† Diego said, shaking his head. He was pretty, with dark, dense, curly hair, big, wide eyes, and real y ful lips, but then, who wasn't pretty? Even Kevin and the rest of Raoul's morons were pretty. â€Å"Kevin, we're supposed to be laying low. Riley said – â€Å" â€Å"Riley said!† Kevin mimicked in a harsh soprano. â€Å"Get a spine, Diego. Riley's not here.† Kevin sprang over the upside-down Honda and punched out the driver's side window, which had somehow stayed intact up to that point. He fished through the shattered glass and the deflating air bag for the driver. I turned my back and held my breath, trying my hardest to hold on to the ability to think. I couldn't watch Kevin feed. I was too thirsty for that, and I real y didn't want to pick a fight with him. I so did not need to be on Raoul's hit list. The blond kid didn't have the same issues. He pushed off from the bricks overhead and landed lightly behind me. I heard him and Kevin snarling at each other, and then a wet tearing sound as the woman's screams cut off. Probably them ripping her in half. I tried not to think about it. But I could feel the heat and hear the dripping behind me, and it made my throat burn so bad even though I wasn't breathing. â€Å"I'm outta here,† I heard Diego mutter. He ducked into a crevice between the dark buildings, and I fol owed right on his heels. If I didn't get away from here fast, I'd be squabbling with Raoul's goons over a body that couldn't have had much blood left in it by now anyway. And then maybe I'd be the one who didn't come home. Ugh, but my throat burned! I clamped my teeth together to keep from screaming in pain. Diego darted through a trash-fil ed side al ey, and then – when he hit the dead end – up the wal . I dug my fingers into the crevices between the bricks and hauled myself up after him. On the rooftop, Diego took off, leaping lightly across the other roofs toward the lights shimmering off the sound. I stayed close. I was younger than he was, and therefore stronger – it was a good thing we younger ones were strongest, or we wouldn't have lived through our first week in Riley's house. I could have passed him easy, but I wanted to see where he was going, and I didn't want to have him behind me. Diego didn't stop for miles; we were almost to the industrial docks. I could hear him muttering under his breath. â€Å"Idiots! Like Riley wouldn't give us instructions for a good reason. Self-preservation, for example. Is an ounce of common sense so much to ask for?† â€Å"Hey,† I cal ed. â€Å"Are we going to hunt anytime soon? My throat's on fire here.† Diego landed on the edge of a wide factory roof and spun around. I jumped back a few yards, on my guard, but he didn't make an aggressive move toward me. â€Å"Yeah,† he said. â€Å"I just wanted some distance between me and the lunatics.† He smiled, al friendly, and I stared at him. This Diego guy wasn't like the others. He was kind of†¦ calm, I guess was the word. Normal. Not normal now, but normal before. His eyes were a darker red than mine. He must have been around for a while, like I'd heard. From the street below came the sounds of nighttime in a slummier part of Seattle. A few cars, music with heavy bass, a couple of people walking with nervous, fast steps, some drunk bum singing off-key in the distance. â€Å"You're Bree, right?† Diego asked. â€Å"One of the newbies.† I didn't like that. Newbie. Whatever. â€Å"Yeah, I'm Bree. But I didn't come in with the last group. I'm almost three months old.† â€Å"Pretty slick for a three-monther,† he said. â€Å"Not many would have been able to leave the scene of the accident like that.† He said it like a compliment, like he was real y impressed. â€Å"Didn't want to mix it up with Raoul's freaks.† He nodded. â€Å"Amen, sister. Their kind ain't nothing but bad news.† Weird. Diego was weird. How he sounded like a person having a regular old conversation. No hostility, no suspicion. Like he wasn't thinking about how easy or hard it might be to kil me right now. He was just talking to me. â€Å"How long have you been with Riley?† I asked curiously. â€Å"Going on eleven months now.† â€Å"Wow! That's older than Raoul.† Diego rol ed his eyes and spit venom over the edge of the building. â€Å"Yeah, I remember when Riley brought that trash in. Things just kept getting worse after that.† I was quiet for a moment, wondering if he thought everyone younger than himself was trash. Not that I cared. I didn't care what anybody thought anymore. Didn't have to. Like Riley said, I was a god now. Stronger, faster, better. Nobody else counted. Then Diego whistled low under his breath. â€Å"There we go. Just takes a little brains and patience.† He pointed down and across the street. Half-hidden around the edge of a purple-black al ey, a man was cussing at a woman and slapping her while another woman watched silently. From their clothes, I guessed that it was a pimp and two of his employees. This was what Riley had told us to do. Hunt the dregs. Take the humans that no one was going to miss, the ones who weren't headed home to a waiting family, the ones who wouldn't be reported missing. It was the same way he chose us. Meals and gods, both coming from the dregs. Unlike some of the others, I stil did what Riley told me to do. Not because I liked him. That feeling was long gone. It was because what he told us sounded right. How did it make sense to cal attention to the fact that a bunch of new vampires were claiming Seattle as their hunting ground? How was that going to help us? I didn't even believe in vampires before I was one. So if the rest of the world didn't believe in vampires, then the rest of the vampires must be hunting smart, the way Riley said to do it. They probably had a good reason. And like Diego'd said, hunting smart just took a little brains and patience. Of course, we al slipped up a lot, and Riley would read the papers and groan and yel at us and break stuff – like Raoul's favorite video-game system. Then Raoul would get mad and take somebody else apart and burn him up. Then Riley would be pissed off and he'd do another search to confiscate al the lighters and matches. A few rounds of this, and then Riley would bring home another handful of vampirized dregs kids to replace the ones he'd lost. It was an endless cycle. Diego inhaled through his nose – a big, long pul – and I watched his body change. He crouched on the roof, one hand gripping the edge. Al that strange friendliness disappeared, and he was a hunter. That was something I recognized, something I was comfortable with because I understood it. I turned off my brain. It was time to hunt. I took a deep breath, drawing in the scent of the blood inside the humans below. They weren't the only humans around, but they were the closest. Who you were going to hunt was the kind of decision you had to make before you scented your prey. It was too late now to choose anything. Diego dropped from the roof edge, out of sight. The sound of his landing was too low to catch the attention of the crying prostitute, the zoned-out prostitute, or the angry pimp. A low growl ripped from between my teeth. Mine. The blood was mine. The fire in my throat flared and I couldn't think of anything else. I flipped myself off the roof, spinning across the street so that I landed right next to the crying blonde. I could feel Diego close behind me, so I growled a warning at him while I caught the surprised girl by the hair. I yanked her to the al ey wal, putting my back against it. Defensive, just in case. Then I forgot al about Diego, because I could feel the heat under her skin, hear the sound of her pulse thudding close to the surface. She opened her mouth to scream, but my teeth crushed her windpipe before a sound could come out. There was just the gurgle of air and blood in her lungs, and the low moans I could not control. The blood was warm and sweet. It quenched the fire in my throat, calmed the nagging, itching emptiness in my stomach. I sucked and gulped, only vaguely aware of anything else. I heard the same noise from Diego – he had the man. The other woman was unconscious on the ground. Neither had made any noise. Diego was good. The problem with humans was that they just never had enough blood in them. It seemed like only seconds later the girl ran dry. I rattled her limp body in frustration. Already my throat was beginning to burn again. I threw the spent body to the ground and crouched against the wal, wondering if I could grab the unconscious girl and make off with her before Diego could catch up to me. Diego was already finished with the man. He looked at me with an expression that I could only describe as†¦ sympathetic. But I could have been dead wrong. I couldn't remember anyone ever giving me sympathy before, so I wasn't positive what it looked like. â€Å"Go for it,† he told me, nodding to the limp girl on the ground. â€Å"Are you kidding me?† â€Å"Naw, I'm good for now. We've got time to hunt some more tonight.† Watching him careful y for some sign of a trick, I darted forward and snagged the girl. Diego made no move to stop me. He turned away slightly and looked up at the black sky. I sank my teeth into her neck, keeping my eyes on him. This one was even better than the last. Her blood was entirely clean. The blonde girl's blood had the bitter aftertaste that came with drugs – I was so used to that, I'd barely noticed. It was rare for me to get real y clean blood, because I fol owed the dregs rule. Diego seemed to fol ow the rules, too. He must have smel ed what he was giving up. Why had he done it?