11 Flying Solo - My Sister the Vampire (8 page)

Petra selected a hand trowel and poked Ivy with it.

‘Ouch!’ Ivy yelped, rubbing the spot on her arm. ‘What was that for?’

Petra bent over their potted plant and spoke out of the side of her mouth. ‘What is your deal?’ she asked. ‘Why aren’t you doing anything?’ Petra glanced up at Helga, who was busy explaining to a student that she couldn’t just slice through any roots that weren’t cooperating.

‘What do you mean?’ said Ivy, grabbing a small shovel. ‘We haven’t started yet.’

‘Not the stupid plant.’ Petra blew her fringe out of her face. ‘You’re not talking back to the teacher. You’re not getting into trouble. You haven’t done anything Ivy-ish at all!’

Ivy noticed Petra trying to glance through the potted-plant divider to the boys’ side of the room. ‘I like Helga,’ Ivy reminded Petra. ‘I don’t want to annoy her.’ She pushed at the plastic pot to loosen the dirt around their parsley.

‘You’re supposed to be creating a distraction,’ Petra whispered back. ‘I have to create my art when inspiration strikes, Ivy! And I’m so close to my Etan. Please!’

‘No,’ said Ivy, scooping up a heap of soil. ‘I’m supposed to be extracting this herb,
not
creating a distraction.’

What kind of poem or drawing can Petra be doodling in a greenhouse, anyway? And why can’t she do it in her own time?
Ivy looked around and all of a sudden Helga was standing behind them.

‘Petra, Petra, Petra,’ Helga chided. ‘Did you really think you could whisper and not be heard? Or have you forgotten about a little thing called
vampire hearing
 
?’ Petra shrank in her seat.

I guess she doesn’t like being the one in trouble as much as she likes encouraging other people to get into it
, thought Ivy.

‘Do you girls need help with anything?’ Helga asked.

Ivy carefully pulled out one of the sections of the plant’s roots. ‘Nope. I think I’ve got it under control.’ She glanced over her shoulder. ‘What is this particular herb used for?’

‘Caped Parsley?’ Helga pinched the stem. ‘Well, its scientific name is
Oxynamon
. And it’s used mostly in a remedy to cure vampiric infections by increasing oxygen to the bloodstream. It can certainly come in handy in a crisis.’ Helga winked. She leaned in closer to Ivy and lowered her voice. ‘Who knows when any of us will find ourselves in a sticky situation? Knowledge and strength – they’re a person’s most important assets.’

‘But which name will be on the test? How will I get an A on my test paper if I don’t know whether to study the Latin name or the informal name?’ whined Petra.

‘Either will be acceptable.’ Helga heaved a sigh, and turned away to leave, muttering under her breath. ‘So preoccupied with grades . . .’ Ivy noticed a glint on Helga’s wrist.

‘Is that new?’ asked Ivy, pointing to a silver bracelet. Between her and Olivia, Ivy was definitely not the fashionista of the pair, but she did know that Helga had not been wearing that bracelet the day before.

Helga pressed her thin lips together and made a big show of checking her watch. ‘Oh, is it that time already?’

‘Oooooh, is that from a certain handsome butler?’ Ivy teased. ‘Horatio, perhaps?’

Staring down her nose at Ivy, Helga gave her best stern teacher look. ‘Perhaps,’ she said, her mouth twitching as she tried not to smile.

When Ivy turned her attention back to the table, she saw that Petra had manoeuvred one of the potted plants a fraction to the left, to make a small gap in the jungle that sat on top of the dividing table. Petra had her elbows on the desk, her chin resting on her fists as she stared longingly at a handsome vampire boy on the other side. Was he the subject of her gushy love poems? He had wavy blond hair and sharp green-and-yellow eyes that gazed wistfully back at Petra. Was that Etan?

Ivy snuck glances at the two lovebirds, both of whom seemed to have completely forgotten there was anything going on outside of their little staring contest.
Maybe I was too hard on Petra
, Ivy thought. The poor girl was clearly lovesick and the longing looks were as close as this couple were going to get to a relationship at Wallachia.

Star-crossed lovers!
Ivy could picture her sister mooning over the impossible romance.
I wonder if there is anything I can do to help Petra, after all
. Ivy knew that’s what Olivia would want her to do.
Leave it with me, sis
, Ivy thought. The queen of romance aka Ivy’s twin sister may not have been at Wallachia Academy, but Ivy would try her best in Olivia’s absence. How hard could it be, bringing two lovebirds together? What could possibly go wrong?

After class, Ivy was making her way across the grounds, feeling thankful for her special ultra-protective vampire contacts since the sun was already beating down full force. As she walked towards the cafeteria she cast a quick look in the direction of the Gauntlet.

‘Would you cross the Gauntlet for a boy?’ a girl named Stacia was asking, as she walked by with a classmate.

‘No way,’ said her friend emphatically. ‘Have you heard? There are meant to be hidden pits in there with snakes, waiting for a victim to fall in! And the Gauntlet Ghost can scare a person to death before they even have chance to cry for help.’

Ivy glanced over at the edge of the wood. It did look pretty spooky; even haunted.

The girls were still talking. ‘Someone told me that a female student went in there once and when she came out, her hair was white with shock!’

The two of them laughed nervously.
Just a bunch of silly stories
, Ivy told herself, as she wandered further ahead with Petra. But still, she felt a shiver pass over her. Entering the Gauntlet wasn’t for the faint-hearted, even if the stories were made up and all you were risking was getting a nasty rash from the berries and ivy.

Petra held open a heavy antique door for Ivy and they entered the main building. It was lunchtime and after that they had Secret History, which would mean Ivy got to go at least half the day without seeing Miss Avisrova.

But as Ivy strolled down the school corridor, she suddenly caught sight of a figure lurking beside a suit of armour. Ivy nearly shrieked. It was Miss Avisrova; standing tall, erect, and completely still. She glowered at Ivy, following her with her eyes like one of those creepy portraits in a horror movie.

What is her problem?
Ivy didn’t understand how or why the teacher was keeping such close tabs on her.
Doesn’t she have anything else to do – like organise extra-curricular classes in Extreme Pain?

Ivy tugged Petra along. ‘Come on.’

Petra stumbled behind her, watching with puppy-dog eyes as the boys walked back to their side of the grounds.
I love you
, Petra mouthed at the retreating back of Etan, tracing a heart in the air.

Ivy groaned, rolling her eyes. ‘OK, OK, stop being so dramatic.’

Ivy didn’t get a chance to dwell on her looming teacher, or on Petra’s boy craziness, though, because suddenly she was too busy wondering why her classmates were all staring at her as if they were completely star struck.

‘Petra, do I have something in my teeth?’ Ivy bared her fangs for Petra to check. She’d been letting them grow back ever since entering the Academy. Usually, vampires in Franklin Grove were meticulous about filing their fangs back so that normal humans wouldn’t notice anything odd. Here, fangs were the norm and Ivy was quite enjoying the sensation of those sharp little teeth on either side of her mouth.

‘No.’ Petra giggled for the first time all day.

There was a smattering of applause as Ivy passed. Some girls even mimed bowing and worshipping at her feet.
What is going on?
Ivy wondered.
My run in with Miss Avisrova should be yesterday’s news by now
.

A slender vampire with a trendy blunt-cut fringe bounced over to Ivy with a notebook and a black marker pen. ‘Can I have your autograph?’ she asked. ‘Make it out to Anastasia.’

Ivy scribbled something unintelligible in the notebook.
Somewhere between Herbal Science and lunch I must have entered the Twilight Zone
, she thought.

‘Am I getting pranked?’ Ivy ducked into the cafeteria with Petra and they grabbed a couple of seats at an empty table. Ivy arranged her chair so that she didn’t have to face the entrance, but she still felt as if there was a spotlight shining right on her.

Petra pulled an electronic tablet device out of her leather bag, swiped her thumb across the screen and started scrolling. Her eyes crinkled and she kept looking from Ivy to the tablet and back to Ivy again.

‘OK, seriously, what is going on?’ Ivy demanded.

Petra’s mouth was hanging open. The girls sitting at the tables nearest them leaned in closer. ‘How did you do it?’ said Petra, shaking her head in slow motion. ‘It’s amazing. How on
Earth
did you do it?’

Before Ivy could ask her to explain, Petra handed her the tablet. The web browser was open to a concert review site featuring an article that covered the Pall Bearers’ show in Franklin Grove:
Small town, big show: Yesterday’s Pall Bearers concert was to die for
.

Oh my darkness!
Ivy thumped her head with the heel of her hand. She had totally forgotten that she’d entered the competition! She’d been looking forward to that concert for so long and so had Sophia and Brendan. Ivy felt like she’d been staked. She hadn’t been there, which meant that they hadn’t got to go either.

But wait – Ivy read further down the page. From the review’s photograph, it looked as if she
had
attended. Because there, holding a microphone, giving half-hearted Devil’s Horns and doing her best to scream along, was her twin Olivia – dressed up as Ivy herself.

Ivy read the caption:
The band brought super-fan Ivy Vega on to the stage to perform their hit single ‘I Hate You’
.

Ivy set the tablet down, not sure what to think.

‘And this was yesterday?’ asked Ivy.

Petra nodded. ‘Of course! Don’t play coy.’

But how . . . but why . . .?
It
must
have been Olivia, pretending to be her. Olivia at a Pall Bearers concert though? She probably didn’t know ‘I Hate You’ from ‘Welcome to My Frightmare’!
Ugh!
She looked at the picture again.
Poor Olivia
. It
was
pretty funny.

She peered closer. There, with their elbows propped on the stage and hair flying as they rocked out, were Brendan and Sophia. This time Ivy laughed out loud. At least she didn’t have to feel guilty about her friends missing the concert. Another win for Team Identical Twin!

Petra grabbed Ivy’s arm, eyeing her intensely. ‘You have to tell me how you did it!’

‘Did what?’

‘Ivy!’ Petra playfully slapped her. ‘
Hello,
you can drop the mysterious act for
me
, can’t you? I’m your room-mate! What’s your secret?’ She tapped the tablet. ‘How in Dracula’s name did you pull this off?’

Understanding dawned on Ivy. The girls at Wallachia thought that Ivy had managed to get home for the show and then back to school – from Transylvania to Franklin Grove and back again – all in record time and without a single teacher spotting her!
Uh-oh
.
Time to set the record straight
. She sucked in a deep breath.

‘Look.’ She angled herself outward so that the eavesdroppers would be able to hear too. Ivy was surrounded by a roomful of hopeful faces, watching her with wide eyes. They
wanted
her to have pulled this off, she realised as she looked around.

Many of these girls had been students at Wallachia for years. In such a strict school, where there was an actual
obstacle course
separating boys and girls, how cool would it be if one of the students was so rebellious that she was able to get not just in and out of the Academy, but all the way to
America
and back without anybody noticing?

Who was Ivy to crush their dreams? She chose her words carefully. ‘I do love The Pall Bearers.’ She waited for the cheers, or even just an awed murmur, but instead there was dead silence. Worse, the smiles had dropped from their faces and they’d started to back away hastily.

Hang on!
thought Ivy.
Why are they suddenly treating me like I give off a bad smell
 
? Several of the girls had turned their backs and were now hunched over their meal trays. One girl glanced nervously over her shoulder and gave a small shriek before turning to whisper furiously in her friend’s ear.

What the –?

Ivy heard the sound of heavy footsteps on the stone floor. A shudder ran up the length of her spine. A shadow fell over her. Ivy didn’t have to turn around to know who was there. She craned her neck to look up and, sure enough, Avisrova was standing with her arms crossed and her face screwed up into an angry ball.

‘I didn’t expect my walk to lead me to this, Miss Lazar. You have some explaining to do.’

Ivy’s heart pounded in her chest. The newspaper with the photo of Ivy at a concert in America was still spread out on the table before her.