13 Double Disaster - My Sister the Vampire (3 page)

Ivy’s mouth dropped open. ‘Are you crazy?’ she gasped, before launching into a full-on rant about cherries, while Sophia was just as vehement on the opposing side.

Olivia traded a glance with Brendan and they both grinned ruefully, settling back to enjoy the show. Only Ivy and Sophia could get into a serious debate about the ‘bite-able
qualities’ of cherries versus apples. Once the two of them got started, they were unstoppable.

But soon, Olivia began to tune out their voices. Honestly, she had more than enough to think about right now. Back when she’d first been cast, it had meant everything to her that she was
going to star opposite the same Hollywood megastar she had met and fallen in love with right here in her hometown. What she had not realised at the time was that it couldn’t last. When the
film industry was hit with a strike, lots of movies were shut down –
Eternal Sunset
included. At first, Olivia had been relieved – she would have the time to properly prepare for
the role, and would not have to up and leave Franklin Grove, and her family, behind.

But the strike also gave her and Jackson time to realise that they could grow apart. And they did.

Olivia had done the Hollywood scene now, and it confirmed for her where she belonged: right here in Franklin Grove.
If only Jackson had felt the same.
Her mouth twisted as she remembered
their final split. As he’d toured around the world, they’d emailed less and less; their text messages had got shorter, the jokes more forced. Eventually, they both had no choice but to
admit it wasn’t working any more. The memory wasn’t as painful as it had been but, still, she couldn’t help feeling sad.

I just wish I could know for sure that we made the right decision.

Sophia’s voice broke in with an all-too-painfully-relevant question: ‘So, will you rekindle your romance?’

Olivia’s mouth dropped open. Instinctively, she looked to Ivy for protection . . . but her twin just shrugged at her.

‘We’re just preparing you for the inevitable journalist questions,’ she said. ‘It’s for your own good – think of us as your personal publicists!’

Rolling her eyes, Olivia forced herself to relax. ‘I’ll always be glad to know Jackson,’ she said, and gave Sophia a gracious Hollywood smile.

Ivy gave her a thumbs-up of approval . . . then leapt in for a second prong of attack. ‘Will you know him as
more than friends
?’

Olivia widened her smile. ‘You can never have too many friends,’ she said sweetly. ‘And isn’t the weather in England lovely? Don’t you just
love
rain?’

Ivy collapsed into laughter. ‘Good job,’ she said. ‘I like your evasiveness. It’s practice for when you’re being hounded by gossip columns!’

Olivia shook her head. ‘I don’t think that’ll be any time soon. After all, this is my first starring role. I have a long way to go before I’m famous.’

‘Uh-uh.’ Sophia shook her head vigorously. ‘Don’t kid yourself, Olivia. People are already talking about you and Jackson! Everyone loves a beautiful couple, even a
beautiful couple who are in splitsville.’

‘
Especially
a beautiful couple who are in splitsville,’ Ivy agreed. ‘What could be more fascinating? The magazines will all want to know
exactly
where you two are
in your relationship.’

I only wish I knew that myself
 
!
Olivia grimaced. There was so much unfinished business between her and Jackson, she couldn’t even begin to analyse it all. Even the way they’d
broken up . . . she still didn’t completely understand what had happened. She’d been even more confused ever since Jackson had starting calling her again lately, sounding wistful as he
talked about ‘the old days’.

‘Hey!’ A sharp voice interrupted her musing. It was the waitress, finally arriving. Her name-tag said ‘Joy’ . . . her face said that she hadn’t laughed in at least
a year. ‘Are you ready to make your orders yet? Or are you just going to hang around chatting?’

Olivia blinked.
Wow. I guess she really isn’t happy.

Sophia smiled calmly. ‘I’ll have a lamb burger with French fries, please.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ Brendan smirked. ‘Well, I will see your lamb burger and fries, and I will raise you . . . a Burgel!’

Joy-the-waitress stared at him.

Brendan raised his hands as if he were accepting applause. ‘Yes, yes, that
is
a hamburger in a bagel. Traditionally eaten for breakfast, but . . . I’m feeling a little
cavalier.’

As Ivy and Sophia chortled, Olivia just blinked. ‘Uh . . .’ She looked around the three grinning faces. ‘What exactly is going on?’

‘It’s a new game we’re playing.’ Ivy dug Brendan in the ribs. ‘We like to call it . . . “raising the steaks”!’

Olivia frowned. ‘Raising the stakes?’

‘
You
know,’ Sophia said. ‘Meat . . . steaks . . . and . . .’ Twisting her body to hide the movement from the waitress’s eyesight, she crooked her fingers in
a ‘fangs’ gesture that definitely meant
vampires.
‘The person to order the weirdest, meatiest thing on the menu wins.’

Olivia snickered. ‘Sounds . . . “fun”.’

‘You wanna hurry it along, folks?’ Joy’s face looked as sour as if she’d bitten into a lemon. ‘Or am I going to grow old and die while waiting for one more
wonderful
pun?’

Ivy scooped up her menu. ‘I will see Brendan’s Burgel and raise him a . . . um . . . er . . .’

Olivia leaned over to scour the menu at the same time as her twin. ‘Wow,’ she breathed. ‘I can’t believe it. The Burgel really is listed!’

‘And it’s the most ridiculous thing on there,’ Ivy moaned. ‘How am I supposed to top that?’

‘Yes!’ Brendan pumped his fist. ‘I win!’

‘Not so fast, Buster.’ Ivy smacked down the menu with a look of triumph. ‘Because
I
will have . . . a doughger!’

‘A
what
?’ four voices chorused at once.

Ivy beamed at the whole group. ‘A hamburger,’ she said, ‘inside a doughnut!’

‘Oh, please.’ Joy rolled her eyes even as she wrote the order down. ‘And for you?’ She turned to Olivia, her expression weary. ‘Let me guess. A hamburger in a
brownie? Or in an ice-cream cone?’

‘No, thank you.’ Olivia smiled. ‘I’ll just have a chickpea salad.’

Joy blinked rapidly. ‘Could you repeat that order, please? I don’t think I got that.’

Olivia repeated it calmly, while her three vampire friends covered their mouths to keep from laughing. Joy sighed as she turned away. She stopped after a few steps, turning to call back:

‘I forgot to ask. How would you kids like your burgers?’

Olivia shook her head.
As if she had to ask.

All three vampires chorused as one: ‘
Rare.
’

Half an hour later, Olivia set down her spoon and looked around the table.

Ivy was lolling in her seat, clutching her stomach. ‘Why didn’t anybody stop me from eating that doughger?’

Brendan had his arm around Ivy and was grinning as he teased her. ‘We didn’t dare. You and that doughger had a special thing going!’

Sophia was drawing fashion designs on her napkin with a bat-winged fountain pen. Olivia smiled around at all of them and stood, picking up her beaded purse. ‘OK,’ she said, giving a
little wave. ‘See ya.’

‘Wait a minute.’ Sophia dropped her pen. She turned from Olivia to Ivy and then back again, shaking her head. ‘That’s it? Olivia Abbott, you are going to be in
other
countries
for quite some time. Is that really all you can say? “See ya”?’

‘Well . . .’ Olivia shrugged, still smiling.

‘It has to be bigger than that!’ Sophia said. ‘Think of Ivy!’

Olivia looked at her twin . . . and they both burst out laughing.

‘Don’t worry,’ Ivy said to Sophia. ‘We worked this out ahead of time. We are
so
done with the big, sad, sappy goodbyes. We’ve had way too many of them
recently.’

‘We don’t need them any more,’ Olivia said, as she and her twin exchanged warm smiles. They had been through a lot this past year – but that had just confirmed exactly
how strong their bond was.

‘If there’s one thing we both learned from eighth grade,’ she said, ‘it’s that the two of us drifting apart is pretty much impossible!’

‘That’s right,’ Ivy said. She lifted one hand in a wave. ‘See you later, twin.’

Olivia was still smiling as she stepped out of the Meat and Greet a minute later. As the front door closed behind her, she cast a last look over the familiar shop fronts of Franklin Grove
– the town she wouldn’t be seeing for quite a while, just as Sophia had pointed out.

I really wish she hadn’t said that.

Olivia took a deep breath, feeling a sudden heaviness in her chest.

This is good. It’s wonderful. Because of this movie, I’m going to see the world!

But would things be different when she finally made it back?

She couldn’t help it. She looked back over her shoulder . . . and found Ivy looking right at her through the diner window.

Ivy gave a little nod, just as if she had read Olivia’s mind and was letting her know:
Everything’s going to be OK.

Olivia felt her shoulders slump in relief.
Ivy’s always right about this kind of thing.

With one last smile for her sister, she turned and walked quickly home. She had packing to finish and a movie to make!

B
rrrring
!

The shrill sound of the alarm clock sent Ivy jerking upright. Her head hit the lid of her coffin-bed.
Ouch!
As she sat up, rubbing her head, she groaned.
Welcome to ninth grade,
huh?

It was pitch black inside the coffin-bed, but Ivy didn’t need to see the clock face to know exactly what time it was:
Ridiculous O’clock!

Any other day, she would have turned over and gone right back to sleep. Today, though . . .
Dad will just come and get me otherwise.

She yawned and pushed the lid open. It creaked softly. She kept her eyes closed against the dawn light streaming in from her bedroom window.

Ivy hadn’t thought anyone could be more nervous about her first day of high school than she was, but Mr Vega had proved her wrong. Her dad had insisted on the insanely early wake-up so
that they could go over their ‘plan of assimilation’ before school. Worse yet, Ivy was pretty sure that he was right to be worried.

Because Franklin Grove High School was on the north edge of town, Ivy was going to meet a
lot
of new kids from Lincoln Vale, the next town over – kids who had
not
grown up
with vampires in their midst! Kids who would ask questions that Franklin Grove’s youngsters just didn’t:

Why are these goths faster, more agile and stronger than most other boys and girls their age? Why do the goths from Franklin Grove stay
so
pale, even in summer? How can
anyone
eat
a burger so
rare
?

The Franklin Grove goth kids were going to seem really, really strange to their new classmates from Lincoln Vale, and this was totally freaking out Ivy’s dad. The First Law of the Night
ordered that a vampire
never
revealed their true self to an outsider. But the students at Franklin Grove Middle had become so used to the odd spurt of speed or the super-quick catch of a
ball that they’d stopped noticing. The same wouldn’t be true at Franklin Grove High. Ivy and her friends were going to have to be extra careful . . .

‘You don’t want to be caught out,’ her dad had warned her, his face even paler than usual. ‘It could have disastrous consequences for the whole vampire community. Do you
understand the seriousness of the situation?’

Oh, Ivy understood all too well. She wasn’t just starting at a new school – she was putting her vampire identity on the line. Along with the extra homework, she’d need to be
extra vigilant.

Ivy groaned and clambered out of her coffin, the morning light hurting her sleep-deprived eyes.
Ha.
She gave a pained laugh at the irony.
I’ve never felt more like a vampire than
I do right now!