Fashion Frightmare! (My Sister the Vampire) (8 page)

But how am I supposed to get into the head of someone like that?

She gave a frustrated sigh. If it had been a vampire, she might have been able to think like them and figure out where they would hide it. But a human thief, who had stolen something just
because they wanted it . . .

I will just never understand humans,
Ivy thought glumly. They might look like vampires, but sometimes it felt like they were an alien species! And if she couldn’t figure out what
had brought the thief to the museum in the first place . . .

Her breath caught. There
was
something she knew about her mysterious thief, wasn’t there?

It has to be someone our age.

The realisation felt like a bell going off in the back of her brain. The audience for the fashion show had been almost completely made up of teenagers – mostly from Franklin Grove High,
who’d come specifically to see Amelia’s and Penny’s designs. That meant the thief could actually be someone Ivy knew.

They could be in the cafeteria right now,
she thought.
I could sit next to them in a class, or
–

‘Hey!’ Fingers snapped in her face, and Ivy jerked upright, blinking hard.

Her table wasn’t empty any more. As her vision cleared, she found Reiko and Olivia sitting across from her . . . and from the dent in Olivia’s veggie burger, they’d been there
for a few minutes.

‘Sorry!’ Ivy mumbled. She could feel her cheeks paling with embarrassment. ‘I was miles away.’

‘We could tell.’ Olivia gave her a concerned look. ‘Have you had any brilliant detecting ideas yet?’

Ivy shook her head. ‘None at all.’

‘Oh.’ Olivia slumped.

The fraught silence between the sisters was broken by a weary sigh from Reiko, who’d heard the whole story on the way to school that morning. ‘You know, in Japan we hear stories
about the Euro-American banps and all their tradition and drama.’ She frowned. ‘I always thought it sounded fun – but actually, it’s just making me feel a little
tense!’

‘Tell me about it,’ Ivy mumbled.

‘Ivy!’ Amelia’s voice hissed just behind her. ‘We need to talk!’

Ivy turned around. For once, the Goth-Queen’s thick black hair looked uncombed, and her chalk-white make-up was smudged. Next to Amelia, Penny carried a long, thin box in her arms and
looked as pale as if she’d reverted back to her old goth self . . . but her pallor didn’t come from make-up. Instead, Penny just looked dead tired.

‘Have you heard anything about the pashmina?’ Amelia muttered, her eyes darting around the room, as if she was watching out for eavesdroppers.

Ivy shrugged unhappily. ‘It’s still gone.’

Amelia sagged. Suddenly, her leather jacket looked too big on her.

‘We still feel terrible about what happened,’ Penny whispered. ‘But . . .’

Taking a deep breath, she leaned over the table to set down the box. Ivy, Olivia and Reiko all crowded round to watch as Penny opened it . . .

. . . and Ivy let out an actual squeak as she saw the blood-red fabric shimmering inside. ‘The pashmina! Where did you find it?’

‘Nowhere,’ Amelia sighed.

‘What do you mean?’ Ivy couldn’t look away from the beautiful silk. Reverently, she reached out to stroke it. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘This is just a replica,’ said Penny. ‘We stayed up all night making it, so that it can go on display in the museum while we all search for the original one.’

‘Oh.’ Ivy’s hand dropped away. Disappointment tasted so bitter in her mouth, she had to fight not to let out a groan of frustration.

‘It really is a wonderful replica,’ Olivia said softly. ‘I could never tell the difference.’

‘Me neither,’ Reiko said. ‘And I wore the real thing last night!’

‘It’s great,’ Ivy said. ‘Really. Thank you.’ She forced a smile for the two designers. ‘You created the perfect replacement.’

Penny brightened. ‘We hand-dyed the pashmina to match the exact shade of red. It’s not
completely
perfect, but the untrained eye shouldn’t notice a thing.’

What about untrained
vampire
eyes?
Ivy wondered. She peered harder . . . but no. She definitely couldn’t tell the difference, vampire vision or no.

‘Whew.’ Ivy sighed. ‘At least there won’t be any drama at the museum if no one even realises the pashmina is missing.’

‘But we still have to find the real one,’ Olivia finished quietly.

Ivy nodded unhappily.

It was the worst possible moment to look up and see Brendan approaching the table with the world’s most inappropriate grin. He was still snickering as he slid into the seat beside Ivy.

‘What could
possibly
be so funny?’ Ivy snapped. He knew the truth about the pashmina; she’d confided in him last night.
Doesn’t he even realise we’re
dealing with a disaster?

‘Oh . . . nothing,’ Brendan drawled, sliding her a mischievous sideways glance.

‘Seriously!’ She pinched his forearm. ‘What
is
it?’

‘I don’t think I can explain it with words,’ Brendan said solemnly. He reached into his pocket and took out his smartphone. ‘I think . . . you have to
see
this
one for yourself
 
!’

He pressed a button to illuminate the screen.

Ivy sucked in a gasp. ‘What . . .?’

It was a picture of her, wearing a fabulous goth gown – and smiling like she’d just been handed free front-row tickets for a Pall Bearers concert.

‘I’ve never smiled that widely in my life!’

‘You didn’t,’ Olivia said, biting her bottom lip. ‘That’s a picture from last night . . .’

‘So it’s actually
you
. . .’ Ivy shook her head in wonder. ‘Wow. Even I couldn’t tell the difference.’

‘No one else can, either. Everyone who’s seen this picture thinks it’s you. And that’s not all . . .’ Brendan gave an evil chuckle as he swiped his finger across
the screen. This time, he brought up the same picture – but with red-and-white lettering under ‘Ivy’s’ smiling face. It read: ‘Shadowtown
is back on the air . . .
Woo-hoo
!’

‘What on earth?’ Ivy whispered.

Brendan swiped his finger across the screen again. This time, the picture came up with the phrase:
‘I can’t believe it
–
black goes with black!’
One
more swipe, and a third version came up: ‘
What are you talking about? This
is
my “solemn” face.’

Ivy’s head almost fell into her burger. ‘I’ve gone viral?!’

‘I doubt it, sweetie,’ Amelia said decisively, looking over her shoulder. ‘I haven’t seen this photo anywhere.’

‘I haven’t seen it either!’ Penny added. ‘That means it can’t be all over the internet.’

‘Um . . .’ Biting her lip, Ivy shared a look with Brendan.

The photo might not be up anywhere on the
bunny
internet . . . but that didn’t mean it wasn’t taking the Vorld Vide Veb by storm! And if there was one thing all vamps found
hilarious, it was the idea of ‘happy’, smiley vampires.

This could be the beginning of something very, very irritating
, Ivy realised glumly.

She might actually wear out her death-squint if this went on!

There was no time to worry about that now.
First things first.
She had to reclaim the Vein of Love as soon as possible, no matter what that took.

After that’s taken care of,
then
I’m definitely going to put a stake in this viral photo!

T
he moment that school finally finished for the day, Olivia headed towards the museum with Ivy and Reiko. It was closed to the public until the
weekend, while staff cleared up after Café Creative’s opening night, but Olivia and Ivy had begged their bio-dad for a private visit.

Charles might be firm when he came to his work – but he couldn’t fight his enthusiasm for the past. And Olivia had used all her acting skills to persuade him of how desperate she was
to see the artefacts under less stressful circumstances . . .

Which isn’t actually a lie
, Olivia reassured herself now. After all, she really did want to take her time with the artefacts – soon. Today, she had a slightly more important
goal!

Officially, they were on their way to get a special tour from Charles . . . but
un
officially, Olivia and Ivy were on a secret mission to put the fake pashmina in place. Olivia knew Ivy
was planning to practise her investigative journalism skills this afternoon, by snooping around for any trail the thief might have left for them to follow.

Speeding up, Olivia overtook Ivy and Reiko to turn the final corner on the way to the museum . . .

. . . and came to a dead halt as she saw the couple coming straight towards them.

‘Alex! Tessa!’ Olivia squeaked. ‘How . . .
nice
to see you again.’

Behind her, Ivy let out a muffled groan. Even Reiko lost her athletic balance for once as she hid herself behind Olivia.

‘Prince!’ she mumbled, clutching at Olivia’s arms, her voice sounding strangled with panic. ‘Prince . . . Princess . . .
Ack!
’

Alex frowned, setting one hand on his wife’s back, as Ivy caught Olivia just in time. ‘Are you girls OK?’

‘Yes!’ Olivia said, disentangling herself from Reiko. ‘We’re great. Totally great. And you two look . . . great!’
Great?
She squeezed her eyes shut for a
moment, wincing.
Could I sound any
less
convincing?

Every inch of her was aware of the decoy pashmina in Ivy’s bag. It was as if it was shooting out radio signals into the air that screamed: ‘
Fake! They’re trying to pass off
a fake!
’

Taking a long, deep breath, she opened her eyes again . . . and frowned.
Wait a minute.

Alex and Tessa did
not
look great at all. In fact, they looked a little . . .

Spooked
, she realised.
Uh-oh.
She tried not to glance in the direction of Ivy’s bag. She could almost hear the fake pashmina shouting into the air:

‘
Don’t trust these girls! I’m not your real pashmina!
’

No.
Taking hold of herself, Olivia forced the vision aside.
There’s no reason they should know about the theft.

‘Are
you
OK?’ Ivy asked the royal couple.

Alex and Tessa traded a look, and Olivia’s concern deepened. Forgetting the pashmina, she started forward. ‘Something
is
wrong,’ she said firmly. ‘Please tell
us.’

‘Well . . .’ Alex sighed, holding Tessa protectively. ‘The truth is . . . our day in Adamstown was not exactly fun.’

Tessa sighed. ‘It’s true. First, my dress got caught in the doors of the train that took us there – and if I hadn’t had vampire strength, I would have been dragged with
it all the way along the platform!’

Olivia gasped. ‘That’s terrible!’

Tessa held up the torn skirt of her long, elegant dark green dress. ‘Just look at it! This was my favourite dress.’

‘It’s . . . still beautiful,’ Reiko mumbled, with an obvious effort. The words were kind, but from the look on her face, it gave her actual physical pain to speak to such a
celebrity.

‘At least Tessa wasn’t hurt,’ Alex said. ‘But then things got even worse.’ Looking miserable, he clamped his mouth shut.

‘Well?’ Ivy prompted. ‘What happened next?’

Tessa patted Alex’s arm soothingly. ‘The restaurant we had lunch at served us
medium-rare
steaks.’ She winced. ‘Alex almost broke through the wall to get to the
restroom.’

‘Ouch!’ said Ivy.

Reiko made a sympathetic face. ‘I
hate
it when that happens!’

Poor Alex!
Olivia thought, seeing the usually dashing prince looking mortified – quietly and stoically mortified, of course, but still mortified.

‘Anyway,’ he mumbled, ‘we thought it was time to give up on our day out. So we –’

Caw! Caw!

Out of nowhere, a crow appeared in the air above them. As Olivia stared in shock, it dived down to flap crazily around Alex and Tessa’s heads.

The newlyweds ducked, throwing up their arms in self-defence.

‘Shoo!’ Ivy yelled, starting forward and waving her arms. ‘Go away!’

But the bird followed after Alex and Tessa, cawing louder. They both spun to try to escape it – and Alex’s leg caught in Tessa’s torn skirt. Her arm windmilled as she searched
for balance . . . and their heads crashed straight into each other.

The royal couple fell to the ground in a tangled heap, while the bird wheeled away with one last
caw
!

‘Are you OK?’ Striding forward gracefully, Reiko reached them first.

Ivy and Olivia were right behind her, all of them helping the stunned couple to their feet. As Tessa dusted down her dress, she gave a shaky laugh.

‘If I didn’t know better,’ she said, ‘I’d think this trip was cursed!’

Oh, no.
Olivia didn’t dare look at Ivy . . . or the bag with the fake pashmina inside.

‘You’re probably just imagining it,’ Ivy said. Her voice sounded strangled.