Fashion Frightmare! (My Sister the Vampire) (9 page)

‘It’s true,’ Olivia added quickly. ‘Jet-lag can do weird things to people. Trust me – I’ve been flying around so much these last few months, I’m not
entirely sure this isn’t just a really strange dream!’

Ivy gave an unconvincing chuckle. ‘That would make it your fault I’m living a hell as a Vorld-Vide-Veb-joke, huh?’

Alex clapped one hand over his mouth, but his snicker escaped anyway. Tessa let out a muffled snort.

‘Oh, no . . .’ Ivy stared at them. ‘Are you telling me that even
you guys
have seen it?’

‘Um . . .’ Tessa pressed her lips together, but her eyes were sparkling with suppressed laughter.

‘Well,’ Alex said, ‘I wouldn’t say we’ve seen
all
the different versions online yet . . .’

‘But there are so many,’ Tessa said apologetically, ‘they’re just very hard to miss!’

‘And there are some really
good
ones,’ Alex added. His grin broke through as he dug his smartphone out of his pocket. ‘Here, I bookmarked my favourite.’ He held
out the phone, and Olivia, Reiko and Ivy peered at it together.

Yet again, they looked at ‘Ivy’s’ beaming face above her goth gown . . . and this time, the caption read:
‘Half-price Marshmallow Platelets . . . Oh
yeah!’

Ivy groaned. ‘I can’t take many more of these!’

‘OK.’ Still smiling, Alex slid the phone back into his pocket. ‘But anyway . . . if you guys are going to the museum, maybe we could tag along?’

‘Oh, yes!’ Tessa nodded enthusiastically. ‘We need to do
something
fun to improve the day. And I’d love to see my pashmina hanging up there!’

Uh-oh.
Olivia felt Ivy’s arm stiffen under her hand. She thought fast. ‘Erm . . . we’re not actually going to the museum right now.’

‘Really?’ Alex blinked, looking from Olivia to the museum’s front door, only fifteen feet away. ‘But –’

‘It’s locked up!’ Ivy said hastily. ‘Until this weekend. And Albert would
never
let us in out-of-hours!’

Tessa frowned. ‘Who’s Albert?’

‘The caretaker,’ Olivia explained. ‘You must have seen him last night, or when you visited the museum before. You know, the vampire who always wears jogging outfits?’

‘Sorry,’ said Ivy, doing her best sad-face. ‘The museum is definitely off-limits today.’

‘Oh, that’s right, I just remembered!’ Reiko chimed in. ‘Perhaps we should go and catch a game instead?’

Ivy looked like she was preparing her death-squint, so Olivia stepped in. ‘I think we could all do with something to eat.’ She clapped her hands decisively. ‘Come on.
Let’s go to . . . Mister Smoothie’s!’

Ivy’s death-squint was immediately turned on Olivia, but she ignored it.

‘Mister . . . Smoothie’s?’ Tessa’s brow crinkled in a frown. ‘Is that some kind of café?’

‘You’ll love it,’ Olivia told her, trying to sound breezy.
And it’s on the other side of town – far away from the museum.
‘It’s just what you
need to turn your day around.’

Why could I only think of Mister Smoothie’s? It’s like a vampire’s worst nightmare!
She didn’t need Ivy’s glare to tell her this was a bad idea . . .

W
ell, I
knew
that was a bad idea . . .

As Ivy pulled on her backpack the next morning, she sniffed the ends of her long hair – and groaned.
Yup
. She could still smell the peach-and-blood-orange smoothie.
It just
won’t go away!
Even two rounds of shampoo last night hadn’t been enough to remove the evidence of yesterday’s . . .
incident.

I don’t care how much the bunnies like them, smoothies are dangerous!

Olivia had spent the whole journey there telling Alex and Tessa exactly how delicious their smoothies would be. By the time they’d arrived, Tessa really seemed to have forgotten how
excited she’d been about the museum. And – typically for Transylvanian vamps! – she and Alex had taken the business of ordering
very
seriously. It had taken ages for them
both to select exactly the right flavours.

Unfortunately, when the Mister Smoothie’s clerk was putting those two particular orders on to the counter, she lost her balance and had somehow managed to drop them . . .
upwards
!

The cups had arced and fallen, peach and raspberry and blueberry smoothie mingling into a crazy rainbow . . . and with a line of customers waiting behind them, there had been no way for Tessa or
Alex to escape.

The entire group had been splashed.

Ivy recalled the horror on the shop clerk’s face as she’d stared at the sopping wet, smoothie-covered prince and princess, offering apologies, free replacements . . . and lots of
towels.

She couldn’t have been more obviously sincere, but when Tessa had told her it was OK, Ivy had definitely detected a note of panic in the princess’s voice.

Tessa might be one of the most easy-going people Ivy knew, but it was obvious that her string of bad luck was starting to seriously rattle her.
If she finds out that the pashmina’s
been stolen, she might just have a nervous breakdown!

Ivy had to track down the thief before that could happen.

Sighing, she headed out the front door towards the bus stop on Undertaker Hill. Reiko was already waiting there, her hair dyed in contrasting streaks of black and white, matching the soccer ball
she was juggling between her feet and knees.

‘Wow.’ Ivy shook her head in disbelief as she joined the exchange student. ‘Did you actually buy that just for the next week and a half
 
?’

Still juggling the ball, Reiko gave a shrug. ‘I was bored.’

‘Bored?!’ Ivy repeated. ‘You’ve won doubles tennis and starred in a fashion show. Now we’re dealing with a stolen treasure, a thief to hunt,
and
a string
of terrible luck for Alex and Tessa! How much more drama do you need?’

‘Well . . .’ Reiko looked thoughtful, as the bus chugged down the street towards them. ‘I still haven’t made it to a real sports game.’

Unbelievable.
Shaking her head, Ivy stepped on to the school bus without another word.

The second they stepped out of the bus at Franklin Grove High, Reiko’s soccer ball was back in action, bouncing off her knees and feet in a stream of constant motion.
Bunnies and goths alike stopped to stare as they passed, the constant
thump-thump-thump
hammering into Ivy’s skull as they walked into the building.

Does she ever stop?
Ivy gritted her teeth.
Pretend it isn’t happening,
she ordered herself . . . but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t even look away from the
rocketing soccer ball until –

‘Hey! Watch out!’ A goth senior stepped back, rubbing his shoulder where Ivy had just crashed into him.

‘Sorry,’ she mumbled. She forced herself to turn her gaze ahead, but all she could focus on was the soccer ball bouncing in the corner of her vision. At any minute, it was definitely
going to hit someone, or –

‘Ow!’ A hefty, muscled football player let out a yelp of pain as Ivy’s shoulder banged into his arm. He backed away, massaging it. ‘Watch where you’re
going!’

Great. Now
I’m
the menace in this hallway!

Blowing out her breath in frustration, Ivy came to a halt in front of her locker; beside her, Reiko still juggled the ball. It bounced off the closest locker again and again, with a dull
metallic clang each time.
Thump-bang! Thump-bang! Thump-bang!

Ivy started to reach into her locker for her textbooks – then stopped.
I can’t even remember which classes I have this morning! This is crazy.
Taking a deep breath, she
closed her eyes and tried to focus. OK, today was a Friday, and that meant . . .

Thump-bang!

That meant her first-period class should be –

Thump-bang!

‘Oh, for darkness’ sake!’ Ivy spun around, her eyes flaring wide open. ‘Can you
please
just stop that for
five seconds
to let me think?’

Reiko caught the ball in her hands, the shock on her face making guilt surge through Ivy.

‘Is something wrong?’ Reiko asked.

‘It’s . . .’ Ivy sighed, fighting back her frustration. ‘It’s just, the sound of that ball over and
over
again . . . well, it’s starting to get to me
a little bit. I’ve got a lot on my mind.’

‘Sorry.’ Reiko shrugged, jiggling the ball in her hands. ‘This is just how I get when I have energy to burn off.’

‘You have energy to “burn off
 
”?’ Ivy let out a half-laugh of disbelief. She lowered her voice to a whisper as she pulled out her English textbook from her locker.
‘It’s first-thing on a Friday. Most vamps our age are so tired right now they can’t wait to get back to their coffins and go to sleep again. And considering you haven’t
stayed still for a single second since you got here –’

‘Well . . .’ Reiko blinked, stepping back an inch. ‘I don’t mean to annoy anybody with my energy, but . . . I told you, I’m kind of bored. This trip hasn’t
been quite what I was hoping for.’ She shrugged. ‘You haven’t exactly been the most enthusiastic of hostesses . . .’

‘Are you kidding?’ Ivy slammed her locker shut. ‘Have you not noticed that I have a bit of a crisis going on? I’m sorry if I haven’t played as much tennis or soccer
as you would have liked, but we do have a few more important issues to worry about!’

Reiko shrugged and spun the soccer ball on one finger. ‘You do remember you’re a teenager, right? Occasionally, it is OK for you to do what
you
think would be
fun.’

‘Well, that would never involve sports,’ Ivy snapped.

Reiko’s eyebrows shot upwards. She closed her mouth tightly as she caught the soccer ball.

Silence grew between them . . . and Ivy heard her own words repeated in an endless, horrible loop in her head. Shame swept in a hot wave through her body, making her skin burn. ‘I’m
sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘I didn’t mean –’

‘Forget it.’ Reiko tucked the ball under her arm. Suddenly, she looked as subdued and serious as Ivy could ever have wished . . . and she turned away without meeting Ivy’s
gaze. ‘I’ll see you in class,’ she said.

She set off in the direction of their English class, leaving Ivy staring miserably after her and wondering how she could have made things so much
worse
.

Only the sound of her cell phone beeping in her backpack forced her to look away from Reiko’s retreating back. Sighing, Ivy pulled out the phone.

It was a text from Sophia:
So, how is the Queen of the Vorld Vide Veb doing? I think I’m missing all the fun!

Ha.
Ivy shook her head as she tucked the phone back into her backpack.

Sophia might be missing home, but right now she certainly wasn’t missing any ‘fun’!

Ivy slung her backpack over her shoulder and started for class with heavy feet. When she walked into the room, she came to a dead halt. Her usual seat at the front of the room was free, as was
the seat next to her – where Reiko had been sitting all week . . . but today, Reiko sat in the far back corner of the room, and she looked straight ahead, pointedly refusing to notice Ivy
coming in.

Swallowing, Ivy forced herself to move forwards. She slumped into her seat, trying not to look as miserable as she felt. But when Olivia walked in a moment later, Ivy could see from her
twin’s face that it was no use. Olivia looked from Ivy to Reiko and back again.

‘What’s going on?’ she whispered, as she took her seat by Ivy.

Ivy gave a sad shake of her head. ‘I’ll tell you later. For now, let’s just say I have some apologising to do to Reiko on the way to our next class.’

Olivia reached out to touch her shoulder. ‘I’m sure whatever you did wasn’t that bad.’

‘Actually . . .’ Ivy winced, all too aware that Reiko would be able to hear her from across the room with her sharp vampire hearing. ‘It
was
that bad,’ she
admitted quietly.

But I’ll be a much better hostess as soon as this whole Vein of Love thing is fixed!
she swore to herself.