Switched (15 page)

“Why
did I agree to this?” Ivy muttered. She tossed Olivia a can of Pale Beauty.

Olivia
shook the can. “We should really start buying this stuff in bulk,” she said
thoughtfully.

“As
if,” Ivy answered glumly. While Olivia sprayed her arms, Ivy said, “My dad’s raring
to go. This is like the most A-positive thing that’s ever happened to him.” She
tried to sound as resentful as possible.

Olivia
pulled on a black tank top. “I know,” she said obliviously. “I’m so excited.”

Ivy
sighed heavily.
I wish I didn’t have to go tonight,
she thought.

Olivia
looked up, almost like she could hear what Ivy was thinking. “Ivy, in a few
hours you’re going to a dance with the boy you’ve always wanted. Can’t you see?
It’s your night to shine!”

“I don’t
want to shine,” Ivy sulked.

“Too
late,” Olivia said. “You already do.”

Ivy
shook her head. “But I didn’t do any of this.”

“And I
didn’t go to cheerleading practice,” Olivia countered. “We’re a team, Ivy. We
did this
together
. That doesn’t make it less good.” She grinned. “In
fact, it makes it even better.”

Ivy
nodded and tried to smile.

“The
only thing you have to do tonight,” Olivia continued, “is have fun. I’ll take
care of the rest.”

Ivy
took a deep breath. She knew her sister was right.
The All Hallows’ Ball is
tonight. It is at my house. Brendan Daniels is my date. I am head of
decorations.

Ivy
blinked. “Want to see my dress?” she asked tentatively.

Olivia
smiled. “Obviously!”

Olivia
stretched and stretched, but she couldn’t quite reach the corner of the stone
arch to tack up the last cobweb.

“Allow
me,” Ivy’s father called from down below. He marched over to another ladder and
slid it into place next to hers.

Olivia
had been decorating the upstairs ballroom with Mr. Vega for the last few hours,
but she still could not get over him. He looked like he’d walked right out of a
classic black-and-white vampire film but the kind that’s more love story than
monster movie. He resembled a pale Antonio Banderas, and his voice was
impossibly smooth.

He
wore a tailored dark suit jacket over a flowing white shirt and black jeans.
Olivia thought of her own father in his short-sleeved plaid polyester shirts
and cringed.

“Thanks,”
she said as Mr. Vega pinched the corner of the web from her fingers.

He
hung it gracefully. Then he spun around and leaned back against the top rung of
his ladder. “Shall we admire your work?”

Olivia
looked over her shoulder and took in the enormous ballroom below. The classic
movie posters on the stone walls were illuminated by tiny spotlights. Round
black tables dotted the room, tombstones rising from them evocatively. Bats
hung at all levels in the air. In each corner of the room, there was a huge
coffin lined with dark purple satin that overflowed its sides luxuriantly—a
special last-minute touch of Mr. Vega’s. Olivia had filled each one with party
favors, like plastic fangs, temporary neckbite tattoos, and extra bats.

Olivia
felt like cheering. Everything looked awesome!

“Now
that is the sort of smile,” Mr. Vega mused, “I have rarely seen on your face.”

Olivia
tried to stop grinning, but she couldn’t.

“So,
daughter,” he said, “you have said nothing of your date.”

“You
mean Brendan?” Olivia asked nervously as she climbed down the ladder.

“Ah,
Brendan. I wondered when you would reveal his identity,” Mr Vega remarked.

Oops,
thought Olivia.

“Tell
me.What is he like?” Mr.Vega continued.

Olivia
didn’t know how to answer.

“In a
world that is so open to you,” he mused, “you need not always keep the contents
of your heart closed.”

“He’s
really cu—” Olivia stopped herself. “Handsome,” she finished.

“I am
sure.”

“And .
. . romantic,” Olivia added.

“Oh?”
Mr. Vega’s dark eyes sparkled.

Olivia
remembered something her sister had said. “The way he asked me to the ball was
really ...sweet.”

Ivy’s
father smiled. “I am glad for you, Ivy.”

Olivia
suddenly felt weird talking about Brendan this way. He wasn’t
her
boyfriend,
after all. She glanced at the enormous clock above the ballroom entrance. “I
should go get ready,” she said.

Mr.
Vega nodded. “Yes, of course.”

Outside
the ballroom, Olivia descended the enormous staircase to the first floor. She
was walking past the front doors on her way to the basement when she was
stopped in her tracks by the momentary booming of a pipe organ. She was about
to continue on her way when the organ music rang out again, the same brief
ornate musical phrase as before.

“Ivy?”
Mr. Vega called down the stairs. “Can you answer the door please?”

Olivia
hesitated, took a deep breath, and opened the front door.

Before
her stood the Beasts, grinning like idiots. Olivia silently noted that their
ill-fitting tuxes didn’t make them look any less greasy.

“Hey,
Vega,” one said.

“What
are you guys doing here?” said Olivia. “The ball doesn’t start for another
hour.”

“We,
uh, brought a guest,” one of them replied. They pushed forward a boy Olivia
hadn’t noticed at first: Toby Decker.

Olivia
knew him from math. He was wearing a gray suit with a blue polka-dot bow tie,
and his blond hair was combed back from his forehead.

“Hi,
Ivy. Thanks so much for having me,” he said with formal politeness. Then he
gestured to the Beasts. “These guys said you had more than enough punch, and it’s
going to be quite a party.”

Olivia
narrowed her eyes and turned to the Beast closest to her. “Can I speak to you
for a moment?”

The
boy shrugged, and Olivia led him down the hall. When they were just out of
earshot, she spun around. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

“We
brought our decoration—our human!” the boy said, bouncing up and down on his
toes excitedly. “You know, like an hors d’oeuvre,” he continued with a guffaw. “That
means snack.”

Olivia
knew by now that there was only one way to handle Beastly behavior. She marched
back to the front door, the boy scurrying after her, and went right up to Toby
Decker.

“I’m
sorry, Toby, but I’m afraid these boys misled you. Nobody can come tonight
without an invitation. We’re already over capacity.”

“But—”
Toby and a few of the Beasts began.

“No
buts,” Olivia said decisively. She glared over Toby’s shoulder at the Beasts. “It’s
a
safety
issue.”

Then
she turned back to Toby. “Sorry,” she said as nicely as she could. “These guys
should have known better. Maybe next time, okay?”

Toby
nodded like he understood. Then he raised his eyebrows and said hopefully, “I
should tell you I’m a really good dancer. I took classes for my older sister’s
sweet sixteen.” He looked at Olivia expectantly.

“That’s
nice,” said Olivia. “The boys will escort you back home now.” And then she
added, speaking very slowly and looking each of the Beasts right in the eye, “
And
I’ll see you at school on Monday, Toby
.”

Nobody
moved. Olivia bore down on the Beasts with Ivy’s death squint.

“Let’s
go,” one of them sulked at last. They all turned and shuffled off down the
hill, Toby trailing behind.

Olivia
shut the door and smiled to herself. Like Ivy said, they weren’t as scary as
they smelled!

Ivy
anxiously studied her reflection in the mirror that hung on an open door of her
wardrobe. She straightened her dark, wine-colored, velvet strapless dress and
turned around to inspect the thin satin ribbons crisscrossing her bare back.
Her dark hair fell around her face in ringlets, and pearl earrings hung from
her earlobes.

She
was just applying her Midnight Merlot lipstick when she heard someone coming
down the stairs.

“Hello?”
she heard her sister whisper. “Ivy?” Ivy pushed the wardrobe closed. Olivia
stared. “Do I look okay?” Ivy asked in a worried voice. “You—you look . . .”
Olivia stammered, “
unbelievable
!” She walked over, still staring.

“Really?”
Ivy asked, glancing nervously in the mirror again.

“Really!”
Olivia cried, circling her. “Brendan is going to be floored!”

“I
hope so,” Ivy said.

“I
know so,” Olivia said firmly.

Ivy
couldn’t help smiling. She pulled on a pair of long black evening gloves and
looked at herself one last time in the mirror.
I look drop-dead
, she
decided.

“I’d
better put my own clothes back on and scoot.You’ve got a ball to go to,” Olivia
said, grinning.

“Not
so fast,” said Ivy, barefooting it over to her bed, which was piled high with
clothes, papers, and pillows. She rummaged through the mess, throwing clothes
aside, until she emerged with a black box tied with a pink ribbon that she
handed proudly to her sister.

“What’s
this?” Olivia asked, shaking the box.

“A
thank-you gift,” Ivy answered.

Olivia
untied the ribbon. “For what?” she asked.

“For
the last three weeks,” Ivy told her. “For Brendan. For tonight. For being my
sister.” She shrugged. “For
everything.
Just open it.”

Ivy
watched Olivia’s face as she reached into the box and took out a black baby
tee. On it, the word “bunny” was printed in bubbly fuchsia letters, followed by
a tiny sparkly bunny. Olivia gasped in delight. “I
love
it!” she
exclaimed.

The
doorbell rang. Ivy’s heart leaped as she glanced at the clock by her bed. She
guessed it must be Brendan, arriving early for pictures.

Olivia
read her mind. “Where are your shoes?” she asked.

“Shoes?”
Ivy grinned. “As if !” She hurried to lace up her best pair of high-heeled
boots.

Olivia
was tucked behind the suit of armor in the hall. Before she went home, she
wanted to see Brendan’s face when he arrived and saw Ivy in her ball dress. Ivy
had said it was okay for her to watch for a few minutes, as long as she stayed
out of sight. If Olivia looked through the gap between the breastplate and the
arm piece, she could just see the front door.

She
watched as Ivy opened the door and Brendan entered. He was wearing a black floorlength
cape over his tuxedo and a textured white shirt with a white bow tie. His black
curls shone.

“Ivy,
you look beautiful!” Olivia heard Brendan say.

“Thank
you,” Ivy answered demurely. From under his cape, he produced a flower: a

single
red rose, so dark it was almost black. Ivy took it and smiled as she looked at
Brendan. They looked at each other dreamily, and the moment was so romantic
that Olivia thought they might kiss, but just then, Mr. Vega appeared.

“You
must be Brendan,” he said, descending the grand staircase. He looked impeccable
in a black velvet tuxedo.

The
doorbell rang again, and in rushed Sophia, wearing a beautiful black-and-white
dress that looked like something from an Audrey Hepburn movie. She was also
lugging a huge camera bag and a tripod. “Sorry I’m late.” She panted. She
stopped in her tracks and looked Brendan and Ivy up and down. “Wow, you two
look killer!”

Olivia
watched as Sophia took pictures of the perfect couple. In every single shot,
Ivy did the one thing that Olivia liked to think she’d been responsible for
teaching her to do. She smiled— and not a close-lipped Goth smile but a bright
cheerleader beam!

When
Ivy and Brendan, Mr. Vega and Sophia had left the hallway, Olivia slipped away
down the staircase, back to Ivy’s basement window. She needed to go home and
get some rest. After all, cheerleading tryouts were in less than twenty-four
hours, and Olivia needed to be ready for anything—especially if she was going
to go head to head with Charlotte Brown.

Ivy
and Brendan sat with the rest of the planning committee at the table in the
center of the ballroom. Melissa raised a glass of cherry punch and shouted over
the din, “To Ivy, who seriously surprised us!”

“You’re
not kidding!” cried Sophia, flashing Ivy a knowing smile from where she stood.
She lifted her camera and snapped a picture.

Ivy
almost felt herself blush as she shyly clinked her glass against everyone else’s.
“I had a lot of help,” she said.

“Miss
Vega,” a voice boomed. It was old Mr. Coleman, one of the chaperones, extending
his hand. “This is the best All Hallows’ Ball I have ever attended, and I have
been at all two hundred two of them.” He planted a cool kiss on the back of Ivy’s
hand. “You look smashing,” he said.