Switched (16 page)

Ivy
let her eyes wander around the ballroom. Olivia really had done a killer job.
People were marveling at the old film posters on the walls, and some were going
from table to table having their friends take pictures of them with different
celebrity tombstones. Everybody looked suave and mysterious, just like in the
old vampire movies.

Suddenly,
the room grew quieter. Ivy saw one of the Beasts standing in the center of the
dance floor, a pale hand raised over his head to silence the crowd. In his
other hand he held a black microphone.

Oh,
no,
thought Ivy.
What
are they up to now?
“Good eeeve-ning,” the boy said, doing the lamest
old-time vampire-accent imitation Ivy had ever heard. “I vant to invite you all
onto zee dance floor for zee first dance.”

Ivy
couldn’t help but laugh. The Beast was the DJ!

Brendan
stood up. “Come on,” he said, taking Ivy’s hand. “It’s the first dance.”

Ivy
shook her head. “We don’t dance, remember?”

Brendan’s
eyes sparkled, and he leaned closer to her. “That’s why they call it the
first
dance, Ivy,” he said.

As
Brendan led her onto the dance floor, his cape flowing around him, Ivy felt
everyone’s eyes on her. She saw people looking her up and down admiringly, and,
at the edge of the dance floor, she even spotted her dad, beaming.

Brendan
stopped right in the middle of the dance floor. Ivy put her head on his
shoulder, and the song began. She closed her eyes.
I better not be dreaming
,
she thought breathlessly.

Ivy
woke up the next morning and pushed open her coffin. She hadn’t dreamed any of
it. She and Brendan had danced all through the ball. And afterward, they’d
stayed up until one o’clock in the morning talking on the front porch.

She
couldn’t wait to call Olivia and tell her all about it. After all, none of this
would have happened without her.
Wait a minute,
Ivy thought, glancing at
the clock.
Olivia’s got cheerleading tryouts this morning!

Ivy
suddenly had a killer idea. She leaped out of bed and threw open one of her
wardrobe doors. She would surprise her sister by supporting her from the
bleachers during tryouts!

A half
hour later, Ivy was marching through the front hall of Franklin Grove Middle
School wearing the pinkest, most supportive outfit she could muster: a gray
Devils sweatshirt and a Devils baseball cap pulled down over her hair.

She
floated past her own reflection in the front hall display case. She almost
looked like a cheerleader, with her school spirit costume.

As if
on cue, a high-pitched voice called, “Olivia!”

Ivy
looked up to see Charlotte Brown charging down the hallway, decked out in her
cheerleading uniform.

“I’ve
been looking for you everywhere, Olivia!” Charlotte complained.

Ivy
almost corrected her, but then she thought better of it and pulled her cap
farther down over her eyes.

“Ms.
Barnett told me to tell you that tryouts have been moved to the football field,”
Charlotte yelled. “The chess team is using the gym or something!”

“Really?”
said Ivy perkily.

“You’d
better get out there!” Charlotte said haughtily. “Ms. Barnett won’t like it if
you’re late!” and, with that, she hurried away down the hall.

Oh,
my goodness. I have to find Olivia right away,
thought Ivy,
or she’ll miss
tryouts!

She
whipped out her phone and dialed Olivia’s cell, but there was no answer. She
glanced at the clock on the wall: 11:21. That meant Ivy had only nine minutes
to find her sister.

Ivy
ran to check the girls’ locker room. The only people she found inside were
Katie and Allison, decked out in full-on cheer gear.

“Hi,
Olivia!” they said in unison.

Ivy
spun around without answering. She ran back to the other side of school, and
checked Olivia’s locker—nothing. She ran on to the science hall bathroom—also
nothing. The situation was starting to seem grave. Ivy tried Olivia’s cell
phone again. When that didn’t work, she tried her sister at home.

“Hello?”
said Olivia’s dad.

“Hi,
Mr. Abbott, it’s Ivy, Olivia’s friend from school,” Ivy explained.

“Well,
good morning, Ivy. What can I do for you?”

“Is
Olivia there?” Ivy panted.

“ ’Fraid
not,” he answered. “The cheerleading tryouts are right about now.”

“Right,”
Ivy said sheepishly. “Thanks.” She ended the call and slumped against the
bathroom counter.

Her
sister was nowhere to be found. Ivy glanced at the screen on her cell phone:
11:25. Only five minutes left to go.

This
can’t be happening,
Ivy
thought with a shake of her head.
Not after all Olivia and I have done.

She
pulled off her hat, and spun around to face the mirror. In her locker there was
a can of spray-on tan, which Olivia had accidentally left in Ivy’s bag after
their first switch. Ivy thought she could put her hair in a ponytail and make
it to the field before it was too late.

But
what if somebody notices that there are two Olivia’s running around school?
Ivy wondered.

It’s
a risk I have to take,
she
decided.

She
ran to her locker, grabbed the spray-on tan, and dashed back to the bathroom.
Then she quickly applied the spray, and was tying her hair into a ponytail when
she realized that she didn’t have pom-poms.
Ms. Barnett will freak!
Ivy
thought.

She
threw open the door to one of the stalls and saw two rolls of toilet paper
sitting on the back of the toilet.
They’re not the best poms in the world,
thought
Ivy,
and I probably won’t get away with this, but it’s the best I can do.

A roll
of toilet paper in either hand, Ivy charged onto the sports field, but the only
people there were two jocks tossing a football back and forth. There were no
cheerleaders in sight.

Ivy
looked around, confused.
“
Excuse me,” she said. “Do you know if
cheerleading tryouts are supposed to be here right now?”

“In
the gym,” one of the boys grunted, looking bemusedly at Ivy and her toilet roll
poms.

And
all at once, Ivy understood what had happened. Charlotte had lied, hoping that
Olivia would show up in the wrong place and miss tryouts.
The fiend
! Ivy
thought.

She
hastily tossed a roll of toilet paper to each of the boys and ran back toward
the gym, thinking what a stroke of luck it had been that she hadn’t reached
Olivia on her cell. As she ran, she chanted to herself through clenched teeth. “When
you’re up, you’re up . . . when you’re down, you’re down . . . when you’re
messing with my sister ...you’re upside down!”

Ivy
stood outside the gym door and peeked in through the window. Sure enough, there
was Olivia, cheering her heart out at the center of the formation. Charlotte
Brown cheered beside her, the peeved look in her eyes belying the fake smile on
her face.

Olivia
pushed through the door of the Meat & Greet Diner and rushed to the back of
the restaurant, where she spotted everyone waiting for her in Ivy’s booth.
Sitting across from Camilla and Sophia, Brendan had his arm draped around Ivy’s
shoulder.

Olivia
couldn’t contain herself a moment longer. “I made the squad!” she shouted
before she’d even reached their table. Everyone in the diner spun around to
look.

Oops
, thought Olivia. Her friends burst
out laughing.

“I
made the squad!” she said again in an exaggerated whisper.

“Congratulations!”
Ivy cheered. Camilla and Sophia clapped.

“Ivy
said you were deadly at tryouts,” Brendan told her.

Sophia
held up crossed fingers. “Can we call you captain?”

“Not
this year,” Olivia admitted. “Charlotte’s captain. But that’s only fair, since she’s
been on the squad the longest.”

“And
she’s so great at telling people what to do,” Ivy added.

“Exactly.”
Olivia grinned. “Anyway, it just means I’ll be able to spend more time with my
friends!” Olivia looked around the table at Camilla, Sophia, Ivy, and Brendan.
She felt really happy.

The
waitress appeared. “Tofu burger with salad?” she asked.

“You
bet,” Olivia replied, smiling. Then she announced to the table, “I’ll be right
back. I’m going to go change.” After all, she was still wearing her cheerleader
uniform, and she was dying to get Ivy alone. She winked at her sister
meaningfully.

The
moment Ivy followed her through the bathroom door, Olivia said, “How did it go
last night!?”

They
debriefed as Olivia took off her cheerleader outfit and put on her new favorite
baby tee. When Ivy told her about the first dance with Brendan, it nearly took
Olivia’s breath away.

“This
is the best weekend of my life,” Ivy finished.

“I
feel the same way!” Olivia agreed.

“I
think our biological parents would be seriously proud of us,” Ivy said.

I
just wish we knew them,
Olivia
thought with a pang.

“Let’s
make a pact,” Ivy suggested.

“A
vampire pact?” asked Olivia.

“No.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “A pact between us. A sisterhood pact.”

Olivia
understood. Cheerleading, dating, the ball—it had all been fun, but there was
something more important.

Ivy
took her necklace off and pressed her emerald ring against the one on Olivia’s
finger. “We pledge to be there for each other,” she said.

“Day
or night,” Olivia put in solemnly.

“In
darkness and light,” Ivy went on. “We pledge to stick—”

“Together,”
Olivia finished for her. And then she reached out to hug her twin sister. And
as Ivy hugged her back, she knew that they both had tears in their eyes.

[end]