"I guess I would have done the same."
"Well, if you are to become one of us, you will have to kwils off at Hget used to such things," he said, guiding my hair back off my shoulder. "And by acting crazy, you just draw attention to it. Now we have to think of something to say to your brother." Alexander was right. If I were a vampire, things would happen in the normal world to expose my true identity. I wasn't sure if I'd be as calm and cool as Alexander or more emotional like Stormy. For some reason, I feared I was more like the vampire girl sitting in the Mercedes.
But for now, I didn't have to worry about my reactions, only Stormy's. I guess it could have been anything that set her off. And maybe it was better that something happened now rather than later. Before our siblings got any closer.
Alexander and I decided it might be a good idea to keep Billy and Stormy apart from each other for a few days. But that didn't stop Billy from asking about her.
He'd pass me in our upstairs hallway and ask how she was doing. I knew my brother truly felt bad. He'd taken her to a dance and they both had a great time, and now he felt he'd ruined her stay in Dullsville.
"She's not mad," I said to him one night at dinner. "Maybe she has a fear of mirrors."
"Well, she shouldn't. You'd think someone as pretty as her would be looking in them all the time." It was one of Billy's first experiences with girls, and I didn't want him to be soured by them just because one was a vampire. But there was no way I could have told him or even avoided the situation, because I hadn't known that they'd be retooling the telescope. In fact, I didn't even know there was a mirror inside it.
The following night, I was waiting for the sun to set outside the Mansion when I came upon an object lying at the top of the front stairs. On closer inspection, it appeared to be a bouquet of flowers. I held the flowers and smelled them as the sun set behind me. When it was dusk, I rapped on the serpent knocker. Jameson opened the door, and I handed him the bouquet. "They were lying here on the steps," I said.
He looked at the card. Just then Stormy hopped down the stairs.
"Hi, Raven," she said.
"Hi, Stormy."
"This is for you, Miss Athena," Jameson said.
Her dark eyes lit up.
"Are they from you, Raven?" she asked.
"No," I said. "I found them on the stoop."
"Perhaps they are from a secret admirer," the Creepy Man teased with a toothy smile.
kgn= hoppeShe looked at three purple carnations wrapped in baby's breath. "They're so pretty," she cooed.
Alexander came down the staircase in a tight pair of black jeans and a white T-shirt, his hair still slightly damp from showering.
"I got a bouquet of flowers," Stormy said, rushing to him.
"From Raven?" Alexander asked.
"No," I said again. I was starting to feel bad that they weren't from me.
Alexander tried to snatch the card.
"No - it's mine," Stormy said, and hurried into the formal living room and flung herself down on the sofa.
"Read it out loud," Alexander said as we followed her. "We're all dying to know." She took out the card. "'Hope when you see the stars you think of us - in a good way.
Sincerely, Billy and Henry'"
Wow. I didn't know my brother had it in him.
Stormy batted her glittery eyelashes. She was really touched by the gesture.
She didn't have to say a word. Her expression was that of a smitten girl who was touched to have received flowers from two boys.
"We shall put them in a vase," Jameson said.
"Yes, we must!" Stormy said. She jumped off the sofa and quickly headed for the kitchen as the butler followed slowly behind her.