"Did you know the picture of me and Stormy didn't turn out?" he asked.
"No," I lied. "That sucks. Are you just now looking at it?"
"I noticed it that night, but I was looking at it again this afternoon. You can't even take a picture right!" Billy argued.
"Don't worry," I said. "Alexander has - "
"But it's weird," he interjected. "She should have been in the photo."
"I guess I moved."
"No, that's not it."
"Then I guess she moved."
I'd used this excuse before on Becky, but my brother wasn't buying it.
"No, she didn't," Billy protested. "Henry and I enlarged it on the school computer. If you had moved, you wouldn't have gotten me in, either, or you would have gotten more of her. If she moved, it would have been blurry."
"Then I don't know what happened," I finally said.
"I think you do."
"I have no idea what you mean. What are you saying?"
"She didn't show up. The only explanation is that she's invisible on film."
I laughed. "Are you crazy?"
"No," he said. "It's scientific fact."
"Well, I didn't want to show you this. I wanted Alexander to give this to you himself. But now you've spoiled it!" I pulled the portrait of Billy and Stormy out of my closet. "Here - " I said, handing him the painting.
"This is so cool!" he exclaimed, gazing at the picture as if it were really her. "It looks like what the picture would have looked like."
"Yes, isn't that awesome?" I asked proudly.
"How did Alexander know that I'd want this?"
"I don't know. He just made it."
"He had to have known that the picture wouldn't turn out."
"He did not. Don't go all crazy conspiracy theorist on me."
"She's allergic to garlic and is afraid of mirrors," he said like a young Sherlock Holmes. "It's no coincidence, is it?"
"No," I said. "It's on purpose. Her parents purposefully altered her genes and personality to make her that way."
"That's why she doesn't have many friends," he deduced. "That's why she lives in isolation in Romania. That's why Valentine said she was different. He knows about her."
"Knows what?"
"That she's a vamp - "
The doorbell suddenly rang. And just in the nick of time. I raced down the stairs, and Billy chased after me.
Alexander and Stormy were waiting outside.