‘Don’t worry,’ Ivy said to Sophia. ‘We worked this out ahead of time. We are so done with the big, sad, sappy goodbyes. We’ve had way too many of them recently.’
‘We don’t need them any more,’ Olivia said, as she and her twin exchanged warm smiles. They had been through a lot this past year – but that had just confirmed exactly how strong their bond was.
‘If there’s one thing we both learned from eighth grade,’ she said, ‘it’s that the two of us drifting apart is pretty much impossible!’
‘That’s right,’ Ivy said. She lifted one hand in a wave. ‘See you later, twin.’
Olivia was still smiling as she stepped out of the Meat and Greet a minute later. As the front door closed behind her, she cast a last look over the familiar shop fronts of Franklin Grove – the town she wouldn’t be seeing for quite a while, just as Sophia had pointed out.
I really wish she hadn’t said that.
Olivia took a deep breath, feeling a sudden heaviness in her chest.
This is good. It’s wonderful. Because of this movie, I’m going to see the world!
But would things be different when she finally made it back?
She couldn’t help it. She looked back over her shoulder . . . and found Ivy looking right at her through the diner window.
Ivy gave a little nod, just as if she had read Olivia’s mind and was letting her know: Everything’s going to be OK.
Olivia felt her shoulders slump in relief. Ivy’s always right about this kind of thing.
With one last smile for her sister, she turned and walked quickly home. She had packing to finish and a movie to make!
Chapter Two
Brrrring!
The shrill sound of the alarm clock sent Ivy jerking upright. Her head hit the lid of her coffin-bed. Ouch! As she sat up, rubbing her head, she groaned. Welcome to ninth grade, huh?
It was pitch black inside the coffin-bed, but Ivy didn’t need to see the clock face to know exactly what time it was: Ridiculous O’clock!
Any other day, she would have turned over and gone right back to sleep. Today, though . . . Dad will just come and get me otherwise.
She yawned and pushed the lid open. It creaked softly. She kept her eyes closed against the dawn light streaming in from her bedroom window.
Ivy hadn’t thought anyone could be more nervous about her first day of high school than she was, but Mr Vega had proved her wrong. Her dad had insisted on the insanely early wake-up so that they could go over their ‘plan of assimilation’ before school. Worse yet, Ivy was pretty sure that he was right to be worried.
Because Franklin Grove High School was on the north edge of town, Ivy was going to meet a lot of new kids from Lincoln Vale, the next town over – kids who had not grown up with vampires in their midst! Kids who would ask questions that Franklin Grove’s youngsters just didn’t:
Why are these goths faster, more agile and stronger than most other boys and girls their age? Why do the goths from Franklin Grove stay so pale, even in summer? How can anyone eat a burger so rare?
The Franklin Grove goth kids were going to seem really, really strange to their new classmates from Lincoln Vale, and this was totally freaking out Ivy’s dad. The First Law of the Night ordered that a vampire never revealed their true self to an outsider. But the students at Franklin Grove Middle had become so used to the odd spurt of speed or the super-quick catch of a ball that they’d stopped noticing. The same wouldn’t be true at Franklin Grove High. Ivy and her friends were going to have to be extra careful . . .
‘You don’t want to be caught out,’ her dad had warned her, his face even paler than usual. ‘It could have disastrous consequences for the whole vampire community. Do you understand the seriousness of the situation?’
Oh, Ivy understood all too well. She wasn’t just starting at a new school – she was putting her vampire identity on the line. Along with the extra homework, she’d need to be extra vigilant.
Ivy groaned and clambered out of her coffin, the morning light hurting her sleep-deprived eyes. Ha. She gave a pained laugh at the irony. I’ve never felt more like a vampire than I do right now!
She was still rubbing her bleary eyes as she padded downstairs to the kitchen. In the doorway, she stopped dead. Am I still asleep? She rubbed her eyes and looked again. The sight that met her eyes was the same. No way! She gently slapped her own face. I have got to be dreaming!
Maybe marriage had changed her dad . . . but no way would her father ever sit at the kitchen table in a football jersey, with a backwards baseball cap on his head!
I must be in the middle of a spectacularly strange nightmare!
‘Excuse me.’