At the corner of the main hall, Ivy set her jaw and abruptly spun around. Twenty feet behind her, a person in a blue shirt slipped behind a tall girl wearing a basketball jersey. The girl obviously found this odd, because she stepped aside to reveal . . . Toby Decker!
“Can I help you?” the tall girl demanded, peering down at Toby, her hands on her hips. Toby nervously caught Ivy’s eye and lunged to bury his face in a nearby water fountain.
Suddenly Olivia appeared at Ivy’s side. “I’ve been looking for you,” she said.
“Apparently you’re not the only one,” replied Ivy. “I think Toby Decker is following me.” She gestured toward the water fountain, where Toby was peering at them as water filled his mouth.
“That’s what I need to tell you,” Olivia murmured in a low voice. “Charlotte told Serena Star that you’re like queen of the Goths, and now Serena’s commanded Toby to follow your every move.”
“What!?” exclaimed Ivy.
“Shhh!” Olivia said and gestured for Ivy to start walking beside her. She spoke out of the side of her mouth. “Act natural. Serena also thinks people here are obsessed with vampires.”
Ivy’s heart skipped a beat, and she couldn’t help glancing over her shoulder, only to see Toby snapping a huge telephoto lens onto a camera. She whipped her head back around. “He’s trying to take pictures of us!” she gulped.
“We shouldn’t be seen together like this,” Olivia said.
Ivy agreed with a tiny nod and whispered, “Meet me at the Meat & Greet in thirty.” They split off in different directions down the hall.
A half hour later, Ivy walked into the Meat & Greet and saw her sister sitting alone in a booth next to the one where they normally sat, tucked in the back. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Toby lurking on the edge of the parking lot.
Ivy and Olivia exchanged knowing looks, and Ivy went to her usual booth. She sat so that she and her sister were back to back, separated only by the banquette. Ivy picked up a menu and pretended to study it.
“I can’t have Toby on my tail all the time,” she said to her menu. “What if he follows me to the BloodMart or something?”
From the booth behind her, Olivia loudly ordered some chocolate cake. Then Ivy heard her whisper, “Maybe it’s not so bad.”
“That’s what they used to say about public hanging,” Ivy murmured, “and they were wrong about that, too.”
“Think about it,” Olivia whispered over her shoulder. “If Toby’s following you all the time, you can control what he sees—he won’t find anything interesting if you don’t let him.”
Ivy thought about it. Her sister had a deadly point.
Sophia arrived, looking down at them with a seriously puzzled expression on her face. “Why are you two sitting in separate booths?”
“Serena Star assigned Toby Decker to spy on me,” Ivy seethed. “Olivia can’t be seen with me because she’s a double agent.”
“Craziness,” Sophia said, scooting in across from Ivy. “I just passed Toby on my way in.” Then she whispered, “Hi, Olivia,” to the back of Olivia’s head.
“Hi, Soph,” Olivia whispered back.
“Do you think my cell phone’s tapped?” Ivy asked.
Sophia rolled her eyes. “You’re under investigation by Toby Decker, Ivy. Not the FBI.” Ivy leaned forward. “Olivia found out from Toby that Serena’s really focused on the vampire angle now.”
“Oh, no,” Sophia groaned, dropping her face in her hands.
“Pretty bad, huh?” Olivia called quietly from the next booth.
Ivy let out a sigh. “Can we change the subject and talk about something that doesn’t make me feel like biting my own neck?”
For a long time none of them said anything. Then Olivia said, “Did Ivy tell you about my film project, Sophia?”
Sophia nodded. “She said you got all this killer stuff from a dead great-aunt.”
“Who married a duke,” Olivia added. “It’s actually really romantic.”
“I wish I could come over and see everything,” Ivy said to her fork. “That necklace sounds drop dead.”