“Who knows?” said Camilla. “It’s not like she’s going to find anything. Franklin Grove is probably the most normal town in America.”
Olivia smiled uncomfortably. Camilla didn’t have a clue.
I’d better find Ivy, Olivia thought, and see what she has to say about all this! “Wanna go in?” she asked.
She and Camilla skirted the crowd on their way to the front doors of the school. Suddenly, Olivia heard a familiar high-pitched voice call out her name. She tried to ignore it and keep walking, but the voice shrieked even louder: “OLIVIA!”
Olivia winced and told Camilla to go on without her. Then she reluctantly turned to see Charlotte Brown, her cheerleading captain, gesturing for Olivia to join her in a circle of cameras.
Ever since Olivia had made the squad a few weeks ago, it was as if Charlotte had forgotten that she’d tried to sabotage Olivia at tryouts. In fact, Charlotte and her friends Katie and Allison all treated Olivia like she was their BFF. At least it keeps the squad cheering as a team, Olivia thought as she made her way over.
“Tell them, Olivia!” Charlotte said, grabbing her arm and pulling her in front of the cameras. “You know—what it’s like as a new student here. How frightening it is with all the bad influences.”
Olivia scrunched her nose. A camera flashed. “I, uh, don’t really—”
A reporter in a rumpled suit stuck a microphone in front of Olivia’s face. “Have you ever slept in a coffin?”
“No,” Olivia said incredulously.
A woman holding a tape recorder asked, “Are you familiar with a street gang known as the Beasts?”
Olivia shook her head. “I wouldn’t exactly call them—”
A short, determined-looking woman in a tight, bright-orange suit muscled in between the others, her blond hair shining in the sun. Olivia gasped; it was Serena Star herself! She looked much shorter than she did on TV.
“Have you ever,” Serena Star said, thrusting her microphone under Olivia’s chin, “felt threatened by everyone around you wearing black?”
What a silly question! thought Olivia. “Since when is there anything wrong with wearing black?” she asked.
Charlotte leaped in front of her. “Yes, Ms. Star, I totally have!” she cried, clearly overexcited to be talking to a celebrity reporter like Serena. “Once,” she said, flipping her hair dramatically, “I was in the girls’ bathroom, re-applying gloss, when two Goth girls came in. They were dressed from head to toe in black rags, and their nails were covered in black nail polish. And guess what they did. They growled at me!”
“Growled at you?” Serena Star repeated.
“Uh-huh.” Charlotte nodded seriously. “I was so scared I ran out without even doing my mascara!”
“So you think it’s a problem,” Serena Star pressed, “that so many Franklin Grove students are obsessed with darkness?”
“Totally!” Charlotte agreed. “Black is so last season.” She gestured toward Serena Star’s turquoise stiletto heels. “I absolutely love your shoes, by the way. Are they from Hollywood?”
Olivia seized the opportunity to slip away, racing up the steps and through the school’s front doors. She had to talk to her twin about what was going on outside.
From down the hall, she spotted Ivy standing by her locker with her new boyfriend, Brendan Daniels. Even Brendan had yet to notice that she and Ivy looked alike. “See you later, okay?” Olivia heard Brendan say.
Ivy twirled the emerald ring on the chain around her neck. “Okay,” she cooed. Her sister was so smitten. Olivia thought it was super cute.
As she waited for Ivy and Brendan to finish their good-byes, Olivia played with the ring on her finger. It was actually their matching emerald rings that had helped Ivy and Olivia recognize each other. The rings were all either of them had from their birth parents.
Brendan walked by with a friendly “Hey, Olivia!” and Olivia scooted up to her sister.
“Let me guess,” Olivia began. “You still haven’t told him about us.”
“I swear I’ve tried,” Ivy answered, pulling off a sheer black sweater to reveal a gray baby T-shirt with an illustration of Edgar Allan Poe’s face on it. “But it never seems like the right moment to say, ‘Hey, by the way, I have a twin sister I never knew about’.”
“Eventually,” said Olivia, “we’re going to have to tell everyone, including our parents.”
Suddenly there was a commotion down the hall, and Olivia looked up to see Garrick Stephens strolling along in sunglasses and a black T-shirt that said INTERNA 3—REST IN PEACE! The other Beasts were trailing behind him. People were parting to let them through, like Garrick was a star quarterback who had just won a big game—or else a quarterback who had just lost the big game by running into the wrong end zone. “Autographs?” Garrick called nonchalantly. “Autographs?”
Ivy shook her head angrily. “I’m going to strangle him,” she said. “Can you believe I had to come in the side door this morning? Brendan did, too. Otherwise we never would have made it up the front steps alive.”