At that, Olivia couldn’t help but smile. Thank you for asking, though, she added. Of course, she wished things with Jackson hadn’t had to come to an end, but at least he was being nice. There had to be some silver lining.
Olivia’s phone buzzed again and she quickly picked up, thinking it was another text from Jackson. Her heart fell when she saw it was her bio-dad: Will you still be coming over?
Coming over? Shoot! she thought, and checked her watch. I’m late!
Olivia grabbed her new colour-blocked tote bag and sprinted out of the house. Phew! She stopped for a moment on the sidewalk, resting her hands on her knees and trying to catch her breath. I’m only one girl, she thought, and an exhausted one at that. She had spent all day helping her mother tidy up and now she was hustling over to Charles’s house to help him with some mysterious research project. She didn’t like to say no to people, but didn’t her parents realise she wasn’t a machine? At least staying occupied kept her from dwelling on Jackson too much.
But why won’t Bio-dad tell me what I’m researching for? He wouldn’t let her in his study, where he was doing his work, and he refused to tell her why he wanted the information. All he did was sit Olivia down at a computer and occasionally pop his head out to ask her to look up random things on the Internet, like the climate in New Zealand or the quickest route through Australia by train from Melbourne to Sydney!
Since Ivy had stayed behind in Transylvania, Olivia was now doing the job of two daughters and, despite three years of practice on the cheerleading squad, she had to admit that the double duty was taking a serious toll on both her pep and her perkiness. She was actually wearing a grey shift dress – a grey shift dress teamed with a hot-pink scarf, maybe, but still grey! If her mood was starting to creep into her fashion sense, Olivia knew she must be slipping into a serious funk . . . and fast. I’ll lay out my purple skinny jeans to wear tomorrow. That ought to help.
Olivia didn’t blame Ivy for going to the Academy. She knew that her sister needed to learn everything she could about her vampire identity. For a long time Olivia hadn’t known anything about her heritage, so she understood how important these things were.
As she turned the corner on to Undertaker Hill, Ivy’s street, a girl darted out from behind a neighbour’s wall. Olivia bumped straight into her, forehead first. ‘Ooof!’ She stepped back, rubbing her head.
‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ said the girl loudly, glancing around. She was slender and about Olivia’s age. She wore flared blue jeans and a baggy, flower-power blouse that Olivia couldn’t quite decide if she liked or not.
‘Sorry about that,’ said Olivia. ‘My brain’s a bit loopy today.’
‘That’s OK.’ The girl adjusted the strap of her tasselled boho bag. ‘I’m Holly Turner. I think I recognise you from school.’ She extended her hand. Olivia shook it, noticing the psychedelic swirls painted on Holly’s nails. Holly’s hair was long and strawberry blonde. Her complexion was pale – not Ivy Pale, but she was as fair-skinned as an actress in one of those Jane Austen movies Ivy refused to watch with Olivia at sleepovers.
‘Franklin Grove School?’ asked Olivia, trying to think if she could place the girl. She knew pretty much everyone by now, but she couldn’t remember ever seeing Holly there.
‘Uh huh.’ Holly toyed with the small but high-tech digital camera dangling round her neck. ‘My family moved here not too long ago. Actually, since I’m new here, I was wondering if you might want to go to Mister Smoothie with me and grab a Beauty-Boosting Blueberry? I saw the menu as I was passing and it just sounds so exotic!’
‘Hey! That’s my favourite drink! You have great taste,’ Olivia said, laughing.
The other girl laughed too. ‘Oh, I don’t know about that. But I just love anything different or unusual – foods or places – or anything that’s new to me! My mom says that’s why I’d make a great journalist. I’m just really interested in the world.’
Olivia had almost forgotten there was somewhere she needed to be – almost, but not quite. Suddenly she remembered her promise to help her bio-dad. ‘Oh, it’s such a shame. Normally, I’d love to go for a milkshake, but right now I’m on my way to my sister’s house.’
‘Oh.’ Holly’s mouth twisted to the side. Olivia heard a hitch in her breath. ‘I’d love to meet your sister,’ she said hopefully. ‘I’ve heard she’s really cool. Isn’t she living in Transylvania right now? How amazing is that!’
Heard? Wow, did Ivy’s reputation really reach all the way across the globe? Either that or someone had been filling this girl in since she moved to Franklin Grove.
‘Very cool,’ Olivia said, crossing her fingers behind her back at her fib. Being separated from my twin is so not cool at all. But I guess this girl doesn’t want to hear about all that. ‘Transylvania is a great place – very exotic. You’d probably love it just as much as Ivy! You kind of remind me of her. She’s sort of alternative too, but in a totally different way. My sister leans a bit gothic.’ Olivia held her fingers apart a couple of centimetres. ‘But she totally pulls it off. Just like you.’ She leaned in and touched Holly’s arm to emphasise that she meant this as a compliment.
A faint blush spread over the creamy tint of Holly’s cheeks. ‘Cool.’ Absentmindedly, Holly opened and closed the lens on her camera. ‘I mean, thanks.’
‘Are you into photography?’ asked Olivia, pointing.
‘Yeah, well, as I said, I want to be a journalist,’ Holly mumbled. ‘I don’t have any real experience yet, but I’m working on it. An exclusive – that’s what I need.’ Her eyes lit up as though she’d just had an idea. ‘Hey . . .’ she began to say.
‘No way!’ Olivia clapped her hands together and pressed them to her lips. ‘This is too freaky. My sister wants to be a writer too.’ She wished she could tell Holly about her time with Ivy as guest reporters for VAMP Magazine, but sadly that tidbit of information was top secret.
‘Really?’ Holly asked. ‘She could totally get an exclusive in Transylvania. All those vampires just waiting to be interviewed!’
Olivia felt a spark of alarm and forced her smile not to fade. ‘Vampires aren’t real, you do know that, don’t you?’
Holly smiled. ‘Of course! I was joking. But perhaps your sister would help out another would-be writer. Do you think she’d let me interview her about Transylvania? Could you ask next time you speak to her?’ She’d edged so close that Olivia found herself backing away. Holly’s forehead wrinkled. ‘But wait, if your sister is all the way in Europe, then why are you going to her house? And don’t you live in the same house? I mean, you’re twins, aren’t you?’
Olivia felt her face colouring. ‘It’s, um, complicated,’ she said. She liked this girl, but there was no way she was getting into all that! She didn’t have time to come up with an explanation and, besides, any story she gave Holly would be a lie and Olivia tried to avoid those as much as possible. ‘I’m just helping out with something.’ Olivia side-stepped the issue. That wasn’t a lie. Not really!
Holly hooked her thumbs through the belt loops of her jeans and shrugged. ‘Some other time then?’
‘Are you kidding? Absolutely!’ Olivia hoped she wasn’t overdoing it on the enthusiasm, but it was always nice to make new friends and Holly was almost like another Ivy – just a little less grumpy.
‘See you later then,’ Holly said.