She crouched down and scurried to the end of the aisle. She had no idea which way he’d gone, so she grabbed a pocket mirror off the shelf in front of her and held it out, tilting it this way and that.
Bingo.
Brendan was over by a rack of necklaces and browsing through the semi-precious stone section. He picked up a long strand of chunky blue lapis lazuli with silver beads.
Ooh, thought Ivy. That’s a good one.
Focus! she berated herself. Don’t lose sight of the mission. She darted behind a stack of turntable shelves of beads where she could see most of the store.
Brendan was engrossed in the necklaces but, out of the corner of her eye, Ivy saw the security guard who had warned her earlier. He was walking through the entrance of the store and looking around.
I’ve been rumbled, Ivy thought, pulling the black scarf further over her face. She wondered if she should abandon the mission, but Brendan had three necklaces in his hand and seemed to be finally making a decision.
The security guard stopped to talk to the store assistant, who pointed back towards the shoes where Ivy was a moment ago.
‘She’s over there, Hank,’ Ivy heard her say.
Now Brendan was moving towards the counter and Hank was approaching Ivy’s hiding place. If she fled now, she’d miss whatever Brendan was going to buy, but if she didn’t, her cover would be blown and she might end up in mall prison.
Before she could move, her phone blared out the tune of ‘Double Trouble’. Olivia. Then several things happened at once . . .
Ivy panicked and fumbled for her phone.
Brendan started to turn around.
Hank spotted Ivy, his eyes widening.
She turned away just as she pressed the green button on her phone, desperately trying to silence it. Her foot hit the bottom of the bead display and her bag swung behind her, knocking into one of the layers of multi-coloured beads, making a great racket. She twisted back, trying to stop her bag hitting it again. Out of the corner of her eye, Ivy saw Brendan look over just as she went over on her ankle and wobbled into the rack. She tried to hold the display steady, only to tip the whole thing on top of her, crashing to the ground with a squeal, and sending little plastic globs of circles, squares and heart-shapes everywhere.
Lying on her back, surrounded by a rainbow of little plastic beads, Ivy felt like a smudge of black paint across a Picasso.
Brendan ran over to her. ‘Are you OK?’ he gasped.
Hank’s face loomed. ‘Gotcha!’
The store assistant shook her head at the mess.
‘Uh, I’m OK.’ Ivy scrambled to her feet and started collecting the beads. ‘I’m really sorry; I didn’t mean to.’ She realised her phone was still in her hand. ‘I’ll call you back,’ she whispered to her sister and hung up.
Hank stood there with his arms crossed and Brendan hurried to help the store assistant lift up the display rack.
‘This is going to take me hours,’ the assistant said.
‘No, no,’ Ivy replied. ‘I’ll do it.’
‘We’ll do it,’ said Brendan. He crouched down among the beads and started to sort them into piles.
Ivy sat next to him, picking out the four-leaf clover beads, completely embarrassed.
‘You sure you want to help this girl who was trying to mug you?’ Hank asked Brendan.
Brendan smiled. ‘She wasn’t trying to mug me, sir. She’s my girlfriend.’
That completely baffled Hank, but at least he and the store assistant left them to their sorting.
‘What’s going on?’ Brendan asked as he scooped all the alphabet beads into one of the lower racks.
Ivy opened her mouth to try to explain without actually confessing what she was doing, but nothing came to mind. ‘Uh, well, Brendan. Honestly?’ Ivy said. ‘I was stalking you.’