“I bumped into her in the hallway when I was looking for the principal’s office,” Olivia replied. She realized that her dad was just sitting there. “Say something, Dad. Aren’t you surprised?”
He shook his head. “I always knew my little girl had a double aura.” Olivia had no idea what that meant, but he seemed oddly proud. Suddenly he threw his arms around her and gave her a huge hug.
Olivia’s mom clapped her hands excitedly and leaped into the hugging fray. “There’s another person out there as wonderful as our daughter!” she declared happily.
“Everybody calm down!” Olivia laughed, trying to push her parents off.
“Well, I can’t wait to meet her,” her mom said. She stood up and straightened her blouse. “Can she come over tonight for dinner?”
Olivia glanced at her watch skeptically. “Dinner’s in, like, an hour.”
Her mother nodded. “Invite her father, too. I have to meet the man who raised my daughter’s sister! Do you think they like zucchini?”
Olivia shrugged. “Ivy’s allergic to garlic, but I don’t know about zucchini.”
“Well, find out! Go call her! Shoo!” Her mom waved Olivia up the stairs as she made for the kitchen. “Come on, Steve. You can chop the vegetables with your samurai knife.”
Ivy finally located the ringing phone buried in a pile of clothes beside her coffin. She reached in and snatched it up on the tenth ring.
“Hello?” she said, slightly out of breath. “I told them!” her sister’s voice declared. Ivy shoved some books aside and sat down.
“How’d they take it?” She and Olivia had only revealed their twinship to Toby Decker, a reporter for the school paper, on Friday, but when he’d told them that he’d succeeded in writing up the story in time to squeeze it into the upcoming Wednesday issue, the girls knew they finally had to tell their parents. At school today, Olivia had seemed almost as nervous about telling her parents as Ivy was about telling her dad.
“They are so excited about you, Ivy,” said
Olivia. “It was even better than when I told them I got four A’s last year! What’d your dad say?” Ivy hesitated. “Nothing.”
“‘Nothing’ like he couldn’t deal, ‘nothing’ like he always knew,” Olivia queried, “or ‘nothing’ like literally nothing?”
“‘Nothing’ like I haven’t told him yet,” Ivy admitted.
“I-vyyy!” Olivia pleaded.
“Hey,” Ivy said, “you left it to the last possible minute, too, remember? I was about to go upstairs and tell him when you called.” Which was true. She’d been about to go upstairs for the last three hours.
“Okay, okay,” Olivia said. “Do you like zucchini?”
“I guess,” Ivy answered. “Why?”
“Because my mom wants you and your dad to come to our house for dinner tonight.”
“I don’t know if that’s such a killer idea,” Ivy said doubtfully. “My father barely ever eats human food . . . and I worry that meeting your parents so soon might spook him.”
“I’ll make my dad promise not to be weird,” Olivia offered.
It’s my dad I’m worried about, Ivy thought.
“Would it be okay if I came by myself?” she asked. “I could use an excuse to get out of the house after I break the news.”
“Sure.” Olivia paused. “You’re not sounding very optimistic,” she pointed out, “even for a Goth.”
Ivy grabbed a pillow and lay her head on it.
“My adoption is my dad’s least favorite topic, Olivia,” she said. “Every time I bring it up, he changes the subject. And he’s really old-fashioned when it comes to mixing with humans.”
“You think he won’t like me?” Olivia asked.
“No, he will. I know he will,” Ivy replied, uncertain whether she was trying to convince Olivia or herself. “My dad has a really good heart. He’ll make an exception for my blood sister. It just might take him a little while to get used to you.”