“Er . . . chlorophyll?” Olivia suggested. The entire class chuckled.
It was the longest science class of her life. When the bell finally rang, Olivia had already packed up her things and punched Ivy’s phone number into her new cell phone.
She was the first one out the door, hitting Send the moment she crossed the threshold. It rang once. Twice. Three times. Four times.
“Hello?” Ivy’s sickly voice answered.
“Ivy!” Olivia cried. “Are you okay?”
“Hi, Olivia,” her sister said weakly. “I’m all right. I just had a ...grave reaction to . . . the garlic in Camilla’s . . . lasagna.”
“You sound awful,” Olivia told her, leaning against a locker.
“I’ll be better . . . in a day or two,” Ivy said drily.
Olivia felt tears spring to her eyes. “I was really worried.” She gulped.
“Really, I’m okay,” Ivy said reassuringly. “I just can’t . . . practice today. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Olivia. She’d been so worried she’d actually totally forgotten they were supposed to cheer together this afternoon. “Just get better! Do you need anything?”
“No thanks,” Ivy whispered. “Just rest.”
“I’ll call you later,” Olivia said.
After she’d hung up, Olivia spotted Camilla by her locker and went over to give her the update. “Ivy’s okay,” Olivia said. “She went home.”
“What happened?” Camilla asked, her eyes wide with concern.
“She’s allergic to garlic,” Olivia explained. “She needs some time to recover, but she says it’s really no biggie.”
“I’m so relieved she’s all right,” Camilla said, sliding a book into her bag. Then she looked up at Olivia. “Are you doing anything after school today?”
“I did have plans,” Olivia replied, “but they got canceled.”
“Want to go to a book signing at the mall?” Camilla asked, swinging her bag over her shoulder. “It’s this guy who’s, like, a minor deity in the sci-fi world.”
Olivia thought about it for about half a second. Her parents weren’t expecting her home until dinner. “Sure.” She grinned. “I’d love to.”
Thursday afternoon, Ivy stretched in her backyard and waited for Olivia to arrive. While she still felt a little stiff from the lasagna incident, she was seriously ready to reenter the land of the living after two days in bed.
She sat down and leaned over her outstretched legs to touch her toes. It had rained the night before, and the still-damp grass soaked through her black sweats, so she scrambled to her feet again.
As she did so, her sister bounded around the corner of the house with an excited, “Hello!”
Ivy smiled, and they hugged tightly.
“You have one bite of garlic and you’re out of commission?” Olivia poked her in playful disbelief. “That’s insane!”
Ivy stepped back and shrugged uncomfortably. “I had too much garlic as a baby,” she mumbled. “It doesn’t agree with me.”
“That’s weird,” Olivia said. “Especially because we had the same parents until we were one. And I love garlic.”
Can she tell I’m lying? Ivy wondered.
Fortunately, her sister didn’t say anything more about it. Instead, Olivia did a double clap and said, “Okay, on Monday, you made it pretty clear you can cheer. But your shouting looked more like pouting!”
“Are you rhyming on purpose?” Ivy asked.