“Yes,” Olivia replied enthusiastically. “So let’s see whether today you can sell the yell!”
Ivy rolled her eyes. Then she stood up straight, turned up the corners of her mouth, and launched into the “Ashes to Ashes” cheer. During the past two days in bed, she’d come up with a trick to help her smile: she imagined the four Beasts standing in a graveyard, wearing nothing but pink briefs that said I’M WITH STUPID on them. It worked like a charm.
“Go, Ivy!” Olivia cheered as Ivy finished. “That was much better! You even smiled!”
“Thanks,” Ivy responded, slightly embarrassed.
Olivia patted her on the back and said, “Want to work on round-off combinations for a new cheer?”
“Okay,” said Ivy. They moved closer to the house and turned to face a distant line of thorn bushes. Olivia counted down, and together they took a few running steps and leaped into the air.
One, two, three round-offs. Out of the corner of her eye, Ivy saw Olivia stick her last move.
Deciding to go one better, Ivy put her hand to the ground, ready to push off into a double handspring. But her palm slipped on the rain-slick grass, her arm went out from under her, and suddenly she was flying wildly through the air.
The thorn bushes came spinning toward her like a kaleidoscope. “Owww!” Ivy cried as she slammed into them.
Olivia came running. “Ivy!”
“I’m okay,” Ivy called, feeling like an utter loser. She stood up from the bushes and brushed herself off. “That’s what I get for trying to show off.”
“You’re hurt!” Olivia exclaimed.
Ivy looked down and saw that her left arm was covered in blood; two deep crimson cuts ran its length. She had been careless. Usually, she would have checked to make sure there weren’t any obvious injuries before emerging from the thorn bushes, but it was too late now. Instinctively, she put her other hand over the scratches so her sister wouldn’t see.
But before she knew it, Olivia was at her side, trying to move her hand away.
“Let me look,” Olivia said reassuringly. “I took first aid for my babysitting course last summer.”
Olivia pried Ivy’s fingers away and gingerly dabbed at the area with a little towel she had pulled from her waistband.
The blood came away on Olivia’s towel, but— just as Ivy knew they would be—the scratches were gone!
“You were bleeding,” Olivia said, twisting Ivy’s arm around in her hands, looking for a cut. “You were bleeding,” she said again in confusion.
Ivy stared at the ground, frantically wondering what she could say.
Olivia shook her head, frowning. “Does it hurt?” she asked.
“No, it’s fine. I, er . . .” Ivy stammered. How was she going to explain this?
“You’re not cut somewhere else, are you?” Olivia asked, bending to inspect Ivy’s legs. “This is so weird,” she muttered, clutching the bloody towel in her hands.
Ivy could feel her sister trying to catch her eye now.
“Ivy?” Olivia said, her voice brimming with confusion. “What just happened? Did you . . . did you heal ?”
I should tell Olivia the truth, Ivy thought. I don’t want to lie to her. She’s my twin sister.
“Ivy, say something!” Olivia demanded in exasperation.
I have to tell her, Ivy decided. “Olivia,” Ivy said slowly, meeting her sister’s gaze, “I have to tell you a secret.”
“Okay,” Olivia answered cautiously.
“It’s serious,” Ivy told her, taking her hand. “I need you to promise you won’t tell anyone.”
Olivia’s eyes searched Ivy’s face. “What is it?”