‘I hope you’re hungry,’ said Mrs Abbott.
Olivia felt her tummy rumble. With all the excitement of the movie people showing up and then working her way through Ivy’s enormous and scattered wardrobe, she’d barely eaten all afternoon.
‘I’m starving,’ Ivy said.
Mrs Abbott ushered the girls into the dining room. ‘I wasn’t sure what to make, so I just made all of Olivia’s favourites.’ With a flourish, she revealed ten dishes with different meals arranged around the table. All of them vegetarian.
This could be a problem, Olivia thought.
She should have realised that there wouldn’t be any meat on the menu at their house. ‘There’s plenty of iron in spinach,’ Olivia whispered, knowing that wasn’t going to help fill Ivy’s stomach.
‘Oh!’ her mom exclaimed. ‘I forgot the garlic bread!’
Oh no! Olivia thought. She remembered all too well what happened when Ivy ate even the tiniest amount of garlic – it was a full-scale vampire emergency.
Ivy sat down at her place with a forced smile on her face, but when Mrs Abbott went into the kitchen for the bread she leaned over the table and whispered, ‘You’re going to have to eat twice as much!’
‘What?’ Olivia asked.
‘Your mom has gone to loads of effort. I can’t leave tons of leftovers.’
Mrs Abbott came back and Ivy had to keep quiet. Mrs Abbott said brightly, ‘Are you two girls going to spend all night talking about boys?’
‘Mom,’ Olivia complained.
‘What’s this about boys?’ Mr Abbott said, walking into the room and sitting down.
‘Nothing, Dad.’ Olivia rolled her eyes.
‘You know,’ Mr Abbott said, stuffing his napkin into his shirt collar. ‘I could help if you have boy troubles – I did use to be one, you know.’
Ivy chuckled. ‘My boyfriend’s trouble is that he’s hungry all the time.’
‘That’s easy to fix!’ Mr Abbott declared. ‘Feed the boy!’ And with that, he took a huge scoop of the mustard macaroni cheese in front of him.
Olivia watched as Ivy took a little bit of everything, a spoonful of the olive salad and the tiniest slice of the nut loaf. She could hear Ivy’s stomach rumble and felt totally guilty.
Poor Ivy, Olivia thought.
‘So what errand have you two sent Charles jetting off on?’ Mr Abbott asked, taking three of the lotus-leaf parcels.
Mrs Abbott passed around the veggie dumplings. ‘He said something about it being a trip for his daughters?’
The sisters exchanged a glance.
‘We thought it was a business trip,’ Olivia said.
‘A piece of garlic bread, Ivy?’ Mrs Abbott asked.
Olivia didn’t have time to think about what her parents meant; she had to stop the garlic disaster! If any garlic so much as touched Ivy’s plate, she wouldn’t be able to eat a thing.
‘Sure,’ Ivy said brightly, trying to avoid touching any of the garlic butter. ‘Thanks!’
Ivy was holding up the poisonous piece of bread, Mrs Abbott was waiting expectantly. Olivia had to do something.
‘Um . . . can I smell something burning?’ Olivia asked, sniffing the air.
‘Oh no, did I leave the stove on?’ Mrs Abbott rushed into the kitchen with Mr Abbott racing after her.