Olivia and Ivy shared a glance. That was great news for Lillian. But did it also mean their grandmother was beginning to accept that their dad had been right to marry their mother?
Olivia stretched out on top of the purple comforter in Ivy’s bedroom, resting her hand on her full belly. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ she said. ‘I love having our grandparents here, but if Horatio keeps making his three-course feasts for every meal, I’m going to float away like a blimp!’
‘No kidding.’
The twins had left the grown-ups downstairs, flipping through an old photo album. They loved their father, but they didn’t need to see any more of his baby pictures. That was something only a girlfriend could enjoy.
Ivy took a seat on her closed coffin and fired up her laptop.
Olivia turned on her side, bending a pillow in half to prop up her head. ‘Ivy? I’m worried about Jackson.’
Ivy hardly glanced up.
‘It’s just that I keep trying to catch up with him, but he’s always busy or sleepy – stupid time differences. The last time I had a real conversation with him . . . well . . .’ Olivia felt the familiar knot form in her stomach. ‘I heard a knock at the door and someone came in saying, “A dozen red roses for Mr Jackson Caulfield.”’
‘What?’ Ivy was typing furiously on her keyboard.
‘Come on!’ Olivia tossed her pillow at Ivy. ‘You’re not even listening.’
‘Huh?’ Ivy looked up briefly from the screen.
Olivia eyed her sister. Ivy had tilted the screen so that Olivia couldn’t see what was on it. Come to think of it, that was exactly what Olivia did when she was online-shopping.
‘Hey! Are you on the VVV?’ The Vorld Vide Veb was the vampire version of the Internet. Olivia jumped up to sit next to her sister. ‘I want to look!’ If there was shopping to be done, Olivia wanted to join in.
But as soon as she sat down, Ivy hit the sleep button on the computer and the screen went blank. She flipped the laptop closed and pushed it underneath her pillow. ‘I’m all ears!’ Ivy told Olivia. She pulled the sides of her ears out from her head. ‘Plus, they’re super vampy ears, so I can listen extra well!’
Olivia gave a one note laugh. What can Ivy have been looking at online? She never puts her laptop underneath her pillow.
‘Fine.’ Olivia didn’t feel like obsessing about Jackson any more, anyway. ‘There’s been something I’ve been meaning to tell you and I don’t think you’re going to like it.’
Ivy stopped chipping at her black nail polish. ‘What’s that?’
‘So, I was checking out Charlotte’s yearbook footage and, well, you sort of make a cameo.’ Olivia crossed her legs on top of Ivy’s coffin.
‘A goth in the yearbook film? Wow.’ Ivy frowned, seemingly impressed.
‘It’s not really like that. See, she sort of caught you in the background in Mister Smoothie when you broke that glass. It’s a little vampalicious, if you know what I mean.’
‘What?’ Ivy jumped up. ‘She saw me?’
‘No, no. She didn’t see you. I’m positive. But it is on camera.’
Ivy tugged at her hair, starting to pace. ‘We have to get rid of it. We absolutely have to.’
‘I know.’ Olivia rested her chin on her fist. ‘But how?’
Ivy walked the length of the room, hands in pockets. ‘Good question. I mean, we can’t just take it. Charlotte’s actually been nice lately.’
‘Right.’ It was a mystery why, but the Queen of Mean had been unexpectedly pleasant over the past few days. ‘We can’t give her any reason to turn nasty again. I need all the allies I can get at school.’
‘Exactly, which means this will have to be a covert op!’ Ivy got on her knees and started digging through the DVDs inside the television stand.
‘Does that mean I have to wear black?’ Olivia examined her matching pink flannel pyjamas. Black was so not her colour.
‘No,’ said Ivy, still digging. ‘We need to act natural.’ She waved a couple of movies above her head. ‘Found them!’
‘Found what?’
‘Our bedtime inspiration.’ Ivy handed her sister the DVDs.
Spy movies! Three separate instalments of James Bond. ‘I’ll just call you Double-O-Ivy!’ Olivia smiled.
‘But first we need a strategy.’
Olivia grabbed a notepad and her fuzzy-topped pen, ready to jot down the plan.
‘OK,’ Ivy started. ‘At the next committee meeting, you need to distract Charlotte.’
Distract Charlotte, wrote Olivia. ‘Got it!’
‘Right, then I’ll get the camera,’ continued Ivy, ‘so that I can delete the footage.’
Olivia jotted it down. ‘Um, Ivy?’ She gave her sister a mischievous grin. ‘You know that means you’ll have to attend a committee meeting, then?’
Ivy scrunched up her face. ‘A necessary evil.’
Olivia giggled, reviewing the plan she had written in her notebook. ‘It’s sort of exciting, don’t you think? I feel like we’re in a heist movie!’
Ivy didn’t laugh. She climbed into her coffin and crossed her arms across her chest. ‘Let’s just make sure we get the footage back.’ Her sister’s expression was dark. Olivia couldn’t be sure whether it was Ivy’s mood or a shadow cast by her coffin, but she was certain something was going on with her vampire twin.
What can it be?
Chapter Six