Chuck turned to the camera. ‘You paparazzi, you hear that? You leave my lovely friend Olivia alone!’
Olivia laughed. ‘That’s right. I’ll tell them Chuck said so.’
‘Yes, I did!’ he declared. ‘It was lovely to meet you, Olivia, and I’ll see you back on that sofa soon to spill all the beans about the mystery actress.’
‘CUT!’ shouted Headset Lady.
‘That was great,’ Chuck said. ‘You’re a natural.’
Olivia was relieved and proud of herself at the same time. She hadn’t slipped up on anything and Chuck actually seemed to like her. This was how she was hoping this movie stuff would turn out to be.
Amy hurried over, clapping. ‘You did great, sweetie!’
‘Chuck,’ said Headset Lady, ‘it’s time for the skateboarding kitten intro.’
Chuck waved goodbye, and Olivia walked out of the classroom feeling exhilarated.
‘Good stuff,’ said Headset Lady, as she passed.
Olivia had just survived her first big interview!
‘Can we suspend the no-biting-humans rule just for this week?’ Sophia whispered, making sure no one else in the busy school cafeteria but Ivy and Brendan could hear. ‘They are driving me crazy!’
Ivy had thought no one could be as angry as she was about the photographers that were camped out all over town. Since yesterday’s interview, there were even more of them. Some of them were peering in the cafeteria windows right at this moment. If Sophia was talking about reverting to the old vampire ways, she must be outraged.
The one paparazzo on the motorcycle at Aunt Rebecca’s had multiplied into a swarm that never let up. They were desperate for a photo of the mystery actress, but there was every danger they’d also catch Jackson and Olivia together.
‘I’m the Franklin Grove correspondent!’ Sophia complained. ‘All of these brutes are stealing my exclusivity!’
‘On the bright side, you are the only one that could get close enough to get a shot of that ketchup on Ivy’s cheek,’ Brendan said, pointing to the left side of her mouth.
‘Wha–!’ Ivy grabbed a napkin and wiped her face.
They all chuckled.
‘It would be just my luck that a photo with ketchup smeared all over my face would be the one that exposes me to the whole world.’ Ivy was feeling more and more panicky at the pressure that was building in the lead-up to whatever announcement Harker had planned.
‘You’ll figure something out,’ Brendan said. ‘Are you going to eat that?’ He pointed to Ivy’s half-eaten burger and fries.
Ivy shook her head and pushed it over to him. The photographers were bound to catch her and Olivia together, figure out that they are twins and run a picture in a magazine – then it would be all over.
Just then, a guy wearing a faded grey hoodie, sunglasses and cowboy boots plunked his tray down on the table. Ivy might have mistaken him for some slacker, but she’d seen those cowboy boots often enough.
‘Hey guys,’ said Jackson from under the hood.
‘Hey,’ said Brendan with his mouth full.
Sophia scooted over so Jackson could sit down. Ivy wondered what was keeping Olivia.
‘I’ve been stalking the stalkers and it seems someone has tipped them off about Eternal Sunset’s mystery second actress living in Franklin Grove.’ Jackson pushed his sunglasses down his nose and looked at Ivy with his blue eyes. ‘They are haunting every school, café and cinema, hoping to track down an exclusive.’
Ivy groaned and Sophia growled.
‘There’s a mole,’ Ivy said.
‘With half of Hollywood hanging around for the premiere, it could be anybody,’ Jackson said.
‘The instant they see Olivia and me together, they’ll know,’ Ivy said. ‘If they don’t already.’
Two tables away, Ivy caught sight of Charlotte Brown and her cronies.
‘Jessica says that you should definitely not wear a mini skirt with ankle socks,’ Charlotte practically shouted, so that the whole cafeteria could hear. ‘You have to wear knee-highs.’ She’d been going around all week telling everyone how she and Jessica were now BFFs.
Ugh, Ivy thought.
‘No prize for guessing how they got tipped off,’ Ivy said, putting her face in her hands. ‘And it’s totally my fault.’ Ivy remembered the victorious feeling of accepting Harker’s offer in front of Jessica and all those suits, but her enemy must have put two and two together and realised exactly which film Ivy was due to star in. That moment of triumph could cost Olivia big time.
‘We’ve got to do something,’ Ivy declared.
‘Yes, please!’ replied Sophia.
‘I’ll help,’ Jackson put in.
‘Could we trap them in the school and force them to take our math quiz?’ Brendan joked, with his mouth full of burger.
‘I like that idea,’ Jackson said. ‘I haven’t studied.’
‘Focus, please!’ interrupted Ivy. ‘First, we need to make sure that Olivia and I aren’t seen together and, second, we need to throw the paps off the scent.’
But before Ivy could come up with a plan, she spotted her sister wandering into the cafeteria.
Disaster alert! Ivy realised. The photographers still had their noses pressed up against the window.
Olivia spotted them at their table. If Ivy didn’t do something about it, Olivia would blow their cover.
She leaped up from her seat. ‘STOP!’ she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Olivia stopped dead in the doorway, confused, and a hundred student heads swivelled to stare at Ivy.