Ivy’s cheeks were starting to hurt from her fake smile, but she forced herself forwards. If she hadn’t been braced for self-defence, she might have laughed when she saw the nameplate on the desk, which read: ‘Ms N.O. Milligan.’
Talk about a perfect name, Ivy thought. She looks like she’s never said ‘yes’ to anything in her life!
‘Well?’ Ms Milligan snapped. ‘What do you want?’
Ivy cleared her throat. Vampires don’t get scared of humans, she reminded herself. Not even the really angry ones. ‘I just wanted to ask – if it’s OK,’ she added hurriedly, as Ms Milligan’s scowl deepened, ‘about the new students who’ve just started here? I was thinking of writing an audition piece for the school newspaper, and I thought I could profile the newbies . . .’ Her voice weakened as she saw Ms Milligan wince with obvious distaste.
‘Or, um, maybe their . . . their previous hometowns?’ With a final burst of determination, Ivy finished: ‘It might be a nice way of getting the other students to relate to her – I mean, to them!’
There. She finished, almost panting from the effort. At least one part of that was true, she consoled herself. She really did want to try to join the school paper.
But Ms Milligan didn’t look impressed. ‘Unfortunately for your grandiose plans, Miss Vega, the only new student is Olivia Abbott, who I believe is somehow your own sister – not that I have any interest whatsoever in learning the story of how that could possibly be!’ She snorted. ‘Believe me, what girls your age think is “like, so interesting”, you will grow up to find, is actually very, very dull.’
Ivy frowned, letting the insult fly straight past her head. ‘Are you sure? I could have sworn there was another new girl this week. Maybe –’
‘Young lady,’ Ms Milligan shook her head wearily, ‘I am the guidance counsellor. It is my job to know this sort of thing. I’ve worked at this school long enough to know that teenagers have a habit of assuming they know everything, but the truth is, they tend to know less than nothing. Now, if you don’t mind?’ She sat back, picking up a stack of papers. ‘I have some real work to do.’
Confused, Ivy got up and headed for the office door, her mind ticking over. If Ms Milligan really knew everything, and was so adamant that no one had started at school after Olivia, then who was Maya?
She wasn’t watching her step as she stumbled through the door . . . and almost walked straight into another student.
‘Hey!’ As Ivy blinked, her twin’s face swam into view. ‘Are you OK?’ Olivia asked.
‘Olivia?’ Ivy shook her head, stepping back. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Oh, I just need to have a quick chat with Ms Milligan.’ Olivia shrugged. ‘It looks like I’ll have to take another few days off just before Thanksgiving to wrap up filming on Eternal Sunset. I just heard from Jackson, who said that Mr Harker wants us in this town called Pine Wood for the final shoot, so I thought I’d better let her know. But what were you doing here?’
‘I’ll explain later,’ Ivy mumbled. ‘When I’ve figured it out myself.’ As tempting as it was to confide in her twin, there was no point involving Olivia until she knew things really were as weird as they felt. ‘I’ll catch up with you in the cafeteria . . . but, Olivia?’ She winced as she looked back at the closed door of the guidance office. ‘You might want to tread lightly with Ms Milligan today.’
‘Don’t worry.’ Olivia gave her usual confident smile. ‘Ms Milligan doesn’t scare me.’
Wow. Ivy watched with awe as her twin walked happily into the office. Olivia really is brave.
Shaking her head, she made her way through the crowded hallway towards the cafeteria for lunch. A beep sounded on her phone. It was a message from Brendan.
See u after lunch, the message read. I’m in library – need to make start on epic history homework!
Ivy winced in sympathy as she texted back: Good luck!
With Olivia in the guidance office and Brendan in the library, it was going to be a quieter lunch than usual, but at least Sophia was waiting for her at their usual cafeteria table. Ivy’s best friend was easy to spot even across the crowded room. Now that her naturally black hair had grown out and pushed her dyed-blonde pixie-cut into a bob, she literally had a hairstyle of two halves. Ivy let out a sigh of relief as she collapsed into the chair next to her.
‘Hey, you should hurry if you want to beat the line.’ Sophia poked her arm. ‘Lunch hour’s almost over, didn’t you notice?’
‘Oh . . . I guess so.’ Sighing, Ivy looked over at the queue of students waiting for food. After her ordeal in Ms Milligan’s office, the last thing she felt like was fighting her way through the crowd for dry, over-cooked cafeteria burgers.
As she watched the crowd gather near the front of the line, though, her lips twitched into a brief smile. The undeniable centre of attention was a laughing girl who wore a bright cornflower-blue dress paired with an elegant black shrug: Penny, a girl who’d pretended for ages to be a real goth just so she could fit in. With Ivy’s encouragement, Penny had finally come out as herself . . . and finally found the acceptance she’d always wanted.
A girl’s voice floated through the air. ‘But Penny, what do you think we should do for the Halloween party?’
‘Well . . .’ Penny began.
‘Penny always has the best ideas!’ someone else chimed in.
Penny’s smile lit her face.