She was just applying her Midnight Merlot lipstick when she heard someone coming down the stairs.
“Hello?” she heard her sister whisper. “Ivy?” Ivy pushed the wardrobe closed. Olivia stared. “Do I look okay?” Ivy asked in a worried voice. “You—you look . . .” Olivia stammered, “unbelievable!” She walked over, still staring.
“Really?” Ivy asked, glancing nervously in the mirror again.
“Really!” Olivia cried, circling her. “Brendan is going to be floored!”
“I hope so,” Ivy said.
“I know so,” Olivia said firmly.
Ivy couldn’t help smiling. She pulled on a pair of long black evening gloves and looked at herself one last time in the mirror. I look drop-dead, she decided.
“I’d better put my own clothes back on and scoot.You’ve got a ball to go to,” Olivia said, grinning.
“Not so fast,” said Ivy, barefooting it over to her bed, which was piled high with clothes, papers, and pillows. She rummaged through the mess, throwing clothes aside, until she emerged with a black box tied with a pink ribbon that she handed proudly to her sister.
“What’s this?” Olivia asked, shaking the box.
“A thank-you gift,” Ivy answered.
Olivia untied the ribbon. “For what?” she asked.
“For the last three weeks,” Ivy told her. “For Brendan. For tonight. For being my sister.” She shrugged. “For everything. Just open it.”
Ivy watched Olivia’s face as she reached into the box and took out a black baby tee. On it, the word “bunny” was printed in bubbly fuchsia letters, followed by a tiny sparkly bunny. Olivia gasped in delight. “I love it!” she exclaimed.
The doorbell rang. Ivy’s heart leaped as she glanced at the clock by her bed. She guessed it must be Brendan, arriving early for pictures.
Olivia read her mind. “Where are your shoes?” she asked.
“Shoes?” Ivy grinned. “As if !” She hurried to lace up her best pair of high-heeled boots.
Olivia was tucked behind the suit of armor in the hall. Before she went home, she wanted to see Brendan’s face when he arrived and saw Ivy in her ball dress. Ivy had said it was okay for her to watch for a few minutes, as long as she stayed out of sight. If Olivia looked through the gap between the breastplate and the arm piece, she could just see the front door.
She watched as Ivy opened the door and Brendan entered. He was wearing a black floorlength cape over his tuxedo and a textured white shirt with a white bow tie. His black curls shone.
“Ivy, you look beautiful!” Olivia heard Brendan say.
“Thank you,” Ivy answered demurely. From under his cape, he produced a flower: a
single red rose, so dark it was almost black. Ivy took it and smiled as she looked at Brendan. They looked at each other dreamily, and the moment was so romantic that Olivia thought they might kiss, but just then, Mr. Vega appeared.
“You must be Brendan,” he said, descending the grand staircase. He looked impeccable in a black velvet tuxedo.
The doorbell rang again, and in rushed Sophia, wearing a beautiful black-and-white dress that looked like something from an Audrey Hepburn movie. She was also lugging a huge camera bag and a tripod. “Sorry I’m late.” She panted. She stopped in her tracks and looked Brendan and Ivy up and down. “Wow, you two look killer!”
Olivia watched as Sophia took pictures of the perfect couple. In every single shot, Ivy did the one thing that Olivia liked to think she’d been responsible for teaching her to do. She smiled— and not a close-lipped Goth smile but a bright cheerleader beam!
When Ivy and Brendan, Mr. Vega and Sophia had left the hallway, Olivia slipped away down the staircase, back to Ivy’s basement window. She needed to go home and get some rest. After all, cheerleading tryouts were in less than twenty-four hours, and Olivia needed to be ready for anything—especially if she was going to go head to head with Charlotte Brown.
Chapter 13
Ivy and Brendan sat with the rest of the planning committee at the table in the center of the ballroom. Melissa raised a glass of cherry punch and shouted over the din, “To Ivy, who seriously surprised us!”
“You’re not kidding!” cried Sophia, flashing Ivy a knowing smile from where she stood. She lifted her camera and snapped a picture.
Ivy almost felt herself blush as she shyly clinked her glass against everyone else’s. “I had a lot of help,” she said.
“Miss Vega,” a voice boomed. It was old Mr. Coleman, one of the chaperones, extending his hand. “This is the best All Hallows’ Ball I have ever attended, and I have been at all two hundred two of them.” He planted a cool kiss on the back of Ivy’s hand. “You look smashing,” he said.
Ivy let her eyes wander around the ballroom. Olivia really had done a killer job. People were marveling at the old film posters on the walls, and some were going from table to table having their friends take pictures of them with different celebrity tombstones. Everybody looked suave and mysterious, just like in the old vampire movies.
Suddenly, the room grew quieter. Ivy saw one of the Beasts standing in the center of the dance floor, a pale hand raised over his head to silence the crowd. In his other hand he held a black microphone.
Oh, no, thought Ivy. What are they up to now? “Good eeeve-ning,” the boy said, doing the lamest old-time vampire-accent imitation Ivy had ever heard. “I vant to invite you all onto zee dance floor for zee first dance.”
Ivy couldn’t help but laugh. The Beast was the DJ!