Brendan stood up. “Come on,” he said, taking Ivy’s hand. “It’s the first dance.”
Ivy shook her head. “We don’t dance, remember?”
Brendan’s eyes sparkled, and he leaned closer to her. “That’s why they call it the first dance, Ivy,” he said.
As Brendan led her onto the dance floor, his cape flowing around him, Ivy felt everyone’s eyes on her. She saw people looking her up and down admiringly, and, at the edge of the dance floor, she even spotted her dad, beaming.
Brendan stopped right in the middle of the dance floor. Ivy put her head on his shoulder, and the song began. She closed her eyes. I better not be dreaming, she thought breathlessly.
Ivy woke up the next morning and pushed open her coffin. She hadn’t dreamed any of it. She and Brendan had danced all through the ball. And afterward, they’d stayed up until one o’clock in the morning talking on the front porch.
She couldn’t wait to call Olivia and tell her all about it. After all, none of this would have happened without her. Wait a minute, Ivy thought, glancing at the clock. Olivia’s got cheerleading tryouts this morning!
Ivy suddenly had a killer idea. She leaped out of bed and threw open one of her wardrobe doors. She would surprise her sister by supporting her from the bleachers during tryouts!
A half hour later, Ivy was marching through the front hall of Franklin Grove Middle School wearing the pinkest, most supportive outfit she could muster: a gray Devils sweatshirt and a Devils baseball cap pulled down over her hair.
She floated past her own reflection in the front hall display case. She almost looked like a cheerleader, with her school spirit costume.
As if on cue, a high-pitched voice called, “Olivia!”
Ivy looked up to see Charlotte Brown charging down the hallway, decked out in her cheerleading uniform.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere, Olivia!” Charlotte complained.
Ivy almost corrected her, but then she thought better of it and pulled her cap farther down over her eyes.
“Ms. Barnett told me to tell you that tryouts have been moved to the football field,” Charlotte yelled. “The chess team is using the gym or something!”
“Really?” said Ivy perkily.
“You’d better get out there!” Charlotte said haughtily. “Ms. Barnett won’t like it if you’re late!” and, with that, she hurried away down the hall.
Oh, my goodness. I have to find Olivia right away, thought Ivy, or she’ll miss tryouts!
She whipped out her phone and dialed Olivia’s cell, but there was no answer. She glanced at the clock on the wall: 11:21. That meant Ivy had only nine minutes to find her sister.
Ivy ran to check the girls’ locker room. The only people she found inside were Katie and Allison, decked out in full-on cheer gear.
“Hi, Olivia!” they said in unison.
Ivy spun around without answering. She ran back to the other side of school, and checked Olivia’s locker—nothing. She ran on to the science hall bathroom—also nothing. The situation was starting to seem grave. Ivy tried Olivia’s cell phone again. When that didn’t work, she tried her sister at home.
“Hello?” said Olivia’s dad.
“Hi, Mr. Abbott, it’s Ivy, Olivia’s friend from school,” Ivy explained.
“Well, good morning, Ivy. What can I do for you?”
“Is Olivia there?” Ivy panted.
“ ’Fraid not,” he answered. “The cheerleading tryouts are right about now.”
“Right,” Ivy said sheepishly. “Thanks.” She ended the call and slumped against the bathroom counter.
Her sister was nowhere to be found. Ivy glanced at the screen on her cell phone: 11:25. Only five minutes left to go.
This can’t be happening, Ivy thought with a shake of her head. Not after all Olivia and I have done.
She pulled off her hat, and spun around to face the mirror. In her locker there was a can of spray-on tan, which Olivia had accidentally left in Ivy’s bag after their first switch. Ivy thought she could put her hair in a ponytail and make it to the field before it was too late.
But what if somebody notices that there are two Olivia’s running around school? Ivy wondered.
It’s a risk I have to take, she decided.
She ran to her locker, grabbed the spray-on tan, and dashed back to the bathroom. Then she quickly applied the spray, and was tying her hair into a ponytail when she realized that she didn’t have pom-poms. Ms. Barnett will freak! Ivy thought.
She threw open the door to one of the stalls and saw two rolls of toilet paper sitting on the back of the toilet. They’re not the best poms in the world, thought Ivy, and I probably won’t get away with this, but it’s the best I can do.
A roll of toilet paper in either hand, Ivy charged onto the sports field, but the only people there were two jocks tossing a football back and forth. There were no cheerleaders in sight.
Ivy looked around, confused. “Excuse me,” she said. “Do you know if cheerleading tryouts are supposed to be here right now?”
“In the gym,” one of the boys grunted, looking bemusedly at Ivy and her toilet roll poms.
And all at once, Ivy understood what had happened. Charlotte had lied, hoping that Olivia would show up in the wrong place and miss tryouts. The fiend! Ivy thought.
She hastily tossed a roll of toilet paper to each of the boys and ran back toward the gym, thinking what a stroke of luck it had been that she hadn’t reached Olivia on her cell. As she ran, she chanted to herself through clenched teeth. “When you’re up, you’re up . . . when you’re down, you’re down . . . when you’re messing with my sister ...you’re upside down!”