17 Spooktacular - My Sister the Vampire (2 page)

Reiko clapped one hand to her mouth, barely muffling her laughter. Olivia waited until Charlotte was definitely out of hearing range before she turned to her twin, eyebrows raised.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘You didn’t actually bring a
dissection
as a Moonrise present for our dad . . . did you?’

‘Sadly, no,’ Ivy mocked disappointment. ‘This was an assignment for Home Ec., not Biology. But I have to warn you, it’s actually even scarier-looking than a dissection.
There’s no way I could have let Charlotte get a peek at it. See?’ She lifted the lid of the box.

Olivia peered in – and giggled. Inside was the most lopsided mess of a cake she’d ever seen. Red jam was oozing everywhere.

Reiko lowered her hand and finally let her laughter tumble out. ‘I think you need to put that cake out of its misery!’

Ivy shrugged. ‘So I’m not the best baker in my family. Luckily, Dad is. Let’s go celebrate Moonrise!’

Closing the lid of the cake box, she hurried up the steep hill to the Vegas’ house, with Reiko close behind. Olivia followed, waiting for tension to fill her chest, for tingles of dread to
flood her belly at the prospect of what their dad had planned for Moonrise.

Ivy opened the front door, which creaked loudly and ominously, and still Olivia waited for the moment she would feel officially creeped out. But it didn’t come.

Am I . . .
used to
spookiness now?

As she stepped inside after her twin and Reiko, she took in a new, blood-red rug that lined the hallway. Her bio-dad, Charles Vega, usually decorated the house in classy shades of black and
cream, but this rug’s garish pattern of coffins and gravestones was definitely not part of that scheme.

It should have been spooky, but the only thing Olivia found “scary” about the rug was that it reminded her of the
really
frightening thing that was going on in her life
right now:
Eternal Sunset,
the epic vampire romance movie she was shooting with her boyfriend Jackson. The latest rewrites were in, and that meant lots of new lines to learn, in a very
short amount of time.

Fluffing my lines and looking like an idiot in front of our director: now
that’s
scary!
she told herself as she followed the others into the house. She closed the door
behind her . . . and a blood-curdling shriek sounded from the kitchen.

What the . . .?
Olivia’s heart pounded in her chest as she headed towards the sound of the scream.

‘Hey, give it back!’ As the girls hurried into the kitchen, Olivia and Ivy’s step-mom lunged forwards, grabbing for the bowl of cranberry sauce in her husband’s hands.
Lillian was usually the picture of flawless elegance, but today her sleek black dress was spattered with stains, and more crimson streaks covered her neck and face. ‘I want to do the last
step by myself!’

‘Don’t you dare!’ Charles skipped backwards, his own tailored black suit just as dirty as Lillian’s dress. He clutched the bowl to his chest with one hand while he
flicked another messy handful of cranberry sauce at his wife. ‘Back off! It’s mine. You can have your turn next year!’

‘Ugh!’ With a cry of frustration, Lillian shook her sauce-covered hands at him, showering his whole outfit with globs of cranberry.

Seriously?
Olivia turned to Ivy and Reiko in wide-eyed wonder, her heart rate gradually returning to normal.
Are you seeing this, too?

Ivy only shrugged, grinning. ‘Things get a little different when it’s Moonrise,’ she whispered.

I’ll say!
Olivia thought. She giggled as she spotted a blood-red dot of cranberry sauce directly between her bio-dad’s eyes. Of all the unlikely things in the world, she
could never have imagined her super-formal bio-dad having a cranberry-sauce fight with his wife!

‘Girls!’ Charles looked up, finally taking notice of them. ‘Oh, good, you’re here just in time to see
me
finish off
my
perfect cranberry
sauce.’

‘Ohhh!’ Lillian cast up her eyes in comic despair and turned away. ‘I give up! You finish off the sauce. I’m going to prep the red velvet cake. Happy Moonrise,
girls!’

‘Happy Moonrise!’ Olivia chorused right along with Ivy and Reiko.

Charles beamed as he began to stir the sauce. ‘And now, just as we do every year, it’s time to remember why this tradition was created in the first place.’

‘How old is it, really?’ Olivia asked, taking a seat at one of the tall stools by the breakfast bar.

Reiko sat down across from her, pulling out a tennis ball from her backpack and bouncing it from knee to knee as she listened.

‘Moonrise? Oh, it’s ancient!’ Lillian answered, her voice muffled as she knelt down in front of the refrigerator to rummage through it.

‘It is a very old vampire tradition,’ Charles agreed, ‘or at least . . . well, it’s a very old
American
vampire tradition, anyway. I doubt it would ever happen
back home.’

‘Of course not.’ Ivy rolled her eyes as she sat down next to Olivia. ‘Transylvanian vampires are
way
too snooty for Moonrise.’

‘Not Japanese vamps,’ Reiko said cheerfully. ‘We celebrate our own version of Moonrise, too. And I’ve heard that in Kenya . . .’

‘Ahem.’ Charles fixed both girls with a stern look. It might have been more intimidating if half of his black hair hadn’t been standing upright, the other half slicked back and
sticky with cranberry sauce. ‘
As
I was saying . . . Moonrise is usually held on October 31
^st
, the same day as Halloween. For bunnies, that date marks the end of the
harvest season; for vampires, it signals the shift in power, when the moon dominates the day more than the sun.’

‘But . . .’ Olivia frowned. ‘Real vampires don’t need the moon. They can go out in the daytime just fine.’

‘Of course we can.’ Charles gave her a mischievous grin. ‘But then, humans don’t
need
to hunt Easter eggs or go trick-or-treating, do they? But they do it for
fun.’

‘And that’s what Moonrise is all about,’ Ivy said, bumping Olivia with her shoulder. ‘Fun!’

Charles finished stirring the sauce and set his spoon aside. ‘For obvious reasons, we’ve chosen to host our Moonrise get-together a day early this year. I knew you three
wouldn’t want to miss tomorrow’s haunted house party.’

‘Hey, it’s not just them!’ Lillian poked her head back out of the fridge for a moment, exposing her cranberry-stained cheeks. ‘I’m looking forward to the party,
too! I am still in charge of Café Creative, you know.’

‘Not when it comes to
this
party,’ Ivy told her. ‘Tomorrow, it’s Commander Camilla all the way!’

‘Good point,’ Lillian chuckled, ducking back into the fridge. ‘I think you girls will be in for a treat – for a bunny, Camilla sure knows her way around a good
scare!’

‘Never mind. Tonight is all about Moonrise.’ Charles opened a high cupboard and pulled out three coffin-shaped boxes: one black, one bright orange and one pale pink. ‘One for
each of you this year!’ he said.

‘Let me take a wild guess.’ Olivia gave her bio-dad a teasing smile. ‘Mine’s the pink one?’

‘Who else?’ Ivy said, grinning. She grabbed the black box and pulled it open. ‘Ooh!’ A tombstone-shaped grey cookie lay inside, surrounded by a dusting of chocolate.
‘It looks just like it’s covered in dirt from a graveyard,’ she said happily. ‘Perfect!’

Reiko let out a delighted giggle when she opened her bright orange coffin. ‘I love it!’ She pulled out a little liquorice bat.

Is that actually . . . wriggling?
Olivia laughed as Reiko popped a bat wing into her mouth.

The doorbell rang, and Ivy slid off her stool. ‘I’ll get that. But go ahead and open yours, sis!’

‘OK.’ Olivia saw her bio-dad’s eager gaze, and wondered what kind of vampy gift went well with a
pink
coffin.

Of course,
she thought, as she opened the box and saw the pink candy heart waiting inside. But it wasn’t a regular candy heart. This candy heart was shaped like a
real
heart – with valves and everything!

Seriously?
Olivia giggled, and then had to stop herself from shaking her head in disbelief – not at the gift, but at herself. There was a time when this candy treat would have
sent her running all the way home. But now, she was laughing in absolute delight!

She looked up at her bio-dad. A year ago, she’d barely known him. Now, he’d gone out of his way to try to choose the perfect gift for his human daughter. How could she not be
touched?

She opened her mouth to thank him . . . but before she could say a single word,
another
ear-piercing scream ripped through the air.

It was coming from the hallway.

Ivy couldn’t help shrieking at the sight before her.
Am I seeing things?
she wondered.

Standing in the front doorway was a girl wearing a fitted black jacket, long, narrow scarf, pencil skirt and high-heeled boots. Her black hair was longer than when Ivy had last seen it, the very
tips still pixie-blonde from a rebellious dye-job the month before. ‘I can’t believe you’re here!’ Ivy cried. She threw her arms around her fashionista best friend, Sophia.
‘Aren’t you supposed to still be in Japan, finishing up your exchange programme? Reiko isn’t flying back till next week.’

Sophia hugged her back tightly, and Ivy caught a whiff of an exotic new perfume. ‘My parents decided they didn’t want me away from home on Moonrise.’

‘Yeah, right.’ Grinning, Ivy released her friend and closed the front door to keep out the chilly late-October air. ‘Come on, admit it. You were just too homesick to stay
away!’

‘Well, obviously.’ Sophia rolled her eyes as she started towards the kitchen. ‘Japan was just soooo boring, what with all its incredible sights, cool people and amazing fashion
. . . how could I
not
want to get back to sleepy little Franklin Grove as quickly as possible?’

‘Ha!’ Following Sophia into the kitchen, Ivy was still laughing at her friend’s comeback even as Olivia let out a delighted shriek of her own.

‘Sophia!’ Olivia jumped off her stool to hug the new arrival. ‘Welcome home!’

As Reiko stood up too, Ivy gestured towards her. ‘Oh, and I should introduce . . .’

‘No, I’ve got this.’ Smiling, Sophia turned to Reiko. ‘
Hajimemashite
,’ she said. ‘
Watashi wa Sophia to moushimasu.
’

Reiko beamed. ‘
Reiko desu. Yoroshiku!
’

‘Wow.’ Ivy blinked at her best friend. ‘You really have learned Japanese!’

Sophia winced. ‘Well, I’m not that good . . .’

‘You’re great!’ Reiko insisted.

‘You have to tell us all about your trip, Sophia,’ Lillian said, pulling out a stool for Sophia to sit on.

‘Tell us about the food . . .’ Charles licked his lips as he put cling film over his bowl of cranberry sauce. ‘It’s been so long since I’ve had any decent
udon
noodles!’

‘Well, I want to hear about what you
saw
,’ Olivia said. ‘Tell me all about the fashion!’

‘And the movies!’ Lillian added. ‘Can you believe the new Koizumi film won’t be released here until January? You have to tell me all about it!’

Reiko shook her head. ‘Before anything else, I need to know . . .’ She fixed Sophia with an intent gaze. ‘ . . . is my friend Megumi still dating that creep Tetsuo?’

A smile played over Sophia’s lips as she leaned closer to Reiko. ‘Actually, the day I left, Megumi was preparing for a very hot date . . .
with
. . .’ Her words
trailed off.

‘With who? With who?’ Reiko bounced on the edge of her seat.

‘ . . . Kaneda!’ Sophia finished triumphantly.

‘Yes!’ Reiko pumped one arm in victory. ‘I always thought he’d be so much better for her!’

Ivy had no idea who they were talking about, but she grinned along with them.

‘Aha!’ Sophia spun around, pointing an accusatory finger at Ivy. ‘Gotcha! I caught you smiling. The Happy Vampire is back!’

‘Augh!’ Ivy groaned as the rest of her family burst into laughter. ‘Don’t remind me.’ She had only just stopped having nightmares about the mix-up the twins had had
at Café Creative’s recent fashion show, when she and Olivia had accidentally ended up in each other’s outfits. It wouldn’t have been a problem – except that, as
identical twins, the girls looked so similar that the vampire community had assumed that it was Ivy in the goth-tastic black gown, grinning like she’d just won a backstage pass to a Pall
Bearers show.

‘Well, as long as you aren’t going to scare me by smiling
all
the time . . .’ Sophia teased. ‘Because that would be too terrifying! I really –’

But Ivy didn’t catch the rest of Sophia’s sentence. Olivia’s cell phone trilled loudly. Olivia pulled it out, opened up her text messages . . . and gasped.

‘It’s an SOS,’ she said. ‘Camilla needs our help with the set-up for tomorrow’s party . . . otherwise she says it might be ruined!’

‘Not if we can help it,’ Ivy said. ‘Come on, guys. We need to get to Café Creative,
now
!’