Switched (14 page)

“Billy
Coddins?”

Sophia
nodded. “He didn’t believe me. I think he thought I was crazy. I got dumped the
next day.” She grinned tearily.

Ivy
was stunned. “You never told me that!”

Sophia
grabbed a paper towel and blew her nose. “I guess you and I both had secrets.”

Ivy
hugged Sophia tightly. “Best friend,” she whispered in her ear.

“Best
friend,” Sophia whispered back.

“Sorry,
you two,” Olivia’s voice interrupted timidly. “But I’m freezing in here!” Her
hand was sticking out from under the stall door with Ivy’s clothes.

Ivy
and Sophia both burst into laughter.

After
Ivy and Olivia were back to their usual selves, Sophia said, “Well, seeing Ivy
smile and bounce like a bunny was pretty much the highlight of middle school
for me—even better than sixth grade. Thanks for making it all possible, Olivia.”

Olivia
grinned. “You’re welcome.” She laughed.

Sophia
turned to Ivy. “How about we give our honorary Goth here a proper tour of
Franklin Grove?”

“Killer
idea,” Ivy agreed.

As the
three of them strolled through the center of town, Ivy ticked off all the
stores that were vampire friendly for her sister. “Gool’s Autobody, Shredders
Convenience, Red Mark Cleaners—”

“Don’t
forget the Juice Bar,” Sophia interrupted.

“They
really mean it when they say ‘blood’ oranges,” Ivy acknowledged. “Tranzil
Pharmacy . . .” she continued.

“Wait,”
said Olivia. “That can’t be one. It’s where my mom goes.”

“It’s
not all black-and-white, Olivia,” Sophia told her. “Lots of stores serve bunny
customers up front, and then have a vampire place in the back. Our community is
fully integrated—it has been for more than a hundred years. We’re your doctors,
your lawyers . . .”

“Your
movie stars,” Ivy put in.

“Who?”
Olivia cried. “Which movie stars?”

Sophia
turned abruptly. “We could tell you, but then we’d have to bite you,” she said
with a mischievous grin.

Olivia
skipped over a crack in the sidewalk. “So what can vampires do that other
people can’t?” she asked.

“Ah,
let us count the ways,” Ivy said dramatically. “Superhuman strength.”

“Superior
agility,” Sophia said in a high British accent.

“A
keen sense of hearing,” Ivy added.

Sophia
flourished her arms. “Classical beauty.” Ivy and her friend both batted their
eyelids.

Then
Ivy gestured across the main square. “See that guy sitting on the steps of the
post office?”

“Uh-huh.”
Olivia nodded.

“He’s
been sitting there for nearly one hundred fifty years.”

“You’re
not serious!” cried Olivia.

“You’re
right, she’s not, but he is really old.” Sophia chuckled.

Ivy
was surprised by how much fun it was to initiate her sister into the vampire
world. She’d never had a chance to explain all these things before.

“So,”
Olivia asked, “what’s the deal with the aging thing? Do you live forever or
not?”

Sophia
looked at Ivy. “You answer. You’re younger.”

“Only
by four months,” Ivy protested. She turned to Olivia. “Remember how those
scratches on my arm healed last week? That’s the key. We call it RSH, rapid
self-healing.”

Olivia
nodded.

Ivy
went on. “We grow at the same rate as humans until we reach adulthood—”

“College.”
Sophia winked.

“—and
then we start aging very slowly.”

“My
dad’s two hundred twelve years old,” Sophia said, swinging jauntily around a
lamppost.

Olivia
looked impressed. “Can you die?” she asked.

“RSH
obliterates most injuries,” Ivy explained. “But if the healing process is
thwarted—say, because someone leaves you out in the sun for hours, chained to a
rock, without any sunscreen, or somebody cuts off your head and moves it to a
different town from your body—”

“Ew!”
said Sophia.

“That’s
pretty fatal,” Ivy concluded.

“Cool!”
Olivia said.

“Depends
which town your head’s in,” Sophia joked.

“So
how do I become one?” Olivia asked.

Ivy
couldn’t tell if her sister was serious, and she paused for a moment before
answering. “It’s not easy,” she said at last, a tinge of genuine disappointment
fluttering inside her. Ever since she’d met Olivia, she’d been trying not to
think about the fact that one day, her sister would no longer be with her.

“You
have to be born one,” Sophia explained. “That’s what makes you two a complete
mystery.”

“But
what if a human gets bitten?” Olivia asked.

“Doesn’t
happen,” Ivy said, “at least, not anymore.”

“Very
last century,” Sophia chimed in. “But if it did?” Olivia pressed.

“They’d
probably die,” Ivy admitted. “But if not,” she went on, “they’d become one of
us.”

The
FoodMart sign appeared in the distance, and Olivia smiled to herself. She was
on her way to meet Sophia in the parking lot for the last ball planning
meeting, and, over her shoulder, a black faux-leather duffel bag was filled
near to bursting with supercool decorations to show the committee.

Olivia
couldn’t get over how quickly the past week had whizzed by. Between meeting Ivy
in the afternoons to practice cheering, trying to stay on top of her
schoolwork, and her work for the planning committee, Olivia hadn’t had a moment’s
rest.

She’d
told her parents that she was head of decorations for a school dance, which was
at least partly true. Her mom got excited about buying a dress until Olivia
hastily explained that it was exclusively for older students, and she wouldn’t
be attending.

Every
evening, Olivia’s mother, who’d been prom queen in high school, spent hours
online with Olivia, finding and ordering ball decorations being sure to stick
to the ball’s budget. Then, when Olivia finally got to bed, she couldn’t fall
asleep right away because she was busy thinking about the whole new world of
vampires she had discovered. Count Vira totally paled in comparison.

Sophia
was waiting in front of the FoodMart doors. Olivia linked arms with her, and
together they went inside. As they made their way down aisle nine, Olivia asked
if she could be the one to say “pumpernickel” today.

“No
way,” said Sophia with a serious look. “If an outsider says the password, they
burst into flames!”

Olivia
gasped. “Just kidding,” Sophia said, laughing. “Go for it.”

At the
meeting, everybody loved the decorations, especially the bats, which were
totally lifelike and only cost thirty cents apiece.

“Where
did you
get
these?” Vera asked in a dumbstruck voice, turning one over
in her pale hand. “It’s so real.”

“At a
website that supplies museums and zoos,” Olivia answered. “Liquidation sale.”

At one
point, the Beasts tried to butt in with another of their grisly ideas, but
Olivia stopped them cold with one of Ivy’s death squints. They didn’t say
another word.

When
she finished showing what she’d brought, the committee burst into applause.
Olivia didn’t even know that Goths
could
spontaneously clap with
enthusiasm. She was thrilled.

“Great
work, Ivy,” Melissa said. “I can’t wait for next Friday night.”

Sophia
nudged Olivia’s leg approvingly under the table.

After
the meeting ended, Olivia and Sophia made a quick exit. Olivia ducked behind
the FoodMart and changed into her normal clothes, while Sophia stood guard;
Olivia only had fifteen minutes to get to the mall for a shopping date with
Camilla.

She
stuffed Ivy’s outfit in the duffel with all the decorations and handed it to
Sophia, who said, “You’re getting pretty good at this.”

“Aren’t
I?” said Olivia.

A half
hour later, Olivia was standing in the bookstore with Camilla when her cell
phone rang.

“Hey,
Ivy!” Olivia said brightly, answering the phone and stepping into the crowded
mall corridor to talk. “What’s up? How was practice?”

“Terrible!”
Ivy’s voice crackled.

Olivia
stiffened. “What happened?”

“It
didn’t go anything like last week!” Ivy sounded totally distraught. “I was
running late,” she said, “and by the time I finished making myself pink, I
couldn’t find your pom-poms. I looked everywhere, Olivia. Finally, I just had
to go to practice without them.”

“Oh,
no,” Olivia winced.
A cheerleader never loses her poms!
she thought.

“I
might as well have bitten someone. Ms. Barnett gave me this eternal lecture
about commitment and responsibility,” Ivy went on.

Olivia
shuddered.

“And
then it just got worse from there,” Ivy said miserably. “I was so flustered I
forgot the words to one of the cheers.”

Olivia
closed her eyes.

“I’m
sorry, Olivia.” Her sister sounded on the verge of tears. “Ms. Barnett seemed
utterly disappointed. It would have been a complete loss if it weren’t for
Camilla.”

“Camilla?”
Olivia’s eyes snapped open and she spun around to look through the bookstore
window. There were her friend’s golden curls in the sci-fi section. “I’m at the
mall with her right now!” she whispered.

“Oh, I
wondered what she meant when she said she’d see me at five,” Ivy responded.

“What
was she doing at practice?” Olivia asked.

“Maybe
she came to watch you,” Ivy replied. “Anyway, she’d seen some poms lying in the
hallway and ran to get them for me—I mean, you.”

“Well,
I’d better go and thank her!” Olivia said.

Right
at that moment, Camilla smiled and waved at her. Olivia waved back sheepishly.

“At
least that puts an end to my cheerleading career. I’m never doing
that
again,”
Ivy remarked gloomily.

“You
sure?” Olivia teased, turning away from the window. “It’s not too late for you
to try out. You could have your very own poms!”

“No,
thank you,” Ivy said, sounding horrified.

“I
just hope everything goes okay on Saturday.” Olivia sighed.

“You’re
going to make the squad, Olivia,” Ivy responded confidently. “I know it. Even
with me biting at practice. My bet’s on you for captain.”

“I don’t
know about that,” Olivia said. “But I’ll give it my best—” Olivia broke off
because she could not believe her eyes; Charlotte Brown was coming her way in a
hideous pink tube top, Allison and Katie in tow!

“Hold
on,” Olivia murmured into her phone.

Charlotte
wheeled up with Katie and Allison on either side. “Too bad about Olivia’s poms
today,” she taunted, as if Olivia weren’t standing right in front of her. “Katie,
Allison, what is the second most important thing to remember in cheerleading?”

“Never
touch another cheerleader’s poms!” Katie and Allison chorused.

Charlotte
put her hand to her mouth in mock horror. “Oops!” She shrugged. “I guess some
rules are made to be broken.” The three girls tittered idiotically and were
gone.

Olivia
narrowed her eyes as she gazed after them. “Ivy,” she said into her phone, “I
think I know who took my poms.”

After
school on the day of the All Hallows’ Ball, Ivy sat on the stairs underneath
the basement window of her room, in her black kimono, waiting for Olivia. She’d
hardly slept at all the night before. When she’d been practicing cheering with
her sister every day, she had successfully avoided thinking about the ball. But
ever since her final performance as a cheerleader, dread had swallowed her
whole.

She
kept trying to keep the facts straight in her mind
. The All Hallows’ Ball is
tonight. It is at my house. Brendan Daniels is my date. I am head of
decorations.
Every single time, she would forget where she had begun and
have to start over. Finally she gave up. She just couldn’t face reality; it was
like trying to look at the sun. At least Olivia was sneaking over to do all the
decorating.

Suddenly
she heard a tap on the glass. Ivy pulled aside the curtain and opened the
window.

“Hiya!”
said Olivia, thrusting an enormous cardboard box into Ivy’s hands.

“What’s
this?” Ivy asked.

“What
do you think?” Olivia answered. “More decorations!”

Olivia
climbed inside, dragged in another huge box, and pulled the window shut behind
her. They dropped the boxes on the landing, and then Ivy led her sister down
the stairs.

“You
don’t look so good,” Olivia said.

“Thanks,”
Ivy replied sarcastically. “Maybe I’ll call in sick.”

“You
wouldn’t dare!” Olivia exclaimed.