Twin Spins! (8 page)

Make a list of supplies

Check the budget

And most importantly, try not to let Lucrezia,

Melinda and Veronica boss you around. I know it’s hard, but try!

A mental image of Jenny, with her mousy-brown hair and her shoulders hunched over, snapped into Olivia’s mind. ‘Maybe I’d better call to check in with Jenny. They’re supposed to be thinking about themes, but . . . you know. Just in case.’ Olivia fumbled inside her straw tote bag for her phone. ‘Hi, Jenny?’ she said when Jenny picked up. ‘I was just calling to double-check that you all don’t mind having a committee meeting without me . . .’ She held her breath.

‘Honestly?’ Jenny’s voice was high-pitched. ‘I’m not so sure.’

Not so sure
, thought Olivia, trying to stifle a groan. She had cleared this with everyone yesterday.

‘It’s just, well, what about Lucrezia and her friends?’ Jenny continued. ‘I don’t know if I can keep them in line.’

Unfortunately, Jenny was right. Those girls would stomp her like a chewed stick of spearmint under their platform heels.

Olivia twisted one of her bangle bracelets around her wrist, until suddenly she had an idea. ‘Jenny, leave those girls to me. I’ll call you later with an update.’ She snapped the phone shut.

‘You
are
going stand up to those girls, right?’ said Ivy, jabbing a chopstick into her dark bun. Olivia had told her twin all about their performance at the first committee meeting.

The thought of confrontation made Olivia queasy, but she couldn’t just leave Jenny to become roadkill. ‘What’s the one thing bullies can’t handle?’ Olivia asked, more to herself than to Ivy.

‘I don’t know. Teachers hanging around?’

Not a bad suggestion
, thought Olivia, but that wasn’t what she was getting at. ‘Bullies can’t stand it when the victims push back. What I need to learn is how to push!’

‘Care to borrow a bit of my super-strength?’ asked Ivy.

‘Hopefully, I’ll just need my brains this time!’ Olivia jumped off the bed and skipped down the stairs to the living room, where Mr Vega was lounging on the couch with an open newspaper.

‘Dad? I was wondering: do Ivy and I have time to slip out before dinner?’

Ivy pulled up behind her. She gave Olivia a confused look, but played along.

Olivia’s bio-dad agreed. ‘I guess,’ he said, folding his paper. ‘How much trouble could you get into before dinner?’
Quite a bit
, thought Olivia. Especially if she was armed with a few dollars.

‘Where are we going?’ Ivy asked, as they grabbed their jackets and headed out of the front door.

Olivia grinned. ‘To the mall!’

Ten minutes later, Olivia and Ivy were power-walking through the busy shoppers and the strong smell of food-court pretzels. They passed Pink and Pretty, Dancing Delight, Trudy’s Beauty Palace . . .
If I weren’t here strictly on business, the temptation of all this shopping would be too much to resist!
Olivia thought.

‘How are you going to find them here?’ Ivy asked, trotting alongside Olivia. ‘I mean, I assume this is about those three dance-committee bullies.’

‘Trust me,’ said Olivia, ‘I’ll find them.’ But the closer she got to her destination, the more uncertain she felt. What if she couldn’t reason with the girls? What if she forgot what to say?

With balled fists, she marched into Panzers department store, where, sure enough, the three older girls were right where Olivia had suspected – the make-up counter. Lucrezia sat in one of the tall black make-up chairs while Melinda added bright pink-coloured streaks to her friend’s long blonde hair. Veronica was leaning close to a mirror, admiring the thick, shimmery blush she had painted over her cheekbones.

‘Fashion victim alert,’ Ivy whispered. Olivia agreed. Apparently these girls had never heard the phrase, ‘too much of a good thing’.

She tugged Ivy into the shoe department and ducked behind a display of knee-high riding boots. ‘What now?’ asked Olivia.

Ivy blinked. ‘I thought you had a plan?’

Olivia bit the side of her thumb. ‘I do. I’m just . . . bracing myself.’

‘Well, consider yourself braced!’ Ivy’s eyes grew wide. ‘You
have
to go over there.’

‘OK, OK, I’m going!’ Olivia took a deep breath. She had once balanced one-legged on top of a cheerleading pyramid in front an entire football stadium.
Compared to that, how hard can this be?
She walked over to the girls. ‘Lucrezia, Melinda, Veronica, I’ve had enough of you muscling in on the school dance.’ Olivia tried to keep her voice from quaking. ‘It’s not right and it’s not fair.’ Channelling her sister, Olivia put her hands on her hips and waited.

The trio glanced around at one another and then Lucrezia burst into a fit of laughter. She doubled over, grabbing her stomach. Evidently, Olivia was quite the comedian.

Melinda stood over Olivia, at least four inches taller. ‘Who do you think you are, talking to us like that?’ Olivia was seriously regretting her choice of ballet flats. ‘You’re
younger
than us!’ This was enough to send Lucrezia and Veronica into hysterics.

Olivia’s face blazed. She was starting to back away, when she remembered how she’d managed to deal with Jessica Phelps when the actress had tried to humiliate her at the Hollywood awards. She thought about sending the girls her best killer death stare, but then something made her stop.
Don’t stoop to their level
.

‘I just want you to know that if you interfere with the committee again, you’ll leave me no choice but to formally ask for you to be banned from meetings. I’m sure none of us wants that. It wouldn’t look good on your school records.’ Olivia narrowed her eyes to let them know she meant business. ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t push your luck.’

She’d kept her voice pleasant, but there was no mistaking how serious Olivia was.

Veronica flipped her hair over her shoulder. ‘Fine. We’ll stay away . . . or whatever.’

Olivia arched an eyebrow, silently congratulating herself on her acting skills. ‘That’s better.’ Then, without waiting for a response, she pivoted on the spot and walked over to Ivy.

The two of them breezed out of the store. When they’d got round the corner, Olivia pulled out her phone and busied herself dialling Jenny’s number.

‘Hello, Jenny? No need to worry. You’ll be fine to go ahead without me for one meeting.’ Olivia grinned at her sister. ‘I guarantee it.’ She hung up and skipped next to Ivy.

‘You were impressive back there,’ Ivy told her. ‘Cold as ice. You should be a vampire!’

‘Yeah, go to vampire school or something!’ Olivia joked. Ivy slowed to a stop and watched her twin pull ahead.

You have no idea how close to the truth you are
, Ivy thought.
One of us really
might
be about to enrol at a vampire academy
.

When Ivy and Olivia returned home, they found their father pacing in the hallway. Olivia had told him they were going to the mall. He didn’t need to be worried. She checked her watch. They weren’t late. Was something wrong?

‘Dad?’ Ivy tapped him on the shoulder. ‘We’re home.’

‘Great.’ He flashed a smile. ‘How does my hair look?’

What?

Olivia examined his dark, slicked-back hair. He always looked old-world dashing. ‘Like it always looks?’ she said, shrugging.

Mr Vega shook his head, as if trying to bring himself back to reality. ‘Right, of course. Girls, your grandparents are in the dining room. We’re about ready to eat.’

‘Aren’t you coming?’ Olivia asked, but her bio-dad had stopped paying attention because, at that instant, the doorbell rang. ‘I’ll get it.’ Olivia scurried over to the door. She didn’t know they were expecting guests.

On the other side of the threshold stood Lillian, looking a little more prim than usual. She wore a black pencil skirt and matching cardigan, with a deep purple silk scarf tied around her neck. ‘Wow,’ said Olivia, breathless. ‘You look fabulous!’ She welcomed Lillian inside. ‘What’s the occasion?’ Then she understood. The Lazars were here – her bio-dad’s parents – and Lillian had never met them. Olivia let out an excited squeal. Lillian was meeting the parents!

The Lazars appeared from the dining room to stand beside Charles. Olivia took Lillian’s purse, thinking that perhaps Lillian looked a bit shakier than usual as she entered the Vega household.

‘Hello, Countess Lazar.’ Lillian curtseyed. ‘Nice to meet you, Count Lazar.’ She gave a second curtsy. She was doing all the right things. Even Ivy looked pleased. But Lillian wasn’t done.

‘I have something for you.’ For the finishing touch, Lillian pulled out a beautiful gold frame from her purse. The Countess gasped and Olivia and Ivy hurried to see what Lillian had given their grandparents. Inside the frame was a picture of Ivy, Olivia, and their father, Charles, dressed up in their red-carpet best for the
Bright Stars
awards show.

‘It’s perfect!’ their grandmother exclaimed, reaching to give Lillian a hug.

Mr Vega kissed Lillian on the cheek and took her hand.

The Countess cupped her hand around her mouth as if telling Lillian a secret, but she didn’t lower her volume. ‘My son has always had excellent taste in companions.’

Olivia and Ivy shared a glance. That was great news for Lillian. But did it also mean their grandmother was beginning to accept that their dad had been right to marry their mother?

Olivia stretched out on top of the purple comforter in Ivy’s bedroom, resting her hand on her full belly. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ she said. ‘I love having our grandparents here, but if Horatio keeps making his three-course feasts for every meal, I’m going to float away like a blimp!’

‘No kidding.’

The twins had left the grown-ups downstairs, flipping through an old photo album. They loved their father, but they didn’t need to see any more of his baby pictures. That was something only a girlfriend could enjoy.

Ivy took a seat on her closed coffin and fired up her laptop.

Olivia turned on her side, bending a pillow in half to prop up her head. ‘Ivy? I’m worried about Jackson.’

Ivy hardly glanced up.

‘It’s just that I keep trying to catch up with him, but he’s always busy or sleepy – stupid time differences. The last time I had a real conversation with him . . . well . . .’ Olivia felt the familiar knot form in her stomach. ‘I heard a knock at the door and someone came in saying, “A dozen red roses for Mr Jackson Caulfield.”’

‘What?’ Ivy was typing furiously on her keyboard.

‘Come on!’ Olivia tossed her pillow at Ivy. ‘You’re not even listening.’

‘Huh?’ Ivy looked up briefly from the screen.

Olivia eyed her sister. Ivy had tilted the screen so that Olivia couldn’t see what was on it. Come to think of it, that was exactly what Olivia did when she was online-shopping.

‘Hey! Are you on the VVV?’ The Vorld Vide Veb was the vampire version of the Internet. Olivia jumped up to sit next to her sister. ‘I want to look!’ If there was shopping to be done, Olivia wanted to join in.

But as soon as she sat down, Ivy hit the sleep button on the computer and the screen went blank. She flipped the laptop closed and pushed it underneath her pillow. ‘I’m all ears!’ Ivy told Olivia. She pulled the sides of her ears out from her head. ‘Plus, they’re super vampy ears, so I can listen extra well!’

Olivia gave a one note laugh.
What can Ivy have been looking at online? She never puts her laptop underneath her pillow.

‘Fine.’ Olivia didn’t feel like obsessing about Jackson any more, anyway. ‘There’s been something I’ve been meaning to tell you and I don’t think you’re going to like it.’

Ivy stopped chipping at her black nail polish. ‘What’s that?’

‘So, I was checking out Charlotte’s yearbook footage and, well, you sort of make a cameo.’ Olivia crossed her legs on top of Ivy’s coffin.

‘A goth in the yearbook film? Wow.’ Ivy frowned, seemingly impressed.