14 Flipping Out - My Sister the Vampire (9 page)

The tall, wiry older boy she’d collided with was as goth as they came – his coat had to weigh more than he did – but he had the same unwashed stench she remembered from Garrick
Stephens and the other middle school ‘Beasts’.
No, it’s even worse
, Olivia realised.
It’s a more mature version – so it’s even fouler!

Instead of scowling like one of the Beasts, though, he gave her a smirk that made her take another step backwards.

‘Don’t you worry, sweetie-pie,’ he drawled, in an obviously fake growly voice. ‘You’re not the first girl to have a crush on me.’ His grin deepened. He
twitched up the collar of his trench coat under his long, lank, oily-looking hair. ‘. . . And you probably won’t be the last, either. I am a
chick magnet.
’

Eww!
Olivia couldn’t help the shudder that wracked her. ‘Sorry!’ she mumbled. Ducking her head, she hurried past him, ignoring his laughter . . . But it was harder to
ignore his smell, which followed her all the way down the path. It seemed to have soaked right into her clothing with the collision.

Now I need another shower, too!

Olivia’s plan had come so close to working . . . only to be ruined at the crucial moment.

I
t’s hard to believe
, Ivy admitted to herself,
but I’m actually starting to like this skatepark
 
.

She was back at the park in Lincoln Vale yet again, doing her job as Sophia’s best friend. Thank darkness, Sophia had finally realised just how silly she’d been over Finn. Ivy
couldn’t have been happier or more relieved that Sophia had emerged from that debacle with her heart in one piece . . . But she was definitely changed by it. Ivy shook her head as she looked
at the lightning-haired figure zooming down the middle of the skatepark.

Who could ever have imagined that Sophia would turn out to genuinely love skateboarding? Talk about an un-vampire-like activity!

As Ivy watched, Sophia flipped her board up at the end of a spectacular trick that made the older skater-boys all break into spontaneous applause.

At least she’s gotten better at it. Smiling, Ivy shook her head. Two weeks into high school, and elegant goth vampire Sophia was turning into a skateboard master – while Ivy had
realised that the skatepark was the only safe place to study! Few of the Lincoln Vale goths loitered here, and the skater-boys had no interest in anything beyond their boards . . . well, and in
Sophia, who was currently giving them all tips on how to perform her trick!

For once, Ivy didn’t have a single groupie racing to impress her . . . and she couldn’t have been happier about that. Right now, she really needed to finish her English assignment!
Mr Russell wanted them all to read poems out in Friday’s class, and Ivy still hadn’t managed to choose one yet.

Sighing, she forced herself to look away from Sophia’s triumph and go back to flipping through the pages of her textbook. Ivy liked English – well, she liked middle school English,
because she’d understood that more – but honestly . . . was every poem in this book written by someone in a seriously bad mood? Not every poet in all of history had been a vampire, had
they?

‘Can I sit next to you?’ The goth-girl who’d suddenly appeared at Ivy’s side looked every bit as glum as a vampire poet. Her voice reeked of hopelessness.

Ivy narrowed her eyes. Was this girl a vampire? Her brown eyes looked genuine, not like contact lenses, so probably not. Unfortunately, that still left ‘groupie’ as a serious
possibility.

Ivy looked at the rest of the large picnic table and gave up. She didn’t have any good excuses to offer. ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘But I’m busy with homework right
now.’

‘That’s OK.’ The girl – her name was Penny Taylor, Ivy remembered now, from English class – sat down across from Ivy, dumping her black backpack on the table. It
was studded with steel nubs and bleeding heart symbols, and Penny drooped even more as she looked down at it. ‘I like to sit in silence with people,’ she said, sounding miserable.
‘It gives me time to reflect. And to ponder things. Dark things.’

Did she seriously just use the word ‘ponder’ in a sentence?
Ivy stopped herself just in time from asking exactly what ‘dark things’ Penny liked to ponder. That
had the potential to be death-squint irritating!

Unless . . .
She frowned. Was this girl for real, or did she actually have a dry sense of humour? If this super-goth pose was a joke, Ivy could kind of appreciate it. But . . .

‘Look . . .’ Penny sighed heavily. ‘A whole park full of people looking in the other direction.’ She turned to gaze soulfully at Ivy. ‘Do you ever feel that
everyone in the
world
is looking in the other direction?’

Right now, it feels like everyone is looking right at me
, Ivy thought. She had to bite down hard on her tongue to keep the words from coming out. Then she twitched with pain.
Ouch!
Her too-sharp fangs had just drawn blood. She stifled a moan as she put one hand to her cheek.

With a glance at Ivy’s poetry textbook, Penny reached into her backpack and pulled out her own. The front was covered with doodles – headstones and daggers, barbed wire and skulls
– and from the shy look Penny gave her, Ivy knew she was supposed to comment on them.

‘Wow, that’s . . . very goth.’ Ivy gave a polite smile. ‘I can certainly tell which gang you belong to at school.’

‘Really?’ Light broke through the mask of misery on Penny’s face. Beaming, she pulled up her shirt sleeve. ‘Here, look! I just got this today.’

Obediently, Ivy leaned over and saw the temporary tattoo on Penny’s wrist: a ram’s skull with twisted horns.
Seriously? She’s showing off a temporary tattoo?
‘Um
. . . yeah,’ she finally managed. ‘Nice.’

It was true that Ivy liked all things Gothic . . . But weren’t temporary tattoos a bit childish?

Even if she’d been rude enough to say so, though, she couldn’t have gotten a word in edgeways. It was as if her admiration of Penny’s doodles had opened up a dam, and now all
of Penny’s words were flooding out.

‘You wouldn’t believe where I went yesterday,’ Penny said. ‘A record store – can you believe it? Real, old-school vinyl in a real-life record store! I even managed
to track down the EP of Death Rattle’s first live gig. That is seriously rare! Rare like a . . . a really rare steak!’ She lifted one hand to her mouth.

Is she about to be sick? Ivy stared at the other girl. ‘Ohh-kay.’

‘But we were talking about music!’ Penny visibly perked up. ‘You’ve heard of Death Rattle, right? They are an incredibly important goth band! Oh, and there are lots of
other important goth bands, too. There’s the Pall Bearers, and . . .’

Ivy shook her head wonderingly as Penny listed off on her fingers every goth band she knew.
It’s like she’s been cramming for a goth exam!

‘Wow,’ she said, finally breaking through the list. ‘You must be the ultimate student.’

‘Oh, no.’ Penny’s face crumpled. ‘Was it too much? A step too far?’

Ivy blinked. ‘Too much of what?’ she asked. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Oh, forget it! You don’t have to pretend.’ Penny’s eyes brimmed with tears. ‘I knew you’d see through my act!’ she said. ‘Someone as cool as you
. . . of course you’d know a genuine goth from a fake goth. I should never have even bothered trying. I’m such a loser!’ With a sob, she buried her face in her hands.

‘Hey!’ Shaking her head, Ivy hurried to the other side of the table to put a hand on Penny’s shoulder. ‘I don’t even know what’s going on!’ she
protested. ‘Are you telling me this was all an act? You’re not even a real goth?’

Penny nodded without uncovering her face.

‘But what’s the point?’ Ivy slumped on to the seat beside Penny, her head whirling. ‘Who would pretend to be a goth?’

‘I hate goth stuff,’ Penny mumbled. ‘I hate the colour black. It’s so ugly! I like pink, sparkly things.’

‘Really?’ Ivy looked at Penny’s dyed-black hair and all-black outfit and let out a snort of laughter. ‘You should meet my sister, then.’

I just wish she was here now.
Ivy sighed. How long had it been since she and Olivia had managed to have a heart-to-heart like this one?
It’s ridiculous that ever since school
started, I’ve had less time with my own twin than I do with any random goth!

That wasn’t Penny’s fault, though. Gathering her wayward thoughts, Ivy said briskly, ‘No wonder you’ve been acting so miserable. You must feel absolutely
suffocated!’

‘I do,’ Penny said. ‘But it doesn’t matter.’ She lifted her tear-streaked face out of her hands, sniffing. ‘I can’t stand to be disliked at school.
Haven’t you seen how the pink girls are treated?’ She drew a deep breath, sniffing back the last of her tears. ‘I won’t let it happen to me. I have to be liked . . . and if
that means faking goth, that’s just what I have to do!’

Ivy stared at her in disbelief for a long moment. Then she let her head fall on to the table with a clunk. ‘This high school is even crazier than I’d thought!’

‘I just want to be popular,’ Penny whispered. ‘Is that so bad?’

Ivy groaned. ‘Trust me. I would happily hand my popularity over to you any day.’

Penny shook her head sadly. ‘That’s the problem. You can’t buy and sell popularity, can you? It’s not a commodity. You have to have . . .’ she waved a hand through
the air and snapped her black-tipped fingers ‘. .
. je ne sais quoi
 
.’

‘
Je ne sais
 
. . . what?’ Ivy repeated, blinking.

Penny sighed. ‘You have it . . . and I just don’t.’ Scooping up the notebook and her backpack, she shook her head. ‘I should never have even bothered trying.’

Her shoulders drooped as she walked away . . . and Ivy felt her stomach sink as she watched.

This is ridiculous
 
. She couldn’t just watch Penny suffer under the school’s idiotic social rules. There had to be some way for Ivy to share
some of her popularity with Penny . . .

And better yet
, she realised,
if it works, it might just deflect some of the attention away from me!

T
he next morning, Ivy walked into school with a plan . . . and a
swagger.

This had better work
, she told herself.

She’d been up late last night perfecting her ‘don’t-come-near-me’ walk, up and down the landing. She hadn’t planned to do it on her own, but Olivia’s cell
phone had been turned off when Ivy had tried to call her for help – and being out of touch with her twin
again
had only made Ivy more determined.
I have to fix this!

She would have kept going even longer, but just after midnight, her dad had emerged from his room, elegant as always in his black satin pyjamas, and politely asked her to please,
for
darkness’ sake
, go to her coffin and get some sleep!

It had been worth the late night, though. With a really arrogant swagger, Ivy would definitely put off groupies.
This is exactly what I need to stall out my popularity at this
school!

Unfortunately, her swagger required her to keep her chin and nose up in the air, which made it more than a little difficult to walk, especially in the crowded school hallway. She couldn’t
see a single thing on the ground . . .

Like the leg of an older boy in an absolutely
ludicrous
leather trench coat, sticking out for no other reason than to trip up a stranger!

Ivy’s legs flew out beneath her. Flailing for balance, she would have fallen flat on her face if she’d been a human . . . but, taken off guard, her vampire reflexes took over. Before
she could stop herself, she sprang into a front-flip and landed neatly on her feet.

All around her, students broke into spontaneous applause.

‘Oh, Ivy!’

‘That was amazing!’

‘How did you do that?’

‘You are
soooooo cool
 
!’

Aaaargh!
Ivy bit back a scream of frustration.
Why didn’t I let myself fall on my face?