15 Secrets and Spies - My Sister the Vampire (5 page)

It wasn’t happy laughter, though. There was an edge to it that made Olivia freeze in her hiding place.

Ohh-kay . . .
Suddenly, she didn’t want to step forwards after all.
This is really weird.

From her hiding place, she watched Lillian replace the Life & Style book, then wander across to the travel section and pick up something else. This time, Olivia was close enough to see the
book’s title:
Life Escapes.

‘Oh, that’s fabulous!’ The other shopper looked up from her cookbook to point at
Life Escapes
, smiling. ‘Especially if you’re looking for a change of
direction.’

‘You could say that,’ Lillian murmured. She gave a secret smile as she put the book in her cart. The next moment, though, her shoulders slumped and her eyes seemed to glaze over
again. With an audible sigh, she hauled the cart around and listlessly continued to another part of the store.

If
Life Escapes
made her smile, what was the book that made her burst out laughing? The moment that her stepmom disappeared from view, Olivia hurried down the aisle, veering around to
avoid the other shopper’s cart.

Lillian’s first book was easy to find – but harder to interpret.

Careers: Fulfilling Your Potential!

Olivia felt a sick feeling of dread in her stomach. Lillian had gone from this to the travel section, hadn’t she? Following the same path, Olivia turned to pick up another copy of
Life
Escapes.

Was Lillian planning a vacation? Or . . . was it something much more serious?

‘And . . . cut!’ Camilla’s voice snapped through Olivia’s reverie. Her friend had reappeared, phone in hand – and she’d obviously been filming Olivia for the
last few minutes.

‘Great choice to pick up the travel books!’ Camilla declared. ‘I take it
all
back about “improv”. You were brilliant!’

‘Sorry?’ Olivia stared at her. ‘I thought that you had –’

‘Run away?’ Camilla grimaced. ‘I kind of did. But when I saw Lillian heading in the other direction, I thought I’d come back for just one more take – and I’m
so glad I did. You were fabulous! The whole symbolism of “escaping” because of the broken heart . . .’ She beamed. ‘. . . well, it couldn’t
be
more perfect
for the Pall Bearers video!’

But why does Lillian want to escape?
Olivia could barely force a smile as her friend rattled on and on about the music video.

If Lillian was secretly unhappy in Franklin Grove . . . what could Olivia do about it?
I can’t say anything to my bio-dad. He’d be devastated!
As for Ivy . . .

No
, Olivia decided.
I can’t tell her. Not until I have real proof
. Ivy loved Lillian. The thought that their stepmom might want to leave . . .
I can’t scare her
like that.

And as for Camilla . . .

Olivia looked at her friend, who was racing on a mile-a-minute about symbolism, and she sighed. Camilla was too focused on her project to be much help.

It was up to Olivia to keep a careful eye on Lillian . . . and desperately hope that her new stepmom wasn’t planning a
real
escape.

Ivy braced herself the next morning as she stood outside the school guidance counsellor’s office. It was exactly the same spot where she’d overheard Olivia getting
verbally ripped to pieces the day before.
If Ms Milligan hated the nicest person in this school, then what’s she going to think of
me
?

An investigative reporter never let hostile sources get in her way, though, and neither would Ivy. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

‘If it’s not a disaster, go away!’ the counsellor snapped.

Grimacing, Ivy knocked again.

A loud, pointed sigh sounded inside the room. ‘Fine. What is it?’

Forcing a smile, Ivy opened the door and stepped inside.

She almost stepped right back out again as she was met by the ferocious glare of the woman at the desk, an expression that made even Ivy’s patented death-squint look like a welcoming smile
by comparison.

Wearing a no-nonsense grey trouser suit and
huge
glasses, Ms Milligan had to be at least six feet tall, and from the way she was scowling, she looked ready to expel Ivy right that
moment for interrupting her.

Ivy’s cheeks were starting to hurt from her fake smile, but she forced herself forwards. If she hadn’t been braced for self-defence, she might have laughed when she saw the nameplate
on the desk, which read: ‘Ms N.O. Milligan.’

Talk about a perfect name
, Ivy thought.
She looks like she’s never said ‘yes’ to anything in her life!

‘Well?’ Ms Milligan snapped. ‘What do you want?’

Ivy cleared her throat.
Vampires don’t get scared of humans
, she reminded herself.
Not even the really angry ones.
‘I just wanted to ask – if it’s
OK,’ she added hurriedly, as Ms Milligan’s scowl deepened, ‘about the new students who’ve just started here? I was thinking of writing an audition piece for the school
newspaper, and I thought I could profile the newbies . . .’ Her voice weakened as she saw Ms Milligan wince with obvious distaste.

‘Or, um, maybe their . . . their previous hometowns?’ With a final burst of determination, Ivy finished: ‘It might be a nice way of getting the other students to relate to her
– I mean, to
them
!’

There
. She finished, almost panting from the effort.
At least one part of that was true
, she consoled herself. She really did want to try to join the school paper.

But Ms Milligan didn’t look impressed. ‘Unfortunately for your grandiose plans, Miss Vega, the only new student is Olivia Abbott, who I believe is somehow your own sister –
not
that I have
any
interest whatsoever in learning the story of how that could possibly be!’ She snorted. ‘Believe me, what girls your age think is “like,
so
interesting”, you will grow up to find, is actually very, very
dull
.’

Ivy frowned, letting the insult fly straight past her head. ‘Are you sure? I could have sworn there was another new girl this week. Maybe –’

‘Young lady,’ Ms Milligan shook her head wearily, ‘I am the
guidance counsellor
. It is my
job
to know this sort of thing. I’ve worked at this school
long enough to know that teenagers have a habit of assuming they know everything, but the truth is, they tend to know
less than nothing
. Now, if you don’t mind?’ She sat back,
picking up a stack of papers. ‘I have some
real
work to do.’

Confused, Ivy got up and headed for the office door, her mind ticking over. If Ms Milligan really knew everything, and was so adamant that no one had started at school after Olivia, then who was
Maya?

She wasn’t watching her step as she stumbled through the door . . . and almost walked straight into another student.

‘Hey!’ As Ivy blinked, her twin’s face swam into view. ‘Are you OK?’ Olivia asked.

‘Olivia?’ Ivy shook her head, stepping back. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Oh, I just need to have a quick chat with Ms Milligan.’ Olivia shrugged. ‘It looks like I’ll have to take another few days off just before Thanksgiving to wrap up
filming on
Eternal Sunset
. I just heard from Jackson, who said that Mr Harker wants us in this town called Pine Wood for the final shoot, so I thought I’d better let her know. But
what were
you
doing here?’

‘I’ll explain later,’ Ivy mumbled. ‘When I’ve figured it out myself.’ As tempting as it was to confide in her twin, there was no point involving Olivia until
she
knew
things really were as weird as they felt. ‘I’ll catch up with you in the cafeteria . . . but, Olivia?’ She winced as she looked back at the closed door of the
guidance office. ‘You might want to tread lightly with Ms Milligan today.’

‘Don’t worry.’ Olivia gave her usual confident smile. ‘Ms Milligan doesn’t scare me.’

Wow
. Ivy watched with awe as her twin walked happily into the office.
Olivia really is brave
.

Shaking her head, she made her way through the crowded hallway towards the cafeteria for lunch. A beep sounded on her phone. It was a message from Brendan.

See u after lunch
, the message read.
I’m in library – need to make start on epic history homework!

Ivy winced in sympathy as she texted back:
Good luck!

With Olivia in the guidance office and Brendan in the library, it was going to be a quieter lunch than usual, but at least Sophia was waiting for her at their usual cafeteria table. Ivy’s
best friend was easy to spot even across the crowded room. Now that her naturally black hair had grown out and pushed her dyed-blonde pixie-cut into a bob, she literally had a hairstyle of two
halves. Ivy let out a sigh of relief as she collapsed into the chair next to her.

‘Hey, you should hurry if you want to beat the line.’ Sophia poked her arm. ‘Lunch hour’s almost over, didn’t you notice?’

‘Oh . . . I guess so.’ Sighing, Ivy looked over at the queue of students waiting for food. After her ordeal in Ms Milligan’s office, the last thing she felt like was fighting
her way through the crowd for dry, over-cooked cafeteria burgers.

As she watched the crowd gather near the front of the line, though, her lips twitched into a brief smile. The undeniable centre of attention was a laughing girl who wore a bright cornflower-blue
dress paired with an elegant black shrug: Penny, a girl who’d pretended for ages to be a real goth just so she could fit in. With Ivy’s encouragement, Penny had finally come out as
herself . . . and finally found the acceptance she’d always wanted.

A girl’s voice floated through the air. ‘But Penny, what do
you
think we should do for the Halloween party?’

‘Well . . .’ Penny began.

‘Penny always has the best ideas!’ someone else chimed in.

Penny’s smile lit her face.

Turning away, Ivy sighed, her own smile slipping away. It was great to see Penny so happy, but it didn’t solve any of Ivy’s own problems – like the question of the mysterious
New Girl. ‘I’m not hungry,’ she told Sophia. ‘I’ll just skip lunch today.’

‘Are you serious?’ Frowning, Sophia leaned forwards. ‘You’ve got a “preoccupied” look on your face. Is everything OK?’

‘Well . . .’ Ivy shrugged helplessly, not knowing where to begin.

‘Hmm.’ Sophia tapped one crimson-polished nail thoughtfully on the table. ‘I saw Brendan walking over to the science building just now, and he was wearing the exact same look.
Is everything OK between you two?’

Ivy’s breath shortened.

The science building was in exactly the opposite direction from the library where Brendan had claimed he was going to be doing his ‘epic history homework’.

‘I thought it was,’ she said slowly. ‘But now . . . I’m not so sure.’

There could be a totally reasonable explanation
, Ivy told herself. But her heartbeat was suddenly thudding in her ears as she pulled her phone back out to type a new message.

Hey, did you get lost trying to find the library?

Her fingers trembled as she sent the message.
Let’s hope the smiley face hides the fact I’m kind of freaking out!

She couldn’t stop drumming her fingers on the table as she waited for a reply. Five minutes later, she was still waiting. It never usually took Brendan more than two minutes to respond to
a text.

That’s it
.

She shoved herself up from the table. ‘Gotta go,’ she blurted to Sophia.

Ignoring Sophia’s worried questions, she almost ran across the cafeteria and through the outer doors. Outside, the sun was shining brightly and students were sprawled across the steps and
the field – it was a kind of perfect day, but Ivy barely noticed. She was too busy scanning with her eyes and training her sensitive vampire ears. It only took a moment for her to pick out
Brendan’s voice from the crowd.

‘You have to stop coming here!’

Definitely Brendan
. . . and he sounded almost as freaked-out as Ivy felt. From the sound of his voice, he had to be under the fire escape by the rear of the school, behind the
Administration building. Flattening herself against the wall, she placed her palms against the brick as she walk-crawled to the edge of the building.