Vampalicious! (2 page)

“Congratulations on finding your father.” Camilla grinned at Ivy.

“Can you believe that, this whole time, their real dad’s been right in front of them?” Sophia said excitedly to Camilla, who shook her head in disbelief.

“You guys can’t tell anyone,” Olivia said seriously.

“Not even Brendan?” asked Sophia.

“Except Brendan,” Ivy replied. She was planning on telling her boyfriend after first period. She wanted to tell him in the science hallway, where he’d first asked her out. She’d made him a card, thanking him for all his support during her search for the truth.

“Must be a big secret,” said Sophia with a smirk. “After all, we’re hiding behind a fern!”

For once, Olivia didn’t smile. “Ivy and I are declaring a state of emergency; she and her dad are supposed to be moving to Europe.”

“He’s your dad, too,” Ivy reminded her gently.

Olivia nodded. “Right,” she agreed, thinking that that was going to take some getting used to. “And we’ve got less than ten days to convince him not to move.”

“We’re not going to let ourselves get split up again,” Ivy declared bravely.

“And I’m
not
losing my biological father now that I know who he is,” Olivia added.

Camilla and Sophia had both snapped to attention. “How can we help?” Camilla asked.

“Do you really think your dad might change his mind?” Sophia wondered.

“He has to,” Ivy answered.

“We’re going to come up with something that will make it impossible for him to leave,” said Olivia.

“Something so killer,” Ivy put in, “that he’ll be dying to stay.”

“Like what?” asked Sophia.

Ivy and Olivia looked at each other doubtfully. “That’s what we’re hoping you’ll help us figure out.” Ivy smiled weakly.

The four girls stared at one another. They were still standing there, deep in thought, when the bell for first period rang.

“Huddle,” Olivia called, and the four of them gathered close. “We’ll meet at lunch to come up with a plan,” she said.

Everyone nodded. Then Olivia prompted everyone to put a hand in the middle. “Franklin Grove or bust,” she said.

“Franklin Grove or bust!” Ivy and her friends repeated in unison, their hands pumping and then rising into the air like a starburst.

After third period, Olivia was redoing her Natural Sky eye shadow in her locker mirror when out of the corner of her eye she spotted Sophia hurrying down the hall.

“Code word,” Sophia said meaningfully, her chunky digital camera swinging around her neck.

“You mean code black?” Olivia asked, referring to Sophia and Ivy’s secret lingo for an emergency meeting in the science hall bathroom.

“No.” Sophia shook her head. “Code
word
.”

Olivia tucked her eye shadow back into her purse. “But I don’t know the code word,” she said quizzically.

“Not code word,” Sophia said, rolling her black-lined eyes. “Code
word.
Code
word.
”

Olivia stared at her. “You Goths can be really cryptic sometimes, you know that?”

“Code word,” replied Sophia, lowering her voice to a whisper, “means we’re meeting in the library.”

“I thought we were meeting in the cafeteria,” Olivia said, slamming her locker shut.

“We were,” Sophia said as Olivia followed her down the hall, “but Ivy changed the plan.”

“Does Camilla know?”

“Ivy’s bringing her,” Sophia explained. “They just had gym together.”

“But why? What’s Ivy up to?” Olivia wondered.

“Beats me,” said Sophia. “I’m just the messenger bat.”

The entrance to the library was at the end of a wide hallway near the principal’s office, and Ivy and Camilla were waiting by the door. Ivy stepped forward and handed Olivia a carrot. With the other hand, she gave Sophia a piece of beef jerky.

“What’s this?” Olivia asked.

“Lunch,” said Ivy matter-of-factly.

“We have work to do,” Camilla declared. Olivia looked at the carrot and took a begrudging bite.
Just because vampires call humans “bunnies” doesn’t mean we live on carrots
, she thought
.

As Olivia and Sophia snacked, Ivy explained her plan. “There’s nothing my father likes more than a well-researched report. He’s always giving these killer presentations to his clients about what he wants to design for them. So I thought, why not prepare our own report to convince him not to move?”

“What would it be about?” Olivia asked with her mouth full.

“How much better Franklin Grove is than Europe,” Ivy answered.

Sophia swallowed her last bite of beef jerky and shook her head. “You think Franklin Grove is better than Europe?” she queried incredulously. “Europe has the Eiffel Tower.”

“Which people can fall off,” Ivy countered.

“It has the fashion shows in Milan,” pointed out Olivia.

“Which create an unhealthy self-image for girls everywhere,” argued Ivy. Camilla nodded vigorously.

Sophia clearly wasn’t convinced. “So what, exactly, does Franklin Grove have that Europe doesn’t?”

“That’s easy,” Ivy said, her dark eyes sparkling. “
Us
.” With that, she spun on her boot heels and pulled open the library doors.

Olivia couldn’t help smiling.
Well,
she thought, charging into the library after her sister,
it’s worth a shot
.

Ivy marched up to the librarian’s desk and found a woman wearing dark lipstick and stylishly chunky black and green glasses, hunched over an enormous book about the Middle Ages.

“Is Mr. Collins here?” Ivy asked. The woman looked up from her book. “Mr. Collins moved to Nashville to play country music. I’m Miss Everling, the new librarian.” She stood, held out her hand, and pumped Ivy’s enthusiastically. Everyone introduced themselves. “Killer sweater,” the librarian said to Sophia, whose top was embroidered with the branches of a bare, crow-filled tree.

You’re the new librarian?
Ivy thought, impressed. “Hopefully you can help us, Mrs. Everling,” said Olivia.

The librarian put her hands on her hips. “It’s Miss. Anyway, shoot.”

“We’re doing a presentation on Europe,” Camilla piped up.

“Europe, huh?” Miss Everling said, grabbing a pencil off her desk like it was a sword. “Follow me.”

As she walked, Ivy noted Miss Everling’s black-and-white striped leggings and her gray corduroy skirt.
I wonder if she’s a vamp
, she thought.

“Welcome to Europe!” announced Miss Everling, arriving at an aisle near the back of the library. She ran a wine-red fingernail along the spines of some glossy paperbacks. “Want to dance the night away in Barcelona? Ski the Alps? Drop out of school and live large for twenty-five dollars a night?”

The girls all stared at her.

“Jok-ing,” Miss Everling sang. “I’m a
school librarian
, remember? But we do have a very impressive selection of travel guides,” she concluded.

“Do you have any books on what’s bad about Europe?” Sophia asked.

Miss Everling stared at her. “Nothing’s bad about Europe. I traveled there for a whole year after college.” Her eyes rolled toward the ceiling, and she sighed dreamily. “So much culture and history—”

“History?” Ivy interrupted with a meaningful glance at her friends.

Olivia followed her train of thought exactly. “Yeah, didn’t Europe have the Black Plague?”

“And both those world wars,” Camilla pointed out with a grimace.

Miss Everling frowned. “Time out,” she said, peering at the girls over the top of her glasses. “What’s this project about again?”

Ivy fiddled with one of the books on a shelf. “We’re trying to convince our...friend...not to move to Europe,” she said carefully.

Olivia nodded enthusiastically. “We have to make this person see that Franklin Grove is totally better.”

“Oh, now I understand,” Miss Everling said softly. “My best friend moved to California when I was thirteen. It’s so hard saying good-bye.”

Seriously
, thought Ivy sadly.

Miss Everling tapped her pencil against her dark lips thoughtfully. She gestured to the camera hanging around Sophia’s neck. “Do you have pictures of your friends on that thing?”

“Of course,” Sophia replied.

Miss Everling adjusted her glasses. “Don’t worry, ladies,” she said. “I’m going to help you make a pitch your friend won’t be able to resist. Something exciting. Something emotional. Something that truly sucks!” She winced at her impulsive use of vampire slang. “I mean, something really great.”

Miss Everling is the deadliest librarian
ever
,
Ivy thought, exchanging excited looks with her friends.

“So,” Miss Everling said, “when is this important project due, so to speak?”

“Today,” Ivy replied.

Miss Everling started to protest, but Sophia said, “Our friend’s supposed to move in ten days.”

“We don’t have any time to lose!” Olivia pleaded.

“Okay, okay,” Miss Everling said. “Then we’ll need to split up. Who wants to research Franklin Grove?”

“I’ll do it,” Olivia volunteered. “I just moved here a few months ago, so I could stand to learn a thing or two.”

“Good,” said Miss Everling. “The local history section is by the copying machine in the corner. Camilla, how would you like to do Europe?”

“Roger, Queen Informasys!” Camilla said, saluting. Ivy had no idea what that meant— Camilla was always making obscure references to sci-fi books she was obsessed with.

“A Coal Knightley fan, huh?” Miss Everling grinned. “Isn’t he the greatest? Anyway, Captain Omega, your mission is to find unappealing pictures of Europe. It won’t be easy. Start with these travel guides, and then check out the European history section, just like you and Ivy were thinking.”