‘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!
Chapter Seven
The 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?
It was as if the whole universe was conspiring to make her more and more popular, whether she liked it or not!
Growling, she stalked over to the older boy, who was snickering with his friends.
‘Oops,’ he said. ‘Did I trip you? I must not have seen you coming. Heh.’
Even Garrick Stephens, the head of the middle school Beasts, would have found this boy’s grin repulsive. His stench battered her sensitive vampire senses, but Ivy walked straight up to glare at him.
‘You’d have a lot more luck seeing where not to stick your legs,’ she told him, ‘if your hair wasn’t greasy enough to cook French fries on!’
‘Ooooohhhh.’ The students behind her let out a collective gasp.
‘Did you hear what she said to Josh?’
‘She is so brave!’
The older boy – Josh – glared back at her. Stepping closer, he opened his mouth as if to say something.
Ivy narrowed her eyes into a death-squint . . . and Josh paled. Stepping back, he cowered against the lockers.
‘That’s better,’ she told him, and turned away.
As she walked into homeroom, she could hear him complaining to his friends. ‘If I’d known this school was a haven for crazies, I would never have transferred here!’
Whatever. Ivy rolled her eyes. She couldn’t escape the groupies all clustering around her now, though, as she headed for her desk at the back of the room. The goths pushed and shoved past each other to clap her on the back in congratulations, while the bunnies hung back, gazing at her with big, dazzled-looking eyes.
‘You were so awesome!’
‘The whole school is going to be glad you took Josh down a peg. He’s deserved it ever since he started here.’
‘He probably deserved it at his last school, too.’