‘Stupid high school,’ she muttered now. If it hadn’t been for how crazy her stupid popularity was making her, she would never have let it go for this long . . .
Nice try, Ivy . She sighed, giving up. Even to herself, she couldn’t pretend that it was anyone’s fault but her own. Keeping her fangs filed was basic vampire concealment strategy, and it had to take priority over everything else. No matter what was going on at school, she should never have neglected it.
The whole thing felt so depressing that for once, Ivy couldn’t even bring herself to feel hungry for dinner. She’d already arranged to meet Brendan at the Meat and Greet, though, so she trudged through the dark street towards the brightly lit diner, trying to ignore the sickly sweet taste left in her mouth by the tooth filing.
Brendan was waiting for her at one of the booths in the back, along with two steaming-hot, rare burgers. ‘Well, look at that.’ He grinned as he pulled open her mouth to peer dramatically at her teeth. ‘No more horror movie material!’
‘Get off !’ Laughing, Ivy pushed his hand away and settled in next to him, ignoring her waiting burger. ‘I don’t want to even think about teeth for at least a month.’
‘Really, it’s too bad.’ As Brendan picked up his own burger, he gave a mock sigh. ‘I’m going to miss those fangs. You’re so beautiful when you’re scary.’
‘Why does everyone at school seem to think that?’ Ivy groaned and dropped her head on to the table beside her plate. ‘I’ve been doing my scariest “Leave Me Alone” act all week, and it’s just not working! I don’t know what else to try.’
‘Well . . .’ Brendan’s tone turned wary. ‘I think I might know what’s wrong.’
‘Yeah?’ Ivy turned her head to glance up at him.
Brendan took a deep breath. ‘I think your heart’s not really in it.’
‘What?’ Ivy jerked upright. ‘What are you talking about? You know I hate this popularity trap!’
‘But think about what you’re doing to escape it. Snubbing people? Making fun of others?’ Brendan’s tone was gentle as he reached out to put one hand on top of hers. ‘Come on, Ivy. Yes, you’re a loner – and yeah, you take things pretty seriously – but you’ve never been mean before.’
Ivy swallowed hard, staring down at her burger as guilt clenched her chest. ‘I’m not sure about that,’ she mumbled. ‘I’ve been known to be pretty grumpy.’
‘Maybe so,’ Brendan said, ‘but you’re not acting like yourself. That’s why you’ve been so unhappy.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘The truth is, you’re the anti-mean. Deliberately hurting other people’s feelings . . . that’s just not in your nature.’
He waited a moment, but Ivy couldn’t answer. She was fighting too hard against the sudden knot in her chest . . . the one that said he was right.
‘That whole scene at lunch where you made fun of that poor girl’s T-shirt?’ Brendan’s voice was soft, but inescapable. ‘I’ve never seen you mock anyone to their face before. That’s not you. Is it?’
‘No,’ Ivy whispered. Her throat clenched. She turned her hand over to lace her fingers through his. ‘It’s not,’ she agreed. ‘But I don’t know what else to do. All I want is to be left in peace! I want to be allowed to hang out with my own twin without half the school trying to get in between us.’
‘Trust me,’ Brendan said. ‘Everything will work out if you just stop pretending .’
Pretending . . . Ivy froze as she connected the dots. Hadn’t she told Penny the same thing? Penny was working so hard to pretend to be another person, it was making her miserable. And Ivy had been doing just the same, without even realising it. In fact . . .
She winced. This morning in the courtyard, when they’d been with all the other goths, she had actually been . . . kind-of-sort-of-a-little-bit . . . making Penny pretend even more than she already had been.
Ouch . She sighed. I can’t do this any more – not to Penny or myself.
One way or another, she was going to find a way to improve things for both of them.
Fuelled by new determination, Ivy reached for her burger. ‘Mmm!’ As she savoured the bite, she carefully wiped the grease from her lips. It’s so much better to eat without fangs! No more accidentally biting herself in the cheek when she ate, no more . . .
‘Wait a minute.’ Ivy narrowed her eyes as she saw Brendan looking mock-sad beside her. ‘What is it? What’s wrong now?’
‘Ohhh . . .’ Brendan sighed mournfully. ‘I just miss your scary ketchup face! Do you think you could do it again, once more? Just for me?’
‘You!’ She snatched back up her greasy napkin. ‘I’m going to spread grease all over your face for that.’
Even as they arm-wrestled, though, exploding with laughter, Ivy felt the tension drain straight out of her. She might not know yet just how to fix her unwanted popularity or to make it up to Olivia for the ‘canteen-incident’ . . . but somehow, she was beginning to feel certain that everything would be OK.
Chapter Nine
Operation Famelia: go!
Olivia hunkered down in her seat on the Lincoln Vale bus the next morning, scoping out her materials. It had taken hard planning and a ridiculously early alarm call for her to make it all the way out to Lincoln Vale in time to catch this school bus, instead of riding her usual Franklin Grove bus along with Ivy, Brendan, and Sophia. But it had been worth it. It was time to take Lillian’s advice and set up an Awful Alternative for Amelia, to make Finn look even better by comparison . . . and Olivia knew exactly who to choose.
Josh Dillon sat at the very back of the bus with his Beastly friends, but the stench from his trench coat emanated all the way to Olivia’s seat in the middle of the bus. He is definitely the one, she decided, as she breathed through her mouth to avoid the worst of the smell. They might have only met once, but sometimes, once was more than enough. She was absolutely certain that Josh had to be the most horrid boy in Amelia’s grade.
If only she could force Amelia to spend some time with Josh, the Goth-Queen would have to realise how fantastic Finn was! And really, this mission was bigger than either one of them. Not only did Amelia and Finn both secretly want to get together – whether or not they would admit it – but their romance would help to unite the whole school . . . and allow one particular pink-loving bunny girl to publicly sit with her goth twin at lunchtime.