‘She’s right,’ Brendan mumbled. ‘Because tomorrow . . .’
‘We start ninth grade,’ Sophia finished. She looked as if she might be sick. ‘High school.’
‘Oh, come on!’ Olivia tried to smile at everyone. ‘Isn’t it . . . “un-vampire-y” for you guys to be feeling this kind of . . . nervousness?’
Ivy shrugged. ‘Probably. But that doesn’t really matter, does it?’
‘Not any more,’ Sophia said, her head drooping.
Ivy gave a heavy sigh. ‘I’d only just got used to being in the oldest grade at Franklin Grove Middle School. Now I’ll have to get used to being in the youngest at Franklin Grove High!’
‘. . . Which is way out on the border of town,’ Brendan added, his shoulders hunching. ‘AKA – “Next-Door to Nowhere”.’
Sophia wrinkled her nose with disapproval. ‘It’s right next to Lincoln Vale. That means a whole bunch of kids from out of town – who we’ve never even seen before – will be our new classmates.’
Ivy tipped her head on to the table, her long dark hair spilling out around her. ‘I am so not looking forward to it!’
Olivia couldn’t believe it. Ivy might wear black all the time, but her mood is never normally this dark! ‘It won’t be that bad,’ she said. Sitting forward, she tried to make sure her tone was confident. ‘You never know. Maybe you’ll love it!’
‘Oh, yeah?’ Ivy rolled her eyes. ‘Easy for you to say, Miss I-Don’t-Go-To-School-Any-More!’
Olivia blushed, shaking her head as the others joined in the gentle teasing.
‘Hey, life looks pretty good for some of us,’ Brendan grinned. ‘If you don’t even have to go to high school . . .’
‘Private tuition overseas,’ Sophia breathed longingly. ‘In other countries. Starting with England!’
‘It’s just for while I’m away on set, you guys know that.’ Olivia tried to sound casual, but she couldn’t help feeling the excitement – and the panic – bubbling up inside her.
Finally – finally! – she was going to be performing again, playing the lead role in the long-delayed Big Movie Adaptation of Eternal Sunset! Not only was it glamorous, it was going to be the biggest acting challenge of her short career. She’d play immortal vampire identical twins who both fall in love with human – mortal – twin brothers. In the story, the vampire girls would seek out the reincarnated versions of their beloved humans every one hundred years, finding and falling in love with them all over again.
I hope I can pull it off, Olivia thought – not for the first time!
At least she wouldn’t have any problems getting into the right emotional state. She would be acting opposite Jackson Caulfield – world-famous teen idol, fantastic actor . . . and Olivia’s ex-boyfriend. She wasn’t sure that all her feelings for Jackson had totally disappeared since they’d broken up earlier in the summer. Her heart still skipped a beat whenever she saw his face, even on a magazine cover. And Jackson was on the cover of a lot of magazines.
It’s going to be great for my performance, less great for my love life.
Olivia wasn’t sure how she was going to handle any of this.
‘Back with Jackson again,’ Sophia murmured, interrupting Olivia’s thoughts. ‘How cool is it that you get a second bite at the cherry?’
Olivia could feel the heat coming off her blushing cheeks. Can Sophia actually see inside my head now?
‘The “cherry”?’ Ivy snorted with laughter. ‘No, it’s “second bite at the apple”.’
Sophia frowned at Ivy. ‘I’m sure it’s “cherry”,’ she said.
Ivy gave a huff of disbelief. ‘And how many times have you eaten a cherry that takes two bites?’
‘Well . . .’ Sophia shrugged. ‘I have to admit, you may have a point there. But cherries are better fruits anyway.’
Ivy’s mouth dropped open. ‘Are you crazy?’ she gasped, before launching into a full-on rant about cherries, while Sophia was just as vehement on the opposing side.
Olivia traded a glance with Brendan and they both grinned ruefully, settling back to enjoy the show. Only Ivy and Sophia could get into a serious debate about the ‘bite-able qualities’ of cherries versus apples. Once the two of them got started, they were unstoppable.
But soon, Olivia began to tune out their voices. Honestly, she had more than enough to think about right now. Back when she’d first been cast, it had meant everything to her that she was going to star opposite the same Hollywood megastar she had met and fallen in love with right here in her hometown. What she had not realised at the time was that it couldn’t last. When the film industry was hit with a strike, lots of movies were shut down – Eternal Sunset included. At first, Olivia had been relieved – she would have the time to properly prepare for the role, and would not have to up and leave Franklin Grove, and her family, behind.
But the strike also gave her and Jackson time to realise that they could grow apart. And they did.
Olivia had done the Hollywood scene now, and it confirmed for her where she belonged: right here in Franklin Grove. If only Jackson had felt the same. Her mouth twisted as she remembered their final split. As he’d toured around the world, they’d emailed less and less; their text messages had got shorter, the jokes more forced. Eventually, they both had no choice but to admit it wasn’t working any more. The memory wasn’t as painful as it had been but, still, she couldn’t help feeling sad.
I just wish I could know for sure that we made the right decision.
Sophia’s voice broke in with an all-too-painfully-relevant question: ‘So, will you rekindle your romance?’
Olivia’s mouth dropped open. Instinctively, she looked to Ivy for protection . . . but her twin just shrugged at her.
‘We’re just preparing you for the inevitable journalist questions,’ she said. ‘It’s for your own good – think of us as your personal publicists!’
Rolling her eyes, Olivia forced herself to relax. ‘I’ll always be glad to know Jackson,’ she said, and gave Sophia a gracious Hollywood smile.
Ivy gave her a thumbs-up of approval . . . then leapt in for a second prong of attack. ‘Will you know him as more than friends?’