Olivia stifled a giggle. It was certainly a dress-sense . . . but ‘normal’ was not the first word that came to mind!
Ivy rolled her eyes. ‘Are you sure this is all really necessary? Making us all get bunnified just because of one blogger? Can’t we just –’
‘Ivy Vega.’ The Countess’s voice was suddenly as cold as ice, her hard gaze focused on her vampire granddaughter. ‘Don’t you think helping the local community is the least you can do after . . .?’
She let her last words drift off, but everyone knew what they would have been: after abandoning her studies in Transylvania. The Count and Countess obviously had not yet forgiven Ivy for leaving Wallachia.
Tradition meant everything to Olivia’s and Ivy’s grandparents, and as far as they were concerned, when Ivy had walked away from Wallachia, she had turned her back on tradition – and on them.
Olivia’s heart melted at the misery on her sister’s face. She put an arm around Ivy, hugging her close. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘We’ll find out who the blogger is in no time. Then you can go right back to doing what you do best – being a totally fangtastic vampire!’
‘Fangtastic ?’ Even Ivy had to smile at Olivia’s weak joke. As laughter rippled through the room, Olivia felt relief flood her.
The tension between her and her sister had disappeared. At least, for a little while . . .
Chapter Five
This is unbelievable. Ivy lay in her coffin-bed early the next morning, listening to the noises of the house waking up. She was too depressed to even move. Yes, it was true that she had left Transylvania to stop feeling overwhelmed by all things vampire – but she had never expected that a return to Franklin Grove would leave her overwhelmed by all things bunny instead!
Nothing about coming home was turning out the way she’d expected.
A polite knock sounded on the door, and Ivy gave a rueful smile. At least some things never changed: no matter which house they were in, Horatio was always ready with a breakfast tray.
She climbed out of her coffin to let him in and noticed for the first time that Olivia’s bed was empty. That’s weird. Olivia had stayed the night to spend more time with their grandparents. Ivy had expected her to be fast asleep.
She was still frowning as she opened the door – but her jaw dropped when she saw what Horatio was wearing. Her gaze moved slowly, disbelievingly, from his high-top sneakers to his hooded jacket, his ‘I’m With This Idiot’ T-shirt and . . .
‘Are you wearing man-jewellery ?’
Blushing furiously, Horatio stuffed the wide, fake-gold chain under the neck of his T-shirt before leaning over the tray to pour tea into a china cup. ‘It’s the Countess’s orders,’ he explained stiffly, his cheeks beetroot red.
‘Of course.’ Ivy accepted the china cup, forcing herself not to say another word. Poor Horatio, she thought, as he ducked out of the room. I shouldn’t make this even harder for him.
But her sympathy evaporated a moment later when he returned, wheeling in a clothes rack. ‘What is that ?’
Horatio coughed apologetically. ‘Your outfits for the day. Each item has been carefully selected for you by Miss Olivia.’
Wordlessly, Ivy picked up item after item, holding them between her fingertips and at arm’s length. She didn’t dare hold them any closer. It was too dangerous. Just looking at them might give me Bunny-itis. Do I really have to wear them ?
‘Good morning!’ Olivia chirped from the bedroom doorway, as Horatio discreetly slipped out. ‘Everything OK?’
‘OK?’ Ivy struggled not to give her twin a death-squint as she dropped the fashion monstrosities on to her bed. ‘Just look at these!’
Seeing them all spread out together made her stomach twist with horror. For some reason, Olivia had given her a pink jersey ra-ra skirt, a colour-blocked emerald clutch bag to carry and a yellow lace T-shirt with pink ribbon ties on the sleeves.
Ivy moaned. ‘Are you joking? Is this really my outfit for today?’
‘Oh, Ivy. Don’t be so silly.’ Olivia rolled her eyes. ‘I nearly forgot!’ She reached into her pocket and pulled out an ostrich-feather hair slide. ‘You wouldn’t be dressed at all without the right accessories!’
Ivy felt the room swim around her. ‘I honestly think I’m going to faint,’ she whispered.
Olivia put one hand to her mouth, but she couldn’t stifle her burst of giggles.
‘I can’t believe you’re laughing!’ Ivy could feel a supreme death-squint forming on her face as she watched Olivia slide down the wall to sit on the carpeted floor, still laughing. ‘I know we had a fight yesterday, but how can you possibly think it’s funny that I have to dress like this ?’
‘No, no, no.’ Wiping away tears, Olivia shook her head. ‘Don’t worry! I am sorry about yesterday, but that has nothing to do with this. I was just playing a prank! You guys got me good yesterday, so I thought I’d have a little fun of my own today! Of course I’m not going to dress you up like an Olivia-clone . . . no matter how fabulous you’d look.’
‘Don’t even imagine it.’ Ivy collapsed on to her own coffin-bed, crushing the pink skirt. She let out her breath in a rush. ‘OK. OK, this can work. I’ll just try to look a little less “gothabulous”.’
‘Well . . .’ Olivia cupped her chin with a hand, and Ivy narrowed her eyes in suspicion. They might have forgiven each other for the day before, but right now she didn’t trust Olivia’s expression – not one bit. She looked just like one of those judgmental stylists on the kind of makeover shows that Ivy only watched when Olivia gave her a choice between that or helping with cheer-practice.
She crossed her arms. ‘What are you thinking?’
‘I’m sorry,’ Olivia said, ‘but if you want to be safe, we’ll still need to abandon the goth look. No more pale face, no all-black ensembles . . .’
Ivy groaned, and pulled a pillow over her face.
‘You know I’m right,’ Olivia said. ‘We can’t give these VITs anything to be suspicious of. We just have to come up with a style shift that’s subtle enough not to alert people who already know you that something’s seriously different.’
‘Easy peasy,’ Ivy said, with an ironic tone of voice.
‘Never fear,’ Olivia smiled brightly. ‘I have the perfect solution!’