‘This is priceless!’ Camilla yelled. ‘Movie magic!’
‘Magic, huh?’ As the cloud settled, Ivy looked at her flour-covered twin and began to laugh. So much for staying neat ! ‘You look like the Abominable Snowman.’
‘So do you,’ said Olivia. ‘You’re not a goth any more! I can’t see a single speck of black on you.’
‘Actually,’ Sophia said, ‘covered in this much flour, even I couldn’t tell you two apart.’
‘And I have it all captured on film,’ Camilla said with satisfaction.
The doorbell rang. One of Olivia’s white-dusted hands flew to her floury face.
‘Don’t worry,’ Ivy said. ‘I’ll get it.’ Still grinning, she went to the front door. When she glanced back over her shoulder, she could see a trail of white footprints on the carpet.
Maybe it’s a good thing Dad is in Groomzilla mode. With any luck, he won’t even notice the mess !
She opened the front door and found Holly wearing a sunny yellow top and a wildly colourful skirt. Her long, shining blonde hair was set off perfectly by subtle red streaks, and she was carrying . . . a pizza box?
‘Hi!’ Holly said. ‘Sorry, I don’t really have time to bake today, but I thought we could all get stuck into pizza.’
Or you can just look perfect and popular, when the rest of us get messy, Ivy thought sourly, as flour flaked off her hand on to the door handle.
But, no, she told herself, that wasn’t fair. Olivia was right – Ivy was just overreacting to Holly . . . probably.
Even as she thought that, Holly leaned closer to peer at Ivy’s face. ‘You know what?’ She laughed, but it sounded uncomfortable. ‘I can’t even tell which twin you are, under all that flour! Is that . . . is that Olivia?’
Ivy gritted her teeth. Clearly, Holly was really, really hoping it was Olivia. So much for giving each other a chance! ‘You look nervous,’ she snapped. ‘Are you worried you might have to make conversation with a goth?’
‘Ivy!’
Uh-oh. Ivy turned to find her twin standing right behind her, mouth open in shock.
Oh, great. Just what she needed! She’d left Transylvania to escape all the watching eyes and strict codes of behaviour – but now that she was back in Franklin Grove, it was just as bad! Speaking her mind was somehow upsetting people.
What was the point of coming home at all ? Ivy thought.
Deep down, she knew her anger really stemmed from guilt at her own bad behaviour. But right now, she didn’t want to listen to the reasonable thoughts in her head. Instead, she turned on one heel and stalked back down the hallway to the kitchen.
‘Here’s Holly,’ she said curtly to all the others, and then she went straight to a mixing station, turning her back to the group. Beating eggs really hard was strangely fun.
Behind her, her friends seemed to have turned themselves into the perkiest welcoming committee ever.
‘Holly!’ Sophia said warmly. ‘Perfect timing.’
‘Hey, it’s good to see you again,’ Brendan said. ‘Is that pizza? Awesome.’
‘We should talk!’ said Camilla.
Ivy scowled down at her mixing bowl. Has this girl cast a charm spell over everyone ? Or maybe Ivy’s friends were just easily excited by pizza?
‘It smells delicious,’ Olivia said. ‘What’s in it, Holly?’
‘Oh, you know . . .’ Ivy could hear the smile in Holly’s voice. ‘A little bit of everything.’
‘Ivy?’ Olivia said. ‘Do you want to cut the first slice?’
There was no polite way to refuse, not without everyone really thinking she was a monster. ‘Fine,’ Ivy growled, and took out a knife from the cutlery drawer.
At least Brendan was actually looking forward to eating something, for once. That was her only consolation.
The moment the pizza box opened, the smell seemed to rise out of it like a wild animal. It was so pungent and intense, Ivy could barely breathe. What in the world had Holly put in here? No matter what it was, Ivy would have to eat it and pretend to like it, just to keep Olivia happy. Gritting her teeth, Ivy sliced into the pizza . . . then almost gagged . . .
Oh no ! This was even worse than she’d anticipated.
‘Wow.’ She fought to keep her voice bright, even as she tried not to inhale. ‘Look everybody,’ she said. ‘Holly’s stuffed the pizza-crust with garlic.’
Turning away, she slapped her hands to her face in a gesture of amazement, as a cover for the fact that she was blocking her mouth and nose. What was it about bunnies and garlic ? Did they really have to put it on everything ?
As Brendan and Sophia, the other vampires in the group, absorbed the news and tried not to retch, the room went dead silent. Ivy spotted Brendan turning to lean heavily over the sink. Oh no, just as she was trying to reinvigorate his love affair with food! Ivy dug her black-painted nails into the palms of her hands. One more mark against Holly !
Then her friends swung into action.
‘You know what? I think I’ll just open the window,’ Sophia said. ‘This summer heat is really getting to me.’ Her tone was light, but Ivy saw her lean out the window as she opened it, taking deep, desperate breaths of air not contaminated by garlic.
At the same time, Brendan shifted to the other side of the room, raising one hand to his face, pretending to scratch just above his nose.
‘You all really have to try this,’ Holly said, oblivious to the panic. ‘Honestly, it’s great! I used my dad’s recipe – that’s why the crust is stuffed with garlic.’
Without waiting for any response, she took the knife from Ivy’s hand and started cutting into the pizza, sending more whiffs of garlic into the air. ‘Here, Ivy.’ She held out a plate. ‘You take the first slice.’
‘Um . . . I think I hear the doorbell.’ Ivy fled to the front door before she could do anything worse.
From a safe distance, she watched the others trying to avoid eating garlic – and not just the vampires. Camilla was human, but that didn’t stop her from promptly slipping her piece into a houseplant pot. Brendan smiled through gritted teeth and made a big show of cutting his slice up into tiny portions – ‘To make sure I savour every crumb of garlicky goodness’ – before rushing into another room. Only Olivia was gamely eating two slices, trying to cover up for everyone else . . . but Ivy could have sworn she saw her twin’s face turning green, even beneath the layer of Double-00 flour. Olivia might not be allergic to garlic, but Ivy knew she was hating every bite.