She couldn’t have, Olivia thought. She wouldn’t. Did Charlotte –
‘Did you camp out overnight?’ demanded Ivy.
‘Of course not!’ Charlotte smirked. ‘Katie did it for me. I’ve only been here for three hours.’ She teased her hair with her fingers. ‘But I’m going for the “camped out overnight” look for the TV cameras.’
Olivia couldn’t believe even Charlotte was willing to wait hours.
‘Too bad you can’t use your “special friendship” with Jackson to skip the line,’ Charlotte went on, using the biggest air-quotes Olivia had ever seen when she said ‘special friendship’. ‘You know, this could look to some people like you might have, um . . . stretched the truth about being his girlfriend.’
Olivia’s jaw dropped. She did not just say that! But she kept quiet – she didn’t want to get kicked off the squad.
Ivy stepped in. ‘And this could look like you were paying someone to be your Valentine.’
Charlotte narrowed her eyes. ‘Paying is clearly something you have a problem with, freak, judging from all those second-hand clothes.’
‘This is vintage!’ Ivy retorted, smoothing down her black satin high-waisted skirt.
This is so not how I pictured my morning, Olivia thought. ‘Ivy, let’s go to the back of the line before it’s out of the building.’
She stomped to the end of the line, her face blushing, and crossed her arms.
‘Yeah, back where you belong,’ taunted one of the girls.
‘Just ignore her,’ whispered Ivy. ‘She’s wearing a pink glittery scrunchie.’
Olivia gazed down the long line of girls holding signs with her boyfriend’s picture on them. Twenty different Jacksons were watching from the posters plastered around the atrium. His face was everywhere – but Olivia had never felt so far from her boyfriend.
‘I can’t take any more of this torture,’ Ivy whispered.
Ivy Vega decided she could ignore the pink streamers hanging from the ceiling, and she was pretending not to notice the cut-out hearts covering every store window. But being stuck in line listening to love-struck girls randomly bursting into romantic songs from Jackson’s movies was just too much.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Olivia mumbled for, probably, the thirty-seventh time.
Ivy gave her sister another hug.
‘It’s not the waiting that’s annoying; it’s the Valentine’s.’ Ivy just hoped she could escape soon. No matter how much they tried to sell it to her, she couldn’t buy into the whole stupid cupids-and-candy-hearts scene. In two days from now, couples around the world would be exchanging cards because stationery companies had told them to. She just didn’t get the commercial side of romance.
There was a young girl in front of them, with brown ringlets framing her face and a cute red denim jacket. She turned around and said, ‘Hi, I’m Janie!’ Then she a thrust a little box out towards the twins. ‘Candy heart?’
‘Oh no, I’m melting . . .’ Ivy pretended to crumple to her knees.
Janie looked at Ivy like she really was melting.
Olivia intervened, taking a candy that was the same shade of pink as her lip gloss. ‘Thanks so much,’ she said to Janie and then whispered to Ivy, ‘Don’t be such a V-day humbug!’
Ivy thought conversation candy hearts were pure evil, but she took one to be polite.
‘Mine says, “Kiss me”.’ Olivia popped it in her mouth.
‘Well, this one says, “Sweetheart”,’ said Ivy, holding the offensive object like it was a clove of garlic.
‘Aren’t you going to eat it?’ Janie asked.
Ivy forced a smile and bit into the chewy, dry candy. She grinned wickedly at her sister. ‘I wonder where the expression “sweetheart” came from. Actual hearts? I’m sure mine would be more of a sour heart.’
‘Ew!’ Olivia crinkled her nose and Ivy chuckled.
Ivy’s vegetarian twin got squeamish at the mere suggestion of blood. Good thing she’s the bunny, and I’m the vampire, Ivy thought.
Ivy and Olivia were twins born to a vampire father and a human mother and had only met each other at the beginning of the school year. Olivia’s adoptive parents had moved to Franklin Grove and the sisters had been getting to know each other, and all about their biological family background, ever since.
Olivia nudged her sister. ‘Has Brendan given you any candy hearts for Valentine’s?’ she asked.
Ivy felt her face form a scowl. ‘He knows I can’t stand all this cheesy Valentine’s stuff.’
Olivia pretended to gasp. ‘No pressies?’
Ivy did like presents, but she wasn’t interested in teddy bears with ‘I WUV YOU’ written on their tummies. ‘I don’t need material possessions to reinforce the strength of our relationship,’ Ivy declared.
‘But Valentine’s presents are the best,’ Olivia replied. ‘It’s my ultimate favourite holiday. I can’t wait to see what . . . you know who . . . will get me.’
‘Jackson’s going to be my Valentine,’ Janie boasted. ‘I’ve saved this one just for him.’ She opened up her hand to show a candy heart that read ‘I HEART YOU’.
Despite the message’s assault on grammar, even Ivy thought it was sweet.
‘Jackson Caulfield is the dreamiest dream!’ declared Janie.
Olivia smiled. ‘He is pretty nice.’
The little girl squealed. ‘Ohmigosh, have you met him?’
Olivia started to explain. ‘Well, a few weeks ago when that film crew was in town . . .’
Ivy’s mind floated back to Brendan. She wondered if he was playing video games or practising tricks on his new dirt bike. Maybe she could call him to help her through the eternity of waiting in this line?
As Olivia chatted with Janie, Ivy rummaged in her big black messenger bag for her phone.
‘Ohmigosh, you’re in a movie with him!’ Janie gushed. ‘You’re like a film star!’
‘No, no,’ Olivia replied. ‘It was just a small part.’
Ivy finally found her phone sandwiched between her notebook and a vinyl record of The Killer Bees.
But as she started to dial his number, she caught sight of a black-clad figure with curly black hair striding across the lobby. Her pulse raced – it was Brendan.