Olivia looked over and realised she was heading towards Brendan and his seven-year-old sister Bethany, who were waving at them from outside the barriers.
As the girls approached, Bethany blurted out, ‘Did you get to meet Jackson?’ She looked adorable in her black puffy jacket and denim skirt with black leggings.
‘Hey, Brendan,’ Ivy said. ‘Hi, Bethany. Isn’t Jackson a bit bunny for you?’
‘Duh, Jackson is above all labels,’ Bethany replied, flipping her long black hair. ‘So did you meet him? Did you?’
Olivia smiled. ‘I got to have lunch with him.’
‘Eeee!’ Bethany squealed, causing several people to jump. ‘Are you two going to be on TV together?’ she asked more quietly.
Olivia laughed. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘What was he like?’ Bethany wanted to know.
‘Pretty normal,’ Olivia said, remembering their Count Vira conversation.
‘Sounds like you’ve been having fun,’ Brendan said. ‘But what about breakfast?’
Right on cue, Ivy’s stomach let out a gurgle that a bog monster would envy. ‘I completely forgot. You went to the Juice Bar!’
‘And came right back here, waiting all day for my beautiful girlfriend with a now gravely cold Breakfast Bun.’ Brendan tried to look hurt, but his face was twitching into a smile, even as Ivy was apologising.
‘I’m just kidding.’ Brendan took a squashed wrapped sandwich from his bag and waggled it in the air. ‘When I couldn’t find you in the crowd, I went home to get Bethany and may have enjoyed the latest episode of Night of the Deadly Dead in the warm.’
Ivy was almost drooling over the sandwich. Olivia laughed as Ivy leaned over the barrier, planted a quick kiss on Brendan’s cheek and grabbed the packet from his hand. She devoured the bun in three big bites.
Sophia raised one eyebrow. ‘Thanks for sharing.’
‘Oops,’ Ivy said, her mouth full of bacon and red sauce.
‘You can have my Count Cocoa Chew.’ Bethany held out a candy bar to Sophia, but pulled it away as soon as Sophia reached for it. ‘If you get me inside.’
Olivia felt bad. ‘But the movie has . . . uh . . . paused for a minute. They’ve asked everyone to leave.’
‘OK, then,’ Bethany said. ‘Just promise to try to get me something that Jackson has touched.’
‘I promise,’ Sophia replied, ‘to get Olivia to do it for me.’
Bethany narrowed her eyes, looking from Sophia to Olivia. ‘OK, deal.’ She handed it over to Sophia.
‘How about we –’ Brendan began.
‘Now,’ Bethany interrupted. ‘Tell me everything!’
As Ivy explained all about the set, with Sophia butting in and correcting her on the details, Olivia saw Brendan’s face falter a little. She hoped he wasn’t feeling left out with all the movie excitement. Maybe there would be a way to get him on set tomorrow – that is, if the set was still there tomorrow.
That night, Ivy sat in front of Olivia’s computer and clicked on the moon icon to get to the usual all-black screen with three big Gothic letters:
VVV
‘Good thing they let you have a chip,’ Ivy said as she clicked the Vs seven times in the precise pattern that would bring up the password prompt. ‘I’d never last two nights in a row without being able to get on to the Vorld Vide Veb.’
Olivia was in her pink pyjamas, sorting through her closet trying to find something to wear for tomorrow. ‘I couldn’t figure out what was happening when that guy showed up at our house, pretending to be a computer repair man.’
Since her official initiation by the Vampire Round Table, Olivia had been granted all the privileges of the vampire world, including access to the super-secret Vorld Vide Veb, which required a special computer chip to even get to the home page.
‘It didn’t help that he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sandals with socks,’ Olivia went on as Ivy tapped in her user name and password. ‘He didn’t look a thing like a vamp.’
‘It just goes to show that you never can tell,’ said Ivy, wondering if Olivia would take the hint. Think Jackson! Ivy wanted to shout but Sophia was right. She needed proof.
A riddle popped up and Ivy read it aloud. ‘What happens when a vampire gets a cold?’
‘Ooh, I know that one,’ Olivia said. ‘Lots of coffin.’
‘Ha, ha.’ Ivy typed it in and the MOONLIGHT search screen appeared with its tag line ‘Illuminate the darkness,’ underneath the entry box.
As soon as Ivy had heard Olivia describe Jackson as ‘normal’ she’d known Olivia was interested in him, so she had decided to do a little research. If he was on the VVV then Ivy could accidentally leave it up on the screen for her sister to discover. It would be so much easier if Olivia found out for herself that Jackson is anything but normal, Ivy thought as she typed in ‘Jackson Caulfield vampire.’
Ivy scanned the screen but the search results didn’t list any hints of his possible vampness – only sites like ‘Top 50 Bite-able Humans', which put Jackson at number four, and ‘Vampires for Jackson for President'.
But just because there was nothing on the VVV, it didn’t mean he wasn’t a vampire. Lots of movie-star vamps kept it a secret to avoid being typecast as moody brooders by the vamp powers-that-be in Hollywood.
‘What do you think of this for me to wear tomorrow?’ Olivia held up a green ribbed sweater dress and wide green belt. ‘It might be my last chance to see Jackson, so I want to look nice.’
‘I’m not sure Jackson is your type,’ Ivy said, ‘but the belt looks great.’
‘Do you mean the way-too-good-looking-and-famous-to-ever-actually-consider-me type?’ Olivia sighed and sat down on her bed.
‘No!’ Ivy didn’t want her sister thinking Jackson was out of her league. ‘He’s way into you.’
‘You think so?’ Olivia’s voice went up an octave.
‘It’s just he might not be as perfect as you think,’ Ivy said, shutting down the VVV and standing up to make her ‘bed’ for the night.
‘He’s definitely not perfect,’ Olivia said. ‘At lunch today, he went all carnivorous on me. I totally expected him to be a veggie, like me, but he had a burger you would have been proud of.’